AMERICA. 
4*9 
opinions of authors upon this point, the following is the 
abbe Clavigero’s: 
The men and animals of America paffed there from the 
old continent. This is confirmed’by the facred writings. 
Mofes, who declares Noah the common father of all men 
who furvived the deluge* fays exprefsly, that in that ge¬ 
neral inundation of the earth all its quadrupeds, birds, 
and reptiles, perilhed, except a few of the feveral fpecies, 
which were faved alive in the ark, to re-people the earth 
with their kind. The repeated exprellions which the fa- 
cred hiftorian tifes to fignify its univerlality, do not permit 
us to doubt, that all quadrupeds, birds, and reptiles, which 
are in the world, descended from thofe few individuals 
which were faved from the general inundation. 
The firft inhabitants of America might pafs there in 
veflels by fea, or travel by land or by ice. i. They might 
either pafs there in veffels delignedly, if the diftance by 
water were but final], or be carried upon it accidentally 
by favourable winds. 2. They might pafs by land, on the 
fuppofition of the union of the continents. 3. They might 
alfo make that paffage over the ice of fome frozen arm 
of the fea. 
The anceftors of the nations which peopled Anahuac, 
(now called New Spain,) might pal's from the northern 
countries of Europe into the northern parts of America, 
or, which is more probable, from the mod eadern parts 
of Ada to the mod wedern parts of America. This con- 
clufion is founded on the condant and general tradition 
of thofe nations, which unanimoully fay* that their an- 
cedors came into Anahuac from the countries of the north 
and north-welt. This tradition is confirmed by the re¬ 
mains of many ancient edifices, built by thele people in 
their migrations. In a journey made by the Spaniards in 
1606, from New Mexico unto the river which they call 
Tizon, 600 miles from that province towards the north- 
wed, they found there fome large edifices, and' met with 
fome Indians who fpoke the Mexican, language, and who 
told them, that a few days journey from that river, to¬ 
wards the north, was the kingdom of Tollan,, and many 
other inhabited places, whence the Mexicans migrated. 
In fail, the whole people of Anahuac have ufually affirm¬ 
ed, that towards the north were the kingdoms and pro¬ 
vinces of Tollan, Aztlan, Copalla, and feveral others, 
which have all Mexican names. Boturini fays, that in 
the ancient paintings of the Tslteeas was reprefented the 
migration of their ancedors through Ada and the northern 
countries of America, until they edabliffied themfelves in 
the country of Tollan; and even endeavours to afeertain, 
in his general hidorv, the route they purified in their travels. 
With refpedt to the other nations of America, as there 
is no tradition among them concerning the way by which 
their ancedors came to the new world, we can fay nothing 
certain of them- It is podible, that they all paffed by the 
fame way in which the ancedors of the Mexicans paded; 
but it is far more probable that they palled by a very dif¬ 
ferent route. We conjedture, that the ancedors of the 
nations of South America went there by the way in which 
the animals proper to hot countries paded; and that the 
ancedors of thofe nations inhabiting Efquimaux and La¬ 
brador, and the "countries adjacent, paded thither from 
the north-wed part of Europe. The difference of cha¬ 
racter which is difcoverable in the three above-mentioned 
clades of aboriginal Americans, and the fituation of the 
countries which they occupied, afford ground to fufpedl 
that they had different origins, and that their ancedors 
came there by different routes. 
The quadrupeds and reptiles of the new world mud 
have paded there by land. This fadt is manifed from the 
improbability and jnconfidency of all other opinions. St. 
