centres where legislators had appeared who were perhaps
entirely foreign to the soil, involuntarily lead us to the
conclusion that the general peopling of America by the
existing races, though it may be traced to an earlier period
thaa that of Polynesia, is, nevertheless, much more recent
than that of the Old World.
VI. It is not from Asia alone that America has received its
population. They came from Europe also long before the
era of gi'eat discoveries; I- am not now alluding either to the
story of Atlantis, of which many interpretations are still
possible, or to Phoenician and Carthaginian traditions, nor
again, to the pretentions of the Basques and Dieppois,
although they appear to be supported by facts, which are, to
say the least, curious ; nor to Irish and Welsh traditions,
though Hund)oldt considers them well worthy of attention.
10
2o8 TJie Hiunan Species.
I shall only speak of the voyages accomplished by the
Scandinavians as related by Kafn from Irish sagas, , and
which have been lately republished in detail by M. Gravier.
We are not now dealing with isolated facts belonging to
the darkness of those ages which they only occasionally
illuminate. It is a detailed history embracing several gene-
rations, and sometimes giving circumstantial details which
explain, and are confirmed by certain modern discoveries.
In 877, according to M. Gravier, perhaps as early as 770,
according to M. Lacroix, Gunnbjorn discovered Greenland.
In 886 Erick the Red doubled Cape Farewell, and built at
the head of a fjord his house Brattahilda, the lately dis-
covered ruins of which have been compared to those of a
town. In 986 Bjarn Meriulfson, when on his way to Green-
land, was carried by a storm as far as the shores of New
England. In 1000, Leif, the son of Erick the Red, started
for the country discovered by Bjarn. Accompanied by 35
men, he ran down as far as Rhode Island, where he found
the vine, and gave the name of Vln-lcmd to' the country of
which he took possession ; he built Lelfahudir, passed the
winter there, and noticed that the shortest day began at half-
past seven and ended at half-past four. This observation,
which agrees with all the other details, places Leifsbudir
near the present town of Providence, 41° 24' 10" N. lat.
Thorwald succeeded his brother Leif. Followed by 30
warriors, he reached Vinland and passed the winter at Leifs-
budir. In the spring of 1003 he ran down as far as Long
Island, explored the neighbourhood, and returned in the
autumn to his starting-point. The following summer he
turned his steps northwards. Near Cape Alderton, his com-
j)anions surprised three boats made of osier, and covered
with leather, and slew eight of the men by whom they were
manned. The ninth escaped ; he soon returned, however,
accompanied by a great number of his fellow-countrymen,
who showered upon the Scandinavians a cloud of arrows and
then fled. But Thorwald, mortally wounded, was inten-ed
in this laml which he had expressed a desire to inhabit. It
AligraiioJis in America. 209
may possibly have been his tomb which was discovered at
the end of the last century in Rainsford Island, near to Hull
and Cape Alderton ; a tomb of solid masonry, containing
a skeleton, and a sword with an iron hilt, indicating a
period anterior to the fifteenth century.
In 1007 Thorfinn, accompanied by his wife Gudrida,
started with three ships carrying 160 men, some women, and
cattle. This time the object was to found a colony. They
settled not far from Leifsbudir at Mount Hope Bay. The
strangers were soon visited by some of the natives, who are
easily identified with the Esquimaux from the description
given in the Saga. The relations maintained with these
SkreUinga were at first pacific. But the following year an
act of brutality on the part of a Scandinavian led to war, and
Thorfinn, although victorious, did not feel his position to be
secure, and resolved to return to his country with his com-
panions, his wife, and his son Snorre, the first Scandinavian
born in Vinland.
Before quitting his settlement, the chief was anxious to
leave some trace of his presence. Such, at least, is the
opinion adopted by Scandinavian savants, and by M. Gravicr,
on tlie subject of the famous Dighton Writing Rock. This
block of gneiss, situated upon the right bank of Tauton
River, and alteraately covered and left bare by the tide,
bears a certain mmiber of characters engraved upon it to the
depth of eight millimetres (one-third inch). This inscHp-
iion, which has given rise to many discussions, has, probably,
a double origin. Schoolcraft tells us that an old Indian,. who
was familiar Avith American pictography, recognized the
hand of his countryman in a certain number of signs which
he was able to explain, though at the same time he confessed
that others were quite new to him. On the other hand,
Magnuscn and his followers have also only been able to
interpret some of these same signs. They were, in their
opinion, a mixture of runic and cryptographic signs, and
of figures referring to the adventures of Thorfinn. They
thought they coiild recognize Gudrida with her son Snorre,
2IO The Hiuiian Species.
