finity hath been conjecturally traced. The Phonicians, the Carthaginians, the Syrians, the Massageti, the Mauritanians, the Greeks, the Celts, all have been found to have a family resemblance. The American ome, has been found to be man; agna, soul; ara, air; potia, breast; pi, pious; mannati, mother; tonimeron, thunder; paun, bread. Hingti, is the name of the sun, in the Peruvian dialect; changti, in that of the Chinese. The Mexicans called the Supreme Being, Theut; the Egyptians, Thot; the Greeks, Theos. In the island of Hispaniola, when the Spaniards arrived there, God was called Jobauna. The Hebrews called him Jehovah. The very derivation of the word Amazon has something peculiarly striking in it. The root is oriental, and signifies brave, strong, courageous. It may be said to be purely Hebrew. Amaty is frequently made use of in the Bible in that sense. The heroines of the north of Europe were called skioldmær, or nymphs of the shield. In the same sense was the appellation, amazon, used in South America.

The Hurons, and the Iroquois, adored the sun, the moon, rivers, and woods. They believed the souls of the brave to be in another

* Hornius.

world,

t

Carli.

world, and in a country abounding with every thing delightful, to enjoy a life of uninterrupted felicity; but, that the wicked and the cowardly suffered, on the contrary, an eternal want, and an everlasting misery. As among the descendants of the Scythians, however, when a cacique of the Hurons was buried, he had interred with him not only his most favourite ornaments, jewels, and arms, but, also two of his wives, and some of his most faithful and attached domestics. The same bloody rites were observed on the death of an emperor of Mexico. A certain number of his attendants were chosen to accompany him to the other world; and those unfortunate victims were put to death without mercy, and buried in the same tomb.*. Nor were the less gloomy Peruvians better actuated by feelings of humanity. On the death of the Inca Huana Capac, above a thousand victims were doomed to accompany him to the grave. The offering of human victims, indeed, they considered as the oblation the most acceptable to the Gods. Every captive taken in war was brought to the temple, and sacrificed with rites.

no less solemn than cruel. The heart and head were the portion consecrated to the Gods; the warrior, by whose prowess the prisoner had been

P 2

* Heriera.

+ Acosta,

seized,

seized, carried off the body to feast upon it with his friends. There was no year in which twenty thousand victims, at least, were not offered to the Mexican divinities; and in some years they amounted to fifty thousand.* The people of Jucatan, immolated without distinction, excepting their own immediate offspring. The Peruvians, according to Acosta, sacrificed their own children. The Mexicans also sacrificed not only. the prisoners they made in war, but, in case of need, their sons and daughters. This bloody custom was generally in force over the whole vast continent of America. But, was it confined to the continent of America?

The feudal system, with all its branching relatives, was established in South America. The kingdom of Montezuma was divided into a certain number of great seignories, most of them descending from father to son in perpetual succession. These chiefs, or tenants in capite, with various ranks and titles, were obliged annually to pay homage in person to the sovereign, or liege lord. Their sons, as hostages, were kept about the royal residence. The number of the higher order of this nobility is said to have been thirty, and that each had in his territories an hundred thousand

thousand people. Subordinate to these, were about three thousand nobles of a lower class. Each province of the empire was taxed a regu lar and stated tribute. The nobles alone were exempt from the general assessment, in consequence of the personal service they were bound to render, when called upon, with their vassals, to attend their sovereign in the field.* Tacitus tells us, that Germanicus had the symbols on an Egyptian obelisk explained, and that they were found to contain the quotas of the tribute to be paid by each nation and province; the weights of the silver and gold; the number of horses; the presents to the temples; the quantities of ivory, &c. &c. and the period for which those tributes were to be levied. Nor was this hieroglyphical writing, though supposed confined to Egypt, in every respect unknown to the other nations of the world. cally represented by a crocodile; Athens by an owl; Sybaris by a bull, and so on. A crab designed a maritime town; a beetle, the sun; a wolf, Argos; a frog, Tuscany; a vessel, Paris. In like manner with the ancients of Europe, the South Americans preserved their historical facts, and the rolls of their imports, by

Clavigero.

Egypt was symboli

means of hieroglyphics. And what is still more singular, the Mexican hieroglyphic writ ing was read from bottom to top, as the Egyp tian; and not from top to bottom, as the Chinese. Besides historical, and merely political matters, many physical, moral, and religious subjects were no doubt likewise handed down in this symbolical manner. The Peruvian Quipos served that people, also, for the transmission of their ideas; but the Quipos must be considered as the lowest order of cyphers, known perhaps to every one; whereas the symbolical writings of the Mexicans were, like those of the Egyptians, exclusively confined to the order of priests. These writings, together with the aid of astronomical calculations, took in a period of more than 5000 years; that is to say, they went to a time anterior to the deluge, according to the Vulgate, but not according to the Septuagint. Of these the most valuable that remain were published by Purchas. They are divided into three parts. The first contains the history of the Mexican empire, under ten monarchs. The second is a tribute roll, representing what each conquered town paid into the royal treasury. The third is a code of their institutions, domestic, political, and military. This style of representing things,