66 ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Duponceau also made himself intelligible to the Wyandots, with no other assistance 

 than the imperfect vocabulary taken in the year 1625, by the Franciscan Sagard. 



In Bradford's "American Antiquities," published five years before, arguments 

 had been brought forward tending to show an affinity between the Polynesian 

 and American languages. Mr. Gallatin's opinions on this point are very decided. 

 He admits that there are some analogies of structure between the two, inviting 

 further investigation, which he proceeds to bestow upon them, but says : " No 

 traces of the Malay language are found in the vocabularies of any of the American 

 languages which have been investigated. On the other hand, all the languages of 

 the Polynesian Islands (not including among these either Australia or the black 

 Papuan race) were at once recognized as belonging to the great Malay family, as 

 soon as vocabularies of their various dialects had been published. The supposition 

 that this language had its origin in Polynesia, and was transferred thence to the 

 Asiatic Islands and Continent, is inadmissible. The fact that the connection 

 between the Polynesian and Malay languages is still so visible, proves that the 

 migrations from Asia, by which Potynesia was colonized, are of a comparatively 

 recent date. If any portion of the Continent of America was ever settled by Malay 

 emigrants, which is extremely improbable, it must have been at a very early and 

 remote period." 1 



In 1846, Mr. Gallatin wrote to Mr. Schoolcraft for certain vocabularies that he 

 wished to possess, and in his letter, remarks: "I am preparing for the press — 1st, a 

 general, but still very imperfect, view of the grammar or structure of the several 

 languages of the aborigines of America; 2d, a comparative vocabulary of the 

 languages of the tribes within the United States, and north of their northern 

 boundaries." 



" As this, if I live long enough to complete it, will be my last contribution to 

 that object, I naturally feel anxious to make it as full, and as useful to those that 

 may succeed me, as possible." 2 



He mentions that he shall publish the work at his own expense. But, with the 

 exception of such portions as are used in the Introduction to Mr. Hale's essay, it is 

 presumed that the materials were never fully arranged for publication. 



No one appears to have caught the mantle of Mr. Gallatin, and sought to fulfil 

 his mission. Many valuable contributions have been added to the means of effect- 

 ing his purpose ; but the purpose itself, the completion of a full and well digested 

 analysis of the American languages, exhibiting their peculiarities, and their affinities 

 with one another, and with those of other parts of the world, has never been 

 accomplished. 



We are not unmindful of what Mr. Schoolcraft has written at various periods, 



1 In Dr. Lieber's brief essay on the "Plan of Thought of the American Languages," in the second 

 volume of Mr. Schoolcraft's large work, the author states that, in 1843, he addressed a letter to Mr. 

 Gallatin, calling his attention to certain points of similarity between American idioms and those spoken 

 by the Islanders of the South Pacific Ocean. This had reference apparently to Mr. Bradford's hypothesis 

 that the American red race is of Mongolian origin, and reached this continent by the islands of the 

 Pacific. Mr. Gallatin's observations may, therefore, be regarded as a reply to those gentlemen. 



' Schoolcraft's Hist., &c, of the Indian Tribes, III, 397. 



