160 



tains ; but the Oroonoko, and the countries 

 lying between this great river and the Amazon, 

 appear never to have been inhabited by nations, 

 whose constructions have resisted the injuries of 

 time. Though symbolical figures are found en- 

 graven on the hardest rocks, yet to the south of 

 eight degrees of latitude, no tumulus, no circum- 

 vallation, no dyke of earth, similar to those that 

 exist farther north in the plains of Varinas and 

 Canagua*, have been found. Such is the con- 

 trast that may be observed between the eastern 

 parts of both Americas, those which extend from 

 the table-land of Cundinamarca'f and the moun- 

 tains of Cayenne toward the Atlantic, and those 

 which stretch from the Andes of New Spain 

 toward the Alleghany mountains. Nations 

 advanced in civilization, of whom we discover 

 traces on the banks of Lake Teguyo and in the 

 Casas grandes of the Rio Gila, might have sent 

 some tribes eastward into the open countries of 

 the Missouri and the Ohio, where the climate 

 differs little from that of New Mexico ; but in 

 South America, where the great flux of nations 

 has continued from north to south, those who 

 had long enjoyed the mild temperature of the 



* See vol. iv, p. 314. 



f This is the ancient name of the empire of the Zaques, 

 founded by Bochica, or Idacanzas, the high priest of Iraca,. 

 in New Grenada. 



