LOUISIANA. 2>^s 



men there. An ingenious phrafe is not always a 

 reafon : no one difputes this power of the Crea- 

 tor ; but he has been pieafed to teach us him- 

 felf, that it was riot his will to people the world 

 fo, and that he gave exiftence to two creatures, 

 who were the origin of the whole human race. 



All thefe opinions reft upon the courfe 

 that men muft have taken, in order to come 

 from the old world to the new; arid it is upon 

 this difficulty that moft authors found their wri- 

 tings. A more exacl and extenfive knowledge 

 of our globe would annihilate all thefe difficul- 

 ties. It is Very probable, that there is a pafTage 

 which unites Afm to America % I have already 

 faid fomething of it to you, in fpeaking of the 

 elephants bones found in one of the countries I 

 have gone through r this is not a new opinion ; 

 this conjedbure has been made long ago. " Ame- 

 *' rica^^ fays Father Laffiteau^ " can be come at 

 *' in different places, and accordingly it may 

 *' have been peopled from all fides ; this is be- 

 *' yond a doubt ; it is but at a little diflance 

 *' from the fouthern unknown countries ; and 

 *' in the north, Greeyiland^ which is perhafs con- 

 *' tiguous to this new continent, is riot far from 

 *' Lapland, Thofe parts of Afia which bound it 

 *^ towards the land of Tefo^ probably make but 



Vol. I. C c " one 



