±44 Conjeclures r effecting the 



of all the taxes." which the inca received annually ; they con- 

 tained alfo the roll of all the warriors, and a lift of the births, 

 deaths, &c. 



They denoted alfo certain words or modes of fpeech : when 

 the inca, for example, fent an embaffy to any foreign powers, 

 the latter could comprehend the inca's meaning, though they 

 did not underftand the proper words. Whatfome hiftorians 

 juTert, that the Peruvians employed different coloured threads, 

 with knots upon them, in the .Head of our twenty- four letters-, 

 Ts entirely falfe. They'cOuld always exprefs any thing, toge- 

 ther with the circumftances of time and place, but never the 

 meaning in literal words ; much lefs were thefe knots a fub- 

 ftitute for hiftorical books. Garcilaffo de la Vega, therefore, 

 a defcendant of thefe incas, did not compofe his hiftory from 

 information preferved bv means of thefe parti -coloured knots, 

 but from the oral tradition of his predeceffbrs. 



In a wOrd, thefe qu'ipii were merely arbitrary; for they 

 could be changed at pleafure, and arranged in a quite dif- 

 ferent manner. The incas, therefore, did not always adopt 

 the fame arrangement; but, according to the nature of the 

 thing, changed one colour for another, fuited to the meaning 

 they had affigned to them. If the Peruvians, therefore, came 

 originally from another quarter of the world, thev aredefcend- 

 cd, in m$ opinion, from the Chinefe. The diftance between 

 thefe two nations is, however, too great; whether they tra- 

 velled the Pacific ocean, pafTed through the ft raits of Magel- 

 lan, or, what amounts to the fame thing, doubled Cape Horn. 

 The laft way is longer than the firft, and by far too difficult 

 and dangerous. Their paffage through the Pacific ocean may 

 have been oecafioned by fome accident; though, in my opi- 

 nion, they did not all arrive at the fame period. They might 

 land on fome of the iflands which thev found by the way, 

 reft there for a time, and provide themfelves with a further 

 fupply of provifions. It may, however, be objected, that the 

 Chinefe (hips were made or too frail materials to hold out 

 during fuch a long paffage. But we have everv reafon to 

 think that the Chinefe vefifels would, on the contrary, be 

 fuffieient for that purpofe ; especially as we know that the 

 Ruffians who live on the .lakuik have proceeded with their 

 paltry vefTels from the Lena, paft the Eiffen and Tfchuktfeht 

 Nofs, t.s far as the mouth of the Anadir; which the largeft 

 and ftrong^ft built (hips employed for the expedition fent out 

 under the emprefs Anne, and which coftfo much expenfe, 

 could not have done. Who firft peopled Solomon's iflands, 

 between Alia and 'America; which were difcovered under the 

 reigti of Philip If., a'nd, according to the teltimony of Ulloa, 



were 



