Geographical Collectionsk 39f 



The historical traditions of the Muyscayans also conduct us to Japan or to 

 Asia ; for their first pontiff', the mysterious Bochica, whose name Stie, is that of 

 the sun, and who laid the upland_^of Bogota dry, after a fatal inundation, by a 

 deft in the rocks, reminds us of Yao, whose name applies to the rising sun, a 

 king as celebrated at Japan as he is in China, and under whom the fatal deluge 

 t»ok place ; and he also laid dry his empire by a cleft in the mountains, as Bochica 

 did when he produced the beautiful cataract so elegantly described by De Hum- 

 boldt. 



We may still trace some relation with the Japanese traditions, when we heaar 

 that Bochica elected for first king of the dried country the wise and illustrionff 

 Huncahua ; while the Muyscayans state that the king Yao had for successor the 

 prince Chun, not less celebrated for his virtues than the first Zaque or king of 

 Bogota, Huncahua. The names have even the same pronunciation Chun or Hon. 



Perhaps we may consider nothing better proved in philosophy than the purely 

 Japanese origin of the most civilized tribes of New Grenada and of the upland of 

 Bogota ; and indeed all the travellers that have penetrated either into Mexico or 

 Brazil, or to Bogota, have been struck with the analogy of features and figure 

 which exists between the more or less copper-coloured races of America and the 

 yellowish race of Mogul and the tribes of the north-east of Asia ; the want of 

 beard, the black and thick hair being characters equally common to these people, 

 who almost come in contact in the north at Behring's Straits. 



Having sufficiently dilated upon the relations which exist even in the writ- 

 ings of the two people, (for the figures of the Muyscayan numbers given by 

 De Humboldt are only a running hand of the Japanese,) let us only dra^v the 

 philosophical and Christian conclusion, that these results tend still further to cor- 

 roborate that evidence which supposes that America, as well as Africa and Eu- 

 rope itself, so long covered with dark forests, has received its population, as well 

 as its language, its writing, its religion, its traditions, and its sciences from an- 

 cient Asia, where Genesis shows us the first men escaping from the last cataclysm 

 which ravaged the earth and destroyed the Atlantis. 



Very soon this complete harmony of the traditions of all people, and their ad- 

 mirable agreement with the best observations of geologists, will exhibit themselves 

 with an irresistible force to all minds divested of prejudice. Instead of endeavour- 

 ing to extinguish a wish to investigate these subjects, such a desire should be en- 

 couraged ; for those who, in the midst of so many different interests, have indus- 

 try to watch the general progress of discovery, will see every thing tend to the 

 same important result, that which more and more establishes the unity of the hu- 

 man species, and the trutli of the grave and antique traditions contained in the 

 sacred book of Moses, and found under a form that is often very little disfigured 

 among all tribes, even among those whom isolation and the most pressing phy- 

 sical wants have rendered half stupid. 



We might recal here all the traces of Genesis recognised by De Humboldt 

 among the different tribes of America. It is true that the learned traveller hats' 

 appeared to consider these striking memorials as a kind of mythology ; but the 

 labours which are at this moment carried on both in ancient Europe and in the 

 elevated parts of Asia, will, we have no doubt, assist materially in uniting and 

 explaining these scatteretl traditions ; and we are not far from that time wheiT 

 they will only be illiterate persons who boast of their incredulity. 



EMract from a Letter of Dr. Siehold to tlie Lieut. Gmenwr-Genend of the 



Dutch possessions in India, at Batavia Dezima, loth Feb. 1829 During 



my residence at Sedo the imperial astronomer and librarian, Frakahasi-Sakusai- 

 mon, promised to procure me a copy of the maps of the empire of Japan, con- 

 structed during the last ten years by order of the emperor, according- to the Eu- 

 ropean method. I received them towards the end of the year 1820, and in tire" 

 spring of 1827, accompanied by some other works of interest concerning Rraffo' 

 Tartly and the Archipelago of Linkin, and at the same time I.keptup a con- 



