176 STEPPES AND DESERTS. 



conclusions is subject to much uncertainty. (Stephens, 

 Incidents of Travel in Yucatan, vol. i. p. 439 ; and vol. ii. 

 p. 278.) 



I regard the existence of ancient connections between 

 the inhabitants of western America and eastern Asia as 

 more than probable, but by what routes, or with what 

 Asiatic nations, the communications 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 Busang 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 (Klap- 

 roth, Tableaux historiques de TAsie, 1824, p. 79; Nouveau 

 Journal Asiatique, T. x. 1832, p. 335; Humboldt, Examen 

 critique, T. ii. p. 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 



