that the ancients, as well those who have described countries as those who have recorded events, have laid much stress on this point, that they, either from ancient monuments if possible, or, where these were wanting, from traditions or conjecture, have instructed us as to whence the people came who first inhabited certain lands. So Dionysius Halicarnassus, greatly overstepping the diligence of all the Italians, has shown to us, from the monuments of the Greeks, to which he has also added other evidences, the origin of the tribes which first possessed Italy. So Sallust inquires who first settled in Africa; so, also, Tacitus, who in Britain—the former from old traditions, the latter partly from tradition, partly from conjecture, which he based upon a consideration of the language, dress, and customs. In Strabo, a man of great discernment, there are many inquiries of this sort. Such being the case, I have often wondered that no one from among so many learned men of our age has earnestly investigated whence those nations sprung which, before the advent of the Spaniards, inhabited the continent, which, unknown to the ancients, some of us have called America from Vespucius, others Western India, which extends from the Northern Ocean to the Straits of Magellan—a tract very long and broad, indeed—lying between the Atlantic sea and another, which washes China, and is known to some as the Pacific, and to others as of the South. I, since I have read several of the Spanish, French, British, and Dutch writers who have been in those lands, have thought that I would not undertake a fruitless task if I communicated, what appears to me to be most probable, both to persons now living and to posterity, with the intention of stirring up others who may possess a greater knowledge of these events, whether by travel in that quarter of the globe or even by books which have come into their hands, either to confirm my conclusions, or to refute them by valid reasoning. I see that there are many who think that all those tribes were from Scythia—which we now call Great Tartary. They base their argument on this, that at Anianus—be it a strait or a bay (for which of the two it is not clear)—there is no great space between Tartary and America. Now, if it is a gulf the lands must be contiguous, and in that case the passage would be easy; if it is a strait, it becomes more narrow the farther it is entered, and the opposite coasts, just like those of the Hellespont, or of the Bosphorus, in Thrace, forbids navigation even for merchant vessels. These very weighty considerations when regarded, so to speak, on the skin (superficially), wear an aspect of truth, but when viewed from within do not convince me. For it is certain that before the arrival of the Spaniards there were no horses in all America. Now Scythia is a country always full of horses, and almost all the Scythians are accustomed to ride on horseback, and to accomplish immense distances by their aid, and they even suck the blood of their horses when drink of another kind fails. And if America and Tartary were united together, the horses, either in flying or feeding freely, would have long ago forced their way from Tartary into America, just as it is certain, from the narrative of the Spaniards, that from the time they brought horses there they penetrated from some countries of America into others, separated though they were by great mountains. But if a continual strait intervened, as I rather believe, Tartary never had navigators, and if she had had them, never would they have crossed without horses, or been content to remain long without them, any more than the old Gauls who crossed into Britain, or the Spaniards into America. I, as I shall say what approves itself most to me, will first dispose of the peoples of America, those who are towards the north on this side the Isthmus, which is between Nomen Dei and Panama, and those who stretch beyond that strait to the south, until they disappear in the Straits of Magellan. I am of opinion that almost all those tribes who are on this side the Isthmus of Panama are of Norse descent, being led to it by the following considerations. That Iceland was inhabited by Norsemen, the monuments of both peoples, their traditions, language, and the most ancient rule of Norway over the Icelanders clearly show. Now many are believed to have migrated there before the year 1000, when the religion of Norway was still heathen. From Iceland they went into Greenland, which some consider an island, others a part of the continent of America. There, likewise, the language is the same; formerly the government was the same. Frisland is near to it, on which the commentary of the Zenos of Venice exists, unless, perhaps, it is a part of either Iceland or Greenland.