Chapter I: On the Origin of the Americans (4)

We come now to the theory that the Americans, or at least part of them, are of Celtic origin. In the old Welsh annals there is an account of a voyage made in the latter half of the twelfth century,[I-233] by one Madoc, a son of Owen Gwynedd, prince of North Wales. The story goes, that after the death of Gwynedd, his sons contended violently for the sovereignty. Madoc, who was the only peaceable one among them, determined to leave his disturbed country and sail in search of some unknown land where he might dwell in peace. He accordingly procured an abundance of provisions and a few ships and embarked with his friends and followers. For many months they sailed westward without finding a resting-place; but at length they came to a large and fertile country, where, after sailing for some distance along the coast in search of a convenient landing-place, they disembarked, and permanently settled. After a time Madoc, with part of his company, returned to Wales, where he fitted out ten ships with all manner of supplies, prevailed on a large number of his countrymen to join him, and once more set sail for the new colony, which, though we hear no more about him or his settlement, he is supposed to have reached safely.[I-234]

[Sidenote: THE AMERICANS OF WELSH ORIGIN.]

The exact location of Madoc's colony has only been guessed at. Baldwin says it is supposed that he settled 'somewhere in the Carolinas.' Caradoc, in his history of Wales,[I-235] has no doubt that the country where Madoc established his colony was Mexico; this he thinks is shown by three facts: first, the Mexicans believed that their ancestors came from a beautiful country afar off, inhabited by white people; secondly, they adored the cross; and thirdly, several Welsh names are found in Mexico. Peter Martyr affirms that the aborigines of Virginia, as well as those of Guatemala, celebrate the memory of an ancient and illustrious hero, named Madoc. Harcourt, in the preface to the account of his voyage to Guiana,[I-236] says that that part of America was discovered and possessed by the Welsh prince, Madoc. Herbert, according to Martyr, says that the land discovered by the prince was Florida or Virginia.[I-237] Catlin is inclined to believe that Madoc entered the Mississippi at Balize and made his way up the river, or that he landed somewhere on the Florida coast. He thinks the colonists pushed into the interior and finally settled on the Ohio river; afterwards, being driven from that position by the aboriginal tribes, they advanced up the Missouri river to the place where they have been known for many years by the name of Mandans, "a corruption or abbreviation, perhaps, of Madawgwys, the name applied by the Welsh to the followers of Madawc." The canoes of the Mandans, Mr Catlin tells us, which are altogether different from those of all other tribes, correspond exactly to the Welsh _coracle_,[I-238] the peculiarity of their physical appearance was such that when he first saw them he "was under the instant conviction that they were an amalgam of a native, with some civilized race," and the resemblance that exists between their language and Welsh, is, in his opinion, very striking.[I-239] There have been several reports that traces of the Welsh colony and of their language have been discovered among the native tribes, but none of them seem entitled to full credit. The best known report of this kind, and the one that claims, perhaps, the most respectful consideration, is that of the Rev. Morgan Jones, written in 1686, and published in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ for the year 1740. In 1660 the reverend gentleman, with five companions, was taken prisoner by the Tuscarora tribe, who were about to put him to death when he soliloquized aloud in Welsh; whereupon they spared him and his companions, and treated them very civilly. After this Mr Jones stayed among them for four months, during which time he conversed with them familiarly in the Welsh language, "and did preach to them in the same language three times a week."[I-240]

A certain Lieutenant Roberts states that in 1801 he met an Indian chief at Washington, who spoke Welsh "as fluently as if he had been born and brought up in the vicinity of Snowdon." He said it was the language of his nation, the Asguaws, who lived eight hundred miles north-west of Philadelphia. He knew nothing of Wales, but stated that his people had a tradition that their ancestors came to America from a distant country, which lay far to the east, over the great waters. Amongst other questions, Lieutenant Roberts asked him how it was that his nation had preserved their original language so perfect; he answered that they had a law which forbade any to teach their children another tongue, until they were twelve years old.[I-241]

Another officer, one Captain Davies, relates that while stationed at a trading-post, among the Illinois Indians, he was surprised to find that several Welshmen who belonged to his company, could converse readily with the aborigines in Welsh.[I-242] Warden tells a story of a Welshman named Griffith, who was taken prisoner by the Shawnee tribe about the year 1764. Two years afterwards, he and five Shawnees, with whom he was traveling about the sources of the Missouri, fell into the hands of a white tribe, who were about to massacre them when Griffith spoke to them in Welsh, explaining the object of their journey; upon this they consented to spare him and his companions. He could learn nothing of the history of these white natives, except that their ancestors had come to the Missouri from a far distant country. Griffith returned to the Shawnee nation, but subsequently escaped and succeeded in reaching Virginia.[I-243] There are many other reports of a similar kind, but these will be sufficient to show on what manner of foundation the Welsh theory rests, and to justify in a measure the outspoken opinion of Mr Fiske, that "Welch Indians are creatures of the imagination."[I-244]

[Sidenote: SCOTCH AND IRISH THEORIES.]

Lord Monboddo, a Scotchman, who wrote in the seventeenth century, quotes several instances to show that the language of the native Highlanders was spoken in America. In one of the English expeditions to discover the North Pole, he relates, there were an Eskimo and a Scotchman, who, after a few days practice, were able to converse together readily. He also states "that the Celtic language was spoken by many of the tribes of Florida, which is situated at the north end of the gulf of Mexico; and that he was well acquainted with a gentleman from the Highlands of Scotland, who was several years in Florida, in a public character, and who stated that many of the tribes with whom he had become acquainted, had the greatest affinity with the Celtic in their language."[I-245]

Claims have also been put in for an Irish discovery of the New World; St Patrick is said to have sent missionaries to the 'Isles of America,'[I-246] and early writers have gravely discussed the probability of Quetzalcoatl having been an Irishman. There is no great improbability that the natives of Ireland may have reached, by accident or otherwise, the north-eastern coasts of the new continent, in very early times, but there is certainly no evidence to prove that they did.[I-247]

* * * * *

The nations of southern Europe have not been entirely forgotten by the theorists on the question of origin. Those who have claimed for them the honor of first settling or civilizing America, are not many, however; nor is the evidence they adduce of a very imposing nature.

