HISTORY OF THE

E DITED BYWILFREDHAROLDMUNRO880! OF IUROPM N HISTORY IN BROWN UNIVE RSITY

PRISING THE NOTE S OF THE E DITION BY

JOHN FOSTE R KIRK

Victrice s a qu ilas a lium la turu s in orhem

Lucm , Pha rsa lia , lib. v.. v.

VOL. I

PHILADE LPHIA AND LONDON

Co pyright, 1843 ,byWILLIAM H. Ba s s oo n

Copyright, 1871. byWILLIAM G . Pa xsco r r

Copyr ight. 1878, by J. B . LIPPINCOTT 8: Co

Copyright, 1904. by J. B. p vm co r r COMPANY

E lectrotyped and Printed byJ. B. Lippinco tt Com pan y. Philade lphia U. S. A.

INTRODUCTORY NOTE BY

THE E DITOR

ILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTTwas born in Salem , Massachusetts , May

4, 1796 . He died in Boston

,January 2 8, 1859 .

William Prescott, his father, a lawyer of greatability and of sterling worth , was at one time ajudge

,and was frequently elected to public posi

tions of trust and responsibility. H is mother wasa daughter of Thomas H ickling , for many yearsUnited States Consul at the Azores . His grandf ather, William Prescott, was in command of theAm erican forces at the battle o f Bunker H ill ,June 17, 1775 . On both sides , therefore, thefuture historian was descended from what OliverWendell Holmes aptly termed the New England Brahm an Stock. He was prepared for college by an u nusually accomplished scholar

,John

Sylvester John Gardiner, for many years the rector o f Trinity Church, Boston, and entered Harvard College as a sophomore in 1811. Threeyears later he graduated with the Class of 1814.

During his junior year came the accident whichwas to change the whole course of his life . Ashe was leaving the dinin g - hall, in which the students sat at Commons ,

” a biscuit,thrown by a

careless fellow- student , struck him squarely inthe left eye and stretched him senseless upon the

vi INTRODUCTORY NOTE BY EDITOR

floor.Paralysis of the retina was the result ; the

injury was beyond the reach of the healing art,and the sight of one eye was utterly destroyed.

After a period of intense suff ering, spent in adarkened room,

he recovered sufficiently to resumehis college work and to be graduated with hisclass. For a year and a half the uninjured eyeserved him fairly well. Then, suddenly, acuterheumatism attacked it

,causing, except in occa

sion al periods of in termis sion, excruciating painduring the rest of his life. Total darkness, forweeks at a time, was not infrequently Prescott

’

slot

,and work, except under a most careful ad

justment of every ray of light, was almost outof the question. Under these circumstances thecareer at the bar which his father had planned forhim , and to which he had looked forward with somuch pleasure was no longer to be thought ofBusiness off ered no attractions, even if a businesslife had been possible to him in his semi-blindness .He turned his attention to literature, and foundthere his vocation.

But for this work he felt that the most carefulpreparation was necessary. In a letter, writteneighteen months before his death

,he says , Ipro

posed to devote ten years of my life to the studyof ancient and modern literature, chiefly the latter,and to give ten years more to some historical work .

I have had the good fortune to accomplish thisdesign pretty nearly within the limits assigned.

In the Christmas of 1837my first work was givento the public.”

During the first ten years of preparation he was

INTRODUCTORY NOTE BY EDITOR vn

a frequent contributor to the Reviews , writin gsome of the papers which are printed in the volumeof M iscellanies which has always formed partof his wor H is historical work was aecom

plished with the utmost difficulty. Americanscholarship was not then advanced, and it wasalmost impossible to secure readers who possesseda knowledge of foreign languages . PatheticallyMr. Prescott tells of the difficulties surmounted.

The secretary he employed at fir st knew no language but his own . I taught him to pronouncethe Castilian in a manner suited, I suspect, muchmore to my ear than to that of a Spaniard ; andwe began our wearisome j ourney through Mariana ’ s noble history . I cannot even now recall tomind without a smile the tedious hour s in which ,seated under some old trees in my country residence, we pursued our slow and melancholy wayover pages which aff orded no glimmering of lightto him, and from which the light came dimly struggling to me through a half intelligible vocabulary.

But in a few weeks the light became stronger, andI was cheered by the consciousness of my own

improvement ; and when we had toiled o u r waythrough seven quartos I found I could understandthe book when read about two - thirds as fast asordinary English .

” Having thus gathered theideas of his many authorities from the mechanicallips of his secretary, Mr. Prescott woul d ponderthem for a time, and would then dictate the notesfor a chapter of from forty to fifty pages . Thesenotes were read and reread to him while the subj cet was still fresh in his memory. He ran them

over many times in his mind before he began to

dictate the final copy, and was thu s able to escapeerrors into which men with full command o f theirsight frequently fall. For the last thirty years

o f his life he made use of a writing instrum entfor the blin d, the noctograph , by which he wasable to write his own pages and partially to dispense with dictation. With the noctograph hewrote with great rapidity, but in an almost illegiblehand which only the author and his secretary couldread.

When,after twenty years of labor, the His

tory o f the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella wasfinished

,its author was so doubtful respecting its

value that he proposed simply to put it upon hislibrary shelf for the benefit of those who shouldcome after.” His father wisely combated thismorbid judgment and insisted upon its publication. The man who writes a book which he isafraid to publish is a coward,

” he said to his son .

The work was given to the world in 1837andwas immediately and immensely successful. Itsauthor, who had hitherto been only an obscurewriter of reviews , took his place at once in the firstrank o f contemporary historians,— to use thewords of Daniel Webster, like a comet thathad blazed out upon the world in full splendor.”

In a very short space of time translations appeared in Spanish , German, French , and Italian .

Critics o f many nationalities j oined in concurrentpraise.In a way Mr. Prescott ’s achievement was anational triumph. British reviewers were even

INTRODUCTORY NOTE BY EDITOR ix

more laudatory than were the American . One ofthe most striking testimonials came from RichardFord

,the author of the famous Handbook for

Spain , - an English scholar whose knowledge ofthings Spanish was phenomenal . Mr. Ford wrote,Mr. Prescott ’s is by far the fir st historical workwhich British America has yet produced, and onethat need hardly fear a comparison with any thathas issued from the European press since this century began .

” Mr. Ford was not enthusiastic overAmerican institutions and was by no means prepared to believe that the American experiment indemocratic government was likely to result in a

permanent State . It was with an eye to posterity,therefore, that he cautiously and vaguely assignedMr. Prescott not to the United States, but toBritish America . The commendatory notices thatappeared in British publications showed that manymen besides Mr. Ford were astounded thatBritish America coul d produce such an excellent specimen o f historical workm anship . SydneySmith ’s praise was most enthusiastic. He evenwent so far as to promise the American author aCaspian Sea of Soup if he would visit England.

The new historian was not spoiled by the adulation showered upon him . Rej oicing in the u n ex

pected praise, he devoted himself with renewedzeal , and with even greater care, to the composition of another work . This , The H istory o f theConquest of Mexico, appeared in 1843 , and inless than twelve months seven thousand copies ofit had been sold in the United States . The art of

x INTRODUCTORY NOTE BY EDITOR

advertising,in which the publishers of to - day are

so proficient,had not then been developed ; the

Conquest of Mexico made its own way amongthe reading public. For the English copyrightBentley

,the London publisher, paid £650. Ten

editions were published in England in sixteenyears

,and twenty- three were issued in the United

States . Popular approval was even more pron ou n ced than in the case of the Ferdinand andIsabella, and the applause of the reviewers wasalso much more loud. The pure and sound English appealed especially to scholars like Milman .

That famous historian placed Prescott in themids t of the small community of really good English writers of history in modern times . Com ingfrom the editor of the best edition of G ibbon

’ sDecline and Fall of the Roman Empire, thiswas praise indeed. The E dinbu rgh R eview said,Every reader of intelligence forgets the beautyof his colorin g in the grandeur of his outline .Nothing but a conn ected sketch of the latter cando justice to the highest charm of the work .

”

Stirling, author of the Cloister L ife of theEmperor Charles the Fifth,

” wrote, The ac

count o f the Triste Noche,the woeful night in

which, after the death of Montezuma , Cortés andhis band retreated across the lake and over thebroken causeway, cutting their way through anation in arms, is one of themodern historiqalpainting: The Spanish RoyalA cademy

m

o f History had elected Prescott tomembership in that august body soon after hisHistory of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isa

INTRODUCTORY NOTE BY EDITOR xi

bella appeared ; other historical societies andlearned bodies now heaped honors upon him .

The his torian kept steadily at work . The taskto which he had devoted himself was to tell the

Spain were at their highest poin t. The H istoryo f flie Conquest o f" Peru was publishedm 7,four years after the appearance o f the Mexico.”

It reads like a romance and has“fi

e

—always been the

most popul ar o f Prescott’s works . To -day it is

the only history of the early Spanish achievementsin Peru which is regarded as an“authority ”

o n

the South American republic, and is always keptin stock in Peruvian bookstores . F o r the English copyr ight of this work Bentley paid £800.

S eventeen thousand copies were sold in thirteenyears . The demand for it is cons tant .The author ’s fame was now fully established.

He was everywhere regarded as on e o f the greatest o f living historians, and honors and wealthflowed steadily towards him. H is income fromhis books was very large. Stir lin g estimates it atfrom £4000to £5000per annum . This

,in addi

tion to the fortune he had inherited, made Mr.Prescott a very wealthy man in the years whenthe enormous incomes of to - day were hardlydreamed of He was as methodical and carefulin pecuniary affairs as in his literary work. Amost accurate account was kept of his receiptsand expenditures , and one- tenth o f his income wasalways devoted to charity .

In 1850he made a short visit to Europe,spend

ing some time upon the Continent but more in

xii INTRODUCTORY NOTE BY EDITOR

England and Scotland. Everywhere he was lioniz ed in a way that would have turned the heads ofmost men. The University of Oxford made hima D .C .L . The doors of the houses where learningwas honored opened at his approach. His owncharming personality was, however, one of thegreatest factors in his social success. As a manhe was most lovable .Upon his return to Am erica he devoted himself to wr iting the History of the Reign o f

Philip the Second,” for which task he had accu

m u lated an extensive collection of documentaryauthorities .” This work was to appear in sixvolumes, and for it the author was off ered £1000a volume by two publishers . Two volumes werepublished in 1855 and a third appeared threeyears later. Macaulay pronounced Philip theSecond ” Mr. Prescott ’s best work . Its style ismore fin ished, its use of authorities more masterlythan in the previous volumes . For dramatic inw G

chapters describing the defence o fl

Malta

by the Knights of the Hospital of St . John ofJerusalem are quite equal to the account of theTriste Noche, of Cortés and his companions inMexico, which so excited the admiration of Stirling. But the work was never to be completed.

After two volumes had appeared,there was pub

lished Prescott ’s Edition of Robertson ’s Charlesthe Fifth .

”This was simply a new edition of the

Scottish historian’ s work, with additions dealingwith the later years of the Emperor ’s life whichRobertson had not treated. In it is given the truestory of the emperor’s retirement and death

.Mr.

INTRODUCTORY NOTE BY EDITOR xiii

Prescott had fo r Robertson a very great admiration . He always acknowledged his deep obligation to him , and he felt that it would be most u nnecessary, and in fact almost presumptuous, forhim to attempt to re -write a history which theScottsm an had written so well . In these threeworks

,Ferdinand and Isabella,

”Charles the

Fifth ,” and Philip the Second,

” a century anda half of the most important part o f Spanishhistory is presented. That Prescott did not liveto complete the third must always be regardedas a great calamity by the literary world .

Besides the volum es already specified, another,o f M iscellaneous Essays (a selection from hisearlier contributions to reviews and other periodicals ) has always been included in Prescott

’s publishedworks . To the historical student this volumeis even more interesting than to the general reader.It illustrates the change, which, since its publication

,has taken place in the methods of the reviewer

and of the writer of history as well .On February 4, 1858, Mr. Prescott was strickenwith paralysis. The shock was a slight one.He soon recovered from its eff ects and continuedwith un daunted perseverance his literary work.

In less than a year, January 2 8, 1859 , while atwork in his library with his secretary, he fell backspeechless from a second attack and died an houror so afterwards .It is quite within bounds to say that no historian’ s death ever affected more profoundly thecomm unity in which he dwelt . Other authors havebeen respected and adm ired by those with whom

xiv INTRODUCTORY NOTE BY EDITOR

they came in contact, Prescott was universallyloved. No American writer was perhaps more sincerely and more widely mourned. A ff able, generou s , courtly, thoughtful for others, singularlywinning in his personal appearance, he had drawnthe hearts of all his associates to himself, whilethe gracious

,kindly humanity manifested in every

page of his writings had endeared him to thousands o f readers in all parts of the world.

Mr. Prescott ’ s distinguishing characteristic washis intense love for truth. As an author he had n othesis to establish . He never wasted time in arguments wherewith to demonstrate the soundness ofhis views . His single desire was to set forth withscrupulous accuracy all the facts which belongedto his subj ect . Some critics will have it that histendency towards hero -worship occasionally leadshim into extravagance of statement and that hisgorgeous descriptions sometimes blind us to mostunpleasant facts . This is possibly partly true inthe case of Fe rdinand and Isabella,

” his firstwork, but even in those volum es the reader willalmost always find footnotes to establish the author

’

s statements or to indicate the possibility of adoubt which he himself felt. In clear grasp offacts, in vivid powers of narration, combined withartistic control of details, no historical writer hasexceeded him . The power of philosophical an alysis he did not possess in so high a degree

,but no

philosophical historian of the first rank was everso widely read as William Hickling Prescott hasbeen and still is.For the additional knowledge concerning the

INTR ODUCTORY NOTE BY EDITOR xv

historian, which will unquestionably be desiredafter a perusal of his writings , the reader is referred to the charmin g biography, published byGeorge Ticknor in 1864, and reissued with thisedition of Prescott ’s works .More than thirty years have elapsed since thelast revised edition was presented to the public.Its editor, Mr. John Foster Kirk, was pre - em in en tlyfitted for his work. He had beenMr . Prescott ’ s private secretary for eleven years , and wasperhaps more fam iliar than was any other manwith the period o f Spanish history of which Prescott wrote . He had, moreover, hims elf achieveda most enviable international reputation by hisLife o f Charles the Bold.

” In his notes he conden sed the additional information which a generation o f scholars had contributed to the subj ectstreated o f in Prescott’s pages . Those notes areall incorporated in the present edition .

But since Kirk’s notes were penned anothergeneration o f students has been investigating thehistory of Spain—a generation which has enj oyedmore abundant opportunities for research thanany scholars before had kn own . Numberlessmanuscripts have been rescued from monast iclimbo, the caked dust of centuries has beenscraped away from scores o f volumes in the public archives , and the searchlights of modern seientific investigation have been turned upon placesthat once seemed hopelessly dark. As if this werenot enough , explorers from many lands have

plunged into the depths of the Mexican forests ,and penetrated the quebradas o f the Andes, in

xvi INTRODUCTORY NOTE BY EDITOR

attempts to wrest from them the secrets of theirancient history.

The resul t is an immense num ber of volumesfilled with statements startlingly diverse and withconclusions widely conflicting. Many of thesevolumes

,especially those that emanated from the

explorers,were written by men unskilled in his

torical writing,—special pleaders , and not historian s , -men who were more anxious to demonstrate the soundness of their own theories than toarrive at absolute kn owledge concerning theinstitutions Of Peru and of Mexico .It has been the task of the editor of this editionto separate from this mass of material the conclusions in which scholars for the most part agree,and to embody those conclusions in additionalfootnotes . He has not ordinarily deemed it mecessary to specify the authors read. Because heknows that the average reader abhors quotationshurled at him in unfamiliar tongues, he has, inquoting, always used the best known authority inEnglish.

In preparing these new volumes for the pressthe texts of editions previously issued have beencarefully compared in order to in sure perfectaccu racy. In all such matters the publishers haveaimed to put forth Prescott ’s writings in the formthat must be regarded for many years to comeas the standard edition of America’ s most popularhistorian. WILFRED H. MUNRO .

BROWN UNIVE RSITY,December 20, 1904.

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

xviii EDITOR’S PREFACE

bered hardly more than eighteen millions of inhabitants—Jess people than now dwell in the NewEngland States and in the four neighboringMiddle States

,—New York, New Jersey, Penn

sylvania,and Delaware . These people were for

the most part scattered throughout the region sbordering upon the Atlantic Ocean and the

Great Lakes . Comparatively few were to befound west of the Mississippi River. Texas wasan independent republic. California and the landsadjacent belonged to Mexico. The ownership ofthe vast region then vaguely known as Oregon hadnot been settled. Al aska was Russian territory.

Between the Mississippi and the S ierras of Califo rn ia stretched great wastes Of prairie and desert,of mountain and table - land, which now supportmillions Of people, but which even so far - seeing astatesman as Daniel Webster then supposed wouldnever become fit for human habitation . Comm u n ication between even the most thickly- settledStates was exasperatingly infrequent . The firstpublic telegraph line had not been constructed ;the railway system Of the country was still infeeble infancy ; letters were carried at so much permile and at a very heavy charge ; the postage uponbo oks was exceedingly costly. Only three yearshad elapsed since the first transatlantic steamshipline (the Cunard ) had started its pioneer vesselacross the ocean . Newspapers for a long timeafterwards headed their columns with announcements of news so many days later from Europe.”

Yet within a year seven thousand copies of theConquest of Mexico were sold in this sparsely

EDITOR’S PREFACE xix

settled country, notwithstanding its slow methodsof communication . Bosto n was acknowledged tobe the literary centre of the nation, and Prescott,with the modesty which was his marked characteris tic, had supposed that the unlooked- for successwhich had attended his first literary venture wasdue to the interest of his personal friends in thatcity of cultur e . Such a supposition was no longertenable . Nor was it possible to ascribe its greatpopularity to the influence of opin ions expressedin Great Britain . The unprecedented success ofthe bo ok was due not to personal interest in itsauthor, not to the favorable judgment Of literaryBoston, not to the commendation Of the Englishreviews

,but to the merits of the work itself. A

wonderful story was told wonderfully well . Menread it and commented upon it as they do not comment upon books at the present time. They discussed it not only on those rare occasions when theymet friends from far away, but in the long epistlesthey sent to those friends ,— those letters fromwhich we to -day get so many glimpses Of the lifeo f the first half of the nineteenth century . It waspassed from hand to hand in the communitieswhere only the envied few were able to buy books ,but where all men, in those far less strenuous days ,were anxious to read them,

—in those days alsowhen the average critical judgment concerninggood literature was more highly developed than itnow is , and men were much more given to reflection and discu ssion than they now are.As has been stated elsewhere, Mr. Prescott wasa man of considerable wealth . He was therefore

xx EDITOR’S PREFACE

able to place upon his library tables a much largeramount of material with which to work than isordinarily possible. Not only did he purchasemost of the books published upon his subj ect , buthe also secured copies of more valuable documentary material from the libraries and publicarchives both of Spain and Of Mexico, —in thisway gradually accumulating that library whichwas at his death the finest private collection Of

books in America.His method of composition has already be endescribed. First, his hours of work with his secretary were scrupulously Observed each day ; thencame the hours of reflection and of careful siftingof authorities before pen was placed upon paper,followed by still more careful reflection before thefinal copy was written . {The tendency to heroworship which he shared with most American , andindeed with most British, writers became much lessmarked as his chapters increased, —though surelyhe may well be pardoned for rej oicing as he doesin the exploits of one of the greatest generals inEuropean history. It was perhaps admiration forthat great captain~which led him to write the history of his conquest?In reading the Mexico we must always remember that the task to which Prescott devotedhis energies was to give an accurate account o fthe stupendous campaigns through which Cortésmade himself master of the lands Of the Aztecs ,and not to describe minutely the institutionsCortés encountered in the Valley of Mexico . Anaccount Of the habits, customs, and laws of the

EDITOR’S PREFACE xxi

people of that valley was essential to a propercomprehension o f the magnitude of the Conquest. That account Prescott constructed withmaterial gathered from all available sources , realizing all the while how very unsatisfactory thosesources were . It fills about half a volume, but,as he says in his first preface, it cost him asmuch labor

,and nea

rly as much time, as all the

rest of his history.lThis part Of the work has

be en subj ected to much severe criticism, of which/

mention is made in the notes of this edition.)Not a few Of the conclusions therein set forth havebe en shown to be erroneous . For example , Mr.Prescott did not understand the institutions Of theAztecs . It would have been most marvellous if hebad. And yet it must be said that

,n otwithstand

ing the time spent in research since Prescott ’sintroductory chapters were penned

,surprisingly

little more is really kn own tod ay concerning theancient Aztec nation than was known at that time.Writers who rej ected his conclusions put forthconj ectures without number to supplant them fbu tmost Of those conj ectures were not founded uponfacts . Their authors were for the most part theorists , and not simply searchers for truth, as Presco tt was . Until a larger number of the so - calledCodices shall have been brought to light, andmen shall have learned to read them as scholarshave learned to read the hieroglyphics of the East,little more absolute kn owledge is likely to be secured. It is hardly possible, however, that manymore Codices will ever be found. If they exist ,they are probably lying unnoticed in some Obscu re

xxii EDITOR’S PREFACE

monastery in Spain, or under a mass Of material,as yet unclassified, in the public archives of thatcountry. Of the many agencies tha t have workedfor their destruction three especially may be noted.

First,the climate Of theMexican land, with the in

numerable insects that a tropical climate breedssecond, the stern determination Of the Mexicansthemselves to destroy the memorials Of their ancient state ; and, lastly, the holocausts of Zum arraga, first archbishop of Mexico , whose hand, asPrescott says, fell more heavily than that Oftime itself upon the Aztec monuments . Thisprelate, emulating in his achievement the autoda fe of Arabic manuscripts which ArchbishopXimenes had celebrated in Granada twenty yearsbefore, burned all the manuscripts and other idolatrous material he could collect in one great mountain-heap in the market -place OfBut when that additional knowledge shall havebeen attained, it is hardly likely that any man willattempt to write anew the history of the SpanishConquest . The in formation secured from the rudepictorial descriptions Of the Aztec scribes and fromthe chiselled in scriptions of the Aztec sculptors willbe incorporated as footnotes in subsequent edi

tions of Prescott ’s volumes . For even the criticswho arraign Prescott most severely for his misconception Of Aztec institutions admit that in everything which he wrote concerning the Conquestand the men who took part in it he adhered mostcarefully to facts and followed conscientiously

‘ See vol. 1. chap. iv., and, for Ximenes, Prescott’s “Ferdin an dand Isabella,” part 11. chap . vi.

EDITOR’S PREFACE xxiii

the narratives of the participants. Those narrative s , as Prescott

’ s most prominent critic (Mr.Lewis admits, may be trusted inwhatever relates to the acts Of the Spaniards andto the acts and the personal characteristics of theIndians ; in whatever relates to their weapons , im

plem en ts , an d utensils , fabrics, food, and raiment,and things of a similar character.”

Because he followed those contemporarywrit

-

Efsw

sl

dfl

care fu lly, because with his vivid histo rical imagination he w a s able to transport himself into the remote past, to live with the conquering Spaniards the life of toil and privation thatwasf

'

som etim es almost beyond their iron en

durance, to share with them their ever- presentdanger, to ,

rej oice with them in their final victories , because so living, sharing, and rej oicing hewas able to translate their du ll stories into pagesthat sparkle with the fulness Of life, men will stillturn to those pages for the most graphic accou n t

Of the exploits o f Cortés and his associates , - forgenerations yet to come his work will continue tobe read as one o f the greatest masterpieces Ofdescriptive literature.

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

xxvi PREFACE

On my application to the Academy, in 1838,for permission to copy that part of this inestimable collection relating to Mexico and Peru, itwas freely acceded to, and an eminent Germanscholar

,one Of their own number, was appointed

to superintend the collation and transcription ofthe manuscripts ; and this , it may be added, before I had any claim on the courtesy of thatrespectable body, as one of its associates . Thisconduct shows the advance of a liberal spirit inthe Peninsula since the time of Dr. Robertson,who complains that he was denied admission tothe most important public repositories . The favorwith which my own application was regarded,however, must chiefly be attributed to the kindoffices of the venerable President of the Academy

,

Don Martin Fernandez de Navarrete ; a scholarwhose personal character has secured to him thesame high consideration at home which his literary labors have Obtained abroad. TO this eminentperson I am under still further obligations

,for

the free use which he has allowed me to make ofhis own manuscripts ,— the fruits o f a life Ofaccumulation, and the basis of those valuablepublications with which he has at diff erent timesillustrated the Spanish colonial history .

From these three magnificent collections,the

result of half a centu ry ’s careful researches , Ihave Obtained a mass Of unpublished documents

,

relating to the Conquest and Settlement ofMexico and of Peru , comprising altogether abouteight thousand folio pages . They consist of instru ction s Of the Court , military and private j our

PREFACE

n als , correspondence of the great actors in thescenes, legal instruments, contemporary chronicles , and the like, drawn from all the principalplaces in the extensive colonial empire Of Spain ,as well as from the public archives in the Peninsu la .

I have still fur ther fortified the collection byglean ing such materials from Mexico itself ashad been overlooked by my illustrious predecessorsin these researches . F o r these I am indebted tothe courtesy of Count Cortina, and, yet more, tothat of Don Lucas Alaman, M inister of ForeignAff airs in Mexico ; but, above all, to my excellentfriend, Don Angel Calderon de la Barca, lateM inister Plenipotentiary to that cou ntry fromthe court of Madrid, —a gentleman whose highand estimable qualities, even more than his station,secur ed him the public confidence, and gained himfree access to every place of interest and importance in Mexico .I have also to acknowledge the very kind Offic e srendered to me by the Count Camaldoli at Naples ;by the Duke of Serradifalco in S icily, a noblemanwhose science gives additional lustre to his rank ;and by the Duke o f Monteleone , the present represen tative of Cortés, who has courteously openedthe archives of his family to my inspection . To

these names must also be added that o f S ir ThomasPhillips , Bart , whose precious collection o f manuscripts probably surpasses in extent that Of anyprivate gentleman in Great Britain, if not in E u

rope ; that o f M . Tern au x - Compans , the proprietor Of the valuable literary collection o f Don

his excellent translations ;and

,lastly

,that of my

friend and countryman, Ar thur M iddleton, Esq ,

late Chargé -d’

A ff aire s from the United State sat the court of Madrid, for the efficient aid he

has afforded me in prosecuting my inquiries in

that capital.In addition to this stock Of original documents

Obtained through these various sources , I have

diligently provided myself with such printedworks as have reference to the subj ect, in cludin

the magnificent publications , which have appearefiBboth in France and England, on the Antiquitiesof Mexico

,which

,from their cost and colossal

dimensions,would seem better suited to a public

than to a private library.

Havin g thus stated the nature Of my materials,and the sources whence they are derived, it remains

for me to add a few Observations on the generalplan and composition of the work . Among theremarkable achievements Of the Spaniards in thesixteenth century

,there is no one more striking

Tto the imagination than the conquest of Mexico .

{The subversion of a great empire by a handfulof adventurers

,taken with all its strange and

picturesque accompaniments,has the air of ro

mance rather than Of sober histo ryDan d it is noteasy to treat such a theme according to the severerulesprescribed by historical criticism.

‘

Bfiffifotwithstandin g the sedu ctiOfis

’

Of thi s-

{1bj ect, I haveconscientiously endeavored to distinguish factfrom fictiOn ,

"

and to establ ish the narrative on

PREFACE xxix

as broad a bas is as possible of contemporary evidence ; and I have taken occasion to corroboratethe text by ample citations from authorities , usually in the original, s ince few Of them can be veryaccessible to the reader. In these extracts I havescrupulously conformed to the ancient o rthography, however obsolete and even barbarous,rather than impair in any degree the integrityo f the origin al docum ent.Although the subj ect of the work is, properly,only the Conquest of Mexico , I have prepared theway for it by such a view of the civilization ofthe ancient Mexicans as might acquaint the readerwith the character of this extraordinary race , andenable him to understand the difficulties which theSpaniards had to encounter in their subjugation .

This Introductory part Of the work , with theessay in the Appendix which properly belongs tothe In trodu ctionfi‘ although both together makin gonly half a volume , has cost me as much labor,and nearly as much time , as the remainder o f thehistory. If I shall have succeeded in giving thereader a just idea Of the true nature and extentOf the civilization to which the Mex icans hadattained, it will not be labor lost.The story of the Conquest terminates w ith thefall of the capital. Yet I have preferred to continu e the narrative to the death Of Cortés , relyingon the in terest which the development Of his character in his military career may have excited inthe reader. I am not insensible to the hazard Iincur by su ch a course. The mind, previouslyIn this edition placed immediately after the Introduct ion.

m PREFACE

occupied with one great idea, that of the sub

version o f the capital, may feel the prolongationOf the story beyond that point superfluous , i f nottedious

,and may find it difficult, after the excite

ment caused by witnessing a great national catastrOphe , to take an interest in the adventures ofa private individual. Soli

'

s took the more politiccourse Of concluding his narrative with the fallof Mexico, and thus leaves his readers with thefull impression of that memorable event, undistu rbed, on their minds . To prolong the narrativeis to expose the historian to the error so muchcensured by the French critics in some of theirmost celebrated dramas , where the author by apremature dén ou em en t has impaired the interestof his piece. It is the defect that necessarilyattaches, though in a greater degree, to the history of Columbus, in which petty adventuresamong a group Of islands make up the sequelof a life that opened with the magnificent discovery of a World, —a defect

,in short

,which it

has required all the genius of Irving and themagical charm of his style perfectly to overcome .Notwithstanding these Obj ections, I have beeninduced to continue the narrative

,partly from

deference to the Opinion of several Spanish scholars , who considered that the biography of Cortéshad not been fully exhibited

,and partly from the

circumstance of my having such a body of originalmaterials for this biography at my command.

An d I cannot regret that I have adopted thiscourse ; since, whatever lustre the Conquest mayreflect on Cortés as a military achievement

,it gives

PREFACE xx xi

but an imperfect idea of his enlightened spir it ando f his comprehensive and versatile genius .To the eye of the critic there may seem someincongruity in a plan which combines obj ects sodis similar as those embraced by the present history, where the Introduction, occupied by theantiquities

—and

“

origin Of a nation, has somewhatthe character Of a philosophic theme, while theco nclusion is strictly biographica l, and the twomay be supposed to match indiff erently with themain body, or his torical portion o f the work. ButI may hope that such Obj ections will be foun d tohave less weight in practice than in theory ; and,i f properly managed, that the general views o fthe Introduction will prepare the reader for the

particul ars Of the Conquest, and that the greatpublic events narrated in this will, without violence, open the way to the remaining personalhistory o f the hero who is the soul of it . Whatever incongruity may exist in other respects , I m ayhope that the u n ity of in teres t, the only unity heldo f much importance by modern critics , will befound still to be preserved.

The distance of the present age from the periodo f the narrative might be presumed to secure thehistorian from undue prejudice or partiality. Yetby the American and the English reader, ackn owledging so diff erent a moral standard from thatOf the sixteenth century, I may possibly be thoughttoo indulgent to the errors of the Conquerors ;while by a Spaniard, accustomed to the undiluted

panegyric of s oli’

s , I may be deemed to have dealttoo hardly with them. To such I can only say

L

PREFACE

that,while, on the one hand, I have not hesitated

to expose in their strongest colors the excesses o fthe Conquerors

,on the other, I have given them

the benefit of such mitigating reflections as mightbe suggested by the circums tances and the periodin which they lived. I have endeavored not onlyto present a picture true in itself, but to place itin its proper light

,and to put the spectator in a

proper point of View for seeing it to the best advantage. I have endeavored, at the expense ofsome repetition

,to surround him with the spirit

of the times, and, in a word, to make him , if Imay so express myself, a contemporary of thesixteenth century. Whether, and how far, I havesucceeded in this, he must determine .For one thing, before I conclude, I may reasonably ask the reader’s indulgence. Owing to thestate of my eyes, I have been obliged to use awriting- case made for the blind, which does notpermit the writer to see his own manuscript. Nor

have I ever corrected, or even read, my own original draft. As the chirography, under these disadvantages , has been too Often careless and Obscure, occasional errors , even with the utmost careof my secretary, must have necessarily occurredin the transcription, somewhat increased by thebarbarous phraseology imported from my Mexican authorities . I cannot expect that these errorshave always been detected even by the vigilanteye of the perspicacious critic to whom the proofsheets have been subj ectedIn the Preface to the History of Ferdinandand Isabella, I lamented that

,whil e occupied

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

PREFACE

indebted,it is most assuredly not be

his services least .WILLIAM H .

B os 'roN, October 1, 1843 .

Nor e —The author’s emendations of this histoadditional notes , which, being often contradictorybeen printed between bracket s. They were chieflycopious annotations of Don José F . Ramirez and Dto the two Spanish translations published in Mexic

no stronger guarantee of the value and general accthan the minute labor bestowed upon it by tliSCIIOIaI‘S.

—K.

