GOSSIP THE AFFINITY OF RACES. 303 



when the Mediterranean Sea may have had several outlets, and was 

 therefore more open to foreign arrivals of mankind than after it had 

 settled to its present outline and configuration. The only natural 

 passage now to the Atlantic, is by the Pillars of Hercules (Straits 

 of Gibraltar) . 



At the close of these disturbances, or during their continuance, 

 we may safely conclude that the habitable coast of Asia Minor was 

 occupied by wanderers of the primitive stock, who although more 

 remote in time, were probably as rude and uncultivated as the peo- 

 ple of jN^orthern Europe whose remains in our day are of so much 

 interest to the arch^ologist. The affinity of these people with the 

 American race is exceedingly probable, but there appears to have 

 been a remarkable distinction between them. The western race 

 had no subsequent communication with the civilization from which 

 they had wandered, or, if the ancient remains on this continent 

 depend upon it, it was confined to a few centres where it was after- 

 wards overlaid or destroyed. The last condition of things may 

 have happened in the era of the mound builders ; and its destruction 

 by the inroads of barbarian tribes of the same race. Finally it may 

 have revived in Mexico and Peru and Central America, where it 

 took thousands of years to recover itself, and had but recently begun 

 as it were to assert its strength, when the modern discovery of the 

 country again doomed it to destruction. The Mediterranean people, 

 on the contrary, had the elements of civilization introduced among 

 them at an early age. The Pelasgians who possessed it imperfectly 

 first came among this primitive race, at what time cannot now be 

 determined. Their origin also is lost in mythological obscurity. 



Inachus (Enoch or Anak great and powerful) son of Oceanus 

 and Tethys, significant of his being reared on the ocean, is said 

 to have been the first king of Argos. Phoroneus the Pelasgian, son 

 of Inachus and the ocean nymph Melia, is significantly styled the 

 first man — he gave the aborigines fire and social institutions. Car, 

 his son (or the son of Manes, or Man, the derivation is not clear) 

 is claimed by the Carians as the patriarch of their race. Mysis 

 and Lydus, are brothers of Car, and eponyms or patriarchs of the 

 Lydians and Mysians. Another descendant of Phoroneus, Pelasgus, 

 is said to have given his name to the Pelasgians. These mythical 



