HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



387 



ing that it was very great. Herrera fays it was twice as 

 large as Milan. Cortes affirms that it was as large as 

 Seville and Cordova ; Surius citing certain records 

 which were in the royal archives of Charles V. fays, 

 that the population of Mexico amounted to an hundred 

 and thirty thpufand houfes. Torquemada, following 

 Sahagun and other Indian hiflorians, reckons an hun- 

 dred and twenty thoufand houfes ; and adds, that in 

 each houfe were from four to ten inhabitants. The 

 anonymous conqueror fpeaks thus of it : " this city of 

 " Temiftitan may be about two leagues and a half or 

 M near three leagues, more or lefs, in circumference ; the 

 " greater part of thofe who have feen it judge that there 

 " are upwards of fixty thoufand fires in it, and rather 

 u more than lefs." This calculation, adopted by Go- 

 mara and Herrera, appears to us to come neareft the 

 truth, conlidering the extent of the city, and the manner 

 of dwelling of thofe people. 



But the whole of this is contradicted by M. de Paw. 

 He calls the defcription exceffive and exaggerated, which 

 is given of this city of America ; " which contained, ac- 

 " cording to fome authors, feventy thoufand houfes in 

 " the time of Montezuma II. fo that at that time it mufl 

 " have had three hundred and fifty thoufand inhabi- 

 " tants ; whereas it is notorious, that the city of Mexi- 

 " co, conilderably increafed under the dominion of the 

 " Spaniards, has not at prefent above fixty thoufand in- 

 " habitants, including twenty thoufand negroes and mu- 

 <c lattoes." This is another palfage of the Recherches 

 Philofophiques which will make the Mexicans fmile. But 

 who can avoid fmiling when they fee a Pruffian philofo- 

 pher, fo bent on diminifhing the populoufnefs of that 

 American city, and angry at thofe who reprefent it great- 

 er 



