INTRODUCTIONA



  NATIONS, like mankind, advance insensibly froml mi
fancy to youth: The qeenes of puerility are forgotten
or neglected in the pride of riper years. Few, indeed,
    I -    - ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ t--ft          -m



teel inclined to look back on antiquity. The regions
which we behold are remote. Beyond a certain line
every thing disappears in shades, and the distant land in
which we travel, seems to be inhabited by phantoms and
strange forms. An inquiry after the origin of nations is
certainly an obscure, but yet an interestinz labyrinth to
perambulate. Weak and unphilosophic minds may, no
doubt, deem this a barren subject, which their taste or
curiosity leads them not to exainie with that degree of
interest which its importance evidently deserves. But
nothing can prove nuore beneficial and amusing to the
studious and inquisitive rmaind, than a proper knowledge
nf thf vanrious races of men. wyhich constitute the treat



XJL .t Vs Lf         - x-- A.  A
human family, for it is oily in this way that a manl can
know himself.
  When we take even a superficial view of the surface of
the globe which we inhabit, we evidently perceive, that,
at some unknown remote periods, various revolutions
have happened, which not only affected materially the
superficial structure of the earth, but the state and condi-
tion of its inhabitants.



I

I
I


4
4



I'