A Course of Legal Study, addressed to Students and the profession generally. By David Hoffman. 2d edition, Recollections of the Private Life of General Lafayette. By M. Jules Cloquet, M. D. Embellished with forty-five Narrative of the Arctic Land Expedition to the Mouth of the Great Fish River, and along the Shores of the Arctic Ocean, in the years 1833, 1834, and 1835. By Cap- tain Back, R. N., Commander of the Expedition. Phila- The Rationale of Political Representation. By the au- Miscellanies. By Harriet Martineau. In two volumes. Sketches of Switzerland. By the author of the Spy, **By some accident, a passage in Art. VIII, commencing at the And at page 211, line 10, for "aere" read "ære." Literary Remains of the late William Hazlitt, with a Notice of his Life by his Son, and Thoughts on his Genius "My Prisons." Memoirs of Silvio Pellico of Saluzzo; and Additions, &c., with a Biographical Notice of Pellico. Necessity of Popular Education, as a National Object; with Hints on the Treatment of Criminals, and Observa- tions on Homicidal Insanity. By James Simpson. New On the Mental Illumination and Moral Improvement of Mankind; or, an Enquiry into the Means by which a gene- ral Diffusion of Knowledge and Moral Principle may be promoted. Illustrated with Engravings. By Thomas Dick, L.L. D. Philadelphia, 1836. IV. COLTON'S VISIT TO CONSTANTINOPLE. Ship and Shore; or, Leaves from the Journal of a Cruise Visit to Constantinople and Athens. By the Rev. VII. BRITISH OPINIONS OF AMERICA. The Life and Adventures of Jonathan Jefferson Whit- law; or, Scenes on the Mississippi. By Frances Trollope, author of "Paris and the Parisians," "Domestic Manners Message from the President of the United States, trans- mitting, in Compliance with a Resolution of the Senate, sundry Documents relating to the Northeastern Boundary of the United States. 8vo. pp. 61. Washington, 1836. ERRATUM. Page 463, 25th line from top, for barcation read "variation." AMERICAN QUARTERLY REVIEW. No. XXXIX. SEPTEMBER, 1836. G ART. I.-1. Report made in the Senate of the United States, on the subject of an Exploring Expedition to the Pacific Ocean and South Seas. By Mr. SOUTHARD, Chairman of the Coinmittee; March 21, 1836. Smith wa Band 2. View of the Origin and Migrations of the Polynesian Nation, demonstrating their ancient discovery and progressive settlement of the Continent of America. By JOHN DUNMORE LANG, D.D., Principal of the Australian College, Sydney, &c.; London, 1834. 3. Miscellaneous Works of WILLIAM MARSDEN, F. R. S., &c. &c.; On the Polynesian or East-Insular Languages; On a Conventional Roman Alphabet, applicable to Oriental Languages; London, 1834. 4. Ke Kumu Hawaii, or The Hawaiian Teacher; for December, 1834. Published in the language of the Sandwich Islands, at Honolulu, in Oahu (Woahoo.) 5. Ka Lama Hawaii, or The Hawaiian Luminary; for the months of February, March, April, September and December, 1834. Published in the language of the Sandwich Islands, at Lahainaluna, in the island of Maui (Mowee). 6. De Lingua Othomitorum Dissertatio; auctore EMMANUELE NAXERA, Mexicano, Academiæ Litteraria Zacatecarum Socio. Communicated to the American Philosophical Society, March 6, 1835. 7. A Narrative of the Shipwreck and Captivity of Horace Holden and Benjamin F. Nute; on the Pelew Islands, and on Lord North's Island, with a Vocabulary of the Language of the latter Island. Boston, 1836. The origin of the population of America is a problem which has exercised the ingenuity of the learned from the period of VOL. XX.-No. 39. 1 Columbus's discovery to the present day. It is a problem, too, which is not yet satisfactorily solved, though much light has been thrown upon it by modern discoveries; and the question is certainly, at the present time, embarrassed with fewer difficulties than it has been at any former period. It is not our intention, however, on the present occasion, to pursue as our principal subject the simple and precise question of the original population of America. As connected with that question, we propose to invite the attention of our readers to a quarter of the globe which has hitherto received little notice among literary and scientific enquirers; but which is, nevertheless, highly deserving of investigation, and, independently of its importance to the United States in a commercial view, is full of interest as a subject of philosophical speculation; and, when taken in connection with the continent of America, becomes an indispensable element in the solution of the great problem above mentioned. The region of the globe to which we allude, is that vast collection of islands which fill a large portion of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, particularly between the tropics, and which seem to form the connecting links, though much broken, between the shores of Asia--the cradle of the human race--and the western coast of America; islands, that in the fabulous ages might have been imagined to be the stepping stones, by which the giant race of those days passed from their domain on the old continent to the shores of the new; from "The barren plains to that new world, where "Columbus found the American, begirt With feather'd cincture, naked else and wild, To the general considerations above mentioned, we might add, if any further motive were necessary to excite our attention to this subject, that, as Americans, we have a particular interest in it, arising from circumstances to which it may not be amiss to advert. One of these is the fact, that an important group of the intertropical islands is properly an American discovery; we mean the group originally named, after their discoverer, Ingraham's Islands, and since that time, the Washington Islands; which are now well known, to every reader of voyages, Milton's Par. Lost, iii., 438; ix., 1115. |