HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



151 



cans, as their own hiftorians affirm, make no mention of 

 the deluge, without commemorating alfo the confufion 

 of tongues and the difperfion of the people, and thofe 

 three things were reprefented by them in a fingle paint- 

 ing, as appears from that picture which Siguenza had 

 from D. F. d'Alba Ixtlilxochitl, and he from his noble 

 anceftors, a copy of which has been given in ourhiftory. 

 The fame tradition has been found among the Chiapa- 

 nefe, the Tlafcalans, the people ofMichuacan, of Cuba, 

 and the Indians of the continent, with the circumftance 

 of a few men, with fome animals having been faved in a 

 veflfel from the deluge, and having fet at liberty firft a 

 bird, which did not return again to the veflel, becaufe 

 it remained eating carrion, and afterwards another, 

 which returned with a green branch in its mouth : this 

 renders it evident, that they did not fpeak of any other 

 deluge than that which drowned all the earth in the time 

 of the patriarch Noah. All the circumftances which 

 have difguifed or changed this moft ancient and univer- 

 fal tradition among nations, have either been allegories, 

 fuch as thofe of the feven caves of the Mexicans, to fig- 

 nify the feven different nations which peopled the coun- 

 try of Anahuac, or the fictions of ignorance or ambition. 

 None of thofe nations believed that men were faved up- 

 on the mountains, but in an ark or veffel, or, if pofiible, 

 any one thought otherwife, it was certainly becaufe the 

 tradition of the deluge, after fo many centuries, had 

 been changed. It is therefore absolutely falfe that there 

 was an unanimous tradition of an inundation peculiar to 

 America, among all thofe people who dwelt between the 

 land of Magellan and the river St. Lawrence. 



The lakes and the marfhes which appear to Mr. Buf- 

 fon and Mr. de Paw inconteftible marks and traces of 



this 



