On the importance of studying and preserving the languages spoken by uncivilised nations : with the view of elucidating the physical history of man.

  • Hodgkin, Dr.
Date:
1835
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the importance of studying and preserving the languages spoken by uncivilised nations : with the view of elucidating the physical history of man. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    adduces this statement in conjunction with the present state of the American Indian tribes in support of his hypothesis that the American race is altogether distinct from the rest of mankind, and that the uncivilized tribes with which we are at present acquainted are the debris of one or more nations who, having attained civilization, subsequently relapsed into a state of barbarism, which allowed of their being broken up into di- stinct nations and tribes, whose migrations during countless ages has brought them into the deplorable state in which they now exist, and which he thus describes: “ In fact, the present and future condition of this red race of men, who wander about in their native land, without house or covering, whom the most benevolent and brotherly love despairs of ever providing with a home, is a monstrous and tragical drama, such as no fiction of the poet ever yet pre- sented to our contemplation. A whole race of men is wast- ing away before the eyes of its commiserating contempora- ries ; no power of princes, philosophy, or Christianity can arrest its proudly gloomy progress towards a certain and utter destruction.” (Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, vol. ii.) Though I shall not stop to combat this opinion, I cannot refrain from expressing my confident hope that a better fate awaits that interesting portion of the human family, and that Europeans and their descendants, in laying aside the atrocious and exterminating policy which they have too long adopted towards those who have preceded them in the occupation of America, will yet be able to redeem their character by suc- cessfully pursuing a more liberal and humane system, which it is truly gratifying to observe they are at length, at least in some instances, disposed to substitute for it. If the views of Dr. Von Martius are gloomy and calculated to throw discouragement in the way of philological and other researches into the origin and history of the American nations, those of Dr. Lang, which are diametrically opposed to them, may be thought to err on the other side. Dr. Lang has been induced to believe that America derived its inhabitants from Asia through the Polynesian Islands. He appears successfully to get over the difficulty which would probably be the first to suggest itself in the way of this opi- nion, namely, that the course which he contends for would be opposed to the direction of wind and current. He brings forward the evidence of several distinguished navigators to prove that westerly winds and currents are of sufficient fre- quency and duration to allow of canoes and other vessels being carried by them from the Polynesian Islands to the