guifh, without our having previously collected and depofited in the records of literature, the general rudi. ments at least of the languages they fpoke. Were vocabularies formed of all the languages fpoken in North and South America,preferving their appellations of the most common objects in nature, of those which must be prefent to every nation barbarous or civilized, with the inflections of their nouns and verbs, their principles of regimen and concord, and these deposit- ́ ed in all the public libraries, it would furnish opportunities to those skilled in the languages of the old world to 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 fpoken in America, it fuffices to discover the following remarkable fact. Arranging them under the radical ones to which they may be palpably traced and doing the fame by thofe of the red men of Afia, there will be found probably twenty in America, for one in Afia, of those radical languages, fo called, because, if they were ever the fame they have loft all refem. blance to one another. A feparation into dialects may be the work of a few ages only, but for two dialects to recede from one another till they have loft all vestiges of their common origin, muft require an immense course of time; perhaps not lefs than many people give to the age of the earth. A greater number of those radical changes of language having taken. place place among the red men of America, proves them of greater antiquity than those of Afia, I will now proceed to ftate the nations and num bers of the Aborigines which still exist in a respect able and independent form. And as their undefined boundaries would render it difficult to fpecify thofe only which may be within any certain limits, and it may not be unacceptable to prefent a more general view of them, I will reduce within the form of a cat. alogue all thofe within, and circumjacent to, the U nited States, whose names and numbers have come to. my notice. These are taken from four different lifts, the first of which was given in the year 1759 to gen eral Stanwix by George Croghan, deputy agent for Indian affairs under Sir William Johnson; the fecond was drawn up by a French trader of confiderable note, refident 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 moft 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. TRIBES. 1708. 200 100 At Swagatchy, on the river St. Laurence. 300 Near Montreal. p 139 River St. Laurence. River St. Laurence. Towards the heads of the Ottawas river. Towards the heads of the Ottawàs river. Riviere aux Tetes boules on the E. fide of Lake SuLakes Huron and Superior. Lake Chriftinaux, Lake Affinaboes. [perior On the heads of the Miffifippi and weftward of North of the Padoucas. South of the Miffouri. [that river. 10,000 220 Mohocks river. Where they refide. [Susquehanna. Eaft fide of Oneida Lake and head branches of [Sufquehanna. Eaft branch of Sufquehanna, and on Aughquagah. 152 Utfanango, Chaghtnet, and Owegy, on the Eaft 2 branch of Sufquehanna. In the fame parts. In the fame parts. At Diahago and other villages up the North branch of Sufquehanna.. At Diahago and other villages up the North branch of Sufquehanna. At Diahago and other villages up the North branch of Sufquehanna. Between Ohio and Lake Erie and the branches of Beaver creek, Cayahoga and NOTES ON VIRGINIA Tufcaròras Onondagoes Aughquaghas Mùnfies Delawares, or 200 1550 260 230 650 Linnelinopies *500 300 Mingoes бо Within the limits of the United States. TRIBES.. Croghan. Bouquet. Croghan. Bouquet. J. Hutchins. Dodge. 1759. 1764. Where they refide. 1768. 1779. } On lake Michigan, and between that and the Miffifippi. On the eastern heads of the Miffifippi, and the islands of lake Superior. Western parts of North-Carolina.. Western parts of Georgia. On the Catawba River in South-Carolina. Western parts of Georgia. Western parts of Georgia. [gia Alibama. River, in the weftern parts of Geor Within the Limits of the United States. |