THE RELATIONSHIP OP TH^ AMERICAN LANGUAGES. 67 



cott Brooks informed me that he had patiently searched into the 

 matter, and that he had conclusive evidence that the voyage which 

 actually took place was one to the well known and still existing 

 pi-ovince of Fusang in Corea (see GriiEs' work) and had no connection 

 whatever with America." Some have professed to see philological 

 evidence of the Asiatic origin of the Otomi, an alleged monosylla- 

 bic language, which Senor Najer-a (Disertacion sobre la lengna Otimi 

 1835 p. 87) has compared with the Chinese. But Dr. Brinton has 

 pointed out many evidences in this language of the prevailing 

 American polysynthesis ; and there is nothing improbable in the 

 fact that a close resemblance to a monosyllabic language should de- 

 velop itself upon the continent of America, as we find similar 

 approaches to such a state amongst certain languages of Western 

 Africa, where purely monosyllabic tongues are unknown. 



With regard to the relations of the multitude of languages in South 

 America, we have not the same light to guide us as in North Ameri- 

 can philology. Most writers, however, have seen fit to discei'n 

 at least four difierent stocks, viz.: the Muysca, Quichua-Aymara, 

 Cainb-Tupi, and Araucanian. The two former of these seem to have 

 developed considerable civilization ; the Quichuas having attained a 

 degree of culture which in point of antiquity can only be compared 

 to the Maya of Yucatan. Bochica, the culture hero of the Muyscas, 

 is represented as having come from the east ; as did also Tupi and 

 Gurani the twin progenitors of the Carib-Guarani tribes. The 

 legends of Peru are said to bring the Incas from over the Pacific ; 

 but the best authorities regard their civilization as but a further 

 development of primitive Aymai-a culture, and not a foreign graft. 

 That these people must have reached Peru at a very early period is 

 evident from the fact that no clear proofs of connection between 

 the civilization of Peru and Central America have ever been made 

 ovit ; a portion of the primitive American stock early reached the 

 Andean region, and there developed their peculiar civilization, with- 

 out the advent of Zinghis Khan's gi-andson, or of Buddhist priests 

 from China, or shipwrecked sailors from Japan. 



With regard to the Quichua-Aymara language speculation has 

 been rife. Dr. Lopez, of Moiite Video, has claimed for it an Aryan 

 origin (Les Races ariennes du P^rou par Vicente Fidel Lopez, 1871); 

 and the Rev. Prof. Campbell (Proc. Canad. Instit., 1881, Vol. I., 

 Pt. 2, p. 189), styles it the " pre- Aryan Celtic," whatever that may 



