Aboriginal Race of America. 167 
to America as any people in it. The aborigines of this con- 
tinent have always been of nomadic and migratory habits ; a 
fact which is amply illustrated in the traditional history of 
Mexico itself. So also with the barbarous tribes; for the 
Lenapé, the Florida Indians, the Iroquois, the insular Cha- 
ribs, and many others, were intruding nations, who, driven 
by want, or impelled by an innate and restless activity, had 
deserted their own possessions to seize upon others which 
did not belong to them. These nations, like their more 
polished neighbours, were in the constant practice of record- 
ing the events of their battles and hunting excursions by 
hieroglyphic symbols, made, according to circumstances, on 
trees, skins, or rocks; and this rude but expressive language 
of signs has been justly regarded as the origin of the picture 
writing of the Mexicans. “ The difference between them,” 
observes Dr Coates, “ does not appear greater than must 
necessarily exist between ignorant warriors and hunters in 
a simple form of society, and those of the members of a com- 
plicated state possessed of property, and even, as described 
by Clavigero, of a species of science and literature.”’ 
This gradation of the ruder into the more perfect art of 
hieroglyphic writing, not only affords an additional argument 
for the unity of origin of the American nations, but also con- 
stitutes another proof of the distinctness of their race; for 
this picture-writing, even in its most elaborate forms, bears 
no other than the most general resemblance to any exotic 
hieroglyphics, nor, indeed, has areal equivalent been detected 
between them. We may, therefore, be permitted to repeat 
our conviction that the annals of the Mexicans bear no in- 
disputable evidence of immigration from Asia; but, on the 
other hand, that they are susceptible of as many different 
interpretations as there are theories to be supported. 
It is remarked by Dr Coates, that the Mongolian theory, 
which we are now considering, is dbjectionable on account 
of its vastness. “ To derive the population of the whole of 
_ the American continent from the north-western angle, re- 
quires the supposition of a continued chain of colonies during 
a long succession of ages, acquiring and using an immense 
