The question whether the different branches of the Human Race are descended from one Stock, has been discussed on[pg xxvii]Physiological grounds by Dr. Prichard,14in a work equally remarkable for profound Philosophical and extensive Literary research. After detailing a variety of facts with respect to the distribution of Plants and Animals, he thus expresses his conclusion:“The inference to be collected from the facts at present known, seems to be as follows. The various tribes of organized beings, were originally placed by the Creator in certain regions, for which they are by their nature peculiarly adapted. Each species had only one beginning in a single stock; probably a single pair, as Linnæus supposed, was first called into being in a particular spot, and their progeny left to disperse themselves to as great a distance as the locomotive powers, bestowed on each species, or its capability of bearing changes of climate and other physical circumstances may have enabled it to wander.”According to this writer the varieties of colour, feature, &c. displayed by different races of Men, are the results partly of climate and other external agencies, and partly also of a natural tendency to the manifestation of varieties which may be viewed in the light of a characteristic quality of the Species. Of these propositions the numerous and diversified facts collected by Dr. Prichard appear to furnish perfectly conclusive evidence. Thus he has shown that the characteristic physiognomy of the Negro is found to occur and disappear by nice gradations in strict accordance with the differences of climate throughout the African Continent.The tendency to variety is very manifest, even from facts under our daily observation. Individuals are common among European nations, who exhibit some one or more of the traits of the Negro, as, for example, his woolly hair, thick lips, &c. Among the Negro races have been born individuals of a perfectly white colour. Many of these specimens, according[pg xxviii]to Dr. Prichard, were not Albinos or diseased persons, but indisputable examples of his principle.It is probable that in the infancy of the race, this extraordinary tendency may have served the important purpose of accelerating those physiological changes by which the constitution of Man was adapted to the different climates of the Globe, while, in subsequent ages, climate which determines the physiology of the majority, may be said thereby to neutralize the influence of these exceptions. Diversities of complexion, &c. occur in our own and in neighbouring countries within a very limited area. Thus the dark hair and features of the ancient Silures which were ascribed by the Romans to a Spanish origin, are still observable among their posterity, characteristics of which, I conceive, a satisfactory explanation may be found in the warm and equable temperature of the Southern counties of Wales, caused by the peculiar distribution of land and water.15In these countries many productions, both animal and vegetable, flourish, which are rarely found further North. The Nightingale is common, and the Vine is cultivated frequently. The contrast between the temperature of the coasts of South Wales and that of North Wales has not escaped the attention of the Welsh Bards. Davyth ap Gwilym, a Bard of the fourteenth Century, in a Poem of great beauty, in which he describes himself as writing from the land of“wild,”Gwynedh (North Wales), calls upon the Summer and the Sun to visit with their choicest blessings the genial region of“Morganwg,”(Glamorganshire,) of which he was a native, and alludes to its warm climate and its Vineyards, which seem to have been a conspicuous feature! For some very valuable illustrations of the same principle, I may refer to the account given by the Rev. Thomas Price in his Tour in[pg xxix]Brittany, published in the Cambrian Quarterly Magazine, of the varieties of complexion and stature observable in Upper and Lower Brittany.16From the facts collected by Dr. Prichard, it appears to follow very distinctly, not only that Human Physiology is extremely mutable, but also that the transitions do not occupy a very long interval of time. Thus Jews are resident in the African Kingdom of Kongo, whose complexions are as black as those of the native Negro population. Again on the borders of Negro-land, different sections of the same tribe, speaking the same language, are, in many instances, found variously approaching to or diverging from the Negro standard of colour and physiognomy, according to the latitude or elevation, or other physical features of their respective locations; instances in which the separation—and therefore the physiological differences—must have been recent—for languages change too rapidly to preserve the features of identity or even of a close affinity for a period of long duration! The descendants of the Arabs who overran the North of Africa in comparatively modern times furnish another example; they do not differ in physiognomy from the Berbers, the original inhabitants of the same regions.From these and similar facts it must be inferred—not only that the existing varieties of Human Physiology form no objection to the opinion that the different populations of the Globe are descended from one stock—the same facts lead also to the conclusion, that—with relation to the earliest eras in the History of our species—Physiological peculiarities must be entirely rejected as evidence, either of a specific connexion or of a specific difference between individual races of men, a principle admitting of many highly interesting applications, of which an example will now be offered.[pg xxx]By what road did the first Colonists of Europe reach their final destination? Adelung has inferred that Europe was peopled exclusively from the Steppes of Northern Asia. But for this opinion, it does not seem that any valid reason can be assigned. If we assume Central Asia to have been the focus of migration, it will be observed that there are three routes by which the forefathers of the European nations may have arrived in their final abodes, viz. 1, The Steppes of Northern Asia; 2, Asia Minor and the Hellespont; and 3, The Isthmus of Suez, the North of Africa, and the Straits of Gibraltar. For concluding that either of these three routes was used, to the exclusion of the other two, it would not be easy to point out any strong argument based on Geographical grounds. Now if the third was employed at all it may be inferred that some of the European nations may be even more nearly allied to those of Africa than they are to the Asiatic populations. To this conclusion, however, a formidable objection occurs in the strikingly contrasted Physiology of Africa and Europe, for—even though it should be conceded that these opposite features do not serve to prove an aboriginal difference of race—the question still arises whether they do not, nevertheless, furnish evidence that the nations of these two continents are more remotely related than any other branches of the Human Family; whether they do not point to the inference that the inhabitants of the South and West of Asia—who certainly occupy an intermediate place Physiologically—must not also be regarded as forming a connecting link between those of Europe and Africa in a Genealogical and Historical sense? To these inquiries it will be obvious that the facts just adverted to furnish a very distinct answer, for from those facts it directly follows—not only that climate and other existing causes are sufficient to account for the different Physical peculiarities of the inhabitants of Africa and Europe—but it also follows from the same evidence, that a[pg xxxi]period of time far short of that during which the European and African nations are known to have occupied their present abodes, would have sufficed to superinduce the opposite characteristics they now display! Perhaps it may be inferred, though probably the subject does not admit of a precise conclusion on this head, that in a suitable climate the lapse of 500 or 600 years might be more than adequate to engraft on the physiognomy of Southern Asia all the distinctive peculiarities of the Negro. That these peculiarities had been fully developed in an early era of the History of the World, is manifest from the Egyptian Paintings, in many of which we have individuals of this ill-fated race very vividly depicted, appearing sometimes as tributaries, and on other occasions as captives, leashed together like hounds!Infirm health, and final extirpation, have often attended colonies from the North of Europe settled in tropical climes, incidents that seem to have had great weight with Dr. Prichard himself, as constituting an objection to his views. To this objection, however—independent of the numerous facts of an opposite nature—the following consideration, I conceive, suggests a satisfactory answer. Nature may have provided for gradual transitions of climate such as must have been encountered by a population progressively diffused over the Globe; and that she has done so appears to be distinctly established. But it does not follow that she has made any provision for abrupt changes. These are probably a violation of her dictates, and may have the same tendency to produce disease and death as we know to be incident to sudden and extensive variations of temperature in the same climate and country.The foregoing deductions will be found to have a highly interesting application in relation to the origin of two ancient European races, the Basques and the Celts. If Physiological grounds are dismissed from our consideration, it will probably[pg xxxii]be found that the balance of evidence is in favour of the conclusion that these races have sprung, not from Asiatic colonists, but from emigrants from the coasts of the continent of Africa!This conclusion is strongly favoured by the geographical position in which we find these races placed at the dawn of History. In the earliest ages the Celts and Basques were in possession of all the most western countries of Europe. The Spanish Peninsula, the South of France, and the North of Italy, were divided between them; the remainder of France, the whole of Belgium, Switzerland, and the British Isles, were held by the Celts, while of Sicily and Italy the Basques appear to have been the first inhabitants. (See Dr. Prichard's Works.) Now in connexion with these facts two considerations deserve to be noticed, which, by a reference to the map will be seen to acquire especial force. 1. It will be observed that the original regions of the Celts and Basques are more closely contiguous to Africa than the Eastern countries of Europe are; both Spain, and Sicily (which may be considered a part of Italy,) approaching at certain points very closely to the African coast. 2. If we assume Central Asia to have been the original focus of migration—it will be evident—that nomade septs issuing thence through the Syro-Phœnician countries, and along the North of Africa—would have found a shorter route to the Italian and to the Spanish Peninsulas—than those emigrants who may be supposed to have passed over the Hellespont, or through Northern Asia! Further it may be added, that the regions originally held by the Basques and Celts are precisely those which would have been occupied by the descendants of Colonists who had arrived in Europe from the South-west of Africa if opposed—as we may infer them to have been—by rival Septs impeding their progress towards the East. To the East of the Basque and Celtic regions we find the rest of Europe possessed by[pg xxxiii]the Teutons or Germans, the Finns, the Sclavonians, and the Greeks, nations all located in countries closely contiguous to Asia, to the inhabitants of which continent the evidence of language indisputably proves them all to have been closely related.17That these nations were also the primitive inhabitants of the territories which they still occupy has been pointed out by Dr. Prichard.The conclusion above suggested appears to be supported by the evidence of history. With respect to the Basques, or Iberians, Dr. Prichard has referred to the testimony of classical authorities, which distinctly confirms the opinion that they were an African race. But with regard to the Celts, the same learned writer assumes that they must originally have come from the East. It is remarkable, however, that this conclusion is directly at variance with the current opinions of the Ancients, to which he has referred in the following passage:“The earlier history of the Celtic people is a subject of great interest, but of difficult investigation. Were they the aborigines of Gaul or Germany? According to all the testimony of history, or rather of ancient tradition collected by the writers of the Roman Empire, themigrations of the Gauls werealwaysfrom West to East; the Celtic nations inGermany as well as in Italyand inthe East, were supposed to have been coloniesfrom Gaul, and the Celtæ have been considered as the immemorial inhabitants ofWestern Europe!”(Ethnography of the Celtic Race, in Prichard on Man.)In assuming that the Celts migrated to Europe direct from Asia, Dr. Prichard's views were very naturally influenced by the valuable evidence he has himself adduced of[pg xxxiv]the connexion of the Celtic dialects with the Sanscrit, &c. This evidence, however, has been shown (see p.19) to be quite consistent with the conclusion suggested above, viz. that the Celts may have sprung from emigrants who penetrated into Spain from the opposite coast of Africa.The interesting researches of Humboldt, which have served by the evidence of local names to show that the language of the ancient Iberians was the same as the Basque, have also established, by means of the same evidence, that the Peninsula of Spain, at the time of its subjugation by the Romans, was divided in a very irregular manner between Basque and Celtic tribes.“The Celts,”observes Dr. Prichard,“possessed a considerable part of Spain, comprehending not only the central provinces, but also extensive territories in both of the western corners of the Peninsula, where a population either wholly or partly of Celtic descent remained at the period of the Roman Conquest.”The remainder of Spain was held by Basques or by Celt-Iberian tribes, a mixture of both races.This singular intermingling of the Basques and Celts in the Spanish Peninsula has been a source of many conflicting opinions among the learned, on the question which of these two races were the first inhabitants, and which were the invaders of Spain? The enigma, I conceive, will be most satisfactorily solved by the rejection of the opinion that that country was in the first instance wholly occupied by either! Both may have arrived almost simultaneously, too weak in numbers wholly to engross the new territory on which they thus entered. Each may have thrown out into the most distant provinces weak colonies, consisting of a few nomade families, which afterwards became the foci of powerful Septs. This explanation completely harmonises with the instructive facts which have been developed relative to the North American Indian Tribes, who are still in the“hunter state,”as[pg xxxv]the first colonists of Europe must have been. The languages of a great portion of the North American Indian Tribes have been shown to consist of mere dialects of a few Parent Tongues. But the Septs thus proved to be nearly related are not always contiguous, but often separated by tribes speaking dialects of a different class, a necessary consequence of the roving habits and the imperfect occupation of territory incident to the“hunter state.”An interesting example of the influence of the causes which lead to these results occurs in Mr. Catlin's allusion to a North American Indian Tribe, the Assinneboins, of whom he says:“The Assinneboins are a part of the Dahcotas, or Sioux, undoubtedly; for their personal appearance, as well as their language, is very similar.“At what time, or in what manner, these two parts of a nation got strayed away from each other is a mystery; yet such cases have often occurred, of which I shall say more in future. Large parties who are straying off in pursuit of game, or in the occupation of war, are oftentimes intercepted by their enemy, and being prevented from returning, are run off to a distant region, where they take up their residence and establish themselves as a nation.”(Catlin on the North American Indians, p. 53.)The evidence furnished by their languages is not unfavorable to the supposition that the Basques and Celts may have been of African origin.Though by Humboldt, and some other eminent writers, the Basque has been regarded as distinct from other languages, the examples which occur at the close of this Introduction must, I conceive, serve to remove all doubt as to the identity of the Basques or Iberians with the other branches of the Human Race. Of these examples grammatical differences cannot serve to diminish the force. (See p.89and the chapter on the Chinese Language.) The Basque also shows some[pg xxxvi]traces of a peculiar connexion with the African tongues. Thus its numerals are nearly identical with those of the North African nations, and the formative particle Er is used for similar purposes in the Basque and Egyptian, and in both is placed before the word, a characteristic which distinguishes the African from the European languages. (See p.142.) Thus we have Juan,“To go,”Er-uan,“To cause to go,”(Basque.) Ouini,“Light,”Er-ouini,“To cause Light,”or“To enlighten,”(Egyptian.) Instances of words formed in the same manner, which are common to the Egyptian and the Celtic, will be found at p.38, Appendix A.A striking example of the connexion of the Celtic languages with those of Africa occurs in the region where the respective Physiological peculiarities of North Africa and Negro-land meet. In the vicinity of the river Senegal the line of separation may be said to divide the Iolofs, a Negro nation, from the Fulahs and Phellatahs, whose physical characteristics are of an intermediate nature. Now it is remarkable, that by comparing and as it were uniting the dialects of the Iolofs, the Fulahs, and the Phellatahs, some of the most common Welsh words are obtained essentially unchanged, as in Le oure,“The Moon,”(Fulahs,) Gour, and Gourgne,“A Man,”(Iolofs,) Gourko,“A Man,”(Phellatahs,) Loho,“The Hand,”(Iolofs,) Bourou,“Bread,”(Iolofs,) Bouron,“Bread,”(Fulahs.)Consistently with the principles on which the origin of languages is hereafter explained in this work, I cannot suggest that these coincidences, striking as they are, afford any proof of a specific connexion between the Celtic and African races. But they tend to prove, nevertheless, that language furnishes no positive ground for inferring that the Celts are more nearly allied to the Asiatic than they are to the African races. Hence, since the evidence of Physiology on this subject is also of a negative character, it may be[pg xxxvii]affirmed, with regard both to this race and the Basques, that the opinion that they are of Asiatic descent—opposed as it is by the evidence of history in one, if not in both cases—and by the inferences which Geographical considerations, in both instances, appear to suggest—requires reconsideration.In this place I may observe, that in the course of the following inquiries it will be found true as a general principle, that in direct proportion as the proofs of the General Unity of the different races of the Globe are observed to become more distinct, the evidence which has frequently been relied upon as demonstrative of a specific connexion between particular races will also be observed to become more doubtful, for both the affinities and differences which exist between the languages of contiguous—and those of the most distant—nations, are for the most part so nearly alike in character, and so nearly equal in degree, as to favour the inference that the dispersion of the Human Race must have been exceedingly rapid, and that many ancient nations, such as the Basques and Celts, who in subsequent times were found closely contiguous, must, in the first eras of the world, have been isolated from each other by incessant war and nomade habits, almost as early as the most distant nations were! It is certain that the language of the Welsh does not present either to the Basque or to the Teutonic—dialects of nations located contiguously to their Celtic forefathers—examples of affinity more striking than those just adverted to. Nor are the examples above noticed of the connexion between the Welsh and the African dialects by any means more remarkable than the instances of resemblance between the former tongue and the dialect of the Mandans, a North American Indian Tribe, which have been pointed out by Mr. Catlin! In both cases the same observation applies—an observation based on a principle that will be more fully understood hereafter—viz., that[pg xxxviii]these coincidences are unequivocal proofs of a generic, but not of that kind of specific relation, which implies that these nations were at one time united more intimately than the other families of mankind.Various miscellaneous considerations connected with the primitive migrations of mankind may now he adverted to.Neither the extent nor the physical features of our Globe are such as imply that the spread of population over its surface must necessarily have been the work of many ages. To traverse the habitable earth from the Southern extremity of Africa to the North of Asia, and thence to the extreme Southern point of the American continent, is a task which would require only a small fraction of one man's life! And in the first ages of the Race, Man was probably a Nomade, a Wanderer! It may be inferred, therefore, that in the early ages of the world the diffusion of population was very rapid in the warmer latitudes, while towards the North it was obstructed rather by climate than by any other cause. As population became more dense in the more favoured regions, weaker tribes, it may be surmised, were gradually driven into the steppes of Asia and the wilds of Siberia, whence they may be supposed to have penetrated into Europe on the one hand, and across Behring's Straits into America on the other. With the exception of America, all the great Continents are connected together by districts easily traversed by Man; and Behring's Strait, which is interposed between America and the North-east of Asia, might be passed in the canoes of some of the most barbarous tribes with which we are acquainted.The peopling of Islands is a subject that has been discussed very satisfactorily by Dr. Prichard, and after him by Mr. Lyell. Their conclusion is, that the occasional drifting of canoes by storms and currents, is sufficient to account for the existence of Human population in the most remote[pg xxxix]islands, as is proved by facts related by Kotzebue and others. Several reasons have however been suggested in the following pages, for the conclusion that Australia is a recently peopled country.The geographical distribution of the various languages of the globe seems to render Adelung's arguments for regarding Central Asia as the birth-place of our species eminently convincing. The languages of China and the South-east of Asia are either Monosyllabic, or Tongues that partake of that character; Languages having the same features are spoken through the long chain of islands in the Pacific as far as New Zealand. All the other Tongues of the Globe are Polysyllabic. Now if the birth-place of Man and the focus of migration was in Central Asia, on the borders of Cashmire and Tibet, this division of Languages would necessarily have followed, for it will be observed that Tibet, which is the source of the rivers of the regions to the South-east, would in that case have given inhabitants to the countries of South-eastern Asia, countries which are isolated from all others, for not only are they cut off from Europe, Africa, and Western Asia, by the system of Table-lands and its Mountains, they are also separated from Northern Asia and therefore from America by the Great Desert of Gobi or Shamo. To the Steppes of Northern Asia, and consequently to America as well as to Europe and Africa, the territory of Persia or Iran, which, as has been seen, forms the opposite slope of the system of Table-lands, is the natural route.The relations which the Parsian, the Pehlwi, and the Zend, the ancient dialects of Persia, bear to those of the surrounding countries, seem to be in a highly interesting manner confirmatory of Adelung's views. The Parsian, which was spoken in the South of Persia in the provinces near to India, approaches so closely to the Sanscrit, the ancient language of that country, that Sir William Jones considered the Parsian[pg xl]to have been the parent of the Sanscrit. The Pehlwi, the language of the Parthians who occupied the centre of Persia, a territory that adjoins the Semetic countries, appears very decidedly to be a connecting link between the Semetic languages on the one hand and the Parsian and Zend and the Indo-European tongues, viewed as a class, on the other. The Zend, the dialect of ancient Media, or North Persia, is supposed to be closely allied to the Armenian. The Parsian, Pehlwi, and Zend, respectively bearing these relations to the languages of the neighbouring countries, are closely connected as sister dialects among themselves. These facts tend to show—from the summit of the Western Table-land viewed as a centre, through Persia viewed as a medium—a radiation of language from which a radiation of population may reasonably be presumed.The species of affinity which the ancient Persian dialects display to the languages of the adjoining countries appears to point very distinctly to another highly important conclusion in relation to the early history of mankind, viz., that the diffusion of population over Persia and the contiguous countries must have been a comparatively recent event with reference to the earliest specimens of the Persian and Semetic dialects, &c. After the lapse of a long interval the languages even of contiguous countries lose the traces of original unity. But with regard to modern dialects it can be distinctly shown that those of intermediate districts are connecting links between those of the extremities. Thus the Savoyard connects the French and Italian dialects of the Latin, and those of the North of England are intermediate between the modern English and the Lowland Scotch; Du Ponceau has made a similar remark with regard to the North American Indian dialects spoken by kindred tribes. Septs placed in the centre continue to maintain a certain degree of intercourse with all the tribes by which they are surrounded, a consideration[pg xli]which will account for these results, which probably cannot, in many cases, be referred to different degrees of Genealogical affinity.One of the most striking indications of the Original Unity of the different Races of Men is derivable from the uniformity of the Moral, Mental, and Social Features they display.Though the mind in early infancy may be destitute of positive ideas, it seems to be evident, nevertheless, that our Species has been gifted with Intellectual Faculties, and with Moral Sentiments and Sympathies, which are in the strictest sense innate.18Of this conclusion a striking confirmation is derivable, from the extraordinary sameness which, on a close examination, will be found to prevail in the characters, sentiments, and sympathies of the various branches of the Human Species. Of this truth a few examples will now be noticed.The Negro tribes of Africa have frequently been supposed to belong to an inferior race of Men, an opinion founded—partly on an inadequate conception of the progressive character of the Human species—partly on ignorance of the progress which many Negro nations have actually made. On the one hand it would be difficult to show that the rudest of the African tribes are in a more barbarous condition than the ancestors of some of the most civilized European nations once were! On the other hand, the proofs of a capacity for social improvement are as unequivocal in the former case as they are in the latter! Large and important nations, as for example the Mandingoes and the Iolofs, are found in the interior of Africa, professing the Mahomedan religion, and as far advanced in the virtues and refinements of civilization, as any other nations who are followers of the same creed. In many of these nations the Men are distinguished by a grave and reflective character, and the women are remarkable for their exemplary[pg xlii]discharge of the duties of domestic life. Sections of the Negro race have also been converted to Christianity, including many individuals who have been distinguished not only by a steady conformity to its precepts, but by the zeal and success with which they have fulfilled the high duties of Missionaries among their countrymen, and by the composition of Theological treatises of no inconsiderable merit! (See Dr. Prichard on Man.)It has been already observed that the physiognomy of the Egyptians approaches closely to that of the Negro race, of which it may be regarded as a modification. It has also been pointed out in another part of this work, that the evidence of language favours the inference that Egypt was the source of the various African populations. The discoveries of our age—while they have rendered indisputable the extraordinary arts, high civilization, and vast political power of ancient Egypt—have also served to disclose, in the portraits of individuals of that country, forms of grace and elegance, that serve to link together by the ties of a close and pathetic association, the infancy with the later ages of the world! To adopt the expression of Schlegel, (See Schlegel's Translation of Dr. Prichard's Work on Eg. Mythol.,) the physiognomy of the ancient Egyptians is that of a“very noble race”of men. But it differs very widely from the characteristics of the European nations; in the dignified features of the men, and also in the lineaments of female beauty, the approach to the Negro Physiognomy is often very conspicuous!I may instance the countenance of the Sphynx as affording a specimen of the species of approximation to the Negro Physiognomy which is observable in ancient Egyptian remains!One of the most forcible examples of the susceptibility to[pg xliii]civilization19of nations once very barbarous may be found in a comparison of the character of the ancient Gauls and modern French. When Hannibal invaded Italy he confined his ravages to the possessions of the Romans and spared those of the Gauls; a partial distinction which won the favour of this simple people, who flocked in great numbers to his standard. The Gauls who were in his army at the battle of Cannæ are described as a fierce people, naked from the waist, carrying large round shields, with swords of an enormous size blunted at the point. Yet there cannot be a doubt that the French, one of the most refined and distinguished of modern nations, are lineally descended from this primitive race! (See p.64.) The true answer to the reveries of Pinkerton, with respect to the imputed incapacity of the Celts, is to be found in the literature and science of the French, in whom, owing to the great extent of their country, the original Celtic blood is most probably less unmingled than it is in the Irish, the Welsh, or the Highland Scotch!A comparison of the character of the ancient Gauls and modern French involves also an instructive example of the mode in which the tendency to progression in the Human species is often united with a stability of national character in some features that forms a singular contrast to that tendency. In comparing Cæsar's Commentaries on his Wars in Gaul with the volumes of General Napier, we are struck, in almost every page, with proofs of a coincidence of mental features so minute, that but for the opposite accompaniments on the one hand, of a primitive, and on the other of a modern age, we might imagine we had before us, in these relations, two narratives referring to the same wars, the same sieges,[pg xliv]and the same men! The mind is perplexed to conceive how a nation that has existed in conditions so contrasted, as regards Civilization, could have continued thus uniform in its social and moral features!Striking as these and other proofs which may be adduced of the uniformity of character which has often been maintained by the same nation in different stages of society undoubtedly are, they must cease to excite surprise—though they may be said to acquire even a higher interest—when viewed through the medium of the closely analogous results which will be found to flow from a comparison with the civilized nations of Europe of contemporaneous Tribes still existing in the“Hunter State.”The natives of Australia have generally been thought to occupy the lowest place in the social scale. But from Col. Grey's valuable work it may be inferred that in their devices for catching game and other arts belonging to their rude state, they give proofs of the same intelligence and acuteness as are evinced by other races of men. They have also Songs of War and Love which they sing in tunes most barbarous and discordant. The more refined lays of the European excite mimicry and laughter. But, adds Col. Grey,“Some of the natives are not insensible to the charms of our music. Warrup, a native youth, who lived with me for several months as a servant, once accompanied me to an amateur theatre at Perth, and when the actors came forward and sang‘God save the Queen,’he burst into tears. Hecertainly could not have comprehended the words of the song, and, therefore, must have been affected by the Music alone.”“Nothing can awaken in the breast more melancholy feelings than the funeral chants of these people. They are sung by a whole chorus of females of all ages, and the effect[pg xlv]produced upon the bystanders by this wild music is indescribable.”Many of the Australian words given by Colonel Grey will readily be recognized among the terms collected from the languages of the other Four Continents inAppendix A; as for example: Nganga, Ngon-ge, Tin-dee, Tiendee,“The Sun”and“The Stars.”(See App. A, p.26.) Yanna,“To go,”and Tjênna, Tinna,“The Foot.”(74.) Tullun, Tdallung, Tadlanga,“The Tongue.”(72.) Nago,“To see.”(42,43.) Mena,“The Eye.”(14.) Poou, Puiyu, Poito, Booyoo,“Smoke,”and Bobun,“To blow.”(21.)In the construction of their canoes, the inhabitants of some of the most barbarous islands of the Pacific, exhibit an originality and a variety of conception of precisely the same nature as is displayed in those mechanical inventions by which the sum of European civilization is progressively extended!But in relation to the subject more immediately under examination, far the most valuable and instructive information occurs in Mr. Catlin's account of his residence among the North American Indian Tribes, a work, admirable alike as a living picture of Indian manners and sentiments, and also as an earnest and simple minded, and for that reason an eminently touching and eloquent appeal, on behalf of one of the noblest, though one of the most unfortunate families of the Human Race!“I have roamed about from time to time during seven or eight years,”says the writer,“visiting and associating with some three or four hundred thousand of these people, under an almost infinite variety of circumstances; and from the very many and decidedly voluntary acts of their hospitality and kindness, I feel bound to pronounce them, by nature, a kind and hospitable people. I have been welcomed generally in their country, and treated to the[pg xlvi]best that they could give me, without any charges made for my board; they have often escorted me through their enemies' country at some hazard to their own lives, and aided me in passing mountains and rivers with my awkward baggage; and under all these circumstances of exposure, no Indian ever betrayed me, struck me a blow, or stole from me a shilling's worth of my property that I am aware of.“This is saying a great deal (and proving it too, if the reader will believe me,) in favour of the virtues of these people; when it is borne in mind, as it should be, that there is no law in the land to punish for theft, that locks and keys are not known in their country, that the commandments have never been divulged amongst them, nor can any human retribution fall upon the head of a thief, save the disgrace which attaches as a stigma to his character in the eyes of the people around him.“And thus in these little communities, strange as it may seem, in the absence of all systems of jurisprudence, I have often beheld peace and happiness, and quiet, reigning supreme, for which even kings and emperors might envy them. I have seen rights and virtue protected, and wrongs redressed; and I have seen conjugal, filial and paternal affection, in the simplicity and contentedness of nature. I have unavoidably formed warm and enduring attachments to some of these men, which I do not wish to forget, who have brought me near to their hearts, and in our final separation have embraced me in their arms, and commended me and my affairs to the keeping of the Great Spirit.”Among those tribes which have been placed in contact with the Whites, individuals, generally Chiefs, have acquired all the advantages of a European education, to which in most of these instances are united, dignified and gentlemanlike feelings and manners, qualities which seem to belong to the native American character. Some tribes have been nearly extipated[pg xlvii]by the use of fermented liquors. But some sections of the Indian population have been converted to Christianity, and adopted the habit of total abstinence; others have become industrious cultivators of the soil. Where this race has rejected the benefits of civilization, it seems almost invariably to have arisen from the prejudices naturally excited in their minds by the vices of the worst part of the white population, and the calamities which they have caused by the introduction of ardent spirits! Even those excellent men who have devoted their lives to the religious instruction of the Indians, and by whose efforts it may be inferred that some Tribes have been saved from extinction, have too often found in these prejudices, an obstacle which might perhaps be removed were the missionaries generally to commence by offering to teach some of the simplest arts of civilized life—information of which the benefits would be immediately appreciated—as a means of paving the way for obtaining that confidence which, as religious instructors, they require.The life of constant war and peril to which the Indians are exposed is incompatible withactualSocial advancement. But proofs of a spontaneoustendencyto civilization may be gleaned, as I conceive, from the grace and tastefulness of their dresses—the beautiful lodges many of the Tribes build—and other indications, &c. But of this truth, a still more decisive example occurs, as I venture to think, in the account given by Mr. Catlin of a very interesting tribe, the Mandans, whom, from the evidence of language already noticed and other considerations, he has conjectured to be descendants of Madoc's Colony, and whose personal character and appearance he thus describes:“The Mandans are certainly a very interesting and pleasing people in their personal appearance and manners; differing in many respects, both inlooksand customs, from all othertribes which I have ever seen. They are not a warlike[pg xlviii]people, for they seldom, if ever, carry war into their enemies' country; but when invaded, show their valour and courage to be equal to that of any people on earth. Being a small tribe, and unable to contend on the wide prairies with the Sioux and other roaming tribes, who are ten times more numerous, they have very judiciouslylocated themselves in a permanent village, which is stronglyfortified, and ensures their preservation. By this means they haveadvanced further in the arts of manufacture, and have supplied their lodges more abundantly with the comforts and even luxuries of life than any Indian nation I know of. The consequence of this is that the tribe have taken many steps ahead of other tribes in manners and refinements(if I may be allowed to use the word refinement to Indian life); and are, therefore, familiarly (and correctly) denominated by the Traders and others, who have been amongst them, the‘polite and friendly Mandans.’“There is certainly great justice in the remark, and so forcibly have I been struck with the peculiarease and eleganceof this people, together with thediversity of complexions, the various colours of their hair and eyes, the singularity of their language, and their peculiar and unaccountable customs, that I am fully convinced that they have sprung from some other origin than that of the other North American tribes, or that they are an amalgam of natives with some civilized race.“Here arises a question of very great interest and importance for discussion; and after further familiarity with their character, customs, and traditions, if I forget not, I will eventually give it further consideration. Suffice it then for the present, that theirpersonal appearancealone, independent of their modes and customs, pronounces them at once as more or less than savage.“A stranger in the Mandan village is first struck with the[pg xlix]different shades of complexionand colours of hair which he sees in a crowd, and is at once almost disposed to exclaim that‘these are not Indians!’“There are a great many of these people whose complexions appear aslight as half-breeds; and amongst the women particularly, there are many whoseskins are almost white, with the most pleasing symmetry and proportion of features; with hazel, with gray, and with blue eyes; with mildness and sweetness of expression, and excessive modesty of demeanour, which render them exceedingly pleasing and beautiful!”It has been shown in another part of this work that the language of the Mandans does not prove them to be connected with the Welsh, and that their dialect is of the same character as that of other Indian tribes. Further, did space allow, I might produce some evidence that the Mandans are allied in blood to their hereditary foes, the fierce and warlike Sioux! The phenomena noticed by Mr. Catlin must be explained therefore by the aid of different principles than those to which he has referred.20I conceive then that these various peculiarities of colour, personal appearance, and of manners and social habits, which he noticed amongst the Mandans, may all be viewed as effects of one simple cause, viz. their“judiciously selected location”in“a permanent village,”involving protection from exposure to the seasons on the one hand, and the abandonment of nomade habits on the other. To the former, the changes of complexion—to the latter, the social advances—of the Mandan Tribe may be ascribed!There are numerous other data in Mr. Catlin's work which seem to afford illustrations of the mutability of Human Physiology. The Indians who live among the Whites he describes as“Pale”Red. May not the change implied in[pg l]this expression be referred to an abandonment of their original life of activity and exposure on the wild Prairie, quite as much as to misfortune or a mixture of European blood? The variety of Physiognomy among the different tribes, as shown by his admirable portraits of Chiefs, &c., is very extraordinary. Some of these countenances are ugly and unprepossessing; but in others the finest European features occur! The traits exhibited by these portraits are contrary to the inference which Humboldt's description might suggest, viz., that all the N. A. Indian Tribes resemble the Mongol Race in features as well as in the colour of their skin and the absence of beard.The Indian shows no want of acuteness in detecting the characteristic vices, whether real or imaginary, of the civilized world.“On one occasion, when I had interrogated a Sioux chief, on the Upper Missouri, about their government, their punishments, and tortures of prisoners, for which I had freely condemned them for the cruelty of practice, he took occasion, when I had got through, to ask me some questions relative to modes in the civilized world. He told me he had often heard that white people hung their criminals by the neck and choked them to death like dogs, and those their own people; to which I answered‘Yes.’He then told me he had learned that they shut each other up in prisons, where they keep them a great part of their lives because they can't pay money! I replied in the affirmative to this, which occasioned great surprise and excessive laughter even amongst the women! He told me that he had been to our Fort at Council Bluffs, where we had a great many warriors and braves, and he saw three of them taken out on the prairies and tied to a post and whipped almost to death; and he had been told that they submit to all this to get a little money!“He put to me a chapter of other questions as to the trespasses (of the Whites) on their lands, their continual corruption[pg li]of the morals of their women, and digging open the Indian's graves to get their bones, &c. To all of which I was compelled to reply in the affirmative, and quite glad to close my note book, and quietly to escape from the throng that had collected around me, and saying (though to myself and silently), that these and a hundred others are vices that belong to the civilized world, and are practised upon (but certainly in no instance reciprocated by)‘the cruel and relentless’savage!”It is probable that the finer features of the North American Indian character may be ascribed in a great measure to the elevated nature of their religious belief, which indisputably appears to be quite free from the loathsome and debasing idolatry of the Hindoos and other pagan nations of the Old World.