USA > New York > History of the state of New-York : including its aboriginal and colonial annals, vol. pt 1 > Part 7
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American Biog. V. I. p. 74
80 - Origin of the Aboriginee and ancient Ruins. [PART I.
land of Buss, was a part of the ancient Friesland, or some is- land in its neighbourhood. The opinion of Foster was founded on the probability that all the high islands in the middle of the sea are of volcanic origin, as it is evident,* with respect to Iceland and the Faro islands in the north sea : the Azores. Teneriffe, Madeira, the Cape de Verds, St. Helena, and Ascen- sion, in the Atlantic; the Society Islands, Orahcite, Easter, the Marquesas, and other islands in the Pacific.
Abbé Molina* observes that the Chilians say their ancestors came from the north or the west. That they came from the west he thinks is not so extravagant an opinion as at first view might appear.
The discoveries of the English navigators in the South sea, have established, that between America and the southern point of Asia, there is a chain of innumerable islands, the probable remains of some vast tract of land, which in that quarter, once united the two continents, and rendered the communication between Asia and the opposite shore of America easy. Whence it is very possible, as Abbe Molina concludes, that while North America has been peopled from the north-west, the south has received its inhabitants from the southern parts of Asia; the natives of this part of the new world being of a mild charac- ter, much resembling that of the southern Asiatics, and little tinctured with the ferocity of the Tartars: like the language of the Oriental Indians, theirs is also harmonious, and abounds in vowels .*
Mr. Haydent in his Geological Essays, supposes that strong evidence exists, that a general current prevailed over the whole of this (American) continent, flowing from the north-east to - the south-west.
According to the geology of a distinguished professor in natural philosophy in this State, { the basins of lakes Eric,
* History Chili, Vol. II. B. I. ch. 1,
¡ II. If. Hayden, Esq. Geolog. Essays, reviewed in vol. 3. new series, . Am. Rev. p. 150.
: Dr. Samuel L. Mitchill, Geolog. Observ. p. 326, published with Cu- "te.'s Theory of the Dnith. See ako Professor Eaton's late Geological
,10. ] Former Union of Continents -- Geology of New- York. 81
Ontario, and other reservoirs of the great inland seas, were once filled with salt water. The numerous remains of marine ani- mals adjacent to the lakes, the lithophytous and testaceous relics abounding in the western and northern counties of this state, are adduced as proofs of the recession of the ancient oceanic waters of the primitive globe, that once rolled over this region. The first and principal of those ancient barriers or dams, which appeared, according to this theory, on the sub- sidence of the ocean, was that which has been traced from Up- per Canada into New-York, to the head waters of the Hudson, to the north end of lake George, to the little falls on the Mo- hawk, to the eastern sources of the Susquehanna, through New-Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, until it becomes confounded with the Alleghany ridge ; thence we pur- sue the barrier or mound, until the Cumberland mountain divides the Tennessee river from the Cumberland river, and shows its abrupt termination at the Ohio, between the spaces where those two rivers unite with the Onio From this point a vast gap, or prairie, extends towards the hills that skirt the Illinois river and mountains west of Cape Girardeau in Mis- souri, beyond the Mississippi, furnishing the only remaining vestiges of the ancient barrier .*
This grand rampart, in the course of ages, was broken at various places : a breach was formed, for instance, at the north eastern extremity of lake Ontario, where the thousand islands and neighbouring scenery bear evidence of the mighty rush of the waters, as they prostrated (by the probable agency of an carthquake) the opposing mound, and lowered Ontario one hun- dred and sixty feet, to the level of its outlet. The country was left bare from the heights of the ridge road, which runs from Queenston and Lewiston heights, to the Genessce river : the
Surveys. Mr. Clinton's Introductory Discourse before the New-York Literary and Philosophical Society, and note G. Also his address to the Historical Society.
* "Even the summit of Michillimackinac contains the shells of bivalve mol. Buscas, and must consequently have been covered with water.
Von, I
1!
