Chapter XIX: Whence Came the Aborigines of America? (2)

In this manner was the continent of North America peopled, because the Esquimaux or "eaters of raw flesh," for this is the meaning of the word, came also from the extreme northern portion of Asia, having been expelled by their more warlike neighbors, who seemed to have literally wanted them to "get off the earth," for they were dwelling then, as they do now, on the extreme northern edge of it.

Either through choice, or from fear of the red Indians, the Esquimaux spread out along the coast of the Arctic Ocean until their habitat extended from the shores of eastern Greenland to Asia, a length of more than three thousand miles though only a few leagues in breadth. The Esquimaux are a curious and interesting people. They are, moreover, very ingenious and courageous, or they could not subsist in that inhospitable and treeless region of "icy mountains." {FN} They have a swarthy appearance because of their habit of greasing, and never washing their faces; but when once this filth is scrubbed off it is found that they are white, rather than copper-colored, and entirely unlike the North American Indians, being also very short and stout, but fully equal to them in strength and superior in some respects, for while the North American Indians had no domestic animals or beasts of burden when discovered, the Esquimaux had domesticated the reindeer and arctic dog, and yoked them to his sled.

* * * * *

{FN} The author once heard Miss Olof Krarer, "The Little Esquimaux Lady," living then at Ottawa, Illinois, whose age at the time was thirty-eight years; height, 40 inches; weight, 120 pounds. She had been well educated, and her lecture about the manners and customs of her people was intensely interesting. She was born in Greenland, but crossed with her family to Iceland in sledges.

We will now give other evidence in support of our theory. It should be of some significance that the traditions of many of the North American savages point to the Northwest as the direction whence their ancestors migrated originally.

Cuvier, the great naturalist, and the greatest of all comparative anatomists, classifies the whole human race into only three varieties, the white, black and yellow. This is certainly the most simple and correct. He includes the whole of the aboriginal races of the American Continent in the same class to which he assigns the Chinese, Japanese, Mongols and Malays. He could find nothing to distinguish our American aborigines from these Asiatics, except a greater average projection of the nose, and somewhat larger eyes. He is evidently correct in placing them all in one class--_the yellow race._ He asserts that if a congregation of twelve representatives from Malacca, China, Japan, Mongolia and the unmixed natives of the Sandwich Islands, the pure-blooded Chilian, Peruvian and Brazilian Indians, and others selected from the unmixed Chickasaws, Comanches, or any other North American tribes, were all assembled, and dressed in the same costume, or exhibited undressed and unshaven, that the most skilful painter or the most practised anatomist, judging from their appearance only, could not separate them into their different nationalities. He would decide that they were all the same people, and men of one type.

Another evidence of the Tartar origin of the North American Indian is the universal practice of scalping their enemies, which bloody custom was observed by their ancestors, the Scythians, whose ancient dominion embraced all Russia in Asia, and even extended into Europe. Their complexion, straight black hair, scant beards, black eyes and general appearance, identify them with the Asiatic yellow race of Cuvier.

The great majority of the aboriginal tribes of North America prove their descent from the Scythians of northeastern Mongolia, by their anatomical marks, as we have seen, their manners, customs and superstitions, as strongly as their relations, the modern Japanese, Chinese and Tartars. They show substantially the same color, and high cheek-bones. They exhibit the same fondness for narcotics and stimulants, substituting indigenous plants, like the tobacco, and coca, for the betel-nut, hemp and poppy. Their wandering habits, the use of the bow, the wearing of the scalp-lock, represented by the long, plaited cue of the Chinese, and cultivated by all the warriors of the most savage and warlike of the North American tribes, and observed by no nation of antiquity except the Scythians; the common belief among them all, that all material things, whether men, animals, or weapons, have souls or spiritual counterparts, in the invisible and eternal world; the worship of the spirits of their ancestors, and many other strongly marked peculiarities, identify all the branches of this yellow race as blood relations and the descendants of the Scythians.

