HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



341 



ftruments their works were made fb perfect ; and their 

 feather-works could not be imitated either by wax or 

 filk. In this third letter, where he fpeaks of the plun- 

 der of Mexico, he fays, that among the ipoils of Mexico 

 he found there certain wheels of gold, and feathers, and 

 other labours of the fame matter, fo wonderfully execu- 

 ted, that being incapable to convey a jufl idea of them 

 in writing, he lent them to his majefty that he might be 

 allured by his own fight of their excellence and perfec- 

 tion. We are certain that Cortes would not have fpoken 

 in that manner to his king of thofe works, which he fent 

 him in order that he might view them, if they had not 

 been fuch as he reprefented. Bernal Diaz, the anony- 

 mous conqueror, Gomara, Hernandez, and Acofta, and 

 all thofe authors who faw them, fpeak of them in the 

 fame manner. 



Dr. Robertfon (7) acknowledges the teftimony of the 

 ancient Spanifli hiflorians, and believes that they had no 

 intention to deceive us ; but he affirms that they were all 

 induced to exaggerate from the illufion of their fenfes 

 produced by the warmth of their imagination. Such a 

 folution might be made ufe of to deny faith to all human 

 hiflorians. All therefore mufl have been deceived, with- 

 out excepting even the celebrated Acofla, or the learn- 

 ed Hernandez, the gold-fmiths of Seville, king Philip II. 

 or Pope Sextus V. who were all admirers, and praifed 

 thofe Mexican labours (ni) ! their imaginations were all 

 heated, even thofe who wrote fome years after the dif- 

 covery of Mexico ! Robertfon the Scotfman, and de 

 Paw the Pruilian, after two centuries and a half have 

 alone that temperance of imagination which is required 



to 



(/) Hiftory of America, book vii. (m) See our Seventh book. 



