80 ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



to the polished and more delicately featured Chinese. These are, the small, de- 

 pressed, and seemingly broken nose; the oblique position of the eye, which is drawn 

 up at the external angle; the great width between the cheek bones, which are not 

 only high but expanded laterally ; the arched and linear eyebrow ; and, lastly, the 

 complexion, which is invariably some shade of yellow or olive, and almost equally 

 distant from the fair tint of the European and the red hue of the Indian. "In 

 fine," says Dr. Morton, "we are constrained to believe that there is no more re- 

 semblance between the Indian and Mongolian, in respect to arts, architecture, 

 mental features, and social usages, than exists between any other two distinct races 

 of mankind." 



In reference to the idea that America has been peopled by the Malay race 

 (which, in the ordinary classification, includes the Malays proper of the Indian 

 Archipelago and the Polynesians in all their numberless localities), it is said: 

 "These people have so much of the Mongolian character, that nearly the same 

 objections arise to both. The head of the Malay proper is more like that of the 

 Indian, because it not unfrequently presents something of the vertical form of the 

 occiput, and the transverse diameter, as measured between the parietal bones, is 

 also remarkably large. But, excepting in these respects, the osteological develop- 

 ment coincides with that of the Mongolian; while the category of objections 

 urged against the latter people is equally valid in respect to the whole Malay race." 



The various points alluded to in the above summary, are discussed by Dr. Mor- 

 ton with force and ability, and his essay closes with the following comprehensive 

 declaration : 



"Our own conclusion, long ago deduced from a patient examination of the facts 

 thus briefly and inadequately stated, is, that the American race is essentially 

 separate and peculiar, whether we regard it in its physical, its moral, or its intel- 

 lectual relations. To us, there are no direct or obvious links between the people 

 of the Old World and the New; for, even admitting the seeming analogies to which 

 we have alluded, these are so few in number, and evidently so casual, as not to 

 invalidate the main position. And, even if it should be hereafter shown that the 

 arts, sciences, and religion of America can be traced to an exotic source, I maintain 

 that the organic characters of the people themselves, through all their endless 

 ramifications of tribes and nations, prove them to belong to one and the same race, 

 and that this race is distinct front all others." 



These are the views that have, in substance, been repeated by Dr. Morton in 

 various connections, and at different periods. In one place he says: "I can aver 

 that sixteen years of almost daily comparisons have only confirmed me in the 

 conclusions announced in my Crania Americana, that all the American nations, 

 excepting the Eskimaux, are of one race, and that this race is peculiar and distinct 

 from all others." 1 



In one of his papers he observes: "I regard the American nations as the true 

 autochthones — the primaeval inhabitants of this vast continent — and when I speak 

 of their being of one race and of one origin, I allude only to their indigenous 



1 ''Ethnography and Archaeology of the American Aborigines," p. 9. New Haven, 1846. 



