MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS. 191 
logged, and with only her foremast and bowsprit standing ; 
_ having been four months buffeting with the fearful winter 
gales of those latitudes. 
Robertson, in his History of America, states, that previous 
to the discovery of that portion of the globe, trees, torn up 
by the roots, were not unfrequently driven upon the coast 
of the Azores after a course of westerly wind, and that, “at 
one time, the dead bodies of two men with singular features, © 
resembling neither the inhabitants of Europe nor of Africa, 
were cast ashore there.” If we may venture to give credit 
to this statement, it must be inferred, that these unfortunate 
men were natives of North America, who had been drifted 
to sea in their frail canoe of birch bark. It must be con- 
fessed there is difficulty in understanding how men placed 
in such desperate circumstances, would have supported life 
during the greater part of their perilous voyage, for they 
must have perished at no great distance from the Azores, to 
have been found in the state described by Robertson. 
It is true that the prevailing westerly winds and the cur- 
rent of the gulf stream in that latitude, both greatly assist 
in drifting trees and other floating substances towards the 
shores of the Azores, but it is doubtful whether man, under 
the most favorable circumstances, could survive that slow 
process in an Indian canoe. By such means however, the 
distant islands of the Pacific appear to have been peopled, 
and were it not for the tempestuous character of the Atlan- 
tic, the islands of Bermuda would probably have been found 
populated by a race of Indians from the coast of North 
America. * 
* The Island of Madeira, which is in the same latitude as the Bermudas, 
was also uninhabited by the human race when discovered by Bartholomew 
Perestrello. 
