16 



HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



countries, where the grcateft population prevailed, en- 

 joy a climate fo mild and benign, they neither feel the 

 rigour of winter, nor the heats of fummer. It is true, 

 in many of thefe countries there is frequently white froft 

 in the three months of December, January, and Febru- 

 ary, and foraetimes even it fnows ; but the fmall in- 

 convenience which fuch cold occafions, continues only 

 till the rifmg fun : no other fire than his rays, is necef- 

 fary to give warmth in winter ; no other relief is want- 

 ed in the feafon of heat, but the fliade ; the fame cloth- 

 ing which covers men in the dog-days, defends them in 

 January ; and the animals deep all the year under the 

 open fky. 



This mildnefs and agreeablenefs of climate under 

 the torrid zone, is the effe£i: of feveral natural caufes, 

 entirely unknown to the ancients, who believed it un- 

 inhabitable ; and not well underflood by fome moderns, 

 ^by whom it is efteemcd unfavourable to thofe who live 

 in it. The purity of the atmofphere, the fmaller obli- 

 quity of the folar rays, and the longer ftay of this lu- 

 minary upon the horizon in winter, in comparifon of 

 other regions farther removed from the equator, concur 

 to lelTen the cold, and to prevent all that horror which 

 disfigures the face of nature in other climes. During 

 that feafon, a ferene (kj and the natural delights of the 

 country, are enjoyed ; whereas under the frigid, and 

 even for the moft part under the temperate zones, the 

 clouds rob man of the profpecl of heaven, and the 

 fnow buries the beautiful productions of the earth. No 

 lefs caufes combine to temper the heat of fummer. 

 The plentiful fliowers which frequently water the earth 

 after mid-day, from April or May to September or Oc- 

 tober j the high mountains continually loaded with 



fnow, 



