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by the late Dr. Rusa, who used to call it his ve- || getable antimonial.

vilized, though feebler inhabitants of the coun tries situated towards the equator. As the Tartars have overrun China, so the Astecas subdued Mexico. As the Huns and Alans desolated Italy, so the Chipewas and Iroquoise prostrated the populous settlements on both banks of the Ohio.

The surviving race in these terrible conflicts between the different nations of the ancient native residents of North America, is evidently that of the Tartars. This opinion is founded upon four considerations.

1. The similarity of physiognomy and features. His excellency M. Genet, late minister plenipotentiary from France to the United States, is well acquainted with the faces, hues, and figures of our Indians and of the Asiatic Tartars; and is perfectly satisfied of their mutual resemblance. Mons. Cazeaux, consul of France to New-York, has drawn the same conclusion from a careful examination of the native man of North America

As I closed the foregoing remarks, your paper of Monday, brought to my view, another Virginia dissertation on this epidemic. I have nothing to remark on it, except that, in my mind, it deserves more attention than the former; the Southampton practitioner gives his evidence against bleeding in it in the following words :-"In 1814, the cases which came under my notice would not bear the lancet, nor strong cathartics." "Tis true, that he subjoins, that "the winter following, at the commencement of the disease, blood-letting appeared to be the principal remedy, and the anchor of hope." Here the different and opposite effects of the same remedy ought to have made the practitioner doubt of the identity of the two diseases. If the same remedy was not always beneficial, in the same kind of disease, with some modification to be sure, to be left to the sagacity of the physician, what would become of the pro-and Northern Asia. fession, as an art? It is, then, presumable, that the Doctor, not attending to those distinctive symptoms laid down by HUXHAM, mistook the || pneumonia exquisita, or inflammatory species of the winter, for the preceding epidemic; and we have that learned author's authority, for the facility of falling into such mistakes. This appears the more likely, as the Southampton practitioner says, that "the spring following, he had to lay aside the lancet again, except in a few cases." That is, on the recurrence of the epidemic, except in the few cases of genuine pneumonic that occurred.

M. D.

ZOOLOGICAL DISQUISITION. The original inhabitants of America shown to be of the same family and lineage with those of Asia, by a process of reasoning not hitherto advanced. By SAMUEL L. MITCHELL, M. D. Professor of Natural History in the University of New-York; in a communication to DE WITT CLINTON, esq. president of the New-York Philosophical Society, dated New-York, March 31, 1816.

M. Smibert, who had been employed, as Josiah Meigs, esq. now commissioner of the land office in the United States, relates, in executing paintings of Tartar visages, for the grand duke of Tuscany, was so struck with the similarity of their features to those of the Naraganset Indiatis, that he pronounces them members of the same great family of mankind. The anecdote is preserved, with all its circumstances, in the fourteenth volume of the Medical Repository.

Within a few months 1 examined over and again seven or eight Chinese sailors, who had assisted in navigating a ship from Macoa to N. York. The thinness of their beards, the bay complexion, the black lank hair, the aspect of the eyes, the contour of the face, and in short the general external character, induced every person who observed them, to remark, how nearly they resembled the Mohegans and Oneidas of New-York.

Sidi Mellimelli, the Tunisian envoy to the U. States, in 1804, entertained the same opinion, on beholding the Cherokees, Osages, and Miamies, assembled at the city of Washington, during his residence there. Their tartar physiognomy struck

him in a moment

The view which I took of the varieties of the 2. The affinity of their languages. The late human race, in my course of Natural History, learned and enterprising professor Barton, took delivered in the University of New-York, differs the lead in this curious inquiry. He collected as in so many particulars from that entertained by many words as he could from the languages spothe great zoologists of the age, that I give youken in Asia and America, and he concluded, from for information, and without delay, a summary the numerous coincidences of sound and signifiof my yesterday's lecture to my class. cation, that there must have been a common origin,

I denied, in the beginning, the assertion that the American aborigines were of a peculiar con. stitution, of a race sui generis, and of a copper color. All these notions were treated as fanciful and visionary.

The Indigenes of the two Americas appear to me, to be of the same stock and genealogy with the inhabitants of the northern and southern Asia. The northern tribes were probably more hardy, ferocious, and warlike, than those of the south. The tribes of the lower latitudes seem to have been greater proficients in the arts, part cularly of making cloths, clearing the ground and erecting works of defence.

