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Show 210 f)ISSERttJ . I. ~ H. J ... s "T 0 R .:Y oc F M E X I C 0. ~hich inftl!adJof t!ing:agvtteable:"hre ~n; the; cont.rat:;'Jof a brutal atf~ea: tnMtroci6tl~Jdii}Joflti61i, cnath~Y, 1J.h(')fe tcaU~d ·~~mao.r..; ~n.d, prov1ded ill~h hrof beeh dincrmined to have tcrken wo nd1V1duals at leafi: of every fpeoies, the}"'could never arrive eith~r by the feasor the countries of the north;; although' their crondooors h·acl endeavoured to defend them from . tne< cold.. 'llihey 11uft~··ther~fore, have traRfported them from the hot cotini-ties -o( the10ld dmtir%ent •to the warm countries of the new world, over 1,i. fe'a -'fubjeCl! llo ' til~lim~ n'ot 'diffimilar1tO that of the native country of thofe quadrupeds., that is by' th'e-couptries ~f the fouth of Afia to the fuuth of America, over the Indian and Pacific Oc~ans, or from thewefte 1 co\.tnttid of' Africa to the enfl:ern countries of America; over \he Atlantic bcean. If-men; 'therefore, 'trahfported thofe~beafi:s from' ~We dhe to the~'ther world, ' they did it'acrofs thofe feas. ' But was this navigation c~fual or defigned? If cafual, how 1a~dl wherefore did th y conduct fo many animals with them? If it. w~s defigned, and with a: determined' purpofe to pafs from the one to the other w~rl_d, who gave them intelligen~e of it ? :W'ho !hewed them the 'fituattoiV of tho(e countries ?"Who pointed out their conrfe? How did they venture lo cro~ fuch vaft feas without the cornpafs? In what veifels? If they landed .there happily, why does there not remain among the Mexicans fame u~emoi-y of -their confl:ruCl:ion ? ' 1 1. • t • • I Befides: in -the ·torrid zone' of' the new world Cl'Otochles are ·common :.u)ima}s which' 'tequire ·a hot or tempernte clime, . and live alterna-tely ·on lai1d or in f wcet water ; how did f uch: 'allimal s pafs there ·? Not by ~tl)e north, certainly; becauf~ their nature is ftro~gly averfe to cold: :nehhet· 'were they tranfported by hlen, we J'l1ay fafely fay; as little can -U-e··thirik ·by fwim'ming-two 1'thbufand 1niles through the ia1t waters of ''1: t • I ~ 'I• • • f ) • tne ocean. · ' ' ·, ' i rfh~~e 'remains no other folution, · b\lt that of admitting an ancient union Between the equinottial countries of America and thofe of Africa, and the continuation of the northern countries of America with thofe of ~urope or Afia; the latt~r, for the pafiage of beafts of cold climes, the former for the paff"age of quadrupeds and reptiles peculiar to hot cli'mes. For the reafons we have already fubmitted, :we are ·perfuaded, . . that there was formerly a great traa of land which united the npw .mo.fi 1;1 eaftern H I S T 0 R Y 0 F M E X I C 0. eall:ern part of Brazil to the moil: well:ern part of Africa ; and that all that fpace of land may have been funk . by fome violent earthquakes, leav.ing only fame traces of it in the i!les of Cape de Verd, I~·ernando de Norona,· Afcenfion, St. Matthew, and others; and many [andbanks difcovered by different navigators, and. in particular by de Buachc, who founded that fea with great care and exaCl:nefs (k). Thofe illands and fand-banks may probably have been the highell: parts of that funken continent. In like manner we believe that the moft weil:erly part of America wus formerly united by means of a fmaller C0!1- tinent to the moft eafterly part of Tartary, and perhaps A!'Tierica was united alfo by Greenland with other northern countries of Europe. Upon the whole, from all we have faid, we cannot but believe that the quadrupeds and the reptiles of the new world paffed there by land, a'nd by different parts, to that continent. All other fyfi:ems are fttb-• jed: to heavy difficulties; even this is not without fome, but they are not altogether infurmountable. The greateil: confifts in the apparent improbability of an earthquake fo great as to fink a fpace of land of more than one thou.Gmd five hundred miles, which, according to our fuppofition, was that which united Aft•ica to America, and funk it fo rnuch as to the depth, obferved in fome of the places of that fea. But we do not afcribe that il:upendous revolution to -one fingle il10ck, as there are rn the bowels of the earth fuch ex ten five m1ffes of combull:iblc matter, the inflammation ·of one could eafily communicate to others, (in the fame mannner as Gaffendus explains the propagation of lightning) and the violent concuffion of the air, contained within thofe natuh1l mines, could at once {hake, agitate, and overwhelm a fpace of ~and 9f two or three thoufand miles. This is not impoffible, nor improbable, nor is hifi:ory unfurniil)ed with examples of it. The earthqua~ e which was felt in Canada, in the year r 66 3, overwhelmed a chain of mountains of freefl:one more than three hundred miles long, the wh~le of that immenfe traCt remaining changed into a plain. How .gre~t the~1 mull: the convulfion have been which was occafioned by (k) M. do Buachc, in the year 17 3 7• prefented to the Royal Academy of Sciences ofPnri9 the l1ydrographi<:nl charts of that fea, made nccording to his obfervarion, which were cx~minc;4 nnd approved of by the Academy. The celebrated nuthor of the Amrrit-an Lmers has infertcd i~.drnft of thofe charu in tho fecond volume of l1\s work. l .. ' ; thofe 221 DISSERT. I. \./"'V""'..' |