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which issue from the mountains west of the Colorado, is known to the Americans by the name of Great Salt Lake, and has no outlet whatever towards the sea. General Ashley's own explorations extend as far south as another smaller lake, to which his name has been given, and which is situated about eighty miles south of the southeastern extremity of Lake Timpanogo. It is also fed by a river coming from the mountains in the southeast, and has no outlet. The discoveries south and west of that place appear to belong to others, and principally to J. S. Smith. Another river known by the name of Last River, coming also from the coast, falls into another lake, also without outlet, situated in 38° north latitude, and in the same longitude as Lake Timpanogo.

J. S. Smith descended the Rio Colorado of California, in the year 1826, as far south as the thirty-fifth degree of north latitude. Proceeding thence westwardly, he reached the Spanish Missions of San Pedro and San Diego near the Pacific. The ensuing year, he visited Monterey and St. Francisco; ascended the river Buenaventura some distance, and recrossed the Californian chain of mountains, called there Mount Joseph, in about the thirty-ninth degree of latitude. He thence proceeded north of west, and reached the southwestern extremity of Lake Timpanogo. The eastern foot of the Californian chain, where he recrossed it, is about one hundred and eighty miles from the Pacific. There he crossed some streams, coming from the south, which may either be lost in the sands, or, breaking through the mountains, north of Mount Joseph, unite with the river Buenaventura. The course of this last river, so far as it is known, is from north to south, between and parallel to the Californian chain and the Pacific.

The most southern branch of the Owyhee, a southern tributary stream of Lewis's River, takes its source not far west from the northern extremity of Lake Timpanogo, and in its most southerly bend passes, in the forty-first degree of latitude, through an extremely mountainous and rocky country. The result of Mr. Smith's journey is, that the whole country south of that river, from the vicinity of the Rio Colorado to the Californian mountains, is an immense sandy plain, in which a few detached mountains are seen, "from which flow small streams that are soon lost in the sand. A solitary antelope or blacktailed deer may sometimes be seen. A few wild Indians are scattered over the plain, the most miserable objects in creation."

The chain of mountains, east of Lake Timpanogo, and west of the Rio Colorado, continues southwardly, close to that river, to the thirty-sixth degree of latitude, where it terminates. The chain which divides the waters of the Rio Norte, from those of the Arkansa, is well known, and is an easterly branch of the Rocky Mountains. But the main chain, which may be considered as a continuation of the Mexican Andes, lies between the Colorado and the Rio Norte. This section of the country is known to us only through the reports of our beaver-hunters (trappers), who have not penetrated farther south than the thirty-seventh degree of latitude. They represent the country extending thence northwardly to the sources of the river Platte, as being only a body of mountains, intersected at right angles by rivers that empty into the Colorado. The only section, which has not at all been explored by the Americans, is that lying east of the Colorado between the Rio Gila and the thirtyseventh degree of north latitude.

The uniformity of character in the grammatical forms and structure of all the Indian Languages of North America, which have been sufficiently investigated, indicates a common origin. The numerous distinct languages, if we attend only to the vocabularies between which every trace of affinity has disappeared, attest the antiquity of the American population. This may be easily accounted for, consistently with the opinion that the first inhabitants came from Asia, and with the Mosaic chronology. The much greater facility of communication, either across Behring's Straits, or from Kamschatka or Japan by the Aleutian Islands, would alone, if sustained by a similarity of the physical type of man, render the opinion of an Asiatic origin, not only probable, but almost certain. The rapidity with which the human species may be propagated under favorable circumstances removes any apparent inconsistency between that opinion and the early epoch, which must be assigned to the first appearance of man in America.

Reasoning à priori, it would appear that the population of a country may be doubled in the short period of fifteen years, provided it finds adequate means of subsistence. We know with certainty, that the white inhabitants of the United States continue even now to increase, independent of migration, at the rate of near thirty-three and a third per cent. in ten years, and

that their number is therefore doubled within less than twentythree years. So long as man, compelled to seek, or voluntarily seeking new places of residence, found in his progress no obstacle from more ancient inhabitants, there was no impediment, that could either arrest his march, or retard the natural increase of the population. We know this to be the fact with respect to an agricultural nation. Hunting tribes would meet with no greater difficulty in finding means of subsistence adequate to a similar increase in their numbers; the only difference being that, wanting more space for that purpose, they must have moved faster, and have peopled the earth in their own way, in a shorter time than agricultural nations would have done.

