186 COSMOS. 



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

 mos, 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 Asto7ie, the great 

 Asta. 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 Galle,^ 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 

 indighies 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 Bartholomsjeus Diaz, by ship- 

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

 amen Crit. de V Hist, de la G6ogr., tom. i., p. 296, aud torn, v., p. 80 

 (Sousa, Asia Portug., tom. i., p. i., cap. v., p. 45.) 



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

 Compare also Edward Biot, Recherches sur les Anciennes Apparitions 

 Chinoises de la Comete de Halley ant&rieures a Vann€e 1378, op. cit., p. 

 70-84. 



X Upon the comet discovered by Galle in March, 1840, see Schu- 

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



$ See my Vues des Cordilleres (ed. in folio), pi. Iv., 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 gtarrf visible at the 

 same time. 



