Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1856-08-09
From the Philadelphia Ledger.
THE NORrHMEN IN AMERICA.

The controversy which ragged so long rs to whcth-
or America was visited by tho Scandinavians OF
not, before its discovery by Columbus, has been
determined finally, as all know, in the affirmative.
80 late rs the appearance of lrving's columbus, y
the question was still an open one, and that author
felt himself even authorized to decilc in the mega
tive. But since that period, the researches of the
Danish antiquariLs have left no doubt that the
Mortimer landed on this continent, more than
eight hundred years ago; that they even colonisCd
1t ior II time, and that something of their blood
and language, however inconsidcrablo, must have
become incorporated with the rcd mans race and
tongue, when the colonies were finally abandoned.
But, by all writers, these settlements were cOnce-
.ded TO have been confined to North America. No
one suspected that the Scandinayians had ever pen
ctrated in their adventurous voyages, to the West
Indies or to South America. But, within Tie last
two years, this theory has been preached ON philU-
logical grounds, and from two distinct quarters
one, tho Abbo dc Bourbourg, whose researches
have been made in Guatemala, the other n Sweed-
ish gentleman, lately resident in Brazil. The lat.
ter, especially asserts that the language of the
Peruvian incas was Swedish. The namc of Inca
he considers merely Il corruption Of lnga, the
founder of the royal Scandinavian race Of the In.
glinga, celebrated in an angicnt Saga. a letter
ON the subject, from the Pen CT Mary Hewitt,
makes n conspicuous figure i'll the last London
AtheuGum.
These a~nalogics in truth, however are pcrilous
things. If, as there is reason to believe, most U
the languages in the world had a common origin,
the roots Of many words must be similas in not Il
few. a century ago, it was the fashion, On this
and other accounts, to attribute the colonization
of AmeIic lea to the ten tribes of Israel. Quito rs
plausible theory, VIC have no doubt, could be con
structcd, tracing the dominant caste, ut least, in
Peru, if not in Mexico, to the ancient Scandina
vians by the simple process Of collecting, in one
imposing array, all such words, customs, and insti-
tutions us were common to the Northern and the
meas, and rejecting the ten thousand others that
were dissimilar. Antiquarian research, we regret
to say, has advanced but little since Scott, who il
one OF his earliest novels, made Majoribanks dis
cover Il Roman encampmcnt in an old ditch, til
the gabcrlunzie a~ispellcd the dream by saying he
'Inlndcd the diggin' o it." Crude theories, found
ed OH one-sided Investigations, are submitted foi
that large, wide and thorough induction by which
only can truth be obtained. We have no doubt
that in the course Of time, and us the antiquitic,
ana ancient tongues Of these continents become
more completely understood, an approximation, n
least, will be made to unriddling the great prob
lem, "Who first settled America" 1t is not i'm
possible either, though scarcely probalc, that tn
Scandinavians will be found to have had a hant
in it. Dnt, as yet, hO.h the data and the careful
analysis to solve this sphinx are wanting. Tn,
Bacon Of this new field Of discovery has not ye
arisen.