82
Origin of the Aborigines and ancient Ruins. [PART I.
intermediate country exhibited to view all the organic remains which had been formed in the bottom of that sea. Another breach was made in the succession of ages at the northern ex- tremity of lake George, in consequence of which, the barrier near its outlet was demolished, and the lake diminished to its present size. Another was near the cataracts of Hudson river, called Glen's and Hadley's falls. Another at the upper falls of the Mohawk, where the rocks formed at some remote period, a mound, which opposed the progress of the water eastward, and where the upper country wears the face of a drained tract, and the lower, the traces of rounded primitive rocks, inter- spersed with alluvial deposites. Other breaches are supposed to have been made by the Delaware through the mountain above Easton; by the Lehigh through the Blue Mountain ; by the waters of the river Schuylkill; by the Susquehanna; by the Potomac through the Blue Ridge, or South Mountain, so called ; by James river : and the widest breach of all was be- tween the Cumberland mountain and the Missouri hills, at or near Cape Girardeau. Over this wide tract, the barrier was either high enough to enclose the waters, or it has yielded to their impulse over a broader space than in any other. By the flood which effected the demolition of this dam, the vast tract behind it was drained : lakes Erie, Huron, and Michigan were formed, and dry land appeared around, while the ruins of sand and soil were carried down the valley of the Mississippi and deposited on the alluvion bottom there.
Since the removal of the briny waters through so many pas- sages, the streams fed by the rains and springs retiring to their channels, wrought other alterations. Travelling down the in- clined plain from their several sources to the new level of the lakes, they gave a configuration of a more modern date to the regions through which they pass. Among these are the falls and rapids in Black and Onondaga rivers ; the fall in Salmon river ; the rapids in Seneca; the cataract in Genesee; and the grand cataract of Niagara.
The great chasm formed by the last, discloses much of the
83
Former Union of Continents.
9 17.]
mineralogy of the region which assists us in forming correct opinions concerning the geology of this section of the globe."
Accordingly from the fragile nature of the strataf that sup- port the mighty and immeasurable torrent and from its vo- lume and attrition for ages, its position is supposed to have receded seven miles from that which it once occupied between Lewiston and Queenston's heights, to its present scite.}
From the foregoing limited view of the wonderful geognos- tic changes which, in the slow revolution of ages, have taken place upon the surface of the globe, and even within the limits of our own State, the traces of which, to the eye of an ob- server, become every where apparent and numerous, we may conclude that the hypothesis of a former union of this conti- nent with the old continents, is by no means improbable.
§ 17.
'The presumption of such a union forms also the basis of an elaborate inquiry by Dr. McCulloh.§ He supports the proba- bility of the ancient existence of the Atlantis of Plato, and the identity of the Antilles and Hesperides of the Spanish author Oviedo. In maintainance of his theory of the lost Atlantis. hc refers to authors, || by whose views or details it is supported, and to traditions and geological observations tending to show
* See Dr. Mitchill's Geology, Eaton's Geological and Canal Surveys and Descriptions of Niagara falls by Volncy, Weld, McKennen, and Mitchill. North Am. Rev. Vol. VI. new series, p. 227-28-30-38, Vol. XV. p. 225, 227.
t The upper of which is limestone rocks, disposed horizontally, or (as Dr. Mitchill says, since his recent western tour, the present year, 1324; with a slight inclination or dip towards the westward, so as to incline the waters to run on the west.
¡ But see Vol. VI. North American Review, new series, p. 231.
! Researches on America, Balt. 1817. See Vol. IX. (new series.) Mass. Ilistor. Coll. Mr. Duponceau's notes, &c. p. 5.
|| For instance, Asiatic Researches, Vol. III. p. 300, Vol. VIII. p. 375. Whitehurst's Works, General Vallencey referred to in notes to Southey's Madoc. Vol. I. p. 237-S. Pennant in Introduction to Arctic Zoology,
84 Origin of the Aborigines and ancient Ruins. [PART I.
that the intermediate islands between this and other continents are the shattered remains of those which once existed, and that a continent stood where the Pacific now rolls its ten thousand miles waste of waters.
The curious characters inscribed on the rock lying opposite to Dighton, (near Taunton in Massachusetts, ; have been the sub- ject of much learned speculation. Mr. Mathieu, of France, thinks them hieroglyphics, and ascribes them to the inhabi- tants of the Atlantic island of Plato. He not only pretends to give the sense of the inscription, but also to prove that the tongues spoken by the Mexicans, Peruvians, and other occidental peo- ple, as well a, the Greek itself, with all its dialects and ramifi- cations, were but derivatives from the language of the prima- tive Adamides .*
Hle says the Chinese system of numeration, and the signs employed in it, are the same as those found upon this rock, which appear to have been written anno mundi 1902. The numeration system of the Romans was similar, and they de- rived it from the Pelasgi, who were originally from Atlantis. The same system was communicated to the Chinese by that very In, son of Indios, King of Atlantis, who is named in the inscription of Dighton, as chief of the expedition which had arrived there for the purpose of concluding a treaty of com- merce and amity with the Americans. In became the founder of a distinguished family in China, and was living in the time of Yao, in the year 2296, being 48 years after the utter sub- mersion of the island of Atlantis in the ogygian deluge ; that
* Dr. Mitchill in Vol. I Archa. Amer. p. 349. Sec Mr. Mathieu's Spe- culation at large on this inscription in Vol. I. Amer Month. Mag. p. 260, published by Bigelow & Holley. See Mr. Kendall in travels in the U. S. Vol. Il. chap. 53, and also bis philosophical account of the rock in Vol III. part 1. Memoirs of the Amer. Acad. of arts and science, Cambridge, 1809, p. 105. See Judge Winthrop's description of this inscription in Vol. I. of do. Judge Davis's explanation of the same in Vol. II. p. 197 ib. Cotton Ma- ther's view of same in Transactions of the Royal Society in London. And see North Amer. Review, Vol. I. (now series) p. 927. and also Col. Duane's speculations on this subiect.
