■272 Timehri. 



in every link, and in its cumulative effect excluding every rational suppo- 

 sition save that which he advances : will such a scientist yet arise to 

 solve for us. once and for ever, for example, this problem of the origin 

 of the American races ? 



Well, none has risen so far. that is certain. Yet many great minds 

 have applied themselves to the task. Take Humboldt for instance. All 

 who have read his celebrated Travels must have felt that there was an 

 exceptional intellect, exact, encyclopaedic, conversant with practically 

 every branch of science as science then was, and capable of bringing it 

 effectively to bear upon just such problems as this. And there can be 

 no doubt he did apply his mind to it : he expressly refers to it in more 

 than one passage. 1 have searched his Travels through and through, 

 however, without finding one in which he commits himself to any theory. 

 He classifies the native races of the new Continents in two : Esquimaux 

 and non-Esquimaux — that is roughly what it comes to (Vol. 1. pp. 

 338-9), but as to where either came from he is discreetly non-committal. 

 With the theory of the Asiatic origin of all or of certain of the tribes, 

 he must have been quite painfully familiar : it was the orthodox opinion 

 of the day, and the Spanish missionaries — whose hospitality he grate- 

 fully remembers — must apparently have dinned the doctrine too much 

 into his ears : for one cannot escape observing a note of impatience in 

 his reference (Vol. 1, page 325) to Father Garcia's " Tratado del origin 

 de los Indios "' as "a tedious compilation.'' I have not been able to 

 come across a copy of that work to ascertain how far it merits the 

 denunciation ; but our energetic and learned acting Assistant Secretary, 

 Mr. Caracciolo, is the fortunate possessor of another rare old work, 

 Father Gumilla's " Historia Natural de las Naciones del Orinoco " ; and 

 enough is to be found there on the subject to satisfy most readers. In 

 Vol. I., at page 115, the Rev. Father formulates his conclusion clearly 

 and succinctly : " The Indians are children of Ham, the second son of 

 Noah, and are descended from him just as we are descended from 

 Japhet, through Tubal, founder and populator of Spain, who was his son 

 and grandson of Noah, and came to Spain in the year 134 after the 

 Universal Deluge 1788 after the Creation of the World. Similarly -Ham 

 and his children became possessed of Arabia, Egypt and the rest of 

 Africa ; and some of his grandchildren and great grandchildren, owing 

 to their ships being borne along by the fury of the winds, as I will rate 

 in the proper place, or otherwise, crossed from Cape Verde tc the most 

 outlying Cape in all South America, which is in Brazil and is named 

 Pernambuco." Hence the natural right of the Catholic monarchs of 

 Spain to the unquestioning obedience of the American Indians ! In 

 another old work (1776) in the possession of Mr. Caracciolo which he 

 has kindly placed at my disposal for the preparation of this lecture, 

 " Recherches, Historiques et Geographiques, sur le Nouveau Monde," by 

 Jean-Benoit Scherer, the Asiatic theory is again developed : similarity of 

 languages and customs being among the proofs offered, together with 

 such facts as certain vegetal products of one Continent being thrown on 

 the shores of the other. Homer. Hesiod, Diodorus Siculus and other 



