Description of Tartary.
Tartary or Tattary, so call’d from the River Tatter, which runs thorow the Countrey Mongul into the Northern Ocean, covers a great part of the Terrestrial Globe; the lesser Tartary makes out a considerable part of Europe; the greater is Asia.
This great Tartary, which is a thousand Leagues long, and six hundred broad, reckons five chief Provinces, viz. the wild Tartary, inhabited by Herdsmen; Sagatai, of which the Metropolis is Samarcand, famous for the mighty Tamerlane; next Turkestan; then Kitai, which the great Cham Commands; and lastly, Old Tartary, according to Andreas Cæsariensis, the habitation of Gog and Magog.
Now we must enquire from what Tartars the Americans are Extracted:
Thrian l. 67.
If the Israelites were Tartars.
Mornæus, Postellus, Genebrardus, Poterus, and others are of opinion, That the Tartars, which about the year 1228. under the Command of Zingis Cham overspread the Earth like a deluge, were the Successors of the ten Tribes of Israel, which were carry’d into captivity to Assyria by Salmanazar. The name Tartary, or rather Tattaria, seems to be some testimony thereof, because it signifies in the Syrian or Hebrew Tongue, Remnants or Remainders, as seemingly, because these Tartarians were remainders of the foremention’d Tribes; nay, the Northern Tartary Herdsmen preserve to this day the Names Dan, Zabulon, and Naphthali: Wherefore we need not to admire, why so many Jews are found in Russia, Sarmatia, and Liefland; nay, the nearer to Tartary, the more Jews there are.
Circumcision hath a long time been observ’d among them, before Mahomet brought in his new Law; it seems, that Mahomet order’d the Circumcision and other Laws, according to Moses, to be observ’d by the Northern people, because that in his time, they began to Rebel, that so they might the better be kept in awe by their new Religion.
Pand. Hist. Turcica.
Joannes Leonclavius relates, That in Liefland near Riga, he heard the wilde Natives call’d Letti, not without great admiration, go crying along the High-Ways and Fields, with a doleful voice, Jeru, Jeru, Masco lou: It is believ’d that they mourn for Jerusalem and Damascus; but by their long continuance in the vast Wildernesses, they have forgot their Religion and Laws, and what else might enable to tell us who they were. Several learned Authors question this removal of the Israelites out of Assyria to Tartary, though to our Judgement their Arguments are too weak, to take from them of the footing they have gotten there; yet nevertheless, the Israelites are not to be taken for the Planters of America, for why else is not Judaisme as well found in America as in Tartary. But it is already shewn, that America was inhabited long before the dispersion of the Israelites.