177 
they now inhabit. Are they the scanty remnant 
of some civilized nation fallen into the savage 
state? or are they descendants of those same 
Toltecks, who carried the use of hieroglyphic 
paintings into New-Spain, and who, expelled by 
other nations, have disappeared from the borders 
of the lake Nicaragua? These are interesting 
questions for elucidating the history of man ; 
and are connected with others, the import- 
ance of which has not hitherto been sufficiently 
felt. 
Some granitic I'ocks, which rise on the savan- 
nahs of Guiana, between the Cassiqiiiare and the 
Conorichite, are covered with figures of tigers, 
crocodiles, and other characters, which may be 
regarded as symbolical. Similar figures are 
found four hundred leagues to the north and the 
west, on the banks of the Orinoco, near Encara- 
mada and Caicara ; on the borders of the river 
Cauca, near Timba, between Cali and Jelima ; 
and even on the elevated plain of the Cordille- 
ras, in the Paramo of Guanacas. The natives of 
these regions are unacquainted with the use of 
metallic tools ; and all concur in asserting, that 
these characters already existed when their ances- 
tors arrived in those countries. Is it to a single na- 
tion, trained to industry, and skilled in sculpture, 
such as the Toltecks, the Azlecks, and the tribes 
that emigrated from Aztlan, that these marks of 
remote civilization are owing ? In what region 
VOL. XIII. N 
