The Dawn of Canadian History | Page 8

Good Hope. All, however,
that we can deduce from accidental voyages, like that of the Spaniard,
Alvarez de Cabral, across the ocean is that even if there had been no
other way for mankind to reach America they could have landed there
by ship from the Old World. In such a case, of course, the coming of
man to the American continent would have been an extremely recent
event in the long history of the world. It could not have occurred until
mankind had progressed far enough to make vessels, or at least boats of
a simple kind.
But there is evidence that man had appeared on the earth long before
the shaping of the continents had taken place. Both in Europe and
America the buried traces of primitive man are vast in antiquity, and
carry us much further back in time than the final changes of earth and
ocean which made the continents as they are; and, when we remember
this, it is easy to see how mankind could have passed from Asia or
Europe to America. The connection of the land surface of the globe was
different in early times from what it is to-day. Even still, Siberia and
Alaska are separated only by the narrow Bering Strait. From the shore
of Asia the continent of North America is plainly visible; the islands
which lie in and below the strait still look like stepping-stones from
continent to continent. And, apart from this, it may well have been that
farther south, where now is the Pacific ocean, there was formerly direct
land connection between Southern Asia and South America. The
continuous chain of islands that runs from the New Hebrides across the
South Pacific to within two thousand four hundred miles of the coast of
Chile is perhaps the remains of a sunken continent. In the most easterly
of these, Easter Island, have been found ruined temples and remains of
great earthworks on a scale so vast that to believe them the work of a
small community of islanders is difficult. The fact that they bear some
resemblance to the buildings and works of the ancient inhabitants of
Chile and Peru has suggested that perhaps South America was once
merely a part of a great Pacific continent. Or again, turning to the other
side of the continent, it may be argued with some show of evidence that
America and Africa were once connected by land, and that a sunken
continent is to be traced between Brazil and the Guinea coast.

Nevertheless, it appears to be impossible to say whether or not an early
branch of the human race ever 'migrated' to America. Conceivably the
race may have originated there. Some authorities suppose that the
evolution of mankind occurred at the same time and in the same
fashion in two or more distinct quarters of the globe. Others again think
that mankind evolved and spread over the surface of the world just as
did the various kinds of plants and animals. Of course, the higher
endowment of men enabled them to move with greater ease from place
to place than could beings of lesser faculties. Most writers of to-day,
however, consider this unlikely, and think it more probable that man
originated first in some one region, and spread from it throughout the
earth. But where this region was, they cannot tell. We always think of
the races of Europe as having come westward from some original home
in Asia. This is, of course, perfectly true, since nearly all the peoples of
Europe can be traced by descent from the original stock of the Aryan
family, which certainly made such a migration. But we know also that
races of men were dwelling in Europe ages before the Aryan migration.
What particular part of the globe was the first home of mankind is a
question on which we can only speculate.
Of one thing we may be certain. If there was a migration, there must
have been long ages of separation between mankind in America and
mankind in the Old World; otherwise we should still find some trace of
kinship in language which would join the natives of America to the
great racial families of Europe, Asia, and Africa. But not the slightest
vestige of such kinship has yet been found. Everybody knows in a
general way how the prehistoric relationships among the peoples of
Europe and Asia are still to be seen in the languages of to-day. The
French and Italian languages are so alike that, if we did not know it
already, we could easily guess for them a common origin. We speak of
these languages, along with others, as Romance languages, to show that
they are derived from Latin, in contrast with the closely related tongues
of the English, Dutch,