SOME REMAINS of ANTIQUITY. 201 



fleded as much as he appears to have read, the opinion 

 of the French antiquary would have demanded more of 

 his attention. He would have feen reafons to conchjde, 

 that long before the foundation of the Peruvian monar- 

 chy, under the guidance (jf Manco Capac and his confort 

 Mama Ocollo, the countries of Peru had been inhabited 

 by a race of people, who were probably more polifhed 

 than the Peruvians themfelves. Among thefe people, it 

 is not impr.)bable that the ufe of hardened copper was 

 known : but to deny that it was alfo known to the Mexi- 

 cans, and to the Peruvi ;ns, would be to difpute the vera- 

 city of fome of the moft refpedlable and learned men who 

 have written on the fubjedl of the Americans. Such are 

 Columbus himfelf, Acolta, tiolis, Don Ulloa, Mr. Con- 

 damine, and others.* 



Hitherto, very few fads have been difcovered to prove 

 the exiftence of copper implements among any of the 

 nations of the higher latitudes of North-America ; and 

 none have been difcovered that lojequivocally prove the 

 exigence of the art of hardening copper among thefe na- 

 tions. But as my inquiries have led me to believe, that 

 the ancient inhabitants of North- America were as polifhed 

 as the nations of South-America, fo I cannot well entertain 

 a doubt, that copper inftruments were in ufe among the 

 northern Americans, and that thefe latter, as well as the 

 former, underftood the art of hardening this metal. This 

 opinion is rendered more probable, when it is remem- 

 bered that one of the moft poliHied nations of America, 

 1 mean the Mexicans, migrated from certain countries 

 fituated north of the Vermillion-Sea ; and that in the 

 progrefs of their migration thefe tribes moved far to- 



* The art of hardening copper was known to the Greeks, and to the 

 Romans. It is f.iid to have been preferved until the taking of Conftanti- 

 nople. See An da Sieges, par M. Joly de Maizeroy, p, 4. 1778. 



wards 



