66 



SIX MONTHS IN MEXICO. 



order of Montezuma by the best artists of his 

 kingdom, and which conveyed intelligence of 

 the movements of the Spaniards, are chiefly 

 drawn upon skins of deer, though some 

 are upon a species of paper made of the 

 fibres of the great American aloe. They are 

 articles of such interest, and so much prized 

 by the government, that, though I experienced 

 from the public authorities the greatest libe- 

 rality, and every assistance in my pursuit of in- 

 formation concerning the ancient state of the 

 country, yet no offers of mine could induce 

 them to part with these MSS. until I had 

 given them an assurance that, after they had 

 been copied in England, I would transmit 

 them again to Mexico. 



I have likewise been so fortunate as to pro- 

 cure some of the pictures of Indian antiqui- 

 ties formerly in the collection of the cele- 

 brated and ill-used Chevalier Boturini. They 

 were done from pictures executed at the time 