The great German scholar, Oscar Peschel, in his work called "The Races of Man," says: "It is not impossible that the first migrations took place at a time when what is now the channel of Behring's Strait was occupied by an isthmus. The climate of those northern shores must then have been much milder than at the present day, for no currents from the Frozen Ocean could have penetrated into the Pacific. That the severance of Asia from America was, geologically speaking, very recent, is shown by the fact that not only the strait, but the sea which bears the name of Behring is _extraordinarily shallow,_ so much so indeed that whalers lie at anchor in the middle of it."

Sir Daniel Wilson, LL.D., F.R.S.E., president of the University of Toronto, says, in "The Lost Atlantis," "The present soundings of Behring's Strait, and the bed of the sea extending southward to the Aleutian Islands, entirely accord with the assumption of a former continuity of land between Asia and America." But it is always dangerous to rely on geological events, which themselves require more accurate proof. We therefore prefer to assume that at the time at which the Asiatics passed over into America, Behring's Strait already possessed its present character. In this connection it is worth remembering that the first question asked by Gauss, the great German mathematician, of Adalbert von Chamisso, the circumnavigator, at Berlin, in 1828, was whether the coast of America was visible from any point in Asia; in such a way that the two continents might be connected by a triangle? Chamisso was able to answer this query in the affirmative, so that no accidental discovery need be supposed, for the Asiatics of Behring's Strait, when they crossed over to America, saw their goal before their eyes.

Lest it should be thought strange that people who were still without adequate means of protection could have continued to exist in a climate so severe, we will quote from George Steller, who states that children of the North are more comfortable in severe weather than in a milder temperature. "When, in winter mornings," he wrote, "I was freezing under my feather-bed and fur coverlets, I saw the Itelmes, and even their little children, lying in their _kuklanka_ naked and bare halfway down the chest, without coverlets or feather-beds, and yet were warmer to the touch than I was." In another place he adds that the Kamtskadals always place a large vessel filled with water, which they cool with pieces of ice, by their side at night, and drain this to the last drop before the break of day.

This shows that the rigid climate would not impede a migration from Asia to America. In fact, as Peschel assures us, "Trade has always been carried on between the Behring's Strait nations of Asia and America. The Tshuktshi pass over to Diomede's Island, and the Malemutes cross from the extreme northwesterly point of America to exchange reindeer hides for furs. The trade is so brisk that the clothing of the natives several hundred miles up the Yukon River consists of Asiatic skins obtained from the Tshuktshi."

George Steller states that, "the inhabitants of Choumagin Islands, on the coast of Alaska, are as like the Itelmes of Kamtchatka as one egg is to another."

When the exploring expedition sent out by the Empress of Russia (Catherine) made their report it was stated that the narrow sea which divides Kamtchatka from Alaska is full of islands, and that the distance from a promontory at the eastern extremity of Asia, and the coast of America, is not more than two degrees and a half of a great circle. The report further stated that there is the greatest reason to suppose that Asia and America once joined at this place, as the coasts of both continents appear to have been broken into capes and bays, which answer each other. Moreover, the inhabitants of both sides resemble each other in their persons, habits, customs, food and language. It is also added that the boats of the inhabitants of each coast are very similar. And when they found that the natives on the American side pointed across to the opposite shore as the source whence their ancestors came, they considered that it amounted to little less than a demonstration that North America was peopled from this part of Asia.

After we had reached our conclusions, we were gratified to find that Ridpath, the greatest historian of recent years, takes substantially the same position. In his great work on "The Races of Mankind," he says:

"There is hardly any longer doubt as to the ethnic relationship of these races and their connection with the peoples of Asia and Polynesia. The testimony of many sciences--linguistics, archeology, traditions, and especially ethnology proper--points uniformly to the Asiatic and Pacific derivation of the ancestors of those widely distributed races extending northward and southward from the Arctic archipelago to the Strait of Magellan, and westward and eastward from the Alaskan peninsula to Pernambuco.

"By common consent the ethnic history of our American continents should begin from the _West._ It is evident that the American Mongoloids--for so we may designate the aboriginal nations of the New World--are connected by race affinity and descent with the Asiatic and Polynesian Mongoloids.

