whereby the guilt of one party is expiated and atoned for by the guiltless blood of another, was well known to the Indians, and the question is curious, how traces of this doctrine should have been known in America," &c.

The following extract is from the pen of Rosales: "Prosecuting their conquest as far as the country of the powerful lord Tiunchatipec, five leagues distant from the city of Conception; they (the Spaniards) found another fortress where were seven stones resembling sculptured pyramids which had been placed there by the Indians of Peru, for the purpose of performing the ceremony of Chalpainge. If our surprise was excited by this discovery that the Peruvians were not altogether ignorant of the nature of vicarial sacrifice and atonement, it will be produced in no less degree when we discover that the inhabitants of New Spain generally believed in the coming of a future Redeemer, or Saviour, whose advent, as well as the last destruction of the world, they seem to have expected at the close of a certain stated period corresponding with the artificial cycles of time which they employed in their calendars," &c. Ibid.1

"It was," observes the commentator, "the cupidity of the Spaniards which first introduced to them the belief of the Indians in the resurrection of the body. Gomara, after stating that the Peruvians deposited gold and silver vases in

"Mons. de Cheseaux, a Swiss astronomer, had about the middle of last century, submitted to certain leading members of the Royal Academy at Paris, some astronomical remarks on the Book of Daniel, wherein he shewed that the periods of 2300 and 1260 years, and also their difference 1040 years are all astronomical cycles, at the end of which, the sun and moon return to nearly the same positions in the heavens, as they set out from."

W. Cuninghame, Esq. the author of some learned works, observes in his POLITICAL DESTINY OF THE EARTH, "All my endeavours to find the work of Mons. de Cheseaux were, however, ineffectual, till last year, when I procured a Ms. copy of his observations on Daniel from the Library of the University of Lausanne. I have since then, in a work published early in the present year, proved the accuracy of the conclusions of Mons de Cheseaux," &c. *

"At the end of 1040 years, they return to less than two and a half minutes of a degree, and to one hour, eighteen minutes, eight seconds, and nineteen thirds of solar time."

the tombs of the Incas, says, When the Spaniards opened those sepulchres, and scattered the bones, the Indians intreated them not to do so, assuring them that they would be raised in the resurrection; for they fully believed in the resurrection of the body, as well as the immortality of the soul.' Herrera, in several passages asserts that the Indians maintain this belief. In la Historiade de los Indios, he says in his 4th Decade, p. 187, In the provinces of Guayacualio and Yutican, they believed that the dead would come to life.' He also says, that in the province of Quinabayia, they well knew that there was an immortal principle in man, although they thought,' he adds (rather Sadduceanly) 'it was a bodily transfiguration; believiny that the body would be renewed to life.' They further explained that its future habitation would be a delightful and pleasant place," &c.

Thus writes Ulloa respecting the contrast between the ancient magnificence and present degradation of the modern Peruvians:

"The disproportion between what I read and what I am going to relate, is so remarkable, that on a retrospect of past times, I am utterly at a loss how to account for the universal change of things, especially when surrounded with such monuments of the industry, polity, and laws of the Indians of Peru, that it would be madness to question the truth of the accounts that have been given of them; for the ruins of these works are still amazing. On the other hand, I can hardly credit my own eyes, when I behold

1 Martyr mentions in the ninth chapter of his eighth decade, a singular custom of the Chirubichenses, who, believing the souls of their deceased relatives to be immortal, burned their bones, only preserving the hinder part of the head. "They burne the bones, keepinge the hinder parte of the head, and this the noblest and best of the women bringeth home with her to be kept for a sacred relique." The Jews had an ancient superstitious notion about a small bone which they believed to be the seed of the resurrection, which was situated between the upper vertebrae of the neck and the head." Ibid. p. 226.

that nation involved in Cimmerian darkness, living in barbarism," &c. "But what is still more difficult to conceive, is how these people whose former wisdom is conspicuous in the equity of their laws and the establishment of a government so singular as that under which they live, should at present shew no traces of that genius and capacity which formed so excellent an economy, and so beautiful a system of social duties; though undoubtedly they are the same people and still retain some of the ancient customs and manners."

"Such is the disposition of the present race that if their indifference to temporal things did not extend itself also to the eternal, they might be said to equal the happiness of the golden age," &c.

