do, also, in supposing, as we are apt to do, that straits and water-falls have always been where they now are. How many are there, who, on beholding the Falls of Niagara, suppose them to have been always where they now are? And yet how evident, upon the slightest examination, are the proofs to the contrary. The changes upon the face of the globe are as various as they are endless.

In what numbers they came, or how long they continued to cross over, we know nothing. The high probability is, the crossing was accidental,* and by a few, who, having

Storms have, doubtless, been instrumental, from the earliest ages, in peopling islands in every part of the ocean. It is not improbable that this continent owes the advent of its Tartar population to their agency. During my official connexion with the government, as Chief of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, news reached me that a party of Indians had arrived in Washington, and that they had found their way to the city by the route of the Potomac. I directed my informant to send or bring them to my office. They came. There were five of them. To the questions-To what tribe did they belong? and what business had brought them to Washington? I was answered, that they "belonged to the Quoddy tribe, away down towards sunrise, where the land stops, in the East;" meaning the neighborhood of Eastport, in Maine. Their visit to Washington, they said, was very unexpected to them; and they had reached there without any power of control over their movements. It seems the party had gone out in two bark canoes to shoot porpoises-and while away off from land, a storm came on, that forced them far out to sea. It continued to blow for two or three days and nights; when, at last, a vessel hove in sight. By the aid of their paddles, with something white attached to them, they attracted the attention of the crew, when the vessel tacked and came to them, taking them on board. They were then off the capes of Virginia. The two canoes kept within sight of each other all the time, when there was daylight to see one another; but at night, each was left ignorant of the fate of the other.

The principal was DEACON SOCKBASIN, who spoke English tolerably well, and could write also with sufficient accuracy to make known what he had to say, on paper. His name had been made familiar to me by various communications bearing his signature, on matters relating to their school.

Their wants were supplied, and the means given them to bear their expenses home. One of the canoes-the other having been injured—I had brought to the War Department, and hung up in the passage, over the door of my office, where it remained till the Indian portraits and other relics which I had collected there, were sent to the Columbian Institute, with the canoe, where the latter yet remains to attest in how frail a vessel human beings may be driven by a storm, upon the ocean, for at least one thousand miles.

If this party of Quoddy Indians could survive such a storm as Sock basin described that to be which drove him and his party from off Eastport, in Maine, to

passed over, returned and reported what they had discovered to their countrymen, when everything having been found to be abundant, and in accordance with their wants and tastes, colony after colony came over, until the Tartar hordes were drained of their most adventurous, and daring, and restless associates.

And now, having made the crossing, (whether upon what was then an isthmus, or across what is now a strait, is immaterial,) they spread themselves over the country, under the impulse of their natural habits, as well as for the sake of freedom from the pressure of those in their rear, as to find retreats where the game was most plenty, and fish were most easily taken; whilst the game, doubtless, with the instinct common to all animals, retired before the advances of the invaders. It is characteristic of the Indian to go where he can get what he wants with the least trouble; but in this he only shows himself to be in close alliance with his intellectually and morally elevated pale-faced brother; for, after all, it is not more true of man that he is an imitative, than that he is an indolent animal.

the capes of Virginia, it is not unreasonable to conclude that other adventurers on the deep blue sea may have, in all times, been subject to like transitions, and by the same cause. In this way, as I have said, this continent may have had thrown upon it the progenitors of the Indian race.

"I am an aged hemlock.

The winds of a hundred winters have whistled through my branches.

I am dead at the top," &c.-See pages 83, 84, vol. 2.

DISCOURSE I.

ORIGIN OF THE RACES, ANCIENT AND MODERN, THAT PEOPLED AMERICA, PREVIOUS TO ITS DISCOVERY BY COLUMBUS.

PART I.

PROBABLE ORIGIN OF THE PRESENT INDIAN TRIBES OF NORTH AMERICA.

Limits of the question proposed-Deep interest felt in it-Lasting effect of early impressions—Their injustice to Indian character-Who are the Indians?—Are they descendants of the lost tribes of Israel?—Adair-Boudinot-Hubbard— Lord Kaimes' theory-An original, underived race-Absurdity, as well as infidelity of this theory-Nea-Mathla's theory of the distinctive races of manAmerican Indians of Tartar origin-Similarity of language no proper criterion of judgment-Ledyard's opinion-The Indians resemble the Tartars in physical conformation-Remarkable uniformity of features-Ledyard-The same monuments-Habitations, and wandering habits-Ineffectual efforts to induce them to adopt more comfortable dwellings-Their improvidence-Modes of dressUse and value of wampum-Remarkable wampum belt among the WyandotsSimilarity of faith and worship-Dr. Wolf-Mon-Catchape, an Indian antiquarian His researches and their results--By what route did the Indians reach our shores?-Behring's Strait not so wide formerly as now-The two continents probably joined-Probable causes of the original emigration-Deacon Sockbason and his voyage.

He who proposes, at this time of day, to discuss the question of the ORIGIN of the Indian tribes of North America, can mean nothing more, of course, than to offer the theory which has, as he views it, the strongest claims to be considered the true one. This is the position I occupy, on this occasion, in relation to this question. All I can promise, is, to lift as much as I may be able of the age