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85
Atlantides .- Dighton Rock.
5 17.]
is to say, about 1800 years before the christian cra. This island in its day was what Great Britain is in ours. The At- Iantides, according to this their modern historiographer traded with the four quarters of the globe, and established factories and colonies .*
From a personal examination of this rock during the pre- sent year, f and a comparison of the characters of the inscrip- tion, so far as they were visible, with those delineated on a copy taken and reduced by pentegraph to one-sixth part, by judge Winthrop, and another of a similar size by Dr. Baylies, (a resident in the vicinity) and from the positive resemblance of some of these characters to those described by Dr. Clark in his travels, as having been found in Cyprus, we are inclined to believe that the Dighton inscription is of Phoenician origin. It is a connected chain of hieroglyphics and rude letters of the ancient alphabet. It is probable that all the figures given by Clarkį might be traced on this rock, either in a separate or combined state. The following however are quite apparent, viz : those which Dr. Clark describes, which resemble very much the letters and figures P. W. X. 7. 9. and those of the trian- gle and trident. The trident (the synonymy of Neptune, until the improved designation placed a human head before it) was plainly visible. On the rock are also the rude delineation of letters like A. M. O. and several figured images. The bird, the ancient symbol of navigation, has been found at the base of the inscription. Its head is directed upwards, and a circle (the emblem of eternity) or it may indicate here the full period of a voyage, is placed near it, and the whole may possibly have been designed as the account of a voyage performed in some remote age. The slime and mud covering this part of the inscription, prevented us from observing the bird and cir- cle. But the gentlemans who accompanied us to the rock,
* Mr. Mathieu. See Bigelow and Holley's American Monthly Maga- zine, Vol. I. p. 261-2.
f In October 1824.
! See Travels. &c. Vol. Il. p. 180-1.
i Hon. Francis Baylies.
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Origin of the Aborigines and ancient Ruins. [PART I.
said he had formerly discovered them : they had also been seen by Dr. Baylies, and delineated by him on his map of the in- scription. The copy taken by Mr. Kendall" seems to have been imperfect ; and the opinion which some visiters have ex- pressed, that the inscription was the work of the native indians, if at least of any known race, seems to be very questionable. If it had been so, is it not probable that similar inscriptions would have been found throughout the country? The present one stands alone. 'The natives could not render any account of its origin, when the Europeans discovered the country. It is probably the most remarkable relick of antiquity in North America. and it ought to be secured, so that it may be perpe- tuated. It seems to indicate a single visit to these shores, like that mentioned by Hornius, on the authority of Diodorus, ; when the Phoenicians, driven by a tempest, came to an island, distant many days' sail westward, and found navigable rivers, a fertile soil, and many houses. If a thorough comparison could be instituted between this writing-rock, as it has been denominated, and those Phoenician inscriptions which Dr. Bel- lermannį says have been found in Cyprus, Crete, Malta, Gaulos, Sicily, Athens, Palmyra, and Africa, then a more satisfactory, and perhaps a certain result, would be obtained. At present, it stands like other vestiges of a remote people, covered with mystery and hieroglyphics.
§ 18.
One class of writers maintain, that the Americans are strictly the aborigines of the soil, not emigrants from other parts of the world. (58) They are few in number, and were limited in their views on this subject, according to the opinion of Dr. Bar -. ton, § who says they have indeed examined it in a very super- ficial manner.|
* Iu bis Travels, &c. and in Vol. III. Mem. of Amer. Academy of Arts, &c.
t Sce ante, p. 70
t See North American Review, Vol. I. (new series) p. 227 and p. 6.
y In his New Views, p. vi.
( See further on this historical problem : " Essai sur cette question quand
87
Indian Language.
§ 18.]
