Incentives to the Study of the Ancient Period of American History Part 1

Incentives to the Study of the Ancient Period of American History.

by Henry R. Schoolcraft.

NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

At a special meeting of the New York Historical Society, November 17th, 1846, being the Forty-Second Anniversary of the Society, Hon. LUTHER BRADISH in the Chair, on motion of Mr. PHILIP HONE, it was unanimously

_Resolved_, That the thanks of the Society are due to Mr. HENRY R.

SCHOOLCRAFT, for his learned and interesting Address, delivered this evening, and that a copy be respectfully requested to be deposited in the archives of the Society, and published.

Extract from the Minutes.

ANDREW WARNER,

_Recording Secretary_.

AN ADDRESS.

To narrow the boundaries of historical mystery, which obscures the early period of the American continent, is believed to be an object of n.o.ble attainment. Can it be a.s.serted, on the ground of accurate inquiry, that man had not set his feet upon this continent, and fabricated objects of art, long anterior to the utmost periods of the monarchies of ancient Mexico and Peru? Were there not elements of civilization prior to the landing of c.o.xc.o.x, or the promulgation of the gorgeous fiction of Manco Capac? What chain of connection existed between the types of pseudo-civilization found respectively at Cuzco, west of the Andes, and in the valley of Anahuac? Did this chain ever link in its causes the pyramids of Mexico with the mounds of the Mississippi valley? It is not proposed to enter into the details of this discussion. Such an inquiry would far transcend the limits before me. It is rather designed to show the amplitude of the field as a subject of historical inquiry, than to gather its fruits. It will entirely compa.s.s the object I have in view, if the suggestions I am to make shall have the tendency, in any degree, to draw attention to the topic, and to denote the strong incentives which exist, at the present time, to study this ancient period of American history. This is the object contemplated.

Nations, in their separation from their original stocks, and dispersion over the globe, are yet held together by the leading traits, physical and intellectual, which had characterized them as groups. And in spreading abroad, they are found to have left behind them a golden clue, which we recognize in physiology, languages, arts, monuments, and mental habitudes. These traits are so intimately interwoven in the woof of the mind, and so firmly interlaced in the structure and tendencies to action of the whole organization of the man, that they can be detected and generalized after long eras of separation, and the most severe mutations of history. Such is the judgment, at least, of modern research. Ethnology bases its claims to confidence in the recognition of the dispersed family of man, in these proofs. And when they have been eliminated from the dust of antiquity, they are offered as contributions to the body of well considered facts and inferences, which are to compose the thread of antique history and critical inquiry.

And what, it may be inquired, are the evidences the study produces, when these means of scrutiny come to be applied to the existing red race of this continent? or to their predecessors in its occupancy? Do their languages tell the story of their ancient affinities with Asia, Africa, or Europe? Do we see, in their monuments and remains of art, increments of a pre-existing state of advance, or refinement, in the human family, in other parts of the globe? It is confessed, that in order to answer these enquiries, we must first scrutinize the several epochs of the nations with whom we are to compare them, and the changes which they themselves have undergone. Without erecting these several standards of comparison, no certainty can attend the labor. All nations and tribes upon the face of the globe, whom we can make sponsors for the American tribes, are thus const.i.tuted the field of study, and we have opened to our investigations a theme at once n.o.ble and sublime.

Philosophy has no higher species of inquiry, beneath Infinitude, than that which establishes the original affinities of man to man.

We perceive, in casting our minds back on the track of nations from whom we are ourselves sprung, a strong and clear chain of philological testimony, running through the various nations of the great Thiudic[1]

type, until it terminates in the utmost regions of the north. This chain of affiliation, though it had a totally diverse element in the Celtic, to begin with, yet absorbed that element, without in the least destroying the connection. It runs clearly from the Anglo Saxon to the Frisic, or northern Dutch, and the Germanic, in all its recondite phases, with the ancient Gothic, and its cognates, taking in very wide accessions from the Latin, the Gallic, and other languages of southern Europe; and it may be traced back, historically, till it quite penetrates through these elementary ma.s.ses of change, and reveals itself in the Icelandic. Two thousand five hundred years, a.s.suming no longer period, have not obliterated these affinities of language. Even at this day, the Anglo Saxon numerals, p.r.o.nouns, most of the terms in chronology, together with a large number of its adverbs, are well preserved in the Icelandic. And had we no history to trace our national origin, the body of philological testimony, which can be appealed to, would be conclusive of the general question.

