156 



HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



rica ? Why are not the Europeans cold in conftitution 

 like the Americans ? Why are or have not the women 

 of both the one and the other part of the world been 

 equally barren ? Why, if Europe was overflowed like 

 America, and more fo, and for a much longer time 

 than it, as is clearly deducible from the arguments of 

 Buffon, has its foil remained fertile, and that of Ame- 

 rica barren ? Why are the Ikies of Europe fo mild, thofe 

 of America fo inclement ? Why to Europe fliould all the 

 bleflmgs have been deflined, to America all the evils ? 

 Whoever would be better informed refpe£Hng thofe 

 difficulties, may read Buffon on the inundation of Europe. 



The laft argument of M. de Paw is taken from the 

 extinction or dedruciion of the great quadrupeds in Ame- 

 rica, which he fays are the firft to perifli in water. 

 This author believes that anciently there were elephants, 

 camels, fea-horfes, and other large quadrupeds in Ame- 

 rica, but that they all peri (bed in this fuppofed inunda- 

 tion. But what perfon will not wonder that elephants 

 and camels, who are fo fwift, fliould perifli, and that 

 the floth, which is fo flow, and unable to move, fliould 

 efcape? that they could not, as well as men, betake 

 themfelves to the mountains, either by fwimming, at 

 which they are moil dexterous, or by availing themfelves 

 of the fwiftnefs of their feet, which is fo great, that in 

 one day, according to the account of BufFon, they go 

 one hundred and fifty miles ; and yet the floths could 

 find leifure to afcend to the tops of the mountains, which, 

 according to the account of the fame author, can hardly 

 move a perch in an hour ? Although we fliould admit 

 that fuch quadrupeds have been formerly in America, 

 we are not obliged to believe that their definition has 

 been occafioned by the fuppofed inundation, becaufe it 



might 



