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Show DISSERT. I. '--v---' D I S S E R T A T I 0 N I. On the Population of AMERICA, and in particular that of MEXIco. N 0 roblcm in hillory has been more difficult of folution than the p~pulation of America, or has occafioned a ~r~ater diverfity. of opinions. Ancient philofophers were not more d1V1dctd concermng the fupreme good than the mod~rns about thi~. To examine them all would be a fruitlcfs labour. Ne1ther do we mtend to eil:abli(h a new fyll:em, having no foundation to fupport one : we mean fit:Uply to offer and fubmit to the judgment of the learned a few conjectures, which we prefume may not be ufelefs. In order to proceed with clearnefs and precifion, we fhall divide our general fubjeCl: into fcveral parts, and explain our fentiments on each feparately. S E C T. I. At 'what Pe1-iod America began to be peopled. BETANCOURT, and other authors, are perfuaded, that the new world began to be peopled before the deluge. That certainly might have happened, becaufe the [pace of one thoufand fix hundred and fiftyiix years elapfed from the creation of .the firfi man until the deluge, according to the chronology of the Hebrew text of Genefis, and our common reckoning; and fiill more, the [pace of two thoufand two hundred and forty-two, or two thoufand two hundred and fixty-two years, according to the computation of the Seventy, was certainly enough to people all the world, as has been already demonfirated by fome writers,; at leafi after ten or twelve centuries, fome of thofe families which fcattered themfelves towards the moil ea!l:ern parts of Afia, might pafs to that part' of the world which we call at prefent America, whither it w~s, as we believe, united to the other, or [epa-rated . H I S T 0 R Y 0 F M E X I C O~ rated by a fmall arm of the fca from it. But how do thofc authors prove that America was peopled before the deluge? Bccaufc they fay there were giants in America, and the n;ce of giants was antideluvi:m . Bccaufe God, others will fay, did not create the earth to remain uninhabited;" and it is not probable that, after creating America for that purpofe, he would leave it fo long withont inhabitants, Admitting the facred text to be taken in the vulgar fenfe, and that the giants ·were men of extraordinary :fize and bignefs, this would by no means confirm fuch opinion, bec:1Uic we read in the facred writings alfo :of giants pofterior to the delDge. Neither does the text of If4iah prove any thing in f.wour of that opinion, . becau(e althoLlgh God ·created the earth to be inhabiter), no one can divine the time prefixed by him for the execution of his de.figns. The traveller Gemelli fays, on the evidence of fame ancient piCl:urcs of the Mexic~ns, that the city of Mexico was founded in the year II Calli, correfponding to the year 1325 of the creation of the world, that is, more than three hundred years before the deluge; but this erroneous abfurdity was not an error of his mind, but a flip of his pen, as · plainly appears from the context of his narration; wherefore he is unjufily reprobated by Mr. de P. who alfo accufes Sigucnza of the fame error, whereas we are ver-y certain this moil: learned Mexican was ' 'Of a very difterent opinion. It is true, that the city of Mexico was founded in the year II Calli, and that that was the year 1325, not of the world, however, but of the vulgar era, which t4e above mentioned traveller ·certainly meant to have written. It is therefore ufelefs to invefl:igate whether America was peopled before the deluge, becaufe on one hand although we were able to dif- . cover it, on the other we are certain, that all men perifhed in the deluge. We are therefore obliged always, after that general inund<ltion, to feek for new peoplers of America. '\.Y e know that [orne writers cir-' cumfcribe the deluge to a certain part of Afia; but .we know alfo ·that that opinion is contrary to the Sacred Writings, to the traditions of the Americans, and phy:fical obfervation s. Dr. Siguenza believed the population of America began not long after the difper:fion of nations. As we have not the manufcripts of that celebrated Mexican, we are ignorant 01~ what foundation he refred VoL. II. D d his 201 DISSERT• I. '--"V--' |