“I fearlessly assert to the world (and I defy contradiction), that the North American Indian is everywhere in his native state a highly moral and religious being, endowed by his Maker with an intuitive knowledge of some great Author of his being and the universe, in dread of whose displeasure he constantly lives, with the apprehension before him of a future state, where he expects to be rewarded or punished according to the merits he has gained or forfeited in this world.”In their native state, in regions remote from the Whites, the Indians are well clothed and fed, cleanly in their habits, cheerful, and healthy. The opposite qualities have been considered to be characteristic of the race, in consequence of the unhappy condition of most of those Tribes who are found among or near the settlements of the Whites, a condition ascribable to the use of ardent spirits, the destruction of the game on which they originally subsisted, and the fraudulent manner in which they have often been deprived of their lands![pg lii]“From what I have seen of these people I feel authorized to say, that there is nothing very strange or unaccountable in their character; but that it is a simple one, and easy to be understood if the right means be taken to familiarize ourselves with it. Although it has dark spots, yet there is much in it to be applauded, and much to recommend it to the admiration of the enlightened world. And I trust that the reader who looks through these volumes with care, will be disposed to join me in the conclusion, that the North American Indian in his native state is an honest, hospitable, faithful, brave, warlike, cruel, revengeful, relentless, yet honorable, contemplative, and religious being.”The tortures practised by the Indians on their prisoners of war are, it seems, inflicted only on a portion of their captives by way of reprisal. The prisoners are for the most part adopted into the conquering tribe. The men are married to the wives of those who have fallen in battle; and those outrages on the weaker sex which have disgraced the armies of civilized Europe are unknown in the annals of Indian warfare!The Indian is reckless of life, and the female sex among these tribes is consigned to a life of servitude. But it must be asked, is the morality of European nations uniformly founded on an earnest regard for the claims of humanity—on a tender respect for the rights and for the sufferings of the weak and defenceless! This is a momentous question, to which an answer at once humiliating and complete may be drawn from one single historical incident described in the following touching passage!After noticing the defective state of the European law of nations in certain respects, the author from whose work the following narrative has been derived, thus proceeds:“The other case in which it seems to me that the law of nations should either be amended, or declared more clearly and enforced[pg liii]in practice, is that of the blockade of towns not defended by their inhabitants, in order to force their surrender by starvation. And here let us try to realize to ourselves what such a blockade is. We need not, unhappily, draw a fancied picture; history, and no remote history either, will supply us with the facts. Some of you, I doubt not, remember Genoa; you have seen that queenly city, with its streets of palaces rising tier above tier from the water, girdling with the long lines of its bright white houses the vast sweep of its harbour, the mouth of which is marked by a huge natural mole of rock, crowned by its magnificent lighthouse-tower. You remember how its white houses rose out of a mass of fig, and olive, and orange trees, the glory of its old patrician luxury; you may have observed the mountains behind the town, spotted at intervals by small circular low towers, one of which is distinctly conspicuous where the ridge of the hills rises to its summit and hides from view all the country behind it. Those towers are the forts of the famous lines; which, curiously resembling in shape the later Syracusan walls inclosing Epipolæ;, converge inland from the eastern and western extremities of the city, looking down the western line of the valley of Pulcevera, the eastern on that of the Bisagno, till they meet as I have said on the summit of the mountains, where the hills cease to rise from the sea and become more or less of a table-land, running off towards the interior at the distance, as well as I remember, of between two and three miles from the outside of the city. Thus a very large open space is inclosed within the lines, and Genoa is capable therefore of becoming a vast entrenched camp, holding not so much a garrison as an army. In the autumn of 1799, the Austrians had driven the French out of Lombardy and Piedmont; their last victory of Fossano or Genola, had won the fortress of Coni or Cuneo close under the Alps, and at the very extremity of[pg liv]the plain of the Po. The French clung to Italy only by their hold of the Riviera of Genoa, the narrow strip of coast between the Apennines and the sea, which extends from the frontiers of France almost to the mouth of the Arno. Hither the remains of the French force were collected, commanded by General Massena, and the point of chief importance to his defence was the city of Genoa.“Napoleon had just returned from Egypt, and was become First Consul; but he could not be expected to take the field till the following spring, and till then Massena was hopeless of relief from without, everything was to depend upon his own pertinacity. The strength of his army made it impossible to force it in such a position as Genoa; but its very numbers, added to the population of the city, held out to the enemy a hope of reducing it by famine; and as Genoa derives most of its supplies by sea, Lord Keith, the British naval Commander in Chief in the Mediterranean, lent the assistance of his naval force to the Austrians, and by the vigilance of his cruizers, the whole coasting trade right and left was effectually cut off. It is not at once that the inhabitants of a great city, accustomed to the daily sight of well-stored shops and an abundant market, begin to realize the idea of scarcity; or that the wealthy classes of society, who have never known any other state than one of abundance and luxury, begin seriously to conceive of famine. But the shops were emptied, and the storehouses began to be drawn upon; and no fresh supply or hope of supply appeared. Winter passed away, and Spring returned, so early and so beautiful on that garden-like coast, sheltered as it is from the north winds by its belt of mountains, and open to the full rays of the Southern Sun. Spring returned, and clothed the hill sides within the lines with its fresh verdure. But that verdure was no more the delight of the careless eye of luxury, refreshing the citizens by its loveliness and softness when[pg lv]they rode or walked up thither from the city to enjoy the surpassing beauty of the prospect! The green hill sides were now visited for a very different object; ladies of the highest rank might be seen cutting up every plant which it was possible to turn to food, and bearing home the common weeds of our road sides as a most precious treasure! The French general pitied the distress of the people; but the lives and the strength of his garrison seemed to him more important than the lives of the Genoese, and such provisions as remained were reserved in the first place for the French army. Scarcity became utter want, and want became famine! In the most gorgeous palaces of that gorgeous city, no less than in the humblest tenements of the poor, death was busy; not the momentary death of battle or massacre, nor the speedy death of pestilence, but the lingering and most miserable death of famine! Infants died before their parents' eyes, husbands and wives lay down to expire together! A man whom I saw at Genoa in 1825 told me that his father and two of his brothers had been starved to death in this fatal siege. So it went on, till in the month of June, when Napoleon had already descended from the Alps into the plain of Lombardy, the misery became unendurable, and Massena surrendered. But before he did so, twenty thousand innocent persons, old and young, women and children, had died by the most horrible of deaths which humanity can endure! Other horrors which occurred besides during the blockade I pass over; the agonizing death of twenty thousand innocent and helpless persons requires nothing to be added to it!“Now is it right that such a tragedy as this should take place, and that the laws of war should be supposed to justify the authors of it? Conceive having been a naval officer in Lord Keith's squadron at that time, and being employed in stopping the food which was being brought for the relief of[pg lvi]such misery! For the thing was done deliberately; the helplessness of the Genoese was known, their distress was known; it was known that they could not force Massena to surrender; it was known that they were dying daily by hundreds; yet week after week, and month after month, did the British ships of war keep their iron watch along all the coast: no vessel nor boat laden with any article of provision could escape their vigilance! One cannot but be thankful that Nelson was spared from commanding at this horrible blockade of Genoa!“Now on which side the law of Nations should throw the guilt of most atrocious murder is of little comparative consequence or whether it should attach to both sides equally: but that the deliberate starving to death of twenty thousand helpless persons should be regarded as a crime in one or in both of the parties concerned in it seems to me self-evident! The simplest course would seem to be that all non-combatants should be allowed to go out of a blockaded town, and that the general who should refuse to let them pass should be regarded in the same light as one who were to murder his prisoners or who were in the habit of butchering women and children.”It is not intended to be suggested that the morality of the more virtuous and religious members of civilized communities is not superior to that of uncivilized races. But that such superiority can be claimed by the mass of the inhabitants of Europe is a proposition of which the evidence must be allowed to be doubtful as regards some—must be allowed, alas! to fail altogether as regards many—of those virtues of which our nature is capable!Yet, notwithstanding many melancholy facts that seem to be repugnant to such a conclusion, there exist satisfactory grounds for inferring that civilization has a direct tendency to[pg lvii]promote the moral improvement of the Human Race, and that our species is probably destined even in this state of existence, to a course not only of social, but also of a moral progression! Of this truth distinct indications may be recognized in the altered sentiments of European nations on many momentous subjects, as evinced in the increasing aversion to wars of aggression—in the general condemnation of the principle—and the extensive abolition of the practice—of slavery, and in the rapid growth of an earnest sympathy, at once generous and humane, with the claims and the sufferings of the more unprotected branches of mankind! Of the practical results of these changes in the moral sentiments of Society—of which Christianity, which teaches that all men are of one blood and of one family, has been the primary source—and of which the English nation—influenced by the example of a few men of extraordinary piety, wisdom, and humanity, to whom it gave birth in the last generation, have been the most conspicuous instruments—one example may be appropriately introduced in this place.“The original proprietors of this fine soil, (the neighbourhood of the Cape of Good Hope,) the poor Hottentots, the fabricated tales of whose filthiness are known to every schoolboy, and have made them proverbial in every nation of Europe, are probably the simplest and most inoffensive of the human race. By open robbery and murder, and by a cruel and persevering system of oppression on the part of the Dutch colonists, they have been reduced to not much more than 15,000 souls. Under the protection of the British government, by the careful instruction of the missionaries, and their increased importance in the colony as labourers since the abolition of the slave trade, their number is now considerably on the increase; General Craig, after the capture of the Cape, brought forward, experimentally, the physical and moral qualities of this most injured and degraded people, by forming them into a military corps, which, in point of discipline, obedience,[pg lviii]instruction and cleanliness, were not at all behind European troops. The truth is that the filthy appearance of the Hottentot was never from choice, but necessity. The anxiety which he now shows to get quit of his sheep-skin clothing for cotton, linen, or woollen, and to keep his person clean, proves that he is far more sensible than the‘Boor’to the comforts of civilized life.‘Whosoever,’says the excellent Mr. Latrobe, the father of the Moravians in this country,‘charges the Hottentots with being inferior to other people of the same class as to education and the means of improvement, knows nothing about them. They are in general more sensible, and possess better judgment than most Europeans, equally destitute of the means of instruction.’At Bavians Kloof, or the Monkey's Ravine, which General Jansens altered into Gandenthal, or the Valley of Grace, 130 miles E. by N. of Cape Town, is an establishment of these poor despised people under the care of missionaries, founded in 1737. It consists of a beautiful village containing 1400 Hottentot inhabitants. Every cottage has a garden, a few of the poor class still wear sheep skins, and their children go naked, but far the greater part of them make a point of providing themselves with jackets and trousers, and other articles of European dress which they already wear on Sundays. Both before and after meals they sing grace in the sweetest tones imaginable. The place externally, appears a little Paradise, and let it be remembered it is only one of a great number of these missionary stations. The Hottentots are of a deep brown or yellow brown colour, their eyes are pure white, their head is small; the face very wide above, ends in a point; their cheek-bones are prominent, their eyes sunk, the nose flat, the lips thick, the teeth white, and the hand and foot rather small. They are well made and tall, their hair is black, either curled or woolly, and they have little or no beard. Barrow and Grandprè conceive them to be of a[pg lix]Chinese origin, they call themselves Gkhui-gkhui, pronounced with a click of the tongue or throat, and say they do not come from the interior, but from over the Sea! The Hottentots are divided into several Tribes.”21The nature of their language shows very clearly that the Hottentots are not closely connected by descent with the Chinese; the tradition that they came originally from a country beyond the sea might apply to the island of Madagascar where a dialect kindred to theirs is spoken. There seems however every reason for concluding, agreeably to Dr. Prichard's views, that the Hottentots are descendants of Colonists impelled by the ordinary causes of migration from the North and Middle of Africa, who, as they finally occupied the farthest extremity, were probably the earliest inhabitants of that Continent. The evidence of language serves in a very striking manner to confirm this conclusion. For proofs of the connexion of the Hottentot dialects with the Egyptian and with the Negro languages, see Appendix A. The Hottentot dialects abound also in words unequivocally identical with the corresponding terms in ancient European and Asiatic languages, as for instance Imine,“A Day,”and Ki,“The Earth,”with the Greek. Surrie, Sore,“The Sun”, with the Sanscrit“Surya.”Mamma,“A Mother,”with the Latin, &c. Bo Aboob,“A Father,”with“Abba,”Hebrew. Tamma,“The Tongue.”(See p.15, &c. &c.) Coincidences of this nature are proofs of that species of generic connexion with all the other races of mankind which might be expected as a consequence of a separation that, judging from the Geographical position of the Hottentot tribes, we may suppose to have occurred in the earliest ages of the world.[pg lx]
The question whether the different branches of the Human Race are descended from one Stock, has been discussed on[pg xxvii]Physiological grounds by Dr. Prichard,14in a work equally remarkable for profound Philosophical and extensive Literary research. After detailing a variety of facts with respect to the distribution of Plants and Animals, he thus expresses his conclusion:“The inference to be collected from the facts at present known, seems to be as follows. The various tribes of organized beings, were originally placed by the Creator in certain regions, for which they are by their nature peculiarly adapted. Each species had only one beginning in a single stock; probably a single pair, as Linnæus supposed, was first called into being in a particular spot, and their progeny left to disperse themselves to as great a distance as the locomotive powers, bestowed on each species, or its capability of bearing changes of climate and other physical circumstances may have enabled it to wander.”According to this writer the varieties of colour, feature, &c. displayed by different races of Men, are the results partly of climate and other external agencies, and partly also of a natural tendency to the manifestation of varieties which may be viewed in the light of a characteristic quality of the Species. Of these propositions the numerous and diversified facts collected by Dr. Prichard appear to furnish perfectly conclusive evidence. Thus he has shown that the characteristic physiognomy of the Negro is found to occur and disappear by nice gradations in strict accordance with the differences of climate throughout the African Continent.The tendency to variety is very manifest, even from facts under our daily observation. Individuals are common among European nations, who exhibit some one or more of the traits of the Negro, as, for example, his woolly hair, thick lips, &c. Among the Negro races have been born individuals of a perfectly white colour. Many of these specimens, according[pg xxviii]to Dr. Prichard, were not Albinos or diseased persons, but indisputable examples of his principle.It is probable that in the infancy of the race, this extraordinary tendency may have served the important purpose of accelerating those physiological changes by which the constitution of Man was adapted to the different climates of the Globe, while, in subsequent ages, climate which determines the physiology of the majority, may be said thereby to neutralize the influence of these exceptions. Diversities of complexion, &c. occur in our own and in neighbouring countries within a very limited area. Thus the dark hair and features of the ancient Silures which were ascribed by the Romans to a Spanish origin, are still observable among their posterity, characteristics of which, I conceive, a satisfactory explanation may be found in the warm and equable temperature of the Southern counties of Wales, caused by the peculiar distribution of land and water.15In these countries many productions, both animal and vegetable, flourish, which are rarely found further North. The Nightingale is common, and the Vine is cultivated frequently. The contrast between the temperature of the coasts of South Wales and that of North Wales has not escaped the attention of the Welsh Bards. Davyth ap Gwilym, a Bard of the fourteenth Century, in a Poem of great beauty, in which he describes himself as writing from the land of“wild,”Gwynedh (North Wales), calls upon the Summer and the Sun to visit with their choicest blessings the genial region of“Morganwg,”(Glamorganshire,) of which he was a native, and alludes to its warm climate and its Vineyards, which seem to have been a conspicuous feature! For some very valuable illustrations of the same principle, I may refer to the account given by the Rev. Thomas Price in his Tour in[pg xxix]Brittany, published in the Cambrian Quarterly Magazine, of the varieties of complexion and stature observable in Upper and Lower Brittany.16From the facts collected by Dr. Prichard, it appears to follow very distinctly, not only that Human Physiology is extremely mutable, but also that the transitions do not occupy a very long interval of time. Thus Jews are resident in the African Kingdom of Kongo, whose complexions are as black as those of the native Negro population. Again on the borders of Negro-land, different sections of the same tribe, speaking the same language, are, in many instances, found variously approaching to or diverging from the Negro standard of colour and physiognomy, according to the latitude or elevation, or other physical features of their respective locations; instances in which the separation—and therefore the physiological differences—must have been recent—for languages change too rapidly to preserve the features of identity or even of a close affinity for a period of long duration! The descendants of the Arabs who overran the North of Africa in comparatively modern times furnish another example; they do not differ in physiognomy from the Berbers, the original inhabitants of the same regions.From these and similar facts it must be inferred—not only that the existing varieties of Human Physiology form no objection to the opinion that the different populations of the Globe are descended from one stock—the same facts lead also to the conclusion, that—with relation to the earliest eras in the History of our species—Physiological peculiarities must be entirely rejected as evidence, either of a specific connexion or of a specific difference between individual races of men, a principle admitting of many highly interesting applications, of which an example will now be offered.[pg xxx]By what road did the first Colonists of Europe reach their final destination? Adelung has inferred that Europe was peopled exclusively from the Steppes of Northern Asia. But for this opinion, it does not seem that any valid reason can be assigned. If we assume Central Asia to have been the focus of migration, it will be observed that there are three routes by which the forefathers of the European nations may have arrived in their final abodes, viz. 1, The Steppes of Northern Asia; 2, Asia Minor and the Hellespont; and 3, The Isthmus of Suez, the North of Africa, and the Straits of Gibraltar. For concluding that either of these three routes was used, to the exclusion of the other two, it would not be easy to point out any strong argument based on Geographical grounds. Now if the third was employed at all it may be inferred that some of the European nations may be even more nearly allied to those of Africa than they are to the Asiatic populations. To this conclusion, however, a formidable objection occurs in the strikingly contrasted Physiology of Africa and Europe, for—even though it should be conceded that these opposite features do not serve to prove an aboriginal difference of race—the question still arises whether they do not, nevertheless, furnish evidence that the nations of these two continents are more remotely related than any other branches of the Human Family; whether they do not point to the inference that the inhabitants of the South and West of Asia—who certainly occupy an intermediate place Physiologically—must not also be regarded as forming a connecting link between those of Europe and Africa in a Genealogical and Historical sense? To these inquiries it will be obvious that the facts just adverted to furnish a very distinct answer, for from those facts it directly follows—not only that climate and other existing causes are sufficient to account for the different Physical peculiarities of the inhabitants of Africa and Europe—but it also follows from the same evidence, that a[pg xxxi]period of time far short of that during which the European and African nations are known to have occupied their present abodes, would have sufficed to superinduce the opposite characteristics they now display! Perhaps it may be inferred, though probably the subject does not admit of a precise conclusion on this head, that in a suitable climate the lapse of 500 or 600 years might be more than adequate to engraft on the physiognomy of Southern Asia all the distinctive peculiarities of the Negro. That these peculiarities had been fully developed in an early era of the History of the World, is manifest from the Egyptian Paintings, in many of which we have individuals of this ill-fated race very vividly depicted, appearing sometimes as tributaries, and on other occasions as captives, leashed together like hounds!Infirm health, and final extirpation, have often attended colonies from the North of Europe settled in tropical climes, incidents that seem to have had great weight with Dr. Prichard himself, as constituting an objection to his views. To this objection, however—independent of the numerous facts of an opposite nature—the following consideration, I conceive, suggests a satisfactory answer. Nature may have provided for gradual transitions of climate such as must have been encountered by a population progressively diffused over the Globe; and that she has done so appears to be distinctly established. But it does not follow that she has made any provision for abrupt changes. These are probably a violation of her dictates, and may have the same tendency to produce disease and death as we know to be incident to sudden and extensive variations of temperature in the same climate and country.The foregoing deductions will be found to have a highly interesting application in relation to the origin of two ancient European races, the Basques and the Celts. If Physiological grounds are dismissed from our consideration, it will probably[pg xxxii]be found that the balance of evidence is in favour of the conclusion that these races have sprung, not from Asiatic colonists, but from emigrants from the coasts of the continent of Africa!This conclusion is strongly favoured by the geographical position in which we find these races placed at the dawn of History. In the earliest ages the Celts and Basques were in possession of all the most western countries of Europe. The Spanish Peninsula, the South of France, and the North of Italy, were divided between them; the remainder of France, the whole of Belgium, Switzerland, and the British Isles, were held by the Celts, while of Sicily and Italy the Basques appear to have been the first inhabitants. (See Dr. Prichard's Works.) Now in connexion with these facts two considerations deserve to be noticed, which, by a reference to the map will be seen to acquire especial force. 1. It will be observed that the original regions of the Celts and Basques are more closely contiguous to Africa than the Eastern countries of Europe are; both Spain, and Sicily (which may be considered a part of Italy,) approaching at certain points very closely to the African coast. 2. If we assume Central Asia to have been the original focus of migration—it will be evident—that nomade septs issuing thence through the Syro-Phœnician countries, and along the North of Africa—would have found a shorter route to the Italian and to the Spanish Peninsulas—than those emigrants who may be supposed to have passed over the Hellespont, or through Northern Asia! Further it may be added, that the regions originally held by the Basques and Celts are precisely those which would have been occupied by the descendants of Colonists who had arrived in Europe from the South-west of Africa if opposed—as we may infer them to have been—by rival Septs impeding their progress towards the East. To the East of the Basque and Celtic regions we find the rest of Europe possessed by[pg xxxiii]the Teutons or Germans, the Finns, the Sclavonians, and the Greeks, nations all located in countries closely contiguous to Asia, to the inhabitants of which continent the evidence of language indisputably proves them all to have been closely related.17That these nations were also the primitive inhabitants of the territories which they still occupy has been pointed out by Dr. Prichard.The conclusion above suggested appears to be supported by the evidence of history. With respect to the Basques, or Iberians, Dr. Prichard has referred to the testimony of classical authorities, which distinctly confirms the opinion that they were an African race. But with regard to the Celts, the same learned writer assumes that they must originally have come from the East. It is remarkable, however, that this conclusion is directly at variance with the current opinions of the Ancients, to which he has referred in the following passage:“The earlier history of the Celtic people is a subject of great interest, but of difficult investigation. Were they the aborigines of Gaul or Germany? According to all the testimony of history, or rather of ancient tradition collected by the writers of the Roman Empire, themigrations of the Gauls werealwaysfrom West to East; the Celtic nations inGermany as well as in Italyand inthe East, were supposed to have been coloniesfrom Gaul, and the Celtæ have been considered as the immemorial inhabitants ofWestern Europe!”(Ethnography of the Celtic Race, in Prichard on Man.)In assuming that the Celts migrated to Europe direct from Asia, Dr. Prichard's views were very naturally influenced by the valuable evidence he has himself adduced of[pg xxxiv]the connexion of the Celtic dialects with the Sanscrit, &c. This evidence, however, has been shown (see p.19) to be quite consistent with the conclusion suggested above, viz. that the Celts may have sprung from emigrants who penetrated into Spain from the opposite coast of Africa.The interesting researches of Humboldt, which have served by the evidence of local names to show that the language of the ancient Iberians was the same as the Basque, have also established, by means of the same evidence, that the Peninsula of Spain, at the time of its subjugation by the Romans, was divided in a very irregular manner between Basque and Celtic tribes.“The Celts,”observes Dr. Prichard,“possessed a considerable part of Spain, comprehending not only the central provinces, but also extensive territories in both of the western corners of the Peninsula, where a population either wholly or partly of Celtic descent remained at the period of the Roman Conquest.”The remainder of Spain was held by Basques or by Celt-Iberian tribes, a mixture of both races.This singular intermingling of the Basques and Celts in the Spanish Peninsula has been a source of many conflicting opinions among the learned, on the question which of these two races were the first inhabitants, and which were the invaders of Spain? The enigma, I conceive, will be most satisfactorily solved by the rejection of the opinion that that country was in the first instance wholly occupied by either! Both may have arrived almost simultaneously, too weak in numbers wholly to engross the new territory on which they thus entered. Each may have thrown out into the most distant provinces weak colonies, consisting of a few nomade families, which afterwards became the foci of powerful Septs. This explanation completely harmonises with the instructive facts which have been developed relative to the North American Indian Tribes, who are still in the“hunter state,”as[pg xxxv]the first colonists of Europe must have been. The languages of a great portion of the North American Indian Tribes have been shown to consist of mere dialects of a few Parent Tongues. But the Septs thus proved to be nearly related are not always contiguous, but often separated by tribes speaking dialects of a different class, a necessary consequence of the roving habits and the imperfect occupation of territory incident to the“hunter state.”An interesting example of the influence of the causes which lead to these results occurs in Mr. Catlin's allusion to a North American Indian Tribe, the Assinneboins, of whom he says:“The Assinneboins are a part of the Dahcotas, or Sioux, undoubtedly; for their personal appearance, as well as their language, is very similar.“At what time, or in what manner, these two parts of a nation got strayed away from each other is a mystery; yet such cases have often occurred, of which I shall say more in future. Large parties who are straying off in pursuit of game, or in the occupation of war, are oftentimes intercepted by their enemy, and being prevented from returning, are run off to a distant region, where they take up their residence and establish themselves as a nation.”(Catlin on the North American Indians, p. 53.)The evidence furnished by their languages is not unfavorable to the supposition that the Basques and Celts may have been of African origin.Though by Humboldt, and some other eminent writers, the Basque has been regarded as distinct from other languages, the examples which occur at the close of this Introduction must, I conceive, serve to remove all doubt as to the identity of the Basques or Iberians with the other branches of the Human Race. Of these examples grammatical differences cannot serve to diminish the force. (See p.89and the chapter on the Chinese Language.) The Basque also shows some[pg xxxvi]traces of a peculiar connexion with the African tongues. Thus its numerals are nearly identical with those of the North African nations, and the formative particle Er is used for similar purposes in the Basque and Egyptian, and in both is placed before the word, a characteristic which distinguishes the African from the European languages. (See p.142.) Thus we have Juan,“To go,”Er-uan,“To cause to go,”(Basque.) Ouini,“Light,”Er-ouini,“To cause Light,”or“To enlighten,”(Egyptian.) Instances of words formed in the same manner, which are common to the Egyptian and the Celtic, will be found at p.38, Appendix A.A striking example of the connexion of the Celtic languages with those of Africa occurs in the region where the respective Physiological peculiarities of North Africa and Negro-land meet. In the vicinity of the river Senegal the line of separation may be said to divide the Iolofs, a Negro nation, from the Fulahs and Phellatahs, whose physical characteristics are of an intermediate nature. Now it is remarkable, that by comparing and as it were uniting the dialects of the Iolofs, the Fulahs, and the Phellatahs, some of the most common Welsh words are obtained essentially unchanged, as in Le oure,“The Moon,”(Fulahs,) Gour, and Gourgne,“A Man,”(Iolofs,) Gourko,“A Man,”(Phellatahs,) Loho,“The Hand,”(Iolofs,) Bourou,“Bread,”(Iolofs,) Bouron,“Bread,”(Fulahs.)Consistently with the principles on which the origin of languages is hereafter explained in this work, I cannot suggest that these coincidences, striking as they are, afford any proof of a specific connexion between the Celtic and African races. But they tend to prove, nevertheless, that language furnishes no positive ground for inferring that the Celts are more nearly allied to the Asiatic than they are to the African races. Hence, since the evidence of Physiology on this subject is also of a negative character, it may be[pg xxxvii]affirmed, with regard both to this race and the Basques, that the opinion that they are of Asiatic descent—opposed as it is by the evidence of history in one, if not in both cases—and by the inferences which Geographical considerations, in both instances, appear to suggest—requires reconsideration.In this place I may observe, that in the course of the following inquiries it will be found true as a general principle, that in direct proportion as the proofs of the General Unity of the different races of the Globe are observed to become more distinct, the evidence which has frequently been relied upon as demonstrative of a specific connexion between particular races will also be observed to become more doubtful, for both the affinities and differences which exist between the languages of contiguous—and those of the most distant—nations, are for the most part so nearly alike in character, and so nearly equal in degree, as to favour the inference that the dispersion of the Human Race must have been exceedingly rapid, and that many ancient nations, such as the Basques and Celts, who in subsequent times were found closely contiguous, must, in the first eras of the world, have been isolated from each other by incessant war and nomade habits, almost as early as the most distant nations were! It is certain that the language of the Welsh does not present either to the Basque or to the Teutonic—dialects of nations located contiguously to their Celtic forefathers—examples of affinity more striking than those just adverted to. Nor are the examples above noticed of the connexion between the Welsh and the African dialects by any means more remarkable than the instances of resemblance between the former tongue and the dialect of the Mandans, a North American Indian Tribe, which have been pointed out by Mr. Catlin! In both cases the same observation applies—an observation based on a principle that will be more fully understood hereafter—viz., that[pg xxxviii]these coincidences are unequivocal proofs of a generic, but not of that kind of specific relation, which implies that these nations were at one time united more intimately than the other families of mankind.Various miscellaneous considerations connected with the primitive migrations of mankind may now he adverted to.Neither the extent nor the physical features of our Globe are such as imply that the spread of population over its surface must necessarily have been the work of many ages. To traverse the habitable earth from the Southern extremity of Africa to the North of Asia, and thence to the extreme Southern point of the American continent, is a task which would require only a small fraction of one man's life! And in the first ages of the Race, Man was probably a Nomade, a Wanderer! It may be inferred, therefore, that in the early ages of the world the diffusion of population was very rapid in the warmer latitudes, while towards the North it was obstructed rather by climate than by any other cause. As population became more dense in the more favoured regions, weaker tribes, it may be surmised, were gradually driven into the steppes of Asia and the wilds of Siberia, whence they may be supposed to have penetrated into Europe on the one hand, and across Behring's Straits into America on the other. With the exception of America, all the great Continents are connected together by districts easily traversed by Man; and Behring's Strait, which is interposed between America and the North-east of Asia, might be passed in the canoes of some of the most barbarous tribes with which we are acquainted.The peopling of Islands is a subject that has been discussed very satisfactorily by Dr. Prichard, and after him by Mr. Lyell. Their conclusion is, that the occasional drifting of canoes by storms and currents, is sufficient to account for the existence of Human population in the most remote[pg xxxix]islands, as is proved by facts related by Kotzebue and others. Several reasons have however been suggested in the following pages, for the conclusion that Australia is a recently peopled country.The geographical distribution of the various languages of the globe seems to render Adelung's arguments for regarding Central Asia as the birth-place of our species eminently convincing. The languages of China and the South-east of Asia are either Monosyllabic, or Tongues that partake of that character; Languages having the same features are spoken through the long chain of islands in the Pacific as far as New Zealand. All the other Tongues of the Globe are Polysyllabic. Now if the birth-place of Man and the focus of migration was in Central Asia, on the borders of Cashmire and Tibet, this division of Languages would necessarily have followed, for it will be observed that Tibet, which is the source of the rivers of the regions to the South-east, would in that case have given inhabitants to the countries of South-eastern Asia, countries which are isolated from all others, for not only are they cut off from Europe, Africa, and Western Asia, by the system of Table-lands and its Mountains, they are also separated from Northern Asia and therefore from America by the Great Desert of Gobi or Shamo. To the Steppes of Northern Asia, and consequently to America as well as to Europe and Africa, the territory of Persia or Iran, which, as has been seen, forms the opposite slope of the system of Table-lands, is the natural route.The relations which the Parsian, the Pehlwi, and the Zend, the ancient dialects of Persia, bear to those of the surrounding countries, seem to be in a highly interesting manner confirmatory of Adelung's views. The Parsian, which was spoken in the South of Persia in the provinces near to India, approaches so closely to the Sanscrit, the ancient language of that country, that Sir William Jones considered the Parsian[pg xl]to have been the parent of the Sanscrit. The Pehlwi, the language of the Parthians who occupied the centre of Persia, a territory that adjoins the Semetic countries, appears very decidedly to be a connecting link between the Semetic languages on the one hand and the Parsian and Zend and the Indo-European tongues, viewed as a class, on the other. The Zend, the dialect of ancient Media, or North Persia, is supposed to be closely allied to the Armenian. The Parsian, Pehlwi, and Zend, respectively bearing these relations to the languages of the neighbouring countries, are closely connected as sister dialects among themselves. These facts tend to show—from the summit of the Western Table-land viewed as a centre, through Persia viewed as a medium—a radiation of language from which a radiation of population may reasonably be presumed.The species of affinity which the ancient Persian dialects display to the languages of the adjoining countries appears to point very distinctly to another highly important conclusion in relation to the early history of mankind, viz., that the diffusion of population over Persia and the contiguous countries must have been a comparatively recent event with reference to the earliest specimens of the Persian and Semetic dialects, &c. After the lapse of a long interval the languages even of contiguous countries lose the traces of original unity. But with regard to modern dialects it can be distinctly shown that those of intermediate districts are connecting links between those of the extremities. Thus the Savoyard connects the French and Italian dialects of the Latin, and those of the North of England are intermediate between the modern English and the Lowland Scotch; Du Ponceau has made a similar remark with regard to the North American Indian dialects spoken by kindred tribes. Septs placed in the centre continue to maintain a certain degree of intercourse with all the tribes by which they are surrounded, a consideration[pg xli]which will account for these results, which probably cannot, in many cases, be referred to different degrees of Genealogical affinity.One of the most striking indications of the Original Unity of the different Races of Men is derivable from the uniformity of the Moral, Mental, and Social Features they display.Though the mind in early infancy may be destitute of positive ideas, it seems to be evident, nevertheless, that our Species has been gifted with Intellectual Faculties, and with Moral Sentiments and Sympathies, which are in the strictest sense innate.18Of this conclusion a striking confirmation is derivable, from the extraordinary sameness which, on a close examination, will be found to prevail in the characters, sentiments, and sympathies of the various branches of the Human Species. Of this truth a few examples will now be noticed.The Negro tribes of Africa have frequently been supposed to belong to an inferior race of Men, an opinion founded—partly on an inadequate conception of the progressive character of the Human species—partly on ignorance of the progress which many Negro nations have actually made. On the one hand it would be difficult to show that the rudest of the African tribes are in a more barbarous condition than the ancestors of some of the most civilized European nations once were! On the other hand, the proofs of a capacity for social improvement are as unequivocal in the former case as they are in the latter! Large and important nations, as for example the Mandingoes and the Iolofs, are found in the interior of Africa, professing the Mahomedan religion, and as far advanced in the virtues and refinements of civilization, as any other nations who are followers of the same creed. In many of these nations the Men are distinguished by a grave and reflective character, and the women are remarkable for their exemplary[pg xlii]discharge of the duties of domestic life. Sections of the Negro race have also been converted to Christianity, including many individuals who have been distinguished not only by a steady conformity to its precepts, but by the zeal and success with which they have fulfilled the high duties of Missionaries among their countrymen, and by the composition of Theological treatises of no inconsiderable merit! (See Dr. Prichard on Man.)It has been already observed that the physiognomy of the Egyptians approaches closely to that of the Negro race, of which it may be regarded as a modification. It has also been pointed out in another part of this work, that the evidence of language favours the inference that Egypt was the source of the various African populations. The discoveries of our age—while they have rendered indisputable the extraordinary arts, high civilization, and vast political power of ancient Egypt—have also served to disclose, in the portraits of individuals of that country, forms of grace and elegance, that serve to link together by the ties of a close and pathetic association, the infancy with the later ages of the world! To adopt the expression of Schlegel, (See Schlegel's Translation of Dr. Prichard's Work on Eg. Mythol.,) the physiognomy of the ancient Egyptians is that of a“very noble race”of men. But it differs very widely from the characteristics of the European nations; in the dignified features of the men, and also in the lineaments of female beauty, the approach to the Negro Physiognomy is often very conspicuous!I may instance the countenance of the Sphynx as affording a specimen of the species of approximation to the Negro Physiognomy which is observable in ancient Egyptian remains!One of the most forcible examples of the susceptibility to[pg xliii]civilization19of nations once very barbarous may be found in a comparison of the character of the ancient Gauls and modern French. When Hannibal invaded Italy he confined his ravages to the possessions of the Romans and spared those of the Gauls; a partial distinction which won the favour of this simple people, who flocked in great numbers to his standard. The Gauls who were in his army at the battle of Cannæ are described as a fierce people, naked from the waist, carrying large round shields, with swords of an enormous size blunted at the point. Yet there cannot be a doubt that the French, one of the most refined and distinguished of modern nations, are lineally descended from this primitive race! (See p.64.) The true answer to the reveries of Pinkerton, with respect to the imputed incapacity of the Celts, is to be found in the literature and science of the French, in whom, owing to the great extent of their country, the original Celtic blood is most probably less unmingled than it is in the Irish, the Welsh, or the Highland Scotch!A comparison of the character of the ancient Gauls and modern French involves also an instructive example of the mode in which the tendency to progression in the Human species is often united with a stability of national character in some features that forms a singular contrast to that tendency. In comparing Cæsar's Commentaries on his Wars in Gaul with the volumes of General Napier, we are struck, in almost every page, with proofs of a coincidence of mental features so minute, that but for the opposite accompaniments on the one hand, of a primitive, and on the other of a modern age, we might imagine we had before us, in these relations, two narratives referring to the same wars, the same sieges,[pg xliv]and the same men! The mind is perplexed to conceive how a nation that has existed in conditions so contrasted, as regards Civilization, could have continued thus uniform in its social and moral features!Striking as these and other proofs which may be adduced of the uniformity of character which has often been maintained by the same nation in different stages of society undoubtedly are, they must cease to excite surprise—though they may be said to acquire even a higher interest—when viewed through the medium of the closely analogous results which will be found to flow from a comparison with the civilized nations of Europe of contemporaneous Tribes still existing in the“Hunter State.”The natives of Australia have generally been thought to occupy the lowest place in the social scale. But from Col. Grey's valuable work it may be inferred that in their devices for catching game and other arts belonging to their rude state, they give proofs of the same intelligence and acuteness as are evinced by other races of men. They have also Songs of War and Love which they sing in tunes most barbarous and discordant. The more refined lays of the European excite mimicry and laughter. But, adds Col. Grey,“Some of the natives are not insensible to the charms of our music. Warrup, a native youth, who lived with me for several months as a servant, once accompanied me to an amateur theatre at Perth, and when the actors came forward and sang‘God save the Queen,’he burst into tears. Hecertainly could not have comprehended the words of the song, and, therefore, must have been affected by the Music alone.”