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Show 78 nooK r. ~ H 1 S T 0 R Y 0 F M E X I C o; be underll:ood as equally applicable to the reft. Several authors, ancient as well as modern, have undertaken a defcription of thefe people, but I have not met with any one which is, in every refpect, faithful nnd con·ect. The paffions and prejudices of fome, and the im pcrfeCl: information, or the weak underftandii1gs of others, have prevented their reprefenting them in their genuine colours. What we !hall ~a! upon the fubjeCl:, is derived from a ferious and long iludy of the h.I.ltory of thefe nations, from a familiar intcrcourfe for many years With the natives, and from the moll: minute obfervations with refpeCt to their prefent il:ate, made both by ourfelves and by other impartial perfons. I certainly have no bias upon my own mind which {hould make tne lean to one f1de more than to the other; as neither the f~elings of a fellow-countryman can fway my opinion in their favour, nor can I be intcrefted to condemn them from a love of my nation, or zeal for the honour of my countrymen : fo that I fhall fpeak frankly and plainly the good and the bad, which I have difcovered in them. The Mexicans are of a good ftature, generally rather eJ.o:ceeding than falling ihort of the middle fize, and well proportioned in all their limbs : they have goqd complexions, narrow foreheads, black eyes, clean, firm, regular white teeth, thick, black, coarfe, gloffy hair, thin b .... ards, ~nd generally no hair upon their _legs, thighs, and arms. Their {kin is of an olive colour. · There is fcarccly a nation, perhaps, upon earth in which there are fewer perfons deformed, and it would be more ditlicult to find a fingle hump-backed, lame, or fquint-eyed man amongil: a thoufand M :xicans, than amon$ any hundred of any other nation. The unplea:G111tnefs of their colour, the fmallnefs of their forehead, the thinnefs of their beard, and the coarfenefs of their hair, are fo far compenfatcd by' the regularity and .fine proportions of their limbs, that they can neither be called very beautiful, nor the contrary, but feem to hold a middle-place between the extremes. Their appearance neither engage nor difgufts; but among the young women of Mexico, there arc many very beautifuJ and fair; whofe beauty is at the fame time rendered more winning by the fwectne(s of their manner of fpeaking, and by the pleaf.mtnefs and natural modefiy of their whole behaviour. • I Their • H I S T 0 R Y 0 F M E X I C 0. . Th~ir fe1~fes are very acute, efpecially that of fight, which they enJOY un1mpa1red to the greateft age. Their conftituti'ons are found and their health robuft. They are entirely free of many diforders ~hich ,are common among the Spaniards, but of the epidemical difeafes to ':hich th.eir COLlntry is oc.cafionally fubjett, they are the principal vi.ctnns; W1rh them thefe d1feafes begin, and with them they end. One never perceives in a Mexican that fl:inking breath which is occafionecl in o.ther p~opl~ by the corruption of the humours or indigefl:ion . Theu· conftrtutrons are phlegmatic; but the pituitous evacuations .fi·om thci-1' heads are very fcanty, and they fcldom fpit. They become f']"rey." h~aded and bald earlier than ~he Spaniards, and although moll: of ~hem dte of acute difeafes, it is not very uncommon among them to attain the age of a hundred. ~hey are now, and hav-e ever been very moderate in eating, but the1r paffion for fl:rong liquors is carried to the greatefi excefs. Formerly they were kept within bounds by the [everity of the laws . but now that thefe liquors are grown fo common, and drunkennefs j~ unpunilh. ed, one half of the people feem to have loft their fenfes . and this, togeth~r with the poor.manner in .which they live, expofed 'to aH the banefnl1mpreffions. of drfeafc, and defl:itute of the means of correCting them, is undoubtedly the principal caufc. of the havoc which is made among them by epidemical diforders. Their minds are at bottom in every refpefr like thofe of the othe1 , children of Adam, and endued with the f.'lme powers ; nor did the Europeans ever do. lefs. credit to their own reafon than when they doubted of the ratwnahty of the Americans. The fl:at.e of civilization am~ng the Mexicans, ~hen they were .firfi known to the Spaniards, wluch was much fupenor to that of the Spaniards themfelves, when they were firfi known to the Ph(enicians, that of the Gauls when firft known to the Greeks, or that of the Germans and Britons when firfr known to the Romans (n), il1ould of itfelf have been fully fLtflicient to (n) D: Rcrnn.rdo Aldret~,. in his book upon the Origin of the Sponilh T<'>nguc, would ha 1 •e' us to hebeve that the Spamards were lefs rude at the arrival of t·he Phoonicians 'than the Mexi. c.nfos were at the time of the arrival of the Sp:mian.ls ; but this paradox has been fufficicntly r~ ~~ted. by the teamed authors of the Literary Hiflory of Spain. It is true, that the ::ipn~ J:J.Jds 1 1 11 th~fe relllotc ages were not fo barbarous ag the Chichimccans, the Californiam and 'om ot1cr!avage ·t'o fA · b · . ' • • n.1 I ns o menca; ut neither their government was fo ragul:lr, nor th eir :m& I 79 no OK r. '--v--J |