OP THE EENNI EENAPE INDIANS. 85 



they will express it by mattatsch gluppixveque, which may be 

 thus construed : 



Malta is the negative adverb no; tsch is the sign of the 

 future, with which the adverb is inflected ; gluppiweque is 

 the second person of the plural number of the present 

 tense of the subjunctive mood of the verb ghtppiechton. 

 To turn about or return. In this manner every idea meant 

 to be conveyed by this sentence is clearly understood. 

 The subjunctive mood shews the uncertainty of the action, 

 and the Bign of the future tense coupled with the adverb 

 points to a time not yet come when it may or may not take 

 place. The Latin phrase nisi veneris expresses all these 

 meanings ; but the English If you do not come, and the French 

 Si vmis ne venez pas, have by no means the same elegant 

 precision. The idea which in Delaware and Latin the 

 Subjunctive form directly conveys is left tn he gathered in 

 the English and French from the words z/and si, and there 

 is nothing else to point out the futurity of the action. And 

 where the two former languages express every thing with 

 two word-, each of the latter requires five, which yet repre- 

 sent a smaller number of ideas. To wl'ich of these gram- 

 matical forms is the epithet barbarous to be applied ? 



This very cursory view of the general structure of the 

 Indian languages, exemplified by the Delaware, will at least 

 convince the reader that a considerable degree of art and 

 method has presided over their formation. Whether this as- 

 tonishing (act is to be considered as a proof (as many are 

 inclined to believe) that this continent w;is formerly inha- 

 bited by a civilized race of men, or whether it is nut more 

 natural to suppose thai the Almighty Creator has endowed 

 mankind with a natural lo»;ic which leads them, as it were, by 

 instinct, to such methods in the formation of their idioms as 

 are best calculated to facilitate their use. I shall not at pre- 

 sent inquire; I do not. however, hesitate to say, that the 

 bias of my mind is in favour of the latter supposition; be- 

 cause no language has yet been discovered, either among 

 savage or polished nations, which was not governed by rules 



VOL. III. Y 



