BOOK ACCORDING to the account of the Mexicans themselves their empire was not of long duration. Their country, as they relate, was originally monarchy. poffeffed, rather than peopled, by fmall inde Origin of the Mexican pendent author whose works I have feen. Lib. xiv. c. 6. M. Clavigero himself gives a description of the deftruction of ancient paintings in almost the fame terms I have used; and mentions, as an additional reafon of there being so small a number of ancient paintings known to the Spaniards, that the natives have become fo folicitous to preserve and conceal them, that it is "difficult, if not impoffible, to make them "part with one of them." Vol. I. 407. II. 194. No point can be more ascertained than that few of the Mexican historical paintings have been preferved. Though feveral Spaniards have carried on inquiries into the antiquities of the Mexican empire, no engravings from Mexican paintings have been communicated to the public, except those by Purchas, Gemelli Carreri, and Lorenzana. It affords me fome fatisfaction, that in the course of my researches, I have discovered two collections of Mexican paintings which were unknown to former inquirers. The cut which 1 published is an exact copy of the original, and gives no high idea of the progress which the Mexicans had made in the art of painting, I cannot conjecture what could induce M. Clavigero to exprefs fome diffatisfaction with me for having published it without the fame colours it has in the original painting, p. xxix. He might have recollected, that neither Purchas, nor Gemelli Carreri, nor Lorenzana, thought it neceffary to colour the prints which they have published, and they have never been cenfured on that account. He may reft affured, that though the colours in the paintings in the VII. pendent tribes, whofe mode of life and manners BOOK resembled those of the rudeft favages which we have described. But about a period correfponding to the beginning of the tenth century in the Christian æra, feveral tribes moved in fucceffive migrations from unknown regions towards the north and north-weft, and fettled in different provinces of Anahuac, the ancient name of new Spain. These, more civilized than the original inhabitants, began to form them to the arts of focial life. At length, towards the commencement of the thirteenth century, the Mexicans, a people more polished than any of the former, advanced from the border of the Californian gulf, and took poffeffion of the plains adjacent to the great lake near the centre of the country. the Imperial Library are remarkably bright, they are laid on without art, and without " any of that regard to light "and fhade, or the rules of perfpective," which M. Clavigero requires. Vol. II, 378, If the public express any defire to have the feven paintings ftill in my poffeffion engraved, I am ready to communicate them. The print published by Gemelli Carreri, of the rout of the ancient Mexicans when they travelled towards the lake on which they built the capital of their empire, Churchill, Vol. IV. p. 481. is the most finished monument of art brought from the New World, and yet a very flight infpection of it will fatisfy every one, that the annals of a nation conveyed in this manner must be very meagre and imperfect. VII. BOOK After refiding there about fifty years, they founded a town, fince distinguished by the name of Mexico, which from humble beginnings foon grew to be the most confiderable city in the New World. The Mexicans, long after they were established in their new poffeffions, continued, like other martial tribes in America, unacquainted with regal dominion, and were governed in peace, and conducted in war, by fuch as were entitled to pre-eminence by their wisdom or their valour. But among them, as in other ftates whofe power and territories become extenfive, the fupreme authority centered at laft in a fingle perfon; and when the Spaniards under Cortes invaded the country, Montezuma was the ninth monarch in order who had fwayed the Mexican fceptre, not by hereditary right, but by election. Veryrecent, SUCH is the traditional tale of the Mexicans concerning the progrefs of their own empire. According to this, its duration was very fhort. From the first migration of their parent tribe, they can reckon little more than three hundred years. From the establishment of monarchical government, not above a hundred and thirty years, according to one account, or a hundred e Acoft. Hift. lib. vii. c. 8, &c. and VII. and ninety-feven, according to another com- BOOK putation', had elapfed. If, on one hand, we fuppofe the Mexican ftate to have been of higher antiquity, and to have fubfifted during fuch a length of time as the Spanish accounts of its civilization would naturally lead us to conclude, it is difficult to conceive how, among a people who poffeffed the art of recording events by pictures, and who confidered it as an effential part of their national education, to teach their children to repeat the historical songs which celebrated the exploits of their ancestors, the knowledge of paft tranfactions fhould be fo flender and limited. If, on the other hand, we adopt their own system with respect to the antiquities of their nation, it is no lefs difficult to account either for that improved state of fociety, or for the extenfive dominion to which their empire had attained, when firft vifited by the Spaniards. The infancy of nations is fo long, and, even when every circumstance is favourable to their progress, they advance fo flowly towards any maturity of ftrength or policy, that the recent origin of the Mexicans feems to be a strong prefumption of fome exaggeration, in the f Purchas Pilgr. iii. p. 1068, &c. fplendid BOOK fplendid defcriptions which have been given of their government and manners. VII. Facts which prove their progrefs in Civilization. The right of property fully eftablished. BUT it is not by theory or conjectures that history decides with regard to the state or character of nations. It produces facts as the foundation of every judgment which it ventures to pronounce. In collecting those which must regulate our opinion in the prefent inquiry, fome occur that fuggeft an idea of confiderable progrefs in civilization in the Mexican empire, and others which feem to indicate that it had advanced but little beyond the favage tribes around it. Both fhall be exhibited to the view of the reader, that, from comparing them, he may determine on which fide the evidence preponderates. In the Mexican empire, the right of private property was perfectly understood, and establifhed in its full extent. Among several favage tribes, we have seen, that the idea of a title to the feparate and exclufive poffeffion of any object was hardly known; and that among all, it was extremely limited and ill-defined. But in Mexico, where agriculture and industry had made fome progrefs, the diftinction between property in land and property in goods had taken |