rn) BH CLO TON Y ‘ 
by an Indian Chief. 207 
. cues 
aocient enemies 5 but attempting afterwards to ake slaves 
of our sons, they rather than submit to them, left our bre~. 
thern who refused to follow them, and came hither attended 
only with their slaves 
Upon my asking him who those warriors of fire were, he 
replied that they were bearded white men, somewhat of a 
brownish colour, who-carried arms that darted out fire with 
a great noise, and killed at a great distance ; that they had 
dikewise heavy arms which killed a great many men at once, 
and like thunder made the earth tremble ; and that they 
came from the sun rising in floating villages. 
The ancients of the country he said were very numerous, 
and inhabited from the Western Coast of the Great Water to 
the Northern Countries on this side the sun, and very far up- 
on the same coast beyond the sun. They hada great number 
of large and small villages, which were all built of stone, 
andin which there were houses large enough to lodge a whole 
village. ‘Their temples were built with great labour and art, 
and they made beautiful works of all kinds of materials, 
But ye yourselves, said 1, whence are ye come? The an- 
cieut speech, he replied, does not say from what land we 
came ; all that we kuow is, that our fathers, to come hither, 
followed the sun, and came with him from the place where 
he rises ; that they were along time on their journey, were 
all on the point of perishing, aod were brought into this coun. 
try without secking it. 
To this account of the keeper of the temple, which was. 
afterwards confirmed to me by the Great Sun, I shall add 
the following passage of Diodorus Siculus, which seems to 
coafirm the opinion of those who think the eastern Ameri-« 
ans are descended from the Europeans, who may have been 
driven by the winds upon the coasts of Guiana or Brazil. 
To the west of Africa, he says, lies a very large island, 
distant many days sail from that part of our continent. [ts 
fertile soil ix partly plaiv, and partly mountainous, The plain 
AA couplry 
