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unpublished, lest I might offend the families of those persons whose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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