Lafitau supposes the Americans to be descended from the ancient inhabitants of the Grecian archipelago, who were driven from their country by the subjects of Og, King of Bashan. In every particular, he says, the people of the New World resemble the Hellenes and Pelagians. Both were idolators; used sacred fire; indulged in Bacchanalian revels; held formal councils; strong resemblances are to be found in their marriage customs, system of education, manner of hunting, fishing, and making war, in their games and sports, in their mourning and burial customs, and in their manner of treating the sick.[I-248] García knew a man in Peru who knew of a rock on which was what looked very much like a Greek inscription. The same writer says that the Athenians waged war with the inhabitants of Atlantis, and might therefore have heard of America. That the Greeks were navigators in very early times is shown by Jason's voyage in search of the Golden Fleece. Both Greeks and Americans bored their ears and sang the deeds of their ancestors; besides which, many words are common to both peoples.[I-249] Like García, Mr Pidgeon also knew a man--a farmer of Montevideo, in Brazil--who in 1827 discovered in one of his fields a flat stone, upon which was engraven a Greek inscription, which, as far as it was legible, read as follows: "During the dominion of Alexander, the son of Philip, King of Macedon, in the sixty-third Olympiad, Ptolemaios." Deposited beneath the stone were found two ancient swords, a helmet, and a shield. On the handle of one of the swords was a portrait of Alexander; on the helmet was a beautiful design representing Achilles dragging the corpse of Hector round the walls of Troy. "From this discovery, it is evident"--to Mr Pidgeon--"that the soil of Brazil was formerly broken by Ptolemaios, more than a thousand years before the discovery by Columbus."[I-250] Brasseur de Bourbourg seeks to identify certain of the American gods with Greek deities.[I-251] Jones finds that the sculpture at Uxmal very closely resembles the Greek style.[I-252]

The vastness of some of the cities built by the civilized Americans, the fine roads they constructed, their fondness for gladiatorial combats, and a few unreliable accounts that Roman coins have been found on the continent, constitute about all the evidence that is offered to show that the Romans ever visited America.[I-253]

* * * * *

[Sidenote: THE ANCIENT ATLANTIS.]

The story of Atlantis, that is, of a submerged, lost land that once lay to the west of Europe, is very old. It was communicated to Solon, according to Plutarch, by the Egyptian priests of Psenophis, Sonchis, Heliopolis, and Saïs; and if we may believe Plato, Solon did not hear of the events until nine thousand Egyptian years after their occurrence. Plato's version is as follows:

"Among the great deeds of Athens, of which recollection is preserved in our books, there is one which should be placed above all others. Our books tell that the Athenians destroyed an army which came across the Atlantic Sea, and insolently invaded Europe and Asia; for this sea was then navigable, and beyond the strait where you place the Pillars of Hercules there was an island larger than Asia (Minor) and Libya combined. From this island one could pass easily to the other islands, and from these to the continent which lies around the interior sea. The sea on this side of the strait (the Mediterranean) of which we speak, resembles a harbor with a narrow entrance; but there is a genuine sea, and the land which surrounds it is a veritable continent. In the island of Atlantis reigned three kings with great and marvelous power. They had under their dominion the whole of Atlantis, several other islands, and some parts of the continent. At one time their power extended into Libya, and into Europe as far as Tyrrhenia, and, uniting their whole force, they sought to destroy our countries at a blow; but their defeat stopped the invasion and gave entire independence to all the countries this side of the Pillars of Hercules. Afterward, in one day and one fatal night, there came mighty earthquakes and inundations, which ingulfed that warlike people; Atlantis disappeared beneath the sea, and then that sea became inaccessible, so that navigation ceased on account of the quantity of mud which the ingulfed island left in its place."[I-254]

It is only recently that any important signification has been attached to this passage. It was previously regarded rather as one of those fabulous accounts in which the works of the writers of antiquity abound, than as an actual statement of facts. True, it had been frequently quoted to show that the ancients had a knowledge more or less vague of the continent of America, but no particular value was set upon the assertion that the mysterious land was ages ago submerged and lost in the ocean. But of late years it has been discovered that traditions and records of cataclysms similar to that referred to by the Egyptian priests, have been preserved among the American nations; which discovery has led several learned and diligent students of New World lore to believe that after all the story of Atlantis, as recorded by Plato, may be founded upon fact, and that in bygone ages there did actually exist in the Atlantic Ocean a great tract of inhabited country, forming perhaps part of the American continent, which by some mighty convulsion of nature was suddenly submerged and lost in the sea.

[Sidenote: BRASSEUR DE BOURBOURG'S THEORIES.]

