Mr. C. has made a bold stroke to lay the foundation of a better and
truer philological basis, which must at last prevail. It is true the
_prestige_ of respected names will rise up to oppose the new views,
which, I confess, to be sustained in their main features by my own views
and researches here on the ground and in the midst of the Indians, and
men will rise to sustain the _old_ views--the original literary mummery
and philological hocus-pocus based on the papers and letters and
blunders of Heckewelder. There was a great predisposition to admire and
overrate everything relative to Indian history and language, as detailed
by this good and sincere missionary in his retirement at Bethlehem. He
was appealed to as an oracle. This I found by an acquaintance which I
formed, in 1810, with the late amiable Dr. Wistar, while rusticating at
Bristol, on the banks of the Delaware. The confused letters which the
missionary wrote many years later, were mainly due to Dr. Wistar's
philosophical interest in the subject.
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