M E X 
Know of your youth, examine well your blood, 
Can you endure the livery of a nun ; 
For aye to be in fhady clobber mew'd. 
To live a barren filter all your life, 
Chaunting faint hymns to the cold fruitlefs moon ? 
ShakeJ'peare. 
To Ihed the feathers.—It is, I believe, ufed in this lenfe, 
becaufe birds are, by dole confinement, brought to lhed 
their feathers. Johij'on. —It is rather, I Ihould f'uppole, 
from the original meaning of inner, to change, from the 
Latin mvtare; thence to change or call the lkin or fea¬ 
thers. Todd. 
Nine times the moon had mew'd her horns ; at length, 
With travel weary, unfupply’d with ftrength, 
And with the burden of her womb opprelt, 
Sabean fields afford her needful reft. Dnjden. 
[Miauler, Fr.] To cry as a cat.—They are not improve- 
able beyond their own genius ; a dog will never learn'to 
mtw, nor a cat to bark. Grew. 
Let Hercules himfelf do what he may, 
The cat will mew, the dog will have his day. Shahrfpeare. 
To MEW, v. n. [inner, Fr.] To change ; to put on a 
new appearance : 
The foules about the field do fyng ; now every thing doth 
mewe, 
And fliifts his ruftic winter robe. Turbervile, Ed. 
MEW I'SLAND, a fmall illand in the Eaftern Indian 
Sea, near the weft coaft of Java : three miles north-eaft of 
Java Head. 
MEW FSLANDS, a duller of fmall iflands on the coaft 
of Honduras, fouth of Cape Camaron. 
MEW' STONE, a fmall illand, or round elevated rock, 
in the louthern Indian Ocean, near the coaft of Van Die¬ 
men’s Land. Lat. 43. 46. S. Ion. 146. 24. E. 
MEW' STONE, a large rock in the Englilh Channel, 
on the fouth coaft of Devonfhire, eaft of the entrance into 
Plymouth Sound : four miles eaft from Rame Head, and 
four fouth of Plymouth. Lat. 50. t8 . N. Ion. 3. 59. W. 
MEW'AT, a country of Hindooftan, fituated to the 
weft of the river Jumnah, fouth of Delhi, and north-weft 
of Agra. The inhabitants of this country have ever been 
diftinguilhed as moll lavage and brutal, and their chief 
employment robbery and plunder. 
MEW'ING, f. The cry of a cat. The a£t ofinclofing 
in a cage. The a< 5 t of a hawk’s calling its feathers. The 
change of feathers, hair, lkin, horns, See. in other animals, 
is called Moulting, which fee.—I Ihould difeourfe of 
hawks, then treat of their ayries, mewings, calling and 
renovation of their feathers. Walton. 
To MEWL, v. 11. [iniauler, Fr.] To fquall as a child . 
The infant 
Mewling and puking in the nurfe’s arms. Shakefpeare. 
MEW'LER, f. One who fqualls or mewls. Cotgrave. 
MEXA'O de St.' LAN', an illand of Portugal, in the 
Tagus : twelve miles above Lilbon. 
MEX'BOROUGH, a village in Yorklhire, to the north 
of Rotherham, and near the coal-pits : 165 miles from 
London. This fmall place give the title of Earl to the 
noble family of Saville; vie fuppofe it to have been more 
confiderable formerly. 
MEX'IA (Pedro), chronicler to Charles V. is one of 
the few Spanilh writers whofe works have found their 
way into Englilh. His Hiftory of the Casfars, which in¬ 
cludes the German emperors, is one of the many tranfla- 
tions of Edward Grimellon, a man not inferior to Phile¬ 
mon Holland in ufeful and honourable induftry ; and his 
Silva devaria Lcccion, with the additions of its Italian and 
French tranflators Sanfovino, Verdier, &c. is that “ trea- 
fury of ancient and modern times,” which is fometimes 
referred to by Grofe, and of which the two parts, having 
M E X 2 7.5 
been feparately publilhed, are not often to be found to¬ 
gether. Befides thefe works, Mexia wrote certain Col¬ 
loquies (Seville, 1547) to the praife of the Afs, in imi¬ 
tation of Lucian and Apuleius, which is printed at the 
end of this laid \york ; and a Hiftory of Charles V. which 
he left unfinilhed, and which has never been edited. He 
Was born at Seville, of a good family, and died in or about 
the year 1552. His learning was confiderable; but he is 
a credulous writer, and valued himfelf greatly upon his 
aftrological ikill. Gen. Biog. 
