30 



history of these legislators., which I have 

 endeavoured to " unfold in this work, is in- 

 termixed with miracles, religious fictions, 

 and with those characters which imply an 

 allegorical meaning. Some learned men 

 have pretended to discover, that these 

 strangers were shipwrecked Europeans, or 

 the descendants of those Scandinavians, 

 who, in the eleventh century, visited Green- 

 land, Newfoundland, and perhaps Nova 

 Scotia ; but a slight reflection on the pe- 

 riod of the Tolteck migrations, on the 

 monastic institutions, the symbols of wor- 

 ship, the calendar, and the form of the 

 monuments of Cholula, of Sogamozo, and 

 of Couzco, leads us to conclude, that it was 

 not in the north of Europe that Quetzal- 

 coatl, Bochica, and Manco Capac framed 

 their code of laws. Every consideration 

 leads us rather towards Eastern Asia, to 

 those nations who have been in contact 

 with the inhabitants of Thibet, to the Sha- 

 manist Tartars, and the bearded Ainos of 

 the isles of Jesso and Sachalin. 



