On the peopling of America. 219 



others, that Asia is not far distant from America. They may 

 be seen, at the saine time, from a ship in the middle passage*. 

 It has also been discovered, that all the little islands between 

 the northern parts of Asia and America are inhabited by savages, 

 who must have wandered from A:iia ; and it is not to be supposed 

 that a similar race of men did not travel to America. In a word, 

 the descent of the North-American Indians, or the greater num- 

 ber of theui, from Asiatic Tartars, or their ])rogeuitors, is now 

 so fully established, that I shall not exercise the reader's pa- 

 tience, in shoNving how much they resemble one another in their 

 features, their scantiness of beard, or their language : but the 

 Tartar did not transport his horse, and the want of that animal 

 has caused many shades of difference in their habits. 



lu stating that the aborigines of North- America are chiefly 

 descended from the Tartars, or from the same stock with the 

 Tartars, I am supported bv common tradition f among those 

 people, as well as by the obvious faciUty of the passage. But 

 some of the northern Indians, as I suspect, emiarated from 

 Europe. It can hardly be questioued that the Esquimaux Iti- 

 dians are the diminutive sprouts of Norwegian ancestors. It is 

 fully ascertained, that colonies from Norv.ay settled in Iceland 

 and Greenland near one thousand years ago ; but the first ad- 

 venturers who are mentioned in history, found a race of savages 

 who had preceded them. 



The same adventurers who discovered Iceland, at the period 

 to which I refer, extended tlieir travels to the Labrador coast, 

 where they found a race of savages, who appeared also, bv their 

 Janguage, to have emigrated irom Denmark or Norway. When 

 we consider the distance of Iceland, Greenland, and the Labra- 

 dor coast, fioni the ]-jiitish isles, or the northern parts of the 

 continent, the difficulty and danger of navigating the northern 

 ocean, in high latitudes, and the contemptible vessels now in use 

 among the Esquimaux, it may appear strange that every island, 

 and every spot of land in those iuhoh;pitab!e regions, should have 

 been discovered and settled at the time to which I have referred. 

 This phffinomenon is best accounted for by recollecting that there 

 must have been a time in which the northern ocean was navi- 

 gated with less danger tiian at present ; when Iceland, Green- 

 land, and the Labrador coast were much more hospitable, the 

 soil more productive, and the climate more temperate than thcv 

 Are at present. This allegation uiay appear somewhat paradoxi- 

 cal, when it is com])arcd with a former observation, that the 

 inter's cold has been gradually decreasing for more than 2000 



• 'I'lic distaiiCL' is not aliove tliirtcfn leagues. . 



I The liitiiiias ill K<^iK;riil in tliib pjirt of America allege tliat tliey came 

 ' 111 i)ic iioitli-wcbtwarcl. 



years. 