MEX'ICAN, adj. Belonging to or brought from 
Mexico. 
MEX'ICAN, f. An inhabitant or native of Mexico. 
MEXICA'NO, or Adaes, a river of Louifiana, which, 
after purluing a fouth-eall courfe, difeharges itfelf into 
the Gulf of Mexico at Cabo du Nord, weft-by-foutli of 
Afcenfion-bay, and eaft-by-north of Trinity-river. On 
its banks are rich filver-mines. 
MEXICA'NO, Adaes, or Adaesses, a Spanilh fettle- 
ment in New Mexico, not far from the borders of Loui¬ 
fiana, containing about fixty mean houles. Lat. 32. 3. N. 
Ion. 93. 45. W. 
MEX'ICO, one of the five territories, or domains, into 
which the Spanilh dominions in North America are di¬ 
vided, fometimes called New Spain ; which is bounded 
on the north-weft by New Mexico, on the eaft by the Gulf 
of Mexico, on the fouth-eaft by the ifthmus of Darien, 
and on the fouth and weft by the Pacific Ocean. And 
though Mexico, called Old Mexico by way of diftinflion 
from New Mexico, is only a province or kingdom of New 
Spain, applied in its utmoft extent, it is not reftri&ed to 
the ancient kingdom, which extended from near the lake 
of Chapala in the north, to Chiapa on the river Tabafco 
in the fouth, but includes many extenfive provinces to the 
north. 
The limits of the ancient Mexican empire have been 
much controverted. The name of Anahuac, fignifying 
“ near the water,” originally given to the Vale of Mexico 
only, from the circumftance of its principal cities being 
fituated on fmall iflands, and on the borders of two lakes, 
was afterwards uled to denominate the whole territory 
now known under the appellation of New Spain. This 
extenfive country was then divided into the kingdoms of 
Mexico, Acolhuacan, Tlacopan, and Michuacan 5 and 
the republics of Tlaxcallan or Tlafcala, Cholollan, and 
Huexotzinco, and feveral other diftin6t dates. The king¬ 
dom of Mexico, although the moll modern, was much 
more extenfive than all the other kingdoms and republics 
above-mentioned taken collectively. It extended to¬ 
wards the fouth-weft and fouth, as far as the Pacific 
Ocean ; towards the fouth-eaft as. far as the vicinity of 
Quauhtemallan j towards the eaft, exclufive of the dif- 
tridls of the republics, and a fmall part of the kingdom 
of Acolhuacan, as far as the Gulf of Mexico ; towards 
the north, to the country of the Huaxtecas ; towards the 
north-weft it bordered on the barbarous Chichemicas ; and 
the dominions of Tlacopan, on the weftern border of the 
lake of Tezeuco, and Michuacan, the moll wefterly king¬ 
dom of all, were its boundaries towards the weft. The 
whole of the Mexican kingdom, fays Clavigero, was com¬ 
prehended between the 14th and 21ft degrees of N. lat. 
and between 91 and 103 degrees W. Ion. being near 2000 
miles in length, and in fome places 600 miles 111 breadth. 
The Toltecas are the moll ancient Mexican nation of 
which we know any thing. They were expelled, as we 
are told, from their own country, (fuppofed by Clavigero 
to have been Tollan, to the northward of Mexico,) in the 
year 472 ; and for fome time led a wandering life. In 
whatever place they determined to reiide for any confi¬ 
derable time, they ere&ed houfes and cultivated the 
ground. Thus their migrations were extremely flow ; and 
it was not till 104 years after they fet out that they reached 
a place about fifty miles to the eallward of the city of 
Mexico, where they fettled for twenty years, giving to 
