The American Nations, Vol. I.: Or, Outlines of a National History of the Ancient and Modern Nations of North and South AmericaRafinesque, C. S. (Constantine Samuel)
History
The American Nations, Vol. I.: Or, Outlines of a National History of the Ancient and Modern Nations of North and South America
Rafinesque, C. S. (Constantine Samuel)
Indians; Indians -- Origin; Taino Indians; Taino language
I will refer gradually to them, and have collected them all in my
manuscript illustrations; _materials_, _printed works_. Therefore we do
not lack printed materials: but the choice of the best is difficult: since
many works merely consist in fables, blunders, errors, hypotheses and
their constant repetitions: which ought to be rejected in order to gather
facts and the truth. But we must not reject as pyrrhoniams all that may
clash with our ideas and systems: it is chiefly needful so recall and
restore the events and facts mentioned by the earliest travellers and
observers.
These numerous local writers ought to be divided into three classes. 1.
historians and annalists, 2. travellers and geographers, 3. antiquarians
and philologists. I shall now merely mention the most useful (which I have
all consulted) upon the Peruvian and Austral regions of South America.
1st. The principal historians are, 1. Molina, History of Chili, 2. Funes,
Civil History of Buenos Ayres, Paraguay and Tucuman, 3. Lavega, History of
Peru, 4. Debrizoffer, history of Abipones, 5. Charlevoix of Paraguay, 6.
Techo, on Ditto, 7, 8. Lozano and Jolis on Chaco, 9. Muratori, and 10.
Renger, Paraguay.
2d. The principal writers who have furnished historical facts, with
geographical and ethnographical materials, are _old travellers_, 1.
Pigafetta and Magellan, 2. Cabot, 3. Shmidel, 4. Drake, 5. Cavendish, 6.
Acarete, 7. Knivet, 8. Frezier, 9. Sepp, 10. Brewer, 11. Nyel, 12.
Schmidtmeyer.
_The modern travellers are_, 1. Azara, 2. D’Ulloa, 3. Humboldt, 4. Cook,
5. Byron, 6. Laperouse, 7. Stevenson, 8. Myers, 9. Heyn, 10. Beaumont, 11.
Gillespie, 12. Vidal, 13. Wedel, 14. King, 15. Morrell, 16. Andrew, 17.
Temple, 18. Mawe, 19. Proctor, 20. Graham, 21. Head, 22. Pernetty.
The principal original geographers and ethnographers are, 1. Fernandez on
Chiquitos 1726, 2. Bueno, Ditto 1800, 3. Falkner, on Patagonia 1774, 4.
Molina on Chili and Cuyo, 5. Lozano on Chaco 1733, 6. Skinner, Memoirs on
Peru, 7. Gili, South America 1782.
3d. Lastly the auxiliary writers on philology, antiquities and other
historical branches are, 1. Adelung, Vater, Maltebrun, Balbi, &c., on all
American languages, 2. American researches of Humboldt, Macculoh 1829.
Those of Depaw and Ranking are shameful, perverting every thing to support
false systems.
_Manuscripts._ There are yet many such extant on America, in the libraries
of both hemispheres. Clavigero gave a long list of Mexican Manuscripts.
Funes quotes several on Austral America. There are several extant in
Central America and South America, in Peru and Brazil. Many have been lost
through wilful neglect, or destroyed at the Spanish Conquest, the
expulsion of Jesuits, &c. Those in the ancient languages, Mexican,
Tarasca, Tzendal, &c., are now very rare, and much esteemed. Those burnt
by Zumaraga, the Mexican Omar, have been often regretted. Lord Kingborough
has lately published some at a great cost.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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