A History of the United States before the Revolution, with some account of the Aborigines

Front matter

-V HISTORY ot THE UNITED STATES BEFORE THE REVOLUTION: WITH SOME ACCOUNT or %ty 2Ujorigine& BY EZEKIEL SANFORD. PHILADELPHIA: PUBLISHED BY ANTHONY FINLEY. William Brown, Printer. 1819. Eastern District of Pennsylvania, to wit : Be it remembered, That on the nineteenth day of February, in the forty-third year of the independence of the United States of America, A. D. 1819, Ezekiel Sanford, of the said district, hath deposited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof he claims as author, in the words following, to wit : "A History ofthe United States before the Revolution : with some Account ofthe Aborigines. By Ezekiel Sanford." In conformity to the act of the congress of the United States, entitled, "An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned." — And also to the act, entitled, "An act supplementary to an act, entitled, 'An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times therein mentioned,' and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints." D. CALDWELL, Clerk ofthe Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

ADVERTISEMENT.

. THE title of this volume might appear a solecism, il the reader were not made acquainted with the plan of the author. He divides our history into three separate periods: — the history Before the Revolution, the history During the Revolution; and the history Since live Revolution. Though we have not always been known by the same name, we have always been essentially the same people; and, for the uniformity of tide, the reader may be willing to excuse a little inaccuracy of language. The present volume has been written during the vacant hours of a person not yet involved in business; and whether he will here after find leisure, or encouragement, to complete the work, time alone can determine.

Section I

Fabulous History. — Different Pretenders to the Original Discovery of America — The Phœnicians — The Welsh — The Chinese — The Norwegians — The Germans: — America, how originally peopled ? — By the Europeans ? — By the Asiatics? — Or by Neither? PLATO, we believe, is the earliest author, who has given us the description of a country, which might be taken for America. While yet a boy, he says, he was told by his grandfather, that, after the gods had divided the universe, Neptune took to himself a mortal spouse; and, having several children, bestowed upon them their rightful portions of his empire. To Atlas, the eldest, he gave a vast island, beyond the Pillars of Hercules; which, after him, was called At lantis. Never, perhaps, was a king blessed with so rich and beautiful a country, or so prosperous and happy a people.

The bowels of the earth teemed with the precious metals; while the surface displayed a SEC. I. X THE ABORIGINES. every variety of nutricious and aromatic plant, root, fruit, and flower. The woods furnished a covert for all descriptions of useful and comely beasts; and were replete with birds of every sort, whether distinguished by the beauty of their plumage, or the melody of their notes. Innumerable ships, capacious harbours, mag nificent bridges, splendid edifices, gymnasia, hippodro mes, aqueducts, reservoirs, — every thing, in a word, which indicates the highest state of opulence, prosperity, and civilization, — might be found in the felici tous dominions of Atlas. The temple of Neptune alone was six hundred and twenty-five feet long, and three hundred and sixty broad; with spires of silver, columns of gold, and walls and pavements of brass.

This vision was too bright to be permanent; and, that the end of the story might be consistent with the begin ning, the whole island of Atlantis is said to have been swallowed up, at last, by a voracious whirlpool.* Most readers would take this to be a new proof of the observation, that Plato was a poet by nature, and a philosopher by chance: yet there are not wanting ancients, who assert the actual existence of such an island as Atlantis; nor moderns, who imagine that island to have been no other than America. Some thing like truth is conjectured to be the substratum of * Plat, in Tim. et Chit. Opera.

