OF LANCASTER COUNTY. 5 



concerning their own origin, which, imperfect as they are, were preserved 

 with more accuracy, and merit greater credit than those of any peo- 

 ple in the new world. According to them, their ancestors came from a 

 remote country, situated to the north-west of Mexico. The Mexicans 

 point out their various stations, as they advanced from this, into the in- 

 terior provinces, and it is precisely the same route which they must have 

 held, if they had been emigrants from Asia. The Mexicans, in describ- 

 ing the appearance of their progenitors, their manners and habits of life, 

 at that period, exactly delineate those of the rude Tartars, from whom I 

 suppose them to have sprung." 



Barton^ bestowed much labor on the comparison of all known Indian 

 dialects Avith those of different Asiatic and North European nations on 

 the plan of selecting English words, such as God, Father, Mother, Son, 

 Daughter, etc., and then giving the equivalents in the various Indian, 

 European and Asiatic dialects. Without expressing an opinion on the 

 soundness of his reasoning, I give his conclusion, which is "that the 

 Americans and many Asiatic and European nations are the same people." 

 In this connection mention may be made of Jefierson's view" that the 

 nations of America are of greater antiquity than those of Asia, and that 

 Asia was peopled from America, not America from Asia. 



Schoolcraft,- whose whole life has been devoted to Indian affairs and 

 whose volumes, published by authority of Congress, contain by far the 

 most authentic data of information on this interesting subject, reaches 

 the conclusion that the summary of traits of Indian manners, customs 

 and character appears to connect their origin with the oriental world. 



Bancroft^ concludes a masterly sketch on the Aborigines with the 

 following reflections: "'The American and the Mongolian races of men, 

 on the two sides of the Pacific, have a near resemblance. Both are alike 

 strongly and definitely marked by the more capacious palatine fossa, of 

 which the dimensions are so much larger, that a careful observer could, 

 out of a heap of skulls, readily separate the Mongolian and American 

 from the Caucasian, but could not distinguish them from each other. 

 Both have the orbit of the eye quadrangular, rather than oval ; both, 

 especially the American, have comparatively a narrowness of the fore- 

 head ; the facial angle in both, but especially in the American, is com- 

 paratively small ; in both, the bones of the nose are flatter and broader 

 than in the Caucasian, and in so equal a degree, and with apertures so 

 similar, that, on indiscriminate selections of specimens of the two, an 

 observer could not, from this feature, discriminate which of them be- 



1 New Views of the Origin of the Tribes and Nations of America, by Benjamin Smith 

 Barton, M. D., Philadelphia, 1797. 



2 Archives of Aboriginal Knowledge, Vol. V, Philad., 1805. 



3 History of the United States, Vol. Ill, p. 317. 