GENE RAL CONTENTS

BOOK I

TRODU CTION—VIE W OF TH E AZTE C CIVILIZATION

BOOK II

DISCOVE RY OF M E XICO

BOOK III

MARCH TO M E XICO

BOOK IV

RE SIDE NCE IN M E XICO

BOOK V

E XPULSION FROM M E XICO

BOOK VI

SIE GE AND SURRE NDE R OF M E XICO

BOOK VII

CONCLUSION SUB SE QU E NT CARE E R OF CORTE S

APPENDIX

CONTENTS OF VOL . I

BOOK I

INTRODUCTION—VIE W OF TH E AZTE C CIVILIZA TION

CHAPTER I

ANCIE NT M E XICO —CLIMATE AND Pnonu c'rs—Pm mrrrvn RACE SAZTE C EMPIRE

Extent of the Aztec TerritoryThe Hot RegionVolcanic SceneryCordillera of the AndesTable- land in the Days of the AztecsValley of MexicoThe ToltecsTheir mysterious D isappearanceRaces from the NorthwestTheir Hostil itiesFoundation of MexicoDomestic FeudsLea gue of the kindred TribesRapid R is e of Mex icoProsperity of the EmpireCriticism on Veytia ’

s H istory

CHAPTER II

S UCCE SSION TO TH E CROWN—AZTE C NOBILITY—JUDICIAL SYSTE M—Laws AND RE VE NUE S- MILITARY INSTITUTIONS

Elect ion of the SovereignHis CoronationAztec NoblesTheir barbaric PompTenure of their EstatesLe gislative PowerJudicial System

xxxviii CONTENTS OF VOLUME I

Independent Judge sTheir Mode Of ProcedureShowy TribunalH ieroglyphical PaintingsMarriage R itesSlavery in MexicoRoyal RevenuesBurdensome ImpostsPublic CouriersM ilitary Enthus iasmAztec AmbassadorsOrders of KnighthoodGorgeous ArmorNational StandardM ilitary CodeHospitals for the WoundedInfluence of Conquest on a NationCriticism on Torqu em ada

’

s H istoryAbbé Clavigero

CHAPTER II I

ME XICAN MYTHOLOGY—TH E SA CE aDo 'rA I. Osman - Ta x Tau ru s

-HUMAN SACRIFICE S

Systems of MythologyMythology of the AztecsIdeas of a GodSanguinary War- godGod of the AirMystic LegendsD ivision of TimeFuture StateFuneral CeremoniesBaptismal R itesMonastic OrdersFeasts and FlagellationAztec ConfessionalEducation of the YouthRevenue of the PriestsMexican Tem plesReligious FestivalsHuman SacrificesThe Captive’s DoomCeremonies of SacrificeTorturing of the VictimSacrifice of Infants

CONTENTS OF VOLUME I

Cannibal BanquetsNumber of VictimsHouses of Skul lsCann ibal ism of the AztecsCriticism on Sahagun ’

s His tory

CHAPTER IV

s icxx Hmnoo t r rm cs—Ma x vscnmm—Am a m o—Cm ox

onoo r—A sm o rromx

Dawning of ScienceP icture- writin gAztec H ieroglyphicsManuscripts of the MexicansEmblematic Sym bolsPhonetic SignsMaterials of the Aztec Ma nuscriptsForm of their VolumesDestruction of mos t of themRemaining ManuscriptsD ifficulty of deciphering themM instrelsy of the AztecsTheatrical E nteM M ents

System of NotationTheir ChronologyThe Aztec EraCa lendar of the PriestsScience of AstrologyAs trology of the AztecsTheir AstronomyWonderful Attainments in this ScienceRemarkable FestivalCarnival of the Azt ecsLord Kingsbo rough ’

s WorkCriticism on Gama

CHAPTER V

Az u o A cmcm mm : ME CHANICAL An'rs

Dom s'

n c Ma x m s

Mech anical GeniusAgricul tureMexican HusbandryVegetable Products .

M ineral Treasures

xl CONTENTS OF VOLUME

Skill of the Aztec JewellersSculptureHuge Calendar- stoneAztec DyesBeauti ful Feather-workFairs of MexicoNational Currencyh adesAztec MerchantsMil itant TradersDomestic Li feKindness to ChildrenPolygamyCondition of the SexSocial EntertainmentsU se of TobaccoCul inary ArtAgree able DrinksDancingIntoxicationCritic ism on B otu rin i’s Work

CHAPTER VI

TE ZCUCANS—THE IR GOLDE N A os—A ccomr u sm an

cu s s or m am Mo rm ncm r

Th e Alcolhu an s or TezcucansPrince Nez ahu alcoyotlH is PersecutionH is Hair- brea dth EscapesH is wandering Li feFidel ity of his Subj ectsTrium phs over his EnemiesRemarkable LeagueGeneral AmnestyThe Tezcucan CodeDepartments of GovernmentCouncil of MusicIts Censorial OfiiceLiterary TasteTezcucan BardsRoyal OdeResources of NezahualcoyotlH is magnificent PalaceHis Gardens and VillasAddress of the Priest

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

xlii CONTENTS OF VOLUME

The Cross in AnahuacEucharist and BaptismChroniclers strive for CoincidencesArgument drawn from theseResemblance of social UsagesAnalogies from ScienceChronological SystemH ieroglyphics and SymbolsAdj us tment of TimeAfiin ities of LanguageD ifficulties of ComparisonTraditions of M igrationTests of their TruthPhysical A nalogiesArchitectural RemainsDestructive Spirit of the SpaniardsRuins in Chiapa and YucatanWorks of Art .

Tools for Building .

Little Resemblance to Egyptian ArtSculptureH ieroglyphicsProbable Age of these MonumentsTheir probable ArchitectsDiflicul ties in forming a Conclus ionIgnorance of Iron and of M ilkUnsatis factory ExplanationsGeneral Conclusions

BOOK II

DISCOVE RY OF M E XICO

CHAPTER ISPAIN UNm-m CHARLE S V.

—Pnoon1~:ss o r DISCOVE RY—COLONIALPOLICY—CONQUE s'r or CUBA—E m a Ns TO YUCA '

I'AN

Condition of SpainIncreas e of EmpireCardinal XimenesArrival of Charles the Fifth

CONTENTS OF VOLUME xliii

Swarm of FlemingsOpposition Of the CortesColonial AdministrationSpirit of ChivalryProgress of D iscoveryAdvancement of ColonizationSystem of R epar tim ien to sColonial PolicyD iscovery of CubaIts Conquest by VelasquezCordova’ s Expedition to YucatanH is Reception by the NativesGrijalva’ s ExpeditionCivilization in YucatanTrafiic with the IndiansH is Return to CubaH is cool ReceptionAmbitious Schemes of the GovernorPreparations for an Expedition

CHAPTER I I

H E RNANDO Coar é s—H rs E AR LY LIFE —VISITS TH E NEWWORLD—HIs RE SIDE NCE IN CUBA—DIm CULm s WITH VE LASQU E zABMADA INTRUSTE D TO Coa '

ré s

Hernando CortésH is EducationChoice of a ProfessionDeparture for AmericaArrival at H ispaniolaH is Mode Of Li feEnl i sts under VelasquezHabits of GallantryDis afl'

ected towards VelasquezCortés in ConfinementFlies into a SanctuaryAgain put in I ronsHis perilous EscapeHis MarriageReconciled with the GovernorRetires to his PlantationArmada intrusted to CortésPreparations for the VoyageInstructions to Co rtes

CHAPTER III

JE ALOUSY OF VE LASQUE Z—CORTE S E mBAnK s—EQUIPME NT o r H IS

FLE E T—H rs PE RSON AND CHARACTE R—RE NDE ZVOUS AT HAVANA—STE E NGTH or m s ARMAME NT

Jealousy of VelasquezIntrigues against CortésH is clandestine EmbarkationArrives at MacacaAccess ion of VolunteersStores and AmmunitionOrders from Velasquez to arrest CortésHe raises the Standard at HavanaPerson of CortésH is CharacterStrength of ArmamentStirring Address to his TroopsFleet weighs AnchorRemarks on Estrell a’s Manuscript

CHAPTER IV

VOYAGE To Co z umE L—CONVE E SION OF TH E

DE AGUILAR—ARMY ARRIVE S AT TAE Asco - GE E AT B A 'I'I

'LE

WITH TH E INDIANS- CHRISTIANITY INTE ODU CE D

Disastrous Voyage to CozumelHumane Policy of CortésCross found in the IslandReligious Zeal of the SpaniardsAttempts at ConversionOverthrow of the IdolsJeronimo de AguilarHis AdventuresEmployed as an InterpreterFleet arrives at TabascoHostile ReceptionFierce Defiance of the NativesDesperate ConflictEffect of the Fire - armsCo rtes takes TabascoAmbush of the IndiansThe Country in ArmsPreparations for BattleMarch on the Enemy

CONTENTS OF VOLUME

Joins Battle with the IndiansDoubtful StruggleTerror at the War- horseVictory of the SpaniardsNum be r of SlainTreaty with the NativesConversion of the HeathenCatholic CommunionSpaniards embark for Mexico

CHAPTER V

VOYAGE ALONG TH E CoAsT—DON'A MA E INA - S E ANIAnDs LAND IN

ME XICO- INTE RVIE W TH E AZTE CS

Voyage along the CoastNatives come on BoardDona MarinaHer H istoryHer Beauty and CharacterFirst Tidings of MontezumaSpaniards land in MexicoFirst Interview with the AztecsTheir magnificent PresentsCupidity of the SpaniardsCo rtes displays his CavalryAztec Paintings

xlv

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAG'

(‘

H E LANDING or CORTE S A T VE RA CRUZ F ron tispieceFrom a pa in ting e specia l ly m ade for th is edition by L. Kowalsky .

uA P o r TH E COUNTRY TRAVE RSE D BY TH E SpANIARDs ON THE IR

A fte r an e n gravin g in R itratos de los E s pagn o le s illustr e s.

km LADY OF GUADALOUPEFrom a pho to graph byWaite. o f Mexico .

After th e paintin g by Titian at Munich .

ORTRA IT o r HE RNANDO CORTE sFrom an engraving by Mas so n . after th e pain ting by An t. Moro .

Mexico—l

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

CONQUE ST OF ME XICO

CHAPTER I

ANC IE NT MEXICO—CLIMATE AND PRODUCTSPRIMITIVE RACES—AZ TEC EMP IRE

F all that extensive empire which once ac

knowledged the authority of Spain in theNew World, no portion, for interest and importance , can be compared with Mexico ;—and thisequally, whether we consider the variety of its soiland climate ; the inexhaustible stores of its mineralwealth ; its scenery, grand and picturesque beyondexample ; the character of its ancient inhabitants,not only far surpassing in intelligence that of theother North American races, but reminding us, bytheir monuments, of the primitive civilization ofEgypt and Hindostan ; or, lastly, the peculiar Circum stan ces of its Conquest, adventurous and ro

mantic as any legend devised by Norman or Italianbard of chivalry . It is the purpose of the presentnarrative to exhibit the history of this Conquest,and that of the remarkable man by whom it wasachieved .

But, in order that the reader may have a betterunderstandin g of the subj ect, it will be well, beforeentering on it, to take a general survey o f the po

4 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

litical and social institutions of the races who ocenpied the land at the time of its discovery .

The country of the ancient Mexicans, or Aztecsas they were called, formed but a very small partof the extensive territories comprehended In themodern republic of Mexico .

1 Its boun daries cannot be defined with certainty. They were muchenlarged in the latter days of the empire , when theymay be considered as reaching from about the eighteen th degree north , to the twenty- first , on theAtlantic ; and from the fourteenth to the nineteen th , including a very narrow strip , on thePacific . 2 In its greatest breadth, it could not ex

‘ Extensive indeed, i f we may trust Archbishop Lorenzana, whotel ls us, “It is doubtful i f the country Of new Spain does not borderon Tartary and Greenland ; —by the way of Cali fornia, on theformer

,and by New Mexico, on the latter H istoria de Nueva

Espana (Mexico , p . 38, nota.*I have conformed to the limits fixed by Clavigero . He has , prob

ably,examined the subj ect with more thoroughness and fidelity than

mos t of his countrymen, who difi'

er from him, and who assign a moreliberal extent to the monarchy. (See his Storia antica del Messico(Cesena, dissert. The abbé, however, has not informedhis readers o n what frail foundations his conclusions rest. The extent o f the Aztec empire is to be gathered from the writings of histo rian s since the arrival of the Spaniards, and from the picturerolls Of tribute paid by the conquered cities ; both sources extremelyvague and defective. See the MSS. of the Mendoza collection, inLord Kingsbo rough ’

s magnificent publication (Antiquities of Mex

[The limits fixed by historical writers to the territories of theAztec Confederacy vary startlingly. Prescott’ s estimate is too large.Lewis H . Morgan (Houses and House Li fe of the AmericanAborigines, p . 923 ) considers its land area to have been about thatof Rhode Island—the smallest State in the American Union—t a ,

about 1950 square miles . Medio tu tissim u s ibis. The term Empireis misleading. The states of Queretaro, Guanaj uato, M ichoacan,Guerrero, and much Of La Puebla, in modern Mexico, almost surround the so - called Empire of Montezuma. Possibly the tributarypueblos may have covered an area equal to that of the State ofMassachusetts . -M.]

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

6 CONQUE ST OF MEXICO

trees of that magnificent growth which is foundonly within the tropics . In this wilderness ofsweets lurks the fatal m alaria , engendered , probably

,by the decomposition of rank vegetable sub

stances in a hot and humid soil .”6 The season of thebilious fever

,—vdmito , as it is called,—which

scourges these coasts , contin ues from the springto the autumnal equinox, when it is checked by thecold winds that descend from Hudson ’s Bay.

These winds in the winter season frequentlyfreshen into tempests, and sweeping down the A tlantic coast and the winding Gulf of Mexico, burstwith the fury of a hurricane on its unprotectedshores

,and on the neighboring West India islands .

Such are the mighty spells with which Nature hassurrounded this land of enchantment, as if to guardthe golden treasures locked up within its bosom .

The genius and enterprise of man have provedmore potent than her spells .After passing some twenty leagues across thisburning region, the traveller finds himself risinginto a purer atmosphere . His limbs recover theirelasticity. He breathes more freely, for his sensesare not now oppressed by the sultry heats and intoxicating perfumes of the valley. The aspect ofnature, too, has changed, and his eye no longerrevels among the gay variety of colors with whichthe landscape was painted there . The vanilla, theindigo, and the flowerin g cacao- groves disappearas he advances. The sugar- cane and the glossyleaved banana still accompany him ; and , when he

[Immediate decay follows death. Al l traces of a buried corpsevanish in three or four years. —M. ]

CLIMATE AND PRODUCTS

has ascended about four thousan d feet, he sees inthe unchanging verdure, and the rich foliage of theliquid - amber tree, that he has reached the heightwhere clouds and mists settle, in their passagefrom the Mexican Gul f. This is the region of per

petu al humidity ; but he welcomes it with pleasure,as ann ouncing his escape from the influence of thedeadly vom ito .

4 He has entered the tierra tem

plada , or temperate region, whose character re

sembles that of the temperate zone of the globe.The features of the scenery become grand , andeven terrible . His road sweeps along the base ofmighty mou ntains, once gleaming with volcanicfires , and still resplendent in their mantles of snow,

which serve as beacons to the mariner, for many aleagu e at sea. A ll aroun d he beholds traces of theirancient combustion, as his road passe s along vasttracts of lava, bristling in the innumerable fantastic forms into which the fiery torrent has beenthrown by the Obstacles in its career. Perhaps, atthe same moment, as he casts his eye down somesteep slope, or almost unfathomable ravine, on themargin of the road, he sees their depths glowingwith the rich blooms and enamelled vegetation ofthe tropics . Such are the singular contrasts pre

The traveller who enters the country across the dreary sand- hillsof Vera Cruz will hardly recognize the truth of the above descript ion. He must look for it in other parts of the tierra ca lien te. Ofrecent tourists, no one has given a more gorgeous picture of theimpressions made on his senses by these sunny regions than Latrobe,who came o n shore at Tampico (Rambler in Mexico (New York,

chap . l ) , - a traveller, it may be added, whose descriptions ofm an and nature in our own country, where we can j udge, are dis tinguished by a sobriety and fairness th at entitle him to confidence inhis delineation of other countries .

8 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

sented, at the same time , to the senses, in this pic

tu resqu e region! 0

Still pressing upwards, the traveller mounts 1ntoother climates

,favorable to other kinds of cultiva

tion.The yellow maize, or Indian corn , as we usu

ally call it,has continued to follow him up from the

lowest level ; but he now first sees fields of wheat,and the other European grains brought into thecountry by the Conquerors . Mingled with them,

he views the plantations of the aloe or maguey

(agave A m erican a ) , applied to such various andimportant uses by the Aztecs . The oaks now ac

quire a sturdier growth , and the dark forests ofpine announce that he has entered the tierra fria ,or cold region,—the third and last of the greatnatural terraces into which the coun try is divided .

When he has clim bed to the height of betweenseven and eight thousand feet, the weary travellersets his foot on the summ it of the Cordillera of theAndes,—the colossal range that, after traversingSouth Am erica and the Isthmus of Darien, spreadsout , as it enters Mexico, into that vast sheet oftable- land which maintains an elevation of morethan six thousand feet, for the distance of nearlytwo hundred leagues, until it gradually declines inthe higher latitudes of the north .

‘5

Across this mountain rampart a chain of vol

This long extent of country varies in elevation from 5570to 8856feet,—equal to the height of the passes of Mount Cenis or the GreatSt . Bernard . The table- land stretches still three hundred leaguesfarther, before it declines to a level of 9694 feet . Humboldt, Essaipolitique, tom. i . pp . 157,

The Continental range of Humboldt doe s not exist. The Andean system ends in northern Colombia. The Rocky Mountain system

CLIMATE AND PRODUCTS

canic hills stretches, in a westerly direction, of stillmore stupendous dim ensions , forming, indeed,some of the highest land on the globe . Theirpeaks, entering the limits of perpetual snow, diffuse a grateful coolness over the elevated plateausbelow ; for these last, though termed cold ,

” enjoya climate the mean temperature of which is notlower than that of the central parts of Italy.

6 Theair is exceedingly dry ; the soil, though naturallygood, is rarely clothed with the luxuriant vegetation of the lower regions . It frequently, indeed ,has a parched and barren aspect , owing partly tothe greater evaporation which takes place on theselofty plains , through the diminished pressure ofthe atmosphere , and partly, no doubt, to the wantof trees to shelter the soil from the fierce influenceof the summer sun . In the time of the Aztecs , thetable - land was thickly covered with larch , oak, cypress, and other forest trees, the extraordinary dim en sion s of some of which , remaining to the present day, show that the curse Of barrenn ess in latertimes is chargeable more on man than on natur e .

“About 69° Fahrenheit, or 17° Reaumur . (Humboldt, Essai politiqu e, tom. i. p. The more elevated plateaus of the tableland, as the Valley of Toluca, about 8500 feet above the sea, have astern climate, in which the thermometer, during a great part of theday, rarely rises beyond 45° F. Idem ( loc . and Malte- Brun(Universal Geography, Eng. trans , boo k who is , indeed, in thispart of his work, but an echo of the former writer.

ends in the platea u south Of the City of Mexico. The system be

tween lies across the trend of the other two systems and differs fromthem in origin. I t belongs to the same chain which crops up in theAntil les, i.a.,

to the system appearing in Martinique and SantaLucia.”—Robert T. H ill , of U. S. Geological Survey, in Centu ryMagazine, July, 1909.

—M.]

10 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

Indeed,the early Spaniards made as indiscriminate

war on the forest as did our Puritan ancestors ,though with much less reason . After once conquerin g the country, they had no lurking ambushto fear from the submissive , semi - civilized Indian,and were not

,like our forefathers, obliged to keep

watch and ward for a century. This spoliation ofthe groun d, however, is said to have been pleasingto their imaginations , as it reminded them of theplains of their own Castile , —the table - land of Europe ; 7Where the nakedness of the landscape formsthe burden of every traveller ’s lament who visitsthat country.

M idway across the continent, somewhat nearerthe Pacific than the Atlantic Ocean, at an elevationof nearly seven thousand five hundred feet, is thecelebrated Valley ofMexico . It is of an oval form ,

about sixty- seven leagues in circumference,8 andis encompassed by a towering rampart of po rphyritic rock, which nature seems to have provided,though ineffectually, to protect it from invasion.

The soil, once carpeted with a beautiful verdure

7The elevation of the Castiles, according to the authority repeatedly cited, is about 350toises, or 2 100 feet above the ocean . (Humboldt

’

s D issertation, apud Laborde, Itinéraire descripti f de l ’ E spagne (Paris, tom. i . p. It is rare to find plains in Europeof so great a height.

8 Archbishop Lorenzana estimates the circu it of the Valley atninety leagues, correcting at the same time the statement of Co rtes,which puts it at seventy, very near the truth, as appears from theresult of M . de Humboldt’ s measurement, cited in the text. I tslengt h is about eighteen leagu es, by twelve and a half in breadth.(Hum boldt, Essai politique, tom . ii . p . 99.

—Lorenzana,H ist. de

Nueva—Espana, p. Humboldt’s map Of the Valley of Mexicoforms the third in his Atlas géographique et physique, and, likeall the others in the collect ion, will be found of inestimable valueto the traveller, the geologist, and the historian .

PRIMITIVE RACES 11

and thickly sprinkled with stately trees , is Oftenbare, and, in many places, white with the incrustation of salts caused by the draining of the waters .F ive lakes are spread over the Valley, occupyingo n e - tenth of its surface .9 On the opposite bordersof the largest of these basins , much shrunk in itsdimensions 1° since the days of the Aztecs , stood thecities of Mexico and Te z cu co , the capitals of thetwo most potent and flourishing states of Anahuac,whose history , with that of the mysterious racesthat preceded them in the country,* exhibits some

Hum boldt, Essai politique, tom. 11. pp . 99 , 44—49.—Mal te- Brun,

book 85. This latter geographer assigns only 6700 feet for the levelof the Valley, contradicting himself ( comp . book or ratherHumboldt, to whose pages he helps himself plenis m o n ibas , somewhattoo liberally, indeed, for the scanty references at the bottom of hisage .p1°Torquemada accounts in part for this diminution by supposingthat, as God permitted the waters, which once covered the wholeearth, to subside after mankind had been nearly exterminated fortheir iniquities, so he allowed the waters of the Mexican lake to subside, in token of good wil l and reconcil iation, after the idolatrousraces of the land had been destroyed by the Spaniards ! (MOn a rchia Indiana (Madrid, tom . i . p . Quite as probable,i f not as orthodox, an explanation, may be foun d in the activeevaporation Of these upper regions, and in the fact of a n immensedrain having been constructed , during the lifetime of the good father,to reduce the waters of the principal lake and ‘protect the capitalfrom inundation .

[It is perhaps to be regrett that, instead of a meagre notice ofthe Toltecs with a passing allus ion to earlier races , the author did notgive a separate chapter to the history of the country during the agespreceding the Conquest . That history, it is true, resting o n traditionor o n questionable records mingled with legendary and mythologicalrelations, is ful l of obscurity and doubt. But whatever its u nce rtainty in regard to details, it presents a mass of general facts supported by analogy and by the stronger evidence of language and ofthe existing relics of the past . The number and diversity of thearchitectural and other remains found o n the soil of Mexico and theadj acent regions, and the immens e variety of the spoken languages ,with the vestiges of others that have passed out Of use,—all per

19 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

of the nearest approaches to civilization to be metwith anciently on the North American continent.Of these races the most conspicuous were the T01tecs . Advancing from a northerly direction , butfrom what region is u n certainfl‘ they entered the

haps derived originally from a common stock, but exhibiting different stages Of development or decay, and capable of being classifiedinto several distinct families,—point to conclusions that render thesubj ect one of the most attractive fields for critical investigation.These concurrent testimonies leave no doubt that, like portions ofthe Old World similarly favored in regard to climate, soil, and

situation, the central regions of America were occupied from a veryremote period by nations which made distinct advances in civilization, and passed through a cycle of revolutions comparable to thatof which the Valley of the Euphrates and other parts of Asia wereanciently the scene. The useful arts were known and practised,weal th was accumulated, social systems exhibiting a certain refin e

ment and a peculiar complexity were organized, states were established which flourished, decayed,—either from the efi

’

ects of isolation or an inherent incapacity for continuance,—and were finallyoverthrown by invaders, by whom the experiment was repeated,though not always with equal success. Some of these nations passedaway, leaving no trace but their names ; others, whose very names areunknown, left mysterious monuments imbedded in the soil or recordsthat are undecipherable. Of those that still remain, comprisingabout a dozen distinct races speaking a hundred and twenty di ff erentdialects, we have the traditions preserved either in their own recordsor in those of the Spanish discoverers. The task of construct ingout of these materials a history shorn of the adornments of mythology and fable has been attempted by the Abbé Brass eur de Bourbourg (H istoire des Nations civilisées du Mexique et de l’A m ériqu eCentrale, durant les Siecles antérieurs a Christophe Colomb, 4 vols .,Paris, 1857 and , whatever may be thought of the method he haspursued, his res earch is unquestionable, and his views—very different from those which he has since put forth—merit attention . Amore practical effort has been made by Do n Manuel Orozco y Berrato trace the order, diff usion , and relations of the various races by thedifi

'

erences , the intermixtures, and the geographical limits of theirlanguages. (Geografia de las Lenguas y Carta e tnOgrafica deMéxico, precedidas de u n Ensayo de Clasificacio n de las mismas Lenguas y de Apuntes para las Inmigraciones de las Tribus, Mexico ,—K. ][The uncertainty is not diminished by our being told that To llan ,

Tu llau, Tulan, or Tula (called also Tlapallan and H u ehu etlapallan )

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

141 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

gleaned with certainty respecting a people whosewritten records have perished, and who are kn ownto us only through the traditionary legends of thenations that succeeded them.

12 By the generalagreement of these, however, the Toltecs were well

tude. (Essai politique, tom. i. p. According to Clavigero , it

included nearly all since known as New Spain . (Stor. del Messico,tom

.i . p. Veytia uses it, al so, as synonymous with New Spain.

(Historia antigua de Méj ico (Méj ico, tom. i . cap. Thefirst of these writers probably allows too little, as the latter do toomuch

,for its boundaries. Ixtlilxochitl says it extended four hundred

leagues south of the Otomi country. (H ist. Chichim eca, MS ., cap.The word Anahuac signifies nea r the wa ter. It was , probably,

first applied to the country around the lakes in the Mexican Valley,and gradually extended to the remoter regions occupied by the A ztecs and the other semi- c ivilized races. Or possibly the name mayhave bee n intended, as Veytia suggests (H ist. an tig., lib 1, cap. 1)to denote the land between the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific .“

Clavigero talks of B otu rini’s having written on the faith of theToltec historians.” (Stor. del Messico, tom. i . p . But thatscholar does not pretend to have ever met with a Toltec manuscripthimsel f, and had hea rd of only one in the possess ion of Ixtlilxochitl .(See his Idea de una nueva H istoria general de la Am erica Septen trion al (Madrid, p . The latter writer te lls us thathis account of the Toltec a nd Chichimec races was“derived frominterpretation ”

(probably of the Tezcucan paintings ) , and from

Thu le , with the simplifying effect of bringing two streams of inquiryinto one channel . Meanwhile, by a different kind of criticism, thewhole question is dissipated into thin air, To llan and A ztlan beingresolved into names of mere mythical import, and the regions thusdesignated transferred from the earth to the bright domain of thesky, from which the descriptions in the legends appear to have beenborrowed. See Brinton, Myths of the New World, pp . 88, 89.

—K. ][This suggestion of Veytia is unworthy of attention,—refuted by

the actual application and appropriateness of the name, and by thestate of geographical knowledge and ideas at the period when it musthave originated. A modern traveller, describing the appearance Ofthe great plains as seen from the summit of Popocatepetl

,remarks ,

Even now that the lakes have shrunk to a fraction of their formersize, we could see the fitness of the name given in Old times to th eVal ley of Mexico, A na hua c, that is, By the water- side.” Tylor, Anahuac ; or Mexico and the Mexicans, Ancient and Modern (London,

p . 970.—K. ]

PRIMITIVE RACES 15

instructed in agriculture and many of the mostuseful mechanic arts ; were nice workers of metals ; invented the complex arrangement of timeadopted by the Aztecs ; and, in short, were the truefoun tains of the civilization which distinguishedthis part of the continent in later times .” Theyestablished their capital at Tula, north of theMexican Valley, and the remains of extensivebuildings were to be discerned there at the time ofthe Conquest .“The noble ruins of religious andother edifices, stil l to be seen in various parts ofNew Spain , are referred to this people, whosename , To ltec, has passed into a synonym for architect.

15 Their shadowy history reminds us of thoseprimitive races who preceded the ancient E gyp

the traditions of old m en ; poor authority for events which hadpassed centuries before. Indeed, he acknowledges that their narratives were so full Of absurdity and falsehood that he was obligedto rej ect nine- tenths of them . (See his Rel aciones, MS ., no .The cause of truth woul d not have suffered much, probably, i f hehad rej ected nine- tenths of the remainder.*

13 Ixtlilx ochitl , H ist. Chich ., MS ., cap. 9 .—Idem, Relaciones, MS

no. 9.—Sahagun, Historia general de las Cosas de Nueva- E spa fia

(Mexico , lib. 10, cap . 99 .—Veytia, H ist. a n tig., lib. 1, cap . 97.

Sahagun, H ist. de Nueva -Espana, lib . 10, cap. 99 .“5 Sahagun, ubi supra —Torquemada, Monarch . Ind ., lib . 1, cap . 14.

[Ixtlilxochitl’

s language does not neces sarily imply that he conside red any of the relations he had received as false or absurd, nordoes he say that he had rej ected nine- tenths of them. What he haswritten is, he asserts, the true history of the Toltecs,” though itdoes not amount to nine- tenths of the whole de lo que ello12a , of what had been contained in the original records ; these recordshaving perished, and he himself having abridged the accounts he hadbeen able to obtain of their contents, as well for the sake of brevityas because of the marvellous character of the relations (“son tan

estrafias las cosas y tan peregrinas y nunca The sourcesof his information are als o incorrectly described ; but a furthermention of them will be found in a note at the end of thisBook. —K. ]

16 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

tians in the march of civilization ; fragments ofwhose monuments

,as they are seen at this day, in

co rporated with the buildings of the Egyptiansthemselves

,give to these latter the appearance of

almost modern cons tructions .16

After a period of four centuries, the Toltecs ,who had extended their sway over the remotest borders of An ahuac,17having been greatly reduced, itis said

,by famine, pestilence, and unsuccessful

wars,disappeared from the land as silently and

mysteriously as they had entered it. A few of themstill lingered behin d, but much the greater number

,probably

,spread over the region of Central

Am erica and the neighboring isles ; and the traveller now speculates on the maj estic ruins of M itlaand Palenque

,as possibly the work of this ex trao r

din arypeOple .

18

After the lapse of another hundred years , a num erou s and rude tribe, called the Chichimecs, e n

Description de l’E gypte (Paris, Antiquités, tom . i . cap . 1.

Veytia has traced the migrations of the Toltecs w ith suflicien t ihdu stry, scarcely rewarded by the necessarily doubtful credit of theresults. H ist. an tig., lib. 9, cap . 91—33 .

‘7Ixtlilxochitl, H ist. Chich., MS., cap. 73.“Veytia, H ist. an tig., lib. 1, cap. 33 .—Ixtlilx ochitl, H ist . Chich.,

MS., cap 3 .—Idem, Relaciones, MS ., nos. 4, 5 .

—Father Torquemada—perhaps misinterpreting the Tezcucan hieroglyphics—has s e

counted for this mysterious disappearance of the Toltecs by suchfee- faw- fum stories of giants and demons as show his appetite forthe marvellous was fully equal to that of any of his cal ling. See hisMonarch. Ind ., lib. 1, cap. 14.

[This supposition, neither adopted nor rej ected in the text, was,as Mr . Tylor remarks, “quite tenable at the time that Prescottwrote,” being founded on the statements of early writers and partially supported by the conclus ions of Mr. Stephens, who believedthat the ruined cities of Oaxaca, Chiapas, Yucatan, and Guatemal a

PRIMITIVE RACES

tered the deserted coun try from the regions o f thefar Northwest. They were speedily followed byother races, of higher civilization, perhaps of thesame family with the Toltecs, whose langu agethey appear to have spoken. The most noted ofthese were the Aztecs or Mexicans, and the Acolhuans . The latter, better known in later times bythe name of Tezcucans, from their capita l, Tez

dated from a comparatively recent period, and were still flourishingat the t ime of the Spanish Conquest ; and that their inhabitants, theancestors, as he contends, of the degenerate race that now occu piesthe soil, were of the same stock and spoke the same language asthe Mexicans. ( Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas,and Yucatan. ) But these Opinions have been refuted by later investigators . Orozco y Berra, in an elaborate and satis factory examinationof the question, discusses all the evidence relating to it, compares theremains in the southern provinces with those of the Valley of Mexico, points out the essential differences in the architecture, sculpture,an d inscriptions, and arrives at the conclusion that there was “nopoint of contact or resemblance between the two civi lizations. Heconsiders that of the southern provinces, though of a far highergrade, as long anterior in time to the Toltec domination,—thework of a people which had passed away, under the assaul ts of barbarism , at a period prior to all traditions, leaving no name and notrace of their existence save those monuments which, neglected andforgotten by their successors, have become the riddle of later generations.’ Geografia de las Le nguas de Mexico , pp. 199- 131. See a lsoTylor, Anahuac, p . 189, et seq.

- K. ][Charnay (Ancient Cities of the New World ) holds that both

M itla and Pal enque are of Toltec origin. He has no doubt whatsoever concerning Palenque. This he thinks was a Holy City whoseinhabitants dispersed at the first alarm of the Conquest (p .

