The Knickerbocker, Vol. 10, No. 4, October 1837Various
History
The Knickerbocker, Vol. 10, No. 4, October 1837
Various
Periodicals
How much better, we would
ask, is the poor Indian of Central America, how much more rational
and how much more numerous is he now, than when the proud Caucassian,
'the most honored of the free,' first essayed his renovating
influences? Let the past and the present answer! Suffice it to
say, that like his native compeer of our own states, he is rapidly
disappearing under the operation of these causes, and oblivion,
meanwhile, closes over his history. Like the ill-fated Indian, it
will be in turn for the oppressor to yield to the force of recurring
circumstances. Yes! time, too, will bring along _his_ destiny, and it
will be that of the oppressed, the cheated, the extinct Indian!
Civilization, as some one has observed, is and ever has been
travelling westward. We believe it. The relics of America go far
to prove it; and those of the Pacific Islands, if possible, still
farther. Giving then to America an indefinite antiquity, its earliest
monuments should have mingled with the soil on which they were
erected. They should have crumbled before the all-crushing power of
time. And such is the fact. Its people should have passed onward to
Asia; and they should have left other monuments by the way. Such
appears also to have been the fact. Remains of magnificent structures
are still to be seen on the islands which intervene, even those
of great and splendid cities. These, too, defy the scrutinizing
inquiries of mankind, at this so distant date. The arts are those
of ancient America. To one conversant with the specimens now to be
found in some of those islands, the inference will appear conclusive.
It belongs to the geologist to prove, that the intervening land has
undergone extraordinary revolutions. We are prepared to say, that
he is enabled to prove that many of those islands are of recent
geological epocha, and that most of them are of volcanic origin.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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