significant information regarding their use in modern times or since the ruins were deserted. This knowledge, taken in connection with legends of migrations, will aid in an identification of clan affiliations of former inhabitants of our Southwestern ruins. Although in most instances these shrines are now little more than rings of stones, occasionally an offering is found in them that reveals the presence of reverence in some mind, and it is generally true that the one who made this offering is related in some way to former inhabitants of the neighboring pueblo. BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY, LIBRARY A History of the United States and its People, from their Earliest Records to the Present Time. By ELROY MCKENDREE AVERY. In fifteen volumes. Cleveland: The Burrows Brothers Company. Volume I, 1904, pp. xxxvi, 498; Volume II, 1905, pp. xxxvi, 458. Maps and numerous illustrations. Cloth, 61⁄2 x 10 in. Two volumes of Avery's History of the United States have now been received, from which we may judge of the scope and method of treatment of this monumental work, which aims to give in concise and readable style a history of this country from the geologic shaping of the territory to the present day, without the burden of footnotes, but with ample bibliographic citation of authorities for every chapter. In explanation of his system the author states in his preface that, recognizing that the needs of the public are different from those of the professed student, he felt sure that the general public would approve an avoidance of "abysmal notes, overladen with trivial details," and says: "I thought that it was possible to write so that what was written would be actually read and easily understood, and still to avoid falling into the quicksands of blunders, partisanship, and curious delusions." The opening chapter of Volume I deals with the Ice age and the vexed question of Glacial man in America. While the author is careful to give both sides and seldom commits himself to definite pronouncement, the general tone favors the claim for Glacial man. In our opinion the controversy is more equally balanced. Only one of the noted Trenton finds belongs unquestionably to the Glacial strata, while neither the Calaveras nor the Lansing human remains shows evidence of extreme age or marked variation from the modern type such as we find in comparing the human remains of Neanderthal, Spy, or Cro-Magnon with those of the historic European races. The Glacial American is still a theory. The chapter on the neolithic Americans is an excellent summary of the results of archeological investigations by experts of the Bureau of American Ethnology and other workers, notably Mr Clarence B. Moore in the Southern states. In regard to the clan organization noted on page 30, it is in place to mention that this system, considered by Morgan and his disciples to be fundamental and universal, is now known to have pre vailed within only a limited area, being almost entirely absent from western United States north of the Navaho country, as well as throughout much of the great Canadian interior. The importance of interpreting ancient artifacts by comparison with implements and methods of the present day Indians is emphasized. Archeologists have sometimes regarded their specialty as a thing apart. The statement that no vitreous glazing was produced on pottery except by accident needs modification in the light of numerous recent discoveries in the Pueblo region beginning with Bandelier in 1892 (Final Report, in Archæol. Inst. Papers, vol. iv). The chapter on "Maze and Myth" discusses the pre-Norse discoveries claimed for Chinese, Irish, Welsh, Arabs, and others. The Irish claim does not rest, as would appear from the wording of the paragraph on page 65, on Irish authority alone, but largely on the Scandinavian chronicle of Iceland, the Landnama-bok and the most ancient Scandinavian sagas. It is definitely known, as noted by Humboldt sixty years ago, that Irish monks were established in Iceland as early at least as the year 795, preceding the Norse by nearly a century, while the story of a Christian Irish colony on the mainland coast of America, based on the reports of shipwrecked Norse voyagers from Iceland, was so firmly believed in the tenth century that the unknown western land was known in the sagas as "Great Ireland.” The earlier story of St Brendan's voyages is more or less mythic, and no recognized historian claims that Patrick was ever in America. The subject is discussed at length in De Costa's Pre-Columbian Discovery of America. The early Scandinavian colony in Greenland was exterminated by the savages and disappeared from history after a prosperous existence of more than three centuries. The same fate may have overwhelmed other and earlier colonizations before clans and provinces were welded into nations. For some reason not apparent, the chapter on "Columbus and His Great Idea" is written in a spirit of hostility to the discoverer, following Winsor, who accuses him, either directly or by implication, of nearly every meanness and crime in the calendar except murder. Notwithstanding this, it will be difficult to persuade the student that Columbus was other than what the world's verdict has long since conceded a sincerely good man, of noble impulse, lofty ideal, and infinite patience, to whose overmastering intellect the world owes the greatest debt of the century. When we read on page 143 that the journal of Columbus while cruising about the islands is full of hope that with God's help he might find