as mentioned.

The work of Torres Rubio, already mentioned, was reprinted in Lima by
Francisco Lasso in 1619. From this time forward, the subject of the native
language of Peru seems to have occupied the attention of many writers. A
quarto grammar was published by Diego de Olmos in 1633 of the Indian
language, as the Quichuan now came to be called.

Eleven years later, we find Fernando de Carrera, curate and vicar of San
Martin de Reque, publishing an elaborate word bearing the following title:

"Arte de la lengua yunga de los valles del obispado de Truxillo; con un
confesonario y todas las oraciones cotidianas y otras cosas: Lima, por
Juan de Contreras, 1644, 16mo."

Grammars and methods here follow thick and fast. A few years after
Carrera's book, in 1648, comes Don Juan Roxo Mexia y Ocon, _natural de
Cuzco_, as he proudly styles himself with a method of the Indian language:
and after a few insignificant works, again another in 1691, by Estevan
Sancho de Melgar.

The most common works on the Quichua are the third and fourth editions of
Torres Rubio, published at Lima in the years 1700 and 1754. Of these two
works done with that care and evident pleasure which Jesuits always, and
perhaps only, bestow upon these difficult by-roads of philology, I need say
no more, as they are very well known.

Before I close this communication, allow me to suggest to the readers and
contributors to the truly valuable "N. & Q.," that no tittle of knowledge
concerning these early philological researches ought to be allowed to
remain unrecorded; and with the position which the "N. & Q." occupies, and
the facilities that journal offers for the preservation of these stray
scraps of knowledge, surely it would not be amiss to send them to the
Editor, and let him decide as he is very capable of doing, as to their
value.

KENNETH R. H. MACKENZIE.

February 20. 1854.

[Footnote 1: Arte y Vocabulario de la lengua, Uamada quichua. En la Ciudad
de los Reyes, 1586, 8vo.]

* * * * *

CONDUITT AND NEWTON

In the prospectus of a new _Life_ of sir Isaac Newton, by sir David
Brewster, it is stated that in examining the papers at Hurstbourne Park,
the seat of the earl of Portsmouth, the discovery had been maple of
"copious materials which Mr. Conduit had collected for a life of Newton,
_which had never been supposed to exist_."

About the year 1836 I consulted the principal biographers of
Newton--