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an abfolute impofllbility of peopling almoft one half 

 of the globe i 



They ought therefore to have kept to this ; but 

 the queftion was too fimple and too eafy to be an- 

 fvvered. 1 he learned muft make difquifuions, and 

 they imagined they were able to decide how and by 

 whom America has been peopled ; and as hiftory 

 furnimed no materials for this purpofe, rather than 

 flop fhort they have realized the mod frivolous con- 

 jectures. The fimple refemblance of names, and 

 fome flight appearances, feemed, in their eyes, fo 

 many proofs, and on fuch ruinous foundations they 

 have erected fyftems of which they have become 

 enamoured, the weaknefs of which the mod igno- 

 rant are able to perceive, and which are often over- 

 turned by one fmgle fact which is inconteftable. 

 Hence it happens, that the manner in which the 

 New World has received its firft inhabitants remain- 

 ing in very great uncertainty, they have imagined 

 difficulties where none really were, and they have 

 carried this extravagance to fuch a height, as to be- 

 lieve, that the Americans were not the defendants 

 of our fir ft parents ; as if the ignorance of the man- 

 ner in which a thing hath happened, ought to make 

 us look upon it as impolTible, or at leaft as extreme- 

 ly difficult. 



But what is moft fingular in this, is, that they 

 mould have neglected the only means that remain- 

 ed to come at the truth of what they were in fearch 

 of j I mean, the comparing the languages. In ef- 

 fect, in the refearch in queftion, it appears to me, 

 that the knowledge of the principal languages of 

 America, and the comparing them with thofe of 

 our Hemifphere, that are looked upon as primitive, 

 might poffibly fet us upon fome happy difcovery •, 



E an 



