THE TWO RACES WHICH PEOPLED POLYNESIA. 
41 
Mexico,,* there are in Yucatan numerous monuments remain- 
ing with inscriptions in letters of a modified hieroglyphic 
character, which are, perhaps, more nearly approaching a 
fixed alphabet than those of the Chinese, and more closely 
resembling the Japanese, to which some of the sculptures of 
the noble palaces of Palenque, seem to bear a striking 
resemblance, especially in the similarity of costume and the 
way of dressing the hair. 
<( The natives/' says Herrera, the Spanish historian, ee wore 
their hair long like women, and a little tail hung behind. 
while the latter, for the same purpose, opened the lake of Bogota at Tequen- 
dama. The Inca bequeathed his sovereign authority to his son, while Bochi- 
cha named two chiefs for the government, and retired to Tunja , holy valley, 
where he lived two thousand years, or, as other traditions state, where his 
descendants governed the Muysca tribe for two thousand years. The first of 
these successors was called Huncahua, and the rest Huncas, which was the 
name of the holy city ; but the Spaniards have changed the name to Tunja. 
The Mexicans have likewise a bearded white man as a legislator, called Quat- 
zalcoath ; he was the high priest of Cholula, chief of a religious sect, and 
a legislator ; he preached peace to men, and prohibited all sacrifices to the 
Deity, excepting the first fruits. We have here the tradition of four white men 
distinguished by the people of the new world, as having beards, a circumstance 
as remarkable to them, as it was visible, for they being beardless, w r ould con- 
sequently be surprised at seeing men whose faces bore what they would be led 
to consider a feature so distinguishing. Two of these are said to have been 
Englishmen. Of the laws established by Camaruru I have no information, but 
those established by Manca Capac I know have no analogy, nor do they bear 
any resemblance to those of any of the northern governments, except, setting 
aside lineal descent, the papal, where the spiritual authority is exercised by the 
King of Rome. This coincidence of four men, bearing the same mark of a 
beard, three of whom were priests and legislators, occurred at places the most 
distant from each other, the one at Rio de Janeiro, in lat. 22. 54. 10. S., Long. 
42. 43. 45. W. ; one at Cusio in lat. 13. S., long. 81. W. ; one at Cundina- 
marca in lat 4. 35. N., long. 74. 8. ; and the other at Cholula, in lat. 19. 4. 
N., long. 98. 14. W. The traditions of Manco Capac, Bochicha, and Quat- 
zalcoath agree in predicting the arrival of bearded men at some future period, 
and the conquest of the different countries by them, which predictions operated 
strongly in favour of Pizarro, Benalcazar, and Cortes, and produced that sub- 
mission of the Peruvians, Muyseas, and Mexicans, wdiich finally laid the foun- 
dation of the degraded state of their descendants. — Stephenson' s Travels in 
South America , vol. i. p. 
* Stephens thinks that the characters of the Mexican Hieroglyphical Paint- 
ings preserved in the libraries of Dresden and Vienna, are the same as those 
found on the monuments and tablets of Copan and Palenque. 
