Chapter I: Preface: To Volume V

This volume concludes the Native Races of the Pacific States. During the year in which it has been going through the press, I have received letters of encouragement from the most eminent scholars of Europe and America, and flattering commendations from learned societies. None but an author can know the value of such cheering words. This, my first attempt, was made in a new field; the scope of the work was very extensive; the system and machinery by which alone it could be accomplished were untried; and the subject was not one of great popular interest. It was not, therefore, without misgivings that I sent it forth.

That the work had been so planned as to embody practically all information extant on what I had come to regard as an important subject, and that the plan had been faithfully executed, I thoroughly believed. But that others would, to any great extent, share my opinion; that the subject would interest so many classes of readers; that mine would be so quickly and cordially recognized by men of science and letters throughout the world as a work worth doing and well done; and that it would be at once accorded a place in literature, I had not dared to hope. The leading journals of England, France, Germany, and the United States, have deemed the volumes as issued worthy of extended reviews; and criticism for the most part has been liberal, and just--save a tendency to what might seem, to a mind less prejudiced than mine, extravagant praise. Minor defects have been fairly pointed out; and in the few instances where fault has been found, either with the plan or its execution, one critic condemns what another approves, so that I am led to believe no serious error of judgment has been committed.

I cannot here make proper acknowledgments to all to whom they are due; but let those who have manifested their kind good-will, and those who have not, so long as they feel it, accept my grateful thanks.

San Francisco, November, 1875.

CONTENTS OF THIS VOLUME.

CHAPTER I.

ON THE ORIGIN OF THE AMERICANS.

PAGE.

Spirit of Inquiry in the Middle Ages -- Unity of Origin --
Flood Myths -- Aboriginal Traditions of Origin -- Culture
Heroes -- China -- Japan -- Hindustan -- Tartary -- The
Egyptian Theory -- The Phœnicians -- Votan's Travels -- The
Carthaginians -- The Hebrew Theory -- The Mormon Story --
The Visits of the Scandinavians -- Celtic Origin -- The Welsh
-- Scotch -- Irish -- The Greeks and Romans -- The Story of
Atlantis -- The Autochthonic Theory 1

CHAPTER II.

INTRODUCTORY TO ABORIGINAL HISTORY.

Origin and Earliest History of the Americans Unrecorded --
The Dark Sea of Antiquity -- Boundary between Myth and
History -- Primitive Annals of America compared with those
of the Old World -- Authorities and Historical Material --
Traditional Annals and their Value -- Hieroglyphic Records
of the Mayas and Nahuas -- Spanish Writers -- The Conquerors
-- The Missionaries -- The Historians -- Converted Native
Chroniclers -- Secondary Authorities -- Ethnology -- Arts,
Institutions, and Beliefs -- Languages -- Material Monuments
of Antiquity -- Use of Authorities and Method of treating the
Subject 133