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Show 4·32 H I S T 0 R Y 0 F M E X I C 0. DISSERT. wol'ld. Some of them. had been profe.!I'ors in the moil: celebrated uni- VII. verJities of Europe; had obtained the firil: rank in their orders, and' '--v--.1 merited the favour and confidence of the emperor Charles. V. Thofe honours which they refigncd in Europe, and thofc which they never received in America, clearly demonfl::rated their dilintcrefl:ed zeal; their voluntary and rigid poverty, their continual treaty with the great Being of m\ture, their incredible fatigues in fo many long and difficult jmnJ11eys on foot, without provilions, in laborious fervice, and fiill ·more 'their exceffiwe charity, mildnefs, and compaffion, towards thofe afflicred nations, will make their memory ever venerated in that kingdom. In the writings of thof.c immortal men, fo many cln- 1·aeters of fincerity arc difcO\'ered, that we are not permitted to intcrtain the leafl:: do11bt of their accounts. It is true, they committed a heavy fin, in the judgment Gf M. de Paw, in .burning the greater part of the hill:orical paintings of the Mexicans, becaufe they thought them fuLl of fuperfl:ition. We valued fiill more than. M. de Paw thofe pain tinge, and lament their lofs; but we neither defpife the .authors of that unfortunate burning, nor curfe their memo1:y; becaufe the evil which their intemperate and heedlefs zeal made them commit is not to be compared with the good which they did ; befides, they endeavoured to r.epair the lofs by their works, particularly Motolinia, Sahagun, Olmos, and Torquemada. M. de Paw 1has gone fo far .to le!Ien the population of thofc countries, that he has dared to affirm (who could believe it) in a decifivc ·magifl:erial tone, that in all thofe regions there was no city but Mexico. Let us attend to him purely for amufement. " So that as there are " not," he fays, " the leall: ve.fl:iges of the Indian cities in all the " kingdom of Mexico, it is manife(l: tha.t there was no tnorc than ., one place which had any appearance cf a city., and this wns Mexi,., co, which the Spani01 writers would call the Babylon of the Indies,, ·" but it .is now a long time fince they hav.e been able to de.cc:ivo us -4, with ·the magnificent names they gave to the miferable hamlets of . 4( America." .But all the authors who have written on Mexico unanimoully allirm, that .all the nations of that vaft empire lived in focieties; that they had many well-peopled, latge, well-laid out Jettl~m~nts; name .the cities , ·which H I S T 0 R Y 0 F M E X I C 0. whiC"11 they faw; and they who travelled through thofe regions two ·centuries and a half after the conqueft, faw the fame fcttlements i11 the places mentioned by thofe writers; [o that M. de Paw is either perfuaded that thofe writers prophetically announced the future population of thofe places, or he mull: confe[s that they- have been from that time where they are at prefent. It is true that the Spaniards f6unded many,[ettlements, fuch as the cities of Angelopoli, Guada· .. ]axara, Valadolid, and V cracruz, Zelaja, Potofi, Cordova, Leone, &c. but the fettlcments made by them in the difi:riCl:s of the Mexican empire with refpetl: to thofe made by the Indians are as one to a thoufand. The Mexican names given to thofe fettlements are fi:ill prefcrved to this day, and demonftrate that the original founders of them were not Spaniards but indians. That thofe places of which we have made frequent mention in this hi.fl:ory were not miferable villages, but cities, and large well formed fettlements, fuch as thofc of Europe, is . certified by the uni~ed tcfl:imony of all writers who faw them • M. do Paw is defirous of being !hewn the vefl:iges of thefe ancient cities ; but we could fhew him more than that, the ancient cities now exifting. However, if he chufes to fee traces of them he may go to Tezcuc0, Otumba, Tlafcala, Cholula, 1-Iuexotzinco, Chemponlla, TuBa, &c. where he will find fo many that he will' have rto doubt or ·the ancient greatnefs of thofe Alnerican cities. This great number of towns and inhabited places, although fo many thoufands perifhed annually in the facrifices and continual wars of thofe nations, gives us clearly to underfl:and the vnfl: population of the Mexican empire, and the other countries of Anahuac.; but if aU this which we have [aid is not fuf1icient to convince M. de P<\W, iA charity we advife hirn to enter into an hofpita1. What We have applit:d againll: 'M. de Paw may fcrve' 1ikewifc tore ... fute Br. Robertfon, who, feeing [o many eye-witncfles contrary to him in opinion, recurs to a (ubterfuge (lmilar to th at of the warmth o£ the imagination which he made nfe of to deny fitith to the Spanifli hiilo tians refpcCl:ing what they faid of the excellence df the Mexican Ia.:. hours of caft metal. Treating of the wonder which tl~e fight of the cities of Mexico canfed to the Spaniards in his fcventh book, he faj'i~ " In the fidl: fervour of their imagination, they compared Chetnpoolla, VoL. II. K k k " though 433 DfS 'ERT. VII. |