Page:Notes on the State of Virginia (1802).djvu/152

138 are the deſcendants of the latter, or the latter of the former: excepting indeed the Eſkimaux, who, from the ſame circumſtances of reſemblance, and from indentity of language, muſt be derived from the Groenlanders, and theſe probably from ſome of the northern parts of the old continent. A knowledge of their ſeveral languages would be the moſt certain evidence of their derivation which could be produced. In fact, it is the beſt proof of the affinity of nations which ever can be referred to. How many ages have elapſed ſince the Engliſh, the Dutch, the Germans, the Swiſs, the Norwegians, Danes and Swedes have ſeparated from their common ſtock? Yet how many more muſt elapſe before the proofs of their common origin, which exiſt in their ſeveral languages, will diſappear? It is to be lamented then, very much to be lamented, that we have ſuffered ſo many of the Indian tribes already to extinguiſh, without our having previouſly collected and depoſited in the records of literature, the general rudiments at leaſt of the languages they ſpoke. Were vocabularies formed of all the languages ſpoken in North and South America, preſerving their appellations of the moſt common objects in nature, of thoſe which muſt be preſent to every nation barbarous or civilized, with the inflections of their nouns and verbs, their principles of regimen and concord, and theſe depoſited in all the public libraries, it would furniſh opportunities to thoſe ſkilled in the languages of the old world to compare them with theſe, now, or at any future time, and hence to conſtruct the beſt evidence of the derivation of this part of the human race.