Foremost among those who have held and advocated this opinion stands the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg. This distinguished Américaniste goes farther than his fellows, however, in that he attempts to prove that all civilization originated in America, or the Occident, instead of in the Orient, as has always been supposed. This theory he endeavors to substantiate not so much by the Old World traditions and records as by those of the New World, using as his principal authority an anonymous manuscript written in the Nahua language, which he entitles the _Codex Chimalpopoca_. This work purports to be on the face of it a 'History of the Kingdoms of Culhuacan and Mexico,' and as such it served Brasseur as almost his sole authority for the Toltec period of his _Histoire des Nations Civilisées_. At that time the learned Abbé regarded the Atlantis theory, at least so far as it referred to any part of America, as an absurd conjecture resting upon no authentic basis.[I-255] In a later work, however, he more than retracts this assertion; from a sceptic he is suddenly transformed into a most devout and enthusiastic believer, and attempts to prove by a most elaborate course of reasoning that that which he before doubted is indubitably true. The cause of this sudden change was a strange one. As, by constant study, he became more profoundly learned in the literature of ancient America, the Abbé discovered that he had entirely misinterpreted the _Codex Chimalpopoca_. The annals recorded so plainly upon the face of the mystic pages were intended only for the understanding of the vulgar; the stories of the kings, the history of the kingdoms, were allegorical and not to be construed literally; deep below the surface lay the true historic record--hidden from all save the priests and the wise men of the West--of the mighty cataclysm which submerged the cradle of all civilization.[I-256] Excepting a dozen, perhaps, of the kings who preceded Montezuma, it is not a history of men, but of American nature, that must be sought for in the Mexican manuscripts and paintings. The Toltecs, so long regarded as an ancient civilized race, destroyed in the eleventh century by their enemies, are really telluric forces, agents of subterranean fire, the veritable smiths of Orcus and of Lemnos, of which Tollan was the symbol, the true masters of civilization and art, who by the mighty convulsions which they caused communicated to men a knowledge of minerals.[I-257]

I know of no man better qualified than was Brasseur de Bourbourg to penetrate the obscurity of American primitive history. His familiarity with the Nahua and Central American languages, his indefatigable industry, and general erudition, rendered him eminently fit for such a task, and every word written by such a man on such a subject is entitled to respectful consideration. Nevertheless, there is reason to believe that the Abbé was often rapt away from the truth by excess of enthusiasm, and the reader of his wild and fanciful speculations cannot but regret that he has not the opportunity or ability to intelligently criticise by comparison the French savant's interpretation of the original documents. At all events it is certain that he honestly believed in the truth of his own discovery; for when he admitted that, in the light of his better knowledge, the Toltec history, as recorded in the _Codex Chimalpopoca_, was an allegory--that no such people as the Toltecs ever existed, in fact--and thereby rendered valueless his own history of the Toltec period, he made a sacrifice of labor, unique, I think, in the annals of literature.

Brasseur's theory supposes that the continent of America occupied originally the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, and extended in the form of a peninsula so far across the Atlantic that the Canary islands may have formed part of it. All this extended portion of the continent was many ages ago engulfed by a tremendous convulsion of nature, of which traditions and written records have been preserved by many American peoples.[I-258] Yucatan, Honduras, and Guatemala, were also submerged, but the continent subsequently rose sufficiently to rescue them from the ocean. The testimony of many modern men of science tends to show that there existed at one time a vast extent of dry land between Europe and America.[I-259]

It is not my intention to enter the mazes of Brasseur's argument here; once in that labyrinth there would be small hope of escape. His _Quatre Lettres_ are a chaotic jumble of facts and wild speculations that would appal the most enthusiastic antiquarian; the materials are arranged with not the slightest regard for order; the reader is continually harassed by long rambling digressions--literary no-thoroughfares, as it were, into which he is beguiled in the hope of coming out somewhere, only to find himself more hopelessly lost than ever; for mythological evidence, the pantheons of Phœnicia, Egypt, Hindostan, Greece, and Rome, are probed to their most obscure depths; comparative philology is as accommodating to the theorist as ever, which is saying a great deal; the opinions of geologists who never dreamed of an Atlantis theory, are quoted to show that the American continent formerly extended into the Atlantic in the manner supposed.

I have presented to the reader the bare outline of what Brasseur expects to prove, without giving him the argument used by that learned writer, for the reason that a partial résumé of the _Quatre Lettres_ would be unfair to the Abbé, while an entire résumé would occupy more space than I can spare. I will, however, deviate from the system I have hitherto observed, so far as to express my own opinion of the French savant's theory.

Were the original documents from which Brasseur drew his data obtainable, we might, were we able to read and understand them, know about how far his enthusiasm and imagination have warped his calmer judgment; as it is, the Atlantis theory is certainly not proved, and we may therefore reasonably decline to accept it. In my opinion there is every reason to believe that his first interpretation of the _Codex Chimalpopoca_ was the true one, and that the 'double meaning' had no existence save in his own distorted fancy.[I-260]

* * * * *

[Sidenote: AUTOCHTHONIC ORIGIN.]

It only remains now to speak of the theory which ascribes an autochthonic origin to the Americans. The time is not long past when such a supposition would have been regarded as impious, and even at this day its advocates may expect discouragement if not rebuke from certain quarters.[I-261] It is, nevertheless, an opinion worthy of the gravest consideration, and one which, if we may judge by the recent results of scientific investigation, may eventually prove to be scientifically correct. In the preceding pages it will have been remarked that no theory of a foreign origin has been proven, or even fairly sustained. The particulars in which the Americans are shown to resemble any given people of the Old World are insignificant in number and importance when compared with the particulars in which they do _not_ resemble that people.

