240 NATURAL AND CIVIL 



tribes had subsisted so long in a national form, 

 and as a distinct people, that they had formed 

 a particular language for themseives. There 

 were three original languages spoken in Canada ; 

 the Sioux, the Huron, and the Algonquin.* In 

 New England, there were one or two others. f 

 In Virginia there were three, different from ei- 

 ther of these. | In Mexico thirty five were dis- 

 covered. In South America there were still 

 more. In Maraguon, the Portuguese counted 

 fifty. ^ In each of these places, the dialects were 

 nearl}'- as many as their tribes. And yet these 

 places made but a small part of the continent. 

 V/hat an immicnse period of time does this re- 

 quire ? A language may be separated into dif- 

 ferent dialects in a k\v srenerations : But for 

 these dialects to recede so far from one another, 

 as to lose all resemblance and affinity ; and sev- 

 eral new languages to be formed, radicall} dif- 

 fering from one another ; such an event could not 

 take place, or be effected, until the tribes had sub- 

 sisted for m.any centuries, as distinct and separate 

 nations. We cannot estimate this process by fixed 

 periods of time, because we have no facts from 

 which a computation can be made. But it may- 

 be compared to the state and progress of things, 

 in the other hemisphere : and we shall find the 

 number of languages radically differing from one 

 another, more numerous among the Americans, 

 than they were in Asia and Europe. Is not 

 this an indicaiion, that the red men of America 

 are as ancient as the other nations of the earth? 



* Abbe Raynal, V. lo'!. 



+ Hutchinson, I. 457, 479. 



i Jtlitrson's NotLS on Virginia, p. 99. 



^ Clavigero'sHist.of Meiaco. 



