184 
from the foundation of Tenochtitlan, in the 
year 1325 of our era^ to the death of Montezum^a 
the Second, properly called Monte nczoma Xo- 
cojotzin, in 1520 ; the second section is a list 
of the tributes, which each province and little 
town paid the Azteck sovereigns ; the third and 
last section contains sketches of the domestic 
life and manners of the Azteck people. The 
viceroy Mendoza has added to each page of 
the collection an explanation in Mexican and 
Spanish, so that the whole forms a work very 
interesting to the historian. The figures, not- 
withstanding the incorrectness of the outlines, 
present several very singular sketches of man- 
ners. We see in them the education of chil- 
dren from their infancy, till they become mem- 
bers of society, either as husbandmen, manu- 
facturers, warriors, or priests. The quantity of 
food suitable to every age, the punishment that 
ought to be inflicted on children of both sexes ; 
every thing among the Mexicans was prescribed 
in the most minute detail, not by law, but by 
ancient customs, from which no deviation was 
permitted. Fettered by the yoke of arbitrary 
power, and the barbarism of civil institutions, 
without freedom of will in the most indifferent 
actions of domestic life, the whole nation was 
reared in a languid uniformity of customs and 
of superstitions. The same causes have pro- 
duced similar efferts in ancient Egypt, in India, 