Lugdini. 1690. pp. 525. 561, 562 The story was first told to Solon by an Egyptian priest. all heathen factions; and the story of Plato's grandfather is supposed to have been fabricated from the traditional accounts of the Phœnicians; who, as we are told, performed two voyages, at least, to this hemisphere; — the first, it would seem, from a deliberate predetermination, under the same Atlas of whom we have just spoken; — the second, much against their will, in consequence of a violent storm, which drove their vessel from the coast of Africa, and carried her to an extensive island or continent far to the west of Lybia.* From Phœnicia the knowledge ofthe New World would, of course, be transferred to Carthage; and Aristotle is quoted as saying, that the merchants of the latter performed such frequent voyages hither, as to make the senate fear the depopulation of their city, and endeavour to prevent it by law.f The voyage of Atlas may have been the origin of the account already given; but we can find no special reason for believing this to be the real prose of the fable; and, even if we should admit such a voyage to have been performed, it will by no means follow, that Atlas came to America; for the vast island, according to Plato's own account, was not beyond sight from the Pillars of Hercules.

The second voyage, if it may be so called, is quite as improbable as the first. That * Hornivs de Origine Gent. Amer. 1. i. c. 6. — Diod. Sic. I. v. c. 19. t Akistot. de Mund. c. 3. SEC. I. XII THE ABORIGINES. a vessel should be blown off the coast of Africa, and driven to this continent, is not surely impossible, — though the course of winds must have strangely shifted since that time: but, without chart, or compass, or much astronomical skill, how was she to get back, to carry the intelligence? Our authors are not satisfied with this absurdity. They suppose the Phœnicians, not only to have made a voyage or two; but to have planted colonies here, and carried on a trade between the two continents. This would give us new ideas of their proficiency in the arts and sciences, which are subservient to navigation; but, without resorting to so invidious a topic, we may mention a single circumstance, which, it ap pears to us, will equally refute all the stories of early European colonies.

Making every allowance for modern degeneracy, we suppose it will hardly be con tended, that the ancients were completely proof against the original climate of the New World; and, if only a half or a third as many of them perished in their at tempts at colonization, as were lost in those of more modern times, the facts would have become so noto rious as to have enabled their historians to give us authentic statements, instead of obscure fables. The Welsh are the next claimants to the original. discovery of America. In the year 1 170, the sons of Owen Gwyneth are said to have contested the suecession to North Wales; the eldest being 'counted ' unmeet to govern, because of the maim upon his ' face.' Madoc, one of the brothers, seems to have thought, that his own prospect was hopeless, or that it was hardly worth while to quarrel for so trifling a stake; and he resolved to seek some other region, where it would not be necessary to establish his title by force, or to maintain it by oppression.

Sailing westward, from the northernmost point of Ireland, he came, at length, to a country, where, though he ' saw 'many strange things,' he found no inhabitants; and where, of course, he might rule, without the fear of competition or dethronement. He returned to pro vide himself with subjects; and, setting sail again, with a number of ships, is supposed to have planted a colony in the New World.* This tale only exists in the traditional poetry of the Welsh; and, though it found converts during the last century, the expedi tion of Lewis and Clarke has dissipated the fable of Welsh Indians up the Missouri. Sir John Mandeville, who wrote in the fourteenth century, has a still more extraordinary story, concerning an early British adventurer. He is endeavouring to prove, from his own experience, that the earth is round; and, since his speculations were published a * Powell's Hist, of Wales.

Ap. Hackluyt's Voyages, vol. iii. pp 506-7. SEC. I. XIV THE ABORIGINES. century before the voyages of Columbus, they must take from the latter the praise of originality, in sug gesting the existence of new continents, or the cir cumnavigability of the globe. As the people to the north, he observes, guide themselves by the 'lode sterre;' so those of the south are guided by a similar star, called the f antartyke.' ' For whiche cause, (he adds,) men may wel perceyve, that the lond and the see ben of rownde schapp and forme. For the partie of the firmament schewethe in o contree, that schew ethe not in another contree. And men may well preven by experience and sotyle compassement of wytt, that zif a man fond passages be schippes, hat wolde go to serchen the worlde, men might go be schippe all aboute the worlde, and aboven and bene then.' He then shows much ' experience and sotyle compassement of wytt,' in proof of the fact; and con cludes, as he began, ' that men may envirowne alle the erthe of alle the world, as well under as aboven, and turn azen to his contree, that hadde companye and schippynge and conduyt: and all weyes he scholde fynde men, londes, and yles, als wel as in this contree.' As an additional proof of his assertion, he sub joins the story just alluded to. 'And therefore,' he says, ' hath it befallen many times of a thing, (we drop the old orthography,) that I have heard counted, when I was young: how a worthy man departed some time from our country, for to go to search the world.