“Nothing can awaken in the breast more melancholy feelings than the funeral chants of these people. They are sung by a whole chorus of females of all ages, and the effect[pg xlv]produced upon the bystanders by this wild music is indescribable.”Many of the Australian words given by Colonel Grey will readily be recognized among the terms collected from the languages of the other Four Continents inAppendix A; as for example: Nganga, Ngon-ge, Tin-dee, Tiendee,“The Sun”and“The Stars.”(See App. A, p.26.) Yanna,“To go,”and Tjênna, Tinna,“The Foot.”(74.) Tullun, Tdallung, Tadlanga,“The Tongue.”(72.) Nago,“To see.”(42,43.) Mena,“The Eye.”(14.) Poou, Puiyu, Poito, Booyoo,“Smoke,”and Bobun,“To blow.”(21.)In the construction of their canoes, the inhabitants of some of the most barbarous islands of the Pacific, exhibit an originality and a variety of conception of precisely the same nature as is displayed in those mechanical inventions by which the sum of European civilization is progressively extended!But in relation to the subject more immediately under examination, far the most valuable and instructive information occurs in Mr. Catlin's account of his residence among the North American Indian Tribes, a work, admirable alike as a living picture of Indian manners and sentiments, and also as an earnest and simple minded, and for that reason an eminently touching and eloquent appeal, on behalf of one of the noblest, though one of the most unfortunate families of the Human Race!“I have roamed about from time to time during seven or eight years,”says the writer,“visiting and associating with some three or four hundred thousand of these people, under an almost infinite variety of circumstances; and from the very many and decidedly voluntary acts of their hospitality and kindness, I feel bound to pronounce them, by nature, a kind and hospitable people. I have been welcomed generally in their country, and treated to the[pg xlvi]best that they could give me, without any charges made for my board; they have often escorted me through their enemies' country at some hazard to their own lives, and aided me in passing mountains and rivers with my awkward baggage; and under all these circumstances of exposure, no Indian ever betrayed me, struck me a blow, or stole from me a shilling's worth of my property that I am aware of.“This is saying a great deal (and proving it too, if the reader will believe me,) in favour of the virtues of these people; when it is borne in mind, as it should be, that there is no law in the land to punish for theft, that locks and keys are not known in their country, that the commandments have never been divulged amongst them, nor can any human retribution fall upon the head of a thief, save the disgrace which attaches as a stigma to his character in the eyes of the people around him.“And thus in these little communities, strange as it may seem, in the absence of all systems of jurisprudence, I have often beheld peace and happiness, and quiet, reigning supreme, for which even kings and emperors might envy them. I have seen rights and virtue protected, and wrongs redressed; and I have seen conjugal, filial and paternal affection, in the simplicity and contentedness of nature. I have unavoidably formed warm and enduring attachments to some of these men, which I do not wish to forget, who have brought me near to their hearts, and in our final separation have embraced me in their arms, and commended me and my affairs to the keeping of the Great Spirit.”Among those tribes which have been placed in contact with the Whites, individuals, generally Chiefs, have acquired all the advantages of a European education, to which in most of these instances are united, dignified and gentlemanlike feelings and manners, qualities which seem to belong to the native American character. Some tribes have been nearly extipated[pg xlvii]by the use of fermented liquors. But some sections of the Indian population have been converted to Christianity, and adopted the habit of total abstinence; others have become industrious cultivators of the soil. Where this race has rejected the benefits of civilization, it seems almost invariably to have arisen from the prejudices naturally excited in their minds by the vices of the worst part of the white population, and the calamities which they have caused by the introduction of ardent spirits! Even those excellent men who have devoted their lives to the religious instruction of the Indians, and by whose efforts it may be inferred that some Tribes have been saved from extinction, have too often found in these prejudices, an obstacle which might perhaps be removed were the missionaries generally to commence by offering to teach some of the simplest arts of civilized life—information of which the benefits would be immediately appreciated—as a means of paving the way for obtaining that confidence which, as religious instructors, they require.The life of constant war and peril to which the Indians are exposed is incompatible withactualSocial advancement. But proofs of a spontaneoustendencyto civilization may be gleaned, as I conceive, from the grace and tastefulness of their dresses—the beautiful lodges many of the Tribes build—and other indications, &c. But of this truth, a still more decisive example occurs, as I venture to think, in the account given by Mr. Catlin of a very interesting tribe, the Mandans, whom, from the evidence of language already noticed and other considerations, he has conjectured to be descendants of Madoc's Colony, and whose personal character and appearance he thus describes:“The Mandans are certainly a very interesting and pleasing people in their personal appearance and manners; differing in many respects, both inlooksand customs, from all othertribes which I have ever seen. They are not a warlike[pg xlviii]people, for they seldom, if ever, carry war into their enemies' country; but when invaded, show their valour and courage to be equal to that of any people on earth. Being a small tribe, and unable to contend on the wide prairies with the Sioux and other roaming tribes, who are ten times more numerous, they have very judiciouslylocated themselves in a permanent village, which is stronglyfortified, and ensures their preservation. By this means they haveadvanced further in the arts of manufacture, and have supplied their lodges more abundantly with the comforts and even luxuries of life than any Indian nation I know of. The consequence of this is that the tribe have taken many steps ahead of other tribes in manners and refinements(if I may be allowed to use the word refinement to Indian life); and are, therefore, familiarly (and correctly) denominated by the Traders and others, who have been amongst them, the‘polite and friendly Mandans.’“There is certainly great justice in the remark, and so forcibly have I been struck with the peculiarease and eleganceof this people, together with thediversity of complexions, the various colours of their hair and eyes, the singularity of their language, and their peculiar and unaccountable customs, that I am fully convinced that they have sprung from some other origin than that of the other North American tribes, or that they are an amalgam of natives with some civilized race.“Here arises a question of very great interest and importance for discussion; and after further familiarity with their character, customs, and traditions, if I forget not, I will eventually give it further consideration. Suffice it then for the present, that theirpersonal appearancealone, independent of their modes and customs, pronounces them at once as more or less than savage.“A stranger in the Mandan village is first struck with the[pg xlix]different shades of complexionand colours of hair which he sees in a crowd, and is at once almost disposed to exclaim that‘these are not Indians!’“There are a great many of these people whose complexions appear aslight as half-breeds; and amongst the women particularly, there are many whoseskins are almost white, with the most pleasing symmetry and proportion of features; with hazel, with gray, and with blue eyes; with mildness and sweetness of expression, and excessive modesty of demeanour, which render them exceedingly pleasing and beautiful!”It has been shown in another part of this work that the language of the Mandans does not prove them to be connected with the Welsh, and that their dialect is of the same character as that of other Indian tribes. Further, did space allow, I might produce some evidence that the Mandans are allied in blood to their hereditary foes, the fierce and warlike Sioux! The phenomena noticed by Mr. Catlin must be explained therefore by the aid of different principles than those to which he has referred.20I conceive then that these various peculiarities of colour, personal appearance, and of manners and social habits, which he noticed amongst the Mandans, may all be viewed as effects of one simple cause, viz. their“judiciously selected location”in“a permanent village,”involving protection from exposure to the seasons on the one hand, and the abandonment of nomade habits on the other. To the former, the changes of complexion—to the latter, the social advances—of the Mandan Tribe may be ascribed!There are numerous other data in Mr. Catlin's work which seem to afford illustrations of the mutability of Human Physiology. The Indians who live among the Whites he describes as“Pale”Red. May not the change implied in[pg l]this expression be referred to an abandonment of their original life of activity and exposure on the wild Prairie, quite as much as to misfortune or a mixture of European blood? The variety of Physiognomy among the different tribes, as shown by his admirable portraits of Chiefs, &c., is very extraordinary. Some of these countenances are ugly and unprepossessing; but in others the finest European features occur! The traits exhibited by these portraits are contrary to the inference which Humboldt's description might suggest, viz., that all the N. A. Indian Tribes resemble the Mongol Race in features as well as in the colour of their skin and the absence of beard.The Indian shows no want of acuteness in detecting the characteristic vices, whether real or imaginary, of the civilized world.“On one occasion, when I had interrogated a Sioux chief, on the Upper Missouri, about their government, their punishments, and tortures of prisoners, for which I had freely condemned them for the cruelty of practice, he took occasion, when I had got through, to ask me some questions relative to modes in the civilized world. He told me he had often heard that white people hung their criminals by the neck and choked them to death like dogs, and those their own people; to which I answered‘Yes.’He then told me he had learned that they shut each other up in prisons, where they keep them a great part of their lives because they can't pay money! I replied in the affirmative to this, which occasioned great surprise and excessive laughter even amongst the women! He told me that he had been to our Fort at Council Bluffs, where we had a great many warriors and braves, and he saw three of them taken out on the prairies and tied to a post and whipped almost to death; and he had been told that they submit to all this to get a little money!“He put to me a chapter of other questions as to the trespasses (of the Whites) on their lands, their continual corruption[pg li]of the morals of their women, and digging open the Indian's graves to get their bones, &c. To all of which I was compelled to reply in the affirmative, and quite glad to close my note book, and quietly to escape from the throng that had collected around me, and saying (though to myself and silently), that these and a hundred others are vices that belong to the civilized world, and are practised upon (but certainly in no instance reciprocated by)‘the cruel and relentless’savage!”It is probable that the finer features of the North American Indian character may be ascribed in a great measure to the elevated nature of their religious belief, which indisputably appears to be quite free from the loathsome and debasing idolatry of the Hindoos and other pagan nations of the Old World.“I fearlessly assert to the world (and I defy contradiction), that the North American Indian is everywhere in his native state a highly moral and religious being, endowed by his Maker with an intuitive knowledge of some great Author of his being and the universe, in dread of whose displeasure he constantly lives, with the apprehension before him of a future state, where he expects to be rewarded or punished according to the merits he has gained or forfeited in this world.”In their native state, in regions remote from the Whites, the Indians are well clothed and fed, cleanly in their habits, cheerful, and healthy. The opposite qualities have been considered to be characteristic of the race, in consequence of the unhappy condition of most of those Tribes who are found among or near the settlements of the Whites, a condition ascribable to the use of ardent spirits, the destruction of the game on which they originally subsisted, and the fraudulent manner in which they have often been deprived of their lands![pg lii]“From what I have seen of these people I feel authorized to say, that there is nothing very strange or unaccountable in their character; but that it is a simple one, and easy to be understood if the right means be taken to familiarize ourselves with it. Although it has dark spots, yet there is much in it to be applauded, and much to recommend it to the admiration of the enlightened world. And I trust that the reader who looks through these volumes with care, will be disposed to join me in the conclusion, that the North American Indian in his native state is an honest, hospitable, faithful, brave, warlike, cruel, revengeful, relentless, yet honorable, contemplative, and religious being.”The tortures practised by the Indians on their prisoners of war are, it seems, inflicted only on a portion of their captives by way of reprisal. The prisoners are for the most part adopted into the conquering tribe. The men are married to the wives of those who have fallen in battle; and those outrages on the weaker sex which have disgraced the armies of civilized Europe are unknown in the annals of Indian warfare!The Indian is reckless of life, and the female sex among these tribes is consigned to a life of servitude. But it must be asked, is the morality of European nations uniformly founded on an earnest regard for the claims of humanity—on a tender respect for the rights and for the sufferings of the weak and defenceless! This is a momentous question, to which an answer at once humiliating and complete may be drawn from one single historical incident described in the following touching passage!After noticing the defective state of the European law of nations in certain respects, the author from whose work the following narrative has been derived, thus proceeds:“The other case in which it seems to me that the law of nations should either be amended, or declared more clearly and enforced[pg liii]in practice, is that of the blockade of towns not defended by their inhabitants, in order to force their surrender by starvation. And here let us try to realize to ourselves what such a blockade is. We need not, unhappily, draw a fancied picture; history, and no remote history either, will supply us with the facts. Some of you, I doubt not, remember Genoa; you have seen that queenly city, with its streets of palaces rising tier above tier from the water, girdling with the long lines of its bright white houses the vast sweep of its harbour, the mouth of which is marked by a huge natural mole of rock, crowned by its magnificent lighthouse-tower. You remember how its white houses rose out of a mass of fig, and olive, and orange trees, the glory of its old patrician luxury; you may have observed the mountains behind the town, spotted at intervals by small circular low towers, one of which is distinctly conspicuous where the ridge of the hills rises to its summit and hides from view all the country behind it. Those towers are the forts of the famous lines; which, curiously resembling in shape the later Syracusan walls inclosing Epipolæ;, converge inland from the eastern and western extremities of the city, looking down the western line of the valley of Pulcevera, the eastern on that of the Bisagno, till they meet as I have said on the summit of the mountains, where the hills cease to rise from the sea and become more or less of a table-land, running off towards the interior at the distance, as well as I remember, of between two and three miles from the outside of the city. Thus a very large open space is inclosed within the lines, and Genoa is capable therefore of becoming a vast entrenched camp, holding not so much a garrison as an army. In the autumn of 1799, the Austrians had driven the French out of Lombardy and Piedmont; their last victory of Fossano or Genola, had won the fortress of Coni or Cuneo close under the Alps, and at the very extremity of[pg liv]the plain of the Po. The French clung to Italy only by their hold of the Riviera of Genoa, the narrow strip of coast between the Apennines and the sea, which extends from the frontiers of France almost to the mouth of the Arno. Hither the remains of the French force were collected, commanded by General Massena, and the point of chief importance to his defence was the city of Genoa.“Napoleon had just returned from Egypt, and was become First Consul; but he could not be expected to take the field till the following spring, and till then Massena was hopeless of relief from without, everything was to depend upon his own pertinacity. The strength of his army made it impossible to force it in such a position as Genoa; but its very numbers, added to the population of the city, held out to the enemy a hope of reducing it by famine; and as Genoa derives most of its supplies by sea, Lord Keith, the British naval Commander in Chief in the Mediterranean, lent the assistance of his naval force to the Austrians, and by the vigilance of his cruizers, the whole coasting trade right and left was effectually cut off. It is not at once that the inhabitants of a great city, accustomed to the daily sight of well-stored shops and an abundant market, begin to realize the idea of scarcity; or that the wealthy classes of society, who have never known any other state than one of abundance and luxury, begin seriously to conceive of famine. But the shops were emptied, and the storehouses began to be drawn upon; and no fresh supply or hope of supply appeared. Winter passed away, and Spring returned, so early and so beautiful on that garden-like coast, sheltered as it is from the north winds by its belt of mountains, and open to the full rays of the Southern Sun. Spring returned, and clothed the hill sides within the lines with its fresh verdure. But that verdure was no more the delight of the careless eye of luxury, refreshing the citizens by its loveliness and softness when[pg lv]they rode or walked up thither from the city to enjoy the surpassing beauty of the prospect! The green hill sides were now visited for a very different object; ladies of the highest rank might be seen cutting up every plant which it was possible to turn to food, and bearing home the common weeds of our road sides as a most precious treasure! The French general pitied the distress of the people; but the lives and the strength of his garrison seemed to him more important than the lives of the Genoese, and such provisions as remained were reserved in the first place for the French army. Scarcity became utter want, and want became famine! In the most gorgeous palaces of that gorgeous city, no less than in the humblest tenements of the poor, death was busy; not the momentary death of battle or massacre, nor the speedy death of pestilence, but the lingering and most miserable death of famine! Infants died before their parents' eyes, husbands and wives lay down to expire together! A man whom I saw at Genoa in 1825 told me that his father and two of his brothers had been starved to death in this fatal siege. So it went on, till in the month of June, when Napoleon had already descended from the Alps into the plain of Lombardy, the misery became unendurable, and Massena surrendered. But before he did so, twenty thousand innocent persons, old and young, women and children, had died by the most horrible of deaths which humanity can endure! Other horrors which occurred besides during the blockade I pass over; the agonizing death of twenty thousand innocent and helpless persons requires nothing to be added to it!“Now is it right that such a tragedy as this should take place, and that the laws of war should be supposed to justify the authors of it? Conceive having been a naval officer in Lord Keith's squadron at that time, and being employed in stopping the food which was being brought for the relief of[pg lvi]such misery! For the thing was done deliberately; the helplessness of the Genoese was known, their distress was known; it was known that they could not force Massena to surrender; it was known that they were dying daily by hundreds; yet week after week, and month after month, did the British ships of war keep their iron watch along all the coast: no vessel nor boat laden with any article of provision could escape their vigilance! One cannot but be thankful that Nelson was spared from commanding at this horrible blockade of Genoa!“Now on which side the law of Nations should throw the guilt of most atrocious murder is of little comparative consequence or whether it should attach to both sides equally: but that the deliberate starving to death of twenty thousand helpless persons should be regarded as a crime in one or in both of the parties concerned in it seems to me self-evident! The simplest course would seem to be that all non-combatants should be allowed to go out of a blockaded town, and that the general who should refuse to let them pass should be regarded in the same light as one who were to murder his prisoners or who were in the habit of butchering women and children.”It is not intended to be suggested that the morality of the more virtuous and religious members of civilized communities is not superior to that of uncivilized races. But that such superiority can be claimed by the mass of the inhabitants of Europe is a proposition of which the evidence must be allowed to be doubtful as regards some—must be allowed, alas! to fail altogether as regards many—of those virtues of which our nature is capable!Yet, notwithstanding many melancholy facts that seem to be repugnant to such a conclusion, there exist satisfactory grounds for inferring that civilization has a direct tendency to[pg lvii]promote the moral improvement of the Human Race, and that our species is probably destined even in this state of existence, to a course not only of social, but also of a moral progression! Of this truth distinct indications may be recognized in the altered sentiments of European nations on many momentous subjects, as evinced in the increasing aversion to wars of aggression—in the general condemnation of the principle—and the extensive abolition of the practice—of slavery, and in the rapid growth of an earnest sympathy, at once generous and humane, with the claims and the sufferings of the more unprotected branches of mankind! Of the practical results of these changes in the moral sentiments of Society—of which Christianity, which teaches that all men are of one blood and of one family, has been the primary source—and of which the English nation—influenced by the example of a few men of extraordinary piety, wisdom, and humanity, to whom it gave birth in the last generation, have been the most conspicuous instruments—one example may be appropriately introduced in this place.“The original proprietors of this fine soil, (the neighbourhood of the Cape of Good Hope,) the poor Hottentots, the fabricated tales of whose filthiness are known to every schoolboy, and have made them proverbial in every nation of Europe, are probably the simplest and most inoffensive of the human race. By open robbery and murder, and by a cruel and persevering system of oppression on the part of the Dutch colonists, they have been reduced to not much more than 15,000 souls. Under the protection of the British government, by the careful instruction of the missionaries, and their increased importance in the colony as labourers since the abolition of the slave trade, their number is now considerably on the increase; General Craig, after the capture of the Cape, brought forward, experimentally, the physical and moral qualities of this most injured and degraded people, by forming them into a military corps, which, in point of discipline, obedience,[pg lviii]instruction and cleanliness, were not at all behind European troops. The truth is that the filthy appearance of the Hottentot was never from choice, but necessity. The anxiety which he now shows to get quit of his sheep-skin clothing for cotton, linen, or woollen, and to keep his person clean, proves that he is far more sensible than the‘Boor’to the comforts of civilized life.‘Whosoever,’says the excellent Mr. Latrobe, the father of the Moravians in this country,‘charges the Hottentots with being inferior to other people of the same class as to education and the means of improvement, knows nothing about them. They are in general more sensible, and possess better judgment than most Europeans, equally destitute of the means of instruction.’At Bavians Kloof, or the Monkey's Ravine, which General Jansens altered into Gandenthal, or the Valley of Grace, 130 miles E. by N. of Cape Town, is an establishment of these poor despised people under the care of missionaries, founded in 1737. It consists of a beautiful village containing 1400 Hottentot inhabitants. Every cottage has a garden, a few of the poor class still wear sheep skins, and their children go naked, but far the greater part of them make a point of providing themselves with jackets and trousers, and other articles of European dress which they already wear on Sundays. Both before and after meals they sing grace in the sweetest tones imaginable. The place externally, appears a little Paradise, and let it be remembered it is only one of a great number of these missionary stations. The Hottentots are of a deep brown or yellow brown colour, their eyes are pure white, their head is small; the face very wide above, ends in a point; their cheek-bones are prominent, their eyes sunk, the nose flat, the lips thick, the teeth white, and the hand and foot rather small. They are well made and tall, their hair is black, either curled or woolly, and they have little or no beard. Barrow and Grandprè conceive them to be of a[pg lix]Chinese origin, they call themselves Gkhui-gkhui, pronounced with a click of the tongue or throat, and say they do not come from the interior, but from over the Sea! The Hottentots are divided into several Tribes.”21The nature of their language shows very clearly that the Hottentots are not closely connected by descent with the Chinese; the tradition that they came originally from a country beyond the sea might apply to the island of Madagascar where a dialect kindred to theirs is spoken. There seems however every reason for concluding, agreeably to Dr. Prichard's views, that the Hottentots are descendants of Colonists impelled by the ordinary causes of migration from the North and Middle of Africa, who, as they finally occupied the farthest extremity, were probably the earliest inhabitants of that Continent. The evidence of language serves in a very striking manner to confirm this conclusion. For proofs of the connexion of the Hottentot dialects with the Egyptian and with the Negro languages, see Appendix A. The Hottentot dialects abound also in words unequivocally identical with the corresponding terms in ancient European and Asiatic languages, as for instance Imine,“A Day,”and Ki,“The Earth,”with the Greek. Surrie, Sore,“The Sun”, with the Sanscrit“Surya.”Mamma,“A Mother,”with the Latin, &c. Bo Aboob,“A Father,”with“Abba,”Hebrew. Tamma,“The Tongue.”(See p.15, &c. &c.) Coincidences of this nature are proofs of that species of generic connexion with all the other races of mankind which might be expected as a consequence of a separation that, judging from the Geographical position of the Hottentot tribes, we may suppose to have occurred in the earliest ages of the world.[pg lx]
The question whether the different branches of the Human Race are descended from one Stock, has been discussed on[pg xxvii]Physiological grounds by Dr. Prichard,14in a work equally remarkable for profound Philosophical and extensive Literary research. After detailing a variety of facts with respect to the distribution of Plants and Animals, he thus expresses his conclusion:“The inference to be collected from the facts at present known, seems to be as follows. The various tribes of organized beings, were originally placed by the Creator in certain regions, for which they are by their nature peculiarly adapted. Each species had only one beginning in a single stock; probably a single pair, as Linnæus supposed, was first called into being in a particular spot, and their progeny left to disperse themselves to as great a distance as the locomotive powers, bestowed on each species, or its capability of bearing changes of climate and other physical circumstances may have enabled it to wander.”According to this writer the varieties of colour, feature, &c. displayed by different races of Men, are the results partly of climate and other external agencies, and partly also of a natural tendency to the manifestation of varieties which may be viewed in the light of a characteristic quality of the Species. Of these propositions the numerous and diversified facts collected by Dr. Prichard appear to furnish perfectly conclusive evidence. Thus he has shown that the characteristic physiognomy of the Negro is found to occur and disappear by nice gradations in strict accordance with the differences of climate throughout the African Continent.The tendency to variety is very manifest, even from facts under our daily observation. Individuals are common among European nations, who exhibit some one or more of the traits of the Negro, as, for example, his woolly hair, thick lips, &c. Among the Negro races have been born individuals of a perfectly white colour. Many of these specimens, according[pg xxviii]to Dr. Prichard, were not Albinos or diseased persons, but indisputable examples of his principle.It is probable that in the infancy of the race, this extraordinary tendency may have served the important purpose of accelerating those physiological changes by which the constitution of Man was adapted to the different climates of the Globe, while, in subsequent ages, climate which determines the physiology of the majority, may be said thereby to neutralize the influence of these exceptions. Diversities of complexion, &c. occur in our own and in neighbouring countries within a very limited area. Thus the dark hair and features of the ancient Silures which were ascribed by the Romans to a Spanish origin, are still observable among their posterity, characteristics of which, I conceive, a satisfactory explanation may be found in the warm and equable temperature of the Southern counties of Wales, caused by the peculiar distribution of land and water.15In these countries many productions, both animal and vegetable, flourish, which are rarely found further North. The Nightingale is common, and the Vine is cultivated frequently. The contrast between the temperature of the coasts of South Wales and that of North Wales has not escaped the attention of the Welsh Bards. Davyth ap Gwilym, a Bard of the fourteenth Century, in a Poem of great beauty, in which he describes himself as writing from the land of“wild,”Gwynedh (North Wales), calls upon the Summer and the Sun to visit with their choicest blessings the genial region of“Morganwg,”(Glamorganshire,) of which he was a native, and alludes to its warm climate and its Vineyards, which seem to have been a conspicuous feature! For some very valuable illustrations of the same principle, I may refer to the account given by the Rev. Thomas Price in his Tour in[pg xxix]Brittany, published in the Cambrian Quarterly Magazine, of the varieties of complexion and stature observable in Upper and Lower Brittany.16From the facts collected by Dr. Prichard, it appears to follow very distinctly, not only that Human Physiology is extremely mutable, but also that the transitions do not occupy a very long interval of time. Thus Jews are resident in the African Kingdom of Kongo, whose complexions are as black as those of the native Negro population. Again on the borders of Negro-land, different sections of the same tribe, speaking the same language, are, in many instances, found variously approaching to or diverging from the Negro standard of colour and physiognomy, according to the latitude or elevation, or other physical features of their respective locations; instances in which the separation—and therefore the physiological differences—must have been recent—for languages change too rapidly to preserve the features of identity or even of a close affinity for a period of long duration! The descendants of the Arabs who overran the North of Africa in comparatively modern times furnish another example; they do not differ in physiognomy from the Berbers, the original inhabitants of the same regions.From these and similar facts it must be inferred—not only that the existing varieties of Human Physiology form no objection to the opinion that the different populations of the Globe are descended from one stock—the same facts lead also to the conclusion, that—with relation to the earliest eras in the History of our species—Physiological peculiarities must be entirely rejected as evidence, either of a specific connexion or of a specific difference between individual races of men, a principle admitting of many highly interesting applications, of which an example will now be offered.[pg xxx]By what road did the first Colonists of Europe reach their final destination? Adelung has inferred that Europe was peopled exclusively from the Steppes of Northern Asia. But for this opinion, it does not seem that any valid reason can be assigned. If we assume Central Asia to have been the focus of migration, it will be observed that there are three routes by which the forefathers of the European nations may have arrived in their final abodes, viz. 1, The Steppes of Northern Asia; 2, Asia Minor and the Hellespont; and 3, The Isthmus of Suez, the North of Africa, and the Straits of Gibraltar. For concluding that either of these three routes was used, to the exclusion of the other two, it would not be easy to point out any strong argument based on Geographical grounds. Now if the third was employed at all it may be inferred that some of the European nations may be even more nearly allied to those of Africa than they are to the Asiatic populations. To this conclusion, however, a formidable objection occurs in the strikingly contrasted Physiology of Africa and Europe, for—even though it should be conceded that these opposite features do not serve to prove an aboriginal difference of race—the question still arises whether they do not, nevertheless, furnish evidence that the nations of these two continents are more remotely related than any other branches of the Human Family; whether they do not point to the inference that the inhabitants of the South and West of Asia—who certainly occupy an intermediate place Physiologically—must not also be regarded as forming a connecting link between those of Europe and Africa in a Genealogical and Historical sense? To these inquiries it will be obvious that the facts just adverted to furnish a very distinct answer, for from those facts it directly follows—not only that climate and other existing causes are sufficient to account for the different Physical peculiarities of the inhabitants of Africa and Europe—but it also follows from the same evidence, that a[pg xxxi]period of time far short of that during which the European and African nations are known to have occupied their present abodes, would have sufficed to superinduce the opposite characteristics they now display! Perhaps it may be inferred, though probably the subject does not admit of a precise conclusion on this head, that in a suitable climate the lapse of 500 or 600 years might be more than adequate to engraft on the physiognomy of Southern Asia all the distinctive peculiarities of the Negro. That these peculiarities had been fully developed in an early era of the History of the World, is manifest from the Egyptian Paintings, in many of which we have individuals of this ill-fated race very vividly depicted, appearing sometimes as tributaries, and on other occasions as captives, leashed together like hounds!Infirm health, and final extirpation, have often attended colonies from the North of Europe settled in tropical climes, incidents that seem to have had great weight with Dr. Prichard himself, as constituting an objection to his views. To this objection, however—independent of the numerous facts of an opposite nature—the following consideration, I conceive, suggests a satisfactory answer. Nature may have provided for gradual transitions of climate such as must have been encountered by a population progressively diffused over the Globe; and that she has done so appears to be distinctly established. But it does not follow that she has made any provision for abrupt changes. These are probably a violation of her dictates, and may have the same tendency to produce disease and death as we know to be incident to sudden and extensive variations of temperature in the same climate and country.The foregoing deductions will be found to have a highly interesting application in relation to the origin of two ancient European races, the Basques and the Celts. If Physiological grounds are dismissed from our consideration, it will probably[pg xxxii]be found that the balance of evidence is in favour of the conclusion that these races have sprung, not from Asiatic colonists, but from emigrants from the coasts of the continent of Africa!This conclusion is strongly favoured by the geographical position in which we find these races placed at the dawn of History. In the earliest ages the Celts and Basques were in possession of all the most western countries of Europe. The Spanish Peninsula, the South of France, and the North of Italy, were divided between them; the remainder of France, the whole of Belgium, Switzerland, and the British Isles, were held by the Celts, while of Sicily and Italy the Basques appear to have been the first inhabitants. (See Dr. Prichard's Works.) Now in connexion with these facts two considerations deserve to be noticed, which, by a reference to the map will be seen to acquire especial force. 1. It will be observed that the original regions of the Celts and Basques are more closely contiguous to Africa than the Eastern countries of Europe are; both Spain, and Sicily (which may be considered a part of Italy,) approaching at certain points very closely to the African coast. 2. If we assume Central Asia to have been the original focus of migration—it will be evident—that nomade septs issuing thence through the Syro-Phœnician countries, and along the North of Africa—would have found a shorter route to the Italian and to the Spanish Peninsulas—than those emigrants who may be supposed to have passed over the Hellespont, or through Northern Asia! Further it may be added, that the regions originally held by the Basques and Celts are precisely those which would have been occupied by the descendants of Colonists who had arrived in Europe from the South-west of Africa if opposed—as we may infer them to have been—by rival Septs impeding their progress towards the East. To the East of the Basque and Celtic regions we find the rest of Europe possessed by[pg xxxiii]the Teutons or Germans, the Finns, the Sclavonians, and the Greeks, nations all located in countries closely contiguous to Asia, to the inhabitants of which continent the evidence of language indisputably proves them all to have been closely related.17That these nations were also the primitive inhabitants of the territories which they still occupy has been pointed out by Dr. Prichard.The conclusion above suggested appears to be supported by the evidence of history. With respect to the Basques, or Iberians, Dr. Prichard has referred to the testimony of classical authorities, which distinctly confirms the opinion that they were an African race. But with regard to the Celts, the same learned writer assumes that they must originally have come from the East. It is remarkable, however, that this conclusion is directly at variance with the current opinions of the Ancients, to which he has referred in the following passage:“The earlier history of the Celtic people is a subject of great interest, but of difficult investigation. Were they the aborigines of Gaul or Germany? According to all the testimony of history, or rather of ancient tradition collected by the writers of the Roman Empire, themigrations of the Gauls werealwaysfrom West to East; the Celtic nations inGermany as well as in Italyand inthe East, were supposed to have been coloniesfrom Gaul, and the Celtæ have been considered as the immemorial inhabitants ofWestern Europe!”(Ethnography of the Celtic Race, in Prichard on Man.)In assuming that the Celts migrated to Europe direct from Asia, Dr. Prichard's views were very naturally influenced by the valuable evidence he has himself adduced of[pg xxxiv]the connexion of the Celtic dialects with the Sanscrit, &c. This evidence, however, has been shown (see p.19) to be quite consistent with the conclusion suggested above, viz. that the Celts may have sprung from emigrants who penetrated into Spain from the opposite coast of Africa.The interesting researches of Humboldt, which have served by the evidence of local names to show that the language of the ancient Iberians was the same as the Basque, have also established, by means of the same evidence, that the Peninsula of Spain, at the time of its subjugation by the Romans, was divided in a very irregular manner between Basque and Celtic tribes.“The Celts,”observes Dr. Prichard,“possessed a considerable part of Spain, comprehending not only the central provinces, but also extensive territories in both of the western corners of the Peninsula, where a population either wholly or partly of Celtic descent remained at the period of the Roman Conquest.”The remainder of Spain was held by Basques or by Celt-Iberian tribes, a mixture of both races.This singular intermingling of the Basques and Celts in the Spanish Peninsula has been a source of many conflicting opinions among the learned, on the question which of these two races were the first inhabitants, and which were the invaders of Spain? The enigma, I conceive, will be most satisfactorily solved by the rejection of the opinion that that country was in the first instance wholly occupied by either! Both may have arrived almost simultaneously, too weak in numbers wholly to engross the new territory on which they thus entered. Each may have thrown out into the most distant provinces weak colonies, consisting of a few nomade families, which afterwards became the foci of powerful Septs. This explanation completely harmonises with the instructive facts which have been developed relative to the North American Indian Tribes, who are still in the“hunter state,”as[pg xxxv]the first colonists of Europe must have been. The languages of a great portion of the North American Indian Tribes have been shown to consist of mere dialects of a few Parent Tongues. But the Septs thus proved to be nearly related are not always contiguous, but often separated by tribes speaking dialects of a different class, a necessary consequence of the roving habits and the imperfect occupation of territory incident to the“hunter state.”An interesting example of the influence of the causes which lead to these results occurs in Mr. Catlin's allusion to a North American Indian Tribe, the Assinneboins, of whom he says:“The Assinneboins are a part of the Dahcotas, or Sioux, undoubtedly; for their personal appearance, as well as their language, is very similar.