FROM QUITO TO MEXICO. 321 



ing information concerning the history of those times, especially 

 with regard to the remarkable eruption of the Nevado del 

 Altar, which must at that time have been the highest mountain 

 in the world, higher even than Chimborazo, and known to the 

 Indians by the name of Capa-urku (Chief of the Mountains). 

 This event occurred in the reign of Uainia Abomatha, the last 

 independent kochokanao (king) of the country, who held his 

 court at Likan. The priests gave the following ill-omened in- 

 terpretation of this portentous catastrophe : " The "earth," said 

 they, " is changing its form ; a new order of deities are coming, 

 by whom the gods we now serve will be driven away. Let us 

 not withstand the decrees of fate ! " The worship of the sun 

 was in fact introduced by the Peruvians, in place of the old- 

 established religion. The eruption of the volcano lasted seven 

 years, and, according to Zapla's manuscript, there fell so dense 

 and perpetual a shower of ashes, that at the town of Likan 

 there was no daylight for seven years. Exaggerated as this 

 statement may- appear, it would seem not to be wholly without 

 foundation, for Quito has frequently been veiled in darkness by 

 the ashes from Cotopaxi for fifteen and eighteen hours at a 

 time ; moreover, the mass of volcanic material strewed over 

 the plain of Tapia testifies to some enormous eruption, while 

 the two lofty peaks warrant the supposition that the gigantic 

 mountain, asserted at that time to have fallen in, must some 

 time or other have been violently torn asunder. 



'The discovery of this manuscript has revived my wish to 

 investigate the early history of the aborigines of these coun- 

 tries, a desire first aroused in me by the traditions I collected 

 at Parime, and by the hieroglyphics I met with in the wilds 

 of the Casiquiare, where there is now no trace of inhabitant. 

 A recent perusal of Clavigero's account of the wanderings of the 

 Mexicans in South America has again directed my thoughts to 

 the subject, which I intend to follow up as soon as I can devote 

 time to the purpose. 



< The study of the American languages has also occupied 

 much of my attention, and I have discovered no evidence of 

 the poverty remarked by La Condamine. The Carib language, 

 for instance, combines richness, grace, power, and tenderness. 

 It affords means of expression for abstract ideas futurity, 



VOL. I. T 



