quarter at which their ancestors entered; the hopes and expectations which have been kept alive among them-and lastly, we shall attempt to trace the course which the ten tribes may be supposed to have taken, in order to arrive at this uninhabited but rich and luxuriant country. When these points have been investigated, and other remarks of an incidental nature laid before the reader, he will consider, whether there be not reason to believe, that the God of the Jews has still taken care of his chosen but rebellious people, that he still keeps them as the apple of his eye. On this point it is evident to remark, that in speaking of this race of men, both as to past, present and future time, it is the nation that is regarded; although many of the original families may have become extinct, the identity of the people remains, so long as they retain those marks of their origin which distinguish them as the people of God, and are unmixed with other families.

It would be unreasonable to expect that every difficulty that arises and every objection that may be started on this investigation will be entirely removed. It must be obvious to every person who considers the length of time since the captivity of the ten tribes of Israel, the wandering and destitute state of the Indian nations, their entire separation from all civilized society, their total ignorance of literature, the strange inattention of the Europeans who first settled among them to observe their modes of life, and the falsehood of those that did attempt it, the difficulty of obtaining a proper knowledge of their language, which has split into many dialects, together with the jealousy and fear they have entertained of the white people, from

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whom they have received little other than injury, extreme suffering and wanton destruction-It must be obvious that under such circumstances as these many difficulties will arise in this investigation. We have a comparison to make between a people originally possessing and observing a peculiar economy, but degenerating under that economy in an extreme degree, and intermixing in its laws and customs others to which they were originally and systematically hostile; calling themselves the worshippers of One God and yet indulging in the worship of many; acknowledging themselves bound to the Mosaic law yet uniting with it what was the most alien from it-and an immense population divided into separate communities, forming new kingdoms, instituting new laws; or remaining under the authority of no established code, but submitting to the rule of a chief who professed no authority but the tradition of which himself was the depository. When the very different states of two such people are considered, and the long lapse of time between the disappearance of the former and the discovery of the latter, together with the distance of the countries in which they severally resided, and that one was in the highest state of cultivation while the other was a wild waste: must it not be thought that, though these histories relate to the same people yet great and incalculable changes must have taken place among them, and that we are not to expect to find many clear and distinctive marks by which it may be made to appear, that the American Tribes are the offspring of the captivated and cast-out tribes of Israel.

CHAPTER II.

OF THE PROPHECIES.

FROM the history of the Hebrews and from their sacred writings it appears, that the great Governor of the universe did select that people from all the nations of the earth, not only to receive and to preserve the great doctrine of the divine Unity, together with that purity and singleness of worship which he requires; but also to deliver over the same to the other nations. They have been made the depositories of Prophecies, instructive not to themselves alone but to all the earth. They were early informed, in a language the most plain, what would befal them in future years, according as they kept the commandments of God or were disobedient to them, and in their rebellion they fully experienced the truth of the prophetic words. Moses seems to have been perfectly acquainted with the untoward disposition of the people when he brought them out of the land of Egypt, and how great their tendency would be to revolt to the absurdities and abominations of the nations around them; and being inspired

with a spirit of prophecy, he warned them of their danger in sublime language. Deut. 4. 23. "Take heed to yourselves lest ye forget the covenant of the Lord your God which he made with you, to make you a graven image or the likeness of any thing which the Lord thy God hath forbidden thee. For the Lord thy God is a consuming fire. -When you corrupt yourselves and make a graven Image I call Heaven and Earth to witness against you this day, that ye shall soon utterly perish from off the land whither ye go over Jordan to possess it. And the Lord God shall scatter you among the nations, and ye shall be left few in number among the heathen, whither the Lord shall lead you. And ye shall serve other Gods, the work of men's hands, wood and stone, which neither see, or hear, nor eat, nor smell. But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul."

After this Moses gave them the law, and enumerated many blessings which should be conferred on them in case of their hearkening diligently to the voice of the Lord, to observe and do his commandments, and then passed on to the extraordinary and dreadful curses which would rest upon them if they were disobedient to the heavenly vision. See 29. 10. and following.

For the fulfilment of the divine commands it was necessary to separate them from the rest of the people of the earth; so that their political and religious institutions might be known to the world, and the exclusive nature of their principles. They were thus separated, and enjoyed the privileges of their land through many generations: but

they soon forgot the covenant of their God and fell into the Idolatry of other nations. About seven hundred years before the christian era, near the time of Salmanazar, King of Assyria, Isaiah the prophet rose among them and delivered from God this solemn message. "The Lord sent a word unto Jacob and it lighted upon Israel, and all the people shall know, even Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria, who say in the pride and stoutness of their heart, the bricks are fallen down but we will build with hewn stone &c.-therefore the Lord will cut off from Israel head and tail, branch and root, together." Isaiah 9. 8 to 19. "O Assyrian! the rod of mine anger; and the staff in their hand is mine indignation. I will send him (the Assyrian), against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil and to take the prey and to tread them down as the mire of the streets." ch. 10. 5. 6. In ch. 11 11. is a promise that he will recover his people from their bondage though scattered in every place; among others from the western regions according to Lowth, improperly rendered in the received version, the islands of the Sea. "And he shall lift up a signal to the nations, and shall gather the outcasts of Israel and the dispersed of Judah from the four extremities of the earth. And there shall be a highway for the remnant of his people which shall remain from Assyria."

In these words we discover a marked difference between the fate of the Jews, who in the language of Scripture are called Judah, and comprise the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, that adhered faithfully to the house of David;