“At what time, or in what manner, these two parts of a nation got strayed away from each other is a mystery; yet such cases have often occurred, of which I shall say more in future. Large parties who are straying off in pursuit of game, or in the occupation of war, are oftentimes intercepted by their enemy, and being prevented from returning, are run off to a distant region, where they take up their residence and establish themselves as a nation.”(Catlin on the North American Indians, p. 53.)The evidence furnished by their languages is not unfavorable to the supposition that the Basques and Celts may have been of African origin.Though by Humboldt, and some other eminent writers, the Basque has been regarded as distinct from other languages, the examples which occur at the close of this Introduction must, I conceive, serve to remove all doubt as to the identity of the Basques or Iberians with the other branches of the Human Race. Of these examples grammatical differences cannot serve to diminish the force. (See p.89and the chapter on the Chinese Language.) The Basque also shows some[pg xxxvi]traces of a peculiar connexion with the African tongues. Thus its numerals are nearly identical with those of the North African nations, and the formative particle Er is used for similar purposes in the Basque and Egyptian, and in both is placed before the word, a characteristic which distinguishes the African from the European languages. (See p.142.) Thus we have Juan,“To go,”Er-uan,“To cause to go,”(Basque.) Ouini,“Light,”Er-ouini,“To cause Light,”or“To enlighten,”(Egyptian.) Instances of words formed in the same manner, which are common to the Egyptian and the Celtic, will be found at p.38, Appendix A.A striking example of the connexion of the Celtic languages with those of Africa occurs in the region where the respective Physiological peculiarities of North Africa and Negro-land meet. In the vicinity of the river Senegal the line of separation may be said to divide the Iolofs, a Negro nation, from the Fulahs and Phellatahs, whose physical characteristics are of an intermediate nature. Now it is remarkable, that by comparing and as it were uniting the dialects of the Iolofs, the Fulahs, and the Phellatahs, some of the most common Welsh words are obtained essentially unchanged, as in Le oure,“The Moon,”(Fulahs,) Gour, and Gourgne,“A Man,”(Iolofs,) Gourko,“A Man,”(Phellatahs,) Loho,“The Hand,”(Iolofs,) Bourou,“Bread,”(Iolofs,) Bouron,“Bread,”(Fulahs.)Consistently with the principles on which the origin of languages is hereafter explained in this work, I cannot suggest that these coincidences, striking as they are, afford any proof of a specific connexion between the Celtic and African races. But they tend to prove, nevertheless, that language furnishes no positive ground for inferring that the Celts are more nearly allied to the Asiatic than they are to the African races. Hence, since the evidence of Physiology on this subject is also of a negative character, it may be[pg xxxvii]affirmed, with regard both to this race and the Basques, that the opinion that they are of Asiatic descent—opposed as it is by the evidence of history in one, if not in both cases—and by the inferences which Geographical considerations, in both instances, appear to suggest—requires reconsideration.In this place I may observe, that in the course of the following inquiries it will be found true as a general principle, that in direct proportion as the proofs of the General Unity of the different races of the Globe are observed to become more distinct, the evidence which has frequently been relied upon as demonstrative of a specific connexion between particular races will also be observed to become more doubtful, for both the affinities and differences which exist between the languages of contiguous—and those of the most distant—nations, are for the most part so nearly alike in character, and so nearly equal in degree, as to favour the inference that the dispersion of the Human Race must have been exceedingly rapid, and that many ancient nations, such as the Basques and Celts, who in subsequent times were found closely contiguous, must, in the first eras of the world, have been isolated from each other by incessant war and nomade habits, almost as early as the most distant nations were! It is certain that the language of the Welsh does not present either to the Basque or to the Teutonic—dialects of nations located contiguously to their Celtic forefathers—examples of affinity more striking than those just adverted to. Nor are the examples above noticed of the connexion between the Welsh and the African dialects by any means more remarkable than the instances of resemblance between the former tongue and the dialect of the Mandans, a North American Indian Tribe, which have been pointed out by Mr. Catlin! In both cases the same observation applies—an observation based on a principle that will be more fully understood hereafter—viz., that[pg xxxviii]these coincidences are unequivocal proofs of a generic, but not of that kind of specific relation, which implies that these nations were at one time united more intimately than the other families of mankind.Various miscellaneous considerations connected with the primitive migrations of mankind may now he adverted to.Neither the extent nor the physical features of our Globe are such as imply that the spread of population over its surface must necessarily have been the work of many ages. To traverse the habitable earth from the Southern extremity of Africa to the North of Asia, and thence to the extreme Southern point of the American continent, is a task which would require only a small fraction of one man's life! And in the first ages of the Race, Man was probably a Nomade, a Wanderer! It may be inferred, therefore, that in the early ages of the world the diffusion of population was very rapid in the warmer latitudes, while towards the North it was obstructed rather by climate than by any other cause. As population became more dense in the more favoured regions, weaker tribes, it may be surmised, were gradually driven into the steppes of Asia and the wilds of Siberia, whence they may be supposed to have penetrated into Europe on the one hand, and across Behring's Straits into America on the other. With the exception of America, all the great Continents are connected together by districts easily traversed by Man; and Behring's Strait, which is interposed between America and the North-east of Asia, might be passed in the canoes of some of the most barbarous tribes with which we are acquainted.The peopling of Islands is a subject that has been discussed very satisfactorily by Dr. Prichard, and after him by Mr. Lyell. Their conclusion is, that the occasional drifting of canoes by storms and currents, is sufficient to account for the existence of Human population in the most remote[pg xxxix]islands, as is proved by facts related by Kotzebue and others. Several reasons have however been suggested in the following pages, for the conclusion that Australia is a recently peopled country.The geographical distribution of the various languages of the globe seems to render Adelung's arguments for regarding Central Asia as the birth-place of our species eminently convincing. The languages of China and the South-east of Asia are either Monosyllabic, or Tongues that partake of that character; Languages having the same features are spoken through the long chain of islands in the Pacific as far as New Zealand. All the other Tongues of the Globe are Polysyllabic. Now if the birth-place of Man and the focus of migration was in Central Asia, on the borders of Cashmire and Tibet, this division of Languages would necessarily have followed, for it will be observed that Tibet, which is the source of the rivers of the regions to the South-east, would in that case have given inhabitants to the countries of South-eastern Asia, countries which are isolated from all others, for not only are they cut off from Europe, Africa, and Western Asia, by the system of Table-lands and its Mountains, they are also separated from Northern Asia and therefore from America by the Great Desert of Gobi or Shamo. To the Steppes of Northern Asia, and consequently to America as well as to Europe and Africa, the territory of Persia or Iran, which, as has been seen, forms the opposite slope of the system of Table-lands, is the natural route.The relations which the Parsian, the Pehlwi, and the Zend, the ancient dialects of Persia, bear to those of the surrounding countries, seem to be in a highly interesting manner confirmatory of Adelung's views. The Parsian, which was spoken in the South of Persia in the provinces near to India, approaches so closely to the Sanscrit, the ancient language of that country, that Sir William Jones considered the Parsian[pg xl]to have been the parent of the Sanscrit. The Pehlwi, the language of the Parthians who occupied the centre of Persia, a territory that adjoins the Semetic countries, appears very decidedly to be a connecting link between the Semetic languages on the one hand and the Parsian and Zend and the Indo-European tongues, viewed as a class, on the other. The Zend, the dialect of ancient Media, or North Persia, is supposed to be closely allied to the Armenian. The Parsian, Pehlwi, and Zend, respectively bearing these relations to the languages of the neighbouring countries, are closely connected as sister dialects among themselves. These facts tend to show—from the summit of the Western Table-land viewed as a centre, through Persia viewed as a medium—a radiation of language from which a radiation of population may reasonably be presumed.The species of affinity which the ancient Persian dialects display to the languages of the adjoining countries appears to point very distinctly to another highly important conclusion in relation to the early history of mankind, viz., that the diffusion of population over Persia and the contiguous countries must have been a comparatively recent event with reference to the earliest specimens of the Persian and Semetic dialects, &c. After the lapse of a long interval the languages even of contiguous countries lose the traces of original unity. But with regard to modern dialects it can be distinctly shown that those of intermediate districts are connecting links between those of the extremities. Thus the Savoyard connects the French and Italian dialects of the Latin, and those of the North of England are intermediate between the modern English and the Lowland Scotch; Du Ponceau has made a similar remark with regard to the North American Indian dialects spoken by kindred tribes. Septs placed in the centre continue to maintain a certain degree of intercourse with all the tribes by which they are surrounded, a consideration[pg xli]which will account for these results, which probably cannot, in many cases, be referred to different degrees of Genealogical affinity.One of the most striking indications of the Original Unity of the different Races of Men is derivable from the uniformity of the Moral, Mental, and Social Features they display.Though the mind in early infancy may be destitute of positive ideas, it seems to be evident, nevertheless, that our Species has been gifted with Intellectual Faculties, and with Moral Sentiments and Sympathies, which are in the strictest sense innate.18Of this conclusion a striking confirmation is derivable, from the extraordinary sameness which, on a close examination, will be found to prevail in the characters, sentiments, and sympathies of the various branches of the Human Species. Of this truth a few examples will now be noticed.The Negro tribes of Africa have frequently been supposed to belong to an inferior race of Men, an opinion founded—partly on an inadequate conception of the progressive character of the Human species—partly on ignorance of the progress which many Negro nations have actually made. On the one hand it would be difficult to show that the rudest of the African tribes are in a more barbarous condition than the ancestors of some of the most civilized European nations once were! On the other hand, the proofs of a capacity for social improvement are as unequivocal in the former case as they are in the latter! Large and important nations, as for example the Mandingoes and the Iolofs, are found in the interior of Africa, professing the Mahomedan religion, and as far advanced in the virtues and refinements of civilization, as any other nations who are followers of the same creed. In many of these nations the Men are distinguished by a grave and reflective character, and the women are remarkable for their exemplary[pg xlii]discharge of the duties of domestic life. Sections of the Negro race have also been converted to Christianity, including many individuals who have been distinguished not only by a steady conformity to its precepts, but by the zeal and success with which they have fulfilled the high duties of Missionaries among their countrymen, and by the composition of Theological treatises of no inconsiderable merit! (See Dr. Prichard on Man.)It has been already observed that the physiognomy of the Egyptians approaches closely to that of the Negro race, of which it may be regarded as a modification. It has also been pointed out in another part of this work, that the evidence of language favours the inference that Egypt was the source of the various African populations. The discoveries of our age—while they have rendered indisputable the extraordinary arts, high civilization, and vast political power of ancient Egypt—have also served to disclose, in the portraits of individuals of that country, forms of grace and elegance, that serve to link together by the ties of a close and pathetic association, the infancy with the later ages of the world! To adopt the expression of Schlegel, (See Schlegel's Translation of Dr. Prichard's Work on Eg. Mythol.,) the physiognomy of the ancient Egyptians is that of a“very noble race”of men. But it differs very widely from the characteristics of the European nations; in the dignified features of the men, and also in the lineaments of female beauty, the approach to the Negro Physiognomy is often very conspicuous!I may instance the countenance of the Sphynx as affording a specimen of the species of approximation to the Negro Physiognomy which is observable in ancient Egyptian remains!One of the most forcible examples of the susceptibility to[pg xliii]civilization19of nations once very barbarous may be found in a comparison of the character of the ancient Gauls and modern French. When Hannibal invaded Italy he confined his ravages to the possessions of the Romans and spared those of the Gauls; a partial distinction which won the favour of this simple people, who flocked in great numbers to his standard. The Gauls who were in his army at the battle of Cannæ are described as a fierce people, naked from the waist, carrying large round shields, with swords of an enormous size blunted at the point. Yet there cannot be a doubt that the French, one of the most refined and distinguished of modern nations, are lineally descended from this primitive race! (See p.64.) The true answer to the reveries of Pinkerton, with respect to the imputed incapacity of the Celts, is to be found in the literature and science of the French, in whom, owing to the great extent of their country, the original Celtic blood is most probably less unmingled than it is in the Irish, the Welsh, or the Highland Scotch!A comparison of the character of the ancient Gauls and modern French involves also an instructive example of the mode in which the tendency to progression in the Human species is often united with a stability of national character in some features that forms a singular contrast to that tendency. In comparing Cæsar's Commentaries on his Wars in Gaul with the volumes of General Napier, we are struck, in almost every page, with proofs of a coincidence of mental features so minute, that but for the opposite accompaniments on the one hand, of a primitive, and on the other of a modern age, we might imagine we had before us, in these relations, two narratives referring to the same wars, the same sieges,[pg xliv]and the same men! The mind is perplexed to conceive how a nation that has existed in conditions so contrasted, as regards Civilization, could have continued thus uniform in its social and moral features!Striking as these and other proofs which may be adduced of the uniformity of character which has often been maintained by the same nation in different stages of society undoubtedly are, they must cease to excite surprise—though they may be said to acquire even a higher interest—when viewed through the medium of the closely analogous results which will be found to flow from a comparison with the civilized nations of Europe of contemporaneous Tribes still existing in the“Hunter State.”The natives of Australia have generally been thought to occupy the lowest place in the social scale. But from Col. Grey's valuable work it may be inferred that in their devices for catching game and other arts belonging to their rude state, they give proofs of the same intelligence and acuteness as are evinced by other races of men. They have also Songs of War and Love which they sing in tunes most barbarous and discordant. The more refined lays of the European excite mimicry and laughter. But, adds Col. Grey,“Some of the natives are not insensible to the charms of our music. Warrup, a native youth, who lived with me for several months as a servant, once accompanied me to an amateur theatre at Perth, and when the actors came forward and sang‘God save the Queen,’he burst into tears. Hecertainly could not have comprehended the words of the song, and, therefore, must have been affected by the Music alone.”“Nothing can awaken in the breast more melancholy feelings than the funeral chants of these people. They are sung by a whole chorus of females of all ages, and the effect[pg xlv]produced upon the bystanders by this wild music is indescribable.”Many of the Australian words given by Colonel Grey will readily be recognized among the terms collected from the languages of the other Four Continents inAppendix A; as for example: Nganga, Ngon-ge, Tin-dee, Tiendee,“The Sun”and“The Stars.”(See App. A, p.26.) Yanna,“To go,”and Tjênna, Tinna,“The Foot.”(74.) Tullun, Tdallung, Tadlanga,“The Tongue.”(72.) Nago,“To see.”(42,43.) Mena,“The Eye.”(14.) Poou, Puiyu, Poito, Booyoo,“Smoke,”and Bobun,“To blow.”(21.)In the construction of their canoes, the inhabitants of some of the most barbarous islands of the Pacific, exhibit an originality and a variety of conception of precisely the same nature as is displayed in those mechanical inventions by which the sum of European civilization is progressively extended!But in relation to the subject more immediately under examination, far the most valuable and instructive information occurs in Mr. Catlin's account of his residence among the North American Indian Tribes, a work, admirable alike as a living picture of Indian manners and sentiments, and also as an earnest and simple minded, and for that reason an eminently touching and eloquent appeal, on behalf of one of the noblest, though one of the most unfortunate families of the Human Race!“I have roamed about from time to time during seven or eight years,”says the writer,“visiting and associating with some three or four hundred thousand of these people, under an almost infinite variety of circumstances; and from the very many and decidedly voluntary acts of their hospitality and kindness, I feel bound to pronounce them, by nature, a kind and hospitable people. I have been welcomed generally in their country, and treated to the[pg xlvi]best that they could give me, without any charges made for my board; they have often escorted me through their enemies' country at some hazard to their own lives, and aided me in passing mountains and rivers with my awkward baggage; and under all these circumstances of exposure, no Indian ever betrayed me, struck me a blow, or stole from me a shilling's worth of my property that I am aware of.“This is saying a great deal (and proving it too, if the reader will believe me,) in favour of the virtues of these people; when it is borne in mind, as it should be, that there is no law in the land to punish for theft, that locks and keys are not known in their country, that the commandments have never been divulged amongst them, nor can any human retribution fall upon the head of a thief, save the disgrace which attaches as a stigma to his character in the eyes of the people around him.“And thus in these little communities, strange as it may seem, in the absence of all systems of jurisprudence, I have often beheld peace and happiness, and quiet, reigning supreme, for which even kings and emperors might envy them. I have seen rights and virtue protected, and wrongs redressed; and I have seen conjugal, filial and paternal affection, in the simplicity and contentedness of nature. I have unavoidably formed warm and enduring attachments to some of these men, which I do not wish to forget, who have brought me near to their hearts, and in our final separation have embraced me in their arms, and commended me and my affairs to the keeping of the Great Spirit.”Among those tribes which have been placed in contact with the Whites, individuals, generally Chiefs, have acquired all the advantages of a European education, to which in most of these instances are united, dignified and gentlemanlike feelings and manners, qualities which seem to belong to the native American character. Some tribes have been nearly extipated[pg xlvii]by the use of fermented liquors. But some sections of the Indian population have been converted to Christianity, and adopted the habit of total abstinence; others have become industrious cultivators of the soil. Where this race has rejected the benefits of civilization, it seems almost invariably to have arisen from the prejudices naturally excited in their minds by the vices of the worst part of the white population, and the calamities which they have caused by the introduction of ardent spirits! Even those excellent men who have devoted their lives to the religious instruction of the Indians, and by whose efforts it may be inferred that some Tribes have been saved from extinction, have too often found in these prejudices, an obstacle which might perhaps be removed were the missionaries generally to commence by offering to teach some of the simplest arts of civilized life—information of which the benefits would be immediately appreciated—as a means of paving the way for obtaining that confidence which, as religious instructors, they require.The life of constant war and peril to which the Indians are exposed is incompatible withactualSocial advancement. But proofs of a spontaneoustendencyto civilization may be gleaned, as I conceive, from the grace and tastefulness of their dresses—the beautiful lodges many of the Tribes build—and other indications, &c. But of this truth, a still more decisive example occurs, as I venture to think, in the account given by Mr. Catlin of a very interesting tribe, the Mandans, whom, from the evidence of language already noticed and other considerations, he has conjectured to be descendants of Madoc's Colony, and whose personal character and appearance he thus describes:“The Mandans are certainly a very interesting and pleasing people in their personal appearance and manners; differing in many respects, both inlooksand customs, from all othertribes which I have ever seen. They are not a warlike[pg xlviii]people, for they seldom, if ever, carry war into their enemies' country; but when invaded, show their valour and courage to be equal to that of any people on earth. Being a small tribe, and unable to contend on the wide prairies with the Sioux and other roaming tribes, who are ten times more numerous, they have very judiciouslylocated themselves in a permanent village, which is stronglyfortified, and ensures their preservation. By this means they haveadvanced further in the arts of manufacture, and have supplied their lodges more abundantly with the comforts and even luxuries of life than any Indian nation I know of. The consequence of this is that the tribe have taken many steps ahead of other tribes in manners and refinements(if I may be allowed to use the word refinement to Indian life); and are, therefore, familiarly (and correctly) denominated by the Traders and others, who have been amongst them, the‘polite and friendly Mandans.’“There is certainly great justice in the remark, and so forcibly have I been struck with the peculiarease and eleganceof this people, together with thediversity of complexions, the various colours of their hair and eyes, the singularity of their language, and their peculiar and unaccountable customs, that I am fully convinced that they have sprung from some other origin than that of the other North American tribes, or that they are an amalgam of natives with some civilized race.“Here arises a question of very great interest and importance for discussion; and after further familiarity with their character, customs, and traditions, if I forget not, I will eventually give it further consideration. Suffice it then for the present, that theirpersonal appearancealone, independent of their modes and customs, pronounces them at once as more or less than savage.“A stranger in the Mandan village is first struck with the[pg xlix]different shades of complexionand colours of hair which he sees in a crowd, and is at once almost disposed to exclaim that‘these are not Indians!’“There are a great many of these people whose complexions appear aslight as half-breeds; and amongst the women particularly, there are many whoseskins are almost white, with the most pleasing symmetry and proportion of features; with hazel, with gray, and with blue eyes; with mildness and sweetness of expression, and excessive modesty of demeanour, which render them exceedingly pleasing and beautiful!”It has been shown in another part of this work that the language of the Mandans does not prove them to be connected with the Welsh, and that their dialect is of the same character as that of other Indian tribes. Further, did space allow, I might produce some evidence that the Mandans are allied in blood to their hereditary foes, the fierce and warlike Sioux! The phenomena noticed by Mr. Catlin must be explained therefore by the aid of different principles than those to which he has referred.20I conceive then that these various peculiarities of colour, personal appearance, and of manners and social habits, which he noticed amongst the Mandans, may all be viewed as effects of one simple cause, viz. their“judiciously selected location”in“a permanent village,”involving protection from exposure to the seasons on the one hand, and the abandonment of nomade habits on the other. To the former, the changes of complexion—to the latter, the social advances—of the Mandan Tribe may be ascribed!There are numerous other data in Mr. Catlin's work which seem to afford illustrations of the mutability of Human Physiology. The Indians who live among the Whites he describes as“Pale”Red. May not the change implied in[pg l]this expression be referred to an abandonment of their original life of activity and exposure on the wild Prairie, quite as much as to misfortune or a mixture of European blood? The variety of Physiognomy among the different tribes, as shown by his admirable portraits of Chiefs, &c., is very extraordinary. Some of these countenances are ugly and unprepossessing; but in others the finest European features occur! The traits exhibited by these portraits are contrary to the inference which Humboldt's description might suggest, viz., that all the N. A. Indian Tribes resemble the Mongol Race in features as well as in the colour of their skin and the absence of beard.The Indian shows no want of acuteness in detecting the characteristic vices, whether real or imaginary, of the civilized world.“On one occasion, when I had interrogated a Sioux chief, on the Upper Missouri, about their government, their punishments, and tortures of prisoners, for which I had freely condemned them for the cruelty of practice, he took occasion, when I had got through, to ask me some questions relative to modes in the civilized world. He told me he had often heard that white people hung their criminals by the neck and choked them to death like dogs, and those their own people; to which I answered‘Yes.’He then told me he had learned that they shut each other up in prisons, where they keep them a great part of their lives because they can't pay money! I replied in the affirmative to this, which occasioned great surprise and excessive laughter even amongst the women! He told me that he had been to our Fort at Council Bluffs, where we had a great many warriors and braves, and he saw three of them taken out on the prairies and tied to a post and whipped almost to death; and he had been told that they submit to all this to get a little money!“He put to me a chapter of other questions as to the trespasses (of the Whites) on their lands, their continual corruption[pg li]of the morals of their women, and digging open the Indian's graves to get their bones, &c. To all of which I was compelled to reply in the affirmative, and quite glad to close my note book, and quietly to escape from the throng that had collected around me, and saying (though to myself and silently), that these and a hundred others are vices that belong to the civilized world, and are practised upon (but certainly in no instance reciprocated by)‘the cruel and relentless’savage!”It is probable that the finer features of the North American Indian character may be ascribed in a great measure to the elevated nature of their religious belief, which indisputably appears to be quite free from the loathsome and debasing idolatry of the Hindoos and other pagan nations of the Old World.“I fearlessly assert to the world (and I defy contradiction), that the North American Indian is everywhere in his native state a highly moral and religious being, endowed by his Maker with an intuitive knowledge of some great Author of his being and the universe, in dread of whose displeasure he constantly lives, with the apprehension before him of a future state, where he expects to be rewarded or punished according to the merits he has gained or forfeited in this world.”In their native state, in regions remote from the Whites, the Indians are well clothed and fed, cleanly in their habits, cheerful, and healthy. The opposite qualities have been considered to be characteristic of the race, in consequence of the unhappy condition of most of those Tribes who are found among or near the settlements of the Whites, a condition ascribable to the use of ardent spirits, the destruction of the game on which they originally subsisted, and the fraudulent manner in which they have often been deprived of their lands![pg lii]“From what I have seen of these people I feel authorized to say, that there is nothing very strange or unaccountable in their character; but that it is a simple one, and easy to be understood if the right means be taken to familiarize ourselves with it. Although it has dark spots, yet there is much in it to be applauded, and much to recommend it to the admiration of the enlightened world. And I trust that the reader who looks through these volumes with care, will be disposed to join me in the conclusion, that the North American Indian in his native state is an honest, hospitable, faithful, brave, warlike, cruel, revengeful, relentless, yet honorable, contemplative, and religious being.”The tortures practised by the Indians on their prisoners of war are, it seems, inflicted only on a portion of their captives by way of reprisal. The prisoners are for the most part adopted into the conquering tribe. The men are married to the wives of those who have fallen in battle; and those outrages on the weaker sex which have disgraced the armies of civilized Europe are unknown in the annals of Indian warfare!The Indian is reckless of life, and the female sex among these tribes is consigned to a life of servitude. But it must be asked, is the morality of European nations uniformly founded on an earnest regard for the claims of humanity—on a tender respect for the rights and for the sufferings of the weak and defenceless! This is a momentous question, to which an answer at once humiliating and complete may be drawn from one single historical incident described in the following touching passage!After noticing the defective state of the European law of nations in certain respects, the author from whose work the following narrative has been derived, thus proceeds:“The other case in which it seems to me that the law of nations should either be amended, or declared more clearly and enforced[pg liii]in practice, is that of the blockade of towns not defended by their inhabitants, in order to force their surrender by starvation. And here let us try to realize to ourselves what such a blockade is. We need not, unhappily, draw a fancied picture; history, and no remote history either, will supply us with the facts. Some of you, I doubt not, remember Genoa; you have seen that queenly city, with its streets of palaces rising tier above tier from the water, girdling with the long lines of its bright white houses the vast sweep of its harbour, the mouth of which is marked by a huge natural mole of rock, crowned by its magnificent lighthouse-tower. You remember how its white houses rose out of a mass of fig, and olive, and orange trees, the glory of its old patrician luxury; you may have observed the mountains behind the town, spotted at intervals by small circular low towers, one of which is distinctly conspicuous where the ridge of the hills rises to its summit and hides from view all the country behind it. Those towers are the forts of the famous lines; which, curiously resembling in shape the later Syracusan walls inclosing Epipolæ;, converge inland from the eastern and western extremities of the city, looking down the western line of the valley of Pulcevera, the eastern on that of the Bisagno, till they meet as I have said on the summit of the mountains, where the hills cease to rise from the sea and become more or less of a table-land, running off towards the interior at the distance, as well as I remember, of between two and three miles from the outside of the city. Thus a very large open space is inclosed within the lines, and Genoa is capable therefore of becoming a vast entrenched camp, holding not so much a garrison as an army. In the autumn of 1799, the Austrians had driven the French out of Lombardy and Piedmont; their last victory of Fossano or Genola, had won the fortress of Coni or Cuneo close under the Alps, and at the very extremity of[pg liv]the plain of the Po. The French clung to Italy only by their hold of the Riviera of Genoa, the narrow strip of coast between the Apennines and the sea, which extends from the frontiers of France almost to the mouth of the Arno. Hither the remains of the French force were collected, commanded by General Massena, and the point of chief importance to his defence was the city of Genoa.“Napoleon had just returned from Egypt, and was become First Consul; but he could not be expected to take the field till the following spring, and till then Massena was hopeless of relief from without, everything was to depend upon his own pertinacity. The strength of his army made it impossible to force it in such a position as Genoa; but its very numbers, added to the population of the city, held out to the enemy a hope of reducing it by famine; and as Genoa derives most of its supplies by sea, Lord Keith, the British naval Commander in Chief in the Mediterranean, lent the assistance of his naval force to the Austrians, and by the vigilance of his cruizers, the whole coasting trade right and left was effectually cut off. It is not at once that the inhabitants of a great city, accustomed to the daily sight of well-stored shops and an abundant market, begin to realize the idea of scarcity; or that the wealthy classes of society, who have never known any other state than one of abundance and luxury, begin seriously to conceive of famine. But the shops were emptied, and the storehouses began to be drawn upon; and no fresh supply or hope of supply appeared. Winter passed away, and Spring returned, so early and so beautiful on that garden-like coast, sheltered as it is from the north winds by its belt of mountains, and open to the full rays of the Southern Sun. Spring returned, and clothed the hill sides within the lines with its fresh verdure. But that verdure was no more the delight of the careless eye of luxury, refreshing the citizens by its loveliness and softness when[pg lv]they rode or walked up thither from the city to enjoy the surpassing beauty of the prospect! The green hill sides were now visited for a very different object; ladies of the highest rank might be seen cutting up every plant which it was possible to turn to food, and bearing home the common weeds of our road sides as a most precious treasure! The French general pitied the distress of the people; but the lives and the strength of his garrison seemed to him more important than the lives of the Genoese, and such provisions as remained were reserved in the first place for the French army. Scarcity became utter want, and want became famine! In the most gorgeous palaces of that gorgeous city, no less than in the humblest tenements of the poor, death was busy; not the momentary death of battle or massacre, nor the speedy death of pestilence, but the lingering and most miserable death of famine! Infants died before their parents' eyes, husbands and wives lay down to expire together! A man whom I saw at Genoa in 1825 told me that his father and two of his brothers had been starved to death in this fatal siege. So it went on, till in the month of June, when Napoleon had already descended from the Alps into the plain of Lombardy, the misery became unendurable, and Massena surrendered. But before he did so, twenty thousand innocent persons, old and young, women and children, had died by the most horrible of deaths which humanity can endure! Other horrors which occurred besides during the blockade I pass over; the agonizing death of twenty thousand innocent and helpless persons requires nothing to be added to it!“Now is it right that such a tragedy as this should take place, and that the laws of war should be supposed to justify the authors of it? Conceive having been a naval officer in Lord Keith's squadron at that time, and being employed in stopping the food which was being brought for the relief of[pg lvi]such misery! For the thing was done deliberately; the helplessness of the Genoese was known, their distress was known; it was known that they could not force Massena to surrender; it was known that they were dying daily by hundreds; yet week after week, and month after month, did the British ships of war keep their iron watch along all the coast: no vessel nor boat laden with any article of provision could escape their vigilance! One cannot but be thankful that Nelson was spared from commanding at this horrible blockade of Genoa!“Now on which side the law of Nations should throw the guilt of most atrocious murder is of little comparative consequence or whether it should attach to both sides equally: but that the deliberate starving to death of twenty thousand helpless persons should be regarded as a crime in one or in both of the parties concerned in it seems to me self-evident! The simplest course would seem to be that all non-combatants should be allowed to go out of a blockaded town, and that the general who should refuse to let them pass should be regarded in the same light as one who were to murder his prisoners or who were in the habit of butchering women and children.”It is not intended to be suggested that the morality of the more virtuous and religious members of civilized communities is not superior to that of uncivilized races. But that such superiority can be claimed by the mass of the inhabitants of Europe is a proposition of which the evidence must be allowed to be doubtful as regards some—must be allowed, alas! to fail altogether as regards many—of those virtues of which our nature is capable!Yet, notwithstanding many melancholy facts that seem to be repugnant to such a conclusion, there exist satisfactory grounds for inferring that civilization has a direct tendency to[pg lvii]promote the moral improvement of the Human Race, and that our species is probably destined even in this state of existence, to a course not only of social, but also of a moral progression! Of this truth distinct indications may be recognized in the altered sentiments of European nations on many momentous subjects, as evinced in the increasing aversion to wars of aggression—in the general condemnation of the principle—and the extensive abolition of the practice—of slavery, and in the rapid growth of an earnest sympathy, at once generous and humane, with the claims and the sufferings of the more unprotected branches of mankind! Of the practical results of these changes in the moral sentiments of Society—of which Christianity, which teaches that all men are of one blood and of one family, has been the primary source—and of which the English nation—influenced by the example of a few men of extraordinary piety, wisdom, and humanity, to whom it gave birth in the last generation, have been the most conspicuous instruments—one example may be appropriately introduced in this place.“The original proprietors of this fine soil, (the neighbourhood of the Cape of Good Hope,) the poor Hottentots, the fabricated tales of whose filthiness are known to every schoolboy, and have made them proverbial in every nation of Europe, are probably the simplest and most inoffensive of the human race. By open robbery and murder, and by a cruel and persevering system of oppression on the part of the Dutch colonists, they have been reduced to not much more than 15,000 souls. Under the protection of the British government, by the careful instruction of the missionaries, and their increased importance in the colony as labourers since the abolition of the slave trade, their number is now considerably on the increase; General Craig, after the capture of the Cape, brought forward, experimentally, the physical and moral qualities of this most injured and degraded people, by forming them into a military corps, which, in point of discipline, obedience,[pg lviii]instruction and cleanliness, were not at all behind European troops. The truth is that the filthy appearance of the Hottentot was never from choice, but necessity. The anxiety which he now shows to get quit of his sheep-skin clothing for cotton, linen, or woollen, and to keep his person clean, proves that he is far more sensible than the‘Boor’to the comforts of civilized life.‘Whosoever,’says the excellent Mr. Latrobe, the father of the Moravians in this country,‘charges the Hottentots with being inferior to other people of the same class as to education and the means of improvement, knows nothing about them. They are in general more sensible, and possess better judgment than most Europeans, equally destitute of the means of instruction.’At Bavians Kloof, or the Monkey's Ravine, which General Jansens altered into Gandenthal, or the Valley of Grace, 130 miles E. by N. of Cape Town, is an establishment of these poor despised people under the care of missionaries, founded in 1737. It consists of a beautiful village containing 1400 Hottentot inhabitants. Every cottage has a garden, a few of the poor class still wear sheep skins, and their children go naked, but far the greater part of them make a point of providing themselves with jackets and trousers, and other articles of European dress which they already wear on Sundays. Both before and after meals they sing grace in the sweetest tones imaginable. The place externally, appears a little Paradise, and let it be remembered it is only one of a great number of these missionary stations. The Hottentots are of a deep brown or yellow brown colour, their eyes are pure white, their head is small; the face very wide above, ends in a point; their cheek-bones are prominent, their eyes sunk, the nose flat, the lips thick, the teeth white, and the hand and foot rather small. They are well made and tall, their hair is black, either curled or woolly, and they have little or no beard. Barrow and Grandprè conceive them to be of a[pg lix]Chinese origin, they call themselves Gkhui-gkhui, pronounced with a click of the tongue or throat, and say they do not come from the interior, but from over the Sea! The Hottentots are divided into several Tribes.”21The nature of their language shows very clearly that the Hottentots are not closely connected by descent with the Chinese; the tradition that they came originally from a country beyond the sea might apply to the island of Madagascar where a dialect kindred to theirs is spoken. There seems however every reason for concluding, agreeably to Dr. Prichard's views, that the Hottentots are descendants of Colonists impelled by the ordinary causes of migration from the North and Middle of Africa, who, as they finally occupied the farthest extremity, were probably the earliest inhabitants of that Continent. The evidence of language serves in a very striking manner to confirm this conclusion. For proofs of the connexion of the Hottentot dialects with the Egyptian and with the Negro languages, see Appendix A. The Hottentot dialects abound also in words unequivocally identical with the corresponding terms in ancient European and Asiatic languages, as for instance Imine,“A Day,”and Ki,“The Earth,”with the Greek. Surrie, Sore,“The Sun”, with the Sanscrit“Surya.”Mamma,“A Mother,”with the Latin, &c. Bo Aboob,“A Father,”with“Abba,”Hebrew. Tamma,“The Tongue.”(See p.15, &c. &c.) Coincidences of this nature are proofs of that species of generic connexion with all the other races of mankind which might be expected as a consequence of a separation that, judging from the Geographical position of the Hottentot tribes, we may suppose to have occurred in the earliest ages of the world.[pg lx]
