THE AMERICAN MIGRATION. 



BY FEEDERICK VON HELLWALD, 



Member of the Imperial Geographical and Zoologico-Botanical Societies of Vienna, Corr& 

 sponding Honorary member of the Mexican Society of Geography and Statistics, &c., &c. 



TRANSLATED FOR THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION BY C. A. ALEXANDER. 



PREFACE 



The following pages are occupied with a subject but little considered and, as 

 far as I am aware, not yet specially treated of. Limited, however, as are the 

 sources of ovir information resjjectiug aboriginal American history, the present 

 essay can prefer no claims to completeness in having exhausted the materials 

 actually before me. But my fellow-laborers, of whom it is to be regretted there 

 are but few in Germany, and scarcely any within a more immediate circle, will 

 perhaps meet herein with some views not before promulgated. I have scrupu- 

 lously endeavored to collate, as far as possible, whatever relates to the Amer- 

 ican migration and constitutes the sum of our present knowledge respecting it, 

 and my aim will have been attained if I shall succeed in drawing the attention of 

 the public to this wide and uncultivated fi< Id of the ancient history of America. 



In order to facilitate the necessary preliminaiy studies of any one to whom 

 this subject may offer serious attractions, I have not deemed it superfluous to 

 supply in the notes an array of the most remarkable and important authorities 

 which farnish the material to be employed in the elaboration of primeval Amer- 

 ican history, although it be necessary with this view to cite many works which 

 have no direct bearing on the subject treated of. In each of the cited works 

 there will at least be found some detached contribution to our knowledge of the 

 migration in question ; it was, in fact, from such notices that my own studies 

 have been drawn, since, as above mentioned, there Avas no special treatise to 

 which I could have recourse. Where occasion offered, I have compared with 

 one another the phenomena of migration in both continents, even when no ulte- 

 rior consequences were to be deduced ; prompted in this by the reflection that 

 it is always interesting to bring into juxtaposition the parallel incidents of 

 history. 



My point of view, which I have deemed it necessary to indicate in advance, 

 is frankly opposed to that adopted by the greater number of inquirers in this 

 and kindred provinces ; the hypothesis of an immigration by which America 

 was peopled finds able and influential supporters ; the conception of an autoch- 

 thonous population is shared only by the few. It will be understood that only 

 extensive and analytical researches, lying beyond the scope of the present pub- 

 lication, can have forced upon me an opinion which I cannot alter vintil its un- 

 tenableness shall have been clearly established. 



