Historical Researches on the conquest of Peru, Mexico, Bogota, Natchez and Talomeco, in the thirteenth century, by the Mongols, accompanied with elephants, and the local agreement of history and tradition, with the remains of elephants and mastodontes, found in the New World, etc. (Supplement,...

Front matter

HISTORICAL RESEARCHES ON THE <£ott(iue$t or PERU, MEXICO, BOGOTA, NATCHEZ, and TALOMECO, fin tfje Œfjtrttmtf) eenturg, fcg ACCOMPANIED WITH ELEPHANTS; AND THE LOCAL AGREEMENT OF HISTORY AND TRADITION, WITH THE REMAINS OF ELEPHANTS AND MASTODONTES, FOUND IN THE NEW WORLD CONTAINING Invasion qf Japan, from China. — A Violent Storm. — Mongols, with Elephants, landin Peru; andin California. — Very Numerous Identifications, — History of Peru and Mexico, to the Conquest by Spain. — Grandeur of the Incas, and of Montezuma. — On Quadrupeds supposed extinct.— Wild Elephants in America. — Tapirs in Asia. — Description of Two living Unicorns in Africa. WITH TWO MAPS, AND PORTRAITS OF ALL THE INCAS, ANDMONTliZUMA BY JOHN RANKING, AUTHOR OP RESEARCHES ON THE WARS AND SPORTS OF THE MONGOLS AND ROMANS. LONDON: LONGMAN, REES, ORME, BROWN, AND GREEN.

M.DCCC.XXVII. TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE ALLEYNE LORD St. HELENS, LATE AMBASSADOR AT THE COURTS OF MADRID and St. PETERSBURGH, THIS WORK IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED BY HIS LORDSHIP'S FAITHFUL and OBLIGED HUMBLE SERVANT, London, March 20, 1827. THE AUTHOR. Page. CONTENTS. Introduction 7 CHAP. I. Invasion qf Japan by the Mongols. A furious Storm, and Failure qf the Expedition. Size and Construction qf Chinese Ships. Winds in the Pacific Ocean. 33 CHAP. II. Strangers, with Elephants, arrive on the Coast qf Peru. Their Cruelty and Brutality Terror qftlie Natives. Mango and his Wife appear at a Lalce, and are received as Sovereigns. Sketch qf the History qf the Incas to the Conquest by Pizarro Corpses qf the CONTENTS. II 51 16S Incas Their mild Character and Manners. Language. Quipos. City qf Cuzco. Temple qf the Sun.

Magnificent Establishments for the Virgins qf the Sun. Laws. Ex tent of the Empire. Its Duration . . CHAP. III. Identity of the Mongols and Incas of Peru- Mango Capac. Persons and Dress. Insignia qf the Sun and Hon. Religion. Pacha Camac. Solemn Festival qf the Sun. Hunting Circles. — — A rmy and A rms. Agri culture. Architecture CHAP. IV. Identity continued. Presents to the Incas Royal Palaces. Post-stations and Telegraph. Travelling Chair qf the Inca. Royal Borla. Engraved Rocks. Raw food, Maize, and Manure Gold and Silver Sheep, Statues, Fountain. Inns or Hotels. Come- CONTENTS. III dies and Tragedies. Eclipses. Wives of Nobles. Number Nine. A Marble Cross 204- CHAP. V. Identity continued. Funerals; Wives and Domestics put to Death, and buried with the Incas. Tombs; surprising Riches found in them: Gold, Silver, Jewels, Arms, Clothes, Sfc 229 CHAP. VI.

Introduction

. IN the sixth page of the Introduction to the " Researches on the Wars and Sports of the Mongols and Romans," the writer hinted at having met with some indications of a connection between Asia and America, long before the discovery of the New World by Columbus, From that time he has kept this object in view; and such has been the success of his further enquiries, that he now ventures confidently to affirm that Peru, Mexico, and other countries in America, were conquered by the Mongols, accompanied with elephants, in the thirteenth century. The slow attainment of knowledge appears truly surprising, when we contemplate that, according to the literature of the most enlightened portion of mankind, the earth is pre sumed to have been created fifty-eight centuries ;

INTRODUCTION.

