Aboriginal Races of America [pp. 59-92]

1853.] Aboriginal Races of America. 91
knowledge-one to Peru and another to Mexico-coming from
different quarters, and by people possessed of different de grees of knowledge. There is not in Peru any trace of
identity of the names of the days, or of a resort to the combi nation of two series. Their months were alternately of
twenty-nine and thirty days, to which eleven days were added
to complete the year.
Some of the astronomical observations of Mexico were,
also, clearly local; the two transits of the sun by the zenith
of Mexico and others.
A portion, then, at least, of the astronomical knowledge of
the aboriginal Americans was of domestic origin, and the
few points of contact with the calendars of the Old World,
if not accidental, must have taken place at an exceedingly
remote period of time; and whatever came from the Old
World was engrafted on a system still older.
If it be contended that astronomy was imported, why did
not the immigrants bring an alphabet or hieroglyphic system
of writing, the art of working iron, mills, wheel-barrows,
etc.?-all unknown in America; and at least the seeds of
millet, rice, wheat, oats, barley, etc., of their countries?
In conclusion, we have but to sum up the facts we have
detailed, which lead to the following results:
1. That the Continent of America was unknown not only
to the ancient Egyptians and Chinese, but to the more modern Hebrews, Greeks and Romans.
2. That, when discovered, this continent was populated
by millions of people resembling each other, possessing peculiar moral and physical characters, and unlike any people of
the Old World.
3. That these races were found every where surrounded
by animals and plants, specifically different from those of
the Old World, and which, it is conceded, were created in
America.
4. That these races were found speaking several hundred
languages, which, though resembling each other in grammatical structure, often differed entirely in their vocabularies,
and which were all radically distinct from the languages of
the Old World.