The parallel between the people of America and Asia, affords this important conclusion, that on both continents, the hordes dwelling in the higher latitudes have overpowered the more ci

3. The existence of corresponding customs. I mean to state at present that of shaving away the hair of the scalp, from the fore part and sides of the head, so that nothing is left but a tuft or lock on the crown.

The custom of smoking the pipe, on solemn occasions, to the four cardinal points of the compass, to the heavens and to the earth, is reported upon the most credible authority, to distinguish equally the hordes of the Asiatic Tartars and the bands of the American Siaux.

4. The kindred nature of the Indian dogs of America, and the Siberian dogs of Asia.

The animal that lives with the natives of the two continents, as a dog, is very different from the tame and familiar creature of the same name in Europe. He is either a different species, or a

wide variety of the same species. But the identity of the American and Asiatic curs, is evinced by several considerations. Both are mostly white. They have shaggy coats, sharp noses and erect ears. They are voracious, thievish, and to a considerable degree indomitable. They steal whenever they can, and sometimes turn against their masters. They are prone to snarl and grin, and they have a howl instead of barking. They are employed in both hemispheres for labour; such as carrying burthens, drawing sleds over the snow, and the like; being yoked and harnessed for the purpose, like horses.

face in the mummies correspond with those of the living Malays.

I reject therefore the doctrine taught by the European naturalists, that the man of Western America differs in any material point from the man of Eastern Asia. Had the Robertsons, the Buffons, the Raynals, the De Pauwys, and the other speculators upon the American character and the vilifiers of the American name, procured the requisite information concerning the hemis phere situated to the west of us, they would have discovered that the inhabitants of vast regions of Asia, to the number of many millions, were of the same blood and lineage with the undervalued and despised population of America. The learned Dr. Williamson has discussed this point with great

This coincidence of our Indian dog with the Canis Sibericus, is a very important fact. The dog, the companion, the friend or the slave of man in all his fortunes and migrations, thus re-ability. flects great light upon the history of nations and of their genealogy.

I forebore to go further than to ascertain by the correspondences already stated, the identity of II. The exterminated race in the savage inter-origin and derivation to the American and Asiatic course between the nations of North America in natives. I avoided the opportunity which this ancient days, appear clearly to have been that of grand conclusion afforded me, of stating, that the Malays. America was the cradle of the human race; of The bodies and shrouds, and clothing of these tracing its colonies westward over the Pacific individuals, have within a few years been disco- Ocean, and beyond the sea of Kamschatka, to new vered in the caverns of saltpetre and copperas settlements; of following the emigrants by land within the states of Kentucky and Tennessee, and by water, until they reached Europe and Afritheir entire and exsiccated condition, has led in-ca; and lastly, of following adventurers from the telligent gentlemen who have seen them to call former of these sections of the globe, to the planthem mummies. They are some of the most me- tations and abodes which they found occupied in morable of the antiquities that North America in America. I had no inclination to oppose the contains. The race or nation to which they be- || current opinions relative to the place of man's longed is extinct; but in preceding ages, occu- creation and dispersion. I thought it was scarcepied the region situated between Lakes Ontario ||ly worth the while to inform an European, that and Erie on the north, and the Gulf of Mexico on coming to America, he had left the new world on the south, and bounded eastwardly by the Al- behind him for the purpose of visiting the OLD. leghany mountains, and westwardly by the Mis-It ought, nevertheless, to be remarked, that there' sissippi river. are many important advantages derived to our That they were similar in their origin and cha-reasoning from the present manner of considering racter to the present inhabitants of the Pacific islands and of Austral Asia, is argued from various circumstances.

the subject. The principles being now established, they will be supported by a further induction of facts and occurrences, to an extent and an a1. The sameness of texture in the plain cloth mount that it is imposible, at this moment, fairly or matting that enwraps the mummies, and that to estimate. And the conclusions of Jefferson, Lawhich our navigators bring from Wakash, thefon, and others favourable to the greater antiquiSandwich Islands and the Fegees. ty of American population, will be daily reinforced and confirmed.

2. The close resemblance there is between the feathery mantles brought now-a-days from the islands of the South Sea, and those wrappers which surround the mummies lately disinterred in the western states. The plumes of birds are twisted or tied to the treads, with peculiar skill, and turn water like the back of a duck.

