Emperor entertained a wish to know something of our constitution. I have
therefore selected the two best works we have on that subject, for which
I pray you to ask a place in his library. They are too much in detail to
occupy his time; but they will furnish materials for an abstract, to
be made by others, on such a scale as may bring the matter within the
compass of the time which his higher callings can yield to such an
object.

At a very early period of my life, contemplating the history of the
aboriginal inhabitants of America, I was led to believe that if there
had ever been a relation between them and the men of color in Asia,
traces of it would be found in their several languages. I have therefore
availed myself of every opportunity which has offered, to obtain
vocabularies of such tribes as have been within my reach, corresponding
to a list then formed of about two hundred and fifty words. In this I
have made such progress, that within a year or two more I think to give
to the public what I then shall have acquired. I have lately seen a
report of Mr. Volney's to the Celtic Academy, on a work of Mr. Pallas,
entitled _Vocabulaires Comparés des Langues de toute la Terre_; with
a list of one hundred and thirty words, to which the vocabulary is
limited. I find that seventy-three of these words are common to that
and to my vocabulary, and therefore will enable us, by a comparison of
language, to make the inquiry so long desired, as to the probability
of a common origin between the people of color of the two continents. I
have to ask the favor of you to procure me a copy of the above work of
Pallas, to inform me of the cost, and permit me to pay it here to your
use; for I presume you have some mercantile correspondent here, to whom
a payment can be made for you. A want of knowledge what the book may
cost, as well as of the means of making so small a remittance, obliges
me to make this proposition, and to restrain it to the sole condition