in pointing out a radical and striking affinity between many of the native languages of America, as professor Pallas had previously done in relation to many of those of Asia, must appear, we think, to every one complete and incontestable. We have said "many of the native languages of America," meaning to exclude from this number the language of the Mexicans, in particular, which appears to us to be essentially and strikingly different from every other with which it has been compared. From our present view of it (which, however, is, probably, much less extensive than that of our author) we think there are strong reasons for considering it an original language.

That professor Barton has pointed out a few resemblances between certain languages of America and some of those that are spoken by the northern Asiatics, is true. In our estimation, however, the number is too limited to serve as the basis of a doctrine touching so important a subject as the origin of nations. As far as appears from the professor's vocabularies, we cannot think the resemblances in question either too numerous or too striking, to be regarded as the result of mere accident. Fortuitious resemblances are by no means uncommon, and are frequently far from being either faint or equivocal, between most languages that have become objects of attention with men of letters. Between the Greek and the Latin language, in words which can be proved never to have been copied from the former into the latter, such resemblances are certainly numerous; much more so, we venture to assert, than the resemblances pointed out by professor Barton between any two languages contained in his vocabularies, the one an American, the other an Asiatic.— On the mere score, then, of a few apparent verbal affinities, as well might the professor contend, that the ancient Romans were descendents of the Greeks, as that the aborigines of America are descendents of the Asiatics.

We are the further confirmed in our opinion on this subject in consideration of its coincidence with that of the baron De Humboldt, one of the ablest writers that has ever exercised his pen on the natural history of the new world.

"All these conjectures, says the baron (conjectures respecting the Asiatic origin of the aborigines of America) will acquire more probability when

a marked analogy shall be discovered between the languages of Tartary and those of the new continent; an analogy, which, according to the latest researches of Dr. B. Smith Barton, extends only to a very small number of words."

On the general subject of the original peopling of America, we regret that our limits will not at present suffer us to dwell. It is a theme rich in matter that is curious and interesting, and, we think, also considerably instructive and important. We have never seen the question treated to our satisfaction; and doubt if it has been, at any time, considered in its full extent. It is perhaps, one of those pleasing phantoms in the history of mankind, destined to amuse our hopes, yet elude our researches. Admitting, however, its complete elucidation to be a point in science absolutely unattainable, it might notwithstanding, did time permit, be presented to the reader in certain lights which we believe to be new.

When considered in all its bearings and relations, the question of the original population of the new world, is not only dif ficult but remarkably complex. It evidently embraces that which relates to the causes of the variety in the stature, complexion and figure of the human race. The aboriginal tribes of America being found, even on a slight examination, to be strikingly dissimilar in their appearance to any of the existing inhabitants of Asia, it follows, of course, that, admitting them to have been primarily derived from that continent, they must have been very widely different at the period of their emigration, from what they are at the present time. It presents itself, then, as a question of the utmost difficulty, as well as of great moment to the present inquiry, what causes there are peculiar to the new world competent to the production of such signal mutations. Why should the descendents of Asiatic nations assume, in America, an appearance so widely different from that of their progenitors? We venture to assert, that a mere change of residence and climate, from the old world to the new, accompanied by all the alterations in the state of society and mode of living, which can be supposed to have occurred, would be a cause utterly inadequate to so extensive an effect.

To meet the general question in its full force, we must take the world precisely as we find it, marked by its present distribu

tion of land and water. It is alike unworthy of philosophy and of the subject under consideration, to substitute conjecture for history, in supposing that the continents of Asia and America were, at some former period, united by land, where we now find them separated by upwards of a thousand leagues of ocean. Having no evidence that such an union ever existed, to suppose it in the present case would amount to a disingenuous evasionan unmanly shrinking from the difficulties that present themselves. It would be an arbitrary and unjustifiable attempt to fashion the state of the globe to our mode of reasoning, instead of adapting our reasoning to the state of the globe.

