REVIEWS—A NEW HISTORY OF THE CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 447 
the dimensions of the Cholula pyramid, on the authority of Torque- 
mada, as above a quarter of a league in circuit at the base, and forty 
fathoms high ; and his reference substantially corresponds to the one 
given above: Mon. Ind. Lib. III. c.19. But the quotation which 
accompanies this reference to ancient Spanish authority in the subse- 
quent note, No. 39, gives the words—not of Torquemada, who, 
wrote from personal observation, in the sixteenth century,—but of 
the modern author, a Scottish divine and historian of the eighteenth 
century, who did not pretend that he had ever seen the mound, or 
indeed crossed the Atlantic. In other words the author quotes at 
second hand, and furnishes a note of Robertson, written at Edinburgh, 
about 1777, under the belief that he is quoting what Torquemada 
wrote at Mexico before 1600! Whatever may be the “ lawyer’s privi- 
lege of sifting evidence,” this must be confessed to be rather a loose 
way of exercising it. 
Again, it does not seem to have occurred to the critical author that 
the modern Church, which is now the only appearance of art about the 
earth-mound of Cholula, may have something to do with the absence 
- of art elsewhere. For if the Monks found that mound cased, like 
those observed by Stephens in Central America, with cut-stone steps 
and facings, there can be little doubt they would go no further to 
seek a quarry for their intended Church ; and if, moreover, the ruins 
of several Spanish Convents surround the modern Cholula, the only 
chance of finding traces of the ancient city, if it ever existed, must’ 
be in some stray sculptures and carvings betraying native art, on the 
materials built into the later Spanish structures. But it may be 
doubted if such evidence would be received by our author, for he tells 
us: ‘At Cholula, I was so fortunate as to procure one of the images 
of Quetzalcoatl, cut in stone, with curled hair and Caucasian features. 
This I afterwards compared with the great image found at Mexico, 
not without strong suspicions that both were counterfeits; for in this 
country, even the most sacred records are open to such suspicion.” 
This, it must be confessed, is carrying out the principle of doubting 
in a most impartial and uncompromising spirit. The zeal of the old 
Spanish conquerors in traducing the Indians was so great, that, ac- 
cording to our author, they actually invented and carved idols, to 
bury them, for the confounding of future generations by their dis- 
covery! This is an extent of critical suspicion it would be difficult 
to surpass. 