[1] Forster.

Does Asia offer similar proofs of the original ident.i.ty, or parentage of its languages with America? This cannot be positively a.s.serted. But while there is but little a.n.a.logy in the sounds of the lexicography, so far as known, it is in this quarter of the globe, that we perceive resemblances in some words of the Shemitic group of languages, positive coincidences in the features of its syntax, and in its unwieldy personal and polysyllabical and aggregated forms; and the inquiry is one, which may be expected to produce auspicious results. On the a.s.sumption of their Asiatic origin, therefore, it is evident that the Indian tribes are of far greater antiquity than the Anglo Saxon. Not only so, but they appear on philological proofs to be older, in their national phasis, if we except, perhaps, the Chinese, than the present inhabitants of the north-eastern coasts of Asia, and the East India Islands. But we are not to pursue this topic. The general facts are merely thrown out, to denote the far reaching and imperious requirements of philology.

When we examine the American continent, with a view to its ancient occupancy, we perceive its surface scarified with moats and walls--its alluvial level plains and vallies bearing mounds, teocalli and pyramids. Its high interior alt.i.tudes, in the tropical regions, are covered with the ruins of temples and cities--and even in the temperate lat.i.tudes of the north, its barrows and mounds are now found to yield objects of exquisite sculpture, and many of its forests, beyond the Alleghanies, exhibit the regularity of antique garden beds and furrows,[2] amid the heaviest forest trees. Objects of art and implements of war, and even of science, are turned up by the plough.

These are silent witnesses. With the single exception of the inscription stone, found in the great tumulus of Grave Creek, in Virginia, in the year 1838,[3] there is no monument of art on the continent, yet discovered, which discloses an alphabet, and thus promises to address posterity in an articulate voice. We must argue chiefly from the character of the antique works of art.

[2] MSS. of the Am. Ethn. Society. Vide Catalogue, Vol. I.

[3] Trans. Am. Ethn. Society. Vol. I.

But although the apparent hieroglyphics of Yucatan and Central America have not been read, nor a history of much incident, or a remote antiquity, deduced from the pictorial scrolls of Mexico, it is impossible not to a.s.sign to the era of American antiquities, a degree of arts, science, agriculture and general civilization, to which the highest existing nomadic or hunter tribes had no pretence. It is a period of obscurity, of which inquirers might perhaps say, that the darkness itself is made to speak. It tells of the displacement of light. All indeed beyond the era of Columbus, is shrouded in historical gloom. We are thus confined within the short cycle of some three hundred and fifty years. A little less than twelve generations of men.

Beyond this period, we have an ante-historical period, which is filled, almost exclusively, with European claimants of prior discovery. We will name them in their order. They are the Scandinavians, the Cimbri and tribes of Celtic type, and the Venetians. Still prior, is the Asiatic claim of a predatory nation, who, in the days of the Exodus, lived in caves and dens of the earth, under the name of Horites,[4] and who culminated at a later era, under the far-famed epithet of Phoenicians--a people whose early nautical skill has, absolutely, no cotemporary.

[4] Forster.

Scandinavian antiquities have recently a.s.sumed the highest interest, which the press and the pencil can bestow. Danish art and research have achieved high honors in disinterring facts from the dust of forgotten ages. And we may look to the ill.u.s.trated publications, which have been put forth at Copenhagen, under royal auspices, as an example of what literary costume and literary diligence, may do to revive and re-construct the antiquarian periods of the world's history. The publication of the ancient northern Sagas, and the ballads of the Scandinavian Skalds, has revealed sufficient of the history of the early and bold adventures, in the tenth, eleventh and twelfth centuries, to show that these hardy adventurers not only searched the sh.o.r.es of Iceland and Greenland, and founded settlements and built churches there; but pushed their voyages west to the rocky sh.o.r.es of Heluiland, the woody coasts of Markland, and the vine-yielding coasts of ancient Vinland. These three names geography has exchanged in our days, for Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and Ma.s.sachusetts. Perhaps some other portions of New England may be embraced by the ancient name of Vinland.

