[ 64 The Promulgation of the patriarchal Religion was inconteftably very general throughout the-Eaft ; and there are very evident Traces of it, however depraved, itill exifting in the Pofterity of Shem. The Pedant of the Bramins is faid to contain many Allufions to the Creation and Fall of Man, as related in the Book of Genefrs. What the Abbéde Guyon Pays of the Cingales, or Inhabitants of Ceylon, may be equally applied to molt of the Families of the Eaft; " That the Prin- " ciples of Revelation were known among them for " many Ages before Chrift." 'Tis true; Tome have preferved ftronger Memorials or Traditions than others; but all the Pagans, who have been tolerably known, retain evident CharaEteriftics of that Religion, which came not in old Time by the Will of Man, but by the In- fpiration of the Holy Ghoji. If, fromChina, and the Eaftern Extremities of Alla, we dire& our Courfe onwards ; we (hall find force faint Traces of the fame Religion in thofe Countries, which are fuppofed to have received their Inhabitants from thence. Father Charlevoix, in the Preface to his llme- rican Travels, propofes a curious Hypothefis concerning the Population of the various Parts of the Earth, by the Defcendants of Noah ; and fuppofes, with Tome Proba- bility, that the Inhabitants of Peru originated from the Chinefe ; while the Northern Indians of America borrow- ed their Defcent from the ancient Scytbians or Tartars *. The Efkimaux Indians, who inhabit the Coaft ofLabia- dore The Reader may poflïbly be entertained, as well as informed, by the following Extraft from Dr. Mates Preface to a Traft, enti- tled, An Account of the New Northern Archipelago, lately difcovered by the Ruffians, p. 13. " From the Difference in the Make, Drefs. and ., Mann rs of the new difcovered Iflanders; [between North Americas .< and Siberia) we might be induced to WI;eft that the molt north-, " erly Parts of the New World were peopled by the mod favage " A fiatic Tartars, or Tchuktfchi; while the Inhabitants of the more " moderate Climates, and amongl them the Mexicans and Peru, " 'viens, were indebted for force Part of their induftry and Civili- ., zation
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