has attempted to prove that this country was peopled from the moon--or
that the first inhabitants floated hither on islands of ice, as white
bears cruise about the northern oceans--or that they were conveyed hither
by balloons, as modern aeronauts pass from Dover to Calais--or by
witchcraft, as Simon Magus posted among the stars--or after the manner of
the renowned Scythian Abaris, who, like the New England witches on
full-blooded broomsticks, made most unheard-of journeys on the back of a
golden arrow, given him by the Hyperborean Apollo.

But there is still one mode left by which this country could have been
peopled, which I have reserved for the last, because I consider it worth
all the rest; it is--by accident! Speaking of the islands of Solomon, New
Guinea, and New Holland, the profound father Charlevoix observes: "In
fine, all these countries are peopled, and it is possible some have been
so by accident. Now if it could have happened in that manner, why might it
not have been at the same time, and by the same means, with the other
parts of the globe?" This ingenious mode of deducing certain conclusions
from possible premises is an improvement in syllogistic skill, and proves
the good father superior even to Archimedes, for he can turn the world
without anything to rest his lever upon. It is only surpassed by the
dexterity with which the sturdy old Jesuit in another place cuts the
gordian knot--"Nothing," says he, "is more easy. The inhabitants of both
hemispheres are certainly the descendants of the same father. The common
father of mankind received an express order from Heaven to people the
world, and accordingly it has been peopled. To bring this about it was
necessary to overcome all difficulties in the way, and they have also been
overcome!" Pious logician! how does he put all the herd of laborious
theorists to the blush, by explaining in five words what it has cost them
volumes to prove they knew nothing about!

From all the authorities here quoted, and a variety of others which I have
consulted, but which are omitted through fear of fatiguing the unlearned
reader, I can only draw the following conclusions, which luckily, however,
are sufficient for my purpose. First, that this part of the world has
actually been peopled (Q.E.D.) to support which we have living proofs in
the numerous tribes of Indians that inhabit it. Secondly, that it has been
peopled in five hundred different ways, as proved by a cloud of a