rican tribes being found to exist among the race*
so early and sö generally known tó the'maritime
statesdf Europe, who extend between the banks
of the Indus and thé Ganges. It was from this
race, admitting that they had also possessed
themselves; essentially, of the East India islands,
that Columbus doubtless drew his conclusions
of identity, from their physical type. But if hé
was, as is thought, in error, the opinion before advanced
renders it the more desirable that the
basis of our knowledge of the man of India proper
should be enlarged, and moré fully investigated.
It is in this quarter óf Asia,' that England, Our
mother country, has strongly set her foot, and in
which we may expect, in the proper course of
events, that a great Anglo-Indian empire will
arise, basing itself Öh'dcttëfè, Christianity, and
high civilization. Already, the archives of British
and European letters havé been greatly enriched
from this quarter. The labors of Sir William
Jones alone, are a monument to his genius. It
is in this country that the dreadful slavery of
casts is so inveterately fixed, that IfödöMJS, under
a mistaken view of duty, piety, or affection, mount
the funereal pyre; that the dreadful infanticide of
females is tolerated by public .sentiment; that
the blood of idol worshippers is poured out from
streaming hooks of stéel, fastened in the whirling
body, and that the aged Cast themselves into the
Ganges, under the impression that its waters are
sacred, and offer a pious solace fór human woes.
Ideas, which are so remote from all that characTOPICAL
INQUIRIES. 367
terizes the Indian mind here, as to leave but little
probability of affiliation with that stock. Philologists
perceive in the nations of Hindostan,
the; elements, not of the transpositive languages
of our hunter races, but of an ancient, and wholly
diverse stock, which, at an unknown period of
migration, threw itself westward upon Europe,
and has left indubitable traces of its effects in
modify ing human speech, in the great Indo-Ger-
manic language.
To Arabia, the southwest corner of Asia, allusion
has been made, as having opened recent
negotiations of friendship and commerce, with
the Upited States. Travellers, who have visited
that remarkable. country, and crossed its sandy
deserts ~~r~ among whom we recognize a distinguished
countryman,* learned in the oriental
languages represent its inhabitants as clinging,
with such fixedness, to their original customs
and traits of character, even in minor
points, that little change would seem to have
supervened since, the days of Abraham. The
Arabic is one of the oldest written and cultivated
languages.: Inscriptions in the ancient
Hymaritic character, recently found upon its
Tpeks, and decyphered by Prof. Wm.W. Turner,
go back tp the patriarchal ages.f Europe owes
to that people, some of its earliest elements of
knowledge; the whole civilized world daily
* Dr. Robinson.
t Trans. Am. Ethnological Society, vol. 1.