304 GOSSIP THE AFFINITY OF RACES. 



genealogies, wliich are not to be depended on as a basis of his- 

 torical truth, seem, however, in their derivations, to point to arri- 

 vals from beyond the sea, from a region where art and science had 

 made some progress, and that those who communicated them 

 became kings and chiefs of peoples whom they benefitted by their 

 introduction. Ancient authors have supposed that the Pelasgians 

 came from Thrace, but there is no proof of any civilization having 

 then existed in that region. These authors knew nothing of this 

 continent, or the religious worship, manners and customs of its 

 people, or of any intermediate civilization wdiich could have estab- 

 lished affinities either with the aboriginal races, or the Pelasgians, 

 or of their possible separation ; or perhaps we might have handed 

 down very different opinions, both as to affinities and derivation. 

 From all this I have taken the liberty to assume. 



I. — That wanderers of the Adamic stock peopled the coasts of 

 Asia Minor and other parts of the Mediterranean, about the same 

 time that wanderers of the same race were progressing towards the 

 central portions of this continent. 



II. — That some ages after them, either previous or subsequent to 

 the time of the diluvial catastrophe in which Noah and his family 

 were involved, a more civilized race arrived at the Mediterranean, 

 and under the name of Pelasgians spread themselves through the 

 wide extent of its coasts. 



III. — That after the Noachian deluge, when the family of Noah, 

 whose mission it was to give an impulse to civilization, had multi- 

 plied, branches of them arrived at and settled on the shores of the 

 Mediterranean. Cush and Mizraim introduced their superior civi- 

 lization into Egypt and Ethiopia. The Phoenicians or Kanaanites, 

 another Hamitie race, were amongst the first arrivals. They appear 

 more particularly to have understood the art of navigation, and to 

 have com€ from the Persian Gulf by way of the Red Sea. The 

 descendants of Japheth afterwards obtained a footing, and either 

 by conquest or being deemed benefactors, acquired great influence, 

 and became eponyms of various tribes. 



It is remarkable as evidence of the unity of mankind, and their 

 affinities, that these tribes or races of men, not far removed from 

 each other in time, comparatively, readily amalgamated — that they 



