LOUISIANA. 381 



tlons on the population of this immenfe conti- 

 nent; but this matter is. fo obfcure, that wc 

 cannot now flatter ourfelves to clear it up : ma- 

 ny learned writers have already attempted to 

 throw light upon it, but they have not fucceed- 

 ed ; modern philofophy has endeavoured, with 

 as little fuccefs, to draw advantages from it, 

 and its reafonings and opinions have not even 

 been able to f^^duce weak geniufes. 



By reflecting attentively upon the old writers, 

 every thing feems to convince us, thac America 

 was not entirely unknown to them. Diodorus 

 Siculus feems to have fpoken of it with precifion 

 enough : Father Laffiteau quotes a paffage from 

 that hifl:orian, and adds his reflexions to clear 

 it up. The Phcsnicians^ if we may believe the 

 Greek author, after fending leveral colonies up- 

 -cn the coaft of the Mediterranean, being enrich- 

 ed by their trade, did not go far beyond the co- 

 lumns of Hercules; that vail and unknown 

 ocean, which they difcoveredon coming through 

 the ftreights of Gibraltar^ infpired them with a 

 kind of horror, which they furmounted only by 

 degrees : fome bold navigators ventured out up- 

 on the ocean afterwards ; but failing along the 

 coafl; of Africa^ a violent temped, of leveral 

 days duration, carried them to an ifle of very 



great 



