116 JVotice of Peruvian jlniiquities. 



lieve is not common with the vegetable acids. I have also observed 

 that this fruit has the remarkable property of imparting a beautiful 

 orange color to animal oils. Very respectfully yours, 



Eli W. Bjlake. 



Art. XIII. — JVotice of Peruvian Antiquities. 



Translated for this Journal, from the Spanish of the Lima Journal of Prof. RiverO; 

 of January, 1828 ; with a print of ancient images. 



The history of tlie American nations, which offers so much in- 

 terest to modern hterature, is yet involved in a darkness which with 

 difficulty can be illustrated by some important documents, so as to 

 give us even an imperfect idea of it. Who were the first inhabitants 

 of this great hemisphere ? According to ideas that have been trans- 

 mitted to us by historians, respecting Quetzalcoatl, Bochica, and Man- 

 co-Capac, holy and mysterious men, we know that they were the 

 first who appeared in different places, to give laws, and to introduce 

 the customs of the conquerors. These persons, adorned with vir- 

 tues and talents, are represented to us with sacerdotal robes. The 

 first who was legislator of the Aztecas, came from Panuco, a stream 

 of the Gulf of Mexico. Bochica, a white person, with a long white 

 beard, appeared in the Cordilleras of Bogota, from the plains of Cas- 

 anare, as legislator of the Muscas. Manco-Capac, celebrated for his 

 laws, and for the empire which he formed, was the one who was 

 chosen to unite the worthy Peruvians into society. 



The history of these illustrious men is lost in obscurity, and only 

 their names, which were respected by their vassals, have deserved 

 to be preserved in the archives of their documents, as just and wise 

 men, to whom they owed so many benefits. We are ignorant of 

 the time, as well as the place, whence these extraordinary persons 

 came, and the imagination overreaches its limits, when it attempts to 

 investigate the manner in which this continent was populated. The 

 theories formed by sagacious persons, respecting this subject, dis- 

 cover no other desire but that of following the false traditions of the 

 first conquerors, who, with very covetous ideas, and intoxicated with 

 the gold which they found, forgot the investigations respecting so in- 

 teresting a subject, and sought only to gratify their cupidity ; in their 

 monuments, (which might have revealed to us some truth,) they only 

 took notice of the hidden treasures, without considering that they 

 were more precious, and more interesting than the magnificence 



