we perceive no points of resemblance between them, in their moral institutions or

in their habits, that are not

apparently

founded in the necessities of human life."

This is apparently the reasonable conclusion of the whole matter,

for to pass

intelligent

judgment, the aborigines of

America must be taken as they were found, and not as they

may have appeared after years of association with Europeans, an association necessarily producing a mingling of ancient cus toms with those learned from missionaries, or copied under the

These early lessons were taught by men impulse of imitation. of all nations, the Dutch, the French, the Spanish, and the It would English, and, before their advent, by the Norwegians. be strange indeed, under all the circumstances, if the aborigines

did not have grafted upon them nations.

Sir William Johnson,

some resembling features of all than whom no

man had better

opportunity to form a correct judgment, after considering the

whole matter, concluded that all theories were defective this reason ;

for

next to the English saying, that the Indians residing

settlements had lost a great part of their traditions, and had so

Warren in DelaficlcTs Antiquities.

a

Drakis Picture of Cincinnati.

OF HUDSON'S RIVER.

blended their customs with those of the Europeans as to render

" difficult if not

it

impossible to trace their origin or discover had nevertheless

their explication," while those further removed

been visited by traders, and especially by French Jesuits, who had " introduced some of their own inventions which the pre