ways. b) The appointment of a number of perfons to clean the streets, to light them by fires kindled in different places, and to patrole as watchmen during the night, c) difcovers a degree of attention which even polished nations are late in acquiring.

Their arts,

The progrefs of the Mexicans in various arts, is confidered as the moft decifive proof of their fuperior refinement. Cortes, and the early Spanish authors, defcribe this with rapture, and maintain, that the moft celebrated European artists could not furpafs or even equal them in ingenuity and neatnefs of workmanfhip. They reprefented men, animals, and other objects, by fuch a difpofition of various coloured feathers, as is faid to have produced all the effects of light and fhade, and to have imitated nature with truth and delicacy. Their ornaments of gold and filver have been defcribed to be of a fabrick no lefs curious. But in forming any idea, from general defcriptions, concerning the ftate of arts among nations imperfectly polifhed, we are extremely ready to In examining the works of people whofe advances in improvement are nearly the fame

err.

b) See NOTE XXIV.

c) Herrera, dec. 2. lib. viii. c, 4. Torribio, MS.

with our own, we view them with a critical, and often with a jealous eye. Whereas, when conscious of our own fuperiority, we furvey the arts of nations comparatively rude, we are aftonifhed at works executed by them under fuch manifeft difadvantages, and, in the warmth of our admiration, are apt to reprefent them as productions more finished than they really are. To the influence of this illu- . fion, without fuppofing any intention to deceive, we may impute the exaggeration of fome Spanish authors, in their accounts of the Mexican arts.

It is not from thofe defcriptions, but from confidering fuch fpecimens of their arts as are ftill preserved, that we must decide concerning their degree of merit. As the fhip in which cortes fent to Charles V. the most curious productions of the Mexican artifans, which were collected by the Spaniards when they first pillaged the empire, was taken by a French corfair, d) the remains of their ingenuity are lefs numerous than those of the Peruvians. Whether any of their works with feathers, in imitation of painting, be ftill extant in Spain, I have not learned; but many of their ornaments in gold and filver, as well as various utenfils

M 2

d) Relat. de Cort, Ramuf. iii. 294. F.

employed in common life, are depofited in the magnificent cabinet of natural and artificial productions, lately opened by the king of Spain; and I am informed by perfons on whofe judgment and tafte I can rely, that thefe boafted efforts of their art are uncouth representations of common objects, or very coarfe images of the human and fome other forms, deftitute of grace and propriety. e) The juftnefs of these obfervations is confirmed by inspecting the wooden prints or copperplates of their paintings, which have been - published by various authors. In them every figure of men, of quadrupeds, or birds, well as every reprefentation of inanimated nature, is extremely rude and aukward. The hardeft Egyptian fiyle, ftiff and imperfect as it was, is more elegant. The fcrawls of children delineate objects almoft as accurately.

as

But however low the Mexican paintings may be ranked, when viewed merely as works of art, a very different station belongs to them when confidered as the records of their country, as hiftorical monuments of its policy and tranfactions; and they become curious as well as interefting objects of attention. The nobleft and most beneficial invention of which human ingenuity can boaft, is that of writing. But the firft eflays of this art, which hath contributed more than all

e) See NOTE XXV.

others to the improvement of the fpecies, were very rude, and it advanced towards perfection flowly, and by a gradual progreffion. When the warrior, eager for fame wifhed to transmit fome knowledge of his exploits to fucceeding ages; when the gratitude of a people to their fovereign prompted them to hand down an account of his beneficent deeds to posterity, the first method of accomplishing this, that seems to have occurred to them, was to delineate, in the best manner they could, figures reprefenting the action of which they were folicitous to preserve the memory. Of this, which has very properly been called picture-writing, f) we find traces among fome of the most favage tribes of America. When a leader returns from the field, he ftrips a tree of its bark, and with red paint fcratches upon it fome uncouth figures, which reprefent the order of his march the number of his followers, the enemy whom he attacked, the fcalps and captives which he brought home. To thofe fimple annals he trufts for renown, and foothes himfelf with hope that by their means he fhall receive praise from the warriors of future times. g)

Compared with thofe aukward effays of their favage countrymen, the paintings of the

f) Divine Legat. of Mofes, iii. 73.

g) Sir W. Johnson, Philof. Tranfa&. vol. lxiii. p. 143. Mem, de la Hontan, ii, 191, Lafitau, Mœurs de Sauv. ii, 43.

Mexicans may be confidered as works of compofition and defign. They were not acquainted, it is true, with any other method of recording transactions, than that of delineating the objects which they wifhed to reprefent. But they could exhibit a more complex feries of events in progreffive order, and defcribe, by a proper difpofition of figures, the occurrences of a king's reign from his acceffion to his death; the progrefs of an infant's education from its birth until it attained to the years of maturity; the different recompences and marks of diftinction conferred upon warriors, in proportion to the exploits which they had performed. Some fingular fpecimens of this picture-writing have been preferved, which are juftly confidered as the moft curious monuments of art brought from the New World. The most valuable of thefe was published by Purchas in fixty-fix plates. It is divided into three parts. The firft contains the hiftory of the Mexican empire under its ten monarchs. The fecond is a tribute-roll reprefenting what each conquered town paid into the royal treafury. The third is a code of their inftitutions, domeftick, political, and military. Another fpecimen of Mexican painting has been published in thirty-two plates, by the prefent archbishop of Toledo. To both are annexed a full explanation of what the figures were intended. to reprefent, which was obtained by the Spa