Book Notices. 191 



Students of tlie earlier civilizations of the New World have here- 

 tofore encountered almost insurmountable difficulties, arising from 

 the paucity of available sources of hiforniation. The aboriginal 

 civilization, whether ' we conceive it as radiating northeastward 

 from tropical America, or southeastward from a lodgment on the 

 Pacific coast, in either case, emanated from a point farthest removed 

 from the original center of the later European culture implanted on 

 this continent, and therefore, least accessible to the spirit of modern 

 investigation, until almost all vestiges were lost. In Mexico and 

 Central America, the Aztec and Maya-Quiche civilizations were liter- 

 ally obliterated by the crushing blight of Spanish avarice and supersti- 

 tion. In addition to these difficulties, the archseology of our pre- 

 historic races has long rested under an indifference, which has permitted 

 even the decaying monuments of their former empires to be defaced 

 by time, or ruthlessly destroyed by so-called modern improvement. 



Recent archaeological discoveries in other countries, however, bring- 

 ing to light many curious and hitherto unsuspected facts, and enlarging 

 the boundaries of positive history among Eastern nations, have 

 awakened an interest in our own autochthones, and created a demand 

 for a species of information which Mr. Bancroft's work promises to 

 supply. The work thus appears at a time when a growing want is felt 

 for the information he offers as the result of his laborious and extended 

 examination. Dealing with the aboriginal people who dwelt nearest 

 to what we may regard as the primal seat of the ancient civilization, 

 his object, as expressed in his own words, is, " to gather and arrange 

 in a systematic, compact form, all that is known of these people ; to 

 preserve some facts, perhaps, from oblivion ; to bring others from inac- 

 cessible nooks, and to render all available to science and to the general 

 reader." 



The volume before us treats of the tribes who inhabited the entire 

 Pacific coast of North America, whom he divides into seven distinc- 

 tive groups, namely : I. Hyperboreans; II. Columbians; III. Cali- 

 fornians; IV. New Mexicans; V. Wild Tribes of Mexico; VI. AVikl 

 Tribes of Central America ; and VII. Civilized Tribes of Mexico, 

 which latter class will form the subject of a separate volume. 



The nations thus grouped for convenience of treatment, are repre- 

 sented under those characteristics which distinguished them at the 

 time of their first intercourse with Europeans, and the facts presented 

 pertain exclusively to the observed traits, physical and mental 

 peculiarities, customs, and external surroundings of the tribes in ques- 

 tion. Each group is treated in a separate chapter, with an excellent 

 map and supplemental division describing tribal boundaries. 



