L O U I S 1 A N A. 39^ 



making voyages that way, fome flreights be 

 really found, it is no reafon why they fliould al- 

 ways have been there : earthquakes may have 

 divided the illhmus or neck of land which com - 

 bined the two continents ; many authors attri- 

 bute the freights of Gibraltar to the fame kind 

 ot event : the Mediterranean, they fay, had 

 formerly no communication with the Atlantic •, 

 many pretend, th^Lt- Great Britain was joined to 

 ■ France j now the fea feparates Dover and Calais : 

 why cannot this be the cafe with Jfta and Ame- 

 rica likewife ? 



The time in which the population of America 

 was commenced, is as obfcur^ and" indetermi- 

 nate as the manner in which it was peopled ; eve- 

 ry thing which is difficult to penetrate excites 

 the curiofity of men •, they willi to fee fomething 

 new, and to fpeak of it, and frequently they 

 C c 4 give 



an account of it in the voyage of Commodore Byrotti who 

 has been fo much talked of, and has proved the cxiHence of 

 giants, which was blindly believed by the ancients, rejeded 

 as chimerical by the moderns, and now confirmed by new 

 difcoveries. The next voyage v/hich'the Englifh will make 

 that way, will furnifh us with more minute accounts ; others 

 will be encouraged to imitate them, and aperfeft knowledge 

 of the South Sea will clear up the difficulties concerning the 

 jundion of Jj^a and America, 