(See, further, p . Dr. Brinton holds that Father Duran, Historia de las Indias de Nneva E spar’ia, Tezoz om oc, Cronica Mexicana,and the Co dex Ramirez identi fy the Toltecs with the Aztecs . AsJohn Fiske puts it, “it is well to beware, however, about meddl ingmuch with these Toltecs.” Mr. Fiske urges like caution concernin gthe Chichimecs. Bandelier (A rchwo lOgica l Tour, p . 199) points outthat Ixtlilxochitl, the historian of the Chichimecs, “wrote for an

interested obj ect, and with a view of sustaining tribal claims in theeyes of the Spanish government.”—M.]

18 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

cuco,

19 on the eastern border of the Mexican lake,were peculiarly fitted, by their comparatively mildreligion and manners , for receiving the t1n ctu reof civilization which could be derived from thefew Toltecs that still remained in the country.

"e

This,in their turn, they communicated to the bar

barous Chichimecs,a large portion of whom he

came amalgamated with the new settlers as onenation.

20

Availing themselves of the strength derived, not

Tez on co signifies“place of detention ; as several of the tribeswho succes s ively occupied Anahuac were said to have hal ted sometime at the spot. Ixtlilx ochitl , H ist. Chich., MS ., cap. 10.

‘r

” The historian Speaks, in one page, of the Chich imecs burrowingin caves, or, at best, in cabins of straw, and, in the next, talks gravely

[It is difficult to reconcile the two statements that the Toltecswere the true fountains of the civil ization which distinguished thispart of the continent in later times,” and that they“disappea redfrom the land as silently and mysteriously as they had entered it,leaving an interval of more than a century before the appearanceof the Aztecs and the Acolhuans . I f the latter received from theformer the knowledge of those arts in which they speedily rivall edthem, it must have been by more direct communication and transmission than can be inferred from the mention of a small fractionof the Toltec popul ation as remaining in the country,—a fact whichhas itsel f the appearance of having been invented to meet the difficu lty. Orozco y Berra compares this transitional period with thatwhich followed the overthrow of the Roman Empire ; but i f in theformer case there was, in his own words, “no conquest, but onlyan occupation, no war because no one to contend with,” the analogyaltogether fails. Brasseur de Bourbourg reduces the interval between the departure Of the Toltecs and the arrival of the Chichimecs to a few years, and supposes that a considerable number of theformer inhabitants remained scattered through the Valley. I f, however, it be allowable to substitute probabilities for doubtful relations

,

it is an eas ier solution to believe that no interval occurred and thatno emigration took place. —K. ]1'

[“Uber die Etym ologie lasst sich nichts sicheres sagen

,says

Buschmann, so zuvers ichtlich auch Prescott, wohl nach Ixtlilxochitl,den Namen durch place of deten tion iibersetz t. Uber die az tekischen Ortsnamen, S . 697.—K. ]

PRIMITIVE RACES 19

only from this increase of numbers , but from theirown superior refinement, the Acolhuans graduallystretched their empire over the ruder tribes in thenorth ; while their capital was filled with a numerous population, busily employed in many of themore useful and even elegant arts of a civilizedcommu nity. In this palmy state, they were sudden ly assaulted by a warlike neighbor, the Tepances , their own kindred , and inhabitants of thesame valley as themselves . Their provinces wereoverrun , their armies beaten, their king as sassi

mated, and the flourishing city of Tez cu co becamethe prize of the victor. From this abj ect conditionthe uncommon abilities of the young prince, Nezahu alcoyo tl, the rightful heir to the crown, backedby the efficient aid of his Mexican allies , at lengthredeemed the state, and Opened to it a new careerof prosperity, even more brilliant than the former. 2 1

The Mexicans, with whom our history is principally concerned, came also , as we have seen, fromthe remote regions of the North ,—the populoushive of nations in the New World, as it has been in

of their s efioras , in fa n tas , and caba lleros ! Ibid ., cap . 9, et seq .

Veytia, Hist . an tig., lib. 9, cap . 1—10.—Camargo, H istoria de Tlas

cala, MS.21 Ixtlilx ochitl, H ist. Chich ., MS ., cap . 9—90.

—Veytia, Hist. an tig.,

lib. 9, cap. 99—54.

[The confusion arises from the fact that the name of Chichimecs,originally that of a single tribe, and subsequently of its many o ff

shoots, was also used , like the term ba rba ria ns in mediaeval Italy, todesignate success ive hordes, of whatever race, being somet imes employed a s a mark of contempt, and somet imes assumed as an honorable appellation. It is found applied to the Otomies , the Toltecs,and many other races .—K. ]

90 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

the Oldfi" They arrived on the borders of Anahuactowards the beginning of the thirteenth century,some tim e after the occupation of the land by thekindred races . For a long time they did not establish themselves in any permanent residence, butcontinued shifting their quarters to different partsof the Mexican Valley, enduring all the casualtiesand hardships of a migratory life. On one occasion they were enslaved by a more powerful tribe ;but their ferocity soon made them formidable totheir masters .2 2 After a series of wanderings andadventures which need not shrink from comparison

These were the Co lhu an s , not Acolhuans, with whom Humboldt,and most writers since, have confounded them.1

' Se e his Essai po litique, tom. i . p. 414 ; i i. p . 37.

[Some recent writers have contended that Mexico must have beenpeopled originally by migrations from the South. Aztec names andcommunities, and traces of Toltec settlements long anterior to theoccupation of Anahuac by the same people, are found in severalparts of Central America. The most primitive traditions, as wellas the remains of the earliest civil ization, belong also to the samequarter. This latter fact, however, is considered by Orozco y Berraas itsel f an evidence of the migrations having been from the North,the first comers having been naturally attracted so uthward by awarmer climate and more fert ile soil, or pushed onward in this direction by successive invasions from behind. Contradictory inferences have in like manner been drawn from the existence of Aztecremains and settlements in New Mexico and Arizona. A ll that canbe said with confidence is that neither of the Oppos ing theories restson a secure and sufficient basis. —K. ]1[Humboldt, strictly speaking, has not confounded the Co lbu an swith the Acolhuans, but has written, in the places cited, the lattername for the former. Letzterer Name,” says Buschmann, “istder erstere mit dem Zusatz vo n a tl Wasser,—Was ser Co lhu e r .

”

(Uber die aztekischen Ortsnamen, S . Yet the two tribes, according to the same authority, were entirely distinct, one alonethough which, he is unable to determine—being of the Nahuatlacrace. Orozco y Berra, however, makes them both of this stock, theAcolhuans being one of the main branches, the Co lhu ans merely thedescendants of the Toltec remnant in Anahuac.—K. ]

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

99 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

of the modern Mexican republic. Such were thehumble beginnings of the Venice of the WesternWorld.

2 4 9“The forlorn condition of the new settlers wasmade still worse by domestic feuds . A part of thecitizens seceded from the main body, and formed aseparate community on the neighboring marshes .Thus divided

,it was long before they could aspire

to the acquisition of territory on the main land .

They gradually increased, however, in numbers,and strengthened themselves yet more by variousimprovements in their polity and military discipline , while they established a reputation for courage as well as cruelty in war which made their

2‘“Datu r haec venia an tiqu itati, says Livy, u t, m iscendo hu

mana divinis, primordia u rbium augu stiora faciat.” H ist. Presi

See, for the above paragraph, Col. de Mendoza, plate 1, apud Antiq.of Mexico, vol. i.,—Ixtlilxochitl, H ist. Ch ich ., MS ., cap. 10,—Toribio,H istoria de los Indios, MS ., Parte 3, cap . 8,—Veytia , H ist . an tig.,

lib . 9, cap. 15.—Clavige ro , after a laborious examination, assigns the

following dates to some of the prominent events noticed in thetext. No two authorities agree on them ; and this is not strange,considering that Clavigero—the most inquisitive of all—does notalways agree with himself. (Compare his dates for the coming ofthe Acolhuans, tom . i . p . 147, a nd tom . iv., dissert.

Th e To ltecs arrived in AnahuacThey abando n ed the coun tryThe Chichim ecs arrivedThe Aco lhuans arrived abo u tThe Mexicans reached TulaThey fo unded Mex1co

See his dissert . 9, sec. 19. In the last date, the one of most importance, he is confirmed by the learned Veytia, who di ffers fromhim in all the others. H ist . an tig., lib. 9, cap . 15.

[In a somewhat similar way wa s founded the Italian Venice.It was the fear of death at the hands of Attila and his Huns thatcaused the peopling of the islands among the lagoons of the Adriatic. I t was the easy subsistence the lagoons afforded that caus edthe steady growth of the Ital ian vil lage.—M.]

AZTEC EMPIRE 93

name terrible throughout the Valley. In the earlypart of the fifteenth century, nearly a hundredyears from the foundation of the city, an event tookplace which created an entire revolution in the circum stan ces and, to some extent, in the characterof the Aztecs . This was the subversion Of the Tezcucan monarchy by the Tepanecs , already noticed .

When the oppressive conduct of the victors had atlength aroused a spirit of resistance, its prince,Nezahualcoyotl, succeeded, after incredible perilsand escapes, in mustering such a force as , with theaid of the Mexicans , placed him on a level with hisenem ies . In two successive battles, these were defeated with great slaughter, their chief slain, andtheir territory, by one of those sudden reverseswhich characterize the wars of petty states, passedinto the hands of the conquerors . It was awardedto Mexico, in return for its important services .ale

Then was formed that remarkable league , which,indeed, has no parallel in history. It was agreedbetween the states of Mexico, Tez cu co , and theneighbo ring little kingdom of TlaCOpan , that theyshould mutually support each other in their wars ,Offensive and defensive , and that in the distributionof the spoil one - fifth should be assigned to Tlacopan , and the remainder be divided, in what proportions is uncertain, between the other powers . TheTezcucan writers claim an equal share for theirnation with the Aztecs . But this does not seem to

[This confederacy occupied one of the strongest defensive posit ions ever held by Indians . It gradually extended its sway over alarge part of the Mexican territory. This sway,” however, as Fiskepoints out, was not a military occupation of the country. It wasa“system of plunder en forced by terror.”—M. ]

94 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

be warranted by the immense increase of territorysubsequently appropriated by the latter. An d wemay account for any advantage conceded to themby the treaty, on the supposition that, however ihferior they may have been originally, they were ,at the time of making it, in a more prosperous condition than their allies , broken and dispirited bylong oppression. What is more extraordinarythan the treaty itself, however, is the fidelity withwhich it was maintained . During a century Of u ninterrupted warfare that ensued, no instance oc

curred where the parties quarrelled over the division of the spoil, which so Often makes shipwreckof similar confederacies among civilized states .2 5

The allies for some time found sufficient ocen

pation for their arms in their own valley ; but theysoon overleaped its rocky ramparts, and by themiddle of the fifteenth century, under the firstMontezuma, had spread down the sides of thetable - land to the borders of the Gul f of Mexico .Tenochtitlan , the Az tec capital, gave evidence ofthe public prosperity. Its frail tenements were

The loyal Tezcucan chronicler claims the supreme dignity for hisown sovereign , i f not the grea test share of the spoil, by this imperial compact. (Hist. Chich., cap . Torquemada, on the otherhand, cl aims one—half of a ll the conquered lands for Mexico. (MOn a rch . Ind., lib. 9, cap. All agree in assigning only one- fifthto Tlacopan ; and Veytia (H ist. antig., lib. 3, cap . 3 ) and Zurita (Rapport su r les différentes Classes de Chefs de la Nouvelle- Espagne, trad .de Tern aux (Paris, p . bo th very competent critics, ac

quiesce in an equal division between the two principal states in theconfederacy. A n ode, still extant, of Nezahualcoyotl, in its Castilianversion, bears testimony to the singular union of the three powers :

so lo se acordaran e n las Nacione slo bie n q ue gobe rn aro nlas tree Ca bezas q ue cl Im perio honraron.

Can tare s de l E m pe rador

AZTEC EMPIRE 95

supplanted by solid structu res of stone and lime .Its population rapidly increased . Its old feudswere healed. The citizens who had seceded wereagain brought under a common government withthe main body, and the quarter they occupied waspermanently connected with the parent city ; thedimensions of which , covering the same ground,were much larger than those of the modern capitalof Mexico.2 6

Fortunately, the throne was fil led by a succession of able prin ces, who kn ew how to profit bytheir enlarged resources and by the martial en thusiasm of the nation . Year after year saw them re

turn , loaded with the spoils Of conquered cities, andwith throngs of devoted captives , to their capital.NO state was able long to resist the accumulatedstrength of the confederates . At the beginning

See the plans of the ancient and modern capital, in Bullock’ sMexico,” first edition. The original of the ancient map was ob

tain ed by that traveller from the collection of the unfortunateBo tu rini ; i f, as seems probable, it is the one indicated on page 13of his Catalogue, I find no warrant for Mr. Bul lock’s statementthat it was the one prepared for Cortes by the order of Montezuma.

[The first m an chosen to be the chief of m e n (tlacatecuhtli) ,or superior ofiicer of the confederacy, was A cam apichtli. H is election took place in 1375, and he is sometimes called by Europeanwriters the founder of the confederacy.” H is name, translated,was Handful of R eeds ”

. The succession of chiefs o f m en was as

Acamapich tli (Handful o f Reeds )Huitzilih uitl (Humm ing Bird)Chim a lpopoca (Sm o kin g Shie ld)l zcoa tz in (Obs idian Snake )Monte z uma 1(Angry Chie f)A xayaca tl (Face in th e Wa ter)Tizoc (Wo u nded Le g)A h u itz o tl (Water Ra t)Monte zuma IICuitlah ua t z in

Gua temo tz in3

3

09

s

9

9

e

s

s

r

CONQUE ST OF MEXICO

of the sixteenth century, just before the arrivalof the Spaniards, the Aztec dominion reachedacross the continent, from the Atlantic to the P acific, and, under the bold and bloody A hu itz o tl, itsarms had been carried far over the limits alreadynoticed as defining its permanent territory, intothe farthest corners of Guatemala and Nicaragua.This extent of empire, however limited in comparison with that of many other states, is trulywonderful, considering it as the acquisition of apeople whose whole population and resources hadso recently been comprised within the walls oftheir own petty city, and considering, moreover,that the conquered territory was thickly settled byvarious races, bred to arms like the Mexicans, andlittle inferior to them in social organization. Thehistory of the Aztecs suggests some strong pointsof resemblance to that of the ancient Romans, notonly in their military successes, but in the policywhich led to them .

27

27Clavigero , Stor. del Messico, tom. 1. lib . 9.- Torquemada, Mo

n a rch . Ind ., tom. i . lib . 9.- B otu rini, Idea, p . 146 —001. Of Mendoza,

Part 1, and Co dex Te llerian o—R em en sis , apud Antiq. of Mexico, vols .

i., vi. —Machiavelli has noticed it as one great cause Of the militarysuccesses of the Romans, “that they associated themselves, in theirwars, with other states, as the principal,” and expresses his astonishm en t that a similar policy should not have been adopted by ambitious republics in later times . (See his Discorsi sopra T. Livio, lib. 9,cap . 4, apud Opere (Geneva, This, as we have seen above,was the very course pursued by the Mexicans.The most important contribution, of late years, to the early history of Mexico is the H is toria an tigua of the Lie . Don. MarianoVeytia , published in the city of Mex ico, in 1836. This scholar wasborn of an ancient and highly respectable family at Puebla, 1718.

After finishing his academic education, he went to Spain, where hewas kindly received at court . He afterwards visited several othercountries of Europe, made himself acquainted with their languages,

VE YTIA 97

and returned home well stored with the fruits of a discriminatingobservation and diligent study. Th e res t of his l ife he devoted toletters ; especial ly to the illustration Of the national history andantiquities . A s the executor of the unfortunate B otu rini, with whomhe had contracted an in timacy in Madrid, he Obtained access to hisvaluable collection of manuscripts in Mexico, and from them , andevery other source which his position in society and his eminentcharacter Opened to him , he composed various works, none of which,however, except the one before us, has been admitted to the honorsof the press . The time of his death is not given by his editor, butit was probably not later than 1780.

Veytia’s history covers the whole period from the first occupation

Of Anahuac to the middle of the fifteenth century, at which pointhis labors were unfortun ately terminated by his death. In the earlyportion he has endeavored to trace the migratory movements andhistorical annals of the principal races who entered the country.Every page bears testimony to the extent and fidel ity of his re

sea rches ; and, i f we fee l but moderate confidence in the resul ts, thefault is not imputable to him, so much as to the dark and doubtfulnature of the subj ect . A s he descends to later ages , he is moreoccupied with the fortunes of the Tezcucan than with those of theAztec dynasty, which have been amply discus sed by others of hiscoun trym en . The premature close of his labors prevented him ,

probably, from giving that attention to the domestic in st itutions ofthe people he describes , to which they are entitled as the most important subj ect of inquiry to the historian. The deficiency has beensupplied by hi s j udicious ed itor, Orteaga, from other sources . Inthe early part of his work, Veytia has explained the chronologicalsystem of the Aztecs, but, like most writers preceding the accurateGama, with indifferent success . As a critic, he certainly ranksmuch higher th an the annalists who preceded him , and, when hisown rel i gion is not involved, shows a discriminat ing j udgment.When it is , he betrays a full measure of the credu lity which stillmaintains its hold o n too many even of the well- informed of hiscountrym en. The editor of the work has given a very interestingletter from the A bbe Clavige ro to Veytia, written when the formerwas a poor an d humble exil e, and in the tone of one addressinga person of high standing and literary eminence. Both were employed o n the same subj ect . The writings of the poor abbé, published again and again, and translated into various languages, havespread his fame throughout Europe ; while the name of Veyt ia,whose works have been locked ‘

up in their prim itive manuscript, isscarcely known beyond the boundaries of Mexico.[The Opinions set forth by Mr. Pres cott respecting the Mexicanempire were attacked with much vigor by Lewis H . Morgan. Mr.Morgan demonstrated conclusively that many of thos e opinions wereerroneo us. But, as Payne says in his H istory of the New Worldcall ed America, vol 1. p. 306,

“his results cannot be regarded

98 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

as satisfactory, much less as final. The Span ish chroniclers Prescott consulted were correct ordinarily in their statement of facts,but were misleading in their conclusions because of their inabil ityto comprehend the Aztec institutions.On the pueblo as the unit of aborigina l history, see Payne, vol. i.pp . 36—47.In his Ancient Society, p . 186, Mr. Morgan says : “The histories of Spanish America may be tru sted in whatever relates to theacts of the Spaniards, and to the acts and personal charact eristicsof the Indians ; in whatever relates to their weapons, implementsand utensils, fabrics, food and raiment, and things of a similarCharacter. But in whatever relates to Indian society and government,their social relations and plan of li fe, they are n early worthless,because they learned nothing and knew nothing of either. We areat ful l liberty to rej ect them in these respects and commenceanew, using any facts they may contain which harmoniz e ‘with whatis known of Indian society.” He does not, however, always observehis own rules i f those rul es seem to militate against the thesis heis endeavoring to establish. Moreover, he is so dogmatic in his statements and so confident in the infallibility of his own j udgment,that the reader who is seeking simply to ascertain the truth aboutthe whole matter is oftentimes intensely exasperated with him. Thisis especially true with respect to the famous essay on Montezuma’ sD inner,” where he writes almost as though he had been a gues tat the banquet and had partaken of the viands which were thereconsumed. As Mr. Morgan may justly be regarded as the founderof a school, it is well to state his views at length.According to him, then, there was no kingdom or empire ofMexico. There was simply a confederacy Of three tribes, and thisconfederacy was a military democracy. The governmental powerswere vested in a council of chiefs with a general commander.The council ex ercised all civil power, the military power beingleft in the hands of the war chief. There were no feudal castlesinhabited by lawless lords. There were only great communal housestenanted by clans.In his brilliant work on Ancient Society, Mr. Morgan placesbelow civilization two stages of development—savagery and barbarism . The invention of pottery marks the difi'

e rence betweenthese two stages. The savage makes no pottery. When the womenof the savage tribes used vesse ls of fire- hardened clay for boil ingtheir food they had passed into the first stage of barbarism.

Elsewhere there were pastoral stages of development. In NorthAmerica there were none. The only domes ticated animal its inhabitants possessed when the Europeans landed on the continent wasthe dog. The first stage of barbarism in North America wasmarked by the cul tivation of maize or Indian corn . This graincan be cultivated more easily than any other cereal . N0 other yieldssuch enormous returns. In vi rgin so i l it is only necessary to drop

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

30 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

two nations were al ike both in their institutions and in their developm en t is a s unwarranted as to say that the governm ental institu tio n s and the political development of the United States andVenezuela are identical .

How did this confederacy come to be formed ?The earliest family group was the clan . A s Sir Henry Mainepoints out in his Ancient Law, the individual was nothing in

ancient society,the state was nothing, the family was everything.

This statement holds good everywhere, for America as wel l as forIndia. A group of clans made up a phratry or brotherhood ; a groupof phratries made a tribe . This threefold grouping wa s universal .The Greek phratry, the Roman curia, the Teutonic hundred wereanalogous institutions. In the clans kinship wa s always derivedthrough the femal e line. The Mu tterrecht everywhere prevailed .

“I

Ramppev 1"5715 11mm Tov fppevat dvrdpéyarye

aim6rd, bv yap!a we éov yévov avrbgavémOdyssey, 1, 915—6 .

In that middle stage of barbarism when men began to acquireproperty, when warriors of val or converted to their uses what hadonce been common property,—herds of cattle, wives, etc.,—whenpolygamy became a custom, kinship came to be reckoned throughthe male line. In thi s way relationship was mightily changed .But in aboriginal America where domesticated animal s were un

known this change did not take place as early as it did elsewhere.In Mexico the change did not probably come much before the century of the Conquest. K inship was through femal es only. The exogam o u s clan (the system which required that the spouse should betaken from another clan ) was the unit of the social structure, notthe fam ily.House life found expression in architecture. One underlyin gprinciple was everywhere apparent—namely, adaptation to commun alliving. Gradations in culture were evident from the buildings.“Thus, the“long house of the Iroquois, from fifty to one hundredfeet long, divided into compartments every six or eight feet, androughly constructed from timber and bark, betokened very different conditions from those which prevailed among the pueblos of theZuni Indians, with their immense structures of adobe and of stone.In the communal house woman ruled . To her belonged the personal property. Because it was derived through her, this propertyremained always with the exogamous clan . Thus, marriage madevery little difierence to woman’s maintenance. I f the husband whohad come into the house proved to be lazy and otherwise worthless,divorce was easy, and he was sent back to his own .

[This subj ect Mr. Morgan treats with a master’ s hand in his

Houses and House Li fe of the American Aborigines ]

PHRATRIES 31

From its own members the clan elect ed a sachem to attend tocivil matters, and a chief to direct its military affairs.The so n coul d not succeed his father in thes e ofiices , but a brother might succeed a brother. (This was true of the Indian tribe towhich Powhatan belonged. Had James I of England been awareof this fact, he would not have looked with such j ealous eyes uponhis subj ect Rolfe who had married the Indian princess Pocahontas.)The clan was always known by some distinctive name, usually thatof some animal—beaver, fox, wolf, etc .When the clan became so large as to be unwieldy, it Split upinto phratries. Th e

“phratry ”was at first a religious and social

organization ; and one of its chief duties was the prosecution of crimin a ls . (The Teutonic hundred was ever ready to exactThe tribe was usually the highest attainment in organizationof which the aborigines of America were capable. The Mexicanconfederacy was the most interesting and important of their permanent organizations . The Spaniards did not understand the principles o n wh ich this confederacy was founded, because it wasentirely unlike anything with which they were familiar.—M. ]

CHAPTER II

SUCCESSION TO THE CROWN—AZTEC NOBILITYJUDIC IAL SYSTEM—LAWS AND REVENUES

M ILITARY INST ITUTIONS

HE form of government diff ered in the diffe ren t states of Anahuac. With the Aztecs

and Tezcucans it was monarchical and nearly ah

solute. The two nations resembled each otherso much in their political institutions that one oftheir historians has remarked, in too un qualified amanner indeed , that what is told of one may bealways understood as applying to the other.1 Ishall direct my inquiries to the Mexican polity,borrowing an illustration occasionally from thatof the rival kingdom .

*

xIxtlilxoch itl, H ist. Chich., MS ., cap. 36.

[Robertson, in his H istory of America, was the first man toquestion the correctness of the j udgment passed by the Spanishchroniclers upon the Aztec institutions. Subsequent Americanwriters gave louder expression to his doubts. As has been said in thenotes upon the preceding chapter, Mr. Morgan proved conclusivelythat the so- called“empire ” was no empire a t a ll , but only a confederacy Of three tribes . Mr . Morgan, however, was sometimesled into inaccuracy and extravagance of statement because of hisdesire to place all the American aborigines o n the same institutionalplane.Adolf Bandelier, pupil and disciple of Morgan, persevering andaccurate scholar, investigated the subj ect in an entirely u npreju

39

SUCCESSION TO THE CROWN 33

The government was an elect ive monarchy.

Four of the principal nobles , who had been chosenby their own body in the preceding reign, filled the

diced way and with a thoroughness which forces m en to place almostimplicit confidence in his conclusions. I t is well here to summarizethose conclusions.The Mexican confederacy was made up of three tribes, the Aztecs,the Tezcucans, and the Tlacopan s , who dwelt in neighboring pueblos.Of these t ribes the Az tecs and Tezcucans were superior to the

TlaCOpa n s . Spoil s Of war were always divided into five port ions .The TlaCOpan s took one, their allies shared equally the other fourparts. The Indian pueblos generally were designed to withstanda protracted siege, but the Mexican pueblos were almost impregnable. It is not likely that any other Indian tribes could have captu red them . Dwelling securely in these great communal houses, whichwere also fortresses, the Aztec confederacy held many other tribesin subj ection. I t was only necessary for it to send its agents toother pueblos to secure at once the specified tribute. Failure to paythis tribute brought summary punishment at the hands of the warriors of the confederacy. The“empire ” was“only a partnershipformed for the purpose of carrying o n the business of warfare, andthat intended, not for the extension of territorial ownership, butonly for an increase of the means of subsistence.” The subj ectpeo ples were never incorporated into the confederacy. The tribe remain ed intact. The houses the tribe occupied were common prope rty, and so was the land cultivated . Neither land nor houses couldbe sold, and as the tribe increased in numbers new communal houseswere built to accommodate the increase. Th e great fortress - dwellings in a, for savages, well - cul tivated land prevented the subdivision of tribes which was constantly taking place in Wilder NorthAmerica.Twenty clans, organized into four phratries, made up of the Aztectribe. The clans were called “ca lpu llis .

” They were governed bya council of chiefs, “tecuhtli, elected by the clan. There was an

official head, the “calpul lac,” whose duties were mainly civil, andalso a military leader, the“Ohcacau tin ”

(“elder Pain

f ul religious ordeals accompanied the initiation of these men intooffice. Clan officers held their places during good behavior. Medicinemen , or pries ts, were members of the clan council . To the fourphratries into which the clan was divided four quarters of thecity Of Mexico, each under its own captain, were assigned . Theirtitles were “man of the house of darts ,” “chief of the eagleand cactus,” blood - shedder,” and“cutter of m en .

” Of thes e captains the “chief of the eagle and cactus ” was chief executioner.Their principal duty was to

'

m aintain order both within and without

CONQUEST OF MEXICO

Office of electors, to whom were added, with merelyan honorary rank, however, the two royal allies ofTez cu co and Tlacopan . The sovereign was se

the pueblo. In each of these four quarters was an armory (“houseof in which the weapons of the phratry were kept when itswarriors were not engaged in warfare. The phratry was in Mexicoprimarily a military organization.Twenty members, one from each clan, made up the tribal councilwhich exercised supreme control over the Aztec tribe. The memberwho was chosen to represent the clan was cal led tlato an i,

” the“speaker,” and the council was cal led “tlatocan ,

” the “place ofspeech.” Sessions of the council were regularly held every ten days,and every eighty days an extra session was convened, to which thetwenty“Ohcacau tin s ,” the four captains of the phratries, the twocivil executives of the tribe, and some others were summoned. Its

decisions were final .As the clan had its civil head, or calpu llac, so the tribe had a corresponding Oflicer, the cihu acoa tl, or female snake.” The“snakewoman was always a m an . He was chief j udge of the clan and waselected for life by the tribal council . The “snake woman ”

was

second in command to the “chief of men,” or tl acatecuh tli, thehea d war chief. While at first head war chief of the Az tecs, aboutthe year 1430 the tlacatecuhtli was made head war Chief and commander of the confederacy. Montezuma was“chief of men,” andthe Spaniards saw him surrounded with such state that they n ot

”

unnaturally supposed him to be king of the Aztecs. Montezuma’sposition, however, was not at all that of a king, and most of theroyal functions fell to the lot of the “snake woman .” Bandelierthinks the“chief of m en

” was only the chief military Ofiicer. Hewas elected by the“elder brothers (ohcacau tins ) of the clans, thetribal council, and the leading priests, sitting in assembly. A principle of succession seems to have confined the elect ion to members of a special clan . Moreover, from four o fficers—namely, a member of the priesthood called the “man of the dark house,” andthe phratry captains called respectively m an of the house ofdarts,” blood- shedder,” and cutter of men —the chief Of m en

was always chosen . He exercised certain priestly functions afterhis election . H is first official act was to Offer incense to the wargod Huitzilopochtli.“Montezuma was“priest commander as wellas“chief of m en .

”

The“chief of m en” held office during good behavior. He was,

ex Officio , a member of the tribal coun cil, but he had little to dowithin the tribe limits. H is functions were exercised outside theconfederacy, and his special duty was to superintend the collection

[Bancroft, Native Races of the Pacific States, vol. 11. p .

SUCCESSION TO THE CROWN 35

l ected from the brothers of the deceased prince,or, in defaul t of them, from his nephews . Thusthe election was always restricted to the same fam

o f tribute. H is agents, called crop- gatherers (calpixqu i) , wereappointed by the tribal council . I t was their duty to vis it thesubj ect pueblos and to gather the tribute—maiz e, weapons, pottery,feather-work, female slaves, victim3 for sacrifice, or anything elsewhich suited the Victor’s fancy. The prisoners were forced tocarry the other tribute to the tecpan, or tribal house, and were accompanied by couriers who saw that the tribute was duly deliveredaccordin g to the directions given in picture-writing by the“cropgatherers.” The Office of calpixqu i was most dangerous, being praetically that of spy. All these institutions the Spanish historiansnoted without understanding. They supposed that there was astanding army ; but every male was born a warrior, and so thepeople were the army. There was no nobili ty of any kind inMexico. Merit alo n e determined the appointment to ofiice . NoOffice whatever, no kind of dignity, was among the Mexicans transmissible by inheritance.”Above the common warriors of the clan were two higher classes,the “distinguished braves ” and the war chiefs proper. Amongthe “distinguished braves ” were three Classes, arranged accordingto attainments, none of the braves being elected, but all winningtheir place by valor. The war ch iefs were elected. The “snakewoman,” or“female snake,” acted as a check upon the head warchief, or “chief of m e n .

” The two alternately took charge offorays. The elaborate decorations which adorned the “chief ofmen in his official capacity may be seen represented in the sculptures at Palenque, especially upon the“tablet of the cross.”The Aztecs conducted no long campaigns, and were not successful

in protracted sieges, while they were always able to make a suc

cess ful defence against enemies of their own class. Their pyramidaltemples—teocall i—were admirable fortresses . In Mexico itsel f thecauseways were essentially military constructions, and not simplyroads to connect the city with the mainland. Captives taken inforays were collared,” that is, they were secured by wooden collars fastened u pon their necks . I f they were specially unruly, andwere continually striving to escape, the tendons of their feet werecut.A s the tribes increa sed new calpullis were formed and new com

m u na l houses were built . The Spaniards took it for granted that thet ribal government which exercised authority over tribal soil couldalienate that soil, but this was not the case. I t was not until commu n al soil was done away with that private ownership was established.

36 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

ily. The candidate preferred must have distin

guished himself in war, though , as in the case ofthe last Montezuma, he were a member of thepriesthood.

2 This singular mode of supplyin g thethrone had some advantages . The candidate s received an education which fitted them for the royaldignity, while the age at which they were chosennot only secured the nation against the evils ofminority, but afforded ample means for estimatingtheir qualifications for the Office . The result, atall events , was favorable ; since the throne, as already noticed, was fil led by a succession of ableprinces, well qualified to rul e over a warlike andambitious people . The scheme of election, how

’ This was an exception —In Egypt, also, the king was frequentlytaken from the warrior caste, though obliged afterwards to be instructed in the mysteries of the priesthood : 6 as in paxipo v an ode

ds typévog éyive‘

ro raw lépwv. Plutarch, de Isid . et Osir ., s ec. 9 .

Mr. Bandelier reaches the following conclusions1. Abstract ownership either by the state or the individual wasunknown.9. R ight of possession was vested in the kin, or clan. The idea ofalienation was never entertained .

3 . Individuals only held the right to us e certain lots .4. N0 rights of possession were attached to any office or chief

tain cy.

