HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



103 



rifies, and acute fevers ; and in the capital, the diarrhoea. 

 Befides thefe more frequent difeafes, certain epidemical 

 diforders arife at times, which feem in feme degree peri- 

 odical, although not with much exadlnefs or regularity, 

 fuch as thofe which appeared in 1546, 1576, 1736, 

 and 1762. The fmall-pox brought thither by the Spa- 

 nifli conquerors, is not feen fo frequently in that country 

 as in Europe ; but generally appears after an interval 

 of a certain number of years, and then attacking all 

 thofe who had not been afFefled by it before, it makes 

 as much havoc at one time as it does fuccelEvely in 

 Europe. 



The nations which polTelTed thofe countries before the 

 Spaniards, although diifering in language, and partly 

 alfo in manners, were yet nearly of the fame charadler. 

 The moral and phyfical qualities of the Mexicans, their 

 tempers and difpofitions were the fame with thofe of the 

 Acolhuicans, the Tepanceans, the Tlafcallans, and other 

 nations, with no other difference than what arofe from 

 their diiferent mode of education ; fo that what we fliali 

 fay of the one, we fliould wifli to be underllood as 

 equally applicable to the reft. Several authors, ancient 

 as well as modern, have undertaken a defcription of thefe 

 people, but I have not met with any one which is, in 

 every refpe^t, faithful and correal. The pailions and 

 prejudices of fome, and the imperfect information, or the 

 weak underftandings of others, have prevented their re- 

 prefenting them in their genuine colours. What we 

 fliall fay upon the fubjedi:, is derived from a ferious and 

 long fludy of the hiflory of thefe nations, from a famili- 

 ar intercourfe for many years with the natives, and from 

 the mofl minute obfervations with refpe£l to their pre- 

 fent ftate, made both by ourfelves and by other impar- 

 tial 



