Aboriginal Race of America. 141 



broken nose ; the oblique position of the eye, which is drawn up at 

 the external angle ; the great width between the cheek bones, which 

 are not only high but expanded laterally ; the arched and linear 

 eyebrow ; and lastly, the complexion, which is invariably some shade 

 of yellow or olive, and almost equally distant from the fair tint of the 

 European and the red hue of the Indian. Without attempting a 

 detailed comparison, we may briefly observe that the Mongolian, in 

 his various localities, is distinguished for his imitative powers and 

 mechanical ingenuity, and above all for his nautical skill, in which, 

 as we have suggested, he holds a place next to the nations of the 

 Caucasian race. In fine, we are constrained to believe that there 

 is no more resemblance between the Indian and the Mongol in res- 

 pect to arts, architecture, mental features and social usages, than 

 exists between any other two distinct races of mankind. Mr. Rank- 

 ing has written an elaborate treatise to prove that the Mongols, led 

 by a descendant of Genghis Khan, conquered Peru and Mexico in 

 the thirteenth century ; but in the whole range of English literature 

 there cannot be found a work more replete with distorted facts and 

 illogical reasoning. The author begins by the singular assertion 

 that " when Cuzco was founded by Manco Capac, none of the civi- 

 lization introduced by the Peruvians and Mexicans was in existence ;" 

 thus overlooking the cultivated tribes who preceded the Inca family, 

 and disregarding also the various demicivilized nations which suc- 

 cessively followed each other in Mexico, before that country fell 

 under the rule of the Aztecs. Mr. Ranking introduces the Mongols 

 in large ships, with all the appliances of war, not even excepting 

 elephants ; and in order that the Tartar general may correspond to 

 Manco Capac, he is made to enter Peru by the Lake Titicaca, up- 

 wards of an hundred miles from the sea. Such statements may 

 seem too absurd for sober discussion ; but they are not more so than 

 various other subterfuges which have been resorted to in explana- 

 tion of the precise manner in which the new world has been peopled 

 from the old. 



But there is not a shadow of evidence that the Mongols ever 

 reached America in ships excepting by mere accident ; and therefore 

 their number must have always been too small, and too badly pro- 