As I have remarked elsewhere, it is not impossible that stray ships of many nations have at various times and in various places been cast upon the American coast, or even that adventurous spirits, who were familiar with the old-time stories of a western land, may have designedly sailed westward until they reached America, and have never returned to tell the tale. The result of such desultory visits would be exactly what has been noticed, but erroneously attributed to immigration en masse. The strangers, were their lives spared, would settle among the people, and impart their ideas and knowledge to them. This knowledge would not take any very definite shape or have any very decided effect, for the reason that the sailors and adventurers who would be likely to land in America under such circumstances, would not be thoroughly versed in the arts or sciences; still they would know many things that were unknown to their captors, or hosts, and would doubtless be able to suggest many improvements. This, then, would account for many Old World ideas and customs that have been detected here and there in America, while at the same time the difficulty which arises from the fact that the resemblances, though striking, are yet very few, would be satisfactorily avoided. The foreigners, if adopted by the people they fell among, would of course marry women of the country and beget children, but it cannot be expected that the physical peculiarities so transmitted would be perceptible after a generation or two of re-marrying with the aboriginal stock. At the same time I think it just as probable that the analogies referred to are mere coincidences, such as might be found among any civilized or semi-civilized people of the earth. It may be argued that the various American tribes and nations differ so materially from each other as to render it extremely improbable that they are derived from one original stock, but, however this may be, the difference can scarcely be greater than that which apparently exists between many of the Aryan branches.[I-262]

[Sidenote: CONCLUSIONS.]

Hence it is many not unreasonably assume that the Americans are autochthones until there is some good ground given for believing them to be of exotic origin.[I-263] To express belief, however, in a theory incapable of proof appears to me idle. Indeed, such belief is not belief; it is merely acquiescing in or accepting a hypothesis or tradition until the contrary is proved. No one at the present day can tell the origin of the Americans; they may have come from any one, or from all the hypothetical sources enumerated in the foregoing pages, and here the question must rest until we have more light upon the subject.

FOOTNOTES:

[I-1] He affirms (in a work entitled _Christian Topography_) that, according to the true orthodox system of geography, the earth is a quadrangular plane, extending four hundred days' journey east and west, and exactly half as much north and south; that it is inclosed by mountains, on which the sky rests; that one on the north side, huger than the others, by intercepting the rays of the sun, produces night; and that the plane of the earth is not set exactly horizontally, but with a little inclination from the north: hence the Euphrates, Tigris, and other rivers, running southward, are rapid; but the Nile, having to run up-hill, has necessarily a very slow current.' _Draper's Conflict between Religion and Science_, p. 65.

[I-2] In answer to the question: 'What was God doing before he made the heaven and the earth? for, if at any particular moment he began to employ himself, that means time, not eternity. In eternity nothing happens--the whole is present.' St Augustine caustically remarks: 'I will not answer this question by saying that he was preparing hell for pryers into his mysteries.'

[I-3] The teachings of the Church were beyond controversy, the decisions of the Church were final; and not only in religion but in legislation and in science 'the pervading principle was a blind unhesitating credulity.' See _Buckle's Civilization_, vol. i., p. 307. The Bishop of Darien once quoted Plato in the presence of Las Casas. "Plato," Las Casas replied, "was a Gentile, and is now burning in hell, and we are only to make use of his doctrine as far as it is consistent with our holy Faith and Christian customs." _Helps' Life of Las Casas_, p. 120.

[I-4] As an example of the intolerance displayed by these early writers, and of the bitterness with which they attacked those few thinkers who dared to theorize without letting theological dogmas stand in their way, I translate the following passage from García, who is one of the most comprehensive writers upon the origin of the Americans: 'We would like not even to remember the unworthy opinions of certain veritable blasphemers, more barbarous than the Indians, which do not even deserve the name of opinions, but rather of follies: namely, that, perhaps, the first Indians might have been generated from the earth, or from its putrefaction, aided by the sun's heat, as (Avicena allowing this production to be easy in men) Andres Cisalpino attempted to make credible, giving them less perfection than Empedocles, who said that men had been born like the wild amaranth, if we believe Marcus Varron.... Of the formation of man, though of straw and mud, the people of Yucatan, had light; which nonsense is not inferior to the attempts of those who made men by means of chemistry, or magic (described by Solorcano) giving it to be understood that there may be others besides the descendants of Adam, contrary to the teachings of scripture: for which reason Taurelo feels indignant against Cisalpino, whose attempt would be reprehensible even as a paradox. Not less scandalous was the error of the ignorant Paracelso, according to Reusnero and Kirchero, who left to posterity an account of the creation of two Adams, one in Asia, and another in the West Indies; an inexcusable folly in one who had (though corruptly) information of the Catholic doctrine. Not less erroneous is the opinion of Isaac de La Peyrere, who placed people on the earth before Adam was created, from whom, he said, descended the heathen; from Adam, the Hebrews; which folly was punished with eternal contempt by Felipe Priorio, Juan Bautista Morino, Juan Hilperto, and others, Danhavero giving it the finishing stroke by an epitaph, as Dicterico relates: although some of the parties named state that La Peyrere became repentant and acknowledged his error, and did penance, which the Orientals, from whom he took that absurdity, have not done. These, and others of the same nature, may not be held as opinions, but as evidences of blindness published by men of doubtful faith, wise, in their own esteem, and deceivers of the world, who, with lies and fraud, oppose the divine word, as St Clemens Alexandrinus says, closing their ears to truth, and blindfolding themselves with their vices, for whom contempt is the best reward.' _Orígen de los Ind._, p. 248. García spent nine years in Peru, devoting himself to the study of three points: the history of the natives before the arrival of the Spaniards, the origin of the natives, and the question as to whether the apostles preached the gospel in America. On his return to Spain, he concluded to write only upon the second topic, leaving the others for a future time.

[I-5] _Descent of Man_, vol. ii., p. 368.

