177 



they now inhabit. Are they the scanty remnant 

 of some civilized nation fallen into the savage 

 state? or are they descendants of those same 

 Toltecks, who carried the use of hieroglyphic 

 paintings into New-Spain, and who, expelled by 

 other nations, have disappeared from the borders 

 of the lake Nicaragua ? These are interesting- 

 questions for elucidating the history of man ; 

 and are connected with others, the import- 

 ance of which has not hitherto been sufficiently 

 felt. 



Some granitic rocks, which rise on the savan- 

 nahs of Guiana, between the Cassiquiare and the 

 Conorichite, are covered with figures of tigers, 

 crocodiles, and other characters, which may be 

 regarded as symbolical. Similar figures are 

 found four hundred leagues to the north and the 

 west, on the banks of the Orinoco, near Encara- 

 mada and Caicara ; on the borders of the river 

 Cauca, near Timba, between Cali and Jelima ; 

 and even on the elevated plain of the Cordille- 

 ras, iu the Paramo of Guanacas. The natives of 

 these regions are unacquainted with the use of 

 metallic tools ; and all concur in asserting-, that 

 these characters already existed when their ances- 

 tors arrived in those countries. Is it to a single na- 

 tion, trained to industry, and skilled in sculpture, 

 such as the Toltecks, the Aztecks, and the tribes 

 that emigrated from Aztlan, that these marks of 

 remote civilization are owing ? In what region 



VOL. XIII. N 



