The honours that have been rendered to celebrated men in almost every age of the world, and by all nations concerning which we have any historical memorials, are noticed by numberless writers, both ancient and modern. The cultivation of astronomical science had, doubtless, its origin in the remotest ages of antiquity,[48] through the Chaldeans,[49] the Egyptians, the Phœnicians and Greeks, the Arabs, and the Chinese. But the Indians of the western hemisphere appear to have had little knowledge of astronomy, at the time of Columbus’s discovery, yet they were not inattentive to its objects: for Acosta tells us, that the Peruvians observed the equinoxes, by means of columns erected before the temple of the sun at Cusco, and by a circle traced around it. Condamine likewise relates, that the Indians on the river of the Amazons gave to the Hyades, as we do, the name of the Bull’s-head; and Father Lasitau says, that the Iroquois called the same stars the Bear, to which we give that name; and designated the Polar star by the appellation of the immoveable star. Captain Cook informs us, that the inhabitants of Taiti, in like manner, distinguish the different stars; and know in what part of the heavens they will appear, for each month in the year; their year consisting of thirteen lunar months, each being twenty-nine days. ----- Footnote 48: Flavius Josephus informs us, (in his _Jewish Antiquities_, b. i. chap. 7. 8.) that the sons of Seth employed themselves in astronomical contemplations. According to the same historian, Abraham inferred the unity and power of God, from the orderly course of things both at sea and land, in their times and seasons, and from his observations upon the motions and influences of the sun, moon and stars. He further relates, that this patriarch delivered lectures on geometry and arithmetic to the Egyptians, of which they understood nothing, until Abraham introduced those sciences from Chaldea into Egypt, from whence they passed into Greece: and, according to Eupolemus and Artapan, he instructed the Phœnicians, as well as the Egyptians, in astronomy. Footnote 49: