70 TRADITION OF A DELUGE. 



Ll &quot;- * Indies,, was,, that the lands and limits thereof are ioyned 

 and continued in some extremities of the world, or at the 

 least were very neere. And I beleeve it is not many- 

 thousand yeeres past since men first inhabited this new 

 . world and West Indies, and that the first men that entred, 

 were rather savage men and hunters, then bredde vp in 

 civill and well governed Cornrnon-weales ; and that they 

 came to this new world, having lost their owne land, or 

 being in too great numbers, they were forced of necessitio 

 to seeke some other habitations ; the which having found, 

 they begannc by little and little to plant, having no other 

 law, but some instinct of nature, and that very darke, and 

 some customes remayning of their first Countries. And 

 although they came from Countries well governed, yet is it 

 not incredible to thinke that they had forgotten all through 

 the tract of time and want of vse, seeing that in Spaine 

 and Italic we find companies of men, which have nothing 

 but the shape and countenance onoly, whereby we may cou- 

 iecturc in what sort this new world grew so barbarous and 

 vncivill. 



CHAP. xxv. What the Indians report of their beginning. 



It is no matter of any great importance to know what 

 the Indians themselves report of their beginning, being 

 more like vnto dreainefi, then to true Histories. They 

 make great mention of a deluge hapned in their Countric ; 

 but we cannot well iudge if this deluge were vniversall 

 (whereof the scripture makes mention) or some particular 

 inundation of those regions where they are. Some expert 

 men say that in those Countries are many notable signes 

 of some great inundation, and I am of their opinion which 

 lliinko that these markes and shewcs of a deluge was not 

 that of Noe, but some other particular, as that which Plato 

 speaker of, or Deuealions floud, which the Poets sing of; 



