ed with a degree of
confidence, which was, in some measure, proportioned to the remoteness
of the position of the writers, from both the stock of people found,
and those of nations with whom they were sought to be compared.
Scholars ransacked the archives of European archaeology. They found some
allusions in the Greek drama, to ancient discoveries beyond the pillars
of Hercules. They speculated on the story of Atlantis, and the
Fortunate Islands. They drew parallels between the hunter and corn
planting tribes of America, and the lost ten tribes of Israel, who were
graziers. They located ancient Ophir, where of all places it had
certainly never been, namely, in America. They were satisfied with
general resemblances in manners and customs, which mark uncivilized
nations, in distant parts of the world, who assimilate, in some traits,
from mere parity of circumstances, but between whom there are in
reality, no direct affinities of blood and lineage. And they left the
question, to all practical and satisfactory ends, precisely where they
found it. It was still to be answered, WHO ARE THE INDIANS?

The present age is, in many respects, better prepared to undertake the
examination of the question. The time which has passed away since
Columbus dropped anchor at the island of Guanahani, has rendered
distant nations on the globe far better acquainted with each other.
This has, indeed, been the most remarkable period for its influence on
all the true elements of civilization, which the world has ever known.
The advance of general knowledge, the comity of national intercourse,
and the policy and friendship of nations, has certainly never before
reached its present state. China is no longer a sealed nation. British
arms have carried the influence of arts and letters, through Hindostan,
Abyssinia, Persia, and the valley of the Euphrates, have been visited
and explored. The deserts of the Holy Land have been trod by learned
men of Europe and America. The mouth of the Niger and the sources of
the Nile, are revealed. Even Arabia, the land where Abraham and his
descendants once trod, has sent an embassy of peace, to a government
18,000 miles distant, which has not had a national existence over
seventy years. Not only the rulers of Arabia and America have been thus
brought into the bonds of intercourse; but the age has exchanged the
arts, the science and the philosophy of the utmost parts of the earth.
Scientific discovery has reached its