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Show .. H I S T 0 R Y 0 F M E X I C 0. DlSSE.RT. in another di11ertation (y). Thofe who lived more djfperfed, formed ~ fmaller nations or tribes, becaufe their fmaller multiplication has been always a necet1ary effeCt of favage life in all countries in the world. " If f.wages are iliepherds, fays Montefquieu, they require a " great country to be' able to fubiiO: in a certain number. If they are " hunters, as the f.wages of America were, they exiiit in frill fmaller " numbers, and in order to .maintain themfelves, form a frilllefs popu" lous nation." · ' . Why returns Mr. Buffon to afk, were they almoft all favage and difpe.rled? It is not fo. How can it be .laid they were all favagc and difperfed ; whilft we know that the Mexicans, the Peruvians,. and aU the people fubjeCl: to them, lived in focieties; which, as Mr. Buffon himfelf confeJTes, were extremely numerous, and cannot be called new. The other nati~ns continued favages, from a violent attachment to liberty or forne other caufe of which we are ignorant. In Alia, although it is a moft ancient country, there are frill many nations that are favagc and difperfed. \Vhy, he fays, have thofe who were united in focie.ties, hardly ceunted two or three hu:ndred years fince they affembled ? This is another .error. The Mexicans hardly co ted two hundred years from the foundation of their capital; the Tlafcalans fomet,hing more from the eftablifument of their republic, but thofe nations~ and the others fubjeCl:ed to them, lived in focicty fro.m time immemorial, as well as the Toltecas, Acolhuas, and Michuacanefe. Neither Buffon., ·de Paw, nor Dr. Robertfon, can .diftingui!h the e!l::abli01ment of thofe nations in Anahuac, from th'e fettlements which they had many centuries before in the northern regions of the new world. , " W~y, he again afks., were thofe nations who lived in fociety igno .• " rant of the art of tranfinitting to poftel'ity tht memory of events by " means of durable figns.., confidering that they had found the manner (y) Thcfc arguments of ·the count de Bulfon ngainn the antiquity of America, arc found in the fixth volume of his Natural Hiflory; but a little befo·re, in the fame volume, he fays thus: " There have been difcovered in Mexico and Peru, civilized men, and cultivated people, fubjc Ct to laws, and governed by kings; they poffcffed induflry, arts, and a fpecies of religion; they lived in cities in which order and government were maintained under the autlwrity of a fovercign. Thcfc ,people, arc certainly very numerous, and cannot be faid to be new," &c. "of H 1 S T 0 R Y 0 F M E X I C 0. " of·communicating together at a tlifiance by mean~ of kno~s on cord ~ ? " What then were the pictures and charaCl:ers of the Mexicans, and the other polifhed nations of Anahuac, if not durable figns, dcil:ined to perpetuate the memory of events? See what Acofta has faid on this fub. jeCt, in the vith book of chap. 7. of his hifl:ory, and what we £1y in our diOertation on the culture of the Mexicans. Why, he continues, h~d they not domefl:icated animals, nor employed any other than the Llama (z) and Paco, which were not domefl: ic, faithful, and docile, like ours ? Becaufe there were no others which could be domefiicated. Does Mr. Buffon think that they fhottld have domefl:icated tygers, Pume, wolves, and other fuch wild bea!l::s? M. de Paw reproaches the Americans for their little in dufrry, in not having employed the rein ~ dcer as the Laplanders have ; but thofc animals were not to be found but in countries extremely diftant from Mexico; and the {avages in whofe lands thofe animals were found, would not make ufe of them, becaufe they had no occafion for them, or it did not come into their minds to domell:icate them. Befides, the propofition of Mr. Buffon taken in fo general ~ fenfe, is certainly falfe,; as he himfelf fays that the a/co, or t echiche, a quadruped fimilar to a little dog, which is common to both Americas, was domefiicated by the Indians. In the fame manner the Mexicans domefticated rabbits, ducks, turkeys, and other animals. " Lafl:ly, their arts, concludes Mr. Buffon, . were as rude as their " focicty, their talents inferior, their ideas not yet developed, their or" gans rough, and their language barbarous :" the errors contain<;:d in thofe words we !hall effeCtually refute in the following di!fertations. We rnuft, therefore, upon the whole, deny that pretehded inundation, as one of thofe philofophical chimeras invented by the unquiet geniufes of our century : fince among the Americans there has been no memory of any other inundation than that univer[al deluge of which the Scriptures make mention. We wonld, on the contrary, fay, that if it was true that the deluge of Noah did not overflow the whole earth, (z) Llama, not Lama was, according to what Acofia fays, the generic name of the four fpecics of quadrupeds of that kind; but at prcfc11t it is ufcd only to lignify the one whi ch the Spaniards ~:allcd Camus, that is, the ram of Peru. The oth er three fpccics arc the Paro, the Gua11aco or Htlflllllaco, and the 1/imgna. The name Llama is pronouncrd Lynmn. llO • • 5 25·3 DISSERT. Ill. I "'-v--J |