The latter, Father De Acosta, in his examination of the means by which the first Indians of America might have found a passage to that continent, discredits the conclusions of those who have supposed it to be by sea, because no ancient author has made mention of the compass: and concludes, that it must be either by the north of Asia and Europe, which adjoin to each other, or by those regions that lie to the southward of the Straights of Magellan. He also rejects the assertions of such as have advanced that it was peopled by the Hebrews.
John De Laët, a Flemish writer, has controverted the opinions of these Spanish fathers, and of many others who have written on the same subject. The hypothesis he endeavours to establish, is, that America was certainly peopled by the Scythians or Tartars; and that the transmigration of these people happened soon after the dispersion of Noah’s grandsons. He undertakes to show, that the most northern Americans have a greater resemblance, not only in the features of their countenances, but also in their complexion and manner of living, to the Scythians, Tartars, and Samoeides, than to any other nations.
In answer to Grotius, who had asserted that some of the Norwegians passed into America by way of Greenland, and over a vast continent, he says, that it is well known that Greenland was not discovered till the year 964; and both Gomera and Herrera inform us that the Chichimeques were settled on the Lake of Mexico in 721. He adds, that these savages, according to the uniform tradition of the Mexicans who dispossessed them, came from the country since called New Mexico, and from the neighbourhood of California; consequently North America must have been inhabited many ages before it could receive any inhabitants from Norway by way of Greenland.
It is no less certain, he observes, that the real Mexicans founded their empire in 902, after having subdued the Chichimeques, the Otomias, and other barbarous nations, who had taken possession of the country round the Lake of Mexico, and each of whom spoke a language peculiar to themselves. The real Mexicans are likewise supposed to come from some of the countries that lie near California, and that they performed their journey for the most part by land; of course they could not come from Norway.
De Laët further adds, that though some of the inhabitants of North America may have entered it from the north-west, yet, as it is related by Pliny and some other writers, that on many of the islands near the western coast of Africa, particularly on the Canaries, some ancient edifices were seen, it is highly probable from their being now deserted, that the inhabitants may have passed over to America; the passage being neither long nor difficult. This migration, according to the calculation of those authors, must have happened more than two thousand years ago, at a time when the Spaniards were much troubled by the Carthaginians; from whom having obtained a knowledge of Navigation, and the construction of ships, they might have retired to the Antilles, by the way of the western isles, which were exactly half way on their voyage.
He thinks also that Great Britain, Ireland, and the Orcades were extremely proper to admit of a similar conjecture. As a proof, he inserts the following passage from the History of Wales, written by Dr. David Powel in the year 1170.
This historian says, that Madoc, one of the sons of Prince Owen Gwynnith, being disgusted at the civil wars which broke out between his brothers, after the death of their father, fitted out several vessels, and having provided them with every thing necessary for a long voyage, went in quest of new lands to the westward of Ireland; there he discovered very fertile countries, but destitute of inhabitants; when landing part of his people, he returned to Britain, where he raised new levies, and afterwards transported them to his colony.
The Flemish Author then returns to the Scythians, between whom and the Americans he draws a parallel. He observes that several nations of them to the north of the Caspian Sea led a wandering life; which, as well as many other of their customs, and way of living, agrees in many circumstances with the Indians of America. And though the resemblances are not absolutely perfect, yet the emigrants, even before they left their own country, differed from each other, and went not by the same name. Their change of abode affected what remained.
He further says, that a similar likeness exists between several American nations, and the Samoeides who are settled, according to the Russian accounts, on the great River Oby. And it is more natural, continues he, to suppose that Colonies of these nations passed over to America by crossing the icy sea on their sledges, than for the Norwegians to travel all the way Grotius has marked out for them.
This writer makes many other remarks that are equally sensible, and which appear to be just; but he intermixes with these some that are not so well-founded.