, collars and rings of gold,
precious stones, ornaments of gold in the shape of animals, and two
round plates of the precious metals resembling the sun and moon."

The men had "rings in their ears and lips, which, though they were of
gold, were a deformity instead of an ornament."

"Canoes and periogues" of wood were their usual means of conveyance by
water. The "books" mentioned at p. 100, were well-dressed skins, dressed
like parchment, and, after receiving the paintings observed, were
accurately folded up, in squares or parallelograms.

The cacique of Zempoala, being the first dignitary who paid his respects
personally to Cortez on his entry into the town, is described, in
effect, as covered with a cotton blanket "flung over his naked body,
enriched with various jewels and pendants, which he also wore in his
ears and lips." This chief sent 200 men to carry the baggage of Cortez.

By the nearest route from St. Juan de Ulloa, the point of landing to
Mexico, it was sixty leagues, or about 180 miles. This journey
Montezuma's runners performed to and fro in seven days, being
thirty-five to thirty-six miles per day. No great speed certainly;
nothing to demand astonishment or excite incredulity.

Distance the Mexicans reckoned, like our Indians, by _time_, "A sun" was
a day's journey.

De Solis says, "One of the points of his embassy (alluding to Cortez),
and the principal motive which the king had to offer his friendship to
Montezuma, was the obligation Christian princes lay under to oppose the
errors of idolatry, and the desire he had to instruct him in the
knowledge of the truth, and to help him to get rid of the slavery of
the devil."

The empire of Mexico, according to this author, stretched "on the north
as far as Panuco, including that province, but was straitened
considerably by the mountains or hilly countries possessed by the
Chichimecas and Ottomies, a barbarous people."

I have thought, on reading this work, that there is room for a literary
essay, with something like this title: "Strictures on the Hyperbolical
Accounts of the Ancient Mexicans given by the Spanish Historians,"
deduced from a comparison of the condition of those tribes with the
Indians at the period of its settlement. Humboldt states that there are
twenty languages at present in Mexico, fourteen of which have grammars
and dictionaries tolerably complete. They are, Mexican or Aztec,
Otomite, Tarase, Zapatec, Mistec, Maye or Yucatan, Taton