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Francesco S. Clavigero (1721-1787) History of Mexico, Vol. III Richmond: Wm. Prichard, 1806 |
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Acosta's Natural & Moral History (1604) | Southey's Madoc (1805) | Robertson (1812 ed)
Von Humboldt's Researches (1814) | Del Rio's Ruins (1822) | View of the Hebrews (1823)
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C O N T E N T S OF VOLUME III. __________ BOOK X. 01 Review and march of the Spanish army to Tezcuco 07 Entry of the Spaniards into that court 08 Revolutions there 11 Dangerous expedition against Iztapalapan 12 Confederacy of Otompan, and other cities with the Spaniards 15 Transporting of the materials of the brigantines 17 Expeditions against Xaltocan and Tlacopan 20 Expeditions against Huaxtepec, Jauhtepec, and Jacapichtla 23 Fruitless negociation with the court of Mexico 24 March of the Spaniards through the southern mountains 26 Conquest of Quauhnahuac 27 Conquest of Xochimilco 31 March of the Spaniards round the lakes to Tezcuco 32 Conspiracy against Cortes 33 List of preparations for the siege of Mexico 34 Disposition of the army in the siege of the capital 36 Punishment of Xicotencatl 38 First hostilities and beginning of the siege 42 First entry of the besiegers into the capital 44 Increase of the auxiliary troops of the Spaniards 46 New entries into the city 47 Confederacy of several cities of the lake against the Spaniards 49 Operations of Alvarado, and bravery of Tzilacatzin 51 Treachery of the Xochimilcas, and other people 52 Victory of the Mexicans 57 Engagement of the brigantines and stratagems of the Mexicans 58 Fruitless embassy to the king of Mexico 60 Expeditions against the Malinalchese and Matlatzincas 63 Memorable actions of the general Chichimicatl 65 Slaughter made in Mexico, and bravery of some women 69 Deplorable state of the Mexicans 71 Fruitless attempts to make them surrender 72 New conflict and horrid slaughter of the Mexicans 73 Last assault, and taking of the city and kings
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CONTENTS.
93 Who were its first peoplers 103 How men and animals passed to America 122 Dissert. II. On the principal epochs in the history of Mexico 146 Dissert. III. On the land of Mexico 149 The pretended inundation of America 160 The climate of Mexico 177 The soil of Mexico 191 Dissert. IV. On the animals of Mexico 228 The animals transported there from Europe 243 Catalogue of American quadrupeds 243 Species acknowledged by Buffon 250 The species which he has not distinguished, but confused with others similar to them 251 The species of which he is ignorant, or unjustly denies to America 256 Dissert. V. On the physical and moral constitution of the Mexicans 257 Their corporeal and mental qualities 304 Dissert. VI. On the degree of civilization and refinement of the Mexicans 306 The want of money 310 The use of iron 313 The art of building ships, bridges, and of making lime 317 The want of letters 331 The arts of the Mexicans 346 Their language 354 The laws of the Mexicans 370 Catalogue of European and Creole authors who have written in the languages of New Spain 371 Authors of Grammars and Dictionaries of these languages 373 Dissert. VII. On the boundaries of the kingdoms of Anahuac 380 Population 399 Dissert. VIII. On the religion of the Mexicans 415 Dissert. IX. On the Origin of the French Evil |
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142
HISTORY OF MEXICO.
The arrival of Cortes's armament on the coast of Chalchiuhcuecan happened, as every one knows, on Holy Thursday, 1519. This was on the 2ift of April, for Easter was that year on the 24th. The entry of the Spaniards into the city of Tlascala did not happen, as Herrera and Gomara say, on the 23d of September, but on the 18th, as Bernal Diaz, Betancourt, and Solis write. This is easily demonstrated by making a calculation according to the account given by Cortes of the days which the Spaniards staid in Tlascala and Cholula, and those which they employed in their journey to Mexico. Bernal Diaz says, that before they entered Tlascala they were twenty-four days in the territories of that republic, and afterwards twenty in that city; as is also confirmed by the letters of Cortes. They entered Cholula on the 14th of October, and into Mexico on the 8th of November. Six days after Montezuma was made prisoner, as Cortes himself HISTORY OF MEXICO. 143 affirms. This general remained in the capital until the beginning of May following, at which time he went to Chempoalla, to oppose Narvaez. He assaulted and gained a victory over his enemy on the Sunday of Pentecost, which that year (1520^) happened on the zjth of May. The insurrection of the Mexicans, caused by the violent proceedings of Alvarado, happened on the great festival of the month Toxcatl, which began that year on the 13th of May. Cortes returned to the capital after his victory, on the 24th of June, as every one attests. In the accounts of the events which occurred in the last days of June, and the first days of July, we find some confusion and anachronisms among historians. We have followed Cortes in his letters, which contain the most authentic account of the conquest. The death of Montezuma appears to have happened on the 3Oth of June, for he died, according to Cortes, three days after he received the wound from a stone. This happened while those two machines of war were constructing, of which we have made mention in our history: these were constructed on the night of the a6th of June and the day following, as is to be gathered from the account of this conqueror. We cannot six the death of Montezuma therefore later nor sooner than the 3oth, without perplexing the series of events. The first of July we make the noche triste, that is, the night when the Spaniards came off defeated, for Cortes gives seven days to their journey from Mexico to Tlascala, and affirms that they entered there on the 8th of July. Diaz and Betancourt say, that the Spaniards left Mexico on the 10th, and entered on the i6th into the lands of that republic; but in this particular the greatest faith is due to Cortes. The events which happened 144 HISTORY OF MEXICO. from the 24th of June to the first of July will appear many, considering the shortness of the time: but it is not wonderful that in circumstances of such difficulty and danger actions should multiply, as the saving of lives called forth the greatest efforts. The war made by the Spaniards in Quauhquechollan happened in the month of October, by what appears from the account of Cortes. This epoch becomes of importance to us, in order to know the time which Cuitlahuatzin reigned, for a Mexican Captain, of whom Cortes gained information of the state of the court, gave him intelligence of the diligence used by that king in preparations against the Spaniards. those who do not allow Cuitlahuatzin to have reigned more than forty days, reject that information as a falsehood; but as they allege no reason to convince us of its falsity, we ought to believe it. Concerning the day on which the siege of Mexico began, and the time of its duration, authors in general are mistaken. They say for the first part that the siege lasted ninety-three days; but they have not made the calculation exactly, for Cortes made the review of his troops in the great square of Tezcuco, and assigned the posts which the three divisions were to occupy on the Monday of Pentecost, in the year 1521. But although we should suppose, contrary to the truth of history, that on the same day of the review the siege was begun, there would not be ninety-three, but only eighty-five days; for that Monday happened on the 20th of May, and it is universally known that the siege terminated with the taking of the capital on the 13th of August. If they reckon the hostilities committed on the cities of the lake to be part of the siege, they ought to six the HISTORY OF MEXICO. 145 beginning of the siege on the first day of January, and count not ninety-three days, but seven months to it. Cortes, who in this point merits more faith than any other historian, says expressly, that the siege commenced on the 30th of May, and lasted seventy-five days. It is true, that the letter itself of Cortes might occasion an error, for there it is given to be understood, that on the 14th of May the divisions of Alvarado and Olid were in Tacuba, from whence the siege began; but this is a manifest error in the cyphers, for it is certain that those two officers did not go to Tacuba till after the review of the troops; and we know from Cortes, and other historians, that this happened on Monday of Pentecost, the 20th of May. Torquemada says, in book IV. cap. 46. That the Spaniards entered into Mexico, for the first time, on the 8th of November; but in chap. 14. of the same book he affirms, that this entry happened on the 2nd of July; that they remained there one hundred and fifty days, ninety-five days in friendship with the Mexicans, and forty at war with them, which was occasioned by the Daughter made there by Alvarado, on the festival of the month Toxcatl, corresponding, as he believes, to our April, &c. The series of anachronisms, errors, and contradictions, contained in the chapter above cited of this author, is sufficient to give us an idea of his preposterous chronology. |
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__________ (m) Hist. Natur. tom. vi. HISTORY OF MEXICO. 147 world. Its lands, either overloaded with mountains, or covered with woods, present nothing to the eye but a vast and barren desert; its climate is extremely unfavourable to the greater part of quadrupeds, and moll of all pernicious to men, who are degenerated, debilitated, and vitiated in a surprising manner in all the parts of their organization. (n) The historiographer Herrera, although in many respects judicious and moderate, when he makes a comparison of the climate and soil of Europe with America, shews himself eminently ignorant even of the first elements of geography, and utters such absurdities as would not be tolerated in a child. "Our hemisphere," he says, "is better than the new one with respect to clime. Our pole is more embellished with stars, because it has the north to 3 1/4 degrees, with many resplendent stars." By which he supposes, first, that the southern hemisphere is new, though so many centuries are past since it has been known in Asia and Africa. Secondly, that all America belongs to the southern hemisphere, and that North America is not connected with the same pole and stars of the Europeans. We have, he adds, another pre-eminence, which is, that the sun is seven days longer towards the tropic of Cancer than towards that of Capricorn; as if the excels of the sun's stay in the northern hemisphere was not the same in the new as in the old continent. It appears that our good historiographer was persuaded, that the greater love which that luminary bears to beautiful Europe was the cause of his longer stay in the northern hemisphere. A thought truly gallant, and fit for a French poem, and from whence it comes, proceeds our __________ (n) Recherches Philosophiques, parte i. 148 HISTORY OF MEXICO. chronicler, that the Arctic is colder than the Antarctic part, because it enjoys less of the sun. But how can there be less of the sun enjoyed in the Arctic part, when this luminary is seven days longer in the northern hemisphere? Our land extends from west to east, and is therefore more accommodating to human life than the other, which growing narrow from west to east, enlarges too much from one to the other pole; for the land which lengthens itself from west to east is at a more equal distance from the cold of the north, and the heat of the south. But if the north is the region of cold, and the south that of heat, as our chronicler supposes, the equinoctial countries, according to his principles, would certainly be the best calculated for human life, from being those which are equidistant from north and south. In the other hemisphere our author concludes, there were no dogs, asses, sheep, or goats, and no lemons, oranges, figs, nor quinces, &c. these, and other such absurd notions of several authors, are the effects of a blind and immoderate partiality to their own country, which makes them ascribe to it certain imaginary pre-eminences over all others in the world. It would not be difficult to oppose to their invectives the great praises which many very celebrated Europeans, better informed than them, have bestowed on those countries; but besides that, it would be foreign to our purpose, it would be disgustful to our readers: we shall therefore content ourselves with examining in. This Dissertation that which has been written against the land of America in general, or against that of Mexico in particular. HISTORY OF MEXICO. 149
SECT. I.
This supposition, however, is ill founded, and the inundation pretended to have happened to the new world is a chimera. M. de Paw endeavours to support it on the 150 HISTORY OF MEXICO. testimony of Acosta, on the almost infinite number of lakes and marshes, on the veins of heavy metals, which are found almost on the surface of the earth, on the marine bodies which are found heaped together lying in the most low inland places, on the destruction of the great quadrupeds, and, lastly, on the unanimous tradition of the Mexicans, Peruvians, and all the savages from the land of Magellan to the river St. Lawrence, who all testify of their ancestors on the mountains during the time the valleys were laid under water. It is true that Acosta, in book I. chap. 25 of his history, doubts whether that which the Americans say of the deluge ought to be understood of that of Noah, or of some other particular one which happened in their land, as those of Deucalion and Ogyges in Greece; and it appears also that he inclines to adhere to this opinion which he says has been adopted by some judicious men: but, notwithstanding, in book V. chap. 19, speaking of the first conquest of the Incas, he gives us to understand that he firmly believed, that it ought to be understood of the deluge of Noah. HISTORY OF MEXICO. 151 as their own historians affirm, make no mention of the deluge, without commemorating also the confusion of tongues and the dispersion of the people, and those three things were represented by them in a single painting, as appears from that picture which Siguenza had from D. F. d'Alba Ixtlilxochitl, and he from his noble ancestors, a copy of which has been given in our history. The same tradition has been found among the Chiapanese, the Tlascalans, the people of Michuacan, of Cuba, and the Indians of the continent, with the circumstance of a few men, with some animals having been saved in a vessel from the deluge, and having set at liberty first a bird, which did not return again to the vessel, because it remained eating carrion, and afterwards another, which returned with a green branch in its mouth: this renders it evident, that they did not speak of any other deluge than that which drowned all the earth in the time of the patriarch Noah. All the circumstances which have disguised or changed this most ancient and universal tradition among nations, have either been allegories, such as those of the seven caves of the Mexicans, to signify the seven different nations which peopled the country of Anahuac, or the fictions of ignorance or ambition. None of those nations believed that men were saved upon the mountains, but in an ark or vessel, or, if possible, any one thought otherwise, it was certainly because the tradition of the deluge, after so many centuries, had been changed. It is therefore absolutely false that there was an unanimous tradition-of an inundation peculiar to America, among all those people who dwelt between the land of Magellan and the river St. Lawrence. The lakes and the marshes which appear to Mr. Buffon and Mr. de Paw incontestible marks and traces of 152 HISTORY OF MEXICO. this pretended inundation, are unquestionably the effects of the great rivers, the innumerable fountains, and the very plentiful rains of America. If those lakes and marshes had been made by that inundation, and not by the causes we have assigned, they would, after so many ages, have been consumed and dried up by the continual evaporation which the heat of the sun produces, particularly under the torrid zone; or at least they would have been considerably diminished; but no diminution is observable, except in those lakes, from which human industry has diverted the rivers and torrents which discharged themselves into them, as in those of the vale of Mexico. We have seen and observed the five principal lakes of New Spain, which are those of Tezcuco, Chalco, Cuisco, Pazcuaro, and Chapalla, and are confident that they have not been formed nor are preserved, but by plentiful rain-waters, rivers, and fountains. All the world is acquainted, that no rains are more copious and violent, nor any rivers so great, as those of America. Why then invent inundations while we have causes at hand more natural and certain? If the lakes were proofs of an inundation, we ought rather to believe it to have happened in the old than in the new continent, because all the lakes of America, including even those of Canada, which are the largest, are not comparable to the Black, White, Baltic, and Caspian seas, which though vulgarly called seas, are, however, according to Buffon himself, true lakes, formed by rivers which pour into them. If to those we add the lakes of Lemano, Onega, Pleskow, and many others, extremely large, of Russia, Tartary, and other countries, (p) we will soon discover how much __________ (p) Bomare enumerates thirty-eight lakes in the cantons of Switzerland, and says, that into that of Harlem vessels of great size enter. The lake of Aral in Tartary has, according to the same author, a hundred leagues of length and fifty of breadth. HISTORY OF MEXICO. 153 they, who have so exaggerated the lakes of America, had forgotten the nature of their own continent. The lake of Chapalla, which, in the geographical maps, is honoured with the magnificent name of Mare Chapallicum, or sea of Chapalla, which we have also seen and coasted round three times, is hardly a hundred miles in circumference. But if the rivers Don, Wolga, Borysthenes, Danube, Oder, and others of the ancient continent, though less by far than the Maragnon, the river of Plata, that of Maddalena, St. Lawrence, Oroonoko, Mississippi, and others of the new world, are nevertheless extremely sufficient, according to what Buffon says, to form those lakes which are so great, that they have always been esteemed seas, what wonder is it that the monstrous rivers of America make smaller lakes and marshes? Mr. de Paw says, that those lakes appear receptacles of water, which have not yet been able to issue from those places formerly overflowed by a violent agitation given to all the terraqueous globe. The numerous volcanos of the Andes, or American Alps, and of the hills of Mexico, and the earthquakes which are incessantly felt in one part or other of those Alps, let us see that that land is not yet at repose even in our day. But if that violent agitation was general over the terraqueous globe, how came the lands of Peru and Mexico to be inundated, which are so highly elevated above the level of the sea, as Buffon and de Paw both confess, and not the lands of Europe, which are so very much lower? Whoever has observed the stupendous elevation of the inland countries of America, will not easily persuade himself that the water could rise so as to cover them without inundating Europe. Besides, we may also say, that Vesuvius, Etna, Hecla, and the numerous 154 HISTORY OF MEXICO. volcanos of the Moluccas, the Philippine islands, and Japan, and the frequent earthquakes of those islands, and of China, Persia, Syria, Turkey, &c. let us also see that even the old world is not yet at repose in our day. (r) The veins of metals, adds de Paw, which are found in some places on the surface of the earth, appear to indicate that the soil was once overflowed, and that the torrents carried away part of it. But would it not be better to say, that some violent eruptions of subterraneous fires, which appear manifest in the many volcanos of the Cordilleras, destroying the surface of some soils, left the veins of metals almost naked? The finding of marine bodies heaped together in some inland places of America, if it should prove the pretended inundation would prove still more strongly a greater inundation of the old continent; for whereas there are few places in America in which these mattes of sea-shells, and other petrified marine bodies, are found; Europe, on the contrary, is almost full of petrifications of such bodies, which demonstrates with certainty that it was formerly overflowed by the sea. (s) Every person knows the wonders and the calculations which several French natural philosophers have made of that immense quantity of shells which are seen in Tourain, and nobody __________ (r) M. de Paw himself, after having made mention of Vesuvius, Etna, Hecla, and the volcanos of Liparis, speaks thus: "Amongst the great volcano* are reckoned the Paranucan, in the island of Java; the Canapis, in the island of Banda; the Balaluan in the island of Sumatra. The island of Ternate has a flaming mountain, the irruptions of which are not inferior to those of Etna. Of all the islands, small and large, which compose the empire of Japan, there is not one which has not a volcano that is not more or less considerable; and also the Philippine isles, the Azores, the Cape de Verd islands, &c." Letter III. Sur les Vicissitudes du noire Globe. (s) Burguet, in his Treatise an Petrifications, and Torribia, in his Introduction to the Natural History of Spain, gives us a very long account of the places of Europe and Asia, where petrified marine bodies are found. HISTORY OF MEXICO. 