171 
called by Marcliand the gulf of Tchinkitaiie, 
the natives have a decided taste for hierogly- 
phical paintings on wood. I have examined in 
another part of my works^, whether it is pro- 
bable^ that these industrious nations, of a gene- 
rally mild and affable disposition, are Mexican 
emigrants, who sought refuge toward the north, 
after the arrival of the Spaniards ; or whether 
they are not rather the descendants of the Tol- 
teck and Azteck tribes, who, at the time of the 
irruption of the nations of iiztlan, remained in 
these northern regions. From the happy coin- 
eidence of various circumstances, man raises him- 
self to a certain degree of cultivation, even in 
climates the least favourable to the development 
of organized beings : near the polar circle, in 
Iceland, in the twelfth century, we know the 
Scandinavians cultivated literature and the arts 
with more success, than the inhabitants of Den- 
mark and Prussia. 
A few Tolteck tribes appear to have mixed 
with the nations, who formerly inhabited the 
country lying between the eastern bank of the 
Mississippi and the Atlantic ocean. The Iroquois 
and the Hurons made hieroglyphical paintings 
on wood, which bear a striking resemblance 
* See my Essai Politique, vol. 1, p. 372; vol. 2, p. 507 : 
- Marchand, tom. 1, p, 259, 261, 299, 375. 
