Origin of the American Nations. 121 



formation, as mentioned in his work, was taken merely from 

 tradition or fabulous relations, which will not bear critical 

 examination. But even though this account were true, the 

 ifland of Diodorus might be conlidered as one of the Canary 

 iflands, or perhaps Ireland or Britain, as the (hip is (aid to 

 have been driven thither by a ftorm. 



It is not, however, our intention to dwell on this fubjecl:, 

 as our object is to examine at what time and from what place 

 the Americans were conveyed to that country which they 

 now inhabit. In the firft place, then, one of the three fol- 

 lowing pofitions muft be admitted as true : The Americans 

 are aborigines, that is, original inhabitants who have always 

 been in polTellion of the country; or they have emigrated 

 thither from fome other part of the globe; or they have 

 ferved to people our old world with their colonies. Were 

 we not allured of the contrary by the Scripture, the firft and 

 lad of thefe pofitions might be defended as well as the fecond. 

 Among the Pagan philofophers, the difpute refpecYmg the. 

 creation or eternity of the world was never decided ; and 

 many of the nations of antiquity, "fuch, for example, as the 

 Athenians, boafted of being defcended from no other people. 

 In regard to the third pofition, the Mexicans actually be- 

 lieved that the Spanifh kings were defcended from their flrtt 

 fovereign Quezalkoal, and eonfequently they had made them- 

 felves mailers of Spain feveral hundred years before the dif- 

 covery of America. This, however, does not agree with 

 what is recorded in hiftory; and the Mexicans, in this re- 

 fpect, were dupes to the fame vanity as many other nations* 

 who pretend that all the fciences, knowledge, inventions, 

 and political inftitutions in the world were tranfmitted by 

 them to the reft of mankind. To give only one inftance, 

 many of the learned in Europe have imagined that Pytha- 

 goras communicated his idea of the tranfmigration of the 

 foul, and the Egyptians their political conftitution, to the 

 Indians; though Pythagoras and all the other Greek philo- 

 fophers derived their wifdom from the Indians, and by n^ 

 means communicated theirs to them. Whether the Indians 

 had their learning and political knowledge from the Egvp- 

 tians, or the latter from the former, is a qucftion which 

 many of the moderns think fcarcely worthy of an anfwer; 

 becaufe they have read accounts given in Greek works, or 

 the accounts of the Roman authors collected from the Greek 

 writers, who pretend that the Egyptians were in every thing 

 the prcdeceflbrs and inltructors of the Indians. 



I have mentioned the firft and third pofition, not becaufe 

 I conlider them as true, but only to (how that, however falfe 



an 



