Page 147 - La Société canadienne d'histoire de l'Église catholique - Rapport 1961

the North Pacific, and so near to each other that adventurers in
very rude barks may pass from one island to another, without
being on the water more than two days between any two of them.
The Chichemecs, a rude people who preceded the Aztecs in
Mexico, called themselves "Children of the groundw--claiming
to have sprung from and come up out of the ground, and to have
been the subjects of the "lord of the seven caves."
of
Col. CIIARLES HAMILTON SMITH, Edinburgh, in his trea-
tise on the Natural History of thc Human Species, suggests
that the Chichemecs were from the Aleutian Islands-under-
standing the word caves as a figure, denoting vessels or canoes.
Mr. SCIIOOLCRAFT addressed a letter to Lieut. ~IAURY, asking
his opinion on this point and several others rela,tive to the navi-
gation of the Pacific and Polynesian waters by means of the
rude veesels of early ages. In his reply, to which we have
before alluded, this scientific navigator says:
"At page 261, the Colonel had a stronger case than he eup-
posed. The Aleutians of the present day actually live in cave8
or subterranean apartments, which they enter through a hole in
the top. They are the most bestial of the species."
"You wish me to state whether, in my opinion, the Yacific
and Polynesian waters could have been navigated in early times,
supposing the winds to have been as they now are-in balsas,
floats and other rude vessels of early ages?
"Yes; if you had a supply of provisions, you could run down
the trades in the Pacific on a log. There is no part of the vorld
where nature would tempt savilge men more strongly to launch
out upon the open sea, with his bark, however frail.
"Most of the islands are surrounded with coral reefs, between
which and the shore, the water is as smooth as a mill-pond.
The climate and the fish invite the savage into the water, and
the mountains which separate valley from valley, make it more
easy for the natives to go from valley to valley by water thrin by
land; for the scoris upon the mountains, with the bramble by
the way, offer barriers to those naked people which are almost
impassible. On the other hand, there is the refreshing water,