they appear to have been all descendants from the same original stock.

It is probable that these Indians would live to a great age, did they
not often injure their constitution by drunkenness. Their intoxicating
liquors are rum, a fermentation of maize, and the root of the jatropha;
and especially a wine which is made from the juice of the great
American aloe. The police, in the city of Mexico, sends round tumbrils,
to collect such drunkards as are found lying in the streets. These are
treated like dead bodies, and are carried to the principal guard-house.
The next morning an iron ring is put round each of their ancles, and, as
a punishment, they are made to cleanse the streets for three days.

The Mexican Indian, when not under the influence of intoxicating
liquors, is grave, melancholic, and silent. The most violent passions
are never depicted in his features; and it is sometimes frightful to see
him pass, at once, from a state of apparent repose, to the most violent
and unrestrained agitation. It is stated that these Indians have
preserved, from their ancestors, a particular relish for carving in wood
and stone; and that it is astonishing to see what they are able to
execute with a bad knife, on the hardest wood. Many Indian children,
educated in the college of the capital, or instructed at the academy of
painting, founded by the king of Spain, have considerably distinguished
themselves, but without leaving the beaten track pursued by their
forefathers; they chiefly display great aptitude in the arts of
imitation; and in the purely mechanical arts.

The _Spanish inhabitants_ and the _Creoles_ are noted for hospitality,
generosity, and sobriety; but they are extremely deficient in energy,
patriotism, enterprise, and independence of character. The women have
black eyes and hair, and fine teeth: they are of dark colour, full habit
of body, and have, in general, bad figures. They usually wear short
jackets and petticoats, high-heeled shoes, and no head-dress. As an
upper garment they have a silk wrapper, which, when they are in the
presence of men, they affect to bring over their faces. In the towns on
the frontiers and adjacent to the sea-coast, many of the ladies wear
gowns, like those of our country-women. The lower classes of men are
generally dressed in broad-brimmed hats, short coats, large waistcoats,
smallclothes open at the knees, and a kind of boot or leather wrapper
bound round the leg, and gartered at the