From this brief and imperfect review of an historical problem, which occupies volumes, it might be imagined that any attempt to settle definitively the parentage of the first emigrants, would be futile and preposterous. Still the herculean labour is not relinquished. It is thought that the secret is to be brought to light, not merely from a comparison between oriental and occi- dental manners, customs, and personal identity, but from lan- guages. The former have been already sufficiently contrasted by writers, to evince the fraternity at least between some tribes and nations of western Indians and the Asiatics. Lan- guage however is the alchymy which is to transfuse all former dross speculation into pure and positive certainty.
M. Julius Von Klaproth, it is said, (59) found a chain of na- tions and idioms from the north-west coast of America, along Canada, the United States, Louisiana, Floridas, great and little Antilles, the Coribee Islands, and Guiana, as far as the Ama- zons, where the languages are derived from an original lan- guage, having great affinity with that of the Samoiedes and Kamptchadales. The people along this tract, in figure and mode of life, have a striking similarity to the free nations in northern Asia. Dr. Barton," Messrs. Heckewelder, and Du- ponceau,f (and others who will be enamerated, when we speak of the language of our native Indians) have investigated the
et comment L'Amerique a-t-elle été peuplée D'Hommes et D'Animaux ? &. Paris, 1765, 5 tom. par E. D. d'E. ( !! 'Engil.) Profesor Vater's inquiry on the origin of the American population. Abbe JI. Gregorie's Enquiry concerning negroes, &c. translated by D. B. Warden. Abbé G. on the origin of the human species in different parts of the world. Professor Smith (of Princeton,) on the complexion of the human species, &c. Dr. II. Wil- liamson's observations on climate, complexion, aborigines, &c. On the origin and variety of the human species, colour, &c. See also Vol. VIII. North American Review, (new series) p. 29-30. Vol. X. ib. p. 404-9, where- in the theories of Blumenbach, Smith, Laurence, and Dr. Prichard, on the physical history of man, are referred to.
* New Views.
i In Vol. I. Literary and Historical Transactions of the Philadelphia Philosophical Society. Heckewelder and Duporceau, (reviewed vol. IX. North American Review. p. 179. see 155.) According to them, there are in
SS
Origin of the Aborigines and ancient Ruins. [PART I.
structure of the Lenni Lenape and Iroquois languages. But their exertions, particularly those of the latter gentlemen, have probed the idioms of other Indian languages, with the aim to discover a radical similitude between them and foreign idioms. Mr. Dupouceau finds that the American languages in general, are rich in words and grammatical forms; and in their compli- cated construction, the greatest order, method, and regularity prevail. The form-, which he calls polysynthetic, appear in all those languages, from Greenland to Cape Horn, and these forms, he thinks, (though his learned inquiries had not been terminated) differ essentially from those of the ancient and modern languages of the old hemisphere.
The Adelungs and Vater, distinguished German philologists, have embraced in their profound inquiry into the structure of language, a more correct and condensed body of information concerning the original tongues of the two Americas, than was ever compiled and arranged before.
Professor Vater commenced the masterly task of exhibiting an original and radical language, prevading the whole nations from Chili to the remotest distance of North America, display- ing a unity, an object over which are diffused an abundance of forms, but through the whole preserves its peculiar charac- ter, and must have originated in a remote period, when an original people existed, whose ingenuity and judgment ena- hled them to strike out such intricate formations of language as could not be effaced by thousands of years, nor by the in- fluence of zones and climates.
The Mithridates, (60) the productions of the Adelungs and Vater, is pronounced the most astonishing philological collection that the world has ever seen. It contains an epitome of all the existing knowledge of the ancient and modern languages of
North America, four radical Indian languages only, viz : Karalit or Esqui- maux, the Iroquois, the Lenape, and the Floridian. Sce John Pickering, Esq. on the Massachusetts' language, Vol IX. (2d series) Massachusetts' His- tory, collec. p. 223, &e. His Essay on the umform orthography of the In- dian languages of North America.
y 19.]
Conclusion. 89
the whole earth. This work gives an extensive comparison of all the Asiatic, African, and American languages. Its authors present it to the world as the commencement of a structure, which out of the ruins of dilacerated human tribes, seeks mate- rials for a union of the whole human race."
$ 19.
Thus, we have attempted to classify the writers upon this interesting question, connected with our State antiquities and aborigines. We have followed them alternately to Europe, to Europe and Asia, to Asia alone, to Africa, to the Atlantic of Plato. We have found, that while some were satisfied with peopling America from one country, others have thought it derived its aboriginal inhabitants from the various quarters of the globe. A third class could not be reconciled until they brought forth Atalanta from her long slumber under the waves of the ocean, and constituted her, if not the ancestor, at least the antediluvian contemporary with Asia. In the opinion of some, America has been peopled within a few cen- turies before Columbus; of others, before the deluge ; and of others, immediately on the dispersion of mankind after that. event.
