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Show X p R E F A c E. · d · m"ny excurfions through that country, as well as the infer-game 111 " • · d ··t·ngs of other . after all, I have not cnttrc1y fuc- Jl\atton an w11 1 ' d d cee r · f ·t of rny Ol(>ft carndl:: attempts, I hav not been o.tble to e ; ror, 1n pt c ' . . procure the few incomplete aftronomical obfervauon wl:tch have b en d 1 r. 1 ces The fituation therefore, and dtibnces men-ma e on t 1c1e p a · ' . tl·o nc d · tl body of the l1ii1ory a well as m the chart, arc not to be 111 1e , · confidered as being afccrtaincd with that pr cifion and accuracy wh~ch are required from a geographer; but according. to fuch comput::ttJO Jl as could be made by an attentive furveyor who judged by the ey I have in my hands innumcrahk ancient ~llld modern charts of Mexico, of wh1ch tt would have b en cafy to have cop;"d the mofl: correCt; but among tlu.J~ I have not fuund vcn o c that is not fl11l ~f errors, as well in regard to the btitu c and longitude of phces, as m r fp~Cl: to the diviu;n of provinces, the courfe of rivers, and the direction of the oafi:s. To make known what dependence may be placed on any of the charts hitherto publin1ed, it will be fu fficicn t to mention the difference between them concernin..,. the longitude of the capital, notwithfi: anding it ought to have been better afccrtaincci tlun any other city of Mexico. This difference is not lefs than fourteen degrees, as by fome geographers the city of Mexico is placed in two hundrc land fixty-four degrees ot longitude from the i!land of ferro; by others, in two hundred a:1d fixty-five; by others, in two hundred and fixty - iix, and even in two hundred and fev.enty-cight, or rather more. To give fome ornament, however, to my hifl:ory, as well as to f.'lci- • lltate the underfl:anding of many things dcfcribed in it, I have add ccl twenty plates. The Mexican charaCters, the re1 re[entations of the cities, of the kings, of the armour, of the dre!fcs, of the fhield s, of the century, of the year, and of the delu ge, have been copied from different Mexican paintin gs . The figure of the greater temple was taken from that of the Anonymous Conqueror, his dimenfions of it, however, being corrctl:ed, and addi tions made to it according to the dcfcription of other ancient auth rs. The figure of the other tempk is a copy of that. which Valacles publi{hcd in his Ch1·![tian Rh toric. The p R E F A c E. The portrait of Montezuma was taken from a copy which Gemelli publilhed of the original, in the pofi"c{lion of Sigucnza. The portraits of the conquerors arc copies of thofc which arc found in the Decades of Herrera. All the other figures arc dcfigns from what we ha.vc fccn ourfdves, and the clefcriptions of ancic.:nt hifl:orians. Befides thefe, I have thought proper to prefix: to my narration a fhort account of the writers on the ancient hifl:ory of Mexico, to {hew the ground-work of my labours; al(o to do honour to the memory of fome illufl:rious Ameri ans, whofe writings arc entirely unknown in Europe. It will fcrve likcwifc to point ou t the fourc cs from whence others may obt:~ in the hifl:ory of Mc.:x ico, who m r~y l.h .. hcrca.Ctcr inclin:: d to complete this imperfeCt work. b 2 AN Xl |