[ 76 ] 
times were too unskillful! to attempt fuch a 
difcovery, does it not furnifh us with a reafon 
to account for its being made by chance. If 
this paffage 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 fouthward of 
that country now fo called. I am not ignor- 
ant that thefe traditions of the Norwegian 
colonies, as well as many others to the fame 
point, particularly that of, prince Modoc has 
been treated as meer fidtion ; but let us not 
forget that Herodotus'' s account of the doub- 
ling of the Cape of Good Hope has been treated fo 
likewife too, tho 7 the fa dt be now eftablifhed to 
the degree of moral certainty. 
Again, it is not unlikely but there may be 
land moft of the way from America to Japan , 
at leaft iflands, feparated only by narrow chan- 
nels, and in fight, or nearly so, of one another. 
I have been lately informed of an Indian wo- 
man, well known by a perfon in Canada , and 
after an interval of many years met again by 
the fame perfon in Chinefe Tartary ; he could 
not be convinced fhe was the same, till by 
difcourfe he had with her, fhe told him, that 
being made captive by a neighboring nation, 
fhe had during many years been trans- 
ferred by captivity, fale or gift, from one 
nation to another till fhe was brought where 
fie 
