The conjecture that
inhabitants may have been carried from the coast of Africa to that of
America, by the trade winds, is possible enough; and its probability
would be greatly strengthened by ascertaining a similarity of language,
which I consider as the strongest of all proofs of consanguinity among
nations. Still a question would remain between the red men of the
eastern and western sides of the Atlantic, which is the stock, and which
the shoot. If a fact be true, which I suspect to be true, that there is
a much greater number of radical languages among those of America than
among those of the other hemisphere, it would be a proof of superior
antiquity, which I can conceive no arguments strong enough to overrule.
When I received your letter, the time of my departure was too near to
permit me to obtain information from Constantinople, relative to the
demand and price of rice there. I therefore wrote to a merchant at
Marseilles, concerned in the Levant trade, for the prices current of
rice at Constantinople and at Marseilles for several years past. He has
sent me only the present price at Marseilles, and that of a particular
cargo at Constantinople. I send you a copy of his letter. The Algerines
form an obstacle; but the object of our commerce in the Mediterranean
is so immense, that we ought to surmount that obstacle, and I believe
it could be done by means in our power, and which, instead of fouling us
with the dishonorable and criminal baseness of France and England, will
place us in the road to respect with all the world.
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