One point however we think we have come very near deciding, and one which when collecting our notes was constantly in mind, namely: Whether the Mexican bronze was to be viewed as an artificial or a natural product? There was a great doubt concerning this question caused by the first notices respecting the composition of the bronze. The expressions of Cortes and Bernal Diaz were of so condensed a character that we were at a loss how to reduce them to their elementary meaning, and the doubt was not removed when examining apart each of the subsequent writers on the same subject. But when putting their statements together, a certain basis, at least, could be obtained, from which to deduce a settled opinion. From the combined statements we learned that the bronze found among the natives contained a rich basis of copper, which was mixed either with gold, or with silver, or with tin, and we might infer from this variety of admixtures, that the natives manufactured their _laton_ according to a fixed method. But, on the contrary, as the three metals named are always found to be the steady components of Mexican copper ore, we are led to the presumption, that these ores were worked in their unaltered condition, just as nature had produced them. It is not indeed meant to teach thereby, that the native did not appreciate the fact, that copper of a deep red was softer than that of a lighter color. Whenever they had to manufacture a chisel and had a choice between the two qualities, we are certain they would have employed the lighter metal for this purpose. But we hardly believe that they considered the light metal to be a composition of the red colored copper with either silver, gold or tin. This belief would involve a presupposition of metallurgical science in the early Mexicans, that we have not the least knowledge they had ever attained to. On the other hand, however, there is a strong reason for the belief, that they recognized this light metal to be related to the red copper. For if they had thought this bronze or _laton_ to be a separate kind of metal, they would have had a separate name for it, as they had for all the other metals, from the gold down to the tin, and even to the cinnabar. Bronze would have been called _tepuzque_ as was copper, but probably—with the addition descriptive either of color or of hardness. We were unable to discover one single hint, from which to infer that they possessed the knowledge of hardening copper by dipping the hot metal into water. This is a hypothesis, often noted and spoken of, but which ranges under the efforts made for explaining what we have no positive means to verify or to ascertain.