300 



HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



againfl the Inca Garcilafib becaufe he defends the Peru- 

 vians from fucha charge ? Although thofe were refpeft- 

 ed authors who afcribed this crime to all the people of 

 America, there being many refpe&ed authors who fay 

 the contrary, M. de Paw, according to the laws of hu- 

 manity, ought to have abftained from fo grofs an accufa- 

 tion. But how much more ought he to have avoided 

 it when there is not any writer of authority on whofe 

 teftimony he can fupport fo univerfal an alferiion. He 

 may find fome authors, as the anonymous conqueror, 

 Gomara, and Herrera, who have accufed fome Ameri- 

 cans of fuch a vice, or at mofl fome people of America ; 

 but he will find no hiftorian of credit who has dared to 

 fay that pederafty was much a vice in the ijlands, in Peru, 

 in Mexico, and in all the new continent. On the con- 

 trary, all the hiftorians of Mexico fay unanimoufly, that 

 fuch a vice was held in abomination by thofe nations, and 

 make mention of the fevere punifliments prefcribed by 

 the laws againfl; it, as appears from the works of Goma- 

 ra, Herrera, Torquemada, Betancourt, and others. Las 

 Cafas, in his memorial to Charles V. prefented in 1542, 

 attefts, that having made a diligent enquiry in the Spa- 

 nifh iflands, Cuba, Jamaica, and Porto Rico, he found 

 there was no memory of fuch a vice among thofe na- 

 tions. The fame thing he affirms of Peru, Yucatan, 

 and all the countries of America in general ; in fome 

 one place or other, he fays, there may be fome addicled 

 to that crime ; but he adds, the whole new world, how- 

 ever, mud not be taxed with that vice. Who then has 

 authorized M. de Paw to defame, in a point fo injurious, 

 the whole of the new world ? Although the Ameri- 

 cans were, as he believes, men without honour, and 

 without fliame, the laws of humanity forbid him to ca- 

 lumniate 



