Lives of Famous Indian Chiefs / From Cofachiqui, the Indian Princess, and Powhatan; down to and including Chief Joseph and Geronimo. Also an answer, from the latest research, of the query, Whence came the Indian? Together with a number of thrillingly interesting Indian stories and anecdotes from history

by Norman B. Wood

Baldwin well says, that "Some of the uses made of this theory can not endure criticism. For instance, when he makes it the basis of an assumption that all the civilization of the Old World went originally from America, and claims particularly that the supposed 'Atlantic race' created Egypt, he goes quite beyond reach of the considerations used to give his hypothesis a certain air of probability. It may be, as he says, that for every pyramid in Egypt there are a thousand in Mexico and Central America, but the ruins in Egypt and those in Central America have nothing in common. The two countries were entirely different in their language, in their styles of architecture, in their written characters, and in the physical characteristics of their earliest people, as they are seen sculptured or painted on the monuments. An Egyptian pyramid is no more the same thing as a Mexican pyramid than a Chinese pagoda is the same thing as an English light-house. It was not made in the same way, nor for the same uses. The ruined monuments show, in general and in particular, that the original civilizers in America were profoundly different from the ancient Egyptians. The two peoples can not possibly explain each other."

With reference to this theory, from the foregoing reasons, we are compelled to bring in the Scotch verdict, "Not proven."

One other theory we must notice briefly before giving what we believe to be the true theory, which will meet the requirements.

It is claimed by certain intelligent men, of sufficient learning to know better, that the North American Indian is indigenous to this continent, his ancestors, or first parents, having been created here just as were Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. In other words, the Western Hemisphere was peopled from one pair and one center just as was the Eastern Hemisphere.

J. Lee Humfreville, in his "Twenty Years Among Our Savage Indians," takes this position.

Even the distinguished naturalist, Professor Agassiz, is quoted as saying that "The anatomical differences between the different races, and especially those which distinguish the black and white, indicate a diversity of origin."

It is contended by others that, "The separation of the races from each other for unknown ages by great oceans and by formidable and almost impassable continental barriers, opposes the probability that they are descended from one parentage, and migrated from one spot."

If there be any logic in this theory, it is essential not only to have an Adam and Eve in America for the Red Race, but another pair in Africa for the Black Race, another in China for the Yellow Race, and still another in Polynesia for the Brown. Perhaps the learned comparative anatomists (all of whom belong to the White Race) will be gracious enough to concede that Adam and Eve were their first parents?

Dr. J. L. Cabell, in his work on "The Common Parentage of the Human Race," gives the following very good reason why it is more rational to suppose that the world was peopled by the progeny of a single pair radiating from one spot, than by many miraculous creations of the ancestors of the races placed originally in their present habitats: "Inasmuch as it has been shown that man has the power of undergoing acclimation in every habitable quarter of the globe, and had the means of facilitating his migration from his original birthplace, while moreover, he is susceptible of undergoing variations in bodily stricture, and in intellectual and moral tendencies, which variations, once acquired, are subsequently perpetuated by descent, it is contrary to the observed ways of Providence to multiply miracles, and especially the highest miracles, in order to achieve a result which was clearly practicable by natural processes."

Baron Humboldt, the great German scholar, has advanced an unanswerable argument to prove the unity of the human race and their descent from one pair. In his "Cosmos" he says: "The different races of men are forms of one sole species. They are not different species of a genus, since in that case their hybrid descendants would be unfruitful. But it is known that people of every race and color, from the highest to the lowest, intermingle and propagate descendants different from either parent."