cause which follows inserted by the editor in the text but Garcia notices himself other Indian names which resembled Hebrew."

"The rumour of inscriptions existing in Yutican, reached the ear of the venerable Las Casas also, who probably only doubted the fact, because he had not the opportunity of going there to verify it. If, however, such inscriptions had been numerous in the New World, it is not likely that they would long have survived the mutilating hands of the Spanish missionaries. We may however remark, that two curvilinear ornaments, shaped like the letter S, occur upon a broken bust. The inscription to which Garcia refers as mentioned by Ciça, is spoken of in the following passage of the 87th chap. of his Chron. of Peru. The River which is named Vinaz, is the largest, on the banks of which are situated some large and most ancient edifices, &c. Having inquired of the neighbouring Indians, who were the founders of these ancient structures, they replied, bearded men, who they say arrived in this country long before the reign of the Incas, and there established their residence." Primera de la Chronica del Peru, cap. 87, p. 221.

Parte

"The Peruvian quipos might have been a kind of syllabic writing like that of the Japannese ; and the Spaniards seem to have consigned them to eternal oblivion. As regards the tradition of letters in Mexico, it may be proper to recollect that Torquemeda says of the book which the Indians de

"Another

1 The following testimony is thus introduced by Torquemeda. ecclesiastic named brother Diego de Merçado, a grave father who has been definitor of this province of the Holy Gospel, and one of the most exemplary of men, and greatest doers of penance of his time; relates and authenticates this relation with his signature.-That some years ago conversing with an aged Indian of the Otomies, respecting matters of our faith, the Indian told him that they had in ancient times been in possession of a book which was handed down from father to son, in the person of the eldest, who was devoted to the safe custody of it, and to instruct others in its doctrines. These doctrines were written in two portions, and between the columns, Christ was painted crucified, with a countenance as of sorrow. They said that God was offended, and out of

clared that they buried under ground on the arrival of the Spaniards, between the columns of which Christ was painted crucified, and the intermediate spaces were filled up with alphabetical characters. Sahagun affirms in the following very singular passage, that the children who were educated in the temple in Mexico, learned hymns which were written down in books in characters; they instructed them in all the verses which they were accustomed to sing, to which they gave the name of divine songs, all which were written in their books in characters. This passage, from its singularity, has been marked in the original Ms." &c.—p. 333.

Of this barbarous act of monkish zeal, Doctor Cabrara thus speaks: "Among the many historical works which fell into the hands of that illustrious prelate, &c. there was one written by VOTAN, the third Gentile placed on the calendar. He wrote an historical tract in the Indian idiom, wherein he mentions the name of the people with whom, and the places where he had been," &c. "This illustrious prelate could have communicated a much greater portion of information relative to VOTAN,' and to many other of the primitive inhabitants, whose historical works he assures us were in his own possession, but feeling some scruples on account of the mischievous use the Indians made of their histories, in the superstition of Nagualism,2 he thought proper to withhold it for the reasons assigned in No. 36, section 32 of his preface. Although," he adds, "in these tracts and papers

reverence did not turn over the leaves with their hands, but with a small bar which they had made for the purpose, and which they kept along with the book. This book was buried in the earth for fear of the Spaniards."

1 "Votan, was a celebrated saint amongst the Chiapanese and the Capotecas, and it is much to be regretted that Nunez de la Vega, Bishop of Chiapa and Socunosco should have destroyed or consigned to oblivion the historical works which he wrote (or which were at least written by some other person concerning him) as it would probably have thrown much light on the ancient history of America."-Ibid.

2 The same with the Quetzalcoatl of Mexico, and the Verachocha of Peru.

are many things touching primitive paganism, they are not mentioned in this epitome, lest in being brought to notice, they should be the means of confirming more strongly an idolatrous superstition."-34th sect. p. 30, of the Preface of his Constitution, in Antiq. Mex.

66

Rosales, in his history of Chili, gives the following account of a curious inscription discovered in that province: "The tradition of some apostle having come to preach the gospel in this kingdom, is further confirmed by a marvellous thing which still exists in the valley of Tarna, where there is a stone of a yard and a-half high, and two in length, on which are imprinted the footsteps of a man wearing shoes, who there left the impression of his feet; having been accustomed to ascend upon it to preach to the Indians of the valley, and so leaving his feet imprinted on the stone; and who also wrote on the front of it three lines in plain letters cut in the rock in characters which no one understands or can explain." Ibid.

"Father Joseph Maria Adams, belonging to the society of Jesus, a missionary in the province of Cuio, caused them to be faithfully copied out, and transcribed, and sent them to three fathers of that company, famous for their skill in languages, but none of them were able to read them, so that their signification is still unknown."-p. 332.

Sahagun says, "that in the reign of Ytzcoatl, the lords and principal persons amongst the Mexicans (who were the priests, the government being a Theocracy) buried their ancient records that they might not fall into the hands of others. This might refer to the destruction of the TEOmoxtli (divine book of the Toltecas) in the reign of the above-mentioned king, from which the Mexicans might have borrowed their notions and metaphors."

Garcia, citing Laet, and likewise on his own authority,

M

says, "that paintings were used in Peru," &c. We have seen some specimens1 of a similar nature, painted by the Mexicans after their conversion to Christianity, exceedingly rude, in which hardly a trace of the old style of Mexican painting can be discerned, and the same may have been the case with the later Peruvian paintings, from which it would be wrong to form an estimate of the degree of excellence which the art of painting had attained in the time of the Incas."

"It is not easy to give a complete notice of the hieroglyphic paintings that have escaped the destruction with which they were menaced on the first discovery of America by monkish fanaticism and the stupid carelessness of the first conquerors."-Vol. vi. p. 145.

163

LANGUAGE.

THE changes to which Language is subjected during a long series of ages, geographical interposition, and intermarriage, render the mere sounds, a much less certain criterion in tracing it to its original source, than its construction, and those essential characteristics which are peculiar to the Hebrew, whom the writer of the "Primogeniture and Integrity of the Holy Language," happily characterizes as "the mother who lendeth to all but borroweth from none."

The Jews, who had only been in Babylon seventy years, had so corrupted the Hebrew language, as to render it necessary to affix a determinate pronunciation by the introduction of vowel points.

It is, therefore, in the genius of the transatlantic dialects that we are to expect Hebraism, rather than in the use of Hebrew terms; although in their religious rites these have been wonderfully preserved. For example, the same mysterious personage who was by the antient Chiapanese designated Votan (HEART of the people): by the Tulians Bah-ab, (Son of the Father): and by the Mexicans Toplitzin and TEO-piltzin (our son and GOD's-son); was by the Peruvians denominated Ver-chocha (son and star). This latter term for son, viz. is Chaldee, and is only used with reference to the Son of God, as in Psalm ii. 7. This term compounded with star, no doubt had allusion to that star which Balaam was constrained to declare, would, at a remote