But _Christopher Columbus_, five Years before _Gama_’s Expedition to the East, had been employ’d in Western Discoveries, which prov’d so very successful, that he found no less than another World; which soon after, from _Americus Vesputius_, was call’d _America_: So that the Division of the World by the Antients, (concerning which they had so long err’d, and were utterly mistaken) was now made manifest by Experience, and undisputable Demonstration; for formerly the whole World was known by no other names than _Asia_, _Africa_, and _Europe_, but now, those three are found to make but one Part of what incircles the Universal Globe; because in the South lies a second, known no further than by its Coastings and Superficial Margents; the third part being the New-World, our _America_. [Sidenote: A query, if _America_ was known to the Ancients.] [Sidenote: _Atlantica. Plato in Crisis & Timæo._] Here it will not seem amiss, having prov’d that _Africa_ was more than Coasted by the Ancients, to ingage and search with some scrutiny concerning this _America_; First, Whether at any time ’twas known by the Ancients? And next, by what People, and when first Inhabited? About the former, the Learned of these later times Jangle amongst themselves, for some of them will needs ascribe so much Honor to Antiquity, declining the Worthy Praise of those that made so wonderful a Discovery, as if they of old, and many Ages before, had done the same, or at least, that this New-World to them was not unknown, maintaining this their bold Assertion from the Authority of what they find, both in Ancient _Greek_, and _Latin_ Authors: First, especially in the Learned _Plato_, who, as you know at large, describes a New _Atlantis_, lying beyond the _Straights_ of _Gibraltar_; whose Coast is surrounded with two vast Seas that are Sow’d thick with scatter’d Islands. By these Seas they understand the Atlantick and Southern-Sea, by the many Isles, _Cuba_, _Hispaniola_, _Jamaica_, _California_, and others, which lie sprinkled along the Coasts of _America_. But it cannot be made out, that _Plato_ describes ought but a Fancy, his own _Idea_, not a Countrey that ever was, is, or shall be, though he sets it forth so Accurately, and with such Judgment, as if he had taken a Survey of the place, and found such a Land indeed. [Sidenote: _Diod. Sic._ lib. 6.] [Sidenote: _Arist. de Mirandis in Natura auditis._]