HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



259 



g< ed fome limb of their body but having ourfelves 

 made fome enquiry refpe&ing this fingularity of the 

 Quitans, we were informed by perfons deferving of cre- 

 dit, and acquainted with thofe countries, that fuch defects 

 were neither caufed by bad humours, nor by the climate, 

 but by the miftaken and blind humanity of their parents, 

 who, in order to free their children from the hardfliips 

 and toils to which the healthy Indians are fubje&ed by 

 the Spaniards, fix fome deformity or weaknefs upon** 

 them, that they may become ufelefs : a circumftance of 

 mifery which does not happen in other countries of Ame- 

 rica, nor in thofe places of the fame kingdom of Quito, 

 where the Indians are under no fuch opprelTion. M. 

 de Paw, and, in agreement with him, Dr. Robertfon, 

 fays, that no deformed perfons are to be found among 

 the favages of America ; becaufe, like the ancient La- 

 cedemonians, they put to death thofe children which are 

 born hunch-backed, blind, or defective in any limb ; but 

 that in thofe countries where they are formed into fo- 

 cieties, and the vigilance of their rulers prevents the 

 murder of fuch infants, the number of their deformed 

 and irregular individuals is greater than it is in any other 

 country of Europe. This would make an exceeding 

 good folution of the difficulty if it were true : but if, pof- 

 libly, there has been in America a tribe of favages who 

 have imitated the barbarous example (a) of the cele- 

 brated Lacedemonians, it is certain that thofe authors 

 have no grounds to impute fuch inhumanity to the reft 

 of the Americans ; for that it has not been the practice, 

 at lead with the far greater part of thofe nations, is to 



be 



(a) That inhuman practice of killing children which were born deformed, 

 was not only permitted in Rome, but was prefcribed by the, laws of the Twelve 

 Tables. Pater infgnem ad deformitatem puerum citQ neeato. 



