C. S. Rafinesque

“ Many tribes followed 300 years ago the style of 3000 years before, as yet partly done in China.
Every thing on earth follows the universal law of terrestrial mutations, monuments and arts, as well as languages and human features! they rise and fall like the nations, mingle or blend as our modern English nation and language formed out of many others. What diversity in any one of our cities in complexions, statures and features of men! there are more differences between some men of our own race, than between negroes, red or white men. ”

“ For lack of frequent ancient vocabularies, we must often grope in the dark; but I do not despair to be able to restore many lost languages, by fragments escaped from the common ruin. I have already succeeded with the Taino of Hayti, the Cahiri of Trinidad, Talega and Apalachi of North America, the Chontal of central America, the Colla of Peru, and the Séké of old Chili; whereby I shall draw some happy conclusions.
Asia has been the country of fables, Africa of monsters, and America of systems, for those who prefer opinions to reality. ”

“ To admit that America was the only cradle of mankind, is based on no evidence whatever, either historical or philological or monumental: while on the contrary all the monuments and records of the eastern oontinent trace this cradle to Central Asia. To suppose that America was one of the human cradles, is certainly worthy of inquiry; but such a cradle must be sought for and located somewhere, and neither the volcanic mountains, nor swampy plains of South America, nor the frigid wilds of North America, appear calculated to offer it. Others have been thought of in Africa and Australia ”

“ You will see that I have followed this practice in availing myself of all the sciences to enlighten the history of mankind, the Ethnography and annals of nations: above all Philology with Chronology and Geography.
The origins and annals of the black nations, and of the American nations, were two subjects quite obscure and neglected, or the least known, of the history of mankind. Nobody has undertaken, as yet, the history of the Negro nations: a labor so difficult and luckless as to be despised. ”

“ The pure undefiled religion of love and peace to all mankind, was seldom introduced in America, even by the Jesuits—except by the heavenly Las-Casas, the friendly quakers, the humane moravians, and a few other christian missionaries. All the sects of christianity have now spread to America, and even some arisen there; nay, the Jews have reached this continent, with a few Mahometans, Hindus, Chinese, Budhists &c. Thus all the religions of the earth are now found in this hemisphere, by the tolerance and freedom of opinions lately proclaimed in many parts. ”

“ Of the early Monuments of China, Tartary and Thibet, we know little or nothing, and in the very heart of Asia, the real Cradle of Arts and Sciences, if not mankind itself, our learned travellers have not yet penetrated, and the most interesting region of the globe is thus almost unknown to us. ”

“ To accumulate materials without generalizing any idea is a method as sterile in history as in natural philosophy.—The geology of America does not differ essentially from that of the old world, the strata and the emersion from the waters are not newer: species long extinct have also preceded those now peopling the earth, the waters and the air.—The problem of the first population of America is no more the province of history, than the questions on the origin of plants and animals. ”

“ It is only of late that they have begun to deserve the attention of learned men and historians—what had been stated by Ulloa, Humboldt, Juarros, Delrio, &c., of some of them, chiefly found in the Spanish part of America, as well as the scattered accounts of the many fragments found in North America, from the lakes of Canada to Louisiana, although confined to a few places or widely remote localities, have begun to excite the curiosity of all inquiring men, and are soon likely to deserve as much interest as the famed ruins of Palmyra and Thebes, Babylon and Persepolis ”

“ Upon the whole, the late prospects of America are cheering. Many independent nations have sprung, which deem themselves Americans, and love their homes. A general spirit of tolerance and peace is spreading, the true religion of the heart better understood; and a disposition is evincing to render tardy justice to the oppressed tribes, and the poor slaves. Those who wish oppression and intolerance to be perpetuated, are not many in this continent, at present ”

“ And thus it is in both Americas where many nations and empires have dwelt and passed away, risen and fallen by turns, leaving few or no records, except the traces of their existence, and widely spread colonies by the ruins of their cities and monuments, standing yet as silent witnesses of past dominion and great power. ”

“ A thousand nations with a thousand idioms, are spread over a thousand places on earth. Thrown against each other like the waves of the sea, they blend and tend to unity. Several rival languages are formed, polished by contract, which overspread the earth; and break to pieces as well as nations and empires. Others arise from their ruins, and strive again for ascendency, until at last a people and language, son and daughter of all the previous nations and idioms, heirs of their dominion and wealth ”

“ This subject is therefore in a progressive state of inquiries, and future ages will yet add thereto: although a number of Ruins and Monuments crumble or disappear under the plough or the leveling energy of men, little respecting these structures of antiquity, enough of unexplored sites will be discovered and surveyed: some of our rudest monuments appear indestructible, the lofty mounds of earth have withstood like the heavy pyramids of Egypt, the lapse of countless ages, some even appear now covered with a dress of new soil, or even diluvial coat, as if they were antediluvian! ”

