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I THOUGHT it neceffary, and my duty, to mention these matters, in this place, to fhew that a plurality in the DEITY, was always believed by the patriarchs, and the Jews after them; and to profefs my own faith in the Holy, Blessed and Glorious TRINITY, three persons in one GOD, bleffed for ever.

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CHA P. VIII.

Obfervations upon certain paffages in Jofephus Acofta's account of Mexico and Peru; and in Muller's relation of the feveral Ruffian expeditions to the North-East; and fome animadverfions upon the first inhabitants of Mexico and Peru.

HIS author, in his Hiftory of the Indies, has Τ been very extenfive in his account of the religious and other ceremonies of the Peruvians, as well as of other Indians: and, in the twenty-eighthchapter of his fifth book, he describes their monthly feasts and facrifices, and the purposes for which they were celebrated; wherein he has the following remarkable passage: as it is translated into English, and published in 1604.

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"IT is ftrange, fays he, that the Devil, after his manhath brought a trinity into idolatry; for the three

ner,

"images

images of the fun, called Apomti, Churunti and Intiquafqui; which fignifieth, Father and Lord-Sun; the "Son-Sun; and the Brother-Sun. In the like manner,

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"they named the three images of Chuquilla, which is the "God that rules in the region of the air, where it thunders, "rains and fnows. I remember, that being at Cuquisaca, an honourable priest shewed me an information, which "I had long in my hands, where it was proved, that “ there was a certain guaca, or oratory, where the Indians "did worship an idol, called Tanga-Tanga, which they "faid was one in three, and three in one.'

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THIS information, in my opinion, is a very important discovery, and lays open a most interesting scene towards elucidating more points than one in ancient history. Let us confider it, as having a near relation to the Tangutian idol; and we shall find fufficient reafon to believe it is the very fame with that described by Strahlenberg; because, the name of the third person in the Tangutian Deity, is Tangara; and the name of that in the oratory at Cuquifca, which the priest gave an account of to Jofephus Acofta, is Tanga-Tanga, which the natives faid was one in three, and three in one.

Now, it would be difficult to feparate these agreements (which are in themselves very furprizing to me), or to attribute them to chance. Can it be faid, that chance produced an idol in Tangutia, Tibet, and Peru, that the people intended to worship, as a Triune Deity, in each of these places? or, could it happen, that the name of the third person of that of the Lamas at Tibet, or Tangutia, which is Tangara, fhould be the appellation of that of Perv, Ff 2 Tanga

Tanga Tanga, with only the difference of the letter (r); and that the triune fyftem fhould be exactly understood the fame way, in every one of these places? Surely each of thefe will be thought, by unprejudiced readers, to have arisen from the fame fource; and that the facred notion, among the worshipers of the TRUE GOD, of a plurality in the Godhead, came to be idolized, by the attempts of perverfe men, to represent him in fuch an image, and to lead mankind into an idolatrous, inftead of a pure, worshiping of the TRUE GOD. The purity and fimplicity of divine worfhip, in procefs of time, becomes loft in crouds of innovations, introduced by ambitious men, who, by crafty fchemes, enflave the minds of the people, and govern those, of every rank, in the most absolute and defpotic inanner: and, thereby, alienate the just ideas of the true object of worship, and cause men to degenerate into an adoration of every kind of idolatrous representation.

WHAT is thus delivered, by this author, carries with it a very clear evidence of what we have endeavoured to prove; and, indeed, by the way, points out to a certainty, what was before barely furmifed, concerning some parts of the great American continent's being peopled by colonies from Tartary. The agreement of the manners and cuftoms of people, though never so remote from each other; the religious practices of the inhabitants of any two places being exactly the fame; and the fuperftitious obfervations of certain things to be avoided, or put in execution, according to their notions of good or bad luck attending; but especially the effential, or chief point of their theology being the fame, will furely put it beyond all

doubt,

doubt, that the people are from the fame origin; notwithstanding the distance of time and place, from their firit feparation. And if we reflect, that what formerly seemed to render it incredible that any American inhabitants fhould come from Tartary, was the vaft distance which geographers laid down between the Afiatic and American continents; and that the late difcoveries that have been made by the Ruffians, have placed them within a very moderate distance of each other; we fhall not fcruple to give it as our opinion, that the Peruvians, as well as the Mexicans, are of that frock that migrated eastward from the house of Togarmah, and fome of the fons of Shem, with whom they mixed, in the fouth eastern parts of Tartary, in procefs of time; and carried with: them the effential points of the theology, though perhaps clouded very much by fuperftition and idolatry.

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THERE is another very material circumftance, which: proves them of this flock, I mention: it may bered, that I have faid before, that Togarmah was the fon of Gomer, eldest fon of Japhet, and that he was the only one of Japhet's iffue that fettled eaftward in the northern quarters, whence Ezekiel prophefied the house of Togarmah should come, upon the folemn occafion, fpoken of by that prophet, Now, it was the conftant cuftom of the defcendants of Gomer and Magog, the fathers of the Scy-thians and Gomerians or Celts, to charge certain among them to retain the traditions of the deeds and genealogies of their ancestors, and hand them down in verfe, from one to another, with the utmost care; and these were their bards, or poets, and orators, which all hiftory confeffes

they

they had, and which are among the remains of them to this day, in Ireland, part of Scotland, and in Wales, as I have mentioned it before, which I have already proved.

Now, Togarmah being one of Gomer's fons, it must be granted, that he would follow the fame cuftom with those of his uncles and brothers, in this, as well as in every other refpect; and if this be granted, then there is a further powerful proof, that the Mexicans came from them, and those they mingled with in their migrations, from the descendants of Shem: because, according to the fame author, fofephus Acofta, the Mexicans and Peruvians continued this custom, which, both the perfons he mentions, and himself, were witneffes to.

THIS author, in his fixth book, chap. 7, treating of the manner of writing used by the Mexicans, declares, that "they had fome kind of letters and books among "them, whereby they preserved, after their manner, the "deeds of their predeceffors. And that, in the province "of Yu-latan, where the bishoprick is, which they call "de Honduras, there were books of the leaves of trees, "folded and fquared, after their manner; in the which "the wife Indians contained the diftribution of their times, "the knowledge of the planets, of beasts, and other na"tural things, with their antiquities; a thing full of great

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curiofity and diligence: it feemed to fome pedant, that "all this was an enchantment, and magic art; who did

obftinately maintain, that they ought to be burnt, so as "they were committed to the fire; which, fince, not only "the Indians found to be ill done, but also the curious " Spaniards, who defired to know the fecrets of the coun"try.

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