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not able to penetrate into the New World, or that 

 they never thought of it. In effect, i fee no rea- 

 fon that can juftify fuch a notion. Who can feri- 

 ou fly believe that Noah and his immediate defend- 

 ants knew lefs than we do ; that the builder and 

 pilot of the greater!: ftiip that ever was, a fhlp which 

 was formed to traverfe an unbounded ocean, and 

 had fo many fhoals and quickfands to guard again ft, 

 mould be ignorant of, or fliould not have commu- 

 nicated to thofe of his defendants who furvived 

 him, and by whofe means he was to execute the 

 order of the great Creator, to people the univerfe, 

 I fay, who can believe he mould not have commu- 

 nicated to them the art of failing upon an ocean, 

 which was not only more calm and pacifick, but at 

 the fame time confined within its ancient limits ? 



; Is it even determined on fufficient 'grounds, that 

 America had not inhabitants before the deluge ? Is 

 it probable, that Noah and his fons mould have 

 been acquainted with only one half of the world, 

 and does not Mofes inform us, that all, even the 

 remoter! Continents and iflands were once peopled ? 

 How fhall we reconcile this with the fuppofition of 

 thofe who maintain, that the firft men were igno- 

 rant of the art of navigation ; and can it ferioufly 

 be faid, contrary to the authority of fo refpedtable 

 a teftimony, as John de Laet has done, that navi- 

 gation is an effect of the temerity of mankind ; 

 that it does not enter into the immediate views of 

 the Creator, and that God has left the land to the 

 human fpecies, and the ocean to fifties ? Befides, are 

 not the iflands a part of the earth, and are there 

 not many places on the Continent, to which it is 

 much more natural to go by fea, than by long cir- 

 cuits frequently impracticable, or at leaft fo very 



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