Aboriginal Race of America. 221 



are supposed to have passed from Asia into America at a very 

 early epoch of history, and to have built those more ancient 

 monuments which are attributed to the Toltecan nation. 

 This view, supported as it is by some striking resemblances, 

 and especially in architectural decoration, leaves various im- 

 portant difficulties entirely unexplained : it necessarily pre- 

 supposes a great influx of foreigners to account for such nu- 

 merous and gigantic remains of human ingenuity and effort, 

 at the same time that no trace of this exotic family can 

 be detected in the existing Indian population. They and 

 their arts are equally eradicated : and we can only conceive 

 of the presence of these migratory strangers in small and 

 isolated groups, which might have modified the arts of an 

 antecedent civilization, while they themselves were too few 

 in number to transmit their lineaments to any aboriginal com- 

 munity. 



Closely allied to this theory, is that of our ingenious coun- 

 tryman, Mr. Delafield, who derives the demi-civilized nations 

 of America from " the Cnthites who built the monuments of 

 Egypt and Indostan." He supposes them to have traversed all 

 Asia to reach Behring's strait, and thus to have entered Amer- 

 ica at its northwest angle, whence they made their way by 

 slow journeys to the central regions of the continent. Our 

 objections to this theory will be found in what has been 

 already stated : and we may merely add, that the route by 

 which the author conducts his pilgrim adventurers, appears to 

 constitute the least plausible portion of his theory. Mr. Dela- 

 field supposes the barbarous tribes to be of a different stock, 

 and refers them to the Mongolians of Asia ; thus adopting the 

 idea of a plurality of races. 



We shall lastly notice an imaginative classification which 

 separates the aborigines of America into four species of men, 

 exclusive of the Eskimaux. This curious but unphilosophi- 

 cal hypothesis has been advanced by Bory de St. Vincent, a 

 French naturalist of distinction, who considers the civilized 

 nations to be cognate with the Malays, and designates them 

 by the collective name of the Neptunian species ; while to 

 his three remaining species, — the Columbian, the American 



