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Show 14G STEPPES AND DESERTS. epochs (uKatunes" of 52 years) in which the Toltecs settled in different parts of the peninsula. From these data Perez infers that the monuments or buildings of Chiche go back to the close of the fourth century of our era, while those of Uxmal belong to the middle of the tenth century. But the accuracy of these conclusions is subject to much uncertainty. (Stephens, Incidents of Travel in Yucatan, vol. i. p. 439; and vol. ii. p. 278.) I regard the existence of ancient connections between the inhabitants of Western America and Eastern Asia as more than probable, but by what routes, or with what Asiatic nations, the communications took place, cannot at present be decided. A small number of individuals of the educated priestly caste might perhaps be sufficient to bring about great alterations in the civil and social state of Western America. The stories formerly narrated of Chinese expeditions to the New Continent really apply only to voyages to Fusang or Japan. On the other hand, Japanese and Si;1n-Pi from the Corea may have been driven by storms to the American coast, and landed there. We know as matter of history that Bonzes and other adventurers sailed over the eastern Chinese seas in search of some medicine which should entirely prevent death. Under Tschin-schi-kuang-ti, 209 years before our era, 300 young couples, young men and young women, were sent to Japan, and instead of returning to China they settled at Nipon (Klaproth, Tableaux historiques de l' Asie, 1824, p. 79; Nouveau Journal Asiatique, t. x. 1832, p. 335; Humboldt, Examen Critique, t. ii. pp. 62-G7). May not similar expeditions have been driven by storms or other accidents to the Aleutian islands, to Alashka, or to New California ? As the western coasts of the American Continent trend from NW. to SE., and the eastern coasts of Asia in the opposite direction, or from NE. to SW., the distance between the two continents in 45° of latitude, or in the , temperate zone which is most favorable to mental development, is too considerable to admit of the probability of such an accidental settlement taking place in that latitude. We must, then, assume the first landing to have been made in the inhospitable climate of from 55° to 65°, and that the civilization thus introduced, like the general movement of population in America, has proceeded by successive stations from north to south (Humboldt., Relat. historique, t. iii. pp. 155-160). The remains of ships from Cathay, i. e. from |