VII. taken place. Both might be transferred from BOOK one person to another by fale or barter; both might defcend by inheritance. Every perfon who could be denominated a freeman had property in land. This, however, they held by various tenures. Some poffeffed it in full right, and it defcended to their heirs. The title of others to their lands was derived from the office or dignity which they enjoyed; and when deprived of the latter, they loft poffeffion of the former. Both thefe modes of occupying land were deemed noble, and peculiar to citizens of the highest class. The tenure, by which the great body of the people held their property, was very different. In every diftrict a certain quantity of land was measured out in proportion to the number of families. This was cultivated by the joint labour of the whole; its produce was depofited in a common ftorehouse, and divided among them according to their respective exigencies. The members of the Calpullee, or afsociations, could not alienate their fhare of the common eftate; it was an indivifible permanent property, destined for the fupport of their families". In confequence of this distribution of the territory of the ftate, every man had an Herrera, dec. 3. lib. iv. c. 15. Torquem. Mon. Ind. lib. xiv. c. 7. Corita, MS, interest VII. BOOK intereft in its welfare, and the happiness of the individual was connected with the public fecurity. The num ber and their cities. ANOTHER ftriking circumstance, which distingreatnefs of guifhes the Mexican empire from thofe nations in America we have already defcribed, is the number and greatnefs of its cities. While fociety continues in a rude state, the wants of men are fo few, and they ftand fo little in need of mutual affiftance, that their inducements to crowd together are extremely feeble. Their industry at the fame time is fo imperfect, that it cannot fecure fubfiftence for any confiderable number of families fettled in one spot. They live difperfed, at this period, from choice as well as from neceffity, or at the utmost affemble in fmall hamlets on the banks of the river which fupplies them with food, or on the border of fome plain left open by nature, or cleared by their own labour. The Spaniards, accustomed to this mode of habitation among all the favage tribes with which they were hitherto acquainted, were aftonifhed, on entering New Spain, to find the natives refiding in towns of fuch extent as resembled thofe of Europe. In the first fervour of their admiration, they compared Zempoalla, though a town only of the second or third fize, to the cities of greatest note in their Own VII. own country. When, afterwards, they vifited in BOOK fucceffion Tlafcala, Cholula, Tacuba, Tezeuco, and Mexico itself, their amazement increased fo much, that it led them to convey ideas of their magnitude and populoufnefs bordering on what is' incredible. Even when there is leifure for obfervation, and no interest that leads to deceive, conjectural estimates of the number of people in cities are extremely loose, and ufually much exaggerated. It is not furprifing, then, that Cortes and his companions, little accustomed to fuch computations, and powerfully tempted to magnify, in order to exalt the merit of their own discoveries and conquefts, fhould have been betrayed into this common error, and have raised their descriptions confiderably above truth. For this reafon, fome confiderable abatement ought to be made from their calculations of the number of inhabitants in the Mexican cities, and we may fix the standard of their population much lower than they have done; but still they will appear to be cities of fuch confequence, as are not to be found but among people who have made fome confiderable progrefs in the arts of focial life. From their accounts, we can hardly fuppofe Mexico, the capital of the empire, to i Sce NOTE XXX. BOOK have contained fewer than fixty thousand in VII. The fepara feffions. habitants. THE feparation of profeffions among the tion of pro- Mexicans is a fymptom of improvement no less remarkable. Arts, in the early ages of fociety, are fo few and fo fimple, that each man is fufficiently mafter of them all, to gratify every demand of his own limited defires. The favage can form his bow, point his arrows, rear his hut, and hollow his canoe, without calling in the aid of any hand more fkilful than his own. Time must have augmented the wants of men, and ripened their ingenuity, before the productions of art became fo complicated in their ftructure, or fo curious in their fabric, that a particular courfe of education was requifite towards forming the artificer to expertness in contrivance and workmanship. In proportion as refinement fpreads, the diftinction of profeffions increases, and they branch out into more numerous and minute fubdivifions. Among the Mexicans, this feparation of the arts neceffary in life had taken place to a confiderable extent. The functions of the mafon, the weaver, the goldfmith, the painter, and of feveral other crafts, were carried on by different perfons. Each was regularly inftructed in his calling. Το VI. To it alone his industry was confined; and, by BOOK affiduous application to one object, together with the perfevering patiencé peculiar to Americans, their artizans attained to a degree of neatness and perfection in work, far beyond what could have been expected from the rude tools which they employed. Their various productions were brought into commerce; and by the exchange of them in the stated markets held in the cities, not only were their mutual wants supplied*, in fuch orderly intercourfe as characterizes an improved ftate of fociety, but their industry was daily rendered perfevering and inventive. ranks. THE diftinction of ranks established in the The distinç Mexican empire is the next circumftance that tion of merits attention. In furveying the favage tribes of America, we obferved, that confcioufnefs of equality, and impatience of fubordination, are fentiments natural to man in the infancy of civil life. During peace, the authority of a fuperior is hardly felt among them, and even in war it is but little acknowledged. Strangers to the idea of property, the difference in condition resulting from the inequality of it is unknown. Birth or titles confer no pre-eminence; it is only by * Cortes Relat. ap. Ramuf. iii. 239, &c. Gom. Cron. c. 79. Torquem, lib. xiii. c. 34. Herrera, dec. 2. lib. vii. C. 15, &c. 3 perfor al |