i84 OBSERVATIONS CONCERNING 



between the beginning of the fevcnth and the middle of 

 the twelfth century. 



Whatever credit may be due to this traditional account 

 concerning the Toltecas ; whether they were the an- 

 ceftors of the Peruvians, as 1 have fometimes been in- 

 duced to believe ;* whether they were an aboriginal or 

 foreign colony whofe progeny excites no more, or whe- 

 ther the whole is a tale that has no foundation in truth, 

 1 Ihall not paufe to inquire. Whatever may be the fate 

 of thefe fpeculations concerning the Toltecas, I think no 

 perfon that has minutely attended to the numerous vef- 

 tiges which are daily difcovered in various parts of North- 

 America, will hefitate to believe, that there has been a 

 period when a great part of this continent was inhabited' 

 by nations who were more niunerous than the prefent 

 races of Indians, and who had attained to a confiderable 

 degree of improvement in the arts. 



The veftiges to which I allude are of various kinds. 

 They are principally, howevei', mounds of earth of dif- 

 ferent forms and fizes ; fome of them, undoubtedly, de- 

 pofitories of human bones ; whilft others appear to have 

 been conftruited as the bafes of temples, that were erec- 

 ted during the extenfive reign of an hideous fuperftition 

 in America. Others, again, and thefe are the principal, 



* The empire of the Toltecas is faid to have terminated about the year 

 1052. The Spaniards firft arrived in Peru in the year 152O, at which time 

 Huana Capac was the reigning monarch of the country. According to 

 the Peruvian flory, Huana was the twelfth monarch, in fucceffion, from 

 Manco Capac, who is faid to have founded the Empire about four hundred 

 years before. This period will carry us back to within lefs than one hundred 

 years of the end of the Toltecan empire. My account of the Toltecas is 

 taken from the Abbe Saverio Clavigero's Hijlory of Mexico, one of the moll 

 valuable works that has ever been publifhed on the fubjeft of America. 

 the B'ljiory of Mexico, colkOed from Spanifh and Mexican Hiflorians, &C. tranf- 

 lated irom the original Italian by Charles Cullen, Efq. Vol. I. p. 83, 84, 

 i<5, 88, and 89. London: 1787. It is rather remarkable that Acofta 

 jpakes no mention of the Toltecas. 



appear 



