16 / 1070
The Tranílator to the Reader.
ever, being,
(1J
our Authour fays, detivered by 1radition, and commonly
be–
lieved_amongfl their People of the better degree
,
it may contain divers
Íru'ths mixed with abundance of Fillions andfoolifh lnventions. But this
is no more than what hath happened to Nations of more reftfetl underflan–
ding; far what account can we our fe/ves give of
Great Britain
'1efore the
Romans
entred into .it ? Nay, What can
France
or
Spain
fay of the An–
cient /nhabitants of their own Countries, or of the manner, how they came
frfl to /Je Chrijlians? ?Jnlefs it be that which ignoran! men have devifed ,
and ivhat the Learnerl men are now ajhamed
to
believe or fay after them ?
Andthen, what wonder
i&
it that fach poor Salvages, born in a part
of
_the
World undifcovered to
UI,
until! the year
1484;
,and of whofe Original we
have·no certain knowledge; nor ha-ve any light 6ejides fancy and conjeélure,
from whence the Continent of
Ameúca
hath 6een peopled:
How then, I
fay,
can it
6e
expeEied that thefe il/iterate Creatures Jhould be aUe
to
give an account
of
their Extrallion, or of Matters which paffed in
thofe 4ges; of which the Learned parts of the World acknowledge their
ignorance,
·
and confefs themfelves to be in tbe dark even
M
to thofe
Matters which concern their own Hiflories?
But becaufe it
i.s
in the nature of Mankind to u(e refleé/ AE!s on their
own being, and retreat with their Thoughts back to fome beginning:
fo
thefe poor Sou/J derive the Original of their frfl being from divers Crea–
tures,
'Of
which thej had the greatefl opinion and admiration : fome living
near a great Lake whichJupplied them with flore of Fijh, called that their
Parent, from whence they emerged: anti others efleemed the Mighty
Mottntains of
Antis
to
•herve been their Parent, and to have iffeed out
of thofe Caverns,
tlI
from the Wom/J of a Mother; others fan/ied them–
felves to be defcended from that great Fowl called
Cuntur,
whichfpreads
a very large Wing, which pleafed fome Nations
of
the
Indians,
that they
would look no farther for a Parent than to that Fowl, .a1td in token
thereof
1
upon days of /olemnity anti feflival, carried the Wings ¡hereof
fajlned 'to their Armes. But then,
(1.f
to their
fnca's
or Kings, whofe O–
riginal wtU to be d-erived from fomething higher than fublunary Cre..atures,
/Jeing of better compoji'tt'on than their poor and mean Vaj[als, the Sun was
efleemed a ft Parent for thofe who were come from Divine race: fo that
when they aWóred t'he Sun, -whom they acknowledged jor their Gotl, they
g,ave honóur to thei}· Kings 1vho were defcendetl jrom him. Variow hav.e
6een th'e opinions amongjf Hijlorians concerning the Original of this Peo–
ple;
of
whích the moji probable,
tlJ
1
conceive, is, that they proceeded
from the Race of the Northern Íartar, whom they nfemble in the jh,¡pe
and air of their features
,
and in their barharous way of living;
lmt
then we mufl fanjie,
M
fome Geographers do, that the Wefl jide
of
A-
.merica
is Continent wi-th
Tartary ,
or at leafl disjoyned from thence /;y
-
fome narrow flrait; of which I am well perfuaded we have no certain
Knowledge.
·
But to !et thefe Matters paft, and conjider the Contlition in which the
Spaniárds
foun~ the lnhabitants of
Peru,
when theyjirjl came amongfl them,
they were,
•I
/ay,
a naked People
~
Jimple and creduloUJ, /Jelie·ving every
thing that the
Spaniards
told andpromifed them:
10
which they ivere in–
ducecl out of an opinion that the
Spaniards
were
Viracocha's
or the
O.ff–fpring of the Sun, whom they adored far God, mul in whom they belie·v-et!,
according to the Light of Nature
,
that there could be no fal}ity or fhadow
of untruth. Wherefore they were flrangely farprized, whiljt in a peace-
~ue