Conquest of Mexico
of the United States and Europe. (Essai Politique, tom. ii. p. 487 et seq.) This opinion has brought on him a rather sour rebuke from our countryman, the late Dr. Perrine, who pronounces them a distinct species from the American agave; and regards one of the kinds, the pita, from which the fine thread is obtained, as a totally distinct genus. (See the Report of the Committee on Agriculture.) Yet the Baron may find authority for all the properties ascribed by him to the maguey in the most accredited writers who have resided more or less time in Mexico.—See among others, Hernandez, ubi supra.—Sahagun, Hist. de Nueva España, lib. 9, cap. 2; lib. 11, cap. 7.—Toribio, Hist. de los Indios, MS., Parte 3, cap. 19.—Carta del Lic. Zuazo, MS. The last, speaking of the maguey which produces the fermented drink, says expressly, "From the residuum of the said leaves they prepare a thread as fine as that of Holland linen, from which they make a textile, excellent for clothing and very delicate." It cannot be denied, however, that Dr. Perrine shows himself intimately acquainted with the structure and habits of the tropical plants, which, with such patriotic spirit, he proposed to introduce into Florida.
Page 79 (2).—The first regular establishment of this kind, according to Carli, was at Padua, in 1545.—Lettres Améric, tom. i. chap. 21.
Page 79 (3).—P. Martyr, De Orbe Novo, Decades (Compluti, 1530), dec. 5, p. 191.—Acosta lib. 4, cap. 3.—Humboldt, Essai Politique, tom. iii. pp. 114-125.—Torquemada, Monarch, Ind lib. 13, cap. 34. "Men wrought in brass," says Hesiod, "when iron did not exist."
Χαλᾂ δ έργάζοννο ' μέλας δ οὑη ῖεπε εῖὅηρος
The Abbé Raynal contends that the ignorance of iron must necessarily have kept the Mexican in a low state of civilisation, since without it "they could have produced no work in metal worth looking at, no masonry nor architecture, engraving nor sculpture."—(History of the Indies, Eng. trans., vol. iii. b. 6.) Iron, however, if known, was little used by the ancient Egyptians, whose mighty monuments were hewn with bronze tools, while their weapons and domestic utensils were of the same material, at appear from the green colour given to them in their paintings.
Page 80 (1).—Gama, Descripcion, Parte 2, pp. 25-29.—Torquemada, Monarch. Ind., ubi supra.
Page 80 (2).—Sahagun, Hist. de Nueva España, lib. 9, cap. 15-17.—Boturini, Idea, p. 77.—Torquemada, Monarch, Ind., loc. cit. Herrera, who says they could also enamel, commends the skill of the Mexican goldsmiths in making birds and animals with movable wings and limbs, in a most curious fashion. (Hist. General, dec. 2, lib. 7, cap. 15.) Sir John Maundeville, as usual,
"with his hair on end
At his own wonders,"
notices the "gret marvayle" of similar pieces of mechanism, at the court of the grand Chane of Cathay.—See his Voiage and Travaile, chap. 20.
Page 80 (3).—Herrera, Hist. General, dec. 2, lib. 7, cap. 11.—Torquemada, Monarch. Ind. lib. 13, cap. 34.—Gama, Descripcion, Parte 2, pp. 27, 28.
Page 80 (4).—"It seems that, by the will of God, the shape of their bodies conformed to the aspect of their souls, by reason of the state of sin in which they lived."—Monarch. Ind., lib. 13. cap. 34.
Page 80 (5).—Clavigero, Stor. del Messico, tom. ii. p. 195.
Page 81 (1).—Gama, Descripcion, Parte 1, p. 1. Besides the Plaza Mayor, Gama points out the Square of Tlatelolco, as a great cemetery of ancient relics. It was the quarter to which the Mexicans retreated, on the siege of the capital.
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