155 is ignorant either that such kind of petrified marine bodies are found also in the Alps. Why then ought we to conclude, from some marine bodies having been found in some places of America, that that country suffered an inundation, and not still more confidently conclude, that Europe has suffered an inundation from such bodies having been found in still greater abundance in many places of it? If the transportation of those bodies to inland places of Europe is to be ascribed to the waters of the universal deluge, why ought they not to be ascribed to the same cause in America? (t) On the contrary, if the waters of the universal deluge were not those which carried the above mentioned marine bodies into the inland places of Europe, but those of a Posterior inundation: if Europe is in general, according to what Buffon says, (u) a new country: if it is not long since it was covered with woods and marshes, why do we not see in Europe, and why were there not seen two thousand years ago, those stupendous effects of the inundation which those authors see in America? Why have the animals of Europe degenerated like those of America? __________ (t) One of the highest mountains of America is the Dezcabenado, situated among the alps of Chili, upwards of five hundred miles from the sea. Its perpendicular height above the level of the sea is, according to Molina, a learned and diligent historian of that kingdom, more than three miles. On the top of this very lofty mountain is found a great quantity of petrified marine bodies, which certainly could not have been carried to that stupendous height by the waters of any partial inundation, different from the deluge which happened in the time of Noah. Neither can it be said that that summit might formerly have been the bed of the sea, and gradually have been raised by subterraneous fires, bearing along with it those marine bodies; because although this case is not improbable in some places, which we see but a little elevated above the level the sea, and we even think it may frequently have happened, notwithstanding, in a height so extraordinary as this, it appears entirely incredible: so that those marine bodies, found on that summit, ought to be considered as unquestionable proofs and indubitable traces of the universal deluge. (u) Tom. Theorie de la Terre. 156 HISTORY OF MEXICO. Why are not the Europeans cold in constitution like the Americans? Why are or have not the women of both the one and the other part of the world been equally barren? Why, if Europe was overflowed like America, and more so, and for a much longer time than it, as is clearly deducible from the arguments of Buffon, has its soil remained fertile, and that of America barren? Why are the skies of Europe so mild, those of America so inclement? Why to Europe should all the blessings have been destined, to America all the evils? Whoever would be better informed respecting those difficulties, may read Buffon on the inundation of Europe. The last argument of M. de Paw is taken from the extinction or destruction of the great quadrupeds in America, which he says are the first to perish in water. This author believes that anciently there were elephants, camels, sea-horses, and other large quadrupeds in America, but that they all perished in this supposed inundation. But what person will not wonder that elephants and camels, who are so swift, should perish, and that the sloth, which is so flow, and unable to move, should escape? that they could not, as well as men, betake themselves to the mountains, either by swimming, at which they are most dexterous, or by availing themselves of the swiftness of their feet, which is so great, that in one day, according to the account of Buffon, they go one hundred and fifty miles; and yet the sloths could find leisure to ascend to the tops of the mountains, which, according to the account of the same author, can hardly move a perch in an hour? Although we should admit that such quadrupeds have been formerly in America, we are not obliged to believe that their destruction has been occasioned by the supposed inundation, because it HISTORY OF MEXICO. 157 might be ascribed to other causes very different. M. de Paw himself" affirms, (x) that if elephants were transported to America, as the Portuguese have attempted, they would meet with the same fortune with camels; that they would not propagate, although they were left in the woods to their own instinct; because the change of aliment and clime is infinitely more sensibly felt by elephants than all other quadrupeds of the largest kind. He likewise declares in another place, that the causes which operate to the destruction of those animals, that is, the quadrupeds of the new world, are difficulties of a high degree, and at the same time one of the most interesting subjects of the natural history of the terraqueous globe. Why then does he decide so positively, that the supposed inundation was the cause of their extirpation? Buffon endeavours to persuade us of the recent inundation of America by several arguments, to which we will answer in a few words. If this continent is as ancient as the other, he says, speaking of America, why have so few men been found there? The men who have been found there cannot be called few, but in respect to the very extensive country which they have inhabited. Those who lived in societies, as the Mexicans, the natives of Michuacan, the Acolhuas, and others who occupied all that very extensive tract of the country, which lies between nine and twenty-three degrees of latitude, and two hundred and seventy-one and two hundred and ninety-four of longitude, were bodies of people as numerous as those of Europe, which we mail shew in another dissertation. (y) Those who lived more dispersed, formed __________ (x) Recherches Philosophiques, parte i. (y) these arguments of the count de Buffon against the antiquity of America, are found in the sixth volume of his Natural history; but a little before, in the same volume, he says thus: "There have been discovered in Mexico 158 HISTORY OF MEXICO. smaller nations or tribes, because their smaller multiplication has been always a necessary effect of savage life in all countries in the world. "If savages are shepherds," says Montesquieu, they require a great country to be able to subsist in a certain number. If they are hunters, as the savages of America were, they exist in still smaller numbers, and in order to maintain themselves, form a still less populous nation." Why, returns Mr. Buffon to ask, were they almost all savage and dispersed? It is not so. How can it be laid they were all savage and dispersed; whilst we know that the Mexicans, the Peruvians, and all the people subject to them, lived in societies; which, as Mr. Buffon himself confesses, were extremely numerous, and cannot be called new. The other nations continued savages, from a violent attachment to liberty or some other cause of which we are ignorant. In Asia, although it is a most ancient country, there are still many nations that are savage and dispersed. Why, he says, have those who were united in societies, hardly counted two or three hundred years since they assembled? This i» another error. The Mexicans hardly counted two hundred years from the foundation of their capital; the Tlascalans something more from the establishment of their republic, but those nations, and the others subjected to them, lived in society from time immemorial, as well as the Toltecas, Acolhuas, and Michuacanese. Neither Buffon, de Paw, nor Dr. Robertson, can distinguish the establishment of those nations in Anahuac, from the settlements __________ and Peru, civilized men, and cultivated people, subject to laws, and governed by kings; they possessed industry, arts, and a species of religion; they lived in cities in which order and government were maintained under the authority of a sovereign. These people, are certainly very numerous, and cannot be said to be new," &c. HISTORY OF MEXICO. 159 which they had many centuries before in the northern regions of the new world. "Why, he again asks, were those nations who lived in society ignorant of the art of transmitting to posterity the memory of events by means of durable signs, considering that they had found the manner of communicating together at a distance by means of knots on cords?" What then were the pictures and characters of the Mexicans, and the other polished nations of Anahuac, if not durable signs, destined to perpetuate the memory of events? See what Acosta has said on this subject, in the sixth book of chap. 7. of his history, and what we say in our dissertation on the culture of the Mexicans. Why, he continues, had they not domesticated animals, nor employed any other than the Llama (z) and Paco, which were not domestic, faithful, and docile, like ours? because there were no others which could be domesticated. Does Mr. Buffon think that they should have domesticated tygers, Pume, wolves, and other such wild beasts? M. de Paw reproaches the Americans for their little industry, in not having employed the reindeer as the Laplanders have; but those animals were not to be found but in countries extremely distant from Mexico; and the savages in whose lands those animals were found, would not make use of them, because they had no occasion for them, or it did not come into their minds to domesticate them. Besides, the proposition of Mr. Buffon taken in so general a sense, is certainly false; __________ (z) Llama, not Lama was, according to what Acosta says, the generic name of the four species of quadrupeds of that kind; but at perfect it is used only to signify the one which the Spaniards called Carnus, that is, the ram of Peru. The other three species are the Paco, the Guanaco or Huannaco, and the Vicugna. The name Llama is pronounced Lyama. 160 HISTORY OF MEXICO. as he himself says that the alco, or techiche, a quadruped similar to a little dog, which is common to both Americas, was domesticated by the Indians. In the same manner the Mexicans domesticated rabbits, ducks, turkeys, and other animals. "Lastly, their arts," concludes Mr. Buffon, "were as rude as their society, their talents inferior, their ideas not yet developed, their organs rough, and their language barbarous:" the errors contained in those words we shall effectually refute in the following dissertations. We must, therefore, upon the whole, deny that pretended inundation, as one of those philosophical chimeras invented by the unquiet geniuses of our century: since among the Americans there has been no memory of any other inundation than that universal deluge of which the Scriptures make mention. We would, on the contrary, say, that if it was true that the deluge of Noah did not overflow the whole earth, no country might be sooner supposed to have been exempted from that calamity than Mexico; for besides its great elevation above the level of the sea, there is no inland country where petrified marine bodies are more rare.
SECT. II.
HISTORY OF MEXICO. 161 New World, in order to present his readers with an assemblage of fictions that is monstrous and horrid, without considering, that if we were to follow his steps, and undertook to make a similar representation of the different countries of which the old continent is composed, (which would not be difficult) we would make a description still more hideous than his; but as it would be foreign to our purpose we will confine ourselves to treat of the climate of Mexico. This country, as it is extremely extensive, and divided into so many provinces, different in their situation, is necessarily subjected to a variety of climes. Some of its lands, such as the maritime, are hot, and in general moist and unhealthy; others are like all inland places, temperate, dry, and healthy. The latter are extremely high, the former very low. In some the south wind, in others the east, and in others the north wind prevails. The greatest cold of any of the inhabited places, does not equal that of France or even Castile; nor can the greatest heat be compared to that of Africa, or the dog-days in many countries of Europe. The difference between winter and summer is so little in any part, that the most delicate persons wear the same clothes in August and January. This and a good deal more which we have already said, respecting the mildness and sweetness of that climate is so notorious, that there is no need of arguments to support it. M. de Paw in order to demonstrate the malignity of the American climate, adduces first the smallness and irregularity of the animals of America. Secondly, the size and enormous multiplication of the insects, and other little animals. Thirdly, the diseases of the Americans, and particularly the venereal disorder. Fourthly, the 162 HISTORY OF MEXICO. defects of their natural constitution. Fifthly, the excess of cold in the countries of America, in comparison of those of the old continent, situated at an equal distance from the equator. But this supposed smallness and less ferocity of the American animals, of which we shall treat hereafter, instead of the malignity, demonstrate the mildness and bounty of the clime, if we give credit to Buffon, at whose fountain Sig. de Paw has drank, and of whose testimony he has availed himself against Don Pernetty. Buffon who in many places of his Natural history produces the smallness of the American animals as a certain argument of the malignity of the climate of America; in treating afterwards of savage animals, in tom. II. speaks thus: "As all things, even the most free creatures, are subject to natural laws, and animals as well as men are subjected to the influence of climate and foil, it appears that the same causes which have civilized and polished the human species in our climates, may have likewise produced similar effects upon other species. The wolf, which is perhaps the fiercest of all the quadrupeds of the temperate zone, is however incomparably less terrible than the tyger, the lion, and the panther of the torrid zone; and the white bear and hyena of the frigid zone. In America, where the air and the earth are more mild than those of Africa, the tyger, the lion, and the panther, are not terrible but in the name. They have degenerated, if fierceness joined to cruelty, made their nature; or, to speak more properly, they have only suffered the influence of the climate: under a milder sky their nature also has become more. mild. From climes which are immoderate in their temperature are obtained drugs, perfumes, poisons, and all those plants whose qualities are HISTORY OF MEXICO. 163 strong. The temperate earth on the contrary, produces only things which are temperate; the mildest herbs, the most wholesome pulse, the sweetest fruits, the most quiet animals, and the most humane men are the natives of this happy clime. As the earth makes the plants, the earth and plants make animals; the earth, the plants, and the animals make man. The physical qualities of man, and the animals which feed on other animals, depend, though more remotely, on the same causes, which influence their dispositions and customs. This is the greatest proof and demonstration, that in temperate climes every thing becomes temperate, and that in intemperate climes every thing is excessive; and that size and form which appear fixed and determinate qualities, depend notwithstanding, like the relative qualities, on the influence of climate. The size of our quadrupeds cannot be compared with that of an elephant, the rhinoceros, or sea-horse. The largest of our birds are but small if compared with the ostrich, the condore, and casoare.” So far Mr. Buffon, whose text we have copied, because it is of importance to our purpose, and entirely contrary to what M. de Paw writes against the climate of America, and Buffon himself in many other places. If the large and fierce animals are natives of intemperate climes, and small and tranquil animals of temperate climes, as Mr. Buffon has here established; if mildness of climate influences the disposition and customs of animals, Mr. de Paw does not well deduce the malignity of the climate of America from the smaller size and less fierceness of its animals; he ought rather to have deduced the gentleness and sweetness of its climate from this antecedent. If, on the contrary, the smaller size and less fierceness of the American animals, with respect to 164 HISTORY OF MEXICO. those of the old continent, are a proof of their degeneracy, arising from the malignity of the clime, as Mr. de Paw would have it, we ought in like manner to argue the malignity of the climate of Europe from the smaller size and less fierceness of its animals, compared with those of Africa. If a philosopher of the country of Guinea should undertake a work in imitation of M. de Paw, with this title, Recherches Philosophiques fur les Europeens, he might avail himself of the same argument which M. de Paw uses to demonstrate the malignity of the climate of Europe, and the advantages of that of Africa. The climate of Europe, he would say, is very unfavourable to the production of quadrupeds, which are found incomparably smaller, and more cowardly than ours. What are the horse and the ox, the largest of its animals, compared with our elephants, our rhinoceroses, our sea-horses, and our camels? What are its lizards, either in size or intrepidity, compared with our crocodiles? Its wolves, its bears, the most dreadful of its wild beasts, when beside our lions and tygers? Its eagles, its vultures, and cranes, if compared with our ostriches, appear only like hens. In order to avoid prolixity, we omit other such observations which might be made against Europe, still adhering to the materials and words of M. de Paw. What Buffon and de Paw would answer to that African philosopher, we will now answer to those philosophers of Europe; since their arguments either do not prove, that the climate of America is bad, or say that the climate of Europe is bad, or at least that the African is better than the European climate. From the scarcity and smallness of quadrupeds M. de Paw passes to the enormous size, and prodigious multiplication of the insects, and other noxious little animals. HISTORY OF MEXICO. 