GOSSIP THE AFFINITY OF RACES. 293 



Asiatic Continent first furnished inhabitants to the contiguous north 

 western parts of America, conceives the Caribs to have been a dis- 

 tinct race, widely differing from all the nations of the new hemis- 

 phere," and is inclined to adopt the opinion of Hornius and other 

 writers, who ascribe to them an oriental ancestry from across the 

 Atlantic. I will quote as succinctly as possible the reasoning by 

 which this writer convinces himself of the truth of his position : — 

 ** If we reflect" he says *' on the limited extent of navigation before 

 the discovery of the compass, the prevailing direction of the winds 

 between the tropics, and various other obstructions, we may I think 

 very confidently determine that 7io vessel ever returned from any 

 part of America before that of Colu^yibus — a conclusion however, 

 that by no means warrants us in pronouncing that no vessel ever 

 arrived from the ancient Continent, either by accident or design, 

 anterior to that period." The probability of such arrival, he evi- 

 dences as follows : — 



" There is no circumstance in history better attested, than that 

 frequent voyages from the Mediterranean along the African coast, 

 in the Atlantic Ocean, were made both by the Phoenicians and 

 Egyptians many hundred years before the christian era. 



''We know from indisputable authority that the Phoenicians 

 discovered the Azores, and visited even our own island (Britain) 

 before the Trojan War. 



'' Their successors the Carthas^inians were not less distinofuished 

 for the spirit of naval enterprise, as we may conclude from the 

 celebrated expedition of Hanno, who about 250 years before the 

 birth of our Saviour, sailed alons; the African coast until he came 

 within five degrees of the Line. 



' ' It was the Carthaginians who first discovered the Canary 

 Islands, and it appears from the testimony of Pliny, that they found 

 in those islands, the ruins of great buildings, ( Vestigia Edificior- 

 um,) a proof that they had been well inhabited in periods of which 

 history is silent. 



' ' Not less clear historical evidence are the accounts of the Phoe- 

 nician navigation down the Arabian Gulf or Red Sea to distant 

 parts of Asia and Africa, in ages still more remote. In the voyages 

 undertaken by King Solomon, he employed the ships and mariners 



