The literal history, attached to the painting, is as follows. When a mighty deluge overwhelmed the whole earth, Tezpi embarked in a spacious vessel with his wife, his children, a variety of different animals, and a sufficiency of grain; that so the future inhabitants of a new world might not be left destitute of what was essentially necessary to them. In this manner, his privileged family sailed without danger over the great deep; while every thing else perished beneath the waves. At length the great Spirit Tezcatlipoca ordered the waters to withdraw: and Tezpi then sent out from his bark a vulture, that he might ascertain the condition of the earth. This bird however, which feeds on dead flesh, did not return, on account of the numerous carcases which the retiring flood had left behind it. Tezpi therefore sent out other birds

and of these, the holding in its beak a Perceiving from this

humming bird, alone returned, branch covered with leaves. circumstance, that the waters had now retired, and that fresh verdure had begun to clothe the soil, he quitted his bark near the mountain of Colhuacan."

Some doubts have been thrown upon the authenticity of the present tradition, as if it were the mere fabrication of the Spanish monks: but I cannot perceive, that there is any sufficient reason for so grave a charge against those ecclesiastics. The belief in an universal deluge and in the preservation of a single family from the general destruction is, in fact, no way peculiar to the Mexicans: nor is

Humboldt's Research. vol. ii. p. 64, 65.

their account of it at all more accurate than that of many other pagan nations. Hence I can discern no very strong grounds for a scepticism, which is built only upon the alleged exactness with which an universally remembered fact has been preserved in the records of Mexico. The inhabitants of America seem clearly to have brought both their traditions and their theology from Asia by the easy passage of Behring's Straits: and, if the outlines of the latter were faithfully preserved, there is no great probability that the former should be forgotten.

2. A somewhat similar account of a general inundation was prevalent also, as we are informed by Gomara, among the Peruvians.

They believed, by old tradition from their ancestors, that it once rained so violently, as to deluge all the lower parts of the country. In consequence of this, an universal destruction of the human species took place, a few persons only excepted, who escaped into caves situated on the tops of the mountains. Into these elevated retirements they had previously conveyed a sufficient stock of provisions and a number of living animals; lest, when the waters abated, the whole race should have become extinct. As soon as the rain ceased, they sent out two dogs; which returned to them besmeared with mud and slime. Hence they concluded, that the flood had not yet subsided. After a certain interval, they sent out more dogs; which, coming back dry, convinced them that the earth was now habitable. Upon this, they left the places

into which they had retired, and became the progenitors of the present race of men. The number of persons, whom the Peruvians suppose to have been thus saved, nearly approaches to that mentioned in the Mosaical account. It consists of seven: a number, which very frequently occurs in the diluvian legends of the Gentiles, and which seems to be made up of the Noëtic family exclusive of the wife of Noah. The reason, why she was so often excluded, was this. Viewed as the great universal mother, she was mystically identified with the Ark itself; and, as the goddess of the ship, she was still esteemed the consort of the great father and the parent of his children."

3. We are told likewise, that the Brazilians were found to have preserved a similar traditional account of the deluge.

At the period of that great catastrophe, they supposed all mankind to have perished, save a man and his sister, who escaped on a Janipata or raft. From this pair the Brazilians deduce their origin.

Lerius relates, that he was present at one of their assemblies, when, in a solenın chorus, they chanted a kind of requiem to the souls of their ancestors. In the course of the song, they did not fail to notice the catastrophè of the deluge; in which the whole world perished, except some of their progenitors, who escaped by climbing into high trees.*

'Purch. Pilgrim. book ix. c. 10, 8. See my Orig. of Pagan Idol. book v. c. 3.

2 Ibid. book ix. c. 5.

4. The same tradition is said to have equally prevailed in Nicaragua.

We learn from Peter Martyr, that, when the Spaniards first discovered that country, they attempted to persuade the prince of it to become a Christian. Upon this, he immediately inquired, whether those, who professed the religion of Jesus, had any knowledge of the flood; which, according to traditional accounts received from his predecessors, had once covered the whole earth, and had destroyed both men and beasts.'

5. Nor is this awful instance of divine justice altogether unknown to the inhabitants of those islands, which are scattered over the great Pacific

ocean,

(1.) The natives of Otaheite, we are told, have a tradition, that the gods in their anger formerly broke the whole world in pieces: whence they contend, that all the islands around them are but fragments of what was once the great land, and that their own is the most eminent part of it."

(2.) It is difficult to say, what such a legend can allude to, if not to the deluge: but the tradition, which prevails in the Sandwich islands, requires no gloss or explanation; it is perfectly distinct and unambiguous. The inhabitants of this cluster believe, that their principal deity Etooah created the world; but that he afterwards destroyed it by an inundation, which covered the whole earth except

1 Purch, Pilgr. book viii. c. 14.

2 Mission, Voyage to the South Pacif. Occan. p. 344.

the peak of Mowna Roa. On the top of that mountain a single pair saved themselves from destruction and these were the parents of the present race of mortals.'

XI. Moses informs us, that the Ark rested on the summit of mount Ararat and it seems to have been a very general opinion in all ages, that that mountain was situated in the high land of Armenia. 1. Various are the pagan authors, who concur in this supposition.

The deluge and the Ark, says Josephus, are noticed by all those persons, who have written barbaric histories. According to Berosus the Chaldèan, it is reported, that part of the ship is even yet remaining in Armenia on a mountain of the Cordyèans; and that it is a custom to scrape from off it some of the bitumen, with which it was covered, and to carry it about the person as a talisman to avert disorders. Jerome likewise the Egyptian who wrote the ancient history of Phenicia, and Mnaseas, and many others, make mention of these events. Such also is the account given by Nicolaus of Damascus in his ninety-sixth book. There is a great mountain, he observes, in Armenia, situated above Minyas, which is called Baris. A report prevails, that, at the time of the deluge, many persons fled here and were preserved. One, in particular, was conveyed in an ark to the very summit of the mountain, and a considerable part of that