University of Virginia Library

THE ABORIGINES OF AMERICA.

With the discovery of America were discovered the Indians inhabiting
the continent—nations having an unwritten history. Who the first inhabitants
were we do not know; for all the ages through which the New
World passed, prior to its discovery by Columbus, are destitute of history
and chronology. But that a race, far superior to the Indians, once existed
on this continent, there can not be the least doubt. From the Atlantic on
the east to the Pacific on the west, from the Great Lakes to the Gulf, in
every portion of the continent, we trace them by their vast monumental
ruins, rivaling in magnitude those of the eastern continent. Here they
built cities which may have flourished while the Pyramids were being
built, or they may have been in ruins when Cleopatra's needle was being
fashioned. But who were they? What their origin and what their fate?
Alas! we shall never know. Contemporary history furnishes no aid, for
they were isolated from all the world beside. They have disappeared from
the earth with not a vestige of history left behind them.

Whether they were the ancestors of the Indians is a question; it is not
probable that they were. Perhaps no problem has ever attracted so much
attention from historians and scientists as that of the origin of the American
Indians.

Hundreds of thousands of individuals existing in all the various stages
of society, from the lowest stage of barbarism to that of the half-civilized
state, were found roaming over the vast domain of both the Americas.
They were altogether ignorant of the country from which their ancestors
had come, and of the period at which they had been transplanted to the
New World; and although there were traditions among them seeming to
cast some light upon those subjects, yet when thoroughly investigated
they tended rather to bewilder than to lead to any satisfactory conclusions;
and the origin of these nations has ever been a subject of curious speculation
among the learned. Conjecture has succeeded conjecture, hypothesis
has yielded to hypothesis, as wave recedes before wave; still it remains
involved in a labyrinth of inexplicable difficulties, from which the most

ingenious minds will perhaps never be able to free it. Of the many
theories which have been advanced, we select the following:

Gregoria Gracia, one of the first missionaries in Mexico, after long association
with them, has formed the opinion that they are the descendants
of many nations, and therefore thinks it absurd to attempt to trace
their origin to any one nation.

John De Laet, a celebrated Flemish writer, maintains that America
received its first inhabitants from Scythia. "The resemblance" of the
North American Indians, in features, complexion, customs, and mode of
life is more nearly like those of the ancient Scythians than any other
nation.

Moreaz, in his history of Brazil, says that the continent was certainly
peopled by the ancient Carthagenians.

George Huron, like Laet, supposes that the primitive American colonies
were Scythian, but is of opinion that the Phœnicians and Carthagenians
subsequently reached the continent, and still later that the Chinese
and other eastern peoples reached these shores, either voluntarily or have
been driven on the coast by tempests. He thus accounts for the difference
existing among the numerous tribes.

Charlevoix is clearly of the opinion that they are of Tartar extraction,
and Adair says he has been forced to believe that they have descended
directly from the Israelites.

Major Carver, who was an officer in the Provincial army, supports the
theory that they have descended from the Tartars and Chinese. He is the
first writer, with whose writings the author is acquainted, to maintain the
theory that they reached America by way of Behrings Straits, a theory
since advocated by Mr. Jefferson and many others.

Dr. Robertson, the able philologist, traces their origin to the Tartars,
by a similarity of language. He says that many of the names of American
chieftains are of Tartar origin, for instance: Tartarax, who formerly
reigned in Quiavira, means the Tartar; Manew, the founder of the Peruvian
empire, most probably came from the Manchew Tartars; Montezuma,
the title of the Mexican emperors, is of Scythian origin, for according to
some authors, it was the appellation of the Scythian chieftains. But the
most recent of all is that of Mr. Wallace, who claims that they are the
remains of the inhabitants of a great Pacific continent now submerged,
and that they escaped to America at the time of the subsidence of their
native continent. In opposition to this theory Rev. Wyatt Gill, for many
years a missionary to the Hervey Islands, Polynesia, declares that there
is not the least resemblance in feature, complexion, mode of life or language
existing between the South Sea Islanders and the Indians of North
America.

Then, among this maze of theories are we nearer a solution of the
vexed problem than we were before a solution had been attempted?

That they came from Europe is altogether improbable; that they are
descended from the Israelites has little or nothing to support it, whilst
it is highly probable that they are descended from some of the tribes of
Southern Asia.

That they are the descendants of the ancient Scythians, seems to the
author to be the most probable. The following facts appear to be almost
conclusive:

First. Both the Scythians and Indians belong to the Ganowanian, or
bow-and-arrow family of men. It will be remembered by those who claim
them to be the descendants of the tribes of North-eastern Asia, that those
tribes are spearmen.

Second. The Scythians wandered over a wide extent of country, but
not tilling it, they claimed no property in land; the Indians did the
same, and both held in abhorrence and scorn the confinement of a fixed
habitation.

Third. The entire absence of anything like a fixed system of law, except
that the strictest honesty characterized both.

Fourth. The dress of both was similar, being made from the skins of
the animals belonging to the fauna of their respective countries.

Fifth. War was the delight of both, and mercy and humanity were
alien to their warfare.

Sixth. Mounds, or tumuli, which constitute the remains of the earliest
inhabitants of America, are found nowhere in Asia except in ancient
Scythia, beyond the Indus. Herodotus, "the father of history," says
the Scythians threw earth upon the tombs of their deceased relatives
until they resembled a high mound or artificial mountain.

Seventh. The same author informs us that the Scythians were the only
people of antiquity who practiced the barbarous custom of scalping
their enemies, a custom universally practiced by the Indians of North
America.

Eighth. The Scythians were divided into tribes, just as the Indians
were.

Ninth. The similarity that (according to Dr. Robertson) exists between
many words in use by both.

Tenth. The fact that they were thoroughly acquainted with the architecture
of Southern and Western Asia is fully attested by the ruined
structures of Mexico and Central America.

From the foregoing it would seem that the evidence is largely in
favor of the claim that the Indians of North America are the descendants
of the ancient Scythians. What the labors of archæological societies
and the researches of antiquarian societies may develop upon the
subject, remains yet to be seen. It is doubtful, however, whether a
satisfactory solution of the mysterious problem will ever be reached.

Such were the inhabitants of the New World, who for two hundred
years disputed the possession of this country with the Anglo-Saxon, but

who have been driven before the march of civilization to the western
confines of the continent, where their final extinction as a race is only a
question of time.