( 



346 ! HISTORY OF MEXICO/ 



ufed to do. This art alone, of which Oveido (j), Go- 

 mara, and other authors make mention, would be fuffi- 

 cient to refute the charge of want of induftry among the 

 Americans* 



SECT. VI. 



Of the Languages of the Americans. 



" THE languages of America, fays M. de Paw, are 

 " fo limited, and fo fcarce of words, that it is impoffible 

 " to exprefs any metaphyfical idea in them. In no one 

 " of thofe languages can they count above the number 

 " three (J It is impoflible to tranflate a book either 

 <c into the languages of the Algonquines, or Paraguefe, 

 " or even into thofe of Mexico or Peru, on account of 

 " their not having fufficient plenty of proper terms to 

 " exprefs general ideas. 99 Whoever reads thofe dog- 

 matical decifions of M. de Paw, will be perfuaded, un- 

 doubtedly, that he determines after having travelled 

 through all America, after having had commerce with 

 all thofe nations, and after having examined all their 

 languages. But it is not fo. M. de Paw, without mov- 

 ing from his clofet at Berlin, knows the things of Ame- 

 rica better than the Americans themfelves, and in the 

 knowledge of their different languages even excels thofe 



who 



(j) Ovleda Stor. Gener. e Nat. lib. xiii. cap. 10. Sommarlo della Stor. 

 &c. cap. 8. Gomara Storia Gener. cap. 20. The fpecies of fifh which the 

 Indians trained to chafe large fifh, as they train hawks in Europe, to chafe 

 other birds was rather fmall, called by them Guaican, and by the Spaniards 

 Reverfo. Oviedo explains the manner in which they made ufe of the fifh to 

 chafe others. 



(/) In the fame feclion i. of the 5th part of the Recherches Philofophiques, 

 in which he affirms, that no language 1 of America had terms to count more 

 than three, he fays the Mexicans could count as high as tea. 



