107 



potatoes. I shall not here examine whether, 

 notwithstanding the introduction of corn and 

 horned cattle, the plain of Bogota is less popu- 

 lous in our days than before the conquest ; but 

 shall only observe, that, when I visited the mines 

 of gem salt at Zipaquira, I was shown the most 

 certain indications of former culture in lands 

 now left desolate, to the north of the Indian vil- 

 lage of Sbua. 



Among the different nations of Cundinamurca, 

 that which the Spaniards designated by the 

 name of Muysca, or Mozca, appears to have 

 been the most numerous. The fabulous tradi- 

 tions of this nation go back almost to the distant 

 epocha, when the Moon did not yet accompany 

 the Earth ; and when the plain of Bogota formed 

 a lake of considerable extent, from the inunda- 

 tions of the river Funzha. In the description of 

 the cataract ofTequendama*, we have spoken of 

 that marvellous personage, known in the Ameri- 

 can mythology under the name of Bochica, or 

 Idacanzas, who opened a passage for the waters 

 of the lake of Funzha, assembled the wandering 

 tribes into a social state, introduced the worship 

 of the Sun, and like the Peruvian Manco-Capac, 

 and the Mexican Quetzalcoatl, became the le- 

 gislator of the Muyscas. These same traditions 

 relate, that Bochica, son and emblem of the Sun, 



* See vol. xiii, p. 72, 



