.Origin of the American NdtibnS. 245 



*were found to be inhabited ? The Americans had no (hips ; 

 and confequently it muft have been done by the Chinefe, 

 although the patfage from China is much longer than that 

 from America. 



This conjecture receives confiderable weight from De- 

 guignes, whp has diftinguifhed himfelf by his knowledge of 

 the oriental literature and hiftory ; for he fays expreisly, that 

 the Chinefe, about the year 458, carried on a great trade to 

 America from the north-weft part of California: and this 

 opinion is adopted by Buache the geographer, who calls the 

 •country Quivara. If it be true, therefore, that the Chinefe 

 •discovered Quivara, it is poflible that they or their defend- 

 ants may have gradually proceeded along the coaft to Peru, 

 and that a part of them may have fettled there. It is not 

 improbable that Mango Capac, the firft inca, and founder of 

 the great kingdom of Peru, and his followers, were Chinefe. 

 This alfo may be taken into confideration, that navigation 

 among the different nations of the globe has never been on 

 the fame footing and in the fame irate. The cafe is- the fame 

 in this refpecf, as with commerce, the arts, and the faiences. 

 They are conveyed from one nation to another, and, by their 

 influence, convert ignorant favages into enlightened people, 

 and civilized and polifhed nations into rude barbarians. Who 

 were more expert in navigation and trade than the Phoeni- 

 cians ? They founded important colonies both in. Africa and 

 Europe, and carried on a great trade on the Atlantic. The 

 Egyptians coafted along the whole peninfula of Africa, pro- 

 ' ceeding from the Red to the Ethiopic fea ; then round the 

 .Cape of Good Hope to the Atlantic ; thence to the Mediter- 

 ranean, and fo back to Egypt. The Greeks had large fleets 

 both for the purpofes of war and of commerce. They de- 

 •itroyed the naval power of Xerxes, and by thefe means re- 

 stored the freedom of their country : but the importance of 

 thefe people has vanished, and they muft now groan under 

 a foreign yoke till it fhall pleal'e Providence to lend them a 

 deliverer. 



.1%. Comparifon of the Americans with the Africans on the 

 weflcrn Coajl of Africa, 



Among the people of the Old World, who in their cuftoms 

 and manners bear a rei'emblanee to the Americans, of which 

 :fome inftances have been already given, we ought to com- 



• prehend, in particular, the inhabitants of the weftern coaft 



• of Africa. Thev have more cuftoms, Sec. in common with 

 -the American nations than all the other people of the earth, 



Q^ an* 