[I-6] The value of proof by analogy has been questioned by many eminent authors. Humboldt writes: 'On n'est pas en droit de supposer des communications partout où l'on trouve, chez des peuples à demi barbares, le culte du soleil, ou l'usage de sacrifier des victimes humaines.' _Vues_, tom. i., p. 257. 'The instances of customs, merely arbitrary, common to the inhabitants of both hemispheres, are, indeed, so few and so equivocal, that no theory concerning the population of the New World ought to be founded upon them.' As regards religious rites, 'the human mind, even where its operations appear most wild and capricious, holds a course so regular, that in every age and country the dominion of particular passions will be attended with similar effects.' _Robertson's Hist. Amer._, vol. i., p. 269. Warden remarks that nations known to be distinct, to have had no intercourse, breed similar customs--these, therefore, grow from physical and moral causes. _Recherches_, p. 205. 'In attempting to trace relations between them and the rest of mankind, we cannot expect to discover proofs of their derivation from any particular tribe or nation of the Old Continent.' _Prichard's Nat. Hist. Man_, vol. ii., p. 494. 'To tell an inquirer who wishes to deduce one population from another that certain distant tribes agree with the one under discussion in certain points of resemblance, is as irrelevant as to tell a lawyer in search of the next of kin to a client deceased, that though you know of no relations, you can find a man who is the very picture of him in person--a fact good enough in itself, but not to the purpose.' _Latham's Man and his Migrations_, pp. 74-5.

[I-7] Certainly many of the writers must have been either fools or demented, if we judge them by their work and arguments.

[I-8] _Garcia_, _Origen de los Ind._, pp. 7-12.

[I-9] When De Gama established the globular form of the earth by his voyage round the Cape of Good Hope, in 1497-8, 'the political consequences that at once ensued placed the Papal Government in a position of great embarrassment. Its traditions and policy forbade it to admit any other than the flat figure of the earth, as revealed in the Scriptures.' In 1520 Magellan discovered the strait which now bears his name, and 'henceforth the theological doctrine of the flatness of the earth was irretrievably overthrown.' _Draper's Conflict_, pp. 163-5. St Augustin affirmed that the world beyond the tropic of cancer was uninhabited. 'Ea vero veterum sententia, perspicua atque inuicta, vt ipsis videbatur, ratione nitebatur. Nam vt quæque regio ad meridiem propius accedit, ita solis ardoribus magis expositam animaduerterant, idque adeo verum est, vt in eadem Italiæ prouincia Apuliam Liguria, & in nostra Hispania Bæticam Cantabria vsque adeo feruentiorem nota re liceat, vt per gradus vixdum octo grande frigoris & æstus discrimen sit.' _Acosta_, _De Natura Novi Orbis_, fol. 27. 'Lactantius Firmianus, and St. Austin, who strangely jear'd at as ridiculous, and not thinking fit for a Serious Answer the Foolish Opinion of Antipodes, or another Habitable World beyond the Equator: At which, Lactantius Drolling, says, what, Forsooth, here is a fine Opinion broach'd indeed; an Antipodes! heigh-day! People whose Feet tread with ours, and walk Foot to Foot with us; their Heads downwards, and yet drop not into the Sky! There, yes, very likely, the Trees loaden with Fruit grow downwards, and it Rains, Hails, and Snows upwards; the Roofs and Spires of Cities, tops of Mountains, point at the Sky beneath them, and the Rivers revers'd topsi-turvy, ready to flow into the Air out of their Channels.' _Ogilby's America_, pp. 6-7. The ancients believed a large portion of the globe to be uninhabitable by reason of excessive heat, which must have greatly deterred discovery.

[I-10] Touching the question whether the Americans and the people of the old world are of common origin, see: _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. i., pp. 1-31; _Tylor's Anahuac_, p. 104; _Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. iv., pp. 14-24; _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. i., pp. 1-31; _Ramirez_, in _Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin_, 2da época, tom. iv., p. 54; _M'Culloh's Researches on Amer._, pp. 175-8; _Mayer's Mex. as it Was_, p. 260; _Domenech's Deserts_, vol. i., pp. 66-80; _Prescott's Mex._, vol. iii., p. 389; _Bradford's Amer. Antiq._, pp. 237-49, 351, 354, 420-35; _Charlevoix_, quoted in _Carver's Trav._, pp. 197-8; _Fontaine's How the World was Peopled_, p. 17, et seq.; _Crowe's Cent. Amer._, p. 61; _Williams' Enquiry into Tradition_; _Chevalier_, _Mexique_, p. 134; _Wilson's Pre-Hist. Man_, pp. 611-14, 485-6; _Carli_, _Cartas_, pt i., p. 16; _Chamisso_, in _Kotzebue's Voyage_, vol. ii., pp. 405-6; _Prichard's Researches_, vol. v., pp. 541-6; _Humboldt_, _Vues_, tom. i., pp. 22, 31. Innumerable other speculations have been made on this point, but in most cases by men who were but poorly qualified to deal with a subject requiring not only learning, but a determination to investigate fairly and without bias. Adair's reasoning in this connection will serve to illustrate: 'God employed six days, in creating the heavens, this earth, and the innumerable species of creatures, wherewith it is so amply furnished. The works of a being, infinitely perfect, must entirely answer the design of them: hence there could be no necessity for a second creation; or God's creating many pairs of the human race differing from each other, and fitted for different climates; because, that implies imperfection, in the grand scheme, or a want of power, in the execution of it--Had there been a prior, or later formation of any new class of creatures, they must materially differ from those of the six days work; for it is inconsistent with divine wisdom to make a vain, or unnecessary repetition of the same act. But the American Indians neither vary from the rest of mankind, in their internal construction, nor external appearance, except in colour; which, as hath been shewn, is either entirely accidental, or artificial. As the Mosaic account declares a completion of the manifestation of God's infinite wisdom and power in creation, within that space of time; it follows, that the Indians have lineally descended from Adam, the first, and the great parent of all the human species.' _Amer. Ind._, pp. 11-12. To the works of those modern scientists, such as Lyell, Darwin, and others, who have treated of the unity of the human species at large, I need not refer the reader here. An excellent résumé of the subject will, however, be found in _Foster's Pre-Hist. Races_, pp. 353-67.

