105 ESSAY ON THE 



confused ideas about such land as America : and though their notions 

 were not clear, yet they did not doubt, at some period, of its existence. 

 That the eastern parts of America were peopled from Europe, appears to 

 me beyond any manner of doubt ; from the astonishing affinity between 

 the languages in use in that part of America^ with the Sanscrit and other 

 languages in Europe derived from it. For the Sanscrit pervades all the 

 languages, both ancient and modern of Europe, in a surprising degree. 

 India is by no means to be considered as the primitive and original 

 country of the Sanscrit language, though it flourishes there now exclu- 

 sively. The Brdlmens acknowledge that they are not native of India* 

 They entered it, they say, through the pass of Hardwdr; and their first 

 settlement was at Canoje, Towards the east it extends to A'vd and 

 Siam, in which countries the Pali, Bdli, or sacred language, if not 

 pure Sanscrit, is at least, a diale61: next to it, and its eldest daughter. 

 Towards the west, it pervades ail the ancient and modern languages of 

 Iran, Turan, Arabia, Ethiopia, Egypt, the northern parts of Africa, and 

 all Europe as far as Iceland inclusively ; forming, as it were, a belt from 

 the easternmost parts of Asia, to the extremities of the west, and of 

 Europe, and tending from the south-east toward the north-west. To the 

 north of India, m Tibet, the traces of the .S'^^wcnHanguage prevail, but I 

 believe in a less degree, than in A'vd,m\dSiam. From this belt some weak 

 ramifications are to be found in Sumatra and Java. The Malay language 

 contains many words of Sanscrit origin ; and in the Chinese and Japanese, 

 Sanscrit words are to be found occasionally. The language of the abo- 

 rigines of India, extending from the Bay of Bengal to Bombay, and in- 

 habiting the mountainous trails in the interior parts ^ has no affinity what- 

 ever with the Sanscrit, or any of its dialedls. Its grammar, poor and 

 barren^ as may be supposed^ is absolutely different from that even of the 