165 "The surface of the earth,” he says, “infected by putrefaction, was over-run with lizards, serpents, reptiles, and insects monstrous for size, and the activity of their poison, which they drew from the copious juices of this uncultivated soil, that was corrupted and abandoned to itself, where the nutritive juice became sharp, like the milk in the breast of animals which do not exercise the virtue of propagation. Caterpillars, crabs, butterflies, beetles, spiders, frogs, and toads, were for the most part of an enormous corpulence in their species, and multiplied beyond what can be imagined. Panama is infested with serpents, Carthagena with clouds of enormous bats, Portobello with toads, Surinam with kakerlacas or cucarachas, Guadaloupe, and the other colonies of the islands, with beetles, Quito with niguas or chegoes, and Lima with lice and bugs. The ancient kings of Mexico, and the emperors of Peru, found no other means of ridding their subjects of those insects, which fed upon them, than the imposition of an annual tribute, of a certain quantity of lice. Ferdinand Cortes found bags full of them in the palace of Montezuma." But this argument, full throughout of falsity and exaggerations, proves nothing against the climate of America in general, much less against that of Mexico. There being some lands in America, in which, on account of their heat, humidity, or want of inhabitants, large insects are found and excessively multiplied, will prove at most that in some places the surface of the earth is infected, as he says, with putrefaction; but not that the soil of Mexico, or that of all America is stinking, uncultivated, vitiated, and abandoned to itself, as is weakly asserted by M. de Paw. If such a deduction were just, he might also say, 166 HISTORY OF MEXICO. That That the soil of the old continent is barren, and stinks; as in many countries of it there are prodigious multitudes of monstrous insects, noxious reptiles, and vile animals, as in the Philippine isles, in many of those of the Indian archipelago, in several countries of the south of Asia, in many of Africa, and even in some of Europe. The Philippine isles are infested with enormous ants, and monstrous butterflies; Japan with scorpions; south of Asia and Africa, with serpents; Egypt with asps; Guinea and Ethiopia, with armies of ants; Holland with field-rats; Ukrania, with toads, as M. de Paw himself affirms. (i) In Italy, the Campagna di Roma (although peopled for so many ages), with vipers, Calabria with tarantulas, the shores of the Adriatic sea with clouds of gnats; and even in France, the population of which is so great and so ancient, whose lands are so well cultivated, and whose climate is so celebrated by the French, there appeared, a few years ago, according to Mr. Buffon, a new species of field mice, larger than the common kind, called by him Surmulots, which have multiplied exceedingly, to the great damage of the fields. Mr. Bazin, in his Compendium of the history of insects, numbers seventy-seven species of bugs, which are all found in Paris and its neighbourhood. That large capital, as Mr. Bomare says, swarms with those disgustful insects. It is true that there are places in America where the multitude of insects, and filthy vermin, make life irksome; but we do not know that they have arrived to such excess of multiplication as to depopulate any place, at least there cannot be so many examples produced of this cause of depopulation in the new as in the old continent, which are attested by Theophrastus, Varro, __________ (i) Defense des Recherches Philosophiques, fur let Americains, chap. 13. HISTORY OF MEXICO. 167 Pliny, (k) and other authors. The frogs depopulated one place in Gaul, and the locusts another in Africa. One of the Cyclades, was depopulated by mice; Amiclas, near to Taracina, by serpents; another place, near to Ethiopia, by scorpions and poisonous ants; and another by scolopendras; and not so distant from our own times, the Mauritius was going to have been abandoned on account of the extraordinary multiplication of rats, as we can remember to have read in a French author. With respect to the size of the insects, reptiles, and such animals, M. de Paw makes use of the testimony of Mr. Dumont, who, in his Memoirs on Louisiana, says, that the frogs are so large there that they weigh thirty-seven French pounds, and their horrid croaking imitates the bellowing of cows. But who can trust to that author, particularly after knowing what Mr. de Paw says, (in his answer to Don Pernetty, cap. 17.) that all those who have written about Louisiana from Henepin, Le Clerc, and Cav. Tonti, to Dumont, have contradicted each other sometimes on one and sometimes on another subject. We wonder however, that M. de Paw should have had the boldness to write that these monsters do not exist in the rest of the world. We know extremely well that there are neither in the old nor new continent frogs of thirty-seven pounds in weight; but there are in Asia and Africa serpents, butterflies, ants, and other animals of such monstrous size, that they exceed all those which have been discovered in the new world. In what place of America has a serpent of fifty Roman cubits in length been seen, such as that which was shewn by Augustus to the Roman people at the public spectacles, as historians affirm, (l) or so gross as that __________ (k) Pliny Hist. Natur. lib. viii. cap. 19. (l) Suetonius in Octaviano Caesare. 168 HISTORY OF MEXICO. which was killed in the Vatican in the time of the emperor Claudius, and attested by Pliny, an author almost cotemporary, in the belly of which an entire child was found. But, above all, where has there been seen, even in the most solitary woods of America, a serpent which can in any manner be compared with that most enormous and prodigious one of one hundred and twenty feet in length, seen in Africa at the time of the first Punic war, and killed with war machines by the army of Attilius Regulus, the skin and jaw-bones of which were preserved in a temple of Rome, until the war of Numantia, according to the testimonies of Livy, Pliny, and other Roman historians? We know very well that some American historian says, that a certain gigantic species of serpents is to be found in the woods, which attract men with their breath, and swallow them up; but we know also that several historians, both ancient and modern, report the same thing of the serpents of Asia, and even something more. Megasthenes, cited by Pliny, said, that there were serpents found in Asia, so large, that they swallowed entire flags and bulls. (m) Metrodorus, cited by the same author, affirms, that in Asia there were serpents which, by their breath, attracted birds, however high they were, or quick their flight. Among the moderns, Gemelli, in vol. V. of his Tour of the World, when he treats of the animals of the Philippine __________ (m) Megasthenes scribit, in India serpentes in tantam magnitudinem adolescere, ut solidos hauriant cervos taurosque. Metrodorus circa Rhyndacum amnem in ponto ut supervolantes quamvia alte perniciterque, alites haustu raptas absorbeant. Nota est in Punicis bellis ad flumen Bagradam an Regulo imper. balestis tormentisque ut oppidum aliquod expugnata serpens CXX pedum longitudinis. Pellis ejus maxillaeque usque ad bellum Numantinum duravere Romae in templo. Faciunt his fidem in Italia appellatae boae in tantem amplitudinem exevntes ut Divo Claudio, principe occifae in Vaticano solidus in alvo spcctatus sit infans. Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. viii. cap. 14. HISTORY OF MEXICO. 169 isles, speaks thus: "There are serpents in these islands of immoderate size; there is one called Ibitin, very long, which suspending itself by the tail from the trunk of a tree, waits till stags, bears, and also men pass by, in order to attract them with its breath, and devour them at once entirely:" from whence it is evident, that this very ancient fable has been common to both continents. (n) Mr. de Paw would perhaps say, that these monstrous animals were formerly seen in the old continent when its clime was not yet perfected. But when that which the ancients wrote is compared with that which we know of Asia and Africa at present, who is there that will not perceive that the climate of those countries is at present, for the most part, what it was two thousand years ago; that there is the same heat, the same dryness or humidity, the same kind of plants, animals, and men, &c. Besides, even in our days, various forts of monstrous animals have been seen in those regions which infinitely surpass those analogous to them in the new world. In what country of America could M. de Paw find ants to equal those of the Philippine islands, called Sulum, respecting which Hernandez (o) affirms, that they are six singers broad in length, and one in breadth? Who has ever seen in America butterflies so large as those of Bourbon, Ternate, the Philippine isles, and all the Indian Archipelago? The largest bat of America (native to hot shady countries) which is that called by Buffon vampiro, is, according to him, of the size of a pigeon. La Rougette, one of the species of Asia, is as large as a raven; and the Roussette, another species of Asia, is as __________ (n) See Bomare on the Minia of Africa, and the Reinberah of Ceylon. (o) Hern. Hist. Insector. N. Hisp. cap. 30. 170 HISTORY OF MEXICO. big as a large hen. (p) Its wings, when extended, measure from tip to tip three Parisian feet, and according to Gemelli, who measured it in the Philippine isles, (q) six palms. Mr. Buffon acknowledges the excess in size of the Asiatic bat over the American species, but denies it as to number. Gemelli says, that those of the island of Luzon were so numerous that they darkened the air, and that the noise which they made with their teeth, in eating the fruits of the woods, was heard at the distance of two miles. (r) M. de Paw says, in talking of serpents, (s) "it cannot be affirmed that the new world has shewn any serpents larger than those which Mr. Adamson saw in the deserts of Africa." The greatest serpent found in Mexico, after a diligent search made by Hernandez, was eighteen feet long; but this is not to be compared with that of the Moluccas, which Bomare says is thirty-three feet in length; (t) nor with the Anacandaja of Ceylon, which the same author says is more than thirty-three feet long; (u) nor with others of Asia and Africa, mentioned by the same author. lastly, the argument drawn from the multitude and size of the American insects is fully as weighty as the argument drawn from the smallness and scarcity of quadrupeds, and both detect the same ignorance, or rather the same voluntary and studied forgetfulness of the things of the old continent. __________ (p) Buffon, Hist. Nat. tom. xix. (q) Gemelli, turn. v. (r) What Gemelli says respecting the surprising noise of the bats of the island of Luzon is confirmed by several persons worthy of credit, who have been some years in that island. (s) Defense des Recherch. Philosoph. chap. 22. (t) Bomare Diction. Univ. d' Histoire Natur. V. Couleuvre. (u) Id. V. Anacandaja. HISTORY OF MEXICO. 171 With respect to what Mr. de Paw has said of the tribute of lice in Mexico, in that, as well as in many other things, he discovers his ridiculous faith. It is true that Cortes found bags of lice in the magazines of the palace of king Axajacatl. It is also true, that Montezuma imposed such a tribute, not on all his subjects however, but only on those who were beggars, not on account of the extraordinary multitude of those insects, as Mr. de Paw affirms, but because Montezuma, who could not suffer idleness in his subjects, resolved that that miserable set of people, who could not labour, should at least be occupied in lousing themselves. (x) This was the true reason of such an extravagant tribute, as Torquemada, Betancourt, and other historians relate, and nobody ever before thought of that which Mr. de Paw affirms merely because it suited his preposterous system. Those disgusting insects possibly abound as much in the hair and clothes of American beggars, as of any poor and uncleanly low people in the world; but there is not a doubt that if any sovereign of Europe was to exact such tribute from the poor in his dominions, not only bags but great vessels might be filled with them. Lastly, to reserve the examination of the proofs of the bad climate of America, founded on the diseases and defects of the physical constitution of the Americans to another dissertation, in which we will demonstrate the errors and puerile prejudices of Mr. de Paw, let us attend to what he says on the excess of cold in the countries of the new world with respect to those of the old, which are situate at an equal distance from the equator. __________ (u) It is certain that Montezuma was extremely attentive to cleanliness, as well as an enemy to idleness; it is therefore extremely probable that from both these motives he was induced to impose that extraordinary tribute. 172 HISTORY OF MEXICO. "Comparing," he says, "the experiments made with thermometers in Peru, by Mess. Condamine and d' Ulloa with those of the indefatigable Mr. Adanson in Senegal, it is easily understood, that the air is less hot in the new than in the old world. Upon calculating, with the greatest possible exactness, the difference of temperature, I believe it will be found equal to twelve degrees of latitude; that is, it is as hot in Africa at thirty degrees from the equator as at eighteen degrees from the same line in America. The liquor did not mount to so great a height in Peru in the torrid zone as it mounted in France at the greatest heat of the summer. Quebec, although it is in the same latitude almost with Paris, has an incomparably more severe and cold climate than it. The difference between Hudson's Bay and the Thames, situate both in the same latitude, is equally sensible." Although we should grant all this to Mr. de Paw, it would not afM him to demonstrate the malignity of the American clime. Why would he deduce the badness of clime from the excess of cold in the lands of America, and not rather deduce the badness of climate of the old continent from the excess of heat in countries equidistant from the equator? Mr. de Paw can form no argument in this point against America, which the Americans cannot powerfully retort against Europe or against Africa. But all the observations made by him are not sufficient to establish, as a general principle, that the countries of the new world are colder than those of the old continent situated in the same latitude; and still less to make it be believed that there is as much heat in the old continent at thirty degrees of latitude as in the new world at eighteen degrees. Mr. de Paw HISTORY OF MEXICO. 173 Says, (y) that the cold beyond the eightieth degree in the old continent ought to become in November so destructive to men that no mortal could live there; therefore no men should be able to live in America beyond the seventy-seventh degree. How then does he affirm, that in the country of the Esquimeaux there are inhabitants found beyond the seventy-fifth degree of latitude? And if the feeble Americans can subsist in that latitude, we may believe that the hardiest Europeans would be able to bear the cold of the eightieth degree. Farther, if this principle were true, it would be as cold in Jerusalem, situated in little less than thirty-two degrees, as in Vera Cruz, which is situated in little less than twenty degrees; which idea none but Mr. de Paw is capable of entertaining. In like manner other absurd consequences might be deduced, particularly if we were to adopt the calculation of Dr. Michell, who, according to what Dr. Robinson says, concluded, after thirty-three years observation, that the difference between the climate of the old and that of the new world is from fourteen to fifteen degrees, that is, it is as hot in the countries of the old continent at twenty-nine or thirty degrees as in the countries of the new continent, which are at fifteen degrees. It is certain that as there are many countries in America more cold than others of the old continent equidistant from the equator, there are also others more hot. Agra, the capital of Mogul, and the port of Loretto in California, are nearly in the same latitude, and still the heat of that Asiatic city is not comparable to that of the American port. Hue, the capital of Cochin-china and Acapulco, are almost equidistant from __________ (y) Recherches Philosophiques, part iii. sect. i. p. mihi 304. 174 HISTORY OF MEXICO. the equator, and yet the air of Hue is cool in comparison of that of Acapulco. That other proposition of Mr. de Paw is equally false and improbable, namely, that in the centre of the torrid zone the liquor of the thermometer does not rise to so great a height as it does in Paris in the greatest heat of summer. If that was true, the difference between the American and European climates would not be only twelve degrees, as Mr. de P. would make it, but forty-nine, that is as much as the difference of latitude between the centre of the torrid zone and Paris. It is true, that according to the observations made in Quito and compared with those made in Paris, the heat of that equinoctial city never equals that of Paris in the summer; but it is equally certain, that according to the observations made by the same academicians with the same thermometers, in the city of Carthagena, which is not the centre of the torrid zone, but ten degrees from it, that the usual heat of this city is equal to the greatest heat of Paris, agreeably to the testimony of Ulloa, one of the observers. (z) There are many reasons, besides vicinity to or distance from the equator, which make a country hot or cold. The elevation of the soil, the neighbourhood of some lofty mountain covered with snow, abundance of rains, &c. contribute much to the coolness of the atmosphere; and, on the contrary, low ground, scarcity of water, drowths, &c. must increase the heat. Cividad Real, the capital of the diocess of Chiapa, because it is situated on a high ground, is cool; and the city of __________ (z) In the year 1735, at Carthagena, the liquor of the thermometer of Reaumur kept at 1025 1/2, without any variation, except that sometimes it fell to 1024, or rose to 1026. At Paris, the same year, it never rose higher than 1025 1/2, in the greatest heats of July and August. Ulloa Relation del Viage a la America Meridional, part i. tom. I. HISTORY OF MEXICO. 175 Chiapa, of the Indians, at a little distance from it, is extremely hot, because it is situated very low. Chachicomula, a large village, situated at the foot of the very lofty mountain Ozizaba, is cool, but Vera Cruz, placed in the same latitude, is very hot; and what is more, the air of Cividad Real is cool in the latitude of 16 1/2, and that of Loretto, in California, in lat. 25 1/2, is very hot. The observations made by M. de Paw convince us that the climate of America is not so various as that of Europe; that the inhabitants of the new world are not like those of the greater part of Europe, obliged to endure the alternate extremes of excessive cold, and intolerable heat. The more uniform a climate, the more easily are men familiarized to it, and escape those pernicious effects which follow a vicissitude of seasons. In Quito the thermometer does not rise so high as it does in Paris in the summer; but neither does it fall so low as it does in the temperate climes of Europe in winter. What can be more desirable in a climate than a temperature of air which is equally distant from either extreme, such as that of Quito, and the greater part of Mexico? What climate more sweet and kind to life than that in which the delights of the country are enjoyed all the year, and the earth is continually adorned with herbs and flowers; where the fields are covered with corn, and the trees loaded with fruit; the herds and the flocks spare man his fatigues, and have no need of his provision to maintain them, or his roof to resist the inclemency of the weather; neither snow nor frost compel him to keep near a fire, nor do burning heats in summer check his increase; but constantly experiencing the bounty of nature towards him, he enjoys equally in all seasons the 176 HISTORY OF MEXICO. social converse of his fellow-creatures, or the innocent recreations of the country. This is the idea entertained by man of a perfect climate; and the poets, therefore, when they strove to extol the happiness of certain countries, used to say, that a perpetual spring reigned in them; as Virgil said of his Italy, (a) and Horace of the Fortunate isles, (b) to which he invited his countrymen. Thus the ancients represented the Elysian fields; and also in the Holy Writings, in order to convey some idea of the felicity of heavenly Jerusalem, it is said, that there, there is no heat nor cold. Acosta, whose history is called by M. de Paw an excellent work, and who was acquainted with the climes of both continents, and at the same time was not partial to America, nor had any interest in extolling it, treating of the American clime, he speaks thus: (c) "When I perceived the mildness of the air, and sweetness of the climate of many countries of America, where it is not known what thing winter is that contracts, or summer which relaxes with heat; where a mat is sufficient for defence from every inclemency of the weather; where it is scarcely necessary to alter clothing through the whole year; considering, I say, all this, I have many times thought, and I even think at this moment, that if men would disengage themselves from the snares which avarice lays for them, and abandon useless and vexatious pretensions, they might lead in America a life of tranquillity and pleasure; for that which the poets sing of the Elysian fields, or the famous Tempe, __________ (a) Hic ver assiduum atque albinis mensibus aeflas; Bis gravida pecudes, bis pomis utilis arbos. Virg. Georg. ii. (b) Verubi longum, tepidasque praebet Jupiter brumas. Horat. lib. ii. ode 4. (c) Stor. Nat. e Mor. lib. ii. cap. 14. HISTORY OF MEXICO. 177 "and that which Plato told, or feigned, of his island Atlantida, are both to be found in those lands, &c." Other historians speak the same thing as Acosta of America, and particularly of Mexico and its surrounding provinces, the inland countries of which, from the isthmus of Panama unto the 40th degree of latitude (for those beyond that degree of latitude have not yet been discovered), enjoy a mild air, and a climate favourable to life, excepting a few places, which, either by their being low, are moist and hot, or by being very high, are rather severe in climate. But how many in the old world are not severe and noxious?
