their hands, who are positively black! And is it incredible, that twenty-five hundred years of such exposures, and of such vicissitudes, as the American Aborigines must have passed through, on the supposition, that they are a part, or the main body of the ten tribes ;-is it incredible, that their barbarous customs of living for so many ages, their filthiness, their smoky cabins, their long protracted doom to severities of every description, should have wrought very radical and essential changes in their physical constitution? Is it not rather a wonder, that the change is so inconsiderable? Is it said, that the American languages are too diversified, and many of them too radically unlike, to admit of a Hebrew origin? Tell us what have been the transformations of language in Europe within the same period, where society has not only been fixed, compared with the mutations of the aboriginal Americans; but where civilization has reigned, and refinement advanced; and where a permanent, and with little exception, an ever-growing literature has prevailed. What have been the changes of language in Britain, in twenty-five hundred years? When one looks on the history of the world, and the changes of society, of customs, and of language, over the face of the earth, and in the same regions, even for a few centuries

-much more for some two and three thousand years especially where barbarism has triumphed over civilization, and whole nations and people have exchanged territories, and been translated from one region to another successively, unable to secure a permanent abode-it is then no longer a wonder, it seems almost a miracle, that the American tribes retain so much of the manners, customs, and language of their supposed ancestors.

If a man should be so bold as to assert, that the Jews are not Jews, he would chance to be ridiculed. But is there any more reason in philosophy why he should, than to deny the Hebrew origin of the American Indians? For the proofs in the one case are of the same class, as in the other. The only difference is in the amount; and the reasons for that difference are as obvious and as satisfactory, as the nature of the evidence.

It might, perhaps, be expected, that in the discussion of this question, I should cast an eye on South America. In regard to the ancient tenants of that portion of the American continent, and of the Isthmus of Darien, I have my opinion. But it was not my intention, nor am I prepared to enter at large upon that subject. A word, however, in bar of any objection, that may possibly arise from that quarter, against the theory

of this chapter. It might seem, that the Mexicans and the South Americans were a race distinct from the North Americans. Where did they come from? I am inclined to the opinion, that they were distinct. I see not how it can be disputed; and if it is necessary to find a way, by which they came from the East, the western coasts of Africa, and the eastern shores of South America, are perhaps convenient enough for that purpose. There they are-or rather: -there they were; and whatever might have been their origin, I see not how any conclusion resulting from that question, can disturb the course of argument, into which I have been led.

It is also to be observed, that certain antiquities have been developed and are gradually developing, in North America, which seem to prove the former existence, in those regions, of great and powerful, though barbarous nations, far more important in numbers and influence, than the race of men found there, since the discovery of the continent by Europeans. And it is thought by many, that some of these are relics of generations much farther back, than would be convenient to identify them with the ten tribes of Israel. Let the issue of these antiquarian researches be what it will, this supposition, I think, is equally undisturbed, as by any results

growing out of a consideration of the antiquities of Mexico, and of the dynasty of the Incas. If those relics are shown to have belonged to another race, what does it prove against our argument? If to the recent incumbents, it is more likely to be altogether for it. There yet is a people, who have the argument in themselves and on themselves, as complete, of the kind and for the purpose, to establish their Hebrew origin, as the common philosophy of historical evidence seems to require.

CHAPTER II.

THE MOST IMPORTANT AMONG THE GREAT OB

JECTS OF

BENEVOLENCE; THE ARROGANT

CLAIMS OF EUROPEAN NATIONS OVER THE AMERICAN CONTINENT, &c.

"THAT was an age of chivalry," we often hear, in reference to some former time. Every age is an age of chivalry-or rather, of a chivalrous disposition. Virtue always delights in high and noble deeds. The soul of man is full of poetry and romance. And well that it is, if it only knew how and where to display its glowing aspirations-if its wisdom in selecting the objects of its tender regard, and the fields of its enterprise, were equal to the energy of its impulses. Unfortunately, however, many noble spirits are constantly spending their holy fires in building castles in the air, fighting windmills, pouncing on imaginary foes and villains, and drawing their swords for the rescue of unfortunates, comparatively unworthy, and who will neither be thankful, nor the better for the service