to
them have been thus far realised, and that all the prophecies relative
to their future destination will in due time be strictly fulfilled.

It has been the general impression, as before mentioned, that great
resemblance existed between some of the religious rites of the Jews, and
the peculiar ceremonies of the Indians; and the belief in one Great
Spirit has tended to strengthen the impression; yet this mere
resemblance only extended so far as to admit of the belief, that they
possibly may have descended from the dispersed tribes, or may have been
of Tartar or Malay origin.

It was, however, a vague and unsatisfactory suspicion, which, having no
tangible evidence, has been rejected, or thrown aside as a mere
supposition. All the missionaries and travellers among the Indian
tribes since the discovery of America--Adair, Heckwelder, Charliveux,
Mckenzie, Bartram, Beltrami, Smith, Penn, Mrs Simon, who has written a
very interesting work on this subject, etcetera, have expressed opinions
in favour of their being of Jewish origin--the difficulty, however,
under which they all laboured was simply this; they were familiar with
the religious rites, ceremonies, traditions, and belief of the Indians,
but they were not sufficiently conversant with the Jewish rites and
ceremonies to show the analogy. It is precisely this link in the chain
of evidence that I propose to supply.

It has been said that the Indians, believing in one great Spirit and
Fountain of Life, like the Jews, does not prove their descent from the
missing tribes, because in a savage state their very ignorance and
superstition lead them to confide in the works of some divine superior
being. But savages are apt to be idolaters, and personate the deity by
some carved figure or image to whom they pay their adoration, and not,
like the Indians, having a clear and definite idea of one great Ruler of
the universe, one great Spirit, whose attributes are as well known to
them as to us.

But if the continued unerring worship of one God like the Jews prove
nothing, where did they acquire the same Hebrew name and appellation of
that deity? If tradition had not handed down to them the ineffable name
as also preserved by the Jews, how did they acquire it in a wilderness
where the word of the Lord was never known?

Adair, in whom I repose great confidence, and who resided _forty_ years
among them, in his work published in 1775, says, "The ancient heathens
worshipped a