SECT. III.
178 HISTORY OF MEXICO. Acosta would not speak thus of America in general, and of New Spain in particular, under which name the continent of Spanish North America is comprehended, if America were in general a barren country. Many other Europeans speak not less favourably of America, and particularly of Mexico, whose testimony we must omit, to avoid seeming prolix to our readers. (d) From the same motive we shall omit also what Mr. de Paw has written against other countries of the new world, as it would be impossible to examine the complaints made by him against each of them, without filling a large volume; we shall therefore confine ourselves to what belongs to Mexico. Messieurs Buffon and de Paw are persuaded that all the territory of America is composed of inaccessible mountains, impenetrable woods and wastes, watry plains and marshes. Those philosophers have read in the descriptions of America, that the famous Andes, or American Alps, formed two large chains of lofty mountains, covered in part with snow; that the vast desart of the Amazons consists of thick woods; that Guayaquil, and some other places, are moist and marshy; and so much they have thought sufficient to warrant them to say, that America is nothing but mountains, woods and marshes. Mr. de Paw read in the history of Gumilla that which the author says about the method which the Indians of Oroonoko had of preparing the terrible poison of their __________ (d) Thomas Gages, the oracle of the English and French, with respect to America, speaking of Mexico, says as follows: "Il ne manque rien a Mexique de topt ce qui peut rendre une ville heuruse; et fi ces ecrivains qui ont employe leurs plumes a louer les provinces de Grenade en Espagne et de Lombardie et de Toscanie en Italic dont ils font des paradis terrestres, auroient vu ce nouvean monde et la ville de Mexique, ils fe dediroient bientot de tout ce qu'ils ont dit en faveur de ces lieux la." Parte i. chap. 22. Thus does an author who could scarcely speak favourably of any thing, represent Mexico. HISTORY OF MEXICO. 179 arrows; and in the history of Herrera, or other authors, that the Cannibals, and other barbarous nations, made use of poisoned arrows; and this was enough for him to say, that the new continent produces a greater number of poisonous herbs than all the rest of the world. He read that neither corn nor the fruits of Europe grow in very hot countries; and that was sufficient for him to say, that peaches and apricots have only borne fruit in the island of Juan Fernandez (e) and that corn and barley have not thriven but in a few countries of the North. Such is the logic adopted by Mr. de Paw through all his work. But of all that he says against America, nothing holds true with respect: to Mexico. There are certainly very lofty mountains in Mexico, eternally covered with snow: there are large woods, and also some marshy places in it; but the fertile and cultivated soil forms beyond comparison the far greater part of it, as is well known to all those who have visited that country. In all that immense space of land, where wheat, barley, maize, and other kind of grain and pulse with which that country abounds, are sown at present; they formerly sowed maize, pepper, beans, cacao, chia, cotton, and inch like plants, which served for the sustenance, clothing, and luxuries of those people, who having been so numerous as we have already mentioned, and shall elsewhere demonstrate, __________ (e) In order to shew how extremely distant Mr. de Paw is from the truth, we must here observe, that on the miserable island of Juan Fernandez, where he says that peaches ripen well, they on the contrary are small, and very indifferent, according to the information we have had from Abbe D. G. Garcia, who was there seven months, and particularly while the season of fruit lasted. On the other hand, in almost all the temperate and cold countries of Spanish America, where he imagines peaches do not grow, they thrive surprisingly; and in many places, particularly of Chili, and in some of New Spain, they ripen better than in Europe. 180 HISTORY OF MEXICO. could not have been able to have provided for their necessities: if the country had been nothing but mountain, wood, and marsh.. Mr. de Buffon, who in his first vol. says, that America is nothing but a continued marsh, and in vol. v. affirms, that the inaccessible mountains of America scarcely leave any small spaces for agriculture, and the habitation of men, in the same vol. v. confesses that the people of Mexico and Peru were very numerous. But if those people who occupied a very large part of America were very numerous, and lived as he says in societies, and under the control of laws, America is certainly not a continued marsh: if those people supported themselves, as is certain they did, on corn and fruits which they cultivated, the spaces are not small which the mountains leave for agriculture, and the habitation of men. The multitude, variety and excellence of the plants of Mexico, leave us in no doubt of the very singular fertility of its lands. The pasture grounds, says Acosta, of New Spain are excellent, and breed accordingly an innumerable quantity of horses, cows, sheep, and other animals. It is also as abundant in fruit as in any kind of grain. In short, there is no grain, pulse, kitchen herbs, or fruit, which does not thrive in that soil. The wheat, which Mr. de Paw scarcely allows to some countries of the North, does not grow in general in the hot lands of New Spain, as it does not in the greater part of Africa, and many other parts of the old continent; but in the cool and temperate lands of that kingdom it thrives well, and is more abundant than it is in Europe. It is sufficient to say, that the quantity gathered in the diocefs of Angelopoli is so great, that with what remained, after all its numerous inhabitants were provided, HISTORY OF MEXICO. 181 they supplied the Antilles, and the fleet of ships which formerly came to Havanna, under the name of Armata de Barlovento. In Europe there is but one seed-time, and one harvest. In New Spain there are several. "In those lands," says the European author Torquemada, who was there many years, and travelled through the whole kingdom, "where they cultivate wheat, in every season of the year may be seen one crop reaping, another ripening, another still green, and another sowing," which plainly demonstrates the wonderful fertility of the soil. The same author makes mention of several lands which yielded seventy, eighty, or an hundred for one; and as great a multiplication of wheat has been seen in some fields of those countries by us; (f) which, speaking in general, is certainly greater than that of Europe, and with less cultivation, as is well known to European superintendants of agriculture who have been in that part of America. What we say of wheat we can also say of barley, although this is not sown but in proportion to the consumption there is made of it, in the support of horses, mules, and hogs. We might say still more of maize, which is the grain peculiarly native to America. Mr. de Paw pretends that all the plants of Europe have degenerated in America, except aquatic and juicy plants; and to prove this absurd notion, he says that peaches and apricots have borne fruit in the island of __________ (f) We have been in a country of America, where the land yielded commonly fifty for one, and sometimes an hundred for one. In Cinaloa, although it is a cold country, the land, we have been credibly informed, yields two hundred for one. Our learned friend, the Abbe Molina in his history of Chili, lays, that the land of that kingdom, usually yields an hundred and fifty for one. The plenty of grain is so great, that it is sold at five paoli the fanega, and every year about thirty vessels loaded with it come to Peru. 182 HISTORY OF MEXICO. Juan Fernandez only. Although we should grant that those fruits grow in no country of America, it would not avail him to prove what he intends to prove, but even this particular is as false as his general proposition. Acosta, treating of those fruits in particular, says, "Peaches, quinces, and apricots grow well in America, but best in New Spain." (g) In all New Spain, except the hot countries, those fruits, and all others transplanted from Europe, have thriven and grow in abundance. (h) "lastly," says Acosta, speaking of America in general, "almost every thing good which is produced in Spain grows there, sometimes better, and sometimes not; wheat, barley, sallads, kitchen-herbs, pulse, &c." (h) If he had spoken only of New Spain, he would have omitted that almost. "There is also another advantage," says Acosta, "which is, that the things of Europe are better in America than those of America are in Europe." But this may appear but a small advantage to Mr. de Paw. It alone would be sufficient however to demonstrate that, if there is any preference, it is to be given to America, In New Spain, many European authors attest, and all who have been there know, that wheat, barley, and every grain of Europe; peas, beans, and every other pulse; lettuces, cabbages, turnips, asparagus, and other sallads and roots, and every sort of kitchen herbs; __________ (g) Acosta, lib. It. cap. 31. Peaches are so plentiful in New Spain, that they are sold by twenties; and for the smallest currency there, two, three, or four twenties are given. In the kingdom of Chili, they count twelve different species of peaches, some of which are so large as to weigh a pound Spanish, or sixteen ounces. Molina Stor. del Chili. (h) Pears are also sold in twenties at Mexico; and there are upwards of fifty species of them. (i) Acosta, lib. iv. cap. 31. HISTORY OF MEXICO. 183 peaches, apples, pears, quinces, and other fruits; carnations, roses, violets, jessamines, sweet-basil, mint, marjoram, balm gentle, and other flowers and odorous plants brought from Europe all prosper there: but in Europe the plants of America do not, nor can in general come to perfection. Wheat grows in the lands of Europe, but much smaller, and not so good as that of America. Of the many delicious fruits of the new world, some, such as the musa and ananas, have thriven in the gardens of the princes of Europe, by means of hot-houses, and great care and attention, but not so well flavoured, or in such abundance, as in their native climes. Others still more valuable than these, such as the chirimoya, the mamey, and chicozapote have not yet, as far as we know, been made to grow, notwithstanding the studied efforts of European industry for that purpose. The cause of this great difference between America and Europe is that which Acosta mentions: that in America there is a greater variety of climate than in Europe; from whence it is more easy to give each plant a temperature proper for it. As it is not an argument of the sterility of Europe, that the plants proper to America do not thrive in it, neither is it an argument of the sterility of some countries of America, that some plants of Eu» rope do not thrive in them; because non omnia fert omnis tellus. Hic segetes ibi proueniunt felicius uvae. On the contrary, the hot countries in which wheat and European fruits do not ripen, are yet the most pleasant and fruitful. We do not doubt that if a comparison is made of America with the old continent, they will be found equal in their productions: for Asia and Africa have lands and climes suited to all the plants of America, which, on 184 HISTORY OF MEXICO. account of the differences of their nature, could not succeed in Europe. But what advantage is it to Europeans that Asia has abundance while it is at so great a distance? On the contrary, the Mexicans being surrounded by countries of every sort of climate, enjoy all their different fruits. The market of Mexico, like that of many other cities of America, is the emporium of all the gifts of nature. There we find apples, peaches, apricots, pears, grapes, cherries, camotes, xicames, and other numerous fruits, roots, and savory herbs, which cool and temperate climes yield; ananas, musas, cocoas, anonas, chirimoyas, mameys, chicozapotes, zapotes, and many others which hot countries produce; melons, cucumbers, oranges, pomegranates, and others which cold or hot countries equally produce. At all seasons of the year their market is abundantly provided with variety of excellent fruits, even at those times when the Europeans must content themselves with their chesnuts, or at most with apples and grapes, which their industry has preserved. Through all the year, even in the severity of winter, vessels enter their market by one of the innumerable canals of the city, loaded with such variety of fruits, flowers, and herbs, that it seems as if all the seasons of the year offered their productions at once; the most valuable plants of Europe, as well as all the native productions of Mexico being collected there; which all Europeans who have visited that part can testify. Nor is that land less abundant in plants of medicinal nature. To be satisfied of this truth, it will be sufficient to look into the work of the celebrated naturalist Hernandez; in which nine hundred plants, that are for the most part produced in the neighbourhood of Mexico, are described and designed, whose virtues have been ascertained HISTORY OF MEXICO. 185 by experience; besides three hundred others, the uses of which are not mentioned; and without doubt there are innumerable others yet undiscovered. Mr. de Paw, on the contrary, says that America produces a greater number of poisonous plants than all the rest of the world. But what does he know of the plants which are bred in the inland countries of Africa and Asia, to enable him to make a comparison? The soil of America is so fertile, that it is not to be wondered at if there is abundance of every fort in it. But to mention the truth, we do not know that one twentieth part of those poisonous plants which are produced in the old continent have been discovered in New Spain. With respect to gums, resins, oils, and other juices which the trees yield either spontaneously or with the aid of human industry, New Spain, says Acosta, excels: there are whole woods of acacia, which yields the true Arabian gum; but from its plenty it is not sufficiently valued. There is besides balsam, incense, copal of many species, liquid amber, tecamaca, oil of fir, and many other juices valuable for their fragrant odours, and medicinal virtues. Even those very woods with which the land of America is covered, as Buffon and de Paw affirm, demonstrate its fertility. There have been, and there are still, in these most extensive regions, great woods; but there are not so many as that a journey of five or six hundred miles may not be made without meeting one of them. And what kind of woods are they? for the most part consisting of fruit-bearing trees, such as the musa, mamey, apple, orange, and lemon, in the woods of Coatzacualco, Mifteca, and Michuacan; or of trees valuable for their wood or their gums, such as those 186 HISTORY OF MEXICO. which separate the vale of Mexico from the diocess of Angelopoli, and those of Chiapa, of the Zapotecas, &c. besides pines, oaks, ashes, hazels, firs, and a great many others, common to both continents. The trees peculiar to that land are in still greater number, and of more value. There are whole woods of cedar, as we have already mentioned. The conqueror Cortes was accused by his rivals before Charles V. of having used for the palace which he made be built in Mexico, seven thousand beams of cedar; and he excused himself by saying that it was a common wood in that country. It is in fact so very common, that they make the stakes for the foundation of houses in the marshy places of the capital, of this wood. There are also woods of ebony, that so justly celebrated tree, in Chiapa, Yucatan, and Cozumel; of brasil wood in hot countries, and the odorous wood of aloes in Misteca. The Tapincoren, the Granadillo or red ebony, the Camote, and others which we have mentioned in our history, afford better timber than is to be had in Europe. lastly, to avoid a tedious enumeration, we refer the reader to Acosta, Hernandez, Ximenes, and other European authors who have been in New Spain, although all they say is not sufficient to convey a competent idea of the fertility of that land. Acosta affirms, that "as well in respect to number as to variety of trees produced by nature, there is a greater abundance in America than in Asia, Africa, and Europe." (k) The nature and quality of a soil is best discovered by the plants which it spontaneously produces without the assistance of art. Let us compare, then, the productions of Europe with those, not of America, but only __________ (k) Acosta, lib. iv. cap. 30. HISTORY OF MEXICO. 187 of New Spain. "The reason of there being so many " savages in America," says Montesquieu, (l) "is that the land there produces of itself many fruits on which they can feed." I believe that those advantages would not be obtained in Europe if the land were left to itself without culture; it would produce nothing but woods of oaks and other useless trees. "Examining," says M. de Paw, "the history and origin of our plants, our kitchen-herbs, our fruit-trees, and also our grains, we find they are all foreign, and have been transplanted from other climes to our own. We can easily imagine the misery of the ancient Gauls, and even that of the Germans, in whose land no fruit-trees were produced in the time of Tacitus. If Germany was to restore the foreign vegetables which are not originals of its soil or climate, almost none would remain, nor would it preserve among its seeds which serve for nourishment any but the wild poppy and the wild Vena." (m) What Mr. de Paw openly confesses respecting Germany and Gaul, might also be said of the other countries of Europe, and also of Greece and Italy, which supplied the others. If Italy was obliged to restore all those fruits which do not belong originally to its soil, what would remain but acorns? these terms, (malum Persicum, malum Medicum, Assyrium, Punicum, Cidonium, nux Pontica, &c.) serve to keep us in remembrance that those fruits came from Asia and from Africa. "It is known," says Mr. Busching, (n) "that the best and most beautiful fruits passed from Italy into those countries which produce them at present. Italy received them from Greece, from Asia, and from Africa. Apples __________ (l) Montesquieu L' Esprit des Loix, lib. xviii. chap. 9. (m) Recherch. Philosoph. part i. (n) Busching Geograph. Tom. i. 188 HISTORY OF MEXICO. "came to her from Egypt and Greece; apricots from Epirus; the pear from Alexandria, Numidia, and Greece; the lemon and orange from Medea, Assyria, and Persia; the fig from Asia; the pomegranate from Carthage; the chesnut from Catania in Magnesia, a province of Macedonia; almonds from Asia to Greece, and thence to Italy; the walnut from Persia; filberts from Ponto; olives from Cyprus; plums from Armenia; the peach from Persia; quinces from Cidonia in Candia to Greece, and thence to Italy." Pliny says, that men at first fed upon nothing but acorns. (d) This, though false with respect to men in general, appears to be true with respect to the first peoplers of Italy, at least such was the opinion of the ancients, as their writings shew. Pliny adds, that even in his time many people, from the want of grain, were esteemed rich in proportion to the quantity of acorns which they had, of the flour of which they made bread, as they do at present in Norway of the bark of the pine, and in other northern countries of bones of fishes; which is no small indication of their misery. Bomare declares that all the beauties of European gardens are foreign, (p) and that the most beautiful flowers they have come from the east. (q) Mr. de Paw makes a more general confession of the ancient misery of the Europeans, where he affirms that the useful plants which they have at present passed from the south of Asia into Egypt, from Egypt to Greece, from Greece into Italy, from Italy into Gaul, and from thence into Germany; (r) so that the soil of Europe, with respect to native and __________ (o) Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. ii. J. cap. 56. (p) Bomare Diction. Univ. d' Historie Nat. V. Plante. (q) Id. V. Fleur. (r) Recherch. Philosoph. part i. HISTORY OF MEXICO. 