Читать книгу History of the Indians, of North and South America - Samuel G. Goodrich - Страница 5

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In respect to the general resemblance of the Indians, an able writer of a recent date, treating of this question, says,—“The testimony of all travellers goes to prove that the native Americans are possessed of certain physical characteristics which serve to identify them in places the most remote, while they assimilate not less in their moral character. There are also, in their multitudinous languages, some traces of a common origin; and it may be assumed as a fact, that no other race of men maintains so striking an analogy through all its subdivisions, and amidst all its varieties of physical circumstances,—while, at the same time, it is distinguished from all the other races by external peculiarities of form, but still more by the internal qualities of mind and intellect.”

M. Bory de St. Vincent attempted to show that the American race includes four species besides the Esquimaux; but he appears to have failed in establishing his theory.

Dr. Morton has paid great attention to the subject. He conducted his investigations by comparisons of the skulls of a vast number of different tribes, the results of which he has given to the public in his “Crania Americana.” He considers the most natural division to be into the Toltecan and American; the former being half-civilized, and including the Peruvians and Mexicans; the latter embracing all the barbarous nations except the Esquimaux, whom he regards as of Mongolian origin.

He divides each of these into subordinate groups, those of the American class being called the Appalachian, Brazilian, Patagonian, and Fuegian.

The Appalachian includes all those of North America except the Mexicans, together with those of South America north of the Amazon and east of the Andes. They are described thus. “The head is rounded, the nose large, salient, and aquiline, the eyes dark-brown, with little or no obliquity of position, the mouth large and straight, the teeth nearly vertical, and the whole face triangular. The neck is long, the chest broad, but rarely deep, the body and limbs muscular, seldom disposed to fatness.” In character, they “are warlike cruel, and unforgiving,” averse to the restraints of civilized life, and “have made but little progress in mental culture or the mechanic arts.”

Of the Brazilian it is said, that they are spread over a great part of South America east of the Andes, including the whole of Brazil and Paraguay between the River Amazon and 35 degrees of south latitude. In physical characteristics, they resemble the Appalachian; their nose is larger and more expanded, their mouth and lips also large. Their eyes are small, more or less oblique, and farther apart, the neck short and thick, body and limbs stout and full, to clumsiness. In mental character, it is said, that none of the American race are less susceptible of civilization, and what they are taught by compulsion seldom exceeds the humblest elements of knowledge.

The Patagonian branch comprises the nations south of the River La Plata to the Straits of Magellan, and also the mountain tribes of Chili. They are chiefly distinguished by their tall stature, handsome forms, and unconquerable courage.

The Fuegians, who call themselves Yacannacunnee, rove over the sterile wastes of Terra del Fuego. Their numbers are computed by Forster to be only about 2,000. Their physical aspect is most repulsive. They are of low stature, with large heads, broad faces, and small eyes, full chests, clumsy bodies, large knees, and ill-shaped legs. Their hair is lank, black, and coarse, and their complexion a decided brown, like that of the more northern tribes. They have a vacant expression of face, and are most stupid and slow in their mental operations, destitute of curiosity, and caring for little that does not minister to their present wants.

Long, black hair, indeed, is common to all the American tribes. Their real color is not copper, but brown, most resembling cinnamon. Dr. Morton and Dr. McCulloh agree, that no epithet is so proper as the brown race.

The diversity of complexion cannot be accounted for mainly by climate; for many near the equator are not darker than those in the mountainous parts of temperate regions. The Puelches, and other Magellanic tribes beyond 35 degrees south latitude, are darker than others many degrees nearer the equator; the Botecudos, but a little distance from the tropics, are nearly white; the Guayacas, under the line, are fair, while the Charruas, at 50 degrees south latitude, are almost black, and the Californians, at 25 degrees north latitude, are almost white.

The color seems also not to depend on local situation, and in the same individual the covered parts are not fairer than those exposed to the heat and moisture. Where the differences are slight, the cause may possibly be found in partial emigrations from other countries. The characteristic brown tint is said to be occasioned by a pigment beneath the lower skin, peculiar to them with the African family, but wanting in the European.

Another division of the American race has been suggested, into three great classes, according to the pursuits on which they depend for subsistence, namely, hunting, fishing, and agriculture. The American race are further said to be intellectually inferior to the Caucasian and Mongolian races. They seem incapable of a continued process of reasoning on abstract subjects. They seize easily and eagerly on simple truths, but reject those which require analysis or investigation. Their inventive faculties are small, and they generally have but little taste for the arts and sciences. A most remarkable defect is the difficulty they have of comprehending the relations of numbers. Mr. Schoolcraft assured Dr. Morton, that this was the cause of most of the misunderstandings in respect to treaties between the English and the native tribes.

The Toltecan family are considered as embracing all the semi-civilized nations of Mexico, Peru, and Bogota, reaching from the Rio Gila, in 33 degrees of north latitude, along the western shore of the continent, to the frontiers of Chili, and on the eastern coast along the Gulf of Mexico. In South America, however, they chiefly occupied a narrow strip of land between the Andes and the Pacific Ocean. The Bogotese in New Grenada were, in civilization, between the Peruvians and the Mexicans. The Toltecans were not the sole possessors of these regions, but the dominant race, while the American race composed the mass of the people.

The great difference between the Toltecan and the American races consisted in the intellectual faculties, as shown in their arts and sciences, architectural remains, pyramids, temples, grottos, bass-reliefs, and arabesques; their roads, aqueducts, fortifications, and mining operations.

With respect to the American languages, there is said to exist a remarkable similarity among them. From Cape Horn to the Arctic Sea, all the nations have languages which possess a distinctive character, but still apparently differing from all those of the Old World. This resemblance, too, is said not to be of an indefinite kind. It generally consists in the peculiar modes of conjugating the verbs by inserting syllables. Vater, a distinguished German writer on this subject, says, that this wonderful uniformity favors, in a singular manner, the supposition of a primitive people which formed the common stock of the American indigenous nations. According to M. Balbi, there are more than 438 different languages, embracing upwards of 2,000 dialects. He estimates the Indians of the brown race at 10,000,000, and the races produced by the intermixture of the pure races at 7,000,000.

We have thus given a general classification of the great American family, and the main points respecting the question of their origin. We must confess our inability wholly to lift the veil of obscurity in which their early history is involved, or answer, conclusively, the inquiry, whence they came, or when America was first peopled. We can only offer what we have already stated as the most plausible theory, that, ages ago, a great nation of Asia passed, at different times, by way of Behring’s Straits, into the American Continent, and in the course of centuries spread themselves over its surface. Here we suppose them to have become divided by the slow influences of climate, and other circumstances, into the several varieties which they display.