the honour to themselves.  But leaving all contested points in this matter, I now apply to my proposed deduction, resting only upon what has been recorded in authentic histories.  Ancient history says that Tubal, in the hundred and forty-third year after the flood, came by sea into Spain[8]; whence it appears that in these early times navigation was usual from Ethiopia to our parts of western Europe.  It is also said, that Semiramis invaded the country on the river Indus, whence the Indians derive their name, and gave battle to king Stabrobates, in which he lost a thousand ships[9]; by which it clearly appears there were then many ships in those parts; and that the seas were much frequented.

In the six hundred and fiftieth year after the flood, there was a king in Spain named Hesperus[10]; and Gonsalvo Fernandez de Oviedo, the chronicler of antiquities[11], affirms that he made discoveries by sea as far as Cape Verde and the Isle of St Thomas, of which he was prince, and that in his time the islands of the West Indies were discovered, and called the Hesperides, after his name.  He alleges many reasons in proof of this assertion, and even says particularly, that these early navigators sailed in forty days from Cape Verde to these islands.  Others say, that the islands of St Thomas and de Principe are the Hesperides, and not the Antilles; which is the more probable, as these ancient navigators only sailed along the coast, not daring to pass through the main ocean, having no compass, nor any means of taking altitudes for their guidance.  It is not to be denied that many countries, islands, capes, isthmuses, and points, the names of which are found in histories, are now unknown; because, in course of ages, the force of the waters has wasted and consumed them, and has separated countries from each other formerly joined, both in Europe, Asia, Africa, New Spain, Peru, and other places.

In his dialogue called Timaeus, Plato says there was anciently a great country and large islands in the Atlantic, named Atlantides, greater than Europe and Africa, and that the kings of these parts were lords of a great part of Spain; but that, by the force of great tempests, the sea had overflowed the country, leaving nothing but banks of mud and gravel, so that no ships could pass that way for long after.  It is also recorded by Pliny[12], that close by the island of Cadiz, there was a well inhabited island called Aphrodisias, towards the Straits of Gibraltar, abounding in gardens and orchards; but we have now no knowledge of this island, except from the bare mention of it in ancient authors.  The Isle of Cadiz is said to have been anciently so large as to join the continent of Spain.  The Acores are held to have been a continuation of the mountains of Estrella, which join the sea coast beside the town of Cintra; and the Sierra Verde, or Green-mountains, which reach the coast, near the city of Sasin in the land of Cucu, or the island of Moudim in which Algarbe is situated, are