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Show • • .. H I S T 0 R Y 0 F M E X I C 0. DISSERT. and where the learned lament the lofs of that and many other works VI; !--v--J of the fame author? What could Siguenza fc~r from the publication of the Mexican wheels, publi.lhed already by Vabdes in Italy a century before him, and defcribcd by Motolinia, Sahagu!'l, Gomara, Acoil:a, Herrera, Torquemada, and Martinez, all Europeans, and by the Mexican, Acolhuan, and Tlafcalan hifiorians, Iztlilxochitl Chimalpain, Tezozomoc, Niza, Ay~la, and others? All thofe au~ thors are agreed with Siguenza in that which refpeets the Mexican wheels of the century, the year, the month, and only differ refpetl:ing the beginning of the year, and the name of fame months, for the reafans which we have mentioned in the fixth book of this hifiory. Hefides,. all authors who have wrote on this fubjeCl:, both Spani{h and Amencan, who arc many in number, agree in faying that the Mexicans and other nations of thofe countries made ufe of fuch v;heels to reprefent their century, their year, ami their month; that their century confificd of fifty-two years, their year of three hundred and fixty:... five days, divided into eighteen months of twenty days each, and five days wh.ich they ~alled nemontemi; that in their century they counted fou~ penods o.f thirteen years, and that the days alfo were counted by penods of tlurteen ; that the names and characters of the years were only four,. that i.s thofe of the rabbit, the emu or reed, the .flint, and the hoZffe, whtch without interruption were alternately ufed with ditf~::rcnt numbers. T.his cannot be, f.1~s M. de Paw, becaufc it would fuppofe them to h~ve made a long fcnes of afhonomical obfervations, and thereby attamed a knowledge. fuffi.cient to enable them to regulate the folar year, :lild. thefe could not happen to be united with that profound ignorance wluch thofe pe_ople were immcrfed. How could they perfetl: their ch~·onology while th~y had no t~rms to count a higher number than thtee.? -r:herefore, 1f the Mex1cans had really that method of regulatmg tlme, t.hey ought not to be called barbarians and favages, hut rathe: a cultivated and polia1ed people; becaufe a nation mufi be moil: cult~vated which has made a long (cries of accurate ·obfervations and ~cqture~ exaCt .knowledge in aftronomy. But the certainty of .th~ tegulatwn of tune among the Mexicans is fuch as not to ad-nh: u t of .t he fm.a llefi doubt ·. be cau1r.e , I' f t1 1 e unam·m ous tdlimony of .t e Spam.lh wnters refpctl:ing the communion of the Mexicilns is not to be . . .H I S T 0 It: Y 0 F · M E X I C 0. .f:)e' doubted, which M. de Paw himfelf fays is not (g), how can we doubt of the method which thofe nations had to compute years and centuries, and its conformity to the folar courfe, both faets being attefted unanimoufiy by the Spanilh, Mexican, Acolhuan, and Tlafcaian hifiorians? Belides, the depolition of the Spaniards in this matter is of . very great weight, as they were, as M. de Paw fays, rather indine'd to degrade the nations of America fo faL' as even to doubt of their rationality. It is neceilary, therefore, to believe what hiftorians fay of thofe wheels, and to confefs that the Mexicans were not immerfed in that profound ignorance which M. de Paw pretends. With regard to what he fays of the fcarcity of words to exprefs numbers in the Mexican language, we !hall, in another place, demonfirate his error as well as his ignorance. It cannot be known, refumes M. de Paw, what was contained in the Mexican paintings; becaufe the Spaniards themfelves could not underftand them, until they were explained by the Mexicans, and none of the ·latter have known hitherto enough to be able to tranfiate a book I I~ order that the Spaniards !hould have underftood the Mexican paintings, it was not neceifary that the Mexicans !hould know the Spani!h language, becaufe it was fufficient that the Spaniards comprehended the Mexican; nor is there fo much necc:ifary to explain a pieture as tp tranfiate a book. M. de Paw fays, that on account of the roughnefs of the Mexican language, no Spaniard has ever learned to pronounc it, and that, from the incapacity of the Mexicans, none of them have yet learned the Spanifh tongue: but both the one and the ether afiertion are far from being true. Of the Mexican language Wt; ~all treat in its place. The CaiWi:m has alw~ys been very common among tbe Mexicans, and there are l'nany arhongfi them who ~an fpcak jt as well as th.~ Spaniards.. Many of them have wrote their ancien~ hiftory in Cafii. lian, and alfo that of the ·Conquefi of Mexico; fom~ of whom we have mentioned in the Catalogue prefixed to this hifiory. Others have tranfiated Latin books into Cafiiliao, Caftilian into Mexicaq, and MexicaQ (.g) '' Je vom avoue CJUC le confcntcmcnt de t'ous l ; Hiftoriens Efpag.nol~ ne pcrmet gueres "de:: rloutct· C'JliC cos deux peuplcs·Amuricains (t(Jt 111e:rirtws "'"' P rl'lwiaill) n'cull~nt <lana JJ " fumme immenfc de l~urs fupo1 fiitiona gTofficrcs, de quelques uli1ges qui nc dific roict~t p:1o1 "beau <JUP de cc qu'on nommc Ia CommLw1iop l~:!rmi nous." Tom. II. Letter 1. ' c c·. t , 1 : • , , I • . Yo L • I r. <? ~ n to 377 DISSERT. VI. ~ - |