In preserving the secret of their discovery (their ancient precept) there was one incident only to be dreaded, and that was the possibility, at a future day, of a portion of the colony becoming disaffected, and thereupon resolving to return to the Fortunate Isles, and so betray them. There was but one way to prevent this, and that was, _by the destruction of their Galleys_,--and added to this, the passing of a law, that no others should be built, and for the same reason. If this did take place (as we believe it did) the cause is instantly apparent, why their new-found Continent was for so many centuries unknown to Asiatics or Europeans; and it should be remembered, that the East-Wind, which, like a friend, had wafted them to that Continent, would oppose, as an enemy, any return from whence they came. Another cause may have led them to destroy their vessels,--viz., a Religious offering to Apollo,--and consequently _fire_ would be the instrument of sacrifice. It would be their first thought, upon a final landing, to present to their deity the most precious offering in their possession; and what had they so inestimable in value as the very means whereby their lives had been rescued?--and having made that sacrifice to Apollo, fanatical zeal may have led them to abhor the future use of means, which, as a grateful offering, had been given to their deity. Thence may be traced the gradual loss of Nautical practice, on an enlarged scale; and the great Continent now possessed by them, would also diminish by degrees the uses of Navigation. The destruction of a fleet to prevent the return of followers, was actually practised by Cortez, the conqueror of the descendants of these Tyrians, and in the Gulf of Mexico. He may have received from tradition in the country, that such an act had been accomplished by their Aboriginal ancestors: and when he repeated the device, and for a similar purpose, he would, for the sake of his own fame, conceal the secret of his intelligence, and thereby increase his character for dauntless resolution. The Tyrians may have obtained their idea from the act of Alexander of Macedon, who, only THREE _years_ anterior to their landing in Ancient America, dismissed his Fleet before the great battle with the Persians at Issus,--that his troops should have no nautical means of returning.