Note I-136 — Chapter I · ON THE ORIGIN OF THE AMERICANS.

Acosta compares the gold of Ophir with that of Hispaniola. He entertains the opinion that Tarshish and Ophir are distant imaginary places and not distinct countries, but imagines them to be somewhere in the East Indies. 'Cur autem in Orientali potius India quam in hac Occidentali Ophir fuisse existimem, illud caput est, quod ad nostrum Peru non nisi infinito circuitu tota India Orientali & Sinarum regione enauigata Salomonia clasis peruenire poterar.' De Novi Orbis, p. 36. Ophir is supposed to be in India or Africa. Robertson's Hist. Amer., vol. i., p. 7. Crowe, Cent. Amer., p. 65, considers the probability of Ophir and Tarshish being on the west coast of America. The Phœnician 'Ophir, or Ofor, which means, in their ancient language, the Western country, was Mexico and Central America, the land of gold.' Fontaine's How the World was Peopled, pp. 259-60. On p. 162, he says that the best authorities, Volney, Bochart, Michaelis, and Forster, suppose Ophir to have been situated on the Persian Gulf. The Phœnician Ophir was Hayti, for Columbus thought that he could trace the furnaces in which the gold had been refined. Carver's Trav., p. 192. Kingsborough, Mex. Antiq., vol. vi., pp. 184-5, considers the position of Ophir, but is undecided as to its position. Ens, West und Ost Indischer Lustgart, pp. 5-8, disagreeing with Vatablus and Stephanus, can find no resemblance to Ophir in Hayti or Peru, and comes to the conclusion that Ophir lay somewhere in the Old World, most likely in the East Indies. This seems to be a plagiarism of Acosta. See also Gottfriedt, Newe Welt, p. 3. Humboldt, Exam. Crit., tom. ii., pp. 40-5, discusses the position of Ophir in Veragua. Piñeda, De Rebus Salomonis, believes Ophir to have been America. Warden, Recherches, p. 196. See also Id., pp. 106-7.