"The routes by which they came were two or, at the most, four: The one by way of Polynesia; the other, Siberia. The first, or Polynesian line, seems to have divided, sending one branch through lower Polynesia against the central western coast of South America, while the upper or western branch was directed by way of the Sandwich Islands to Mexico and Central America. The second, or Siberian route (many centuries later), one branch appears to have gone by way of Behring's Strait, and the other through the Aleutian Islands." In this manner, we believe South America was peopled in remote antiquity by the Malays of Polynesia, and North America by rude barbarians from northeastern Asia. We do not assume that all the aborigines of the two continents came in this way. But for the many unanswerable reasons given, we do believe that the earliest, most numerous and probably most disposed to civilization, came in this manner to South and Central America, where they established an original civilization; and that the most numerous, but also the latest and most barbarous aborigines of North America came from northeastern Asia.

Having become established in America, they gradually spread from west to east until they reached the Atlantic coast. Here in time they came in contact with a few representatives of other races from Europe, Western Asia and Africa, who, at various times and at different points, reached the eastern shore. But the few were absorbed by the larger population, with little visible result save to augment their numbers, give variety to the physiognomy of certain tribes, and perhaps modify the civilization where it existed.

We know of at least two modern instances of voyages having been made from Europe to America, and there were doubtless others of prehistoric times. We refer now to the discovery of America by Herjulfson in A. D. 986, who was driven in sight of Newfoundland or Labrador while sailing from Iceland to Greenland. Fourteen years later, the actual discovery of America was made by Lief Erickson, who sailed from Greenland and reached Labrador in the spring of the year 1001. After landing and making explorations, he and his companions continued along the coast southward until they reached Massachusetts, Rhode Island and possibly New York harbor. Other Norsemen afterward reached America, but they made no permanent settlements, planted no colonies, and kept their knowledge of the new continent a state secret.

The other instance of a pre-Columbian voyage to America is that of the Welsh prince, Modoc or Madog, which is told in the old Welsh books as follows:

About the year 1168 or 1169 A. D., Owen Gwyneeld, ruling prince of North Wales, died, and among his sons there was a contest for the succession, which produced a civil war. His son Madog, who had "command of the fleet," took no part in this strife. Greatly disturbed by the public trouble, and unable to reconcile his two brothers, he resolved to leave Wales and go across the ocean to the new land at the west, of which he had probably heard through the Irish or Norse navigators. Accordingly, in the year 1170 A. D., he left with a few ships, going south of Ireland, and sailing westward. The object of this voyage was to explore the western land and select a place for settlement. He found a pleasant and fertile region, where his settlement was established. Leaving one hundred and twenty persons, he returned to Wales, prepared ten ships, induced a large company, some of whom were Irish, to join him, and sailed again to America. Nothing more was ever heard in Wales of Prince Madog or his settlement.

It is supposed that Madog settled somewhere in the Carolinas, and that his colony, unsupported by new arrivals from Europe, and cut off from communication with that side of the ocean, became weak, and, after being much reduced, was destroyed or absorbed by some powerful Indian tribe. In our colonial times, and after, there was no lack of reports that relics of Madog's Welshmen, and even their language, had been discovered among the Indians; but generally they were entitled to no credit. The report of Rev. Morgan Jones, made in 1686, and published in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ for the year 1740, is quoted by Baldwin in his "Ancient America," as follows:

"These presents certify all persons whatever, that in the year 1660, being an inhabitant of Virginia, and chaplain to Major-General Bennet, of Mansoman County, the said Major-General Bennet and Sir William Berkley sent two ships to Port Royal, now called South Carolina, which is sixty leagues southward of Cape Fear, and I was sent therewith to be their minister. Upon the 8th of April we set out from Virginia and arrived at the harbor's mouth of Port Royal the 19th of the same month, where we waited for the rest of the fleet that was to sail from Barbadoes with one Mr. West, who was to be deputy governor of said place. As soon as the fleet came in, the smallest vessels that were with us sailed up the river to a place called Oyster Point; there I continued about eight months. At last, being almost starved for want of provisions, I and five others traveled through the wilderness till we came to the Tuscarora country.

