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Show 24; DISS U:RT. II. '-v--I • H 'I S T 0 R Y 0 F M E X I C 0, be part of the fiege, they ought to fix the beginning of the fiege on the. firfi day of January, and count not ninety-three days, but fev.en tnontbs. to it. Cortes, who in this point merits more faith than any other hiftorian, f.1ys exprefsly, that the fiege commenced on the 3oth of. May, and lafted feventy-five days. It is true, that the letter itfelf of Cortes. might occafion an error, for there it is given to be underftood, that 011 the 14th ofMay the divifions of Alvarado and Olid were in.Tacuba, from whence the fiege began; but this is a manifeft erwr in. the· cyphers, for it is certain that thofe two officers did not go to Tacuba till. . after the review of the troops; and we know from Cortes,_ and, other hiftorians,. that this happened on Monday of Pentecoil:, the 2~th of May. . Torqucmada fays, in book IV. cap. 46. that ~he Spaniards entered' i)lto Mexico,. for the firft time, on the 8th of November; l;>ut_ in:· chap. 14~ of the fame book he aHirms, that this entry happ<med on the 2:ud of July; that they remained there one hundred and' fifty days,. ninety-fiv.e days in friend!hi.p·with the Mexi.cans,.. and. fG ty, a~ .war with. them,. which was occafioned by the ilaughter made there by Alvarado; on the fcftiva1 of the month Toxcatl, COfrefponding, . as he believes, to·.: our. April, &c. The ferios of anachro.nifms, errors, and contradijSlions, . · c:ontained in the chapten above cite~ of this author, is f~fijcient.to give. us ~Q idea. of hjs prepo11Crous .chronology. • ~ JD'I.S S-E.R- ·. ( !.f-3 l . ' ' D I S S E R T A T I 0 N III. On the Land of Mexic~. W H 0 EVER reads the horrid defctiption which {ome Europeans give of America, or he.ars the injurious tlander with. which they fpeak of its foil, its climate, its plants, its a~imals, and .inhabitants,· will eafily be perfuaded that m~lice and unnatural rancour hav·e armed their pens and their tongues, or that the new world ~s truly a curfed land, and defl:ined by heaven for the punilh~nent (.of malefactors. If we reft faith in count de Buffon, America is an .entirely new country, fcarcely arifen out of the waters which overwhelmed it (n)) a continual marlh in its plains, a land uncultivated and covered with woods, even after having been peopled. by Europeans more indulhious than Americans, or incumbered with moun .. tains that are inacceffible, and leave but a finall territory for cultivation and the habitations of men; an unhappy region, lying under a fordid iky, where all the animals that have been tranfported from the old .continent, are degenerated, and thofe native to its clime are [mall, deformed, weak, and deftitute of arms for their defence. If we credit Mr. de Paw (who in A. great meafure copies the fentiments of count de Buffon, and where ne· does not copy, multiplies, and ex"'ggerates errors) America has been in general, and is at prifent a very barrm country, jn which all the plants of Europe have degenerated, except thofe which are aquatic and fuccuient. Its ftinking foil bears a greater number of poifonous plants than all the other parts of the world. Its lands, either overloaded with mountains, or .covered with woods, prefent nothing to the eye but a va.fl: and barren defert; its climate is extrei,nely unfavourable to the greater part of quadrupeds, and moil of all pernicious to, men who are degenerated, debilitated, and vitiate~ 1n a furprifing manner in all the parts of their organization (m) • • 1 (h1 Hii\. Nrttur. conl, .fi, l! (m) Recherches Philo(ophi'lucs, parte i. I i 2 The I , , |