VII. was a powerful kingdom, remarkable for its im- BOOK placable enmity to the Mexican name ". By these hoftile powers the Mexican empire was circumfcribed on every quarter, and the high ideas which we are apt to form of it from the description of the Spanish hiftorians, fhould be confiderably moderated. tercourfe several pre IN confequence of this independence of feveral Little inftates in New Spain upon the Mexican empire, among its there was not any confiderable intercourfe be- vinces. tween its various provinces. Even in the interior country not far diftant from the capital, there feem to have been no roads to facilitate the communication of one diftrict with another; and when the Spaniards first attempted to penetrate into its several provinces, they had to open their way through forests and marshes. Cortes, in his adventurous march from Mexico to Honduras in 1525, met with obftructions, and endured hardships, little inferior to those with which he must have struggled in the most uncivilized regions of America. In fome places he could hardly force a paffage through impervious woods, and plains overflowed with water. In others he found fo little cultivation, that his P Herrera, dec. 3. lib. ii. c. 10. 9 B. Diaz. c. 166, 176. troops BOOK troops were frequently in danger of perifhing by VII. famine. Such facts correfpond ill with the Further proof of this. pompous description which the Spanish writers give of Mexican police and induftry, and convey an idea of a country nearly fimilar to that poffeffed by the Indian tribes in North America. Here and there a trading, or a war path, as they are called in North America, led from one fettlement to another', but generally there appeared no fign of any established communication, few marks of industry, and fewer monuments of art. A PROOF of this imperfection in their commercial intercourfe no lefs ftriking, is their want of money, or fome univerfal standard by which to eftimate the value of commodities. The difcovery of this is among the fteps of greateft confequence in the progress of nations. Until it has been made, all their transactions must be fo awkward, fo operofe, and fo limited, that we may boldly pronounce that they have advanced but a little way in their career. The invention of fuch a commercial ftandard is of fuch high antiquity in our hemifphere, and rifes fo far beyond the æra of authentic hiftory, as to appear almost coëval with the existence of fociety. The Herrera, dec. 3. lib. vii. c. 8. precious VII. precious metals seem to have been early employed BOOK for this purpose, and from their permanent value, their divisibility, and many other qualities, they are better adapted to ferve as a common standard than any other fubftance of which nature has given us the command. But in the New World, where these metals abound moft, this ufe of them was not known. The exigencies of rude tribes, or of monarchies imperfectly civilized,, did not call for it. All their commercial intercourse was carried on by barter, and their ignorance of any common ftandard by which to facilitate that exchange of commodities which contributes fo much towards the comfort of life, may be justly mentioned as an evidence of the infant ftate of their policy. But even in the New World the inconvenience of wanting fome general inftrument of commerce began to be felt, and fome efforts were made towards fupplying that defect. The Mexicans, among whom the number and greatnefs of their cities gave rife to a more extended commerce than in any other part of America, had begun to employ a common standard of value, which rendered fmaller tranfactions much more eafy. As chocolate was the favourite drink of perfons in every rank of life, the nuts or almonds of cacao, of which it is compofed, were of fuch univerfal confumption, that, VII. BOOK that, in their stated markets, these were willingly received in return for commodities of small price. Thus they came to be confidered as the inftrument of commerce, and the value of what one wifhed to dispose of was estimated by the number of nuts of the cacao, which he might expect in exchange for it. This feems to be the utmost length which the Americans had advanced towards the discovery of any expedient for fupplying the use of money. And if the want of it is to be held, on one hand, as a proof of their barbarity, this expedient for fupplying that want, should be admitted, on the other, as an evidence no less fatisfying, of fome progrefs which the Mexicans had made in refinement and civilization, beyond the favage tribes around them. Doubts con cerning the cities. IN fuch a rude ftate were many of the Mexican ftate of their provinces when firft vifited by their conquerors. Even their cities, extenfive and populous as they were, feem more fit to be the habitation of men juft emerging from barbarity, than the refidence of a polished people. The defcription of Tlascala nearly resembles that of an Indian village. A number of low straggling huts, fcattered about irregularly, according to the caprice of each proprietor, built with turf and stone and thatched with reeds, without any light but what they received VII. received by a door, fo low that it could not BOOK be entered upright'. In Mexico, though, from the peculiarity of its fituation, the difpofition of the houses was more orderly, the structure of the greater part was equally mean. Nor does the fabric of their temples, and other public edifices, Temples, appear to have been fuch as entitled them to the high praises bestowed upon them by many Spanish • Herrera, dec. 2. lib. vi. c. 12. to |