[1]
Darby's "View of the United States.
[3]
Warden's "Description of the United States."
[5]
Malte Brun tells us (vol. v. p. 726) that the water
of the Caribbean Sea is so transparent that corals and fish are
discernible at a depth of sixty fathoms. The ship seemed to
float in air, the navigator became giddy as his eye penetrated
through the crystal flood, and beheld submarine gardens, or beds
of shells, or gilded fishes gliding among tufts and thickets of
seaweed.
[7]
With the progress of discovery some resemblance has
been found to exist between the physical conformation, the
language, and the habits of the Indians of North America, and
those of the Tongous, Mantchous, Mongols, Tartars, and other
wandering tribes of Asia. The land occupied by these tribes is
not very distant from Behring's Strait, which allows of the
supposition, that at a remote period they gave inhabitants to the
desert continent of America. But this is a point which has not
yet been clearly elucidated by science. See Malte Brun, vol. v.;
the works of Humboldt; Fischer, "Conjecture sur l'Origine des
Americains"; Adair, "History of the American Indians."
[9]
We learn from President Jefferson's "Notes upon
Virginia," p. 148, that among the Iroquois, when attacked by a
superior force, aged men refused to fly or to survive the
destruction of their country; and they braved death like the
ancient Romans when their capital was sacked by the Gauls.
Further on, p. 150, he tells us that there is no example of an
Indian who, having fallen into the hands of his enemies, begged
for his life; on the contrary, the captive sought to obtain death
at the hands of his conquerors by the use of insult and
provocation.
[10]
See "Histoire de la Louisiane," by Lepage Dupratz;
Charlevoix, "Histoire de la Nouvelle France"; "Lettres du Rev. G.
Hecwelder;" "Transactions of the American Philosophical Society,"
v. I; Jefferson's "Notes on Virginia," pp. 135-190. What is said
by Jefferson is of especial weight, on account of the personal
merit of the writer, of his peculiar position, and of the matter-of-fact age in which he lived.
