Note 645 — Chapter XVII · THE AZTEC PICTURE-WRITING.
Reading edition
'Au Mexique, l'usage des peintures et celui du papier de maguey s'étendoient bien au delà des limites de l'empire de Montezuma, jusqu'aux bords du lac de Nicaragua.' 'On voit que les peuples de l'Amèrique étoient bien éloignés de cette perfection qu'avoient atteinte les Égyptiens.' Humboldt, Vues, tom. i., pp. 208, 193-4. 'Clumsy as it was, however, the Aztec picture-writing seems to have been adequate to the demands of the nation.' Prescott's Mex., vol. i., pp. 97-8, 108. 'The Mexicans may have advanced, but, we believe, not a great way, beyond the village children, the landlady (with her ale-scores), or the Bosjesmans.' Quarterly Review, 1816, vol. xv., pp. 454, 449. 'The picture writings copied into the monster volumes of Lord Kingsborough, we have denounced as Spanish fabrications.' Wilson's Conq. Mex., pp. 21-24. 'Until some evidence, or shadow of evidence, can be found that these quasi records are of Aztec origin, it would be useless to examine the contradictions, absurdities and nonsense they present.... The whole story must be considered as one of Zumárraga's pious frauds.' Id., pp. 91-2. 'Las pinturas, que se quemaron en tiempo del señor de México, que se decia Itzcóatl, en cuya época los señores, y los principales que habia entónces, acordaron y mandaron que se quemasen todas, para que no viniesen á manos del vulgo, y fuesen menospreciadas.' Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. iii., lib. x., pp. 140-1; Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. iii., p. 209. See also Waldeck, Voy. Pitt., pp. 46-7; Gallatin, in Amer. Ethno. Soc., Transact., vol. i., p. 144; Orozco y Berra, Geografía, p. 100; Mayer's Mex. Aztec, etc., vol. i., p. 93.