178 



,iace the seat of this culture ? Is it to 

 >n of the river Gila, on the elevated plain 

 jxico? or in the southern hemisphere, in 

 ^e lofty plains of Tiahuanacu, which the Incas 

 ^emselves found covered with ruins of majestic 

 greatness, and which may be considered as the 

 Himala and the Thibet of South America? These 

 problems are not to be solved in the present state 

 of our knowledge. 



We have now examined the relations, that 

 exist between the Mexican paintings and the 

 hieroglyphics of the ancient world. We have- 

 endeavoured to throw some light on the origin 

 and migrations of the nations that introduced int o 

 New-Spain the use of symbolic writing, and the 

 fabrication of paper ; what remains is to notice 

 the manuscripts {Codices Mexicani), that, since 

 the sixteenth century, have been sent to Europe, 

 and preserved in public and private libraries. 

 We shall be astonished to find how rare are be- 

 come these precious monuments of a nation, 

 which in its progress toward civilization appears 

 to have struggled with the same obstacles, that 

 opposed the advancement of the arts among all 

 the nations of the North, and even of the East of 

 Asia. 



From the researches I have made it appears, 

 that there exist at present in Europe only six 

 collections of Mexican paintings, those of the 

 Escurial, Bologna, Veletri, Rome, Vienna, and 



