116 Notice of Peruvian Antiquities. 
lieve is not common with the vegetable acids. I have also observed 
that this fruit has the remarkable property of imparting a beautiful 
orange color to-animal oils. Very respectfully yours, 
Eur W. Buaxe. 
Arr. XU—Notice of Peruvian Antiquities. 
Translated for this Journal, from the Spanish of the Lima Journal of Prof. Rivero, 
of January, 1828 ; with a print of ancient images, 
Tue history of the American nations, which offers. so much in- 
terest to modern literature, is yet involved in a darkness which with 
difficulty can be illustrated by some important documents, so as to 
give us even an imperfect idea of it. Who were the first inhabitants 
of this great hemisphere? According to ideas that have been trans- 
mitted to us by historians, respecting Quetzalcoatl, Bochica, and Man- 
co-Capac, holy and mysterious men, we know that they were the 
first who appeared in different places, to give laws, and to introduce 
the customs of the conquerors. These persons, adorned with vir- 
tues and talents, are represented to us with.sacerdotal robes. The 
first who was legislator of the Aztecas, came from Panuco, a stream 
of the Gulf of Mexico. Bochica, a white person, with a long white 
beard, appeared in the Cordilleras of Bogota, from the plains of Cas- 
anare, as legislator of the Muscas. Manco-Capac, celebrated for his 
laws, and fos the empire which he formed, was the one who was 
chosen to unite the worthy Peruvians into society. 
‘The history of these illustrious men is lost in obscurity, and only 
their names, which were respected by their vassals, have deserved 
to be preserved in the archives of their documents, as just and wise 
men, to whom they owed so. many benefits. We are ignorant of 
the time, as well as the place, whence these extra ordinary persons 
came, and the imagination overreaches its limits, when it attempts to 
investigate the manner in which this continent was populated. The 
theories formed by sagacious persons, respecting this subject, dis- 
cover no other desire but that of following the false traditions of the 
first conquerors, who, with very covetous aS and intoxicated with 
the gold which they found, forgot the: i investigations respecting so in- 
teresting a subject, and sought only to gratify their cupidity ; in their 
monuments, — might have revealed to us some truth,) they only 
took notice of the hidden treasures, without considering that they 
were more precious, and more interesting than the magnificence 
