partly in the peculiar character of the Indian "nations? but
chiefly in this, that the missionaries did not so much endeavour
to gather a large number of baptised heathen, as to lead
Souls to Christ who should truly believe on and, live unto
Him.”
We shall have opportunities of pursuing this, investigation
in the following pages.
Paragraph 3.
A third series of observations tends to exalt the, antiquity
of the American race, and to prove that whatever arts and
knowledge“existed among, them, their earliest institutions, of
society, as well as the original construction and developerneht
of their language,.were peculiar to them and indigenausjn
their country. This train of argument does not necessarily
lead to the admission of an original distinctness of races If
fully established, it still leaves us at liberty to suppose that
the first inhabitants of the New World were not tbé*<offspring
of an American soil, but that they were people who wandered
from the Old Continent in the earliest ages after the Creation
of mankind,, bringing with them in the frail canoes in which
they may have passed the northern Pacific, or in the|% toilsome
migration over polar seas, none of the improvements of
art, nor even the first acquirements of pastoral or agricultural
life. All such advancement began with them after their
arrival on the shores of the New Continent; and therefore
whatever intellectual culture was discovered by Europeans
among the American nations was indigenous, whatever may
be thought as to the origin of* the people themselves. Many
facts were pointed out by Humboldt which tend to support
this d ew . He does not appear, however, to have maintained,
it without exceptions, as he seems to have been disposed
to adopt the opinion that the Mexican astronomy was of
Asiatic origin. The same^opinion has been powerfully maintained
by Dr. von Martius. This writer observes that the
American nations have had from immemorial-ages their
peculiar stock of domestic animals^ and cultivated plants. In
the Old Wórld-, hé says; we-know not whence our breeds of
horses, of hogs- and cattle, and the cerealian gramma were
first obtained* and the American nations are equallyaf a loss
when we inquire for-ithe original stock of the dumb dog,?the
llama, the root-of the mandioca, ma-izé; sand the quinoa. In
the ancient world these wérd the gifts asof the mystical benefactors
of mankind : OêVesp-Triptolemub^Bacchus, Pallas,
and Poseidon were Venerated as^the*? givfersiof1 >co"rn and wine,
the! sacred olive, and the horse. In America;! likewise, trade?
tion refers the art of tillage and the Use of domesticated plants
and animals to, fabulous' persons, who Aade their appearance
as if rising from the watferâiôf a lake^or ^descending from the
gods, such as the Manco-Capac o f tMjPeruvkms, the Xoldtl
ori the^Xiuhfclato^of the Tolteeas.„ Thes'è a
jpgntatiopfe see or to'Carry back the^origin^^ artsr öJ&jboth* con^
tinents to corresponding! periods of antiquityfe&h
I shalL not attempt to follow Dr. von Martius through the
series,<»e#ihis arguments. The different subjects -to which it
' extenddhave been made the thöÉae.tof a late^ and ofha most
earefukinvestigatfon by Mr. Gallatin.
Mr. Gallatin observes- that a ll! the ^smter-med cerealia,
ini^le,tf>riee, wheat, rye;, barley, oats, were confined) to the Old
Continent, and maize, the staple of Americanhagrieultiire,.. to
the pew; If these two facts f,are admitted, it necessarily
fallows that the introduction of agriculture, the first and most
difficult step towards civilisation, originated in America,; that
is; that it was« not communicated to the Americans from the
Old World. It seems indubitable, that the agriqultureipf the.
New.World was long confined to theipjsàqplp within the tropics,
in a country where despotism; and vassalage „ pfforded&the
means of compelling labouf; From Mexico;?' according to
Mr. Gallatin, it spread to the West India Islands;, and thence
to the nations on the Atlantiedforder, and partiallyitbftdoun-;
tries westward of the Mississippi^ where the remains of im4
mense works of labour imply the,,actual existdppélof a dense
population, incapable.? of subsisting! in a country of mere
hunters.
~ The question as/to the .foreign or indigenous: origins of the
asttfotaomical scienee ofthe* Mexicans has::b$m5 discussed with