The discovery of the continent, was, indeed, a geographical wonder. It was made contrary to the predictions of the times. Such a discovery was not only opposed by popular opinion; but Columbus himself expected no such thing. He sought only a new passage to the East Indies. He insisted, with a noble constancy, that he should find land in sailing west. But he did not expect to find, as if by the power of necromancy, that a vast continent should rise up before his eyes. And it is altogether questionable, whether the great navigator did not die without a true knowledge of this fact. It will be recollected that it was not until six years after his death, which happened in 1506, that Balboa first discovered the Pacific from the heights of Panama, and thus truly revealed the position of the Continent. Sages and Philosophers do not admire results which have fallen out contrary to their expressed views; but, in this case, the discovery proved so astounding that all Europe joined in extolling, what all Europe had a little before, disbelieved. A continent stretching little under 10,000 miles, from south to north, with a maximum breath of 2000 miles, between sea and sea, rivers, such as the La Plata and the Amazon--mountains like that of the Andes, whose highest peak rises 20,280 feet above the sea--Volcanoes, which cast their fires over plains of interminable extent--tropical fruits of every kind--mines of gold and silver the richest the world had ever known--these were some of the features that America brought to light, while it added one-third to the known area, and more than one-third to the commercial resources of the world. But while men gazed at its lofty mountains, and geological magnificence, the ancient race of men, who were found here, constituted by far the most curious and thought-inspiring problem. Volcanoes and vast plains and mountains were elements in the geography of the old world, and their occurrence here, soon assimilated their discovery to other features of the kind. But the red man continued to furnish a theme for speculation and inquiry, which time has not satisfied. Columbus, supposing himself to have found, what he had sailed for, and judging from physical characteristics alone, called them _Indians_. Usage has perpetuated the term. But if, by the term, it is designed to consider them as of that part of India, which is filled with the Hindoo race, there is but little resemblance beyond mere physical traits. Of the leading idea of the multiform incarnations of the terrible, and degraded Hindoo deities--of the burning of widows at the funereal pile--of infanticide--of the gross idolatry rendered to images, like those of Vishnoo and Juggernaut, there is nothing. The degraded forms of superstition and human vice which are practised on the Ganges and the Burrampooter, are unknown on the Mississippi and the Missouri. Nor have we found, so far as I am aware, a single word in the American languages, which exists in the Hindostanee.