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#4? 201

“The Mexicans did not descend from the people in the north of Europe, either the ancient Germans or Scandinavians, but from people who worshipped the sun. Like them, they had the zodiac for the mystical representation of their deities; and like the Egyptians, and the most ancient settlers of India, raised pyramids for his worship, decorated with representations of days, months, years, and the sun’s path like the windings of a serpent, which they signified by the image of one. They had the arts of fortification and intrenchment, metallic tools & utensils; the science of astronomy and geometry in considerable perfection; and the mechanic arts; of all which the northern Indians were completely ignorant. They are glaring circumstances of difference, as well as their modes of warfare & political government. The Mexicans came to America at a much earlier period; but after the invention in Asia of the arts which they had practiced there, and of the sciences which they had learned; after the invention of post roads and couriers, the game of chess, and intenchment; after the ascertainment of the true length of the solar year; after the coins uttered in the time of Antoninus? & Commodus; and after the time of the three simul-