—_— 
on the Original Population of America. 7 
We know so little of the primeval world; of the first dis- 
tribution of man ; of the question whether all historical record 
“of the west be not exclusively applicable to the Caucasic or 
bearded stock ; and of a diluvian destruction, which, if it be 
admitted to have affected the whole earth, would still not 
substantiate that it was total, by submerging every moun- 
tain-ridge, and include the absolute destruction of the whole 
human race, with the sole exception of the Arkite family. 
We know nothing of the original conditions of existence of 
the Mongolic and Ethiopian stocks, nor when nor how they 
acquired their distinctive characters; excepting that when 
the first mentioned can be traced in history it is already as 
strongly marked as at present, and still more the second, 
which is found pictured on the oldest monuments of Egypt, 
dating, according to the best authorities, nearly as far back 
as the age of Abraham, that is, according to the common 
chronology, to within the fourth century after the Deluge ; 
we see that it is delineated in features, hair, and colour, with 
all the attributes of the present negroes. We can scarcely 
deny that at that time India and China, probably also Bac- 
tria, were also densely peopled and already ruled by consi- 
derable monarchies, though the civilizations of Etruria, of 
Asia Minor, Syria, and Greece, were, for ages after, still 
small independent communities, rising out of the patriarchal 
form, and not yet united into nations by conquest,—always a 
result of time. Still less is known of those ages where, by 
our present discoveries, we find that there was in some un- 
known region an advanced civilization, since it left evidence 
of a progressive science which was again followed by ages of 
darkness, to revive and perish again or reappear in other 
quarters, till the contemplation would appear like the phan- 
toms of a dream, if evidence far stronger than historical as- 
sertions were not found in ruins of man’s handiwork in parts 
of the world of all others the most unlooked-for. Such, for 
example, is the ruined city or cities—for more than one 
is reported to exist in the same vicinity—built of huge 
squared blocks of stone, and in surface extending to dimen- 
sions that must have required a vast population, though 
they be now sunk below the level of the sea, and are situ- 