189 Original productions, is one of the poorest and most barren in the world. On the contrary, how fruitful and abundant the American soil is, and especially that of Mexico, in native plants proper for nourishment and clothing, and the other necessaries of life, may be learned from reading the European authors who have written of the natural history of that new world. This is the answer to that ridiculous comparison which Herrera makes in his first Decad mentioned in the beginning of this dissertation. "In America," he says, “there were not, as in Europe, either lemons, oranges, pomegranates, figs, quinces, melons, grapes, olives, sugar, rice, or wheat." The Americans will then say, first, that Europe had none of those fruits until they were transplanted there from Asia and Africa; secondly, that at present these fruits grow in America as well as in Europe, and in general better of their kind and in greater plenty, particularly oranges, lemons, melons, and sugar canes; thirdly, that if America had not wheat, Europe had not maize, which is not less useful or wholesome; if America had not pomegranates, lemons, &c. it has them now: but Europe never had, has, nor can have, chirimoyas, ahuacates, musas, chicozapotes, &c. Finally, Mr. de Buffon, and Mr. de Paw, and other European philosophers and historians, who inveigh so much against America for its barrenness, its woods, its marshes, and deserts, will please to remember, that the miserable countries of Lapland, Norway, Iceland, Nova Zembla, Spitzbergen, and the vast horrid deserts of Siberia, Tartary, Arabia, Africa, and others, are countries of the old continent, and make at least the fourth part of its extent. Yet what countries are those? Let us attend to the eloquent description which Buffon gives 190 HISTORY OF MEXICO. of the deserts of Arabia: "a country, he says, without verdure, and without water; a sun always burning, an atmosphere always dry, sandy plains, mountains still more parched, over which the eye roams in vain to six upon a single living object; a land, if we may say so, pale and excoriated with the winds, which presents nothing to the sight but bones, scattered stones, and rocks in pyramids or in ruins; a desert entirely bare, in which the adventurous traveller never bates under the shade, where there is nothing that can be made companiable to him, or preserve his remembrance of living nature: a solitude greatly more frightful than that of the woods; for the trees are at least animated substances, which afford some consolation to man, but here he finds himself alone, detached, more naked and more bewildered, in places that are waste and without boundary; all the soil which he views appears to him like his sepulchre; the light of the day, more melancholy than the shades of night, does not return but to make him see his nakedness and impotence, and set before him his horrible situation, lengthening to his sight the limits of the void, and enlarging around him the abyss of immensity which separate him from the habitable world; a space so immeasurable, that in vain he would attempt to pass it; for hunger, thirst, and burning heat, shorten the moments which remain to him between desperation and death.” (s) __________ (s) Buffon, Hist. Nat. Tom. xxii. |
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SECT. I.
192 HISTORY OF MEXICO. The first ground of disparagement to America, with the count de Buffon, is the small number of its quadrupeds, compared with those of the old continent. He reckons two hundred species of quadrupeds hitherto discovered over all the globe, of which one hundred and thirty belong to the old continent, and only seventy to the new world. And if we take from this number the species which are common to both continents, we shall hardly find, he says, forty species of quadrupeds properly American. From these premises he infers that in America there has been a great scarcity of matter. (a) But why would he take from the seventy species of quadrupeds America has, those thirty which are common to both continents, as they, from their very ancient habitation in those countries, are as much American as the others? Besides, if those animals, which he calls properly American, had been created originally in America, with greater shew of probability he might have affirmed the supposed scarcity of matter in that part of the world. But all beasts having been Asiatic in their origin, as he himself confesses, we do not see his grounds for drawing such a conclusion. "Every animal," says Buffon, "when abandoned to its own instinct, seeks a zone and a region adapted to its nature," (b) Hence the cause of the small number of species of quadrupeds in America; because, upon supposition that animals after the deluge, when abandoned to their own instinct, fought a zone and a region suitable to their natures, and found it in the countries of the old continent, they had no occasion to make so long a journey as to America: if the animals, instead of being saved on the mountains of __________ (a) Hist. Nat. tom. xxiii. (b) Ibid. tom, xxix. HISTORY OF MEXICO. 193 Armenia, had been collected on the American Alps, by the same way of reasoning the number of species of quadrupeds in the old continent would have been less, and the American philosopher would have been liable to censure, who, from such an incident, would have endeavoured to infer the prodigious scarcity of matter, and barren niggard sky of that which we call the old continent. But although all those quadrupeds were actually original in America, we ought not from thence to infer the supposed scarcity of matter, because a country cannot be said to have a scarcity of matter which has the number of species of its quadrupeds proportioned to its extent. The extent of America is the third part of the whole earth, therefore it cannot be said that there is a scarcity of matter there, when it has a third part of all the species of quadrupeds. The species of quadrupeds, according to Buffon, are two hundred, of which America has seventy, which is something more than a third; it cannot therefore be said that there is a scarcity of matter there. Hitherto we have reasoned on the supposition that what Mr. Buffon has said was true with respect to the number of species of quadrupeds; but who is certain of this, as the real distinguishing character of species has not yet been discovered? Mr. Bufson, as well as several other naturalists who have written after him, believe, that the sole indubitable proof of the specific difference of two animals, similar to each other in many circumstances and properties is, that of the male not being able to cover the female, and of producing by means of generation another individual that is fruitful and similar to themselves. But this proof of diversity of species, besides that it fails in some animals, is, with respect to others, very difficult to be determined. To shew the 194 HISTORY OF MEXICO. uncertainty of it, let us put an ass and a mare together, and a mastiff and a greyhound together, two breeds of dogs extremely different. From this last couple is bred a dog, which partakes of mastiff and greyhound; from the first is produced a mule, which partakes also of the ass and the mare. I wish to know why the ass and the mare are two different species of quadrupeds, and the mastiff and the greyhound are only varieties of one species. Because this last couple, says Buffon, generates a fruitful individual, the other not. But how? Mr. Buffon in the twenty-ninth volume of his history, freely affirms, that the mules not being able to conceive is not because they are absolutely impotent, but only on account of the excessive heat and extraordinary convulsions which they suffer in coition. Mr. Bomare, (c) after having cited the testimony of Aristotle, who reports, in his history of Animals, that in his time the mules of Syria springing from horses and asses, produced young mules similar to themselves, adds, "This fact, related by a philosopher so worthy of faith, proves that mules are animals specifically fruitful in themselves, and in their Posterity."Similar cases, shewing the fruitfulness of mules, are to be found attested by many authors, ancient as well as modern, worthy of credit; and some cases have happened of this kind in our own time in Mexico. (d) There is no other dissimilarity therefore between those two pair of quadrupeds, except that the births of the bitches generated by that couple of dogs are more frequent than those of the mules. __________ (c) Diction. d' Histoire Nat. V. Mulet. (d) amongst others worthy of mention are the repeated births of a mule got by an ass and a mare, on the farm called Forest of Zurita, near to the city of Lagos, the property of D. F. G. Rubalcaba. This mule conceived by an ass, and brought forth a mule in 1762, and another in 1763. HISTORY OF MEXICO. 195 Besides, who has informed Mr. Buffon, that the Gibbon and Magoto, the Mammon and Pappion (four sorts of apes), do not copulate together, and produce a fruitful individual? The author has not made any experiment of it, nor cited any other naturalist who had; and notwithstanding he decides that all the above mentioned quadrupeds are so many different species. The distinction of the species of quadrupeds adopted by him is therefore very doubtful and uncertain, and we cannot know whether certain quadrupeds, which he reckons different species, are not one single species; and on the contrary, if others which he believes to be one species, may not be specifically different. But leaving this aside, it would be sufficient to cause a great diffidence of the division which Mr. Buffon has made of quadrupeds, to perceive the contradictions which appear in this and the other parts of his history, though in other respects it is extremely valuable. In the discourse which he gives in the twenty-ninth volume, on the Degeneracy of Animals, he affirms, that if we are to enumerate the quadrupeds proper to the new continent, we shall find fifty different species; and in the enumeration which he makes of the quadrupeds of both continents, he says, that those of America hardly make forty species. In the above enumeration he reckons the tame goat, the fhamois goat, and wild goat, three different species; and in vol. xxiv. Treating of those animals, he says, that those three quadrupeds, and the other six or seven species of goats, which are distinguished by different names, are all of one and the same species. So that we ought to abate the eight or nine species from the one hundred and thirty which he numbers in the old continent. In the above mentioned enumeration he 196 HISTORY OF MEXICO. counts the dog, the mouse, and marmotte; and adds, that no one of those quadrupeds was in America; but treating afterwards of the animals common to both continents, he says, that the marmots and mice are common to each continent, although it is difficult to decide if such American quadrupeds are of the same species with those of the old continent; and in vol. xvi. he affirms, that mice were carried to America in European vessels. With respect to dogs, which, in the above enumeration, he denies to America, he grants them to it in vol. xxx. for he affirms that the Xoloitzcuintli, the Itzcuintepotzotli, and Techichi, were three different breeds of the same species of dogs with those of the old continent. This sketch is sufficient to shew that Mr. Buffon, notwithstanding his great genius and great diligence, sometimes forgets what he has written. Among the one hundred and thirty species of quadrupeds of the old continent, he enumerates seven species of bats common in France and other countries of Europe, five of which, that were hitherto unknown and confounded with others, were lately discovered and distinguished by Mr. Daubenton, as he affirms in vol. xvi of his History. If then in learned France, where so many centuries have been passed in the study of natural history, five species of bats were hitherto unknown, what wonder is it that in the vast regions of America, where no such able naturalists have gone yet, and where but lately that study has been in esteem, should remain many species of quadrupeds still unknown? We do not doubt that if there had been some Buffons and Daubentons in the new world, they would have been able to have counted a few more quadrupeds than he numbers from Paris, where he cannot be informed respecting HISTORY OF MEXICO. 197 American animals, as he is about those which are European. We feel extreme regret that a philosopher so celebrated, so ingenious, so learned, and so eloquent, who has endeavoured to write of all the quadrupeds of the world, distinguishes their species, families, and breeds, describes their character, disposition, and manners, numbers their teeth, and even measures their tails, should at the same time shew himself ignorant of the most common animals of Mexico. What quadruped is more common or more known in Mexico than the coyote? All the historians of that kingdom make mention of it, and Hernandez gives an exact and minute description of it in his history; which is most frequently cited by Buffon; yet this author makes not the least mention of it under that or any other name. (e) Who does not know that the rabbit was a quadruped excessively common in the provinces of the Mexican empire, under the name of Tochtli? That the figure of it was one of the four characters of the Mexican years, and that the hair of its belly was woven into waistcoats for the use of the nobles in winter? Notwithstanding Mr. Buffon will make the rabbit one of those quadrupeds which were transported from Europe to America; but, among all the European historians of Mexico, we have not found one who thinks fo; on the contrary, all suppose, that it has from time immemorial inhabited those countries, and we do not doubt that the Mexicans, as often as they read this singular anecdote, must smile at the count de Buffon. __________ (e) The animals of the old continent, which most referable the Cojote, are the Chacal, the Adive, and the Isatis; but it is different from them. The Chacal is of the size of a fox, the Cojote is twice as large. The Chacals go always in herds of thirty or forty together; the Cojotes, in general, alone. The Adive is still smaller and weaker than the Chacal. The Isatis is peculiar to the frigid zone, and shuns the woods; but the Cojote loves the woods, and inhabits warm and temperate countries 198 HISTORY OF MEXICO. Hernandez enumerates, in his history of Quadrupeds, four Mexican animals of the class of dogs, mentioned by us in book I. of this history: the first, the Xoloitzcuintli, or hairy dog; the second, the Itzcuintepotzotli, or hunchback dog; the third, the Techichi, or eatable little dog; and the fourth, the Tepeitzcuintli, or little mountain dog. These four very different species of dogs have been reduced by the count de Buffon to one single species. He says, that Hernandez was deceived in what he wrote of the Xoloitzcuintli, for no other author makes mention of it, and therefore it ought to be believed that that quadruped was transported there from Europe, since Hernandez himself affirms, that he saw it first in Spain, and that it had no name in Mexico, as Xoloitzcuintli is the proper name of the wolf, given by Hernandez to that other quadruped; that all those dogs were known in Mexico by the generic name of Alco. Here, in a few words, we have a mass of errors. The name Alco, or Allco, neither is Mexican, nor ever was used in Mexico, but in South America. That of Xoloitzcuintli is not the name of the wolf, nor do we know that it was ever called so by any one at Mexico. The Mexicans call the wolf Cuetlachtli, and in some places where they do not speak Mexican properly, they call it Tecuani, which is a generic name for wild beasts. It is evident besides, from the very text of Hernandez, which we here subjoin, (f) that neither the Xoloitzcuintli was transported from Europe to Mexico, nor was such a name given to it by __________ (f) Praeter canes notos nostro orbi qui omnes pene ab Hispanis translati ad Indos in his plagis hodie educantur, dua alia offendas genera, quorum primum antequam huc me conferrem, vidi in Patria, caeteros vero neque conspexeram neque adhuc co delatos puto. Primus Xoloitzcuintli vocatus alioe corporis vincit magnitudine, &e. Hern. Hist. Quadrup. N. Hisp. cap. 20. HISTORY OF MEXICO. 