and the phonetic portion might, it seemed, be translated in
the following manner : — 131 men of the north have
OCCUPIED THIS COUNTRY — WITH THORFINN. I should add,
however, that Mr. Wittlesey does not admit the existence of
a single alphabetical inscription in the United States. Yet
we must not suppose that the opinion of the American
antiquarian at all affects the authenticity of the Sagas which
relate the history of Thorfinn.
I cannot here repeat all the adventures of Thorvard and
Freydisa, of Ari Marsou, Bjorn Asbrandson, Gudleif and
Hervador . . . . , but I must remark, in reference to
the latter, that, through the indications contained in the
Skalholt Saga, the American savants have been able to find
upon the shores of the Potomac the tomb of a woman who
fell by the arrows of the Skrellings in 1051.
VII. The colonies founded in Greenland by Erick and his
successors multiplied rapidly ; both the cast and west coasts
were peopled. These two centres bore the names of Osterhygd
and Vestcrhyijd. From the documents consulted by M. F.
Lacroix, it appears that the former possessed a cathedral,
eleven churches, three or four monasteries, two towns called
Garda and Alba, and 190 Gaards or Norwegian villages; in the
second, there were four churches and 90 or 110 gaards. These
figures clearly indicate a considerable population. This is
still more strongly proved by the fact, that as early as 1121,
an Irishman, Erick-Upsi, was created Bishop of Greenland,
and had eighteen successors. Vinland was in the jurisdic-
tion of this diocese. The tithes of this country figured
among the revenues of the Ciiurch in the fourteenth century,
and were paid in kind.
This prosperity, and the regular relations between Europe,
Greenland, and Vinland seem to have lasted till towards the
middle of the fourteenth century. About this time the
Skrellings attacked Vesterbygd ; the succour sent by the
other settlements arrived too late, and the western colony
was destroyed. Osterbygd had a much longer existence.
In 1418 it still paid to the Holy See as tithes and Peter's
I\Iigrations in Ajucn'ca. 211
Pence 3G00 pounds of walrus' tusks. At a period anterior
to tliis epoch, however, Queen Margaret, sovereign of the
Scandinavian dominions, impelled by motives which have
been differently interpreted, had interdicted all commerce
with the Greenland colonies. Shortly afterwards fleets of
pirates, springing from some imknown quarter, came down
upon and pillaged them ; the temperature of both land and
sea gradually fell ; voyages became more and more difficult,
and, at last, ceased altogether. Thus, when in 1721, the
Norwegian Pastor, Hans Eggede, led to those frozen lands
the first modern colony, he found nothing but ruins, and not
a single descendant of Erick and Thorfinn. What had be-
come of them ?
A letter addressed to Pope Nicholas V., quoted by
M. Lacroix, throws some liglit upon their fate. It is dated
14'48, and informs us that, thirty years previously, some
strangers coDiing from the American coasts had pillaged
the colony, and massacred or carried into slavery the greater
number of the inhabitants of both sexes. A great number
had, however, returned to their homes, and asked for help.
It is hardly possil)lc to avoid referring to the latter, the
white population, tall, and with fair hair, which Captain
Graa met with on the east coast of Greenland, during his
expedition in search of Osterbygd. Notwithstanding their
adoption of the Esquimaux language, they certainly did not
belong to their race.
But were all the descendants of the bold navigators who
had discovered America content to live, like the Skrellings,
l)y the side of ruins which recalled the relative grandeur of
their fathers ? This hypothesis appears to me inadmissible.
It seems evident to me, that the greater number of the
survivors must have emigrated and sought refuge in Vin-
land, of the existence of which they were aware. Perhaps
they were repulsed by the mixed population of Scandinavians
and Esquimaux, who seem very early to have come into
existence, and who were, perhaps, the invaders mentioned
in the letter quoted by M. Lacroix ; perhaps, again, they
212 TJic Hinimn Species.
may have encountered â– warlike and inhospitable tribes, like
those mentioned in the Saga of Gudleif. But the Nor-
Avcgians would then only have pushed on further, till they
met with some hospitable shore where they could settle.
