Chap, IL of the East Indies. 515 
But It may be faid, you have already admitted the Fa&. 
You own that it is not to be difputed, that thefe Indians 
were thrown upon the Coaft of Germany , and prefented 
by the King of the Suevi to the Proconful of Gaul, why 
then fhould you deny their coming either of thefe Ways, 
, when it does not appear there was any other Way for 
them to come, at leaft by Sea ; and that they did come 
; by Sea cannot be contefted, becaufe you admit they were 
j fhip wrecked ? All this is true, but with Biffiop Huet , 
: and other learned Men, I very much doubt whether thefe 
People were Indians e, becaufe, it is very certain, the An- 
, dents very frequently bellowed that Appellation up- 
on very remote Nations, merely becaufe they were very 
1 remote. It is therefore much more probable that thefe 
People who were thus call on fhore on the Coall of Ger- 
■ many , were Norwegians , or Scfitofinnians , which are the 
i fame People that we now llile Laplanders •, or, it may be, 
1 they were Icelanders , if we fo far credit the Northern Hifto- 
! nes, as to fuppofe that Ifland was fo early inhabited. This, 
I fay, is infinitely more credible than that they were In- 
dians ftriflly and properly fpeaking •, and that this is more 
credible, appears from hence, that Accidents of the like 
j Nature have happened in Scotland b , and elfe where ; that is 
to fay, fome of thefe People have been driven on fhore in 
i their little Fiffiing-boats ; and when an Accident of this 
Sort happened in thole early Times, before the northern 
Parts of the World were fo well known as they are at pfe- 
i fent, it is no great Wonder that fuch People fhould be 
i taken for Indians. 
While we are upon this Subject, I cannot help hinting 
a Conjedure of my own, which is, that if they mull needs 
l be Indians , it is much more likely that they were IVeJl- 
Indians , and that they came into the Baltick through Hud- 
son's Bay. Yet I do not lay this down as either certain or 
I probable, but mention it only as a Thing more agreeable 
I to modern Difcoveries, than the former Notion of their 
; coming from the Eafi- Indies •, but with regard to the 
3 Fad itfelf, I am firmly of Opinion that they were Nor- 
wegians, and that for thefe Reafons ; there were many of 
them, and they were on board a kind of Bark or Yeffel of 
fome Burthen ; whereas the Finns and Laplanders are not 
known to make ufe of any other than fmall Boats, which 
; one Man can manage. 
The fame Reafons may be applied to another Fad of 
: the fame Nature, fince it is affirmed, that under the 
i Reign of the Emperor Frederick Barbaroffia , A. D. 1 160, 
certain Indians were again call upon the Coall of Ger- 
many c ; but there is no more Proof that thefe were really 
Indians than the former for, in both Cafes, it is acknow- 
1 ledged, that they were a Arrange People, whofe Language 
was not utiderftood, which might be true if they were 
, Norwegians , but moll certainly is no kind of Evidence, 
j that they came either from the Eaft or from the Wejl- 
, Indies , or through the North-Eall or North- Well Pafiage. 
I mull not however omit, that according to Pliny , 
i they had fome Sufpicion that the firll mentioned Indians , 
and the fame has been hinted with refped to the lall, came 
on the Coall of Germany by furrounding the Continent of 
Africa d ; that is to fay, by the Rout of the Cape of Good 
, Hope , which is however a Thing abfolutely incredible, 
fince it cannot be imagined, the Indians ever vidualed 
their Ships for a Voyage of fuch a Length ; neither is it 
to be believed, that if fo much as one of their Vefiels 
had reached Europe , and returned, we fhould have had 
fome Account of this from them as well as of other 
Points of their Hillory, which are well enough preferved 
in fome Places. But it is Time to quit a Subjed on 
which we can fay little that is either ufeful or entertaining, 
and therefore we ffiall pafs on to another Rout to the 
Indies. 
2. This was by Land, from Ruffia to China , a Thing 
now commonly known, fince the Hillory of the Embaffy 
fent by the Czar in the Year 1659, when his Miniller 
palfed to the North of the Kingdom of Bout an, and 
through the Defarts of Great Fart ary. There is no Rea- 
fon to believe that there is any thing new in this Pafiage, 
or that it had not been as much frequented of old as in 
the prefent Times ; for as we have heretofore ffiewn, it 
was in the moll early Ages of the World, that die Chine ft 
and Indian Empires were in their moll flourilhing Condi- 
tion, and carried on the moll extenfive Commerce 5 
whence I conceive it highly probable, that they made ufe 
of Caravans on this Side, in the fame Manner as they do 
now ; and it is not impofiible that, by the Pafiage of thefe 
Caravans through the Northern Indies , the Ancients came 
to hear of the Seres , fince it is very certain that the Coun- 
try in which they placed them, is not very far diltant from 
the Rout thefe Caravans mull have taken e . 
