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Show 210 DISSE.RT. J, "'--v--1 H I S T 0 R y 0 F M E X I C 0. · h any others wh .tc h are now Jiving, and with tho.f c· languages wtt m b ble to difcover the lea!l: affimty which are dead, but haveT~~t reele:~lance between the. 'I'eotl. of the between any of them. f h G ks has induced us fometunes to Mexicans and the Theos o t e ree h, fiound any agreement 1 es but we ave never corn pare thofe two anguag ' . ft. ·n refpeCt to the Americans~ h This argument IS 1 ong 1 betwee~ em. fi mnefs and conftancy in retaining their languages. as they :w great [c~ h . 1 nguage among the Spaniards, and the The Mextcans pre trve t etr a M . Otom1.e s retam. t I : d'fficult dialect among Spaniards and extcans, lClf 1 . . · h b 1 :Uter two cen tun.e s an d a half of commumcatiOn w. .t t . ro t 1.[c d r. If the Amen.c ans de Jr.c en ded from different famtltes duper .e d f:ll' lter confufion of tongues, as we believe~ and h~ve been (eparatc . mce- :~:n from thofe others who peopled the co.untnes. of the old Gon.tment, authors will labour in vain, to feek in the language ,or cuftoms of the Afiatics for the origin of the people of the new. world. s E C T. III. From what part and how the in~ahitants and animals pa./fed to Amertca. THIS is the fecond and mofl difficult point in the problem of tlte· o ulation of America,. on which, as on others, autho:s are va .. ;idus in opinion. Some of them attribute the p~pul~tlOn of tHe new world to certain. Phrenician merchants, who, m traverfing the ocean, landed there by accident. Other~ imagine that t~e fame people whom they fuppofe to have pa!Ted from the old contment ·ro the iil~ Atlantida, from thence got eafily to Florida, an.d· from that great country gradually f< attered themfelves over Amenca.. . Other~ believe that tbcy pa!fed there froih Afia, by the Straits of Ama~ ; an f others, that they were tranfi orted there from the northern· regwns··o Europe over fome arm of the frozen fea. FeiJ' ;o a Spanifu BenediCtine, thought a few years ago to propo(e to the w'o rld a· new fyftem; and w ha t I·S t h.IS new f Yf t c~ ? That America was united in the nol'th to the old continent,. b~ wh1ch both s:nen H I S T 0 R Y 0 F M E X I C 0. men and animals pa!fed there. But this opinion is as ancient as 'Acofl:a, who, one hundred and forty-four years before Feijoo, pubhfi1ed it in his Hiftory of America: befides, it is not fuffic.i.ent to folvc all the difficulties refpeCl:ing the paflage of animals, as we !hall fee hereafter. The count de Buffon, notwithftanding his great genius and pointed accuracy, contradicts himfelf openly in th:s point. He fuppofes the two continents united by oriental Tartary, and affirms that by it the nrft inhabitants pa!fed to America, and alfo all thofe animals which have been found common to both continents; fuch ns bzf!fa/oJ, called in Mexico cibolo.r, wolves, foxes, martins, deer, and other qua- ' drupecls, which ngree with cold climes; but that there could not be in America neithc Hbns, tygers, camels, elephants, nor any· of thofe eighteen fpecies· of apes which are found in the old continent ; anri, in fhort, no quadruped peculiar .to hot climes could be common to both continents, becaufc they were not able to reiifl: the cold of northern countrie , by which they mu.ll: pafs from on·e to the other world. This he repeats inceffantly through all his natural hiil:ory, and 011 this acco1.1nt he denies antelopes, goats, and rabbits to America. He thinks thofc quadrupeds American only which live in the· hot countries of the new world, among whlch he numbers thirteen or fourteen fpecics of American apes, divided by him into the two cla!fes of Sapayus and 8agoini; of thofe, he adds, there were none in the old continent, as there were none of the eighteen fpecies of the old continent in the new world. What then ' was the origin of thofe and other quadrupeds really American ? This doubt, which occurs frequently in the natural hiftory of that great philofopher, remains undecided unti.l the lafi volume but one of the hill:ory of quadrupeds, in which he Llys (d), " As it cannot be doubted that all animals in geueral were created iu u the old continent, we mufl: admit them to have pafied from it to the "new; and mull: fuppofe alfo, that thofe animals, the deer, wild " goat, and motf/fottt•.r, infiead of having degenerated like others in the " new world, have on the contrary arrived at perfeCtion there, and fi·o1h " the fuitablenefs of the clime excelled their own nature. There having " been fo many animals found in the new world, wh ich l1avc no like- (d) IIin. Nnt, tom, xxix, Difcomf'e on the Degcnemtion of Anlrnal s, · E e 2 'nefs • ,., 21I DISSERT. · J • '--.,...--J |