Aboriginal Race of America. 155 
escaped unhurt to the shore; and I have myself seen some 
porcelain vessels which were saved on that occasion. Such 
casualties may have occurred in the early periods of American 
history ; and it requires no effort of the imagination to con- 
ceive the influence these persons might have exerted, in va- 
rious respects, had they been introduced to the ancient courts 
of Peru and Mexico. They might have contributed some- 
thing to extend, or at least to modify, the arts and sciences 
of the people among whom they were thrown, and have 
added a few words to the national language. 
I am informed by my friend Mr Townsend, who passed 
several months among the tribes of the Columbia river, that 
the Indians there have already adopted from the Canadian 
traders several French words, which they use with as much 
freedom as if they belonged to their own vocabulary. 
It follows, of course, from the preceding remarks, that we 
consider the American race to present the two extremes of 
intellectual character ; the one capable of a certain degree of 
civilization and refinement, independent of extraneous aids ; 
the other exhibiting an abasement which puts all mental cul- 
ture at defiance. The one composed, as it were, of a hand- 
ful of people, whose superiority and consequent acquisitions 
have made them the prey of covetous destroyers; the other 
a vast multitude of savage tribes, whose very barbarism is 
working their destruction from within and without. The 
links that connect them partake of the fate of the extremes 
themselves ; and extinction appears to be the unhappy, but 
fast approaching, doom of them all. 
4. Maritime Enterprise.—One of the most characteristic 
traits of all civilized and many barbarous communities, is the 
progress of maritime adventure. The Caucasian nations of 
every age present a striking illustration of this fact: their 
sails are spread on every ocean, and the fabled voyage of the 
Argonauts is but a type of their achievements from remote 
_ antiquity to the present time. Hence their undisputed do- 
minion of the sea, and their successful colonization of every 
quarter of the globe. The Mongolians and Malays, though 
active and predatory, and proverbially aquati¢ in their habits, 
