162 NORTH AMERICA. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



Is AMERICA part of the ATLANTIS of the Ancients ? The first 

 European Discoverers of that Continent Prophecy of TASSO 

 of the Discovery of America by CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 

 European Expeditions in North America Discovery of Labrador 

 by SEBASTIEN CABOT John Verrazani, the first Discoverer of 

 North Carolina and the harbours of New York and Newport 

 Discovery of Virginia by Captain Philip Amidas and Arthur 

 Barlow, acting for SIR WALTER RALEIGH Colonization of North 

 America by the ENGLISH. 



America part of the Continent known by the Ancients 

 as Atlantis, or is it a separate Continent? To that 

 question it is impossible to reply satisfactorily, and it is also 

 very difficult to say if America is a very old Continent, or was 

 formed later on, than the one we know, as Europe, Asia, and 

 Africa. But many geological facts tend to prove that if 

 America is not entitled to be called the Old Continent, it is 

 unquestionably as old as the other one, and the name of new 

 Continent can only be applied to it, with the meaning, that 

 its discovery is relatively new to Europeans, Asiatics, and 

 Africans. 



Many are the probabilities that the actual America formed 

 part of the Atlantis, or was at least very close to it, and that 

 communications existed between the two. 



Many are the suppositions that have been made about 

 that wonderful part of the World. 



The Reverend Father Charlevoix thinks that Noe himself 

 landed in America. Old Spanish authors were of opinion that 

 the fleet, which brought a rich cargo of gold to Palestine in 

 the year 996 before Christ, had come direct from the Island 

 of Santo Domingo, the same island that Christopher Colon 

 discovered in 1592, and which he thought was the OPHIR OF 

 SOLOMON. 



Seneca himself, one of the great philosophers among 

 the Ancients, in one of his writings, made the following 

 remarkable prediction : 



Venient annis. 



Saecula seris, quibus Oceanus. 

 Vincula rerum laxet et ingens. 

 Pateat tellus, Typhisque novos. 

 Detegat orbes nee sit terris. 

 Ultima Thule. . . . (Medea). 



