But afterwards there occurred violent earthquakes and floods; and in a single day and night of rain all your warlike men in a body sank into the earth, and the island of Atlantis in like manner disappeared, and was sunk beneath the sea. And that is the reason why the sea in those parts is impassable and impenetrable, because there is such a quantity of shallow mud in the way; and this was caused by the subsidence of the island. [10] On the acceptance of Plato's story of Atlantis, both by ancient and modern writers, P. De Roo, in his _History of America Before Columbus_, has an interesting chapter, from which I quote the following: Not to speak of other ancient authors to whom we shall refer in the sequel, we may remark that the Jewish writer Philo (20 B. C.--54 A. D.), and the Platonist Crantor, were inclined to admit the literal interpretation of Plato's Atlantidic description. Tertullian (second century A. D.) and Arnobius (fourth century A. D.) agreed with the pagan savant Ammianus of Plato's island, Atlantis; and we have noticed that Cosmas Indicopleustes believed our continent [America] to be the cradle of the human race. It would not be difficult to find several authors of the first Christian centuries and of the middle ages who relied on Plato's narrative in their prophecies of discoveries in the mysterious west, and Christopher Columbus himself was undoubtedly encouraged by his belief in the objective truth of Plato's _Timaeus_ and _Critias_; but after our continent was again discovered at the end of the fifteenth century, almost every European scientist accepted the literal interpretation of the Athenian philosopher's description of countries in and beyond the Atlantic Ocean. [11] This passage is followed by a number of pages on the same subject, and many authorities are quoted in the margin, to which I commend the reader. Elisee Reclus, author of _The Earth, a Descriptive History of the Phenomena of the Life of the Globe_, and one of the highest authorities on physical geography, in speaking of an isthmus which once connected "the few clumps of mountains which formed, as it were, the rudiments of our Europe," with the American coast, also says: This isthmus was the Atlantis, and the traditions which Plato speaks of about this vanished land were perhaps based upon authentic testimony. It is possible that man may have witnessed the submergence of this ancient continent, and that the Gunches of the Canary Islands were the direct descendants of the earliest inhabitants of this primeval land. [12]