WHOLE VOL. THE WEST INDIES VAZQUEZ DE ESPINOSA 23 



and the lack of writing, they have intermingled with the truth vari- 

 ous superstitious falsehoods, with which they have darkened the light 

 of truth, although they had some inkling and glimmering of it, as is 

 related by Father Acosta, book VI, chapter XIX, and the Inca Gar- 

 cilaso in book I of his "Commentaries," chapter VIII, and other 

 writers. 



58. Or another possibility: 3,235 years after the Creation and 7 

 after King Shalmaneser had captured Samaria and expelled the Ten 

 Tribes from it to distant lands, Sennacherib came down upon Jeru- 

 salem and had encircled it when in one single night the Angel slew 

 185,000 men of his army, as is stated in II Kings, chapter XVIII, 

 in the days of the sainted King Hezekiah. On that occasion there 

 came to the relief of Jerusalem and Egypt, Tirhakah, King of 

 Ethiopia, against Sennacherib, and he favored the Jews, who were 

 afflicted by unceasing war with the neighboring kings ; for although 

 the Hebrews had been very powerful, and feared by all the surround- 

 ing nations from the year 2891 on, when David began his reign, a 

 great warrior and favored by God — ^that was the time when the 

 Tyrians founded Cadiz — until he died in 2931 and his son, the peace- 

 loving and all-wise Solomon, reigned till he died in 2971 ; after that 

 date, on account of the abominable sins of commission, of ingratitude, 

 and of idolatry on the part of the Hebrews and their kings for the 

 period of 264 years which elapsed from Solomon's death till 3235, 

 when Sennacherib came down upon Jerusalem, and for a long sub- 

 sequent period, they were war-ridden, exiled, and carried off captive. 

 On that occasion many of the Hebrews fleeing from danger went off 

 with King Tirhakah to Ethiopia, and others went across Egypt to 

 the Kingdom of Nubia, which lies in inner Africa beside the Nile, 

 by the sources of the River Niger (called the Great River), which 

 runs from E. to W. through the Kingdoms of Zafara, Gangara, 

 Saba, Mandinga, and others, and flows into the ocean in the Kingdom 

 of Cape Verde through many mouths, opposite Cape St. Augustine 

 and Cape Blanco. At that period they could have worked down 

 through those kingdoms and, with only a short voyage in their search 

 for new lands, crossed over in the direction of Brazil and the River 

 Marafion, and proceeded to colonize and inhabit those countries. 



59. Besides the foregoing considerations, it would appear that the 

 Indians are derived not merely from the tribes which we have 

 mentioned as crossing at various times to colonize the New World, 

 but from others also, following different routes and courses ; some 

 were carried over by storms, others made voyages deliberately in 

 search of new territory, which they landed on and settled. Thus 



