287 
that the northern extremity of California is most “ favourably 
situated for receiving a direct arrival from Japan." He informs 
us that a few years ago a Japanese vessel was fallen in with 
by a whale-ship in the North Pacific ; that another was 
wrecked on the Sandwich Islands ; and that a third drifted to 
the American coast near the mouth of the Columbia river,* in 
the Oregon territory, to which I have before alluded. Under 
these circumstances, there is not only nothing improbable, but 
everything in favour of there having been occasional arrivals 
from the eastern coasts of Asia — first in the northern islands of 
Polynesia, and afterwards in the Oregon territory of America 
— even in remote periods of the world's history. 
Thirdly , there was a south-eastern route through the Pacific 
by means of a current called the Antarctic Drift. A vessel, 
for example, sailing southward from Easter Island would soon 
get within this powerful stream, and might easily find her- 
self floating toward the coasts of Chili and Peru. In fact, 
this part of the Antarctic Drift is laid down upon our 
modern charts as the “ Chili Current." Nothing, therefore, 
was more likely to have happened in remote ages of the past 
than that some of the inhabitants of Easter Island should have 
drifted to that part of the American coast. It might be 
urged, however, that, if so, there ought to be some bond of 
connection still preserved between the two countries. I think 
there is, inasmuch as homogeneous architectural remains can 
be traced almost continuously from South India to Central 
America. 
The Buddhist temples of Southern India and of the islands of 
the Indian Archipelago correspond with great exactness in all 
their essential and in many of their minor features with those 
of Central America. They are built (particularly those of 
more ancient date) upon terraces, some of which are of great 
height and extent, being faced with brick or stone, and 
ascended by flights of steps. They are crowned by structures 
often pyramidal, the stones forming the roofs of the chambers 
overlapping each other. Beside these buildings, erected on 
terraces, there are other analogous structures called dagobas 
in Ceylon, and topes in Hindustan, combining the temple and 
the tomb, usually of the pyramidal form, and generally contain- 
ing relics of some sort, deposited in a small inner chamber.f 
In the third volume of the Transactions of the Royal Asiatic 
Society there is an account of the ruined city of Anarajapura, 
in Ceylon, whose structures have decided resemblances to 
* Pickering’s Races of Man , p. 297 . 
t See this subject pursued more fully in American A rch ceological Researches, 
p. 88. 
