344 THE AMERICAN MIGEATION. 



as an accurate observer of the country writes, " the whole island which lies be- 

 tween the Atlantic ocean on one side, and the river Amazon, along the Rio da 

 Madeira, and the Paraguay and Parana on the other, seems never to have been 

 penetrated by the slightest degree of civilization ; nowhere is there a manifesta- 

 tion of mental activity or aim risiug above the merest physical necessities ; and 

 the Indians of the Brazilian forests, who no doubt receded before the peculiar 

 civilization of the western Cordilleras of South America, as they recoil to-day, 

 as long as is possible, from that which approaches them on the east, constitute 

 the most unreasoning and incapable of creatures."* In the absence of other 

 monuments, no hypothesis, I think, dissenting from this statement of facts, can 

 be advanced, much less defended. The scattered inscriptions which have been 

 found seem to afford no sufficient ground for the adoption of sweeping conclu- 

 sions, which, in the interests of science, moreover, it were better to avoid. 



An attempt has been made in the above pages to follow the memorable phe- 

 nomenon of the migration of tribes in America through its entire course, or, in 

 other words, its geographical propagation, and to present the reader with a 

 comprehensive, if reduced, sketch of it. Should we at last be forced to confess 

 that darkness rather than light has met us at the different points of our investi- 

 gation, there yet remains the hope that, through the persevering labors of the 

 learned world of America, our knowledge in this hitherto but little favored field 

 of inq^uiry will ere long receive new and gratifymg accessions. 



APPENDIX TO THE FOREGOING ARTICLE. 



[The investigations given in this paper relate exclusively to the migrations 

 and not to the origin of the American races, and, therefore, the author need not 

 have introdu«ed the vexed question of the latter. But since he has done so, it 

 may be proper to give in this place a brief statement of the scientific considera- 

 tions which favor the generally received opinion as to the original seat of the 

 human race. 



The spontaneous generation of either plants or animals, although a legitimate 

 subject of scientific inquiry, is as yet an unverified hypothesis. If, however, we 

 assume the fact that a living being will be spontaneously produced when all the 

 physical conditions necessary to its existence are present, we must allow that, 

 in the case of man, with his complex and refined organization, the fortuitous as- 

 sembly of the multiform conditions required for his appearance would be extremely 

 rare, and from the doctrine of probabilities could scarcely occur more than at one 

 time and in one place on our planet ; and further, that this place would most 

 probably be somewhere in the northern temperate zone. Again, the Caucasian 

 variety of man presents the highest physical development of the human family, 



Barco Centinera: Argentina y Conquista del Rio de la Plata, Poema ap. Barcia. — Beau- 

 champ: Histoire du Brazil, Paris, 1815. — Charlevrix: Geschictev. Paraguay, •'Wi&n, 1830. — 

 Escilla Zunige : La Auracana, Poema Eroico, Madrid, 1733, fol — . — Ilavestadt: Cliilidugu, 

 Monast. Westphal., 1777. — Lallemant: Histoire dela Colombie, Paris, 1826. — Molina: Saggio 

 Sulla Storia Civile del Chile, Holo^na,, 1787. — Oua: Arauco Domado., Poema, Madrid, 

 1605. — Ovalle: Historia del rey de Ctiile, Koma, 1648, fol. — . — Oviedo y Banos, Historia de 

 la Conquista y Poblacion de la Provincia Venezuela, Madrid, 1723. — Revista Trimensal del 

 Instituto Hist. Geog. e Ethnograpliico do Brasil, Rio de Jaueii'o. — Revista de Buenos Ayres, 

 since 1863. — Smyth : The Auracanians, New York, 1855. — Ternaux-Compans : Notice His- 

 toriguesurla ffuyune Francaise, Paris, 1843. — Tcssillo: Guerra de Chile, Madrid, 1617. 



* Dr. Ave Lallemant, of Lubeck, in a letter addressed to me,' January 27, 1866, on the 

 primitive condition of the natives of Brazil, see further the instructive work, Os Indigenus 

 do Brazil Perante a Historia, Rio de Janiero, 1859, by the learned and ingenious Portuguese 



Eoet, J. Magelhaes, residing at that time, as Brazilian minister, at Vienna; also that of V. 

 I. Baril de la Hure, entitled Les Peuples du Bresil avant la Dcouverte de r Ameriqae. 



