114 ST NICOTINE 



Mississippi, and in Mexico, some of which are carved in 

 the form of human heads of an unmistakably Mongolian 

 type. Soon after the discovery of America the question of 

 the origin of its inhabitants became a fertile source of 

 conjecture among speculative thinkers. Probably Gregorio 

 Garcia, a missionary who had for twenty years lived in 

 South America, was the first to reject the general opinion 

 that they were a new race of beings sprung from the soil 

 they inhabited, and to suggest for them an Asiatic source. 

 He published his views on the question in a work entitled 

 The Origin of the Indians of the New World 

 (Valencia, 1607), wherein he expresses himself as opposed 

 to the autochthonous character of the inhabitants, and 

 points out reasons for thinking that the country had been 

 peopled by Tartars and Chinese. Brerewood also, in 

 his Diversities of Languages and Religions (1632-5), 

 assigned the American people an Eastern, and chiefly 

 Tartar, origin. But Hugh Grotius argued that North 

 America was peopled from a Scandinavian stock, though 

 probably the Peruvians were from China. Coming to more 

 recent times may be mentioned Professor Smith Barton of 

 Pennsylvania, who, in his K eiv Views of the Origin of 

 the Tribes and Nations of America, contends that they 

 are descended from Asiatic nations, though he is unable to 

 point to any particular source from which they have 

 emanated. And John Delafield's Enquiries into the 

 Origin of the Antiquities of America lead him to the 

 conclusion that the Mexicans were from the riper nations 

 of Hindustan and Egypt, and that the more barbarous 

 red men were from the Mongol stock. Alexander von 

 Humboldt during his travels in South America gave 

 the weight of his vast knowledge and shrewd observation to 

 a consideration of the subject. In their habits of life, in 



