THE METHODIST MAGAZINE AND subject to change by uit move them in their present hue. It is so connected with organic disposition, and has been transmitted unaltered through so many generations, that the same causes will doubtless continue to act in a uniform manner, and preclude all material change through ages to come. The most observing travelers have likewise been struck with the almost perfect similarity of features found in the different families of these respective tribes. But this striking family-likeness is doubtVOL. X. July, 1839. 31 THE METHODIST MAGAZINE AND subject to change uy VA them in their present hue. It is so connected with organic disposition, and has been transmitted unaltered through so many generations, that the same causes will doubtless continue to act in a uniform manner, and preclude all material change through ages to come. The most observing travelers have likewise been struck with the almost perfect similarity of features found in the different families of these respective tribes. But this striking family-likeness is doubtVOL. X.-July, 1839. 31 THE METHODIST MAGAZINE AND Quarterly Review. EDITED BY S. LUCKEY AND G. COLES. VOL. XXI, No. 3. : JULY, 1839. NEW SERIES-VOL. X, No. 3. For the Methodist Magazine and Quarterly Review. BY REV. J. DEMPSTER, A. M., MISSIONARY AT BUENOS AYRES. PART III.-NO. II. THE copper-colored race-which, in both Americas, amounts to not less than six millions-is a mysterious portion of the family of man. In seeking its origin the antiquary finds himself without even the dim light of fable, which sheds its faint and scattered beams on the infancy of most ancient nations that have long since been extinct. Nor is it less singular in the striking uniformity of its longsettled character. Though this race has existed in nearly two thousand tribes, which have been distinguished by hundreds of dissimilar languages, it has retained a surprising similarity in the great outlines of its physical and moral character. While its habits and manners are found to be modified to some extent by each particular tribe, there is an inflexibility, a steadfast perseverance, in what essentially characterizes the whole mass. That the color of this people should vary so triflingly, though for centuries they have been spread from Hudson's Bay to the Straits of Magellan, is a problem not easy of solution. The strongest evidence has been urged, that the varying colors of the human race are directly referable to the powerful influence of climate. But these aborigines of the new world have existed through successive generations in every climate on the globe, and have retained almost the same complexion in the midst of the perpetual snows of the north, under the mild climate of the temperate zone, and under the glowing fervors of a vertical sun. Indeed, their color seems no longer subject to change by the influence of that element which painted them in their present hue. It is so connected with organic disposition, and has been transmitted unaltered through so many generations, that the same causes will doubtless continue to act in a uniform manner, and preclude all material change through ages to come. The most observing travelers have likewise been struck with the almost perfect similarity of features found in the different families of these respective tribes. But this striking family-likeness is doubtVOL. X. July, 1839. 31 |