Page:Life in Mexico vol 2.djvu/23

Rh of arrangement and classification in the antiquities and the manner in which they are crowded together in the different rooms of the University, appears at first undeserving of much attention, improves upon acquaintance. It is only since the year '25 that it was established by the government, and various plans have been since made for enriching and arranging it, and also for transporting it to the old building of the Inquisition. But as yet, nothing essential has been carried into effect.

It contains upward of two hundred historical manuscripts, some in hieroglyphical characters anterior to the conquest, and many in the different ancient languages of the country. Of the ancient sculpture, it possesses two colossal statues and many smaller ones, besides a variety of busts, heads, figures of animals, masks, and instruments of music or of war, curiously engraved, and indicating the different degrees of civilization of the different nations to whom they belonged. A great many of the vases of tecal, and of the candlesticks in clay, curiously worked, were drawn from excavations in the Isle of Sacrifices, near Vera Cruz, from Oajaca, &c., and from the suburbs of Mexico. There is also a collection of very ancient medals, to the number of six hundred, a bronze bust of Philip the Fifth, and about two hundred Mexican paintings, comprehending two collections of the portraits of the Spanish Viceroys, many of the celebrated Cabrera's, and various dresses, arms, and utensils, from both the Californias. In the cabinet of natural history there is a good collection of minerals, and some very fine specimens of gold and silver. But