338 HISTOHY OF MEXICO. 



pofed. Cortes adds, that among the high towers which 

 adorned that great capital were forty, fo elevated that 

 the {mailed of them was not inferior in height to the fa- 

 mous Giralda (k) of Seville. P. F. de A. IxtlilxochitI 

 makes mention in his manufcripts of the tower of nine 

 floors, that his famous anceftor Nezahualpilli, ere&ed 

 to the Creator of heaven, which appears to have been 

 that famous temple of Tezcutzinco, fo much extolled by 

 Valades in his work. 



All this cloud of witneffes depofe againft M. de Paw. 

 Notwithftanding he cannot believe in that great multi- 

 tude of temples in Mexico, becaufe he fays Montezuma 

 I. was he who gave the form of a city to that village : 

 from the reign of this monarch until the arrival of the 

 Spaniards, no more than forty-two years elapfed, which 

 fpace of time is not fufficient to build two thoufand tem- 

 ples. Thefe three affertions, make, as is ufual with this 

 author, as many errors, i. It is falfc that Montezuma 

 I. gave the form of a city to Mexico, becaufe we know 

 from hi (lory that that court had the form of a city from 

 the time of Acamapitzin the firft king. 2. It is faJfe, 

 befides, that there intervened but forty-two years be- 

 tween the reign of Montezuma and the arrival of the 

 Spaniards, Montezuma began to reign, as we have 

 fhewn in DifFertation fecond, in the year 1436, and died 

 in 1465, and the Spaniards did not come to Mexico be- 

 fore 1 5 19. Therefore, from the beginning of that reign 

 until the arrival of the Spaniards elapfed eighty-three 

 years, and from the death of that king till then fifty- 

 five. 3. M. de Paw difcovers his total ignorance of the 

 ftru&ure of the Mexican temples, nor does he know 



what 



(i) The very lofty and famous fteeple of the Domjr of Seville. 



