106 



HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



where America and Africa were formerly united, as that 

 authqr believes. 3. That by the way in which the Sa- 

 payus and Sagoini palled to the new world, in like man- 

 ner could elephants, camels, lions, tygers, &c. 



Omitting many other opinions unworthy of mention, 

 we mall fubmit our own ; not with a view to eftablilli 

 any new fyftem, but to offer materials for other abler 

 pens, and to illuftrate fome points of our hiftory. 



I. The men and animals of America paffed there from 

 the old continent. This is confirmed by the facred writ- 

 ings. Mofes, who declares Noah the common ftock of 

 all men after the deluge, fays exprefsly, that in that ge- 

 neral inundation of the earth all its quadrupeds, birds, 

 and reptiles, perifhed, except a few individuals which 

 were faved in the ark, to generate their fpecies. The 

 repeated expreffions which the facred hiftorian ufes to 

 fignify its univerfality, do not permit us to doubt, that 

 all quadrupeds, birds, and reptiles, which are in the 

 world, defcended from thofe few individuals which were 

 faved from the general inundation. 



II. The firft peoplers of America might pafs there in 

 veffels by fea, or travel by land, or by ice. 1. They 

 might either pafs there in velTels defignedly, if the arm 

 of the fea which feparated the one continent from the 

 other was fmall ; or be accidentally carried upon it by 

 winds. There is not a doubt that the firft peoplers of 

 the new world might arrive there in the fame manner in 

 which, many centuries after, the pilot or mariner did to 

 whom, in the opinion of many authors, Columbus owed 

 the firft hints which incited him to his glorious and me- 

 morable difcovery (f), 2. They might pafs there by 



land 



(f) Some authors affirm, that the mariner who gave intelligence to Colum- 

 bus of the new countries in the weft, was a native of Andalufia ; fome fay he 



was 



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