gold, but not a word now of the conversion of the heathen," we are not prepared to find on the next page a quotation from the same journal in which 66 the discoverer proposes to master the language of the Indians in order to "learn the riches of the country and make endeavors to convert these people to our religion." The characterization of the successful outcome of the voyage as a "triumph over the sneers of monks and scoffs of sages" seems rather gratuitous in view of the fact that during the long period of waiting and discouragement Columbus and his sons found shelter, food, and sympathy in the Franciscan monastery of La Rabida, and that the successful interview with the Spanish Queen was brought about by the devoted and untiring effort of the prior of the same monastery (pp. 124, 128). The chapter on "Columbus' Fourth Voyage" was evidently drawn from other sources, judging from the eloquent eulogy at its close. Several chapters are devoted to the later Spanish explorations and conquests, and we are reminded, from Gomara (p. 230), that many voyages were made by various navigators in the first years after the discovery, which were afterward forgotten, as their only result was the impoverishment of their projectors. There can be no doubt that some of the early charts about which there is controversy, as the Cantino map, may embody information obtained by now unknown discoverers. A royal commission may give the stamp of authority, but it is no proof of priority. The traces of Spanish occupancy in Florida, noted on page 266, do not date from León's time, but from the actual settlement period subsequent to 1565. The great work of Las Casas in securing protection for the Indians against the barbarous treatment of the first adventurers receives full credit. It is well to remember that the cruelties of Balboa, Cortés, Nuño de Guzman, and De Soto were perpetrated within the first half century of the discovery, before administrative methods could be either formulated or enforced. Even before the close of this period schools had been established for the education of Indian youth, and missionaries were introducing the arts of civilization among the natives. In 1542 concurrent proclamation by the Pope and the Emperor provided for gradual emancipation of Indian slaves throughout Spanish America, and prohibited the further enslavement of Indians on any pretext whatsoever. For the eastern part of De Soto's route the Nineteenth Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology is taken as authority. The correct date for the founding of Santa Fé (p. 301) is 1605 (Bandelier, Hodge). The work of Spanish colonization in the United States, both east and west, needs more ample treatment than it receives in the first two volumes. The conquest and settlement of New Mexico, after Coronado, the great Pueblo revolt, the final reconquest, are noted in only a few brief lines in the first volume and not at all in the second, which deals entirely with the eastern sections and comes down to 1660. The colonization of Florida, the establishment of the Apalachee and Timucua missions, the building of roads and planting of orange groves, the opening of mines in the foot-hills of the Alleghenies, and the important Indian fishing trade between Florida and Havana, are not noted beyond the single reference to the founding of St Augustine. It may be that these things are reserved for a later volume. If not, the omission should be supplied from the Spanish historians or from Bandelier, Shea, Lowery, and Hubert Bancroft. The work of Spain as the pioneer of civilization in the United States is not yet appreciated. The chapter on Indians is brought up nearly to the date of publicaFurther linguistic investigation within the last three years has somewhat reduced the number of distinct stocks and proven the former existence on the southern Florida coast of an Arawakan colony from the neighboring Antilles. The appendix chapter on Indian relations, with table of tribes and reservations, contains much valuable information in small compass. The conclusion of Thwaites that the Indian population of the United States to-day is approximately what it was in 1600 cannot stand. There has been a great diminution, as is shown in the "Indian" chapter, pp. 341-2. According to the best expert testimony, California alone a century ago contained almost if not quite as many Indians as exist now in the whole United States. Volume II deals with the colonial period from 1600 to 1660, including the founding of Canada or New France, Virginia, New York, New England, New Sweden or Delaware, New Jersey, and Maryland. As explanatory of a part of this colonization the author goes into detail concerning the religious struggle in England from the time of Henry VIII to the Restoration, including the secession of the Puritans from the Established Church and the persecution of the Catholics under both, leading on the one hand to drastic penal laws in Massachusetts and on the other to generous toleration in Maryland. The chapter on "The Evolution of a Colonial System" is of special value as defining the methods by which new nations were developed beyond sea, while the chapter on "Annexation and Confederation" shows how the principle of individualism, which was the ruling passion of the immigrants, led ultimately and logically to a united republic. "The migrations from the old world to the new differed largely from those that had changed the character of European society in that they were individual rather than tribal. Having been led across the ocean by the |