199 Hernandez, but that it was the name by which the Mexicans themselves used to call it. Hernandez had seen that quadruped in Spain, because it had been transported there from Mexico, as he mentions himself, where he had also seen in the gardens of Philip II. several Mexican plants. But why has no other author made mention of the Xoloitzcuintli? because neither before nor since his time has any one undertaken to write a history of Mexican quadrupeds; and the historians of that kingdom have been contented to mention some of the commonest animals. Moreover every wise and impartial person should necessarily give more credit to Hernandez in the Natural history of Mexico, as he employed himself in it so many years by order of king Philip II. and as he observed with his own eyes the animals of Mexico, of which he wrote and informed himself from the speech of the Mexicans themselves, whose language he learned, than to the count de Buffon, who, although more ingenious and more eloquent, had no other lights concerning Mexican animals than those which he procured from the works of Hernandez, or from the relations of some other author, not so deserving of credit as that learned and skilful naturalist. The count de Buffon would make the Tepeitzcuintli of Hernandez, the glutton, a quadruped which is common in the northern countries of both continents; but whoever will compare the description which the count de Buffon makes of the glutton with that which Hernandez gives of the Tepeitzcuintli, will immediately discern the most striking difference between those two quadrupeds. (g) The glutton is, according to the count de Buffon, __________ (g) Buffon, Hist. Nat. tom. xxvii. Hernandez, Hist. Quadrup. N. Hisp. cap. xxi. 200 HISTORY OF MEXICO. a native of the cold countries of the North, the tepeitzcuintli, of the torrid zone; the glutton is, according to count de Buffon, twice as large as the badger. The tepeitzcuintli is, as Hernandez says, parvi canis magnitudine. The glutton is so named on account of its incredible and dreadful voracity, which even impels it to dig up dead carcasses to eat them; Hernandez says nothing of any such quality in the tepeitzcuintli, and he certainly would not have omitted what constitutes its chief character: on the contrary, he affirms that the tepeitzcuintli becomes domestic, and seeds upon the yolks of eggs and bread soaked in hot water; but a beast so carnivorous as the glutton could never support itself on such diet. In short, to omit other arguments of their diversity, the skin of the glutton is, as count de Buffon says, as valuable as that of the zibelline; (h) but we do not know that the skin of the tepeitzcuintli was ever esteemed or made use of. The xoloitzcuintli therefore being different from the wolf and the tepeitzcuintli from the glutton, and those four American quadrupeds of the class of dogs, being very different from each other in size, in disposition, and many other remarkable circumstances, notwithstanding that they couple together, and can procreate a third individual, which is fruitful, we ought to conclude that they are four different species; and therefore these three species, which count de Buffon has unjustly taken from America, ought to be restored to it. We should never finish if we were to mention all the mistakes of this author respecting American quadrupeds; but merely to shew that the number of seventy species __________ (h) Bomare says, that the skin of the glutton is more valued by the people of Kamtschatka than the zibelline; and that in Sweden it is much in demand, and very dear. HISTORY OF MEXICO. 201 ascribed by him to America is not just, but different, and even contrary to what he has written in the course of his history, we shall subjoin to this dissertation a list of American quadrupeds taken from that history, to which we shall add the quadrupeds which he confounds with others which are different, and those which he has entirely omitted; from which it will appear how far he has been from the truth, in saying that in America there has been a prodigious scarcity of matter. For in order to determine such a scarcity, it is not enough to know that the species are few in number, but it would be necessary also to demonstrate that the individuals of such species are also few in number; for if the individuals of the seventy species of American quadrupeds are more numerous than those of the one hundred and thirty species of the old continent, although the nature of them were less various, still it would not prove a greater scarcity of matter. It would be necessary, besides, to demonstrate, that the species of reptiles and birds are fewer, and also the individuals less numerous, as both of these serve to shew the abundance or scarcity of matter; but no one is so ignorant of the country of America, as to need to be informed of the incredible variety and surprising number of American birds. We should wish to know why nature, which has been so niggardly of quadrupeds to America, as count de Buffon and Mr. de Paw report, has been so prodigal of birds? These authors, not contented with diminishing the species of American quadrupeds, attempt also to lessen their stature: "All the animals of America," says count de Buffon, (i) "both those which have been __________ (i) Hist. Nat. tom. xviii. 202 HISTORY OF MEXICO. "transported by man, such as horses, asses, bulls, (beep, " goats, hogs, dogs, &c. and those which passed there by themselves, such as wolves, foxes, deer, and alcos, are considerably smaller in size than they are in Europe:" and this, he adds, is the case without any exception. This astonishing effect he ascribes to the niggard sky of America, to the combination of the elements, and other natural causes. "There was not," says Mr. de Paw, "one large animal under the torrid zone of the old continent. The largest quadruped amongst the natives of that country which exists at present in the new world between the tropics, is the tapir, which is about the size of a calf.” (k) "The most corpulent beast of the new continent," says count de Buffon, "is the tapir, which is about the size of a small mule; and next to it the cabiai, which is about the size of a middling hog." We have already demonstrated, in the preceding Dissertation, that although we should grant to those philosophers the supposed smallness of American quadrupeds, nothing could from thence be concluded against the land or climate of America: as according to the principles established by Mr. de Buffon already quoted by us, the larger kind of animals are peculiar to intemperate climes, and the smaller kind to climes which are mild and temperate; and if the advantages of climate are to be deduced from the size of quadrupeds, we would unquestionably say, that the climate of Africa and the south of Asia is much better than that of Europe. But if in America, when it was first discovered by the Europeans, there were no elephants, rhinocerosses, sea-horses, camels, &c. They were however "ones there, if we give __________ (k) Recherch. Philosoph. part iii. sect. 2. HISTORY OF MEXICO. 203 credit to de Paw, Sloane, Du Pratz, Lignay, and several other authors, who affirm the ancient existence of these great quadrupeds in America, founded on the discovery of bones, and entire skeletons of immense size, which were dug up in different places of the new world; likewise, if we believe what count de Button has written in the eighteenth volume of his history, there was formerly an animal seven times larger than the elephant, called by Mr. Muller the Mammout; (l) but in Europe there never was, nor can there be, any quadruped of such a size. There were no horses, asses, or bulls (m) in America until they were transported there from Europe; but neither were these in Europe until they were transported there, or brought from Asia. All animals drew their origin from Asia, and thence spread through other countries; the neighbourhood of Europe, and the commerce of the Asiatics with the Europeans, facilitated the passage of these animals into Europe; and with these also were introduced there some customs and inventions useful to life, of which the Americans were deprived, __________ (l) According to the account given by Muller of this quadruped, it should be one hundred and thirty-three feet in length, and one hundred and five in height. The count de Buffon speaks thus of it in volume xvi. "The monstrous mammout, whose enormous bones we have frequently considered, and which we have conceived to be at least six times larger than those of the biggest elephant, exists no more." In volume xxii. he says, that he is allured that those immense bones have belonged to elephants seven or eight times larger than the one whose skeleton he had examined in the royal museum of Paris: but in his new work entitled Epoches de la Nature, he again affirms the former existence of that enormous quadruped in America. (m) When we say there were no bulls in America, we allude only to the common species employed in agriculture; for there were bisontes; which the count de Buffon sometimes thinks to be the common species; at other times he is doubtful of it. 204 HISTORY OF MEXICO. on account of their distance from those countries, and the want of commerce. When count de Buffon affirmed, that the largest quadruped of the new world was the tapir, and the next the cabiai, he had entirely lost memory of the morse, sea-calves, bufflers, rein-deer, alcos, bears, and others. He himself confesses (n) that the sea-calf seen by Lord Anson and Rogers in America, and by them called the sea-lion, was incomparably larger than all the sea-calves of the old world. Who would compare the cabiai, which is not larger than a middling hog, with the bufflers and alcos? The bufflers are equal in general to the common bulls of Europe, and often exceed them in size. Let us attend to the description which Bomare makes of one of these quadrupeds transported from Louisiana to France, and measured exactly by that naturalist at Paris, in the year 1769. (o) There was an immense multitude of these large quadrupeds in the temperate zone of North America. The alcos of New Mexico are of the size of a horse. There was a gentleman in the city of Zacatecas, who made use of them for his chariot instead of horses, according to the testimony of Betancourt; and sometimes they have been sent as presents to the king of Spain. The universal position of the count de Buffon, that all the quadrupeds common to both continents are smaller in America without any exception, has been proved false __________ (n) Hist. Nat. tom. xxvii. (o) Diction. d' Hist. Nat. V. Bison. Bomare calls that American animal on account of its great size the colossal quadruped; he says that its length from its snout to the beginning of its tail measured by its flanks was nine feet and two inches; its height from the summit of its back to its hoof, five feet and four inches; its thickness measured over the hunch of its back ten feet in circumference. He adds that he understood from the owner of that animal, that the females were still larger. HISTORY OF MEXICO. 205 by several European authors who have seen these animals; and even by count de Buffon himself, in other places of his history. Dr. Hernandez says of the metzli, or American lion, that it is larger than the lion of the same species of the old continent. Of the tyger he affirms the same. (p) Neither the count de Buffon, nor Mr. de Paw have a just idea of this wild animal. We saw one a few hours after it was killed by nine shots: but it was much larger in size than we are made to believe by Mr. Buffon. those authors, since they do not trust the accounts of Spaniards, ought at least to give credit to Mr. Condamine, the learned and impartial French author, who says that the tygers seen by him in the hot countries of the new world did not appear to him to differ from the African tygers, either in the beauty of their colours, or in their size. Of the Mexican wolf Hernandez says, that in figure, colour, and disposition, as well as in size it resembles the European wolf, except that it has a larger head. (q) The same thing he affirms of the common deer, and Oviedo also of both the common and other deer. The count de Buffon, notwithstanding the universality of the position which he has laid down without any exception, concerning the smaller size of American quadrupeds, treating, in volume xxix. of the degeneracy of animals, he says, that deer are among the quadrupeds common to both continents those alone which are more large and strong in the new than they are in the old world; and speaking, in volume xvii. of the lodra of Canada, he confesses that they are larger than __________ (p) Vulgaris est huic orbi tygris, sed nostrate major. Hist. Quad. N. Hisp. cap. x. (q) Forma, colore, moribus, ac mole corporis Lupo Nostrati similis est Cuetachtli, atque adeo ejus, ut mihi videtur, speciei, sed ampliore capiti. Ibid. cap. xxxiii. 206 HISTORY OF MEXICO. those of Europe; and the same thing he says of the American beaver: although he allowed no exception to his principle, he still admits those of the deer, lodra, beavers, and sea-calves. If to these we add the tygers, the lions without hair, and the flag, according to the testimony of Hernandez and Oviedo, we shall find at least eight species of quadrupeds common to both continents which are larger of their kind in the new than they are in the old world. To those above mentioned we ought also to add those quadrupeds which are equally large in both continents; as the latter as well as the former demonstrate the falsity of such a general principle. Hernandez affirms, that the Mexican wolf is of the same size with the European. Count de Buffon says, that there is no difference between them, except that the Mexican wolf has a finer skin, and five toes in its fore feet, and four in its hind feet. With respect to bears, there are at present many persons in Europe who have seen the bears of Mexico and those of the Alps. We do not believe that among all of these witnesses there will be found one who has acknowledged that the European bears are the larger of the two. For ourselves at least we can declare, that all those we have seen in Mexico appeared to be larger than those which we have seen in Italy. (r) It is therefore no just assertion that all the animals of the new world are without exception smaller than those of the old. The count de Buffon spoke at random when he affirmed in another place that the animals were all much smaller, and that nature had in the new world made __________ (r) The count de Buffon distinguishes the species of black from that of brown bears, and affirms that the black bears are not at all ferocious; but the Mexican bears, which are all black, are extremely fierce, as is notorious in Mexico, of which also we can bear testimony. HISTORY OF MEXICO. 207 use of a different scale of dimensions. (t) It is easy also to demonstrate the mistake of Mr. de Paw, when he says that all the quadrupeds of America are a sixth less than their correspondents in the old continent. The Tuza of Mexico is analogous to the European mole, but is larger according to what count de Buffon says. That Mexican quadruped called by count de Buffon coqualline, and by us tlalmototli, is analogous to the European squirrel, and yet according to the same author is of twice its size. The cojote, analogous to the chacal, is of twice its size. The llama, or ram of Peru, analogous to the European ram, is beyond comparison larger, &c. But those philosophers are so eager to depreciate and undervalue its animals, that they even find subject for censure in their tails, in their feet, and in their teeth. "Not only," says count de Buffon, "has there been a scarcity of matter in the new continent, but likewise the forms of its animals are imperfect, and appear to have been neglected. The animals of South America, which are those that properly belong to the new continent, are almost all deprived of tusks, horns, and tails; their shape is extravagant, their limbs disproportionate, and ill set; and some of them, like the ant-killers and sloths, are of so miserable a nature, that they have hardly ability to move, and to eat." "The animals native to the new world," says Mr. de Paw, "are in general of an ungraceful form; some of them so aukwardly made, that those who first made designs of them could hardly express their characters. It has been observed that the greater part of them want the tail, and have a particular irregularity in __________ (t) Hist. Nat. tom. xviii. 208 HISTORY OF MEXICO. "their feet. This is remarkable in the tapir, the ant-killer, the llama of Margraf, in the sloth, and the cabeay. The ostriches, which in our continent have not more than two toes, united by a membrance, all have four in America, and those separated." Such a mode of reasoning is rather a censure of the conduct of Providence than of the clime of America, and not unlike the sceptical opinions attributed to king Don Alphonso the Wife, respecting the disposition of the heavenly bodies. If the first individuals of those animals came not so from the hand of the Creator, but the clime of America has been the cause of their supposed irregularity, whenever those animals should be transported to Europe their forms would grow perfect, and their disposition and instinct also; at least after ten or twelve* generations those miserable animals which the malignant clime of America has deprived of their tails, their horns, and their tusks, would recover them under a more benignant clime. No, those philosophers would say, because it is not so easy to recover from nature what is loft, as to lose what she has given; so that although those poor animals would not in the old continent recover their tails, their tusks, or their horns, still it must be allowed that the climate of America has been the cause of their losing them. Be it so. At present, however, we shall not treat of irregularities which consist in any deficiency but of those where there is an excess of matter. We allude at present to the ostriches, which, according to Mr. de Paw, (x) have from a vice of nature, two extraordinary __________ (x) Mr. de Paw is deceived with regard to the number of toes of the ostrich of America, for it has no more than three; although in the hinder part of its feet it has a round and callous swelling which serves in place of a talon, and by the vulgar is thought to be a toe. HISTORY OF MEXICO. 209 toes in each of their feet; but that we may not quit the quadrupeds, we shall mention the Unau a species of American sloth, which amongst other of its irregularities, has got forty-fix ribs. "The number of forty-fix ribs in an animal of so small a body," says Mr. de Buffon, "is a kind of error or excess of nature; for no animal even among the largest, or among those which have the longest body in proportion to their thickness, has so many. The elephant has not more than forty, the horse thirty-fix, the badger thirty, the dog twenty-fix, and man twenty-four." If the first Unau which ever was, had the same number of ribs given it by the Creator which its Posterity have at present, the reasoning held by Mr. de Buffon is a censure of Providence; and when he says that that excessive number of ribs has been an error of nature, he means an error of Providence, who is efficient nature. We are certain. such an idea is far from the elevated mind of the count de Buffon; but the spirit of philosophy, which runs through all his works, leads him sometimes into rather exceptionable expressions. (a) If, on the contrary, those philosophers believe, that the Unau had originally a number of ribs proportioned to the size of its body, and that the malignant clime of America did increase them gradually afterwards, we ought to believe, that if that species of quadruped was transported to the old continent, and was bred under a more favouring sky, it would at last be restored to its primitive perfection. Let __________ (a) The count de Buffon, desirous of assigning a reason why man resists the influence of climate better than the animals, says, in volume xviii. " Man is " altogether the work of heaven, the animals in many respects are but productions of the earth." This proposition appears a little too bold; but we meet with many still stronger in his Epoches de la Nature. 