392 ETHNOLOGY AND ARCHAEOLOGY. 



especial protection, and recommending the lieges and subjects of Scotland to give 

 their help and favour to the Greek in the pious object of his mission: the gather- 

 ing, from the c'larity of Christians, of a sum sufficient to ransom his brother from 

 the power of " those enemies of the Cross of Christ," as they were termed, "the 

 execrable Turks." It appeared that Nicholas Georgiades was not the only Greek 

 of the Byzantine Empire wafted to the distant coast of Scotland. In 1459-60, 

 King James II., ordered a sum of fifteen pounds to be divided between " two Knights 

 of Greece" — warriors, doubtless, whom the triumphs of the Crescent had left 

 without a home or a country. Mr. Robertson, in illustration of the intercourse be- 

 tween Scotland and t tie Eist about the end of the fifteenth century, adduced the 

 case of a vounger son of Hume of Fast Castle, whom the love of adventure or the 

 spirit of devotion had conducted to the banks of the Nile, where he rose to dis- 

 tinction in the service of the Sultan of the Mamelukt'3 reigning at Cairo. Here 

 tidings reached him that, one after another, eight of his kinsmen had died, leaving 

 him the nearest heir of the gloomy fortress and wild domain which are supposed to 

 have suggested to Scott his picture of Wolfs Crag, the last retreat of the Master of 

 Ravenswood. In order to defray the ransom of his son, the laird of Fast Castle 

 shipped from Leith forty -seven sacks of the wool of the Lammermoors — each sack 

 containing about 640 pounds weight — and the adventurer returned to Scotland in 

 1509, in the train of that young Archbishop of St. Andrews (the pupil of Erasmus) 

 along with whom he was fated so soon to fall at Flodden. Mr. Robertson added 

 that if we knew more of the individual life of our forefathers, we should perhaps 

 discover that such foreign travels as those of Cuthbert Hume were h-P3 unfrequent 

 than might be supposed. The same year, for instance, which saw his return from 

 Egypt, beheld a bailie of the Scottish burgh of Peebles departing on a pilgrimage 

 to Jerusalem. 



INDIANS OF GUATEMALA. 



Referring to a previous announcement iu the Literary Gazette, a writer in that 

 journal remarks : "At a recent sitting of the Imperial Academy of Sciences at 

 Vienna, Dr. Scberzer read a paper on a Spanish manuscript discovered in 1854 at 

 Guatemala, containing a complete history of the first Indian population of that part 

 of the continent of America, and an account of their religion, laws and manners. 

 The author of the manuscript is, it appears, a Dominican Monk, named Francisco 

 Ximenez, who was Missionary to the Indians about a hundred and thirty years 

 ago; but as he is known to have written on the Indians in the native Guichey 

 language, it is probably only a translation. It is, notwithstanding, the most valu- 

 able account of that interesting race which exists, all previous records having been 

 lost or destroyed. It was for many years feared that all the writings of Ximenes, 

 which were very voluminous, had been lost also; indeed, it was believed that the 

 religious order to which he belonged had caused them to be burned, because he 

 did not hesitate to blame in them the cruel means which the Dominicans employed 

 to convert the Indians ; but the manuscript in question was preserved in some con- 

 vent, and from it was transferred to the University of Guatemala, where it re- 

 mained until brought to light some eighteen months ago. In the account of the 

 Indian religions it mentions two curious facts, — the first, that the Indian notion of 

 the creation was: that God created eight couples at the same time; the second, 

 that the first of their race in America came from the East, beyond the seas "de 

 la otra parte de la mar del Oriente." 



D. W. 



