We also see that these groups may have been as many as three in number; since it by no means follows that, because the Uché, Coosadas, and Alibamons are different from the Choctahs, they must be allied to each other.
Again,—one or more of the extinct tribes of South Carolina may have been an element (and a fresh one too) in the population of Florida. That such was the case with the Yamassis is almost certain, since they were destroyed by the Seminoles during the last century.
Hence, when we hear that the Creek confederacy was formed upon either the extermination or incorporation of fifteen families, we have a measure of the multiform character of the ethnology of Florida and Alabama.
CADDOS.
Locality.—Between the rivers Mississippi and Sabine.
Language.—Known by a vocabulary. Not closely connected with any other. Most like the Cherokee.
The provisional character of all these groups has been noticed. This is so great that scarcely two inquirers would give the same answer to the question, "What is the difference between a member of (say) the Algonkin and one of (say) the Cherokee, Choctah, or Iroquois class?" The most extreme opinions are, perhaps, those of Gallatin, as expressed in the Synopsis, and the present writer. According to the former, the Algonkin, Iroquois, Sioux, Catawba, Cherokee, Choctah, and Caddo, and Uché languages differ from one another, as the English and Turkish, or the Greek and Lapplandic, i.e. as languages reducible to no common class, a view which makes divisions so large as the Algonkin, and so small as the Uché, equally equivalent to the great class denominated Indo-European—a doctrine by no means improbable in itself, since it differs in degree rather than in kind, from the similar juxtaposition of large and small, simple and sub-divided classes, which we find in Europe; where the isolated Basque and Albanian are, in the present state of our knowledge, co-extensive in the way of classification with the wide and varied Indo-European, Semitic, and Ugrian groups.
The present writer allows a value, equal to that expressed by the term Indo-European to three groups only, the first of which contains the Algonkin, which is apparently more different from the others than they are from each other; the second, the Uché, which, although it has several miscellaneous affinities, is not at present subordinated to any other class; and the third, the remainder, i.e. the Iroquois, Sioux, Catawba, Cherokee, Choctah, and Caddo, or (probably) the Iroquois, Sioux, and Cherokee, as primary divisions, to the last of which the Catawba, Choctah, and Caddo are subordinate. This is the very utmost he would do, in the way of recognising differences. He will, however, hereafter give reasons for doing less. At present the notification of fresh divisions of the population is continued.
THE NATCHEZ.
Locality.—Banks of the Mississippi, in the parts about the present city of the same name. Extinct, or incorporated. The last remnant of the Natchez occupied a small village on the River Talipoosa, in Alabama.