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when a marked analogy shall be discovered between the languages of Tartary and those of the new continent; an analogy, which, according to the latest researches of M. Barton Smith, extends only to a very small number of words. The want of wheat, oats, barley, rye, and all those nutritive gramina which go under the general name of cereal, seems to prove, that if Asiatic tribes passed into America, they must have descended from pastoral people. We see in the old continent that the cultivation of c real gramina, and the use of milk, were introduced as far back as we have The inhabitants of the any historical records. new continent cultivated no other gramina than maize (Zea). They fed on no species of milk, though the lamas, alpacas, and in the north of Mexico and Canada two kinds of indigenous oxen, would have afforded them milk in abundance. These are striking contrasts between the Mongol and American race.

Without losing ourselves in suppositions as to the first country of the Toultecs and the Aztecs, and without attempting to fix the geographical position of those ancient kingdoms of Huehuetlapallan and Aztlan, we shall confine ourselves to the accounts of the Spanish historians. northern provinces, New Biscay, Sonora, and New Mexico, were very thinly inhabited in the 16th century. The natives were hunters and shepherds; and they withdrew as the European conquerors

The

advanced towards the north. Agriculture alone attaches man to the soil, and develops the love of country. Thus we see that in the southern part of Anahuac, in the cultivated region adjacent to Tenochtitlan, the Aztec colonists patiently endured the cruel vexations exercised towards them by their conquerors, and suffered every thing rather than quit the soil which their fathers had cultivated. But in the northern provinces, the natives yielded to the conquerors their uncultivated savannas, which served for pasturage to the buffaloes. The Indians took refuge beyond the Rio Gila, towards the Rio Zaguanas and the mountains de las Grullas. The Indian tribes who formerly occupied the territory of the United States and Canada followed the same policy; and chose rather to withdraw, first, behind the Alleghany mountains, then behind the Ohio, and lastly behind the Missoury, to avoid being forced to live among the Europeans. From the same cause we find the copper-coloured race neither in the provincias internas of New Spain, nor in the cultivated parts of the United States.

The migrations of the American tribes having been constantly carried on from north to south, at least between the sixth and twelfth centuries, it is certain that the Indian population of New Spain must be composed of very heterogeneous elements. In proportion as the population flowed towards

progress,

the south, some tribes would stop in their and mingle with the tribes which followed them. The great variety of languages still spoken in the kingdom of Mexico proves a great variety of races and origin.

The number of these languages exceeds twenty, of which fourteen have grammars and dictionaries tolerably complete. The following are their names: the Mexican or Aztec language; the Otomite; the Tarasc; the Zapotec; the Mistec ; the Maye, or Yucatan; the Totonac; the Popolouc; the Matlazing; the Huastec; the Mixed; the Caquiquel; the Taraumar; the Tepehuan; and the Cora. It appears that the most part of these languages, far from being dialects of the same (as some authors have falsely advanced), are at least as different from one another as the Greek and the German, or the French and Polish. is the case at least with the seven languages of New Spain, of which I possess the vocabularies. The variety of idioms spoken by the people of the new continent, and which, without the least exaggeration, may be stated at some hundreds, offers a very striking phenomenon, particularly when we compare it with the few languages spoken in Asia and Europe.

This

The Mexican language, that of the Aztecs, is the most widely diffused, and extends at present from the 37° to the lake of Nicaragua, for a length of

400 leagues. The Abbe Clavigero* has proved that the Toultecs, the Chichimecks (from whom the inhabitants of Tlascala are descended), the Acolhues, and the Nahuatlacs, all spoke the same language as the Mexicans. This language is not so sonoroust but almost as diffused and as rich as that of the Incas. After the Mexican or Aztec language, of which there exists eleven printed grammars, the most general language of New Spain is that of the Otomites.

I could not fail to interest the reader by a minute description of the manners, character, and physical and intellectual state of those indigenous inhabitants of Mexico, which the Spanish laws designate by the name of Indians. The general interest displayed in Europe for the remains of the primitive population of the new continent has its origin in a moral cause, which does honour to humanity. The history of the conquest of America and Hindostan presents the picture of an unequal struggle between nations far advanced in arts, and others in the very lowest degree of civilization. The unfortunate race of Aztecs escaped from the carnage appeared destined to annihilation under an oppression of several centuries. We have difficulty in believing that nearly two millions

*Clavigero, t. I. p. 153.

The word Not lazomahuiztespixcatatzin signifies, venerable priest whom I cherish as my father. The Mexicans use this word of 27 letters when speaking to the priests (curés).

and a half of aborigines could survive such lengthened calamities. The inhabitant of Mexico and Peru, and the Indian of the Ganges, attract in a very different manner from the Chinese or Japanese the attention of an observer endowed with sensibility. Such is the interest which the misfortune of a vanquished people inspires, that it renders us frequently unjust towards the descendants of the conquerors.

To give an accurate idea of the indigenous inhabitants of New Spain, it is not enough to paint them in their actual state of degradation and misery; we must go back to a remote period, when, governed by its own laws, the nation could display its proper energy; and we must consult the hieroglyphical paintings, buildings of hewn stone, and works of sculpture still in preservation, which, though they attest the infancy of the arts, bear, however, a striking analogy to several monuments. of the most civilized people. These researches are reserved for the historical account of our expedition to the tropics. The nature of this work does not permit us to enter into such details, however interesting they may be, both for the history and the psychological study of our species. We shall merely point out here a few of the most prominent features of the immense picture of American indigenous population.

The Indians of New Spain bear a general resemblance to those who inhabit Canada, Florida,

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