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Show 37~ DISSERT. VI. '-'""'v--' H I S T 0 R Y ·o F M E X I C O. MiCl:lan, Guatufco, and many other places of that kingdom, would be fufficient to evince the truth of what we have afi'erted, and m.ake M. de Paw bluG1 at his rafhnefs and indifcretion. In regard to Peru, although Ac0fia co.nfefi'es that lime was not in ufe there, and that its natives neither conO:ruB:ed arches nor bridges of ftone; which circumO:ances proved fuffi.cicnt forM. de Paw to t1y, that the ufe of lime was totally unknown in all America; . notwithO:anding AcoO:a,· who was no vulgar man, and neither exaggerated nor extenuat ·ed faB:s with refpetl: to the Americans, gives much praife to the wonderful induO:ry of the Peruvians for thcit· bridges of totora or reeds nt the mouth of the lake of Titicaca, and in other places, where the imInenfe depth, or the extr;lordinary rapidity of d1e rivers, did not permit them to make bridges of !tone, or made the ufe of boats dangerous. He aflirms to have paffed fuch kind of pridges and boats, and alfo the ealinefs and fecurity of the pafi'age. M. de Paw takes upon him to fay, that the Peruvians did not know the ufe of boats, that they did not make. ·windows to their houfes, and even fufpeCl:s that their houfes had no roofs. Thefe are the abfurd [peculations in the clofet of a writer on America: he makes it very clear, that he does not know any thing of the bejucos of the Peruvian bridge~, and that he has formed no idea of the rivers of South Ameri~a. S E C T. · IV. • I On the Wtmt oJ Letters. N 0 nation in America knew the art of writing, if by it we are to undedl:and the art of expreffing on paper, on fkins, on cl,oths, or on {orne other fimilar fubfi:ance, any fort of words by the different combinations of certain charaB:ers·: but if• d1e art of writing is taken for that of reprefenting and explaining an'y fubject to abfent perfons, or · pofl:erity, by means of figures, hieroglyphics, and characters, it is certain that fuch an art was known and much ufed by the Mexicans, the Acolhuas, the Tlafcalans, and all the other polilhed nations of Anahuac, The count de Buffon, in order to, demonftrate that A me- . nca •. H I S T 0 R Y 0 F M E X I C 0. . rica was a country entirely new, and the people who inhabited it alfo new, has alledged, as we have already faid elfewhere, that even the nations who lived in focieties were ignorant of the art of tranfmitting their events to pofl:erity by means of durable ligns, although they had found the art of communicating together at a diO:ance, and of writing by making knots on cords. But this fame art which they made ufe of to treat with thofe who were abfent could not ferve alfo to fpeak to poil:erity. What were the hiil:orical paintings of the Mexicans but durable ligns to tranfmit to poO:erity the memory of events to dill:ant places and di~ {l:ant ages? The count de Buffon fhews himfelf truly as ignorant of the hifl:ory of Mexico as he is acquainted with the hifl:ory of nature. M. de Paw, although he grants that art to the Mexicans which the count de Buffon unjufily,denics them, makes, how~ver, feveral remarks to depreciate it; and among others feme fo _lin gular we muO: mention them. · He fays that the Mexicans. did not ufe hieroglyphics; that their. paintings were nothing but the coarfe drafts of objeCts; that, in order to reprefent a tree they painted a tree; that their paintings· no where 01cw any, underO:anding· of light and fhade, any idea of perfpcCtive, or imitation of nature ; that they had made no progrefs in that art, by means of which they attempted to perpetuate the memory of events and things palf~d; that the only copy of hifl:oricnl· painting faved from the burning which the fidl miffionaries made of th~m, is that which the firfi viceroy of Mexico fent to Charles V. which was afterwards p~1blifhed by Thevenot in France, and Purchas in England; that this painting is fo coarfe and iU executed, that it is not to be difccrncd whether it treats, as the interpreter £1ys, of eight kings of Mexico, or eight concubines of Montezuma, &c. M. de Paw G1ews his i.gnot·ance throughout here, and from thence proceeds his forwardnefs in writing. Shall .we give more. faith to a !'ruffian philo[opher, who has (een only the grofs copies by Purchas, than to thofe who have feen and-carefully O:udied many original. paintings of the Mcxicar1s? M. de Paw wm not allow the Mexicans to have nude ufc of hieroglyphics, becaufc he would not have it thougl~ t that he grants them any refemblance to the ancient Egyptians. Kir- 1 l cher, • 373 DISSERT. VI. ., |
