Page images
PDF
EPUB

Red, in Mexican, costic; in Kiriri, koutsou; in Kadjak, kouightoak.—In BOOK Japanese, koutsou, fine, brilliant.

Name, in Greenlandish, attack; in Tartar, at.-Idem, among the Caribean women, nire; in Mongol, nyre; (V.) in Kadjak, athka; in Aleutian, asia; in Yakoute, aatta.

Love, in Quichua, munay; in Sanscrit, manya, (V.)-In Teutonic, min-
ne; but the intermediate words are wanting.

Pain, in Quichua, nanay; in Uttomac, nany; in Tunguse, ænan. (V.)—
In Aleutian, nanalik.

God, in Quichua, pacha-camac; in Japanese, kammi (kham in Sanscrit,
Malabar and Multanian, the Sun)

Idem, in Aztec, teo; in Sanscrit, deva; in Zend, din and dev; in Greek,
theos; in Latin, deus.

Lord, or Prince, in Araucan, toqui, from the verb toquin, to command;
" in Aleutian, tokok; at Atchem, in Sumatra, tokko.

To eat, in Cora, cua; in Tarahumar, coa; in Mexican, qua; in Alconte,
kaangen, (Eat;) in Japanese, cwa —In German, kauen, to chew.
-1, pronoun, in Delaware, ni; in Tarahumar, ne; in Mexican, nehuatl;
in Moture, ne. (S. B.)-Idem, in Guaicure, am; in Abipon, aym; in
Wogul, am.-In Waicure, be; in Mongol, Tonguse and Mantchew, bi,
(V.)

Idem, in Wyandots, dee; in Mixtec, di; in Andi (Caucasian) den; in
Aware, dida, I myself.

Idem, in Lulean, quis; in Totonak, quit ; in Kadjak, khoui; in Aleutian,
kien; in Kamtchadale, komma, I; kis, thou; in Tonguse-lamute, kie,
I and me; kou, thou.

Idem, in Nadowessian, meo; in Yakoute, min; in Youkagir, matak; in
Finnish and Laplandish, miya.

Thou, in Huaztec, tata; in Youkagir, tat; in Mexican, te-hautl, in Siri-
ain, tæ. (V.)

He, pronoun, in Tacahumar, iche; in Huaztec, jaja; in Mexican, yehuatl; in Tagalian and Malay, iya (V.)

We and You, in Mocobi, ocom and ocomigi; in Guaicure, oco and acami diguagi; in Abipon, akam and akamyi; in Malay, camy and kamy; in Tagalian, camon and camo (V.)

Yes, in Galibi, tere; in Samoiede, terem (V.)—In Ottomac, haa; at Nootka-sound, ai; in Kadjak and Aleutian, aang; in the Sandwich Islands, ai; Yakoute, ak; in Ostiac and Aleutian, aa; in Mexican, yye; in Miami, iye; in Jotonek, ya; in Tunguse, ya; in Aleutian, je; in Finnish, ect. etc. ya.

One, in Mexican, ce; in Jesso, zen-etsoub; in Kabardian, se; in Aware,

20.

Idem, in Laymon, tejoc; in Betoi, edojojoi; in Japanese, itjido, once; in Birman, thit; in Lieukieu, tids or idshi.

LXXV.

BOOK Two, in Pimas, kok; in Yakoute, ike; in Aware, ke; in Permian, kik ; in Esthonian, kaks.

LXXV.

Three, in Totonak, toto; in Tagalian, tatto.-In Chippeway, taghy; in Malay, tiga.-In Chili, koula; in Ostiac, kolim; in Esthonian, kolm ; in Yarura, tarani; in New Zealand, toroa (V.)

Four, in Araucan, meli; in Birman, leh.

Five, in Iroquois, wisk; in Yakoute bes; in Esthonian, wis; in Laplandish, wit.

Idem, in Totonak, tati; in Samoiede, tetti (V.)

Eight, in Pimas, kikia; in Permian, kykiomis (V.)
Nine, in Quichua, yscon; in Aware and Andi, itsch.

NOTE.-M. Vater has discovered thirty-one analogies between words in the languages of America and Europe. Out of this number, however, thirteen are derived from the Finnish languages, and naturally belong, as well as those from Scandinavia, to the chain of idioms of the north of Asia. Others are founded on error; for instance, ystic, cold, in Mexican, bears no affinity with the Basque otza, but to the Scandinavian iis, to the Ostiac jech, etc. etc.

The same learned gentleman has pointed out thirty-three analogies between American and African idioms. He might have added the following

Sun, veiou, in Galibi; weye, in Yaoi.—Ouwia, on the Gold-coast; eiwiaa, in Amina ouai, in Watie, a dialect in the United States.

Hand, is, in Lulean, isanga, in Koussa; idegh, in Barabra.

I, di, in Miztec; dia and di, in Koussa.

It seems to us that these words, being found in South America, in the vicinity of the Malay words, indicate the arrival of a colony of Malays, mixed with inhabitants of Madagascar and Caffres.

We have discovered in the vocabularies of Nigritia, recently published, several new analogies; but they do not seem to promise much, though it is our intention to prosecute the inquiry still further.

