A TOUR, &c.

CHAPTER I.

ORIGIN OF THE AMERICAN INDIANS.

I HAVE tried hard to be made wise on this question, and am obliged to confess, that I know not a more convenient way of disposing of it, than a hint given by Elias Boudinot, Esq. of New Jersey, America, the first president of the American Bible Society, in his "Star in the West," a book devoted exclusively to this topic. The religious world will not have forgotten the Rev. Dr. Buchanan's "Star in the East," and its many interesting disclosures. The Honourable Mr. Boudinot, after having wrapped himself in the vision of Esdras, as narrated in

his second book, chapter thirteenth, imagines, that he has discovered a Star in the West.

"And it came to pass," says Esdras, "after seven days, I dreamed a dream by night." If any of the expounders of apocryphal records can interpret this dream from the 1st verse to the 39th of the chapter inclusive, I shall certainly be thankful, even though it comes too late to help me out of the present difficulty; and so also from the 46th verse to the end. From the 40th verse to the 45th inclusive, if the meaning be not self-evident, as a fragment of the interpretation of the vision, we are given to understand by the author of the "Star in the West,” that it is to be regarded, as a grave historical account of the migration of the ten tribes of Israel, from the regions into which they were carried captive by Salmanazer, king of Assyria, to the straits of Kamskatka, (Euphrates in the text, by a figure) across which," the flood being held still," or frozen over, they passed to the American continent. It is assumed, that this distant migration of this people into unknown regions, was a known fact, in the time of Esdras; and that this fragment of the interpretation is merely an application of the vision to the fact, so far as known, and an extension of its historical traces, under the guidance of common

CYTILOBMIY

report; so that the credit claimed is only what may be considered as fairly due to the common records of the time. Not, that all the children of the captives of Israel left those regions and crossed to America; for the Tartars claim to have descended from these ancient Hebrews, and Tamerlane is said to have boasted, that he belonged to the tribe of Dan. But it is understood, that a large emigration went that way, embarked from the coast, and were thenceforth separated from their brethren behind.

"Those are the ten tribes," says the text of Esdras, verses 40-45, "who were carried away prisoners out of their own land, in the time of Osea the king, whom Salmanazer, the king of Assyria, led away captive, and he carried them over the waters, and so came they into another land. But they took this counsel among themselves, that they would leave the multitude of the heathen, and go forth into a further country, where never mankind dwelt; that they might there keep their statutes, which they never kept in their own land. And they entered into Euphrates, by the narrow passages of the river." That is, they embarked on the straits, which separated the two continents. "For the Most High then shewed signs for them, and held still the flood, till they were passed over." This miracle.

is characteristic of Esdras, who dresses up all his facts in a similar garb. It is sufficient to understand, that they crossed in a way most convenient, on ice, or by navigation. And besides, as those are asserted to be volcanic regions, the two continents at that time might have approached much nearer than at present. "For through that country there was a great way to go, namely, of a year and a half." The journey we know to be long, and the historian had his own reasons for specifying a time between the taking up of the march and of the embarkation reasons, founded on report, or conjecture.

Thus far the theory of the author of the "Star in the West," who (accidentally, as he says, and) very luckily hit upon this vision of Esdras, as a hint and a guide. He dissents from Sir William Jones, that the Affghans are the ten tribes; and thinks, that Sir William himself has either proved, or allowed them to be of the tribe of Benjamin.

The author under review has this advantage: that, as nobody can prove the negative of his proposition, unless physical impossibilities can be interposed, all the probabilities he can muster are so much evidence. And clearly, there is no impossibility. The way being open, then, for

the possible, and not improbable emigration of certain portions of the ten tribes, and perhaps the great body of them, from those regions, in which they were planted by Salmanazer, into the American continent, it is proper to attend to the evidence, which the American Aborigines themselves exhibit of such an origin.

The substance and shape of Mr. Boudinot's theory, it will be understood, is this: First, that according to the sacred record (2 Kings xvii.) the king of Assyria, having found treason in Hoshea, king of Israel, whom he had previously reduced and made tributary, in the ninth year of Hoshea's reign, came again upon Samaria, and made a sweeping and clean work, and carried the entire people "away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah, and in Habor, by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes. And instead of the children of Israel, the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria. And they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof. Thus the Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight. There was none left but the tribe of Judah," it being understood, that Judah comprehended Benjamin in common parlance. "So was Israel