The ancient songs and legends of a people may be appealed to, as these Sagas and ballads have been, for historical proof, as it is known that the early nations celebrated their heroic exploits, in this manner.

Authors tell us that Homer but recited the traditions of his countrymen. The nautical and geographical proofs, by which portions of the North Atlantic sh.o.r.es have been identified by the bold spirit of northern research, are certainly inexact and to some extent hypothetical. In extending the heretofore admitted points of discovery and temporary settlement, south to Ma.s.sachusetts and Rhode Island, they carry with them sufficient general plausibility, as being of an early and adventurous age, to secure a.s.sent. And they only cease to inspire a high degree of historical respect, at the particular points where the identification becomes extreme, where the pen and pencil have to some extent distorted objects, and where localities and monuments are insisted on, which we are by no means sure ever had any connection with the acts of the early Scandinavian adventurers, and sea kings. This period of the ante-Columbian era, is one of deep interest in American history, and invites a careful and candid scrutiny, with a sole eye to historical truth.

We have also a Celtic period, falling within the same general era of the Scandinavian, which, at least, deserves to be examined, if it be only to clear away the rubbish that enc.u.mbers the threshold of the ancient period of our Indian history. This claim to discovery, rests chiefly upon a pa.s.sage in old British history, which represents two voyages of a Welsh Prince, who in the twelfth century, sailed west from the coasts of Britain, and is thought by some writers, to have reached this continent. The discovery of Columbus was of such an astounding character and reflected so eminent a degree of honor, both on him and the Court which had employed this n.o.ble mariner, that it is no wonder other countries of maritime borders, should rake up the arcana of their old traditions, to share in the glory. If these ancient traditions have left but little worthy of the sober pen of history, they have imposed on us, as cultivators of history, the literary obligation to examine the facts and decide upon their probability. If Prince Madoc, as this account a.s.serts, sailed a little south of west, he is likely to have reached and landed at the Azores. It is not incredible, indeed, that small s.h.i.+ps, such as the Britons, Danes and Northmen used, should have crossed the entire Atlantic at the era, between the vernal and autumnal equinoxes, although it is not probable. It is nearly certain, however, that should such a feat have been performed in the twelfth century, the natives of the American coasts, who were inimical to strangers, would, in no long period, have annihilated them. With a full knowledge of the warlike and suspicious elements of Indian character, such a result might have been predicted in ordinary cases. But that these tribes, or any one of them, should have adopted, as is contended, the _language_ of a small and feeble colony of foreigners, either landing or stranded on the coast; nay more, so fully adopted it as to be understood by any countrymen of the Prince, five hundred years afterwards,[5] is a proof of the national credulity of men, who are predetermined to find the a.n.a.logies which they ardently seek.

[5] Vide Stoddart's Louisiana.

Italy has likewise a claim to the discovery of this continent, prior to the voyages of Columbus. This claim is made by an ancient family of the highest rank in the city of Venice--once the mistress of the commerce of the world. The voyages of the two Zenos, over the northern seas, in the 14th century, extending to Greenland, appear to be well attested by the archives of that ancient city. The episode of Estotiland, which is apparently used as a synonyme for Vinland, has been generally deemed apocryphal, or of a date posterior to the other incidents described. To examine and set in order both the true and the intercalated parts of these curious ancient voyages, would involve no little degree of research, but would prove, if well executed, a useful and acceptable service to historical letters.

