but from the inattention of his family these have likewise been lost. The MSS. of this very learned Mexican were seen and quoted by Boturini, an Italian, and are probably, still preserved in some library in Italy or Spain, and may be given to the public, through the laborious curiosity of the antiquarian. Irving, in his life of Columbus, says, that there are many such manuscripts in existence. He has availed himself of some of them in preparing that interesting work. Clavigero and others have asserted the same. There is, at present, a particular taste for such researches. The discovery and examination of these MSS. and paintings, would probably, shed further light upon the history of the Mexicans, and their more remote ancestors. It is very possible also, that the attention now given to Egyptian hieroglyphics may lead to results favorable to an explanation of the symbolical paintings and figures of the Mexicans. If the latter people sprang directly from the former, of which we very much doubt, however, or, if indeed, these two people had a common origin, which probably, no one will deny, the knowledge of those of one nation will afford facilities in explaining those of the other. Nothing has yet been discovered to render it certain or probable, that the historical and chronological paintings of these two people were very similar. The hieroglyphics of the Egyptians are now known to be partly symbolical, and partly phonetic, or alphabetic: But those of the Mexicans appear to be wholly symbolical.

The forms of civil government in Anahuac, or Mexico, were also, indicative of some advances towards civilization, from the rude condition of mere savages. The government of Mexico is said, indeed, to have been an absolute monarchy. But laws were in force for the maintenance of justice, without resorting to acts of revenge for personal injury. The Emperor was, also, elected; and therefore, could not be entirely independent of the people, though possessed of great power. The Tlascalans, an independent and distinct nation, in the country of Anahuac and vicinity of Mexico, had a government of a republican form and character. Besides, such a population as the country contained could not have been regulated except by a competent power in the rulers and a permanent code of laws; and these are found only among a people who have long been in a settled, social state. The rights of private property were fully acknowledged, and the internal police generally indicated an ancient society. There were different grades and classes of citizens, and the professions were kept wholly distinct; so that they enjoyed the advantages of a division of labor, on which modern political economists so much insist.

The gardens and the houses of the higher classes of people as well as the public buildings, in Mexico and the neighboring countries, were proof, also, of great progress in civilization, and of very considerable antiquity in the settlements. Their religious worship, too,

had assumed a regularity and system, which are never found among mere savages. The latter, indeed, acknowledge a superior power, which they adore and fear. But it is with little system, and still less of show and ceremony. The Mexicans and other nations in Anahuac, had very costly and magnificent places of worship; and these were as numerous as they were splendid. Their temples, consecrated to "the God of Day," and to "the Queen of Heaven," were of uncommon magnitude, and could not have been constructed but by a population nearly equal to that, by whose labors the pyramids of Egypt were erected. And it is to be observed, that those magnificent edifices were raised, not by the real Mexican race, which had inhabited the country for fifteen generations; but by the Toltecs, a much more ancient race or nation, who, according to the most authentic tradition, settled in Anahuac seven hundred years before the Mexican dynasty began.

It is not our design to speak, particularly, of the religion of the Mexicans, or of the American Indians; but, it may be observed, that they are generally considered as idolators and polytheists; and that in their religious rites, they were addicted to cruelty and blood, but less licentious than the ancient Greek and Roman pagans. If polytheists, however, they generally acknowledged and adored one God as superior to all others, though differently described by them. Still, they believed that the devil, or a wicked malignant spirit had great power in this world to produce evil; and to him they made many sacrifices, to avert his fiendish anger.

The largest pyramidal structure near the city of Mexico is 650 feet in length and 170 feet in height. There is another in the vicinity of nearly the same dimensions. There are also, near the city, the ruins of a military intrenchment, as it is generally believed to be, in the form of a truncated pyramid, of five sides, surrounded by fosses, faced with large stones of porphyry, on which are figures of men, sitting in the Asiatic posture. The two large pyramids are surrounded by a thick wall of stone. Whether the intrenchment was made for military purposes or not, is immaterial in the question of the great antiquity and former immense population of the settlements in Mexico. At Cholula, a city at some distance from Mexico, to the northeast, there is a truncated pyramid, nearly as large as the largest near that city. The remote ancestors of the Mexicans resided at this place, when they first came into the valley of Anahuac from a distant country in the northwest. This pyramid formerly supported an altar sacred to the God of the Air, a being of whom their tradition gave different accounts. Some have supposed it had reference to an Asiatic, who came to their settlement many generations after it commenced, and instructed the people in the arts, of which they were before ignorant; while others, with more probability, believe it intended to represent Noah, who was the great progenitor of man

kind, and who must have communicated what knowledge he acquired in the antediluvian world to his posterity. Obscure as the traditions of the Mexicans and other Americans are, they all refer to Asiatic events and customs. They refer to the general deluge, to the dispersion of mankind at Babel, and to the subsequent migrations and wanderings of their remote ancestors in a distant country, who came to America by a water passage, who first occupied a region or country far to the north and northwest, and thence travelled south to a warmer climate and finally to their present situation.

In the forests of Papantla, also, at some distance from Mexico, there is a pyramid of remarkable symmetry, but not so large as those before mentioned; it is constructed of stones of porphyry, which are covered with hieroglyphic characters. It may be proper, here to observe, that these artificial masses of earth, and of other materials, as stone and brick, although called pyramids by most travellers and writers, are not altogether like the structures in Egypt, which bear the same name. They differ somewhat in form, and still more in another respect. Those in Mexico are solid masses, or mounds. The Egyptian pyramids contain recesses or rooms, and were used, as is well known, for sepulchres for their kings and princes. The mounds on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, within the United States, are not so regular nor so high as those found in Mexico. They may be almost as ancient; for some of the early inhabitants, coming from the northwest, near Behring's Straits, where they probably passed over from Asia to America, and where they first made temporary settlements, no doubt travelled east and southeast, as others did more directly south; and in process of time made settlements on the Mississippi and its tributary streams; and thence also, extended to the eastern and northern parts of what is now the United States, and the British provinces. But although the mounds on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers may be nearly as ancient as those in Mexico, they do not indicate altogether so great a population as the others do; and yet they afford evidence, that in a very remote period, the country was well inhabited and sufficient for great public works.

