Page 143 - La Société canadienne d'histoire de l'Église catholique - Rapport 1961

ANNUAL ADDRESS. 139

3d. Everything indicates that their origin upon the continent
was the result, not of desi,gn, but of accident. Had they
migrated by design, direct from the old continent, it would have
been by some route and by some means by which some of them
could and would have returned and informed the world of their
discoveriea. If we take it for granted that their migration was
voluntary and direct from the civilized regions of the Uld
World, the conclusions which Mr. Schoolcraft draws from the
silence of history concerning it, will appear more natural; but
are there no conceivable means by which they may have reached
the continent, and all the rest of the world remained ignorant of
the fact? We might affirm concerning the fate of the lost team-
ship President, that "Herodotus is silent; there is nothing to be
learned from Sanconiathus and the fragmentary ancients." But
obviously, antiquity is not tho qualification necessary to give
the required information, but knowledge of the fact. Were
half the world still unexplored, the passengers and crew of (he
President might now be forming a community in an unknown
lend, and all that history could transmit to future generations
concerning them would be, that at such a time e certain vessel
left port and was never heard of afterwards; and the knowledge,
even of this fact, would very soon be lost entirely.
Now this was the very condition of the world previous to tho
discovery of Americz by Europeans. Here was a vast conti-
nent, stretching north and south, almost from pole to pole, and
unknown to the civilized world. Pacing its western shores was
another vast continent, which had been teeming with population
for some thousands of years. There is, perhaps, no one error
into which we are more prone to fall, than underrnting the
knowledge of the ancients. Some of the Asiatic nations have
possessed a knowledge of naval architecture and navigation,
from a very early date. Noah's ark wan a very respectable
craft, both as to size and model. As ertrly as the days of Solo-
mon, the Tyrians fitted out ships for three years voyages. The
b' Chinese had the magnetlc needle long before it was known to
Europeans, and it is very doubtful whether they hove made