In the year 1542, three Portuguese sailed from Siam in a junk, and were driven out of their course to within sight of Japan.* In 1833, a Japanese junk was cast away on the American coast at Cape Flattery, and of seventeen men only three were saved. In the same year eleven of the same nation were drifted to one of the Sandwich islands.† In 1721, thirty men, women and children were driven by bad weather from Farroiless to Guaham, one of the Marian isles, a space of two hundred miles; and in 1696, a like number were carried from Ancorso to Tamar, one of the Philippines, about eight hundred miles. In 1821, a large canoe filled with natives arrived at the island of Maurua, from Rurutu,-five hundred miles, in a direct course. Subsequently another from Otaheite reached one of the islands near Mangea, six hundred miles; two reached Otaheite from Hao, of the existence of which place the Otaheitans were before ignorant; and the native missionaries travelling among the different Pacific insular groups, are continually meeting their countrymen,-who have been. driven out to sea. trace. Multitudes of these occurrences must have preceded the progress of modern discovery in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and consequently have happened without leaving any record or Accumulated cases of this kind, should be taken in connection with the fact, that excepting Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla, to the north, Falkland, and Kergueland's land to the south, whose inhospitable climes forbid permanent habitation and subsistence, no considerable extent of land has been found * Hakluyt, vol. iv. p. 48. † Parker's Exploring Tour, p. 152. Tour through Hawaii, p. 442. uninhabited, and that with the exception of St. Helena, the smallest islands capable of supporting a population, including nearly all the numerous islets of the Pacific, however distant from continents, have been discovered tenanted by human beings.* Our race occupies islands and continents detached from the fountain-head of all human life, and pervades nearly every inhabitable spot upon the globe. Thus widely has the earth been peopled in the early periods of society—either by maritime nations, or by barbarians destitute of those arts of civilization, and that perfection in science, which enable men to intrust their lives and property without danger to the ocean, and to pursue the path of discovery in confident security. It is impossible to attribute this extensive distribution-this tide of population flowing from island to island, and from continent to continent,-entirely to the maritime abilities of former ages, and equally impossible in many cases to suppose a former land connection, as a means of solving the difficulty. Experience affords the only clue to this problem, and shows that by those adventitious causes, which have been always in action since the beginning, man has found his way wherever his Maker had prepared him an abode; and that, in the language of a distinguished scientific author, "were the whole of mankind destroyed, with the exception of one family, inhabiting an islet of the Pacific; their descendants, though never more enlightened than the South Sea Islanders, or the Esquimaux, would in the course of ages be diffused over the whole earth."+ In speaking of the fact, that the appearance of certain birds at sea indicates approach to land, Captain Fitzroy remarks: "Until I became aware of these facts, the discovery of the almost innumerable CHAPTER VI. THE ORIGIN OF THE ABORIGINES. PHYSICAL APPEARANCE. THE discovery of America disclosed a new and fascinating field for the speculations of philosophers. Attracted by the freshness and novelty of the subjects thus afforded for disquisition, a bright and dazzling array of learning and talent was early directed to the important problems connected with its natural and social history, and especially to the solution of that interesting question-the origin of its native inhabitants. At that period, however, many prerequisites were wanting to the successful determination of this inquiry, which have been supplied only by the science, the enterprise and the researches which have distinguished the recent history of philosophy and knowledge. Many of the first theories, therefore, were remarkable only for boldness and improbability; for, the more feeble the light-the more dark and uncertain the truth-the more does islands in the great ocean of Magalhaens (erroneously, though now probably for ever, called the Pacific) caused great perplexity in my mind. That Easter Island, for instance, such a speck in the expanse and so far from other land, should have been not only discovered, but repeatedly visited and successively peopled by different parties of the human family, seemed extraordinary; but now, connecting the numerous accounts related by voyagers, of canoes driven hundreds of miles away from their desired place, with these facts respecting birds, much of the mystery seems unravelled.—Voyages, vol. ii. p. 558. human ingenuity struggle to fathom the mystery; and once launched on the broad sea of conjecture, the imagination too often triumphs over the reason. Another fatal defect which lay at the very root of other hypotheses, was the predisposition of their authors for some particular opinion, for whose support their perception was quick and keen in the detection of every circumstance that might be turned in its favor. Surely there are few propositions which may not be plausibly supported, by an ingenious and skilful combination of facts, carefully and adroitly selected with direct reference to a desired conclusion. Facts," says Coleridge," are not stubborn, but pliant things,— they are not truths, they are not conclusions, they are not even premises, the truth depends on, and is only arrived at by, a legitimate deduction from all the facts which are really material." A bare recital of the nations which have been supposed, by various authors, to have peopled America, will abundantly indicate upon what insufficient data the solution of so great a problem has been ventured; they are the Atlantides, the Phenicians, and the Carthagenians, the Hebrews, Egyptians, Hindoos, Chinese, Tartars, Malays, Polynesians, the Northmen, and the Welsh; whilst some have gone a step further and considered America as the most ancient of the continents, and the Indians as the real aborigines of the soil. As re If the Carthagenians are to be believed, they knew of no continent stretching beyond the great western ocean.* spects the Egyptians, Hindoos, Chinese, Malays, Polynesians, and Tartars, the evidences deserve more minute consideration. The discovery of America by the Northmen, which has been so * Festus Avienus, v. 380. * triumphantly vindicated and proved, besides being too recent to account for our aboriginal population, establishes, by its own narratives, the prior existence of a native race. The authenticity of the account of the Welsh voyages, at the close of the twelfth century, seems also to be confirmed; but the attempt to trace some remnants of that nation, with which the moderate and intelligent advocates of the theory have long been contented, has proved unsuccessful. It appears now to be well settled, that so far as the Indian dialects are concerned, there exists no evidence of the descent of any of the tribes from those colonists. The Hebrew theory has been more strenuously maintained, and the arguments in its favor have been displayed with great ability and learning. It may be observed, that most of the points of resemblance which have been discovered between the rites and institutions of that people and the Indians, may be traced also in those of several other nations, and are indicative only of an ancient and primitive origin. But the objections have been overlooked; the Jews, though scattered through every region and climate, ever remain a peculiar people, needing no argument to prove their lineage. In consideration of their national character, it is absolutely impossible to suppose that a race adhering so tenaciously to their ancient institutions and customs, after wandering into the new world should have lost every memorial of their history, laws, and religion. Moreover, the physical types of the two races are essentially different, and we know of no effect of climate, by which the Hebrew could have been transformed into the red and beardless American. If any thing were wanting, however, * Arch. Am., vol. ii. p. 125. |