HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



299 



ter.of the cathedral of Valladolid attempted totranfport 

 them there, the Indians became uneafy, and prepared to 

 oppofe it by force of arms, which they would have cer- 

 tainly done had not the chapter, in order to prevent any 

 fuch diforder, abandoned their refolution. Can there 

 be imagined a more conclufive proof of the gratitude of 

 a nation ? Similar demonftrations of the fame difpofl- 

 tion have been given by the Indians in many places of 

 the kingdom, where they wilhed to retain the miffiona- 

 ries who had inftru&ed them in their faith. Thofe in- 

 ftances, which happened in the two laft centuries, may 

 be learned from the third volume of Torquemada, and 

 the Mexican Theatre of Betancourt. Of thofe which 

 have occurred in our own times there are many living 

 witnefles ; and we can teftify fome ourfelves. If the 

 Americans ever fliew themfelves ungrateful to their pa- 

 trons, it is becaufe the continual experience of evils from 

 them renders even their benefits fufpicious : but when- 

 ever they are convinced of the fincere benevolence of 

 their benefactors, they are capable of making a facrifice 

 of all their pofTefiions to gratitude. All who have feen 

 and obferved with impartiality the manners of the Ame- 

 ricans confirm this character. 



But of all the remarks made by M. de Paw againft 

 the Americans, nothing has been more injurious than his 

 affirmation that pederafty was much a vice in the iflands, 

 in Peru, in Mexico, and in all the new continent. Wc 

 cannot conceive how M. de Paw, after having vented fo 

 horrid a calumny, had confidence to fay in his reply to 

 Don Pernety, that all his work of Philofophical Refearch- 

 es breathes humanity. Can it be humanity unjuftly to 

 defame all the nations of the new world with a vice fo 

 opprobrious to nature ? Is it humanity to be enraged 



againft 



