Advance of Civilization.
Aboriginal America (American History, Vol. I)
by
Jacob Abbott
New York: Sheldon & Company. Boston: Gould & Lincoln. 1860
Preface
It is the design of this work to narrate, in a clear, simple, and
intelligible manner, the leading events connected with the history of our
country, from the earliest periods, down, as nearly as practicable, to the
present time. The several volumes will be illustrated with all necessary maps
and with numerous engravings, and the work is intended to comprise, in a
distinct and connected narrative, all that it is essential for the general
reader to understand in respect to the subject of it, while for those who have
time for more extended studies, it may serve as an introduction to other and
more copious sources of information.
The author hopes also that the work may be found useful to the young, in
awakening in their minds an interest in the history of their country,
and a desire for further instruction in respect to it. While it is doubtless
true that such a subject can be really grasped only by minds in some degree
mature, still the author believes that many young persons, especially such as
are intelligent and thoughtful in disposition and character, may derive both
entertainment and instruction from a perusal of these pages.
Chapter 1
Types of Life in America.
Subject of the Volume
The first step to be taken in studying the history of our country is to form
some clear and proper conception of the characteristics and condition of the
territory which is now occupied by the American people, as it existed when first
discovered and explored by Europeans. The aboriginal condition of the country,
therefore, anterior to its occupation by white men, and the character and
condition of the native tribes which then inhabited it, will be the subject of
this volume.
Origin of Vegetable and Animal Life in America
When the new world was first discovered it was found to be, like the old,
well stocked with plants and animals, and inhabited by a great many tribes and
nations of men; and yet the plants and animals, if not the men, were all essentially different from those known in the old
world. This was unexpected; it was thought to be quite remarkable, and it added
greatly to the difficulty of deciding the question, which, of course, at once
arose, in respect to the origin of these plants and animals and men, and to the
manner in which they came in possession of a continent thus cut off apparently
from all intercourse and connection with the rest of the world.
For the American continent is entirely separated from the old. The nearest
approach which it makes to it in any part is at Behring's Straits, on the
north-west, where it is divided form the Asiatic continent by a channel about
forty miles wide.
Means of Communication With the Old World.
Some animals and perhaps some plants, and most certainly man, may be supposed
to have been transported across such a channel of water as this of Behring's
Straits, either by boats made by the savages living on the coasts, or possibly
by means of ice, either upon moving fields driven by the wind, or upon the solid
surface, at some time when the whole channel was entirely frozen over.
There is also at some distance south of Behring's Straits a remarkable chain
of islands, called the Aleutian Islands, which extend in a regular and continuous line from the
American to the Asiatic shore. These islands are nearly all inhabited, and the
natives navigate the seas around them in boats made of a frame-work of wood or
bone, covered externally with seal skins.
These islands are volcanic. They contain now numerous volcanoes, some active
and some extinct, and also hot springs and other indications of subterranean
fire. They bear no trees, but they produce a great variety of animals. They
look, upon the map, like a row of stepping stones, placed on purpose to enable
men and animals from the old world to make their way to the new.
It is perhaps possible to imagine also that a company of men might have been
forced accidentally to sea in some large canoe from the coast of Africa, or on
the other side from some of the islands of the Pacific, and so driven across the
intervening water, and landed upon the American shores. It is true that it would
be exceedingly improbable that any such combination of circumstances would occur
as could lead to such a result. The canoe or boat must have been very large, the
stock of provisions very great, and the wind, while it must not have been
violent enough to engulf the boat, must still have blown very long and very steadily to have carried a company of men so far before they all
perished of hunger and thirst. All this would have been very improbable. Still
it would be difficult to show that it could not occur. From the hundreds and
perhaps thousands of boats full of savages that have been blown off to sea from
the coasts of Africa, or from the South Sea Islands, it would be impossible to
prove positively that there could never have been one that by any chance could
have reached the American shores.
There is still another mode by which we can imagine the animal and vegetable
life of America to have been communicated to it from other regions, and that is,
by supposing that there was in former ages some direct connection between the
two continents by a tract of land which has since become submerged. It is well
known now that the crust of the earth is not in a stable condition. It is
subject to changes and movements of various kinds, which are now going forward
all the time, and have probably always been going forward. In some places the
land is slowly rising; in others it is slowly subsiding. There are many places
in the world where towns and cities which formerly stood high and dry on the
land are now under water. The land has slowly subsided, so that the sea at the present time flows over it, and people passing in boats now look down and
see the old foundations, and fragments of the fallen walls and columns, at the
bottom.
The rising and sinking of the land in this way can only be directly and
positively proved in places which lie along the sea shore, for nowhere else is
there any exact standard of comparison by which the rising or falling may be
measured. But it is now generally believed by geologists and philosophers that a
state of gradual motion, rising in some places and sinking in others, is the
natural and constant condition, or, as it is more scientifically expressed, the
normal condition of the strata which form the crust of the globe. Of the causes
which lead to this state of things it would be out of place to speak here, but
there is no doubt of the fact; and this action is in no part of the world going
on so actively and with so sensible an effect as on some of the coasts of
America.
Now, although these changes of level proceed in an extremely gradual manner,
so that the inhabitants that dwell upon the territory thus slowly rising or
falling are, in most cases, wholly unconscious of the motion, still the effect
might be sufficient, in the course of forty or fifty centuries, to submerge a
very extensive tract of land, which in remote ages may have formed a connection between the American continent and
other lands lying to the eastward or westward of it.
The Plants and Animals of America Generally New.
These and various other similar theories were devised in former times in
endeavors to contrive some way of bringing plants and animals from other
countries to America; but they have been generally considered unsatisfactory,
since on coming fully to examine the plants and animals living here, they were
found to be, as it seemed, essentially different from those found in other
countries, so different as to render it very improbable, according to the ideas
on this subject that have hitherto generally prevailed, that they could ever be
descended from the same stock, at least by ordinary generation. The fauna and
the flora were both found to be in general essentially dissimilar.
We say in general, for there are some animals, such as birds, that might
easily fly across the ocean, and sea-weeds, that might drift across, and polar
animals, such as bears, seals, foxes and dogs, and the like, which go and come
as they will, all over the Arctic seas, that were found common to both worlds.
With a moderate number of exceptions such as these, however, the plants and animals found in America proved on
examination to be entirely ...
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