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Show DI3SERT. lll. '\...-v--J H I S T' 0 R Y 0 F M E X I C 0. zinos of the palace of king Axajacat1. It is alfo true~ that Montezuma i 1npofcd {uch a tribute, not on all his fubjecl:s however, but only O!l thofe who were beggars, not on account of the extraordinary multitude of thofe infeCts, as Mr. de Paw affirms, . but becaufe Montezuma, who could not fuffcr idlent.:fs in his fubjects, rcfolved that that mifcr: lble fet of people, who could not labour, fhould at leafl: be occupied in loufing thcmfelves (x). This was the true reafon of fuch an extra.~ yagant tribute, as Torquemada, Betancourt, and other hifl:orians relate, and nobody ever before thought of, that which Mr. de Paw affirms merely becaufe it fuitcd his prepo!l:erous {y!l:em. Thofe difgu!l:ing infects poffibly abound as much in the hair and cloaths of Ameri.can beggnrs, as of any poor and uncleanly low people in the world ; but there is not a doubt that if any fovereign of Europe was to exact fuch attibute from the poor in h is dominions, not only bags but great vefiels might be filled with them. La!Uy, to referve the exar.oina.tion of the proofs of the bad clin)ate of America, fonnd d on the difcafes and defects <Df the phy.fical confiitution of the Americans to another Diffet:tation, in which ;we wiH demonf\:rate the errors and puerile prejudices of Mr. de Paw, let us attend to what he fays on the excefs of cold in the countries of the new world witJ1 rcfpect to thofe of the old, which at·e fituate at ' aJ1 equal diftan ce from the eqnator. " Comparing," he fi!lys, " the ex" periments made w1th thermometers in Peru, by Mdf. Condamine and " d'Ulloa with tho[o of the indefatigable Mr. Adanfon in Senegal,,it is " cafily undet·fl:ood, that the air is lcfs hot in the new than in the old " world. u pan calculating, with the grente!l: poffible exactnefs, th~ "difference of temperature, I believe it will be found equal to twclv,e " degrees of latitude; th at is, it is ns 1 ot in Afriea at thirty degrees " from the equator ::JS at eighteen degrees from the fame line in Ame(( ricn. The liqttot· did not mount to [o groat a heigh t in Pem in the '' torrid zone as it mounted in F rance at the greateft heat of the fummer. u ~l!bec, although it is in the fame latitude. ahnoft wi·th Paris, h:1~ an '' in ·ompat;ab ly mote ·fcvei~ aod oold di~a.tc th~tl it. , The difference I ' · ( ~· ) It is crtoin th at Monte7.uma was cxtt'em ly attentive to olcanliuefs, ns w~ll as :111 nomy to idlends l it is t hcrefl)re extremely prolxtb lc that from b()th thefc motives hCJ was in~t.u c cd to im11o!e that c:xtmordinary ttibulc, " between ·H I S T 0 R Y 0 F M E X I C 0. " h¢twcen Hudfon's Bay and. the Thames, fituate both in the fame u latitude, is equally fenfiblc." · Although we fhould grant all this to Mr. de Paw, it would not affift him tq demonll:rate the mawgnity of the Americnn clime. Why would he deduce; the badncfs of clime from the excefs of cold in the lands of America, and not rather deduce the badnefs of clitnatc of) the old continent fi·om the excefs of heat in ountries equidifiant from the equator? Mr. de Paw can form no argument in this poin t ngainfi America, whid-1 the Americans cannot powerfully retort ao-ain£1: E urope, r again!l: Africa. But all the obfcrvat ions made by hi~1 are not fi1fllcient to efl:abli01,' as a general pri nc ipl.c, that the countries of .the new world are colder than tho{c of the otd continent fituated .in the L'\mc latitude; and ftilllefs to makt: it be believed that there is as much heat/in the old contine11t at thirty degrees of latitude as in the new world at eighteen degrees. Mr. de Paw fays (y), that the cold beyond the eightieth degree in the old continent ought to become in November fo dcfi:rutl:ive to men that no mortal could live there; there. fore no men !hould be able to live in America beyond the fcvcnty( eventh degree. How then does he affirm, that in the country of the Efquimcaux there are inhabitants found beyond the feventy-fifth degree of latitude ? And if the feeble Americans can fubli.lt in that latitude, we may believe that the hardic!l: Europeans would be able to bear the cold of the eightieth degree. Farther, if this principle were true, it would be ~s cold in J erufalem, fitnated in little lefs than thirtytwo degrees, as m Vera Cruz, which is fituated in little lefs than tw~nty degrees ; which idea none but Mr. de Paw is cap:1ble of entertaining.< .111 •like .ma?ne.r other abfurd confequences might be 1 deduced, particularly 1f we were to adopt the calculation of Dr! Michell, who, according to what Dr. Robertfon fays, conclndcd, after thirty-three years obfervation, that the difference between the climate· of the old and that of the new world is from fourteen to fifteen degrees, that is, it is as hot in the countries of the old continent at twenty-nine or thirty degrees as _in the countries of the new continent, which are at fift~en degrees. It is certain that as there are many ) (y} Recherches Philofophiqucs, pnrt.iii, .feeL i, p. mihi jO+· . 5 coun trie. DISSERT. JII. ~ ' |