VIII. However this may be, the history of Scandinavian
voyages is sufficient to explain the appearance of the white
type, even of the fair type, in the midst of American popula-
tions. I do not hesitate to refer to this Aryan stock, the
white Esquimaux of Charlevoix, the fair-haired men of Pierre
Martyr, the fair men spoken of in some Mexican traditions,
the White Savage Chief whom the Spaniards met with in
their Cibola expedition . . . etc.
Besides, the discovery and the repeated invasions of the
American coasts by the Scandinavians show the estimation
in which we ought to hold the pretended impossibility of the
peopling of America. Here, we have no longer the double
pirogues of the Polynesians, carrying 150 warriors ; it was
in loafs manned by thirty or forty men that Leif and
Thorwald faced the Greenland seas, reached, and returned
from Vinland. In the presence of sucli facts, can we regard
our improved method of navigation as indlspensahle to long
sea voyages ?
Modern civilization has placed in our hands an imnionse
power of action unknown to our ancestors. It enables us to
accomplish works v.hich they would have thought could only
be expected from supernatural powers. Science has placed
in our hands the majjic rinj::, and we have become so used to
employing it for the satisfaction of our smallest wants, that it
seems to us impossible to do without it. We too often forget
the resources which man possesses in himself, and which form
part of his original nature. Thus, wc regard less advanced,
less learned races as incapable of accomplishing that which
we should not dare to undertake without the aid which we
have been able to create for ourselves.
Wc have just seen how fully the history of the Polynesians
and Scandinavians contradicts these fulse ideas, and how they
justify the words of Lyell : — "Supposing the human genus
Miirrations in America. 2 1
v>
were to disappear entirely, with the exception of a single
family, placed either upon the Ocean of the New Continent,
iu Australia, or upon some coral island of the Pacific Ocean,
we may be sure that its descendants would, in the course of
ages, succeed in invading the whole earth, although they
n)ight not have attained a higher degree of civilization than
the Esquimaux or the South Sea Islanders."
BOOK YI.
ACCLIMATISATION OF THE HUMAN SPECIES.
CHAPTER XIX.
INFLUENX'E OF CONDITIONS OF LIFE AND RACF:.
I. The liuiiiaii species, springing originally from a single
centre of appearance, is now universally distributed. In
their innumerable travels, its representatives have en-
countered the widest difference of climate and the most
opposite conditions of life, and now inhabit both the polar
and equatorial regions. It must, therefore, have possessed
tlie necessary aptitudes for accommodating itself to all the
natural conditions of existence ; in other words, it must have
had the power of becoming acdiinatiscd and naturalised
in every })lace where we meet with it.
The j)ossibility of man living and prospciing in otlier
regions than those in which his fathers lived, has been
denied in a more or les^ emphatic manner by the greater
numbur of j)olygenists. Without going as far as thi.s, cer-
tain monogenists have held that a human race, when con-
.stituted for given conditions of life, was, so to speak, a.
pris(»ncr to them, and could not effect a change without
losing his life. Other writers have maintained precisely
opposite opinions, and have held that any human group
covild at once become acclimatised in any given spot.
There are exaggerations and errurs in all these extreme
doctrinejs.
Influence of Conditions of Life and Race. 215
II. In spite of the assertions of Knox, Frenchmen can
live perfectly well in Corsica, provided only, that they
avoid the marshes of the eastern coast, which the islanders
themselves cannot inliabit. After the revocation of the
Edict of Nantes, the fugitives from Provence and Langue-
doc founded villages in the valley of the Danube, thus
contradicting beforeliand one of the assertions of the Eng-
lish doctor, English and French emigrants to the United
States, and to Canada, have not degenerated, in spite of
the assertions of the same author. Though modified, often
in a very striking manner, as we shall presently see, the
Yankee squatters and the Canadian hacJcicoodsmcn are
certainly not inferior to the first colonists who planted the
European standard in the midst of the Red-Skins.
Knox, and the anthropologists who agree either entirely or
partially with him, attribute to emigration alone the main-
tenance and growth of the white population in America and
elsewhere. In their opinion the European emigrant loses,
after several generations, the power of reproduction. If the
human current, which sets from Europe towards the Colonies
were to be stopped, they maintain that the population would
rapidly diminish, and the local races regain the ascendancy,
that tlie United States would return to the iW-Skins, and
Mexico to the descendants of Montezuma.
