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ORIGIN OF THE



evacuated Kamschatka, and divided themselves between
America and the parts of Asia above cited."
  The reader is now at liberty to judge whether these
observations and researches of modern travellers will
serve as incontrovertible proofs of the Asiatic origin of
the North American Indians, or as mere conjectures,
which are liable to delusion and error. Conjectures, hy-
pothesis, and speculative opinions are, it is true, frequent-
ly to be considered as unwary guides, and false clues
which will not lead us, in a labyrinth of obscurity and
antiquity, to the original source of a nations  In the
present inquiry, however, there is no Troom for suspicion,
because the manners and customs. the intellectual facul-.
ties as well as the external appearance and complexion
of the Asiatics and the Aborigines of North America,
have been depicted faithfully and impartially by several
persons of veracity and erudition, without reference to
the descent of either the aboriginal Americans or those
Asiatic tribes which they described, from any particular
nation, or country. When, therefore, the characteris-
tical features, as well as the external appearance, bodily
fra;tne, and the manners and customs of the American In-
dians, and certain tribes in Asia coincide so singularly,
and iffer so considerably from the national peculiarities



of therest of the human race, an ancient consanguinity
will at once be acknowledged even by the most incredu-
lous or suspicious. In the absence of true and faithful
traditions, records, and history, a comparative view of the
manners and customs of two nations, and a collation of
their languages are the only means by which the anti-
quary can discover an affinity between them. This we
have done with as much fidelity as the importance of
the enquiry evidently requires. Our researches, there-
fore, are founded on the intercourse of modern travellers
with the inhabitants of both continents,; and the reader
will not, we hope, hesitate to believe not only the Asiatic
oriain of the North American Indians, but their imme-
diate descent from the Siberians, Kamschadales3 and
Tartars



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