330 illSTORY OF MEXICO. 



But, independent of what he fays, it is certain, that all 

 the above mentioned ways of reprefenting ideas, except 

 that of the alphabet, were ufed by the Mexicans. Their 

 numeral characters, and thofe fignifying night, day, the 

 year, the century, the heavens, the earth, the water, 

 &c. perhaps were not truly arbitrary characters. The 

 Mexicans were arrived then as far as the famous Chi- 

 nefe, after many ages of civilization. There is no diffe- 

 rence between the one and the other, except that the 

 Chinefe characters are multiplied to fuch excefs, that a 

 whole life-time is not enough to learn them. 



Dr. Robertfon, far from denying, like Mr. de Paw, 

 the fecular wheels of the Mexicans, confeffes their method 

 of computing time, and fays, that their having obferved, 

 that in eighteen months, of twenty days each, the courfe 

 of the fun was not completed, they added the five days 

 Nemontemi. " This near approach to philofophical ac- 

 " curacy is a rema/kable proof that the Mexicans had 

 " beftowed fome attention upon enquiries and fpecula- 

 * c tions to which men in their rude ftate never turn their 

 " thoughts (hi)" What would he have faid had he 

 known, as appears from the chronology of the Mexicans, 

 that they not only counted three hundred fixty-five days 

 to the year, but alfo knew of the excefs of about fix 

 hours in the folar over the civil year, and remedied 

 the difference between them by means of thirteen inter- 

 calary days, which they added to their century of fifty- 

 two years. 



SECT. 



(£) Hift. of America, Book vii. 