. and that thirty-five of them, including the event of the Deluge, elapsed without our possessing any European profane history; that of Herodo tus being written in the fifth century before Christ. No land of any importance was known to the Greeks or Romans west of the shores of Africa ; none was discovered by them on the east, beyond the longitude of one hundred and twenty degrees from Greenwich, at the most. Marco Polo in the thirteenth century extended our knowledge to Japan; and no other disco very, except the Azores, was made till the year 1492. Thus, for fifty-five centuries, we were ignorant of one hundred and eighty degrees of the longitude of the equator, but possessed some knowledge of East Greenland, in the Arc tic Circle. If we conclude that nothing was known on the south, lower than about the tropic of Capri corn, nearly half of the latitude was also yet undiscovered.

Small as this planet is, in the sublime scale of nature ; how immense in the limited eye of man ! If, a few days before land appeared, the crew of Columbus's ship, terrified

INTRODUCTION.

. 9 as they were at their hazardous state, had thrown their commander into the sea; and the expedition had found the way back to Europe, or if it had been lost ; who can pronounce how much longer a portion of the earth, of greater magnitude than the moon, but more hidden from our sight, would have continued as un known, to the proud of their philosophy and systems, as the Georgium Sidus? On the fortitude and good sense of a great mind in a moment of difficulty and danger, de pended the most considerable event that has ever occurred among human beings. At the present period, the space in Africa, from lat. 10° north to 30° south, is a blank to the civilized world. An immense territory, between Thibet and Siberia, is imperfectly de scribed. In America, both north and south, there are vast districts which may be termed undiscovered: and if we add to this New Hol land, Borneo, and other unexamined regions, it appears, even now, that half of the surface of the earth has not been visited by any one who was qualified to communicate the knowledge

INTRODUCTION.

. of its productions or history to the learned por tion of mankind ; although the whole extent of the land is not more than about a third of the superficies of this planet. Thus, if we consider that half of the land, besides the dept/is of the ocean to a still greater extent are yet hidden from the eye of science ; and the natural con vulsions that the earth has undergone ; how im perfect must be our knowledge of the history and description osman, of animals and of plants ! The narratives of Marco Polo, and Sir John Maundevile, had warmed the imagination of Columbus into a conviction that he could reach the East Indies by sailing westward. By the travels of those authors, it was then known what an immensely extensive empire was in the power of the Mongols, called also Tar tars. When Columbus, on his arrival in the New World, inquired of some natives respecting the gold, of which they made their ornaments ; they answered him Cubanacan, (it is produced in Cuba) ; and so full was his mind of Marco Polo and the East Indies, that he imagined them to

INTRODUCTION.

. 11 be speaking of the Grand Khan Kublai*, who was the Mongol Emperor of China, and of more than half of the population of the globe, when Polo was in that country. Such was the ignorance of the most sagacious geographer that had ever appeared, respecting the extent of the earth, that he supposed himself arrived in the Mongol Empire, when he was one hundred and fifty degrees short of its! Although Anaximan der had taught, and at this period there was no doubt in the minds of persons of reflection and understanding, that the earth is spherical; it was not till the voyage of Magellan, in the year 1521, that it was proved to be so J. * Robertson, Vol. i. p. 95. t Columbus, from this mistake and the similarity of the pepper, birds, crocodiles, &c. called the country West India, which name was confirmed by Ferdinand and Isabella. — Robertson, Vol. i. p. 111. % The Mahomedan Moguls, in the fifteenth century, did not suspect the convexity of the earth.

" If the canopy of heaven were a bow, and the earth were the cord thereof; and if calamities were the arrows, and mankind the marks for those arrows ; and if Almighty God, the tremendous and the glorious, were the unerr ing archer,— to whom could the sons of Adam flee for

INTRODUCTION.

. 12 " That state of primeval simplicity which was known in our continent only by the fanci ful description of poets, really existed in the New World in the discovery by Columbus. The Peruvians and Mexicans only, had emerged from this rude condition, and had attained the highest state of improvement ever known in that vast continent*. " They possessed no tame animals except the Llama, knew not the use of iron, and agriculture was extremely limited. The population of the New World was esti mated by some at four millions, by Riccioli at three hundred millionsf . Cuzco was the only place that had the appearance, or was entitled to the name of a city, in all the dominions of the Incas : every where else the people lived in protection? The sons of Adam must flee unto the Lord." — Timur's Institutes, p. xlviii. from the Alcoran. * See Robertson, Vol. i. p. 282. t Pinkerton, (Geog. ii. 531, 535), thinks fifteen near est the truth, in modern times ; and that, when discover ed by Columbus, the whole population did not exceed four millions, (p. 601). At the death of Queen Elizabeth, Pinkerton affirms that there was not one Englishman settled in America.

