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DISSERTATION VII. 



Of the Boundaries and Population of the Kingdoms of 



Anahuac. 



THE miftakes of many Spanifti authors concerning 

 the boundaries of the Mexican empire, and the 

 romantic notions of M. de Paw, and other foreign au- 

 thors, refpe&ing the population of thofe countries, have 

 compelled us to engage in this Difiertation to afcertain 

 the truth ; which we {hall do as briefly as poflible. 



SECT. I. 



Of the Boundaries of the. Kingdoms of Anahuac. 



SOLIS, following feveral ill-informed Spanifli au- 

 thors, affirms that the Mexican empire extended from 

 the ifthmus of Panama to the cape of Mendocina in Ca- 

 lifornia ; Touron, a French Dominican, defirous, in his 

 General Hiftory of America, of enlarging thofe bounda- 

 ries, fays, that all the difcovered countries in North 

 America, were fubject to the king of Mexico \ that 

 the extent of that empire, from eaft to weft, was 500 

 leagues, and from north to fouth 200, or 250 leagues : 

 that its boundaries were on the north, the Atlantic 

 ocean ; in the weft, the gulf of Anian ; in the fouth, 

 the Pacific Ocean ; and in the eaft, the ifthmus of 

 Panama; but befides the geographical errors of this 

 defcription, there is alfo a contradiction in it ; be- 

 caufe, if it ever were true, that that empire extended 

 from the ifthmus of Panama to the gulf or ftrait of Anian, 

 the extent of it would not be only 500, but 1000 



leagues, 



