HISTORY OF VERMONT. 231 



bridges, canjils, industry, provision for the poof 

 .and aged, and the responsibility of parents for 

 the conduct of their children ; all, or most of 

 these articles, bore a greater resemblance to 

 Chinese maxims, manners, and customs, than 

 could have been acquired in America, during 

 the life of one man and woman, from their ovvn 

 observations and reasonings. They vvere ad- 

 vances towards a state of civilization, that no-^ 

 thing in the degraded state of the Peruvians^ 

 could have suggested, or produced, but in a 

 long period of time. 



Much pains has been taken by many learned 

 and ingenious men, to compare the languages 

 of the Americans, with those qf other nations. 

 But while these inquiries have been carried on 

 with great assiduity, the most ancient language 

 which prtn-uiled in the east, the Scmskreet, '* the 

 parent of almost every dialect from the Persian 

 gulf to "die Ciiina seas,"* was itself wholly un- 

 knov/n : And no information has been derived 

 from these inquiries. 



We must reason then from such circumstan- 

 ces as we can find : And if a jiidgnient can be 

 formed from a similarity of complexion, fea»- 

 tures, and customs, we shall be led to conclude 

 that the men of America were the same people 

 with the men of Asia ; but that, their descent, 

 was not from any particular one, but from seve- 

 ral nations on the eastern continent. 



No difficulty could ever have attended such 

 emigrations. The continents of Asia and A- 

 jnerica approach so near to each other, that the 



' c 

 • Preface to the Grammar of the Bengal Language, p. 3. Tfee £nS 



tf antlatioQ frooi the Eanskreet kngu&gewas pubLuh^din 1715. 



