324 



HISTORY OF MEXICO, 



it as well as the Spaniards. Many of them have written 

 their ancient hiftory in Caftilian, and alfo that of the 

 Conqueft of Mexico ; fome of whom we haVe men- 

 tioned in the Catalogue prefixed to this hiftory. Others 

 have tranflated Latin books into Caftilian, Caftilian into 

 Mexican, and Mexican into Caftilian : amongft others 

 deferving of mention, are D. F. Ixtlilxochitl, whom we 

 have fo often cited ; D. A. Valerianes, of Azcapozalco, 

 the mafter in the Mexican language to the hiftorian 

 Torquemada, &c. We know from the Hiftory of the 

 Conqueft, that the celebrated Indian donna Marina, 

 learned with great quicknefs and facility the Caftilian 

 language, and that (he fpoke the Mexican, and alfo 

 the Maya language well, which are more different from 

 each other than the French, the Hebrew, and the Illy- 

 rian. There having been at all times, therefore, very 

 many Spaniards who have learned the Mexican, as we 

 fliall (hew, and very many Mexicans who have learned 

 the Spanifti, why might not the Mexicans have been 

 able to inftru£l the Spaniards in the fignifications of their 

 pictures ? 



With refpect to the copies of the Mexican paintings, 

 publifhed by Purchas and Thevenot, it is true that the 

 proportions, or laws of perfpe&ive, are not obferved in 

 them ; but thofe grofs coarfe copies having been cut in 

 wood, thefe authors have poftibly increafed the defecls 

 of the originals ; nor ought we to wonder if they have 

 omitted fome things contributing to the perfection of 

 thofe pi&ures : as we know that they omitted the copies 

 of the twelfth and twenty-fecond paintings of that collec- 

 tion altogether, and the images of the cities in moft of 

 the others ; and befides, they change the figures of the 

 years correfponding to the reigns of Ahuitzotl and Mon- 

 tezuma 



