148 Distinctive characteristics of the 



from any obvious participation in the peopling of this continent. If 

 the Egyptians,* Hindoos, Phenicians or Gauls have ever, by accident 

 or design, planted colonies in America, these must have been, sooner 

 or later, dispersed and lost in the waves of a vast indigenous popula- 

 tion. Such we know to have been the fact with the Northmen, 

 whose repeated, though very partial settlements in the present New 

 England States, from the tenth to the thirteenth centuries, are now 

 matter of history ; yet, in the country itself, they have not left a 

 single indisputable trace of their sojourn. 



In fine, our own conclusion, long ago deduced from a patient 

 examination of the facts thus briefly and inadequately stated, is, that 

 the American race is essentially separate and peculiar, whether we 

 regard it in its physical, its moral, or its intellectual relations. To 

 us there are no direct or obvious links between the people of the old 

 world and the new ; for even admitting the seeming analogies to 

 which we have alluded, these are so few in number and evidently so 

 casual as not to invalidate the main position : and even should it be 

 hereafter shown, that the arts, sciences and religion of America, can 

 be traced to an exotic source, I maintain that the organic characters 

 of the people themselves, through all their endless ramifications of 

 tribes and nations, prove them to belong to one and the same race, 

 and that this race is distinct from all others. 



This idea may at first view seem incompatible with the history of 

 man, as recorded in the Sacred Writings. Such, however, is not 



* With respect to the Egyptians and Hindoos as involved in this question, I 

 can speak without reservation. Through the kindness of an accomplished gentle- 

 man and scholar, George R. Gliddon, Esq., late United States Consul at Cairo, 

 I have received ninety heads of Egyptian mummies from the tombs of Abydus, 

 Thebes and Memphis; and I unhesitatingly declare, that, with a very few ex- 

 ceptions, which have a mixed character, and resemble the Coptic form, the con- 

 formation throughout is that of the Caucasian race. In every instance in which 

 the hair has been preserved, it is long, soft and curling, and indeed as silky as that 

 of the most polished Europeans of the present time. I am now preparing, with 

 the title of Crania JEgyptiaca, a brief exposition of the facts connected with these 

 interesting relics of antiquity. 



I possess also about thirty crania of the Hindoos, among which there is not one 

 that could be mistaken for an Indian skull. In fact there is an obvious contrast 

 between them in all respects excepting the internal capacity, which is nearly the 

 same in the Hindoo and Peruvian. 