[I-11] 'We find on the earliest Egyptian monuments,' says Sir John Lubbock, 'some of which are certainly as ancient as 2400 B.C., two great distinct types, the Arab on the east and west of Egypt, the Negro on the south. These distinct types still predominate in Egypt and the neighbouring countries. Thus, then, says Mr. Poole, in this immense interval we do not find "the least change in the Negro or the Arab; and even the type which seems to be intermediate between them is virtually as unaltered. Those who consider that length of time can change a type of man, will do well to consider the fact that three thousand years give no ratio on which a calculation could be founded."' Crawfurd, also says: the millions '"of African Negroes that have during three centuries been transported to the New World and its islands, are the same in colour as the present inhabitants of the parent country of their forefathers. The Creole Spaniards, who have for at least as long a time been settled in tropical America, are as fair as the people of Arragon and Andalusia, with the same variety of colour in the hair and eye as their progenitors. The pure Dutch Creole colonists of the Cape of Good Hope, after dwelling two centuries among black Caffres, and yellow Hottentots, do not differ in colour from the people of Holland."' _Pre-Hist. Times_, pp. 587-8. We find 'upon Egyptian monuments, mostly of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries before the Christian Era, representations of individuals of numerous nations, African, Asiatic, and European, differing in physical characteristics as widely as any equal number of nations of the present age that could be grouped together; among these being negroes of the true Nigritian stamp, depicted with a fidelity as to color and features, hardly to be surpassed by a modern artist. That such diversities had been produced by natural means in the interval between that remote age and the time of Noah, probably no one versed in the science of anatomy and physiology will consider credible.' _Foster's Pre-Hist. Races_, p. 357.

[I-12] _Noticias Americanas_, pp. 391-5, 405-7. On pages 286-304, he has an argument, backed by geological evidences, to show that America is the oldest continent.

[I-13] 'Were we to admit,' say some ethnologists, 'a unity of origin of such strongly-marked varieties as the Negro and European, differing as they do in colour and bodily constitution, each fitted for distinct climates, and exhibiting some marked peculiarities in their osteological, and even in some details of cranial and cerebral conformation, as well as in their average intellectual endowments,--if, in spite of the fact that all these attributes have been faithfully handed down unaltered for hundreds of generations, we are to believe that, in the course of time, they have all diverged from one common stock, how shall we resist the argument of the transmutationist, who contends that all closely allied species of animals and plants have in like manner sprung from a common parentage?' _Lyell's Antiq. of Man_, pp. 433-4.

[I-14] _Lescarbot_, _Hist. Nouv. France_, lib. i., cap. iii.

[I-15] _Hist. Conq. Itza_, pp. 26-8.

[I-16] _Pamphleteer_, 1815. Thompson calculates the spreading of Noah's children up to the time of Peleg, when the Bible declares the earth to have been divided. He also shows that this division happened earlier than is generally supposed.

[I-17] _Orrio_, _Solucion_, p. 41, et seq. Torquemada also believes Ham to have been the father of the race. _Monarq. Ind._, tom. i., pp. 21-30.

[I-18] _Nieuwe Weereld_, p. 37.

[I-19] _L'Estrange_, _Americans no Jewes_.

[I-20] _Deserts_, vol. i., p. 26. 'The Peruvian language,' writes Ulloa, 'is something like the Hebrew, and Noah's tongue was doubtless Hebrew.' _Noticias Americanas_, p. 384.

[I-21] _Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. iv., p. 17.

[I-22] In _Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin_, 2da época, tom. iii., p. 343.

[I-23] See vol. iii. of this work, p. 450, et seq.

[I-24] _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. iv., p. 15. Heredia y Sarmiento follows Clavigero. _Sermones_, p. 84.

[I-25] _Mex. Antiq._, vol. vi., p. 401. Priest, _Amer. Antiq._, pp. 142-3, thinks that an ivory image representing a mother and child found in Cincinnati, may have been taken to Britain by the Greeks or Romans, who knew of the prophecies concerning the Virgin and Child Jesus, and thence brought to America. See, also, concerning religious belief, baptism, circumcision, and other Christian-like rites in the New World: _Tylor's Anahuac_, pp. 279-80; _Prescott's Mex._, vol. iii., pp. 378-85; _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. i., pp. 17-18; _M'Culloh's Researches on Amer._, pp. 111-40; _Latrobe's Rambler_, pp. 205-6.

[I-26] See vol. iii., pp. 66-9, and comments in accompanying notes.

[I-27] _Id._, pp. 72-5.

[I-28] _Id._, p. 76.

[I-29] _Id._, pp. 78-9.

[I-30] _Id._, p. 86.

[I-31] _Id._, p. 88.

[I-32] _Id._, p. 89.

[I-33] _Id._, p. 103.

[I-34] _Mackenzie's Voyages_, p. cxviii.

[I-35] 'Ou plutôt deux femmes, portant le nom d'Ara,' says Brasseur de Bourbourg; I prefer, however, the original reading. The Ara is a kind of parroquet, common in South America, and so called because it continually repeats the cry _ara, ara_. Beings half bird, half woman, are as likely to figure in such a legend as the above as not. Besides, shortly afterwards the narrative speaks of 'les deux oiseaux,' referring to the aras.

[I-36] For both of these flood-myths see: _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, in _Landa_, _Relacion_, pp. xxx-xxxii. Herrera, _Hist. Gen._, dec. v., lib. iii., cap. vi., gives a native tradition which relates that long before the time of the Incas there was a great deluge, from which some of the natives escaped by fleeing to the mountain-tops. The mountain tribes assert, however, that only six persons escaped this flood in a balsa.

[I-37] _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. viii., p. 25.

[I-38] See vol. iii., p. 67.

[I-39] See vol. iii., pp. 77, 89.

