To those who vaguely peruse the narratives of travellers for pastime or transitory amusement, the present volume is by no means addressed. It is no part of the author’s ambition to study the gratification of so fastidious a taste as that, which but too generally governs the readers of the present day; a taste, which has no criterion but passing fashion, which spurns at every thing that possesses not the charm of novelty, and the luxury of embellishment. We live no longer in an age that tolerates the plain “unvarnished tale.” Our language must now be crowded with the spoils of those which are foreign to its native idiom; it must be perplexed by variety, and rendered ambiguous and redundant by capricious ornament. Hermes, no longer the plain messenger of the gods, exercises all his deceit, and mingles luxury in the purest of intellectual streams.
Had I solely consulted my own gratification, the present volume would probably never have been offered to the public. But, as it may contain some physical remarks connected with the history of the country, and with that {vi} of the unfortunate aborigines, who are so rapidly dwindling into oblivion, and whose fate may, in succeeding generations, excite a curiosity and compassion denied them by the present, I have considered myself partly excused in offering a small edition to the scientific part of the community, just sufficient to defray the expenses of the printer, who kindly undertook the publication at his own risk. I may safely say, that hitherto, so far from writing for emolument, I have sacrificed both time and fortune to it. For nearly ten years I have travelled throughout America, principally with a view of becoming acquainted with some favourite branches of its natural history. I have had no other end in view than personal gratification, and in this I have not been deceived, for innocent amusement can never leave room for regret. To converse, as it were, with nature, to admire the wisdom and beauty of creation, has ever been, and I hope ever will be, to me a favourite pursuit. To communicate to others a portion of the same amusement and gratification has been the only object of my botanical publications; the most remote idea of personal emolument arising from them, from every circumstance connected with them, could not have been admitted into calculation. I had a right, however, reasonably to expect from Americans a degree of candour, at least equal to that which my labours had met with in Europe. But I have found, what, indeed, I might have {vii} reason to expect from human nature, often, instead of gratitude, detraction and envy. With such, I stoop not to altercate; my endeavours, however imperfect, having been directed to the public good; and I regret not the period I have spent in roaming over the delightful fields of Flora, in studying all her mysteries and enigmas, if I have, in any instance, been useful to her cause, or opened to the idle wanderer one fruitful field for useful reflexion.
Not wishing to enlarge the present publication, or retard it by the addition of a voluminous appendix, I reserve for a subsequent volume, which will shortly be issued, A general view and description of the aboriginal antiquities of the western states, and some essays on the languages of the western Indians, and their connection with those of other parts of the world, involving, in some measure, a general view of language, both oral and graphical.
The surveys and collections towards a history of the aboriginal antiquities, have remained unpublished in my possession for several years, and would have been longer withheld, in hopes of rendering them more complete, had not an unexpected anticipation obliged the author to hasten to do justice to himself, and claim, at least, that which was due to his personal industry.
The aboriginal languages of America, hitherto so neglected and unjustly consigned to oblivion as the useless relics of barbarism, are, {viii} nevertheless, perhaps destined to create a new era in the history of primitive language. In their mazes is infolded a history of morals, of remote connections, of vicissitudes and emigrations, which had escaped the circumstantial pen of history; and yet, however strange it may appear, are more durably impressed than if engraven upon tablets of brass, and possessed of an intrinsic veracity nothing short of inspiration.
The literary character of the aboriginal languages of America, have, of late years, begun to claim the attention of the learned both in Europe and America. The reports and correspondence of the Historical committee appointed by the American Philosophical Society, stand meritoriously preeminent in this research; and it must be highly gratifying to the public to know, that the same members continue still to labour in the field with unabated vigour. These various efforts united, I may venture to predict, will be crowned with successful discoveries which could not have been anticipated, and which will ultimately contribute towards the development of that portion of human history, which, above all others, appeared to be so impenetrably buried in oblivion.
Philadelphia, November, 1821.