NO. II MELANESIANS AND AUSTRALIANS HRDLICKA 3 



Acosta, one of the best informed of the earher authorities on America. 

 He says : 



It seems to me very probable that there came in times past to the West Indies, 



overcome by strong winds, men who had no thoughts of such a voyage 



We may thus assume that the New World commenced to be inhabited by men 

 who had been driven there by contrary winds, as in the end happened with the 

 discoveries in our own times.* 



But the presence of various animals on the continent that are also 

 known in the Old World indicated, Acosta believed, that the land 

 somewhere in the as yet unexplored far north joined or closely ap- 

 proached that of the Old World. If this were so, then it would be 

 easy to resolve the problem of the coming of man. He came not only 

 over the sea but also traveling by land. This journey, too, was made 

 without planning, httle by little ; and thus in the course of time were 

 filled the lands of the West Indies by so many nations, peoples, and 

 languages. 



His conclusion is that man of the Old World gradually extended 

 his domain until he reached the New, aided in this by the continuity 

 or vicinity of land ; and that, while there may have been different 

 ways of peopling the very extensive American territories, the princi- 

 pal and truest cause of the peopling of the New World was this con- 

 tinuity or nearness of its land with that of some part of the Old 

 World.' 



* "Assi'que me parece cosa muy verisimil, que ayan en tiempos passados venido 

 a Indias hombres vencidos de la furia de el viento, sin tener ellos tal pensa- 



miento Assi qu podriamos pensar, que se commengo a habitar el nuevo 



orbe de hombres, a quien la contrariedad del tiempo, y la fuerga del Nortes, 



echo alia, como al fino vino descubrirse en nuestros tiempos Concluyc 



pues con dezir, que es bien probable de pensar, que los primeros aportaron a 

 Indias por naufragio y tempestad de mar." (Pp. 67-68.) 



* Los primeros poJDladores de las Indias " passaron no tanto nauegando por 

 mar, como cammado por tierra. Y esse camino lo hizieron muy sin pensar, 

 mudando sitios y tierras su poco a poco. Y unos poblando las ya halladas, otros 

 buscando otras de nuevo, vinieron por discurso de tiempo a henchir las tierras de 



Indias, de tantas naciones, y gentes, y lenguas El lineage de los hombres 



se vino passando po.co a poco, hasta Uegar al nuevo orbe, ayudando a esto 

 la continuidad o vezindad de las tierras y a tiempos alguna nauegacion ; y que 

 este fue el orden de venir, y no hazer armada de proposito, ni suceder algun 

 grande naufragio. Aunque tambien pudo auer en parte algo desto : porque siendo 

 aquestas regiones larguisimas, y auiendo en ellas inumerables naciones, bien 

 podemos creer, que unos de una suerte, y otros de otra, se vinieron en fin a 

 poblar. Mas al fin en lo que me resume es, que el continurase la tierra de 

 Indias con essotras de el mundo, alomenos estar muy cercanas, ha sido la mas 

 principal, y mas verdadera razon de poblarse las Indias." (P. 81.) 



