3 



hostile tribes, the knowledge of extraordinary 

 phenomena, of falls of water, of volcanic fires, 

 and of snows resisting all the ardent heat of 

 summer, was propagated by a thousand fortui- 

 tous circumstances. Three hundred leagues 

 from the coast, in the centre of South America, 

 among nations whose excursions do not extend 

 to three days journey, we find an idea of the 

 ocean, and words * that denote a mass of salt 

 water extending as far as the eye can discern. 

 Various events, which repeatedly occur in sa- 

 vage life, contribute to enlarge these concep- 

 tions. In consequence of the petty wars between 

 neighbouring tribes, a prisoner is brought into a 

 strange country, and treated as a poito or mero^, 

 that is to say, as a slave. After having been 

 repeatedly sold, he is dragged to new wars, es- 

 capes, and returns home ; he relates what he 

 has seen, and what he has heard from those, 

 whose tongue he had been compelled to learn. 

 Thus on discovering a coast, you hear of great 

 inland animals^ ; thus, on entering the valley of 

 a vast river, you are surprised to find, that sa- 

 vages, who are strangers to navigation, have 



* Parava in the Tamanac language. Parana in the May- 

 pure. 



+ The first of these words belongs to the Caribbee lan^ 

 guage, the second to the Maypure tongue. 



t Crevien -dnim.fossiles, Discours prelimin,, p. 22. 

 B 2 



