u Long-continued mirations of single nations and tifess
have doubtlem taken plane from a very early peifed th*13®®^“
ont the whole continent of America, and they may have been
especially the causes of dismemberment and corruption in
the languages, and of a corresponding demoralisation of the
people. By assuming that only a few leading nations were
at first, as was the case with the Jupl people, dispersed like
so many rays of light, mingled together and dissolved, as it
were, into each other by mutual collision, and that these,
migrations, divisions, and subsequent combinations have been
continued for countless âgés, the present state of mankind in
America may assuredly be accounted for; but the cause of
this singular mis-developement remains, no ]®s@i«n that
account, unknown and enigmatical.
“ Can it be conjectured that some extensive convulsion.of
nature—some earthquake rending asunder sea and land, such
as is reported to have swallowed up the far-famed Island
Atlantis-—has there swept away thelnhabitants in its vortex?
Has such a calamity filled the survivors with a terror so monstrous,
as, handed down from race to race, must have darkened
and perplexed their intellects, hardened their hearts,
and driven them, as if flying at random, from each other, far
from the blessings of social Mfe ? Have, perchance, burning
and destructive suns, or overwhelming floods, threatened the
man of the red race with a horrible .death by famine^ and
armed him with a rude and unholy hostility, sq .that, maddened
against himSelf by atrocious and bloody acts of cannibalism,
he has fallen from the godlike dignity for which he
was designed to his present degraded state of darkness ? Or
is this inhumanising (Ent-menschwng) the consequence of
deeply rooted preternatural vices, inflicted by the Genius of
our race (with a severity which, to the eye of a short-sighted
observer, appears throughout all nature like cruelty) on the
innocent as well as on the guilty ? %
These observations of Dr. Martius suggest two inquiries ;
first, whether the American nations are really inferior in intellect
to the nations of Europe ; and secondly, whether there is any
difference in their moral nature, their affections, and consciousness,
to use Dr. von Martius’s expression.
On1 the" first Question the h is to ryM e x ic a n arts and
8éiën©ièt'iiwill throw some flight. In/-the following chapter I
Shall consider the ethnography of this- people* and , shall
therefore say but little on thriishhjeCt at présent. A nation
who, unaided ;by'foreigners, fojrf&ed a-more complete calendar
than the Greeks, and hacfrisCertained ’With precision the
lë ^ ïh of the' solar?yëar^é&uld noè%e deficient in intelligence!
Inregarikto the difference of internal feelings'and moral
sense which, according'to the4*eprésehtatïbns of Dr. Martius,
would sëém to ëut'off the native Ami^icahs from all participation
with the rest of mankind in the otherwise universal
impressions'‘of conscience and sentiment andrin the ordinary
sy Hi pathi'e#bf' ©ur species, the question may be decided by an
apjfeiri- to facts. It is only ^necessary to- 'prové that th,e
American race is susceptible of the moral culture of - Chris-1
tianity, and capable of being converted^ from savage' into
Civilised men, to overturn the hypothesis of Dr. von Martius.
Now i tris"well known that whole tribes in different parts of
the continent havé’ béeorfié^Civilised,- and have embraced and
long-professed the Christian religion. &©Mè*of my readers
will perhaps J<É>jëét to this' last- assertion that the adoption of
Rofnan' Oaihdterites and ceremonies is no proofrif a real
convérSion to Christianity; - hut these‘pêrsons will be pet-
süaded~by the following account which Loskiel, a Moravian
missionary, has given of his missioA and"congregation.
“ This missioh/’ says, | has now stood forty-five years.
From a register of the congregation dated 1772, we learn
that, frörn the beginning of the mission to that year, 720
Indians had been added to the Church of’ Christ by holy
baptism, most of whom had departed this life rejoicing in
God their Saviour. 1 would ‘willingly add- the number of
those converted to-the Lord since that period; but- as the
Church books and other writings of the missionaries were
burnt when they were taken prisoners in the Muskingum m
1781, I cannot speak with certainty. Supposing even that
from *1772 to 1767 the number of new ennvefts Was the same,
yet, considering the long standing of the mission, and the
great pains and sufferings of the missionaries* the flock collected
Was very small. The reason of this may'bn found