I suppose the settlement of our continent is of the most remote antiquity. The similitude between its inhabitants and those of eastern parts of Asia renders it probable that ours are descended from them, or they from ours. The latter is my opinion, founded on this single fact: Among the red inhabitants of Asia, there are but a few languages radically different, but among our Indians, the number of languages is infinite, and they are so radically different as to exhibit at present no appearance of their having been derived from a common source. The time necessary for the generation of so many languages must be immense. —

TITLE: To Ezra Stiles.
EDITION: Ford ed., iv, 298.
PLACE: Paris
DATE: 1786
See Indians.