were the primitive inhabitants, as indeed was the fact — Canaan, their father, having first of all, after the flood, settled Canaan.
As far back in time as the Patriarch Abraham, we are able to show that the Hamites dwelt in Canaan. See 23d chap, of Gen., where there is a circumstantial account of Abraham buying a burying place, on the occasion of the death of Sarah, his wife, from the children of Heth. But who were the children of Heth? We answer, they were the descendants of Canaan, one of the sons of Ham. To prove this, see 1 Chron. i, 13, where it is said that Canaan begat Zidon his first born, and Heth. It was of this man's children that Abraham bought the burying place.
This was 1872 years B.C, and but four hundred and seventy-six years after the flood. Heth, therefore, was the great grandson of Noah, being the son of Canaan, who was the son of Ham, and Ham was tire son of Noah, making this Heth Noah's great grandson.
But there were other tribes and families, the offspring of Canaan, who dwelt in that country in the time of Abraham, as the Jebusite, Amorite, Girgahite, Hivite, the Arkite, and the Levite, as the Zidonians, Tyrians, and many others of the race of Ham. This is the reason why it is said, as we have quoted above, from 1 Chron. iv, 40, that they of Ham dwelt in that country of old, that is, in the days or time of Abraham, and, of necessity, from a more ancient date, as Abraham found this people inhabiting the country at the time he came there first of all from Ur, of Chaldea, beyond the river Euphrates in the east, which,