"There the Tuscarora Indians took us prisoners, because we told them we were bound to Roanock. That night they carried us to their town and shut us up close, to our no small dread. The next day they entered into a consultation about us, and, after it was over, their interpreter told us that we must prepare ourselves to die next morning, whereupon, being very much dejected, I spoke to this effect in the Welsh tongue: 'Have I escaped so many dangers, and must I now be knocked on the head like a dog!' Then presently came an Indian to me, which afterward appeared to be a war captain belonging to the sachem of the Doegs (whose original, I find, must needs be from the Old Britons), and took me up by the middle, and told me in the British (Welsh) tongue I should not die, and thereupon went to the Emperor of Tuscarora, and agreed for my ransom and the men that were with me.

"They (the Doegs) then welcomed us to their town, and entertained us very civilly and cordially four months, during which time I had the opportunity of conversing with them familiarly in the British (Welsh) language, and did preach to them in the same language three times a week, and they would confer with me about anything that was difficult therein, and at our departure they abundantly supplied us with whatever was necessary to our support and well doing. They are settled upon Pontigo River, not far from Cape Atros. This is a brief recital of my travels among the Doeg Indians.

"Morgan Jones,
The son of John Jones, of Basateg, near Newport, in the County of
Monmouth. I am ready to conduct any Welshmen or others to the country.
New York. March 10th, 1686."

Baldwin says, "other accounts of his 'travels' among the 'Doegs' of the Tuscarora nation were published much earlier, but no other has been preserved. His veracity was never questioned. What shall be said of his statement? Were the remains of Prince Madog's company represented in these 'Doeg' Tuscaroras? He is very explicit in regard to the matter of language, and it is not easy to see how he could be mistaken. They understood his Welsh, not without needing explanation of some things, 'difficult therein.' He was able to converse with them and preach to them in Welsh; and yet, if he got an explanation of the existence of the Welsh language among these 'Doegs,' or sought to know anything in regard to their traditional history, he omits entirely to say so. Without meaning to doubt his veracity, one can only regret that he did not give a more intelligent and complete account of these 'travels.'"

{Illustration: Ukiah (Alaska) Indian in the garb of a Japanese.}

It may be remembered that in the early colonial times, the Tuscaroras were sometimes called "White Indians." Fontaine adds the following facts, which may be regarded as an imperfect continuation of the history of this Welsh colony, whose lost annals can never be completely restored:

"The tribe of Mandan Indians was discovered by Lewis and Clarke on the Upper Missouri, during their expedition to discover the sources of the Missouri and Columbia rivers, sent to perform that perilous duty under the presidency of Mr. Jefferson, and which embraced the years 1805-1807. They spent the winter of 1805-6 among these Indians, but did not learn their traditions. To the astonishment of Lewis and Clarke many of these savages had blue eyes, and their hair was generally silky and very abundant, and, except red and auburn, of all the colors which distinguish the tresses of the various inhabitants of England and Wales. The ethnological problem presented by their peculiarities was, I think, solved satisfactorily by George Catlin, the painter, who visited them and spent some months with them in 1832. He understood Welsh, and found in their language _fifty pure Welsh_ words, one hundred and thirty nearly so, and many others of Welsh derivation. They used a circle of stones in the construction of the hearths of their huts; they preserved the art of making _the Welsh blue beads;_ and they navigated the Missouri River in a canoe, like the Welsh _coracle,_ made of willow limbs and rawhide of a peculiar construction, and used nowhere in the world except in Wales. It was _a tub pulled,_ instead of being _propelled,_ by a paddle. Their tradition was, that their ancestors came across the 'great water' from the East; while other tribes of the United States point to the Northwest as the direction from which they migrated. Catlin verified the correctness of their tradition as having come from the East, down the Ohio, and up the Missouri, by tracing the ruins of their huts, easily recognized by the Welsh hearthstones, up the Ohio River, as far as he examined it. This interesting tribe, he tells us, was nearly exterminated by the smallpox in 1837; and their destruction, as a separate clan, was completed soon afterward, when they were vanquished by their inveterate enemies, the Rickarees, and their remnant became incorporated with that tribe.

