HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



397 



torians refpe&ing what they faid of the excellence of the 

 Mexican labours of caft metal. Treating of the wonder 

 which the fight of the cities of Mexico caufed to the 

 Spaniards in his feventh book, he fays, " In the firft fer- 

 <c vour of their imagination they compared Chempoalla, 

 " though a town only of the fecond or third fize, to the 

 " cities of greateft note in their own country. When 

 <c afterwards they vifited in fucceflion Tlafcala, Cholula, 

 <c Tacuba, Tefcuco, and Mexico itfelf, their amazement 

 " was fo great that it led them to convey ideas of their 

 <c magnitude and populoufnefs bordering on what is in- 

 ** credible . . . For this reafon fome confiderable abate- 

 " ment ought to be made from their calculation of the 

 " number of inhabitants in the Mexican cities ; and we 

 " may fix the ftandard of their population much lower 

 " than they have done." 



Thus Robertfon commands, but we are not difpofed to 

 obey him. If the Spaniards had written their hiftories, 

 letters, or relations in the first fervour of their admiration, 

 we might then juftly fufpeel that ftupefa&ion had led 

 them to exaggerate ; but it was not fo ; for Cortes, the 

 mod ancient of thofe writers, did not write his firft letter 

 to Charles V. till a year and an half after his arrival in 

 that country ; the anonymous conqueror wrote fome 

 years after the conquefl ; B. Diaz, after forty years con- 

 tinual refidence in thofe countries, and the others in like 

 manner. Is it poffible that this fervour of their admira- 

 tion fhould endure for one, twenty, and even forty years 

 afterwards ? But whence arofe fuch wonder in them ? 

 Let us hear it from Dr. Robertfon himfelf. cc The 

 " Spaniards, accuftomed to this mode of habitation 

 46 among all the Indians with which they were then ac- 

 " quainted, were aftonifhed, on entering New Spain, to 

 " find the natives refiding in towns of fuch extent as 



" refembled 



