nsive empire; but the island afforded them the greater part of
everything of which they stood in need. In the first place the island
supplied them with such things as are dug out of mines in a solid
state, and with such as are melted: and orichalcum, which is now but
seldom mentioned, but then was much celebrated, was dug out of the
earth in many parts of the island, and was considered as the most
honourable of all metals except gold. Whatever, too, the woods
afforded for builders the island produced in abundance. There were
likewise sufficient pastures there for tame and savage animals;
together with a prodigious number of elephants. For there were
pastures for all such animals as are fed in lakes and rivers, on
mountains and in plains. And in like manner there was sufficient
aliment for the largest and most voracious kind of animals. Besides
this, whatever of odoriferous the earth nourishes at present, whether
roots, or grass, or wood, or juices, or gums, flowers or fruits--these
the island produced and produced them well."

The Gauls possessed traditions of Atlantis which were collected by the
Roman historian, Timagenes, who lived in the first century, B.C. Three
distinct peoples apparently dwelt in Gaul. First, the indigenous
population (probably the remains of a Lemurian race), second, the
invaders from the distant island of Atlantis, and third, the Aryan
Gauls (see _Pre-Adamites_, p. 380).

The Toltecs of Mexico traced themselves back to a starting-point
called Atlan or Aztlan; the Aztecs also claimed to come from Aztlan
(see Bancroft's _Native Races_, vol. v. pp. 221 and 321).

The Popul Vuh (p. 294) speaks of a visit paid by three sons of the
King of the Quiches to a land "in the east on the shores of the sea
whence their fathers had come," from which they brought back amongst
other things "a system of writing" (see also Bancroft, vol. v. p.
553).

Amongst the Indians of North America there is a very general legend
that their forefathers came from a land "toward the sun-rising." The
Iowa and Dakota Indians, according to Major J. Lind, believed that
"all the tribes of Indians were formerly one and dwelt together _on an
island_ ... towards the sunrise." They crossed the sea from thence "in
huge skiffs in which the Dakotas of old floated for weeks, finally
gaining dry land."

The Central American books state that a part of the American continent
extended far into the Atlantic Ocean, and that this region was