HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



147 



any excufe for being corrupted, they were, agreeably to 

 the ufage in the kingdom of Mexico, affigned polfeffions 

 and labourers, who cultivated their fields. Thofe pof- 

 feffions, as they belonged to the office, not to the officer, 

 did not pafs to his heirs but to his fuccefifors in that ap- 

 pointment. In caufes of importance they duril not pro- 

 nounce fentence, at leafi: not in the capital, without giv- 

 ing information to the king. Every Mexican month, or 

 every twenty days, an aiTembly of all the judges was 

 held before the king, in order to determine all caufes 

 then undecided. If from their being much perplexed and 

 intricate, they were not finiflied at that time, they were 

 referved for another general aiTembly of a more folemn 

 nature, which was held every eighty days, and was there- 

 fore called Nappapfallatolli, that is, the Conference of 

 Eighty, at which all caufes were finally decided, and in 

 the prefence of that whole aiTembly, punifhment was in- 

 flicted on the guilty. The king pronounced fentence by 

 drawing a line with the point of an arrow upon the head 

 of the guilty perfon, which was painted on the procefs. 



In the tribunals of the Mexicans the contending par- 

 ties made their own allegations : at lead we do not know 

 that they employed any other advocates. In criminal 

 caufes the accufer was not allowed any other proof than 

 that of his witneiTes ; but an accufed perfon could clear 

 himfelf from guilt by his oath. In difputes about the 

 boundaries of poffeffions, the paintings of the land were 

 confulted as authentic writings. 



All the magiftrates were obliged to give judgment ac- 

 cording to the laws of the kingdom which were repre- 

 fented by paintings. Of thefe we have feen many, and 

 have extracted from them a part of that which we fliall 

 lay before our readers on the fubjec"h The power of 



making 



