THE HUMAN SPECIES. 249 



tutions, religious, humane and moral, the legislator of 

 the Yncas has rarely been considered by the learned 

 to be of indigenous origin, but more generally as a Ja- 

 panese or a Brahman philosopher, who, if he were an 

 Asiatic, certainly did not traverse the Pacific alone. 

 Several nations in both parts of the continent, had, like 

 the Oceanians of the South Sea, and of the north-east 

 of Asia, a bone thrust through the cartilage of the nose ; 

 they had also swords with tassel handles, like the 

 Malays, feather mantles, and decorations like natives 

 of the Sandwich and other Polynesian islands. 



The progressing nations, and, in particular, among 

 those of Anahuac, the Mexicans, were a bearded and 

 hairy race, and being in a state of greater civiliza- 

 tion than other American tribes, they were in a con- 

 dition of representing more circumstantially the tenor 

 of their ancestral history. Accordingly, they had tra- 

 ditions, supported by hieroglyphical maps, which mark- 

 ed the stages of their ancient migration from the north 

 to their arrival on the plateau of the Andes, where they 

 founded Mexico in 1325 of our era, according to Cla- 

 vigero. They had then already resided at Tula and its 

 vicinity for above a century, gradually dislodging other 

 tribes, who had successively pressed upon each other 

 from the same quarter. These were chiefly the Acal- 

 huans, Chichimecas and Toltecs, whose first arrival is 

 referred to so early a time as the year 648 ; and even 

 these were posterior to the Ulmecs : but the dates may 

 not be safely relied upon ; and the charts themselves, 

 though still existing, at least in copies, cannot be 