"The Tuscaroras inhabited the banks of the Yadkin, and other rivers of the northwestern parts of North Carolina, whose waters interlock with those of Green River, and other tributaries of New River, the principal branch of the Great Kanawha, which empties into the Ohio. The great forests of these regions abounded in game, and many of their valleys, and the mountain-plateaus separating them, still afford excellent hunting-grounds. The migration of these Welsh Indians up the Yadkin, and down the Ararat, Green, New and Kanawha rivers to the Ohio, was easily accomplished; and this, I think, was their route to the Missouri. Connecting these facts and examining them properly led to the conclusion of Catlin, that _the Mandans are the descendants of Madog and his followers,_ mixed with various Indian tribes."

During the reign of Charles II., a book known as "The Turkish Spy," was written by an Italian, John Paul Marana, who was at one time in the service of the Sultan of Turkey. This book was published in London, in 1734, and gives an interesting account of the condition of affairs of the kingdoms of western Europe. Speaking of the British possessions in North America, he says: "There is a region of that continent inhabited by a people whom they call Tuscoards and Doegs. Their language is the same spoken by the British or Welsh; and these Tuscoards and Doegs are thought to be descended from them."

But it might be asked how is it these Indians are called Tuscaroras or Tuscoards, and Doegs in North Carolina, and Mandans on the upper Missouri? Catlin has given an ingenious and plausible explanation of this change of name. He says Mandan is the name of the _Woodroof,_ or Welsh madder, used for dying red, and he thinks the Welsh gave the name Mandan to these Indians on account of the beautiful red they used in dying the porcupine-quills. It is claimed by some writers that the Cherokees, who were neighbors to the Tuscaroras, and the most intelligent and predisposed to civilization of all the North American tribes, had also a fusion of Welsh blood, but the evidence is not so complete as that of the Tuscaroras and Mandans.

With reference to the mounds and mound builders there have been many learned but unreasonable theories advanced which have resulted only in "confusion worst confounded." We have reached a conclusion, and have since been gratified to find that two among the clearest and most reasonable writers on this subject, practically indorse our position in almost every detail. We refer now to J. H. Beadle, in his great work, "The Undeveloped West"; and J. D. Baldwin, in "Ancient America." The general term "Mound Builders" is applied to a people who have left evidence of extensive works in various parts of the United States, especially in the vicinity of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers and their tributaries. These are of three kinds: mounds, square and circular enclosures, and raised embankments of various forms. Unlike all the mounds in Mexico, Central and South America, those in our country have no trace of buildings on them. Why? We will let J. W. Beadle answer this question. Said he, "Until I visited Arizona I had no answer. There the solution was easy. In those regions stone was abundant and timber was scarce here the reverse was the case. Our predecessors built of wood, the others of stone; the works of the latter remain to this day, while wooden buildings would leave no trace after one or two centuries, if indeed they were not burned by the savages as soon as abandoned."

From what is seen in the Southern and Western States antiquarians have reached the following conclusions: 1. The so-called Mound Builders were no wandering and feeble tribes, but constituted a large population under one central government; this is shown by the extent of the works, as well as their completeness and scientific exactness. 2. A large area around their settlements was cleared of timber and cultivated, showing that they were an agricultural people. 3. As nature does not give a forest growth to abandoned fields, without a preparatory growth of shrubs and softer timber, and as forest trees have been found on their mounds showing at least six hundred years of growth, it follows that they left our country nearly a thousand years ago. 4. From the increase of fortifications north-ward, and the broad flat mounds, suitable only for buildings southward, it is proven that at the South they were at peace; but as they advanced northward they came more and more into contact with the wild tribes, before whom they finally retired toward the south.

The excavations of the mounds show clearly that their builders had commercial intercourse with Mexico and Central America, and it seems probable that they had otherwise a very close relation to the people of those countries.

Antiquarians have therefore searched diligently in the few remaining books and traditions of the Mexicans, and Central Americans, for mention of the origin and history of the Mound Builders. Nor have they searched in vain. "It is believed," says Baldwin, "that distinct reference to their country has been found in the books still in existence, and there appears to be reason for this belief."

