One main Cause, why the Gospel is not propagated with better Success among the Infidels, and why it is not more strictly followed by such Europeans as inhabit the American Plantations, is the little right Knowledge that Superintendants of the Church have of them, from imperfect Accounts and false Information; for before we can entertain any tolerable Idea of the Tenents, and Inclinations of any People; it is requisite we should know something of their Original, Temper, and Government; for want of which much Cost and Labour have been in vain expended, and many pious Designs and Projects frustrated.
And as the Progress of Religion, so for the same Causes, and in the same Manner, is the Improvement of Arts, Sciences, and Trade, much retarded.
I shall therefore exhibit a short View of the present Inhabitants of Virginia; which are Indians, English, and Negroes, with a Description of the Country: After which their Morals and Manners may more plainly and briefly be described; from whence may easily be inferred an Account of Maryland and North Carolina, nearly agreeing with Virginia in many Respects.
The Indians may be term'd Aborigines; for to pretend to determine their Pedigree exactly, with the Time and Manner of seating this unknown World, to me seems as morally impossible, as it is naturally to account for the Complexion of their Bodies, and the Temper of their Minds.
So that the best History of them till late Years is but meer Guess-work, of which my Sentiments are these:
We know that all Nations of the World are the Descendants of Noah's three Sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth: From the youngest (from some promised Blessings) may we suppose the Europeans and Western Asiaticks to be descended. From Canaan the Son of the middlemost issued the Canaanites, and from some of his Sons might spring the Egyptians, Moors, Negroes, and other Inhabitants of Africa.
From Shem sprung Eber, and from Eber's eldest Son Peleg sprung the Hebrews, and from Eber's younger Son Joktan are derived the East, and (I suppose) their Cousins the West-Indians of America. For in Peleg's Days the Earth was divided, Gen. x. 25. and his Brother Jocktan's Dwelling was from Mesha, as thou goest unto Sephar, a Mount of the East, v. 30. By these were the Nations divided in the Earth after the Flood, v. 32.
To me the Indians of America seem to be some of the Posterity of Shem, driven thither by Providence, for Causes unknown to us, which might easily be done (in large Boats or Canoes and Periaguas) from the Eastern Parts of Asia, their Grandfather Jocktan's Country; which is not improbable: Since a Storm might drive them off from the Shore, and the trade Winds, which blow constantly one Way half the Year, might carry them directly to America, over the vast South Sea Ocean; in which Passage their greatest Danger of Death might be Hunger and Thirst; but they, that know the Indians, know also, that they can bear Want a prodigious while; and what might they not bear, when the Divine Power was miraculously concerned in it, for Purposes known to the Almighty only?
Indeed for what we have yet discovered, we don't know, but the Continent of America may be join'd to Tartary; from whence (if so) they might have an easy, though tedious Conveyance. Be it how it will, I am of Opinion, that they are descended from Asia, and not Africa; because in their copper Colour, long black Hair, strait proper Shape, and haughty Carriage, they are somewhat like the East-Indians; whereas they seem to be of a different Breed from the Negroes, who are blacker, have uglier Faces and Bodies, and are of a more servile Carriage, and slavish Temper: Besides, the Africans circumcise, which with other Jewish Customs, I imagine, they may derive from Egypt; whereas the Indians use no such Practices: Moreover they hate, and despise the very Sight of a Negroe; but they seem to like an East-Indian, and fear and revere the Whites.
What some may object in Contradiction to the Universality of the Deluge; that the Communication between Asia and America was washed away by it; thence inferring that the Americans are of Antidiluvian Families, may (I presume) be exploded, when we remark, that in most Places, at a great Depth, and far distant from the Sea, are many great Beds of strange Shells, and Bones, and Teeth of Fish and Beasts vastly different from any Land or Water-Animals now found in those, or any other Parts of the World; so that notwithstanding all the curious Speculations of Philosophers to reconcile this with Reason, and ascribe for it natural Causes; yet to me it appears evidently to be a Token, and Relict of the general Flood of Noah. For these Shells and Bones might be easily preserved from Corruption, and mouldering so long a Time, whilst covered with a great Thickness of dry Earth, and kept from Air; to which when they are exposed they soon decay.