CHAPTER II. BY WHOM WAS AMERICA FIRST PEOPLED?
By whom and by what means the American Continent was originally peopled has been, in the main, an unsolved problem. That it will always remain so does not appear from new proofs which are being adduced to support favorite theories. Four of these theories have, at different times, and with much intelligent zeal, been maintained.
(1.) That the ancestors of the American aborigines came from Europe,—that they were Caucasians, but became changed in color by the use of red roots and the bleachings of the sun; and of these were represented the Romans, Grecians, Spaniards, Irish, Norsemen, Courlanders, Russians, and Welsh.
(2.) That they came from Asia, and comprised Israelites, Canaanites, Assyrians, Phœnicians, Persians, Tartars, East Indians, Chinese, and Japanese.
(3.) That they came from Africa, the original cradle, it is maintained, of the American aborigines, who are made the descendants of the Egyptians, Carthaginians, or Numidians.
(4.) That the American aborigines are the descendants of all the nations in the world.
The last is certainly the most accommodative, and can be made to bend to suit the shifting exigencies of an imperfect state of knowledge. The skeptical view would not be accepted, inasmuch as it broke the unity of the race,—namely, that all the original people and animals of America were distinct creations.