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Show ·" 368 DISSERT. VI. '---v--' H I S T 0 R Y 0 F M E X I C 0. m fr according to the fentiments of this philofopher, have of men u , • 1 f h' necefiity remained barbarous. But m the fa~e pace o. 1s work where he reproaches the Americans with barbar1ty, he furm!hes us all the argu;nents we could defire to refute it. He. affirms,. that in all the extent of America there are found but few mmes of 1ron, and thofc fo inferior in quality to thofe of the old continent, that i~ cannot ev~n be made ufe of for nails. He tells us, that the Amencans were m pofldlion of the fecret; now loft in the old c~ntinent,. of giving copper a temper equal to that of fteel; that Godm fent, m I 727 (probably 17+7, as in r727, he was not gone to Peru), to the count de Maurepas, an~ old ax of hard Peruvian copper; and that count ~aylus having obferved it, he difcovercd th:tt it equalled the ancient arms of copper in hardncfs, of which the Greeks and' Romans made ufe, who did not employ iron in many of thofe works i11 which we employ it at prefent ; either bccaufe then it was more fcarce, or becaufe their tempered copper was better in quality than our fteel. La!l:ly, he adds, that the count de Caylus, being furprifed at that art, became perfuaded that (though in this he is oppofed by Mr. de Paw), it was not the work of the beafl:ly Peruvians, whom the Spaniards found there in the times of the conque!l:, but of fome other more ancient and moreindufuious nation. From all this, obferved by M. de Paw, we draw thefe four important conclufions: 1. That the Americans had the honour of imitating the two moil: celebrated nations of the old continent in the ufe of copper. 2. That their con duB: was wife in not making ufe of an iron fo bad, that it wa~ not even fit for making nails, but by making ufe of a fort of copper to which they gave the temper of !l:eel. 3· That if they did not know the very common art of working iron, they were in pofiefiion of that more fingl:llar fkill of tempering copper like fteel, which the European artifts of this enlightened century have not been able to re. fiore. 4· That the count de Caylus was as much deceived in the judgment which he formed of the Peruvians, as M. de Paw has been in his refpeCl:ing all the Americans. Thefe are the lawful inferences to be drawn fro.m the doCl:rine of this philofopher, on the ufe of iron, and not that of want of induftry which he pretends to deduce. We lhould be glad to know from him, if there is more induftry required to work iron as the Europeans do, than to work without iron every fort of il:one .. H I S T 0 R 'f{ .0 F M E ~ I C 0 jWne .and WGop, to form fevP,r~~ kinds .of1 arms, and to make without iron, ~s the Americans ufed to do, the mofi: curious works· of gold, of G.lver, and of gems. The particular ufe of iron does not prove great indufi:ry in the Europeans. Invented by the firft men, it paired eafily fi·om one to another; aT)d as , the m.odern Amerkan~ received it from th.c Europeans, in the fame manner the ancient Europeans had it from the Afiatics. The fir{l: peoplers of America certainly knew the ufe of iron, as the invention of it was cotemporary with the world; but it is probable, that that happened wh1ch we have . conjectured in our firil: Dj!fcrtation, that i~, QOt having found at fir!l: the mines of that metal in the nQrtheJ,"n countries of Ame1:ica where they had fettled themfelves,, the memory, of it was lofi: to their defcendants. But, finally, if thoft: 7re barbarians who know: not the ufe of iron, · what mufi: they be who know not the ufe of fire? In all the vaft re .. gion of America, no nation has been found, nor tribe fo rude, which did not know the art of kindling fire, and employing it for' the common purpofes of life; but in the old world people have been found fo barb.uous, that they neither ufed nor had any knowledge of fire. Such have been the inhabitants of the Marian lfiands, to whom that element was totally unknown until the Spaniards arrived there, .as the hifiorians of thofe ii1es attdl: ; yet M. de Paw would pcrfuade us that the American people are more favage than all the fa-. vages of the old world. In other rcfpetl:s, M. Je Paw is as wrong in what he .Utys of the iron of America <lS in what he thinks of the cop.per. In New Spain, Chili, and many other countries of America, numerous mines of good iron ha.ve been difcovered, and if it was not prohibited to. work them, in prejudice of .the commerce of Spain, America could furnia1 Europe all the necefi.ary iron in the fame manner as !he fupplies it with g(i)ld and filver. If M. de Paw had known how to 'make his enquiries concernin(}' America, he would h:we learned fmm ~he chronicler Herrera, that cv~n in the ifianq of Hifpanioh, there ~s a better iron there than in Bjf.. , cay. He would have found alfo from the fame author, that in Zaca~ tnla, a maritime province of Mexico, there are two forts of ~opper ;,1 the one hard,· which is 'ufeJ inft:ead of~ron, to make ~u~:es, hatchets, a~d ·) other infl:mmcn ts of wnr and agricttl tu re, and the other tlexib!~. ~~d r;;~~r.~.· . VoL. II. · :B b b com .. .a69 DISSERT, VI. ~ |