those ruins, surveyed by Capt. Del 
Rio as early as 1787, but withheld 
from the public eye by Spain, was 
published in 1822 in English. 
This account, which partly de- 
scribes the ruins of a stone city 75 
miles in circuit, (length 32 English 
miles, greatest breadth 12 miles,) 
full of palaces, monuments, statues, 
and inscriptions; one of the earliest 
seats of American civilization, about 
equal to Thebes of Egypt; was well 
calculated to inspire me with hopes 
that they would throw a great light 
over American history, when more 
properly examined. 
I have been disappointed in find- 
ing that no traveller has dared to 
penetrate again to that recondite 
place, and illustrate all the ruins, 
monuments, with the languages yet 
spoken all around. The society of 
Geography has received many ad- 
ditional accounts derived from do- 
cuments preserved in Mexico; but 
they have not been deemed worthy 
of the reward offered for a new sur- 
vey, and have not even been pub- 
lished. The same has happened 
with Tiahuanaco in Bolivia and S. 
America, another mass of ancient 
ruins and mine of historical know- 
ledge, which no late traveller has 
visited nor described. 
Being therefore without hope of 
any speedy accession to our know- 
ledge of those places, I have been 
compelled to work upon the mate- 
rials now extant, which have happily 
enabled me to do a great deal, not- 
withstanding all their defects, and 
throw some light on that part of the 
history of America. 
C. Si Rafinesque, 
Philadelphia , January , 1832. 
4 . americanIiistory. 
Tabular View of the American 
Generic Languages , and Ori- 
ginal Nations. 
One of the most glaring errors of 
speculative philosophers on the sub- 
ject of America, is to be found in 
their assertion that American lan- 
guages and nations are multiplied 
beyond conception, and cannot be 
reduced to order. This misconcep- 
tion arose from a superficial 
knowledge of the matter, and a 
wish to assert extraordinary things. 
If the same wish had been evinced 
respecting Europe, they could have 
found 60 languages and nations in 
France, and 100 in Italy, by consi- 
dering the various provincial French 
and Italian Dialects, as so many lan- 
guages, since many of them cannot 
be understood by the respective 
provincials of the same country. 
And each provincial group would 
be a nation, since languages dis- 
tinguish nations. 
Even Balbi, after reducing the 
1500 or 1800 supposed American 
languages and tribes to 422, has 
not attempted to class them except 
geographically. I mad e the attempt 
ever since 1824 in' the Cincinnati 
Literary Gazette, and have since 
corrected my classification, reduc- 
ing the 1800 American Dialects to 
about 25 Generic languages, which 
belong, to the original nations of 
America, many of which have yet 
as much affinity as the Latin and 
Greek, or English and German. 
They are tfie following, 14 from 
North and 11 from South America. 
1 . Languages and Nations of 
North America. 
1. Uskih, divided into about 30 
Dialects and tribes; such as Esqui- 
maux, Mceuts, Chugach, Aleutian, 
Chuchi, &c. spoken all over Boreal 
America, from Bering strait and 
Alaska to Labrador and Greenland. 
2. Qnguy, about 50 dialects and 
tribes; Huron, Onondaga, Seneca, 
Hochelaga, Tuscorora, Notoway, 
&c. extending from the Pacific 
ocean to Canada and Carolina. 
3. Lenap, nearly 250 dialects and 
tribes; such as Chinuc, Dinneh, 
Algic, Shawan, Miami, Micmac, 
Mohegan, Nantico, Powhatan, &c. 
extending from the Columbia river 
on the Pacific ocean to Hudson 
bay, New England and Florida. 
4. Wacash, about 60 dialects 
and tribes; Atnah, Chopunish, 