3. Meshes of nets regulary knotted and tied, and formed of a strong and even twine.

Having thus given the history of these races of man, spreading so extensively over the globe, I considered the human family under three divi-, ||sions.

First, the TAWNY man comprehending the Tartars, Malays, Chinese, the American Indians of every tribe, Lascars, and other people of the same cast and breed. From these seemed to

wit:

4. Mockasons or coverings of the feet, manu-have proceeded two remarkable varieties; to factured with remarkable ability, from the bark or rind of plants, worked into a sort of stout matting.

5. Pieces of Antique sculpture, especially of human heads and of some other forms, found where the exterminated tribes had dwelt, resembling the carving at Otaheite, New Zealand, and other places.

Secondly, the white man, inhabiting naturally the countries in Asia and Europe situated north of the Mediterranean Sea; and, in the course of his adventures, settling all over the world. Among those I reckon the Greenlanders and Esquimaux.

Thirdly, the Black man whose proper resi6. Works of defence, or fortifications, over-dence is in the regions south of the Mediterranean, spreading the fertile tract of country, formerly particularly toward the interior of Africa. The possessed by these people, who may be supposed people of Papua and Van Dieman's Land, seem capable of constructing works of much greater to be of this class. simplicity than the morais or burial places, and the hippas or fighting stages of the Society Islands. 7. As far as observations have gone, a belief that the shape of the skull and the angle of the

It is generally supposed, and by many able and ingenious men too, that external physical causes, and the combination of circumstances which they call climate, have wrought all these changes in

the human form. I do not, however, think them capable of explaining the differences which exist || among the nations. There is an internal physical cause of the greatest moment, which has scarcely been mentioned. This is the generative influ-pany the vessel. In addition to the seal and sigence. If by the act of modelling the constitution in the embryo and fœtus, a predisposition to gout, madness, scrofula and consumption, may be engendered, we may rationally conclude, with the sagacious d'Azara, that the procreative power may also shape the features, tinge the skin, and give other peculiarities to man.

Yours truly,

SAMUEL L. MITCHILL.

PUBLIC DOCUMENTS.

NAVIGATION SYSTEM.

Report of the committee on foreign relations, accompanying a bill to establish a system of navigation for the United States.

the master, and entered in some proper book for a record or registry to be kept by the collector of the customs. A certificate of such registry is issued as evidence of ownership to accomnature of the register of the treasury of the United States, it is attested under the seal of the collector with his signature, and is countersigned by the naval officer or surveyor where there is such an officer for the port to which the vessel belongs. And a copy is transmitted to the regis ter of the treasury.

The certificate of registry for a vessel to be employed in foreign voyages, may continue in force so long as the ownership continues the same. On a change of property, if purchased by any citizen of the United States, the vessel is registered anew. When the master is changed, the collector of the customs is authorized to endorse a memo randum of such change on the certificate of registry.

Mr. Bibb from the committee on foreign affairs, submitted to the Senate the following Report :The requisites for this important document are The attention of the committee has been drawn prescribed in the act of the 31st of December, to the policy of "confining the American naviga- 1792, entitled, "An act concerning the registertion to American seamen" by the message of the ing and recording of ships or vessels." And vapresident of the United States. Two considera-rious provisions in the same act were adapted to tions, distinct in their character, are suggested in guard the interest of ship-builders and ship-ownbehalf of the measure-1st. As it might have a ers of the United States, against the intrusions conciliatory tendency towards foreign nations; or impositions of foreigners. and 2dly. As it would increase the independence of our navigation and the resources of our mari-wards which may be enrolled, the same qualifica time defence.

