166 



HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



The pikes of the Mexicans, inflead of iron, were 

 pointed with a large flint, but fome of them alfo with 

 copper. The Chinantecas, and fome people of Chiapan, 

 made life of pikes fo monftrous, that they exceeded three 

 perches, or eighteen feet in length, and the conqueror 

 Cortes employed them againft the cavalry of his rival 

 Pan ill o Navaez. 



The Tlacochtli^ or Mexican dart, was a fmall lance of 

 otatU^ or fome other ftrong wood, the point of which 

 was hardened by fire, or fliod with copper, or iimtti, or 

 bone, and many of them had three points, in order to 

 make a triple wound at every ftroke. 



They fixed a firing to their darts (g), in order to pull 

 them back again, after they had launched them at the 

 enemy. This was the weapon which was the moft dread- 

 ed by the Spanifll conquerors ; for they were fo expert 

 at throwing them, that they pierced the body of an 

 enemy through and through. The foldiers were armed 

 in general with a fword, a bow and arrows, a dart, and 

 a fling. We do not know, whether in war, they ever 

 made ufe of their axes, of which we fhall ihortly fpeak. 



They had alfo ftandards and mufical inftruments pro- 

 per for war. Their ftandards, which were more like 

 the Signum of the Romans than our colours, were ftaves 

 from eight to ten feet long, on which they carried the 

 arms or enfigns of the ftate, made of gold, or feathers, 

 or fome other valuable materials. The armorial enfign 

 of the Mexican empire, was an eagle in the aft oF dart- 

 ing upon a tyger ; that of the republic of Tlafcala, an 



eagle 



(g) The Mexican dart was of that kind of darts which the Romans ufed to 

 call HafrJk, Jaculum, or Telum amentatu?n y and the Spanifll name Amento or 

 Ame'tnto, which the hiftorians of Mexico have adopted, means the fame thing as 

 the Amentum of the Romans. 



