143 
judges except through an interpreter^ considered 
the employment of hieroglyphics as doubly ne- 
cessary. They were presented before tlie several 
courts of justice in New-Spain (the Real Audi- 
encia^ the Sala del Crimen^ and the Juzgado de 
Indios) as late as the beginning of the seven- 
teenth century. When the Emperor Charles V. 
with a view to encourage the culture of the arts 
and sciences in these distant regions^ founded^ 
in 1553, the University of Mexico^ three profes- 
sorships were established ; one for teaching the 
Aztech language^ another for the Otomite, and 
a third for the explanation of hieroglyphical 
paintings. It was for a long time deemed indis- 
pensable to have attorneys^ pleaders, and judges, 
who were able to read the titles, the genealogical 
paintings, the ancient code of the laws, and the 
list of taxes {trihufos) which each feudatory was 
obliged to pay his lord. Two professors of the 
Indian language still exist at Mexico ; but the 
chair destined for the study of the Aztech anti- 
quities has been suppressed. The use of paint- 
ings is entirely lost; not because the hnowledge 
of the Spanish language has increased among 
the natives, but because, from the present orga- 
nization of the tribunals, it is found more useful 
to apply to lawyers to plead the cause of the peo- 
ple before the judges. 
The painting represented on the twelfth plate 
seems to indicate a law-suit between some natives 
