BOOK to a nation in its firft efforts towards erecting any VII. and other public. great work. GREATER skill and ingenuity were displayed, buildings. if we may believe the Spanish historians, in the houfes of the emperor and in those of the principal nobility. There, fome elegance of design was visible, and a commodious arrangement of the apartments was attended to. But if buildings corresponding to fuch defcriptions had ever existed in the Mexican cities, it is probable that fome remains of them would ftill be visible. From the manner in which Cortes conducted the fiege of Mexico, we can indeed easily account for the total destruction of whatever had any appearance of splendour in that capital. But as only two centuries and a half have elapfed fince the conqueft of New Spain, it seems altogether incredible that in a period fo fhort, every vestige of this boafted elegance and grandeur should have disappeared; and that in the other cities, particularly in those which did not fuffer by the deftructive hand of the conquerors, there are any ruins, which can be confidered as monuments of their ancient magnificence. EVEN in a village of the rudest Indians, there are buildings of greater extent and elevation than common dwelling-houfes. Such as are destined for VII. for holding the council of the tribe, and in BOOK which all affemble on occafions of public feftivity, may be called ftately edifices, when compared with the reft. As among the Mexicans the diftinction of ranks was established, and property was unequally divided, the number of diftinguished structures in their towns would of course be greater than in other parts of America. But these feem not to have been either fo folid or magnificent as to merit the pompous epithets. which fome Spanish authors employ in defcribing them. It is probable that, though more ornamented, and built on a larger fcale, they were erected with the fame flight materials which the Indians employed in their common buildings", and Time, in a space much less than two hundred and fifty years, may have fwept away all remains of them *. FROM this enumeration of facts, it seems, upon the whole, to be evident, that the state of society in Mexico was confiderably advanced beyond that of the favage tribes which we have delineated. But it is no lefs manifeft, that with refpect to many particulars, the Spanish accounts of their progress appear to be highly embellished. There is not a more frequent or a more fertile fource of w See NOTE XXXVIII. * See NOTE XXXIX. deception VII. BOOK deception in describing the manners and arts of favage nations, or of fuch as are imperfectly civilized, than that of applying to them the names and phrases appropriated to the institutions and refinements of polifhed life. When the leader of a fmall tribe, or the head of a rude community, is dignified with the name of king or emperor, the place of his refidence can receive no other name but that of his palace; and whatever his attendants may be, they must be called his court. Under fuch appellations they acquire, in our estimation, an importance and dignity which does not belong to them. The illufion fpreads, and giving a false colour to every part of the narrative, the imagination is so much fo carried away with the refemblance, that it becomes difficult to difcern objects as they really are. The Spaniards, when they first touched on the Mexican coaft, were so much struck with the appearance of attainments in policy and in the arts of life, far fuperior to those of the rude tribes with which they were hitherto acquainted, that they fancied they had at length discovered a civilized people in the New World. This comparison between the people of Mexico and their uncultivated neighbours, they appear to have kept conftantly in view, and obferving with admiration many things which marked the preeminence of the former, they employ in de fcribing VII. fcribing their imperfect policy and infant arts, BOOK fuch terms as are applicable to the inftitutions of men far beyond them in improvement. Both these circumstances concur in detracting from the credit due to the defcriptions of Mexican manners by the early Spanish writers. By drawing a parallel between them and thofe of people fo much less civilized, they raised their own ideas too high. By their mode of defcribing them, they conveyed ideas to others no lefs exalted above truth. Later writers have adopted the ftyle of the original historians, and improved upon it. The colours with which De Solis delineates the character and defcribes the actions of Montezuma, the fplendor of his court, the laws and policy of his empire, are the fame that he must have employed in exhibiting to view the monarch and inftitutions of an highly polished people. BUT though we may admit, that the warm imagination of the Spanish writers has added fome embellishment to their defcriptions, this will not justify the decisive and peremptory tone, with which feveral authors pronounce all their accounts of the Mexican power, policy, and laws, to be the fictions of men who wifhed to deceive, or who delighted in the marvellous. There are few hiftorical facts that can be ascertained by evidence VOL. III. Y VII. BOOK evidence more unexceptionable, than may be produced in fupport of the material articles, in the defcription of the Mexican conftitution and manners. Eye witneffes relate what they beheld. Men who had refided among the Mexicans, both before and after the conquest, describe inftitutions and cuftoms which were familiar to them. Perfons of profeffions fo different that objects must have prefented themselves to their view under every various afpect; foldiers, priests, and lawyers, all concur in their teftimony. Had Cortes ventured to impofe upon his fovereign, by exhibiting to him a picture of imaginary manners, there wanted not enemies and rivals who were qualified to detect his deceit, and who would have rejoiced in expofing it. But according to the juft remark of an author, whofe ingenuity has illuftrated, and whofe eloquence has adorned, the history of America', this fuppo-. fition is in itself as improbable, as the attempt would have been audacious. Who among the deftroyers of this great empire was so enlightened by fcience, or fo attentive to the progrefs and operations of men in focial life, as to frame a fictitious system of policy fo well combined and so consistent, as that which they delineate, in their accounts of the Mexican government? * M. l'Abbé Raynal Hift. philof. & polit. &c. iii. 127. Where |