532 
SECOND REPORT—1832. 
known to be very numerous and complex in their structure, 
much information was collected by Hervas,—the result of his 
own personal researches, and those of other Jesuits. Baron 
Alexander Von Humboldt brought back with him from Ame¬ 
rica a large collection of vocabularies, dictionaries, and devo¬ 
tional offices, and other books, prepared by the Catholic in¬ 
structors, in different parts of that continent, for the use of the 
native tribes who came under their spiritual jurisdiction. These 
were put into the hands of Professor Vater, the continuator of 
the Mithridates. Since the publication of that work, the Hi¬ 
storical Committee of the Philosophical Society of the United 
States have devoted their attention to the languages and history 
of the aborigines of the Western Continent. The names of 
ITeckewelder and Zeisberger, and that of Mr. Duponceau, the 
learned Secretary of the Committee, stand highly distinguished 
among those of contributors to this department of human know¬ 
ledge.” 
The author then stated the most important results, in refer¬ 
ence to the history of languages, which he considered as esta¬ 
blished by these inquiries. 
“ 1. It appears that the number of human idioms, widely 
differing from each other, is very great—much greater than 
many persons supposed. Mr. Jefferson, President of the Uni¬ 
ted States, used to argue from the great number of distinct 
languages found in America, and the comparatively small num¬ 
ber existing, as he supposed, in the old Continent, that America 
w T as the most anciently peopled. Most persons will be of opinion 
that this conclusion requires further proof; but the fact is un¬ 
doubted that a great variety of languages are spoken in America. 
According to Hervas, who relied on the information given him 
by Lopez, 1500 languages, which are said to be ‘ notabilmente 
diverse ,’ are spoken in different parts of America. According 
to Dr. Seetzen, the number of distinct languages in Africa 
amount to 100 or 150. If these calculations are nearly correct, 
we may, without much danger of exceeding the truth, consider 
the probable number of languages spoken in all the world, to 
be not less than 2000. 
“ 2. We may observe in the second place, that a comparison 
of various languages displays two different relations subsisting 
between them. These relations may be termed those of affinity 
and of analogy. I shall give a few examples of each. 
“1.) The relation of affinity, or, as it has been termed by Ger¬ 
man writers, the Stammverwandschaft , or family relation of lan¬ 
guages, subsists between idioms which have a great proportion 
of their elements or roots common to all of them, together with 
a general resemblance in grammatical structure. It is generally 
