CONCLUSION. 159 



American races are of great antiquity. Their religious doctrines, their supersti- 

 tions, both in their nature and in their modes of practice, and their arts, accord 

 with those of the most primitive age of mankind. With all their characteristics 

 affinities are found in the early condition of Asiatic races; and a channel of com- 

 munication is pointed out through which they might have poured into this conti- 

 nent before the existing institutions and national divisions of the parent country 

 were developed. Fortuitous arrivals, too inconsiderable in numbers and influence 

 to leave decided impressions, may at intervals have taken place from other lands; 

 and geographical facts, and atmospherical phenomena, may serve to explain why the 

 New World remained so long a sealed book to the cultivated nations of Europe, or 

 was only known through the vague intimations and rumors alluded to in histoiy, 

 such as the chances of the sea, and indefinite reports from barbarous regions and 

 peoples would be likely to bring to their ears. 



