HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



131 



of that nation in Anahuac, neither is nor can be known, 

 and that the ftory of the ten lords, who governed the na- 

 tion each precifely eighty years, is only fit to amufe chil- 

 dren. 



Still lefs is it known when the Olmecas and Xicallan- 

 cas arrived. Boturini fays, that he could find neither 

 picture nor monument concerning thefe nations, although 

 he believes them more ancient than the Toltecas ; but 

 ftill it is unqueftionable that they were not the moll: an* 

 cient. 



We do not here make mention of any other nations, 

 becaufe their antiquity is abfolutely unknown ; but we 

 do not doubt, confidering what we have already explain- 

 ed and fet forth, that the Chiapanefe were amongft the 

 mod ancient, and perhaps the firft of all thofe who peo- 

 pled the country of Anahuac. 



SEC T. a. 



Concerning the Correfpondence of the Mexican Tears with 

 ours, and the Epoch of the Foundation of Mexico* 



ALL the Mexican as well as Spanifli writers, who 

 have made mention of the Mexican chronology, are 

 agreed refpe&ing the method which thofe nations had 

 of computing their centuries and their years, explained 

 by us in book VI. of our hiftory, and in the latter part 

 of the end of vol. I. Whenever, therefore, we find the 

 correfpondence of any one Mexican year with any one 

 Chriftian year, the correfpondence of all the reft will 

 eafily be known. If, for example, we know that the 

 year 1780 was the II TecpatI, as it really was, we are 

 certain that the year 1781 was the III Calli \ the year 



1782, 



X 



