f 8 ) 



at his death, left his memoirs to Chriftopher Co- 

 lumbus. Afterwards, he takes notice of what Pliny 

 relates concerning fome Indians, who being driven 

 by bad weather on the coaft of Germany, were 

 given in a prefent to Quintus Metellus Celes, by 

 the king of the Syevi. In the fame manner, he 

 finds nothing improbable in the report which goes 

 under Ariftctle's name, viz. that a Carthaginian 

 veffel having been driven very far to the weftward 

 by a ftrong eafterly wind, the people on board dis- 

 covered lands, which had, till that time, been unr 

 known; and from thofe facts he concludes, that, 

 according to all appearance, America has, by fuch 

 like means, received one part of its inhabitants * 

 but adds, that we muft of necefiity have recourfe to 

 fome other way to people that quarter of the world, 

 were it only to account for the tranfportation of cer- 

 tain animals found in thofe parts, which we cannot 

 reafonably fuppofe to have been embarked on board 

 of mips, or to have made fo long a, paffage by 

 fwimming. 



The way by which this has been done, continues 

 father Acofta, could only be by the north of Afia 

 or Europe, or by the regions lying to the fouthward 

 of the ftraits of Magellan ; and, were only one 

 of thefe three pafTages practicable, we may fuffici- 

 ently comprehend how America has been peopled by 

 degrees, without having recourfe to navigation, of 

 which there are no traces in the traditions of the Ame- 

 ricans. In order to ftrengthen this argument, he ob-r 

 ferves, that thofe iflands, fuch as Bermudas, which were 

 too remote from the Continent to fuppofe that fuch 

 fmall veffels as were ufed in that part of the world 

 could find their way thither, were upon their firft 

 difcovery uninhabited that the Peruvians teftifled 

 m extreme furprize at the firft fight of fhips on their 



coafts ^ 



