44 IHTBODl I I! 



Tiny arc connected by common physical and social conditions; 

 they lie within a few degrees of the same longitude; and their lan- 

 guages have ;i general glossariai connection with each other, and 

 with the American languages, winch is sufficient reason for placing 

 them in a separate division. 



" The tr ie Kamtskadales are ;i nearly extinct race. Amongst the 

 causes of t cir r:i |>i(l diminution, a kind of death, rare among 

 enumerated — suicid 



P. — American MtmgoUda, comprising the Esquimaux and the 

 American Indians. Over this vast area, whenever the lang 

 diilrr from, or agree with, each other, they differ or agree in a man- 

 ner to which Asm has furnished im> parallel. 



The Esquimau is the only family common t<» the Old and the 

 New World, and the Esquimau localities are the only ones where 

 the two continents approach each other *ery nearly : so that it ■■ 

 seem easy to decide in what manner America was peopled. 

 choice must be between the doctrine that derives tl ui na- 



tions " from one <>r more a* parate pairs of prog d the doe- 



trine that either Beh ring's .Straits, or the line of Islands between 

 ECamtskatka and the Peninsula of Aliaska, w;i- the highway I" I 

 the two worlds — from Asia to America, or a i docs 



not necessarily follow that the race must have arisen in Asia, though 

 there are valid reasons for this opinion. Physically, thi Esquimaa 

 is a Mongol and an Asiatic ; philologically, he is as American. The 

 Esquimaux of the Atlantic coast are easily distinguished from the 

 American aborigines to the south and west of them, in appearance, 

 manners, and language ; while the Esquimaux of the Pacific coast, 

 in Russian America, pass gradually into the proper Indians in the 

 same respects. 



The great differences between the American Indians, as a body, 

 and the trihes of the Old World would naturally lead to an opinion 

 in favor of a general and fundamental unity among the several sec- 

 tions of them; "the Brazilian and the Mohawk equally agreed in 

 disagreeing with the Laplander, or Xejjro ; and this common differ- 

 ence was enough to hring them within the same class." The lan- 

 guages of the American nations differ remarkably from each other ; 

 but, as Vater has indicated, " the discrepancy extends to words or 

 roots only, the general internal or grammatical structure being the 

 same for all ;" while they differ glossarially, they agree grammati- 

 cally. — a philological paradox. The likeness in the grammar has 

 generally been considered of more weight than the difference in the 

 words, so that the evidence of language is in favor of the unity of 

 all the American nations, including the Esquimaux. 