The question whether the different branches of the Human Race are descended from one Stock, has been discussed on[pg xxvii]Physiological grounds by Dr. Prichard,14in a work equally remarkable for profound Philosophical and extensive Literary research. After detailing a variety of facts with respect to the distribution of Plants and Animals, he thus expresses his conclusion:“The inference to be collected from the facts at present known, seems to be as follows. The various tribes of organized beings, were originally placed by the Creator in certain regions, for which they are by their nature peculiarly adapted. Each species had only one beginning in a single stock; probably a single pair, as Linnæus supposed, was first called into being in a particular spot, and their progeny left to disperse themselves to as great a distance as the locomotive powers, bestowed on each species, or its capability of bearing changes of climate and other physical circumstances may have enabled it to wander.”According to this writer the varieties of colour, feature, &c. displayed by different races of Men, are the results partly of climate and other external agencies, and partly also of a natural tendency to the manifestation of varieties which may be viewed in the light of a characteristic quality of the Species. Of these propositions the numerous and diversified facts collected by Dr. Prichard appear to furnish perfectly conclusive evidence. Thus he has shown that the characteristic physiognomy of the Negro is found to occur and disappear by nice gradations in strict accordance with the differences of climate throughout the African Continent.The tendency to variety is very manifest, even from facts under our daily observation. Individuals are common among European nations, who exhibit some one or more of the traits of the Negro, as, for example, his woolly hair, thick lips, &c. Among the Negro races have been born individuals of a perfectly white colour. Many of these specimens, according[pg xxviii]to Dr. Prichard, were not Albinos or diseased persons, but indisputable examples of his principle.It is probable that in the infancy of the race, this extraordinary tendency may have served the important purpose of accelerating those physiological changes by which the constitution of Man was adapted to the different climates of the Globe, while, in subsequent ages, climate which determines the physiology of the majority, may be said thereby to neutralize the influence of these exceptions. Diversities of complexion, &c. occur in our own and in neighbouring countries within a very limited area. Thus the dark hair and features of the ancient Silures which were ascribed by the Romans to a Spanish origin, are still observable among their posterity, characteristics of which, I conceive, a satisfactory explanation may be found in the warm and equable temperature of the Southern counties of Wales, caused by the peculiar distribution of land and water.15In these countries many productions, both animal and vegetable, flourish, which are rarely found further North. The Nightingale is common, and the Vine is cultivated frequently. The contrast between the temperature of the coasts of South Wales and that of North Wales has not escaped the attention of the Welsh Bards. Davyth ap Gwilym, a Bard of the fourteenth Century, in a Poem of great beauty, in which he describes himself as writing from the land of“wild,”Gwynedh (North Wales), calls upon the Summer and the Sun to visit with their choicest blessings the genial region of“Morganwg,”(Glamorganshire,) of which he was a native, and alludes to its warm climate and its Vineyards, which seem to have been a conspicuous feature! For some very valuable illustrations of the same principle, I may refer to the account given by the Rev. Thomas Price in his Tour in[pg xxix]Brittany, published in the Cambrian Quarterly Magazine, of the varieties of complexion and stature observable in Upper and Lower Brittany.16From the facts collected by Dr. Prichard, it appears to follow very distinctly, not only that Human Physiology is extremely mutable, but also that the transitions do not occupy a very long interval of time. Thus Jews are resident in the African Kingdom of Kongo, whose complexions are as black as those of the native Negro population. Again on the borders of Negro-land, different sections of the same tribe, speaking the same language, are, in many instances, found variously approaching to or diverging from the Negro standard of colour and physiognomy, according to the latitude or elevation, or other physical features of their respective locations; instances in which the separation—and therefore the physiological differences—must have been recent—for languages change too rapidly to preserve the features of identity or even of a close affinity for a period of long duration! The descendants of the Arabs who overran the North of Africa in comparatively modern times furnish another example; they do not differ in physiognomy from the Berbers, the original inhabitants of the same regions.From these and similar facts it must be inferred—not only that the existing varieties of Human Physiology form no objection to the opinion that the different populations of the Globe are descended from one stock—the same facts lead also to the conclusion, that—with relation to the earliest eras in the History of our species—Physiological peculiarities must be entirely rejected as evidence, either of a specific connexion or of a specific difference between individual races of men, a principle admitting of many highly interesting applications, of which an example will now be offered.[pg xxx]By what road did the first Colonists of Europe reach their final destination? Adelung has inferred that Europe was peopled exclusively from the Steppes of Northern Asia. But for this opinion, it does not seem that any valid reason can be assigned. If we assume Central Asia to have been the focus of migration, it will be observed that there are three routes by which the forefathers of the European nations may have arrived in their final abodes, viz. 1, The Steppes of Northern Asia; 2, Asia Minor and the Hellespont; and 3, The Isthmus of Suez, the North of Africa, and the Straits of Gibraltar. For concluding that either of these three routes was used, to the exclusion of the other two, it would not be easy to point out any strong argument based on Geographical grounds. Now if the third was employed at all it may be inferred that some of the European nations may be even more nearly allied to those of Africa than they are to the Asiatic populations. To this conclusion, however, a formidable objection occurs in the strikingly contrasted Physiology of Africa and Europe, for—even though it should be conceded that these opposite features do not serve to prove an aboriginal difference of race—the question still arises whether they do not, nevertheless, furnish evidence that the nations of these two continents are more remotely related than any other branches of the Human Family; whether they do not point to the inference that the inhabitants of the South and West of Asia—who certainly occupy an intermediate place Physiologically—must not also be regarded as forming a connecting link between those of Europe and Africa in a Genealogical and Historical sense? To these inquiries it will be obvious that the facts just adverted to furnish a very distinct answer, for from those facts it directly follows—not only that climate and other existing causes are sufficient to account for the different Physical peculiarities of the inhabitants of Africa and Europe—but it also follows from the same evidence, that a[pg xxxi]period of time far short of that during which the European and African nations are known to have occupied their present abodes, would have sufficed to superinduce the opposite characteristics they now display! Perhaps it may be inferred, though probably the subject does not admit of a precise conclusion on this head, that in a suitable climate the lapse of 500 or 600 years might be more than adequate to engraft on the physiognomy of Southern Asia all the distinctive peculiarities of the Negro. That these peculiarities had been fully developed in an early era of the History of the World, is manifest from the Egyptian Paintings, in many of which we have individuals of this ill-fated race very vividly depicted, appearing sometimes as tributaries, and on other occasions as captives, leashed together like hounds!Infirm health, and final extirpation, have often attended colonies from the North of Europe settled in tropical climes, incidents that seem to have had great weight with Dr. Prichard himself, as constituting an objection to his views. To this objection, however—independent of the numerous facts of an opposite nature—the following consideration, I conceive, suggests a satisfactory answer. Nature may have provided for gradual transitions of climate such as must have been encountered by a population progressively diffused over the Globe; and that she has done so appears to be distinctly established. But it does not follow that she has made any provision for abrupt changes. These are probably a violation of her dictates, and may have the same tendency to produce disease and death as we know to be incident to sudden and extensive variations of temperature in the same climate and country.The foregoing deductions will be found to have a highly interesting application in relation to the origin of two ancient European races, the Basques and the Celts. If Physiological grounds are dismissed from our consideration, it will probably[pg xxxii]be found that the balance of evidence is in favour of the conclusion that these races have sprung, not from Asiatic colonists, but from emigrants from the coasts of the continent of Africa!This conclusion is strongly favoured by the geographical position in which we find these races placed at the dawn of History. In the earliest ages the Celts and Basques were in possession of all the most western countries of Europe. The Spanish Peninsula, the South of France, and the North of Italy, were divided between them; the remainder of France, the whole of Belgium, Switzerland, and the British Isles, were held by the Celts, while of Sicily and Italy the Basques appear to have been the first inhabitants. (See Dr. Prichard's Works.) Now in connexion with these facts two considerations deserve to be noticed, which, by a reference to the map will be seen to acquire especial force. 1. It will be observed that the original regions of the Celts and Basques are more closely contiguous to Africa than the Eastern countries of Europe are; both Spain, and Sicily (which may be considered a part of Italy,) approaching at certain points very closely to the African coast. 2. If we assume Central Asia to have been the original focus of migration—it will be evident—that nomade septs issuing thence through the Syro-Phœnician countries, and along the North of Africa—would have found a shorter route to the Italian and to the Spanish Peninsulas—than those emigrants who may be supposed to have passed over the Hellespont, or through Northern Asia! Further it may be added, that the regions originally held by the Basques and Celts are precisely those which would have been occupied by the descendants of Colonists who had arrived in Europe from the South-west of Africa if opposed—as we may infer them to have been—by rival Septs impeding their progress towards the East. To the East of the Basque and Celtic regions we find the rest of Europe possessed by[pg xxxiii]the Teutons or Germans, the Finns, the Sclavonians, and the Greeks, nations all located in countries closely contiguous to Asia, to the inhabitants of which continent the evidence of language indisputably proves them all to have been closely related.17That these nations were also the primitive inhabitants of the territories which they still occupy has been pointed out by Dr. Prichard.The conclusion above suggested appears to be supported by the evidence of history. With respect to the Basques, or Iberians, Dr. Prichard has referred to the testimony of classical authorities, which distinctly confirms the opinion that they were an African race. But with regard to the Celts, the same learned writer assumes that they must originally have come from the East. It is remarkable, however, that this conclusion is directly at variance with the current opinions of the Ancients, to which he has referred in the following passage:“The earlier history of the Celtic people is a subject of great interest, but of difficult investigation. Were they the aborigines of Gaul or Germany? According to all the testimony of history, or rather of ancient tradition collected by the writers of the Roman Empire, themigrations of the Gauls werealwaysfrom West to East; the Celtic nations inGermany as well as in Italyand inthe East, were supposed to have been coloniesfrom Gaul, and the Celtæ have been considered as the immemorial inhabitants ofWestern Europe!”(Ethnography of the Celtic Race, in Prichard on Man.)In assuming that the Celts migrated to Europe direct from Asia, Dr. Prichard's views were very naturally influenced by the valuable evidence he has himself adduced of[pg xxxiv]the connexion of the Celtic dialects with the Sanscrit, &c. This evidence, however, has been shown (see p.19) to be quite consistent with the conclusion suggested above, viz. that the Celts may have sprung from emigrants who penetrated into Spain from the opposite coast of Africa.The interesting researches of Humboldt, which have served by the evidence of local names to show that the language of the ancient Iberians was the same as the Basque, have also established, by means of the same evidence, that the Peninsula of Spain, at the time of its subjugation by the Romans, was divided in a very irregular manner between Basque and Celtic tribes.“The Celts,”observes Dr. Prichard,“possessed a considerable part of Spain, comprehending not only the central provinces, but also extensive territories in both of the western corners of the Peninsula, where a population either wholly or partly of Celtic descent remained at the period of the Roman Conquest.”The remainder of Spain was held by Basques or by Celt-Iberian tribes, a mixture of both races.This singular intermingling of the Basques and Celts in the Spanish Peninsula has been a source of many conflicting opinions among the learned, on the question which of these two races were the first inhabitants, and which were the invaders of Spain? The enigma, I conceive, will be most satisfactorily solved by the rejection of the opinion that that country was in the first instance wholly occupied by either! Both may have arrived almost simultaneously, too weak in numbers wholly to engross the new territory on which they thus entered. Each may have thrown out into the most distant provinces weak colonies, consisting of a few nomade families, which afterwards became the foci of powerful Septs. This explanation completely harmonises with the instructive facts which have been developed relative to the North American Indian Tribes, who are still in the“hunter state,”as[pg xxxv]the first colonists of Europe must have been. The languages of a great portion of the North American Indian Tribes have been shown to consist of mere dialects of a few Parent Tongues. But the Septs thus proved to be nearly related are not always contiguous, but often separated by tribes speaking dialects of a different class, a necessary consequence of the roving habits and the imperfect occupation of territory incident to the“hunter state.”An interesting example of the influence of the causes which lead to these results occurs in Mr. Catlin's allusion to a North American Indian Tribe, the Assinneboins, of whom he says:“The Assinneboins are a part of the Dahcotas, or Sioux, undoubtedly; for their personal appearance, as well as their language, is very similar.“At what time, or in what manner, these two parts of a nation got strayed away from each other is a mystery; yet such cases have often occurred, of which I shall say more in future. Large parties who are straying off in pursuit of game, or in the occupation of war, are oftentimes intercepted by their enemy, and being prevented from returning, are run off to a distant region, where they take up their residence and establish themselves as a nation.”(Catlin on the North American Indians, p. 53.)The evidence furnished by their languages is not unfavorable to the supposition that the Basques and Celts may have been of African origin.Though by Humboldt, and some other eminent writers, the Basque has been regarded as distinct from other languages, the examples which occur at the close of this Introduction must, I conceive, serve to remove all doubt as to the identity of the Basques or Iberians with the other branches of the Human Race. Of these examples grammatical differences cannot serve to diminish the force. (See p.89and the chapter on the Chinese Language.) The Basque also shows some[pg xxxvi]traces of a peculiar connexion with the African tongues. Thus its numerals are nearly identical with those of the North African nations, and the formative particle Er is used for similar purposes in the Basque and Egyptian, and in both is placed before the word, a characteristic which distinguishes the African from the European languages. (See p.142.) Thus we have Juan,“To go,”Er-uan,“To cause to go,”(Basque.) Ouini,“Light,”Er-ouini,“To cause Light,”or“To enlighten,”(Egyptian.) Instances of words formed in the same manner, which are common to the Egyptian and the Celtic, will be found at p.38, Appendix A.A striking example of the connexion of the Celtic languages with those of Africa occurs in the region where the respective Physiological peculiarities of North Africa and Negro-land meet. In the vicinity of the river Senegal the line of separation may be said to divide the Iolofs, a Negro nation, from the Fulahs and Phellatahs, whose physical characteristics are of an intermediate nature. Now it is remarkable, that by comparing and as it were uniting the dialects of the Iolofs, the Fulahs, and the Phellatahs, some of the most common Welsh words are obtained essentially unchanged, as in Le oure,“The Moon,”(Fulahs,) Gour, and Gourgne,“A Man,”(Iolofs,) Gourko,“A Man,”(Phellatahs,) Loho,“The Hand,”(Iolofs,) Bourou,“Bread,”(Iolofs,) Bouron,“Bread,”(Fulahs.)Consistently with the principles on which the origin of languages is hereafter explained in this work, I cannot suggest that these coincidences, striking as they are, afford any proof of a specific connexion between the Celtic and African races. But they tend to prove, nevertheless, that language furnishes no positive ground for inferring that the Celts are more nearly allied to the Asiatic than they are to the African races. Hence, since the evidence of Physiology on this subject is also of a negative character, it may be[pg xxxvii]affirmed, with regard both to this race and the Basques, that the opinion that they are of Asiatic descent—opposed as it is by the evidence of history in one, if not in both cases—and by the inferences which Geographical considerations, in both instances, appear to suggest—requires reconsideration.In this place I may observe, that in the course of the following inquiries it will be found true as a general principle, that in direct proportion as the proofs of the General Unity of the different races of the Globe are observed to become more distinct, the evidence which has frequently been relied upon as demonstrative of a specific connexion between particular races will also be observed to become more doubtful, for both the affinities and differences which exist between the languages of contiguous—and those of the most distant—nations, are for the most part so nearly alike in character, and so nearly equal in degree, as to favour the inference that the dispersion of the Human Race must have been exceedingly rapid, and that many ancient nations, such as the Basques and Celts, who in subsequent times were found closely contiguous, must, in the first eras of the world, have been isolated from each other by incessant war and nomade habits, almost as early as the most distant nations were! It is certain that the language of the Welsh does not present either to the Basque or to the Teutonic—dialects of nations located contiguously to their Celtic forefathers—examples of affinity more striking than those just adverted to. Nor are the examples above noticed of the connexion between the Welsh and the African dialects by any means more remarkable than the instances of resemblance between the former tongue and the dialect of the Mandans, a North American Indian Tribe, which have been pointed out by Mr. Catlin! In both cases the same observation applies—an observation based on a principle that will be more fully understood hereafter—viz., that[pg xxxviii]these coincidences are unequivocal proofs of a generic, but not of that kind of specific relation, which implies that these nations were at one time united more intimately than the other families of mankind.Various miscellaneous considerations connected with the primitive migrations of mankind may now he adverted to.Neither the extent nor the physical features of our Globe are such as imply that the spread of population over its surface must necessarily have been the work of many ages. To traverse the habitable earth from the Southern extremity of Africa to the North of Asia, and thence to the extreme Southern point of the American continent, is a task which would require only a small fraction of one man's life! And in the first ages of the Race, Man was probably a Nomade, a Wanderer! It may be inferred, therefore, that in the early ages of the world the diffusion of population was very rapid in the warmer latitudes, while towards the North it was obstructed rather by climate than by any other cause. As population became more dense in the more favoured regions, weaker tribes, it may be surmised, were gradually driven into the steppes of Asia and the wilds of Siberia, whence they may be supposed to have penetrated into Europe on the one hand, and across Behring's Straits into America on the other. With the exception of America, all the great Continents are connected together by districts easily traversed by Man; and Behring's Strait, which is interposed between America and the North-east of Asia, might be passed in the canoes of some of the most barbarous tribes with which we are acquainted.The peopling of Islands is a subject that has been discussed very satisfactorily by Dr. Prichard, and after him by Mr. Lyell. Their conclusion is, that the occasional drifting of canoes by storms and currents, is sufficient to account for the existence of Human population in the most remote[pg xxxix]islands, as is proved by facts related by Kotzebue and others. Several reasons have however been suggested in the following pages, for the conclusion that Australia is a recently peopled country.The geographical distribution of the various languages of the globe seems to render Adelung's arguments for regarding Central Asia as the birth-place of our species eminently convincing. The languages of China and the South-east of Asia are either Monosyllabic, or Tongues that partake of that character; Languages having the same features are spoken through the long chain of islands in the Pacific as far as New Zealand. All the other Tongues of the Globe are Polysyllabic. Now if the birth-place of Man and the focus of migration was in Central Asia, on the borders of Cashmire and Tibet, this division of Languages would necessarily have followed, for it will be observed that Tibet, which is the source of the rivers of the regions to the South-east, would in that case have given inhabitants to the countries of South-eastern Asia, countries which are isolated from all others, for not only are they cut off from Europe, Africa, and Western Asia, by the system of Table-lands and its Mountains, they are also separated from Northern Asia and therefore from America by the Great Desert of Gobi or Shamo. To the Steppes of Northern Asia, and consequently to America as well as to Europe and Africa, the territory of Persia or Iran, which, as has been seen, forms the opposite slope of the system of Table-lands, is the natural route.The relations which the Parsian, the Pehlwi, and the Zend, the ancient dialects of Persia, bear to those of the surrounding countries, seem to be in a highly interesting manner confirmatory of Adelung's views. The Parsian, which was spoken in the South of Persia in the provinces near to India, approaches so closely to the Sanscrit, the ancient language of that country, that Sir William Jones considered the Parsian[pg xl]to have been the parent of the Sanscrit. The Pehlwi, the language of the Parthians who occupied the centre of Persia, a territory that adjoins the Semetic countries, appears very decidedly to be a connecting link between the Semetic languages on the one hand and the Parsian and Zend and the Indo-European tongues, viewed as a class, on the other. The Zend, the dialect of ancient Media, or North Persia, is supposed to be closely allied to the Armenian. The Parsian, Pehlwi, and Zend, respectively bearing these relations to the languages of the neighbouring countries, are closely connected as sister dialects among themselves. These facts tend to show—from the summit of the Western Table-land viewed as a centre, through Persia viewed as a medium—a radiation of language from which a radiation of population may reasonably be presumed.The species of affinity which the ancient Persian dialects display to the languages of the adjoining countries appears to point very distinctly to another highly important conclusion in relation to the early history of mankind, viz., that the diffusion of population over Persia and the contiguous countries must have been a comparatively recent event with reference to the earliest specimens of the Persian and Semetic dialects, &c. After the lapse of a long interval the languages even of contiguous countries lose the traces of original unity. But with regard to modern dialects it can be distinctly shown that those of intermediate districts are connecting links between those of the extremities. Thus the Savoyard connects the French and Italian dialects of the Latin, and those of the North of England are intermediate between the modern English and the Lowland Scotch; Du Ponceau has made a similar remark with regard to the North American Indian dialects spoken by kindred tribes. Septs placed in the centre continue to maintain a certain degree of intercourse with all the tribes by which they are surrounded, a consideration[pg xli]which will account for these results, which probably cannot, in many cases, be referred to different degrees of Genealogical affinity.One of the most striking indications of the Original Unity of the different Races of Men is derivable from the uniformity of the Moral, Mental, and Social Features they display.Though the mind in early infancy may be destitute of positive ideas, it seems to be evident, nevertheless, that our Species has been gifted with Intellectual Faculties, and with Moral Sentiments and Sympathies, which are in the strictest sense innate.18Of this conclusion a striking confirmation is derivable, from the extraordinary sameness which, on a close examination, will be found to prevail in the characters, sentiments, and sympathies of the various branches of the Human Species. Of this truth a few examples will now be noticed.The Negro tribes of Africa have frequently been supposed to belong to an inferior race of Men, an opinion founded—partly on an inadequate conception of the progressive character of the Human species—partly on ignorance of the progress which many Negro nations have actually made. On the one hand it would be difficult to show that the rudest of the African tribes are in a more barbarous condition than the ancestors of some of the most civilized European nations once were! On the other hand, the proofs of a capacity for social improvement are as unequivocal in the former case as they are in the latter! Large and important nations, as for example the Mandingoes and the Iolofs, are found in the interior of Africa, professing the Mahomedan religion, and as far advanced in the virtues and refinements of civilization, as any other nations who are followers of the same creed. In many of these nations the Men are distinguished by a grave and reflective character, and the women are remarkable for their exemplary[pg xlii]discharge of the duties of domestic life. Sections of the Negro race have also been converted to Christianity, including many individuals who have been distinguished not only by a steady conformity to its precepts, but by the zeal and success with which they have fulfilled the high duties of Missionaries among their countrymen, and by the composition of Theological treatises of no inconsiderable merit! (See Dr. Prichard on Man.)It has been already observed that the physiognomy of the Egyptians approaches closely to that of the Negro race, of which it may be regarded as a modification. It has also been pointed out in another part of this work, that the evidence of language favours the inference that Egypt was the source of the various African populations. The discoveries of our age—while they have rendered indisputable the extraordinary arts, high civilization, and vast political power of ancient Egypt—have also served to disclose, in the portraits of individuals of that country, forms of grace and elegance, that serve to link together by the ties of a close and pathetic association, the infancy with the later ages of the world! To adopt the expression of Schlegel, (See Schlegel's Translation of Dr. Prichard's Work on Eg. Mythol.,) the physiognomy of the ancient Egyptians is that of a“very noble race”of men. But it differs very widely from the characteristics of the European nations; in the dignified features of the men, and also in the lineaments of female beauty, the approach to the Negro Physiognomy is often very conspicuous!I may instance the countenance of the Sphynx as affording a specimen of the species of approximation to the Negro Physiognomy which is observable in ancient Egyptian remains!One of the most forcible examples of the susceptibility to[pg xliii]civilization19of nations once very barbarous may be found in a comparison of the character of the ancient Gauls and modern French. When Hannibal invaded Italy he confined his ravages to the possessions of the Romans and spared those of the Gauls; a partial distinction which won the favour of this simple people, who flocked in great numbers to his standard. The Gauls who were in his army at the battle of Cannæ are described as a fierce people, naked from the waist, carrying large round shields, with swords of an enormous size blunted at the point. Yet there cannot be a doubt that the French, one of the most refined and distinguished of modern nations, are lineally descended from this primitive race! (See p.64.) The true answer to the reveries of Pinkerton, with respect to the imputed incapacity of the Celts, is to be found in the literature and science of the French, in whom, owing to the great extent of their country, the original Celtic blood is most probably less unmingled than it is in the Irish, the Welsh, or the Highland Scotch!A comparison of the character of the ancient Gauls and modern French involves also an instructive example of the mode in which the tendency to progression in the Human species is often united with a stability of national character in some features that forms a singular contrast to that tendency. In comparing Cæsar's Commentaries on his Wars in Gaul with the volumes of General Napier, we are struck, in almost every page, with proofs of a coincidence of mental features so minute, that but for the opposite accompaniments on the one hand, of a primitive, and on the other of a modern age, we might imagine we had before us, in these relations, two narratives referring to the same wars, the same sieges,[pg xliv]and the same men! The mind is perplexed to conceive how a nation that has existed in conditions so contrasted, as regards Civilization, could have continued thus uniform in its social and moral features!Striking as these and other proofs which may be adduced of the uniformity of character which has often been maintained by the same nation in different stages of society undoubtedly are, they must cease to excite surprise—though they may be said to acquire even a higher interest—when viewed through the medium of the closely analogous results which will be found to flow from a comparison with the civilized nations of Europe of contemporaneous Tribes still existing in the“Hunter State.”The natives of Australia have generally been thought to occupy the lowest place in the social scale. But from Col. Grey's valuable work it may be inferred that in their devices for catching game and other arts belonging to their rude state, they give proofs of the same intelligence and acuteness as are evinced by other races of men. They have also Songs of War and Love which they sing in tunes most barbarous and discordant. The more refined lays of the European excite mimicry and laughter. But, adds Col. Grey,“Some of the natives are not insensible to the charms of our music. Warrup, a native youth, who lived with me for several months as a servant, once accompanied me to an amateur theatre at Perth, and when the actors came forward and sang‘God save the Queen,’he burst into tears. Hecertainly could not have comprehended the words of the song, and, therefore, must have been affected by the Music alone.”“Nothing can awaken in the breast more melancholy feelings than the funeral chants of these people. They are sung by a whole chorus of females of all ages, and the effect[pg xlv]produced upon the bystanders by this wild music is indescribable.”Many of the Australian words given by Colonel Grey will readily be recognized among the terms collected from the languages of the other Four Continents inAppendix A; as for example: Nganga, Ngon-ge, Tin-dee, Tiendee,“The Sun”and“The Stars.”(See App. A, p.26.) Yanna,“To go,”and Tjênna, Tinna,“The Foot.”(74.) Tullun, Tdallung, Tadlanga,“The Tongue.”(72.) Nago,“To see.”(42,43.) Mena,“The Eye.”(14.) Poou, Puiyu, Poito, Booyoo,“Smoke,”and Bobun,“To blow.”(21.)In the construction of their canoes, the inhabitants of some of the most barbarous islands of the Pacific, exhibit an originality and a variety of conception of precisely the same nature as is displayed in those mechanical inventions by which the sum of European civilization is progressively extended!But in relation to the subject more immediately under examination, far the most valuable and instructive information occurs in Mr. Catlin's account of his residence among the North American Indian Tribes, a work, admirable alike as a living picture of Indian manners and sentiments, and also as an earnest and simple minded, and for that reason an eminently touching and eloquent appeal, on behalf of one of the noblest, though one of the most unfortunate families of the Human Race!“I have roamed about from time to time during seven or eight years,”says the writer,“visiting and associating with some three or four hundred thousand of these people, under an almost infinite variety of circumstances; and from the very many and decidedly voluntary acts of their hospitality and kindness, I feel bound to pronounce them, by nature, a kind and hospitable people. I have been welcomed generally in their country, and treated to the[pg xlvi]best that they could give me, without any charges made for my board; they have often escorted me through their enemies' country at some hazard to their own lives, and aided me in passing mountains and rivers with my awkward baggage; and under all these circumstances of exposure, no Indian ever betrayed me, struck me a blow, or stole from me a shilling's worth of my property that I am aware of.“This is saying a great deal (and proving it too, if the reader will believe me,) in favour of the virtues of these people; when it is borne in mind, as it should be, that there is no law in the land to punish for theft, that locks and keys are not known in their country, that the commandments have never been divulged amongst them, nor can any human retribution fall upon the head of a thief, save the disgrace which attaches as a stigma to his character in the eyes of the people around him.“And thus in these little communities, strange as it may seem, in the absence of all systems of jurisprudence, I have often beheld peace and happiness, and quiet, reigning supreme, for which even kings and emperors might envy them. I have seen rights and virtue protected, and wrongs redressed; and I have seen conjugal, filial and paternal affection, in the simplicity and contentedness of nature. I have unavoidably formed warm and enduring attachments to some of these men, which I do not wish to forget, who have brought me near to their hearts, and in our final separation have embraced me in their arms, and commended me and my affairs to the keeping of the Great Spirit.”Among those tribes which have been placed in contact with the Whites, individuals, generally Chiefs, have acquired all the advantages of a European education, to which in most of these instances are united, dignified and gentlemanlike feelings and manners, qualities which seem to belong to the native American character. Some tribes have been nearly extipated[pg xlvii]by the use of fermented liquors. But some sections of the Indian population have been converted to Christianity, and adopted the habit of total abstinence; others have become industrious cultivators of the soil. Where this race has rejected the benefits of civilization, it seems almost invariably to have arisen from the prejudices naturally excited in their minds by the vices of the worst part of the white population, and the calamities which they have caused by the introduction of ardent spirits! Even those excellent men who have devoted their lives to the religious instruction of the Indians, and by whose efforts it may be inferred that some Tribes have been saved from extinction, have too often found in these prejudices, an obstacle which might perhaps be removed were the missionaries generally to commence by offering to teach some of the simplest arts of civilized life—information of which the benefits would be immediately appreciated—as a means of paving the way for obtaining that confidence which, as religious instructors, they require.The life of constant war and peril to which the Indians are exposed is incompatible withactualSocial advancement. But proofs of a spontaneoustendencyto civilization may be gleaned, as I conceive, from the grace and tastefulness of their dresses—the beautiful lodges many of the Tribes build—and other indications, &c. But of this truth, a still more decisive example occurs, as I venture to think, in the account given by Mr. Catlin of a very interesting tribe, the Mandans, whom, from the evidence of language already noticed and other considerations, he has conjectured to be descendants of Madoc's Colony, and whose personal character and appearance he thus describes:“The Mandans are certainly a very interesting and pleasing people in their personal appearance and manners; differing in many respects, both inlooksand customs, from all othertribes which I have ever seen. They are not a warlike[pg xlviii]people, for they seldom, if ever, carry war into their enemies' country; but when invaded, show their valour and courage to be equal to that of any people on earth. Being a small tribe, and unable to contend on the wide prairies with the Sioux and other roaming tribes, who are ten times more numerous, they have very judiciouslylocated themselves in a permanent village, which is stronglyfortified, and ensures their preservation. By this means they haveadvanced further in the arts of manufacture, and have supplied their lodges more abundantly with the comforts and even luxuries of life than any Indian nation I know of. The consequence of this is that the tribe have taken many steps ahead of other tribes in manners and refinements(if I may be allowed to use the word refinement to Indian life); and are, therefore, familiarly (and correctly) denominated by the Traders and others, who have been amongst them, the‘polite and friendly Mandans.’“There is certainly great justice in the remark, and so forcibly have I been struck with the peculiarease and eleganceof this people, together with thediversity of complexions, the various colours of their hair and eyes, the singularity of their language, and their peculiar and unaccountable customs, that I am fully convinced that they have sprung from some other origin than that of the other North American tribes, or that they are an amalgam of natives with some civilized race.“Here arises a question of very great interest and importance for discussion; and after further familiarity with their character, customs, and traditions, if I forget not, I will eventually give it further consideration. Suffice it then for the present, that theirpersonal appearancealone, independent of their modes and customs, pronounces them at once as more or less than savage.“A stranger in the Mandan village is first struck with the[pg xlix]different shades of complexionand colours of hair which he sees in a crowd, and is at once almost disposed to exclaim that‘these are not Indians!’“There are a great many of these people whose complexions appear aslight as half-breeds; and amongst the women particularly, there are many whoseskins are almost white, with the most pleasing symmetry and proportion of features; with hazel, with gray, and with blue eyes; with mildness and sweetness of expression, and excessive modesty of demeanour, which render them exceedingly pleasing and beautiful!”It has been shown in another part of this work that the language of the Mandans does not prove them to be connected with the Welsh, and that their dialect is of the same character as that of other Indian tribes. Further, did space allow, I might produce some evidence that the Mandans are allied in blood to their hereditary foes, the fierce and warlike Sioux! The phenomena noticed by Mr. Catlin must be explained therefore by the aid of different principles than those to which he has referred.20I conceive then that these various peculiarities of colour, personal appearance, and of manners and social habits, which he noticed amongst the Mandans, may all be viewed as effects of one simple cause, viz. their“judiciously selected location”in“a permanent village,”involving protection from exposure to the seasons on the one hand, and the abandonment of nomade habits on the other. To the former, the changes of complexion—to the latter, the social advances—of the Mandan Tribe may be ascribed!There are numerous other data in Mr. Catlin's work which seem to afford illustrations of the mutability of Human Physiology. The Indians who live among the Whites he describes as“Pale”Red. May not the change implied in[pg l]this expression be referred to an abandonment of their original life of activity and exposure on the wild Prairie, quite as much as to misfortune or a mixture of European blood? The variety of Physiognomy among the different tribes, as shown by his admirable portraits of Chiefs, &c., is very extraordinary. Some of these countenances are ugly and unprepossessing; but in others the finest European features occur! The traits exhibited by these portraits are contrary to the inference which Humboldt's description might suggest, viz., that all the N. A. Indian Tribes resemble the Mongol Race in features as well as in the colour of their skin and the absence of beard.The Indian shows no want of acuteness in detecting the characteristic vices, whether real or imaginary, of the civilized world.“On one occasion, when I had interrogated a Sioux chief, on the Upper Missouri, about their government, their punishments, and tortures of prisoners, for which I had freely condemned them for the cruelty of practice, he took occasion, when I had got through, to ask me some questions relative to modes in the civilized world. He told me he had often heard that white people hung their criminals by the neck and choked them to death like dogs, and those their own people; to which I answered‘Yes.’He then told me he had learned that they shut each other up in prisons, where they keep them a great part of their lives because they can't pay money! I replied in the affirmative to this, which occasioned great surprise and excessive laughter even amongst the women! He told me that he had been to our Fort at Council Bluffs, where we had a great many warriors and braves, and he saw three of them taken out on the prairies and tied to a post and whipped almost to death; and he had been told that they submit to all this to get a little money!“He put to me a chapter of other questions as to the trespasses (of the Whites) on their lands, their continual corruption[pg li]of the morals of their women, and digging open the Indian's graves to get their bones, &c. To all of which I was compelled to reply in the affirmative, and quite glad to close my note book, and quietly to escape from the throng that had collected around me, and saying (though to myself and silently), that these and a hundred others are vices that belong to the civilized world, and are practised upon (but certainly in no instance reciprocated by)‘the cruel and relentless’savage!”It is probable that the finer features of the North American Indian character may be ascribed in a great measure to the elevated nature of their religious belief, which indisputably appears to be quite free from the loathsome and debasing idolatry of the Hindoos and other pagan nations of the Old World.