What more could be said? The whole ground is pre-oc- cupied. A new hypothesis essentially varying from all the pre- ceding, would be as great a wonder, as that which has been the mysterious subject of inquiry. That America had received emigrants from other parts of the globe before Columbus, we
* Dr. Mitchill, in Vol. I. Archæe. Amer. Peter S. Duponceau, Esq- Vol. 1. Hist. and Lit. Trans. &c. Phila. d. 19. Rev. Mr. Schaeffer. See Dr. Murray's learned and scarce work on the ctymology and affinity of lan- guages, tracing strong resemblance between all languages. See Adelung's Surveys of the known languages and their dialects, reviewed in Vol. V. (new series) North American Review p. 128. Sce Vocabulary and grain- mer of the Inca Tongue, by Tather Diego Gonzalez, 1607. (A rare book, recently received by Dr. Mitchill.)
Voz. 1.
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Origin of the Aborigines and ancient Ruins. [PARTI
have no doubt : and were we disposed to theorize, without possessing that indubitable evidence from authentic history, observation, and analysis, which would be necessary in order to sustain a bold hypothesis, we should say, that in the re- motest ages of the world, this continent was connected with the old continents by others which have sunk. Between the north-west of this, and the north-east of Asia, the mountain- ous remains of this union, are the islands that are discovera- ble in the strait which now divides them. Between the north- east of this, and the north-west of Europe, Greenland, the submerged island of Friesland and Iceland, were parts of the connexion with the European continent. Between the east- ern part of Brazil, and the western part of Africa, and between the most western part of America, and the most eastern part of Tartary, (or southern Asia in the range of those number- less islands that seem to have been the highlands of a con- necting continent,) territorial unions existed between this con- tinent and those of Africa and Asia. In obedience to the will of the Creator, the earth was filled with living creatures, and in the progress of multiplication and dispersion anterior to the deluge, no reason can be assigned, why this vast continent should have been exempted from the operation of this general law. The deluge (which is traditionary on this continent) impaired, but did not destroy all these connexions. The carth was again replenished, and this continent remained suf- ficiently connected to receive once more the vivifying influ- ence of this second birth of men and animals. In the slow round of age after age, the chemical combination and effects of the elements, the constant agitation and conflict of the fluids aud solids, the tremendous agency of volcanoes and earthquakes, have combined to complete the destruction of those connexions which the deluge had impaired. In the meantime, however, men and animals had spread over the surface of this continent, and they gradually became naturalized in habit, to the varieties and changes of its climate, and to the : resou ces which were found to sustain life. Accessions to this original population, were made in the succession of ages since
91
Conclusion.
) 19.3
the separation, by the various means which we may imagine have contributed to display animal life in every habitable part of the world. Navigation, in some ages, has been in a higher stage of improvement than in others. The com- mercial enterprise of some nations far transcended that of others. Au ancient knowledge of the magnet may have occasioned its adaptation to maritime purposes, in those remote ages of the world, of the events of which we have neither profane nor sacred record. But independently of this conjectural assistance, the spirit of bold and fearless adventure may have occasionally impelled men to trust themselves from land, or men less fearless, may have been driven to sea by storms, and in either case, they may have accidentally arrived on this continent. In this manner, indivi- duals from different parts of the world, and even from the middle latitudes of the old continents, may have been convey- ed to this, and, consequently, have introduced the peculiar traits of their respective national characteristics. Neverthe- less, since the separation, the facilities of intercourse in mod- ern ages, having remained at the north from Asia, far superior to those elsewhere, the predominant race of the aborigines has consequently been Asiatic, of the Tartar and Malay stocks. 'These may have, in a great measure, supplanted those races that had preceded them previously to the destruction of the former connexions of this continent with the others, and whose monuments of art and civilization are to be traced in our most ancient ruins. But the minor classes of population. having proceeded in modern ages from various other coun- tries, and particularly from the north of Europe, (where the facilities of communication remained next in excellence to those from Asia,) heterogeneous races have met and commingled. fought and incorporated, confounding their individual vation- alities, and thereby introducing the confusion which still pre- vails among the native tribes, in colour, shape, language, manners, customs, traditions, religious ideas, knowledge, and manual skill. General deductions from individual indica- tions have been made, and hence has arisen the various and
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