PICTURE-WRITING. 347 



Charlevoix and several other travellers testify, that this kind of 

 writing, or rather painting, was used by the North American In. 

 dians, to record their past events, and to communicate their 

 thoughts to their distant friends. The same kind of character! 

 were found by Strahh nberg upon the rocks in Siberia ; and the 

 author of the book, intitled, De vet. Lit. IJun. Scyth. p. 15, mentions 

 certain innkeepers in Hungary, who used hieroglyphic reprcsenta. 

 tions, not only to keep their accounts, but to describe their debt, 

 ors : so that if one was a soldier, they drew a rude kind of sword ; 

 for a smith or carpenter, a hammer or an axe ; and, if a carter, a 

 whip. See Histoire Generate des Voyages, Paris, 1754. 4lo. 



The inhabitants of thf Friendly Islands, visited by Captain Cook, 

 in 1779, made a great number of rude figures, to represent their 

 deities. Captain King, who accompanied Captain Cook on his last 

 expedition, brought from oneof these islands a piece of cloth, made of 

 bark, on which several rude representations, of men, birds, and 

 ornaments of dress, are depicted. Besides these, there are some 

 delineations, which have the appearance of arbitrary marks. 



This cloth is divided into twenty. three compartments ; in one of 

 which, near the centre, is a rude figure, larger than the rest, per- 

 haps of some deity, having a bird standing upon each hand : that 

 on the right hand appears to be addressing itself to his ear. This 

 figure is surrounded by three smaller ones, which may be intended 

 as ministers or attendants. The great figure is much in the stile of 

 the Mexican hieroglyphic paintings at Oxford*. 



The Egyptians undoubtedly carried this art to its greatest ex. 

 tent ; and this is one reason why they have been generally con. 



royal treasury : the figure of a circle represented a unit ; and, in small numbers, 

 the computation was made by repeating: it. Larger numbers w ere expressed by 

 peculiar marks ; and they had such as denoted all integral numbers, from twenty 

 to eight thousand. The short duration of their empire prevented the Mexicans 

 from advancing farther in that long course, which conducts men, from the la- 

 bour of delineating real objects, to the simplicity and ease of alphabetic writing. 



Their records, notwithstanding some dawn of such ideas as might have led to 

 a more perfect stile, can be considered as nothing more tlmn a species of picture- 

 writine, so far improved, as to mark their superiority over the savage tribes of 

 North America ; but still so defective, as to prove that they had not proceeded 

 far beyond the first stage, in that progress which must be completed, before any 

 people can be ranked among polished nations. See Dr. Robertson's Hint, of 

 America, vol. ii. p. 286, and note 54, p. 47? 182. 



This cloth is now in my possession. 



