BRADFORD'S ANTIQUITIES. 113 



The author is able to track a division of the Cuthites, through various incidents of 

 their history, to the northeastern parts of Asia, towards the point whence the 

 Aztec emigration is supposed to have proceeded, as indicated by the Mexican 

 chart. 



In \he work of Mr. Delafield, the antiquities of the United States are only 

 referred to in connection with his argument, without any drawings, or details of 

 description. 



A different view of the introduction of population to this country, is taken in the 

 able and more elaborate treatise of Mr. Bradford, published, under a somewhat 

 similar title, in 1843. * This writer made no personal explorations, but, sitting in 

 his study, carried forward his argument under the burden of an immense numher 

 and variety of citations from all classes of authorities. Hence his work is entitled 

 to the merit, and is subject to all the disadvantages, attending that method of 

 reasoning. Many of the statements so collected are such as will not bear the test 

 of a rigid verification; and, although the justness of the author's conclusions should 

 not be impaired by them, the erroneous impressions they convey are liable to be 

 received by the incautious reader, and perhaps transferred to narratives and argu- 

 ments where their influence is less likely to be corrected by the entire body of 

 information with which they are associated. 



Thus, a wrong idea of the state of art among the ancient Americans may easily 

 be occasioned by admitting the hasty inferences of travellers and chance observers 

 to the fellowship of better considered relations. A much higher degree of artistic 

 and mechanical skill on the part of the primitive occupants of the regions now 

 embraced in the United States, would be inferred from the summary in this volume 

 than well-authenticated facts will warrant. Fur example, the passages respecting 

 evidence of the working of gold and silver (including the process of gilding), the 

 manufacture of glass beads, and the unqualified statement that "the inhabitants of 

 New England appear to have possessed and manufactured chains, collars, and drink- 

 ing cups of copper;" and many other citations, introduced as reliable illustrations 

 of native skill and industry, exhibit the dangers incident to such a compilation. 



But, aside from these considerations, Mr. Bradford's treatise is of high value and 

 interest, not only on account of its great store of references, but for the reflections 

 and opinions that are embodied with or deduced from them. 



Mr. Bradford thus defines his purpose: — 



" To embody and collate the descriptions of the most remarkable of the ancient 

 remains and ruins scattered over the continent; to compare the traditions, manners, 

 customs, arts, language, civilization, and religion, of its aboriginal inhabitants, inter- 

 nally, and with those of other nations ; and thence to deduce the origin of the 

 American race and its subsequent migrations — in a word, to attempt the determi- 

 nation of a portion of its unwritten history, is the object of this work." 



His subject is treated of in two parts; the first having for its distinctive title, 



1 American Antiquities, anil Researches into the Origin and History of the Red Race. By Alexan- 

 der W. Bradford. New York, 1843: pp. 135. 

 L5 



