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"continent. This latter opinion was well founded. The "country with which he fell in belongs to that province in "South America now known by the name of Brasil. He "landed, and having formed a very high idea of the fertility "of the soil and agreeableness of the climate, he took pos"session of it for the crown of Portugal, and despatched a "ship to Lisbon with an account of this event, which appear"ed to be no less important than it was unexpected. Colum"bus's discovery of the New world was the effort of an active genius, enlightened by science, guided by experience, and "acting upon a regular' plan, executed with no less courage "than perseverance. But from this adventure of the Portuguese, it appears, that chance might have accomplished that great design, which it is now the pride of human reason to have formed and perfected. If the sagacity of Colum"bus had not conducted mankind to America, Cabral, by a "fortunate accident, might have led them, a few years later, "to the knowledge of that extensive continent."*

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And certainly, by some such accident, in ages long passed, might the Ancient hemisphere have given a beginning to population in the New; or at least have sent thither the progenitors of that separate race of people of which I now treat. It remains for me, however, to assign my reasons for particularly applying this conclusion to the Charaibes, instead of any other of the numerous tribes which inhabit the eastern side of the immense continent of South America.

The migration of any people is best traced by their language; but there is this inconveniency attending this species of evidence, that in reducing a language merely oral, to writing, different persons of even the same nation, would sometimes unavoidably represent the same sound by a very different

Hist. America, vol. i. p. 151.

arrangement of letters;-much more frequently would this happen, should the writers be of different countries, and consequently habituated to various modes of pronunciation and orthography; but although I am of opinion therefore, that vocabularies preserved by voyagers, seldom afford much certainty of information on a comparison with each other; there are, nevertheless, in every language, many words of which the sound is too simple to be easily misunderstood or grossly misrepresented.

Thus, on comparing the Charaibe vocabulary, preserved by Rochefort, with the ancient oriental dialects, † it is scarce possible to doubt that the following words used by the Cha. raibes, had their origin in the Old hemisphere, and we may readily believe that many instances of a similar nature might be adduced, but for the cause I have assigned, namely, the different modes which different persons would necessarily adopt, each according to his own perception of the sound, of reducing the same words to writing; thus creating a perplexity which it is now too late to disentangle.

For this illustration, and other assistance in the course of this inquiry, I am indebted to a learned friend, by whom I am informed (being myself unacquainted with the oriental languages) that the Samaritan, and old Phenician, the Syriac, Chaldee and Hebrew, are all dialects of one language; differing but little from each other, except in their letters. The Hebrew agrees less with the other dialects than the rest, but is now printed in the same character with the Chaldee. They all form a noun in the same manner except the Hebrew, which prefixes (S) to form the genitive case, and П (at) to form the accusative; all the others use 7 (D) and ♫ (it.)

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Halea tibou

Sois le bien 120 T [Yeha li e thibou] Good be to you

[Our ni] My skin
[Nanecheti] I am sick

Phoubae

[venu

Soufflé

[Phouhe] To blow

Toubana ora Couverture d'un na " [Di Bne Oür] Roof of a house

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To the proofs arising from language, I shall add the following. We have seen from Herodotus, that the Phenicians in their African voyages were accustomed to land on the Arabian and Libyan coasts, and taking possession of a spot of ground fit for their purpose, they proceeded to plough up and sow it with corn, and waited until it came to maturity; thus providing themselves with food for a long navigation. This practice must doubtless have given rise to disputes and conflicts between the intruders and the inhabitants. Now it is remarkable

that the word Charaibe, in the Arabic language, signifies, as I am informed, a robber or destroyer, an appellation which we may believe was frequently bestowed by the natives on the invaders of their country.‡

The testimony arising from a similarity of manners, though far less conclusive than the evidence of language, is surely, in the present case, not without its force. That many of the customs of the eastern nations prevailed among the Charaibes, I have, I think, sufficiently demonstrated in the second chapter of this work. Of some of those customs the resemblance was probably fortuitous, and a similarity of climate and situation, might have given rise to others; but when very singular and arbitrary practices prevail between distant nations, which are neither founded in nature nor climate, nor proceed from situation and rank in the scale of refinement, the coincidence can scarcely be deemed accidental. Thus, among other customs equally remarkable, it has been related that the Charaibes buried their dead in a cowering posture, with their knees to the chin. The very same custom prevails at this day in the Sandwich islands of the South sea,§ the inhabitants of which are, beyond all doubt, of eastern origin; and that it was an ancient practice of the eastern nations appears

Leri, and some others, speak of the Charaibes as priests or prophets found in Brasil. Rochefort makes Charaibe a national name. These words are oriental, sounding alike, but spelt differently; and of a different meaning: The priests may be called WN 2p as men who offer p xogCav an offering, xepulas is the greek word for a priest of Cybele, unde But if the

.2 .Leviticus i לי יקריב מכם קרבן ליהות .CoRYBANTES

national name be derived from their warlike and predatory way of life, then we may derive it from 271 the verb Chaldee. Syr. Arab. to lay waste. The noun signifies a sword or spear and 1 Sam. War. This explanation was given me by the friend mentioned in the preceding

note.

Ledyard's MSS. penes me.

from the authorities of Herodotus and Cicero; the former recording the existence of it among the Nasamones, a people who inhabited the countries between Egypt and Carthage; and the latter relating the same circumstance of the ancient Persians. I am inclined to believe that this practice prevailed also in the country and age of the patriarchs;-for how otherwise are we to understand the Scripture phrase of GATHERING UP THE FEET OF THE DYING? "And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, HE GATHERED UP HIS FEET INTO THE BED, and yielded up the ghost.||

Many other corresponding circumstances may be traced in Herodotus. Thus when he enumerates the army of Xerxes, he observes of the ancient Ethiopeans, that they used bows and arrows in battle, and painted their bodies with crimson.* The coincidence between these people and the Charaibes in both these respects, can hardly, I think, be ascribed to chance, and it is such as instinct could not have produced.

Equally prevalent among the Charaibes, and many of the ancient nations in the eastern part of the old hemisphere, were the superstitious rites of shortening the hair and wounding the body, in religious ceremonies and lamentations for the dead. That these practices were usual among the heathens, so early as the days of Moses, is evident from the injunction which the Lord laid on the children of Israel to avoid them. "Ye shall "not round the corners of your head, neither shalt thou mar "the corners of thy beard. Ye shall not make any cuttings "in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon "you."+ Again," Ye are the children of the Lord, your "God: Ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness

Gen. c. xlix. v. 33.

• Book vii.

↑ Levit. c. xix. v. 27.

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