NEW YORK.
 

65
 

CHAPTER V.
 

In which the Author puts a mighty question to the
rout, by the assistance of the Man in the Moon—
which not only delivers thousands of people
from great embarrassment, but likewise con-
eludes this introductory book.

The writer of a history may, in some respects,
be likened unto an adventurous knight, who hav¬
ing undertaken a perilous enterprise, by way of
establishing his fame, feels bound in honour and
chivalry, to turn back for no difficulty nor hard¬
ship, and never to shrink or quail whatever enemy
he may encounter. Under this impression, I re¬
solutely draw my pen and fall to with might
and main, at those doughty questions and subtle
paradoxes, which, like fiery dragons and bloody
giants, beset the entrance to my history, and would
fain repulse me from the very threshold. And at
this moment a gigantic question has started up,
which I must needs take by the beard and utterly
subdue, before I can advance another step in my
historic undertaking—^but I trust this will be the
last adversary I shall have to contend with, and
that in the next book I shall be enabled to conduct
my readers in triumph into the body of my work.

The question which has thus suddenly arisen,
is, what right had the first discoverers of America
f2