There is another period--we allude to the Horitic element--in the obscurity of the early history of the continent, which may be here mentioned, but from the diversity of the sub-elements which enter into it, some hesitancy exists in giving it a name. In order to secure the purposes of generalization, and include every element of which it is composed, it may be called, provisionally, the MEDITERRANEAN PERIOD. It is the earliest and most obscure of the whole, relying, as it does, almost exclusively upon pa.s.sages of the imaginative literature of Greece. Yet it is a subject eminently worthy of the pen of original investigation. It includes the consideration of the early maritime power of the Phoenicians, the Etruscans, the Carthaginians, and other celebrated nations and cities who, long before the Christian era, drew the attention and governed the destinies of the world. It was in this quarter of the globe, forming, as it does, the cementing point between Europe and Asia, that an alphabet arose at a very early day, and prior to that of Greece or Rome, which consisted almost exclusively of straight or angular marks. From its use it has sometimes been called the Rock Alphabet. It has its equivalents in the more full and exact Hebrew and Greek characters, so far as the old alphabet extended. It had, as these changes progressed and the family of man spread, the various names of Phoenician, Ostic, Etruscan, Punic, ancient Greek and Gallic, Celtiberic, Runic, Druidical and others. As a system of notation, it appears to occupy an epoch between the hieroglyphic system of Egypt and the Greek alphabet. But whatever may be said of its origin, affinities, changes, or character, it is clear that this simple alphabet spread westward among the barbaric nations of Europe, changing, in some measure, in its forms of notation and the articulate sounds it represented, until it reached the utmost limits of its western and northern coasts and islands. Here it served as the means of recording human utterance, until it was supplanted and obliterated by the civilization of Rome and the Roman alphabet. To decypher the ancient inscriptions in this simple character, found upon rocks and monuments, is an object, at this day, of learned research; and its importance may be judged of by observing, that, whenever successfully effected, it is a literal restoration, to the present age, of the lost sounds of those parts of the ancient world. I will no farther allude to this period, so important in its means of research, than to add, that the inscription, found in 1838, on opening the gigantic pile of earth, or tumulus, heretofore referred to, on the alluvial plains of Grave Creek in Western Virginia, was in one of the types of this ancient character. This type of the alphabet may be called AONIC[6]--a term derived from the aboriginal vocabulary. I visited the locality in 1843--carefully examined the facts, and having satisfied myself of the authenticity of the discovery, took duplicate copies of the inscription in wax, and transmitted them to Europe. The inscription consists of twenty-three letters, together with a pictorial device, apparently a man's head on a pike. It is made on a small hard stone, of an oval shape, and was found in a vault along with human bones, sea sh.e.l.ls, and various ornaments of a rude age. Professor Charles Rafn, of Copenhagen, deems the character Celtiberic. I have recently received a memoir from M. Jomard, at Paris, (the sole survivor of Bonaparte's scientific corps in Egypt,) who considers it as of Lybian origin, and compares it with an inscription found on the African sh.o.r.es of the Mediterranean at Dugga. It relieves, to some extent, the discrepancy existing between these two learned men to remark that the Dugga inscription consists of two parts, one of which is p.r.o.nounced Celtiberic by Hamaker, and that the generic character of the strokes in this alphabet are preserved to some extent even in the true Libyan. Since the receipt of Mr. Rafn's paper, the number of characters on the Grave Creek stone which are identical with the Celtiberic, as published in the first volume of the Transactions of the American Ethnological Society, has been shown to be fifteen, leaving but eight to be accounted for. By comparison, ten of our Aonic characters of Grave Creek correspond with the Phoenician; four with the ancient Greek; four with the Etruscan; six with the ancient Gallic; seven with the old Erse; five with the Runic proper, and thirteen with the Druidical, or old British, as it existed before the invasion of Julius Caesar. The latter are, however, almost identical, so far as the comparison goes, with the Celtiberic. Six of the characters, which are several times repeated, however, exist in the right hand portion of the Lybian inscription at Dugga, but the introduction, in other parts of the monumental text, of the Arabic element of notation by curved lines, tends to lessen the probability of the Lybian origin of our western inscription, while it adds additional force to the suggestions of Mr. Rafn. It is also to be noticed that M.

Jomard employed an inaccurate copy of the inscription which was furnished him some years ago by Mr. Vail.

[6] Vide Notes on the Iroquois.

This comprehends the European branch of the obscure period of our early continental history, and includes all the nations known to have put in claims to share, or to antic.i.p.ate, the glory of the discovery of the continent by Columbus.

The discovery of the continent, was, indeed, a geographical wonder. It was made contrary to the predictions of the times. Such a discovery was not only opposed by popular opinion; but Columbus himself expected no such thing. He sought only a new pa.s.sage to the East Indies. He insisted, with a n.o.ble constancy, that he should find land in sailing west. But he did not expect to find, as if by the power of necromancy, that a vast continent should rise up before his eyes. And it is altogether questionable, whether the great navigator did not die without a true knowledge of this fact. It will be recollected that it was not until six years after his death, which happened in 1506, that Balboa first discovered the Pacific from the heights of Panama, and thus truly revealed the position of the Continent.

