I 3 ) 



Arius Montanus not only places Ophir and Par* 

 Vaim in the new world, but likewife makes Joctan, 

 the fon of Heber, the founder of Juclan, a chime- 

 rical city in Peru ; and alfo pretends, that the em- 

 pire of Peru and that of Mexico, which he will 

 have to be the fame with Ophir, were founded by 

 a fon of Jodtan of that name. He adds, that an- 

 other fon of the fame patriarch, called in the fcrip- 

 ture Jobab, was the father of the nations on the 

 coaft of Paria, and that the eaftern mountain Se- 

 phai*, to which Mofes fays the children of Joctan 

 penetrated after departing from MeiTa, is the famous 

 chain of the Ardes, extending from North to South 

 quite thorough Peru and Chili. The authority of 

 this learned interpreter of the fcriptures has drawn 

 Poftel, Becan, Poflevin, Genebrard, and many 

 others, into the fame opinion. Laftly, the Spa- 

 niards have aflerted, that in the time when the 

 Moors invaded their country, part of the inhabi- 

 tants took refuge in America. They even pre- 

 tended in the fifteenth century, that they difcbvered 

 certain provinces of their empire, which the mif- 

 fortunes of thofe times had robbed them of, and to 

 which, if you believe them, they had an incon- 

 testable right. Oviedo, one of their moft cele- 

 brated authors, was not afraid to affirm, that the 

 Antilles are the famous Hefperides, fo much vaunt- 

 ed of by the poets ; and that God, by caufing them 

 to fall under the dominion of the kings of Spain, 

 has only reftored what belonged to them three 

 thoufand one hundred and fifty years ago in the 

 time of king Hefperus, from whom they had this 

 name ; arid that St. James and St. Paul preached 

 the gofpel there, which he fupports by the autho- 

 rity of St. Gregory in his morals. If we add to 

 this what Plato has advanced, that beyond his own 

 iflarid of Atalantis, there were a great number of 

 B 2 iilands, 



