25 



of those commercial connections with foreigner! 

 which are the only means of polishing a people. 

 The neighbouring nations were in a state of still 

 greater rudeness than themselves, except the 

 Peruvians, a connection with whom, from their 

 ambition of dominion they would more studiously 

 avoid than cherish. They learned, however, 

 some things from them during the time that they 

 were in possession of the northern provinces, at 

 which period they had attained that middle 

 point between the savage and civilized state, 

 known by the name of barbarism. Notwith- 

 standing these unfavourable circumstances, the 

 variety of their occupations, which multiplied 

 the objects of their attention, gradually enlarged 

 the sphere of their ideas. 



They had progressed so far in this respect, ai 

 to invent the numbers requisite to express any 

 quantity, mart signifying with them ten, pataca 

 SL hundred, and guaranca a thousand. Even the 

 Romans possessed no simple numerical terms of 

 greater value, and indeed calculation may be 

 carried to any extent by a combination of these 

 principal decimals. 



To preserve the memory of their transactions^ 

 they made use, as other nations have done, of the 

 pron, called by the Peruvians quippo, which was 

 a skein of thread of several colours with a 

 number of knots. The subject treated of was 

 indicated by the colours, and the knots designated 