Aud so he passed India, and the islands beyond India, where there are more than five thousand islands: and so long he went by sea and land, and so environed the world by many seasons, that he found an island, where he heard his own language spoken, calling on oxen in the plough, such words as men speak to beasts in his own country: whereof he had great marvel: for he knew not how it might be. But I say that he had gone so long, by land and by sea, that he was coming again environing; that is to say, going about to his own marches, ' zif he wold have passed forth, till he had founden his contree and his own know leche.'* The Chinese are, also, said to have visited Ame rica, before its discovery by Columbus. It was in the year 1270, that China was overrun by the Tar tars; and it is supposed, that a body of one hundred thousand inhabitants, refusing obedience to their new masters, set sail, in one thousand ships, to find a new country, or perish in the enterprise.

The origin of Mexico is thus ascertained; and, that the account might be confirmed to demonstration, some authors tell us, that the wrecks of Chinese vessels have been * Johnson's History ofthe English Language. SEC. f. XVI THE ABORIGINES, seen in Florida and Quivira.* We must question, whether this people were then sufficiently skilful in navigation to double Cape Horn; and we can find no good reason, why they should sail around the whole continent of South America, to arrive at a place, which might have been retched by so much shorter a route. Of all nations, the Chinese are the most obsti nately attached to their own soil ; and, when we add, that, though both they and the Tartars have historians for this period, no mention is made by either of so no table an event,f little credit, we think, can be given to the story.

Next come the Norwegians. We have not been enabled to investigate the evidence of their claims; and, indeed, nearly all we know on the subject, is contained in a letter from Dr. Franklin to Mr. Mather, dated London, July 7, 1773. 'You have,' says he, ' made the most of your argument, to prove that Ame rica was known to the ancients. There is another discovery of it claimed by the Norwegians, which you have not mentioned, unless it be under the words 'of old viewed and observed,' page 7. About twenty-five years since, Professor Kalm, a learned Swede, was with us in Pennsylvania. He contended, that Ame rica was discovered by their northern people, long * Horns, ut sup. I. iii. c. 4, 5 ; or Hahhis' Voyages, Introd \ Hist, of China. Anc, Univ. Hist. vol. xx. before the time of Columbus; which I doubting, he drew up aud gave me, some time after, a note of these discoveries which I send you inclosed.'* We believe, this notion was first proinulged by Grotius; who divides America into the Septentrional and Middle; and conjectures, that, while the former was settled by the Norwegians, the people of the latter came from China, Æthiopia, and other countries.

The honour of discovering America was once claimed for the Normans; but their pretensions were founded upon an obscure passage in an obscure author; and, if they have not been abandoned by the nation itself, they find no supporters beyond the limits of its territory. The Germans may equally despair of success. It is said, upon what good authority, we know not, that one Martinus, a noble Bohemian, discovered the coast of Brazil and the Straits of Ma gellan, long before the voyages of Columbus; and some German authors have stoutly laboured to per suade the world, that the continent should be called Bohemia, instead of America. ' But, (it is gravely answered by a certain historian,) supposing that the particulars relating to Martinus' discoveries were much better supported than we really take them to * Fbask.

