sistance to the landing _Conquistadores_; and, indeed,
almost all the natives of that vast region acknowledged the sway and
lived in awe of the empire of Montezuma.

It is seen that Mexico, in prehispanic times, was fairly well
populated--comparatively speaking, of course. Indeed, at the present
time there are ten times as many Indians in that part of North America
which forms modern Mexico, as ever existed in the whole of the much
vaster area which forms the United States. The inhabitants of Mexico
were divided into two main classes--those living under a civilised or
semi-civilised organisation, such as the Aztecs and others already
enumerated, and those which may be looked upon as savages. These latter
were exceedingly numerous, and at the present day something like 220
different tribal names have been enumerated. This serves to show the
wide range of peoples who inhabited the land before the Conquest,
principally as clans, or _gentiles_, as in South America also.

Having seen, thus, what were the anthropo-geographical conditions of
primitive Mexico, we may cast a brief glance at the arts and
institutions of these semi-civilised peoples. Their buildings--most
indelible records of these civilisations--cover a considerable range of
territory, as has been observed: yet the antiquities of less important
nature cover one very much greater. The true stone edifices, the real
mural remains, are, however confined to certain limits--between the
16th and 22nd parallel of north latitude--that is to say, the southern
half of Mexico. Roughly, these buildings may be divided into three
classes--_adobe_, or sun-dried earthen brick, unshaped stone and
mortar, and cut and carved stone. In some cases a combination of these
was used in the same structure. The best elements of construction do
not seem to have been used. Domes and arches were not known to these
builders, although they had a system of corbelling-out over openings,
which, in the case of the Maya "arch," approximates thereto. They also
used lintels of stone and wood, and these last were the weak points,
and their decaying has sometimes brought down part of the facade. The
work of the sculptor is crude, like that of the Incas of Peru, of which
it reminds the traveller in some cases, but shows signs of evolving
power and a sense of the beautiful, as has been averred by the most
learned antiquarians who have studied it. It is held that there were
several schools of architecture