A New System | Page 6

mighty
adventurers. It is necessary for me to acquaint the Reader, that the
wonderful people to whom I allude were the descendants of Chus, and
called Cuthites and Cuseans. They stood their ground at the general
migration of families; but were at last scattered over the face of the
earth. They were the first apostates from the truth, yet great in worldly
wisdom. They introduced, wherever they came, many useful arts, and
were looked up to as a superior order of beings: hence they were styled
Heroes, Dæmons, Heliadæ, Macarians. They were joined in their
expeditions by other nations, especially by the collateral branches of
their family, the Mizraim, Caphtorim, and the sons of Canaan. These
were all of the line of Ham, who was held by his posterity in the
highest veneration. They called him Amon: and having in process of
time raised him to a divinity, they worshipped him as the Sun; and from
this worship they were styled Amonians. This is an appellation which
will continually occur in the course of this work; and I am authorised in
the use of it from Plutarch, from whom we may infer, that it was not
uncommon among the sons of Ham. He specifies particularly, in
respect to the Egyptians, that when any two of that nation met, they
used it as a term of honour in their[4] salutations, and called one
another Amonians. This therefore will be the title by which I shall
choose to distinguish the people of whom I treat, when I speak of them
collectively; for under this denomination are included all of this family,
whether they were Egyptians or Syrians, of Phenicia or of Canaan.
They were a people who carefully preserved memorials of their
ancestors, and of those great events which had preceded their
dispersion. These were described in hieroglyphics upon pillars and
obelisks: and when they arrived at the knowledge of letters, the same
accounts were religiously maintained, both in their sacred archives, and

popular records. It is mentioned of Sanchoniathon, the most antient of
Gentile writers, that he obtained all his knowledge from some writings
of the Amonians. It was the good fortune of Sanchoniathon, says
[5]Philo Biblius, to light upon some antient Amonian records, which
had been preserved in the innermost part of a temple, and known to
very few. Upon this discovery he applied himself with great diligence to
make himself master of the contents: and having, by divesting them of
the fable and allegory with which they were obscured, obtained his
purpose, he brought the whole to a conclusion.
I should be glad to give the Reader a still farther insight into the system
which I am about to pursue. But such is the scope of my inquiries, and
the purport of my determinations, as may possibly create in him some
prejudice to my design; all which would be obviated were he to be
carried, step by step, to the general view, and be made partially
acquainted, according as the scene opened. What I have to exhibit is in
great measure new; and I shall be obliged to run counter to many
received opinions, which length of time, and general assent, have in a
manner rendered sacred. What is truly alarming, I shall be found to
differ, not only from some few historians, as is the case in common
controversy, but in some degree from all; and this in respect to many of
the most essential points, upon which historical precision has been
thought to depend. My meaning is, that I must set aside many supposed
facts which have never been controverted; and dispute many events
which have not only been admitted as true, but have been looked up to
as certain æras from whence other events were to be determined. All
our knowledge of Gentile history must either come through the hands
of the Grecians, or of the Romans, who copied from them. I shall
therefore give a full account of the Helladian Greeks, as well as of the
Iönim, or Ionians, in Asia: also of the Dorians, Leleges, and Pelasgi.
What may appear very presumptuous, I shall deduce from their own
histories many truths, with which they were totally unacquainted, and
give to them an original, which they certainly did not know. They have
bequeathed to us noble materials, of which it is time to make a serious
use. It was their misfortune not to know the value of the data which
they transmitted, nor the purport of their own intelligence.

It will be one part of my labour to treat of the Phenicians, whose
history has been much mistaken: also of the Scythians, whose original
has been hitherto a secret. From such an elucidation many good
consequences will, I hope, ensue; as the Phenicians and Scythians have
hitherto