HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



225 



does not appear to have been employed in the province 

 of Anahuac, if not in the moft early ages; for no traces 

 of fuch monuments are now to be found. Bocurini 

 fays, that after the moil diligent fearch, he, with diffi- 

 culty, found one in a place of Tlafcala, the threads of 

 which were already wafted and confumed by time. If 

 thofe who peopled South America ever paffed the coun- 

 try of Anahuac, they poflibly might have left there this 

 art, which was afterwards abandoned for that of paint- 

 ing, introduced by the Toltecas, or fome other nation 

 ftill more ancient. 



After the Spaniards communicated the ufe of letters 

 to them, feveral able natives of Mexico, Tezcuco, and 

 Tlafcala, wrote their hiftories partly in Spanifti and part- 

 ly in an elegant Mexican ftyle, which hiftories are ftill 

 preferved in fome libraries of Mexico, as we have al- 

 ready mentioned. 



The Mexicans were more fuccefsful in fculpture, in 

 the art of cafting metals and mofaic works, than ia 

 painting. They exprelTed the images of their heroes, 

 and of the works of nature, in ftone, wood, gold, filver, 

 and feathers, better than on paper; either becaufe the 

 greater difficulty of thofe labours ftimulated greater di- 

 ligence and exertions, or becaufe the high efteem in 

 which they were held among that people, excited genius 

 and encouraged induftry. 



Sculpture was one of the arts exercifed by the an- 

 cient Toltecas. Until the time of the conqueft feveral 

 ftatues of ftone were preferved which had been cut by 

 the artifts of that nation; in particular the idol of Tla- 

 loc, placed upon the mountain of the fame name, which 

 was fo much revered and worfliipped by the Cheche- 

 mecas and Acolhuas, and the gigantic ftatues erected in 

 the celebrated temples of Teotihuacan. The Mexicans 

 Vol. II. Ff had 



