270 



or Lenni-Lenapes*, the Chickasaws, and the 

 Musk ogees -f\ As the immense country between 

 the equator and the eighth degree of north lati- 

 tude forms but one forest, the hordes were 

 there dispersed by following the branchings of 

 rivers, and the nature of the land compelled 

 them to become more or less agriculturists. 

 Such is the labyrinth of these rivers, that fami- 

 lies .settled themselves without knowing what 

 race of men lived nearest the spot. In Spanish 

 Guyana a mountain, a forest half a league 

 broad, sometimes separates hordes, that would 

 require two days of navigation to meet. It is 

 thus that the communication of rivers in open 

 countries, or in a state of advanced civilization, 

 contributes powerfully to generalize languages, 

 manners, and political institutions ; but in the 

 impenetrable forests of the torrid zone, as in the 

 first rude condition of our species, they increase 

 the dismemberment of great nations, favor the 

 transition of dialects into languages that appear 

 to us radically distinct, and cherish national 

 hatred and mistrust. Between the banks of the 



• From the word lenno (native) has been formed Illenoh, 

 and Illinois, the name of the great nation described by La 

 Hontan. (Philad. Historical Trans., 1819, p. 404.) 



•f I might have designated the stock of this nation by the 

 name of Natchez. It is the language of this extinct tribe,, 

 that is the mother tongue of the idioms of Florida, and of the 

 southern tribes beyond the Alleghany mountains. 



