=30. III. Concerning the Advent of at least One Division of the Ancient Americans from the East, probably from Asia; and their Israelitish Origin.=--Confirmatory evidence of the belief that the aboriginal Americans sprang from the peoples of the eastern hemisphere is found in the similarity of record and tradition on the two continents, regarding the creation, the deluge, and other great events of history. Boturini,[823] who is quoted by most writers on American archeology says: "There is no Gentile nation that refers to primitive events with such certainty as the Indians do. They give us an account of the creation of the world, of the deluge,[824] of the confusion of languages at the Tower of Babel, and of all other periods and ages of the world, and of the long peregrinations which their people had in Asia representing the specific years by their characters; and in the seven Conejos (rabbits) they tell us of the great eclipse that occurred at the death of Christ, our Lord." [823] Chevalier Boturini; he spent several years investigating the antiquities of Mexico and Central America, and collected many valuable records, of most of which he was despoiled by the Spanish; he published a work on the subject of his studies in 1746. [824] See Note 4. =31.= Similar evidence of the common source of eastern and western traditions of great events in primitive times is furnished in the writings of Short, already quoted, and by Baldwin,[825] Clavigero,[826] Kingsborough,[827] Sahagun,[828] Prescott,[829] Schoolcraft,[830] Squiers,[831] Adair,[832] and others.[833] [825] Baldwin, _Ancient America_ (Harper Bros., New York, 1871). [826] Clavigero, quoted by Prof. Short in _North Americans of Antiquity_. [827] Lord Kingsborough, _Mexican Antiquities_ (1830-37.) [828] Bernardo de Sahagun, _Historia Universal de Nueva Espana_. [829] W. H. Prescott, _Conquest of Mexico_ (see pp. 463-64). [830] Schoolcraft, _Ethnological Researches_ (1851); see vol. i. [831] Squiers, _Antiquities of the State of New York_, 1851. [832] Adair, _History of the American Indians_, London, 1775. [833] See Bancroft's _Native Races_, etc., vols, iii and v; Donnelly's _Atlantis_, p. 391 (1882). =32.= Prof. Short adds his testimony to the evidence of the aboriginal inhabitants of America being of "Old World origin," but admits his inability to determine when or whence they came to this continent.[834] Waterman, before cited, says: "This people could not have been created in Africa, for its inhabitants were widely dissimilar from those of America; nor in Europe, which was without a native people agreeing at all with American races; then to Asia alone could they look for the origin of the Americans."[835] [834] John T. Short, _North Americans of Antiquity_ (1888). [835] Extract from lecture by Prof. Waterman, delivered in Bristol, England, 1849; quoted in pamphlet by Edwin F. Parry, _A Prophet of Latter Days_, Liverpool, 1898.