Sages and Philosophers do not admire results which have fallen out contrary to their expressed views; but, in this case, the discovery proved so astounding that all Europe joined in extolling, what all Europe had a little before, disbelieved. A continent stretching little under 10,000 miles, from south to north, with a maximum breath of 2000 miles, between sea and sea, rivers, such as the La Plata and the Amazon--mountains like that of the Andes, whose highest peak rises 20,280 feet above the sea--Volcanoes, which cast their fires over plains of interminable extent--tropical fruits of every kind--mines of gold and silver the richest the world had ever known--these were some of the features that America brought to light, while it added one-third to the known area, and more than one-third to the commercial resources of the world.

But while men gazed at its lofty mountains, and geological magnificence, the ancient race of men, who were found here, const.i.tuted by far the most curious and thought-inspiring problem. Volcanoes and vast plains and mountains were elements in the geography of the old world, and their occurrence here, soon a.s.similated their discovery to other features of the kind. But the red man continued to furnish a theme for speculation and inquiry, which time has not satisfied.

Columbus, supposing himself to have found, what he had sailed for, and judging from physical characteristics alone, called them _Indians_.

Usage has perpetuated the term. But if, by the term, it is designed to consider them as of that part of India, which is filled with the Hindoo race, there is but little resemblance beyond mere physical traits. Of the leading idea of the multiform incarnations of the terrible, and degraded Hindoo deities--of the burning of widows at the funereal pile--of infanticide--of the gross idolatry rendered to images, like those of Vishnoo and Juggernaut, there is nothing. The degraded forms of superst.i.tion and human vice which are practised on the Ganges and the Burrampooter, are unknown on the Mississippi and the Missouri. Nor have we found, so far as I am aware, a single word in the American languages, which exists in the Hindostanee.

The philosophers and ecclesiastics of the sixteenth century, who discussed the subject of the origin of the American Tribes, have left scarcely a portion of the globe untouched by their researches, or from which, they have not attempted, by some a.n.a.logies, to deduce them.

Generalization, as soon as Columbus returned from his first voyage, took an unlimited lat.i.tude; and theories were advanced with a degree of confidence, which was, in some measure, proportioned to the remoteness of the position of the writers, from both the stock of people found, and those of nations with whom they were sought to be compared.

Scholars ransacked the archives of European archaeology. They found some allusions in the Greek drama, to ancient discoveries beyond the pillars of Hercules. They speculated on the story of Atlantis, and the Fortunate Islands. They drew parallels between the hunter and corn planting tribes of America, and the lost ten tribes of Israel, who were graziers. They located ancient Ophir, where of all places it had certainly never been, namely, in America. They were satisfied with general resemblances in manners and customs, which mark uncivilized nations, in distant parts of the world, who a.s.similate, in some traits, from mere parity of circ.u.mstances, but between whom there are in reality, no direct affinities of blood and lineage. And they left the question, to all practical and satisfactory ends, precisely where they found it. It was still to be answered, WHO ARE THE INDIANS?

The present age is, in many respects, better prepared to undertake the examination of the question. The time which has pa.s.sed away since Columbus dropped anchor at the island of Guanahani, has rendered distant nations on the globe far better acquainted with each other.

This has, indeed, been the most remarkable period for its influence on all the true elements of civilization, which the world has ever known.

The advance of general knowledge, the comity of national intercourse, and the policy and friends.h.i.+p of nations, has certainly never before reached its present state. China is no longer a sealed nation. British arms have carried the influence of arts and letters, through Hindostan, Abyssinia, Persia, and the valley of the Euphrates, have been visited and explored. The deserts of the Holy Land have been trod by learned men of Europe and America. The mouth of the Niger and the sources of the Nile, are revealed. Even Arabia, the land where Abraham and his descendants once trod, has sent an emba.s.sy of peace, to a government 18,000 miles distant, which has not had a national existence over seventy years. Not only the rulers of Arabia and America have been thus brought into the bonds of intercourse; but the age has exchanged the arts, the science and the philosophy of the utmost parts of the earth.

Scientific discovery has reached its highest acme. The sites of many ancient and long unknown, though not forgotten cities, are recovered.

Monuments and ruins have been disinterred in the ancient seats of human power, in the oriental world, and inscriptions deciphered, which give vitality to ancient history. Ethnology has arisen to hold up the light of her resplendent lamp, amid these ruins, to guide the footsteps of letters, science and piety.

