i86 cosmos. 



which the dynasty of Ming ruled. I repeat here (see Cos- 

 9710s, vol. i., p. 99), that while from the middle of the third 

 to the end of the fourteenth century it was necessary to cal- 

 culate comets exclusively from the Chinese observations, the 

 calculation of Halley's Comet, on its appearance in the year 

 1456, was the first calculation which was made from alto- 

 gether European observations, those of Regiomontanus. These 

 latter were again followed by the very accurate observations 

 of Apianus at Ingoldstadt, upon the occasion of the reappear- 

 ance of Halley's Comet in August of the year 1531. In the 

 interval (May, 1500) appeared a magnificently brilliant com- 

 et.* rendered famous by African and Brazilian travels of dis- 

 covery, which was called in Italy Signor Astone, the great 

 Asia. Laugierf has detected, by similarity of the elements 

 in the Chinese observations, a seventh appearance of Hal- 

 ley's Comet (that of 1378) ; as well as that the third comet 

 of 1840, discovered by*Gal]e,$ on the 6th of March, appears 

 to be identical with that of 1097. The Mexicans also con- 

 nected events in their records with comets and other ob- 

 servations of the heavens. The Comet of 1490, which I 

 discovered in the Mexican manuscript of St. Tellier, and of 

 which an engraving is inserted in my Monumens des Peuples 

 indigenes de V Amerique, I have found, singularly enough, 

 to be mentioned as having been observed in December of 

 that year only in the Chinese comet-register. \ The Mexi- 

 cans had inserted it in their register twenty-eight years be- 

 fore the first appearance of Cortez upon the coasts of Vera 

 Cruz (Chalchinhcuecan). 



I have, in the Delineations of Nature (Cosmos, vol. i., p. 

 101), treated fully of the configuration, alterations of form, 



* This is the " evil-disposed" comet to which was ascribed the death 

 of the celebrated Portuguese discoverer Bartholomams Diaz, by ship- 

 wreck, as he was sailing to the Cape of Good Hope; Humboldt, Ex- 

 amen Crit. de VHist. de la Giogr., torn, i., p. 296, and torn, v., p. 80. 

 (Sousa, Asia Poring., torn, i., p. i., cap. v., p. 45.) 



t Laugier, in the Connaissance des Temps pour Van 1846, p. 99. 

 Compai'e also Edward Biot, Rcckerches sur les Anciennes Apparitions 

 Chinoises de la Comete de H alley anterieures a Vannee 1378, op. cit., p. 

 70-84. 



\ Upon the comet discovei'ed by Galle in March, 1840, see Schu- 

 macher, Astr. Nachr., bd. xviii., p. 188. 



§ See my Vues des Cordilleres (ed. in folio), pi. lv., fig. 8, p. 281, 282 

 The Mexicans had also a very correct view of the cause of a solar 

 eclipse. The same Mexican manuscript, written at least a quarter of 

 a century before the arrival of the Spaniards, represents the Sun as al- 

 most entirely covered by the Moon's disk, and with stars visible at the 

 same time. 



