146 STEPPES AND DESERTS. 



epochs ("Katunes" of 52 years) in which the Toltecs settled in 

 different parts of the peninsula. From these data Perez infers that 

 the monuments or buildings of Chiche go back to the close of the 

 fourth century of our era, while those of Uxmal belong to the middle 

 of the tenth century. But the accuracy of these conclusions is sub- 

 ject to much uncertainty. (Stephens, Incidents of Travel in Yuca- 

 tan, vol. i. p. 439; and vol. ii. p. 278.) 



I regard the existence of ancient connections between the inhabit- 

 ants of Western America and Eastern Asia as more than probable, 

 but by what routes, or with what Asiatic nations, the communica- 

 tions took place, cannot at present be decided. A small number of 

 individuals of the educated priestly caste might perhaps be sufficient 

 to bring about great alterations in the civil and social state of Western 

 America. The stories formerly narrated of Chinese expeditions to 

 the New Continent really apply only to voyages to Fusang or Japan. 

 On the other hand, Japanese and Sian-Pi from the Corea may have 

 been driven by storms to the American coast, and landed there. 

 We know as matter of history that Bonzes and other adventurers 

 sailed over the eastern Chinese seas in search of some medicine which 

 should entirely prevent death. Under Tschin-schi-kuang-ti, 209 

 years before our era, 300 young couples, young men and young 

 women, were sent to Japan, and instead of returning to China they 

 settled at Nipon (Klaproth, Tableaux historiques de TAsie, 1824, p. 

 79; Nouveau Journal Asiatique, t. x. 1832, p. 335; Huinboldt, 

 Examen Critique, t. ii. pp. 62-67). May not similar expeditions 

 have been driven, by storms or other accidents to the Aleutian 

 islands, to Alashka, or to New California ? As the western coasts 

 of the American Continent trend from NW. to SE., and the eastern 

 coasts of Asia in the opposite direction, or from NE. to SW., the 

 distance between the two continents in 45 of latitude, or in the 

 temperate zone which is most favorable to mental development, is 

 too considerable to admit of the probability of such an accidental 

 settlement taking place in that latitude. We must, then, assume 

 the first landing to have been made in the inhospitable climate of 

 from 55 to 65, and that the civilization thus introduced, like the 

 generarmovement of population in America, has proceeded by suc- 

 cessive stations from north to south (Huinboldt, Relat. historique, t. 

 iii. pp. 155-160). The remains of ships from Cathay, i. e. from 



