2. Who built them? Were they Malays? If they were Malays, did they come from Australasia, or from the Islands of the Pacific Ocean?
3. If they were not Malays, who were they? Were they Mauritanians, vide Postel; or Scandinavians, vide Busbeck; or Canaanites, vide Gomara, and John de Lery; or descendants of the tribes led captive by Psalmanazar, vide Thevet; or of Shera and Japhet, vide Torniel; or a colony of Romans, vide Marinocus; or Gauls, vide James Charron; or Friezelanders, vide Hamconius and Juffredus Petri; or Celtæ, vide Abraham Milius; or Phoenicians, vide Le Compte; or Carthaginians, vide Father Acosta, &c. &c.?
4. Had this ancient people the art of embalming human bodies, or is that art of modern invention, as some pretend?
5. If M. Verdier find they are of Malay origin, he must ascertain in what year of the world they went to America, and who was their leader;
6. How long they resided there, and under which pope they were driven away or exterminated.
7. In what manner, and by what conveyance, was the transportation made? Did they cross Behring's Straits, or on the ice from Japan to California? Were the first settlers the crew of some vessel or vessels driven to the western continent by stress of winds, or were they led thither by some far-sighted captain?
8. Finally, how many ships did it take to carry them over?
Many pages of remarks, by different members, were appended to this paper. The other paper, marked B., read as follows:
B.
1. Is the similarity of physiognomy and features between the present race of American Indians and the Asiatic Tartars strong enough to induce an unprejudiced observer to pronounce them members of the same great family of mankind, or, to speak so as to be understood, 'does an Indian look like a Tartar?'