THE CREATION AND DELUGE. 



133 



they preserved themselves." There appears to 

 be a general belief of a flood among all the tribes 

 of this vast continent ; and the Bible shews me 

 from whence spring all those fables, and wild 

 notions which they entertain ; and which pre- 

 vail in other parts of the heathen world upon 

 these subjects. They are founded upon those 

 events which the sacred scriptures record, and 

 which have been corrupted by different nations, 

 scattered and wandering through the globe as 

 the descendants of Noah, without a written 

 language. The Hindoo therefore in his belief 

 that the earth was actually drawn up at the 

 flood, by the tusks of a boar, and that it rests 

 at this hour on the back of a tortoise : and the 

 North American Indian in his wild supposition 

 that Wsesackoochack, whose reputed father 

 was a snake, formed the present beautiful order 

 of creation after the deluge, by the help of a 

 musk-rat, afford no inconsiderable proof that 

 the Bible is of far greater antiquity than any 

 other record extant in the world, and that it is 

 indeed of divine origin. While its sacred page 

 therefore informs and decides my judgment 

 by the earliest historic information, may its 

 principles influence my life in all Christian 

 practice, and joyful expectation of the world to 

 come, through faith in Him, whom it records 