210 HISTORY OF MEXICO. the experiment be made; let two or three males of this ungraceful species, and as many females, be transported there, and if, after twenty or more generations, it is found that their number of ribs begins to diminish, then we shall acknowledge that the land of America is the most unhappy, and its climate the most baneful in all the world. If it happens otherwise, we will say, as we shall henceforward say, that the logic of these gentlemen is more contemptible than that quadruped, and that their reasonings are mere paralogisms. In other respects it is truly to be wondered at in a country where there has been such a scarcity of matter, that nature should have made a transgression by an excess of it in the ribs of sloths, and in the toes of ostriches. But to shew that those philosophers, while exerting themselves to six the character of malignity on the climate of the new world, had totally lost recollection of the miseries of their own continent; let us ask them what is the most miserable animal in America, they will immediately answer, the sloth; because this animal is the most imperfect in its organization, the most incapable of motion, the most unprovided with arms for its defence, and above all, that it appears to have less sensations than any other quadruped; an animal, truly wretched, condemned by nature to inactivity, listlessness, famine, and melancholy, by which it continually excites the companion and horror of other species. But this class of quadrupeds, so famous for their misery, is common to both continents. Count de Buffon will not believe it, because it does not suit his system, and says, that if any sloth is found in Asia, it must have been transported there from America; but whatever he may say, it is certain, from the attestations of Klein, Linnaeus, HISTORY OF MEXICO. 211 Brisson, the publisher of the Cabinet of Seba, and above them all Vosmaer, a learned and diligent naturalist of Holland, (b) that the Unau, one of the species of sloths, is an Asiatic animal. The Unau of Bengal, which has been seen, bred, and exactly described by this naturalist, cannot have been transported from America; for no commerce between South America and Asia has ever subsisted. Besides, the Unau of Bengal differs from that of America: the former has five, the latter only two toes to its feet. If the count de Buffon is persuaded that the climate of Asia could increase the number of toes of the American quadruped, we would then say to those quadrupeds that the climate of the old continent would be capable of restoring the tails, horns, and tusks, of which the pernicious climate of America has deprived them. Whoever will read the eloquent description given of the American sloth by the count de Buffon, and compare it with that given by Mr. Vosmaer of the sloth pentadactlylus of Bengal, will soon perceive that this Asiatic quadruped is as miserable as those of America. But let us philosophically examine what those authors say respecting the supposed irregularity of those quadrupeds. Real irregularity in animals is some disproportion of their limbs, or singularity in the form, or in the dispositions of some individuals with respect to the generality of their species, not that which is observed in a new species compared with one which is known. It would be extremely absurd to consider the techichi an irregular animal, because it does not bark. This is an American quadruped, which, from its resemblance to European dogs, was called dog by the Spaniards: not because it was of the same species: and from thence __________ (4) Description le plusisurs Amimaun. A work printed at Amsterdam. 212 HISTORY OF MEXICO. rose the fable propagated by not a few authors, that in America dogs were mute. Wolves are extremely similar to dogs, but they do not bark. If the first Spaniards who went to Mexico had not seen wolves in Europe, when they saw those of Mexico they would have reported, that there were large dogs there which could not be tamed, and that they did not bark but howled. And this would have furnished count de Buffon and Mr. de Paw with a new argument to prove the degeneracy and irregularity of American animals. The argument of Mr. de Paw concerning American ostriches has no more weight. The Touyou is an American bird specifically different from the ostrich; but because it is large, and very similar to that African bird, it has been vulgarly called ostrich. (c) This is sufficient to make Mr. de Paw affirm that there is irregularity in those American birds; but if we should allow that the Touyou is truly an ostrich he could not make out his position. He would make us believe the American ostrich irregular, because instead of having only two toes united by a membrane like the African, it has four separate toes. But an American might say that the African ostrich is rather irregular, because instead of having four separate toes, it has only two, and those united by means of a membrane. "No," Mr. de Paw would reply in rage, "it is not so: the irregularity is certainly in your ostriches, because they do not conform with those of the old world which are the original species; nor with the representation which the most famous naturalists of Europe have left us of such birds." "Our world," the American would return, "which you call new, because three centuries ago it was not discovered __________ (c) In Peru the ostrich is known by the name of Suri. HISTORY OF MEXICO. 213 "by you, is as ancient as yours, and our animals are cotemporary with yours. They are under no necessity of conforming with your animals, neither are we to blame that the species of our animals have been unknown to your naturalists, or confounded by a superficial knowledge of them. Therefore either your ostriches are irregular because they do not conform with ours; or at least ours ought not to be called irregular because they do not conform with yours. Until you demonstrate to us by incontestible proofs, that the first ostriches came from the hand of the Creator with only two toes united by a membrane, you will never persuade us of the irregularity of our Touyou." This mode of argument, which is without doubt unanswerable, is sufficient to defeat the systems adopted by those philosophers, arising from flight and indigested ideas, and strong prepossessions in favour of the old continent. Those philosophers are not more happy in their discourses on the tails of quadrupeds than in their observations on the feet of ostriches. They say directly, and without any regard to truth, that the greater part of the quadrupeds of the new continent are totally destitute of tails; which, like all the other effects observed by them in those unfortunate countries, they ascribe to the misery of the American sky, to the infancy of nature in that part of the world, to the fatality of the climate, and other combinations of the elements. Thus those celebrated philosophers of this enlightened century reason. But there being, according to count de Buffon, seventy species of American quadrupeds, it would be necessary that at least forty of them were without tails in order to verify what Mr. de Paw has said, that the 214 HISTORY OF MEXICO. majority of them were deprived of this member; and many more would be requisite to prove true, that almost all the quadrupeds were unfurnished with tails as count de Buffon affirms. However, animals of this description in America, as we shall presently find, are only six in number, therefore the proposition is a monstrous hyperbole, not to say an idle falsehood. It appears that in the time of Pliny no other animals were known to be without tails but man and the ape. If since that time there had been no other animal unfurnished with such member discovered in the old continent, count de Buffon and M. de Paw would have been right in taxing the American quadrupeds with it; but from the history of count de Buffon it is evident, the species without tails are more numerous in the old continent than in America. Here follows a lift of both, extracted from the history of count de Buffon. 1. The Pongo, or Orang Outang, or Satyr or Man of the Woods. 2. The Pithecus, or Proper Ape. 3. The Gibbon, another species of ape. 4. The Cynocephalus, or Magoto. 5. The Turkish dog. 6. The Tanrec of Madagascar. 7. The Loris of Ceylon. 8. The Indian Pig. 9. The Roussette 10. The Rougette } Two species of great bats of Asia. 11. The golden mole of Siberia. HISTORY OF MEXICO. 215 14. The Capiverd, or Capivard of the Cape of Good Hope, described by Bomare. In America. 2. The Cabeay, or amphibious hog. 3. The Aperea of Brasil. 4. The Indian pig. 5. The Saino, Pecar, or Cojametl. 6. The Tapeto. Therefore in the old continent there are at least fourteen species of quadrupeds (d) unfurnished with tails, and in America only fix, of which we might except the two last, as they are uncertain. (e) In all the thirty volumes of the history of Quadrupeds of count de Bufson, we have found no other American animal without a tail except those above mentioned: and notwithstanding he ventured to affirm that in the new world almost all the animals were deprived of tails; it appears from hence that such universal propositions are as easily offered as they are difficult of proof. __________ (d) To the fourteen species above mentioned we might add the Unau Dydactylus of Ceylon, mentioned by several authors, and the Porte-muse, described by Mr. Daubenton and Bomare; but we omit the fu ft, because we are not certain that it is different from the Loris of Buffon; we pass the second also, because it may have some little tail, although the diligent M. Daubenton did not find it. (e) The Pecar is described by Oviedo, Hernandez, and Acosta, under the names Saino and Cojametl; but they say nothing of its want of a tail. We have been informed by accurate and distinct persons, who have seen many Pecars, that they had a tail, although it was small. With respect to the Tapeto, the count de Buffon believes it to be the Citli of Hernandez. But all Mexicans know that the Citli of Hernandez is the hare of Mexico, and we are certain it has a tail like the common hare of Europe. 216 HISTORY OF MEXICO. If the clime of America is so pernicious to the tails of animals, how comes it that while four species of apes of the old continent are deprived of such a member, namely, the Pongo, the Pithecus, the Gibbon, and the Cynocephalus, all the species of apes of the new world have them, and some, such as the Saki, have tails so long that they are twice the length of their bodies; why do squirrels, Coquallines, ant-killers, and other such quadrupeds, abound in America, which are furnished with such enormous tails in proportion to their bodies? Why has the marmot of Canada, although it is of the same species with that of the Alps, a larger tail, as count de Buffon himself confesses? Why have the deer of America, although smaller than those of the old continent, a longer tail, as the same author affirms? (f) If the climate of America was ever possessed of some principle destructive to tails of animals, those which Columbus transported there from Europe, and the Canary isles, in 1493, would have by this time lost all tail, particularly hogs, which carried such short tails there, or at least they would have been remarkably shortened after two hundred and eighty-eight years; but among all the Europeans who have seen the sheep, horses, oxen, &c. bred in America, and those which were bred at the same time in Europe, there has not been one writer who could find any difference between the tails of the one and the other. This same argument is equally valid against what count de Buffon says upon the want of horns, and tusks in the greater part of American quadrupeds, as the oxen, the sheep and goats, preserve without change their __________ (f) Hist Nat. tom. xviii. HISTORY OF MEXICO. 217 horns, the dogs and hogs their teeth, and the cats their nails, as all those who have seen and compared them with those of Europe can testify. If the clime of America was so destructive to the teeth and horns of animals, a number of them would have been loft, at least by the Posterity of those quadrupeds of Europe, which were transported there almost three centuries ago, and much more the generations of wolves, bears, and other similar quadrupeds, which passed there from Asia, perhaps in the first century after the deluge. If, on the contrary, the temperate zone of Europe is more propitious to the teeth of animals than the torrid zone of the new world, why did nature give to the latter, and not to the former, the tapir and crocodile, which in number, size, and sharpness of their teeth, exceed all the quadrupeds and reptiles of Europe? Lastly, if there are some animals in America without horns, without teeth, (g) and without tails, it is not owing to the climate or niggard sky of America, or any imaginary combination of the elements, but because the Creator, whose works and whose counsels we should humbly revere, chose it so, that such variety might serve to embellish the universe, and make his wisdom and his power more conspicuous. What gives beauty to some animals would render others deformed. It is perfection in a horse to have a large tail, in the flag to have a small one, and in the Pongo to have none at all. __________ (g) Among all the quadrupeds of the new world, the ant-killers alone are destitute of teeth, like the Pangolino and Tatagino of the East-Indies, which quadrupeds are covered with scales instead of hair. All those quadrupeds which feed on nothing but anti have no occasion for teeth; but they are furnished by the Creator with a long tongue, with which they can dexterously lick up the ants and swallow them, 218 HISTORY OF MEXICO. With respect to what our philosophers say of the ugliness of the animals of America, it is true, that among so many, there are some whose forms do not correspond with the ideas which we entertain of the beauty of beasts; but who has assured us, that our ideas are just, and not imperfect, and occasioned by the narrowness of our minds? And how many animals could we not find in the old continent still worse formed than any beast of America? What quadruped is there in America which can be compared, in the deformity and disproportion of its limbs with the elephant, called by the count de Buffon a monster of matter? (h) Its vast mass of flesh, higher than it is long, its disgustful skin without hair and furrowed with wrinkles; its enormous trunk instead of a nose; its long teeth placed without its most hideous mouth, and turned upwards, contrary to what is observed in other animals, in order to increase the deformity of its face; its vast polygonous ears; its thick, crooked, and proportionably small legs; its unformed feet, with toes scarcely distinguished; and lastly, its diminutive eyes and ridiculously small tail to a body so immense, are all circumstances which render the elephant a most irregular quadruped. We challenge our philosophers to find in the new world an animal more disproportioned, or whose form is more ungraceful. Similar reflections arise from viewing the camel, the Macaco, of which count de Buffon says that it is hideously deformed, and more so than all other animals of the old continent; we dare not, however, __________ (h) En considerant cet animal, (says Bomare of the elephant) relativement a l'idee, qui nous avons de la justesse des proportions, il semble mal-proportione a cause de son corps gros et court, des fes jambres roides et mal-formcies, des ses pieds ronds et tortus, de sa tete grosse, de ses petits yeux et des fes grandee orcilles; on pourroit dire aussi quc l'habit dont il est couvert est encore plus mal tail et plus mal fait. Sa trompe, ses defenses, ses piedi le rendent aussi exiraordinaire que la grandeur de sa taille. HISTORY OF MEXICO. 219 ever, blame the clime to which they belong, nor censure the Supreme Artificer who formed them. What our philosophers say with respect to the smaller ferocity of American wild beasts, instead of assisting them to prove the malignity of that clime, serves only to demonstrate its mildness and bounty. "In America," says count de Buffon, "where the air and the land are more mild than those of Africa, the tyger, the lion, and the panther are terrible only in name... They have degenerated, if fierceness joined to cruelty made their nature; or, to speak more properly, they have only suffered the influence of the climate." What more can be desired in favour of the climate of America? Why, therefore, does he ever adduce the smaller ferocity of American animals as an argument of their degeneracy occasioned by the malignity of that clime? If the climate of the old continent should be esteemed better than that of the new world, because under the former the wild beasts are found more terrible, for the same reason the climate of Africa ought to be esteemed incomparably more excellent than that of Europe. This argument, which we have already made use of, might be carried much farther to the confusion of our philosophers. But those authors have not a just idea of American animals. It is true that the Mitzli, or Mexican lion, is not to be compared with the celebrated lions of Africa. The latter species either never did pass into the new world, or was extirpated by man; but the former does not yield to those of its species, or the lion without hair of the old continent, according to the testimony of Hernandez, who knew both the one and the other. The Mexican tyger, whether it is or is not of the same species with the 220 HISTORY OF MEXICO. royal tyger of Africa, as that is of no importance, has surprising strength and ferocity. There is no quadruped, among those of Europe or America, which can be opposed to it. It intrepidly attacks and tears men, deer, horses, bulls, and even the most monstrous crocodiles, as Acosta affirms. This learned author vaunts both its intrepidity and swiftness. G. de Oviedo, who had travelled through many countries of Europe, and was not ignorant of natural history, speaking of those American tygers, says, "They are animals very strong in the legs, well armed with claws, and so terrible, that in my judgment, none of the greatest royal lions can rival their strength and ferocity." The tyger is the terror of the American woods; it is not possible to tame it or catch it when it is grown up: those which are taken when young are not to be kept without danger, unless they are Quit up in the strongest cages of wood or iron. Such is the character of those animals which are called cowardly by Mr. de Paw and other authors, who were unable to distinguish the species of quadrupeds with spotted skins. It is however certain, that those authors shew themselves as credulous of every thing they find written concerning the size, strength, and intrepidity of the royal tygers of the old continent, as they are obstinate in denying faith to what eye-witnesses say of American tygers. Count de Buffon believes, upon the attestation of we do not know what author, that the royal tyger is from thirteen to fourteen feet in length, and five in height; that it will engage with three elephants, kill a buffaloe, and drag it wherever it pleases, and other similar absurdities, which can only gain belief from those who are prejudiced in favour of the old continent. If some authors deserving of faith should relate of the American tygers a HISTORY OF MEXICO. 