INTRODUCTION.

. 13 detached habitations, or at the utmost settled together in small villages; no annals whatever exist of times prior to Mango Capac. Mexico was the only city that was worthy of that name in the empire of Montezuma. The capital of the warlike Tlascalans, the implacable enemies of the Mexicans, only sixty miles from Mexico, consisted of a number of low straggling huts, built with turf and stone, and thatched with reeds; without light, except through a door so low that it could not be en tered upright* ; and though less civilized than the Mexicans, they were advanced in improvement far beyond the other rude tribes. * Such is Robertson's account of Tlascala. Clavi gero (ii. 428) affirms that Cortez, in his letter to Charles V. speaks thus of that city: " It is so large and wonderful, that although I omit a great deal of what I could say, I believe that little which I say will appear incredible; for it is much larger and more populous than Granada, when it was taken from the Moors, more strong, has as good buildings, and more abundance of every thing."

The writer is inclined to think that both of these de scriptions are exaggerations. The Tlascalans arrived in Anahuac with the seven tribes, who left Asia in 1178, before the Moguls had become civilized by their Chi-

INTRODUCTION.

. 14 The annals of Anahuac are known imperfectly from the sixth century of the Christian era. Vast journies have been made in North America, without meeting with a single in habitant for some hundreds of leagues. In the regions of the Oronoco, a traveller might go hundreds of miles, in different directions, with out finding the footsteps of a human creature. Guiana, more extensive than France, and di vided among many nations, contained only twenty-five thousand inhabitants*. Such was nese subjects: and therefore were not likely to equal the Mexican-Moguls, who were from China direct. But being the same race and speaking the same language, it seems very probable that the Tlascalans in two centuries would imitate some of the architectural conveniences and elegance of their political rivals. * Robertson, Vol. i. p. 337, Vol. ii. pp. 36, 296, 322.

" The houses in Guiana resemble our barns in Eng land; they are skilfully built, and thatched so that no rain can enter: some of them are one hundred and fifty paces long, and twenty broad, and contain one hund red people. They make good bread, and strong and pleasant drink of the cassavi root ; and have very good earthern pots, which hold above thirty gallons." — John Wilson of Wanstead, Essex, in Purchas, Vol. iv. p. 1261. A.D. 1606.

INTRODUCTION.

. 15 the condition of America when discovered by the Spaniards. When Cuzco was founded by Mango Capac, none of the civilization introduced by the Peru vians and Mexicans was in existence. At that period, says Garcillasso de la Vega, the natives of Peru were little better than tamed brutes, and some were worse than the wild ones : they adored whatever was nearest to them, mountains, stones, trees, rivers, wild beasts; apes for their cunning, dogs for their sagacity, and serpents for their prodigious size; at Puerto Vieio they worshipped an enormous emerald; some held the condor in veneration, the sea, the whale, fire, the ridge of the Cordilleras; and those who possessed numerous flocks in their pastures, adored sheep, (pacos). Their sacrifices consisted of fruits and animals, and also of men, women, and children captured in war.

They made drums of their skins, to affright their enemies, and devoured their flesh. They committed murders and burnt villages. Those among their chiefs who governed their subjects with mildness and justice, they adored

INTRODUCTION.

. as gods. Truth, says Vega, obliges me to say, that the Indians went, like the brutes, without clothing: I remember, that even in the year 1560, on my arrival from Spain at Carthagena, I met five Indians in the street, walking in a line, one after the other, like geese or storks, and entirely naked*." Before Mango Capac appeared, it is not known that there was a brick or a stone house in the whole qf America. The pyramids in the valley of Mexico, Casa Grande (see p. 282), and some interesting ruins at Tiahuanaco, near lake Chucuytuf , appear to be the only symp toms of art or architecture that existed. No • Vega, Vol. i. 38 to 59. These Indians had not been subjects of the Incas. t In the modern Upper Peru or Bolivia. The ruins are described, p. 73. It may here be mentioned that Yupanqui, the tenth Inca, met with courageous and warlike resistance, on his attempt to conquer the Chilians beyond the river Mauli ; but as no proofs of towns or civilization have ever been described as hav ing then existed in those regions, we may conclude that it was a heroic effort of the principal inhabitants, and that the Purumacas, (who are still unsubdued), frere to the Incas what the Caledonians had been to the Roman Emperors. — See Vega, B. vii. Ch.

INTRODUCTION.

