62 ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



" Those of America seem to me to bear the impress of primitive languages — to 

 have assumed their form from natural causes, and to afford no proof of their being 

 derived from a nation in a more advanced state of civilization than our Indians. 

 Whilst the unity of structure, and of grammatical forms, proves a common origin, 

 it may be inferred from this, combined with the great diversity, and entire differ- 

 ence in the words of the several languages of America, that this continent received 

 its first inhabitants at a very remote epoch, probably not much posterior to that of 

 the dispersion of mankind." 



" I rather incline to the opinion, that the civilization of Mexico, and some por- 

 tions of South America, grew out of natural causes, and is entirely of American 

 origin." 1 



While declaring that the languages of America attest the antiquity of its popula- 

 tion, Mr. Gallatin is careful not to be understood as expressing views "inconsistent 

 with the opinion of an Asiatic origin, and with the received chronology." 



" Assuming the central parts of Asia to have been the cradle of mankind, since 

 three couples would, in thirty periods of duplication, increase to more than six 

 thousand millions of souls, we may fairly infer, not only the possibility, but even 

 the probability, that America began to be inhabited only five or six hundred years 

 later than the other hemisphere." 



"On the probable supposition, that the whole continent of America was inhabited 

 one thousand years after the flood, or near four thousand years ago, the faculties of 

 man, gradually unfolded and improved, may, in the course of so long a period, have 

 produced, without any extraneous aid, that more advanced state of society and 

 knowledge, which existed in some parts of America when first discovered by the 

 Europeans." 



In regard to the monuments of the United States, he remarks : " It is not ne- 

 cessary to refute the opinion of those who would ascribe these works to European 

 emigrants. There is nothing in them which may not have been performed by a 

 savage people. The Scandinavian colony of Vinland is out of the question. The 

 Norwegians might, indeed, have penetrated through the Straits of Bellisle to the 

 St. Lawrence ; but, if not destroyed by the savages, a considerable time must have 

 elapsed before they could, in their subsequent progress, have reached the Mississippi 

 and ascended its western tributaries. The well ascertained age of trees growing 

 on those ramparts in the lower part of the valley of the Ohio, proves that some of 

 those works were erected before the thirteenth century ; and we know that the 

 insignificant colony of Vinland had not left its original seats in 1120. Ignorant 

 as we are, and shall ever remain, of the internal revolutions which may have 

 formerly taken place among the uncivilized tribes of North America, it is not pro- 

 bable we can ever know by whom the works in question were erected." 



In 1845, Mr. Gallatin communicated to the American Ethnological Society his 

 " Notes on the semi-civilized nations of Mexico." 



In that valuable paper he not only extended his philological comparisons to the 

 languages of those nations, but reviewed their history and chronology, and their 



1 Prefatory letter. 