Works, Amer. Edit. vol. vi. p. 77. We are ashamed to quote so vile an edition of our philosopher's works; but there is no other at hand. b THE ABORIGINES. SEC. I. be, insomuch that there was not the least reason to doubt the certainty of them, yet as the name of Ame rica has been so long used by the European nations, it would not be proper, at this time of day, to substi tute another in its place.'* Some moderns have devised a new way of solving the riddle of Plato; and, as it seems absurd to sup pose, that the early Europeans or Asiatics introduced themselves to America by long voyages, the later authors endeavour to obviate the necessity of any voyage at all. The Hindoos relate a fable concern ing the destruction of an island, called Atala: the Irish have a vague tradition about the loss of land by earthquakes: the Giant's Causeway is supposed to have some connexion with the subject; and it is observed, that many of the islands, in the Atlantic and Pacific, either are, or have been, the seats of volcanos.

From such data as these, we are called upon to believe, that an extent of territory, from the western coast of Europe to the eastern shore of Asia, has been sunk by a series of earthquakes; that the islands, just men tioned, are merely the tops of its mountains; and that the inhabitants of those islands are the posterity of such as were left on dry land, in the general submer sion.f As giants may be killed with pebble-stones, a * Anc. Univ. Hist. vol. xx. p. 194-5. t Ope of our own countrymen has thrown together many new facts in support of this theory. See Researches in America, &c. By James theory too monstrous is easily subverted by a single fact. Does an earthquake give men time to fly to the tops of mountains? Or were men, at that period, so different from what they are now, as to settle upon the hills, instead ofthe vales?

By far the most numerous class of writers are of opinion, that America was peopled by wanderers from Asia, across Behring's Strait. The shortest distance between the two continents, at this place, is only forty miles: the strait is entirelyfrozen over in winter; and, as there are known to be inhabitants upon the two opposite shores, it seems easy to conclude, that they once belonged to the same people. The objection, that the Tchutchi, on the Asiatic, and the Esquimaux, on the American side, are very different from the other tribes of the respective continents, is by no means conclusive; for it still remains to be determined, whether peculiarities of climate, and different modes of life, are not sufficient to account for all these diversities of feature, form, and habit. Perhaps, indeed, the only insurmountable objection to this hypothesis, is, that, to account for the emigration of men, will unveil but half of the mystery: — our ani mals, too, must have come from Noah's ark; and the misfortune of the theory, is, that it supposes beasts H. M'Cclloch, M. D. Bait. 1817.

American authors have not yet the leisure to write with method, or with elegance ; and this book seems to hare been composed and printed in the same spirit of haste and carelessness. SEC. I. XX THE ABORIGINES. and birds, which cannot exist beyond the tropical pa rallels, to have crossed over at a place, where spirits of wine are almost congealed. The only remaining explanation, which will be likely to find supporters, is, that the aboriginal men and animals of America were not destroyed in the flood, aud have been the progenitors of its present native inhabitants. Something may be urged, with plausibility, at least, to reconcile this hypothesis with scriptural history. As Moses was only acquainted with the Old World, he may be supposed to have spoken only of that: it was the sins of the Old World which required purification; and, though the flood might have covered every mountain, on the other con tinent, it would not have reached the top of many, in this.* Some of the Indian tribes are said to have a tradition, that their first parents were saved from an universal deluge, by flying to the summits of mountains; and it is acknowledged, that there are many genera of animals in America, which have no proto type in the other hemisphere. * We have not noticed the fact, that animal remains are found upon the summits of mountains.

No person has yet surmounted the tops ofthe Andes. Similar remains are found in mines. Those who adduce the circumstance, to prove the absolute universality of the deluge, suppose that the earth was then reduced to chaos ; but the globe could hardly be dissolved by an immersion in water for only forty days ; and, if the appearance of these remains may be accounted for, from a chaos at all, it is much -more rational to refer them to the original chaos. To all this, it may be answered, that the supposition of Moses' ignorance is entirely gratuitous; that the words of our English Bible — 'it repented the Lord, that he had made man' — can hardly be recon ciled with the idea of restricting his vengeance to the Old World; that the Indian traditions, besides being imperfectly ascertained, are obscure and contradic tory; and that the topic of a difference in the kind of animals, while it is not founded upon absolute facts, would equally prove, that some parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa, escaped the waters of the flood.