"They possess a tranquillity undisturbed either by fortunate or unfortunate events. In their mean apparel they are as contented as the monarch clothed with the most splendid inventions of luxury; and so far are they from entertaining a desire for better or more comfortable clothing, that they give themselves no manner of concern about their own, although their bodies continue half-naked. They shew as much disregard for riches; and even that authority and grandeur within their reach is so little the object of their ambition, that to all appearance it is the same thing to an Indian, &c. The same moderation appears in their food. Fear cannot stimulate, respect induce, nor punishment compel them; they are indeed of a singular turn."-See Ulloa in Pinkerton's Collection.

De Mennonville thus writes: "All the Indians on my way were simple, mild, and ingenuous, because at a distance from the Spanish settlements; but from this place to the Guaxa they are sly, subtle, even knavish and idle; and it may truly be said that the neighbourhood of Europeans

has been a pest, a plague equally unfortunate and prompt of diffusion." 1

1 "Justice and peace, tired of mortals by whom they were daily insulted, these celestial ones withdrew to a corner of North America; yes, to the village of Dominguello. This little hamlet, simple in appearance, unadorned by any meritricious works of art, but rich and charming from its site and the confluence of the Rio Grande and that of Las Vueltas, appeared to them worthy of their abode; and here I enjoyed the mild presence of these estimable but slighted powers. The circumstance which called forth this remark, I shall relate. While I was at supper, I sent for a topith, with whom I had entered into contract for horses. The knave had the address to cheat me of three piastres, without my noticing the fraud. The keeper of the cassa reale, however perceived it, and pointed it out to me: but the topith was out of sight. In the meantime, after the procession, while walking in the public square, I saw two Indians carrying each a staff six feet long, on which they rested both their hands. I paid at first but little attention to this incident, till at length I heard a cry repeated thrice in the Mexican language. In an instant my rogue of a guide presents himself out of breath running, and makes a number of bows to the men with the staffs, the distinctive marks of their office. The one was the Alcalde, the other his assessor. I saw them advancing towards me; I met them half way. In my presence, in a very deliberate manner, they interrogated the topith respecting the number of horses I had ordered, and the price he had asked. He confessed the sum with the exception of two reals. They next inquired of me how much I paid. I told them the exact sum. Turning to the topith, they asked him, if he had shewn me the table of fares, and on his confession that he had never mentioned it to me, the Alcalde very severely, though without the least symptom of passion, reprimanded him; first, for having exacted more than the prescribed ordinance; and secondly, for having stated the sum he had received, two reals less than it really was. While they were speaking, 1 minutely examined the countenances of these guileless officers. They exhibited not the least symptom of anger or arrogance. Immutable as the law; they judged and decided by its rule; and never did senator, counsellor, or judge, with all their sumptuous paraphranalia of office, in silk and ermined robes, in scarlet, or in black, in coronets, caps, or perriwigs; never, I say, did either look more august or majestic, than did, on this occasion, these poor tattered Indians." Mennonville, in Pink. Coll.

225

HAYTIANS.

ALTHOUGH the following notices of Hayti, whose history is that of all the Western Islands, cannot be said to augment the sum of historical and internal proof, which it is the object of this work to point out; it furnishes in that identity of suffering which at the same period marked the race wherever it existed, that kind of relative and subordinate evidence which cannot be withheld without impairing the homogenity of the piece. Nor are the coincidences which contribute to the unity of the eventful portraiture to be overlooked; for neither was it fortuitous that Columbus should have been not only of the same race, but of a royal lineage of that race, of whose territorial seclusion he was the discoverer; or that the same year had to record (in this discovery of his) an accession to the crown of Spain of one portion of his kindred: and the expulsion of six hundred thousand of another portion from the Spanish dominions. See Appendix.

"It is impossible," writes the late biographer of Columbus, "to refrain from dwelling on the picture given by the first discoverers of the state of manners in this eventful Island before the arrival of the white men. The people of Hayti existed in that state of primitive simplicity which some philosophers have fondly pictured as the most enviable on earth: surrounded by natural blessings without even the knowledge of artificial wants. Hospitality was with them a law of nature universally observed; there was

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