116 



HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



fo many fpecies of apes as there are in America ; and 

 far lefs fome, which inftead of being agreeable, are 

 on the contrary of a brutal afpeft and ferocious difpo- 

 fition, namely, thofe called zambos ; and, provided men 

 had been determined to have taken two individuals at 

 lealt of every fpecies, they could never arrive either by 

 the feas or the countries of the north, although their 

 conductors had endeavouted to defend them from the 

 cold. They muft, therefore, have tranfported them from 

 the hot countries of the old continent to the warm coun- 

 tries of the new world, over a fea fubjecl: to a clime 

 not diifimilar to that of the native country of thofe qua- 

 drupeds, that is by the countries of the fouth of Afia 

 to the fourh of America, over the Indian and Pacific 

 Oceans, or from the weftern countries of Africa to the 

 eaftern countries of America, over the Atlantic Ocean. 

 If men, therefore, tranfported thofe beafts from the one 

 to the other world, they did it acrofs thofe feas. But 

 was this navigation cafual or defigned ? If cafual, how 

 and wherefore did they conduct fo many animals with 

 them ? If it was defigned, and with a determined purpofe 

 to pafs from the one to the other world, who gave them 

 intelligence of it ? Who fliewed them the fituation of 

 thofe countries ? Who pointed out their courfe ? How 

 did they venture to crofs fuch vaft feas without the com- 

 pafs ? In what veflels ? If they landed there happily, 

 why does there not remain among the Mexicans fome 

 memory of their conftru&ion ? 



Befides, in the torrid zone of the new world croco- 

 diles are common, animals which require a hot or tempe- 

 rate clime, and live alternately on land or in fweet water ; 

 how did fuch animals pafs there ? Not by the north, cer- 

 tainly ; becaufe their nature is ftrongly averfe to cold : 



neither 



