107 
potatoes. I shall not here examine whether, 
notwithstanding the introduction of corn and 
horned cattle, the plain of Bogota is less popu- 
lous in our days than before the conquest ; but 
shall only observe, that, when I visited the mines 
of gem salt at Zipaquira, I was shown the most 
certain indications of former culture in lands 
now left desolate, to the north of the Indian vil- 
lage of Sbua. 
Among the different nations of Cundinamurca, 
that which the • Spaniards designated by the 
name of Muysca, or Mozca, appears to have 
been the most numerous. The fabulous tradi- 
tions of this nation go back almost to the distant 
epocha, when the Moon did not yet accompany 
the Earth ; and when the plain of Bogota formed 
a lake of considerable extent, from the inunda- 
tions of the river Funzha. In the description of 
the cataract ofTequendama*, wehave spoken of 
that marvellous personage, known in the Ameri- 
can mythology under the name of Bochica, or 
Idacanzas, who opened a passage for the waters 
of the lake of Funzha, assembled the wandering 
tribes into a social state, introduced the worship 
of the Sun, and like the Peruvian Manco-Capac, 
^ and the Mexican Quetzalcoatl, became the le- 
gislator of the Muyscas. These same traditions 
relate, that Bochica, son and emblem of the Sun, 
* See voL xiii, p. 72. 
