having found a striking resemblance between several words in the native
language of some Indian nations and the old Welsh tongue.

Other authors are of opinion, that the American tribes are the
descendants of the ancient Phenicians and Carthaginians, who early formed
settlements on the coast of Barbary and the Canary islands. The Tyrians
and Carthaginians, beyond doubt, were a commercial people, and the first
who distinguished themselves by their knowledge in navigation. They built
ships which carried vast numbers of people. To plant a colony on the west
of Africa, Hanno, a Carthaginian captain, embarked in a fleet of sixty
ships, containing no fewer than thirty thousand persons, with implements
necessary for building and cultivation. While he sailed along the stormy
coast of Africa, it is not improbable that some of his ships might be
driven out of sight of the land. In this case, the mariners finding the
trade winds blowing constantly against them, might necessarily be obliged
to bear away before them, and so be wafted over to America. The
complexion of the inhabitants of the African islands resembled those
Columbus found in the West Indies: The bows, arrows, spears, and lances
of both were also nearly similar, only those of the latter were pointed
with flints and the bones of fishes: There were also some resemblance in
their religious rites and superstitions to those of the ancient
Carthaginians, which afford some presumptive evidences that they might
have derived their origin from nations where such arms were used, and
such superstition prevailed. That America might receive some of its first
inhabitants from the best and boldest navigators of the east, is a thing
neither impossible nor incredible; and, if this be acknowledged, they had
many hundred years to multiply and increase, before the period in which
Columbus visited them.

Other authors of considerable merit and ingenuity have contended, that