Page:Archæologia Americana—volume 2, 1836.djvu/37

PREFATORY LETTER. New York, 29th January, 1836. Sir, I have the honor to enclose the residue of the Synopsis of the Indian Tribes of North America, classed in families according to their respec- tive languages. My first attempt was made in the year 1823, at the request of a distinguished friend, Baron Alexander Humboldt. It was that essay, communicated it seems to Mr. Balbi, and quoted by him with more praise than it deserved, in the Introduction to his " Atlas Ethnogra- phique," which drew the attention of the Antiquarian Society, and induced it to ask me for a copy. I had not kept any, but had in the mean while collected and obtained access to many important materials. In the winter of 1825-6, the attendance at Washington of a numerous delegation of southern Indians enabled me to obtain good vocabularies of the Muskhogee, Uchee, Natchez, Chicasa, and Cherokee; and I then published a table of all the existing tribes in the United States, which, in its arrangement, does not differ materially from that now adopted. The War Department circulated at the same time, at my request, print- ed forms of a vocabulary containing six hundred words, of verbal forms, and of selected sentences ; and also a series of grammatical queries. The only communication, received in answer to those queries, is that of the Rev. Mr. Worcester respecting the Cherokee, which is inserted in the Appendix. The verbal forms and select sentences in that language, the verbal forms of the Muskhogee, Chocta, and Caddo, and the copious supplementary vocabularies in the same tongues, and in the Mohawk and Seneca, were also received in answer; and that of the Chippeway, by Dr. James, (Appendix to Tanner's account,) is partly on the same model. I believe that I have, in every instance, stated to whom I was indebt- ed for every communication of which any use was made, and pointed out the authority where recourse was had to works already published. I received most liberal assistance from every quarter where I made appli- cation. The libraries of the Philosophical Society of Philadelphia, and VOL. II. 1