8. ABORIGINES OF AMERICA, Languages. [further continued]
I suppose the settlement of our continent is of the most remote antiquity.
The similitude between its inhabitants and
those of eastern parts of Asia renders it probable
that ours are descended from them, or they
from ours. The latter is my opinion, founded
on this single fact: Among the red inhabitants
of Asia, there are but a few languages radically
different, but among our Indians, the number of
languages is infinite, and they are so radically
different as to exhibit at present no appearance
of their having been derived from a common
source. The time necessary for the generation
of so many languages must be immense.—
To Ezra Stiles.
Ford ed., iv, 298.
(P.
1786)
See Indians.