We find, from voyages of discovery, that the continents of Asia and America approach each other at Behring's Straits, which are situated in the vicinity of the polar circle; and, in the present inquiry, we are not authorized to allege that they have ever been contiguous at any other point. Admitting, then, that the progenitors of the present nations of America came from Asia, it is in this high northern latitude, and at no other place, that they must have effected their passage. The original emigration, moreover, must have consisted of those who resided immediately adjacent to the Straits, and were somewhat versed in the art of navigation. Tribes from the interior of Asia, where the soil is more productive and the climate less rigorous, and where no surplus of population has ever existed, could have had no motive for penetrating into the barren, bleak, and inhospitable region, whose shores are washed by the Straits of Behring. Nor, had they even arrived at this arm of the sea, would they have ventured to pass it, ignorant as they are of the management of vessels.

It must have been the Kamtschadals alone, then, or some other people assimilated to them in stature and appearance (the whole of the maritime region in the north of Asia being inhabited by the same deformed and diminutive race) that originally emigrated into the continent of America, and became the parent stock of her future population. We perceive no possible, at least, no probable mode, by which the loftier and better formed inhabitants of the interior of Asia could ever have found their way into the new world. We believe, however, there are but

few philosophers who will seriously contend, that the tall, straight, and well proportioned tribes of America, who possess at the same time such a different complexion, are descendants of the squat and shapeless race, who people the north-eastern coast of Asia. Yet, according to the hypothesis of professor Barton, such must necessarily have been the origin of most of the aborigines of the new world.

Admitting however, that it were practicable to prove, that the present savage tribes of America are lineal descendants of the northern Asiatics, the question relative to the original population of the new world, would, still, in our estimation, remain unsettled.. We are persuaded that there existed in America a race of men anterior to those by whom it was occupied, when first discovered by the nations of Europe. We feel further assured that this primary race was advanced in the arts of civilized and cultivated life, far beyond the attainments of either the present aborigines of our country, or the savage inhabitants of the north of Asia. This opinion we hold to be amply supported by the remains of those regular and well constructed fortifications, and the ruins of apparently large and once populous cities, which are every where found on the waters of the Mississippi. In reIation to the founders of these mouldering yet venerable relics, the present savage inhabitants of our country do not possess even a tolerable tradition. Had they, however, been erected by the ancestors of this race, even at the earliest period of time, the event would not have been wholly effaced from their legendary chronicles.

Objections to the population of America, from the north of Asia, still stronger than any we have heretofore urged, might be drawn from the history of the inferior animals. Having, however, already far exceeded our intended limits, we are not insensible that the best amends we can make to our readers for the trespass we have so reluctantly committed on their patience, is to bring the article abruptly to a close. Yet this, in justice, we cannot do, without referring them to the essay of professor Barton, for much curious and interesting matter which we have been unable to notice.

C.

EPISTOLARY-FOR THE PORT FOLIO.

[We are enabled to present to our readers another very curious original letter from Dr. Franklin. Of its genuineness there can be no doubt; but the correspondent, to whose politeness we are indebted for it, having omitted to copy the direction, we are ignorant of the name of the lady to whom it is addressed.]

DEAR POLLY,

LETTER FROM DR. FRANKLIN.

Paris, September 14, 1767.

I AM always pleased with a letter from you; and I flatter myself, that you may be sometimes pleased with one from me, though it should be of little importance, such as this, which is to consist of a few occasional remarks made here, and on my journey hither.

Soon after I left you in that agreeable society at Bromley, I took the resolution of making a trip, with sir John Pringle, into France. We set out the 28th past. All the way to Dover we were furnished with post-chaises hung so as to lean forward, the top coming down over one's eyes like a hood, as if to prevent one's seeing the country, which being one of my greatest pleasures, I was engaged in perpetual disputes with the inn keepers and postilions about getting the straps taken up a hole or two before and let down as much behind, they insisting the chaise leaning forward was an ease to the horses, and that the contrary would kill them. I suppose the chaise leaning forward looks to them like a willingness to go forward, and that its hanging back shows a reluctance. They added their reasons that were no reasons at all, and made me, as upon a hundred other occasions, almost wish that mankind had never been endowed with a rea soning faculty, since they know so little how to make use of it, and so often mislead themselves by it; and that they had been furnished with a good sensible instinct instead of it.

At Dover the next morning we embarked for Calais with a number of passengers who had not been before at sea. They would previously make a hearty breakfast, because if the wind should fail, we might not get over till supper time. Doubtless they thought that when they had paid for their breakfast they had a right to it, and that when they had swallowed it they were 3 Y

VOL. VII.