5. For tribal bus iness certain lands were s et apart independentof persons.6. Conquest was followed not by annexation or apportionment,but by tribute.7. Feudalism could not prevail under these conditions.Of the kin , or clan, it should be noted that, first, the kin claimedthe right to name its members ; second, it wa s the duty of thekin to educate its members ; third, it was accustomed to regulatemarriage ; fourth, one attribute of the kin was the right of commonburial ; fifth, the kin had to protect its members ; six th, it exercis edthe right of electing its officers and of deposing them. (Montezuma,“chief of men,” was deposed before he died .) —M. ]

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

38 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

ental . Their spacious palaces were provided withhalls for the different councils who aided the monarch in the transaction of business . The chief ofthese was a sort of privy council, composed in part,probably, of the four electors chosen by the noblesafter the accession, whose places , when made vacant by death , were immediately supplied as before . It was the business of this body, so far ascan be gathered from the very loose accounts givenof it, to advise the king, in respect to the government of the provinces , the administration of therevenues, and, indeed, on all great matters Of public interest .5

In the royal buildings were accommodations,also, for a numerous body- guard i of the sovereign ,made up of the chief nobility. It is not easy todetermine with precision, in these barbarian governm en ts , the limits of the several orders . It iscertain there was a distinct class of nobles , withlarge landed possessions, who held the most impor

Sahagun, who places the elective power in a much larger body,speaks of four senators, who formed a state council . (H ist. deNueva- E spar

’

ia , lib. 8, cap. Acosta enl arges the council beyondthe number of the electors. (Lib. 6, ch. N0 two writers agr ee.

[The spacious palace in which the chief of m en lived was thechief communal house of the clan. The“privy council ” was madeup of the clan Ofiicers specified on page 33 .

—M. ]1”

[There was, according to Bandelier, no such thing as a“bodyguard.” Guards were unknown . This was evidenced when Montezuma was captured. No body- guard ” attempted his rescue. Bande lier

’s conclusions should be kept steadily in mind in reading

this chapter. The“distinct class of nobles, with large landed possessions,” were only the principal ofiice rs of the tribe, who wereof course of the same“kin ” as the so - called Aztec monarch . Thegreat caciques, with thousands of vassals, were tribal Officers leadingtribal warriors. The estates were all held by the tribe, and wereall subj ect to tribute.—M.]

AZTEC NOBILITY 39

tant Offices near the person of the prin ce , and en

grossed the adm inistration o f the provinces andCities .6 Many Of these cou ld trace their descentfrom the founders of the Aztec monarchy. A c

cordin g to some writers of authority, there werethir ty great caciqu es , who had their residence , atleast a part Of the year, in the capital, and whocould muster a hun dred thousand vassals each ontheir estates .7 Without relying on such wild statements , it is clear, from the testimony of theConquerors, that the country was occupied bynumerous powerful chiefta ins , who lived like independent prin ces on their domains . If it be true thatthe kings encouraged, or, indeed , exacted, the residence of these nobles in the capital , and requiredhostages in their absence, it is evident that theirpower must have been very form idable .

8

Their estates appear to have been held by varioustenur es, and to have been subj ect to diff erent restrictions . Some of them, earned by their owngood swords or received as the recompense ofpublic services , were held without any limitation,

‘ Zurita enumerates four orders of chiefs, all of whom were exempted from imposts and enj oyed very considerable privileges . Hedoes not discrim inate the several ranks with much prec ision. Rapport, p . 47, et seq.7See, in particular, Herrera, H istoria general de los Hechos de losCastellanos en las Islas y Tierra firm e del Mar Océano (Madrid,

dec . 9, lib. 8, cap. 19.

Carta de Co rtes , ap. Lorenzana, H is t . de Nu eva - E spafia, p . 110.

Torquemada, Monarch. Ind ., lib. 9, cap. 89 ; lib . 14, cap . 6.—Clavi

gero,Stor. del Messico, tom. i i. p. l 9l .

—Zurita, Rapport, pp . 48,

65 .—Ixtlilx ochitl (H ist. Chich., MS., cap . 34) spea ks of thi rty greatfeudal chiefs, some of them Tezcucan and TlaCOpan , whom he stylesgrandees of the empire ”

! He says nothing Of the grea t tail Ofvassals to each, mentioned by Torquemada and Herrera.

40 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

except that the possessors could not dispose of themto a plebeian .

9 Others were entailed on the eldestmale issue , and, in default of such , reverted to thecrown . Most of them seem to have been burdenedwith the Obligation of military service . The principal chiefs of Tez cu co , according to its chronicler,were expressly obliged to support their prince withtheir armed vassals, to attend his cour t , and aid himin the council . Some , instead of these services,were to provide for the repairs of his buildin gs,and to keep the royal demesnes in order, with anannual off ering, by way Of homage, of fruitsand flowers . It was usual, if we are to believehistorians , for a new king, on his accession, toconfirm the investiture of estates derived from thecrown .

10

It cannot be denied that we recognize, in all this ,several features of the feudal system,

ale which , no

Macehua l,—a word equivalent to the French word ro tn rie r. Nor

could fie fs originally be held by plebeians in France. See Hall am’sM iddle Ages (London, vol. ii . p . 907.

1°Ixtlilx ochitl, H ist . Chich ., MS., ubi supra —Zurita, Rapport , ubisupra —Clavige ro , Stor. del Messico, tom. ii . pp. 199—194.

—Torquemada, Monarch. Ind., lib. 14, cap. 7. - Gomara, Crénica de NuevaE spa fia , cap . 199, ap. Barcia, tom. ii .—B otu rin i ( Idea, p. 165 ) carries back the origin of fiefs in Anahuac to the twelfth century.Carli says, Le systeme politique y étoit féodal.” In the next pagehe tells us, “Personal merit alone made the distinction of the nobility

”! (Lettres Américaines, trad. Fr. (Paris, tom. i . let.Carli was a writer of a lively imagination .

[There was no such thing as feudal ism among the Aztecs . Therecoul d not be where the communism which the clan system impliesprevailed. Feudal ism was a social- political system base d upon land .

Under it there was a well-defin ed gradation of ranks , and eachlower was bound to the next higher order by protection given inreturn for service rendered . Moreover, where feudal ism prevailedthe ownership of the land was vested in one person while the ocen

JUDICIAL SYSTEM 41

doubt, lose nothing of their eff ect under the handsof the Spanish writers, who are fond of tracingan alogies to European institutions . But suchanalogies lead sometimes to very erroneous conclusions . The Obligation of m ilitary service, for instan ce, the most essential principle of a fief , seemsto be naturally demanded by every governmentfrom its subj ects . A s to minor poin ts of resemblance , they fall far short of that harmonious system of reciprocal service and protection which embraced, ih nice gradation , every order of a feudalmonarchy. The kingdoms of An ahuac were intheir natur e despotic, attended, indeed, with manymitigating circumstances unknown to the despotisms Of the East ; but it is chimerical to look formuch in common—beyond a few accidental formsand ceremonies—with those aristocratic in stitutions of the M iddl e Ages which made the court ofevery petty baron the precise image in miniatureof that of his sovereign .

The legislative power, both in Mexico and Tezcuco

,resided wholly with the monarch?“This fea

ture of despotism, however, was in some measurecounteracted by the constitution of the judicialtribunals,—Of more importance, among a rude

pancy belonged to another. Feudalism exalted the individual and assured to each m an his rights . The clan knew nothing whatever ofindividual rights . When the conception of personal ownership wasdeveloped , and kinship ceased to be the bond which held m en together, the clan system of communal living of necessity passedaway. But among the Aztecs the feudal conception of personalpropenty never was developed . The Spaniards, knowing no civilization but their own, naturally supposed that the Aztec ins titutionswere similar to the Spanish, and historians generally accepted thatview.

—M. ][See summary of Bandelier’s studies, p. 36.

—M.]

49 CONQUEST OF ME XICO

people,than the legislative, since it is easier to

make good laws for such a community than to enforce them, and the best laws, badly administered,are but a mockery. Over each of the principalcities

,with its dependent territories, was placed a

supreme judge , appointed by the crown, withoriginal and fin al jur isdiction in both civil andcriminal cases . There was no appeal from his sentence to any other tribunal, nor even to the kin O' .He held his office during life ; and any one whousurped his ensigns was pun ished with death .

11

Below this magistrate was a cou rt, established ineach province, and consisting of three members .It held concur rent jurisdiction with the supremejudge in civil suits , but in criminal an appeal layto his tribu nal. Besides these courts , there was abody of inferior magistrates, distributed throughthe country, chosen by the people themselves intheir several districts . Their authority was limitedto smaller causes, while the more important werecarried up to the higher courts . There was stillanother class of subordinate officers , appointed alsoby the people, each of whom was to watch over the

11 This magistrate, who was called cihua coa tl,* was also to audit

the accounts of the collectors of the taxes in his district . (Clavigero ,Stor. del Messico, tom . ii . p. l 97.—Torquemada, Monarch. Ind., lib.11, cap. The Mendoza Collection contains a painting of thecourts of j ustice under Montezuma, who introduced great changesin them. (Antiq. Of Mexico, vol. i., Plate According to theinterpreter, an appeal lay from them, in certain cases , to the king’scouncil . Ibid., vol. vi . p . 79.

[This word, a compound of cihna tl, woman, and eoa tl, serpent,was the name of a divinity, the myt hical mother of the human species. Its typical application may have had reference to j ustice, orlaw, as the source of social order.—K.]

JUDICIAL SYSTEM 43

conduct of a certain number of families and reportany disorder or breach of the laws to the higherauthorities .12

In Tez cu co the judicial arrangements were of amore refined character ; 13 and a gradation of tribun als finally terminated in a general meetin g orparliament , consisting of all the judges , great andpetty

,throughout the kingdom, held every eighty

days in the capital , over which the king presidedin person . This body determin ed all suits which ,from their importance or difficulty, had been re

served for its consideration by the lower tribunals .It served , moreover, as a council of state, to assistthe monarch in the transaction of public business .14

Such are the vague and imperfect notices thatcan be gleaned, respecting the Aztec tribunals ,from the hieroglyphical paintings still preserved ,and from the most accredited Spanish writers .

12 Clavigero , Stor. del Messico, tom. ii . pp . 197, 198.—Torquemada,

Monarch. Ind., ubi supra.—In th is arrangement of the more humblemagistrates we are reminded of the Anglo- Saxon hundreds andtithings, especially the latter, the membe rs of which were to watchover the conduct of the famil ies in their districts and bring theo if enders to j ustice. The hard penalty of mutual responsibility wasnot known to the Mexicans .

13 Zurita, so temperate, usually, in his language, remarks that, inthe capital, Tribunals were instituted which might compare in theirorganization with the royal audiences of Castile.” (Rapport, p .

H is observations are chiefly drawn from the Tezcucan courts, wh ichin their forms of procedure, he says, were like the Aztec . (Loc . cit . )

1‘ B otu rin i, Idea, p . 87.- Torquemada, Monarch. Ind ., lib. 11, cap .

96.—Zurita compares this body to the Castilian cé rtes . I t woul d

s eem, however, according to him , to have consisted only of twelveprincipal j udges, besides the king. H is meaning is somewhat doubtful . (Rapport, pp. 94, 101, M . de Hum bo ldt, in his accou ntof the Azt ec courts, has confounded them with the Tezcucan. Comp .Vues des Co rdilleres et Monum en s des Peuples indigenes de l ’Am érique (Paris, p . 55, .and Clavigero, Stor. del Mess ico, tom. ii .pp. 198, 199 .

44 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

These, being usually eccles iastics, have taken muchless interest in this subj ect than in matters conn ectedwith religion . They find some apology, certain ly, in the early destruction of most of theIndian paintings , from which their informationwas , in part, to be gathered.

On the whole, however, it must be inferred thatthe Azte cs were sufficiently civilized to evince asolicitude for the rights both of property and ofpersons . The law, authorizing an appeal to thehighest judicature in criminal matters only, showsan attention to personal security, rendered themore obligatory by the extreme severity of theirpenal code, which would naturally have made themmore cautious of a wrong conviction . The existence of a number Of co - ordinate tribun als, withouta central one of supreme authority to control thewhole, must have given rise to very discordant ihterpretation s of the law in diff erent districts . Butthis is an evil which they shared in common withmost of the nations of Europe .The provision for making the superior judgeswholly independent of the crown was worthy ofan enlightened people . It presented the strongestbarrier that a mere constitution could aff ordagainst tyranny. It is not, indeed, to be supposedthat, in a government otherwise so despotic, meanscould not be found for influencing the magistrate .But it was a great step to fence round his authoritywith the sanction of the law ; and no one of theAztec monarchs , so far as I know, is accused of anattempt to violate it.To receive presents or a bribe, to be guilty of

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

46 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

all set forth by a clerk, in hieroglyphical paintings,and handed over to the court . The paintings wereexecuted with so much accuracy that in all suitsrespecting real property they were allowed to beproduced as good authority in the Spanish tribu n als , very long after the Conquest ; and a chairfor their study and interpretation was establishedat Mexico in 1553 , which has long since shared thefate of most other provisions for learning in thatunfortun ate coun try.

Jl fi

A capital sentence was indicated by a line tracedwith an arrow across the portrait of the accused .

In Tez cu co , where the king presided in the court,this, according to the national chronicler, was donewith extraordinary parade . H is description, whichis of rather a poetical cast, I give in his own words .In the royal palace of Tez cu co was a court - yard,on the opposite sides Of which were two halls ofjustice . In the principal one , called the tribunalof God,

’ was a throne of pure gold, inlaid withturquoises and other precious stones . On a stoolin front was placed a human skul l, crowned withan immense emerald of a pyramidal form, andsurmounted by an aigrette of brilliant plumes andprecious stones . The skull was laid on a heap ofmilitary weapons, shields , quivers, bows, and arrows . The walls were hung with tapestry, madeof the hair of different wild animals , of rich and

Zurita, Rapport, pp . 95, 100, 103 .—Sahagun, H ist. de Nueva

E spaiia, loc. cit —Humboldt, Vues des Co rdilleres , pp . 55, 56.

Torquemada, Monarch . Ind ., lib . 11, cap. 95.—Clavigero says the

accused might free himsel f by oath : “il reo poteva purgarsi colgiuramento. (Stor. del Messico, tom. ii. p. What rogue,then, could ever have been convicted ?

LAWS AND _REVENUES 47

various colors, festoon ed by gold rings and embroidered with figures of birds and flowers . Abovethe throne was a canopy of variegated plumage ,from the centre of which shot forth resplendentrays of gold and j ewels . The other tribunal,called the Kin g ’s,

’ was also surmoun ted by a gorgeons canopy of feathers, on which were emblazon ed the royal arms . Here the sovereign gavepublic audience and communicated his despatches .But when he decided important causes, or confirmed a capital sentence , he passed to the tribunalo f God,

’ attended by the fourteen great lords ofthe realm, marshalled according to their rank.

Then, putting on his mitred crown, incrusted withprecious stones, and holdin g a golden arrow, byway of sceptre, in his left hand , he laid his rightupon the sku ll , and pronounced judgment.

” 1"

Al l this looks rather fine for a court of justice , itmust be owned . But it is certain that the Tezencans, as we shall se e hereafter , possessed both thematerials and the skill requisite to work them upin this manner. Had they been a little furtheradvanced in refinement, on e might well doubt theirhaving the bad taste to do so.The laws of the Aztecs were registered , and ex

hibited to the people, in their hieroglyphica l pain tings . Much the larger part Of them, as in everynation imperfectly civilized , relates rather to thesecurity o f persons than of property.

* The great

Ixtlilxochitl, H ist. Chich., MS., cap. 36.—These various objects

had a symbol ical meaning, according to B otu rin i, Idea, p. 84.

[Compare the“codes ” of the Germanic races .—M. ]

48 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

crimes against society were all made capital. Eventhe murder of a

°

slave was pu nished with death .

Adulterers, as among the Jews, were stoned todeath . Thieving, according to the degree of theoff ence, was punished by slavery or death . Yetthe Mexicans could have been under no great apprehension of this crime , since the entrances totheir dwellings were not secured by bolts or fastenings of any kind. It was a capital Off ence to remove the boundaries o f another ’s lands ; to alterthe established measures ; and for a guardian notto be able to give a good account of his ward ’sproperty. These regulations evince a regard forequity in dealings, and for private rights, whichargues a considerable progress in civilization .

Prodigals, who squandered their patrimony, werepunished in like manner ; a severe sentence, sincethe crime brought its adequate punishment alongwith it. Intemperance , which was the burden,moreover, of their religious homilies, was visitedwith the severest penalties ; as if they had foreseenin it the consuming canker of their own as well asof the other Indian races in later times . It waspunished in the young with death , and in olderpersons with loss of rank and confiscation of property. Yet a decent conviviality was not meant tobe proscribed at their festivals , and they possessedthe means of indulging it, in a mild fermentedliquor, called pu lqu e, which is still popular, notonly with the Indian, but the Europe an populationof the coun try.

18

Paintings of the Mendoza Collection, PI. 79, and Interpretation,ap. Antiq. of Mexico, vol . vi. p . 87. - Torquemada, Monarch. Ind .,

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

50 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

The services to be exacted were limited with greatprecision. The slave was allowed to have his ownfamily, to hold property, and even other slaves .His children were free . NO one could be born toslavery in Mexico ; 19 an honorable distinction, notknown, I believe, in any civiliz ed communitywhereslavery has been sanctioned.

20 Slaves were not soldby their masters, unless when these were driven toit by poverty. They were often liberated by themat their death, and sometimes , as there was nonatural repugnance founded on difference ofblood and race, were married to them . Yet arefractory or vicious slave might be led intothe market, with a collar round his neck ,* whichintimated his bad character, and there be publicly sold, and, on a second sale, reserved forsacrifice .Such are some of the most striking featuresof the Aztec code, to which the Tezcucan bore

1’ In ancient Egypt the child of a slave wa s born free, i f thefather were free. (Diodo ru s , Bibl. H ist ., lib. 1, sec. This, thoughmore liberal than the code of most countries, fell short of theMexican .

2°In Egypt the same penalty was attached to the murder of a slaveas to that of a freeman. ( Ibid ., lib. 1, sec . Robertson speaksof a class of slaves held so cheap in the eye of the Mexican law thatone might kill them with impunity. (H istory of America ( ed . Lo n

don, vol . i ii. p . This, however, was not in Mexico, butin Nicaragua (see his own authority, Herrera, H ist. general, dec.3, lib. 4, cap . a distant country, not incorporated in the Mexicanempire, and with laws and institutions very di fferent from those ofthe latter.

" Torquemada, Monarch . Ind ., lib . 19, cap . 15 ; lib. 14, cap. 16, 17.—Sahagun, H is t . de Nueva—Espana, lib. 8, cap . l 4.—Clavigero , Stor.

del Messico, tom. i i. pp. 134—136.

[A “collared ” slave was fastened at night to a wall by hiswooden collar.—M.]

LAWS AND REVENUE S 51

great resemblance .2 2 With some exceptions, it isstamped with the severity , the ferocity indeed , ofa rude people, hardened by familiarity with scenesof blood , an d relying on physical instead of moralmeans for the correction of evil. 2 3 Still, it evincesa profound respect for the great principles Of morality, and as clear a perception of these principlesas is to be found in the most cultivated nations .The royal revenues were derived from varioussources . The crown lands , ’le which appear to havebeen extensive, made their returns in kind . Theplaces in the neighborhood of the capital werebound to supply workm en and materials for building the king ’s palaces and keepin g them in repair.They were also to furnish fuel, provisions , andwhatever was necessary for his ordinary domesticexpenditure , which was certainly on no stintedscale .2 4 The principal cities , which had numerousvillages and a large territory dependent on them,

were distributed into districts, with each a share

” Ixtlilxochitl, H ist . Chich., MS. , cap. 38, and Rel aciones, MS.

The Tezcucan code, indeed , as digested under the great Nez ahu a lcoyotl , formed the basis of the Mexican, in the latter days of theempire. Zurita, Rapport, p . 95 .

Z‘ In this, at least, they did not resemble the Romans ; Of whomtheir countryman could boast, “Gloriari licet, null i gentium mitiOres placuis se pmnas . Livy, H ist , lib . 1, cap . 98.

2‘ The Tezcucan revenues were, in like manner, paid in the produceof the country. The various branches of the royal expenditure weredefrayed by specified towns and districts ; and the whole arrangements here, and in Mexico, bore é remarkable resemblance to thefinancial regulations of the Persian empire, as report ed by the Greekwriters (see Herodotus, Clio, sec . with this difference, however,that the towns of Persia proper were not burdened with tributes,like the conquered cities. Idem, Thalia, sec. 97.

[For crown lands read. “subject tribes ” ; for “king’ s pal“communal houses .”—M. ]

59 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

of the lands allotted to it, for its support . The iiihabitants paid a stipulated part of the produce tothe crown . The vassals of the great chiefs , also ,paid a portion of their earnin gs into the publictreasury ; an arrangement not at all in the spiritof the feudal institutions . 2 5

In addition to this tax on all the agriculturalproduce of the kingdom, there was another on itsmanufactures . The natur e and the variety of thetributes will be best shown by an enumeration ofsome of the principal articles . These were cottondresses, and mantles of feather-work exquisitelymade ; ornamented armor ; vases and plates ofgold ; gold dust, bands and bracelets ; crystal, gilt,and varnished j ars and goblets ; bells, arms, an d

utensils of Copper ; reams of paper ; grain , fruits ,copal , amber, cochineal, cacao, wild animals andbirds, timber, lime , mats, etc.

2 6 In this curiousz“Lo ren z an a , H ist. de Nueva- E spafia, p . l79.

—Torquemada, Mon arch . Ind., lib. 9, cap. 89 ; lib. 14, cap . 7.—B otu rini, Idea, p . 166.

Camargo, H ist. de Tlasca la, MS .—Herrera, H ist. general, dec. 9,

lib. 7, cap . 13.—The people of the provinces were distributed into

ca lpu lli, or tribes, who held the lands of the neighborhood in common .Officers of their own appointment parcelled out these lands amongthe several families of the ca lpu lli,’ and on the ext inction or removalof a family its lands reverted to the common stock, to be again distributed . The individual proprietor had no power to alienate them .

The laws regulating these matters were very precise, and had existedever since the occupation of the country by the A ztecs . Zurita, Rapport, pp. 51—69.

” The following items of the tribute furnished by diff erent citieswil l give a more precise idea of its n atu re z—9O chests of groundchocolate ; 40pieces of armor, of a particul ar device ; 9400 loads oflarge mantles, of twisted cloth ; 800 loads of small mantles, of richwearing- apparel ; 5 pieces of armor, of rich feathers ; 60 pieces ofarmor, of common feathers ; a chest of beans ; a ch est of chia n ; achest of maize ; 8000 reams of paper ; likewise 9000 loaves of verywhite salt, refined in the shape of a mould, for the consumption onlyof the lords of Mexico ; 8000 lumps of unrefined copal ; 400 small

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

54 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

payment of the tribute. 2 8 Tax -gatherers werealso distributed throughout the kingdom, who wererecognized by their official badges, and dreadedfrom the merciless rigor of their exactions . By astern law , every defaul ter was liable to be takenand sold as a slave . In the capital were spaciousgranaries and warehouses for the reception Of thetributes . A receiver- general was quartered inthe palace, who rendered in an exact account ofthe various contributions , and watched over theconduct of the inferior agents, in whom the leastmalversation was sum marily pun ished. This fun ction ary was furnished with a map of the wholeempire, with a minute specification of the impostsassessed on every part of it . These imposts, modcrate under the reigns of the early princes , becameso burdensome un der those at the close of the dynas ty, being rendered still more oppressive by the

The caciques who submitted to the allied arms were usually confirmed in their authority, and the conquered places allowed to retaintheir laws and usages. (Zurita, Rapport, p . The conquestswere not always partitioned, but sometimes, singu larly enough, wereheld in common by the three powers . Ibid ., p . 11.

[Very few garrisons were ever quartered in subj ect pueblos . Thewarriors Co rtes encountered in his second attack upon Mexico werenot th e garrisons of the cities, but special bodies sent out to mee t theSpaniards . The ca lpixqu i,

” or tax- gatherers, were spies as well asofficers, and were hated as were the publicans ” in all lands wherethe taxes were“farmed .

” The chief of m en had many subordin ates . H is couriers were not infrequently outcasts. Bearing inmind the class of persons with whom he had to deal Officially, andthe fact that it was his function to represent the maj esty of theclan on all public occasions, it is not remarkable that he should haveconducted himsel f with such haughtiness as to lead the Spaniardsto suppose that he was an absolute king. That he had really nokingly power was manifested when Montezuma was a prisoner inthe hands of the Spaniards . H is special duty was to execute thecommands of the tribal council .—M.]

LAWS AND REVENUES 55

manner of collection, that they bred disaff ectionthroughout the land, and prepared the way for itsconquest by the Spaniards . 29

Communication was maintained with the re

m o te st parts of the country by means of couriers .Post - houses were established on the great roads ,about two leagues distant from each other. Thecourier, bearing his despatches in the form of ahieroglyphical painting, ran with them to the firststation, where they were taken by another messenger an d ca rried forward to the next , and so ontill they reached the capital . These couriers ,trained from childhood, travelled with incredibleswiftness , - not four or five leagues an hour, as anold chronicler would make us believe, but with suchspeed that despatches were carr ied from one totwo hundred miles a day.

30 Fresh fish was frequently served at Montezuma’s table in twentyfour hours from the time it had been taken inthe Gulf of Mexico, two hun dred miles from thecapital . In this way intelligence of the movements of the royal armies was rapidly brought to

Co l . of Mendoz a, ap. Antiq. of Mexico, vol . vi . p . 17.—Carta deCo rtes, ap. Loren za na, H ist. de Nn eva-Espana, p. 110.

—Torquemada,Monarch . Ind ., lib . 14, cap. 6, 8.

- Herrera, H ist. general, dec . 9, lib.7, cap . 13 .

—Sahagun, H ist . de Nueva- Espana, lib . 8, cap . 18, 19.

3° The Ho n . C. A. Murray, whose imperturbable good humor u nderreal troubles forms a contrast, rather striking, to the sensitiveness ofsome of his predecessors to imagin ary ones, tells us , among othermarvels, that an Indian of his party travelled a hundred miles infour- and- twenty hours . (h avels in North America (New York,

vol. 1. p . The Greek who, according to Plutarch,brought the news of victory to Plataea, a hundred and twenty- fivemil es , in a day, was a better traveller still. Some interestin g factso n the pedestrian capabil ities of man in the savage state are collected by B ufl’

on , who concludes , truly enough, “L’homme civilisén e coun ait pas ses forces .” (H istoire naturelle : De la Jennes se.)

56 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

court ; and the dress Of the courier, denoting byits color the nature of his tidings, spread joyor consternation in the towns through which hepassed.

3 1

But the great aim of the Aztec institutions, towhich private discipline and public honors werealike directed, was the profession of arms . InMexico

,as in Egypt, the soldier shared with the

priest the highest consideration . The king, as wehave seen, must be an experienced warrior. Thetutelary deity of the Aztecs was the god of war.A great obj ect of their military expeditions was togather hecatombs of captives for his altars . Thesoldier who fell in battle was transported at onceto the region of in eff able bliss in the bright mansions of the Sun .

3 2 Every war, therefore, becamea crusade ; and the warrior, animated by a religiousenthusiasm like that of the early Saracen or theChristian crusader, was not only raised to a contempt o f danger, but courted it, for the imperishable crown o f martyrdom . Thus we find the sameimpulse acting in the most opposite quarters of the

81 Torquemada, Monarch . Ind., lib. 14, cap. 1.—The same wants

led to the same expedients in ancient Rome, and still more ancientPersia. “Nothing in the world is borne so swi ftly,” says H erodo

tus, “as messages by the Persian couriers ; which his commentatorValcken aer prudently qualifies by the exception of the carrier—pigeon.(Herodotus, H ist , Urania, sec. 98, nec n o n A dn ot. ed. Schweighauser.) Couriers are noticed, in the thirteenth century, in China, byMarco Polo. Their stations were only three miles apart, and theyaccomplished five days’ j ourney in one. (Viaggi di Marco Polo, lib.9, cap . 90, ap. R am u sio , tom. i i. ) A similar arrangement for postssubsists there at the present day, and excites the admiration of amodern traveller. (Anderson, British Embassy to China (London,

p. In all these cas es, the posts were for the use of governm en t only.“2 Sahagun, H ist. de Nueva- Espana, lib. 3, Apend., cap. 3.

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

58 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

whoever had not reached it was excluded fromusing ornaments on his arms or his pe rson, andobliged to wear a coarse white stuff, made fromthe threads of the aloe, called n equ en . Even themembers of the royal family were not exceptedfrom this law, which reminds one of the occasionalpractice of Christian knights, to wear plain armor,or shields without device, till they had achievedsome doughty feat of chivalry. Although the military orders were thrown open to all, it is probablethat they were chiefly filled with persons of rank,who, by their previous training and connections ,were able to come into the field under pe culiar advantages .34

The dress of the higher warriors was picturesqueand Often magnificent . Their bodies were coveredwith a close vest of quilted cotton, so thick as to beimpenetrable to the light missiles of Indian warfare . This garment was so light and serviceablethat it was adopted by the Spaniards . Thewealthier chiefs sometimes wore, instead of thiscotton mail, a cuirass made of thin plates of goldor silver. Over it was thrown a surcoat of the gorgeons feather-work in which they excelled .

3 5

Torquemada, Monarch. Ind ., l ib. 14, cap . 4, 5 .—Acosta, lib. 6, ch.

96.—Col . of Mendoza, ap. Antiq. of Mexico, vol. i. PI. 65 ; vol. vi.p. 79.

—Camargo, H ist . de Tlasca la , MS .35 The irmail , if mail it m ay be cal led, was woven

Of ve ge ta ble down, like fine stflax ,

Bleached to th e w hitene ss o f n ew - fal len snow.

in as s a a: as

Others , o f higher ofiice , were arrayedIn fea thery breastplate s , o f m ore gorgeous h u eTha n th e gay plum age Of th e m o untain-cock ,Than the phea sa n t‘s glittering pride . But wha t were the se .

Or w hat th e thin go ld hauberk , when o pposedTo arm s l ike ours in battle P

Madoc. Part 1, canto 7.Beautiful painting ! One may doubt, however, the propriety ofthe Welshman’s vaunt, before the use of fire - arms.

MILITARY INSTITUTIONS 59

Their helmets were sometimes of wood , fashionedlike the heads of wild animals, and sometimes ofsilver, on the top of which waved a pan ache of variegated plumes , sprin kled with precious stonesand ornaments of gold . They wore also collars ,bracelets , and ear- rings of the same rich materials .3 6

Their armies were divided into bodies of eightthousand men ; and these, again, into companies ofthree or four hundred , each with its own commander. The national standard, which has beencompared to the ancient Roman, displayed, in itsembroidery of gold and feather-work, the armorial ensigns of the state . These were significantof its name, which , as the names of both personsand places were borrowed from some material ob

ject , was easily expressed by hieroglyphical symbols . The companies and the great chiefs had alsotheir appropriate banners and devices , and thegaudy hues of their many - colored plumes gave adazzlin g splendor to the spectacle .Their tactics were such as belong to a nationwith whom war, though a trade , is not elevated tothe rank of a science . They advanced singing, andshouting their war- cries , briskly charging theenemy, as rapidly retreating, and making use ofambuscades , sudden surprises , and the light skirmish of guerilla warfare . Yet their discipline wassuch as to draw forth the encomiums of the Spanishconquerors . “A beautiful sight it was,” says oneof them, to see them set out on their march, all

Sahagun, H ist . de Nueva- Espana, lib. 9, cap . 97; lib. 8, cap . 19.

- Relatione d’

u n gentil’ hu om o , ap. R am u sio , tom. i i i. p. 305 .

Torquem ada, Monarch . Ind., ubi supra.

60 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

moving forward so gayly, and in so admirableorder! 37 In battle they did not seek to kill theirenemies, so much as to take them prisoners ; andthey never scalped, like other North Americantribes . The valor of a warrior was estimated bythe number of his prisoners ; and no ransom waslarge enough to save the devoted captive .38

Their military code bore the same stern featuresas their other laws . D isobedience of orders waspunished with death . It was death , also, for asoldier to leave his colors, to attack the enemy before the signal was given, or to plunder another

’ sbooty or prisoners . One of the last Tezcucanprinces, in the spirit of an ancient Roman, put twosons to death—after having cured their woun dsfor violating the last -mentioned law .

39

I must not omit to notice here an institution theintroduction of which in the Old World is rankedamong the ben eficen t fruits of Christianity. Hos

pitals were established in the principal Cities , forthe cure of the sick and the permanent refuge of

Relatione d’un gentil’ hu om o , ubi supra.Col. of Mendoza, ap. Antiq. of Mexico, vol. i. PI. 65, 66 ; vol. vi .

p . 73.—Sahagun, H ist. de Nueva- E spafia , lib . 8, cap. 19.

—Toribio,H ist . de lo s Indios, MS ., Parte I . cap . 7. - Torquemada, Monarch.Ind ., lib. 14, cap . 3.

—Relatione d’u n gentil’ hu om o , ap. R am u sio ,

loc. cit. - Scalping may claim high authority, or, at lea st, antiquity.The Father of H istory gives an account of it among the Scythians,showing that they performed the Operation, and wore the hideoustrophy, in the same manner as our North American Indians. (Herodot., H ist , Melpomene, sec. Traces of the same savage customare also found in the laws of the Visigoths , among the Franks, andeven the Anglo- Saxons. (See Guizot, Cours d’Histoire moderne(Paris, tom. i . p .

3°Ixtlilxochitl, H ist . Chich., MS., cap. 67.

[That they might offer them as living sacrifices to their gods . - M.]

