302 



HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



Japanefe, for a flight motive ; for fome falfe idea of ho- 

 nour, or fome caprice of paffion ? Who could perfuade 

 himfelf that a European would reproach the Americans 

 with fuicide in an age in which it is become a daily event 

 in England and France (y), where the juft ideas we 

 have from nature and her religion, are baniftied from 

 the mind, and arguments invented, and books publifh- 

 ed, to vindicate it ?, So great is the rage for defaming 

 America and the Americans. 



A fimilar palTion feems to have afFe&ed that Spaniard 

 who formed the general Index of the Decads of Herre- 

 ra, inconfiderately imputing to all the Americans what 

 Herrera fays in his work of fome individuals, with vari- 

 ous exceptions. We copy here what we have read in 

 that Index. " The Indians," he fays, " are very 

 " flothful, very full of vices, great drunkards, by na- 

 " ture lazy, weak, liars, cheats, fickle, inconftant, have 

 " much levity, cowardly, nafty, mutinous, thievifli, un- 

 " grateful, inexorable, more vindictive than any other 

 " nation, of fo low a nature, &c. that it is doubtful if 

 " they are rational creatures ; barbarous, beftial, and 

 " led like the brutes by their appetites." This is the 

 language of M. de Paw, and other mofl humane Euro* 

 peans ; fo it appears they do not think themfelves oblig- 

 ed to believe the truth with regard to the people of 

 the new world, nor obferve the laws of fraternal cha- 

 rity, publiflied by the fon of their own God in the old 

 world. 



But it would be eafy for any American of moderate 

 genius, and fome erudition, who was defirous of retaliat- 

 ing upon thofe authors, to compofe a work with this ti- 



tie, 



(y) We know in one of thefe laft years, there have been one hundred and 

 fifty fuicides committed in the city of Paris alone. 



