The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-03-08
THE ANTIQUITY OF -BARBARIsM AND
CIVILIZATION.

treats largely of the antiquity of the race, anl
of the barbarous characteristics, of the negroes
now inhabiting Equatorial Africa. The OBJ
servations and the conclusions of this intelli
gent and adventurous traveller, which beal
upon the vexed question of the original unity
or diversity OF mankind, have peculiar
value. To the eager but unprecedented stu
dent Of ethnology they contain ingredient:
of interest and refreshment such as may moi
be found in the dispositions of an Owen, @
Darwin, Draper, or even of an Agassiz
For these men conduct their observations and
elaborate their conclusions from the stand.
point of one or another theory; and, while
they are admirable authorities to consult fol
the purpose of confirming opinion, they are
not SO apt to present new aspects of their
subject, and TO lead to new avenues of truth,
as a man like DuChaillu, who pursues his in
quiries, not in libraries and among scientific
repositories, but face to face with nature, and
with eyes, heart and intellect frankly open to
all impressions incident to such communion.
He is no philosophe, no doctrinaire, i'm
prisoned in the logic of foregone assumptions.
As am explorer and thinker, it is as natural
and spontaneous for him to be candid and i'm.
partial, as it is for him to see with his eyes,
taste with his palate, feel with his touch, and
breathe with his lungs. 1t is this disposition
of mind which claims for the subjoined re-
Elections in his concluding lecture an atten-
ton which an authorship much more famous
for scientific research and philosophical specu-
lation might fail to command:
He said that all the negro tribes OF the present
day must have been derived from one parent
stock, who, like themselves, must have been ne.
groes. The negro race he believed TO be OF
very great antquity-indeed, that it is one of the
Oldest races Of mankind. He had noticed thai
upon both continents the populations are divided
INTO many tribes, with many different languages
America possesses many beautiful buildings Of
great antiquity. particularly in Central America,
which remind US Of the high state of civilization
and progressive power which were the property
OF the inhabitants of times exceedingly remote
In those portions of Africa which are the abodes
OF the negro, travellers have searched IN vain for
AWNING 70 remind US that the negroes ever en-
Joyed higher state of civilization than that
which they now present. The Australian or the
Polynesian OF this day seem TO be In no way so.
perlor or inferior to their progenitors but from all
mat we can learn, are as far removed from a con-
dition of civilization as were their forefathers
centuries before them. Geology has demon
sirated TO us that there was q time
when man could not possibly have lived
upon this planet, bat that must have been
very great while ago, for careful and stuiious
research has taught US that the creation
OF man dates back further than we are generally
led to believe. When we look at some of. the
lower types and races OF men, such as the Hotten.
tots, Bnshmen, Oboungous, Australians. and vsr-
Gus tribes OF negroes, we shrink from a compar
son Of ourselves with them and the doubt ensues
rs to whether we all sprang from one primeya
type. For not only do these people differ from
us in color and the formation Of their bony frames
but, above all, In the measure of intelligence.
Their receding foreheads at once account for the
OF their intellectual powers, as com.
pared with those Of the higher races of men. For
MANKIND TO have come to such a state of
as that which we now be-
'ola must have required prodigious num-
Der or years. This we know OF a certainty:
Dot what that original type was we can, |
lot tell. We do not know what sort of people |
'ur First ancestors were. As far back as we have |
ny historical record, we find the living types and
aces OF men in the same relation to each other a.
hey are at the present day. The pictures on the |
lnelent Egyptian temples, several thousand wears
I'D, the negro and Caucasian physiognomies are /
distinctly portrayed, and exhibit the same con |
rast as iney would II taken to-day. These would |
eem to indicate the permanency Of types among |
men, and has led many to believe that each race |
lad a separate origin.
What it is important to note here is the
ntiquity of barbarism ascribed to the nieri-
ian tribes Of Africa, and to all other unciy-
lied populations of the present day. GIN
hose portions Of Africa, we are told, (which
re the abodes of the negro, travellers have
earched in vain for anything to remind us
hat the negroes ever enjoyed higher state
I civilization than that which they now
resent" In this fact is to be found the true
,easure of the possibilities of negro civil
alton. Hayti and Jamaica simply repeat,
nder the full blaze of the historic epoch, the
tory which Africa mumbled amid her juneIes.
times that reach back of history, and when
eneration after generation persisted there and
1T no sign. And there is in the United
tates accumulation of spurious philanthro-
lists and public knaves and charlatans which
ms to establish on these shores this second
and quotation from Africa, as the GROWING
allure of their work of political reform and
'cial regeneration. The only trouble which
icy encounter is fundamental, radical, and
If general opinion, and, above
l. If nature would assent TO their theory, that
70 nigritian Cuffee and Quashee were prime
lily of the same stuff and cast in the same
ould with Hellenic Socrates and Plato, they
ould have plain sailing, over smooth sea,
quite practicable destination. But
neral opinion, while typifed by DuChAiIlu's
INK and healthful way of seeing facts and
asoning upon them, can never be reconciled
this theory, and nature, through all her
gans, protests against it, and invariably
ues it out with loathing when the attempt is
lde to smuggle it down her throat in the
ape of sweetened nostrum or q giIded
lus.
What Mr.. DuChaillu has said about the an {
uity Of African barbarism, is extremely J
ggestive as to the antiquity of Indo-Euro-
an civilization. If it is impossible to 90
hind the beginning of the one, it is equally
possible to go behind the beginning of the
Ter. That there ever was period when !
Caucasian race knew nothing of civiIiza-
n, is mere dream of speculative philoso-