105 . 



Asia, of those radical languages, so called because, if 

 they were ever the same they have lost all resemblance 

 to one another. A separation into dialects may be the 

 work of a few ages only, but for two dialects to recede 

 from one another till they have lost all vestiges of their 

 common origin, must require an immense course of 

 time ; perhaps not less than many people give to the 

 age of the earth. A greater number of those radical 

 changes of language having taken place among the red 

 men of America, proves them of greater antiquity than 

 those of Asia. 



I will now proceed to state the nations and numbers 

 of the Aborigines which still exist in a respectable and 

 independent form. And as their undefined boundaries 

 would render it difficult to specify those only which 

 may be within any certain limits, and it may not be un- 

 acceptable to present a more general view of them, I 

 will reduce within the form of a catalogue all those 

 within, and circumjacent to, the United States, whose 

 names and numbers have come to my notice. These 

 are taken from four different lists, the first of which 

 was given in the year 1759 to General Stanwix by 

 George Croghan, deputy agent for Indian affairs under 

 Sir William Jolmson ; the second was drawn up by a 

 French trader of considerable note, resident among the 

 Indians many years, and annexed to Colonel Bouquet's 

 printed account of his expedition in 1764. The third 

 was made out by Captain Hutchins, who visited most of 

 the tribes, by order, for the purpose of learning their 

 numbers in 1768. And the fourth by John Dodge, an 

 Indian trader, in 1779, except the numbers marked*, 

 which are from other information. 



