880 OKIGIN OF THE INDIANS, DonRaymQnd answered him:
- Eat yourself, Cid, and rejoice,
But as for me, I wjU not eat; So l0ave me to my choice^' '£}at, Count, or ne'er again Christian visage shalt thou ae& But if you will consent to eat^ And give content to me, You and your children twain Shall presently be free." "How could any human, more particularly a king, resist such devotion? So the Cid was restored to his former station." Upon the conclusion of the foregoing, Father Ear dilla, who was the best educated man in the party, spoke up and asked the company its opinion of the origin of the natives who they were among; and now began a series of discussions, all based on the hypoth- esis that they were in India instead of a new conti- nent nowheres near the Indies. At the time these men are rolling on the grass, the Polo Brothers and Marco Polo were dead, and their wonderfnl aocoant of their sojourn in Chiim and Japan had been gi?eii Europe for 250 years, which was so extraordinaiy that at the time it was not believed. But let us see what is said of these Bed Men of North America. Do you think they are the Lost*- Tribe of Israel? For, as you are aware, some noted people make that claim. For a number of years a converted foolish Jew was in the United States and here labored for the purpose of proving his theory; this was in 18 — - About 1775 James Adair published a book in London in which he endeavored to prove the Indians were descendants of the Lost Tribe.