[I-40] According to Ixtlilxochitl, the Toltec tradition relates that after the confusion of tongues the seven families who spoke the Toltec language set out for the New World, wandering one hundred and four years over large extents of land and water. Finally they arrived at Huehue Tlapallan in the year 'one flint,' five hundred and twenty years after the flood. _Relaciones_, in _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. ix., p. 322. See also another account, p. 450; _Boturini_, _Crón. Mex._, pt ii., pp. 5-8; _Id._, _Idea_, pp. 111-27; _Veytia_, _Hist. Ant. Mej._, tom. i., pp. 24, 145, 212-13; _Mendieta_, _Hist. Ecles._, p. 145; _Hist. y Antig._, in _Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin_, tom. i., p. 284; _Juarros_, _Hist. Guat._, (Guat. 1857) tom. ii., pp. 55-6; _Delafield's Antiq. Amer._, p. 34; _Humboldt_, _Vues_, tom. i., pp. 114-15; _Prescott's Mex._, vol. iii., pp. 380-1; _Davis' Anc. Amer._, p. 31; _Tylor's Anahuac_, p. 277.

[I-41] They had also, as we have seen in the third volume, a great many curious ideas as to the way in which man was created, and as in attempting to prove their theories many writers are apt to draw analogies in this particular, I give a brief résumé of the creation-myths here for the reader's convenience: The grossest conceptions of the mystery of the beginning of man are to be found among the rude savages of the north, who, however, as they are quite content, in many instances, to believe that their earliest progenitor was a dog or a coyote, seem entitled to some sympathy from the latest school of modern philosophy, though it is true that their process of development was rather abrupt, and that they did not require very many links in their chain of evolution. But as we advance farther south, the attempts to solve the problem grow less simple and the direct instrumentality of the gods is required for the formation of man. The Aleuts ascribe their origin to the intercourse of a dog and a bitch, or, according to another version, of a bitch and a certain old man who came from the north to visit his brute-bride. From them sprang two creatures, male and female, each half man, half fox; and from these two the human race is descended. Others of the Aleuts believe that their canine progenitor fell from heaven. The Tinneh also owe their origin to a dog; though they believe that all other living creatures were called into existence by an immense bird. The Thlinkeet account of the creation certainly does not admit of much caviling or dispute concerning its chronology, method, or general probability, since it merely states that men were "placed on the earth," though when, or how, or by whom, it does not presume to relate. According to the Tacully cosmogony, a musk-rat formed the dry land, which afterwards became peopled, though whether by the agency of that industrious rodent or not, is not stated. Darwinism is reversed by many of the Washington tribes, who hold that animals and even some vegetables are descended from man. The human essence from which the first Ahts were formed, was originally contained in the bodies of animals, who upon being suddenly stampeded from their dwellings left this mysterious matter behind them. Some of the Ahts contend, however, that they are the direct descendants of a shadowy personage named Quawteaht and a gigantic Thunder Bird. The Chinooks were created by a Coyote, who, however, did his work so badly and produced such imperfect specimens of humanity, that but for the beneficent intervention and assistance of a spirit called Ikánam the race must have ended as soon as it began. Some of the Washington tribes originated from the fragments of a huge beaver, which was slain and cut in pieces by four giants at the request of their sister who was pining away for some beaver-fat. The first Shasta was the result of a union between the daughter of the Great Spirit and a grizzly bear. The Cahrocs believe that Chareya, the Old Man Above, created the world, then the fishes and lower animals, and lastly man. The Potoyantes were slowly developed from Coyotes. The Big Man of the Mattoles created first the earth, bleak and naked, and placed but one man upon it; then, on a sudden, in the midst of a mighty whirlwind and thick darkness, he covered the desolate globe with all manner of life and verdure. One of the myths of Southern California attributes the creation of man and the world to two divine beings. The Los Angeles tribes believe their one god Quaoar brought forth the world from chaos, set it upon the shoulders of seven giants, peopled it with the lower forms of animal life, and finally crowned his work by creating a man and a woman out of earth. Still farther south, the Cochimís believe in a sole creator; the Pericúis call the maker of all things Niparaja, and say that the heavens are his dwelling-place; the Sinaloas pay reverence to Viriseva the mother of Vairubi, the first man. According to the Navajos, all mankind originally dwelt under the earth, in almost perpetual darkness, until they were released by the Moth-worm, who bored his way up to the surface. Through the hole thus made the people swarmed out on to the face of the earth, the Navajos taking the lead. Their first act was to manufacture the sun and the moon, and with the light came confusion of tongues. The Great Father and Mother of the Moquis created men in nine races from all manner of primeval forms. The Pima creator made man and woman from a lump of clay, which he kneaded with the sweat of his own body, and endowed with life by breathing upon it. The Great Spirit of the Pápagos made first the earth and all living things, and then men in great numbers from potter's clay. The Miztecs ascribe their origin to the act of the two mighty gods, the male Lion Snake and the female Tiger Snake, or of their sons, Wind of the Nine Snakes and Wind of the Nine Caves. The Tezcucan story is that the sun cast a dart into the earth at a certain spot in the land of Aculma. From this hole issued a man imperfectly formed, and after him a woman, from which pair mankind are descended. The Tlascaltecs asserted that the world was the effect of chance, while the heavens had always existed. The most common Mexican belief was, that the first human beings, a boy and a girl, were produced from the blood-besprinkled fragments of the bone procured from hades by the sixteen hundred fallen gods sprung from the flint-knife of which the goddess Citlalicue had been delivered. According to the Chimalpopoca manuscript the creator produced his work in successive epochs, man being made on the seventh day from dust or ashes. In Guatemala there was a belief that the parents of the human race were created out of the earth by the two younger sons of the divine Father and Mother. The Quiché creation was a very bungling affair. Three times and of three materials was man made before his makers were satisfied with their work. First of clay, but he lacked intelligence; next of wood, but he was shriveled and useless; finally of yellow and white maize, and then he proved to be a noble work. Four men were thus made, and afterwards four women.

