ILLUSTRATIONS (^tt). NEMTEREQUETEBA. 425 



luilding aqueducts to provide a plentiful supply of water, and 

 constructing drainage for carrying all the uncleanliness of the 

 city into the Tiber. They likewise paved all the roads in 

 the country, so that the merchandize brought by trading 

 vessels might be conveniently transported from place to 

 place." 



(8) p. 397 " Nemterequetela, the messenger of God." 



Civilization in Mexico (the Aztec country of Anahuac), and 

 in that country which, in the Peruvian theocracy, was called 

 the Empire of the Sun, has so rivetted the attention of 

 Europe, that a third point of dawning civilization, the moun- 

 tainous regions of New Granada, was long totally lost sight 

 of. I have already treated this subject in some detail.* 

 The government of the Muyscas of New Granada bore 

 some resemblance to the constitution of Japan: the tem- 

 poral ruler corresponded with the Cubo or Seogun at 

 Jeddo, and the spiritual ruler was like the sacred Dairi 

 at Meaco. The table-land of Bogota was called by the 

 natives of the country Bacata, i. *., the utmost limit 

 of the cultivated plains considered with reference to the 

 mountain wall. When Gonzalo Ximenez de Quesada 

 advanced thither he found the country ruled by three powers, 

 whose relative subordination one to another is not now clearly 

 understood. The spiritual chief was the electoral high priest 

 of Iraca or Sogamoso (Sugamuxi, the place at which 

 Nemterequeteba is said to have disappeared), the temporal 

 princes were the Zake (Zaque of Hunsa or Tunja), and the 

 Zipa of Funza. The last-named prince seems to have been, 

 in the feudal constitution, originally subordinate to the Zake. 



The Muyscas had a regular system of computing time, with 

 intercalation for the amendment of the lunar year. For money 

 they made use of small circular gold plates, cast, and all 

 equal in diameter, (a circumstance worthy of remark, as traces 

 of coinage even among the ancient and highly civilized Egyp- 

 tians have hitherto been sought in vain). Their temples of 

 the Sun were built with stone columns, some vestiges of 

 which have recently been discovered in Leiva.f The race of 



* See Vues des Cordilleres et Monumens des peuples indigenes de 

 VAmerique, ed. in 8vo. t. ii. pp. 220267. 



f Joaquin Acosta, Compendia historico del Descubrimiento dv Li 



