( *3 ) 



give the fame name to Cortez, either to do him ho- 

 nour, or becaufe he came from the eaft. In the 

 third place, Grotius is (till more grofsly miftaken in 

 affirming that the Peruvians made ufe of characters 

 like the Chinefe, and which were written like theirs 

 in perpendicular lines, feeing that Father Acoira, 

 who refided a long time in Peru, and GarciialTo de 

 la Vega, defcended by the mother's fide from the 

 blood of the incas, inform us that they were nei- 

 ther acquainted with characters, nor had the ufe of 

 any fort of writing. What is added by the learned 

 Dutchman, that Mango Capa, the firft of the incas, 

 was himfelf a Chinefe, is no more than a bare con- 

 jecture, or a fable invented by fome traveller, there 

 not being the leaft notice taken of it in the tradici • 

 ons of Peru. 



In the lafl place, Laet declares that he has never, 

 in any author, read of any wrecks of Chinefe vef- 

 fels in the Pacifick Ocean. The fact itfelf appears 

 to him very improbable, becaufe in the pafTage from 

 China to Peru, the winds are contrary during the 

 whole year fo that by making the great round 

 of the ocean by the weft, would be a (horter paf- 

 fage, in point of time, than the direct courfe. He 

 adds, that fuppofing the Peruvians had defcended 

 from the Chinefe, they muft have preferved at leaft 

 fome veftiges of the arc of navigation, or of the 

 ufe of iron, whereas they were acquainted with nei- 

 ther *, fo that it is much more natural to fuppofe the 

 Peruvians and their neighbours, the inhabitants of 

 Chili, came from fome of the Indian nations, fome 

 of which have always been fufficiently civilized to 

 be capable of giving birth to an empire fuch as was 

 that of Peru. 



To 