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

69 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

NorthAmerica.41 The degree of civilization whichthey had reached, as inferred by their political ihstitu tion s , may be considered, perhaps, not muchshort of that enj oyed by our Saxon ancestors un derAl fred . In respect to the nature of it, they maybe better compared with the Egyptians ; and theexamination of their social relations and cu lturemay suggest still stronger points of resemblance tothat ancient people .Those familiar with the modern Mexicans will

find it difficult to conce ive that the nation shouldever have been capable of devising the enlightenedpolity which we have been considering . But theyshould remember that in the Mexicans of our dayZurita is indignant at the epithet of ba rba ria n s bestowed on the

Aztecs ; an epithet, he says, which could come from no one whohad personal knowledge of the capacity of the people, or theirinstitutions, and which in some respects is quite as well merited bythe European nations .” (Rapport, p . 900, et seq.) This is stronglanguage. Yet no one had better means of knowing than this eminent j urist, who for nineteen years held a post in the royal a udien ces of New Spain . During his long residence in the country hehad ample Opportunity of acquainting himsel f with its usages, boththrough his own personal observation and intercourse with the natives , and through the first missionaries who came over after theCo nquest. On his return to Spain, probably about 1560, he occupiedhimself with an answer to queries which had been propounded by thegovernment, o n the character of the Aztec laws and institutions, ando n that of the modifications introduced by the Spaniards. Muchof his treatise is taken up with the latter subj ect . In what relatesto the former he is more brief than could he wished, from the difiiculty, perhaps, of obtaining ful l and satisfactory inform ation as tothe details. As far as he goes , however, he manifests a soun d anddiscriminating j udgment. He is very rarely betrayed into the extravagance of expression so vis ible in the writers of the time ; and thistemperance, combined with his uncommon sources of information,makes his work one of highest authority on the limited topics withinits range. The original manuscript was consulted by Clavigero , and,indeed, has been used by other writers. The work is now accessibleto all, as one of the series of translations from the pen of theindefatigable Tern aux .

AZTEC CIVILIZATION 63

they see only a conquered race ; as differentfrom their ancestors as are the modern Egyptiansfrom those who built,—Iwill not say, the tastelesspyramids , - but the temples and palaces whosemagnificent wrecks strew the borders of the N ile ,at Luxor and Karn ac. The diff erence is not sogreat as between the ancient Greek, and his degencrate descendant , lounging among the masterpieces o f art which he has scarcely taste enough toadmire , —speaking the language of those still moreimperishable monuments of literature which he hashardly capacity to comprehend . Yet he breathesthe same atmosphere, is warmed by the same sun ,nourished by the same scenes , as those who fell atMarathon and won the trophies Of Olympic P isa.The same blood flows in his veins that flowed intheirs . But ages of tyranny have passed over him ;he belongs to a conquered race .The American Indian has something peculiarlysensitive in his n ature . He shrinks instinctivelyfrom the rude touch of a foreign hand . Evenwhen this foreign influence comes in the formof civilization, he seems to sin k and pine awaybeneath it . It has been so with the Mexicans .Under the Spanish dom ination , their numbershave silently melted away. Their energies arebroken . They no longer tread their mountainplains with the conscious independence of theirancestors . In their faltering step and meek andmelancholy aspect we read the sad characters ofthe conquered race . The cause of humanity, indeed, has gained . They live under a better systemof laws, a more assured tranquillity, a purer faith .

64 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

But all does not avail . Their civilization was ofthe hardy character which belongs to the wilderness . The fierce virtues of the Aztec were all hisown . They refused to submit to European cultu re,—to be engrafted on a foreign stock . Hisoutward form , his complexion, his lineaments , aresubstantially the same ; but the moral characte ristics of the nation , all that constituted its individuality as a race , are e ff aced forever.

Two of the principal authorities for this chapter are Torquemadaand Clavigero . The former, a Provincial of the Franciscan order,came to the New World about the middle of the sixteenth century.As the generation Of the Conquerors had not then passed away, hehad ample opportunities of gathering the particul ars of their enterprise from their own lips . Fifty years, during which he continuedin the country, put him in possession of the traditions and us ages ofthe natives, and enabled him to collect their history from the earlies tmissionaries, as well as from such monuments as the fanaticism ofhis own countrymen had not then destroyed. From these amplesources he compiled his bulky tomes, beginning, after the approvedfashion of the ancient Castilian chron iclers, with the creation of theworld, and embracing the whole circle of the Mexican institutions,political, religious, and social, from the earliest period to his own

time. In handling these fruitful themes, the worthy father hasshown a full measure of the bigotry which belonged to his order atthat period. Every page, too, is loaded with illustrations from Scripture or profane history, which form a whimsical contrast to the barbaric staple of his story ; and he has sometimes fallen into seriouserrors, from his misconception of the ch ronological system of theAztecs. But, notwithstanding these glaring defects in the composit ion of the work, the student, aware of his author’s infirm ities , willfind few better guides than Torquemada in tracing the stream ofhistoric truth up to the fountain - head ; such is his manifest integrity,and so great were his facilities for information o n the most curiouspoints of Mexican antiquity. No work, accordingly, has been morelargely consulted and copied, even by some who, like Herrera, haveaffected to set little value on the sources whence its informationwas drawn . (H ist. general, dec . 6, lib. 6, cap . The Mona rchia India na was first published at Seville, 1615 (Nic. Antonio,Bibliotheca Nova (Matriti, tom. ii . p . and since

, in

a better style, in three volumes folio, at Madrid, in 1793.

The other authority, frequently cited in the preceding pages, is theAbbé Clavigero ’

s S toria a n tica de l Messico . It was original ly printed

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

CHAPTER III

MEXICAN MYTHOLOGY—THE SACERDOTAL ORDE R- THE TEMPLE S—HUMAN SACRIFICES

HE civil polity of the Aztecs is so closelyblended with their religion that without u n

de rstanding the latte r it is impossible to form correct ideas of their government or their social institu tion s . I shall pass over, for the present , someremarkable traditions , bearing a singular resemblance to those found in the Scriptures, and en

deavor to give a brief sketch of their mythologyand their careful provisions for maintaining a nation al worship .

Mythology may be regarded as the poetry ofreligion , or rather as the poetic development of thereligious principle in a primitive age. It is theeff ort of untutored man to explain the mysteriesof existence, and the secret agencies by which theoperations of nature are conducted . Although thegrowth of similar conditions of society, its character must vary with that of the rude tribes inwhich it originates ; and the ferocious Goth, quaffing mead from the skulls of his slaughtered enemies, must have a very different mythology fromthat of the eff em in ate native of Hispaniola

,loiter

66

MEXICAN MYTHOLOGY 67

ing away his hours in idle past imes, under theshadow of his bananas .At a later and more refined period, we sometimes

find these prim itive legends combined into a regular system under the hands of the poet, and theru de outline moulded into forms of ideal beauty,which are the obj ects of adoration in a credulousage, an d the delight of all succeeding ones . Suchwere the beautiful inventions of Hesiod and H O

mer, who ,” says the Father of History, created

the theogony Of the Greeks ; an assertion not tobe taken too literally, since it is hardly possible thatany man should create a religious system for hisnation .

1 They only filled up the shadowy outlinesof tradition with the bright touches of their ownimaginations, until they had clothed them in beautywhich kindled the imaginations of others . Thepower of the poet, indeed, may be felt in a similarway in a much riper period of society. To saynothing of the D ivina Commedia,

” who is therethat rises from the perusal of Paradise Lostwithout feeling his own conceptions of the angelichierarchy quickened by those of the inspired artist

,

and a new and sensible form, as it were, given toimages which had before floated dim and un defined before him ?

The last-mentioned period is succeeded by thatof philosophy ; which , disclaiming alike the le

gends of the primitive age and the poetical embel

1n otfioav‘

ref 9 50701;e T ibial . Herodotus , Euterpe, sec. 53 .—Hee

ren hazards a remark equally strong, respecting the epic poetsof India, “who,” says he, “have supplied the numerous gods thatfill her Pantheon.” H istorical Res earches , Eng. trans. (Oxford,vol. iii . p. 139.

68 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

lishm en ts of the succeeding one , seeks to shelteritself from the charge of impiety by giving anallegorical interpretation to the popular mythology, and thus to reconcile the latter with thegenuine deductions of science .The Mexican religion had emerged from the

first of the schools we have been considering, and,although little aff ected by poetical influences , hadrece ived a peculiar complexion from the priests,who had digested as thorough and burdensome aceremonial as ever existed in any nation . Theyhad, moreover, thrown the veil of allegory overearly tradition, and invested their deities with at

tributes savoring much more of the grotesque conception s of the Eastern nations in the Old World,than of the lighter fictions of Greek mythology, inwhich the features of humanity, however ex aggerated, were never wholly abandoned .

2

In contemplating the religious system of theAztecs , one is struck with its apparent incongruity,as if some portion of it had emanated from a com

paratively refined people, open to gentle influen ces , while the rest breathes a spirit of u nm itigated ferocity. It naturally suggests the idea oftwo distinct sources , and authorizes the belief thatthe Aztecs had inherited from their predecessorsa milder faith , on which was afterwards engrafted

”The Hon . Mountstuart Elphinstone has fallen into a similartrain of thought, in a comparison of the H indoo and Greek mythology, in his H istory of India, published since the remarks in thetext were written . (See Book I . ch. The same chapter of thistruly philOSOphic work suggests some curious points of resemblanceto the Aztec religious institutions, that may furnish pertinent illustration s to the mind bent on tracing the affinities of the Asiatic andAmerican races .

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

CONQUEST OF MEXICO

At the head of all stood the terrible H u itz ilo

pochtli, the Mexican Mars ; although it is doinginjustice to the heroic war - god of antiquity toidentify him with this sanguinary monster . Thiswas the patron deity of the nation . H is fantasticimage was loaded with costly ornaments . H istemples were the most stately and august of thepublic edifices ; and his altars reeked with theblood of human hecatombs in every city of the empire . D isastrous indeed must have been the influence of such a superstition on the character of thepeople .s

whose barbarous name signified Rational Owl . (Stor. del Messico,tom . i i. p . Q. ) The curate B ern a ldez speaks of the Devil being embroidered on the dresses of Columbus’s Indians, in the likeness ofan owl. (H istoria de los Reyes Catolico s , MS ., cap . This mustnot be confounded, however, with the evil Spirit in the mythology ofthe North American Indians (see H eckewelde r

’s Account, ap. Trans

actions of the American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, vol. i . p .

still less with the evil Principle of the Oriental nations of theOld World . It was only one among many deities, for evil was foundtoo liberally mingled in the natures of most of the Aztec gods—ihthe same manner as with the Greeks—to admit of its personificationby any one.Sahagun, H ist. de Nueva- Espana, lib . 3, cap . 1, et seq

—Acosta,lib. 5. ch. 9.

—Torquemada, Monarch. Ind . , lib. 6, cap . 91.—Botu

rini, Idea, pp . 97, 98.—Huitzilopochtli is compounded of two words,

signifying“humming- bird,” and“left,” from his image having thefeathers of this bird on its left foo t (Clavige ro , Stor. del Messico,tom . i i. p. an amiable etym ology for so ruffian a deity.*—The

[The name may possibly have referred to the whispered oraclesand intimations in dreams—such as “a little bird of the air ”

is

still fabled to convey—by which, according to the legend, the deityhad guided his people in their migrations and conquests. That it hada symbolical mea ning will hardly be doubted, and M. Brasseur deBourbourg, who had originally explained it as “Huitzil the Lefthanded,” —the proper name of a deified hero with the addition ofa descriptive epithet,—has since found one of too deep an importto be briefly expounded or easily understood . (Quatre Lettres surle Mexique (Paris, p . 901, et al . ) Memitl, another name of the

MEXICAN MYTHOLOGY 71

A far more interestin g personage in their mytho logywas Quetzalcoatl, god of the air, a divin itywho

,du ring his residence on earth, instructed the

fantastic forms of the Mexican idols were in the h ighest degreesymbolical . See Gama’s learned exposition of the devices o n thestatue of the goddess found in the great square of Mexico. (Descripcion de las Dos Piedras (Mexico , Parte 1, pp. 34

The tradition respecting the origin of this god, or, at least, his appea ran ce on earth, is curious . He was bo rn of a woman. H is

mother, a devout person, one day, in her attendance o n the temple,saw a ball of bright- colored feathers floating in the air. She took it,a nd deposited it in her bosom. She soon after found herself pregnant, and the dread deity was born, coming into the world, l ikeM inerva, all armed ,—with a Spear in the right hand, a shield inthe left, and his head surmounted by a crest of green plumes. (SeeClavigero , Stor. del Messico, tom. ii. p . 19, et seq . ) A similar notion in respect to the incarnation of their principal deity existedamong the people of India beyond the Ganges , of China, and ofThibet .

“Budh,” says M ilm an, in his learned and lum inous workon the history of Christiani ty, “according to a tradition known intheWest, was born of a virgin. So were the Fohi of China, andthe Schakao f of Thibet, no doubt the same, whether a myth ic or areal personage. The Jesuits in China, says Barrow, were appall edat finding in the mythology of that country the counterpart of theVirgo Deipara.” (Vol. i. p . 99, note.) The existence of s imilarreli gious ideas in remote regions, inhabited by different races, isan interesting subj ect of study, furnishing, as it does, one of themost important links in the gr eat chain of communication whichbin ds together the distant families of nations .

same deity, is translated the hare of the aloes . In some accountsthe two are distinct personages. Mythological science rej ect s thelegend, and regards the Aztec war- god as a nature- deity,” a perso n ification of the lightning, this being a natural type of warlikemight, of which the common symbol, the serpent, was representedamong the decorations of the idol. (Myths of the New World, p .

More comm only he has been identified with the su n , and Mr.Tylor, while decl ining“to attempt a general solution of this in extricable compound parthenogeneticdeity,” notices the association ofhis principal festiva l with the winter’s solstice, and the fact thathis paste idol was then shot through with a n arrow, as tending toshow that the li fe and dea th of the deity were emblematic of theyear’ s, “while his functions of war- god may have been of later addition .” Primitive Cul ture, tom . ii. p . 279.

—K.]

72 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

natives in the use of metals, in agriculture, andin the arts of government . He was one of thosebenefactors of their species, doubtless, who havebeen deified by the gratitude of posterity. Underhim, the earth teemed with fruits and flowers, without the pains of cultu re . An ear of Indian cornwas as much as a single man could carry. Thecotton, as it grew, took, of its own accord , the richdyes of human art. The air was fil led with in toxicating perfumes and the sweet melody of birds .In short, these were the halcyon days , which finda place in the mythic systems of so many nationsin the Old World. It was the golden age of Anahu ac.

a|e

From some cause, not explained , Quetzalcoatlincurred the wrath of one of the principal gods,and was compelled to abandon the country. Onhis way he stopped at the city of Cholul a, where a

[For the Aztec myths our most val uable authority is the H istoria de los Mexicanos por su s Pinturas, by Ramirez de Fuen- leal.This is taken directly from the sacred books of the Aztecs as explained by survivors of the Conquest . Bandelier, Archaeo logicalTour, calls it the earliest statement of the Nahua myths. Theother sources are Moto lin ia, Mendieta, Sahagun, Ixt lilxochitl, andTorquemada. Bancroft, Native Races, vol. iii . ch . 7, sums them upadmirably.Brinton, Myths of the New World, thinks Quetzalcoatl“a purecreature of the fancy. Bandelier, whose presentation of the subj ectis most ful l and complete (Archaeological Tour) , agrees with Prescott that Quetzalcoatl began his career as leader of a migrationsouthward . H is principal soj ourn was at Cholula. See also Payne,New World Called America, vol . i. pp . 588—596. P. de Roo, History of America before Co lumbus, vol. i . ch. xxn and xxiii, givesa very ful l presentation of the legend . He writes from the pointof view of a priest of the Roman Catholic Church . H is conclusionis that Quetza lcoatl was a Christian prelate, and that Christiandoctrines were introduced into aboriginal America by Europeanimmigrants.—M.]

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

CONQUEST OF MEXICO

We have not space for further details respectingthe Mexican divinities, the attributes of many ofwhom were carefully defined, as they descended,

legends of the Mayas , Quiches, Peruvians, and other races, loses allpersonal existence, and becomes a creation of that primitive religioussentiment which clothed the uncomprehending powers of nature withthe attributes of divinity. H is name, “Bird- Serpent,” unites theemblems of the wind and the lightning. “He is both lord of theeastern light and the winds . As the former, he was born of a virginin the land of Tu la or Tlapallan, in the distant Orient, and was highpriest of that happy realm. The morning star was his symbol.Like all the dawn heroes , he too was represented as of white complexion, clothed in long white robes, and, as most of the Aztec gods,with a full and flowing beard . When his earthly work was done, hetoo returned to the east, assigning a s a reason that the su n , the rul erof Tlapall an, demanded his presence. But the real motive was thathe had bee n overcome by Tezcatlipoca, otherwise cal led Yo alliehecatl,the wind or Spirit of the night, who had descended from heaven bya spider’ s web and presented his rival with a draught pretended toconfer immortality, but, in fact, producing uncontroll able longing forhome. For the wind and the light both depart when the gloamingdraws near, or when the clouds sprea d their dark and shadowy websalong the mountains and pour the vivi fying rain upon the fields .Wherever he went, a ll manner of singing birds bore him company,emblems of the whistling breezes. When he final ly disappeared inthe far east, he sent back four trusty youths, who had ever sharedhis fortunes, incomparably swift a nd light of foot, with directions todivide the earth between them and rule it t il l he should return andresume his power.” (The Myths of the New World, p . 180, e t seq. )So far as mere physical attributes are concerned, this analysis maybe accepted as a satisfactory elucidation of the class of figures towhich it relates. But the grand and distinguishing characteristic ofthese figures is the moral and intellectual emin‘ence ascribed tothem. They are invested with the highes t qualities of humanity,attributes neither drawn from the external phenomena of naturenor born of any rude sentiment of wonder and fear. Their lives anddoctrines are in strong contrast with those of the ordinary divinitiesof the same or other lands, and they are obj ects not of a propit iatoryworship, but of a pious veneration . Can we, then, assent to the cone lusion that under this aspect a lso they were wholly mythical,”“creations of the religious fancy,” “ideals summ ing up in themselves the best traits, the most approved virtues, of whole nations( Ibid ., pp . 293, This would seem to imply that nations mayattain to lofty conceptions of moral truth and excellence by a process of selection , without any standard or point of view furnished

MEXICAN MYTHOLOGY 75

in regu lar gradation, to the pena tes or householdgods , whose little images were to be found in thehumblest dwelling .

The Aztecs felt the curiosity, common to manin almost every stage of civilization , to lift the veilwhich covers the mysterious past and the moreawful future . They sought relief, like the nationsof the Old Continent , from the oppressive idea ofeternity, by breaking it up into distinct cycles , orperiods of time , each of several thousand years

’

duration . There were four of these cycles,and

at the end of each , by the agency of one of theelements, the human family was swept from theearth , and the sun blotted out from the heavens,to be again rekindled .

7

' Cod . Vat , Pl . 7—10, Antiq. of Mexico, vols. i., vi . -Ixtlilxochitl,

Hist . Chich., MS., cap . 1.—M. de Humboldt has been at some pains

to trace the analogy between the Az tec cosmogony and that of Easte rn Asia. He has tried, though in vain, to find a multiple whichmight serve as the key to the calculations of the former. (Vuesdes Co rdilleres , pp . 202 In truth, there seems to be a materiald iscordance in the Mexican statements, both in regard to the numberof revolutions and thei r duration . A manuscript before me, of

by living embodiments of the idea] . But this would be as impossibleas to arr ive at conceptions of the highest forms and ideas of artindependently of the special genius and actual productions of theartist. In the one case, as in the other, the ideal is derived originallyfrom examples shaped by finer and deeper intuitions than thoseof the masses. Im Anfang war die That .” The mere fact, therefore, that the Mexican people recogn ized an exalted ideal of purityand wisdom is a suficien t proof that m e n had existed among themwho displayed these qualities in an eminent degree . The status oftheir civilization, imperfect as it

'

was , can be accounted for only inthe same way. Comparative mythology may res olve into its originalelements a perso nifica tion of the forces of nature woven by the

religious fancy of primitive races , but it cannot sever that chain ofdiscoverers and civilizers by which mankind has be en drawn from theabysses of savage ignorance, and by which its progress, when uninterrupted, has been always maintained—K ]

CONQUEST OF MEXICO

They imagined three separate states of existencein the future life . The wicked, comprehendingthe greater part of mankind, were to expiate theirsins in a place of everlasting darkness . An otherclass, with no other merit than that of having diedof certain diseases , capriciously selected , were toenjoy a negative existence of indolent contentment . The highest place was reserved, as in mostwarlike nations , for the heroes who fell in battle ,or in sacrifice . They passed at once into the presence of the Sun , whom they accompanied withsongs and choral dances in his bright progressthrough the heavens ; and, after some years , theirspirits went to animate the clouds and singingbirds of beautiful plumage, and to revel amidst therich blossoms and odors of the gardens of paradise .8 Such was the heaven of the Aztecs ; morerefined in its character than that of the more polished pagan, whose elysium reflected only themartial sports or sensual gratification s of this

Ixtlilxochitl, reduces them to three, before th e present ‘state of theworld, and allows only 43 94 years for them (Sumaria Relacion,MS . , No. Gama, o n the faith of an ancient Indian MS. in B0tu rin i

’s Catalogue (viii . reduces the duration still lower (De

scripcio n de las Dos P iedras, Parte 1, p . 49, e t while thecycles of the Vatican paintings take up near years —It isinteresting to observe how the wild co nj ectu res of an ignorant agehave been confirmed by the more recent dis cove ries in geology, making it probable that the earth has experienced a number of convu lsion s , possibly thousands of years distant from each other, whichhave swept away the races then existing, and given a new aspectto the globe.

l’ Sahagun , H ist . de Nueva- E spafia, lib . 3, Ape nd.

—Cod . Vat., ap.

Antiq. of Mexico, Pl. l—5 .—Torquemada, Monarch . Ind ., lib. 13, cap .

48.—The last writer assures us that, as to what the Aztecs said oftheir going to hell, they were right ; for, as they died in ignorance ofthe true faith, they have, without question, all ‘

gon e there to suffereverlasting punishment ” ! Ubi supra.

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

78 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

charms against the dangers of the dark road hewas to travel . A throng of slaves, if he were rich ,was sacrificed at his obsequies . H is body wasburned, and the ashes, collected in a vase, werepreserved in one of the apartments of his house .Here we have successively the usages of the R 0man Catholic, the Mussulman, the Tartar, and theancient Greek and Roman ; curious coincidences ,which may show how cautious we should be inadopting conclusions founded on analogy.

Amore extraordinary coincidence may be tracedwith Christian rites , in the ceremony of namingtheir children . The lips and bosom of the infantwere sprinkled with water, and the Lord was im

plored to permit the holy drops to wash away thesin that was given to it before the foundation ofthe world ; so that the child might be bornanew.

” 12 We are reminded of Christian morals,in more than one of their prayers, in which theyused regular forms . Wilt thou blot us out, 0Lord, forever ? Is this punishment intended, not

u Carta del Lic. Zuazo (Nov. MS.—Acosta, lib . 5, cap . 8.

Torquemada, Monarch . Ind ., lib . 13, cap . 45 .—Sahagun, H ist. de

Nueva—E spafia , lib. 3, Apend.—Sometimes the body was buried e n

tire, with valuable treasures, if the decea sed was rich. The Anonymous Conqueror,” as he is called, saw gold to the val ue of 3000 castellan os drawn from one of these tombs. Relatione d’

u n gentil’huom o , ap. R am u sio , tom . i ii. p . 310.

n This interesting rite, usually solemniz ed with great formality, inthe presence of the assembled friends and relatives, is detailed withminuteness by Sahagun (H ist . de Nueva- E spafia, lib. 6, cap .

and by Zuazo (Carta, both of them eye—witnesses. For a version of part of Sahagun ’

s account, see Appendix, Part 1, note

[A similar rite of baptism, founded on the natural symbolism ofthe purifying power of water, was practised by other races in America, and had existed in the East, as the reader need hardly be told,long anterior to Christianity. —K. ]

MEXICAN MYTHOLOGY 79

for ou r reformation, but for our destruction ?

Again , Impart to us, out of thy great mercy, thygifts , which we are not worthy to receive throughour own merits .” Keep peace with all ,

” says another petition ; bear injuries with humility ; God,who sees, will avenge you .

” But the most striking parallel with Scripture is in the remarkabledeclaration that he who looks too curiously on awoman commits adultery with his eyes .” 13 Thesepure and elevated maxims , it is true, are mixed upwith others of a puerile , and even brutal , character,arguing that confusion of the moral perceptionswhich is natural in the twilight of civilization. Onewould not expect, however, to meet, in such a stateo f society, with doctrines as sublime as any in on lcated by the enlightened codes of ancient philOSOphy.

”“c’ Es posible que este azote y este castigo no se n os da paranuestra co rreccion y enm ienda, sino para total des tru ccion y a so

lamien to ?”(Sahagun , H ist . de Nueva- Espana, lib. 6, cap .

“Yesto por sola vuestra liberalidad y m agnificencia lo babeis de hacer,que ningun o es digno n i merecedor de recibir vuestra la rgu ez a s porsu dignidad y merecimiento, sino que por vuestra benignidad.”( Ibid ., lib. 6, cap .

“Sed sufridos y reportados, que D ios bienos vé y respondera por voso tros, y él os vengara (a) sed humildesco n todos, y con esto 08 hard D ios merced y tam bien honra. ( Ibid .,

lib. 6, cap .

“Tampoco mires con curiosidad el gesto y disposicion de la gente principal, mayormente de las m ugeres , y sobretodo de las casadas , porque dice e l re fran que él que curiosamentemira a la muger adultera con la vista.” ( Ibid ., l ib. 6, cap .

[On reviewing the remarkable coincidences shown in the abovepages with the sentiments and even the phraseology of Scripture, wecannot but admit there is plausible ground for Mr. Gallatin’ s conjectu re that the Mexicans, after the Conquest, attributed to theirremote ancestors ideas which more properly belonged to a generationcoeval with the Co nquest, and brought into contact with the Europeans. The substance,” he remarks, “may be true ; but several ofthe prayers convey elevated and correct notions of a Supreme B eing, which appear to me al together incons istent with that which we

CONQUEST OF MEXICO

But although the Aztec mythology gatherednothing from the beautiful inventions of the poetor from the refinements of philosophy, it was muchindebted, as I have noticed, to the priests , who endeavo red to dazzle the imagination of the peopleby the most formal and pompous ceremonial . Theinfluence of the priesthood must be greatest in an

imperfect state of civilization , where it engrossesall the scanty science of the time in its own body.

This is particularly the case when the science is ofthat spurious kind which is less occupied with thereal phenomena of nature than with the fancifulchimeras of human superstition . Such are thesciences of astrology and divination, in which theAztec priests were well initiated ; and , while theyseemed to hold the keys of the future in their ownhands, they impressed the ignorant people with sentim en ts of superstitious awe, beyond that which hasprobably existed in any other country, —even inancient Egypt.The sacerdotal order was very numerous ; as maybe inferred from the statement that five thousandpriests were ln some way or other, attached to the

know to have been their practical religion a nd worship .

” Transactions o f the American Ethnological Society, i.

[It is evident that an inconsistency such as belongs to all religions, and to hum an nature in general, afl’

o rds no sufficient gro undfor doubting the authenticity of the prayers reported by Sahagun.S imilar specimens of prayers used by the Peruvians have been preserved, and, like those of the Aztecs, exhibit, in their recognition ofspiritual as distinct from material blessings, a contrast to theforms of petition employed by the wholly uncivilized races of thenorth. They are in harmony with the purer conceptions of moralitywhich those nations are admitted to have possessed, and which formedthe real basis of their civilization . —K. ]

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

82 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

they lived in all the stern severity of conventualdiscipline . Thrice during the day, and once atnight, they were called to prayers . They were frequent in their ablutions and vigils, and mortifiedthe flesh by fasting and cruel penance , —drawingblood from their bodies byflagellation , or by piereing them with the thorns of the aloe ; in short, bypractising all those austerities to which fanaticism

(to borrow the strong langu age of the poet ) hasresorted, in every age of the world,

In hope s to m erit heaven by m aking earth a hell .” 16

The great cities were divided into districts ,placed under the charge of a sort of parochialclergy, who regulated every act of religion withintheir precincts . It is remarkable that they administe red the rites of confession and absolution . Thesecrets of the confessional were held inviolable, andpenances were imposed of much the same kind asthose enjoined in the Roman Catholic Church .

There were two remarkable peculiarities in theAztec ceremony. The first was , that, as the repetition of an off ence once atoned for was deemed inexpiable, confession was made but once in a man

’slife, and was usually deferred to a late period ofit, when the penitent unburdened his conscienceand settled at once the long arrears of iniquity.

*

Another peculiarity was , that priestly absolution

1° Sahagun, H ist . de Nu eva - E spafia, ubi supra —Torquemada,Monarch . Ind ., lib. 9, cap . 25 .

—Gomara, Cron ., ap. Barcia, ubi supra.—Acos ta, lib. 5, cap . 14, 17.

So, in the fourth century, the Roman Emperor Co nstantine deferred his baptism until he felt that his end was approaching.—M. ]

SACERDOTAL ORDER 83

was received in place of the legal pun ishment ofoff ences , and authorized an acquittal in case of arrest . Long after the Conquest, the simple natives,when they came under the arm of the law, soughtto escape by producing the certificate of their confession .

17

One of the most important duties of the priesthood was that o f education , to which ce rtain buildings were appropriated within the enclosure of theprincipal temple . Here the youth of both sexes

,

of the higher and middling orders, were placed ata very tender age . The girls were intrusted to thecare of priestesses ; for women were allowed to exercise sacerdotal functions , except those of sacrifice .

18 In these institutions the boys were drilled

Sahagun, H ist . de Nueva- E spafia , lib. 1, cap . 12 ; lib. 6, cap . 7.

—The address of the confessor, o n these occasions, contains somethings too remarkable to be omitted . O merciful Lord,” he says, inhis prayer, “thou who knowest the secrets of a ll hearts, let thy forgiven es s and favor descend, like the pure waters of heaven, to washaway the stains from the soul. Thou knowest that this poor m an has

sin ned, no t from his own free will, but from the influence of thesign under which he was born .” After a c0piou s exh ortation to thepenitent, enj oining a variety of m o rtificatio n s a nd minute ceremoniesby way of penance, and part icularly urging the necessity of instan tly procuring a s lave fo r sa crifice to the Deity, the priest concludes with inculcating charity to the poor. Clothe the naked andfeed the hu ngry, whatever privations it may cost thee ; for remembe r , theirflesh is like thine , and they a re m en like thee .

” Such is thestrange medley of truly Christian benevolence and heathenish abom inations which pervades the Aztec litany,—intimating sources widelydi fferent .

‘9 The Egyptian gods were also served by priestesses. (See Herodotus, Euterpe, sec . Tales of scandal similar to those which theGreeks circulated respecting them, have bee n told of the Aztec virgins . (See Le Noir’s dissertation, ap. Antiquités Mexicaines (Paris,

tom . i i . p. 7, note . ) The early miss ionaries, credulous enoughcertainly, give no co u n te n ance to such reports ; and Father Acosta,on the contrary, exclaims, In truth, it is very strange to see that thisfalse opinion of religion hath so great force among these yoong m en

84 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

in the routine of monastic discipline ; they decorated the shrines o f the gods with flowers , fed thesacred fires, and took part in the religious chantsand festivals . Those in the higher school—theCa lm ecac, as it was called—were initiated in theirtraditionary lore, the mysteries of hieroglyphics ,the principles of government, and such bran chesof astronomical and natural science as were withinthe compass of the priesthood. The girls learnedvarious feminine employments, especially to weaveand embroider rich coverings for the altars of thegods . Great attention was paid to the moral disciplin e of both sexes . The most perfect decorumprevailed ; and off ences were punished with extreme rigor, in some instances with death itself.Terror, not love, was the spring of education withthe Aztecs .19

At a suitable age for marrying, or for entering into the world, the pupils were dismissed,with much ceremony, from the convent, and therecommendation of the principal often introdu ced those most competent to responsible situations in public life . Such was the crafty policy

and maidens of Mexico, that they will serve the D ivell with so greatrigor and austerity, which many of us doe not in the service of themost high God ; the which is a grea t shame and confu sion.” Eng.trans , lib. 5, cap . 16.

” Toribio, H ist. de los Indios, MS ., Parte 1, cap. 9.—Sahagun ,

H ist. de Nneva- E spafia , lib. 2 , Apend. ; lib . 3, cap . 4—8.—Zurita, Rap

port, pp . 123—126.—Acosta, lib. 5, cap . 15, 16.

—Torquemada, Monarch .Ind ., lib. 9, cap . 11—14, 30, 31. They were taught,” says the goodfather last cited, to eschew vice, and cleave to virtue—a ccording to

their n otions o f them ; namely, to abstain from wrath to offer violence and do wrong to no man,—in short, to perform the dutiesplainly pointed out by natural religion .”

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

86 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

Catholic Church,in the early ages of the Inqui

sition .

20

The Mexican temples w teoca llis , houses ofGod

,

” as they were called - were very numerous .There were several hundreds in each of the principal cities , many of them, doubtless, very humbleedifices . They were solid masses of earth , casedwith brick or stone, and in their form somewhatresembled the pyramidal stru ctures of ancientEgypt . The bases of many of them were morethan a hundred feet square, and they towered toa still greater height. They were distributed intofour or five stories , each of smaller dimensionsthan that below . The ascent was by a flight ofsteps

,at an angle of the pyramid, on the outside.

