fers were firft communicated to Carvajal,, By our Lady (faid he, in that strain of buffoonery which was familiar to him) the priest iffues gracious bulls. He gives them both good and cheap, let us not only accept them, but wear them as reliques about our necks. "Fernandez, lib. ii. c. 63.

NOTE XIX. p. 146.

During the rebellion of Gonzalo Pizarro, feven hundred men were killed in battle, and three hundred and eighty were hanged or beheaded. Herrera, dec. 8. lib. iv. c. 4. Above three hundred of these were cut off by Carvajal. Fernandez, lib. ii. c. 91. Zarate makes the number of thofe put to violent death five hundred. Lib. vii. c. I.

NOTE XX. p. 155.

In my inquiries concerning the manners and policy of the Mexicans, I have received much information from a large manufcript of Don Alonfo de Corita, one of the judges in the Court of Audience of Mexico. In the year 1553, Philip II. in order that he might discover the mode of levying tribute from his Indian fubjects, that would be moft beneficial to the crown, and leaft oppreffive to them, addreffed a mandate to all the Courts of Audience in America, enjoining them to anfwer ROBERTSON Vol. III. Сс

certain queries which he propofed to them, concerning the ancient form of government establifhed among the various nations of Indians,' and the mode in which they paid taxes to their kings or chiefs. In obedience to this mandate, Corita, who had refided nineteen years in America, fourteen of which he paffed in New Spain, compofed the work of which I have a copy. He acquaints his fovereign, that he had made it an object during his refidence in America and in all its provinces which he hat visited, to in. quire diligently into the manners and cuftoms of the natives, that he had converfed for this purpose with many aged and intelligent Indians, and confulted feveral of theSpanish ecclefiafticks, who understood the Indian languages moft perfectly, particularly fome of those who landed in New Spain foon after the conqueft. Corita appears to be a man of fome learning, and to have carried on his inquiries with the diligence and accuracy to which he pretends. Greater credit is due to his teftimony from one circumftance. His work was not compofed with a view to publication, or in fupport of any particular theory, but contains fimple, though full anfwers to queries propofed to him officially. Though Herrera does not mention him among the authors whom he had followed as guides in his hiftory, I fhould fuppofe, from feveral facts of which he takes noice, as well as from feveral expreffions which he ufes, that

this memorial of Corita was not unknown to him.

NOTE XXI. p. 167.

The early Spanifh writers were fo hafty and inaccurate in eftimating the numbers of people in the provinces and towns of America, that is it impoffible to ascertain that of Mexico itself with any degree of precifion. Cortes describes the extent and populoufnefs of Mexico in general terms, which imply that it was not inferior to the greatest cities in Europe. Gomara is more explicit, and affirms, that there were 60,000 houfes, or families in Mexico. Cron. c. 78. Herrera adopts his opinion, Dec. 2. lib. vii. c. 13; and the generality of writers follow them implicitly without inquiry or fcruple. According to this account, the inhabitants of Mexico muft have been about 300,000. Torquemada, with his ufual propenfity to the marvellous, afferts, that there were a hundred. and twenty thousand houfes or families in Mexico, and confequently about fix hundred thoufand inhabitants. Lib. iii. c. 23. But in a very judicious account of the Mexican empire by one of Cortes's officers, the population is fixed at 60,000 people. Ramufio, iii. 309, A. Even by this account, which probably is much nearer the truth than any of the foregoing, Mexico was a great city.

NOTE XXII. p. 171.

It is to P. Torribio de Benavente, that I am indebted for this curious obfervation. Palafox, bishop of Ciudad de la Puebla Los Angeles, confirms and illuftrates it more fully. The Mexican (fays he) is the only language in which a termination indicating refpe&t, filavas reverentiales y de cortefia, may be affixed to every word. By adding the final fyllable zin or azin to any word it becomes a proper expreffion of veneration in the mouth of an inferior. If, in fpeaking to an equal, the word Father is to be used, it is Tatl, but an inferior fays Tatzin. One prieft fpeaking to another, calls him Teopixque; a perfon of inferior rank calls him Teopixcatzin. The name of the emperor who reigned when Cortes invaded Mexico, was Montezuma, but his vaffals, from reverence, pronounced it Montezumazin. Torribio, MS. Palaf. Virtudes del Indio, p. 65. The Mexicans had not only reverential nouns, but reverential verbs. The manner in which these are formed from the verbs in common ufe, is explained by D. Jof. Aug. Aldama y Guevara, in his Mexican Grammar, No. 188.

NOTE XXIII. p. 177.

From comparing feveral paffages in Corita and Herrera, we may collect with fome degree of accuracy, the various modes in which the

A

Mexicans contributed towards the fupport of government. Some perfons of the firft order feem to have been exempted from the payment of any tribute, and as their only duty to the publick, were bound to perfonal, service in war, and to follow the banner of the fovereign with their vaffals. 2. The immediate vaffals of the crown were bound not only to perfonal military fervice, but paid a certain proportion of the produce of their lands in kind. 3. Those who held offices of honour or truft, paid a certain fhare of what they received in confequence of holding thefe. 4. Each Capullae, or affociation, cultivated fome part of the common field allotted to it, for the behoof of the crown, and depofited the produce in the royal granąries. 5. Some part of whatever was brought to the publick markets, whether fruits of the earth, or the various productions of their artifts and manufacturers, was demanded for the publick ufe, and the merchants who paid this were exempted from every other tax. 6. The Mayeques, or adfcripti glebae, were bound to cultivate certain diftricts in every province, which may be confidered as crown lands, and brought the increase into publick ftorehouses. Thus the fovereign received fome part of whatever was useful or valuable in the country, whether it was the natural production of the foil, or acquired by the industry of the people. What each contributed towards the fupport of govern