72 ORIGIN OF AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 



LIU. i. 11O vse o f bookes, or writing; in steode whereof they vse 

 counting with their Quipu-camayocs, 1 the which is peculiar 

 vnto them. By which reckoning all they can report is not 

 past 400 yeeres. Instructing my selfe carefully of them, to 

 know from what land and what nation they passed, to that 

 where they now live, I have found them so farre vnable to 

 give any reason thereof, as they beleeve confidently, that 

 they were created at their first beginning at this new world, 

 where they now dwell. But we have freed thern of this 

 ct. xvii. m-rorj)y .pur faith, which teacheth vs that all men came from 

 the first man. There are great and apparant coniectures, 

 that these men for a long time had neither Kings nor 

 common wealcs, but lived in troupes, as they do at this day 

 in Florida, the Chiriguanas, 2 those of Bresill, and many other 

 nations, which have no certaine Kings, but as occasion is 

 offered in peace or warre, they choose their Captaines as 

 they please. But some men excelling others in force and 

 on. x. wit, began in time to rule and domineere as Nembrot 3 did; 

 so increasing by little and little, they erected the kingdomes 

 of Peru and Mexico, which our Spaniards found ; and 

 although they were barbarous, yet did they farre surpasse 

 all the other Indians. Behold how the foresaid reason doth 

 teach vs that the Indians began to multiply, for the most 

 part, by savage men and fugitives, which may suffice 

 touching the beginning of these men we speake of, leaving 

 the rest vntill we treate of their Historie more at large. 



1 The Quipn-camayoc was the officer in charge of the quipus or knot 

 records of the Yncas. 



2 A wild tribe in forests to the east of the Andes. 



3 Nimrod. 



