ILLUSTRATIONS (24). THE GULF STREAM. 123 



the work already referred to, p. 347, relates the voyage of 

 a bottle inclosing a written paper which had been thrown 

 from the English ship Newcastle in 38° 52' north lat., and 

 63° 58' west long., on the 20th of January, 1819, and which 

 was first seen on the 2nd of June, 1820, at the Rosses in the 

 north-west of Ireland, near the Island of Arran. Shortly before 

 my arrival at TenerifFe a stem of South American cedar-wood 

 {Cedrela odorata), thickly covered with lichens, was cast 

 ashore near the harbour of Santa Cruz. 



The effects of the Gulf Stream in stranding on the Azorean 

 Islands of Fayal, Flores, and Corvo, bamboos, artificially cut 

 pieces of wood, trunks of an unknown species of pine from 

 Mexico or the West Indies, and corpses of men of a peculiar 

 race, having very broad faces, have mainly contributed to the 

 discovery of America, as they confirmed Columbus in his belief 

 of the existence of Asiatic countries and islands situated in the 

 west. The great discoverer even heard from a settler on the 

 Cap de la Verga in the Azores " that persons in sailing west- 

 ward had met with covered barks, which were managed by 

 men of foreign appearance, and appeared to be constructed in 

 such a manner that thev could not sink, almadias con casa 

 movediza que nunca se hunden." There are well authenticated 

 proofs, however much the facts may have been called in 

 question, that natives of America (probably Esquimaux from 

 Greenland or Labrador), were carried by currents or streams 

 from the north-west to our own continent. James Wallace* 

 relates that in the year 1682 a Greenlander in his canoe was 

 seen on the southern extremity of the Island of Eda by many 

 persons, who could not, however, succeed in reaching him. 

 In 1684 a Greenland fisherman appeared near the Island of 

 Westram. In the church at Burra there was suspended an 

 Esquimaux boat, which had been driven on shore by currents 

 and storms. The inhabitants of the Orkneys call the Green- 

 landers who have appeared amongst them Fimimen. 



In Cardinal Bembo's History of Venice I find it stated, that 

 in the year 1508 a small boat, manned by seven persons of a 

 foreign aspect, was captured near the English coast by a 

 French ship. The description given of them applies perfectly 

 to the form of the Esquimaux {homines erant septem mediocri 

 stature^ colore subobscuro, lato et patente vultu, cicatriceque una 

 * Account of the Islands of Orkney (1700), p. 60. 



