I. At the point which we have now reached, the connection of facts and of their consequences proposes a fresh problem. Physiology has proved that there exists butone speciesof man, of which the human groups are races. Zoological geography has taught us that this species was originally localised in a relatively very limited space. It is now met with everywhere, because it has spread by irradiation in every direction from this centre. Thepeopling of the globe by migrations, is the necessary consequence of the preceding facts.
Polygenists, and the partisans of the autochthony of nations have declared that these migrations areimpossiblein a certain number of cases, and have brought forward this pretended impossibility as an objection to the doctrine which I uphold. Here, again, I turn to facts for my answer.
II. I confess that I never understood how any value could be attached to this argument. Migrations are almost universal in history, and in the traditions and legends of the new as well as of the old world. We find them among the uncivilised nations of our time, and among tribes which are still lingering in the lowest stage of savage life. With everyincrease and extension of knowledge, we learn to appreciate better the wandering instincts of man. Human palæontology and prehistoric archæology are daily adding their testimony to that of the historic sciences.
To judge from this kind of information alone, it seems more than probable that the entire globe was peopled by means of migrations and colonisations. The primordial and uninterrupted immobility of any human race would be a fact at variance with all analogy. It would, once constituted, doubtless establish, except under exceptional circumstances, a more or less considerable number, generally the great majority of its representatives; but in the course of ages it could not fail to have cast off swarms.
III. The supporters of autochthony lay especial stress upon two orders of considerations, the one drawn from the social condition of nations when still in their infancy and unprovided with the means of action which we now possess, the other from the obstacles which a hitherto invincible nature would oppose to their movements.
The first objection evidently rests upon an imperfect appreciation of the aptitudes and tendencies developed in man through his different modes of life. The very imperfection of the social condition, far from arresting the diffusion of the human species, must rather have been favourable to it. Agricultural nations are of necessity settled; to pastoral nations, less bound to the soil, special conditions are indispensable. Hunters, on the contrary, by reason of their mode of life, of the necessities which it imposes, and the instincts which it develops, cannot but spread in every sense. A vast space is necessary to their existence; as soon as the numbers increase, even in a slight degree, they are forced to separate or to destroy each other, as is shown so clearly in the history of the Red-Skins. Nations of hunters and shepherds are then alone fitted for great and distant migrations. Agricultural nations are rather colonists.
Ancient history itself entirely confirms these theoretical inductions. We know what the invaders of the Roman worldwere, the destroyers of the Eastern Empire, the Arab conquerors. The case was the same in Mexico. The Chichimequi here represent the Goths and Vandals of the Old World. If Asia has so often overrun Europe, if North America has so often sent devastating hordes into more southern regions, it is because in these two countries man was still in a barbarous or savage state.
IV. Were natural obstacles indeed insurmountable to nations destitute of our perfected means of locomotion? This question must be considered from two points of view, as the migrations in question are by land or sea.
The former demands but little attention. The weakness of man, and the strength of the barriers which the accidents of land, vegetation, or fauna might oppose to him, have unquestionably been much exaggerated. Man has always been able to vanquish ferocious animals, the rhinoceros having formed part of his food as early as the Quaternary period. His course has never been arrested by mountains, even when encumbered by everything which could make the passage most difficult. Hannibal crossed the Alps with his elephants, and Bonaparte with artillery. The progress of the Asiatic hordes was no more stopped by the Palus Meotides than that of Fernand de Soto by the marshes of Florida. Deserts are daily traversed by caravans; and as to rivers, there is not a savage who does not know how to cross them upon some raft or other.
The truth, as is too well proved by the history of travel, is, that man alone stops man. Where the latter did not exist, there was nothing to oppose the progress of tribes or nations advancing slowly and at their own leisure, outstripping or passing each other in turn, establishing secondary centres, from which, after a time, fresh migrations would take place. Even in an inhabited country, a superior invading race would not act otherwise. It was thus that the Aryans conquered India, that the Paouians advanced, who, starting from a centre still unknown, arrived at the Gaboon with a line of front of about 250 miles.
V. I might dwell upon these general considerations, but it will be better to recall briefly a fact which, though of recent date, is too generally forgotten, and which shows how an entire population can effect a great migration although they meet with obstacles of every kind over a great tract of country.