“I fearlessly assert to the world (and I defy contradiction), that the North American Indian is everywhere in his native state a highly moral and religious being, endowed by his Maker with an intuitive knowledge of some great Author of his being and the universe, in dread of whose displeasure he constantly lives, with the apprehension before him of a future state, where he expects to be rewarded or punished according to the merits he has gained or forfeited in this world.”In their native state, in regions remote from the Whites, the Indians are well clothed and fed, cleanly in their habits, cheerful, and healthy. The opposite qualities have been considered to be characteristic of the race, in consequence of the unhappy condition of most of those Tribes who are found among or near the settlements of the Whites, a condition ascribable to the use of ardent spirits, the destruction of the game on which they originally subsisted, and the fraudulent manner in which they have often been deprived of their lands![pg lii]“From what I have seen of these people I feel authorized to say, that there is nothing very strange or unaccountable in their character; but that it is a simple one, and easy to be understood if the right means be taken to familiarize ourselves with it. Although it has dark spots, yet there is much in it to be applauded, and much to recommend it to the admiration of the enlightened world. And I trust that the reader who looks through these volumes with care, will be disposed to join me in the conclusion, that the North American Indian in his native state is an honest, hospitable, faithful, brave, warlike, cruel, revengeful, relentless, yet honorable, contemplative, and religious being.”The tortures practised by the Indians on their prisoners of war are, it seems, inflicted only on a portion of their captives by way of reprisal. The prisoners are for the most part adopted into the conquering tribe. The men are married to the wives of those who have fallen in battle; and those outrages on the weaker sex which have disgraced the armies of civilized Europe are unknown in the annals of Indian warfare!The Indian is reckless of life, and the female sex among these tribes is consigned to a life of servitude. But it must be asked, is the morality of European nations uniformly founded on an earnest regard for the claims of humanity—on a tender respect for the rights and for the sufferings of the weak and defenceless! This is a momentous question, to which an answer at once humiliating and complete may be drawn from one single historical incident described in the following touching passage!After noticing the defective state of the European law of nations in certain respects, the author from whose work the following narrative has been derived, thus proceeds:“The other case in which it seems to me that the law of nations should either be amended, or declared more clearly and enforced[pg liii]in practice, is that of the blockade of towns not defended by their inhabitants, in order to force their surrender by starvation. And here let us try to realize to ourselves what such a blockade is. We need not, unhappily, draw a fancied picture; history, and no remote history either, will supply us with the facts. Some of you, I doubt not, remember Genoa; you have seen that queenly city, with its streets of palaces rising tier above tier from the water, girdling with the long lines of its bright white houses the vast sweep of its harbour, the mouth of which is marked by a huge natural mole of rock, crowned by its magnificent lighthouse-tower. You remember how its white houses rose out of a mass of fig, and olive, and orange trees, the glory of its old patrician luxury; you may have observed the mountains behind the town, spotted at intervals by small circular low towers, one of which is distinctly conspicuous where the ridge of the hills rises to its summit and hides from view all the country behind it. Those towers are the forts of the famous lines; which, curiously resembling in shape the later Syracusan walls inclosing Epipolæ;, converge inland from the eastern and western extremities of the city, looking down the western line of the valley of Pulcevera, the eastern on that of the Bisagno, till they meet as I have said on the summit of the mountains, where the hills cease to rise from the sea and become more or less of a table-land, running off towards the interior at the distance, as well as I remember, of between two and three miles from the outside of the city. Thus a very large open space is inclosed within the lines, and Genoa is capable therefore of becoming a vast entrenched camp, holding not so much a garrison as an army. In the autumn of 1799, the Austrians had driven the French out of Lombardy and Piedmont; their last victory of Fossano or Genola, had won the fortress of Coni or Cuneo close under the Alps, and at the very extremity of[pg liv]the plain of the Po. The French clung to Italy only by their hold of the Riviera of Genoa, the narrow strip of coast between the Apennines and the sea, which extends from the frontiers of France almost to the mouth of the Arno. Hither the remains of the French force were collected, commanded by General Massena, and the point of chief importance to his defence was the city of Genoa.“Napoleon had just returned from Egypt, and was become First Consul; but he could not be expected to take the field till the following spring, and till then Massena was hopeless of relief from without, everything was to depend upon his own pertinacity. The strength of his army made it impossible to force it in such a position as Genoa; but its very numbers, added to the population of the city, held out to the enemy a hope of reducing it by famine; and as Genoa derives most of its supplies by sea, Lord Keith, the British naval Commander in Chief in the Mediterranean, lent the assistance of his naval force to the Austrians, and by the vigilance of his cruizers, the whole coasting trade right and left was effectually cut off. It is not at once that the inhabitants of a great city, accustomed to the daily sight of well-stored shops and an abundant market, begin to realize the idea of scarcity; or that the wealthy classes of society, who have never known any other state than one of abundance and luxury, begin seriously to conceive of famine. But the shops were emptied, and the storehouses began to be drawn upon; and no fresh supply or hope of supply appeared. Winter passed away, and Spring returned, so early and so beautiful on that garden-like coast, sheltered as it is from the north winds by its belt of mountains, and open to the full rays of the Southern Sun. Spring returned, and clothed the hill sides within the lines with its fresh verdure. But that verdure was no more the delight of the careless eye of luxury, refreshing the citizens by its loveliness and softness when[pg lv]they rode or walked up thither from the city to enjoy the surpassing beauty of the prospect! The green hill sides were now visited for a very different object; ladies of the highest rank might be seen cutting up every plant which it was possible to turn to food, and bearing home the common weeds of our road sides as a most precious treasure! The French general pitied the distress of the people; but the lives and the strength of his garrison seemed to him more important than the lives of the Genoese, and such provisions as remained were reserved in the first place for the French army. Scarcity became utter want, and want became famine! In the most gorgeous palaces of that gorgeous city, no less than in the humblest tenements of the poor, death was busy; not the momentary death of battle or massacre, nor the speedy death of pestilence, but the lingering and most miserable death of famine! Infants died before their parents' eyes, husbands and wives lay down to expire together! A man whom I saw at Genoa in 1825 told me that his father and two of his brothers had been starved to death in this fatal siege. So it went on, till in the month of June, when Napoleon had already descended from the Alps into the plain of Lombardy, the misery became unendurable, and Massena surrendered. But before he did so, twenty thousand innocent persons, old and young, women and children, had died by the most horrible of deaths which humanity can endure! Other horrors which occurred besides during the blockade I pass over; the agonizing death of twenty thousand innocent and helpless persons requires nothing to be added to it!“Now is it right that such a tragedy as this should take place, and that the laws of war should be supposed to justify the authors of it? Conceive having been a naval officer in Lord Keith's squadron at that time, and being employed in stopping the food which was being brought for the relief of[pg lvi]such misery! For the thing was done deliberately; the helplessness of the Genoese was known, their distress was known; it was known that they could not force Massena to surrender; it was known that they were dying daily by hundreds; yet week after week, and month after month, did the British ships of war keep their iron watch along all the coast: no vessel nor boat laden with any article of provision could escape their vigilance! One cannot but be thankful that Nelson was spared from commanding at this horrible blockade of Genoa!“Now on which side the law of Nations should throw the guilt of most atrocious murder is of little comparative consequence or whether it should attach to both sides equally: but that the deliberate starving to death of twenty thousand helpless persons should be regarded as a crime in one or in both of the parties concerned in it seems to me self-evident! The simplest course would seem to be that all non-combatants should be allowed to go out of a blockaded town, and that the general who should refuse to let them pass should be regarded in the same light as one who were to murder his prisoners or who were in the habit of butchering women and children.”It is not intended to be suggested that the morality of the more virtuous and religious members of civilized communities is not superior to that of uncivilized races. But that such superiority can be claimed by the mass of the inhabitants of Europe is a proposition of which the evidence must be allowed to be doubtful as regards some—must be allowed, alas! to fail altogether as regards many—of those virtues of which our nature is capable!Yet, notwithstanding many melancholy facts that seem to be repugnant to such a conclusion, there exist satisfactory grounds for inferring that civilization has a direct tendency to[pg lvii]promote the moral improvement of the Human Race, and that our species is probably destined even in this state of existence, to a course not only of social, but also of a moral progression! Of this truth distinct indications may be recognized in the altered sentiments of European nations on many momentous subjects, as evinced in the increasing aversion to wars of aggression—in the general condemnation of the principle—and the extensive abolition of the practice—of slavery, and in the rapid growth of an earnest sympathy, at once generous and humane, with the claims and the sufferings of the more unprotected branches of mankind! Of the practical results of these changes in the moral sentiments of Society—of which Christianity, which teaches that all men are of one blood and of one family, has been the primary source—and of which the English nation—influenced by the example of a few men of extraordinary piety, wisdom, and humanity, to whom it gave birth in the last generation, have been the most conspicuous instruments—one example may be appropriately introduced in this place.“The original proprietors of this fine soil, (the neighbourhood of the Cape of Good Hope,) the poor Hottentots, the fabricated tales of whose filthiness are known to every schoolboy, and have made them proverbial in every nation of Europe, are probably the simplest and most inoffensive of the human race. By open robbery and murder, and by a cruel and persevering system of oppression on the part of the Dutch colonists, they have been reduced to not much more than 15,000 souls. Under the protection of the British government, by the careful instruction of the missionaries, and their increased importance in the colony as labourers since the abolition of the slave trade, their number is now considerably on the increase; General Craig, after the capture of the Cape, brought forward, experimentally, the physical and moral qualities of this most injured and degraded people, by forming them into a military corps, which, in point of discipline, obedience,[pg lviii]instruction and cleanliness, were not at all behind European troops. The truth is that the filthy appearance of the Hottentot was never from choice, but necessity. The anxiety which he now shows to get quit of his sheep-skin clothing for cotton, linen, or woollen, and to keep his person clean, proves that he is far more sensible than the‘Boor’to the comforts of civilized life.‘Whosoever,’says the excellent Mr. Latrobe, the father of the Moravians in this country,‘charges the Hottentots with being inferior to other people of the same class as to education and the means of improvement, knows nothing about them. They are in general more sensible, and possess better judgment than most Europeans, equally destitute of the means of instruction.’At Bavians Kloof, or the Monkey's Ravine, which General Jansens altered into Gandenthal, or the Valley of Grace, 130 miles E. by N. of Cape Town, is an establishment of these poor despised people under the care of missionaries, founded in 1737. It consists of a beautiful village containing 1400 Hottentot inhabitants. Every cottage has a garden, a few of the poor class still wear sheep skins, and their children go naked, but far the greater part of them make a point of providing themselves with jackets and trousers, and other articles of European dress which they already wear on Sundays. Both before and after meals they sing grace in the sweetest tones imaginable. The place externally, appears a little Paradise, and let it be remembered it is only one of a great number of these missionary stations. The Hottentots are of a deep brown or yellow brown colour, their eyes are pure white, their head is small; the face very wide above, ends in a point; their cheek-bones are prominent, their eyes sunk, the nose flat, the lips thick, the teeth white, and the hand and foot rather small. They are well made and tall, their hair is black, either curled or woolly, and they have little or no beard. Barrow and Grandprè conceive them to be of a[pg lix]Chinese origin, they call themselves Gkhui-gkhui, pronounced with a click of the tongue or throat, and say they do not come from the interior, but from over the Sea! The Hottentots are divided into several Tribes.”21The nature of their language shows very clearly that the Hottentots are not closely connected by descent with the Chinese; the tradition that they came originally from a country beyond the sea might apply to the island of Madagascar where a dialect kindred to theirs is spoken. There seems however every reason for concluding, agreeably to Dr. Prichard's views, that the Hottentots are descendants of Colonists impelled by the ordinary causes of migration from the North and Middle of Africa, who, as they finally occupied the farthest extremity, were probably the earliest inhabitants of that Continent. The evidence of language serves in a very striking manner to confirm this conclusion. For proofs of the connexion of the Hottentot dialects with the Egyptian and with the Negro languages, see Appendix A. The Hottentot dialects abound also in words unequivocally identical with the corresponding terms in ancient European and Asiatic languages, as for instance Imine,“A Day,”and Ki,“The Earth,”with the Greek. Surrie, Sore,“The Sun”, with the Sanscrit“Surya.”Mamma,“A Mother,”with the Latin, &c. Bo Aboob,“A Father,”with“Abba,”Hebrew. Tamma,“The Tongue.”(See p.15, &c. &c.) Coincidences of this nature are proofs of that species of generic connexion with all the other races of mankind which might be expected as a consequence of a separation that, judging from the Geographical position of the Hottentot tribes, we may suppose to have occurred in the earliest ages of the world.[pg lx]
The question whether the different branches of the Human Race are descended from one Stock, has been discussed on[pg xxvii]Physiological grounds by Dr. Prichard,14in a work equally remarkable for profound Philosophical and extensive Literary research. After detailing a variety of facts with respect to the distribution of Plants and Animals, he thus expresses his conclusion:“The inference to be collected from the facts at present known, seems to be as follows. The various tribes of organized beings, were originally placed by the Creator in certain regions, for which they are by their nature peculiarly adapted. Each species had only one beginning in a single stock; probably a single pair, as Linnæus supposed, was first called into being in a particular spot, and their progeny left to disperse themselves to as great a distance as the locomotive powers, bestowed on each species, or its capability of bearing changes of climate and other physical circumstances may have enabled it to wander.”According to this writer the varieties of colour, feature, &c. displayed by different races of Men, are the results partly of climate and other external agencies, and partly also of a natural tendency to the manifestation of varieties which may be viewed in the light of a characteristic quality of the Species. Of these propositions the numerous and diversified facts collected by Dr. Prichard appear to furnish perfectly conclusive evidence. Thus he has shown that the characteristic physiognomy of the Negro is found to occur and disappear by nice gradations in strict accordance with the differences of climate throughout the African Continent.The tendency to variety is very manifest, even from facts under our daily observation. Individuals are common among European nations, who exhibit some one or more of the traits of the Negro, as, for example, his woolly hair, thick lips, &c. Among the Negro races have been born individuals of a perfectly white colour. Many of these specimens, according[pg xxviii]to Dr. Prichard, were not Albinos or diseased persons, but indisputable examples of his principle.It is probable that in the infancy of the race, this extraordinary tendency may have served the important purpose of accelerating those physiological changes by which the constitution of Man was adapted to the different climates of the Globe, while, in subsequent ages, climate which determines the physiology of the majority, may be said thereby to neutralize the influence of these exceptions. Diversities of complexion, &c. occur in our own and in neighbouring countries within a very limited area. Thus the dark hair and features of the ancient Silures which were ascribed by the Romans to a Spanish origin, are still observable among their posterity, characteristics of which, I conceive, a satisfactory explanation may be found in the warm and equable temperature of the Southern counties of Wales, caused by the peculiar distribution of land and water.15In these countries many productions, both animal and vegetable, flourish, which are rarely found further North. The Nightingale is common, and the Vine is cultivated frequently. The contrast between the temperature of the coasts of South Wales and that of North Wales has not escaped the attention of the Welsh Bards. Davyth ap Gwilym, a Bard of the fourteenth Century, in a Poem of great beauty, in which he describes himself as writing from the land of“wild,”Gwynedh (North Wales), calls upon the Summer and the Sun to visit with their choicest blessings the genial region of“Morganwg,”(Glamorganshire,) of which he was a native, and alludes to its warm climate and its Vineyards, which seem to have been a conspicuous feature! For some very valuable illustrations of the same principle, I may refer to the account given by the Rev. Thomas Price in his Tour in[pg xxix]Brittany, published in the Cambrian Quarterly Magazine, of the varieties of complexion and stature observable in Upper and Lower Brittany.16From the facts collected by Dr. Prichard, it appears to follow very distinctly, not only that Human Physiology is extremely mutable, but also that the transitions do not occupy a very long interval of time. Thus Jews are resident in the African Kingdom of Kongo, whose complexions are as black as those of the native Negro population. Again on the borders of Negro-land, different sections of the same tribe, speaking the same language, are, in many instances, found variously approaching to or diverging from the Negro standard of colour and physiognomy, according to the latitude or elevation, or other physical features of their respective locations; instances in which the separation—and therefore the physiological differences—must have been recent—for languages change too rapidly to preserve the features of identity or even of a close affinity for a period of long duration! The descendants of the Arabs who overran the North of Africa in comparatively modern times furnish another example; they do not differ in physiognomy from the Berbers, the original inhabitants of the same regions.From these and similar facts it must be inferred—not only that the existing varieties of Human Physiology form no objection to the opinion that the different populations of the Globe are descended from one stock—the same facts lead also to the conclusion, that—with relation to the earliest eras in the History of our species—Physiological peculiarities must be entirely rejected as evidence, either of a specific connexion or of a specific difference between individual races of men, a principle admitting of many highly interesting applications, of which an example will now be offered.[pg xxx]By what road did the first Colonists of Europe reach their final destination? Adelung has inferred that Europe was peopled exclusively from the Steppes of Northern Asia. But for this opinion, it does not seem that any valid reason can be assigned. If we assume Central Asia to have been the focus of migration, it will be observed that there are three routes by which the forefathers of the European nations may have arrived in their final abodes, viz. 1, The Steppes of Northern Asia; 2, Asia Minor and the Hellespont; and 3, The Isthmus of Suez, the North of Africa, and the Straits of Gibraltar. For concluding that either of these three routes was used, to the exclusion of the other two, it would not be easy to point out any strong argument based on Geographical grounds. Now if the third was employed at all it may be inferred that some of the European nations may be even more nearly allied to those of Africa than they are to the Asiatic populations. To this conclusion, however, a formidable objection occurs in the strikingly contrasted Physiology of Africa and Europe, for—even though it should be conceded that these opposite features do not serve to prove an aboriginal difference of race—the question still arises whether they do not, nevertheless, furnish evidence that the nations of these two continents are more remotely related than any other branches of the Human Family; whether they do not point to the inference that the inhabitants of the South and West of Asia—who certainly occupy an intermediate place Physiologically—must not also be regarded as forming a connecting link between those of Europe and Africa in a Genealogical and Historical sense? To these inquiries it will be obvious that the facts just adverted to furnish a very distinct answer, for from those facts it directly follows—not only that climate and other existing causes are sufficient to account for the different Physical peculiarities of the inhabitants of Africa and Europe—but it also follows from the same evidence, that a[pg xxxi]period of time far short of that during which the European and African nations are known to have occupied their present abodes, would have sufficed to superinduce the opposite characteristics they now display! Perhaps it may be inferred, though probably the subject does not admit of a precise conclusion on this head, that in a suitable climate the lapse of 500 or 600 years might be more than adequate to engraft on the physiognomy of Southern Asia all the distinctive peculiarities of the Negro. That these peculiarities had been fully developed in an early era of the History of the World, is manifest from the Egyptian Paintings, in many of which we have individuals of this ill-fated race very vividly depicted, appearing sometimes as tributaries, and on other occasions as captives, leashed together like hounds!Infirm health, and final extirpation, have often attended colonies from the North of Europe settled in tropical climes, incidents that seem to have had great weight with Dr. Prichard himself, as constituting an objection to his views. To this objection, however—independent of the numerous facts of an opposite nature—the following consideration, I conceive, suggests a satisfactory answer. Nature may have provided for gradual transitions of climate such as must have been encountered by a population progressively diffused over the Globe; and that she has done so appears to be distinctly established. But it does not follow that she has made any provision for abrupt changes. These are probably a violation of her dictates, and may have the same tendency to produce disease and death as we know to be incident to sudden and extensive variations of temperature in the same climate and country.The foregoing deductions will be found to have a highly interesting application in relation to the origin of two ancient European races, the Basques and the Celts. If Physiological grounds are dismissed from our consideration, it will probably[pg xxxii]be found that the balance of evidence is in favour of the conclusion that these races have sprung, not from Asiatic colonists, but from emigrants from the coasts of the continent of Africa!This conclusion is strongly favoured by the geographical position in which we find these races placed at the dawn of History. In the earliest ages the Celts and Basques were in possession of all the most western countries of Europe. The Spanish Peninsula, the South of France, and the North of Italy, were divided between them; the remainder of France, the whole of Belgium, Switzerland, and the British Isles, were held by the Celts, while of Sicily and Italy the Basques appear to have been the first inhabitants. (See Dr. Prichard's Works.) Now in connexion with these facts two considerations deserve to be noticed, which, by a reference to the map will be seen to acquire especial force. 1. It will be observed that the original regions of the Celts and Basques are more closely contiguous to Africa than the Eastern countries of Europe are; both Spain, and Sicily (which may be considered a part of Italy,) approaching at certain points very closely to the African coast. 2. If we assume Central Asia to have been the original focus of migration—it will be evident—that nomade septs issuing thence through the Syro-Phœnician countries, and along the North of Africa—would have found a shorter route to the Italian and to the Spanish Peninsulas—than those emigrants who may be supposed to have passed over the Hellespont, or through Northern Asia! Further it may be added, that the regions originally held by the Basques and Celts are precisely those which would have been occupied by the descendants of Colonists who had arrived in Europe from the South-west of Africa if opposed—as we may infer them to have been—by rival Septs impeding their progress towards the East. To the East of the Basque and Celtic regions we find the rest of Europe possessed by[pg xxxiii]the Teutons or Germans, the Finns, the Sclavonians, and the Greeks, nations all located in countries closely contiguous to Asia, to the inhabitants of which continent the evidence of language indisputably proves them all to have been closely related.17That these nations were also the primitive inhabitants of the territories which they still occupy has been pointed out by Dr. Prichard.The conclusion above suggested appears to be supported by the evidence of history. With respect to the Basques, or Iberians, Dr. Prichard has referred to the testimony of classical authorities, which distinctly confirms the opinion that they were an African race. But with regard to the Celts, the same learned writer assumes that they must originally have come from the East. It is remarkable, however, that this conclusion is directly at variance with the current opinions of the Ancients, to which he has referred in the following passage:“The earlier history of the Celtic people is a subject of great interest, but of difficult investigation. Were they the aborigines of Gaul or Germany? According to all the testimony of history, or rather of ancient tradition collected by the writers of the Roman Empire, themigrations of the Gauls werealwaysfrom West to East; the Celtic nations inGermany as well as in Italyand inthe East, were supposed to have been coloniesfrom Gaul, and the Celtæ have been considered as the immemorial inhabitants ofWestern Europe!”(Ethnography of the Celtic Race, in Prichard on Man.)In assuming that the Celts migrated to Europe direct from Asia, Dr. Prichard's views were very naturally influenced by the valuable evidence he has himself adduced of[pg xxxiv]the connexion of the Celtic dialects with the Sanscrit, &c. This evidence, however, has been shown (see p.19) to be quite consistent with the conclusion suggested above, viz. that the Celts may have sprung from emigrants who penetrated into Spain from the opposite coast of Africa.The interesting researches of Humboldt, which have served by the evidence of local names to show that the language of the ancient Iberians was the same as the Basque, have also established, by means of the same evidence, that the Peninsula of Spain, at the time of its subjugation by the Romans, was divided in a very irregular manner between Basque and Celtic tribes.“The Celts,”observes Dr. Prichard,“possessed a considerable part of Spain, comprehending not only the central provinces, but also extensive territories in both of the western corners of the Peninsula, where a population either wholly or partly of Celtic descent remained at the period of the Roman Conquest.”The remainder of Spain was held by Basques or by Celt-Iberian tribes, a mixture of both races.This singular intermingling of the Basques and Celts in the Spanish Peninsula has been a source of many conflicting opinions among the learned, on the question which of these two races were the first inhabitants, and which were the invaders of Spain? The enigma, I conceive, will be most satisfactorily solved by the rejection of the opinion that that country was in the first instance wholly occupied by either! Both may have arrived almost simultaneously, too weak in numbers wholly to engross the new territory on which they thus entered. Each may have thrown out into the most distant provinces weak colonies, consisting of a few nomade families, which afterwards became the foci of powerful Septs. This explanation completely harmonises with the instructive facts which have been developed relative to the North American Indian Tribes, who are still in the“hunter state,”as[pg xxxv]the first colonists of Europe must have been. The languages of a great portion of the North American Indian Tribes have been shown to consist of mere dialects of a few Parent Tongues. But the Septs thus proved to be nearly related are not always contiguous, but often separated by tribes speaking dialects of a different class, a necessary consequence of the roving habits and the imperfect occupation of territory incident to the“hunter state.”An interesting example of the influence of the causes which lead to these results occurs in Mr. Catlin's allusion to a North American Indian Tribe, the Assinneboins, of whom he says:“The Assinneboins are a part of the Dahcotas, or Sioux, undoubtedly; for their personal appearance, as well as their language, is very similar.“At what time, or in what manner, these two parts of a nation got strayed away from each other is a mystery; yet such cases have often occurred, of which I shall say more in future. Large parties who are straying off in pursuit of game, or in the occupation of war, are oftentimes intercepted by their enemy, and being prevented from returning, are run off to a distant region, where they take up their residence and establish themselves as a nation.”(Catlin on the North American Indians, p. 53.)The evidence furnished by their languages is not unfavorable to the supposition that the Basques and Celts may have been of African origin.Though by Humboldt, and some other eminent writers, the Basque has been regarded as distinct from other languages, the examples which occur at the close of this Introduction must, I conceive, serve to remove all doubt as to the identity of the Basques or Iberians with the other branches of the Human Race. Of these examples grammatical differences cannot serve to diminish the force. (See p.89and the chapter on the Chinese Language.) The Basque also shows some[pg xxxvi]traces of a peculiar connexion with the African tongues. Thus its numerals are nearly identical with those of the North African nations, and the formative particle Er is used for similar purposes in the Basque and Egyptian, and in both is placed before the word, a characteristic which distinguishes the African from the European languages. (See p.142.) Thus we have Juan,“To go,”Er-uan,“To cause to go,”(Basque.) Ouini,“Light,”Er-ouini,“To cause Light,”or“To enlighten,”(Egyptian.) Instances of words formed in the same manner, which are common to the Egyptian and the Celtic, will be found at p.38, Appendix A.A striking example of the connexion of the Celtic languages with those of Africa occurs in the region where the respective Physiological peculiarities of North Africa and Negro-land meet. In the vicinity of the river Senegal the line of separation may be said to divide the Iolofs, a Negro nation, from the Fulahs and Phellatahs, whose physical characteristics are of an intermediate nature. Now it is remarkable, that by comparing and as it were uniting the dialects of the Iolofs, the Fulahs, and the Phellatahs, some of the most common Welsh words are obtained essentially unchanged, as in Le oure,“The Moon,”(Fulahs,) Gour, and Gourgne,“A Man,”(Iolofs,) Gourko,“A Man,”(Phellatahs,) Loho,“The Hand,”(Iolofs,) Bourou,“Bread,”(Iolofs,) Bouron,“Bread,”(Fulahs.)Consistently with the principles on which the origin of languages is hereafter explained in this work, I cannot suggest that these coincidences, striking as they are, afford any proof of a specific connexion between the Celtic and African races. But they tend to prove, nevertheless, that language furnishes no positive ground for inferring that the Celts are more nearly allied to the Asiatic than they are to the African races. Hence, since the evidence of Physiology on this subject is also of a negative character, it may be[pg xxxvii]affirmed, with regard both to this race and the Basques, that the opinion that they are of Asiatic descent—opposed as it is by the evidence of history in one, if not in both cases—and by the inferences which Geographical considerations, in both instances, appear to suggest—requires reconsideration.In this place I may observe, that in the course of the following inquiries it will be found true as a general principle, that in direct proportion as the proofs of the General Unity of the different races of the Globe are observed to become more distinct, the evidence which has frequently been relied upon as demonstrative of a specific connexion between particular races will also be observed to become more doubtful, for both the affinities and differences which exist between the languages of contiguous—and those of the most distant—nations, are for the most part so nearly alike in character, and so nearly equal in degree, as to favour the inference that the dispersion of the Human Race must have been exceedingly rapid, and that many ancient nations, such as the Basques and Celts, who in subsequent times were found closely contiguous, must, in the first eras of the world, have been isolated from each other by incessant war and nomade habits, almost as early as the most distant nations were! It is certain that the language of the Welsh does not present either to the Basque or to the Teutonic—dialects of nations located contiguously to their Celtic forefathers—examples of affinity more striking than those just adverted to. Nor are the examples above noticed of the connexion between the Welsh and the African dialects by any means more remarkable than the instances of resemblance between the former tongue and the dialect of the Mandans, a North American Indian Tribe, which have been pointed out by Mr. Catlin! In both cases the same observation applies—an observation based on a principle that will be more fully understood hereafter—viz., that[pg xxxviii]these coincidences are unequivocal proofs of a generic, but not of that kind of specific relation, which implies that these nations were at one time united more intimately than the other families of mankind.Various miscellaneous considerations connected with the primitive migrations of mankind may now he adverted to.Neither the extent nor the physical features of our Globe are such as imply that the spread of population over its surface must necessarily have been the work of many ages. To traverse the habitable earth from the Southern extremity of Africa to the North of Asia, and thence to the extreme Southern point of the American continent, is a task which would require only a small fraction of one man's life! And in the first ages of the Race, Man was probably a Nomade, a Wanderer! It may be inferred, therefore, that in the early ages of the world the diffusion of population was very rapid in the warmer latitudes, while towards the North it was obstructed rather by climate than by any other cause. As population became more dense in the more favoured regions, weaker tribes, it may be surmised, were gradually driven into the steppes of Asia and the wilds of Siberia, whence they may be supposed to have penetrated into Europe on the one hand, and across Behring's Straits into America on the other. With the exception of America, all the great Continents are connected together by districts easily traversed by Man; and Behring's Strait, which is interposed between America and the North-east of Asia, might be passed in the canoes of some of the most barbarous tribes with which we are acquainted.The peopling of Islands is a subject that has been discussed very satisfactorily by Dr. Prichard, and after him by Mr. Lyell. Their conclusion is, that the occasional drifting of canoes by storms and currents, is sufficient to account for the existence of Human population in the most remote[pg xxxix]islands, as is proved by facts related by Kotzebue and others. Several reasons have however been suggested in the following pages, for the conclusion that Australia is a recently peopled country.The geographical distribution of the various languages of the globe seems to render Adelung's arguments for regarding Central Asia as the birth-place of our species eminently convincing. The languages of China and the South-east of Asia are either Monosyllabic, or Tongues that partake of that character; Languages having the same features are spoken through the long chain of islands in the Pacific as far as New Zealand. All the other Tongues of the Globe are Polysyllabic. Now if the birth-place of Man and the focus of migration was in Central Asia, on the borders of Cashmire and Tibet, this division of Languages would necessarily have followed, for it will be observed that Tibet, which is the source of the rivers of the regions to the South-east, would in that case have given inhabitants to the countries of South-eastern Asia, countries which are isolated from all others, for not only are they cut off from Europe, Africa, and Western Asia, by the system of Table-lands and its Mountains, they are also separated from Northern Asia and therefore from America by the Great Desert of Gobi or Shamo. To the Steppes of Northern Asia, and consequently to America as well as to Europe and Africa, the territory of Persia or Iran, which, as has been seen, forms the opposite slope of the system of Table-lands, is the natural route.The relations which the Parsian, the Pehlwi, and the Zend, the ancient dialects of Persia, bear to those of the surrounding countries, seem to be in a highly interesting manner confirmatory of Adelung's views. The Parsian, which was spoken in the South of Persia in the provinces near to India, approaches so closely to the Sanscrit, the ancient language of that country, that Sir William Jones considered the Parsian[pg xl]to have been the parent of the Sanscrit. The Pehlwi, the language of the Parthians who occupied the centre of Persia, a territory that adjoins the Semetic countries, appears very decidedly to be a connecting link between the Semetic languages on the one hand and the Parsian and Zend and the Indo-European tongues, viewed as a class, on the other. The Zend, the dialect of ancient Media, or North Persia, is supposed to be closely allied to the Armenian. The Parsian, Pehlwi, and Zend, respectively bearing these relations to the languages of the neighbouring countries, are closely connected as sister dialects among themselves. These facts tend to show—from the summit of the Western Table-land viewed as a centre, through Persia viewed as a medium—a radiation of language from which a radiation of population may reasonably be presumed.The species of affinity which the ancient Persian dialects display to the languages of the adjoining countries appears to point very distinctly to another highly important conclusion in relation to the early history of mankind, viz., that the diffusion of population over Persia and the contiguous countries must have been a comparatively recent event with reference to the earliest specimens of the Persian and Semetic dialects, &c. After the lapse of a long interval the languages even of contiguous countries lose the traces of original unity. But with regard to modern dialects it can be distinctly shown that those of intermediate districts are connecting links between those of the extremities. Thus the Savoyard connects the French and Italian dialects of the Latin, and those of the North of England are intermediate between the modern English and the Lowland Scotch; Du Ponceau has made a similar remark with regard to the North American Indian dialects spoken by kindred tribes. Septs placed in the centre continue to maintain a certain degree of intercourse with all the tribes by which they are surrounded, a consideration[pg xli]which will account for these results, which probably cannot, in many cases, be referred to different degrees of Genealogical affinity.One of the most striking indications of the Original Unity of the different Races of Men is derivable from the uniformity of the Moral, Mental, and Social Features they display.Though the mind in early infancy may be destitute of positive ideas, it seems to be evident, nevertheless, that our Species has been gifted with Intellectual Faculties, and with Moral Sentiments and Sympathies, which are in the strictest sense innate.18Of this conclusion a striking confirmation is derivable, from the extraordinary sameness which, on a close examination, will be found to prevail in the characters, sentiments, and sympathies of the various branches of the Human Species. Of this truth a few examples will now be noticed.The Negro tribes of Africa have frequently been supposed to belong to an inferior race of Men, an opinion founded—partly on an inadequate conception of the progressive character of the Human species—partly on ignorance of the progress which many Negro nations have actually made. On the one hand it would be difficult to show that the rudest of the African tribes are in a more barbarous condition than the ancestors of some of the most civilized European nations once were! On the other hand, the proofs of a capacity for social improvement are as unequivocal in the former case as they are in the latter! Large and important nations, as for example the Mandingoes and the Iolofs, are found in the interior of Africa, professing the Mahomedan religion, and as far advanced in the virtues and refinements of civilization, as any other nations who are followers of the same creed. In many of these nations the Men are distinguished by a grave and reflective character, and the women are remarkable for their exemplary[pg xlii]discharge of the duties of domestic life. Sections of the Negro race have also been converted to Christianity, including many individuals who have been distinguished not only by a steady conformity to its precepts, but by the zeal and success with which they have fulfilled the high duties of Missionaries among their countrymen, and by the composition of Theological treatises of no inconsiderable merit! (See Dr. Prichard on Man.)It has been already observed that the physiognomy of the Egyptians approaches closely to that of the Negro race, of which it may be regarded as a modification. It has also been pointed out in another part of this work, that the evidence of language favours the inference that Egypt was the source of the various African populations. The discoveries of our age—while they have rendered indisputable the extraordinary arts, high civilization, and vast political power of ancient Egypt—have also served to disclose, in the portraits of individuals of that country, forms of grace and elegance, that serve to link together by the ties of a close and pathetic association, the infancy with the later ages of the world! To adopt the expression of Schlegel, (See Schlegel's Translation of Dr. Prichard's Work on Eg. Mythol.,) the physiognomy of the ancient Egyptians is that of a“very noble race”of men. But it differs very widely from the characteristics of the European nations; in the dignified features of the men, and also in the lineaments of female beauty, the approach to the Negro Physiognomy is often very conspicuous!I may instance the countenance of the Sphynx as affording a specimen of the species of approximation to the Negro Physiognomy which is observable in ancient Egyptian remains!One of the most forcible examples of the susceptibility to[pg xliii]civilization19of nations once very barbarous may be found in a comparison of the character of the ancient Gauls and modern French. When Hannibal invaded Italy he confined his ravages to the possessions of the Romans and spared those of the Gauls; a partial distinction which won the favour of this simple people, who flocked in great numbers to his standard. The Gauls who were in his army at the battle of Cannæ are described as a fierce people, naked from the waist, carrying large round shields, with swords of an enormous size blunted at the point. Yet there cannot be a doubt that the French, one of the most refined and distinguished of modern nations, are lineally descended from this primitive race! (See p.64.) The true answer to the reveries of Pinkerton, with respect to the imputed incapacity of the Celts, is to be found in the literature and science of the French, in whom, owing to the great extent of their country, the original Celtic blood is most probably less unmingled than it is in the Irish, the Welsh, or the Highland Scotch!A comparison of the character of the ancient Gauls and modern French involves also an instructive example of the mode in which the tendency to progression in the Human species is often united with a stability of national character in some features that forms a singular contrast to that tendency. In comparing Cæsar's Commentaries on his Wars in Gaul with the volumes of General Napier, we are struck, in almost every page, with proofs of a coincidence of mental features so minute, that but for the opposite accompaniments on the one hand, of a primitive, and on the other of a modern age, we might imagine we had before us, in these relations, two narratives referring to the same wars, the same sieges,[pg xliv]and the same men! The mind is perplexed to conceive how a nation that has existed in conditions so contrasted, as regards Civilization, could have continued thus uniform in its social and moral features!Striking as these and other proofs which may be adduced of the uniformity of character which has often been maintained by the same nation in different stages of society undoubtedly are, they must cease to excite surprise—though they may be said to acquire even a higher interest—when viewed through the medium of the closely analogous results which will be found to flow from a comparison with the civilized nations of Europe of contemporaneous Tribes still existing in the“Hunter State.”The natives of Australia have generally been thought to occupy the lowest place in the social scale. But from Col. Grey's valuable work it may be inferred that in their devices for catching game and other arts belonging to their rude state, they give proofs of the same intelligence and acuteness as are evinced by other races of men. They have also Songs of War and Love which they sing in tunes most barbarous and discordant. The more refined lays of the European excite mimicry and laughter. But, adds Col. Grey,“Some of the natives are not insensible to the charms of our music. Warrup, a native youth, who lived with me for several months as a servant, once accompanied me to an amateur theatre at Perth, and when the actors came forward and sang‘God save the Queen,’he burst into tears. Hecertainly could not have comprehended the words of the song, and, therefore, must have been affected by the Music alone.”