Mexico - A General History And Collection Of Voyages And Travels - Volume 4 - By Robert Kerr
 -  If I may not always agree with other
authors in regard to the first of these circumstances, I can only - Page 141
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If I May Not Always Agree With Other Authors In Regard To The First Of These Circumstances, I Can Only

Say that such is often the case with the most accurate and faithful historians. After I had finished this work,

It was my intention to have kept it long unpublished, lest I might offend the families of those persons whose improper conduct is therein pourtrayed. But some persons to whom I had communicated my manuscript, shewed it to the king during his voyage to England, who had it read to him as an amusement from the tiresomeness of the voyage. My work had the good fortune to please his majesty, who honoured it with his approbation, and graciously commanded me to have it printed; and which I have the more readily complied with, as his royal commands may protect my book from the cavils of the censorious readers.

* * * * *

Much difficulty occurs respecting the origin of the people who inhabited Peru and the other provinces of America, and by what means their ancestors could have crossed the vast extent of sea which separates that country from the old world. In my opinion this may be explained from what is said by Plato in his _Timaeus_, and the subsequent dialogue entitled _Atlantis_. He says: "That the Egyptians report, to the honour of the Athenians, that they contributed to defeat certain kings who came with a numerous army by sea from the great island of Atlantis, which, beginning beyond the Pillars of Hercules, is larger than all Asia and Africa together, and is divided into ten kingdoms which Neptune gave among his ten sons, Atlas, the eldest, having the largest and most valuable share." Plato adds several remarkable particulars concerning the customs and riches of that island; especially concerning a magnificent temple in the chief city, the walls of which were entirely covered over with gold and silver, having a roof of copper, and many other circumstances which are here omitted for the sake of brevity; though it is certain that several customs and ceremonies mentioned by Plato are still practised in the provinces of Peru. Beyond the great island of Atlantis, there were other large islands not far distant from the _Firm Land_, beyond which again was the _True Sea_. The following are the words which Plato attributes, in his Timaeus, to Socrates, as spoken to the Athenians. "It is held certain, that in ancient times your city resisted an immense number of enemies from the Atlantic Ocean, who had conquered almost all Europe and Asia. In those days the _Straits_ were navigable, and immediately beyond them there was an island, commencing almost at the _Pillars of Hercules_, which was said to be larger than Asia and Africa united; from whence the passage was easy to other islands near and opposite to the continent of the _True Sea_." A little after this passage, it is added. "That nine thousand years before his days, a great change took place, as the sea adjoining that island was so increased by the accession of a prodigious quantity of water, that in the course of one day it swallowed up the whole island; since when that sea has remained so full of shallows and sand banks as to be no longer navigable, neither has any one been able to reach the other islands and the _Firm Land_."

Some authors hare believed this recital to be merely allegorical, while most of the commentators on Plato considered it as a real historical narrative. The _nine thousand years_, mentioned by Plato, must not be considered as an indication of this discourse being fabulous; since, according to Eudoxus, we must understand them as lunar years or _moons_, after the Egyptian mode of computation, _or nine thousand months_, which are _seven hundred and fifty years_. All historians and cosmographers, ancient as well as modern, have concurred to name the sea by which that great island was swallowed up, the _Atlantic Ocean_, in which the name of that ancient island is retained, giving a strong evidence of its former existence. Adopting, therefore the truth of this historical fact, it must be granted that this island of Atlantis, beginning from the Straits of Gibraltar near Cadiz, must have stretched a vast way from north to south, and from east to west, since it was larger than all Asia and Africa. The _other_ islands in the neighbourhood must have been those now named Hispaniola, Cuba, Porto Rico, Jamaica, and others of the West Indies; and the _Firm Land_, that part of the Continent to which we still give the name of _Tierra Firma_, together with the other countries and provinces of America, from the Straits of Magellan in the south to the extreme north; as Peru, Popayan, Golden Castille, Veragua, Nicaragua, Guatimala, New Spain, _the Seven Cities_, Florida, _Baccalaos_, and so on along the north to Norway. The authority of Plato is conclusive that the _New World_ which has been discovered in our time, is the same Continent or Firm Land mentioned by that philosopher; and his _True Sea_ must be that which we name the _South Sea_, or Pacific Ocean; for the whole Mediterranean, and all that was before known of the Ocean, which we call the _North Sea_, can only be considered as rivers or lakes in comparison with the vast extent of that other sea. After these explanations, it is not difficult to conceive how mankind in ancient times may have passed from the great island of _Atlantis_ and the _other_ neighbouring isles, to what we now call the Tierra Firma, or _Firm Land_, and thence by land, or by the South Sea, into Peru: As we must believe that the inhabitants of these islands practised navigation, which they must have learned by intercourse with the great island, in which Plato expressly says there were many ships, and carefully constructed harbours. These, in my opinion, are the most probable conjectures which can be formed on this obscure subject of antiquity; more especially as we can derive no lights from the Peruvians, who have no writing by which to preserve the memory of ancient times.

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