ment, feems to have been inconfiderable. Corita, in answer to one of the queries put to the Audience of Mexico by Philip II. endeavours to estimate in money the value of what each citizen might be fuppofed to pay, and does not reckon it at more than three or four reals, about eighteen pence or two fhillings a head.

NOTE XXIV. p. 178.

Cortes, who feems to have been as much aftonished with this, as with any inftance of Mexican ingenuity, gives a particular defcription of it. Along one of the causeways, fays he, by which they enter the city, are conducted two conduits, compofed of clay tempered with mortar, about two paces in breadth, and raifed about fix feet. In one of them is conveyed a stream of excellent water, as large as the body of a man, into the centre of the city, and it fupplies all the inhabitants plentifully. The other is empty, that when it is necessary to clean, or repair the former, the ftream of water may be turned into it. As this conduit paffes along two of the bridges, where there are breaches in the causeway, through which the falt water of the lake flows, it is conveyed over them in pipes as large as the body of an ox, then carried from the conduit to the remote quarters of the city

in canoes, and fold to the inhabitants. Relat: ap. Ramuf. 241, A.

NOTE XXV. p. 180.

In the armoury of the royal palace of Madrid, are fhewn fuits of armour, which are called Montezuma's. They are compofed of thin lacquered copper-plates. In the opinion of very intelligent judges they are evidently eastern. The forms of the filver ornaments upon them, reprefenting dragons, &c. may be confidered as a confirmation of this. They are infinitely fuperior in point of workmanship to any effort of American art. The Spaniards probably received them from the Philippine iflands. The only unquestionable specimen of Mexican art that I know of in Great Britain, is a cup of very fine gold, which is faid to have belonged to Montezuma. It weighs 5 oz. 12 dwt. Three drawings of it were exhibited to the Society of Antiquaries, June 10, 1765. A man's head is reprefented on this cup. On one fide the full face, on the other the profile, on the third the back parts of the head. The relievo is faid to have been produced by punching the infide of the cup, fo as to make the representation of a face on the outfide. The features are rude, but very tolerable, and certainly too rude for Spanish workmanship. This cup was purchased by Edward earl of

Oxford, while he lay in the harbour of Cadiz with the fleet under his command, and is now in the poffeffion of his grandfon, Lord Archer. I am indebted for this information to my refpectable and ingenious friend Mr. Barrington.

NOTE XXVI. p. 185.

The learned reader will perceive how much I have been indebted, in this part of my work, to the guidance of the bishop of Gloucefter, who has traced the fucceffive fteps, by which the human mind advanced in this line of its progress, with much erudition, and greater ingenuity. He is the firft, as far as I know, who formed a rational and confiftent theory concerning the various modes of writing practifed by nations, according to the various degrees of their improvement. Div. Legation of Mofes, iii. 69, &c. Some important obfervations have been added by the learned and intelligent author of the Traité de la Formation Mechanique des Langues, tom. i. 295, &c.

As the Mexican paintings are the moft curious monuments extant of the earliest mode of writing, it will not be improper to give fome account of the means by which they were preferved from the general wreck of every work of art in America, and communicated to the Publick. For the most early and complete collection of these published by Purchas, we are

indebted to the attention of that curious inquirer, Hakluyt. Don Antonio Mendoza, viceroy of New Spain, having deemed those paintings a proper prefent for Charles V. the fhip in which they were fent to Spain was taken by ą French cruizer, and they came into the poffeffion of Thevet, the king's geographer, who having travelled himself into the New World, and defcribed one of its provinces, was a curious obferver of whatever tended to illuftrate the manners of the Americans. On his death, they were purchafed by Hakluyt, at that time chaplain of the English ambaffador to the French court; and, being left by him to Purchas, were published at the defire of the learned antiquary Sir Henry Spelman. Purchas, iii. 1065.

The fecond fpecimen of Mexican picturewriting, was published by Dr. Francis Gemelli Carreri, in two copper-plates. The firft is a map, or representation of the progrefs of the ancient Mexicans on their firft arrival in the coun try, and of the various ftations in which the y fettled, before they founded the capital of their empire in the lake of Mexico. The fecond is a Chronological Wheel, or Circle, reprefenting the manner in which they computed and marked their cycle of fifty-two years. The former was given to him by Dr. Chriftoval de Guadalajora, in the city of Puebla de los Angeles; the latter he received from Don Carlos de Siguenza y Congorra. But as it feems now

to be a received opinion (founded I know not on what evidence) that Carreri was never out of Italy, and that his famous Giro del Mundo is an account of a fictitious voyage, I have not mentioned these paintings in the text. They have, however, manifeftly the appearance of being Mexican productions, and are allowed to be fo by Boturini, who was well qualified to determine whether they were genuine or fuppofititious. The ftyle of painting in the former is confiderably more perfect than any other fpecimen of Mexican defign; but as the original is faid to have been much defaced by time, I fufpect that it has been improved by fome touches from the hand of an European artist. Carreri, Churchill, iv. p. 487. The chronological wheel is a juft delineation of the Mexican mode of computing time, as defcribed by Acofta, lib. vi. c. 2. It seems to resemble one which that learned Jefuit had feen; and if it be admitted as a genuine monument, it proves that the Mexicans had artificial, or arbitrary characters, which reprefented feveral things befides numbers. Each month is there reprefented by a fymbol expreffive of fome work or rite peculiar to it.

The third fpecimen of Mexican painting was discovered by another Italian. In 1736, Lorenzo Boturini Benaduci fet out for New Spain, and was led by feveral incidents to study the language of the Mexicans, and to collect