128 



gies we discover among a multitude of fantastic 

 and singular forms. 



We might also ask, whether the relief of 

 Oaxaca does not date from a period, when, after 

 the first arrival of the Spaniards, the Indian 

 sculptors were already acquainted with some 

 European works of art. In discussing this ques- 

 tion we should recollect, that, three or four 

 years before Cortez made himself master of the 

 country of Anahuac, and before religious mis- 

 sionaries hindered the natives from graving any 

 other figures than those of saints, Hernandez de 

 Cordova, Antonio Alaminos, and Grixalva, had 

 visited the Mexican coasts, from the island of 

 Cozumel, and False Cape, in the peninsula of 

 Yucatan, as far as the mouth of the river of Pa- 

 nuco. These conquerors had general commu- 

 nications with the inhabitants, whom they found 

 well clothed, dwelling in populous towns, and 

 more civilized than any other people on the 

 New Continent. It is probable, that, in these 

 military expeditions, crosses, rosaries, and 

 images, objects of veneration among the ca- 

 tholics, were left with the natives ; and it is 

 possible also, that some of these images may 

 have passed successively from the coast as far 

 inland as the mountains of Oaxaca : but can we 

 suppose, that the sight of a few figures correctly 

 drawn could have determined the natives to 

 abandon forms consecrated by the fashion of so 



