•[/*] 
times were too unskilful! to attempt fuch a 
dilcovery, does it not furnilh us with a reafon 
to account for its being made by chance. If 
this paftage was ever publickly known, which is 
more probable it was not, might not the know- 
ledge of it be loft as that to Greenland , and 
can we be fure that the Greenland of the Nor- 
wegians was not more to the louthward of 
that country now fo called. I am not ignor- 
ant that thcfe traditions of the Norwegian 
colonies, as well as many others to the fame 
point, particularly that of prince Madoc has 
been treated as meer fiftion • but let us not 
forget that Herodotus’s account of the doub- 
ling the Cape of Good Hope has been treated fo 
Jikewile too, tho’ the faft be now eftabliflied to 
the degree of moral certainty. 
Again, it is not unlikely but there may be 
lind raoft of the way from America to Japan, 
at leaft iflands, leparated only by narrow chan- 
r els, and in fight, or nearly fo, of one another. 
I have been lately informed cf an Indian wo- 
man, well known by a perlon in Canada , and 
after an interval of many years met again by 
the fame perlon in Chinefe Tartary • he could 
not be convinced fhe was the fame, till by 
difeourie he had with her, Ihe told him, that 
being made captive by a neighbouring nation, 
fhe had during many years been tranl- 
ferred by captivity, fale, or gift, from one 
nation to another till die was brought where 
he 
