94 APPENDIX. 



to a certain extent, by the nature of the soil, which, at the West, is generally readily 

 excavated with the simplest tools. 



Among the semi-civilized inhabitants of Mexico, Central America, and Peru, 

 similar methods of defence were practised ; but in the construction of their for- 

 tresses, they displayed a degree of superiority, corresponding to that which, in 

 most other respects, they sustained over their savage contemporaries. Cortez 

 found himself opposed, upon his first landing at Tobasco, by the town of that name, 

 which, according to De Solis, was fortified after the usual method on the coast. 

 The defences consisted of "a kind of wall made of the trunks of large trees, fixed 

 in the ground after the manner of pahsades, but so placed that there was room for 

 the Indians to discharge their arrows between them. The work was round, with- 

 out any traverses or other defences, and at the closing of the circle the extremity 

 of one line covered the other, and formed a narrow, winding street, in which there 

 were two or three Uttle castles of wood, which filled up the passage, and in which 

 were posted their sentinels. This," continues Solis, " was a sufficient fortress 

 against the arms of the New World, when they were happily ignorant of the arts of 

 w^ar and of those methods to attack and defend, in which mankind has been in- 

 structed either by malice or necessity." — {De Soils' Hist. Mexico, p. 54.) This 

 town, corresponding entirely with those described by the followers of De Soto, in 

 Florida, seems to have been rudely fortified in comparison with others in the 

 interior of the country, and nearer the seat of Aztec civilization.* Here the towns 

 and cities were surrounded not only by palisades, but also by ditches and walls of 

 earth and solid masonry. The skill with which the city of Mexico was protected 

 is amply attested by the chroniclers of Cortez's expedition, and by that conqueror 

 himself, who also inform us that walls were sometimes erected to guard the fron- 

 tiers of provinces. The great wall of Tlascalla furnishes, in its extent, a parallel to 

 some of the more imposing defensive structures of the other hemisphere. It was 

 erected, according to Cortez, by the " ancient inhabitants " of that republic, as a 

 protection against their enemies ; and Clavigero asserts that other portions of the 

 frontier were defended in a similar manner. De Solis describes it as " a great 

 wall which ran across a valley from one mountain to another, entirely stopping up 

 the way ; a sumptuous and strong piece of workmanship, which showed the power 

 and greatness of the builders. The outside was of hewn stone, united with mortar 

 of extraordinary strength. It was twenty feet thick and a fathom and a half high ; 

 and on the top was a parapet after the manner of our fortifications. The entrance 



* The savage Indian tribes of Soixtli America possessed a like system of defence. Those of Brazil 

 fortified their towns with palisades, and the Indians of Buenos Ayres, Paraguay, and Chili, constructed 

 additional ramparts and ditches. Charlevoix describes those of the last named country as having forts, 

 «' surrormded by ditches and trenches, and protected by strong palisades, and pointed stakes of a very 

 hard wood driven in the earth." — [Southeys Hist, Brazil, Vol. II., pp. 162, 189 ; Mendoza in Purchas., 

 Vol. IV., pp, 1352, 1356, 1361 ; Charlevoix's Paragiiay, Vol I., p. 156; Oreille's Chili, in Pinkerton, 

 Vol XIV., p. 113.) The natives of the Barbadoes Islands constructed defences of the same character. 

 They selected eminences for their forts, and protected them with trenches and palisades. From these 

 points they rolled down stones and logs upon their assailants, — Dams' JJist, Barbadoes, p. 325. 