“ American Cataclysms or Considerations on the Periods of American Geogony, Ontogony, Floods, and ancient population &c. of both Americas. History does not merely consist in accumulating facts: these constitute the annals of empires; but the real philosophical history has a nobler aim. It seeks results, teaches lessons of wisdom, brands with infamy the foes of mankind, and inspires veneration for the benefactors of the human race. It presents examples worthy to be followed, and records the crimes to be avoided. ”

“ The systems and hypotheses of philosophy or ignorance upon America, exceed all the Asiatic fables. A crowd of prejudices, false opinions and fantastic theories, have been asserted on this hemisphere, often mistaking a small part of it for the whole. Some have declared all the Americans a red, beardless, naked and barbarous race, or a peculiar species of men. Others that they came out of the ground or from the clouds, or over a bridge, instead of boats or on the ice. Others that they are all Jews, or Malays, or Tartars. Lastly, even that Eden was here and Noah built the ark in America! ”

“ The Mongolic opinion, lately revived by Ranking, is the most extravagant of all, since it ventures to assert seriously, and derive all these nations and languages from late colonies of Mongols within less than one thousand years ago, who came to America over the ice, bringing with them tame elephants for sport, that are since become the fossil elephants and mammoths buried in our diluvial or alluvial soil—to state these absurdities is a sufficient refutation, every man of any reading and scientific knowledge will perceive the impossibility. ”

“ Thus it is a positive fact that many ancient nations of the east, such as the Lybians, Moors, Etruscans, Phenicians, Hindus, &c. had heard of America, or knew nearly as much of it, as we did of Australia and Polynesia 100 years ago. It is as certain that America contained anciently, as even now, a crowd of distinct nations and tribes; some of which were quite civilized, perhaps as much as the Spaniards led by Columbus; the others more barbarous, but not entirely savage. There were but few, if any, real savages in America, dwelling in woods without social ties ”

“ There are out of America some structures not found in it, but there are none in it that cannot be detected somewhere else, either in Europe, North Africa or Asia, Polynesia, &c., among the earliest Monuments or Ruins, or the rudest structures. None of the latest styles and improved Architecture, such as Colonnades, roofed temples, Budhist and Mahometan temples, Gothic or Modern Churches, fortifications with large towers or bastions—are met in America, being a convincing proof that all the American structures were of a previous date, or of an earlier style, than these later. ”

“ If America has had an aboriginal population, or Autoctons, men born from the soil: it is there they should be found, driven to the south and those remote climes [pg 027] by the ancient colonies of other nations; and they should offer features, complexions, languages and manners totally different from any other. If all the Americans derive from ancient colonies, it is still there that ought to be found the primitive tribes, driven on by the subsequent colonies and tribes. Therefore these Austral tribes are exceedingly interesting to study as the most ancient relics of American population. ”

“ But neither of them solve the question of the actual original Cradle or Cradles of mankind. If indeed monuments and languages of various parts of the earth were quite different, and the features or colors of men likewise distinct there, we might suppose there could have been several species and cradles of men: but it is not so, features and languages are so variable and mingling in our own times, and so diversified every where, as to baffle and preclude complete insulation. ”

“ Be wise and just in time, if cupidity does not blind you, imitate the happy policy of Mexico, Guatimala, Peru &c. that has admitted the natives to equality and citizenship. Do better still, allow them to form peculiar states and territories, preserving their languages and laws, and admit these states into your confederacies. Then you will be secure, and both live in peace, increasing and multiplying as time rolls on. There is land enough for all, and to spare. What need has a man of 1000 acres of land; while 100 can support a large family! ”

“ Such speculations ought at least to be based on better foundations than mere assertions, evident philological proofs are required before they can be listened to, and no total and complete diversity of mankind in every aspect has been found any where to support the theory of a plurality of human species and Cradles. Europe and Africa have been repeatedly invaded by migrations from Asia. In America such migrations can be traced north and east by the Atlantic ocean, or north west from Berhring’s strait, while we have not the faintest indication of invasions of Asia from America. ”

“ The only traditional account of the invasion of Europe, and North Africa by the Atlantes (probably Americans, for the great Atlantis was this continent) is involved in doubt, and besides these very Atlantes were deemed Neptunian colonies; although it must be confessed that in almost every instance the colonists to America appear to have found previous inhabitants, who must have been still earlier and remote colonies, if they were not indigenous. But the sea-shores of North America from Labrador to Carolina were desert at a very late period comparatively, when the Western tribes came there. ”

“ The multiplicity of languages is a very ancient phenomenon, perhaps those which we call American, belong no more to America, than the Magyar and Choud or Finn to Europe.—Humboldt, American Researches, Introduction.
If we desire to be fully informed of a nation's history, we must not reject the fables under which the few traces that remain of its origin are concealed. ”