APPENDIX. 



375 



Paw, from a jufl: though imperfect idea of the culture of 

 " the Mexicans, difcourfes in general very intelligently of 

 their cuftoms, their arts, and, above all, their aftrono- 

 mical knowledge, explains their calendar and their 

 cycles, and in thefe points compares them with the anci- 

 ent Egyptians, as was done in the laft century by the 

 learned Mexican, Siguenza, to prove their conformity 

 and the antiquity of the population of America. In the 

 perufal of thefe letters, I have had the pleafure of feeing 

 fome of my own fentiments fupported and explained ; 

 although the author has committed many miftakes, and 

 Ihewn more acrimony againft the Spanifli nation than is 

 confident with candor and impartiality. The alteration 

 of the Mexican names in his work, is a trefpafs upon all 

 the rules of literary propriety and accuracy with refpecl 

 to etymology. 



In the ninth letter of the fecond part, where he fpcaks 

 of the Mexican year, he cites Gemelli, and accufes him, 

 though falfely, of an error. Gemelli fays, that the Mexi- 

 can year at the commencement of their century, began 

 upon the loth of April ; but that every four years it an- 

 ticipated one day on account of our bilTextile ; fo that at 

 the end of four years it began upon the 9th of that 

 month ; at the end of eight years it began upon the 8th, 

 and fo it went on anticipating every four years, one day, 

 unto the end of the Mexican century, where by the in- 

 terpofition of the thirteen intercalary days, omitted in 

 the progrefs of the century, the year returned to begin 

 upon the 10th of April. This, adds the author of the 

 Letters, is a contradiction of fa£]:, as the year at the end 

 of the four years Ihould h ive begun upon the i ith, and 

 not the ninth, and thus every four years it ought to have 

 increafed a day j and in fuch cafe, the corre<Si:ion of thir- 

 teen 



