( 4. ) 



rite was never in life with that nation* till after tney 

 had embraced the Mahometan religion. 



De Laet is contented with barely narrating thd 

 opinion of this learned Englifhman, which confiftg 

 in rejecting the notion of thofe who make the Tar- 

 tars defendants of the Ifraelites, who were tranf- 

 ported by Salmanafar ; and in making the Tartars 

 anceftors to all the Americans. We fhall fee what 

 he himfelf thinks, when we come to relate his own 

 opinions on this article. But it is neceffary in the 

 firft place, to examine what parted between him 

 and the famous Grotius upon this fubjecl. The 

 difpute was very hot on both fides, and as is ufual 

 in fuch cafes, only embroiled the queftion. 



In the year 1642, Grotius publifhed a fmall trea- 

 tife in Quarto^ intituled, De Origine Gentium Ameri- 

 canarum^ which he begins, with fuppofing that the 

 Ifthmus of Panama had been looked upon, before 

 the difcovery of the new world by the Spaniards* 

 as an impenetrable barrier between the two conti- 

 nents of America : whence he concludes, that the 

 inhabitants of both could have nothing common 

 in their original. Milius, whom he does not cite* 

 had advanced this paradox before him. Now, if 

 we may credit the learned Dutchman, excepting 

 Yucatan, and fome other neighbouring provinces* 

 whereof he makes a ciafs apart, the whole of North 

 America has been peopled by the Norwegians, who 

 paired thither by way of Iceland, Greenland, Efto-^ 

 tiland and Narembega. He, notwithstanding, con- 

 fefles, that they were followed fome ages after by 

 the Danes, Swedes, and other German nations. 



He draws the greateft: part of his proofs from the* 

 conformity of their manners, and the refemblance 



of 



