310 



HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



tioned formerly, were continually obferving all that hap- 

 pened ; and the judges of commerce were charged t6 

 take cognizance of all difputes between the merchants, 

 and punifli every trefpafs which was committed; and not* 

 withftanding it muft be faid, that the Mexicans were in- 

 ferior in induftry to the rudeft people of the old conti- 

 nent ; among whom are fome, that after fo many centu- 

 ries, and the example of other nations of their own con- 

 tinent, do not yet know the advantages of money. 



SECT. II. 



On the Ufe of Iron. 



The ufe of iron is one of thofe things which M. de 

 Paw requires to call a nation cultivated ; and from the 

 want of it he believes all the Americans barbarians. So 

 that if God had not created this metal, all men muft, ac- 

 cording to the fentiments of this philofopher, have of ne- 

 ceffity remained barbarous. But in the fame place of his 

 work where he reproaches the Americans with barbari- 

 ty, he furnifhes us all the arguments we could defire to 

 refute it. He affirms, that in all the extent of America 

 there are found but few mines of iron, and thofe fo 

 inferior in quality to thofe of the old continent, that it 

 cannot even be made ufe of for nails. He tells us, that 

 the Americans were in polfeffion of the fecret, now loft 

 in the old continent, of giving copper a temper equal to 

 that of fteel : that Godin fent, in 1727 (probably 1747, 

 as in 1727, he was not gone to Peru),, to the count de 

 Maurepas, an old ax of hard Peruvian copper ; and that 

 count Caylus having obferved it, he difcovered that it 

 equalled the ancient arms of copper in hardnefs, of which 



the 