This led to a sort of terrace , or gallery, at the baseof the second story, which passed quite round thebuilding to another flight of stairs , commencingalso at the same angle as the preceding and directly over it, and leading to a similar terrace ; so

” Torquemada, Monarch . Ind . , lib. 8, cap . 20, 21.—Camargo, H ist.

de Tla sca la , MS.—It is impossible not to be struck with the great

resemblance, not merely in a few empty forms, but in the whole wayof li fe, of the Mexican and Egyptian priesthood. Compare Herodotus (Euterpe, passim ) and Diodo rus ( lib. 1, sec. 73, The English reader may consult, for the same purpose, Heeren (H ist . R es ,

vol. v. chap . Wilkinson (Manners and Customs of the AncientEgyptians (London, vol. i . pp . 257 the last writer especially, - who has contributed, more than all others, towards opening to us the interior of the social li fe of this interesting people.

[Humboldt has noticed the curious similarity of the word teoca lliwith the Greek compound—actual or possible—6 86mm“and Buschmann observes, “D ie Uberein stimm u ng des mex. teotl und fledg,arithmetisch sehr hoch anzuschlagen wegen des Doppelvocals , zeigtwie weit e s der Zufall inWo rtahn lichkeiten zwischen ganz ve rschiedenen Sprachen bringen kann.” Uber die aztekischen Ortsnamen

,

S . 627. - K.]

TEMPLE S 87

that one had to make the circuit of the temple several times, before reaching the summit. In someinstances the stairway led directly up the centre ofthe western face of the building. The top was abroad area, on which were erected one or two towers, forty or fifty feet high, the sanctuaries in whichstood the sacred images of the presiding deities .Before these towers stood the dreadful stone ofsacrifice, and two lofty altars , on which fires werekept, as inextinguishable as those in the temple ofVesta . There were said to be six hu ndred of thesealtars, on smaller buildings within the enclosure ofthe great temple of Mexico, which, w ith those onthe sacred edifices in other parts of the city, sheda brilliant illumination over its streets , through thedarkest night .2 1

From the construction of their temples, all religiou s services were public. The long processionsof priests , winding round their massive sides , asthey rose higher and higher towards the summit,and the dismal rites of sacrifice performed there,were all visible from the remotest corners of thecapital, impressing on the spectator

’s mind a su

m R el . d’un gentil’ hu om o , ap. R am u sio , tom. iii. fol. 307.—Camargo, H ist. de Tla scal a , MS.

—Acosta, lib. 5, cap. 13.—Gomara,

Cron ., cap . 80, ap. Barcia, tom. 11.—Toribio, H ist. de los Indios, MS .,

Parte 1, cap. 4.—Carta del Lic. Zuazo, MS.

—This las t writer, whovisited Mexico immediately after the Conquest, in 1521, assures usthat some of the smaller temples, or pyr amids, were fill ed with earthimpregn ated with odoriferous giim s and gold dust ; the latter sometimes in such quantities as probably to be worth a mill ion of cas

te lla n oa! (Ubi supra. ) These were the temples of Mammon, indeed !But I find no confirmation of such golden reports.

[The teoca llis could be used as fortresses, as the Spaniardsascertained to their sorrow.]

UUNQ U E b’

l'

U h'

M E X ICO

perstitiou s veneration for the mysteries of his religion , and for the dread ministers by whom theywere interpreted .

This impression was kept in full force by theirnumerous festivals . Every month was consecratedto some protecting deity ; and every week, nay, almost every day, was set down in their calendar forsome appropriate celebration ; so that it is difficultto understan d how the ordinary business of lifecould have been compatible with the exactions ofreligion . Man v of their ceremonies were of a lightand cheerful complexion, consisting of the nation al songs and dances , in which both sexes j oined .

Processions were made of women and childrencrowned with garlands and bearing off erings offruits , the ripened maize, or the sweet incense ofcopal and other odoriferous gums , while the altarsof the deity were stained with no blood save that ofanimals . 2 2 These were the peaceful rites derivedfrom their Toltec predecessors , on which the fierceAztecs engrafted a superstition too loathsome tobe exhibited in all its nakedness , and one overwhich I would gladly draw a veil altogether, butthat it would leave the reader in ignorance of theirmost striking institution, and one that had thegreatest influence in forming the national character.Human sacrifices were adopted by the Aztecsearly in the four teenth century, about two hundred

Cod . Tel .- Rem., Pl. 1, and Cod. Vat ., passim, ap. Antiq. of Mexico, vols. i., vi .—Torquemada, Monarch. Ind ., lib. 10, cap . 10, et seq.

—Sahagun , H ist. de Nueva- E spaiia, lib. 2 , passim.—Among the offer

ings, quails may be part icularly noticed, for the incredible quantities of them sacrificed and consumed at many of the festivals .

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

90 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

structed him how to perform his new part withbecoming grace and dignity. He was arrayed ina splendid dress , regaled with incense and with aprofusion of sweet - scented flowers, of which theancient Mexicans were as fond as their descendantsat the present day. When he went abroad, he wasattended by a train of the royal pages , and, as hehalted in the streets to play some favorite melody,the crowd prostrated themselves before him, anddid him homage as the representative of their gooddeity. In this way he led an easy, luxurious life ,till within a month of his sacrifice . Four beautifulgirls , bearing the names of the prin cipal goddesses, were then selected to share the honors of hisbed ; and with them he continued to live in idle dallian ce , feasted at the banquets of the principalnobles, who paid him all the honors of a divinity.

At length the fatal day of sacrifice arrived . Theterm of his short - lived glories was at an end . Hewas stripped of his gaudy apparel , and bade adieuto the fair partners of his revelries . One of theroyal barges transported him across the lake to atemple which rose on its margin, about a leaguefrom the city. Hither the inhabitants of the capital flocked, to witness the consummation of theceremony. As the sad procession wound up thesides of the pyramid, the unhappy victim threwaway his gay chaplets of flowers , and broke inpieces the musical instruments with which he hadsolaced the hours of captivity. On the summit hewas received by six priests , whose long and mattedlocks flowed disorderly over their sable robes , covered with hieroglyphic scrolls of mystic import .

HUMAN SACRIFICES 91

They led him to the sacrificial stone , a huge blockof j asper, with its upper surface somewhat convex .

On this the prisoner was stretched . F ive priestssecured hish ead and his limbs ; while the sixth , cladin a scarlet mantle, emblematic of his bloody office,dexterously opened the breast of the wretched victim with a sharp razor of itz tli, —a volcanic substance , hard as flin t,—and, insertin g his hand inthe wound, tore out the palpitating heart . Theminister of death , first holding this up towards thesun, an obj ect of worship throughout Anahuac,cast it at the feet of the deity to whom the templewas devoted, while the multitudes below prostrated themselves in humble adoration. The tragicstory of this prisoner was expounded by the priestsas the type o f human destiny, which , brilliant in itscommencement, too often closes in sorrow and disaster.2 4

Such was the form of human sacrifice usuallypractised by the Aztecs . It was the same thatoften met the indignant eyes of the Eu ropeans intheir progress through the country, and from thedreadful doom of which they themselves were notexempted . There were , indeed, some occasionswhen preliminary tortures , of the most exquisitekind, —with which it is unnecessary to shock the

2‘ Sahagun, H ist . de Nueva- E spafia , lib. 2 , cap . 2 , 5, 24, et alibi.Herrera, H ist. general, dec . 3, l ib. 2 , cap . 16.

—Torquemada, Mo

nareh . Ind ., lib. 7, cap . 19 ; lib. 10, cap . 14.—Rel. d’

u n gentil ’ hu om o ,

ap. R am us io , tom . ii i . fol . 307.—Acosta, lib. 5, cap . 9—2 1.

—Carta delLic. Zuazo, MS.

—Relacion por e l Regimiento de Vera Cruz (Jul io,MS.

—Few readers, probably, will sympathize with the sentence of Torquemada, who concludes his tale of woe by coolly dismissing the soul of the victim, to sleep with those of his false gods,in hell !” Lib . 10, cap . 23.

92 CONQUEST OF ME XICO

reader,—were inflicted, but they always termin atedwith the bloody ceremony above described . Itshould be remarked, however, that such tortureswere not the spontaneous suggestions of cruelty, aswith the North American Indians, but were allrigorously prescribed in the Az tec ritual, anddoubtless were often inflicted with the same com

pu n ctiou s visitings which a devout familiar of theHoly Office might at times experience in executingits stern decrees .2 5 Women, as well as the othersex , were sometimes reserved for sacrifice . Onsome occasions, particularly in seasons of drought,at the festival of the insatiable Tlaloc, the god ofrain, children, for the most part infants , were o ffered up . As they were borne along in open litters ,dressed in their festal robes , and decked with thefresh blossoms of spring, they moved the hardestheart to pity, though their cries were drowned inthe wild chant of the priests, who read in theirtears a favorable augury for their petition . Theseinnocent victims were generally bought by the

25 Sahagun, H ist . de Nueva- E spafia , lib. 2 , cap. 10, 29 .—Gomara,

Cron ., cap . 219, ap. Barcia, tom . ii .—Toribio, H ist . de los Indios,MS . , Parte 1, cap . 6—11.

—The reader will find a tolerably exact picture of the nature of these tortures in the twenty- firs t canto of the“Inferno.” The fantastic creation s of the Florentine poet werenearly realized, at the very time he was writing, by the barbariansof an unknown world. One sacrifice, of a less revolting character,deserves to be mentioned. The Spaniards called it the gladiatorialsacrifice, and it may remind one of the bloody games of antiquity.A captive of distinction was sometimes furnished with arms, andbrought against a number of Mexicans in succession . I f he defeatedthem all, as did occasionally happen, he was al lowed to escape. I fvanquished, he was dragged to the block and sacrificed in the usualmanner. The combat was fought o n a huge circular stone, beforethe assembled capital . Sahagun, H ist. de Nu eva - E spafia, lib. 2 , cap.2 1.

—Rel . d’u n gentil’ hu om o , ap. R am u sio , tom. ii i . fol. 305.

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

94 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

pared with those in An ahuac . The amount of victims immolated on its accursed altars would stagger the faith of the least scrupulous believer.Scarcely any author pretends to estimate theyearly sacrifices throughout the empire at less thantwenty thousand , and some carry the number ashigh as fifty thousand!2 9

On great occasions , as the coronation of a kingor the consecration of a temple, the number becomes still more appalling . At the dedication of thegreat temple of Huitzilopochtli , in 1486 , the prisoners

,who for some years had been reserved for the

purpose,were drawn from all quarters to the capi

tal. They were ranged in fil es, forming a proce ssion nearly two miles long. The ceremony consumed several days, and seventy thousand captivesare said to have perished at the shrine of this terrible deity! But who can believe that so numerousa body would have suff ered themselves to be ledunresistingly like sheep to the slaughter ? Or howcould their remains, too great for consumption in

” See Clavigero , Stor. del Messico, tom . 11. p . 49 .—Bishop Zum ar

raga, in a letter written a few years a fter the Conquest, states thatvictims were yearly slaughtered in the capital. Torquemada

turns this into infan ts . (Monarch. Ind ., lib. 7, cap . Herrera, following Acosta, says victims on a specified day of theyear, throughout the kingdom . (H ist . general, dec . 2 , lib. 2 , cap .

Clavigero , more cautious, infers that this number may have beensacrificed annually throughout Anahuac. (Ubi supra. ) Las Casas,however, in his reply to Sepulveda’s assertion, that no one who hadvis ited the New World put the number of yearly sacrifices at lessthan declares that this is the estimate of brigands, who wishto find an apology for their own atrocities, and that the real numberwas not above ( (E uvre s , ed . Llorente (Paris, tom. i .pp . 365, Probably the good Bishop ’ s arithmetic here

,as in

most other instances, came more from his heart than his head . Withsuch loose and contradictory data, it is clear that any specific number is mere conj ecture, undeserving the name of calculation.

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

HUMAN SACRIFICES 95

the ordinary way, be disposed of, without breedinga pestilence in the capital ? Yet the event was ofrecent date , and is unequivocally attested by thebest- informed historians 3° One fact may be conside red certain . It was customary to preserve theskull s of the sacrificed, in buildings appropriatedto the purpose . The companions of Cortés countedone hun dred and thirty- six thousand in one of theseedifices!31 Without attempting a precise calcu

lation, therefore, it is safe to conclude that thousands were yearly off ered up, in the different citiesof Anahuac, on the bloody altars of the Mexicandivinities .3 2

Indeed, the great obj ect of war, with the Aztecs,was quite as much to gather victims for their sac

°°I am within bounds. Torquemada states the number, most precis ely, at (Monarch. Ind ., lib. 2 , cap . Ixtlilx ochitl, withequal precision, at (H ist. Chich., MS . ) e

'

Qu ien sabe ? Thelatter adds that the captives massacred in the capital, in the courseof that memorable year, exceeded (Loc. cit. ) One, however, has to read but a l ittle way, to find out that the science ofnumbers—at least where the party was not a n eyewitness—is anything but an exact science with these ancient chroniclers . The C0dex Te llerian o - R em en sis , written some fifty years after the Conquest, reduces the amount to (Antiq. of Mexico, vol . 1. P1.19 ; vol. vi . p . 141, Eng. note. ) Even this hardly warrants the Spanish interpreter in calling king A hu itz o tl a man of a mild andmoderate disposition,” templada y ben igna condicio n l Ibid ., vol.v. p . 49.

Gomara states the number o n the authority of two soldiers, whosenames he gives, who took the trouble to count the grinning horrorsin one of these Go lgothas, where they were so arranged as to producethe most hideous effect . The existence of these cons ervatories isattested by every writer of the time.

32 The Anonymous Conqueror ” assures us, as a fact beyond dispute, that the Devil introduced himsel f into the bodies of the idols ,and persuaded the silly priests that his only diet was human hearts !I t furn ishes a very satis factory solution, to his mind, of the f requeney of sacrifices in Mex ico. Rel. d’un genti l’ hu om o , ap. R am u sio,

tom . i ii. fol . 307.

96 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

rifice s as to extend their empire . Hence it wasthat an enemy was never slain in battle , if therewere a chance of taking him alive . To this circumstance the Spaniards repeatedly owed their preservation . When Montezuma was asked why hehad suffered the republic of Tlascala to maintainher independence on his borders , he replied, thatshe might furnish him with victims for his godsAs the supply began to fail , the priests , the Dominicams of the New World, bellowed aloud formore, and urged on their superstitious sovereignby the denunciations of celestial wrath . Like themilitant churchmen of Christendom in the M iddleAges , they min gled themselves in the ranks, andwere conspicuous in the thickest of the fight, bytheir hideous aspect and frantic gestures . Strange ,that, in every country , the most fiendish passionsof the human heart have been those kin dled in thename of religion!3 3

The influence of these practices on the Azteccharacter was as disastrous as might have been ex

The Tezcucan priests would fain have persuaded the good kingNez ahu alcoyotl , o n occasion of a pestilence, to appease the gods bythe sacrifice of some of his own subj ects, instead of his enemies ; onthe ground that they would not only be obtained more eas ily, butwould be fresher victims, and more acceptable. (Ixtlilxochitl, H ist.Chich. , MS ., cap . This writer mentions a cool arrangemente ntered into by the allied monarchs with the republic of Tlascala andher confederates . A battle- fie ld was marked out, on which the troopso f the hostile nations were to engage at stated seasons, and thussupply themselves with subj ects for sacrifice. The victorious partywas not to pursue his advantage by invading the other’s territory,and they were to continue, in all other respects, on the most amicablefooting. (Ubi supra. ) The historian, who follows in the track ofthe Tezcucan Chronicler, may often find occasion to shel ter himself,like Ariosto, with

Me tte ndo lo Turpin, lo m e tto anch' 10.

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

98 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

character of a civilized community. One may, perhaps, better understand the anomaly, by reflectingon the condition of some of the most polished countries in Europe in the sixteenth century, after theestablishment of the modern Inquisition, - an in

stitu tion which yearly destroyed its thousands , bya death more painful than the Aztec sacrifices ;which armed the hand of brother against brother,and, setting its burning seal upon the lip , did moreto stav the march of improvement than any otherscheme ever devised by human cunning .

Human sacrifice , however cruel, has nothing init degrading to its victim . It may be rather saidto ennoble him by devoting him to the gods . Ai

though so terrible with the Az tecs, it was sometim esvoluntarily embraced by them, as the most gloriousdeath and one that opened a sure passage into

the people who practise it should make any great progress in moralor intellectual culture ”

(p . This observation, referring solelyto cannibalism, the critic cites as i f applied by me to human sacrifices . Whatever force, therefore, his reasoning may have in respectto the latter, it cannot be admitted to apply to the former. Thedistance is wide between human sacrifices and cannibalism ; thoughSenor Ramirez dimin ishes this distance by regarding both one andthe other simply as religious exercis es, springing from the devotion al principle in our nature.* He enforces his views by a multitude of examples from history, which show how extensively theserevolting usages of the Aztecs—o u a much less gigantic scale indeed—have been practised by the primitive races of the Old World,some of whom, at a later period, made high advances in civilization. Ramirez, Notas y E scla recimien to s a la H istoria del Conquista de Mexico del Seilor W. Prescott, appended to Navarro ’

s

translation.

[The practise of eating, or tasting, the victim has been generallyassociated with sacrifice, from the idea either of the sacredness ofthe o ff ering or of the deity’s accepting the soul, the immaterial part,or the blood as contain ing the principle of l i fe and lea ving the fleshto his worshippers —K ]

HUMAN SACRIFICES 99

paradise .35 The Inquisition, on the other hand,branded its victims with infamy in this world , andconsigned them to everlasting perdition in thenext .One detestable feature of the Aztec superstition,however, sunk it far below the Christian. This wasits can n ibalismfi“though , in truth, the Mexicanswere not cannibals in the coarsest acceptation ofthe term . They did not feed on human fleshmerely to gratify a brutish appetite, but in obedience to their religion . Their repasts were made ofthe victims whose blood had been poured out onthe altar of sacrifice. This is a distinction worthyof notice .3 6 Still , cannibalism, under any form o r

whatever sanction, cannot but have a fatal influence on the nation addicted to it. It suggests ideasso loathsome, so degrading to man, to his spiritual

R el . d’u n gentil’ hu om o , ap. R am u sio , tom . i1i. fol. 307.—Among

other instances is that of Chim alpopoca , third king of Mexico, whodoomed himself, with a number of his lords , to this death, to wipeo ff an indignity offered him by a brother monarch. (Torquemada,Monarch. Ind., lib. 2 , cap. This was the law of honor with theAztecs .

” Voltaire, doubtles s, intends this, when he says, Ils n’étaien t

point anthropophages, comme u n tres- petit nombre de peupladesAméricaines .

”

(Essai su r les Moeurs, chap.

The advancement of Mexico rested for support on a systemof perpetual war, remorselessly maintained against neighboring peoples , ostensibly to procure victims for sacrifice, but really to provide animal food for consumption by the privileged class engagedin it ; and the religious ritual had been so expanded as to ensurefor them, by a sacred and permanent sanction, an almost continuouscannibal carnival .” Payne, New World Called America, vol. 1. p.

500. Mr. Payne shows that this continuous cannibalism p revailedbecause Anahuac possessed no large animals capable of furnishinga regular food supply. Organiz ed cannibalism, fortified by its

religious sanction, was in ‘fact a natural i f not a necessary outgrowth of circums tances .”—M.]

100 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

an d immortal n ature, that it is impossible the people who practise it should make any great progressin moral or intellectual culture . The Mexicansfurnish no exception to this remark. The civilization which they possessed descended from the TO1tecs

,a race who never stained their altars, still less

their banquets,with the blood of man .

37 All thatdeserved the name of science in Mexico came fromthis source ; and the crumbling ruins of edifices attributed to them

,still extant in various parts of

New Spain ,show a decided superiority in their

architecture over that of the later races of Anahuac . It is true, the Mexicans made great proficien cy in many of the social and mechanic arts, inthat material culture —if I may so call it ,—thenatural growth of increasing opulence, which m inisters to the gratification of the senses . In pu relyintellectual progress they were behind the Te z cucans, whose wise sovereigns came into the abom inable rites of their neighbors with reluctance andpractised them on a much more moderate scale .3 8

37[The remark in the text admits of some qualification . According

to an ancient Tezcucan chronicler, quoted by Senor Ramirez, theToltecs celebrated occasionally the worship of the god Tlaloc withhuman sacrifices . The most important of these was the off eringuponce a year of five or six maidens, who were immolated in theusual horrid way of tearing out their hearts. It does not appearthat the Toltecs consummated the sacrifice by devouring the flesh ofthe victim . This seems to have been the only exception to the blameless character o f the Toltec rites . Tlaloc was the oldest deity in theAztec mythology, in which he found a suitable place. Yet, as theknowledge of him was originally derived from the Toltecs, it cannotbe denied that this peo ple, as Ram irez says, possessed in their peenliar civilization the germs of those sanguinary institutions which existed on so appalling a scale in Mexico. See Ramirez, Notas y E scla recim ien to s , ubi supra ]

” Ixtlilx ochitl, H ist. Chich., MS ., cap. 45, et alibi .

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

102 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

more unreservedly to the bus iness of preaching, and of compilingvarious works designed to illustrate the antiquities of the Aztecs.For these literary labors he found some facilities in the situationwhich he continued to occupy, of reader, or lecturer, in the Collegeof Santa Cruz, in the capital .The “Universal History was concocted in a singular manner.In order to secure to it the greatest possible authority, he passed someyears in a Tezcucan town, where he conferred daily with a num berof respectable natives unacquainted with Castilian. He propoundedto them queries, which they, after deliberation, answered in theirusual method of writing, by hieroglyphical paintings. These he sub

mitted to other natives, who had been educated under his own eye inthe College of Santa Cruz ; and the latter, after a consultation amongthemselves

,gave a written version, in the Mexican tongue, of the

hieroglyphics. This process be repeated in another place, in somepart of Mexico

, and subj ected the whole to a stil l further revision bya third body in another quarter. He finally arranged the combinedresults into a regular history, in the form it now bears ; composing itin the Mexican language, which he could both write and speak withgreat accuracy and elegance, greater, indeed, than any Spaniard ofthe time.The work presented a mass of curious information, that attractedmuch attention among his brethren. But they feared its influence inkeeping alive in the natives a too vivid rem iniscence of the very superstition s which it was the great obj ect of the Christian clergy to e radicate. Sahagun had views more liberal than those of his order, whoseblind zeal woul d will ingly have annihilated every monument of artand human ingenuity which had not been produced under the influence of Christianity. They refused to allow him the necessary aid totranscribe his papers, which he had been so many years in preparing,under the pretext that the expense was too great for their order toincur. This occasioned a further delay of several years. What wasworse, his provincial got possession of his manuscripts, which weresoon scattered among the diff erent religions hou ses in the country.In this forlorn state of his afi

’

airs, Sahagun drew up a brief statement of the nature and contents of his work, and forwarded it toMadrid. It fell into the hands of Don Juan de Ovando, president ofthe Council for the Indies, who was so much interested in it that heordered the manuscripts to be restored to their author, with the request that he would at once set about translating them into Castilia n .This was accordingly done. H is papers were recovered, though notwithout the menace of ecclesiastical censures ; and the octogenarianauthor began the work of translation from the Mexican

, in whichthey had been originally written by him thirty years before. He hadthe satisfaction to complete the task, arranging the Spanish version ina parallel column with the ori ginal, and adding a vocabulary, explaining the difiicu lt Aztec terms and phrases ; while the text wassupported by the numerous paintings on which it was founded. In

SAHAGUN 103

this form, makin g two bulky volumes in folio, it was sent to Ms

drid. There seemed now to be no further reason for postponing itspublication, the importance of which could not be doubted . Butfrom this moment it disappea rs ; and we hear nothing further of it,for more than two centuries, except only as a valuable work, whichhad once existed and was probably buried in some one of the numerous cemeteries of learning in which Spain abounds .At length, towards the close of the last centu ry, the indefatigableMufioz succeeded in disinterring the long- lost manuscript from theplace tradition had ass igned to it,—the library of a convent at Tolosa, in Navarre, the northern extremity of Spain . With his usualardor, he transcribed the whole work with his own hands , and addedit to the inestimable collection, of which, alas !he was destined not toreap the ful l benefit himsel f. From this transc ript Lord Kingsbo rough was enabled to procure the copy which was published in 1830,in the sixth volume of his magnificent compilation . In it be expresses an honest sa t isfaction at being the first to give Sahagun ’

s

works to the world. But in this supposition he was mistaken. Thevery year preceding, an edition of it, with annotations , appeared inMexico, in three volumes octavo. I t was prepared by Bustamantea scholar to whose editorial activity his country is largely indebted,from a copy of the Munoz manuscript which came into his possession.Thus this remarkable work, which was denied the honors of the pressduring the author’s lifetime, after passing into oblivion, reappeared,at the distance of nearly three centuries, not in his own country, butin foreign lands widely remote from each other, and that almostsimultaneously. The story is extraordinary, though unhappily not soextraordinary in Spain as it would be elsewhere.Sahagun divided his history into twelve books . The first elevenare occupied with the social institutions of Mexico, and the last withthe Conquest. On the religion of the country he is particularly full.His grea t obj ect evidently was, to give a clear view of its mytho logy,and of the burdensome ritual which belonged to it . Re ligion enteredso intimately into the most private concerns and usages of the A z

tecs, that Sahagu n ’s work must be a text - book for every student of

their antiquities. Torquemada availed himsel f of a manuscript copy,which fell into his hands before it was sent to Spain, to enrich hisown pages,—a circumstance more fortunate for his readers than forSahagu n

’

s reputation , whose work, now that it is published, losesmuch of the original ity and interest which woul d otherwise attachto it . In one respect it is invaluable ; as prese nting a complete collection of the various forms of prayer, accommodated to every possible emergency, in use by the Mexicans. They are often clothed indign ified and beauti ful language, showing that sublime speculativetenets are quite compatible with the most degrading practices ofsuperstition . I t is much to

.

be regretted that we have not the eighteen hymns inserted by the author in his book, which woul d havepart icular interest, as the only specimen o f

°

devotional poetry pre

104 CONQUEST OF ME X

served of the Aztecs. The hieroglyphical paipanied the text, are also mis sing. I f they havefanaticism, both may reappear at some futureSahagun produced several other works, of a

cal character. Some of these were volum inousprinted. He lived to a very advanced agactivity and usefulness, in 1590, in the capitalmains were followed to the tomb by a numerown countrymen, and of the natives, who lamof unaff ected piety, benevolence, and learning.

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

106 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

pense with it even in the graver productions ofscience ; and other nations, again, proposing a severer end to themselves, to which even imaginationand elegant art were made subservient. The produ ction s of such a people must be criticised, not bythe ordinary rules of taste, but by their adaptationto the peculiar end for which they were designed .

Such were the Egyptian s in the Old World,1 andthe Mexicans in the New. We have already hadoccasion to notice the resemblance borne by thelatter nation to the former in their religious econ omy. We shall be more struck with it in theirscientific culture, especially their hieroglyphicalwriting and their astronomy.

To describe actions and events by delineatingvisible obj ects seems to be a natural suggestion,and is practised, after a certain fashion, by the rudest savages . The North American Indian carvesan arrow on the bark of trees to show his followersthe direction of his march, and some other sign toshow the success of his expeditions . But to paintintelligibly a consecutive series of these actionsforming what Warburton has happily called pictu re -writing

2- requires a combination of ideas

An Egyptian temple,” says Denon , strikingly, is an open volume, in which the teachings of science, morality, and the arts are t ecorded. Every thing seems to Speak one and the same language,and breathes one and the same spirit.” The passage is cited byHeeren, H ist. R e s , vol. v . p . 178.

z Divin e Legation, ap. Works (London, vol . iv. b . 4, sec. 4.

—The Bishop of Gloucester, in his comparison of the various hieroglyphical systems of the world, shows his characteristic sagacity andboldness by announcing opinions little credited then, though sinceestablished. He affirmed the existence of an Egyptian alphabet, butwas not aware of the phonetic property of hieroglyphics

,—the great

literary discovery of our age.

MEXICAN HIEROGLYPHICS 107

that amoun ts to a positively intellectual effort .

Yet further,when the obj ect of the painter, insteadof being limited to the present, is to penetrate thepast, and to gather from its dark recesses lessonsof instruction for comin g generations, we see thedawnings of a literary culture , and recognize theproof of a decided civilization in the attempt itself

,

however imperfect ly it may be executed. The literal imitation of objects will not answer for thismore complex and extended plan. It would oc

cupy too much space, as well as tim e in the ex ecution . It then becomes necessary to abridge thepictures , to confine the drawing to outlines, or tosuch prominent parts of the bodies delineated asmay readily suggest the whole . This is the repres en ta tive or figu rative writing, which forms thelowest stage of hieroglyphics .But there are things which have no type in thematerial world ; abstract ideas, which can only berepresented by visible obj ects supposed to havesome quality analogous to the idea intended. Thisconst itutes symbolica l writin g, the most difficult ofall to the interpreter, since the analogy between thematerial and immaterial object is often purelyfanciful , or local in its application . Who , for instance, could su s pect the association which made abeetle represent the universe, as with the E gyptians , or a serpent typify time , as with the Aztecs ?

The third and last division is the phon etic, inwhich signs are made to represent soun ds, eitherentire words , or parts of them. This is the nearestapproach of the hier oglyphical series to that beautiful invention, the alphabet, by which language is

108 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

resolved into its elementary sounds, and an apparatus supplied for easily and accurately expressing the most delicate shades of thought.The Egyptians were well skilled in all threekinds of hieroglyphics. But, although their public monuments display the first class, in their ordinary intercourse and written records it is nowcertain that they almost wholly relied on thephonetic character. Strange that, having thusbroken down the thin partition which divided themfrom an alphabet, their latest monuments shouldexhibit no nearer approach to it than their earliest .3

The Aztecs, also, were acquainted with the severalvarieties of hieroglyphics . But they relied on thefigurative infinitely more than on the others . TheEgyptians were at the top of the scale, the Aztecsat the bottom.

In castin g the eye over a Mexican manuscript,or map, as it is called, one is struck with the grotesqu e caricatures it exhibits of the human figure ;monstrous, overgrown heads, on puny, misshapenbodies, which are themselves hard and angular intheir outlines , and without the least skill in composition. On closer inspection, however, it is ohviou s that it is not so much a rude attempt to

It appears that the hieroglyphics on the most recent monumentsof Egypt contain no larger infusion of phonetic characters thanthose which ex isted eighteen centuries before Christ ; showing no advance, in this respect, for twenty- two hundred years ! (See Champollion , Précis du Systeme hiéroglyphique des anciens E gyptiens(Paris, pp. 249, It may seem more strange that theenchorial alphabet, so much more commodious, should not have beensubstituted . But the Egyptians were familiar with their hieroglyphics from infancy, which, moreover, took the fancies of the mostill iterate, probably in the same manner as our children are attractedand taught by the picture- alphabets in an ordinary spelling- book.

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

110 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

is particularly the case with the delineations ofmythology ; in which the story is told by a conglomeration of symbols , that may remind one moreof the mysterious anaglyphs scu lptured on the temples of the Egyptians, than of their writtenrecords .The Aztecs had various emblems for expressingsuch things as

,from their nature , could not be di

rectly represented by the painter ; as , for example,the years

,months , days, the se asons , the elements,

the heavens, and the like. A tongu e denotedspeakin g ; a footprint ,

” travelling ; a man sitting ou the ground,

” an earthquake . These symbols were often very arbitrary, varying with thecaprice of the writer ; and it requires a nice discrimination to interpret them, as a slight change inthe form or position of the figure intimated a verydifferent meaning .

5 An ingenious writer ass ertsthat the priests devised secret symbolic charactersfor the record of their religious mysteries . It ispossible . But the researches of Champollion leadto the conclusion that the similar opinion formerlyentertained respecting the Egyptian hieroglyphicsis without foundation .

6

Lastly, they employed, as above stated, phoneticGama, Descripcion , Parte £2, pp . 32 , 44.

—Acosta, lib . 6, cap . 7.

The continuation of Gama’s work, recently edited by Bustamante,in Mexico, contains, among other things, some interesting remarkson the Aztec hieroglyphics. The editor has rendered a good serviceby this further publication of the wr itings of this estimable scholar,who has done more than any of his countrymen to explain the mysteries of Aztec science.

°Gama, Descripcion , Parte 9, p . 32 .—Warburton

,with his us ual

penetration, rej ects the idea of mystery in the figurative hieroglyphics. (Divine Legation, b. 4, sec. I f there was any mysteryreserved for the in itiated, Champollion thinks it may have been the

MEXICAN HIEROGLYPHICS 111

signs, though these were chiefly confined to thenames of persons and places ; which , being derivedfrom some circumstance or characteristic quality,were accommodated to the hieroglyphical system .

Thus, the town Cim a tlan was compounded ofcim a tl, a root,

” which grew near it, and tlan , sign ifying near ; Tlawcallan meant the place ofbread, from its rich fields of corn ; H u ewo tzin co ,

a place surrounded by willows .” The names ofpersons were often significant of their adventuresand achievements . That of the great Tezcucanprince Nez ahu alcoyo tl signified hungry fox ,

”

intimating his sagacity, and his distresses in earlylife .7 The emblems of such names were no soonerseen, than they suggested to every Mexican theperson and place intended, and, when painted ontheir shields or embroidered on their banners , became the armorial bearings by which city and chieftain were distinguished, as in Europe in the age ofchivalry.