This assertion will easily be answered by a few statistics.
They are taken from the history of French races, which,
since the treaty of Paris in 1703, have, although in a slight
degree, directly contributed to the peopling of Canada.
There were in this country :
In ISl I , . 27i>.OO0 inliabitauts of French origin.
In 1S51 . . fi;tr..lU.j „ „
In ISGl . . 1,037,770 „ m
in Ottawa State there were :
In IS.-)! . . Total population . . . ]r..000
. French ,, ... S.Chk;)
In lSt'.3 . . Total population . . . 2.").(H»0
. French „ ... 1. '-,"<»'>
2 1 6 The II 71 mail Species.
The history of the Acadians furnishes statistics which are
quite as convincing. From the information obtained by M.
Rameau, it appears that the entire population was descended
from forty-seven families, numbering 400 souls in 1671. In
]7'55 there were 18,000. Dispersed and driven out by the
English they Avere reduced to only 8,000. In 1861, the
number rose to 95,000 persons.
If we calculate from the preceding figures the annual in-
crease of French populations in America, we shall find the
ratio equal or superior to that furnished by the most
favoured European populations. This proves that the
French race shows no sign of disappearance, even in the
country chosen as an example by Knox.
Without entering into too many details, let us remember
that the French have lived and increased in number at
Cunstantia, not far from the Cape, since the revocation of
the Edict of Nantes ; that this same region has been
colonized by the Dutch, whose descendants, the Boers, have
migrated, and now form the Transvaal Republic ; that tlicy
have been succeeded at tlie Cape by the English, who, by
degrees, have overrun the whole country. We must also
remember the rapid growth of the Anglo-Australian colonies,
etc. ; and, finally, let us not forget those nine families of
missionaries visited by M. do Delapelin in Polynesia, which,
in all, numbered sixty-nine children, that is to say, a mean
of more than seven and a half each, and we shall be forced to
acknowledge that the most highly characterised European
white can live and increase in number in both hemispheres,
at tlie antipodes, and in tiie native countries of the most
different races.
Finthev, the '^reat race to which he liimself belonirs was
not originally European. It proljably sprang from the moun-
tain district of tlie Boim- and the Ilindoo-koh, where the
Mamogis still represent the original stock. In any case, the
Z<-nd-Avesta informs us that it issued from a region where
liu; suni!i»er lasted but two Mionlhs, a eliniafe wliieli almost
corresponds to that of Finland. Step by .step it advanced,
Injlucncc of Conditions of Life and Race. 217
on the one hand as far as the Gangetic peninsula and Cey-
lon, on the other to Iceland and Greenland. Afterwards,
when the era of great discoveries had commenced, it dis-
tributed its colonies over the whole world, peopling conti-
nents, and replacing indigenous races.
The consideration of these general facts alone, and the
result of this perpetual activity, make it impossible to deny
to the Aryan race the faculty of acclimatisation, under the
most diverse conditions of existence. All the assertions of
Knox, and of his more or less avowed disciples, fall before
these facts.
What is true for the Aryan race is equally true for the
Negro. The White has transported the Black to almost
every part of the globe, and in the most distant places the
Black lives side by side with his master. Our experience
as to the Yellow Races is still slight, but we can already
foresee that the result will be the same. Chinese and
Coolies have passed over into America from Asia; we shall
perhaps soon see them in Africa and in Europe.
Certain branches detached from the great ethnical stocks
have already offered similar evidences. The Gipsies, Aryans
mixed, perhaps, with Dravidians, have overrun the whole of
Europe, and are now met with everywhere. As to the Jews,
we know that they are really cosmopolitan, and that almost
everywhere, in Prussia as in Algeria, their fecundity sur-
passes that of the local races.
III. I do not mean by this that I consider the Aryan, or
any races, capable of always becoming at once acclimatised
in any given locality. On the contrary, there are regions
which are fatal to man, to whatever group he may belon"-,
and however well prepared he may seem to be to brave their
intiuence. Such is the great estuary of the Gaboon, where the
Negro himself cannot live. The general constitution of the
inhabitants grows sensibly weaker; the reproductive organs
appear to be particularly affected, and the number of women
greatly surpas.ses that of the men. We know how dangerous
the climate of this country is to the European, and it will be
2 1 8 The Ilunian Species.
interesting to sec wlietlicr the Paouins will in their tur.-i
yield to the deleterious influence of these coasts, which they
are gradually approaching.
