re, however, he could bring these
treasures safe to Europe, he was despoiled of his valuables by the
Spanish Viceroy; and when at last he made his escape with the remnants
of his collection, he was taken prisoner by an English cruiser, and
lost everything. The collection, which remained at Mexico, became the
subject of several lawsuits, and after passing through the hands of
Veytia and Gama, who both added to it considerably, it was sold at
last by public auction. Humboldt, who was at that time passing through
Mexico, acquired some of the MSS., which he gave to the Royal Museum
at Berlin. Others found their way into private hands, and after many
vicissitudes they have mostly been secured by the public libraries or
private collectors of Europe. The most valuable part of that
unfortunate shipwreck is now in the hands of M. Aubin, who was sent to
Mexico in 1830 by the French Government, and who devoted nearly
twenty years to the same work which Boturini had commenced a hundred
years before. He either bought the dispersed fragments of the
collections of Boturini, Gama, and Pichardo, or procured accurate
copies; and he has brought to Europe, what is, if not the most
complete, at least the most valuable and most judiciously arranged
collection of American antiquities. We likewise owe to M. Aubin the
first accurate knowledge of the real nature of the ancient Mexican
writing; and we look forward with confident hope to his still
achieving in his own field as great a triumph as that of Champollion,
the decipherer of the hieroglyphics of Egypt.

One of the most important helps towards the deciphering of the
hieroglyphic MSS. of the Americans is to be found in certain books
which, soon after the conquest of Mexico, were written down by natives
who had learnt the art of alphabetic writing from their conquerors,
the Spaniards. Ixtlilxochitl, descended from the royal family of
Tetzcuco, and employed as interpreter by the Spanish Government, wrote
the history of his own country from the earliest time to the arrival
of Cortez. In writing this history he followed the hieroglyphic
paintings as they had been explained to him by the old chroniclers.
Some of these very paintings, which formed the text-book of the
Mexican historian, have been recovered by M. Aubin; and as they helped
the historian in writing his history, that history now helps the
scholar in deciphering their meaning. It is with the study of works
like that of Ixtlilxochitl