In the year 1695, a number of _savans_ associated in Paris for the
purpose of procuring information respecting the American Indians. They
were called shortly _The Theoretical and Speculative Society of Paris_,
but their title at large was _The Society for Prosecuting Researches in
the Western Hemisphere, and for procuring Speculations to be made, and
Theories drawn up, of the Origin and History of its Ancient and its
Present Inhabitants_. The undertaking met with almost prompt and cordial
support; the proudest names and the brightest lights of the age were
enlisted in it. The celebrated Madame de Maintenon became the patroness,
forbidding, however, the Society to speculate upon her affairs; the
illustrious Duke de Rohan became the president; the Czar Peter an
honorary member; and the Society was otherwise royally and nobly
officered and befriended. So numerous were the applications to be
received as members, that it was found necessary to establish the rule,
since adopted by certain colleges, of conferring diplomas upon all who
asked for them. It is stated, that there was as loud a call upon the
time and attention of the publishing committee, no fewer than seven
hundred papers of theories and speculations, all essentially varying,
having been presented at the second weekly meeting.
It will be seen from the date that it was a very important era in
speculative philosophy. Father Hennepin had just returned from Canada,
and published his _Discovery of a Large Country_, the greater part of
which had remained unknown till then, and has not been seen since. Other
French missionaries were daily arriving from New France, as the French
possessions in America were denominated, and spreading tales, partly
true, partly-false, of the wonderful things they had seen. The questions
so very important and so essential to be solved, whether the ancient
inhabitants of North America, the race which is supposed to be extinct,
were of Malay origin, and came from Australasia, or from the islands of
the Pacific Ocean, and whether the surviving race are descended from the
Tartars, the Scandinavians, the Jews, or the Welsh, began to be agitated
about this time, though they were not debated with the profound
shrewdness and sagacity which Adair, Barton, Boudinot, and other
enlightened men, have since evinced on the subject.
With a view to remove the difficulty, and solve the problem, if it were
solvable, it was determined by this learned Society to dispatch
forthwith to America a man, whose mind should be well stored with
science, literature, and philosophy, whose constitution and habits of
body should be equal to the hardships he must necessarily undergo, and
who should be of a temper to despise the dangers he must of course
encounter, in prolonged travels among scattered tribes of wild and
barbarous Indians. It was almost impossible, the Society knew, to find a
person fitted in every respect for the mission. In an age of theories,
it is no easy matter to meet with a man possessed of the common elements
of being, who has not submitted to the tyranny of opinion, and adopted
the theory most in vogue. Few of us like to be singular, and hence we
often adopt opinions, which, at first, we entertain most unwillingly,
but which, after we have defended a few times, we come to love most
heartily. Nothing so heightens our passion for a beautiful woman as
obstacles thrown in our way; nothing so confirms our admiration of a
theory as shallow cavils; a weak battery raised against a besieged town
always increases the courage, and heightens the resistance, of the
besieged.
In respect of the person who should be sent on this honourable mission,
the Society were for a long time much perplexed, and began to fear the
"foundering of their hobby from want of a jockey of required weight." It
was necessary that he should be deeply imbued with classic lore, and
profoundly skilled in languages, because he was to "detect lingual
affinities," and further, might have to read manuscripts, and decipher
inscriptions, of the ancient people. He was required to be deeply
conversant with military science, in all its details, for he was to
report of the nature of Indian tactics, fortifications, and defensive
structures; and it was essential that he should be a theologian, for he
was not only to sow the Word as he went, but to gather, if possible,
from the religious opinions, rites, and observances, of the nations
scattered over North America, proofs of a similitude to other people, or
to accumulate data for the opposite belief. It was very difficult to
discover a man so eminently gifted and taught, and the Society found
themselves heavily burthened with the search. Nevertheless one was at
length found, imbued to a reasonable degree with the requisite qualities
in the person of M. Philippe Verdier, of the city of Nanci. They applied
to him to undertake the proposed mission, and he consented, protesting,
according to custom, his utter unworthiness, and his belief that France
had many sons more competent to the task than himself.
M. Verdier had studied in his youth, with the view of becoming a priest,
and was profoundly skilled in the learning proper for that vocation.
Afterwards, when he had abandoned all thoughts of entering the
priesthood, he served in Holland under Condé, and there, and in many
other countries, in succeeding wars, acquired the character of a valiant
soldier and expert tactician. Excellence in poetry and metaphysics came
to him naturally, and a thorough acquaintance with languages, both dead
and living, by laborious study and prolonged travel. He had resided some
time in the Australasian islands and those of the Pacific Ocean, and had
travelled over the Peninsula of Malacca and the Island of Madagascar. He
had thence brought numerous things which have since been of great
service to philosophers, in explaining difficulties and solving problems
connected with the antiquities and history of the western aborigines.
His museum of curiosities contained a feathery mantle such as were found
enwrapping the American mummies, a pair of mocassins made of the rind of
plants, curious carvings which were pronounced by the French _savans_
to resemble much the pieces of sculpture brought by M. Jaques de
Numskull from the Ohio, and a human cranium or two, to which were added
a Madagascar humming-bird, and a Malacca pepper plant. From the nature
of these acquisitions, he was supposed to be well qualified to decide
upon the merits of that part of the theory of the indigenous inhabitants
of America, which represents the _extinct_ race as descended from the
Malays of eastern Asia!!!
M. Verdier was quite as well qualified to act upon the other theory. He
had travelled to Tartary in the suite of the French ambassador, and
resided some years at the court of the Great Khan, where he had acquired
the Tartar language, and become deeply learned in the history and
customs of that ancient people. He had taken numerous drawings of their
physiognomy and features, and many casts of Tartar visages. With a view
to learn their opinions of the Deity, and a future state, he had
officiated for a full year as the conjuror or powwow of a tribe. When he
returned to Europe, he brought with him a couple of human teeth, a pipe,
a bow and arrow, a jackall, a wild sheep, a sharp-nosed, thievish
Siberian cur, with his sleigh and harness, and a very pretty Samoyede
girl, the last with a view to ascertain the peculiar cast of features
and shade of complexion which should mark a half-breed, which he was so
fortunate as to possess in a short time thereafter, together with a
couple of copies to bestow upon his friends.
It was a singularly lucky circumstance that the learned association were
apprised in season of the merits of M. Verdier. There was not another
man in France so well qualified to perform the generous behests of the
Society, and to prosecute their enquiries to a beneficial result. It
would seem as if he had aimed his studies, directed his researches,
timed his travels, and planned his occupations, with a kind of
presentiment, that he should in time be called to the very task he
undertook. Indeed some have said that there was an actual precognition
of it, by means of a vision, while he was yet a student in theology with
the Abbé Guissot. But, the Society, upon the motion of a learned member,
caused their doubts of the truth of the story to be placed upon record.
Previously to the departure of M. Verdier, a special meeting of the
Society was called, and a committee of thirty members appointed to
prepare suitable directions, in the form of interrogatories, for his
guidance. They were to report on two different sets, the first (A.)
which were to relate to the ancient inhabitants of the country; the
second (B.) to the race who were its then possessors. After a sitting
of twenty days in the hall of the Sorbonne, the Committee reported on
the papers A. and B., which were accepted without debate.