[216] America Not Discovered by Columbus, by R. B. Anderson, Chicago, 1874, 16mo.
[217] Gravier, Découverte de l’Amérique, p. 235, quotes Dr. Schuck as authority, Société Royale des Antiquaires du Nord, 1840–43, pp. 26–7; also 1844, p. 181.
[218] Hakluyt’s Principal Navigations, Voyages, etc., vol. iii, pp. 1 et seq.; see a good discussion of the Welsh claim in Bancroft’s Native Races, vol. v, pp. 116 et seq.
[219] “I think, therefore (as mentioned before), we do not at all derogate from God’s greatness, nor in any ways dishonor the sacred evidence given us by His servants, when we think that there were as many Adams and Eves (every one knows these names to have an allegorical sense), as we find different species of the human genus * * * * God has created an original pair here as well as elsewhere.”—Roman’s Concise Nat. Hist. of E. and W. Florida, p. 55, New York, 1775. “We will candidly confess that we could never understand why philosophers have been so pre-disposed to advocate the theory which peoples America from the Eastern hemisphere. We think the supposition that the Red man is a primitive type of a family of the human race, originally planted in the Western Continent, presents the most natural solution of the problem; and that the researches of physiologists, antiquaries, philologists and philosophers in general, tend irresistibly to this conclusion.”—Norman’s Rambles in Yucatan, p. 251, New York, 1843, 8vo. “My own belief is that, whatever was the origin of the different tribes or families, the whole race of American Indians are native and indigenous to the soil. There is no proof that they are either the lost tribes of Israel or emigrants from any part of the old world. They are a separate and as distinct a race as either the Ethiopian, Caucasian, or Mongolian. In the absence of all proof to the contrary, it seems to me to be both rational and consistent to assume that the Creator placed the Red race on the American Continent as early as He created the beasts and reptiles that inhabit it.”—Swan’s North-west Coast, p. 206, New York, 1857. “Dieu a créé plusieurs couples d’êtres humains différant les uns des autres intérieurement et extérieurement; chacun de des couples a été placé dans le climat approprié à son organisation.”—Lord Kames in Warden’s Recherches, p. 203.
[220] The reader who has not given special attention to this phase of the subject, will be surprised to learn how generally received has been the autochthonic theory among writers in this field. Mr. Bancroft has given several quotations to illustrate this fact. See Morelet’s Voyage, vol. i, p. 177, Paris, 1857; Evens’ Our Sister Republic, p. 332; Catlin’s North American Indians, vol. ii, p. 232. We prepared extracts for insertion at this point, but the limit of our space will not permit a full consideration of the question.
Mr. Bancroft says of the theory, “If we may judge by the recent results of scientific investigation, [it] may eventually prove to be scientifically correct. To express belief, however, in a theory incapable of proof, appears to me idle. Indeed such belief is not belief, it is merely acquiescing in or accepting a hypothesis or tradition until the contrary is proved.”—Native Races, vol. v, pp. 130–1.
[221] Crania Americana, p. 260. Philadelphia, 1839. Folio.
[222] Dr. Morton gives the following comparative table showing the internal capacity and dimensions of the crania of different races:
| RACES. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of Skulls. | ||||
| Mean Internal Capacity in cubic in. | ||||
| Largest in the Series. | ||||
| Smallest in the Series. | ||||
| Caucasian | 52 | 87 | 109 | 75 |
| Mongolian | 10 | 83 | 93 | 69 |
| Malay | 18 | 81 | 89 | 64 |
| American | 147 | 82 | 100 | 60 |
| Ethiopian | 29 | 78 | 94 | 65 |
[223] After presenting several arguments together with accompanying proofs, Agassiz says: “This coincidence between the circumscription of the races of man and the natural limits of different zoological provinces characterized by peculiar distinct species of animals, is one of the most important and unexpected features in the Natural History of Mankind, which the study of the geographical distribution of all the organized beings now existing upon earth has disclosed to us. It is a fact which cannot fail to throw light at some future time upon the very origin of the differences existing among men, since it shows that man’s physical nature is modified by the same laws as that of animals, and that any general results obtained from the animal kingdom regarding the organic differences of its various types must also apply to man. Now there are only two alternatives before us at present: 1st. Either mankind originated from a common stock, and all the different races with their peculiarities, in their present distribution, are to be ascribed to subsequent changes—an assumption for which there is no evidence whatever, and leads at once to the admission that the diversity among animals is not an original one, nor their distribution determined by a general plan established in the beginning of the creation; or 2d, we must acknowledge that the diversity among animals is a fact determined by the will of the Creator, and their geographical distribution part of the general plan which unites all organized beings into one great organic conception; whence it follows that what are called human races down to their specializations as nations are distinct primordial forms of the type of man.” * * * He concludes in these words: “The laws which regulate the diversity of animals and their distribution upon earth apply equally to man within the same limits and in the same degree; and all our liberty and moral responsibility, however spontaneous, are yet instinctively directed by the All-wise and Omnipotent to fulfill the great harmonies established in Nature.”—Types of Mankind, pp. lxxv and lxxvi.