What should induce the sukotyro to keep within the bounds of Asia? Whence is it, that the hippopotamus and hyrax are only found in Africa? Why will the dodo inhabit no other islands than those of France, Bour bon, and Roderegues in the Indian Ocean? Or what reason can be found, for the attachment of the con dor to the peaks of the Andes? This is taking it for granted, that the differences in question are undoubtedly real; but the progress of discovery is daily prov ing animals to be common to both hemispheres, which were formerly supposed to be peculiar to one; and it is not for the present generation to say, that half a century will not establish the universality of them all. It may, also, be urged against the latter theory, that, unless the nature of the globe has undergone some surprising change, it will be as difficult to con- SEC.

I. XXII THE ABORIGINES. ceive how the antediluvian men and animals came hither, as to account for their emigration since the flood. It must be remembered, however, that the difficulty is not so much to ascertain the mode, in which the human race peopled this continent, as to explain that, in which beasts and birds effected their transit. There is a remarkable difference, not only in the scriptural history,— but in the specific qualities, ofthe two races. We are not told, that no more than one pair of each bird and beast was, at first, created; nor that they were only created in the vicinity of Paradise. The Lord commands the 'earth' to pro duce animals, in nearly the same language as he com mands the water to move with fish; and, while it is almost certain, that the various fish of the ocean, — particularly the whale, — could not have lived in the rivers of Paradise, it is hardly possible, that animals, which can only exist in particular temperatures, should have been all produced in the Garden of Eden.

Man, on tire contrary, is capable of enduring any climate: and a nation is said to have been found as high as the sixty-sixth parallel; who suppose, that they own the whole earth, and are its sole inhabitants. It was not necessary, therefore, to create different pairs of the human race for the different portions of the globe. But, without such a provision in the case of animals, it will forever remain a mystery, how they ascertained the particular zones, to which their respective natures are adapted; nor will it be any easier to account for their dispersion over the old continent, than to de vise the mode of their emigration to this. Here may be the proper place to notice an author. who denies the universality ofthe deluge; and thinks, he has found indubitable marks of antediluvian ex istence, in the monuments of Mexico and Peru.* We cannot follow him through five volumes of desultory speculation; and perhaps it will be enough to state,. that he explains the fable of Plato by supposing, that, before the flood, the Old and New Worlds were united by a vast isthmus, now sunk in the Pacific.

Indeed, if we rightly comprehend him, he means, that the flood itself was no more than the submersion of the intermediate continent. The idea is not entirely original; for it was observed, of old, that Plato was only Moses speaking in Greek. Lord Bacon has still another version of the story. ' If you consider well,' says he, ' of the people of the West Indies, it is very probable, that they are a newer, or a younger people than the people ofthe Old World; and it is much more likely, that the destruction that hath heretofore been there, was not by earthquakes. * Essai sur cette question : quand et comment l'Amerique a-t-elle ete peuplee d'Hommes et d'Animaux ? Par E. B. d'E. 5 tomes 12mo. Amsterdam, 1767. SEC. i. TIIE ABORIGINES. (as the Ægyptian priest told Solon, concerning the Island of Atlantis, that it was swallowed by an earth quake,) but rather that it was desolated by a particular deluge: for earthquakes are seldom in these parts: but on the other side, they have such pouring rivers, as the rivers of Asia and Africa and Europe, are but brooks to them.

Their Andes likewise, or mountains, are far higher than those with us; whereby it seems, that the remnants of generations of men were in such a particular deluge, saved.'* Thus, no two authors can agree upon the same interpretation; and, while one makes the Indians the oldest, another proves them the newest, people on the globe. Turn which way we will, then, there appear to be contradictions, which it would be hard to recon cile, and obstacles, which it is almost impossible to surmount. It may be, that the incompetency of the writer is mistaken for the difficulty of the subject. There may be a thread, by which he can rule his blind footsteps; but it will be confessed, at least, that, while the labyrinth is dark and intricate, our lights are few, dim, and unsteady. Were we obliged to make a choice, perhaps we should pitch upon the theory, which supposes the deluge to have been complete only in the Old World.

