244 Accoiuit of M. Hinnboldt^s Travels 



vailed during that period. When the quantity of volcanic 

 matters which are found in the plain of Tapia around the 

 enormous moujitain which then crumbled to pieces, is con- 

 sidered, and when we reflect that Cotopaxi has often in- 

 volved Quito in darkness for fifteen or eighteen hours, we 

 mav believe that the exaggeration of this account is not 

 verv great. This manuscript, the traditions which I col- 

 lected at Parime, and the hieroglyphics I saw in the desert 

 of Casiquiare, where at present' no vestiges of mankind re- 

 main, added to the ideas offered by Clavigero respecting the 

 emigration of the Mexicans towards the southern part of 

 America, have given rise to some conjectures on the origin 

 of these people, which 1 purpose to explain as soon as I can 

 find leisure. 



I have applied also with ureal assiduity to the study of the 

 American languaocs, and I have seen how much what La 

 Condamine savs of their povertv is false. The Carib lan- 

 guage is rich, bcautifid, energetic, and polished : it is in 

 no want of expressions for abstract ideas. It speaks of 

 posterity, eternity, existence, 8cc.; and the numerical signs 

 are sufficient to express all the possible combinations of fi- 

 gures. I applied in particular to the Inca language: it is 

 generally spoken in company ; and is so rich in delicate and 

 varied phrases, that the young men, in order to say soft 

 things to the ladies, when thev have exhausted all the re- 

 sources of the Castillan, beoin to speak Inca. These two 

 languages, and others equally rich, are sufficient to prove 

 that America formerly possessed a greater degree of culture 

 than the Spaniards found there in lig^J. But I have col- 

 lected still further proofs, not onlv at Mexico and in Peru, 

 but even at the court of the king of Bogota, a country the 

 history of which is absolutely unknown in Europe, and whose 

 mythology even and fabulous traditions are highly inter- 

 esting. Th(; priests were acquainted with the art of draw- 

 ing a meridian line, and observing the momciit of the sol- 

 stice. Thev reduced the lunar year to a solar by interca- 

 lations ; and I have in mv possession a heptagon stone, 

 found near Santa Fe, which they employed for calculating 

 these iiitercalary days. But what is still more, even at Ere- 

 vato, in the interior of Parime, the savages believe that tlie 

 moon is inhabited bv men ; and know bv tradition from 

 their ancestors, that it derives its light from the sun. 



From Hiobamba I proceeded by the famous paramo of 

 Assuay towards CueiK^-a, after having visited the large sul- 

 phur mines of Tirrau. It was this mountain of sulphur 

 which the negroes who revolted in 1797, after the earth- 

 quake, attempted to set on fire. This no doubt was the 



mo^t 



