120 Modem Languages. 



wards/ and many other gentlemen of observa- 

 tion and diligence. Mr. Jefferson, the Presi- 

 dent of the United States, has also made much in- 

 quiry into the languages of the American Indians* 

 and devoted considerable attention to the collec- 

 tion of specimens. But there is certainly no indi- 

 vidual to whom we are under so many obligations 

 for investigating these languages, and presenting 

 rich vocabularies to the public, as Professor Bar- 

 ton, of Philadelphia, whose name we have had 

 occasion to mention so frequently, and with so 

 much respect, in several of the preceding chapters 

 of this work. This gentleman has made large col- 

 lections of Indian languages, 6 which he has, with 

 great learning and ingenuity, compared with each 

 other, and with some of the languages of the eastern 

 continent. By these investigations he has, not 

 only in his own opinion, but also in the judgment 

 of many of his best informed readers, satisfactorily 

 proved, that there is but one radical language 

 among the Indians on the American Continent; and 

 that the nations of America and those of Asia have 



ago a missionary to some of the American tribes, and Mr. Heckewelder, 

 who at this time holds an important station in a western mission, deserve 

 to be mentioned with particular distinction, and with many acknowledge 

 ments, for their unwearied and intelligent inquiries on this subject. 



a Jonathan Edwards, D. D. late President of Union College, at 

 Schenectady; the excellent Son of a still more illustrious Father, whose 

 name was mentioned in a former chapter. Besides the great learning and 

 talents displayed by this gentleman on various theological subjects, which 

 will be noticed in their proper place, he published Observations on the Lan- 

 guage of the Muhhekanceiv Indians, &c. New-Haven, 1 788, in which, with 

 a number of ingenious remarks on the structure and genius of the lan- 

 guage, he gave some curious specimens of its vocabulary. 



b See Ne iv V'uivs of the Origin of the Tribes and Nations of America, 8 V0» 

 1798, second edition. 



c The following passage from Dr. Barton's work is thought worthy 

 of being inserted at length : 



" The inference from these facts and observations is obvious and interest- 

 ing: that hitherto we have not discovered more than one radical lan- 

 guage in the two Americas ; or, in other words, that hitherto we have 

 not discovered in America any two, or more, languages between which 



