171 



called by Marchand the gulf of Tchinkitane, 

 the natives have a decided taste for hierogly- 

 phical paintings on wood. I have examined in 

 another part of my works*, whether it is pro- 

 bable, that these industrious nations, of a gene- 

 rally mild and affable disposition, are Mexican 

 emigrants, who sought refuge toward the north, 

 after the arrival of the Spaniards ; or whether 

 they are not rather the descendants of the Tol- 

 teck and Azteck tribes, who, at the time of the 

 irruption of the nations of Aztlan, remained in 

 these northern regions. From the happy coin- 

 cidence of various circumstances, man raises him- 

 self to a certain degree of cultivation, even in 

 climates the least favourable to the development 

 of organized beings : near the polar circle, in 

 Iceland, in the twelfth century, we know the 

 Scandinavians cultivated literature and the arts 

 with more success, than the inhabitants of Den- 

 mark and Prussia. 



A few Tolteck tribes appear to have mixed 

 with the nations, who formerly inhabited the 

 country lying between the eastern bank of the 

 Mississippi and the Atlantic ocean. The Iroquois 

 and the Hurons made hieroglyphical paintings 

 on wood, which bear a striking resemblance 



* See my Essai Politique, vol. 1, p. 372; vol. 2, p. 507 : 

 Maryland, torn. 1, p. 259, 261, 299, 375. 



