The peoples who inhabited America at the time of its discovery by Columbus were mistakenly called Indians, since the sailors thought that the shores of America were a continuation of India. But this name has been retained by the indigenous population to this day. In those days, the Indians were very numerous, they numbered, perhaps, no less than fourteen to fifteen million, but the conquerors mercilessly exterminated them with firearms, brought here many vices and diseases, and the number of aborigines was reduced by no less than three-quarters. Scattered across the deserts of the north, south and center of America, the remnants of the Indians are now dwindling and will soon completely disappear from the face of the earth. Of course, it is possible that these peoples had their own historical past, but they had neither books nor chronicles, and it remains a mystery who their ancestors were and where they came from...