Assuming the central parts of Asia to have been the cradle of mankind, and since three couples would, in thirty periods of duplication, increase to more than six thousand millions of souls, we may fairly infer, not only the possibility, but even the probability, that America began to be inhabited only five or six hundred years later than the other hemisphere.*

Another problem perhaps more interesting, and the solution of which is not less difficult, is that of the origin of the semicivilization which was found to exist in certain parts of America. With respect to our own Indians, the only difficulty consists in assigning sufficient reasons for their having remained during so many centuries in the state of comparative inferiority in which we found them. It is perhaps partly on that account, that the Europeans were astonished to find, in Mexico and Peru, a great comparative progress, and in every respect a much farther advanced state of civilization. Yet it is but lately, that any plausible reasons have been suggested, in support of the opinion that assigns a foreign origin to that civilization. The proofs attempted to be deduced from the affinities of languages, appear insufficient. In comparing the vocabularies of twenty distinct American, with those of as many Asiatic languages, accidental coincidences will necessarily occur. The similarity of the structure and grammatical forms of those of America indicates a common origin, and renders it probable that the great diversity of their vocabularies took place in America. Should that have been

These observations must be understood, as they were intended, as only showing that there is nothing in the American languages and the early epoch which may thence be deduced of the American population, inconsistent with the opinion of an Asiatic origin and with the received chronology.

the case, it can hardly be hoped that any one American will be found to have preserved in its words indisputable affinities with any one Asiatic language. An investigation of the grammatical character of the Asiatic languages, with which we are as yet but imperfectly acquainted, may perhaps lead to a more satisfactory result. Even then, the questions would arise, whether a similarity in that respect does not ascend to the most remote antiquity; whether the first emigrants to America were much superior to the present inhabitants of the northeastern parts of Asia; how, if they brought with them a superior degree of civilization, no trace of it is to be found in those northern parts of America, which they must have inhabited in their passage towards a more southern region; and why the civilization which they brought with them was ultimately confined to certain favored spots.

We may indeed suppose, for we have no proof of the fact, that the American arts and institutions, of which we seek the origin, were introduced by subsequent migrations from the other hemisphere, which took place long after America had been first peopled, and when European and Asiatic nations were already far advanced in civilization. Without denying the possibility of such an origin; admitting, as is proved by the population found in the islands of the Pacific, that such a migration was practicable; it is equally obvious that it could, at any one time, have consisted of but few individuals. Any number, however small, might without difficulty have occupied uninhabited islands. But they might not have found a very friendly reception among the American savages; and the influence founded only on the persuasion of a few foreigners, to such an extent, as to induce a barbarous people to change their habits and social state, appears to me less probable, than a gradual progress towards civilization of domestic origin.

On the other hand, it cannot be denied, that a correspondence has already been pointed out, between the style of arts, the hieroglyphics, the calendar, the worship, and other American institutions, and those found in some parts of the other continent. Alexander Humboldt has thrown great additional light on that, as

The ingenious dissertation of an enlightened Mexican, pointing out affinities between the Ottomy or Othomite, and the Chinese languages, is not quite satisfactory. The principal distinguishing characters of the Indian languages are found in the verb; and the author resorts to the supposition that the Ottomies borrowed their conjugations from the Mexicans.

on every other subject which he has discussed. Much remains to be done, and all the attainable materials have not yet been collected. All that remains of ancient paintings, hieroglyphic or descriptive, should be collected and published; fair and correct drawings of many ancient monuments are still wanted. The works, in the Indian languages, of the earliest writers after the conquest should be translated; and every other proof collected of the authenticity of the Mexican and Peruvian annals, and of that of the paintings, or other means of transmitting the knowledge of events, on which they are founded. Should subsequent investigations fail of adducing satisfactory proofs of a connexion between the civilization of America and that of the other hemisphere, the progress that had been made in America has, after all, nothing so wonderful as to render it absolutely necessary to resort to the supposition of a foreign importation. On the probable supposition, that the whole continent of America was inhabited one thousand years after the flood, or near four thousand years ago, the faculties of man, gradually unfolded and improved, may, in the course of so long a period, have produced, without any extraneous aid, that more advanced state of society and of knowledge, which existed in some parts of America, when first discovered by the Europeans. Those centres of American civilization were all found precisely in those places, where we might have expected to find them, if that civilization was of domestic origin.

Those countries where, on account of the climate, greater exertions are required in order to obtain the necessaries and comforts of life, may be those which ultimately will make the greatest progress in the arts and in the acquirement of wealth and knowledge; but they are not those where civilization has been found generally to originate. We uniformly trace its commencement and first progress in the other hemisphere, in countries equally exempt from the rigor of severe winters, and from the excessive heat of the Torrid Zone. In America, the corresponding latitudes are subject in winter to cold as severe as that of the north of Germany; whilst, in the Torrid Zone, extensive and fruitful districts of elevated table land and valleys enjoy a climate as mild and favorable, as the banks of the Euphrates

* Some of the plates of Delrio's account of the City of Stones appear suspicious, as relates to the style of architecture, and still more as to the correctness with which the human figures are drawn.

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