( 9 1 



coafts; and that thofe animals, fiich as tygers and 

 iions,which might probably have got thither by land, 

 or at moft by traverfing fmall arms of the fea, were 

 altogether unknown even in the beft peopled iftands 

 of .that hemifphere, 



In chapter twenty- fecond, he returns to the Ata- 

 lantis of Plato, and refutes, with a great deal of 

 gravity, the notion of fome who believed the rea- 

 lity of this chimera, and who fancied, that there 

 was but a very fhort paffage from this imaginary 

 ifland to America. In the following chapter, he 

 rejects the opinion of thofe who have advanced on 

 the authority of the fourth book of Efdras, that 

 this vaft country was peopled by the Hebrews. To 

 thefe he objects, Firfl, that the Hebrews were ac- 

 quainted with the ufe of characters, which no na- 

 tion of America ever was. Secondly, that thefe 

 latter held filver in no manner of eftimation, where- 

 as the former have always fought after it with ex- 

 treme avidity. Thirdly, that the defendants of 

 Abraham have conftantly obferved the law of cir- 

 cumcifion, which is pradtifed in no part of Ame- 

 rica. Fourthly, that they have always preferved 

 with the greater! care their language, tradition, laws 

 and ceremonies; that they have always, without 

 ceafing, looked for the coming of the Meffiah ; that 

 ever fince their difperflon over all the earth, they 

 have never in the leaft relaxed from all thofe parti- 

 culars ; and that there is no reafon to believe they 

 fliould have renounced them in America, where not 

 the fmalleft veftige of them remains, 



In the twenty-fourth chapter, he obferves, that 

 in a difcuffion of this nature, it is much eafier to 

 refute the fyftem of others than to eftablifh any 

 new one, and that the want of writing and cer- 

 tain 