The traditions, customs and general appearance of the Aborigines. of the more northerly and easterly parts of America all go to show, that they were originally of the same race or nation with those in Mexico, in the interior of the country, and who inhabit the territory far west and northwest.

It is of no consequence as to the date of the first settlement of America, or as to the nation or tribe by which it was made, whether these artificial structures or mounds, (be they in Mexico, or on the Mississippi) were fortifications, or places of worship and sacrifice on which altars were reared, or cemeteries for the dead. Their exist

ence serves to prove a great population on this continent in very distant ages. For the uniform tradition is, that they were constructed many centuries ago; and their dilapidated appearance affords evidence to the same point. They might have been designed, some of them, for fortifications, some for cemeteries, and some for places of sacrifice. Altars and temples were erected on some of the most elevated places, dedicated to some national deity, to whom they supposed they were indebted for a signal deliverance or benefit. And in this practice of placing their altars on elevated lands and hills, we may detect an imitation or resemblance to the religious practice of the heathens in Asia, in ancient times, who sacrificed to their false gods "on high places."

In various other parts of Anahuac, as well as in the more central part which composed the kingdom of Mexico, and farther south, in central America and to Peru even, travellers inform us, that there are ruins of large temples, edifices and baths, and remains of extensive public roads. Fragments of hieroglyphic stones are also found in various parts of these countries. At Mexico, there is a colossal statue of a goddess, and a calendar stone of uncommon magnitude, which have been lately dug up from beneath some rubbish or ancient ruins. In the southern part of the Mexican empire, at Mitla near Teantapec, on the shore of the Pacific ocean, there are ruins of edifices, which afford presumptive evidence of a great population at a remote period, and of a knowledge, also, of some of the useful arts. The remaining walls of one, called the palace, are ornamented with a Grecian scroll. There are also labyrinths executed in Mosaic work; the designs, according to the learned Humboldt, resembling somewhat those on Etruscan vases, which are the most ancient in Italy, or indeed in any other part of Europe. Humboldt speaks also of six unfinished columns, of imposing magnitude, which have lately been discovered; the only ones of the kind, we believe, ever found in America.

When first visited by the Spaniards in the beginning of the 16th century, the inhabitants of Yucatan, in the northern part of South America, had a rich and splendid costume, houses of stone, vases, instruments and ornaments of gold, some of which were wrought in Mosaic. Here, also, as well as in Mexico, were found books of parchment, and paper, made probably of the aloe or palm leaf, and of the inner bark of trees. On these were painted in hieroglyphics, their sacred rites, and the events of their political history. In this country, also, there were spacious temples and palaces for the nobility, or the higher classes of citizens. The inhabitants, no doubt, were descended from the same common stock with the Mexicans ; for in most respects, their customs, traditions, mode of living, and physical character, were like that people.

But the most remarkable fact, as to the knowledge of the Mexicans, (and this they derived from the Toltecs, who preceded them in Anahuac more than seven centuries,) was their method of calcula ting and reckoning time. They divided the year into eighteen months of twenty days each. To every year, they added five days, thus making three hundred and sixty-five days; and thirteen days at the end of every fifty-two years, (which was a well known period with them) or a day every fourth year. Thus it appears, that their vulgar or common year was the true solar year; and that their computation of time was astronomically correct. Here is proof of an accurate mode of making out the year, among themselves, for a long period of time; and also, as we think, of their descent from a people whose astronomical knowledge was correct and extensive. Whether this fact will conduct us to a satisfactory hypothesis, as to their origin, we are not prepared here to assert. The probability, however, is, that the Mexicans, or their predecessors, the Toltecs, derived the system from the Chaldeans, Indians, Chinese, or other Asiatic nation of which they acquired it, before they migrated to the American continent. Some of the inhabitants of Chaldea and India were early addicted to the study of astronomy. The Chaldeans (and who were they but the posterity of Noah?) made advances in this science, in very remote periods. It is admitted by the learned Brahmins of India, "that the Chaldeans were the most early and correct in the knowledge of astronomy, of all the nations of the earth." For this they were indebted to Noah and his sons, who might have studied it before the deluge. Their immediate descendants were the early inhabitants of that country. Abraham is supposed to have been acquainted with this sublime science. And Job, who probably lived in the early patriarchal age, evidently had some knowledge of astronomy. From Chaldea, it was disseminated to Arabia, Egypt, to India and China; and also to the west of Asia, and to Greece.

The early inhabitants of the earth, for many centuries were cultivators of the ground and keepers of flocks; and they would soon be led to notice the changes of the seasons and the revolutions of the heavenly bodies. The knowledge of astronomy and the method of calculating time, would be likely to be preserved with special care. Though the Tartars, the Huns, or the Mongols, were wandering, illiterate tribes, (and by these we shall attempt to show America was first peopled) there were some among them, probably, who had a knowledge of astronomy, and of the correct method of reckoning the year, derived from their progenitors in the more western parts of Asia, in an early age, and which being so useful and important, they would teach their posterity.

It will not, indeed, follow, that the Mexicans must be descendants of the Chinese, Indians, or Tartars in Asia, merely because they