INTRODUCTION. 
XVII 
necessary to Europe in the present state of civilization. In 
tracing the geological description of the richest mining dis- 
tricts in Mexico, I have, in short, given a statement of the 
mineral produce, the population, the imports and exports of 
the whole of Spanish America. I have examined several ques- 
tions which, for want of precise data, had not hitherto been 
treated with the attention they demand, such as the influx and 
reflux of metals, their progressive accumulation in Europe and 
Asia, and the quantity of gold and silver which, since the disco- 
very of America down to our own times, the Old World has re- 
ceived from the New. The geographical introduction at the be- 
ginning of this work contains the analysis of the materials which 
have been employed in the construction of the Mexican Atlas. 
VII. View* of the Cordilleras , and monuments of the indigenous 
nations of the New Continent.* This work is intended to represent 
a few of the grand scenes which nature presents in the lofty chain 
of the Andes, and at the same time to throw some light oh the 
ancient civilization of the Americans, through the study of their 
monuments of architecture, their hieroglyphics, their" religious 
rites, and their astrological reveries. I have given in this work 
a description of the teocaRi, or Mexican pyramids, and have com- 
pared their structure with that of the temple of Belus. I have 
described the arabesques which cover the ruins of Mitla, the idols 
m basalt ornamented with the calantica of the heads of Isis ; and 
also a considerable number of symbolical paintings, representing 
the serpent-woman (tiie Mexican Eve), the deluge of Coxcox, 
and the first migrations of the natives of the Aztec race. I have 
endeavoured to prove the striking analogies existing between 
the calendar of the Toltecs and the catasterisms of their zodiac 
and the division of time of the people of Tartary and Thibet as 
well as the Mexican traditions on the four regenerations of the 
globe, the pralayas of the Hindoos, and the four ages of Hesiod 
in this work I have also included (in addition to the hieroglv- 
plucal paintings I brought to Europe), fragments of ail the Aztec 
manuscripts collected in Rome, Veletri, Vienna, and Dresden, 
ef ' thTnv which reminds us, by its lineary symbols, of the kouas 
of the Chinese. Together with the rude monuments of the abo- 
rigines of America, this volume contains picturesque views of 
tlie mountainous countries which those people inhabited; for 
example, the cataract of Tequendama, Chimborazo, the volcano 
of Jorullo, an d Cayambe, the pyramidal summit of which, covered 
with eternal ice, is situated directly under the equinoctial line. 
n ever y zone the configuration of the ground, the physiognomy 
Atlas Pittoresque, ou Vues des Cordilleres, 1 vol. folio, with 69 
plates, part of which are coloured, accompanied by explanatory treatises, 
-llus work may be considered as the Atlas to the historical narrative of 
the travels. 
