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18 ATLANTIS that America could send forth armies or navies for the invasion of Europe? Neither the Incas nor the Aztecs nor the Mayas were capable of such aggressions, and we know of nothing greater in this part of the world before the very modern development of the white man's power. As to the size of Atlantis, it is not quite clear whether we are to compare it with Mediterranean Africa and Asia Minor indi- vidually or collectively. Probably Plato merely meant to indi- cate a great area without any exact conception of its extent. If we think of an island as large as France and Spain we shall probably not miss the mark very widely. The site of the mid- Atlantic Sargasso Sea would be about the location indicated. IMPROBABILITY OF THE EXISTENCE OF SUCH AN ISLAND Now, was there any such great island and populous magnificent kingdom in mid -Atlantic or anywhere in the Atlantic Ocean about 11,400 years ago? If not absolutely impossible, it seems at least very unlikely. Through the mouth of Critias Plato tells how the people of Atlantis employed themselves in constructing their temples and palaces, harbors and docks, a great palace which they continued to ornament through many generations, canals and bridges, walls and towns, numerous statues of gold, fountains both cold and hot, baths, and a great multitude of houses. 8 Such advance in civilization, such elaboration of organization, such splendor and power would certainly have overflowed abun- dantly on the islands intervening between Atlantis and the con- tinental shore. It is not written that these all shared the same fate; and in point of fact the Azores, Madeira and her consorts, the Canary Islands, and the Cape Verde group are still in evi- dence. Some of them must have been within fairly easy reach of Atlantis if Atlantis existed. There is no indication that they have been newly created or have come up from below since that time. Even allowing for great exaggeration and assuming only a large and efficient population in a vast insular territory without 8 Jowett, op. cit., Vol. 3, pp. S36-S3Q.