In relation to vessels of twenty tons or up

tions and requisites are prescribed, and similar "An act for the regulation of semen on board guards against abuses are provided in the act of the public and private vessels of the U. States," the 18th February, 1793, entitled, "An act for passed the 3d day of March, 1813, prohibits the enrolling and licensing ships or vessels to be ememployment, as seamen, of the subjects or citi-ployed in the coasting trade and fisheries, and zens of any foreign nation which shall prohibit for regulating the same." A certificate of enrollthe like employment of citizens of the U. States. ment, which is issued for a coasting or fishing vesThat act furnishes indisputable evidence of the sel of the United States, is strictly analogous to conciliatory spirit of the national councils; and the certificate of registry for a merchant vessel. a corresponding disposition on the part of other The documents contain similar statements regovernments only is wanting to give it effect. specting the vessels and the titles of the owners, The committee, however, deem it expedient to and are authenticated in the same manner. advance the independence of the navigation and resources of maritime defence of the U. States, and for that purpose submit a bill to the consideration of the Senate. That the nature and extent of its provisions may be the more readily understood, the following outline of the existing regulations concerning commercial vessels, and of the proposed modifications, is presented.

Commercial vessels which are registered or enrolled according to the existing laws, are denominated ships or vessels of the United States. For carrying on trade with foreign countries, they are registered. For the coasting trade or fisheries of the United States, they are enrolled and licensed.

Ships or vessels built within the United States, or captured and condemned as prize, or adjudg ed forfeited for breach of law, and belonging wholly to citizens of the United States, may be registered or enrolled, if they are commanded by citizens either native or naturalized. Such vessels are regarded as belonging to the ports at or nearest to which the managing owners reside. || And they are registered or enrolled in the offices | of the customs for the districts which comprehend the respective ports.

When a vessel is registered, the ownership, name, description and tonnage, being legally ascertained, are stated distinctly, with the name of

Vessels of less than twenty tons are licensed, without being enrolled, according to the act of the eighteenth of February, seventeen hundred and ninety-three. And the duty of tonnage on a licensed vessel is payable once in a year. A license is issued from the office of the customs for the vessel to be employed in the coasting trade or the whale fishery or cod fishery. It may be in force for one year, and is given under the hand and seal of the collector, who is required to make a record of such licenses and transmit copies to the register of the treasury. That the privileges appertaining to ships or vessels of the United States in the coasting trade or fisheries may be fully enjoyed, the same law requires enrolled vessels to have licenses.

As the act of the thirty-first of December, se venteen hundred and ninety-two, has provided that the privileges appertaining to registered ships or vessels of the United States shall not continue to be enjoyed longer than they continue to be commanded by citizens of the United States, it has in effect required every such vessel to have one citizen on board as master or commander. And the same requisite is included in the act of the eighteenth of February, seventeen hundred and ninety-three, for enrolling or licensing ships or vessels. These acts contain the principal regu lations for commercial shipping. There are no

laws in operation which require any more of the citizens to be employed for navigating the vessels in foreign trade or in the coasting trade or fisheries There is no act of Congress which requires the subordinate officers or any part of the crew on board any vessel whatever to be citizens of the United States.

On examination it appears, that systematic regulations concerning the ownership of vessels were established by the registering act of December, 1792, and the enrolling and licensing act of February 1793. But the United States have remained to this day without a navigation act for each

branch of their commerce.

As it concerns the maritime interests of the United States, therefore, it is of importance to establish a policy requiring the commercial vessels of the United States to be navigated principally by mariners of the country. With this view, it is considered proper to allow the privileges of American character to none but vessels navigated by American mariners as the law may require; to provide for ascertaining who shall be regarded as such mariners; and to make it requisite for vessels of the United States to have documents on board as evidence of being so navigated.

That the policy may be carried into effect without inconvenience, various particulars in a system of navigation must correspond to existing laws respecting the collection of duties, the ownership of vessels or the government of persons in the merchant service or fisheries. Several regulations similar to those already in force are proposed to be incorporated.

The documents for vessels sailing on foreign voyages may supersede the use of any other certificates of citizenship for persons employed in navigating them. And it is proposed to repeal the section of the act of May, 1796, which has authorized the collectors to deliver certificates to individual mariners. Abuses which are known to have prevailed in relation to such certificates may be avoided by requiring proper documents to accompany the vessels.

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For the year

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REMARKS-The report of the 19th of February, 1813, from the Secretary of State, contains the following remark :-" It may be proper to observe, that from the deficiency of returns it is to be reasonably inferred, that the number of seamen actually enregistered in the United States, during the period embraced by this report, exceeds that now stated by one third.

Statement of the number of naturalized persons annually registered as American seamen, under the act of the 28th of May, 1796, according to a report from the Secretary of State to the Senate, dated the 6th of January, 1813.

For the three last
quarters of the
year

For the year

Number returned as naturalized.

