times and nations, we have the indubitable evidences of the
general event or events in the people before us, and we are justified
by philology alone, in assigning to it an epoch or epochs, which are
sufficiently remote and conformable to the laws of climate, to account
for all the phenomena. No such epoch seems adequate this side of the
final overthrow of Babylon, or general dispersion of mankind, or the
period of the conquest of Palestine. One singular and extraordinary
result, in the fulfilment of a very ancient prophecy of the human
family, may be noticed. It is this. Assuming the Indian tribes to be of
Shemitic origin, which is generally conceded, they were met on this
continent, in 1492, by the Japhetic race, after the two stocks had
passed round the globe by directly different routes. Within a few years
subsequent to this event, as is well attested, the humane influence of
an eminent Spanish ecclesiastic, led to the calling over from the
coasts of Africa, of the Hamitic branch. As a mere historical question,
and without mingling it in the slightest degree with any other, the
result of three centuries of occupancy, has been a series of movements
in all the colonial stocks, south and north, by which Japhet has been
immeasurably enlarged on the continent, while the called and not
voluntary sons of Ham, have endured a servitude, in the wide stretching
vallies of the tents of Shem.[16]

[16] Genesis, 9. 27.

Such are the facts which lend their interest to the early epoch of our
history. They invite the deepest study. Every season brings to our
notice some new feature, in its antiquities, which acts as a stimulus
to thought and inquiry. It is evident that there is more aliment for
study and scrutiny in its obscure periods, than has heretofore been
supposed. Vestiges of art are found, which speak of elder and higher
states of civilization, than any known to the nomadic or hunter states.
And the great activity which marks the present state of antiquarian and
philological inquiry, in the leading nations of Europe, adds deeply to
our means and inducements to search out the American branch of the
subject. Man, as he views these results, gathers new hopes of his
ability to trace the wandering footsteps of early nations over the
globe. There is a hope of obtaining the ultimate principles of
languages and national affinities. Already science and exact
investigation have accomplished the most auspicious and valuable
res