“Nothing can awaken in the breast more melancholy feelings than the funeral chants of these people. They are sung by a whole chorus of females of all ages, and the effect[pg xlv]produced upon the bystanders by this wild music is indescribable.”Many of the Australian words given by Colonel Grey will readily be recognized among the terms collected from the languages of the other Four Continents inAppendix A; as for example: Nganga, Ngon-ge, Tin-dee, Tiendee,“The Sun”and“The Stars.”(See App. A, p.26.) Yanna,“To go,”and Tjênna, Tinna,“The Foot.”(74.) Tullun, Tdallung, Tadlanga,“The Tongue.”(72.) Nago,“To see.”(42,43.) Mena,“The Eye.”(14.) Poou, Puiyu, Poito, Booyoo,“Smoke,”and Bobun,“To blow.”(21.)In the construction of their canoes, the inhabitants of some of the most barbarous islands of the Pacific, exhibit an originality and a variety of conception of precisely the same nature as is displayed in those mechanical inventions by which the sum of European civilization is progressively extended!But in relation to the subject more immediately under examination, far the most valuable and instructive information occurs in Mr. Catlin's account of his residence among the North American Indian Tribes, a work, admirable alike as a living picture of Indian manners and sentiments, and also as an earnest and simple minded, and for that reason an eminently touching and eloquent appeal, on behalf of one of the noblest, though one of the most unfortunate families of the Human Race!“I have roamed about from time to time during seven or eight years,”says the writer,“visiting and associating with some three or four hundred thousand of these people, under an almost infinite variety of circumstances; and from the very many and decidedly voluntary acts of their hospitality and kindness, I feel bound to pronounce them, by nature, a kind and hospitable people. I have been welcomed generally in their country, and treated to the[pg xlvi]best that they could give me, without any charges made for my board; they have often escorted me through their enemies' country at some hazard to their own lives, and aided me in passing mountains and rivers with my awkward baggage; and under all these circumstances of exposure, no Indian ever betrayed me, struck me a blow, or stole from me a shilling's worth of my property that I am aware of.“This is saying a great deal (and proving it too, if the reader will believe me,) in favour of the virtues of these people; when it is borne in mind, as it should be, that there is no law in the land to punish for theft, that locks and keys are not known in their country, that the commandments have never been divulged amongst them, nor can any human retribution fall upon the head of a thief, save the disgrace which attaches as a stigma to his character in the eyes of the people around him.“And thus in these little communities, strange as it may seem, in the absence of all systems of jurisprudence, I have often beheld peace and happiness, and quiet, reigning supreme, for which even kings and emperors might envy them. I have seen rights and virtue protected, and wrongs redressed; and I have seen conjugal, filial and paternal affection, in the simplicity and contentedness of nature. I have unavoidably formed warm and enduring attachments to some of these men, which I do not wish to forget, who have brought me near to their hearts, and in our final separation have embraced me in their arms, and commended me and my affairs to the keeping of the Great Spirit.”Among those tribes which have been placed in contact with the Whites, individuals, generally Chiefs, have acquired all the advantages of a European education, to which in most of these instances are united, dignified and gentlemanlike feelings and manners, qualities which seem to belong to the native American character. Some tribes have been nearly extipated[pg xlvii]by the use of fermented liquors. But some sections of the Indian population have been converted to Christianity, and adopted the habit of total abstinence; others have become industrious cultivators of the soil. Where this race has rejected the benefits of civilization, it seems almost invariably to have arisen from the prejudices naturally excited in their minds by the vices of the worst part of the white population, and the calamities which they have caused by the introduction of ardent spirits! Even those excellent men who have devoted their lives to the religious instruction of the Indians, and by whose efforts it may be inferred that some Tribes have been saved from extinction, have too often found in these prejudices, an obstacle which might perhaps be removed were the missionaries generally to commence by offering to teach some of the simplest arts of civilized life—information of which the benefits would be immediately appreciated—as a means of paving the way for obtaining that confidence which, as religious instructors, they require.The life of constant war and peril to which the Indians are exposed is incompatible withactualSocial advancement. But proofs of a spontaneoustendencyto civilization may be gleaned, as I conceive, from the grace and tastefulness of their dresses—the beautiful lodges many of the Tribes build—and other indications, &c. But of this truth, a still more decisive example occurs, as I venture to think, in the account given by Mr. Catlin of a very interesting tribe, the Mandans, whom, from the evidence of language already noticed and other considerations, he has conjectured to be descendants of Madoc's Colony, and whose personal character and appearance he thus describes:“The Mandans are certainly a very interesting and pleasing people in their personal appearance and manners; differing in many respects, both inlooksand customs, from all othertribes which I have ever seen. They are not a warlike[pg xlviii]people, for they seldom, if ever, carry war into their enemies' country; but when invaded, show their valour and courage to be equal to that of any people on earth. Being a small tribe, and unable to contend on the wide prairies with the Sioux and other roaming tribes, who are ten times more numerous, they have very judiciouslylocated themselves in a permanent village, which is stronglyfortified, and ensures their preservation. By this means they haveadvanced further in the arts of manufacture, and have supplied their lodges more abundantly with the comforts and even luxuries of life than any Indian nation I know of. The consequence of this is that the tribe have taken many steps ahead of other tribes in manners and refinements(if I may be allowed to use the word refinement to Indian life); and are, therefore, familiarly (and correctly) denominated by the Traders and others, who have been amongst them, the‘polite and friendly Mandans.’“There is certainly great justice in the remark, and so forcibly have I been struck with the peculiarease and eleganceof this people, together with thediversity of complexions, the various colours of their hair and eyes, the singularity of their language, and their peculiar and unaccountable customs, that I am fully convinced that they have sprung from some other origin than that of the other North American tribes, or that they are an amalgam of natives with some civilized race.“Here arises a question of very great interest and importance for discussion; and after further familiarity with their character, customs, and traditions, if I forget not, I will eventually give it further consideration. Suffice it then for the present, that theirpersonal appearancealone, independent of their modes and customs, pronounces them at once as more or less than savage.“A stranger in the Mandan village is first struck with the[pg xlix]different shades of complexionand colours of hair which he sees in a crowd, and is at once almost disposed to exclaim that‘these are not Indians!’“There are a great many of these people whose complexions appear aslight as half-breeds; and amongst the women particularly, there are many whoseskins are almost white, with the most pleasing symmetry and proportion of features; with hazel, with gray, and with blue eyes; with mildness and sweetness of expression, and excessive modesty of demeanour, which render them exceedingly pleasing and beautiful!”It has been shown in another part of this work that the language of the Mandans does not prove them to be connected with the Welsh, and that their dialect is of the same character as that of other Indian tribes. Further, did space allow, I might produce some evidence that the Mandans are allied in blood to their hereditary foes, the fierce and warlike Sioux! The phenomena noticed by Mr. Catlin must be explained therefore by the aid of different principles than those to which he has referred.20I conceive then that these various peculiarities of colour, personal appearance, and of manners and social habits, which he noticed amongst the Mandans, may all be viewed as effects of one simple cause, viz. their“judiciously selected location”in“a permanent village,”involving protection from exposure to the seasons on the one hand, and the abandonment of nomade habits on the other. To the former, the changes of complexion—to the latter, the social advances—of the Mandan Tribe may be ascribed!There are numerous other data in Mr. Catlin's work which seem to afford illustrations of the mutability of Human Physiology. The Indians who live among the Whites he describes as“Pale”Red. May not the change implied in[pg l]this expression be referred to an abandonment of their original life of activity and exposure on the wild Prairie, quite as much as to misfortune or a mixture of European blood? The variety of Physiognomy among the different tribes, as shown by his admirable portraits of Chiefs, &c., is very extraordinary. Some of these countenances are ugly and unprepossessing; but in others the finest European features occur! The traits exhibited by these portraits are contrary to the inference which Humboldt's description might suggest, viz., that all the N. A. Indian Tribes resemble the Mongol Race in features as well as in the colour of their skin and the absence of beard.The Indian shows no want of acuteness in detecting the characteristic vices, whether real or imaginary, of the civilized world.“On one occasion, when I had interrogated a Sioux chief, on the Upper Missouri, about their government, their punishments, and tortures of prisoners, for which I had freely condemned them for the cruelty of practice, he took occasion, when I had got through, to ask me some questions relative to modes in the civilized world. He told me he had often heard that white people hung their criminals by the neck and choked them to death like dogs, and those their own people; to which I answered‘Yes.’He then told me he had learned that they shut each other up in prisons, where they keep them a great part of their lives because they can't pay money! I replied in the affirmative to this, which occasioned great surprise and excessive laughter even amongst the women! He told me that he had been to our Fort at Council Bluffs, where we had a great many warriors and braves, and he saw three of them taken out on the prairies and tied to a post and whipped almost to death; and he had been told that they submit to all this to get a little money!“He put to me a chapter of other questions as to the trespasses (of the Whites) on their lands, their continual corruption[pg li]of the morals of their women, and digging open the Indian's graves to get their bones, &c. To all of which I was compelled to reply in the affirmative, and quite glad to close my note book, and quietly to escape from the throng that had collected around me, and saying (though to myself and silently), that these and a hundred others are vices that belong to the civilized world, and are practised upon (but certainly in no instance reciprocated by)‘the cruel and relentless’savage!”It is probable that the finer features of the North American Indian character may be ascribed in a great measure to the elevated nature of their religious belief, which indisputably appears to be quite free from the loathsome and debasing idolatry of the Hindoos and other pagan nations of the Old World.“I fearlessly assert to the world (and I defy contradiction), that the North American Indian is everywhere in his native state a highly moral and religious being, endowed by his Maker with an intuitive knowledge of some great Author of his being and the universe, in dread of whose displeasure he constantly lives, with the apprehension before him of a future state, where he expects to be rewarded or punished according to the merits he has gained or forfeited in this world.”In their native state, in regions remote from the Whites, the Indians are well clothed and fed, cleanly in their habits, cheerful, and healthy. The opposite qualities have been considered to be characteristic of the race, in consequence of the unhappy condition of most of those Tribes who are found among or near the settlements of the Whites, a condition ascribable to the use of ardent spirits, the destruction of the game on which they originally subsisted, and the fraudulent manner in which they have often been deprived of their lands![pg lii]“From what I have seen of these people I feel authorized to say, that there is nothing very strange or unaccountable in their character; but that it is a simple one, and easy to be understood if the right means be taken to familiarize ourselves with it. Although it has dark spots, yet there is much in it to be applauded, and much to recommend it to the admiration of the enlightened world. And I trust that the reader who looks through these volumes with care, will be disposed to join me in the conclusion, that the North American Indian in his native state is an honest, hospitable, faithful, brave, warlike, cruel, revengeful, relentless, yet honorable, contemplative, and religious being.”The tortures practised by the Indians on their prisoners of war are, it seems, inflicted only on a portion of their captives by way of reprisal. The prisoners are for the most part adopted into the conquering tribe. The men are married to the wives of those who have fallen in battle; and those outrages on the weaker sex which have disgraced the armies of civilized Europe are unknown in the annals of Indian warfare!The Indian is reckless of life, and the female sex among these tribes is consigned to a life of servitude. But it must be asked, is the morality of European nations uniformly founded on an earnest regard for the claims of humanity—on a tender respect for the rights and for the sufferings of the weak and defenceless! This is a momentous question, to which an answer at once humiliating and complete may be drawn from one single historical incident described in the following touching passage!After noticing the defective state of the European law of nations in certain respects, the author from whose work the following narrative has been derived, thus proceeds:“The other case in which it seems to me that the law of nations should either be amended, or declared more clearly and enforced[pg liii]in practice, is that of the blockade of towns not defended by their inhabitants, in order to force their surrender by starvation. And here let us try to realize to ourselves what such a blockade is. We need not, unhappily, draw a fancied picture; history, and no remote history either, will supply us with the facts. Some of you, I doubt not, remember Genoa; you have seen that queenly city, with its streets of palaces rising tier above tier from the water, girdling with the long lines of its bright white houses the vast sweep of its harbour, the mouth of which is marked by a huge natural mole of rock, crowned by its magnificent lighthouse-tower. You remember how its white houses rose out of a mass of fig, and olive, and orange trees, the glory of its old patrician luxury; you may have observed the mountains behind the town, spotted at intervals by small circular low towers, one of which is distinctly conspicuous where the ridge of the hills rises to its summit and hides from view all the country behind it. Those towers are the forts of the famous lines; which, curiously resembling in shape the later Syracusan walls inclosing Epipolæ;, converge inland from the eastern and western extremities of the city, looking down the western line of the valley of Pulcevera, the eastern on that of the Bisagno, till they meet as I have said on the summit of the mountains, where the hills cease to rise from the sea and become more or less of a table-land, running off towards the interior at the distance, as well as I remember, of between two and three miles from the outside of the city. Thus a very large open space is inclosed within the lines, and Genoa is capable therefore of becoming a vast entrenched camp, holding not so much a garrison as an army. In the autumn of 1799, the Austrians had driven the French out of Lombardy and Piedmont; their last victory of Fossano or Genola, had won the fortress of Coni or Cuneo close under the Alps, and at the very extremity of[pg liv]the plain of the Po. The French clung to Italy only by their hold of the Riviera of Genoa, the narrow strip of coast between the Apennines and the sea, which extends from the frontiers of France almost to the mouth of the Arno. Hither the remains of the French force were collected, commanded by General Massena, and the point of chief importance to his defence was the city of Genoa.“Napoleon had just returned from Egypt, and was become First Consul; but he could not be expected to take the field till the following spring, and till then Massena was hopeless of relief from without, everything was to depend upon his own pertinacity. The strength of his army made it impossible to force it in such a position as Genoa; but its very numbers, added to the population of the city, held out to the enemy a hope of reducing it by famine; and as Genoa derives most of its supplies by sea, Lord Keith, the British naval Commander in Chief in the Mediterranean, lent the assistance of his naval force to the Austrians, and by the vigilance of his cruizers, the whole coasting trade right and left was effectually cut off. It is not at once that the inhabitants of a great city, accustomed to the daily sight of well-stored shops and an abundant market, begin to realize the idea of scarcity; or that the wealthy classes of society, who have never known any other state than one of abundance and luxury, begin seriously to conceive of famine. But the shops were emptied, and the storehouses began to be drawn upon; and no fresh supply or hope of supply appeared. Winter passed away, and Spring returned, so early and so beautiful on that garden-like coast, sheltered as it is from the north winds by its belt of mountains, and open to the full rays of the Southern Sun. Spring returned, and clothed the hill sides within the lines with its fresh verdure. But that verdure was no more the delight of the careless eye of luxury, refreshing the citizens by its loveliness and softness when[pg lv]they rode or walked up thither from the city to enjoy the surpassing beauty of the prospect! The green hill sides were now visited for a very different object; ladies of the highest rank might be seen cutting up every plant which it was possible to turn to food, and bearing home the common weeds of our road sides as a most precious treasure! The French general pitied the distress of the people; but the lives and the strength of his garrison seemed to him more important than the lives of the Genoese, and such provisions as remained were reserved in the first place for the French army. Scarcity became utter want, and want became famine! In the most gorgeous palaces of that gorgeous city, no less than in the humblest tenements of the poor, death was busy; not the momentary death of battle or massacre, nor the speedy death of pestilence, but the lingering and most miserable death of famine! Infants died before their parents' eyes, husbands and wives lay down to expire together! A man whom I saw at Genoa in 1825 told me that his father and two of his brothers had been starved to death in this fatal siege. So it went on, till in the month of June, when Napoleon had already descended from the Alps into the plain of Lombardy, the misery became unendurable, and Massena surrendered. But before he did so, twenty thousand innocent persons, old and young, women and children, had died by the most horrible of deaths which humanity can endure! Other horrors which occurred besides during the blockade I pass over; the agonizing death of twenty thousand innocent and helpless persons requires nothing to be added to it!“Now is it right that such a tragedy as this should take place, and that the laws of war should be supposed to justify the authors of it? Conceive having been a naval officer in Lord Keith's squadron at that time, and being employed in stopping the food which was being brought for the relief of[pg lvi]such misery! For the thing was done deliberately; the helplessness of the Genoese was known, their distress was known; it was known that they could not force Massena to surrender; it was known that they were dying daily by hundreds; yet week after week, and month after month, did the British ships of war keep their iron watch along all the coast: no vessel nor boat laden with any article of provision could escape their vigilance! One cannot but be thankful that Nelson was spared from commanding at this horrible blockade of Genoa!“Now on which side the law of Nations should throw the guilt of most atrocious murder is of little comparative consequence or whether it should attach to both sides equally: but that the deliberate starving to death of twenty thousand helpless persons should be regarded as a crime in one or in both of the parties concerned in it seems to me self-evident! The simplest course would seem to be that all non-combatants should be allowed to go out of a blockaded town, and that the general who should refuse to let them pass should be regarded in the same light as one who were to murder his prisoners or who were in the habit of butchering women and children.”It is not intended to be suggested that the morality of the more virtuous and religious members of civilized communities is not superior to that of uncivilized races. But that such superiority can be claimed by the mass of the inhabitants of Europe is a proposition of which the evidence must be allowed to be doubtful as regards some—must be allowed, alas! to fail altogether as regards many—of those virtues of which our nature is capable!Yet, notwithstanding many melancholy facts that seem to be repugnant to such a conclusion, there exist satisfactory grounds for inferring that civilization has a direct tendency to[pg lvii]promote the moral improvement of the Human Race, and that our species is probably destined even in this state of existence, to a course not only of social, but also of a moral progression! Of this truth distinct indications may be recognized in the altered sentiments of European nations on many momentous subjects, as evinced in the increasing aversion to wars of aggression—in the general condemnation of the principle—and the extensive abolition of the practice—of slavery, and in the rapid growth of an earnest sympathy, at once generous and humane, with the claims and the sufferings of the more unprotected branches of mankind! Of the practical results of these changes in the moral sentiments of Society—of which Christianity, which teaches that all men are of one blood and of one family, has been the primary source—and of which the English nation—influenced by the example of a few men of extraordinary piety, wisdom, and humanity, to whom it gave birth in the last generation, have been the most conspicuous instruments—one example may be appropriately introduced in this place.“The original proprietors of this fine soil, (the neighbourhood of the Cape of Good Hope,) the poor Hottentots, the fabricated tales of whose filthiness are known to every schoolboy, and have made them proverbial in every nation of Europe, are probably the simplest and most inoffensive of the human race. By open robbery and murder, and by a cruel and persevering system of oppression on the part of the Dutch colonists, they have been reduced to not much more than 15,000 souls. Under the protection of the British government, by the careful instruction of the missionaries, and their increased importance in the colony as labourers since the abolition of the slave trade, their number is now considerably on the increase; General Craig, after the capture of the Cape, brought forward, experimentally, the physical and moral qualities of this most injured and degraded people, by forming them into a military corps, which, in point of discipline, obedience,[pg lviii]instruction and cleanliness, were not at all behind European troops. The truth is that the filthy appearance of the Hottentot was never from choice, but necessity. The anxiety which he now shows to get quit of his sheep-skin clothing for cotton, linen, or woollen, and to keep his person clean, proves that he is far more sensible than the‘Boor’to the comforts of civilized life.‘Whosoever,’says the excellent Mr. Latrobe, the father of the Moravians in this country,‘charges the Hottentots with being inferior to other people of the same class as to education and the means of improvement, knows nothing about them. They are in general more sensible, and possess better judgment than most Europeans, equally destitute of the means of instruction.’At Bavians Kloof, or the Monkey's Ravine, which General Jansens altered into Gandenthal, or the Valley of Grace, 130 miles E. by N. of Cape Town, is an establishment of these poor despised people under the care of missionaries, founded in 1737. It consists of a beautiful village containing 1400 Hottentot inhabitants. Every cottage has a garden, a few of the poor class still wear sheep skins, and their children go naked, but far the greater part of them make a point of providing themselves with jackets and trousers, and other articles of European dress which they already wear on Sundays. Both before and after meals they sing grace in the sweetest tones imaginable. The place externally, appears a little Paradise, and let it be remembered it is only one of a great number of these missionary stations. The Hottentots are of a deep brown or yellow brown colour, their eyes are pure white, their head is small; the face very wide above, ends in a point; their cheek-bones are prominent, their eyes sunk, the nose flat, the lips thick, the teeth white, and the hand and foot rather small. They are well made and tall, their hair is black, either curled or woolly, and they have little or no beard. Barrow and Grandprè conceive them to be of a[pg lix]Chinese origin, they call themselves Gkhui-gkhui, pronounced with a click of the tongue or throat, and say they do not come from the interior, but from over the Sea! The Hottentots are divided into several Tribes.”21The nature of their language shows very clearly that the Hottentots are not closely connected by descent with the Chinese; the tradition that they came originally from a country beyond the sea might apply to the island of Madagascar where a dialect kindred to theirs is spoken. There seems however every reason for concluding, agreeably to Dr. Prichard's views, that the Hottentots are descendants of Colonists impelled by the ordinary causes of migration from the North and Middle of Africa, who, as they finally occupied the farthest extremity, were probably the earliest inhabitants of that Continent. The evidence of language serves in a very striking manner to confirm this conclusion. For proofs of the connexion of the Hottentot dialects with the Egyptian and with the Negro languages, see Appendix A. The Hottentot dialects abound also in words unequivocally identical with the corresponding terms in ancient European and Asiatic languages, as for instance Imine,“A Day,”and Ki,“The Earth,”with the Greek. Surrie, Sore,“The Sun”, with the Sanscrit“Surya.”Mamma,“A Mother,”with the Latin, &c. Bo Aboob,“A Father,”with“Abba,”Hebrew. Tamma,“The Tongue.”(See p.15, &c. &c.) Coincidences of this nature are proofs of that species of generic connexion with all the other races of mankind which might be expected as a consequence of a separation that, judging from the Geographical position of the Hottentot tribes, we may suppose to have occurred in the earliest ages of the world.
The question whether the different branches of the Human Race are descended from one Stock, has been discussed on[pg xxvii]Physiological grounds by Dr. Prichard,14in a work equally remarkable for profound Philosophical and extensive Literary research. After detailing a variety of facts with respect to the distribution of Plants and Animals, he thus expresses his conclusion:“The inference to be collected from the facts at present known, seems to be as follows. The various tribes of organized beings, were originally placed by the Creator in certain regions, for which they are by their nature peculiarly adapted. Each species had only one beginning in a single stock; probably a single pair, as Linnæus supposed, was first called into being in a particular spot, and their progeny left to disperse themselves to as great a distance as the locomotive powers, bestowed on each species, or its capability of bearing changes of climate and other physical circumstances may have enabled it to wander.”
According to this writer the varieties of colour, feature, &c. displayed by different races of Men, are the results partly of climate and other external agencies, and partly also of a natural tendency to the manifestation of varieties which may be viewed in the light of a characteristic quality of the Species. Of these propositions the numerous and diversified facts collected by Dr. Prichard appear to furnish perfectly conclusive evidence. Thus he has shown that the characteristic physiognomy of the Negro is found to occur and disappear by nice gradations in strict accordance with the differences of climate throughout the African Continent.
The tendency to variety is very manifest, even from facts under our daily observation. Individuals are common among European nations, who exhibit some one or more of the traits of the Negro, as, for example, his woolly hair, thick lips, &c. Among the Negro races have been born individuals of a perfectly white colour. Many of these specimens, according[pg xxviii]to Dr. Prichard, were not Albinos or diseased persons, but indisputable examples of his principle.
It is probable that in the infancy of the race, this extraordinary tendency may have served the important purpose of accelerating those physiological changes by which the constitution of Man was adapted to the different climates of the Globe, while, in subsequent ages, climate which determines the physiology of the majority, may be said thereby to neutralize the influence of these exceptions. Diversities of complexion, &c. occur in our own and in neighbouring countries within a very limited area. Thus the dark hair and features of the ancient Silures which were ascribed by the Romans to a Spanish origin, are still observable among their posterity, characteristics of which, I conceive, a satisfactory explanation may be found in the warm and equable temperature of the Southern counties of Wales, caused by the peculiar distribution of land and water.15In these countries many productions, both animal and vegetable, flourish, which are rarely found further North. The Nightingale is common, and the Vine is cultivated frequently. The contrast between the temperature of the coasts of South Wales and that of North Wales has not escaped the attention of the Welsh Bards. Davyth ap Gwilym, a Bard of the fourteenth Century, in a Poem of great beauty, in which he describes himself as writing from the land of“wild,”Gwynedh (North Wales), calls upon the Summer and the Sun to visit with their choicest blessings the genial region of“Morganwg,”(Glamorganshire,) of which he was a native, and alludes to its warm climate and its Vineyards, which seem to have been a conspicuous feature! For some very valuable illustrations of the same principle, I may refer to the account given by the Rev. Thomas Price in his Tour in[pg xxix]Brittany, published in the Cambrian Quarterly Magazine, of the varieties of complexion and stature observable in Upper and Lower Brittany.16
From the facts collected by Dr. Prichard, it appears to follow very distinctly, not only that Human Physiology is extremely mutable, but also that the transitions do not occupy a very long interval of time. Thus Jews are resident in the African Kingdom of Kongo, whose complexions are as black as those of the native Negro population. Again on the borders of Negro-land, different sections of the same tribe, speaking the same language, are, in many instances, found variously approaching to or diverging from the Negro standard of colour and physiognomy, according to the latitude or elevation, or other physical features of their respective locations; instances in which the separation—and therefore the physiological differences—must have been recent—for languages change too rapidly to preserve the features of identity or even of a close affinity for a period of long duration! The descendants of the Arabs who overran the North of Africa in comparatively modern times furnish another example; they do not differ in physiognomy from the Berbers, the original inhabitants of the same regions.
From these and similar facts it must be inferred—not only that the existing varieties of Human Physiology form no objection to the opinion that the different populations of the Globe are descended from one stock—the same facts lead also to the conclusion, that—with relation to the earliest eras in the History of our species—Physiological peculiarities must be entirely rejected as evidence, either of a specific connexion or of a specific difference between individual races of men, a principle admitting of many highly interesting applications, of which an example will now be offered.
By what road did the first Colonists of Europe reach their final destination? Adelung has inferred that Europe was peopled exclusively from the Steppes of Northern Asia. But for this opinion, it does not seem that any valid reason can be assigned. If we assume Central Asia to have been the focus of migration, it will be observed that there are three routes by which the forefathers of the European nations may have arrived in their final abodes, viz. 1, The Steppes of Northern Asia; 2, Asia Minor and the Hellespont; and 3, The Isthmus of Suez, the North of Africa, and the Straits of Gibraltar. For concluding that either of these three routes was used, to the exclusion of the other two, it would not be easy to point out any strong argument based on Geographical grounds. Now if the third was employed at all it may be inferred that some of the European nations may be even more nearly allied to those of Africa than they are to the Asiatic populations. To this conclusion, however, a formidable objection occurs in the strikingly contrasted Physiology of Africa and Europe, for—even though it should be conceded that these opposite features do not serve to prove an aboriginal difference of race—the question still arises whether they do not, nevertheless, furnish evidence that the nations of these two continents are more remotely related than any other branches of the Human Family; whether they do not point to the inference that the inhabitants of the South and West of Asia—who certainly occupy an intermediate place Physiologically—must not also be regarded as forming a connecting link between those of Europe and Africa in a Genealogical and Historical sense? To these inquiries it will be obvious that the facts just adverted to furnish a very distinct answer, for from those facts it directly follows—not only that climate and other existing causes are sufficient to account for the different Physical peculiarities of the inhabitants of Africa and Europe—but it also follows from the same evidence, that a[pg xxxi]period of time far short of that during which the European and African nations are known to have occupied their present abodes, would have sufficed to superinduce the opposite characteristics they now display! Perhaps it may be inferred, though probably the subject does not admit of a precise conclusion on this head, that in a suitable climate the lapse of 500 or 600 years might be more than adequate to engraft on the physiognomy of Southern Asia all the distinctive peculiarities of the Negro. That these peculiarities had been fully developed in an early era of the History of the World, is manifest from the Egyptian Paintings, in many of which we have individuals of this ill-fated race very vividly depicted, appearing sometimes as tributaries, and on other occasions as captives, leashed together like hounds!
Infirm health, and final extirpation, have often attended colonies from the North of Europe settled in tropical climes, incidents that seem to have had great weight with Dr. Prichard himself, as constituting an objection to his views. To this objection, however—independent of the numerous facts of an opposite nature—the following consideration, I conceive, suggests a satisfactory answer. Nature may have provided for gradual transitions of climate such as must have been encountered by a population progressively diffused over the Globe; and that she has done so appears to be distinctly established. But it does not follow that she has made any provision for abrupt changes. These are probably a violation of her dictates, and may have the same tendency to produce disease and death as we know to be incident to sudden and extensive variations of temperature in the same climate and country.
The foregoing deductions will be found to have a highly interesting application in relation to the origin of two ancient European races, the Basques and the Celts. If Physiological grounds are dismissed from our consideration, it will probably[pg xxxii]be found that the balance of evidence is in favour of the conclusion that these races have sprung, not from Asiatic colonists, but from emigrants from the coasts of the continent of Africa!
This conclusion is strongly favoured by the geographical position in which we find these races placed at the dawn of History. In the earliest ages the Celts and Basques were in possession of all the most western countries of Europe. The Spanish Peninsula, the South of France, and the North of Italy, were divided between them; the remainder of France, the whole of Belgium, Switzerland, and the British Isles, were held by the Celts, while of Sicily and Italy the Basques appear to have been the first inhabitants. (See Dr. Prichard's Works.) Now in connexion with these facts two considerations deserve to be noticed, which, by a reference to the map will be seen to acquire especial force. 1. It will be observed that the original regions of the Celts and Basques are more closely contiguous to Africa than the Eastern countries of Europe are; both Spain, and Sicily (which may be considered a part of Italy,) approaching at certain points very closely to the African coast. 2. If we assume Central Asia to have been the original focus of migration—it will be evident—that nomade septs issuing thence through the Syro-Phœnician countries, and along the North of Africa—would have found a shorter route to the Italian and to the Spanish Peninsulas—than those emigrants who may be supposed to have passed over the Hellespont, or through Northern Asia! Further it may be added, that the regions originally held by the Basques and Celts are precisely those which would have been occupied by the descendants of Colonists who had arrived in Europe from the South-west of Africa if opposed—as we may infer them to have been—by rival Septs impeding their progress towards the East. To the East of the Basque and Celtic regions we find the rest of Europe possessed by[pg xxxiii]the Teutons or Germans, the Finns, the Sclavonians, and the Greeks, nations all located in countries closely contiguous to Asia, to the inhabitants of which continent the evidence of language indisputably proves them all to have been closely related.17That these nations were also the primitive inhabitants of the territories which they still occupy has been pointed out by Dr. Prichard.
The conclusion above suggested appears to be supported by the evidence of history. With respect to the Basques, or Iberians, Dr. Prichard has referred to the testimony of classical authorities, which distinctly confirms the opinion that they were an African race. But with regard to the Celts, the same learned writer assumes that they must originally have come from the East. It is remarkable, however, that this conclusion is directly at variance with the current opinions of the Ancients, to which he has referred in the following passage:
“The earlier history of the Celtic people is a subject of great interest, but of difficult investigation. Were they the aborigines of Gaul or Germany? According to all the testimony of history, or rather of ancient tradition collected by the writers of the Roman Empire, themigrations of the Gauls werealwaysfrom West to East; the Celtic nations inGermany as well as in Italyand inthe East, were supposed to have been coloniesfrom Gaul, and the Celtæ have been considered as the immemorial inhabitants ofWestern Europe!”(Ethnography of the Celtic Race, in Prichard on Man.)
In assuming that the Celts migrated to Europe direct from Asia, Dr. Prichard's views were very naturally influenced by the valuable evidence he has himself adduced of[pg xxxiv]the connexion of the Celtic dialects with the Sanscrit, &c. This evidence, however, has been shown (see p.19) to be quite consistent with the conclusion suggested above, viz. that the Celts may have sprung from emigrants who penetrated into Spain from the opposite coast of Africa.
The interesting researches of Humboldt, which have served by the evidence of local names to show that the language of the ancient Iberians was the same as the Basque, have also established, by means of the same evidence, that the Peninsula of Spain, at the time of its subjugation by the Romans, was divided in a very irregular manner between Basque and Celtic tribes.“The Celts,”observes Dr. Prichard,“possessed a considerable part of Spain, comprehending not only the central provinces, but also extensive territories in both of the western corners of the Peninsula, where a population either wholly or partly of Celtic descent remained at the period of the Roman Conquest.”The remainder of Spain was held by Basques or by Celt-Iberian tribes, a mixture of both races.
This singular intermingling of the Basques and Celts in the Spanish Peninsula has been a source of many conflicting opinions among the learned, on the question which of these two races were the first inhabitants, and which were the invaders of Spain? The enigma, I conceive, will be most satisfactorily solved by the rejection of the opinion that that country was in the first instance wholly occupied by either! Both may have arrived almost simultaneously, too weak in numbers wholly to engross the new territory on which they thus entered. Each may have thrown out into the most distant provinces weak colonies, consisting of a few nomade families, which afterwards became the foci of powerful Septs. This explanation completely harmonises with the instructive facts which have been developed relative to the North American Indian Tribes, who are still in the“hunter state,”as[pg xxxv]the first colonists of Europe must have been. The languages of a great portion of the North American Indian Tribes have been shown to consist of mere dialects of a few Parent Tongues. But the Septs thus proved to be nearly related are not always contiguous, but often separated by tribes speaking dialects of a different class, a necessary consequence of the roving habits and the imperfect occupation of territory incident to the“hunter state.”An interesting example of the influence of the causes which lead to these results occurs in Mr. Catlin's allusion to a North American Indian Tribe, the Assinneboins, of whom he says:“The Assinneboins are a part of the Dahcotas, or Sioux, undoubtedly; for their personal appearance, as well as their language, is very similar.
