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Rh the quickness of their apprehension, and the solidity of their judgment, but after a few years all these became the victims of intoxication, under the influence of which, they quickly relapsed into barbarism.

In the imitative arts they certainly excel, and under proper direction, make valuable assistants both in plain building, and ornamental architecture, while the various waxen figures they mould and expose for sale, prove how closely they can copy any object they may have seen. Of imagination they appear to be totally destitute, and never leave the beaten track to form any thing novel or original, nor have they that taste for the beautiful, which the Mexicans so singularly possess.

It is said that ancient monuments, the ruins of their former greatness, still exist; but in situations remote from the capital, and at which in the present disturbed state of the country, it is difficult to arrive. Juarros gives descriptions of many of these from Fuentes, but it is evident that he had never seen them. The Spaniards and white creoles, appear to know little or nothing of their localities, and insist that a great part of Fuentes' descriptions are fictitious. Still the search would be interesting, and the report of an intelligent traveller valuable; inasmuch as the slightest ruin would in some degree tend to illustrate the true