Antiquities of New- York. 223 



Dutch writers ; and it is well known that their attention was al- 

 most solely absorbed in the pursuit of wealth, or in the propa- 

 gation oi' religion, and that their sentiments were shaped by 

 reigning prejudices, regulated by pre-conreived theories, con- 

 trolled by the policy of their sovereigns, and obscured by the 

 darkness which then covered the world. 



To rely entirely on the traditions of the Aborigines for authen- 

 tic or extensive information, is to lean on a broken reed. Those 

 who have interrogated them must know that they were generally 

 as ignorant as the inquirer ; that the ideas they communicated, 

 were either invented at the moment, or were so connected with 

 palpable fable as to be almost entirely unworthy of credit. Hay- 

 ing no written auxiliaries to memory, the facts with which they 

 were acquainted, became, in process of time, obliterated from 

 the mind or distorted by new impressions and new traditions. 

 If, in the course of thirty years, the Buccaneers of St. Domingo 

 lost almost every trace of Christianity, what Confidence can we 

 repose in the oral history delivered to us by savages without the 

 use of letters, and continually engrossed in war or in the chase ? 



The field of inquiry is then limited in its range, but happily 

 it is not entirely closed against us. The monuments which re- 

 main, afford considerable room for investigation. The languages, 

 the persons, and the customs of the red men may be made 

 use of to illustrate their origin and history ; and even the geolo- 

 gy of the country, may in some cases, be successfully applied to 

 shed light on the subjects of inquiry. 



Having had some opportunities for personal observation and 

 not a few for inquiry, I am induced to believe that the western 

 parts of the United States were, prior to their discovery and oc- 

 cupation by Europeans, inhabited by numerous nations in a set, 

 tied state, and much further advanced in civilization than the pre- 

 sent tribes of Indians. Perhaps it is not too much to say, that 

 they did not fall far short of the Mexicans and Peruvians when 

 first visited by the Spaniards. In my illustrations of this sub- 

 ject, I shall principally confine myself to this state, occasionally 

 glancing beyond it, and avoiding, as far as possible, topics which 

 have been heretofore discussed. 



Q'i 