That there mull have been fome Pafiage on the North, 
appears alfo from hence, that the Ancients were fo fully 
perfuaded that the Indian Ocean communicated with the 
Cafpian-Sea , a Thing that could never have come into 
their Heads, if they had not been informed that there was 
fome kind of Commerce carried on between the nordiern 
Parts of Europe and the Indies ; and it is not eafy to 
conceive how any Commerce of that Kind fhould be car- 
ried on, unlefs by the Rout which we have mentioned, 
which was always practicable, and which therefore there is. 
no Improbability in fuppoling it was formerly pra&ifejl. The 
only formidable Objection that can be made to this is, the 
Fiercenefs and Barbarity of the Nations inhabiting between. 
China and Ruffia ; and therefore this Objection deferves 
fome Confideration. 
In the firll Place then, I obferve, that the Ancients 
had no diltinCt Account of thefe People at all, and there- 
fore whatever they have advanced, ought to make no Im- 
preffion to the Difadvantage of thefe Nations. In the 
next Place, I mull put the Reader in mind, that what 
they have told us of the Seres , does not appear to agree 
with the Chinefe Hillory ; and though I am very far from 
aflerting that we ought to give an implicit Credit to all 
that is advanced in that Hillory, yet, I think there is no- 
thing abfurd, in fuppoling that the Indians or the Chinefe 
might be as knowing and as induftrious in Commerce, as 
we know with Certainty, the Chaldeans and the IJhmaelites 
were, in Times much earlier than thofe in which we con- 
ceive this Commerce to have been in ufe. 
Human Nature is every where the fame ; and it ap- 
pears even from the Reports of the Greek Hillorians, 
that the Indians , from the earlielt Accounts they had of 
them, were as civilized, and as well governed a People as 
any in the World, which certainly adds fome Credit to 
the Chinefe Hillory ; whether we believe that the Indians 
derived any Part of their Knowledge from the Chinefe , 
or which is a Notion more probable in itfelf, and much 
better fupported by Authority, that the Chinefe were in- 
debted for the bell Part of their Improvements to the 
Lights they received from the Indians. The firll Account 
we had of the Fartars , reprefented them as a Race of ftu- 
pid and ignorant Barbarians but their own Hiltories 
fhew quite the contrary, and carry in them this intrinftck 
Evidence of their own Veracity, that they mull have been 
fuch a People as their Hiltories reprefent them j becaufe, 
had it been otherwife, thofe Hiltories could not have been 
written. 
To fpeak my own Opinion freely and fairly, we are 
but too apt to treat People that have lived at a great Di- 
Itance of Time, as we do thofe that live at a great Di~ 
fiance in point of Place ; that is to fay, we meafure their 
Wifdom and Civility by their Remotenefs from our own 
Country, and even our own Time, which is particularly 
hard upon the Eaftern Nations, fince both Reafon and Ex- 
perience teach us, that as they were firll fettled, their Go- 
vernments firll formed, and Laws firll introduced among 
them, there is the higheft Probability that Knowledge of 
every kind came earlier to Maturity amongll them than 
amongft other Nations, though afterwards their Countries 
might be over-run, their Governments fubverted, and 
h There have been feveral Greenlanders, in their little Boats, taken up on the Coafts of the Orkneys and Cathnefs. c Lopez Gomara in llifl . 
Indie, lib. i. cap. 10. He too aflerts thefe People were Indians. d It is very plain, that Pliny meant this Pafiage, for he labours in this 
Chapter to prove that the Continent of Africa had been often furrounded, and aflerts in Proof of it, that the Wrecks of Spani/h Veflels had been 
found in the Indian Seas ; which, tho it proves nothing as to the Matter of Fa&, yet it Ihews clearly that the Ancients had a Notion that fuch a Paf*. 
Page was prafticable, e We have confidered this Subject at large in the fifteenth Seftion. f The Reader will find this verified* 
¥■ he confides the genealogical Hiftory of the Tatars, written by a Tartar Prince, and of which we have a very good Tranflation in Englijh. 
their * 
