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. But imperfect as is our knowledge of the tongues spoken in America, it suffices to discover the following remarkable fact: Arranging them under the radical ones to which they may be palpably traced, and doing the same by those of the red men of Asia, there will be found probably twenty in America, for one in Asia, of those radical languages, so called because if they were ever the same they have lost all resemblance to one another. A separation into dialects may be the work of a few ages only, but for two dialects to recede from one another till they have lost all vestiges of their common origin, must require an immense course of time; perhaps not less than many people give to the age of the earth. A greater number of those radical changes of lan guage having taken place among the red men of America, proves them of greater antiquity than those of Asia. I will now proceed to state the nations and numbers of the Aborigines which still exist in a respectable and independent form. And as their undefined boundaries would render it difficult to specify those only which may be within any certain limits, and it may not be unacceptable to present a more general view of them, I will reduce within the form of a catalogue all those within, and circumjacent to, the United States, whose names and numbers have come to my notice. These are taken from four different lists, the first of which was given in the year 1759 to General Stanwix by George Croghan, deputy agent for Indian affairs under Sir William Johnson; the second was drawn up by a French trader of considerable note, resident among the Indians many years, and annexed to Colonel Bouquet's printed account of his expedition in 1764. The third was made out by Captain Hutchins, who visited most of the tribes, by order, for the purpose of learning their numbers, in 1768; and the fourth by John Dodge, an Indian trader, in 1779, except the numbers marked *-which are from other information. Northward and Westward of the United States. River St. Laurence. River St. Laurence. Towards the heads of the Ottawas river. Towards the heads of the Ottawas river. Riviere aux Tetes boules, on the east side of Lake Superior. Lakes Huron and Superior. Lake Christianaux. Lake Assinaboes. 1,500 2,500 10,000 1,800 10,000 1,100 2,000 1,709 500 1,000 1,600 400 600 3,000 2,000 700 } On the heads of the Mississippi and westward of that river. (Near Cahokia. Query, If not the same with On the Illinois river, called Pianrias, but sup- Near Fort St. Joseph's and Fort Detroit. Near Michillimackinac. Near Fort St. Mary's on Lake Superior. Near Puans bay on Lake Michigan. Ottawa s... Chippawas Màscoutens Within the limits of the United States. 500 4,000 ... Musquakies 200 250 250 500 |