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try. The like hath happened in other things; for our men, thinking that all was but fuperstition, have lost many memorials of ancient, and holy things, which might have profited much; this proceedeth from a "foolish and ignorant zeal, &c."

In the fame chapter, he tells us fomething of the manner of their writing their hiftories and kalendars, which were curious, because they had their figures and hieroglyphicks, by which they reprefented things in this manner: viz. "Such as had form or figure, were repre"fented by their proper images; and fuch as had not any, were represented by characters that fignified them; and, by this means, they figured and writ what they "would.

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“BUT, for that their writings and characters were not fufficient, as our writings and letters be, they could not "fo plainly exprefs the words, but only the fubftance of "their conceptions: and, forafmuch as they were ac"customed to rehearse discourses and dialogues by heart,

compounded by their orators, and ancient rhetoricians, "and many chapas, made by their poets, which were im

poffible to learn by their hieroglyphicks and characters. "The Mexicans were very curious to have their children' "learn thefe dialogues and compofitions by heart; for the "which caufe, they had fchools and, as it were, colleges or feminaries, where the ancients taught children these "orations, and many other things, which they preferved among them by tradition, from one to another, as perfectly as if they had been written; efpecially the mot "famous nations had a care to have their children taught,

6

2

" which

many

"which had any inclination to be rhetoricians, and to practife the office of orators, to learn thefe orations by heart: fo as when the Spaniards came into their country, and had taught them to read and write our letters, of the Indians then wrote these orations, as fome grave men do witnefs, that had read them. They did "alfo write thefe difcourfes after their manner, by cha"racters and images; and I have feen, for my better fa“tisfaction, the Pater Nofter, Ave Maria, and Simbol, or general confeffion of our faith, written in this manner, by "the Indians. And, in truth, whofoever fhall fee them, "will wonder thereat; for, to fignify thefe words, I a finner do confefs myself, they painted an Indian upon "his knees, at a religious man's feet, as one that was confeffing himself. And for this, to GOD most mighty, they painted three faces, with their crowns, like to the "Trinity."

In his eighth chapter, he says: "Before the Spaniards "came to the Indies, they of Peru had no kind of writing, either letters, characters, cyphers, or figures, like “those of China, or Mexico; yet preferved the memory "of their antiquities, and maintained an order of all their "affairs, of peace, war and policy; for that they were "careful obfervers of traditions, from one to another; "and the young ones learned, and carefully kept, as an holy thing, what their fuperiors had told them, and taught it, with the like care, to their pofterity; thus following the fame method, of handing down to posterity their memorable tranfactions, which, it is very well known, the Gomerians, Magogians, and every other tribe of Japhet's ifiue, had ever practifed."

Ob

Obfervations upon the Ruffian discoveries, to the north-eaft of Tartary.

FROM what has been faid, if these remarkable particulars are duly connected, and a proper and impartial attention paid them, they will amount to a very striking proof, that America was peopled from the Eaftern parts of Tartary; and that it could not be many centuries after the flood, that a monarchy was founded in Mexico. The chief difficulty that feemed to occur to the curious inquirers, who formerly confidered this matter, was the vaft distance which they supposed to have been, between the most Eastern land of Afia, and the most Western of the American continent; and, certainly, fuch confiderations would have great weight against every proof arising from the manners, customs, religion and other circumftances of the people in both places; upon account of the supposed long navigation, which could hardly be thought in the power of the people of East Tartary to perform: and yet, I must confess, that a fameness in the moft weighty customs of any two people, though at never fo great a distance, would influence me to think them sprung from the same fource, in former ages, notwithstanding any argumentative fuppofition that might be brought against me; because I really think it impoffible, that an exact agreement can be in any diftant places, between the manners, &c. of the people, by chance; especially too, when fuch a fimilarity is visible in the majority of their cuftoms. However, the case is far otherwise than was suspected, with regard to the distance, by fea, from Afia to America. The

feveral expeditions made, from time to time, by the Ruffians, in order to bring the most Eastern Tartars to pay them tribute, has been the cause of communicating to our knowledge, the true fituation and diftances of thefe parts; and as the meffengers, who were fent out upon that bufinefs, had orders to take an account of the latitudes and longitudes of places, as well as produce of the countries, and nature of the people, we have now very fufficient proofs, that both continents are fo near each other, as to remove all manner of doubt concerning the firft inhabitants of America, on that fide of the world.

WE find, by Mr. Muller's account, as published by T. Jefferies, in 1761, of the Voyages from Afia to America, for compleating the discoveries of the north-west coaft of America; and his Summary of the Voyages made by the Ruffians on the Frozen Sea, in fearch of a northeast passage, “ that there is a real separation between Afia "and America; that it confifts only in a narrow ftreight, "and that within this ftreight one, or more, iflands are "fituated; by which the paffage from one of thefe parts "of the world to the other, is facilitated. From ancient "times the inhabitants, of each of these parts of the world, "had knowledge of each other."

To thefe it will not be foreign, nor unentertaining, to add several more extracts from this author's accounts, which will ferve to corroborate my fentiments, concerning the peopling of America this way, and prove what I have made my chief point in this undertaking, all along; by which all cavils will probably be removed and prevented, concerning these matters, and the industry and perfe

verance

verance of the difcoverers fent out, through a series of the greatest hardships ever fuffered by mankind, be duely honoured.

"WHAT Nikifor Malgin fays above, (continues our author) of bearded people in an island in the Penschinskan "Sea, the inhabitants of Anadirfkoy Oftrog fay of the " continent, which lies over-against the habitations of the "Tfchutkfchi. There is faid to live in that country, a cr people who have a great deal, in common, with the "Ruffians; not only with respect to beards and clothing, "but likewife in their trades and employments: the Tfchutki get platters, and other wooden veffels, from "them, hardly to be diftinguished from thofe made in "Ruffia. Some believe they are really defcended from "the Ruffians, and that their ancestors were driven by "shipwreck to this country, where they have remained.

“It is said, that, in the year 1715, there lived a man "of a foreign nation, at Kamptfchatka, who, upon ac"count of the Kamptschatkan cedar nuts, and the low “shrubs on which they grow, said, that he came from a country, where there were larger cedars, which bore bigger nuts: that his country was fituated to the caft "of Kamptfchatka, and that there were in it great rivers, "which discharged themselves weftward into the Kamptfchatkan Sea: that the inhabitants called themselves "Tontoli; they resembled, in their manner of living, the people of Kamptschatka, and made use of leathern boats, or baidares, like them: that, many years ago, he went with fome more of his countrymen, to Karagin"fkoi Oftrow, where his companions were flain by the

over,