To these evidences of the inquisitive energy of the age, it has added new and important means of study and investigation. The principles of interpretation which originated in the study of Egyptian monuments, have guided inquiries in other quarters of the globe, and the discovery of a key to the hieroglyphics of the Nile has thus reflected light on the progress of monumental researches throughout the world. The science of philology, so important in considering the affinities of nations, has been almost wholly created within fifty years. Franklin lived and died without a knowledge of it. Astronomy has been employed to some extent to detect the chronology of architectural ruins, and even the antique history of America has been ill.u.s.trated by the record of an eclipse among the ancient Mexican picture-writings.[7] Geology, in her labors to determine the character of the exhumed bones and sh.e.l.ls of extinct cla.s.ses of the animal creation of former eras, has not failed to impart the most important knowledge of the physical history of the planet we occupy. Electricity and magnetism have also enlarged their boundaries. Chemistry is in the process of fulfilling the highest expectations. All these sources of knowledge have been poured into the lap of geography and ethnography, and given us a far better and truer knowledge of the character, resources, and position of the nations of the world. And after making every allowance for the literary complacency of the age, we are yet unable to point to a prior epoch of the world when man had so fully recovered his position in the scale of civilization, and in the knowledge of the various phenomena in science, letters and arts, on which his true advance depends.

[7] Vide Gallatin's paper--Trans. Am. Eth. Society, vol. I.

With these evidences of intellectual progress and the increased power of modern inquiry, there are redoubled incentives to investigate the obscure period of American history. It has been said, prematurely, in the arrogance of European criticism, that America has "no fallen columns" to examine--"no inscriptions to decypher." We answer the a.s.sertion by pointing to the enigmatical walls of Palenque and Chi Chen Itza, and to the polished ruins of Cuzco, and the valley of Anahuac.

Researches in this field of observation have just commenced. Bigotry and l.u.s.t of conquest, led the early Spanish adventurers to sweep as with the besom of destruction every object and monument of art which stood in their way. Cortez razed the walls of ancient Mexico to the ground as he entered it, and his zealous followers committed to the flames whatever was light and combustible. This spirit marked the entire conquest which was carried on under the triple mania of religious bigotry, the l.u.s.t of gold, and the unchastened spirit of national robbery. We have to glean for facts among that which is left.

It is still an interesting field, but it has been hedged up since the conquest, by the jealous spirit and narrow policy of by far the most gloomy and non-progressive nation of Europe. Spanish chivalry has been extolled to the skies, but it has ever been the chivalry of the dark ages. She has fought for the antiquity of opinion, while she has guarded the avenue to facts. There are immense districts of Central and South America, which are yet a perfect terra incognita to the traveller and the antiquarian.

Entire tribes and nations in the gloomy ranges of the Andes and the Cordilleras have never submitted to the Spanish yoke, and still enjoy their original customs and inst.i.tutions. So far as modern explorations have been made, the results are, in a high degree, auspicious. Mr.

Stephens has opened vistas in our antiquarian history by his two exploratory journies, which tend to show how little we yet know of the ancient epochs of the country, and the field of inquiry is about to be occupied at various points under the highest advantages. Some of the figures and devices on the antique walls and temples of equinoctial America, appear to contain information for a future Young or Champollion to reveal. Time and scrutiny will do much to lift the veil of mystery from these ancient ruins, and to form and regulate sound opinion upon the ancient inhabitants of that quarter, and their state of arts. There can be no doubt that evidences exist in buried antiquities which will tend to connect the arts and religion, mythology and astronomy of the eastern and western hemispheres--to unravel the difficulties in the way of comparative philology, and to reconstruct and connect the links in the broken chain of national affiliation.

Even in our less attractive lat.i.tudes and longitudes, a more auspicious and healthy tone has been given to the spirit of investigation. A voice from one of our western mounds (which has been alluded to) promises to restore the reading of an inscription in one of the earliest alphabets of the world. Sculptures have recently been disclosed in some of the minor mounds of the West, which are executed in a polished style of art, and strongly connect the Mexican and American tribes. The figures of animals and birds, taken from some barrows in the Scioto valley, are executed in a manner quite equal to anything of the kind found in Mexico or Peru.