( io ) 



tain traditions, have rendered the difcovery of the 

 origin of the Americans extremely difficult, fo that 

 nothing could be determined in it without being 

 guilty of great temerity ; and that all that can be 

 allowed to the uncertainty of conjecture is, that this 

 great continent has been peopled by degrees in the 

 way we have juft now mentioned that he cannot 

 believe thefe tranfmigrations to be very antient, and 

 that according to all human appearance the firft 

 who attempted this pafTage were hunters, or wan- 

 dering nations, rather than a civilized people ; but 

 even granting the firft inhabitants of the new world 

 to have been fuch, there would be but little caufe 

 to wonder, that their defcendants mould degenerate 

 and vary from the religion and manners of their 

 anceftors : that the want of feveral things was enough 

 to make them forget the ufe of them, and that for 

 want of certain helps for tranfmitting their traditi- 

 ons from age to age, they mould come by degrees 

 altogether to forget them, or at leaft to disfigure 

 them in fuch manner as to render it impofiible to 

 diftinguifh them : That the example of feveral na^ 

 tions of Spain and Italy, who feem to have had 

 nothing belonging to the human fpecies befides the 

 figure, gives all thefe reafons a great air of proba- 

 bility : That the deluge, of which the Americans 

 have prefer ved the remembrance, does not appear 

 to him to be that fpoken of in fcripture, but fome 

 particular inundation, whereof fome perfons of great 

 ability pretend there ftill remain certain marks in 

 America : Laftly, that it cannot be proved, that 

 the mod ancient monuments in America are older 

 than the thirteenth or fourteenth century, and that 

 all beyond this is nothing but a confufed heap of 

 fables and tales, and thofe fo very childifh as to ren- 

 der it impoffible to form one reafonable conjecture 

 from them. 



The 