We need not, moreover, go so far for examples. Who
does not know the reputation of the Maremuia, and the
marshes of Corsica ? At one time the swamps of the Dombe,
and the mouth of the Charente, in France, were scarcely less
dangerous.
Even where the conditions are much less severe, acclimati-
sation almost always demands numerous and melancholy
sacrifices, which some anthropologists have done wrong to
overlook. The fact is but too natural. A race, which has
settled under the influence of certain conditions of existence,
cannot effect a change without undergoing modification, and
hence sufiferinjr. This fact w^ll be noticed in some detail
in the chapter dedicated to the formation of these derived
groups from the species. I can here only point out the
general law.
IV. Thus, every colonization of a distant country must be
regarded in the first place as a conquest attempted by the
immigrating race. Now, whether the battle has to be fought
with man or with the conditions of life, the victory is only
gained at the cost of human life. We must not, however,
exaggerate the extent of inevitable losses, and deny the
possibility of acclimatisation. We must put the problem
clearly, and seek for experimental data, whence the solution
may be naturally deduced.
Every question of acclimatisation comprises two terms,
which are, so to speak, the comfoncnts of the resultant
which we are seeking for or studying. These terms arc race
and conditions of life. We already know the exact significance
of the former of these two words, and we shall presently
consider in some detail what we are to understand by the
latter. At present we will take it as simply representing all
the conditions of existence presented by a given place, and
proceed to point out its influence in acclimatisation.
We have seen that certain conditions of life appear to be
Infljicnce of Condilions of Life and Race. 219
fatal to all races. In cases of this kind, we should distinguish
how much of this insalubrity is due to the regions, and how
much is the result of accidental circumstances, sometimes
provoked by man himself. The plain of the Dombe in
France was once as salubrious as the surrounding country.
The exaggerated industry of the marshes transformed it into
a pestilential region, where it was quite as fatal for foreign
populations to live as it would have been in the swamps of
tlie Senegal. Sanitary measures are now tending to restore it
to its former condition. It is evident that we cannot reproach
the Dombe with the deleterious influence which human
intelligence seems to have undertaken to develop.
Even when the latter does not step in to vitiate the con-
ditions of life, we cannot charge a country with opposing
unfavourable conditions to an indigenous or foreign race,
when these conditions ma}' be attributed to the negligence
of the inhabitants, or to some special cause, which human
intelligence might modify. Deprived of the care which
rendered it healthy and luxuriant, the Campagna of Rome
has become a branch of the Pontine Marshes. On the other
hand, the environs of E.ochefort have become healthy ; Bouf-
farik, once one of the most dangerous spots in Algeria, has
become the centre of a flourishing population. It was not,
therefore, the general natural conditions which rendered these
localities dangerous, especially to strangers, but simply acci-
dent. As soon as the cause is removed, acclimatisation
becomes not only possible, but easy.
Considered from this point of view, many countries, which
now appear to repel all attempts at immigration, will, perhaps,
at some future period, be particularly favourable to the deve-
lopment of colonizing races. It is clear that in all cases of
this kind we must distinguish between normal and accidcni-
allfj vitiated conditions of life.
I cannot enter into all the details which this distinction
would allow, and shall confine myself to quoting a few
facts.
The very progress of civilization sometimes results in the
220 The Ihunan Species.
vitiation of certain conditions of life. Sucli is the almost
inevitable result of the crowding together of human beings
in a relatively limited space. This is one of the points most
clearly demonstrated in the statistical researches of M. Boudin
upon the comparative mortality of the country and of barracks,
for example. A comparison of our large towns and rural
districts leads to the same result, and points to a special
action upon the organs of reproduction. M. Boudin could
not find a pure-blooded Parisian whose genealogy could be
traced for more than three generations. At Besancon, town
families become extinct in less than a centur}'^, and are re-
placed by others from the country. London, I have been
assured, presents a similar phenomenon.
Do not ships, in which men live crowded together for
months under very unsatisfactory sanitary conditions, deve-
lop deleterious principles, to which the crews become accus-