above outlines; they add only, that they came
from the east, and that their ancient progress was,
uniformly, from the east. (Mr. John Wheeler#7
A S IA T IC O R IG IN O F T H E AONIC, OR IN D IA N
R A C E O F AM ER ICA .
Observation and discovery have not, as yet,
prepared ethnographers confidently to decide on
the origin of certain remote nations. Neither geography
nor philology has achieved the highest
points at which they aim. But their, progress, in
late years, is of the most flattering kind. No
age has equalled the present, in its spirit of discovery,
and the track of useful and scientific inquiry
is annually becoming broader and deeper.
In this labor, the American element-of the
world’s population has but just begun to assume
efficiency, while the spirit of literary and commercial
enterprke is transporting to our shores
the results of the researches and discoveries of
the nations of the bid world * who have .done the
most to advance the study of the. knowledge of
the original dispersion and affinities of the human
family.
Of the original and widespread stock of the
red race, who have filled Asia, and no small
part of Africa, there are certain leading physical
traits, which are readily recognized, although the
highest and lowest points, in the physiological
chain, exhibit very marked differences. But, in
proportion as inquiries are pushed, there appear
to be general coincidences, which mark their
ancient affiliation, in the mental structure and
tendencies of the ' several tribes and nations.
Language, while it constitutes the most fixed
and précisé points pf the mental peculiarities
and progress of nations, also furnishes, at the
same time, the most certain and irrefragible
clue to affinities ; and it is hence that, in modem
times, so much stress has been laid on the study
and comparison of distant and barbarous languages,
as’ helps to history.
That parts of the oriental stock of the red man
should have reached the American continent,
and expanded and flourished here, in early ages
of the world, and ere history arose to take cognizance
of the fact, is no cause of Wonder Or
surprise. But it. is a'subject of unabated interest
and curiosity, to seek to determine, as well as
our growing materials will permit, from which
division or gehèric subtype Of the oriental race,
the American tribes are descended. To us, who
are placed in proximity with them, and whose
sympathies and duties, in relation to them, are
in the most active exercise, this inquiry is one
of deep historical interest. Nor are the means
we possess, of pursuing the subject, wanting.
Qur intercourse with’ nations, based upon the
British nfepaent of civilization, and reinvigorated;
in these swèeping latitudes, with all the
prime sources* of the added Anglo-Saxon and
Anglo-Norman power, in letters, arts and arms,
is extended, at this day, to the- utmost parts of
the world. China, the last nation to come into
47