540 COSMOS, 



of discovery, which was called in Italy Signor Astone, the 

 great Asia. Laugier 7 has detected, by similarity of the ele- 

 ments in the Chinese observations, a seventh appearance of 

 H alley's Cornet (that of 1378): as well as that the third 

 comet of 1840, discovered by Galle, 8 on the 6th of March, 

 appears to be identical with that of 1097. The Mexicans 

 also connected events in their records with comets and other 

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

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

 which an engaving is inserted in my JHonumens des Peuplcs 

 indigenes de rAmerigue, I have found, singularly enough, to 

 be mentioned as having been observed in December of that 

 year only in the Chinese comet-register.* The Mexicans 

 had inserted it in their register twenty-eight years before the 

 first appearance of Cortes upon the coasts of Vera Cruz 

 (Chalchip'icuecan) . 



I hava in the Delineations of Nature {Cosmos, vol. i. 

 p. 86) treated fully of the configuration, alterations of form, 

 light, and colour of comets, the emanations from their heads 



lomanis Diaz, by shipwreck, as he was sailing to the Cape of 

 Good Hope ; Humboldt, Examen Crit. de VHist. de la Gtogr. 

 torn. i. p. 296, and torn. v. p. 80. (Sousa, Asia Portug. torn. i. 

 p. 1, cap. v. p. 45.) 



1 Laugier, in the Connaissance des Temps pour ran 1846, 

 p. 39. Compare also Edward Biot, Mecherches sur les An- 

 ciennes Apparitions Chinoises de la Comete de Halley antt- 

 rieures a Vannee 1378, op. cit. pp. 70-84. 



8 Upon the comet discovered by Galle in March, 1840, see 

 Schumacher, Astr. NacJir. Bel. xviii. p. 188. 



9 See my Vues des Gordilleres (ed. in folio), pi. Iv. fig. 8, 

 pp. 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 almost entirely covered 

 by the Moon's disc, and with stars visible at the same time. 