Augudin folves the difficulty of peopling the iflands with 
wild beads and deftrudlive animals by fuppofing, either 
that the angels tranfported them thither, (a folution, which, 
though it cuts off every difficulty in the paffage of animals 
to the new world, would not be fatisfadlory in the prefent 
age ;) or that they might fwim to the iflands; or that they 
might have been carried there by men for the fake of' 
hunting; or that they might have been formed there by 
the Creator in the beginning.. Others have imagined that 
beads might pafs over fome frozen (trait or arm of the 
fea. But, as neither of thele opinions can be liipported, 
the probability is, that the quadrupeds- as well as the rep¬ 
tiles which were found in America paded thither by land, 
and of courfe that tire two continents were formerly uni¬ 
ted. This-was the opinion of Acolta, Grotius, BuH'on, 
and other writers of credit. That this earth has experi¬ 
enced great changes lince the deluge will not admit of a 
doubt. Earthquakes have fwallowed up large trades of 
land in fome places; fubterraneous fires have thrown up 
others; the fea in fome places has been forced to retreat 
many miles from the ffiore ; in other places it has made 
encroachments; and in many inftances feparated territories 
which were formerly united. Very conliderable tradtsof 
land have been alfo formed at the mouths of rivers. We 
have many examples of all thele revolutions-: Sicily was 
formerly united to-the continent; the draits of Gibraltar, 
as Diodorus, Strabo, and other ancient authors r affirm, were 
formed by a violent irruption of the ocean upon the land 
between the mountains Abyla and Calpe. The people of 
Ceylon have a tradition, that a Ihnilar irruption of the fea 
feparated:. their illand from.-the peninfula of India. The 
fame is believed by the inhabitants of Malabar with ref- 
peft to the illes of Maldivia, and by the Malayans with 
refpeft to Sumatra. Ceylon, as Bnffon afferts, has loft 
thirty or forty leagues of land, by the fea; and Tongres, 
a place in the Low Countries, has gained thirty leagues of 
land from the fea; and Florida and the fouthern Ameri¬ 
can States have gained as much from the bay of Mexico, 
and the ifiands between North and South America. The 
northern part of Egypt owes its exidence to inundations 
of the Nile; and the province of Yellow-River in China, 
and part of Louiliana in America, have both been formed 
by the mud of rivers. Tire peninfula of Yucatan has 
every appearance of having once formed a part of the bed 
of the fea. In the ftrait which-, feparates America from 
Afia, -many iflands are found which probably were tire 
mountains belonging to,that part of the land which we 
fuppofe to have been fwallowed up by earthquakes; and 
this is rendered pollible by the multitude of volcanoes 
difeovered in the-peninfula of Kaintfcluitka. The finking 
of that land, however,.and the feparation of thetwocon.- 
tinents, was probably occalioned by thofe extraordinary 
earthquakes mentioned in the hiftortes oE the Americans, 
which formed an era almolt as memorable as that of the 
deluge: 
The quadrupeds and reptiles of America paffed.by dif¬ 
ferent places from the one continent to the other. Among 
the American bealts there are many whofe natures are 
averfe to cold; fuch are apes, dantes, crocodiles, &c. 
There are others formed to inhabit cold, countries; fuch 
are martins, rein-deer, and gluttons. The former could 
not go to America through any country in the frigid zone; 
their natures would not have admitted it ;, they would have 
perilhed in their paffage. We cannot indeed imagine what 
inducement they could have to quit a climate congenial to 
their nature, and undertake a journey they knew not whi¬ 
ther, through a region whofe cold they could not endure. 
How did they know there Was a country friendly to their 
natures in America i The apes which are in New Spain 
paffed there, certainly., from South America. Time was 
when they did not inhabit that country ; and it is known 
that they came from the fouth- The centre of their po¬ 
pulation is the country under the equator, and fourteen or 
fifteen degrees on each fide of it. It decreafes as you de¬ 
part from this trad on either fide, till you arrive at the 
tropics, when it ceafes, and none are found, except in fome 
few diftri6ts, which, from the peculiarity of their fituation, 
are as hot as the equinoctial country. None can imagine 
that this fpecies of animals travelled to the new world 
through the cold regions of the north: nor can we believe 
that they were tranfported thither hy men; far, not to 
mention 
