404 MEXICAN RECORDS. 



_ things that happened therein. As they noted the yeare 

 whenas the Spaniards entred their Countrey, they painted 

 a man with a hatte and a red ierkin vpon the signe of the 

 reede, which did rule then, and so of other accidents. Bat 



, for that their writings and characters were not sufficient, as 

 our letters and writings be, they could not so plainly 

 expresse the words, but onely the substance of their 

 conceptions. And forasmuch as they were accustomed to 

 reherse Discourses and Dialogues by heart, compounded by 

 their Oratours and auntient Rhethoritians, and many Chapas 

 made by their Poets (which were impossible to learne by 

 their Hierogliphickes and Characters), the Mexicaines were 

 very curious to have their children learne those dialogues 

 and compositions by heart. For the which cause they had 

 Schooles, and as it were Colledges or Seminaries, where 

 the Auncients taught children these Orations, and many 

 other things, which they preserved amongst them by 

 tradition from one to another as perfectly as if they had 

 beene written ; especially the most famous Nations had a 

 care to have their children (which had any inclination to be 

 Rhetoritians, and to practise the office of Orators) to learne 

 these Orations by heart : So as when the Spaniardes came 

 into their Countrey, and had taught them read and write 

 our letters, many of the Indians then wrote these Orations, 

 as some grave men doe witnes that had read them. Which 

 I say, for that some which shall haply reade these long and 

 eloquent discourses in the Mexicaine Historic will easilie 

 beleeve they have beene invented by the Spaniardes, and 

 not really taken and reported from the Indians. But having 

 knowne the certaine trueth, they will give credite (as reason 

 is) to their Histories. They did also write these Discourses 

 after their manner, by Characters and Images : and 1 have 

 scene, for my better satisfaction, the Pater noster, Ave 

 Maria, and Simboll, and the generall confession of our faith, 

 written in this manner by the Indians. 