Brasseur de Bourbourg, one of the few investigators who have explored them, says: "Previous to the history of the Toltec domination in Mexico, we notice in the annals of the country two facts of great importance, but equally obscure in their details: First, the tradition concerning the landing of a foreign race, conducted by an illustrious personage, who came from an Eastern country; and, second, the existence of an ancient empire known as Huehue-Tlapalan, from which the Toltecs or Nahuas came to Mexico, in consequence of a _Revolution_ or _Invasion,_ and from which they had a long and toilsome migration to the Aztec plateau."

He believes that Huehue-Tlapalan was the country of the Mound Builders in the Mississippi and Ohio valleys. According to the native books he has examined, it was somewhere at a distance in the northeast; and it is constantly said that some of the Toltecs came by land and some by sea. Sahagun learned from the old books and traditions that the Toltecs came from that distant northeastern country; and he mentions a company that came by sea, settled near the Tampico River, and built a town called Panuco. Brasseur de Bourbourg finds that an account of this or another company was preserved at Xilanco, an ancient city situated on the point of an island between Lake Terminos and the sea, and famous for its commerce, wealth and intelligence. The company described in this account came from the northeast in the same way, it is said, to Tampico River, and landed at Panuco. It consisted of twenty chiefs and a numerous company of people. Torquemada found a record which describes them as people of fine appearance. They went forward into the country and were well received. He says they were industrious, orderly and intelligent, and that they worked metals and were skilful artists and lapidaries. All the accounts say the Toltecs came at different times, by land and sea, mostly in small companies, and always from the northeast. This can be explained only by supposing they came by sea from the mouth of the Mississippi River, and by land through Texas. But the country from which they came was invariably Huehue-Tlapalan.

Cabrera says Huehue-Tlapalan was the ancient country of the Toltecs. Its simple name was Tlapalan, but they called it Huehue, old, to distinguish it from three other Tlapalans which they founded in the districts of their new kingdom. Torquemada says the same. We are compelled to accept a fact so distinctly stated and so constantly reported in the old books, especially as the following statement is also made in connection with it, to account for the Toltec migration, that Huehue-Tlapalan was successfully invaded by Chichinecs, meaning _Barbarous Aboriginal Tribes,_ who were united under one great leader. Here is the statement (a little condensed) touching this point:

"There was a terrible struggle, but, after about thirteen years, the Toltecs, no longer able to resist successfully, were obliged to abandon their country to escape complete subjugation. Two chiefs guided the march of the emigrating nation. At length they reached a region near the sea named 'Tlapalan-Conco,' where they remained several years. But they finally undertook another migration, and reached Mexico, where they built a town called 'Tollanzinco,' and later the city of Tullan, which became the seat of their government."

Brasseur de Bourbourg says: "In the histories written in the Nahuatl language, the oldest certain date is nine hundred and fifty-five years before Christ." If this date is authentic it would follow that the Nahuas, or Toltecs, left Huehue-Tlapalan more than a thousand years previous to the Christian era, for they dwelt a long time in the country of Xibalba as peaceable settlers before they organized the civil war which raised them to power. The Toltecs were in turn overthrown by the Aztecs, who held sway at the time of the Spanish conquest.

The Toltecs came originally from Mexico or Central America, and when they were expelled from the Ohio and Mississippi valleys by hordes of wild Indians from the north, they simply returned to their "Father Land"; but they had been absent so long they appeared as a different people. Baldwin well says "The fact that the settlements and works of the Mound Builders extended through Texas and across the Rio Grande indicates very plainly their connection with the people of Mexico, and goes far toward explaining their origin. In fact, the connection of settlements by way of Texas appears to have been unbroken from Ohio to Mexico. These people could not have come from any other part of North America, for nowhere else north of the isthmus was there any other people capable of producing such works as they left in the places where they dwelt. We have other evidence of intercourse between the two peoples; for the _obsidian_ dug from the mounds, and perhaps the _porphyry_ also, can be explained only by supposing commercial relations between them."

The Aztecs, whom the Spaniards found, were the last of at least three civilized races, and much inferior to the Toltecs immediately preceding them. Their history indicates that they were merely one of the original races, who overthrew and mingled with the Toltecs, adopting part of their religion and civilization. The Peruvian Incas, found by Pizarro, seem to have been the second of the series of races or dynasties. But civilization is of slow growth; it must have required at least a thousand years for the first of the three dynasties to have developed art and learning enough to erect the buildings we find. De Bourbourg and other antiquarians have given to that race before the Incas, the authors of the original civilization, the name of Colhuas.