It does not imply any re volting absurdity: some modification of it has been * Bacon's Essay Of the Vicissitudes of Things. supported by the ablest writers upon the subject* and it will serve to explain more of the phenomena, than either of the others. On the contrary, we do not be lieve, that any scheme can be formed to derive the aborigines of the Americas from Asia, Europe, or Africa, which, in the present state of knowledge, may not be perplexed with numerous and irremoveable objections. Were it not for the birds and beasts, per haps the second theory would be the most plausible; but, to exclude animals from the calculation, is to abandon the Mosaic history: and, if we once lose sight of that, there is no more reason for making the Ame ricans descendents from the Asiatics, than the Asiatics descendents from the Americans.

Three topics of argument are generally resorted to, in the discussion of this subject. — similarities of language, traditions, manners, and monuments, — which we have reserved for a separate consideration, because they are not exclusively applicable to any particular theory. It is their greatest objection, indeed, that they have been applied with equal success to all. We cannot take the pains to enumerate the different hypotheses, which three centuries have produced, to develop and elucidate this mystery; but, in all the va rious idioms of language, and modes of life, which distinguish the aborigiual tribes of America, we have * Bacon, Humbolt, E. B. d'E, &c C SEC. I. XXVI THE ABORIGINES, never known an author sail of finding a sufficient number of etymologies, customs, and ceremonies, to support the particular idea, which he has started or espoused.

Though there may be ten dissimilarities for one resemblance, and though that one resemblance be imperfect and obscure, the novelty of a beautiful hypothesis eclipses all other considerations; and tribes, which can hardly be said to have a single thing in common, are pronounced to be branches ofthe same people. Solinus mentions a nation of Asiatics, called the Apalaei; and, in Herodotus, we read of the Massa getæ, in the neighbourhood of the Caspian Sea. The former are found in the Apalachi of Florida; the latter in the Mazaticæ of New Spain, and the Mas sachusitæ of New England. Ptolemy speaks of the Tabieni; and the Tambi were an ancient nation of Peru. The Cunadani inhabited the north of Asia; and there was a city in Upper Hungary, called Chunad. No person, therefore, could mistake the derivation of Canada.

The Chonsuli about Nicaragua are identi fied with the Hunni, or Chuni; and the Parii of Scythia are supposed to have named the South Ame rican region of Paria. The Hurons are a branch of the Huyrones, who live in the neighbourhood of the Moguls. The Olopali of Florida, the Nepi of Trini dad, and the Iroquois, of the north, are the same with the Parii, the Nepi, and the Irycæ of Herodotus. The Moguls are the progenitors of the Tomogali and Mogoles about the River La Plata; and how nearly do the Choten, Baita, and Tangur, of Great Tartary, resemble the Coton of Chili, and the Paita and Tan gora of Peru? The Japanese are found under both their appellations. The Chiapanecæ about Nicara gua retain their common name; and the Zipangri of Hispaniola, the one, which was given them by the Tartars. The word Sacks is one synonime of the Celts; and there is a tribe of Indians, who have the same name, to a letter.

The Abydos of the Greeks has since been called Nagara; and our Niagara corres ponds with it, both in name and situation. The Peruvians think, they descended from one Mancu; and there are Manchew Tartars. The natives of Virginia and Guatimala are said to have a tradition concerning Madoc; and his name has been detected as a part of the Guatimalan Matoc-Zunga and Mat- Inga. The double L of the Spanish is said to have been derived from the Mexicans,* who took it from the Welsh; and, when the Dutch first carried to Eu rope a bird, which they found at the Straits of Magel lan, and which the natives called Penguin, the Welsh * It is a little singular, that, while the Mexicans are said to have two l's, the Cherokees cannot pronounce one. Barton's New Views of the Origin of the Tribes and Nations of America.