Note 1 — INTRODUCTION.

Reference is here made, 1stly, to that most remarkable and often quoted passage from the Medea of Seneca:

“Venient annis

Sæcula seris, quibus Oceanus

Vincula rerum laxet, et ingens

Pateat tellus, Tiphysque novos

Detegat Orbes, nec sit terris

Ultima Thule.”

2ndly, to the island of Atlantis, described by Plato, in the Timæus, as lying in the Atlantic, opposite the Pillars of Hercules, and exceeding in size the whole of Africa and Asia.

And 3rdly, to the imaginary island of St. Brandan, seen at intervals far out in the Atlantic by the inhabitants of the Canary Islands.

It may not be unacceptable here to mention that there is one passage among the writings of the ancients far more minute and affirmative in its description than any of the foregoing, which has been thought by various learned commentators to refer to America, but which the editor has not found hitherto quoted, in that light, by any English author. In a fragment of the works of Theopompus, preserved by Ælian, is the account of a conversation between Silenus and Midas, king of Phrygia, in which the former says that Europe, Asia, and Africa, were lands surrounded by the sea; but that beyond this known world was another island, of immense extent, of which he gives a description. The account of this conversation, which is too lengthy here to give in full, was written three centuries and a half before the Christian era. Not to trouble the reader with Greek, we give an extract from the English version by Abraham Fleming, printed in 1576, in the amusingly quaint but vivid language of the time.

“The Thirde Booke of Ælianus. Page 37.

¶ Of the familiaritie of Midas the Phrigian, and Selenus, and of certaine circumstances which he incredibly reported.

“Theopompus declareth that Midas the Phrygian and Selenus were knit in familiaritie and acquaintance. This Selenus was the sonne of a nymphe inferiour to the gods in condition and degree, but superiour to men concerning mortalytie and death. These twaine mingled communication of sundrye thinges. At length, in processe of talke, Selenus tolde Midas of certaine ilandes, named Europia, Asia, and Libia, which the ocean sea circumscribeth and compasseth round about; and that without this worlde there is a continent or percell of dry lande, which in greatnesse (as hee reported) was infinite and unmeasurable; that it nourished and maintained, by the benefite of the greene medowes and pasture plots, sundrye bigge and mighty beastes; that the men which inhabite the same climats exceede the stature of us twise, and yet the length of there life is not equall to ours; that there be many and diuers great citties, manyfold orders and trades of living; that their lawes, statutes, and ordinaunces, are different, or rather clean contrary to ours. Such and lyke thinges dyd he rehearce.”

The remainder of this curious conversation, however apparently fabulous, deserves attention from the thoughtful reader.