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Show 420 DISSERT. vu. '--v--' H I S T 0 Rr Y 0 F ~ E X l C 0. lake of Tezcuco, partly by T~ompanco,. and other Mexican tlates ; and in the eaft, by the dominions of Tlafcala; fo that it could not extend from weft to eaft, above fixty miles;. on the fou.th it was bounded 1by tho ftatc of Chako, belonging to Mcxiqo ; and· ~n the north by the independent ,.ftate ef the Huaxtecas. Frotn the f.ronti~r of this country to that of Chalco, the difiancc is about two hundred miles, which is the whole extent of the· kingdom of Acolhuacan, but does not make one eighth part of that of the Mexican dominion·s. The ftates of the p~tty king of Tlaco.pau,. a>r T~ltlba, were fo finall,. that fhey ,did' ·not merit the name of a kingdom ; for from th~ Mexican lak~ in the eaft, to the frontier of the kingdom of Michuacan in the weft, the ~xtent was not more than eighty miles ; nor from the valley of Toloc~an in the fouth, to the country of the Otomies in the north, more than fifty. The comparifon therefore made: by Robertfon, of the dqp1ipions of Acolhuacan find Tacuba, with thofe of Mexico, is erroneous. The republic of Tla[cala, furrounded by the Mexican and Tezcq-can dominions, and by the fl:ates of Cholula and Huexotzinc;o1 was fo confined, that from call: to weft it had fcarcely. fifty, and from fouth to north not above-thirty 01ilcs of extent. We have m~~ with no. author who, .gives a greater la,titu!;le to th:is ~ate except Cortes, who fays, that the do,g1illio~~ of this rep\lblic were ni~ety leagues in ~ircumference; but this is a manife11: error. : With refpect to the kingdom of Michuacan, no one, as far as we know, has mentionp;l all it~ ancieqt poundjlries e.xcept Boturin,i. . This, author fay,s, that the ext~nt of th<!-t ki~1gdom, from the V!cfHer,' qf fxtlahuacan, near Toloccan, to the Pacific Ocean, was five hundred I leagues ; and from Zacatollan to Xichu, one hundred and fixty leagu~s ;; and that in the dominions of Michuacan, were comprehended the .provinces of Zaca~oll~, Colirnan, and th~t provipc 1 e which the ~paniards called Provencra, d Avalo.r, fituate to the nol'th-we!J: 9f .ColimaQ.. Bu.t this author was wholly deceived in his ;tccount'; f~ it is certainly known, that the kingdom of Michuacan had not its. bou~dar:ies in lxtlahuacan, ·but Tlaximalojan, where the Mexican dominions reacheq. We ko~w from the lift of tributes, that the maritime provinces ~f Zacatollan and Colitnan, belonged to Mexico.. Laftly, the Mteht4acnneferlcould not .extend their dominion's as f~ as Xichu, witho'ut f~bduing 'th~ b.ar:;, barous 11 I S T 0 R Y 0 F M E X I C 0. barous Ohechamecas, who occupied that quar.ter; but we know that the la11: were not fubdued till many years after the conque!l: by the Spaniards. The kingdom of Michuacan, therefore,. was not fo large as B@turini believed it; its extent did not comprehend more than three degrees of longitude, and about two of latitude. What we have f.1id hitherto, tends to !hew the exaCl:ncfs of our de .. fcription, an.d of our geographical charts with refpect to the ?<nmdat-ies of thofe kingdoms, founded on the hifl:ory of them,. the reglft:er of t:he. tributes, and the te!l:imony Of t~e ancient writers. . . l" I · S E C T. ' II. On the Population of Anahuac. ' WE do not propofe here to treat , of the populatio111 of all Amesrica,J that would be too large1 a fubjeet and foreign to our purpofe; but folely of that of Mexico which belongs to this hifl:ory. There were and ther¢ are t·: n A m en ' ca , many populous countries, and there ar·e alf·o vahf t deferts;. and they are not lefs diftant from the truth w~o 1magme t e: countries of the new world as populous as thof~ of Ch1.na, than t~ey who believed them as unpeopled as thofe:: of Afnc.a'. The calculatiOn of p. Riccioli is as uncertain as thofe of S~firtu~ch and M. de P~w •. lticcioli gi,ves three hundred millions of mhabltaD·ts to Amenca. The olitical arithmeticians~ fay M. de Paw~ do no~ reckon more than hp d d "ll"ton Sufimilch in one: part of hts work, computes one un re nu · ' fie. il,: t1n.. em at one hundred , and in another at one hu.n dred: and 'hll J m . .wons~ M. de Paw, who mentions all thefe calculatJOns,. f~ys, t ere are not of rea 1 A men·c .a ns, more tha' n from thirty to forty rmlh.o ns-. B,_u _t we mufh hat aU thofe calculations are moll: uncertam as tu.cy are not. repeadt,dt proper grl!lunds . for if we do not know hitherto thefoun e on any ' 1:. ftabl' ffi d 1 . of thofe countries in which the Ew-opeans uav.e e 1 e Popu at1on · T F' r.' h thofe ' of Guatimala, Peru1 QultO~. erra Irma, themfclves,. 1UC as · hab' f th . . h . ble of gueOing the. number of m . ltants o e Ch1h w o 1S capa · 1i h ' countrl· es little or not at all known to the Europeans,. uc numerous · ft f c k ·1 New· h . ' . [c h" h are •·o the north and north-we o oa Ul a, . as t o e w 1c ' "' R" · North. ..1, ·• . ·c lir:ornia ·and the rhter Colorado, cr Red. lVer,. m w1e~co, a 1• ~· Arne.-. 4-21 DISSERT. VII. ~ |