so                  ORIGIN OF THE

but many others of our own day, whose religion teaches
them the profession of truth as this general was, per-
haps, one of the most candid and impartial historians that
ever wrote. With regard then more particularly to the
real origin of the North American Indians, I have only to
say, that we must look to the numerous tribes scattered
ovey the dreary regions in the north-east parts of Asia, as
their progenitors.  And if it be said, that the lost.Israelites
might have wandered thither, and thence have migrated to
America by Beering's Straits, we can reply that the Jew-
ish features, so peculiar to that nation, the Hebrew langu-
age, the Jewish religion, arid the customs of the Jews have
never been traced among the Aborigines of America."
  Religion, customs, the shape and size of the body, the
tinge of skin, and the features of the visage are, as well as
languare indicative of the original connexion of nations. But
in this view also, the relation between the Indians and tribes
of Israel, is equally distant, as will be seen when we de-
lineate the red Indian in that original state in which he
was found by the first visiters from Europe. By the dis-
coveries of Captain Cook in his last voyage, it has been
established beyond a doubt, that at Kamschatka, in about
lattitude 66 north, the continents -of Asia and America are
separated by a strait only eighteen miles wide, and that the
inhabitants on each continent are similar, and frequently
pass and repass in their canoes, from the one continent to
the other. It is also certain, that during the winter season,
Beering's straits are frozen from the one side to the other.
Captain Williamson, who was lieutenant to Cook in those
voyages, has also asserted that, from the middle of the chan-
nel between Kamschatka and America he had discovered
land on either side. This short distance, therefore, he
says, should account for the peopling of America from the
north-east parts of Asia. The same author further asserts,
that there is a cluster of islands interspersed between the
two continents; and that he frequently saw canoes passing
from one island to the other. From these circumstances
we may fairly conclude that America was peopled from the
north-east parts of Asia; and during our inquiry, we shall
endeavour to point out facts, which tend to prove the par-