N. B. The reader will please to observe, that the analogical words of the above table are retained in the French orthography, into which they have been translated by M. Malte-Brun; it being impossible to discover what allowances he may have made, or what rules he may have followed, in adapting them to the orthoëpy of that language.-ED.

BOOK LXXVI.

45

AMERICA.

Description of America. Researches concerning the navigation of the Icy Sea of the North-North-west coast of

America.

tailed.

THE extremities of America towards the north, the north- BOOK west, and the north-east, come now to engage our atten- LXXVI. tion. These regions, however, which may be termed "American Siberia," even after the recent voyages of Ross, Parry, Franklin, and Kotzebue, still continue in a great measure unknown. We are ignorant, for instance, whe- Doubts de ther the waters seen by Mackenzie and Hearne, are lakes, or gulfs, or a part of the Icy sea. The itinerary of Hearne, properly estimated, and adjusted to the true points of the compass, would, in my opinion, conduct us nearly a hundred leagues more to the north-east, and probably to the shores of some lake or gulf connected with Baffin's Bay. Captain Franklin has brought the mouth of Mackenzie* River almost eight degrees to the east of its assigned position. The sea into which this and Coppermine River fall, is salt, has tides, and is believed to communicate with the sea at Repulse Bay; but though coasted for more than 500 miles to the eastward, the point has not been ascertained. We are equally uncertain whether this sea be identical with that which washes Melville Island, the western

Map of Connected Discoveries, Frankl, Journey to Polar Sea.

BOOK limit of Parry's first voyage. On the whole, though the LXXVI. voyages of Ross, Franklin, and Parry, have brought the

eastern and western shores of North America to within half of their former distance, the identity of the sea which washes Cape Turnagain, Repulse Bay, and Melville Island, is far from being established; and the question of its extension to Icy Cape, or what is called the North-west Passage, remains still to be investigated. The second voyage of Parry* has added nothing to advance the solution of this question. The actual existence and limits of Baffin's Bay itself, called in question by an arrogant scepticism, which mistakes its own caprices for argument, have been established by the expeditions of Ross and Parry; but the discovery of Barrow's Straits, by the last of these navigators, has authorized the learned critic still to question, whether the coasts seen by the intrepid Baffin are continuous, or belong to a chain of islands. The openings bearing the name of Jones, Smith, Whales, Wolstenholm, have not been visited in detail, and in the bottom of one or more of these bays, straits might possibly still be discovered. The extent of Greenland to the north-west and north-east, has eluded the persevering researches of the Danish missionaries. All that is known is, that the Greenlanders, after passing a strait, have communicated with tribes of their own race to the north of Baffin's bay. It is still undecided where a gulf or strait is terminated, which was discovered in 1761, upon the eastern coast of Greenland, by Volquart Boon, a Dane. On the other hand, the islands seen to the north of Cape Ceverovostochnoi in Siberia, the great coast of Ielmer in the same latitude, and the land of Liaikhof, have not been examined; nor do we know whether this land forms part of a continent, or if that continent is part of America. The immortal Cook, after having again explored Bhering's Straits, very soon found his progress arrested by ice, which united the two continents. Sarytschew assures us that this

In 1822, 1823.

of a Polar

ice never thaws, or, at least, that its disappearing is so ex- BOOK traordinary an occurrence, that it does not happen above LXXVI. once in a hundred years.* This immoveable nature of the ice, the want of ebb and flow of the tide to the north of eastern Siberia, the light and variable winds, the comparative frequency of clear weather, the arrival in Siberia of troops of bears and foxes in a well-fed condition, which have traversed the Frozen Sea to the north of Cape Tchalaginskoi, all lead us to conclude, that the continent of America extends very far to the north, and actually forms, at the pole itself, a third great peninsula. The land discovered Hypothesis to the north of Siberia, by Liachof, and Chwoïnof, appears Continent. to be one extremity of America. The passage between this arctic land and Siberia, contains the celebrated islands, which are entirely composed of the bones of the rhinoceros and elephant, mixed with broken shells, a mass of debris, that appears to have been accumulated by a current which no longer found any outlet. Perhaps even Greenland may thus be united with America, on the north-west side; while the coasts descried by Baffin, may, in part, be only an archipelago, which leaves behind it an inland sea, similar to the Gulf of Mexico. It is even possible that many basins of the same kind may exist to the north and north-west of America. Not one of these questions has been resolved by the voyages of the intrepid Parry, in other respects so valuable.

Who, however, will dare to penetrate these frightful abodes of eternal winter; this gloomy region, where the sun sheds in vain his oblique rays on plains that are doomed to perpetual barrenness; plains that are overspread with dreary moss, and valleys in which the echoes never repeat the warbling of even a solitary bird; these places, in fine, where nature sees her vivifying influence expire, and witnesses the awful termination of her vast empire?

We know not how far a traveller might penetrate by Pretended land, if, at once prudent and courageous, he were to pro- through the

Sarytschew's Voyage to the Icy Sea. t. i. p. 99. (in Russian.)

Voyage

Polar Seas.

« PreviousContinue »