4 AUTHEN'TIC HISTORY 



hither, in hopes that the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ would never 

 come here to destroy or disturb his absolute empire over them." 



Swinton,! in a dissertation upon the peopling of America, after stating 

 the different opinions of various authors who have advocated in favor 

 of the "dispersed people," the Phoenicians and other Eastern nations, 

 observes, "that, therefore, the Americans in general were descended from 

 some people who inhabited a country not so far distant from them as 

 Egypt and Phoenicia, our readers will, as we apprehend, readily admit. 

 Now, no country can be pitched upon so proper and convenient for this 

 purpose, as the north-eastern part of Asia, particularly Great Tartary, 

 tSiberia, and more especially the peninsula of Kamtschatka. That 

 probably was the tract through which many Tartar colonies passed into 

 America, and peopled the most considerable part of the new world."^ 



liobertson"^ sums up an excellent sketch of this difficult question in 

 these words: "Though it be possible that America may have re- 

 ceived its first inhabitants from our continent, either by the north-west 

 of Europe or the north-east of Asia, there seem to be good reasons for 

 supposing that the progenitors of all the American nations, from Cape 

 Horn to the southern confines of Labrador, migrated from the latter 

 rather than the former. The Esquimaux are the onl}^ people in Ameri- 

 ca who, in their aspect or character, bear any resemblance to the north- 

 ern Europeans. They are manifestly a race of men, distinct from all the 

 nations of the American continent, in language, in disposition, and in 

 habits of life. Their original, then, may warrantably be traced up to 

 that source which I have pointed out. But, among all the other inhab- 

 itants of America, there is such a striking similitude in the form of their 

 bodies and the qualities of their minds, notwithstanding the diversities 

 occasioned by the influence of climate, or unequal progress in improve- 

 ment, we must pronounce them to be descended from one source. There 

 may be a variety in the shades, but we can everywhere trace the same 

 original color. Each tribe has something peculiar which distinguishes 

 it, but in all of them we discern certain features common to the whole 

 race. It is remarkable that in every peculiarity, whether in their persons 

 or dispositions, which characterize the Americans, they have some re- 

 semblance to the rude tribes scattered over the north-east of Asia, but 

 almost none to the nations settled in the northern extremities of Europe. 

 We may, therefore, refer them to the former origin, and conclude that 

 their Asiatic progenitors, having settled in those parts of America where 

 the Russians have discovered the proximity of the two continents, 

 spread gradually over its various regions. This account of the progress 

 of population in America, coincides with the traditions of the Mexicans 



iDied 1774. 2 Univ. Hist.. XX. Drake. 



3 Hist, of America, I, 261. Published in 1788. 



