ational conjectures and sage hypotheses many
satisfactory deductions might be drawn; but I shall content myself with
the simple fact stated in the Bible--viz., that Noah begat three sons,
Shem, Ham, and Japhet. It is astonishing on what remote and obscure
contingencies the great affairs of this world depend, and how events the
most distant, and to the common observer unconnected, are inevitably
consequent the one to the other. It remains to the philosopher to discover
these mysterious affinities, and it is the proudest triumph of his skill
to detect and drag forth some latent chain of causation, which at first
sight appears a paradox to the inexperienced observer. Thus many of my
readers will doubtless wonder what connection the family of Noah can
possibly have with this history; and many will stare when informed that
the whole history of this quarter of the world has taken its character and
course from the simplest circumstance of the patriarch's having but three
sons--but to explain.

Noah, we are told by sundry very credible historians, becoming sole
surviving heir and proprietor of the earth, in fee simple, after the
deluge, like a good father, portioned out his estate among his children.
To Shem he gave Asia; to Ham, Africa; and to Japhet, Europe. Now it is a
thousand times to be lamented that he had but three sons, for had there
been a fourth he would doubtless have inherited America, which, of
course, would have been dragged forth from its obscurity on the occasion;
and thus many a hard-working historian and philosopher would have been
spared a prodigious mass of weary conjecture respecting the first
discovery and population of this country. Noah, however, having provided
for his three sons, looked in all probability upon our country as mere
wild unsettled land, and said nothing about it; and to this unpardonable
taciturnity of the patriarch may we ascribe the misfortune that America
did not come into the world as early as the other quarters of the globe.

It is true, some writers have vindicated him from this misconduct towards
posterity, and asserted that he really did discover America. Thus it was
the opinion of Mark Lescarbot, a French writer, possessed of that
ponderosity of thought and profoundness of reflection so peculiar to his
nation, that the immediate descendants of Noah peopled this quarter of the
globe, and that the old patriarch himself, who still retained a passion
for the seafaring life, superint