^l(y FARTTCULAKS RESPECTITNG SOUTH AMERICA, 



tongue, which was formerly general in Quito, but is now 

 ioft, having been fupplanted by the Inca or Anichna. Fortu- 

 nately another of Zapla's anceftors araufed himfelf by tr^nT- 

 lating thefe menioirs into Spanifh. We have obtained from 

 them valuable information, particularly in the inemorable 

 Nevado del period of the eruption of Nevado del Atlas, which muft 

 Atlas, once the j^^^,^. y,^^^ the higheft mountain in the world, loftier than 

 tain in the Chimboraco, and called by the Indians Capa-urcu, or chief of 



^°^'''' mountains. Thefe manufcripts, the traditions I colle6led at 



Jlieroglyphlcs. Parima, and the hieroglyphics I faw in the defert of Cafi- 

 quiare, where fcarcely a veftige of a human being is now to 

 be feen, added to what Clavigero has faid of the emigratioii 

 of the Mexicans toward the fouth, have fuggefted to me ideas 

 rcfpe6ting the origin of this people, which I fiiall purfue 

 when I have leifure. 

 American Ian- I have likewife paid much attention to the ftucly of the 

 guagfcs,not poor, ^^erican languages, and found what Condamine has faid 

 Caribee. ^f their poverty to be extremely falfe. The Caribbee is rich, 



beautiful, energetic, and polithed : it is not deflitute of ex- 

 preffions for abftra6t ideas ; and it has numerical terms fu'ffi- 

 jnca. cient for any poffible, combination of figures. The Inca is 



particularly rich in delicacy and variety of expreflion. The 

 Ancient fcience. priefls knew how to draw a meridian line, and obferve t^e 

 folftices : they h^d reduced the lunar to a folar year by in- 

 tercalations : and the favages even at Erevato, in the interior 

 of Parima, 'believe the moon to be inhabited, and know, frorh 

 the traditions of their anceftors, that its light is derived froni 

 the fun. 

 Crocodile in- At Monpox I made fome very curious experiments on the 



creafes air by refoiration of the cl'ocodile, having procured forty cir fifty 

 Vefpiration. . ^ t n i r i ■ -n • i .-. r ,i • 



young ones. Inltead oi dimmilnmg the quantity or the air 



in which it refpires like other animah, the crocodile in- 

 Air 274 oxigen, creafes it. A crocodile placed in 1000 parts of atmofpheric 

 35 carbonic yj^^ confifling of 274j oxig6n, 15 carbonic acid, and 711 

 aci , 711 azo . ^^^^^^ increafed it in an hour and forty-three minutes, by the 

 addition of 124 parts. The carbonic acid had received an' 

 augmentation of 64- parts: the oxigen had been diminiflied 

 ]67 ; buL, as 46 are contained in the carbonic acid pro- 

 duced, the crocodile had appropriated to itfeff only 1'21 

 parts, a finall quantity confidering the colour of its blood: 

 and 227 pails ofazot, or othe;- gafles/on which acidifiable 

 ' ^ bafe^ 



