Peruvian antiquities / by Mariano Edward Rivero and John James von Tschudi ; translated by Francis L. Hawks.

  • Mariano Eduardo de Rivero y Ustariz
Date:
1854
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Peruvian antiquities / by Mariano Edward Rivero and John James von Tschudi ; translated by Francis L. Hawks. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    possessed, as hie himself states in his “ Diocesan Constitutions, published at Home in 1702, a document in which a certain voyager or traveller, named Votan, minutely described the countries and nations which he had visited. This man- uscript, it was found, was written in the Tzendal language; and was accompanied by certain hieroglyphics cut in stone ; by order of the same Votan the manuscript was to be perma- nently deposited in a dark house (or cavern) in the province of Soconusco, and there confided to the custody of a noble Indian lady, and of a number of Indians, the places of all of whom, as they became vacant, were to be continually re-sup- plied.* Thus it continued preserved for centuries, perhaps for two thousand years, until the bishop above named, Nunez de la Vega, in visiting the province, obtained possession of the manuscript, and in the year 1690, commanded it to be destroy- ed in the public square of Iluegetan; so that the curious notices which it contained would have been completely lost, if there had not existed, in the hands of Don Eamon de Ordonez y Aguiar, in Ciudad Eeal, according to his own statement, a copy, made immediately after the conquest, and which is in part published by Cabrera, The title or frontispiece of this document consists of two squares of different colors, and with their angles on a parallel; one of them represents the ancient continent, and is marked with two characters, placed perpendicularly, in the form of the letter S; the other square represents the nevv continent, and con- tains two similar characters, but placed horizontally. AVhen Votan speaks of the places of the Old World, the chapter is marked with the upright character S; but in speaking of the second, the chapter is indicated by the sign placed horizon- * The reader should be apprised that.the Tzendals were one of the In- dian nations of Central America.—[Translator.]