French Pathfinders in North America | Page 2

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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
JACQUES CARTIER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Frontispiece From the
original painting by P. Riis in the Town Hall of St. Malo, France
Indian Family Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
FORT CAROLINE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 From De Bry's "Le
Moyne de Bienville"
SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 From the
Ducornet portrait

FORT OF THE IROQUOIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 From
Laverdière's "Oeuvres de Champlain"
THE MURDER OF LA SALLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278 From
Hennepin's "A New Discovery of a Vast Country in America"
LE MOYNE DE BIENVILLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284 From the
original painting in the possession of J. A. Allen, Esq., Kingston, Ont.
FALLS OF ST. ANTHONY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309 From
Carver's "Travels Through the Interior Parts of North America"

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French Pathfinders in North America
Chapter I
THE ORIGIN AND DISTRIBUTION OF THE INDIAN RACE
America probably peopled from Asia.--Unity of the American
Race.--The Eskimo, possibly, an Exception.--Range of the Several
Groups.
In an earlier volume, "Pioneer Spaniards in North America," the
probable origin of the native races of America has been discussed. Let
us restate briefly the general conclusions there set forth.
It is the universal opinion of scientific men that the people whom we
call Indians did not originate in the Western World, but, in the far
distant past, came upon this continent from another--from Europe,
some say; from Asia, say others. In support of the latter opinion it is
pointed out that Asia and America once were connected by a broad belt
of land, now sunk {4} beneath the shallow Bering Sea. It is easy, then,
to picture successive hordes of dusky wanderers pouring over from the
old, old East upon the virgin soil of what was then emphatically a new
world, since no human beings roamed its vast plains or traversed its

stately forests.
Human wave followed upon wave, the new comers pushing the older
ones on. Some wandered eastward and spread themselves in the region
surrounding Hudson Bay. Others took a southeast course and were the
ancestors of the Algonquins, Iroquois, and other families inhabiting the
eastern territory of the United States. Still others pushed their way
down the Pacific coast and peopled Mexico and Central America, while
yet others, driven no doubt by the crowding of great numbers into the
most desirable regions of the isthmus, passed on into South America
and gradually overspread it.
Most likely these hordes of Asiatic savages wandered into America
during hundreds of years and no doubt there was great diversity among
them, some being far more advanced in the arts of life than others. But
the essential thing to notice is that they were all of one blood. Thus
their descendants, however different they may {5} have become in
language and customs, constitute one stock, which we call the
American Race. The peoples who reared the great earth-mounds of the
Middle West, those who carved the curious sculptures of Central
America, those who built the cave-dwellings of Arizona, those who
piled stone upon stone in the quaint pueblos of New Mexico, those who
drove Ponce de Leon away from the shores of Florida, and those who
greeted the Pilgrims with, "Welcome, Englishmen!"--all these, beyond
a doubt, were of one widely varying race.
To this oneness of all native Americans there is, perhaps, a single
exception. Some writers look upon the Eskimo as a remnant of an
ancient European race, known as the "Cave-men" because their remains
are found in caves in Western Europe, always associated with the bones
of arctic animals, such as the reindeer, the arctic fox, and the
musk-sheep. From this fact it seems that these primitive men found
their only congenial habitation amid ice and snow. Now, the Eskimo
are distinctly an arctic race, and in other particulars they are amazingly
like these men of the caves who dwelt in Western Europe when it had a