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Show DL SERT. ' I. "-r-.J H I s T 0 R y 0 F M E X I C O •. and the common belief of the people in the north. llefidcs, from ,Torquemada and Betancourt we have a clear proof of it. ~tl ~journey n1ade by the Spaniards, in the year x6o6, ~rom New Mex1~0 .~ nto the river which they call Tizon, fix hundred m1les· from that ptovmce, ~owards the north-weft, they found there fome large edifices and met With fome Indians who fpoke the Mexican language, from whom they were told, that a few days journey from that river towards the north was the kingdom of Tollan, and many other peopled places, from whence came thofe who peopled the Mexican empire; and that by the fame pcoplers thefe and other like buildings had been ereCted. In faCt, the whole people of Anahuac have u[ually affirmed, that to~ards the north ... weft and the north, there were the kingdoms and provmces of Tollan, Teocolhuacan, Amaquemecan, Aztlan, T ehuajo, and Copalla, na1":es which are all Mexican, and the difcovery of which, if the popula~JOa of the Spaniards {bould fpread into thofe ~a~·ts , will thr~w great h.ght 0 11 the ancient hifiory of Mexico. Botunm .lays, that m the ancJcnt p. intir~gs of the T.oltecas, was rcprefcnted tl?cmigration.ofthcir.anccftors through Afia agd .the northern countnc;;s of Amenca, unt1l they dhbli{hcd themfelves in the coun try of Tollan, and even endeavours to afcertain in his General Hifrory the route they purfucd in their travel; bu.t as he had not opportuuity ~o compofc the hifrory which he defigncd, we can fay no more of this matter. . . T hofc countries in which the :mcell:ors of thofe nat10ns ell:abhlhed themfdves, being fituated towards that part where the moil: wefierly coafl: of America approaches to the moll: eafl:erly part of Afia, it is probable that by that part they pafiC~d from the one to the other continent ; either in veffel s, if the il:rait of the fea then divided them which is there at prefent, according to the difcoveries of the Rufiians, or by land, if the continents were united, as we !hall prefently .find. T he traces which thofe nations left of themfelvcs from time to time, lead us to that very ilrait which is undoubtedly the fame which was difcovered by the navigators of the fixtecnth cen~ury, and called by them the StraitJ of Anian (g). (x) lJt the chnrts of Ame1·icn publifl1cd in the b!l century, the firnit of Aninn wns ufunlly dd cribcd, though with much Jiflcrcncc in the r •prcfcntution of it. For fom!l ycnrs p11!t it lJ •u becu oll)i ttcd, from an opinion that the account of it was fabulous ; but finco the difcovo• rica oi' lhc Ruffians forne geographe rs hnvc begun ngain to give it a place. With • H I S T 0 R Y 0 F M E X I C 0. With refpcet to the other nations of America, as there is no trad'ition among them concerning the way by which their ancell:ors cat11e to the new world, we cata. fay nothing of them. lt, is pol1i ble, that they all paifL:d by the. fame way in which ·the ancell:ors of the Mexicans pafied ; and yet perhaps they may have palled by fome other very different wute. We conjeCture, that the a11ccfiors of the nations which pe0pled South America went there by the way in which the animals proper to hot countries palfed, and that the ance.ll:ors of thofc nations inhabiting all the countries which lie between Florida. and the mofi northern part of America, paficcL there from ·the north of Europe. The difference of charafret' which is difcoverable in the three above mentioned c1affes of Americans, and the fituation of the countries which they occupied, make us fufpeet th·:tt they had different origins, and that their anceft:ors came there by different routes ;. but {l:ill this is a mere fufpicion and conjeCtu re. Some authors afi'i.gn anothc1; par.t fGr tho paffagc ofthefirft. peoplers, which is the iiland Atlantida. ;- the exill:ence of which, contraditl:ed by Acofta, was maintained by Siguenza, by what appears from the ac,.. count of Gemelli, and lately fupported with great i11ew of erudition hy the celebrated author of the American Letters. If there were not fo many fables. mixed with the · account of that ifland which Plato gives in Timeus-,. the .autliority of fo grave a philofopher might induce us to aifent to his opinion. We ilull, therefore, omit this contell:, and come to the moll: difficult point of our. problem •. IV. The quadrupeds and r.eptil~s of the new world paired there by land. This fact will be. made moil: manifell:, by demonll:rating the improbability and .inconfifl:ency of other opinions.. The great doCtor of the church Augufrin, was of op,iniolil, that the wild beafl:s and defiruCl:ive:animals which are in the iOands might have been tranfported there by the angel£, But this folution,. although it cuts off every difficulty in the .paifage of wild ·beail:s to the new world, would not .bc acceptable in the century in which we live . . ''the fame doCtor fuggell:s, three. other fo lutions to the drfficulty: the wild beafrs, ~e .fitys, might pafs· by fw·u!lming to the iiles; they mierht be. tranfportcd there by men for the f1 kc of hunting ; , and .they might alfo have. been formed there by nature as they wet·e . .in th~.: bc.:g 'nnniugr .Uut~ 2I5 DI <;f.RT. I ... , |