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Show 474 A p p E N D I X. In the ninth Jetter of the fecond part, where he fpeaks of the Mexican year, he dtes Gemelli, and ;accufes him, though falfely, of an error. Gemelli fays, that the l\1exican year at the commencement of their ccn tury, began u pan the 1oth of April ; ~u t that every four years it :mticipated one day on account of our biiTextilc; fo that at the end of four years it began upon the 9th of that month; at the end of eight years it began upon the 8th, and fo it went ?n anticipating every four ye:1rs, oJJe d:1y, unto the end of"the Mexican century, where by the intlrpofition of the thirteen intercalary days, omitted in the progrefs or the century, the year returned to begin upon the lOth of April. This, adds the author of the Letters, is a contradiCtion of faCl:, as the year at the end of the four years {hould have begun upon the I I th, and not the ninth, and thus every four years it ought to have increafed ~ dr~y; and in fi1ch cafe, the correction of thirteen days after the end of fifty-two years became fuperfluous, or without the retroceflion of a day every four years, the difference of the folar year, at the end of the ,yclc ihould have been double, that is twenty-fix days. We wonder much that an author, who appears to be a good cakulator, ihould err in a calculation fo fimple and clear. The year I 506,. was a fe~ul~r year among the Mexicans. Let us fuppofe for the fc-tlre of perfpic.mty, that thei1· year began as ours on the fidl: day of Janu~ ary. Th1s firil: year of the Mexican century, compofed like ours of 365 days, ended as ours on the 31fl: of December, and in like manner the fecond ye~r correfponding to 1507; but. in I so8, the Mexican year ought to finilh a day before ours ; becaufe ours being biffextile, or leap year, had 366 days, whereas the Mexican had only 36 5,;. therefore the fourth year of the Mexican century correfponding to I 509, ought to commence a day before ours, that is on the .3 10: of December- 1508. In the f.'lme manner, the eighth year, correfponding to ISI3• ou~ht to commence on the 3oth of December, 15 r 2, for the fame rcaio~ of that year having been bi!rextile. The twelfth year, correfpondlng to 1517, ought to begin on the 29th of December 1516, and fo f.o rth • unto .t he yea• r I 5 ~7, t1 1 e 1a n11:. of t J1 e Mex1• can century, m• which the Mextcan year ought to anticipate ours as many days as ther.c were bifi"cxtile years ~ T· h LlS m· . t h e 52 years of the Mex1.c an century, there ,1 • . . , . lt t s T 0 R y ' 0 F !..V ::rI. E. r c· o. there are thit:t~ell bifiextiie; t.he iall: year of the century, therefore,. oqght to antlClpate ours by thHteen days, and ·not tWenty-fix. Confe~ uently, th~ intct·po~~iori pf t'~e thit'tceh days ,to ltdjt:iil: the year at the end of the century w1th the courfc of the fun was n~t fu·pel'fiuous. So that ~cme~li :C..tid properly ~s to the anticipAtion of the dny, although he . err~d 111 ttymg that the Mcxtcans beg~n the year upon the I·Oth of April. ns 1t began as we have oftc.n repeated on the 26th of February.· The author of th~ Letters bchevcs, that the Mexicans began their year at the vernal eqmnox.. We arc of the i1me opinion aS' to their oJl:ronomical year; but we have not ventured to afll.rm. it as we do not know it. The ancient Spanifh hifl:orians of Mexico were not aftrononomers, ~nd were lctfs attentive to explain in their h.i!l:ories the progrefs · of the Mexicans iti iciences than their fuperftitious rites. The Mexican Cyclography, compofed by the grea~ aftronomer Siguenza, af-· ter a diligent ftudy of the Mexican paintings, and various calculations of the eclipfes and comets marked in. their paintings, has not reached:. us. We cannot pardon the Author of the Letters the injuHice he does this great Mexican in his third Letter of the fecond volume, where he 1j>eaks, on the faith of Gemelli, of the pyramids of Teotihuacan. Carlos Siguenza, fays that author, imagines thefl pyrarm'ds anterior to the deluge. This is not tru~; how coul'd' Sigu·enza imagine thefe pyramids anterior to the deluge, if he believed the population of America po!l:erior to the confufion of tongues, and the firft fettlers defcendants of N ephtuim, grand nephew of Noah, as Boturini attcfts,. who fcnv fome of the works of Siguenza·? Gemelli alfo, on whofe teftiruony the author of the Letters re!l:s,. gives exprefs contradiction to this particular in his iixth volume, fecond book, and eighth ·chapter.. " No Indian hijlorian, fays this traveller,. "' has been able to r'nwjligate the time qf the erecHon H of the pyramids. of America; but D. Carlos Siguenza imagined them H very andent, and but'!! a lr'ttle tt"me after tl:.e Deluge .. " Nor has Ge-· melli properly explained the opinion of Siguenza; for Dr. Eguiara,. treating in the Biblioteca Mexicana, of the works of Siguenza, and. amongfi others of that which he wrote upon the peopling of America,. fays, that in that wo~k he fixed the fidl: peopling of the new world. p,aulo• |