“At what time, or in what manner, these two parts of a nation got strayed away from each other is a mystery; yet such cases have often occurred, of which I shall say more in future. Large parties who are straying off in pursuit of game, or in the occupation of war, are oftentimes intercepted by their enemy, and being prevented from returning, are run off to a distant region, where they take up their residence and establish themselves as a nation.”(Catlin on the North American Indians, p. 53.)
The evidence furnished by their languages is not unfavorable to the supposition that the Basques and Celts may have been of African origin.
Though by Humboldt, and some other eminent writers, the Basque has been regarded as distinct from other languages, the examples which occur at the close of this Introduction must, I conceive, serve to remove all doubt as to the identity of the Basques or Iberians with the other branches of the Human Race. Of these examples grammatical differences cannot serve to diminish the force. (See p.89and the chapter on the Chinese Language.) The Basque also shows some[pg xxxvi]traces of a peculiar connexion with the African tongues. Thus its numerals are nearly identical with those of the North African nations, and the formative particle Er is used for similar purposes in the Basque and Egyptian, and in both is placed before the word, a characteristic which distinguishes the African from the European languages. (See p.142.) Thus we have Juan,“To go,”Er-uan,“To cause to go,”(Basque.) Ouini,“Light,”Er-ouini,“To cause Light,”or“To enlighten,”(Egyptian.) Instances of words formed in the same manner, which are common to the Egyptian and the Celtic, will be found at p.38, Appendix A.
A striking example of the connexion of the Celtic languages with those of Africa occurs in the region where the respective Physiological peculiarities of North Africa and Negro-land meet. In the vicinity of the river Senegal the line of separation may be said to divide the Iolofs, a Negro nation, from the Fulahs and Phellatahs, whose physical characteristics are of an intermediate nature. Now it is remarkable, that by comparing and as it were uniting the dialects of the Iolofs, the Fulahs, and the Phellatahs, some of the most common Welsh words are obtained essentially unchanged, as in Le oure,“The Moon,”(Fulahs,) Gour, and Gourgne,“A Man,”(Iolofs,) Gourko,“A Man,”(Phellatahs,) Loho,“The Hand,”(Iolofs,) Bourou,“Bread,”(Iolofs,) Bouron,“Bread,”(Fulahs.)
Consistently with the principles on which the origin of languages is hereafter explained in this work, I cannot suggest that these coincidences, striking as they are, afford any proof of a specific connexion between the Celtic and African races. But they tend to prove, nevertheless, that language furnishes no positive ground for inferring that the Celts are more nearly allied to the Asiatic than they are to the African races. Hence, since the evidence of Physiology on this subject is also of a negative character, it may be[pg xxxvii]affirmed, with regard both to this race and the Basques, that the opinion that they are of Asiatic descent—opposed as it is by the evidence of history in one, if not in both cases—and by the inferences which Geographical considerations, in both instances, appear to suggest—requires reconsideration.
In this place I may observe, that in the course of the following inquiries it will be found true as a general principle, that in direct proportion as the proofs of the General Unity of the different races of the Globe are observed to become more distinct, the evidence which has frequently been relied upon as demonstrative of a specific connexion between particular races will also be observed to become more doubtful, for both the affinities and differences which exist between the languages of contiguous—and those of the most distant—nations, are for the most part so nearly alike in character, and so nearly equal in degree, as to favour the inference that the dispersion of the Human Race must have been exceedingly rapid, and that many ancient nations, such as the Basques and Celts, who in subsequent times were found closely contiguous, must, in the first eras of the world, have been isolated from each other by incessant war and nomade habits, almost as early as the most distant nations were! It is certain that the language of the Welsh does not present either to the Basque or to the Teutonic—dialects of nations located contiguously to their Celtic forefathers—examples of affinity more striking than those just adverted to. Nor are the examples above noticed of the connexion between the Welsh and the African dialects by any means more remarkable than the instances of resemblance between the former tongue and the dialect of the Mandans, a North American Indian Tribe, which have been pointed out by Mr. Catlin! In both cases the same observation applies—an observation based on a principle that will be more fully understood hereafter—viz., that[pg xxxviii]these coincidences are unequivocal proofs of a generic, but not of that kind of specific relation, which implies that these nations were at one time united more intimately than the other families of mankind.
Various miscellaneous considerations connected with the primitive migrations of mankind may now he adverted to.
Neither the extent nor the physical features of our Globe are such as imply that the spread of population over its surface must necessarily have been the work of many ages. To traverse the habitable earth from the Southern extremity of Africa to the North of Asia, and thence to the extreme Southern point of the American continent, is a task which would require only a small fraction of one man's life! And in the first ages of the Race, Man was probably a Nomade, a Wanderer! It may be inferred, therefore, that in the early ages of the world the diffusion of population was very rapid in the warmer latitudes, while towards the North it was obstructed rather by climate than by any other cause. As population became more dense in the more favoured regions, weaker tribes, it may be surmised, were gradually driven into the steppes of Asia and the wilds of Siberia, whence they may be supposed to have penetrated into Europe on the one hand, and across Behring's Straits into America on the other. With the exception of America, all the great Continents are connected together by districts easily traversed by Man; and Behring's Strait, which is interposed between America and the North-east of Asia, might be passed in the canoes of some of the most barbarous tribes with which we are acquainted.
The peopling of Islands is a subject that has been discussed very satisfactorily by Dr. Prichard, and after him by Mr. Lyell. Their conclusion is, that the occasional drifting of canoes by storms and currents, is sufficient to account for the existence of Human population in the most remote[pg xxxix]islands, as is proved by facts related by Kotzebue and others. Several reasons have however been suggested in the following pages, for the conclusion that Australia is a recently peopled country.
The geographical distribution of the various languages of the globe seems to render Adelung's arguments for regarding Central Asia as the birth-place of our species eminently convincing. The languages of China and the South-east of Asia are either Monosyllabic, or Tongues that partake of that character; Languages having the same features are spoken through the long chain of islands in the Pacific as far as New Zealand. All the other Tongues of the Globe are Polysyllabic. Now if the birth-place of Man and the focus of migration was in Central Asia, on the borders of Cashmire and Tibet, this division of Languages would necessarily have followed, for it will be observed that Tibet, which is the source of the rivers of the regions to the South-east, would in that case have given inhabitants to the countries of South-eastern Asia, countries which are isolated from all others, for not only are they cut off from Europe, Africa, and Western Asia, by the system of Table-lands and its Mountains, they are also separated from Northern Asia and therefore from America by the Great Desert of Gobi or Shamo. To the Steppes of Northern Asia, and consequently to America as well as to Europe and Africa, the territory of Persia or Iran, which, as has been seen, forms the opposite slope of the system of Table-lands, is the natural route.
The relations which the Parsian, the Pehlwi, and the Zend, the ancient dialects of Persia, bear to those of the surrounding countries, seem to be in a highly interesting manner confirmatory of Adelung's views. The Parsian, which was spoken in the South of Persia in the provinces near to India, approaches so closely to the Sanscrit, the ancient language of that country, that Sir William Jones considered the Parsian[pg xl]to have been the parent of the Sanscrit. The Pehlwi, the language of the Parthians who occupied the centre of Persia, a territory that adjoins the Semetic countries, appears very decidedly to be a connecting link between the Semetic languages on the one hand and the Parsian and Zend and the Indo-European tongues, viewed as a class, on the other. The Zend, the dialect of ancient Media, or North Persia, is supposed to be closely allied to the Armenian. The Parsian, Pehlwi, and Zend, respectively bearing these relations to the languages of the neighbouring countries, are closely connected as sister dialects among themselves. These facts tend to show—from the summit of the Western Table-land viewed as a centre, through Persia viewed as a medium—a radiation of language from which a radiation of population may reasonably be presumed.
The species of affinity which the ancient Persian dialects display to the languages of the adjoining countries appears to point very distinctly to another highly important conclusion in relation to the early history of mankind, viz., that the diffusion of population over Persia and the contiguous countries must have been a comparatively recent event with reference to the earliest specimens of the Persian and Semetic dialects, &c. After the lapse of a long interval the languages even of contiguous countries lose the traces of original unity. But with regard to modern dialects it can be distinctly shown that those of intermediate districts are connecting links between those of the extremities. Thus the Savoyard connects the French and Italian dialects of the Latin, and those of the North of England are intermediate between the modern English and the Lowland Scotch; Du Ponceau has made a similar remark with regard to the North American Indian dialects spoken by kindred tribes. Septs placed in the centre continue to maintain a certain degree of intercourse with all the tribes by which they are surrounded, a consideration[pg xli]which will account for these results, which probably cannot, in many cases, be referred to different degrees of Genealogical affinity.
One of the most striking indications of the Original Unity of the different Races of Men is derivable from the uniformity of the Moral, Mental, and Social Features they display.
Though the mind in early infancy may be destitute of positive ideas, it seems to be evident, nevertheless, that our Species has been gifted with Intellectual Faculties, and with Moral Sentiments and Sympathies, which are in the strictest sense innate.18Of this conclusion a striking confirmation is derivable, from the extraordinary sameness which, on a close examination, will be found to prevail in the characters, sentiments, and sympathies of the various branches of the Human Species. Of this truth a few examples will now be noticed.
The Negro tribes of Africa have frequently been supposed to belong to an inferior race of Men, an opinion founded—partly on an inadequate conception of the progressive character of the Human species—partly on ignorance of the progress which many Negro nations have actually made. On the one hand it would be difficult to show that the rudest of the African tribes are in a more barbarous condition than the ancestors of some of the most civilized European nations once were! On the other hand, the proofs of a capacity for social improvement are as unequivocal in the former case as they are in the latter! Large and important nations, as for example the Mandingoes and the Iolofs, are found in the interior of Africa, professing the Mahomedan religion, and as far advanced in the virtues and refinements of civilization, as any other nations who are followers of the same creed. In many of these nations the Men are distinguished by a grave and reflective character, and the women are remarkable for their exemplary[pg xlii]discharge of the duties of domestic life. Sections of the Negro race have also been converted to Christianity, including many individuals who have been distinguished not only by a steady conformity to its precepts, but by the zeal and success with which they have fulfilled the high duties of Missionaries among their countrymen, and by the composition of Theological treatises of no inconsiderable merit! (See Dr. Prichard on Man.)
It has been already observed that the physiognomy of the Egyptians approaches closely to that of the Negro race, of which it may be regarded as a modification. It has also been pointed out in another part of this work, that the evidence of language favours the inference that Egypt was the source of the various African populations. The discoveries of our age—while they have rendered indisputable the extraordinary arts, high civilization, and vast political power of ancient Egypt—have also served to disclose, in the portraits of individuals of that country, forms of grace and elegance, that serve to link together by the ties of a close and pathetic association, the infancy with the later ages of the world! To adopt the expression of Schlegel, (See Schlegel's Translation of Dr. Prichard's Work on Eg. Mythol.,) the physiognomy of the ancient Egyptians is that of a“very noble race”of men. But it differs very widely from the characteristics of the European nations; in the dignified features of the men, and also in the lineaments of female beauty, the approach to the Negro Physiognomy is often very conspicuous!
I may instance the countenance of the Sphynx as affording a specimen of the species of approximation to the Negro Physiognomy which is observable in ancient Egyptian remains!
One of the most forcible examples of the susceptibility to[pg xliii]civilization19of nations once very barbarous may be found in a comparison of the character of the ancient Gauls and modern French. When Hannibal invaded Italy he confined his ravages to the possessions of the Romans and spared those of the Gauls; a partial distinction which won the favour of this simple people, who flocked in great numbers to his standard. The Gauls who were in his army at the battle of Cannæ are described as a fierce people, naked from the waist, carrying large round shields, with swords of an enormous size blunted at the point. Yet there cannot be a doubt that the French, one of the most refined and distinguished of modern nations, are lineally descended from this primitive race! (See p.64.) The true answer to the reveries of Pinkerton, with respect to the imputed incapacity of the Celts, is to be found in the literature and science of the French, in whom, owing to the great extent of their country, the original Celtic blood is most probably less unmingled than it is in the Irish, the Welsh, or the Highland Scotch!
A comparison of the character of the ancient Gauls and modern French involves also an instructive example of the mode in which the tendency to progression in the Human species is often united with a stability of national character in some features that forms a singular contrast to that tendency. In comparing Cæsar's Commentaries on his Wars in Gaul with the volumes of General Napier, we are struck, in almost every page, with proofs of a coincidence of mental features so minute, that but for the opposite accompaniments on the one hand, of a primitive, and on the other of a modern age, we might imagine we had before us, in these relations, two narratives referring to the same wars, the same sieges,[pg xliv]and the same men! The mind is perplexed to conceive how a nation that has existed in conditions so contrasted, as regards Civilization, could have continued thus uniform in its social and moral features!
Striking as these and other proofs which may be adduced of the uniformity of character which has often been maintained by the same nation in different stages of society undoubtedly are, they must cease to excite surprise—though they may be said to acquire even a higher interest—when viewed through the medium of the closely analogous results which will be found to flow from a comparison with the civilized nations of Europe of contemporaneous Tribes still existing in the“Hunter State.”
The natives of Australia have generally been thought to occupy the lowest place in the social scale. But from Col. Grey's valuable work it may be inferred that in their devices for catching game and other arts belonging to their rude state, they give proofs of the same intelligence and acuteness as are evinced by other races of men. They have also Songs of War and Love which they sing in tunes most barbarous and discordant. The more refined lays of the European excite mimicry and laughter. But, adds Col. Grey,“Some of the natives are not insensible to the charms of our music. Warrup, a native youth, who lived with me for several months as a servant, once accompanied me to an amateur theatre at Perth, and when the actors came forward and sang‘God save the Queen,’he burst into tears. Hecertainly could not have comprehended the words of the song, and, therefore, must have been affected by the Music alone.”
“Nothing can awaken in the breast more melancholy feelings than the funeral chants of these people. They are sung by a whole chorus of females of all ages, and the effect[pg xlv]produced upon the bystanders by this wild music is indescribable.”
Many of the Australian words given by Colonel Grey will readily be recognized among the terms collected from the languages of the other Four Continents inAppendix A; as for example: Nganga, Ngon-ge, Tin-dee, Tiendee,“The Sun”and“The Stars.”(See App. A, p.26.) Yanna,“To go,”and Tjênna, Tinna,“The Foot.”(74.) Tullun, Tdallung, Tadlanga,“The Tongue.”(72.) Nago,“To see.”(42,43.) Mena,“The Eye.”(14.) Poou, Puiyu, Poito, Booyoo,“Smoke,”and Bobun,“To blow.”(21.)
In the construction of their canoes, the inhabitants of some of the most barbarous islands of the Pacific, exhibit an originality and a variety of conception of precisely the same nature as is displayed in those mechanical inventions by which the sum of European civilization is progressively extended!
But in relation to the subject more immediately under examination, far the most valuable and instructive information occurs in Mr. Catlin's account of his residence among the North American Indian Tribes, a work, admirable alike as a living picture of Indian manners and sentiments, and also as an earnest and simple minded, and for that reason an eminently touching and eloquent appeal, on behalf of one of the noblest, though one of the most unfortunate families of the Human Race!
“I have roamed about from time to time during seven or eight years,”says the writer,“visiting and associating with some three or four hundred thousand of these people, under an almost infinite variety of circumstances; and from the very many and decidedly voluntary acts of their hospitality and kindness, I feel bound to pronounce them, by nature, a kind and hospitable people. I have been welcomed generally in their country, and treated to the[pg xlvi]best that they could give me, without any charges made for my board; they have often escorted me through their enemies' country at some hazard to their own lives, and aided me in passing mountains and rivers with my awkward baggage; and under all these circumstances of exposure, no Indian ever betrayed me, struck me a blow, or stole from me a shilling's worth of my property that I am aware of.
“This is saying a great deal (and proving it too, if the reader will believe me,) in favour of the virtues of these people; when it is borne in mind, as it should be, that there is no law in the land to punish for theft, that locks and keys are not known in their country, that the commandments have never been divulged amongst them, nor can any human retribution fall upon the head of a thief, save the disgrace which attaches as a stigma to his character in the eyes of the people around him.
“And thus in these little communities, strange as it may seem, in the absence of all systems of jurisprudence, I have often beheld peace and happiness, and quiet, reigning supreme, for which even kings and emperors might envy them. I have seen rights and virtue protected, and wrongs redressed; and I have seen conjugal, filial and paternal affection, in the simplicity and contentedness of nature. I have unavoidably formed warm and enduring attachments to some of these men, which I do not wish to forget, who have brought me near to their hearts, and in our final separation have embraced me in their arms, and commended me and my affairs to the keeping of the Great Spirit.”
Among those tribes which have been placed in contact with the Whites, individuals, generally Chiefs, have acquired all the advantages of a European education, to which in most of these instances are united, dignified and gentlemanlike feelings and manners, qualities which seem to belong to the native American character. Some tribes have been nearly extipated[pg xlvii]by the use of fermented liquors. But some sections of the Indian population have been converted to Christianity, and adopted the habit of total abstinence; others have become industrious cultivators of the soil. Where this race has rejected the benefits of civilization, it seems almost invariably to have arisen from the prejudices naturally excited in their minds by the vices of the worst part of the white population, and the calamities which they have caused by the introduction of ardent spirits! Even those excellent men who have devoted their lives to the religious instruction of the Indians, and by whose efforts it may be inferred that some Tribes have been saved from extinction, have too often found in these prejudices, an obstacle which might perhaps be removed were the missionaries generally to commence by offering to teach some of the simplest arts of civilized life—information of which the benefits would be immediately appreciated—as a means of paving the way for obtaining that confidence which, as religious instructors, they require.
The life of constant war and peril to which the Indians are exposed is incompatible withactualSocial advancement. But proofs of a spontaneoustendencyto civilization may be gleaned, as I conceive, from the grace and tastefulness of their dresses—the beautiful lodges many of the Tribes build—and other indications, &c. But of this truth, a still more decisive example occurs, as I venture to think, in the account given by Mr. Catlin of a very interesting tribe, the Mandans, whom, from the evidence of language already noticed and other considerations, he has conjectured to be descendants of Madoc's Colony, and whose personal character and appearance he thus describes:
“The Mandans are certainly a very interesting and pleasing people in their personal appearance and manners; differing in many respects, both inlooksand customs, from all othertribes which I have ever seen. They are not a warlike[pg xlviii]people, for they seldom, if ever, carry war into their enemies' country; but when invaded, show their valour and courage to be equal to that of any people on earth. Being a small tribe, and unable to contend on the wide prairies with the Sioux and other roaming tribes, who are ten times more numerous, they have very judiciouslylocated themselves in a permanent village, which is stronglyfortified, and ensures their preservation. By this means they haveadvanced further in the arts of manufacture, and have supplied their lodges more abundantly with the comforts and even luxuries of life than any Indian nation I know of. The consequence of this is that the tribe have taken many steps ahead of other tribes in manners and refinements(if I may be allowed to use the word refinement to Indian life); and are, therefore, familiarly (and correctly) denominated by the Traders and others, who have been amongst them, the‘polite and friendly Mandans.’
“There is certainly great justice in the remark, and so forcibly have I been struck with the peculiarease and eleganceof this people, together with thediversity of complexions, the various colours of their hair and eyes, the singularity of their language, and their peculiar and unaccountable customs, that I am fully convinced that they have sprung from some other origin than that of the other North American tribes, or that they are an amalgam of natives with some civilized race.
“Here arises a question of very great interest and importance for discussion; and after further familiarity with their character, customs, and traditions, if I forget not, I will eventually give it further consideration. Suffice it then for the present, that theirpersonal appearancealone, independent of their modes and customs, pronounces them at once as more or less than savage.
“A stranger in the Mandan village is first struck with the[pg xlix]different shades of complexionand colours of hair which he sees in a crowd, and is at once almost disposed to exclaim that‘these are not Indians!’
“There are a great many of these people whose complexions appear aslight as half-breeds; and amongst the women particularly, there are many whoseskins are almost white, with the most pleasing symmetry and proportion of features; with hazel, with gray, and with blue eyes; with mildness and sweetness of expression, and excessive modesty of demeanour, which render them exceedingly pleasing and beautiful!”
It has been shown in another part of this work that the language of the Mandans does not prove them to be connected with the Welsh, and that their dialect is of the same character as that of other Indian tribes. Further, did space allow, I might produce some evidence that the Mandans are allied in blood to their hereditary foes, the fierce and warlike Sioux! The phenomena noticed by Mr. Catlin must be explained therefore by the aid of different principles than those to which he has referred.20
I conceive then that these various peculiarities of colour, personal appearance, and of manners and social habits, which he noticed amongst the Mandans, may all be viewed as effects of one simple cause, viz. their“judiciously selected location”in“a permanent village,”involving protection from exposure to the seasons on the one hand, and the abandonment of nomade habits on the other. To the former, the changes of complexion—to the latter, the social advances—of the Mandan Tribe may be ascribed!
There are numerous other data in Mr. Catlin's work which seem to afford illustrations of the mutability of Human Physiology. The Indians who live among the Whites he describes as“Pale”Red. May not the change implied in[pg l]this expression be referred to an abandonment of their original life of activity and exposure on the wild Prairie, quite as much as to misfortune or a mixture of European blood? The variety of Physiognomy among the different tribes, as shown by his admirable portraits of Chiefs, &c., is very extraordinary. Some of these countenances are ugly and unprepossessing; but in others the finest European features occur! The traits exhibited by these portraits are contrary to the inference which Humboldt's description might suggest, viz., that all the N. A. Indian Tribes resemble the Mongol Race in features as well as in the colour of their skin and the absence of beard.
The Indian shows no want of acuteness in detecting the characteristic vices, whether real or imaginary, of the civilized world.
“On one occasion, when I had interrogated a Sioux chief, on the Upper Missouri, about their government, their punishments, and tortures of prisoners, for which I had freely condemned them for the cruelty of practice, he took occasion, when I had got through, to ask me some questions relative to modes in the civilized world. He told me he had often heard that white people hung their criminals by the neck and choked them to death like dogs, and those their own people; to which I answered‘Yes.’He then told me he had learned that they shut each other up in prisons, where they keep them a great part of their lives because they can't pay money! I replied in the affirmative to this, which occasioned great surprise and excessive laughter even amongst the women! He told me that he had been to our Fort at Council Bluffs, where we had a great many warriors and braves, and he saw three of them taken out on the prairies and tied to a post and whipped almost to death; and he had been told that they submit to all this to get a little money!
“He put to me a chapter of other questions as to the trespasses (of the Whites) on their lands, their continual corruption[pg li]of the morals of their women, and digging open the Indian's graves to get their bones, &c. To all of which I was compelled to reply in the affirmative, and quite glad to close my note book, and quietly to escape from the throng that had collected around me, and saying (though to myself and silently), that these and a hundred others are vices that belong to the civilized world, and are practised upon (but certainly in no instance reciprocated by)‘the cruel and relentless’savage!”
It is probable that the finer features of the North American Indian character may be ascribed in a great measure to the elevated nature of their religious belief, which indisputably appears to be quite free from the loathsome and debasing idolatry of the Hindoos and other pagan nations of the Old World.
“I fearlessly assert to the world (and I defy contradiction), that the North American Indian is everywhere in his native state a highly moral and religious being, endowed by his Maker with an intuitive knowledge of some great Author of his being and the universe, in dread of whose displeasure he constantly lives, with the apprehension before him of a future state, where he expects to be rewarded or punished according to the merits he has gained or forfeited in this world.”
In their native state, in regions remote from the Whites, the Indians are well clothed and fed, cleanly in their habits, cheerful, and healthy. The opposite qualities have been considered to be characteristic of the race, in consequence of the unhappy condition of most of those Tribes who are found among or near the settlements of the Whites, a condition ascribable to the use of ardent spirits, the destruction of the game on which they originally subsisted, and the fraudulent manner in which they have often been deprived of their lands!
“From what I have seen of these people I feel authorized to say, that there is nothing very strange or unaccountable in their character; but that it is a simple one, and easy to be understood if the right means be taken to familiarize ourselves with it. Although it has dark spots, yet there is much in it to be applauded, and much to recommend it to the admiration of the enlightened world. And I trust that the reader who looks through these volumes with care, will be disposed to join me in the conclusion, that the North American Indian in his native state is an honest, hospitable, faithful, brave, warlike, cruel, revengeful, relentless, yet honorable, contemplative, and religious being.”
The tortures practised by the Indians on their prisoners of war are, it seems, inflicted only on a portion of their captives by way of reprisal. The prisoners are for the most part adopted into the conquering tribe. The men are married to the wives of those who have fallen in battle; and those outrages on the weaker sex which have disgraced the armies of civilized Europe are unknown in the annals of Indian warfare!
The Indian is reckless of life, and the female sex among these tribes is consigned to a life of servitude. But it must be asked, is the morality of European nations uniformly founded on an earnest regard for the claims of humanity—on a tender respect for the rights and for the sufferings of the weak and defenceless! This is a momentous question, to which an answer at once humiliating and complete may be drawn from one single historical incident described in the following touching passage!
After noticing the defective state of the European law of nations in certain respects, the author from whose work the following narrative has been derived, thus proceeds:“The other case in which it seems to me that the law of nations should either be amended, or declared more clearly and enforced[pg liii]in practice, is that of the blockade of towns not defended by their inhabitants, in order to force their surrender by starvation. And here let us try to realize to ourselves what such a blockade is. We need not, unhappily, draw a fancied picture; history, and no remote history either, will supply us with the facts. Some of you, I doubt not, remember Genoa; you have seen that queenly city, with its streets of palaces rising tier above tier from the water, girdling with the long lines of its bright white houses the vast sweep of its harbour, the mouth of which is marked by a huge natural mole of rock, crowned by its magnificent lighthouse-tower. You remember how its white houses rose out of a mass of fig, and olive, and orange trees, the glory of its old patrician luxury; you may have observed the mountains behind the town, spotted at intervals by small circular low towers, one of which is distinctly conspicuous where the ridge of the hills rises to its summit and hides from view all the country behind it. Those towers are the forts of the famous lines; which, curiously resembling in shape the later Syracusan walls inclosing Epipolæ;, converge inland from the eastern and western extremities of the city, looking down the western line of the valley of Pulcevera, the eastern on that of the Bisagno, till they meet as I have said on the summit of the mountains, where the hills cease to rise from the sea and become more or less of a table-land, running off towards the interior at the distance, as well as I remember, of between two and three miles from the outside of the city. Thus a very large open space is inclosed within the lines, and Genoa is capable therefore of becoming a vast entrenched camp, holding not so much a garrison as an army. In the autumn of 1799, the Austrians had driven the French out of Lombardy and Piedmont; their last victory of Fossano or Genola, had won the fortress of Coni or Cuneo close under the Alps, and at the very extremity of[pg liv]the plain of the Po. The French clung to Italy only by their hold of the Riviera of Genoa, the narrow strip of coast between the Apennines and the sea, which extends from the frontiers of France almost to the mouth of the Arno. Hither the remains of the French force were collected, commanded by General Massena, and the point of chief importance to his defence was the city of Genoa.
“Napoleon had just returned from Egypt, and was become First Consul; but he could not be expected to take the field till the following spring, and till then Massena was hopeless of relief from without, everything was to depend upon his own pertinacity. The strength of his army made it impossible to force it in such a position as Genoa; but its very numbers, added to the population of the city, held out to the enemy a hope of reducing it by famine; and as Genoa derives most of its supplies by sea, Lord Keith, the British naval Commander in Chief in the Mediterranean, lent the assistance of his naval force to the Austrians, and by the vigilance of his cruizers, the whole coasting trade right and left was effectually cut off. It is not at once that the inhabitants of a great city, accustomed to the daily sight of well-stored shops and an abundant market, begin to realize the idea of scarcity; or that the wealthy classes of society, who have never known any other state than one of abundance and luxury, begin seriously to conceive of famine. But the shops were emptied, and the storehouses began to be drawn upon; and no fresh supply or hope of supply appeared. Winter passed away, and Spring returned, so early and so beautiful on that garden-like coast, sheltered as it is from the north winds by its belt of mountains, and open to the full rays of the Southern Sun. Spring returned, and clothed the hill sides within the lines with its fresh verdure. But that verdure was no more the delight of the careless eye of luxury, refreshing the citizens by its loveliness and softness when[pg lv]they rode or walked up thither from the city to enjoy the surpassing beauty of the prospect! The green hill sides were now visited for a very different object; ladies of the highest rank might be seen cutting up every plant which it was possible to turn to food, and bearing home the common weeds of our road sides as a most precious treasure! The French general pitied the distress of the people; but the lives and the strength of his garrison seemed to him more important than the lives of the Genoese, and such provisions as remained were reserved in the first place for the French army. Scarcity became utter want, and want became famine! In the most gorgeous palaces of that gorgeous city, no less than in the humblest tenements of the poor, death was busy; not the momentary death of battle or massacre, nor the speedy death of pestilence, but the lingering and most miserable death of famine! Infants died before their parents' eyes, husbands and wives lay down to expire together! A man whom I saw at Genoa in 1825 told me that his father and two of his brothers had been starved to death in this fatal siege. So it went on, till in the month of June, when Napoleon had already descended from the Alps into the plain of Lombardy, the misery became unendurable, and Massena surrendered. But before he did so, twenty thousand innocent persons, old and young, women and children, had died by the most horrible of deaths which humanity can endure! Other horrors which occurred besides during the blockade I pass over; the agonizing death of twenty thousand innocent and helpless persons requires nothing to be added to it!
“Now is it right that such a tragedy as this should take place, and that the laws of war should be supposed to justify the authors of it? Conceive having been a naval officer in Lord Keith's squadron at that time, and being employed in stopping the food which was being brought for the relief of[pg lvi]such misery! For the thing was done deliberately; the helplessness of the Genoese was known, their distress was known; it was known that they could not force Massena to surrender; it was known that they were dying daily by hundreds; yet week after week, and month after month, did the British ships of war keep their iron watch along all the coast: no vessel nor boat laden with any article of provision could escape their vigilance! One cannot but be thankful that Nelson was spared from commanding at this horrible blockade of Genoa!
“Now on which side the law of Nations should throw the guilt of most atrocious murder is of little comparative consequence or whether it should attach to both sides equally: but that the deliberate starving to death of twenty thousand helpless persons should be regarded as a crime in one or in both of the parties concerned in it seems to me self-evident! The simplest course would seem to be that all non-combatants should be allowed to go out of a blockaded town, and that the general who should refuse to let them pass should be regarded in the same light as one who were to murder his prisoners or who were in the habit of butchering women and children.”
It is not intended to be suggested that the morality of the more virtuous and religious members of civilized communities is not superior to that of uncivilized races. But that such superiority can be claimed by the mass of the inhabitants of Europe is a proposition of which the evidence must be allowed to be doubtful as regards some—must be allowed, alas! to fail altogether as regards many—of those virtues of which our nature is capable!
Yet, notwithstanding many melancholy facts that seem to be repugnant to such a conclusion, there exist satisfactory grounds for inferring that civilization has a direct tendency to[pg lvii]promote the moral improvement of the Human Race, and that our species is probably destined even in this state of existence, to a course not only of social, but also of a moral progression! Of this truth distinct indications may be recognized in the altered sentiments of European nations on many momentous subjects, as evinced in the increasing aversion to wars of aggression—in the general condemnation of the principle—and the extensive abolition of the practice—of slavery, and in the rapid growth of an earnest sympathy, at once generous and humane, with the claims and the sufferings of the more unprotected branches of mankind! Of the practical results of these changes in the moral sentiments of Society—of which Christianity, which teaches that all men are of one blood and of one family, has been the primary source—and of which the English nation—influenced by the example of a few men of extraordinary piety, wisdom, and humanity, to whom it gave birth in the last generation, have been the most conspicuous instruments—one example may be appropriately introduced in this place.
“The original proprietors of this fine soil, (the neighbourhood of the Cape of Good Hope,) the poor Hottentots, the fabricated tales of whose filthiness are known to every schoolboy, and have made them proverbial in every nation of Europe, are probably the simplest and most inoffensive of the human race. By open robbery and murder, and by a cruel and persevering system of oppression on the part of the Dutch colonists, they have been reduced to not much more than 15,000 souls. Under the protection of the British government, by the careful instruction of the missionaries, and their increased importance in the colony as labourers since the abolition of the slave trade, their number is now considerably on the increase; General Craig, after the capture of the Cape, brought forward, experimentally, the physical and moral qualities of this most injured and degraded people, by forming them into a military corps, which, in point of discipline, obedience,[pg lviii]instruction and cleanliness, were not at all behind European troops. The truth is that the filthy appearance of the Hottentot was never from choice, but necessity. The anxiety which he now shows to get quit of his sheep-skin clothing for cotton, linen, or woollen, and to keep his person clean, proves that he is far more sensible than the‘Boor’to the comforts of civilized life.‘Whosoever,’says the excellent Mr. Latrobe, the father of the Moravians in this country,‘charges the Hottentots with being inferior to other people of the same class as to education and the means of improvement, knows nothing about them. They are in general more sensible, and possess better judgment than most Europeans, equally destitute of the means of instruction.’At Bavians Kloof, or the Monkey's Ravine, which General Jansens altered into Gandenthal, or the Valley of Grace, 130 miles E. by N. of Cape Town, is an establishment of these poor despised people under the care of missionaries, founded in 1737. It consists of a beautiful village containing 1400 Hottentot inhabitants. Every cottage has a garden, a few of the poor class still wear sheep skins, and their children go naked, but far the greater part of them make a point of providing themselves with jackets and trousers, and other articles of European dress which they already wear on Sundays. Both before and after meals they sing grace in the sweetest tones imaginable. The place externally, appears a little Paradise, and let it be remembered it is only one of a great number of these missionary stations. The Hottentots are of a deep brown or yellow brown colour, their eyes are pure white, their head is small; the face very wide above, ends in a point; their cheek-bones are prominent, their eyes sunk, the nose flat, the lips thick, the teeth white, and the hand and foot rather small. They are well made and tall, their hair is black, either curled or woolly, and they have little or no beard. Barrow and Grandprè conceive them to be of a[pg lix]Chinese origin, they call themselves Gkhui-gkhui, pronounced with a click of the tongue or throat, and say they do not come from the interior, but from over the Sea! The Hottentots are divided into several Tribes.”21
The nature of their language shows very clearly that the Hottentots are not closely connected by descent with the Chinese; the tradition that they came originally from a country beyond the sea might apply to the island of Madagascar where a dialect kindred to theirs is spoken. There seems however every reason for concluding, agreeably to Dr. Prichard's views, that the Hottentots are descendants of Colonists impelled by the ordinary causes of migration from the North and Middle of Africa, who, as they finally occupied the farthest extremity, were probably the earliest inhabitants of that Continent. The evidence of language serves in a very striking manner to confirm this conclusion. For proofs of the connexion of the Hottentot dialects with the Egyptian and with the Negro languages, see Appendix A. The Hottentot dialects abound also in words unequivocally identical with the corresponding terms in ancient European and Asiatic languages, as for instance Imine,“A Day,”and Ki,“The Earth,”with the Greek. Surrie, Sore,“The Sun”, with the Sanscrit“Surya.”Mamma,“A Mother,”with the Latin, &c. Bo Aboob,“A Father,”with“Abba,”Hebrew. Tamma,“The Tongue.”(See p.15, &c. &c.) Coincidences of this nature are proofs of that species of generic connexion with all the other races of mankind which might be expected as a consequence of a separation that, judging from the Geographical position of the Hottentot tribes, we may suppose to have occurred in the earliest ages of the world.