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gies we discover among a multitude of fantastic 
and singular forms. 
We might also ask, whether the relief of 
Oaxaca does not date from a period, when, after 
the first arrival of the Spaniards, the Indian 
sculptors were already acquainted with some 
European works of art. In discussing this ques- 
tion we should recollect, that, three or four 
years before Cortez made himself master of the 
country of Anahuac, and before religious mis- 
sionaries hindered the natives from graving any 
other figures than those of saints, Hernandez de 
Cordova, Antonio Alaminos, and Grixalva, had 
visited the Mexican coasts, from the island of 
Cozumel, and False Cape, in the peninsula of 
Yucatan, as far as the mouth of the river of Pa- 
nuco. These conquerors had general commu- 
nications with the inhabitants, whom they found 
well clothed, dwelling in populous towns, and 
more civilized than any other people on the 
New Continent. It is probable, that, in^ these 
military expeditions, crosses, rosaries, and 
images, objects of veneration among the ca- 
tholics, were left with the natives; and it is 
possible also, that some of these images may 
have passed successively from the coast as far 
inland as the mountains of Oaxaca : but can we 
suppose, that the sight of a few figures correctly 
drawn could have determined the natives to 
abandon forms consecrated by the fashion of so 