. 17 iron, not a bridge, no vessel beyond a canoe, in that immense portion of the globe, so justly named the New World*. A temple, and > a considerable comparative degree of civilization will be found at Talome co, in north latitude 39° west of lake Erie; but the people bear evidence of a Mongol origin; and Talomeco is not far from two places where remains of elephants' grinders, like those of Siberia, and others of the Masto don, have been found. Bogota and Natchez bear irresistible indications of being likewise Mongol settlements; but the writer having dwelt at some length on the origin of the Peruvian and Mexican empires, he has not * What curious reflections arise at Britain having borne the same mark of distinction in the first century. " As for those who place so much confidence in the walls of Jerusalem, they would do well to consider the walls of Britain, where the inhabitants are surrounded by the sea in a kind of New World, not much inferior to the other. They have made themselves masters of that vast island too, and only assigned four legions as a guard upon it." — Josephus, B. ii. Ch. xvi. C

INTRODUCTION.

. swelled his work with more researches than were necessary to establish his point. We must fully acquiesce in the truth of the remark of the eloquent Gibbon, that " the rapid conquests of the Moguls and Tartars may be compared with the primitive convulsions of nature, which have agitated and altered the sur face of the globe" In the thirteenth century, a warlike genius appeared, with whom no other human being can in any moderate proportion be compared. His lieutenants were Cæsars and Alexanders in the magnitude of their devastations and con quests. Timougin, son of Pisouca, chief of a tribe of Mongols near lake Baikal in Siberia, was proclaimed Grand Khan, with the title of Genghis, A. D. 1205. Before the death of his grandson Kublai, the continent of Asia was nearly subdued; Europe was thrown into the utmost consternation; Japan was invaded; and, from the effects of a storm, Peru and Mex ico were fated to arise from the generals and

INTRODUCTION.

. 19 troops who escaped from that mighty expedition*. * All the continent of Asia, except Hindostan and Arabia, was subdued in 1280. (Hindostan was invaded by Timur, but not possessed by the Moguls till 1525.) Genghis's grandson, Batou, ravaged Europe with more than half a million of cavalry, to the shores of Dalmatia, and died on his march to attack Constantinople in 1256. The Emperor Frederick wrote to Henry III. of England, " A barbarous nation, called Tartars, we know not from what place, with incomparable power and numbers, not sparing sex or dignity, have come like a whirlwind into Hungary, where there has been, not far from their tents, such slaughter as has never happened in one battle. They have another army in Poland, where the Prince and Duke are slain, and another in Bohemia. The general destruction of the world, but especially of Christendom, calls for speedy succour.

They name their lord, The God of the Earth. They wear raw hides, with iron plates sewed on, as armour ; but now, with grief I speak it, are clad out of the spoils of Christians. They are incomparable archers, and cross rivers upon skins artificially sewed. Let your Excellency therefore provide and wisely consult to resist them [the Emperor was married to Henry's sister, Isabel], for they are come to subdue all the West. But they shall not perpetrate such mischief unrevenged, when Satan shall have drawn them to their deaths; when Germany prone to arms, France the nurse of soldiers, warlike Spain, fertile England, potent in men C2

INTRODUCTION.

. It is very wonderful, that there is not any proof whatever in history, of the Peruvians and and a furnished navy, nimble Wales, marshy Scotland, and Ireland, also every other region in the West, will cheerfully send choice soldiers under the quickening cross, which not only rebels but devils dread." On this event, Queen Blanche, with deep sighs and plentiful tears, said to St. Louis, " What shall we do, my dearest son, about this lamentable event?" The king, with a mournful voice, replied, " if they come on us, we shall either send them back to their Tartarian abodes, or they shall exalt us to heaven." — See Pur chas, iii. 61. Batou's frontier was the river Don, and all Russialong remained tributary. If we add to these invasions the progress of the Mongols in America, which there is strong reason to conclude reached to Rhode Island, (See Ch. XII.), their conquests and their influence have nearly surrounded the earth, in a single century.

These hardy warriors, whose chief resided at Pekin, after the death of Kublai, in 1294; being in the posses sion of such immense power and grandeur, were sur rounded by Lamas, who flattered their vanity, and ministered to their voluptuousness, so fatally for these descendants of the renowned Genghis, that they were driven from the throne of Pekin in 1369, back to then- Siberian abodes, where we find them afterwards en gaged in conflicts with Timur Bee. " The various turns of fate below" offer nothing more surprising ly striking than that of the Moguls. The last king of

INTRODUCTION.

