88 
^BIPONIANS 
tion, tiierefore, how these descendants of Noah got over to America, 
we shall content ourselves by giving the opinion of the Abbe Clavigero, 
which appears to be the most probable of any we have met with. 
I. “ The men and animals of America/' says the abbe, passed there 
from the old continent. This is conhrraed by the sacred writings : 
Moses, who declared Noah the common father of all who survived the 
deluge, says expressly, that in that general inundation of the earth, 
all its quadrupeds, birds, and reptiles, perished, except a few of the 
several species which were saved alive in the ark. The repeated ex- 
pressions which the sacred historian uses to signify its universality, 
does not permit us to doubt that all quadrupeds, birds, and reptiles, 
which are in the world, descended from those few individuals which 
were saved from the general inundation. II. The first inhabitants of 
America might pass therein vessels by sea, or travel by land or by ice. 
1. They might either pass there in vessels designedly, if the distance 
by water, were but small, or be carried upon it accidentally by 
winds. 2. They might pass by land, upon the supposition of the con- 
tinents being united. 3. They might also make that passage over the 
ice of some frozen arm of the sea. III. The ancestors of the nations 
which peopled Anahuac, now New Spain, might pass from the northern 
countries of Europe into the northern countries of America, or from 
the most eastern parts of Asia, to the most w^estern parts of Ame- 
rica. This conclusion is founded on the general tradition of those 
nations, that their ancestors came into Anahuac from the north and 
north-west. This tradition is confirmed by the remains of many 
ancient edifices, built by those people in their migrations.” Here the 
abbe adduces different instances of these, and after refuting several 
absurd expositions, he adds, “The probability is, that the quadrupeds, 
reptiles, &c. of America, passed thither by land, and that the two conti- 
nents were formerly united. This was the opinion of Acosta, Grotius, 
Buffon, and other great men. That this earth has experienced great 
changes since the deluge, will not admit of a doubt. Earthquakes 
have swallowed up great tracts of land in some places, subterraneous 
fires have throwm up others. The sea in some places has been forced 
to retreat many miles from the shore ; in others it lias made encroach- 
ments, and in many instances separated territories wdiich were formerly 
united. Very considerable tracts of land have been also formed at 
the mouths of rivers. We have many examples of all these revolutions. 
Sicily was formerly united to the continent. The straits of Gibraltar 
as Diodorus, Strabo, and other ancient authors, affirm, were formed 
by a violent irruption of the ocean upon the land, between the moun- 
tains Abyla and Calpe.” The abbe adds many other instances, but 
these we think may suffice in proof of the general supposition that 
the tw'o continents were once united. 
Abiponians. ^ 
These are a tribe of American Indians, who formerly inhabited the 
district of Chak, in Paraguay ; but the hostilities of the Spaniards 
have now obliged them to remove southward into the territory lying 
between Santa F4, and St. Jago. The only account we have of them 
