begins with an invocation to the Isles-which term does not appear to mean land surrounded by water, but land afar off which can be reached only by crossing water"Listen, O Isles, unto me and hearken ye people, from far." This is the language of the people of Israel. "He said unto me, thou art my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified." The prophet then speaks of raising up the tribes of Jacob, and restoring the preserved of Israel: that in an acceptable time he heard them and in a day of salvation he delivered them: to the prisoners he would say. "Go forth, and to them that are in darkness, shew yourselves. Behold, these shall come from far, from the north and from the west." Zion is then made to lament that the Lord had forgotten her; and an assurance is given, that should a mother forget her suckling child yet the Lord will not forget her, and that the numbers which shall return to her will be so great that the land now desolate will be too narrow by reason of its inhabitants. Then follows. "The children which thou shalt have, after thou hast lost the other."-the race of the Jews, after they had long lost their brethren the Israelites shall say, "the place is too strait for me give place that I may dwell." "Then shalt thou say in thine heart. Who hath begotten me these, seeing I have lost my children, and who hath brought up these? Behold I was left alone! These, where have they been?" After which we learn that the ruling powers of nations shall be employed to restore the people of God, who had been utterly out of sight of the Jews during the period of their dispersion. In the 53 chapter we have a description of these people in

their outcast banished state claiming the Lord for their God "Doubtless thou art our father though Abraham be ignorant of us and Israel acknowledge us not, thou, O Lord, art our father, our redeemer, thy name is from everlasting." Here then is a branch unacknowledged by those who have been always acknowledged as Jews, and yet claiming their privileges as descendants of Abraham. When these tribes shall know, from their own traditions or by other means which the Almighty will employ to bring them in, that they are the descendants of the ancient people of God, this is language befitting their situation: as is also that which follows. "O Lord why hast thou made us to err from thy ways and hardened our hearts from thy fear? Return for thy servants' sake,the tribes of thine inheritance."

A violent enmity had subsisted between Judah and Israel ever since the separation of the latter from the family of David-but this enmity is to cease, "The envy of Ephraim shall depart: Ephraim shall not envy Judah and Judah shall not vex Ephraim," This passage assures us of the restoration of Israel. Is. 11. 13.

There is a passage in Hosea 4. 16. which confirms and illustrates the subject. For although the Lord had determined to let them alone for a long period when they were joined with idols; yet it is said "The Lord will feed them as a lamb in a large place." This is a declaration that cannot be said of the Jews-who instead of being treated with the mildness which a lamb requires, have been every where harassed, worried and afflicted; but of the other tribes, it may be said, that he has fed them with a shepherd's care in a large place.

CHAPTER III.

GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE ORIGINAL AMERICAN

TRIBES.

To give a just description of a people so widely spread,

and divided by thousands of miles from each other, having of course different habits prevailing among them, cannot be an easy task; and it is become so much more difficult at the present time, from the great changes which have taken place among them by their alliance with Europeans, and their having adopted more or less of their manners. Had these unfortunate outcasts from civilized society been favored at the first discovery of their country with inquisitive, learned and disinterested historians, who would have represented their characters fairly, we should have seen them in a very different point of light from that in which they now are seen. Some of their customs have appeared barbarous and even brutal to civilized people; yet, if compared with the conduct of the nations of the Eastern Continent, the balance would on the whole be in their favour. A great outcry has been made about their thirst

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of blood; but by whom has this outery been made? By the very people who in their contests with each other upon that continent have used every means to engage the natives to take part with them, and have encouraged them to fight in their own way, who have furnished them with tomahawks, scalping knives, muskets, powder and ball, and have enflamed their passions to the utmost by spirituous liquors, feasts and harangues, to increase their thirst of blood and drive them to the destruction even of their own brethren. The Europeans have made them savages and then have called them so.

When America was first discovered by Columbus it was peopled by hundreds, probably by thousands of tribes or nations. Their numbers have not been known, nor can they be known at this day. An alphabetical list is given in Pike's Expedition, of the tribes in the North, amounting to one hundred and ninety, each having a Sachem or King over them. The dialects of these nations differed greatly; a circumstance which has often happened among people without education and writing of any kind, separating and living at a distance from one another. The Erigas a tribe on the Ohio, who separated from the Tuscororas, are known to have formed a distinct dialect in the course of a few years.

Dr. Williams, in his history of Vermont, writes: “In whatever manner this part of the earth was peopled, the Indians appear to have been the most ancient or the original men of America. They had spread over the whole continent from the fiftieth degree of north latitude to the southern extremity of Cape Horn. And these

men every where appear to be the same race or kind of people. In every part of the continent, they are marked with a similarity of features colour and every circumstance of external appearance." Pedro de Leon, one of the conquerors of Peru, who had travelled through man provinces of America, says of the Indians, "The people, men and women, although there are such a multitude of tribes or nations, in such diversities of climate, appear nevertheless like the children of one father and mother." The same testimony, of the striking likeness of one with other nations of them, is borne by all who have visited different tribes. But this remark does not apply to the Esquimaux, who appear to be a different race. Those which are found in Labrador, Greenland and round Hudson's Bay, are said to resemble the Laplanders, Samoyeds and Tartars, who may have gone over from the north of Europe to Iceland and thence to Greenland and Labrador. These people do not seem to have intermixed with the Indians.

Du Pratz, in his history of Louisiana, gives an account of the nation of the Paducas, west of the Missouri, in 1724, which may furnish a faint idea of the numbers originally inhabiting this vast continent. He says "The nation of the Paducas is very numerous, extending about two hundred leagues: they have settlements quite close to the Spaniards of New Mexico. They have large villages which are permanent abodes, from which a hundred hunters set out at a time, with horses, bows, and a good stock of arrows. The village in which we were consisted of one hundred and forty huts, containing eight hundred