154 
may be discovered in these characters ; but 
I much doubt whether the good monk^ who 
seemed to be but little interested about this pre- 
tended inscription, had copied it very carefully. 
It is somewhat remarkable, that out of seven cha- 
racters there were none several times repeated ; 
I have inserted them merely as worthy of engag- 
ing the attention of the learned, who may here- 
after visit the forests of Guyana. 
It is also remarkable, that in this savage 
and desert country, where P. Bueno found let- 
ters engraven in granite, are a great number of 
rocks, which at considerable heights are covered 
with figures of animals, representations of the 
sun, the moon, and the stars, and other hiero- 
glyphical signs. The natives relate, that their 
ancestors, in the time of the great waters^ came 
in canoes to the top of these mountains : and 
that the stones were then in so plastic a state, 
that men could trace marks on them with their 
fingers. This tradition indicates a tribe in a dif- 
ferent state of civilization from that of the peo- 
ple by which it was preceded, discovering an 
absolute ignorance of the use of the chisel, and 
every other metallic tool. 
From the whole of these facts it results, that 
there exists no certain proof of the knowledge 
of an alphabet among the Americans. In re- 
searches of this kind we cannot be too careful 
not to confound what may be the efiect of 
