STUDY XI, 353 



Mankind, encompafled with fo many bleffings, 

 continues to be wretched. There is not a fingle 

 genus of animal but what lives in abundance and 



liberty, 



many families of thofe countries ; by the traditions of the Ca- 

 raïbs fcattered over the Antilles, and in Brafil, who give them- 

 felves out as originally from Peru ; by the very eftablifhment of 

 that Monarchy of Peru, as well as that of Mexico, fituated on the 

 weftern coaft of America, which looks toward the iflands of the 

 South-Sea, and by the populoufnefs of their Nations, which were 

 much more confiderable, and more polifhed than thofe which 

 inhabited the eaftern coafts, which fuppofes the former to be of 

 a much higher antiquity; by the prodigious diffufion of the 

 Taïtian language, the different dialecls of which are fpread over 

 moft of the iflands of the South-Sea, and of which words innu- 

 merable are to be found in the language of Peru, as has lately 

 been proved by a gentleman of great learning, and even in that 

 of the Malays in Afia, fome of which I myfelf was able to diftin- 

 guifh, particularly the word mate which fignifies to kill ; by the 

 practices common and peculiar to the Nations of the Peninfula 

 of Malacca, of the iflands of Afia, of thofe of the South-Sea and 

 of Brafil, which are not the infpiration of Nature, fuch as that of 

 making fermented and intoxicating liquors, and of chewing 

 herbs and roots ; by the channels of the commerce of antiquity 

 which flowed in this direction, fuch as that of gold, which was 

 very common in Arabia and in the Indies, in the time of the 

 Romans, though there be very few mines of that metal in Afia ; 

 but above all, by the trade of emeralds, which muft have run in 

 that track from remote antiquity, in order to reach the Old Con- 

 tinent, where no mine of that gem is to be found. Hear what is 

 faid on this fubjecl. by Tavemier, who is worthy of credit when 

 he fpeaks of the commerce of Afia, efpecially as it relates to 

 jewels. " It is an error of long ihnding," fays he, " which 

 vol. in. a a " many 



