GOSSIP THE AFFINITY OF EACES. 301 



nations of the earth, we may be allowed to conjecture with others, 

 that it may have been communicated by some accidental arrival on 

 their shores from the Eastern Continent ; or it may have been recei- 

 ved from the people of the adjacent islands, who were a distinct race, 

 and of whom nothing is more certain than that they preceded the 

 Caribs in their occupation of those beautiful spots of the earth. 



PART II. 



The affinity of the most ancient races in the Eastern and Western 

 Hemispheres is much easier of proof at the j^'i^esent day, than are 

 the causes that led to their total separation. Yet nothing can be 

 more clear, affinity being granted, than that a separation at some 

 early period of the history of mankind, attended with extraordinary 

 circumstances, must have occurred to account for their perfect isola- 

 tion and the total oblivion of each other that had so long existed. 

 Nothing but a tremendous cataclysm, dividing the lands in the midst 

 and interposing an ocean between them, can satisfy this requirement. 

 Of such an event there is no positive record, or at least the record 

 does not fully warrant the inference. I shall again advert more 

 particularly to this branch of the subject ; but in the meantime desire 

 to direct your attention to the Mediterranean Sea, the countries on 

 the borders of which appear to have been specially prepared for the 

 reception and civilization of mankind. 



There would seem to have been much greater facilities for mari- 

 time peoples of ancient times to pass into the Mediterranean from 

 India, Africa and Europe, than are afforded naturally at the present 

 day. '* Ancient authors entertained strong opinions on the subject. 

 Aristotle held that the Mediterranean had at one time covered a 

 large part of Africa and Egypt, and had extended inland as far as 

 the temple of Jupiter Ammon. This doctrine was maintained also 

 by Xanthus the Lydian, Strabo and Eratosthenes. The ancients 

 appear to have been led to this conclusion, by observing in various 

 parts of Africa and Egypt manifest traces and indications of the sea. 

 They found there shells, pebbles evidently rounded or worn smooth 

 by the action of water, incrustations of salt, and many salt lakes. 

 Some of these appearances were particularly frequent on the route 

 through the desert to the temple of Ammon. 



