2g 



North and South America, their history is 

 not less fraught with analogies in the poli- 

 tical and religious revolutions, from which 

 dates the civilization of the Aztecks, the 

 Muyscas, and the Peruvians. Men with 

 beards, and with clearer complexions than 

 the natives of Anahuac, Cundinamarca, 

 and the elevated plain of Couzco, make 

 their appearance without any indication of 

 the place of their birth; and, bearing the 

 title of high priests, of legislators, of the 

 friends of peace, and the arts, which flourish 

 under its auspices, operate a sudden change 

 in the policy of the nations, who hail their 

 arrival with veneration. Quetzalcoatl, 

 Bochica, and Manco Capac, are the sacred 

 names of these mysterious beings. Quet- 

 zalcoatl, clothed in a black, sacerdotal 

 robe, comes from Panuco, from the shores 

 of the Gulf of Mexico; Bochica, the 

 Boudha of the Muyseas, presents himself 

 on the high plains of Bogota, where he ar- 

 rives from the savannahs, which stretch 

 along the east of the Cordilleras. The 



