268 



HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



publifhed in Europe, particularly a few years back, will 

 not difcover that the travellers, hiftorians, naturalifls, and 

 philofophers of Europe, have made America the maga- 

 zine of their fables and fictions ; and in order to render 

 their works more entertaining, from the marvellous no- 

 velty of their pretended obfervations, have afcribed to 

 all the Americans, whatever fingularities have been ob- 

 ferved in one individual, or perhaps in none ? 



The American women are fubjecr. to the common fen- 

 tence of nature, and are not delivered without pains ; 

 potfibly, not with fo much apparatus as attends the wo- 

 men of Europe ; becaufe they are lefs delicate, and more 

 accuftomed to the inconveniences of life. Thevenot 

 fays, that the Mogul women are delivered with great 

 eafe, and that the day after they are feen going through 

 the ftreets of the cities, and yet there is no reafon to find 

 fault with their fruitfulnefs, or their conftitution. 



The quantity and quality of milk in the American wo- 

 men in Mexico, and other countries of America, are well 

 known to the European and Creole ladies, who take 

 them commonly as wet-nurfes to their children ; they 

 find that they are wholelbme, faithful, and diligent, in 

 fuch fervice. Nor does it matter to fay, that the ancient 

 Americans are talked of, and not the moderns, as M. de 

 Paw has fometimes replied to his adverfary Don Perne- 

 ty ; fince befides, that his propofitions againfl the Ame- 

 ricans are all meant of the prefent day, as it is manifefl: 

 to every one who has read his work, that diftinclion has 

 no place in many countries of America, and particularly 

 in Mexico. The Mexicans ufe, for the mod part, the 

 fame food which they fed upon before the conqueft. The 

 climate, if poffibly it is changed in fome regions, from the 

 cutting down of the woods, and the draining of ftagnant 



waters. 



