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Re: Pre-Columbian Expeditions To America




Poster: clevin@rci.ripco.com (Craig Levin)

The question of "Who found the New World first?" is easy-the
Indians did. As to any subsequent voyagers, that's really a fun
question. How do we define "discovery"? Is wandering across the
sea  and coming across a pice of land by mistake a discovery,
especially if you never get back to tell anyone about it? In that
case, there have to be hundreds of unlucky mariners with the
credits for Cape Hatteras and other treacherous coasts; there's
talk in American Indian history circles of blacks making the
voyage before the birth of Christ, and the voyagers being
comemmorated on several statues that have Negroid features on the
Yucatan.

Is it making sure that not only can you get back, but others can
follow you in? Then the Northmen get the palm, for I challenge
anyone to find America by following St. Brendan's narratio. If,
on the other hand, it's not just making a train that anybody
can follow, but also establishing colonies with long-term
survivability, then Colon and the other Spaniards (really
Italians and Portuguese) get the credit.
-- 
http://pages.ripco.com:8080/~clevin/index.html 
clevin@ripco.com
Craig Levin
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