About the year 1616 a horde of Kalmucks, impelled by motives with which we are unacquainted, abandoned the confines of China, and crossed Asia in order to establish themselves in the Khanate of Kazan, upon either shore of the Volga. They placed themselves under the dominion of Russia, who readily received the new colonists and respected their patriarchal government. In return, the Kalmucks proved themselves faithful subjects, and on several occasions, furnished the Russian army with numerous and valuable detachments of cavalry. This good feeling lasted till the time of the Empress Catherine, when she, having to choose between two aspirants named Oubacha and Zebeck-Dorchi, nominated the former to the government of the horde. The infuriated Zebeck determined, in revenge, to lead his fellow-countrymen back to China. Seconded by the chief Lama, he even persuaded Oubacha himself to join, and the conspiracy, though it included the entire nation, was conducted with such secrecy that it escaped the interested vigilance of Russia.
On Jan. 5th, 1771, the Kalmucks might have been seen assembling on the left bank of the Volga. Every half hour groups of women, children, and aged numbering from 15,000 to 20,000, set out in waggons or upon camels, escorted by a body of cavalry 10,000 strong. A rear-guard of 80,000 picked men covered the retreat of the emigrants. A Russian officer, who was detained a prisoner for part of the journey, and has preserved these details for us, estimated the whole assemblage at more than 600,000 souls.
The Kalmucks felt the necessity for haste, in order to escape the attempts which would assuredly be made by Russia to detain them. In seven days they had accomplishedmore than 100 leagues, with the weather dry but cold. Many of the cattle had succumbed, and the want of milk was beginning to be felt, even for the children. On arriving at the banks of the Djem, they met with their first serious disaster; an entire clan, numbering 9000 horsemen, was massacred by Cossacks.
At the first intelligence of this flight, however, Catherine had despatched an army with instructions to bring back the fugitives. The latter had to pass, at a distance of eighty leagues from the Djem, a defile which must be taken at any price. They advanced by forced marches. Unfortunately snow set in, and they were obliged to stop for ten days. On arriving at the defile, they found it occupied by Cossacks, who were however routed, defeated, and massacred by Zebeck.
The defile was passed, but they were forced to redouble their speed, for the Russian army was upon them. They killed and salted all the remaining cattle, and left behind every incapable woman or child, and all their aged or sick. The winter increased in severity, and though they burnt all their saddles and waggons, every encampment was marked by hundreds of frozen corpses. At length the spring came to alleviate their sufferings, and in the beginning of June, they crossed the Torgai, which flows into Lake Aksakal, to the N.N.E. of Lake Aral. In five months the emigrants had accomplished 700 leagues; they had lost more than 250,000 souls, whilst the camels alone remained of all their animals. The Russian officer, Weseloff, who was shortly after set at liberty, was able to regain the Volga with no other guide than that of the trail of corpses left upon the route.
The unfortunate fugitives had hoped to enjoy a rest after having crossed the Torgai. But the Russian army still followed, and was even reinforced by terrible auxiliaries, the Bashkirs and Kirghises, hereditary enemies of the Kalmucks. This light cavalry was now in advance, and it would be necessary to fight with them while still flying from the Russians. They were also obliged to skirt the desert, wherethey would have perished from hunger, and to cut their way through countries where the inhabitants rose in arms to protect their territories against the famished invaders. Winter had given place to Summer; the emigrants suffered as much from the heat as they had done from the cold, so that the rate of mortality was unaltered.
At length, in the mouth of September, the horde reached the frontiers of China. For many days they had had no water. At the sight of a small lake they all rushed forward to quench their thirst; the confusion was general, when the Bashkirs and Kirghises, who had never for a moment ceased to harass the fugitives, threw themselves upon the infatuated crowd, and would, in all probability, have annihilated them. Fortunately, the Emperor Kien-long was hunting in the neighbourhood, accompanied, as usual, by a small army. Informed of the arrival of the Kalmucks, he had recognised them in the distance. The sound of his artillery restored the courage of those who were allowing themselves to be massacred, and their persecutors suffered a bloody defeat. It should be added that Kien-long distributed amongst those whom he had saved, the lands which are occupied by their descendants at the present time.
The exodus of the Kalmucks is a sufficient answer to every argument that can be advanced on the subject of primitive migration by land. In eight months, in spite of the intense extremes of cold and heat, of incessant attacks from implacable enemies, and in spite of hunger and thirst, this nation had accomplished a distance equal in a straight line to one-eighth of the circumference of the earth. If we take into consideration all the enforced detours, we ought probably to double the amount. With such facts as these, how can we doubt the possibility of still longer expeditions for a tribe advancing peacefully by stages, and having only to contend against the difficulties presented by the soil or wild beasts?