218 



HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



<c their antiquity ; things all highly curious and minutely 

 " defcribed which, as the fame author fays, were loft 

 by the indifcreet zeal of an ecclefiaftic, who, imagining 

 them to be full of fuperftitious meanings, burned them, 

 to the great grief of the Indians, and the utmoft regret 

 of the curious amongfl: the Spaniards. Other paintings 

 were topographical, or chorographical, which ferved not 

 only to fhew the extent and boundaries of poffeflions, 

 but likewife the fituation of places, the direction of the 

 coafts, and the courfe of rivers. Cortes fays, in his firft 

 letter to Charles V. that having made enquiries to know 

 if there was any fecure harbour for velTels in the Mexi- 

 can gulf, Montezuma prefented him a painting of the 

 whole coaft, from the port of Chalchiuhcuecan^ where at 

 prefent Vera Cruz lies, to the river Coatzacualco. Ber- 

 nal Diaz relates, that Cortes alio, in a long and difficult 

 voyage which he made to the Bay of Honduras, made 

 ufe of a chart which was prefented to him by the lords of 

 Coatzacualco, in which all the places and rivers were 

 marked from the coafl of Coatzacualco to Huejacallan. 



The Mexican empire abounded with all thofe kinds of 

 paintings ; for their painters were innumerable, and there 

 was hardly any thing left unpainted. If thofe had been 

 preferved, there would have been nothing wanting to the 

 hiftory of Mexico ; but the firft preachers of the gofpel, 

 fufpicious that fuperflition was mixed with all their paint- 

 ings, made a furious deftru&ion of them. Of all thofe 

 which were to be found in Tezcuco, where the chief 

 fchool of painting was, they collected fuch a mafs, in the 

 fquare of the market, it appeared like a little mountain ; 

 to this they fet fire and buried in the allies the memory 

 of many mod interefting and curious events. The lofs 

 Qf thofe monuments of antiquity was inexprellibly afflict- 

 ing 



