relation from the Egyptian priest, whom he citeth. For assuredly, such a
thing there was. But whether it were the ancient Athenians that had the
glory of the repulse and resistance of those forces, I can say nothing;
but certain it is there never came back either ship or man from that
voyage. Neither had the other voyage of those of Coya upon us had better
fortune, if they had not met with enemies of greater clemency. For the
king of this island, by name Altabin, a wise man and a great warrior,
knowing well both his own strength and that of his enemies, handled the
matter so, as he cut off their land forces from their ships, and
entoiled both their navy and their camp with a greater power than
theirs, both by sea and land; and compelled them to render themselves
without striking a stroke; and after they were at his mercy, contenting
himself only with their oath, that they should no more bear arms against
him, dismissed them all in safety. But the divine revenge overtook not
long after those proud enterprises. For within less than the space of
one hundred years the Great Atlantis was utterly lost and destroyed; not
by a great earthquake, as your man saith, for that whole tract is little
subject to earthquakes, but by a particular deluge, or inundation; those
countries having at this day far greater rivers, and far higher
mountains to pour down waters, than any part of the old world. But it is
true that the same inundation was not deep, not past forty foot, in most
places, from the ground, so that although it destroyed man and beast
generally, yet some few wild inhabitants of the wood escaped. Birds also
were saved by flying to the high trees and woods. For as for men,
although they had buildings in many places higher than the depth of the
water, yet that inundation, though it were shallow, had a long
continuance, whereby they of the vale that were not drowned perished for
want of food, and other things necessary. So as marvel you not at the
thin population of America, nor at the rudeness and ignorance of the
people; for you must account your inhabitants of America as a young
people, younger a thousand years at the least than the rest of the
world, for that there was so much time between the universal flood and
their particular inundation. For the poor remnant of human seed which
remained in their mountains, peopled the country again slowly, by little
and little, and being simple and a savage people (not like Noah and his