It has been proven conclusively that the ancient Malayan empire was maritime and commercial; it had fleets of great ships, and there is evidence that its influence reached most of the Pacific islands. This is shown by the fact that dialects of the Malay language have been found in most of these islands as far in this direction as Easter Island. The language of the Sandwich (Hawaiian) Islanders, for instance, is Malayan, and has a close relationship to that now spoken in the Malay islands.

The Malays still read and write, have some literature and retain many of the arts and usages of civilization, but they are now very far below the condition indicated by their ancient ruins, and described by El Masudi, who traveled among them a thousand years ago.

It is practically certain that their ships visited the western coast of America, and traded with the ancient Mexicans and Peruvians in the days of their greatest power and activity. This theory amounts almost to a certainty when it is remembered that the Malays made such a permanent settlement of the Easter Islands as to leave their language there. According to old traditions of both Mexico and Peru, the Pacific coast in both countries was anciently visited by a foreign people, who came in ships. The unmistakable traces of Malay influence everywhere in the islands of the Pacific can have but one meaning. The Malays formerly sailed the ocean, occupied its islands and doubtless visited America.

The Abbé de Bourbourg is responsible for the statement that "It has been known to scholars nearly a century, that the Chinese and Japanese were acquainted with the American continent in the fifth century of our era. Their ships visited it. They called it Fu-Sang, and said it was situated at the distance of twenty thousand li from Ta-Han. M. Leon de Rosny has ascertained that Fu-Sang is the topic of a curious notice in the 'Wa-Kan-San-tai-dzon-ye,' which is the name of the great Japanese Encyclopedia. In that work Fu-Sang is said to be situated east of Japan, beyond the ocean, at a distance of about twenty thousand li (between seven and eight thousand miles) from Ta-nan-Kouek. Readers who may desire to make comparisons between the Japanese descriptions of Fu-Sang and some country in America, will find astonishing analogies in the countries described by Castaneda, Fra-Marcos de Niza, in the province of Cibola." In Peru, in the time of Pizarro, the oldest and most enduring stone structures were said to have been built by "bearded white men," who came from the west and were called "sons of the sea." They were probably Malays or Arabians.

This is the only evidence we have found of an imported civilization in Peru, and this is more legend and tradition than positive history.

We are firmly convinced that civilization or self-improvement began among the savages of America, probably Peru, as it did three thousand years or more ago among the savages of Egypt and Babylon. We believe that the civilization found in America originated here and nowhere else. It is neither an importation nor imitation of anything else on earth. As a recent explorer of the ruins of Peru, Central America and Mexico well says, "The American monuments are different from those of any other known people, of a new order, and entirely and absolutely anomalous; they stand alone."

It is quite probable that, having been established in Peru, civilization gradually drifted north to Central America and Mexico. Certain it is the Spaniards first heard of the wealth of the Incas from the people inhabiting the isthmus and the region north of it.

We purpose, however, only to show how the aborigines and civilization got to America, not how they spread over the land, and our conclusions are that the first inhabitants came through the Pacific Islands from southeastern Asia and landed in South America at least three thousand years ago, and there established an original civilization, perhaps only a few centuries later than Egypt or Babylonia. Many other peoples, including the Phoenicians, must have visited the eastern shore of America since, but they found a high degree of civilization already established. All these seafaring people could possibly do was to augment, or suggest improvements to the civilization they found here, or else do as the foolish and wicked Spaniards, destroy it.

So much for the primeval settlement and civilization of South and Central America, but what about the aborigines of the Northern Continent?