distinct and clear." How could it be possible that the wild native Americans, in different parts of the continent, should be found singing this phrase of praise to the Great First Cause, or to Jah—exclusively Hebrew, without having brought it down by tradition from ancient Israel? The positive testimonies of such men as Boudinot and Adair, are not to be dispensed with, nor doubted. They testify what they have seen and heard. And I can conceive of no rational way to account for this Indian song, but that they brought it down from ancient Israel, their ancestors.
Mr. Faber remarks: "They (the Indians) call the lightning and thunder, Eloha; and its rumbling, Rowah, which may not improperly be deduced from the Hebrew word, Ruach, a name of the third person of the Holy Trinity, originally signifying the air in motion, or a rushing of the wind." Who can doubt but their name of thunder, Eloha, is derived from a Hebrew name of God, Elohim? Souard, (quoted in Boudinot,) in his Literary Miscellanies, says of the Indians in Surinam, on the authority of Isaac Nasci, a learned Jew residing there, that the dialect of those Indians, common to all the tribes of Guiana, is soft, agreeable, and regular. And this learned Jew asserts, that their substantives are Hebrew. The word expressive of the soul, (he says,) is the same in each language, and is the same with breath. " God breathed into man the breath of life, and man became a lining soul." This testimony from Nasci, a learned Jew, dwelling with the Indians, must be of signal weight.
Dr. Boudinot, from many good authorities, says of the Indians: "Their language in their roots, idiom, and particular construction, appears to have the whole genius of the Hebrew; and what is very remarkable, it has most of the peculiarities of that language; especially those in which it differs from most other languages."
Governor Hutchinson observed, that "many people (at the time of the first settlement of New England) pleased themselves with the conjecture, that the Indians in America are the descendants of the ten tribes of Israel." Something was discovered so early, which excited this pleasing sentiment. This has been noted as having been the sentiment of Rev. Samuel Sewall, of Vice President Willard, and others. Governor Hutcliinson expresses his
