41 

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 it 

 it 



it 



iso HISTORY OF THE [BOOK K 



" continent. This latter opinion was well founded. The 

 " country with which he fell in belongs to that province in 

 South America now known by the name of Brasil. He 

 landed, and having formed a very high idea of the fertility 

 of the soil and agreeableness of the climate, he took pos- 

 session of it for the crown of Portugal, and despatched a 

 ship to Lisbon with an account of this event, which appear. 

 44 ed to be no less important than it was unexpected. Colum- 

 44 bus's discovery of the New world was the effort of an active 

 genius, enlightened by science, guided by experience, and 

 acting upon a regular plan, executed with no less courage 

 than perseverance. But from this adventure of the Portu- 

 guese, it appears, that chance might have accomplished that 

 44 great design, which it is now the pride of human reason 

 44 to have formed and perfected. If the sagacity of Colum- 

 44 bus had not conducted mankind to America, Cabral, by a 

 fortunate accident, might have led them, a few years later, 

 to the knowledge of that extensive continent."* 



it 

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And certainly, by some such accident, in ages long passed, 

 might the Ancient hemisphere have given a beginning to popu- 

 lation in the New ; or at least have sent thither the progenitors 

 of that separate race of people of which I now treat. It re- 

 mains for me, however, to assign my reasons for particularly 

 applying this conclusion to the Charaibes, instead of any other 

 of the numerous tribes which inhabit the eastern side of the 

 immense continent of South America. 



The migration of any people is best traced by their lan- 

 guage; but there is this inconveniency attending this species 

 of evidence, that in reducing a language merely oral, to wri- 

 ting, different persons of even the same nation, would some- 

 times unavoidably represent the same sound by a very different 



* Hist. America, vol. i. p. 151. 



