EVOLUTION AND MYSTERY IN THE DISCOVERY OF 



AMERICA. 



By EDWIN SWIFT BALCH. 

 (Read April 24, 19 IQ-) 



It is usually supposed that the American continent was revealed 

 to Europeans by an incident known as the discovery of America. 

 This is assumed to have taken place almost with the unexpected- 

 ness and rapidity of a stroke of lightning or the breaking of an egg. 

 The reality, however, is quite different. The opening up of the 

 North and South American continents to the white races of Europe 

 is due to a long series of events and movements, that is to evolu- 

 tion, and not to a single occurrence ideally fathered in one indi- 

 vidual's brain and which his genius brought from an ideal stage 

 into a concrete matter of fact one. Not only was it a process of 

 evolution which made known the New World to the Old World, 

 but it was an evolution so long drawn out that it was entirely un- 

 noticed at the time and as a result many of its steps are forgotten 

 and much of it is most hazy. Indeed the most salient point in 

 regard to the recognition by Europeans of the existence of the 

 American continent is that it is an evolution veiled in mystery. 



All geographical discovery indeed is an evolution and this evolu- 

 tion proceeds from many causes. One of them is the movement 

 and migrations of peoples. People slowly filter into lands new to 

 them, discovering as they go new sites in which to hunt and in 

 which later to dwell. They are not on the outlook for discoveries 

 proper, they are not searching to penetrate the secrets of the 

 unknown : they are merely seeking new spots in which to live, be- 

 cause for some reason they are driven out of their former homes. 

 Overpopulation it may be, or the drying up of the water supply and 

 the destroying of the soil by cutting down the forests, or some other 

 cause ; but whatever the cause something impels certain peoples 



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