LOUISIANA. 393 



" we may credit the accounts given by profane 



I doubt whether it is necefTary to go back to 

 Noah^ to find the period of the population of 

 America-^ if, as is very probable, the "tartars 

 went over into that continent, it muft have hapr 

 pened in the following times : a fet of people, 

 who are not numerous, do not eafily leave the 

 vafb country they inhabit ; they do not fo fooa 

 endeavour to feparate from each other •, they 

 ^continue together, till, by having multiplied tea 

 much, they fpread more, or till fome other cir- 

 cumftances force them to leave their native 

 country : fuch refearches are of little importance; 

 they are mere matters of curiofity, and the diffi- 

 - culty of fatifying that ought to prevent men 

 from employing their time in them. All that 

 can be afierted with certainty is, that America 

 feems to have been inhabited only of late. 



Powelly an Englifh writer, mentions, in his 

 Hiftory of ^^/f J, that, in the year 1170, there 

 was a war in that country for the fucceflion to 

 the throne, after the death of FnncQ Owen Gwin* 

 neth, A baftard took the crown from the legi- 

 timate children ; one of the latter, whofe name 

 . ^as Madoc^ embarked in order to make new dif- 



coveries i 



