THE AMERICAN MIGRATION. 341 



gration are not susceptible of being followed in Central America with the same 

 certainty as in the more northern Mexico. To the philologist alone it pertains 

 to investigate, in the manifold dialects of the former country, the intermixture 

 of the Nahuatl element as it spread southwardly to Nicaragua, and thus to sup- 

 ply incontrovertible proofs of the migration. 



A wide space separates the ruins of Palenque and Olancho from the elevated 

 lands of Cundinamarca. A dense obscurity rests upon the countries of th« 

 isthmus, Costa Rica, Chiriqui, Panama, and Choco ; but imperfectly explored in 

 relation to geography, they are still more unknown in relation to archeology. 

 On the luxuriant and picturesque shores of Lake Nicarargua we lose, as it were, 

 the bond which might connect the populations of the north and south continents 

 of America. For ten degrees of latitude nearly all traces of the past vanish, 

 and it is only on the South American main land, in the mountains of New 

 Grenada, that wC again perceive a gleam of dawning civilization, which was for 

 a long time almost wholly overlooked. Yet a doubt can scarcely exist but that 

 the migration continued to advance in those little knoAvn dit^tricts of the isthmus. 

 In Chiriqui have recently been discovered and explored some of the burial 

 places of the natives,* which are similar to those known in Peru by the namo 

 of huacas. Were these districts more thoroughly explored, it is quite probable 

 that the search would be rewarded by the discovery of sepulchral or other 

 vestges of civilization, calculated to throAv more light on the tortunes of these 

 provinces. 



On the South American continent the points which offer themselves for the 

 prosecution of our inquiry respecting the migration are of far less frequent 

 occurrence than in the northern portion of America. That pari of the Cordil- 

 leras of the Andes, whose western foot is bathed by the E-io Magdalena, and 

 Avhich, stretching ni a northeast direction, forms the lofty phi ins of l^ogota and 

 Tunja, wliich further south rises into the profound solitudes of Paramo de Suma 

 Paz, was inhabited at the time of the discovery of these countries by the Chibcha 

 race,t whom the Spaniards improperly denominated Muyscas.f These people 

 still exist in the country, but have almost entirely forgotten their ancient lan- 

 guage, which was soft, flowing, and copious. § As far as is known to myself, 

 nothing has as yet been found to enlighten us respecting an immigration of this 

 race, unless it be their peculiar legend of the mythical personality of Bochica, 

 which certainly possesses a striking resemblance to the Quetzalcohuatl of the 

 Toltecs.' There can be little doubt that the obscurity which rests on the past 

 history of the Chibchas will be greatly dispelled by the indefatigable ardor of 

 Dr. Ezequiel Uriocoechea,|| of Santa Fe de Bogota, who has applied the re- 



* King Menitt : Report on the hutcas or ancient graveyards of Chiriqui, read before the 

 Ethnological Society, New York, 1860. 



tTbe land of tbc Cbibchas comprised the lofty plateaus of Bogota and Tunja, the valleys 

 of Fusagasuga, Pacbo, Caqueza, and Tensa, together with the whole of the districts of 

 Ubate, ChiqniBqnird, Moniquird, and Leyva, and could in ancient times number a popula- 

 tion of 2,000 to the square league, thus falling little if at all behind the most thickly peopled 

 tracts of Europe. The Chibchas were a people of somewhat advanced civilization, possess- 

 ing temples of the sun with stone pillars, remains of which have been found iii the valley of 

 Leyva. Monuments peculiar to the Chibcha architecture occur in the Cojincs of Tunja, the 

 Calzada of the plain of Pataqu6 and the ruins of Infierito. The Chibchas, however, seem 

 never to have attained the degree of culture of the more southern Peruvians. 



t A. V. Humboldt reproves this use of the term Muysca, which in the Chibcha language 

 simply means "man." (Aus. d. Nat., ii, 270.) 



<^ The best book which we yet have respecting this remarkable people is that of Joaquiu 

 Acosta. Compendia historir.o del discubrimiento y colonizacion de la Xueva Grenada; Pans, 

 184H. 



II To this writer, who is at present occupied in publishing the "Monumenta Chibcharum, " 

 we already owe the valuable work Memoria subre las antiquedades neu-granadmas, Beiiiu, 

 1854. 



