promulgation of the
gorgeous fiction of Manco Capac? What chain of connection existed
between the types of pseudo-civilization found respectively at Cuzco,
west of the Andes, and in the valley of Anahuac? Did this chain ever
link in its causes the pyramids of Mexico with the mounds of the
Mississippi valley? It is not proposed to enter into the details of
this discussion. Such an inquiry would far transcend the limits before
me. It is rather designed to show the amplitude of the field as a
subject of historical inquiry, than to gather its fruits. It will
entirely compass the object I have in view, if the suggestions I am to
make shall have the tendency, in any degree, to draw attention to the
topic, and to denote the strong incentives which exist, at the present
time, to study this ancient period of American history. This is the
object contemplated.

Nations, in their separation from their original stocks, and dispersion
over the globe, are yet held together by the leading traits, physical
and intellectual, which had characterized them as groups. And in
spreading abroad, they are found to have left behind them a golden
clue, which we recognize in physiology, languages, arts, monuments, and
mental habitudes. These traits are so intimately interwoven in the woof
of the mind, and so firmly interlaced in the structure and tendencies
to action of the whole organization of the man, that they can be
detected and generalized after long eras of separation, and the most
severe mutations of history. Such is the judgment, at least, of modern
research. Ethnology bases its claims to confidence in the recognition
of the dispersed family of man, in these proofs. And when they have
been eliminated from the dust of antiquity, they are offered as
contributions to the body of well considered facts and inferences,
which are to compose the thread of antique history and critical
inquiry.

And what, it may be inquired, are the evidences the study produces,
when these means of scrutiny come to be applied to the existing red
race of this continent? or to their predecessors in its occupancy? Do
their languages tell the story of their ancient affinities with Asia,
Africa, or Europe? Do we see, in their monuments and remains of art,
increments of a pre-existing state of advance, or refinement, in the
human family, in other parts of the globe? It is confessed, that in
order to answer these enquiries, we must first scrutinize the several
epochs o