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whale country is covered with fnows of a prodigi- 

 ous depth, and which are never entirely melted ; 

 that Friezeland, if fuch a country is in being, can 

 be no more than a part of Greenland, or of Iceland, 

 and that there is no reliance to be had on all that 

 the two Zani's have publiflied about it : that Efto- 

 tiland, according to the account of thefe two noble 

 Venetians, is at a great diftance from Friezeland, 

 fince in their time there was very little correfpond- 

 ence between thefe two countries, and that it was a 

 matter of pure chance that fome fiihermen happened 

 on this latter : that this enchanted kingdom, the 

 monarch of which had fuch a magnificent library, 

 has entirely difappeared fince the difcovery of the- 

 northern parts of America that Norembega, whi- 

 ther Grotius conducted his Norwegians, is no lefs 

 fabulous i that this name in which this learned man 

 finds with a fecret complacency fo ftrong a confor- 

 mity with that of Norvegia, or Norway, is not the 

 name of any country, but a fictitious one whereof 

 nobody knows the original ; that the natives of the 

 country call it Agguncia ; that this country lies very 

 far to the fouth of the place where Eftotiland was 

 fuppofed to be, fince it makes part of the fouth- 

 coaft of New France, between Accadia and New- 

 England. 



Grotius had relied very much on the termination - 

 in are, fo common in old and new Mexico. Laet 

 draws him from this intrenchment, by {hewing that 

 almoft all of thefe names are modern, and of Spa- 

 nifh extraction. He overthrows, with the fame eafe, 

 the argument which Grotius drew from the traditi- 

 ons of the Mexicans, by obferving, that when thefe 

 nations placed themfelves in the neighbourhood of 

 the lake of Mexico, they found great numbers of 

 barbarians, who fpoke all forts of languages, be- 

 tween 



