INDIAN BURIAL PLACES. 255 



of a rough description, and rudely painted, 

 some of which had been used for water, 

 others for cooking utensils, from the evi- 

 dent marks of fire on them ; the whole con- 

 tained nothing but sand. I was obliged to 

 erect a windlass, and use buckets to send the 

 sand up in. At about fourteen feet depth 

 we met with some human bones, the thigh 

 and arm pieces, but no scull or teeth ; and 

 after continuing our labour to the depth of 

 thirty feet, we reached the original native 

 strata. All the graves I opened, yielded no- 

 thing but earthenware, called by the natives 

 losa ; from which I am led to believe that 

 on the death of an Indian, all his riches were 

 thrown into the Lake of Guatavita, in ho- 

 nour of the Deity ; for in other parts, where 

 they have no holy place of worship, their 

 wealth has been found buried in their graves 

 with them. In Peru, large fortunes have 

 been made by discovering the cemetery of 

 a chief; and some were so deep, as to ren- 



