HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



Ill 



guous authenticity j and having recourfe in their difficul- 

 ties, to puerile and romantic narrations, have utterly 

 loft themfelves in the thick darknefs of antiquity. 



There have been writers, who, building upon the tra- 

 dition of the natives, and upon the difcovery of bones, 

 fculls, and entire Ikeletons of prodigious fize, which have 

 been dug up, at different times, in many parts of New- 

 Spain C^), have imagined that the firfl inhabitants of that 

 country were Giants. I, for my own part, have no 

 doubt of their exigence there, as well as in other parts 

 of the New World (^b) ; but we can neither form any 

 conjefture as to the time in which they lived, although 

 we have rcafon to believe they muft be very ancient ; 

 nor can we be perfuadcd that there has ever been, as 

 thofe writers imagined, a whole nation of Giants, but 



only 



(a) The places where gigantic fkeletons have been found, are Atlancafepec^ a 

 Village in the province of Tlafcala, Tezcuco^ Toluca^ ^auhxhnalpan ; and in our 

 days, upon a hill in California, not far from Kada-Kaaman. 



{b) I am well aware that many European philofophers, who laugh at the be- 

 lief of giants, will be ready to ridicule me, or at leaft to pity my credulity ; but 

 I will not betray the truth to avoid cenfure. I know that among the civilized 

 nations of America, it was a current tradition, that a race of men had exifted, 

 in former times, of extraordinary height and bulk ; but I cannot remember an 

 inftance among any American nation, of there having ever been any elephants, 

 hippopotamufes, or other quadrupeds of uncommon fize. I know from the tel?- 

 timony of innumerable writers, and particularly of two eye-witnelTes, of un- 

 queftionable credit, Hernandez and D'Acofta, who were men of learning, cor- 

 re<Stnefs, and veracity, that human Ikullshave been found, and even whole Ikele- 

 tons of aftonilhing fize ; but I do not know, that in any of the vaft number of 

 openings which have been made in the earth in New Spain, any Ikeleton of a 

 hippopotamus has been found, or even a fingle tooth of an elephant. I know, 

 laflily, that fome of the great bones above mentioned, have been found in tombs, 

 which appear evidently to have been made on purpofe ; but I am yet to learn of 

 tombs ever having been conftrudled for fea-horfes and elephants. All this and 

 more ought to be weighed, before we prefume to determine with fome authors 

 who have alTerted it, without the leafl: hefitation, that all the large bones difco- 

 vered in America, belonged to thofe, or fome other fuch great animals. 



