The several departments of history that are distinguished as biography, civil and ecclesiastical annals, moral and physical surveys of mankind, comparative philology, archeology, chronology, mythology, &c. All combine to instruct and amuse, to record the past and present, and to lead to better future actions, an improved social order. The nations often forget the wise lessons of time and experience; but they are continually recalled to memory and view by the historians, who seek the truth, and setting aside the sway of human passions or national prejudices, present the faithful mirror of history to the eyes of posterity.
Such is my aim. American history has been so much despised or perverted, that few lessons, have been drawn from it: yet it affords ample scope for reflection, study and admiration. Nearly one half of the habitable globe, during all the past ages, cannot fail to offer a variety of subjects, to draw the attention of philosophy, wisdom and philanthropy: that mutual benevolence of mankind, which ought ever to be felt; but is so often discarded or forgotten through the contrary tendencies of pride, lust, cupidity, and all the baneful passions.
The connections of historical facts with all the sciences, afford another useful theme; that may vastly increase our comparative knowledge: much of it has arisen, besides observation, from accurate comparison, analysis and generalization, which combine to give results, enlarging the field and sphere of human knowledge, in all its branches.
If we go back, by the help of geology, to the most remote periods of existence and life in this hemisphere, we find it like the remainder of the globe, immersed under the Ocean. There, in the depths of the briny waves, the actual rocks now supporting the dry soil, were formed and matured: superposed and intermingled by aquatic and volcanic phenomena and cataclysms, if not by superadded aerial depositions. Then were formed the primitive strata of America, ere life had begun to vivify the waters; then were cast the Porphyries, Granites, Shales, Basalts, and other primitive or volcanic rocks, that are now chiefly found in Boreal and Western America, the Andes, Mts. Parima, and Brazil, the Austral and Boreal Islands, Hayti and the Antilles. This was the first period of terrestial Creation.