_Why the American Aborigines are called Indians_.--I have often
wondered how the aborigines of America came to be called Indians; and
for a considerable time I presumed it to be a popular appellation
arising from their dark colour. Lately, however, I fell in with a copy
of _Theatrum Orbis Terrarum_. Antwerp, 1583, by Abraham Ortelius,
geographer to the king; and, in the map entitled _Typus Orbis Terrarum_.
I find America called _America, sive India Nova_. How it came to get
{255} the name of _India Nova_ is of course another question, and one
which at present I cannot answer.