The finding of one or two pieces of ancient coin in the west has occasioned much speculation. A copper coin, bearing Persian characters, has, it is said, been found on the banks of the Little Miami river.
It is well known, that mankind are naturally itinerant; and that they carry with them their goods, especially those which are portable, and which they highly value. A piece of coin possesses both of these qualities; and it would not be more strange to find an Asiatic medal in North America, than to find here an Indian of Asiatic origin.
Our first parents were created in Asia; and the rest of mankind descended from them. By emigrations various distant portions of the world have been settled. Emigration was an act of necessity. One quarter of the world could not have contained all mankind; and the population of Asia became, in time, too great. Asia is at this time supposed to contain five hundred millions of people; and in China, such is the excess of population, that children are destroyed by their parents, with as little ceremony as though they were the offspring of the most worthless domestic animals.
It is to be presumed that the Continent of North America was peopled from the north-east of Asia. In no other way could the Western Continent have, so early, become known. The north is not, even now, known beyond the latitude of eighty-two; and [169] with respect to it thus far there is much doubt. The eastern and western continents may be connected near this latitude; and in this direction the aborigines of North America may have travelled from the former to the latter. Certain it is that the water between the north-east of Asia, and the north-west of America is comparatively shallow. In Bering’s Straits, situated in the latitude of sixty-six, there are many islands; the width of the straits is only about fifty miles, and, in winter, the passage across is frozen.
Even here the eastern and western continents, were perhaps, once connected. Such an idea is not inconsistent either with the nature of things, or with analogy. The earth has experienced, from time to time, great revolutions; and Strabo, an ancient and celebrated geographer, speaks of the time when the Mediterranean Sea did not exist. Why may not the two great continents have been or still be united as well as those of Europe and Africa? There is in the north-east of Asia much more evidence of its former connection with the north-west of America, than there is of a similar connection between Europe and Africa, inasmuch as the water between the former is unquestionably shallow; and between the latter it is very deep.
Besides, what adds great weight to the general supposition that the original settlers of the western continent emigrated from the north-east of Asia is, that in many particulars they resemble the inhabitants of the latter. Many of the islands of Bering’s straits, and also both of its coasts, are peopled; and their occupants are much in the habit of emigrating.
The original inhabitants of South America were probably, the descendants of the aborigines of North America; and emigrated from the latter to the [170] former across the Isthmus of Darien. Nothing is more natural than for people to emigrate from a northern to a southern latitude; and this course was, no doubt, taken, in a greater or less degree, by all the original inhabitants of North America. All the North American Indians, with whom we are acquainted, excepting the Esquimeaux, now reside south of their supposed track from the eastern to the western continent.
In South America, as in other warm countries, the modes of living become more refined than in climates further north; and in the history of the former we see the same diversity of character as existed in North America. Many of the tribes of the north might have been compared with the Peruvians of the south, a mild and inoffensive people; and the Iroquois and Puans of the former, with the Chilians and Caribs of the latter.
As to Persian coin being found in North America, it is not more surprising than the finding of Roman coin in Great-Britain. The same effect may arise from different causes. It was probably, not more easy for Julius Cæsar to invade Britain, than for the Asiatics to emigrate to North America.
In dismissing this subject I may observe, that all the accounts from the west are not to be immediately credited. Many, to please their fancies, and more, to fill their purses, speak hyperbolically respecting it. A great man who prided himself upon his penetration, once being questioned as to the causes of some supposed appearance in nature, assumed a wise phiz, and deeply reasoned upon the subject. Stop, my friend, said the quizzer, had you not better first inquire as to the matter of fact?