221 few of the particulars which are told of Asiatic tygers they would be considered as idle exaggerating boasters. (i) The account which Pliny (£) gives of the artifices of hunters in robbing the tyger of its young, and the coolness of temper with which it carries them off again one by one, and that which Bomare relates (k) of the combat in the year 1764, in Windsor forest, in England, between the flag and a tyger brought from India to the duke of Cumberland, in which the flag came off conqueror, shews us that the ferocity of those Asiatic wild beasts is not so great as count de Buffon and Mr. de Paw represent it. The American wolves are not less strong nor bold than those of the old continent, as all who have had any experience of them both know. Even stags, which as Pliny says, are very tranquil animals, are so daring in Mexico, that they frequently attack the hunters; this raft is testified by Hernandez, and is notorious in that kingdom; we have seen in our own dwelling the vicious nature of a stag, which had become almost domestic, shew itself most cruelly upon an American girl. But let the American quadrupeds be smaller in size, more ungraceful in form, and more pusillanimous in their nature; let us grant to those philosophers that from such a position the happiness of the climate of the old continent k to be deduced; they will not still persuade us, that it is a full proof and a certain argument of the malignity of the American climate, while they do not shew us in __________ (i) It is sufficient to observe the little credit given by these authors to the testimony of Mr. Condamine, notwithstanding the esteem in which they held that learned mathematician. (k) Nat. Hist. lib. viii. cap. 18. (l) Bomare Diction. d' Historie Nat. V. Tigre. 222 HISTORY OF MEXICO. the reptiles and birds of America (l) the same degeneracy which they suppose in quadrupeds. Mr. de Paw says of American crocodiles, whose ferocity is notorious, that it appears from the observations of Mr. du Pratz, and others, that they have not the fury and impetuosity of those of Africa. But Hernandez, who knew both the one and the other, found no difference between them. (m) Acosta says, that those of America are extremely fierce but flow; but this slowness is not in a progressive line forwards, in which motion they are most swift and active, but in turning only, or bending from one side to another, as is the case with the crocodiles of Africa, on account of the inflexibility of their vertebra. Hernandez affirms that the Acuelzpalin, or Mexican crocodile, flies from those who attack it, but pursues those who fly from it, although the former case happens more seldom than the latter. Pliny says the same thing of African crocodiles. (n) In short, if we compare what Pliny says of the latter with what Hernandez says of the former, it will appear that there is not even a difference of size between them. (o) __________ (l) The count de Buffon might say, as he observes !n vol. xviii. That we aught not to consider the birds with respect to climate in this particular, because it being easy for them to pass from one climate to another, it would be almost impossible to determine which belonged properly to the one or to the other. But as the cause of the passage of birds is the cold or the heat of the seasons, which they wish to avoid, on this account the American birds have no occasion to leave their continent, because there they have countries of every sort of clime to shelter themselves from every hurtful season, and where they can always find their food. We are altogether certain, that the Mexican birds do not travel to the old continent. (m) Hern. Hist. Nat. lib. ix. cap. 3. (n) Terribilis haec contra sugaces bellua est, fugax contra insequentes. Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. viii. cap. 25. (o) Pliny says that the African crocodile is often more than eighteen cubits, or twenty-seven Roman feet in length. Hernandez affirms that the Mexican HISTORY OF MEXICO. 223 With regard to birds, Mr. de Paw makes mention only of ostriches, and that so negligently as we have shewn. He certainly designed to be silent on this subject, discovering that on this side his cause was loft, for whether we consider number or variety of species, intrepidity, or beauty of plumage, and excellence of song, the old continent cannot be compared with America as to birds. Of their surprising multitude we have already spoken. The fields, the woods, the rivers, the lakes, and even inhabited places are filled with innumerable species. Gemelli, who had made the tour of the world, and seen the best countries of Asia, Africa, and Europe, declares that there is not a country in the world which can compare with New Spain in the beauty and variety of its birds. (p) See what is said by the historians of New France, Louisiana, Brasil, and other countries of the new world, on this subject. Of the strength and courage of American birds many European authors worthy of credit make mention. Hernandez, who had so much experience of birds of prey, in the court of Philip II. king of Spain, at the time when hawking was most in vogue, and had observed also those of Mexico, confesses when he talks of the Quauhtotli, or Mexican falcon, that all the birds of this class are better and more courageous in New Spain than they are in the old continent. (q) On account of the __________ crocodile is usually more than seven paces long. If he speaks of Castilian paces, they make almost twenty-eight Roman feet; if he (peaks of Roman paces, they will make thirty five feet, so that the difference is trifling, or if there is any it is in favour of the American crocodile. (p) Ella e tanta la vagbezza e la varieta degli uccelli della N. Spagns che non v'e paese almondo, the ne abbia part. Giro del Mondo. tom. vi. lib. ii. cap. 9. (q) Fateor accipitrum omne genus apud hanc novam Hispaniam, Jucatanicamve provinciam repertum pnaestantius effe atque animosius vetere in orbe natis. Hernandez de Avibus N. Hisp. cap. 91. 224 HISTORY OF MEXICO. excellence of the Mexican falcons having been known and acknowledged, Charles the V. ordered that every year fifty hawks should be sent to him from New Spain, and as many from the island of Hispaniola, as the historian Herrera attests; and Acosta relates, that the falcons of Mexico and Peru, because they were much esteemed, were sent in presents to the grandees of Spain. Acosta also says, that the condors, or Mexican vultures, are of an immense size, and have so much strength, that they not only tear a ram, but even a calf; and D. A. Ulloa testifies, that a stroke of their wing will knock down a man. (r) Hernandez says, that the Itzquauhtli, or royal eagle of Mexico, attacks men, and even the fiercest quadrupeds. If the climate of America had taken from the quadrupeds their strength and courage, it would without doubt have produced the same effect on birds: but from the testimony of the above mentioned writers, and other European authors, it is manifest that they are not feeble or pusillanimous, but that they excel those of the old continent in intrepidity and strength. With respect to the beauty of birds, those authors do not refuse the superiority to America, although in other respects they have so eagerly depreciated the new world. Whoever would form to himself a competent idea of them, may consult Oviedo, Hernandez, Acosta, Ulloa, and other European authors, who have seen the birds of America. In New Spain, says Acosta, there is a __________ (r) The condor is so large as to measure from fourteen to sixteen feet from tip to tip of the wings when extended. Bomare says it is common to both continents; and that the Swiss call it the laemmer-geyer; but notwithstanding this, it is certain that no bird of prey has been found yet on the old continent equal in size and Strength to the condor of America. HISTORY OF MEXICO. 225 great plenty of birds adorned with such beautiful plumage, that they are not equalled by any in Europe. It is true, say many European authors, that American birds are superior in beauty of plumage, but not in excellence of song, in which they are exceeded by those of Europe. So think two modern Italians: (s) but however learned they are in certain speculative subjects, they are equally ignorant of the productions of America: it will be sufficient, in order to confute those authors, to subjoin the testimony of Hernandez to this point; (t) who, after having heard the singing of the best nightingales at the court of Philip II. heard for many years the centzontli or polyglots, the cardinals tigrets, the cuitlaccochis, and other innumerable species of vulgar singing birds in Mexico unknown in Europe, besides the nightingales, calderines calandras, and others common to both continents. Among the singing birds most esteemed in Europe the nightingale is the most celebrated, but it sings still better in America, according to the affirmation of Mr. Bomare. The nightingale of Louisiana is, he says, the same with that of Europe; but it is more tame and familiar, and sings the whole __________ (s) The author of a certain dissertation metaphysical and political, Sulla Proportzione de’ Talenti e del lore Uso, in which he has written most preposterous particulars respecting America, and shewn himself as ignorant as a child, of the land, the climate, the animals, and the inhabitants of that new world. The other is the author of fume beautiful Italian fables, in one of which an American bird holds a discourse with a nightingale. (t) In caveis quibus detinetur, suavissime cantat; nee est avis ulla, animalve cujus vocem non reddat luculentissime et exqnisitissime aemuletur. Quid? Philomelam nostram longo superat intervallo, cujus suavissimum concentum tantopere laudant celebrantque, vetusti auctores, et quidquid avicularum apud nostrum orbem cantu auditur suavissimum. Hernandez de Avibus N. Hisp. cap. 30 de centzontlatole sive cenzontli. Linnaeus calls the centzontli orpheus. Other authors call it mocquer, the mocking-bird, or Bestardo. 226 HISTORY OF MEXICO. year, and has a more varied song. These are three considerable advantages which it possesses over the European bird. But although there were not in America either nightingales, calandras, or any one of those birds which are esteemed in Europe for their song, the centzontli or polyglot alone would be sufficient to excite the envy of any country in the world. We are free to declare to our Anti-American philosophers, that what Hernandez says of the excellence of the polyglot over the nightingale is extremely true, and agreeable to the opinion of many Europeans who have been in Mexico, and also of many Mexicans who have been in Europe. Besides the singular sweetness of its song, the prodigious variety of its notes, and its agreeable talent in counterfeiting the different tones of the birds and quadrupeds which it hears; (u) it is less shy than the nightingale, and more common, as its species is one of the most numerous. If we were disposed to reason in the manner of Mr. de Paw, we could, in order to demonstrate the benignity of the American clime, add, that some birds which are not valued in Europe for their singing, sing much better in America. The sparrows, says Valdecebro, an European author, which do not sing in Spain, are in New Spain better than calderines. (x) What we observe of singing birds may be applied also to those which imitate the human voice; for in Asia and Africa the species of parrots are neither so many nor so numerous as they are in America. __________ (u) Mr. Barrington, vice-president of the Royal Society of London, says, in a curious work he has written on the 6nging of birds, and presented to that learned academy, that he heard a polyglot which counterfeited in the space of one single minute, the singing of the lark, the chaffinch, the blackbird, the sparrow, and the thrush. (x) In a work entitled Gubierno de las Aves, lib. v. cap. 39. But we have already observed, that the Mexican sparrow, though resembling, is different from, the true sparrow. HISTORY OF MEXICO. 227 But as we are discoursing of birds, we will, before we end this subject, make an obvious reflection. There is not an American animal which draws so much reproach upon it from our philosophers as the sloth, on account of its astonishing indolence and inability of motion. But what would they say if there was a bird of this nature? This would certainly be the most irregular animal in the world, for such an inactivity or slowness is more preposterous in a bird than in a quadruped. But where is this bird? In the old continent, and has been described by count de Buffon; who says that the Dronte, a bird of the east-Indies, larger than the swan, is among birds what the sloth is among quadrupeds: it appears, he says, a turtle in the clothing of a bird; and nature in granting it those useless ornaments, wings and tail, seems to have intended to add embarrassment to its weight, and irregularity of motion to the inactivity of its body, and to make its cumbrous largeness still more afflicting, by putting it in remembrance that it is a bird. From what we have said we cannot avoid concluding, that the fky of America is not niggardly, nor its climate unfavourable to the generation of animals; that there has been no scarcity of matter, nor has nature made use of a different scale of proportions in that region: that what count de Buffon and Mr. de Paw have said of the smallness, of the irregularity, and defects of American quadrupeds is erroneous, or rather a series of errors: and though it was true, it would be of no assistance to prove the malignity of the climate of America. But we shall now enquire whether they have done less wrong to the new world in what they say of the supposed degeneracy of quadrupeds transported there from Europe. |
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HISTORY OF MEXICO. 229 which, if they were true, would not be sufficient to prove so universal a position: because of what importance is it that the flesh of oxen is so fibrous in the island of Hispaniola, if in all the other parts of America it is good, and in many, particularly in all those of Mexico which are situated on the coast of the Pacific Ocean, equal to the best in Europe, and possibly better? What signifies it that sheep have undergone some change in Barbadoes, and other hot countries, if, in the temperate countries of Mexico and South America they continue the same as they came there from Spain? What does it avail that hogs have become disfigured in Cubagua, a miserable little island, deprived of water and every thing necessary for life, if in other parts of America they have acquired, as Mr. de Paw says himself, an extraordinary corpulence and their flesh has become so improved, that the physicians there prescribe it to the sick in preference to all other meat. If the hogs, having grown disfigured in Cubagua, it does not prove that the clime of America is not the most suitable to them, why should the sheep having suffered some change in Barbadoes, the flesh of oxen having become more fibrous in Hispaniola, and some quadrupeds having grown less in Canada, serve to prove that the clime of America in general is unfavourable to the generation of animals, to their corpulence and instinct? If such logic was to be tolerated, we could adduce much stronger arguments against the climate of the old continent without making use of any other materials than those that are furnished to us by count de Buffon in his Natural history. Camels have never multiplied, as he says, in Spain, although that clime of all the climes of Europe is the least contrary to their nature. Oxen have 230 HISTORY OF MEXICO. degenerated in Barbary, and in Iceland they have lost their horns. Sheep, says count de Buffon, have degenerated in our country from their first exigence in it; and in all the hot countries of the old continent they change their wool into hair. Goats have grown small in Guinea and other countries. In Lapland dogs have become extremely small and deformed, and those of the temperate climes when transported into cold climes cease to bark, and after the first generation are born with strait ears. From the accounts of travellers it is certain that mastiffs, grey-hounds, and other breeds of dogs of Europe transported to Madagascar, Calcutta, Madeira, and Malabar, degenerate after the second or third generation, and that in excessive hot countries, such as Guinea and Senegal, this degeneration is more rapid; as in the space of three or four years they lose their hair, and their voice. Stags in mountainous countries which are hot and dry, such as those of Corsica and Sardinia, have lost a half of their corpulence. If to these and other accounts given us by count de Buffon we were to add those of many other authors, what examples should we not have of the degeneracy of animals in the old continent, more numerous and true than those of our philosophers? But that we may expose the exaggeration and falsity which belong to their examples let us examine one by one the species of Asiatic and European animals transported into the new world which by them are said to have degenerated. CAMELS. Among all the quadrupeds transported to America, says Mr. de Paw, the camels are unquestionably those which have thriven the least. In the beginning ofHISTORY OF MEXICO. 231 the sixteenth century some of them were transported from Africa to Peru, where the cold disabled the organs necessary for their production, and they left no Posterity. Setting aside the chronological error into which he falls, as being immaterial to our purpose, (y) if it was cold that destroyed the species of camels in America, the same thing would have happened in the European northern countries, where the cold is beyond comparison greater than in any country whatever of Peru. If cold was the cause of their extirpation, let Mr. de Paw blame those who settled those quadrupeds in places unsuitable to their nature, and not America, where there are lands that are hot and dry, and proper for the subsistence of Camels. The same experiment which was made in Peru with camels, was also made in Spain, and with the same want of success; but still there are no persons who will doubt that the clime of the latter is one of the most mild and temperate in Europe. Count de Buffon says, that if proper precautions were taken, those animals would succeed not only in America but in Spain: and there is no doubt that they would prosper very well in New Gallicia. Besides, it is false that the camels which were transported to Peru did not leave any Posterity; for Acosta, who went there some years after, found that they had multiplied, though but a little. (z) OXEN. This is one of those species of animals which our philosophers imagine to have degenerated in America;__________ (y) Camels were not transported to Peru in the beginning of the sixteenth century, because that country was not then discovered; but towards the middle of that century, as Herrera shews in his Decades. (z) Histor. Nat. y Mor. lib. iv. cap. 33. 232 HISTORY OF MEXICO. which effect: they attribute to the clime. But if possibly in Canada the oxen have lost part of their corpulence, as count de Buffon affirms, and if their flesh has become fibrous in Hispaniola, as Mr. de Paw would insinuate, this at least is not the case in the greater part of the countries of the new world, in which the multitude and size of those animals, and the goodness of their flesh, demonstrate how favourable the climate is to their propagation. T |