Ch. I. SOLTTM AMERICA. 3 



which they were found immerfed. At length the hap- 

 py sra arrived, when indutlTy, ailiiled by refolution, 

 was to remove all the difliculties exaggerated by ig- 

 norance. This is the epocha v/hich difcinguifhed the 

 reign, in many other refpeds fo glorious, of Ferdinand 

 of Arragon, and Ifabella of Cailile. Reafon and ex- 

 perience at once exploded all the ideas of railinefs and 

 ridicule which had hitherto prevailed. It feems as if 

 Providence permitted the refufal of other nations, to 

 augment the glory of our own ; and to reward the 

 zeal of our fovereigns, who countenanced this impor- 

 tant enterprize ; the prudence of their fubjefts in the 

 conduct of it, and the religious end propofed by both. 

 I miCntioned accident or reflection, being not yet con- * 

 vinced, whether the confidence with which Chriftopher 

 Columbus maintained, that weftward there were lands 

 undifcovered, was the remit of his knowledge in coi- 

 mography and experience in navigation, or v/hether it 

 was founded on the information of a pilot, who had 

 adlually difcovered them, having been driven on the 

 coafts by flrefs of weather ; and who, in return for 

 the kind reception he had met with at Columbus's 

 houfe, delivered to him, in his lad moments, the pa- 

 pers and charts relating to them. 



The prodigious magnitude of this continent ; the 

 multitude and extent of its provinces ; the variety of 

 its climates, products and curious particulars and, 

 laftly, the diftance and difficulty of ont part communi- 

 cating with another, and efpecially with Europe, have 

 been the caufe, that America, though difcovered and 

 inhabited in its principal parts by Europeans, is but 

 imperfectly known by them; and at the fame time 

 kept them totally ignorant of many things, which would 

 greatly contribute to give a more perfed: idea of fo con- 

 fiderable a part of our globe. But though inveftiga- 

 tions of this kind are worthy the attention of a great 

 prince, and the ftudies of the mod piercing genius 

 among his fubjeds 5 yet this was not the principal 



B 2 in ten don 