. 21 Mexicans having had any connexion, or even the slightest knowledge of each other: for al though Cortez arrived at Yukatan in February 1519, there does not appear the least reason to conclude that when Pizarro and others landed in Peru, in 1526, such extraordinary beings as they were deemed, had ever been heard of before. When these Mongols arrived, America, we shall see, was in the rudest condition. Sud denly, two empires are founded with the pomp, ceremonies, and grandeur, of Asiatic sovereigns* : architecture, that rivalled the stupen dous works of the Romans; elegance in the arts of goldsmiths, surpassing the most delicate works of Europeans; order, justice, and subor dination : all of whose laws, military and civil Mexico was executed by Cortez in 1525 (p. 131, the date is erroneously stated to be 1523); and Baber mounted the throne of Hindostan in that year.

Pizarro first landed in Peru in 1526; and Baber, with a very inferior force, gained a victory over a powerful and dan gerous confederacy in that same year, by which he se cured the empire of Hindostan! * The opinion of the writer is, that Mango Capac, the first Inca of Peru, was a son of the Grand Khan Kublai, and that Montezuma's ancestor was a Mongol grandee from Tangut, very possibly Assam.

INTRODUCTION.

. institutions, religion, and customs, are so faithful in every respect to those of Genghis Khan's family, that their descent cannot for a moment be doubted. The Bogotans, the Natchez, and the people of Talomeco on the Ohio, all bear the strongest proofs of the same origin. All the ancient entrenchments and inscriptions dis covered in America, as far as Narraganset Bay near Boston, are, there is every probability, of Mongol origin. How many of the invaders of Japan may have reached the new world, can never be known; but by the evidence in this volume, the number must have been considerable. Most of the places peopled by these Mongols have traditions regarding conflicts with giants, (elephants). Bones of elephants and mastodontes are found in those very places, under such circumstances as to leave no doubt of the Mongols having been accompanied by numbers of those animals.

The condition of these bones corresponds with the date; and the molar teeth of several of the elephants are precisely the same as those found in Siberia, which had been entirely conquered by the Mongols, and where a number of Geng-

INTRODUCTION.

. 23 his Khan's grandsons, had, at the period we treat of, resided above fifty years. Wild elephants are found near Bogota, the probable descendants of those which accompanied the expedition; for had these animals been indigenous in America, they could not fail to exist there now in very great numbers. The unfortunate fanaticism of the first Span ish priests induced them to destroy all the an nals and records which they could find in Ame rica. But for this barbarous proceeding, the history of the Mexicans would, from their paintings called hieroglyphics, have been per fect. To add to the confusion, the fables and mysterious traditions of the Mexican and other priests survived the literal annals of the go vernments, and are confounded with the true records. In these researches they have been in general considered as mere tricks, such as are known to be practised by the Buddists in Tangut, Thibet, and Mongolia. Whoever treats them otherwise, will surely find, that Fables of Lamas, " are hard things to hit," In them, " no-meaning puzzles more than wit."

INTRODUCTION.

. After the arrival of the Spaniards in America, their astonishment, their exaggerations, and their quarrels among themselves produced such misrepresentations, that while one reports the people in the city of Mexico to amount to 60,000, another says, there was that number of houses. Although the population of the new world was then estimated to consist of about forty millions, Las Casas charges his countrymen with having massacred more than that number*. * Bartholomew De. Las Casas was born at Seville, in 1474. In 1493 he went to America, and returned to Spain in 149S ; when he became an ecclesiastic, and rector of Zaguarama in Cuba : in 1544, he was appointed to be Bishop of Chiapa in Mexico ; in 1551 he returned to Spain, and died in 1566, aged 92. This humane Spaniard describes the Indians as a gentle and tractable race ; but his outrageous exagger ations make it impossible to know how much to credit of his narrative ; he enumerates millions massacred in Honduras, Venezuela, Peru, Mexico, Hispaniola, 600,000 in Jamaica, &c. " I take God," says he, " in witness of this, and all the hierarchies and thrones of angels, and all the saints of the heavenly court, and all men living. I also discharge my conscience by declar ing that if his Majesty should grant the repartiementos

INTRODUCTION.

