24 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 102 



various writers affirm that the Carthaginians, who were great sailors, 

 and skillful, discovered the island of Hispaniola and colonized that 

 and the other Windward Islands and part of the Spanish Main. 

 Others might have come from the direction of Sweden (the so-called 

 Scandinavia) and other northern nations of Europe, to settle the 

 country of Labrador and all those northern regions, and with the 

 passage of time they could have worked inland and peopled that 

 region. Likewise there may have crossed over from Africa those of 

 that district, and the Tartars and Chinese intermingled and confed- 

 erated with the members of the Ten Tribes and of other nationalities 

 in the course of the voyages and the migrations already referred to. 

 For with the great diversity and variety of languages, laws, customs, 

 rites, ceremonies, superstitions, and idolatries found among the 

 Indians, it is clear that they borrowed and learned them from dif- 

 ferent peoples, and in fact, from everywhere — if indeed it is not true 

 (as I consider more likely) that the Father of Lies, who kept them 

 deceived and blinded, himself taught them this abundance of cere- 

 monies, superstitions, idolatries, and revolting human sacrifices, with 

 which he had them worship him, holding these blind heathen tribes 

 under his tyranny until God our Saviour with His divine providence 

 and mercy sent them the light of His blessed Gospel, to bring them 

 out of that blind darkness in which those poor heathen were cowed 

 by the tyranny of the Devil. And so, although I think that from all 

 the regions and peoples mentioned there may have been immigration 

 at various epochs for the settlement of that New World, the most 

 reasonable theory seems to be that they are descended from the Ten 

 Tribes, as is indicated by many of the customs, rites, and ceremonies 

 which the Hebrews used to observe and the Indians observe today, 

 as will be related in the following chapters and is made clear in the 

 prophecy of the blessed Patriarch Jacob which has been already 

 explained. 



Chapter XI 



How the Indians Are Similar in Every Respect to the Hebrews, 

 from Whom They Are Derived. 



60. The Indians are very much like the Jews and similar to them 

 in all respects, both in physique and temperament and in other char- 

 acteristics, such as their customs, rites, ceremonies, superstitions, 

 and idolatries, although we would not base this statement on what 

 is asserted by some inquisitive commentators, that sufficient (or at 

 least suitable) reason is to be found in the similarity of their names, 

 both being written with the same letters except merely the u of the 



