30 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



filed fuch oceans of human blood, the City of 

 Angels, but to which the Mexicans give the name 

 of Cuet-lax-coi4pan, that is, the fnake in the water, 

 becaufe that of two fountains, which iflue from 

 thence, one is poifonous ; they call the MiJJîJfipi, 

 that great river of North America, which the na- 

 tives denominate MéchaJJipiy the father of waters ; 

 the Cordelières, thofe high mountains bordering on 

 the South Sea, which are always covered with 

 fnow, and which are called by the Peruvians, in 

 the royal language of the Incas, Ritifiiyu, fnow» 

 ridge ; and fo of an infinite number of other pro- 

 per names. They have ftripped the works of 

 Nature of their diftindive characters, and Nations 

 of their monuments. 



On reading thefe ancient names, with their ex- 

 planations, in Garcillafo de la Vega, in Thomas Gage, 

 and the earlieft navigators, you have impreffed on 

 the mind, by means of a few fimple words, the land- 

 fcape of every country, and fomething of it's natural 

 Hiftory : without taking into the account, the re- 

 fpe(5t attached to their antiquity, for this renders 

 the places, which they defcribe, ftill more vene- 

 rable. Thofe only of the Chinefe, who traffic with 

 the Europeans, know that their country is called 

 China. The name given it by the inhabitants is 

 Chiiim-hoa, the middle-kingdom. They change the 

 iiame of it, when the families of their fovereigns 



become 



