Page 154 - La Société canadienne d'histoire de l'Église catholique - Rapport 1961

150 IVISCONSIN IIISTORICAI, COLLECTIONS.
1. That with earth and man as they are, the dispersion of the
race over the whole world, would inevitably result from placing
a single human pair upon the eastern ctontinent.
2. That all the tribes of this continent, are of Asiatic
origin.
3. That they sprung from numerous smalI centers, and that,
with rare exceptions, those centers were placed upon the north-
west coast.
4. That these original centers were derived, partly from
castaways direct from the Asiatic coast, partly from the acci-
dental dispersion of population through the Aleutian and other
islands of the Pacific, and partly from the extreme north-east of
Asia across Behring's Straits.
5. That from these centers upon the north-west coast, the
Indian tribes spread over the whole of North and South
America.
6. That the civilization of Mexico and Peru was introduced
subsequently to the first occupation or those countries-the
former by castaways more direct from the civilized regions of
Asia, by way of the north-west coast, with rare instances of
castaways from Europe, who mingled their blood with the
Asiatic stock, and slightly modified their manners and institu-
tions; and the latter by similar migrations from Asia alone,
either through the north, or, more probably, the South tempe-
rate regions of the Pacific.
7. That the means by which the various centers of Indian pop-
ulation arrived upon this oontinent, as well as the incongruities
observed in their ideas and institutions, while they unite in
pointing to an Asiatic origin, indicate no less distinctly that all
the Asiatic nations were represented in the formation of the
Indian race, and hence, that all attempts to trace them, as a
whole, to any one of them, must prove abortive.
8. When we oonuider that as early as the time of Solomon,
some of the Asiatic nations ~ossessed sufficient knowledge of
naval architecture and navigation to fit out ships for a three
year's cruise, we cannot avoid the conclusion that many instan-