106 The Humming Bird. 



clysm as having occured nine thousand years before. Thus 

 we see that Solon, Platon, and many of the ancient Philo- 

 sophers, Historians and Geographs, have admitted the exis- 

 tence of the Atlantis. 



This belief dormant during along time, reappeared during 

 the Middle Age, when the Greeks, driven away from Cons- 

 tantinople, took refuge in Italy. 



Christopher Columbus did believe in it thoroughly, and it 

 is very probable that it was with the idea of rediscovering 

 what remained of that wonderful Continent, that he under- 

 took his celebrated voyages of discoveries. 



During his stay in the Açores, he must have been more 

 convinced than ever that he was on the right tract ; as 

 these islands, inhabited by the Guanches, must certainly be 

 considered as remnants of that famous Continent, and the 

 Guanches, as the descendants of I he Atlantes : 



The same can be said of the Antillœ, first discovered by 

 Columbus, and inhabited by the Carribs. 



The Guanches and the Carribs possessed the same shaped 

 skull, and their languages were both akin to the aboriginal 

 tongues of America. 



Therefore if we go back several thousand years before 

 the cataclysm, which caused the désagrégation of that 

 vast Continent, known by the Ancients as Atlantis, and if 

 we take into account all the discoveries which modern 

 Geology has made of late, it is very reasonable to suppose 

 that America, formed part of the wonderful Atlantis of the 

 Ancients. 



It is certain that America is a very old Continent, which 

 from immemorial time has been populated by various races 

 of men. 



Its first inhabitants were what the Ancients termed Atlantes 

 who had intercourse with Europa, Africa and Asia, and 

 which remnants are the Guanches of the Açores, the Carribs 

 of the Antillae, and probably many other American tribes. 



After the cataclysm, resulting in the disappearance of a 

 large part of the Atlantis, all communications between hwat 

 remained of these people, and the other Continents ceased 

 entirely. 



SECOND EPOCH 



Several thousand years after the cataclysm, the north of 

 America was invaded by the Tartarians, the Indians and the 

 Chinese, when these countries were so densely inhabited that 

 the struggle for life dispersed them in all directions. It is 

 reasonable to suppose that this event*took place in time of the 

 great Tamerlane, and before. This was easy for them to ac- 



