158 



HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



fmaller nations or tribes, becaufe their fmaller multipli- 

 cation has been always a neceffary effect of favage life 

 in all countries in the world. " If favages are fhepherds, 

 " fays Montefquieu, they require a great country to be 

 M able to fubfift in a certain number. If they are hunt- 

 " ers, as the favages of America were, they exift in ftill 

 u fmaller numbers, and in order to maintain themfelves, 

 " form a ftill lefs populous nation." 



Why, returns Mr. BufFon to afk, were they almoft all 

 favage and difperfed ? It is not fo. How can it be faid 

 they were all favage and difperfed ; whilft we know that 

 the Mexicans, the Peruvians, and all the people fubjeft 

 to them, lived in focieties ; which, as Mr. Baffon him- 

 felf confeffes, were extremely numerous, and cannot be 

 called new. The other nations continued favages, from 

 a violent attachment to liberty or fome other caufe of 

 which we are ignorant. In Afia, although it is a moft 

 ancient country, there are ftill many nations that are 

 favage and difperfed. Why, he fays, have thofe who 

 were united in focieties, hardly counted two or three 

 hundred years fince they alfembled ? This is another 

 error. The Mexicans hardly counted two hundred 

 years from the foundation of their capital ; the Tlafca- 

 lans fomething more from the eftablifhment of their re- 

 public, but thofe nations, and the others fubje&ed to 

 them, lived in fociety from time immemorial, as well as 

 the Toltecas, Acolhuas, and Michuacanefe. Neither 

 BufFon, de Paw, nor Dr. Robertfon, can diftinguifti the 

 eftabliftiment of thofe nations in Anahuac, from the fet- 



tlements 



ico and Peru, civilized men, and cultivated people, fubje(Sfc to laws, and govern- 

 ed by kings ; they poffeffed induftry, arts, and a fpecies of religion ; they lived 

 in cities in which order and government were maintained under the authority 

 of a fovereign. Thefe people, are certainly very numerous, and cannot be faid 

 to be new," &c. 