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REMARK-In relation to the returns of persons born in foreign countries who have been legally naturalized in the United States and registered as American seamen, in the report of the 6th of January, 1813, it is observed:" Those for 1811 and 1812, above stated, are not complete."

Treasury Department, 26th Jan. 1816. SIR-Permit me to answer your inquiries relative to the amount of American tonnage, and the number of seamen, citizens and foreigners employed in the merchant service, by communicating a copy of the letter which I have addressed to the chairman of the committee of foreign relations of the house of representatives, upon the same subject.

I have the honor to be, &c.

The hon. W. William Bibb,
chairman of the committee
of foreign relations of the

senate.

A. J. DALLAS.

Treasury Department, Jan. 26, 1816. SIR-I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter, requesting, on behalf of the

committee of foreign relations, information upon containing, as far as he can ascertain, the names, the following subjects:

1. The amount of American tonnage.

2. The number of seamen required for the navigation of American vessels.

3. The number of American seamen, either native or naturalized.

places of birth and residence, and a description of the persons who compose his ship's company, for whom he is bound to account, upon his return to the United States. But experience has shown, that neither the register, which only includes the names of citizens who themselves request to be

4. The number of foreign seamen now employ-registered; nor the crew-lists furnished by the ed in the merchant service of the United States.

masters of vessels employed in the foreign trade, upon general information, afford a satisfactory test, 1. The annual statement of the amount of Ame- to distinguish the native from the naturalized searican tonnage, on the 31st of December, 1814, men, nor even to distinguish the citizen from, the which was recently laid before Congress, exhi-alien; and that neither can be relied on, to estabits an aggregate of 1,159,208 80-95 tons, as in-blish the aggregate number of seamen, employed cluded in the returns made to this department by in the merchant service. the collectors of the customs; but for the reasons assigned in the letter of the register of the treasury, accompanying that statement, the actual amount ought not to to be estimated, on the 30th of December, 1814, at more than 1,029,281 85-95 tons.

By an estimate formed from the returns of the collectors, to the 30th of September, 1815, the aggregate amount of the tonnage, included in the returns, will be 1,363,758 62-95 tons; but this amount is liable to a deduction, similar to that above mentioned, and the tonnage of American vessels actually employed, at the last period, may be estimated at about 1,217,000 tons, divided in the following manner :

American tonnage, employed in foreign
trade, about

Do. in the coasting trade, about
Do. in the fisheries,

840,000
350,000
27,000

Tons, 1,217,000

II. The number of seamen required for the navigation of American vessels, may be computed from the crews, which they usually ship, including officers and boys, at an average of nearly six for every hundred tons, employed in the foreign and coasting trade, and of about eight for every hundred tons employed in the fisheries. This computation will place the whole number of seamen required for the navigation of American ves. sels, at about 70,000.

III. and IV. The number of American seamen, native or naturalized citizens, and the number of foreign seamen, who are employed in the merchant service of the United States, cannot be ascertained from any documents in the treasury department. It is believed, indeed, that there does not exist, any where, the means of classing the seamen according to that discrimination; nor of ascertaining their number, except in the general mode of computation, which has been adopted upon the present occasion. The acts for the relief and protection of American seamen, provide that the collector of every district shall keep a book, in which, at the request of any seaman, being a citizen of the United States, and producing proof of his citizenship authenticated in a manner which the act has omitted to define, he shall enter the name of the applicant; and that each collector shall return a list of the seamen so registered, once every three months, to the Secretary of State, who is required to lay before Congress, an annual statement of the returns. It is also provided that before a clearance be granted to any vessel, bound on a foreign, voyage, the master shall deliver to the collector of the customs a list

||

In the year 1807, an attempt was made to estimate the proportion of foreign to American seamen on board of American vessels; but the basis of the estimate was too unsettled and hypothetical, to command confidence in the result. It was then supposed, that nearly one sixth of the whole number of seamen, employed in navigating American vessels were foreign seamen; and, more particularly that of the number of seamen employed in the foreign trade, at least one fourth were foreigners. There are reasons to presume that the proportion of foreign to American seamen is less at this time than it was in the year 1807, and that it will become less still, as the nations of Europe, in consequence of the general peace, become more and more the carriers of their own imports and exports. I have the honor to be, &c.

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