CORRESPONDENCE. 139 



gary and of Lapland, notwithstanding they are geographically so 

 far apart, and so different in their social condition and physical 

 organization, are intimately allied to each other; and that the 

 people of Otaheite and of the Sandwich Islands, though inhabiting 

 islands, and at the distance of twenty-five hundred miles from each 

 other, are 1 of one family, speaking languages that are substantially 

 the same. 



In short, the affinities of the different people of the globe, and 

 their migrations in ages prior to authentic history, can be traced 

 only by means of language ; and among the problems which are 

 ultimately to be solved by these investigations, is one of the high- 

 est interest to Americans that of the affinity between the original 

 nations of this continent and those of the old world ; in other words, 

 the source of the aboriginal population of America. And one of 

 the fruits of your present expedition may be, to furnish the mate- 

 rials which may enable some American to confer on our country 

 the honour of solving that great problem. But I need not follow 

 out, in detail, the utility of investigations in this branch of science. 

 The object of the expedition, if I understand it rightly, is not 

 merely to explore sources of profitable commerce, but that the 

 United States may also make an honourable and liberal contribu- 

 tion to the cause of science, which is the common cause of all 

 civilized nations. We have already derived no little reputation 

 from what we have accomplished by expeditions of this character 

 on the continent of America, however inconsiderable the results 

 may appear in the general mass of science. In the particular 

 subject of languages, too, our great philologist, Mr. Duponceau, 

 has obtained for America the honour (and, I believe, the first 

 instance of the kind among our countrymen) of a prize medal, 

 awarded by that distinguished body, the Royal Institute of Paris, 

 for -the best dissertation on their prize question respecting the 

 original languages of America, I mention this fact, principally for 

 the purpose of showing how much importance is attached to the 