8

But, although the Aztecs were instructed in allthe varieties of hieroglyphical painting, theychiefly resorted to the clumsy method of direct represe n tation . Had their empire lasted , like the

system of the anaglyphs . (Précis, p . Why may not this betrue, likewise, of the monstrous symbolical combinations which represented the Mexican deities ?

B otu rini, Idea, pp . 77—83 .—Gama, Descripcion , Parte 2 , pp. 34

48 .—Heeren is not aware, or does not allow, that the Mexicans usedphonetic characters of any kind. (H ist. Res , vol. v. p . They,indeed , reverse d the usual order of proceeding, and, instea d of adapting the hieroglyphic to the name of the obj ect, accommodated thename of the obj ect to the hieroglyphic. This, of course , could notadmit of great extension . We find phonetic characters, however,appli ed in some instances to common as well as proper names .

Botu rini, Idea, ubi supra.

112 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

Egyptian

,several thousand years, instead of the

brief space of two hundred, they would doubtless,like them

,have advanced to the more frequent use

of the phonetic writing . But, before they couldbe made acquainted with the capabilities of theirown system

,the Spanish Conquest, by introducing

the European alphabet, supplied their scholarswith a more perfect contrivance for expressingthought

,which soon supplanted the ancient pic

to rial character.9

Clum sy as it was, however, the Aztec picturewriting seems to have been adequate to the demands of the nation, in their imperfect state ofcivilization . By means of it were recorded all theirlaws

,and even their regulations for domestic

economy ; their tribute - rolls , specifying the imposts of the various towns ; their mythology, calendars , and rituals ; their political annals, carriedback to a period long before the foundation of thecity. They digested a complete system of chron o logy, and could specify with accuracy the datesof the most important events in their history ; theyear being inscribe d on the margin, against theparticular circumstance recorded . It is true, history, thus executed, must necessarily be vague andfragmentary. Only a few leading incidents couldbe presented . But in this it did not diff er muchfrom the monkish chronicles of the dark ages ,which often dispose of years in a few brief sen

Clavigero has given a catalogue of the Mexican historians of thesixteenth century,—some of whom are often cited in this history,which bears honorable testimony to the literary ardor and intelligenceof the native races. Stor. del Messico, tom. i

,,Pref.—Also, Gama,

Descripcion , Parte 1, passim.

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

114 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

stenography,a collection of note s, suggesting to

the initiated much more than could be conveyed bya literal interpretation . This combination of thewritten

'

and the oral comprehended what may becalled the literature of the Aztecs .12

Their manuscripts were made of diff erent materials

,—o f cotton cloth , or skins nicely prepared ; of

a composition of silk and gum ; but, for the mostpart

,of a fine fabric from the leaves of the aloe,

agave A m erican a , called by the natives magu ey,

which grows luxuriantly over the table - lands ofMexico . A sort of paper was made from it, resembling somewhat the Egyptian papyru s

13 which ,when properly dressed and polished , is sald to havebeen more soft and beautiful than parchment .Some of the specimens, still existing, exhibit theiroriginal freshness , and the paintings on them retaintheir brilliancy of colors . They were sometimes

n A ccording to B otu rini, the ancient Mexicans were acquaintedwith the Peruvian method of recording events by means of the qu ippu s ,—knotted strings of various colors, - which were afterwards superseded by hieroglyphical painting. ( Idea, p. He coul d discover, however, but a single specimen, which he met with in Tlas cala,and that had nearly fallen to pieces with age. McCul loh suggeststhat it may have been only a wampum belt, such as is commonamong our North American Indians . (Researches, p. Theconj ecture is plausible enough . Strings of wampum, of various colors , were used by the latter people for the similar purpose of registering events. The insulated fact, recorded by B otu rin i, is hardlysufficient—unsupported, so far as I know, by any other testimonyto establis h the existence of qu ippus among the Aztecs, who had butlittle in common with the Peruvians .

1’ Pliny, who gives a minute account of the papyru s reed of Egypt,notices the various manufactures obtained from it

,as rcpes, cloth,

paper, etc. It al so served as a thatch for the roofs of houses, and a sfood and drink for the natives . (H ist. Nat., lib. 11, cap. 90 I tis singular that the American agave , a plant so totally diff erent,should al so have been applied to all these various us es.

MANUSCR IPTS 115

done up into rolls, but more frequently in to volumes, of moderate size, in which the paper wasshut up , like a folding screen, with a leaf or tableto f woo d at each extrem ity, that gave the whole,when closed, the appearance of a bo ok . Thelength of the strips was determined only by convenien ce . As the pages might be read and referredto separately, this form had obvious advantagesover the rolls of the ancients .14

At the time of the arrival of the Spaniards , greatquantities of these manuscripts were treasured upin the country. Numerous persons were employedin painting, and the dexterity of their operationsexcited the astonishment of the Conquerors . U n

fortunately, this was min gled with other and u n

worthy feelings . The strange, unkn own characters inscribed on them excited suspicion. Theywere looked on as magic scrolls, and were regardedin the same light with the idols and temples , as thesymbols of a pestilent superstition, that must beextirpated . The first archbishopof Mexico, DonJuan de Zumarraga,—a name that shoul d be asimmortal as that of Omar,—collected these paintings from every quarter, especially from Tez cuco ,

the most cul tivated capital in An ahuac, and the

Lo renzana, H ist. de Nueva- E spafia, p . 8.—B otu rini, Idea, p . 96.

—Humboldt, Vues des Co rdilleres , p . 59.—Peter Martyr A ngleriu s,

De Orbe Novo (Complu ti, dec . 3, cap . 8 ; dec . 5, cap 10.

Martyr has given a minute description of the Indian maps sent homesoon after the invasion of New Spain. H is inquisitive mind wasstru ck with the evidence they afforded of a positive civiliz ation . R ibera, the friend of Co rtes , brought back a story that the paintingswere designed as patterns for embroiderers and j ewellers . But Martyr had bee n in Egypt, and he felt little hesitation in plac ing theIndian drawings in the same class with those he had seen on theobelisks and temples of that country.

116 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

great depository of the national archives. He thencaused them to be piled up in a moun tain - heap—as it is called by the Spanish writers themselves—in the market- place of Tlate lo lco , and reducedthem all to ashes!15 His greater countryman,Archbishop Ximenes

,had celebrated a similar

au to -da - fe’ of Arabic manuscripts , in Granada,

some twenty years before . Never did fanaticismachieve two more signal trium phs than by the ann ihilation of so many curious monum ents o f humaningenuity and learn ing!16

The unlettered soldiers were not slow in imitating the example of their prelate . Every chart andvolume which fell into their hands was wantonlydestroyed ; so that, when the scholars of a later andmore enlightened age anxiously sought to recoversome of these memorials of civilization, nearly allhad pe rished, and the few surviving were j ealouslyhidden by the natives .” Through the indefatigable labors o f a private individual, however, a

‘5 Ixtlilxochitl, H ist. Chich., MS., Prologo.—Idem, Sum . B elac.,MS . The name of Zumarraga, says Ser’io r Alaman, “has otherand very different titles to immortality from that mentioned by Mr .Prescott,—titles founded on his virtues and apostolic labors, especially o n the fervid zeal with which he defended the natives and themanifold benefits he secured to them. The loss that history sufferedby the destruction of the Indian manuscripts by the missionaries hasbeen in a great measure repaired by the writings of the missionariesthemselves .” Conquista de Méj ico ( trad . de Vega) , tom . i . p .

- Writers are not agreed whether the conflagr atio n took place in thesquare of Tlatelo lco or Te zcu co . Comp . Clavige ro , Stor. del Messico,tom. ii . p . 188, and B u stam an te

’s Pref. to Ixtlilxochitl, Cruautés des

Co nqu éran s , trad . de Te rn au x , p . xvii .m It has been my lot to record both these displays of human in

firm ity, so humbling to the pride of intellect. See the H istory ofFerdinand and I sabella, Part 9, chap . 6.

‘7Sahagun, H ist . de Nueva- E spafia , lib . 10, cap. 97.—Bustamante

,

Mari anas de Alameda (Mexico , tom. ii ., Prologo.

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

118 CONQUEST OF ME XICO

most brilliant in coloring, probably, is the B orgiancollection

,in Rome .20 The most curious, however,

is the Dresden Codex, which has excited less atten

fel l into the hands of a French cruiser, and the manuscript was takento Paris .

It was afterwards bought by the chaplain of the Englishembassy, and, coming into the possession of the antiquary Purchas ,was engraved

, in emtens o , by him, in the third volume of his“Pilgrimage

.

” After its publication, in 1695, the Aztec original lost itsimportance

,and fell into oblivion so completely that, when at length

the public curiosity was excited in regard to its fate, no trace of itcould be discovered. Many were the speculations of scholars, athome and abroad

,respecting it, and Dr . Robertson settled the ques

tion a s to its existence in England, by declaring that there was noMexican relic in that country, except a golden goblet of Montezuma.(H istory of America (London, 17 vol. ii i. p . Nevertheless,the identical Codex, and several other Mexican paintings, have beensince discovered in the Bodleian Library. The circumstance hasbrought some obloquy o n the historian, who, while prying into thecollections of Vienna and the Escorial, could be so blind to thoseunder his own eyes. The oversight will not appear so extraordinaryto a thorough- bred collector, whether of manuscripts, or medals, orany other rarity. The Mendoza Codex is, after all, but a copy,coarsely done with a pen on European paper. Another copy, fromwhich Archbishop Lorenzana engraved his tribute- rolls in Mexico, exis ted in B o tu rin i

’s collection . A third is in the Escorial, according

to the Marquis of Spineto. (Lectures on the Elements of H iero~glyphics (London ) , Lect. This may possibly be the originalpainting. The entire Codex, copied from the Bodl eian maps, withits Spanish and English interpretations, i s included in the noblecompilation of Lord K ingsborough. (Vols. i., v., vi . ) It is distribu ted into three parts, embracing the civil history of the nation, thetributes paid by the cities, and the domestic economy and disciplineof the Mexicans, and, from the fulness of the interpretation, is ofmuch importance in regard to these several topics.It formerly belonged to the Giustiniani family, but was so little

cared for that it was suffered to fall into the mischievous hands ofthe domestics’ children, who made sundry attempts to burn it. Fortu n ately, it was painted on deerskin, and, though somewhat singed,was not destroyed. (Humboldt, Vues des Cordillere s , p . 89, et seq. )It is impossible to cast the eye over this brilliant assemblage of formsand colors without feeling how hopeless must be the attempt to recover a key to the Aztec mythological symbols ; which are heredistributed with the symmetry, indeed, but in all the endles s combinatio n s , of the kaleidoscope. It is in the third volume of LordKingsborough

’s work .

MANUSCRIPTS 119

tion than it deserves . Although usually classedamong Mexican manuscripts, it bears little resemblance to them in its execution ; the figures ofobj ects are more delicately drawn , and the characters , unl ike the Mexican , appear to be purelyarbitrary, and are possibly phonetic .2 1 Theirregul ar arr angement is quite equal to the E gyptian . The whole infers a much higher civilizationthan the Aztec, and offers abundant food forcurious speculation .

2 2

Some few of these maps have interpretationsann exed to them, which were obtained from the na

2‘ Humboldt, who has copied some pages of it in his Atlas pittoresqu e,

” intimates no doubt of its Aztec origin. (Vues des Co rdilleres, pp . 966, M. Le Noir even reads in it an exposition ofMexican Mythology, with occasional analogies to that of Egypt andof H indostan . (Antiquités Mexicaines, tom. ii ., Introd . ) The fantas tic forms of hieroglyphic symbols may afford analogies for almostanyt hing.

” The history of this Codex, engraved entire in the th ird volumeof the Antiquities of Mexico,” goes no further back than 1739, whenit was purchased at Vienna for the Dresden Library. It is made ofthe American agave . The figures painted o n it bear little resemblance, either in feature or form , to the Mexican. They are surmounted by a so rt of head- gear, which looks something like a modernperuke. On the chin of one we may notice a beard, a sign oftenused after the Conquest to denote a European . Many of the personsare sitting cross- legged. The profiles of the faces, and the wholecontour of the limbs, are sketched with a spirit and freedom veryu nlike the hard, angular outlines of the Aztecs. The characters,a lso, are delicately traced, generally in an irregular but circular form ,

and are very minute. They are arranged, like the Egyptian , bothhorizontally and perpendicu larly, mostly in the former manner, and,from the prevalent direction of the profil es, woul d seem to have beenread from right to left . Whether phonetic or ideographic, they areof that compact and purely conventional sort which belongs to awell -digested system for the communication of thought. On e cannotbut regret that no trace should exist of the quarter whence this MS.was obtained ; perhaps some part of Central America, from the region of the mysterious races who built the monuments of Mitla andPalenque ; though, in truth, there seems scarcely more resemblance

120 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

tives after the Conquest 2 3 The greater part arewithout any

,and cannot now be unriddled. Had

the Mexicans made free use of a phonetic alphabet,it might have been originally easy, by masteringthe comparatively few signs employed in this kindof communication

,to have got a permanent key to

the whole .2 4 A brief inscription has furnished aclue to the vast labyrinth of Egyptian hieroglyphics . But the Az tec characters, representing individu als , or, at most, species , require to be madeout separately ; a hopeless task , for which little aidis to be expected from the vague and generaltenor of the few interpretations now existing.

in the sym bols to the Palenque baa - re liefs than to the Aztec paint‘ings

There are three of these : the Mendoza Codex ; the Tellerian oR em en sis ,—formerly the property of Archbishop Tel ler,—in theRoyal Library of Paris ; and the Vatican MS ., No. 3738. The interpretation of the last bears evident marks of its recent origin ; probably as late as the close of the sixtee nth or the beginning of theseventeenth century, when the ancient hieroglyphics were read withthe eye of faith rather than of reason . Whoe ver was the commentator (comp. Vues des Co rdilleres, pp. 903, 904 ; and Antiq. of Mexico,vol. vi. pp . 155, he has given such an exposition as shows theAztecs to have been as orthodox Christians as any subj ects of thePope.

2‘ The total numbe r of Egyptian hieroglyphics discovered by Champo llion amounts to 864 ; and of these 130 only are phonetic, notwithstanding that this kind of character is used far more frequentlythan both the others. Précis, p. 963 ;—also Spineto, Lectures, Lect . 3 .

[Mr. Stephens, who, like Humbo ldt, considered the DresdenCodex a Mexican manuscript, compared the characters of it withthose on the al tar of COpan , and drew the conclusion that the inhabitants of that place and of Palenque must have Spoken the samelanguage as the Aztecs . Prescott’ s Opinion has , however, been confirmed by later critics, who have shown that the hieroglyphics of theDresden Codex are quite di ff erent from those at Co pan and Palenque, while the Mexican writing bears not the least resemblance toeither. See Orozco y Berra, Geografia de las Lenguas de Mexico ,p. lOl .

—K. ]

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

12 2 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

decessors were preserved ; and, if report be true ,an im portant compilation from this source was extant at the time of the invasion , and may haveperhaps contributed to swell the holocaust of Zumarraga .

2 6 It is no great stretch of fancy tosuppose that such records might reveal the successive links in the mighty chain of migration of theprimitive races

,and

,by carrying us back to the

seat of their possessions in the Old World, havesolved the mystery which has so long perplexed the

26 Teoam ozvtli, the divine book, as it was called . According toIxtlilxochitl, it was composed by a Tezcucan doctor, named H u em at

zin,towards the close of the seventeenth century. (Relaciones, MS.)

It gave a n account of the migrations of his nation from Asia, of thevarious stations on their j ourney, of their social and religious ins titutions

,their science, arts, etc ., etc., a good deal too much for one book.

Ign o tum pro m irifico. It has never been seen by a European .* Acopy is said to have been in possession of the Tezcucan chroniclerso n the taking of their capital. (Bustamante, Cronica Mexicana(Mexico , carta Lo rd K ingsborough, who can scent out 8Hebrew root be it buried never so deep, has discovered that theTeoam ox tli was the Pentateuch. Thus, teo means“divine, am o tl,

paper ” or book,” and m ox tli“appea rs to be Moses ; Divine

Book of Moses ”! Antiq. of Mexico, vol . vi . p . 904, nota.

chronicles are cal led the Chilan Balam . From them ProfessorDaniel G. Brinton selected the stories he published as the“MayaChronicles. One of them, the Chronicle of Chicxulub,” was writtenin Roman characters by a native Maya chief, Ne kuk Pech, about theyear 1569. It is a short account of the Spanish conquest of Yucatan and refers to Izamal and Chichen- l tza as inhabited towns in thefirst half of the sixteenth century.—M. ][I t must have been seen by many Europeans, i f we accept either

the statement of the Baron de Waldeck, in 1888 (Voyage pittoresque et archéologique dans la Province d’Yu catan ) , that it was thenin his possession, or the theories of Bras seur de Bourbourg, whoidentifies it with the Dresden Codex and certain other hieroglyphica lmanuscripts, and who believes himself to have found the key to it,and consequently to the origin of the Mexican history and civilization

,

in one of the documents in Bo tu rini’s collection , to which he hasgiven the name of the Codex Chim a lpopoca . Quatre Lettres sur leMexique (Paris, —K. ]

TRADITIONS 12 3

learned, in regard to the settlement and civilizationof the New .

*

Besides the hieroglyphical maps,the traditions

of the country were embodied in the songs andhymns, which, as already mentioned, were carefullytaught in the public schools . These were various

,

embracin g the mythic legends of a heroic age,the

warlike achievements of their own, or the softertales of love and pleasur e .2 7 Many of them werecomposed by scholars and persons of rank

,and are

cited as affording the most authentic record ofevents .2 8 The Mexican dialect was rich and expressive, though inferior to the Tezcucan, the mostpolished of the idioms of Anahuac. None of theAztec compositions have survived , but we can formsome estimate of the general state of poetic cu lture

” B otu rini, Idea, pp . 90—97.—Clavigero , Stor. del Messico, tom.

ii . pp . 174—178.

”3“Lo s cantos con que las observaban Autores muy graves en su

modo de ciencia y facultad, pues fueron los mismos Reyes, y de lagente mas ilustre y entendida, que siempre observaron y adquirieronla verdad, y esta co n tanta razon, quanta pudieron tener los masgraves y fidedign o s Autores . Ixtlilxochitl, H ist. Chich., MS., P ro

logo .

[Such a supposition would require a stretch of fancy ” grea terthan any which the mind of the mere historical inquirer is capable oftaking. To admit the probability of the Asiatic origin of the American races, and of the indefinite antiquity of Mexican civil ization,is something very di ff erent from be lieving that this civilization,alrea dy developed in the degree required for the existence and prese rvation of its own records during so long a period and so great amigration, can have been transplanted from the one continent to theother. I t would be easier to accept the theory, now generally abando n ed, that the original settlers owed their civilization to a bodyof colonists from Phte nicia. In view of so hazardous a conj ecture,it is difficult to understand why Buschmann has taken exception tothe“sharp criticism ” to which Prescott has subj ected the sourcesof Mexican history, and his “low estimate of their value and credibility.

" K. ]

12 4 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

from the odes which have come down to us fromthe royal house of Tez cu co .

2 9 Sahagun has furn ished us with translations of their more elaborateprose

,consisting of prayers and public discourse s ,

which give a favorable idea of their eloquence, andshow that they paid much attention to rhetoricaleffect . They are said to have had, also , somethinglike theatrical exhibitions, of a pantomimic sort , inwhich the faces of the performers were coveredwith masks

,and the figures of birds or animals

were frequently represented ; an imitation to whichthey may have been led by the familiar delineationof such objects in their hieroglyphics .30 In allthis we see the dawning of a literary culture, surpassed

,however

,by their attainments in the severer

walks o f mathematical science .They devised a system of notation in their arithmetic sufficiently simple . The first twenty numbers were expressed by a corresponding number ofdots . The first five had specific names ; after whichthey were represented by combining the fifth withone of the four preceding ; as five and one for six,five and two for seven , and so on . Ten and fifteenhad each a separate name, which was also combinedwith the first four, to express a higher quantity.

These four, therefore, were the radical charactersof their oral arithmetic, in the same manner as theywere of the written with the ancient Romans ; a

” See chap. 6 of this Introduction.See some account of these mummeries in Acosta ( lib. 5, cap .

- also Clavigero (Stor . del Messico, ubi supra) . Stone modelsof masks are sometimes found among the Indian ruins, and engrav

ings of them are both 111 Lord Kingsborough’s work and in the Anti

quites Mexica ines.

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

126 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

their civil year by the solar. They divided it intoeighteen months of twenty days each . Bothmonths and days were expressed by peculiar hiero

glyphics ,—those of the former often intimatingthe season of the year, like the French months atthe period of the Revolution . F ive complem en

tary days,as in Egypt,33 were added, to make up

the full number of three hundred and sixty- five .

They belonged to no month , and were regarded aspeculiarly unlucky. A month was divided intofour weeks

,of five days each , on the last of which

was the public fair, or market - day.

34 This arrangement

,differing from that of the nations of

the Old Continent, whether of Europe or Asia,3 5

has the advantage of giving an equal number ofdays to each month , and of comprehending entireweeks , without a fraction, both in the months andin the year.3 6

As the year is composed of nearly six hours

Herodotus, Euterpe, sec.

Sahagun, H ist . de Nneva- E spafia, l ib. 4, Apend.—According to

Clavigero , the fairs were held on the days bearing the sign of theyear. Stor. del Messico, tom. ii . p . 69.

‘5 The people of Java, according to Sir Stamford Raffles, regulatedtheir markets, also, by a week of five days. They had, besides, ourweek of seven (H istory of Java (London, vol. i . pp. 531,

The latter division of time, of general use throughout theEast, is the oldest monument existing of astronomical science. SeeLa Place, Exposition du Systeme du Monde (Paris, lib. 5,chap. 1.

Veytia, H istoria antigua de Méj ico (Méj ico, torn . i . cap.6, 7.—Gama, Descripcion , Parte 1, pp. 33, 34, et alibi—B otu rini,Idea, pp. 4, 44, et seq

—Cod. Tel .- Rem ., ap. Antiq. of Mexico, vol.vi . p . 104.

—Camargo, H ist. de Tla scala , MS.—Toribio

,H ist. de lo s

Indios, MS., Parte 1, cap . 5 .

[And in France. In France the five extra days were called sanscullottides.—M. ]

CHRONOLOGY 127

more than thr ee hundred and sixty- five days, therestill remained an excess, which , like other nationswho have framed a calendar, they provided for byintercalation ; not, indeed, every four th year, as theEuropeans,37but at longer intervals, like some ofthe Asiatics .$ 8 They waited till the expiration offifty- two vague years , when they interposed thirteen days, or rather twelve and a half, this beingthe number which had fallen in arrear. Had theyinserted thirteen, it would have been too much ,since the annual excess over three hundred andsixty- five is about eleven minutes less than sixhours . But, as their ca lendar at the time of theConquest was found to correspond with the European (making allowance for the subsequent Gregorian reform ) they would seem to have adoptedthe shorter period of twelve days and a half,39

‘7Sahagun intimates doubts of this. They celebrated another feastevery four years in honor of the elements of fire, and it is probableand has been conj ectured that it was o n these occasions that theymade their intercalation, counting six days of n em on tem i,

” as theunlucky complementary days were called. (H is t. de Nu eva - E spafia ,lib . 4, Apend. ) But this author, however good an authority for thesuperstitions, is an indifferent one for the science of the Mexicans.

” The Persians had a cycle of one hun dred and twenty years, ofthree hundred and sixty- five days each, at the end of which theyintercalated thirty days . (Humboldt, Vues des Cordilleras, p .

This was the same as thi rteen after the cycle of fifty- two years of theMexicans, but was less accurate than their probable intercalation oftwelve days and a half. It is obviously indiff erent, as far as accuracyis concerned, which multiple of four is select ed to form the cycle ;though, the shorter the interval of intercalation, the less, of course,will be the temporary departure from the tru e time.This is the conclusion to which Gama arrives, after a very care

ful investigation of the subject . He suppose s that the bundles,” orcycles, of fifty- two yea rs—by which, as we shall see , the Mexicanscomputed time—ended alternately at midnight and midday. (Descripcio n , Parte 1, p. 59, et seq. ) He finds some warrant for this inAcosta’s account ( lib. 6, cap. though contradicted by Torque

12 8 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

which brought them, within an almost in appreciable fraction

,to the exact length of the tropical

year,as established by the most accurate observa

tions .“0 Indeed, the intercalation of twenty- five

days in every hundred and four years shows a niceradjustment of civil to solar time than is presentedby any European calendar ; since more than fivecenturies must elapse before the loss of an entireday.

41 Such was the astonishing precision displayed by the Aztecs , o r , perhaps , by their morepolished Toltec predecessors, in these computations

,so difficult as to have baffled, till a compara

tively recent period, the most enlightened nationsof Christendom!42

mada (Monarch. Ind ., lib. 5, cap. and, as it appears, by Sahagun

,—whose work, however, Gama never saw (H ist . de Nueva- E s

pafia, lib. 7, cap.—both of whom place the close of the year at

midnight . Gama’ s hypothesis derives confirmation from a circumstance I have not seen noticed . Besides the bundle ” of fifty- twoyears, the Mexicans had a larger cycle of one hundred and fouryears, called an old age. As this was not used in their reckonings,which were carried o n by their bundles,” it seems highly probablethat it was designed to express the period which would bring roundthe commencement of the smaller cycles to the same hour, and inwhich the intercalary days, amounting to twenty- five , might be comprehended without a fraction .

” This length, as computed by Zach, at 365d. 5h . 48m . 485ec., is

only 9m . 9sec. longer than the Mexican ; which corresponds with thecelebrated calculation of the astronomers of the Caliph A lm am o n ,

that fell short about two minutes of the true time. See La Place,Exposition, p . 350.

El corto exceso de 4hor . 38min. 40seg., que hay de mas de lo s25 dias en e l periodo de 104 aflos , no puede componer u h dia entero,hasta que pasen mas de cinco de es tos periodos maximos o 538 afio s .

”

(Gama, Descripcio n , Parte 1, p . Gama estimates the solar yearat 365d. 5h . 48m . 505ec.

” The ancient Etruscans arranged their calendar in cycles of 110solar years, and reckoned the year at 365d. 5h . 40m . ; at least thisseems probable, says Niebuhr . (H istory of Rome, Eng. trans . (Cambridge, vol . i . pp . 113, The early Romans had not wit

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

130 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

smaller cycles,or in dictions, of thirteen years each .

They then adopted two periodical series of signs,one consisting of their numerical dots , up to thirteen

,the other

, o f four hieroglyphics of the years .43

These latter they repeated in regular succession ,setting against each one a number of the corresponding series of dots , continued also in regularsucce ssion up to thirteen . The same system waspursued through the four indictions, which thus ,it will be observed, began always with a diff erenthieroglyphic of the year from the preceding ; andin this way each of the hieroglyphics was made tocombine successively with each of the numericalSigns , but never twice with the same ; since four,and thirteen , the factors of fifty- two,—the numberof years in the cycle,—must adm it of just as manycombinations as are equal to their product . Thusevery year had its appropriate symbol

,by which it

was at once recognized . And this symbol, preceded by the proper number o f bundles indicating the half - centuries, showed the precise timewhich had elapsed since the national epoch of

The ingenious contrivance of a periodicalseries, in place of the cumbrous system of hiero

‘3 These hieroglyphics were a rabbit,” a reed, a “fl int, ahouse.” They were taken as sym bolical of the four elements

,air

,

water, fire, earth, according to Veytia . (H ist. an tig.,tom. i. cap .

It is not easy to see the connection between the terms rabbit and“air,” which lead the respective series.““The following table of two of the four indict ions of thi rteenyears each will make the text more clear. The first column shows theactual year of the great cycle, or“bundle.” The second, the nu[The fleet and noiseless motions of the animal seem to ofi'

er an

obvious explanation of the symbol.—K.]

CHRONOLOGY 131

glyphical notation , is not peculiar to the Aztecs ,and is to be found among various nations on the

merical dots used in their arithmetic. The third is composed of theirhieroglyphics for rabbit, reed, fl int, house, in their regular order.

Fm sr INDIC’

I‘

ION.

By pursuing the combinations through the two remaining indictions, it will be found that the same number of dots will never coincide with the same hieroglyphic . These tables are generally throwninto the form of wheels, as are those also of their months and days,

132 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

Asiatic continent,—the same in principle, though

varying materially in arrangement .45

The solar calendar above described might haveanswered all the purposes of the people ; but thepriests chose to construct another for themselves .This was called a“lun ar reckoning,” though nowise accommodated to the revolutions of themoon.

46 It was formed, also, of two periodicalseries

,one of them consisting of thirteen numerical

signs,or dots , the other, of the twenty hieroglyph

having a very pretty effect. Several have been published, at differen t times, from the collections of S iguenza and B otu rini. Thewheel of the great cycle of fifty- two years is encompassed by a serpent

,which was also the symbol of an age,” both with the Persians

and Egyptians. Father Toribio seems to misapprehend the natureof these chronological wheels : Ten ian rodelas y escudos, y en ellaspintadas las figu ras y armas de sus Demonios co n su blason.” Hist.de los Indios, MS., Parte 1, cap. 4.“Among the Chinese, Japanese, Mogho ls, Man tchou s , and otherfamilies of the Tartar race. Their series are composed of symbols oftheir five elements, and the twelve zodiacal signs, making a cycle ofsixty yea rs’ duration. Their several systems are exhibited, in con

n ectio n with the Mexican, in the luminous pages of Humboldt (Vuesdes Co rdil leres , p . who draws important cons equences from thecomparison, to which we shall have occasion to return hereafter.In this calendar, the months of the tropical year were distributed

into cycles of thi rteen days, which, being repeated twenty times,the number of days in a solar month,—completed the lunar, or astrological, year o f 960days ; when the reckoning began again . By thecontrivance of these tracana s (terms of thirteen days ) and the cycl eof fifty- two yea rs,” says Gama, “they formed a luni - solar period,most exact for astronomical purposes .” (De scripcio n , Parte 1, p .

He adds that these trecena s were suggested by the periods in whichthe moon is vis ible before and after conj unction . (Loc . cit . ) Itseems hardly possible that a pe0p1e capable of constructing a calendar so accurately o n the true principles of solar time should so

gros sly err as to suppose that in this reckoning they really represented the daily revolutions of the m oon .” The whole Easternworld,” says the learned Niebuhr, has followed the moon in its calendar ; the free scientific division of a vast portion of time is peculiat to the Wes t . Connected with the West is that primevaltinct world which we call the New.

” H istory of Rome,vol. i . p. 939.

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

134 CONQUEST or ME XICO

This second calendar rouses a holy indignationin the early Spanish missionaries , and FatherSahagun loudly condemns it, as most unhallowed

,since it is founded neither on natural reason ,

nor on the influence of the planets , nor on the truecourse of the year ; but is plainly the work ofnecromancy

,and the fruit of a compact with the

Devil!” 5° One may doubt whether the supe rstition of those who invented the scheme was greaterthan that of those who thus impugned it . At allevents

,we may, without having recourse to super

natural agency, find in the human heart a suflicien texplanation of its origin ; in that love of power,that has led the priesthood of many a faith to affecta mystery the key to which was in their own keepfl

ing.

By means of this calendar, the Aztec priestskept their own records, regulated the festivals andseasons of sacrifice, and made all their astrologicalcalculations .51 The false science o f astrology is

always interrupted at the end of the year, since each new year beganwith the same hieroglyphic of the days. The third series of the“companions was intermitted, as above stated, on the five unluckydays which closed the year, in order, i f we may believe B otu rin i, thatthe first day of the solar year might have annexed to it the first ofthe nine“companions,” which signified “lord of the year ”

( Idea,p . a result which might have been equally well secured, withoutany intermission at all, by taking 5, another favorite number, insteadof 9, as the divisor. As it was, however, the cycle, as far as the th irdseries was concerned, did terminate with 360 revolutions. The subject is a perplexing o n e , and I can hardly h0pe to have presentedit in such a manner as to make it perfectly clear to the reader.

5°H ist . de Nueva- E spafia , lib . 4, Introd.5‘“Dans le s pays les plus difi‘

éren ts ,” says Benj amin Constant,

concluding some sensible reflections on the sources of the sacerdotalpower, chez les peuples de moeurs les plus opposées, le sacerdoce adi

‘

i au culte des éléments et des astres u n pouvoir dont auj ourd’hui

CHRONOLOGY 135

natural to a state of society partially civilized,

where the mind , impatient of the slow and cautiousexamination by which alone it can arrive at truth ,laun ches at once into the regions of specu lation, .

and rashly attempts to lift the veil—the impenetrable veil—which is drawn around the mysteriesof nature . It is the characteristic of true scienceto discern the impassable, but not very obvious,limits which divide the province of reason fromthat of specul ation . Such knowledge comes tardily. How many ages have rolled away, in whichpowers that, rightly directed, might have revealedthe great laws of nature , have been wasted in brilliant but barren reveries on alchemy and astrology!The latter is more particularly the study of aprimitive age ; when the mind, incapable of arriving at the stupendous fact that the myriads ofminute lights glowing in the firm an en t are thecentres of systems as glorious as our own , isnatu rally led to spe culate on their probable uses,and to connect them in some way or other withman, for whose convenience every other obj ect inthe universe seems to have been created . As theeye of the simple child of nature watches, throughthe long nights , the stately march of the heavenlybodies , and sees the bright hosts coming up, oneafter another, and changing with the changingse asons of the year, he naturally associates themwith those seasons , as the periods over which theyhold a mysterious influence . In the same manner,he connects their appe arance with any interesting

nous concevons a peine. l’idée .