This much is, to say the least, reasonable conjecture. It is probably a thousand years since the Mound Builders left our country; a previous thousand years of settlement and occupation; and a thousand years for the precedent civilization to develop. Or, beginning in Mexico, we have a thousand years of Spaniard and Aztec; a previous thousand years for Toltec immigration and settlement, and a thousand years before that for the Colhuas to develop, flourish and decline. This carries us back near to the time when the same course of events was inaugurated in the Eastern Hemisphere. We _know_ that it has required so long to produce the civilization of Europe and Asia; all reasoning by analogy goes to show that at least as long a time has been required to produce equally as great civilization in America.

Indeed it is not a stretch of the imagination to conclude that within a few centuries of the same period when the Northern Barbarians were sweeping down on Southern Europe and smiting its civilization with the besom of destruction, that history was repeating itself on this continent in the expulsion of our civilized Mound Builders, and the destruction of everything perishable by _our_ Northern Barbarians, the wild Indian tribes, the American Tartars, who also came from northern Asia, and who were, broadly speaking, the same race.

These are my views on this much mooted question. I do not pretend to have settled the matter, and still look for more light. But, "what I have written, I have written," after much investigation and careful thought. I send this book forth on its mission, and through its printed pages have endeavored to "speak as to wise men;" and to _that class_ will only add, "judge ye what I say."

Just as we were about to publish this work, our attention was called to an illustrated article in the _Cosmopolitan_ giving an account of the expedition sent out by Morris K. Jesup, president of the American Museum of Natural History, of New York.

Mr. Jesup has spent a large sum of money, and eight years' time, in a minute study of the aboriginal tribes of northwest America and Siberia, the results of which will soon be published in twelve volumes.

The principal object of this expedition was to find an answer to the question, How was this continent peopled? It was believed by Mr. Jesup and his advisers that by studying tribal customs, characteristics, traditions and languages of the oldest remaining tribes of northeastern Asia and northwestern America, the mooted question could be settled.

This was accordingly done, but, strange to say, their conclusions are, that instead of America being peopled by tribes from northeastern Asia, "it seems most probable that the emigration has been from the interior of America westward to the Pacific coast, and thence on to Asia."

There is not a hint in the article under consideration of anything like proof (whatever there may be in the twelve volumes), and even if it were established, which is not claimed, it would still fail of an answer to the question as to how America was peopled.

The world cares but little for a fine-spun theory as to how Asia was peopled, and if this is the principal result of the millions of money, eight years of time and twelve quarto volumes, then it would almost seem that "the mountain has labored and brought forth a mouse."

But we believe the twelve volumes will throw very much more light on the subject, and concede that it would be an injustice to judge of the results of the expedition by a brief magazine article, and await the complete report with intense interest.

The illustrations of this article, four of which we are able to reproduce by courtesy of the _Cosmopolitan,_ are very fine and very suggestive.

The reader will remember that our position is that the tribes of eastern Asia and western America, more especially those of Siberia and Alaska, were originally one race and sprang from the same source.

Moreover, we agree with Cuvier that the Chinese, Japanese, Mongols and American Indians all belong to the same yellow race. These four pictures, representing a Japanese man and maiden in the dress of Ukiah (Alaska) Indians; and a Ukiah man and maiden in the Japanese costume, prove our position beyond cavil.

A study of the pictures will convince the most skeptical, that, dressed the same, they would look like brothers and sisters of one family. They show further what an important part dress and visual impression play in the formation of popular ideas of racial characteristics.

An Indian costume effectually changes a Japanese into a very life-like American aborigine. In the same way Japanese dress works the most puzzling transformation in the Indians.

We were looking for pictures to illustrate this last chapter in general, and the unity of the yellow and red race in particular, when we received the article and four pictures. They have interested the author, and he trusts they will the reader, as they are rare and out of the usual order.

Our task is done. It is for the reader to say whether or not it is well done.

{Illustration: Finis.}

End of Project Gutenberg's Lives of Famous Indian Chiefs, by Norman B. Wood