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Show .434 DISSERT. VIII. '--v-- ' I H I S T 0 R Y 0 F M E X I C 0. u though a town only of the fecond or third fize, to the cities of " greateft note in their own country. When afterwards they vifited " in fucceflion Tlafcala, Cholula, Tacuba, Tcfcnco, and Mexico itfelf, " their amazement was fo great that it led them to convey ideas of their " magnitude and populouii1efs bordering on what is incredible .•• For , " this reafon [orne confiderable abatement ought to be made from their " calculation of the number of inhabitants in the Me~ican cities,; and " we may fix the ftandard of their population much lower than they " have done." Thus Robertfon commands, but we are not difpofed to obey him. .Jf the Spaniards had written their hiftories, letters, or relations i'n tbe fir.ft fervour of their admiration, we might then juftly fufpeel that ftupefaetion had led them to exaggerate; but it was not fo; ·for Cortes, the moft ancient of thofe writers, did not write his firft letter to . Charles V. till a year and an half after his arrival in that cbuntry; the anonymous conqueror wrote [orne years after the conqueft; B. Diaz, after forty years continual refidence in thofe countries, and the others in like manner. Is it pofiible that this fervour oftbeir admiration iliou]d endure for one, twenty, and even forty years afterwards? But whe'nce arofe fuch wonder in them? Let us hear it from Dr. Robertfon himfelf. " The Spaniards, accull:orned to this mode of habitation among all " the Indians with which they were then acquainted, were aftoni.(hed, " on entering New Spain·,, to find the natives refiding in towns of " fuch extent as refembled thofe of Europe." But Cortes and his companions, before they went to Mexico, knew very well tha.t thofe people were not favage tribes, and that their houfes were not huts ; they had heard from thofe who, a year before, had made the fame voyage with Grijalva, that there were beautiful fettlements there, con£ fting of houfes of fione and lime, with high towers to them;. as Bernal Diaz attell:s, who was an eye-witnefs. That, therefore, was not the occafion of their wonder,. but it was the r.cal largenefs and multitude of the cities which they faw .. " It is not furprifing, tht:n," adds Robertfon, "that Cortes and his companions, little accuftomed to " fuch computations, and powerfully tempted to magnify, in order to " exalt the merit of their own difcoveries and conqucfis, !hould have been ~· betrayed into this common error, and bave raifed their defcriptions con- . , H I S T 0 R Y 0 F M E X I C 0. 43S " confiderably above truth." But Cortes was not fo weak, and faw DISSERT. Vll. very well that the exaggeration of the number of his allies, far from '--"v-..1 raifing the merit, ferved rather to diminiil1 the glory of his conquefts. He often confeffes that he was affifted in the fiege by eighty, and fometimes an hundred, and two hundred thoufand men; and as thefe ingenuous confeffions difcover his fincerity, in the fame manner thofe numerous armies delnonil:rate the population of thofe countries. Be-fides, Dr. Robertfon fuppofes, when the Spanilh writers wrote con-cerni9g the number of the houfes of the Mexican cities, it was only expreifed by conjeCture, and the judgment which they had formed by the eye; but this was not the cafe, for Cortes affirms, in his .firll: letter to the emperor Charles V. that he ordered the houfes, which be-longed to the diftriet of Tlafcala to be numbered, and found there was an hundred and fifty thoufand, a11:d in the fingle city of Tlafcala more, ~an twenty thoufand. ) j • •' I ' • Kkk t .... ~ ) . ) ' ' I J • I .• DIS S E R ... • . ' |