24 



are the only means of polishing a people. The 

 neighbouring nations were in a state of still greater 

 rudeness than themselves, except the Peruvians, a 

 connection with whom, from their ambition of do- 

 minion they would more studiously avoid than 

 clierish. They learned, however, some things from 

 them during the time that they were in possession 

 of the northern provinces, at which period they had 

 attained that middle point between the savage and 

 civilized state, known by the name of barbarism. 

 Notwithstanding these unfavourable circumstances, 

 the variety of their occupations, which multiplied^ 

 the objects of their attention, gradually enlarged the 

 sphere of their ideas. 



They had progressed so far in this respect, as to 

 invent the numbers requisite to express any quan- 

 tity, mari signifying with them ten, pataca a hun- 

 dred and guaran ca^ a thousand. Even the Romans 

 possessed no simple numerical terms of greater va- 

 lue, and indeed calculation may be carried to any 

 extent by a combination of these principal decimals. 



To preserve the memory of their transactions, 

 they made use,' as other nations have done, of the 

 pron^ called by the Peruvians quippo, which was a 

 skein of thread of several colours with a number of 

 knots. The subject treated of was indicated by the 

 colours, and the knots designated the number or 

 quantity. This is all that I have been able to dis- 

 cover of the use of such a register, in which some 

 authors have pretended to find a substitute for the 

 art of writing. This admirable art was unknown to 

 the Chilians ; for although the word chilcan, to write, 



