indicate, we should be less surprised
at finding among the semi-barbarous nations of the New Continent idols
and monuments of architecture, a hieroglyphical writing, and exact
knowledge of the duration of the year, and traditions respecting the
first state of the world, recalling to our minds the arts, the sciences,
and religious opinions of the Asiatic nations."--Humboldt's
_Researches_.

In his description of a Mexican painting, Humboldt observes, "The slave
on the left is like the figure of those saints which we see frequently
in Hindoo paintings, and which the navigator Roblet found on the
northwest coast of America, among the hieroglyphical paintings of the
natives of Cox's Channel."--Merchant's _Voyage_, vol. i., p. 312.

"It is probably by philosophical and antiquarian researches in Tartary
that the history of those civilized nations of North America, of whose
great works only the wreck remains, will alone be elucidated."--See
Bancroft's _History of the United States_, vol. iii., chap. xxii.; and
Stephens's _Central America_, vol. i., p. 96; vol. ii., chap, xxvi., p.
186, 357, 413, 433. See Appendix, No. XLVII. (see Vol II)]

[Footnote 227: "The five nations were the Mohawks, the Oneidas, the
Cayugas, the Onondagas, and the Senecas. The Dutch called them Maquas,
the French Iroquois; their appellation at home was the Mingoes, and
sometimes the Aganuschion, or United People."--Governor Clinton's
_Discourse before New York Historical Society_, 1811.

The Iroquois have often, among Europeans, been termed the Romans of the
West. "Le nom d'Iroquois est purement francois, et a ete forme du terme
_Hiro_, qui signifie, _J'ai dit_, par lequel ces sauvages finissent tout
leur discours, comme les Latins faisaient autrefois par leur _Dixi_; et
_de Koue_, qui est un cri, tantot de tristesse, lorsqu' on le prononce
en trainant, et tantot de joie, lorsqu'on le prononce plus court. Leur
nom propre est Agonnonsionni, qui veut dire, _Faiseurs de Cabannes_;
parcequ'ils les batissent beaucoup plus solides, que la plupart des
autres sauvages."--Charlevoix, tom. i., p. 421.

Lafitau gives the Iroquois the same name of Agonnonsionni; they used to
say of themselves that the five nations of which they were composed
formed but one "Cabane."]

[Footnote 228: "Le Pere Brebeuf comptoit environ trente mille ames de
vrais Hurons, distribues en vingt villages de la nation. Il y avoit
outre cela, douze nations sedentaires et nombreuses, qu