to have been built for eternity itself, so strong and secure are their foundations?” Some years hence this contrast would be still more palpable, and left to themselves, a time would come when it would be obvious that the existing population had nothing to do with these structures, for the mixed blood would have disappeared, and there would be only the simple, unadulterated “native American,” as discovered by the Spaniards three centuries ago. And we have only to apply this to the antiquities of America to understand its history, at all events, to understand the meaning of those half-buried monuments so frequently found on its surface. Adventurers, often, doubtless, shipwrecked mariners, were cast upon the coasts of America. Possibly in some cases before Rome was founded, or Babylon itself was the mighty capital of a still more mighty empire, these enterprising or unfortunate men found themselves undisputed sovereigns of the New World. We know that Northmen found their way here in the eighth century, and doubtless they were preceded at intervals by numerous other Caucasians. Settling in some localities they reigned undisputed 47masters, built cities, organized governments, framed laws, and laid the foundations of a civilized society. But intermarrying with the natives, they were swallowed up by mongrelism, and, in obedience to an immutable law of physical life, doomed to perish, and at a given period, the white blood extinct, there remained nothing to denote its former existence, except the half-buried palaces and ruined monuments yet to be traced over large portions of the continent. The Toltecs, Aztecs, etc., are simply the remnants of these extinct Caucasians, just as the present population, if left alone in Mexico, the latest portion of it, with Caucasian blood, would be the ruling force, and perhaps retain somewhat or some portion of the Spanish habitudes.

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The pure native mind is capable of a certain development, but that is fixed and determinate, and beyond which it can no more progress than it can alter the color of its skin or the form of its brain. Powhatan’s empire in Virginia was undoubtedly aboriginal and probably called out the utmost resources and reached the utmost limit of the Indian mind. The Indian has, and does manifest to a certain extent, a capacity of mental action, but this is too feeble and limited to make a permanent impression on the physical agents that surround him, and therefore he can have no history, for there are no materials—nothing to record. The term, therefore, “Indian antiquities,” is a misnomer and the great congressional enterprise under the editorship of Mr. 

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