. 25 One Spaniard estimates the human sacrifices on the completion of Montezuma's temple, at 72,344, while another declares the greatest number of sacrifices in one year not to exceed (shares of land) to the Spaniards, the Indies in a short space, will be a desert like Hispaniola." It is shocking to reflect that this virtuous Protector of the Indians, was betrayed by his ardour into the inconsistency of proposing to purchase negroes, as slaves, to work the mines, and cultivate the ground, which he declared to be lawful. His plan being adopted, Charles V. granted a patent to a Fleming for importing 4000 negroes into America ; this man sold his privilege to some Genoese merchants, for 25,000 ducats: such was the origin of that afflicting traffic : and in 1593, Sir Richard Haw kins reports (Purchas, Vol. v. 948) that there were 100,000 negroes at Lima.

Sepulveda, a Spanish divine, wrote a justification of the wars against the Indians. He requested per mission of the Royal Council to print it, but they vir tuously refused. They regarded the subject rather as theological than political, and referred it to the Univer sities of Alcala and Salamanca, who both pronounced that it ought not to be committed to the press. The fanatical author being determined to carry his point, sent his book to Rome, where it was printed : but the humane Emperor prohibited its circulation. — See Pur chas, iv. pp. 1568, 1601. Rees's Cyc. " Casas." " Se pulveda."

INTRODUCTION.

. 100. If we add to this the destruction of all the records that could be procured, and the loss of the ship which Cortez sent to Charles V. containing the most curious productions of the Mexican artisans*, some idea may be formed of the scarcity and imperfection of the materials for the construction of such an essay as the present. From the uncertain and fluctuating nature of the languages in Mongolia, and in America, attempts to prove facts by etymological simila rities, have been avoided as much as possible. The spelling of Spanish and Indian names in this volume, may not always exactly correspond with that of Spanish authors ; the writer, not being acquainted with their language, has made use of French or English translations. Whenever the word Indian occurs, it must be considered to mean American Indians: this general name being applied without distinction to the most civilized as well as to the most sa vage inhabitants, in many instances completely * Robertson, Vol. ii. 285.

INTRODUCTION.

27 confuses the notions of the reader, who is not on his guard : it is one of the numerous difficulties in elucidating the history. The early annals of the Peruvians and Mex icans, not being known in any degree to com mand confidence, have not been dwelt on; whenever any details were required, the writer has preferred the latest which he could meet with. There are no known human establishments or antiquities, in all America, that can justify the conclusion of a very ancient population: but who will venture to guess, what may be discovered in art or in nature, in those vast regions, when, in the comparatively small Island of the most ma ritime nation on the globe, the cave of Fingal, one of the most wonderful natural curiosities in the world, existed undiscovered by any one who could describe it, till Mr. Leach gave Sir Joseph Banks a hint, which induced him, in company with the learned bishop Van Troil, on their return from Iceland, in 1772, to visit Staffa. " What," says Sir Joseph, " are cathe-

INTRODUCTION.

. drals'and palaces, built by men, but mere play things, compared with this : where is now the boast of the architect*?" If we add to these considerations the jealousy of Spain, and her complete success in pre venting her natural subjects, both in Europe and America, from any intercourse that would throw light on the history of nature or of mans : and also the care with which the Indians hide every thing they can from their conquerors; we may even now consider that portion of America as an infant world, notwithstanding the partial sunshine recently thrown on it, by the efforts of a truly enlightened traveller. * Pennant's Scotland, Vol. ii. 299. f Mr. Bullock says, in his description of ancient Mexico, p. 43, that, " with Baron Humboldt's circum stantial account of the group of the pyramids of Teotihu acan, eight leagues from Mexico, in his hand, he could obtain no information of them in Mexico.

Some of the best informed had heard of them, but supposed that Baron H. had been imposed on. All inquiries on the road were ineffectual, till, at the end of the second day's search, he saw them towering above the woods of Nopal; and the platforms were perfectly visible at the distance of two miles. On the top of that of the Moon, they

INTRODUCTION.

. 29 J. Reinhold Forster, in his History of Dis coveries made in the North, Vol. iv. p. 43, men tions his suspicion, that the kingdoms of Peru and Mexico were founded by the troops sent by Kublai to subdue Japan. There may also have been others of that opinion, but not any have been met with by the writer. Those who have other convictions in their minds, regarding the subject of this volume, will, as is natural, hesitate to admit the full suc cess of the author in his endeavours to decide upon the hitherto mysterious origin of the Mex icans and Peruvians in particular: but if his success be not allowed to be complete, he feels perfectly assured, that he has found out the true road, which is to lead to the perfection of that knowledge, as far as history exists to pro mote future endeavours. found a small temple which had had a door and windows.