[I-42] 'This nice agreement with the Mosaic account of the height which the waters of the Deluge attained above the summits of the highest mountains is certainly extraordinary; since we read in the twentieth verse of the seventh chapter of Genesis: "_Fifteen cubits upward_ did the waters prevail, and the mountains were covered."' _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. viii., p. 25.

[I-43] _Relaciones_, in _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. ix., pp. 321-2.

[I-44] 'Un orient lointain,' says Brasseur de Bourbourg; but he must either mean what we call in English the Orient, the East, or contradict himself--which, by the way, he is very prone to do--because he afterwards asserts that Tula is the place 'on the other side of the sea,' from which the Quiché wanderers came to the north-west coast of America.

[I-45] _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. i., pp. 105-6.

[I-46] _Id._, pp. 167-8.

[I-47] _Cogolludo_, _Hist. Yuc._, p. 178; _Montanus_, _Nieuwe Weereld_, p. 258.

[I-48] _Ross' Adven._, pp. 287-8.

[I-49] _Warden_, _Recherches_, p. 190.

[I-50] _Domenech's Deserts_, vol. ii., p. 4; _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. i., p. 19.

[I-51] _Warden_, _Recherches_, p. 213.

[I-52] The reader will recollect that the story of each of these heroes has been told at length in vol. iii. of this work.

[I-53] The legend of Viracocha, or Ticeviracocha, as he is sometimes called, and his successor, is, according to Herrera, as follows: 'Cuentan tambien los Indios, segun lo tienen por tradicion de sus antepassados, y parece por sus cantares, que en su antiguedad estuuieron mucho tiempo sin ver Sol, y que por los grandes votos, y plegarias que hazian â sus dioses, saliô el Sol de la laguna Titicaca, y de la Isla, que estâ en ella, que es en el Collao, y que pareciô luego por la parte de medio dia vn hõbre blanco de gran cuerpo, y de veneranda presencia, que era tan poderoso, que baxaua las sierras, crecia los valles, y sacaua fuentes de las piedras, al qual por su gran poder llamauan: Principio de todas las cosas criadas, y padre del Sol, porque dio ser a los hombres, y animales, y por su mano les vino notable beneficio, y que obrando estas marauillas, fue de largo hâzia el Norte, y de camino yua dando orden de vida â las gentes, hablando con mucho amor, amonestando que fuessen buenos, y se amassen vnos â otros, al qual hasta los vltimos tiempos de los Ingas llamauã Ticeuiracocha, y en el Collao Tuapaca, y en otras partes Arnauâ, y que le hizieron muchos Templos, y bultos en ellos â su semejança, â los quales sacrificauan. Dizen tambien, que passados algunos tiempos oyeron dezir â sus mayores, que pareciô otro hombre semejante al referido, que sanaua los enfermos, daua vista â los ciegos, y que en la prouincia de los Cañas, queriendo locamente apedrearle, lo vieron hincado de rodillas, alçadas las manos al Cielo, inuocando el diuino fauor, y que pareciô vn fuego del Cielo que los espantô tanto, que con grandes gritos, y clamores le pedian, que los librasse de aquel peligro, pues las venia aquel castigo por el pecado, que auian cometido, y que luego cessô el fuego, quedando abrasadas las piedras, y oy dia se ven quemadas, y tan liuianas, que aunque grandes se leuantan como corcho, y dizen, que desde alli se fue â la mar, y entrando en ella sobre su manto tendido nunca mas se vio, por lo qual le llamaron Viracocha, que quiere dezir espuma de la mar, nõbre que despues mudô signification, y que luego le hizieron vn Templo, en el pueblo de Cacha, y algunos Castellanos solo por su discurso han dicho, que este deuia de ser algun Apostol: pero los mas cuerdos lo tienen por vanidad, porque en todos estos Templos se sacrificaua al demonio, y hasta que los Castellanos entraron en los Reynos del Pirû, no fue oìdo, ni predicado el santo Euangelio, ni vista la Santissima señal de la Cruz.' _Hist. Gen._, dec. v., lib. iii., cap. vi.; _Acosta_, _Hist. de las Ynd._, p. 82.

[I-54] Sumé was a white man with a thick beard, who came across the ocean from the direction of the rising sun. He had power over the elements, and could command the tempest. At a word from him the trees of the densest forest receded from their places to make a path for him; the most ferocious animals crouched submissive at his feet; the treacherous surface of lake and river presented a solid footing to his tread. He taught the people agriculture, and the use of maize. The Caboclos, a Brazilian nation, refused to listen to his divine teachings, and even sought to kill him with their arrows, but he turned their own weapons against them. The persecuted apostle then retired to the banks of a river, and finally left the country entirely. The tradition adds that the prints of his feet are still to be seen on the rocks and in the sand of the coast. _Warden_, _Recherches_, p. 189.

[I-55] Paye-Tome was another white apostle. His history so closely resembles that of Sumé that it is probable they are the same person. _Id._

[I-56] 'In former times, as they (the Chilians) had heard their fathers say, a wonderful man had come to that country, wearing a long beard, with shoes, and a mantle such as the Indians carry on their shoulders, who performed many miracles, cured the sick with water, caused it to rain, and their crops and grain to grow, kindled fire at a breath, and wrought other marvels, healing at once the sick, and giving sight to the blind,' and so on. 'Whence it may be inferred that this man was some apostle whose name they do not know.' Quoted from Rosales' inedited _History of Chili_, in _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vi., p. 419.