” De la Religion (Paris, lib.3, ch. 5.

136 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

event of the time, and explores , in their flamingcharacters

,the destinies of the new -born infant.5 2

Such is the origin of astrology, the false lights ofwhich have continued from the earliest ages todazzle and bewilder mankind, till they have fadedaway in the superior illumination of a comparatively recent period .

The astrological scheme of the Aztecs wasfounded less on the planetary influences than onthose of the arbitrary signs they had adopted forthe months and days . The character of the leadingsign in each lunar cycle of thirteen days gave acomplexion to the whole ; though this was qualifiedin some degree by the signs of the succeeding days,as well as by those of the hours . It was in adjusting these conflicting forces that the great art ofthe diviner was shown . In no country, not even inancient Egypt, were the dreams of the astrologermore implicitly deferred to . On the birth of achild, he was instantly summoned . The time ofthe event was accurately ascertained ; and thefamily hung in trembling suspense , as the ministerof Heaven cast the horoscope of the infant andunrolled the dark volume of destiny. The influence of the priest was confessed by the Mexican inthe very first breath which he inhaled .

53

WIt is a gen tle and affectionate thought.That, in imm ea surable heights above u s .

At o u r first birth the wrea th o f love was wovenWith s park lin g sta rs fo r flowers .

”

Com-mine s : Tran s lation o f Wal lenste in . act 2 , se . 4.

9

Schiller is more true to poetry than history, when he tells us, in thebeautiful pas sage of which this is part, that the worship of the starstook the place of classic mythology. I t existed long before it .“3 Gama has given us a complete almanac of the astrological year,with the appropriate signs and divisions, showing with what scientific

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

138 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

gard to Mexican science .56 This colossal fragment ,on which the calendar is engraved, shows thatthey had the means of settling the hours of the daywith precision

,the periods of the solstices and of

the equinoxes,and that of the transit of the sun

across the zenith of Mexico.57

We cannot contemplate the astronomical scienceof the Mexicans, so disproportioned to their progress in other walks of civilization, without astonishm en t. An acqu aintance with some of the moreobvious principles of astronomy is within the reachof the rudest people . With a little care , they maylearn to connect the regular changes of the seasons

“Gama, De scripcion , Parte 1, sec. 4 ; Parte 2 , Apend.

—Besidesthis colossal fragment, Gama met with some others, designed, probably

,for similar scientific uses, at Chapo ltepec. Before he had lei

sure to examine them, however, they were broken up for materialsto build a furnace—a fate not unlike that which has too often befallen the monuments of ancient art in the Old World.

In his second treatise on the cylindrical stone, Gama dwells moreat large on its scientific construction, as a vertical sun- dial, in orderto dispel the doubts of some sturdy skeptics on this point . (De scripcion, Parte 2 , Apend. The civil day was distributed by the Mexicans into sixteen parts, and began, like that of most of the Asiaticnations, with sunrise. M . de Humboldt, who probably never sawGama’s second treatise, allows only eight intervals. Vues des Cordilleres , p . 128.

[For additional light upon the Mexican astronomical and calendarsystem and the calendar stone,” easily accessible authors are : Bandelier, A rct IOgical Tour, Peabody Museum Reports, ii . 572 ; Va

lentini, Am erican Antiquarian Society Proceedings, April, 1878Squier, Some New D iscoveries respecting Dates o n the Great Calendar Stone, etc . ; American Journal of Science and Arts, SecondSeries, March, 1849 ; Bancroft, Native Races , i i. chap . 16 and v.p . 192 ; Short , North Americans of Antiquity, chap . ix. ; Wilson, Prehistoric Man, i ; Brasseur, Chronologie historiques des Mexicaines,in Actes de la Soc. d’

E thn ographie , vol vi . ; Payne, New WorldCalled America, ii . 310 seq. Mrs. Nu ttall claims that this calendarstone stood in the great market - place in Mexico, and that its purposewas to regulate the market- days.—M. ]

ASTRONOMY 139

with those of the place of the sun at his rising andsetting. They may follow the march of the greatluminary through the heavens , by watching thestars that first brighten on his evening track orfade in his morning beams . They may measurea revolution of the moon , by marking her phases ,and may even form a general idea of the numberof such revolutions in a solar year . But that theyshould be capable of accurately adjusting theirfestivals by the movements of the heavenly bodies ,and should fix the tru e length of the tropical year,with a precision un known to the great philosophersof antiquity, could be the result only of a longseries o f nice and patient observations, evin cing n o

slight progress in civilization 58 But whence couldthe rude inhabitants of these mountain - regionshave derived this cur ious erudition ? Not from thebarbarous hordes who roamed over the higher latitudes of the North ; nor from the more polishedrace s on the Southern continent, with whom, it isapparent

,they had no intercourse . If we are

driven,in our embarrassment, like the greatest as

tron om er of our age, to seek the solution amongthe civilized communities of Asia , we shall still beperplexed by finding, amidst general resemblanceof outline , sufficient discrepancy in the details to

53“U n calendrier,” exclaims the enthusiastic Carli, “qui est réglésu r la revo lu tio n annuelle du soleil, n o n—seulement par l ’addition decinq j ours tous les ans, mais encore par la correction du bissext ile,doit sans doute etre regardé comme une operatio n déduite d’uneétude réfléchie, et d ’une grande combinaison . Il faut donc supposerchez ces peuples une suite d’

observatio ns astronomiques , une idéedistincte de la Sphere, de la déclinaison de l’écliptiqu e , et l ’usaged

’

u n calcul concernant les j ours e t les heures des apparitions s o

laires .” Lettres Américaines, tom . i. let. 23 .

140 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

vindicate,in the judgments of many, the Az tec

claim to originality.

5 9

I shall conclude the account of Mexican sciencewith that of a remarkable festival, celebrated bythe natives at the termination of the great cycle offifty

- two years . We have seen, in the precedingchapter

,their tradition of the destruction of the

world at four successive epochs . They looked fo rward confidently to another such catastrophe, totake place

,like the preceding, at the close of a

cycle,when the sun was to be eff aced from the

heavens,the hum an race from the earth , and when

the darkness of chaos was to settle on the habitableglobe . The cycle would end in the latter par t ofDecember

,and as the dreary season of the winter

solstice approached, and the diminished light ofday gave melancholy presage of its speedy extinetion, their apprehensions increased ; and on thearrival of the five unlucky days which closedthe year they abandoned themselves to despair .60

They broke in pieces the little images of theirhousehold gods, in whom they no longer trusted .

The holy fires were suffered to go out in the temples, and none were lighted in their own dwellings .Their furniture and domestic utensils were destroyed ; their garments torn in pieces ; and everything was thrown into disorder, fo r the coming of

5°La Place, who suggests the analogy, frankly admits the difficulty. Systeme du Monde, lib. 5, ch. 3.

M. Jom ard errs in placing the n ew fire, with which ceremony theold cycle properly concluded, at the winter solstice. I t was not tillthe 26th of December, i f Gama is right . The cause of M . Jom ard

’s

error is his fixing it before, instead of after, the complementary days.See his sens ible letter on the Aztec calendar, in the Vues des Cordilleres , p . 309.

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

142 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

over every part of the country ; and the chee ringelement was seen brightening on altar and hearthstone

,for the circuit of many a league , long before

the sun,rising on his accustomed track, gave as

surance that a new cycle had commenced its march ,and that the laws of nature were not to be reversedfor the Aztecs .The following thirteen days were given up tofestivity. The houses were cleansed and whitened .

The broken vessels were replaced by new ones .The people, dressed in their gayest apparel, andcrowned with garlands and chaplets of flowers,thronged in j oyous procession to offer up theiroblations and thanksgivings in the temples .Dances and games were instituted , emblematicalof the regeneration of the world . It was the carnival of the Aztecs ; or rather the national jubilee,the great secular festival, like that of the Romans,or ancient Etruscans , which few alive had witn es sed before, or could expect to see again .

63

I borrow the words of the summons by which the people werecalled to the lu di s ecu la res , the secular games of ancient Rome, qu osn ec spectds s et qu is qnam , n ec specta tu rns as s e t.

”

(Suetonius, V itaTib. Claudii, lib. The old Mexican chroniclers warm into something like eloquence in their descriptions of the Aztec festival . (Torquemada, Monarch. Ind ., lib. 10, cap. 33 .

- Toribio, H ist . de lo sIndios, MS., Parte 1, cap. 5.

—Sahagun, H ist. de Nueva- E spafia,lib. 7, cap. 9- 12 . See, also, Gama, Descripcion , Parte 1, pp. 52—54,Clavige ro , Stor. del Messico, tom. i i. pp . 84 The English readerwill find a more brill iant coloring of the same scene in the cantoof Madoc above cited, On the Close of the Century.

M. de Humboldt remarked, many years ago, It were to be wishedthat some government would publish at its own expense the remainsof the ancient American civilization ; for it is only by the comparison o f several monuments that we can succeed in discovering themeaning of these allegories, which are partly astronomical and partlymystic.” This enlightened wish has now bee n realized, not by any

LORD KINGSBOROUGH 143

government, but by a private individual, Lord K ingsbo rough . Thegreat work published under his auspices, and so often cited in thisIntroduction, appea red in London in 1830. When completed it wil lrea ch to nine volumes, seven of which are now before the public.Some idea of its magnificence may be formed by those who have notseen it, from the fact that copies of it, with colored plates, sold origin ally at £175, and, with uncolored, at £120. The price has beensince much reduced. I t is designed to exhibit a complete view of theancient Aztec MSS ., with such few interpretations as exist ; thebea uti ful drawings of Ca stafieda relating to Central America, withthe commentary of Dupaix ; the unpublished history of Father Sahagun ; and, last, not least, the cOpiou s annotations of his lordship.

Too much cannot be said of the mechanical execution of the book,

—its splendid typography, the apparent accuracy and the delicacy ofthe drawings, and the sumptuous quality of the materials . Yet thepurchaser would have been saved some superfluous expense, and thereader much inconvenience, if the letter- press had been in volumes ofan ordinary size. But it is not uncommon, in works on this magnificen t plan, to find util ity in some measure sacrificed to show.

The collection of Aztec MSS ., i f not perfectly complete, is veryextensive, and reflects great credit o n the diligence and research ofthe compiler . I t strikes one as strange, however, that not a singledocument should have been drawn from Spain. Peter Martyr Speaksof a number having been brought thither in his time. (De In su lisn upe r Inven tis , p . The Ma rquis Spineto examined one in theEscorial, being the same with the Mendoza Codex, and perhaps theoriginal , since that at Oxford is but a copy. (Lectures, Lect.Mr.Waddilove , chaplain of the British embassy to Spain, gave aparticul ar account of one to Dr. Robertson, which he saw in thesame library and considered an Aztec cal endar. Indee d, it is scarcelypossible that the frequent voyagers to the New World should nothave furnished the mother- country with abundant Specimens of thismost interesting feature of Aztec civilization . Nor should we fearthat the present liberal government would seclude these treasuresfrom the inspection of the scholar.Much cannot be said in favor of the arrangement of these codices.In some of them, as the Mendoza Codex, for example, the platesare not even numbered ; and one who would study them by the corresponding interpretation must often bewilder himself in the mazeof hieroglyphics, without a clue to guide him . Neither is there anyattempt to enlighten us as to the pos itive value and authenticityof the respective documents, or even their previous history, beyonda barren reference to the particular library from which they havebeen borrowed. Little light , indeed, can be expected on these matters ; but we have not that little. The defect of arrangement ischargeable on other parts of the work. Thus, for instance, the sixthbook of Sahagun is transferred from the body of the history to whichit be longs, to a preceding volume ; while the grand hypothesis of his

144 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

lordship,for which the work was concocted, is huddled into notes,

hitched o n random passages of the text, with a good deal less conn ection than the stories of Queen Scheherezade, in the ArabianNights

,and not quite so entertaining.

The drift of Lord Kingsborough ’

s speculations is, to establish thecolonization of Mexico by the Israelites . To this the whole batteryof his logic and learning is directed . For this, hieroglyphics areunriddled

,manuscripts compared, monuments delineated. H is the

ory,however

,whatever be its merits, wil l scarcely become popular ;

since,instead of being exhibited in a clear and comprehensive form,

readily embraced by the mind, it is Spread over an infinite numberof notes

,thickly sprinkled with quotations from languages ancient

and modern,till the weary reader, floundering about in the ocean

of fragments,with no light to guide him, feels like M i lton’s Devil,

working his way through chaos,n e ither s e a .

No r good dry land: n igh foundered. o n h e fare s .

It would be unj ust, however, not to admit that the noble author, i fhis logic is not always convincing, shows much acuteness in detectinganalogies ; that he displays familiarity with his subj ect , and a fundof erudition, though it often runs to waste ; that, whatever be thedefects of arrangement, he has brought together a most rich coll eetion of unpublished materials to illustrate the Aztec and, in a widersense, American antiquities ; and that by this m u n ificen t undertaking,which no government, probably, would have, and few individualscould have, executed, he has entitled himself to the lasting gratitudeof every friend of science.Another writer whose works must be diligently consulted by everystudent of Mexican antiquities is Antonio Gama. H is li fe containsas few incidents as those of most scholars. He was born at Mexico,in 1735, of a respectable family, and was bred to the law. He earlyshowed a preference for mathematical studies, conscious that in thiscareer lay his strength. In 1771 be communicated his observationso n the eclipse of that year to the French astronomer M. de Lal ande,who publ ished them in Paris, with high commendations of the e uthor. Gama’s increasing reputation attracted the attention of governm en t ; and he was employed by it in various scientific labors ofimportance. H is great passion, however, was the study of Indianantiquities. He made himself acquainted with the history of then ative races, their traditions, their languages, and, as far as possible,their hieroglyphics . He had an Opportunity of showing the fruitsof this preparatory training, and his skill a s an antiquary, o n thediscovery of the great calendar stone, in 1790. He produced a masterly treatise on this, and another Aztec monument, explaining theobj ects to which they were devoted, and pouring a flood of lighton the astronomical science of the aborigines

,their mythology

, and

their astrological system. He afterwards continued his investiga

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

CHAPTER V

AZTEC AGR ICULTURE MECHAN ICAL ARTS ME R

CH ANTS—DOMESTIC MANNERS

T is hardly possible that a nation so far ad

van ced as the Aztecs in mathematical scienceshould not have made considerable progress in themechanical arts, which are so nearly connected withit. Indeed, intellectual progress of any kind implies a degree of refinement that requires a ce rtaincultivation of both useful and elegant art . Thesavage wandering through the wide forest , without shelter for his head or raiment for his back,knows no other wants than those of animalappetites, and, when they are satisfied, seems tohimself to have answered the only ends of existence . But man, in society, feels numerous desires ,and artificial tastes spring up, accomm odated to thevarious relations in which he is placed, and per

petu ally stimulating his invention to devise newexpedients to gratify them .

There is a wide diff erence in the mechanical skillof different nations ; but the diff erence is stillgreater in the inventive power which directs thisskill and makes it available . Some nations seem tohave no power beyond that of imitation

,or

,if they

possess invention, have it in so low a degree that146

AGRICULTURE 147

they are constantly repeating the same idea,with

out a shadow of alteration or improvement ; as thebird builds precisely the same kind of nest whichthose of its own species built at the beginning ofthe world . Such, for example , are the Chinese,who have probably bee n familiar for ages with thegerms of some discoveries ,* of little practical benefit to themselves, but which , under the influence ofEuropean genius , have reached a degree of excellence that has wrought an important change in theconstitution of society.

Far from lookin g back and forming itself slavishly on the past, it is characteristic of the Europe an intellect to be ever on the advance. Old discoverie s become the basis of new ones . It passesonward from truth to truth , connecting the wholeby a succession of links , as it were, into the greatchain of science which is to encircle and bind together the universe . The light of learning is shedover the labors of art . New avenues are openedfor the communication both of person and ofthought . New facilities are devised for subsistence . Personal comforts, of every kind , are ihconceivably multiplied, and brought within thereach of the poorest . Secure of these, the thoughtstravel into a nobler region than that of the senses ;and the appliances of art are made to minister tothe demands of an elegant taste and a higher moralculture .The same enlightened spirit , applied to agriculture, raises it from a mere mechanical drudgery,o r the barren formula of traditional precepts, to

gunpowder and the compass —M.

148 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

the dignity of a science . A S the composition of theearth is analyzed, man learns the capacity of thesoil that he cultivates ; and, as his empire is gradually extended over the elements of nature, he gainsthe power to stimulate her to her most bountifuland various production . It is with satisfactionthat we can turn to the land of our fathers , as theone in which the experiment has been conductedon the broadest scale and attended with resul ts thatthe world has never before witnessed . With equaltruth , we may point to the Anglo - Saxon race inboth hemispheres , as that whose enterprising geniushas contributed most essentially to the great interests of hum anity, by the application of science tothe useful arts .Husbandry, to a very limited extent , indeed, waspractised by most of the rude tribes of NorthAmerica. Wherever a natural opening in the forest, o r a rich strip of in terva l, met their eyes , or agreen slope was found along the rivers

,they

planted it with beans and Indian corn .

1 The cultivation was slovenly in the extreme, and could notsecure the improvident natives from the frequentrecurrence of desolating fam ines . Still , that - theytilled the soil at all was a peculiarity which honorably distinguished them from other tribes of hunters, and raised them one degree higher in thescale of civilization .

1 This latter grain, according to Humboldt, was found by the European s in the New World, from the South of Chili to Pennsylvania(Es sai politique, tom. i i. p . he might have added

,to the St

.

Lawrence. Our Puritan fathers found it in abundance on the NewEngland coast, wherever they landed . See Morton

,New England’ s

Memorial (Boston, p. 68.—Gookin

,Massachusetts H istorical

Collections, chap. 3 .

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

150 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

it was permitted to recover by lying fallow. Itsextreme dryness was relieved by canals, with whichthe land was partially irrigated ; and the same endwas promoted by severe penalties against the destruction of the woods, with which the country, asalready noticed, was well covered before the Conquest . Lastly, they provided for their harvestsample granaries, which were admitted by the Con

qu ero rs to be of admirable construction . In thisprovision we see the forecast of civilize d man .

“Among the most important articles of husbandry, we may notice the banana, whose facility ofcultivation and exube rant returns are so fatal tohabits of systematic and hardy industry.

5 Anothercelebrated plant was the cacao, the fruit of whichfurnished the chocolate , —from the Mexican chocolatl,—n ow so common a beverage throu ghoutEurope .

6 The vanilla, confined to a small districtof the sea- coast, was used for the same purposes,of flavoring their food and drink, as with u s .

7 Thegreat staple of the country, as, indeed, of the

‘ Torquemada, Monarch. Ind., lib. 13, cap . 32 .—Clavigero , Stor.

del Messico, tom. i i. pp . 153—155. Jamas padecieron hambre,” saysthe former writer, sino cn pocas ocasiones . I f these famines wererare, they were very distressing, however, and lasted very long.Comp . Ixtlilxochitl, H ist. Chich ., MS., cap . 41, 71, et alibi .

l‘Oviedo considers the m u sa an imported plant ; and Hernandez,in his copious ca talOgu e , makes no mention of it at all. But Humboldt, who has given much attention to it, concludes that, i f someSpecies were brought into the country, others were indigenous. (Essaipolitique, tom. ii. pp. 382 I f we may credit Clavigero , thebanana was the forbidden fruit that tempted our poor mother Eve !Stor . del Messico, tom. i . p . 49, nota.

‘ Rel. d’un gentil’ hu om o , ap. R am u sio , tom. iii. fol. 306.—Her

n ande z , De H istoria Plan tarum Novas H ispan iae (Ma triti,lib. 6, cap. 87.Sahagun, H ist. de Nneva- E Spa i’ia, lib. 8, cap. 13, et alibi.

AGRICULTURE 151

American continent, was maize, or Indian corn ,*

which grew freely along the valleys , and up thesteep sides of the Cordilleras to the high level ofthe table - land . The Az tecs were as curious in itspreparation, and as well in structed in its manifolduses , as the most expert New England housewife .Its gigantic stalks, in these equinoctial regions,afford a saccharine matter, not found to the sameextent in northern latitudes , and supplied the natives with sugar little inferior to that of the caneitself, which was not introduced among them tillafter the Conquest .8 But the miracle of naturewas the great Mexican aloe, or m agu ey,

whoseclustering pyramids of flowers, towering abovetheir dark coronals of leaves , were se en sprinkledover many a broad acre of the table - land . As wehave already noticed, its bruised leaves afforded apaste from which paper was manufactured ; 9 its

Carta del Lic . Zuazo, MS.—H e extols the honey of the maize, as

equal to that of bees . (Al so Oviedo, H ist. natural de las Indias ,cap . 4, ap. Barcia, tom. i . ) Hernandez, who celebrates the mani foldways in which the maize was prepared, derives it from the H aytian

word m ahiz. H ist . Plan tarum , lib. 6, cap . 44, 45.

And is still , in one spot at least, San Angel, —three leagues fromthe capital . Another mill was to have been established, a few yearssince, in Puebla. Whether this has actually been done, I am igno

rant . See the Report of the Committee o n Agriculture to the Senateof the United States, March 12 , 1838.

The farmer’s preparation for his crop of Indian corn was of thesimplest . He simply cut away the dense growth from his corn- fie ld

and burned it . The ashes thus secured were the only fert ilizer used.Just before the first rain in May or June he made holes with asharpened stick, and at regular intervals, in the prepared ground,and into them dropped four or five grains of corn . In the later daysof the Aztec domination considerable care was taken of the growingcrops. They were kept free from weeds and in some cases irrigated.

Boys stationed o n elevated platforms or trees frightened away thebirds —M.

152 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

juice was fermented into an intoxicating beverage,

pn lqn e , of which the natives , to this day, are excessively fond ;

1° its leaves further supplied an impenetrable thatch for the more humble dwellings ;thread

,of which coarse stuff s were made , and

strong cords, were drawn from its tough andtwisted fibres ; pins and needles were made of thethorns at the extremity of its leaves ; and the root,when properly cooked , was converted into a palatable and nutritious food. The agave ,

”e in short,was meat

,drink, clothing, and writing -mate rials,

for the Aztec! Surely, never did Nature enclosein so compact a form so many of the elements ofhum an comfort and civilization!‘1

Before the Revolution , the duties on the pu lqn e formed so important a branch of revenue that the cities of Mexico, Puebla, andToluca alone paid to government . (Humboldt, Essai pol itique, tom. i i. p . It requires time to reconcile Europeans to thepeculiar flavor of this liquor, o n the merits of which they are co n sequently much divided . There is but one opinion among the natives.The English reader will fin d a good account of its manufacture inWard’s Mexico, vol. ii . pp . 55—60.

11 Hernandez enumerates the several Species of the maguey, whichare turned to these manifold uses, in his learned work, De H ist.P lan tarum . (Lib. 7, cap. 71, e t seq.) M . de Humboldt considersthem all varieties of the agave A m e ricana , familiar in the southernparts both of the United States and Europe. (Essai polit ique, tom.

ii . p. 487, et seq. ) This opinion has brought o n him a rather sourrebuke from our countryman the late Dr. Perrine, who pronouncesthem a distinct Species from the American agave, and regards oneof the kinds, the pita , from which the fine thread is obtained, as a

[Obe r (Travels in Mexico ) gives a very full account of the us esto which the maguey is put . On the maguey plantations the plantshave an average val ue of five dollars . A long train departs everyday from the stations o n the plains of Apam

,loaded exclusively with

pu lqu e, from the carriage of which the railroad derives a revenue ofabove $1000 a day,” p . 345. The pu lqu e “tastes like stale buttermilk and has an odor at times like that of putrid meat .” It is wholesome and refreshing. Mexicans ascribe to it the same be n eficentproperties which Scotsmen assign to their whiskey.—M. ]

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

154 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

Zacoto llan . These were taken not only from thecrude masses on the surface , but from veinswrought in the solid rock, into which they openedextensive galleries . In fact, the traces of theirlabors furnished the best indications for the earlySpanish miners .13 Gold, found on the surface , orgleaned from the beds of rivers, was cast into bars ,or

,in the form of dust, made part of the regular

tribute of the southern provinces of the empire .The use of iron, with which the soil was impregn ated, was unknown to them. Notwithstandingits abundance

,it demands so many processes to

prepare it for use that it has commonly been oneof the last metals pressed into the service of man.

The age of iron has followed that of brass, in factas well as in fiction .

14

[Though I have conformed to the views of Humboldt in regardto the knowledge of mining possessed by the ancient Mex icans,Sefio r Ramirez thinks the conclusions to which I have been led arenot warranted by the ancient writers . From the language of BernalD iaz and of Sahagu n, in particular, he infers that their only meansof obtaining the precious metals was by gathering such detachedmasses as were found on the surface of the ground or in the beds ofthe rivers. The Small amount of Silver in their possession he regardsa s an additional proof of their ignorance of the proper methodand their want of the requis ite tools for extracting it from the earth.See Ramirez, Notas y E sclarecimien tos , p .

1‘ P. Martyr, De Orbe Novo, Decades (Complu ti, dec. 5,p. 191.

—Acosta, lib. 4, cap . 3.—Humboldt, Essai politique, tom.

i ii .pp . 114- 125.

—Torquemada, Monarch. Ind ., lib . 13, cap . 34.

Men wrought in brass,” says Hesiod, “when iron did not exist.”Ko l noi d epyciCovr o

’

yél agd’

aimtorts oidgpog.

HE SIOD.

'

E pya xai”Hfiepa t .

The Abbé Raynal contends that the ignorance of iron must n ecessa rily have kept the Mexicans in a low state of civil ization, sincewithout it they could have produced no work in metal, worth looking at, no masonry nor architecture, engraving nor sculpture. (History of the Indies, Eng. trans , vol . i ii . b. Iron

,however

,i f

MECHANICAL ARTS 155

They found a substitute in an alloy of tin andcopper, and, with tools made of this bronze , couldcut not only metals, but, with the aid of a siliciousdust , the hardest substances , as basalt, porphyry,amethysts, and emeralds .15 They fashioned theselast , which were found very large, into many curious and fantastic forms . They cast, also, vesselsof gold and silver, carving them with their metallicchisels in a very delicate manner. Some of thesilver vases were so large that a man could not encircle them with his arms . They imitated verynicely the figures o f animals , and, what was extrao rdin ary, could mix the metals in such a mannerthat the feathers of a bird , or the scales of a fish,should be alternately of gold and silver . TheSpanish goldsmiths adm itted their superiority overthemselves in these ingenious works .16

They employed another tool , made of itz tli, orobsidian , a dark transparent mineral , exceedinglyhard, foun d in abundance in their hills . They

known , was little u sed by the ancient Egyptians , whose mighty monuments were hewn with bronze tools ; whil e their weapons and dom es tic utensils were of the same material, as appears from thegreen color given to them in their paintings.“Gama, Descripcion , Parte 2 , pp. 2 5 - 29 .

—Torquemada, Monarch.Ind ., ubi supra.Sahagun, H ist . de Nueva- E spafia, lib. 9, cap . I5—17. - B o tu rin i,

Idea, p . 77.—Torquemada, Monarch. Ind ., loc . cit .—Herrera, who

says they could al so enamel, commends the skill of the Mexican goldsmiths in makin g birds and animals with movable wings and l imbs,in a most curious fashion. (Hist . general, dec. 2 , lib. 7, cap.Sir John Mau ndeville, as usual,

with h is hair o n e nd

A t h is own wonders , "

notices the gret m arvayle of similar pieces of mechanism at thecourt of the grand Chane '

o f Cathay. See his Voiage and Travaile ,chap. 20.

156 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

made it into knives, razors, and their serratedswords . It took a keen edge, though soon blun ted .

With this they wrought the various stones and alabasters employed in the construction of their publicworks and principal dwellings . I shall defer amore particular account of these to the body of thenarrative

,and will only add here that the entrances

and angles of the buildings were profusely ornam en ted with images , sometimes of their fantasticdeities

,and frequently of animals .17 The latter

were executed with great accuracy. The former

,

” according to Torquemada, were the hideons reflection of their own souls . And it wasnot till after they had been converted to Christian ity that they could model the true figureof a man.

” 18 The old chronicler ’s facts are wellfounded, whatever we may think of his reasons .The allegorical phantasms of his religion , no doubt,gave a direction to the Aztec artist, in his delineation of the human figure ; supplying him with animaginary beauty in the personification of divinityitself. As these superstitions lost their hold on hismind, it opened to the influences of a purer taste ;and, after the Conquest, the Mexicans furnishedmany examples of correct, and some of beautiful,portraiture .Sculptured images were so numerous that thefoundations of the cathedral in the plaz a m ayor,

the great square of Mexico, are said to be entirely

Herrera, H ist. general, dec. 2 , lib. 7, cap. 11.—Torquemada,

Monarch. Ind., lib. 13, cap. 34.—Gama,Descripcio n , Parte 2 , pp . 27, 28.

1“Parece, que permitia Dios, que la figu ra de Su s cuerpos seasimilase a la que tenian sus almas por e l pecado, en que siempreperm an ecian .

” Monarch. Ind ., lib . 13, cap. 34.

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

158 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

quarry, is computed to have weighed nearly fiftytons . It was transported from the mountains beyond Lake Chalco, a distance of many leagues,over a broken country intersected by watercoursesand canals . In crossing a bridge which traversedone of these latter, in the capital, the supports gaveway, and the huge mass was precipitated into thewater, whence it was with difficulty recovered . Thefact that so enormous a fragment of porphyrycould be thus safely carried for leagues, in the faceof such obstacles, and without the aid of cattle ,for the Aztecs, as already mentioned, had no an imals of draught,—suggests to us no mean ideas oftheir mechanical skill, and of their machinery, andimplies a degree of cultivation little inferior tothat demanded for the geometrical and astronomical science displayed in the inscriptions on this verystone .2 3

The ancient Mexicans made utensils of earthenware for the ordinary purposes of domestic life,

” Gama, Descripcion , Parte 1, pp. 110—l l 4.—Humboldt, Essai

politique, tom. ii. p. 40.—Ten thousand m en were employed in the

transportation of this enormous mas s, according to Tezo zom oc, whosenarrative, with all the accompanying prodigies , is minutely transcribed by Bustamante. The Licentiate shows an appetite for themarvellous which might excite the envy of a monk of the M iddleAges. (See Descripcion , nota, loc . cit . ) The English traveller Latrobe accommodates the wonders of nature and art very well to eachother, by suggesting that these great mas ses of stone were transported by means o f the mastodon, whose remains are occasionally disinterred in the Mexican Valley. Rambler in Mexico, p . 145.

“[In 1875 Dr . Augustus Le Plongeon, having successfully inter

preted certain hieroglyphic inscriptions at Chichen Itza, unearthed,at a distance of four hundred yards from the palace at that place,a statue of Chaac M01, or Balam (the tiger king) , the greatest of theItza rul ers. It was seized by the Mexican official s and sent to thecity of Mexico. There, in the courtyard of the National Museum,

MECHANICAL ARTS 159

numerous specimens of which still exist.2 4 Theymade cups and vases of a lackered or painted wood

,

impervious to wet and gaudily colored. Their dyeswere obtained from both mineral and vegetablesubstan ces . Among them was the rich crimson ofthe co chin eal , the modern rival of the famed Tyrpurple. It was introduced into Europe from

Mexico, where the curious little insect was nourishedwith great care on plantations of cactus

,since

fallen into neglect.2 5 The natives were thus enabled to give a brill iant coloring to the webs whichwere manufactured, of every degree of fin eness,from the co tton raised in abundance throughoutthe warmer regions of the country. They had theart, also, of interweaving with these the delicatehair of rabbits and other animals, which made acloth of great warmth as well as beauty, of a kindaltogether original ; and on this they often laid arich embroidery, of birds , flowers, or some otherfanciful device .2 6

“A great collect ion of ancient pottery, with various other specimens of Aztec art, the gift of Messrs. Poinsett and Keating, is deposited in the Cabinet of the American Philosophical Society, atPhiladelphia. See the Catalogue, ap. Transactions, vol. ii i. p . 510.

Another admirable coll ection may be seen in the Museum of NaturalH istory in New York .

- M.

2°Hernandez, H ist. Plan tarum , lib . 6, cap. 116.

Carta del Lic. Zuazo, MS.—Herrera, H ist . general, dec . 2 , lib. 7,

cap. 15.—Bo tu rin i, Idea, p . 77—It is doubtful how far they were

it may be seen to d ay, j ust opposite its exac t duplicate, which wasfound buried, either in the plaza of Mexico or somewhere in Tlax

cala, some years ago . The story of the discovery seems marvellous

in the extreme, but photographs taken at many stages of the exhumation dispel doubt as to its t ruth . For a very full report uponthe whole matter, see the paper by Stephen Salisbury, pres ident ofthe American Antiquarian Society, in the Proceedings of that Society for 1877—78, pp. 70—119.

—M.]

160 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

But the art in which they most delighted wastheir plum aje, or feather-work . With this theycould produce all the effect of a beautiful mosaic .The gorgeous plumage of the tropical birds, especially o f the parrot tribe, afforded every varietyof color ; and the fin e down of the humming - bird ,which revelled in swarms among the honeysucklebowers of Mexico, supplied them with soft aerialtints that gave an exquisite finish to the picture .The feathers , pasted on a fine cotton web , werewrought into dresses for the wealthy, hangings forapartments, and ornaments for the temples . Noone of the American fabrics excited such admiration in Europe, whither numerous specimens weresent by the Conquerors . It is to be regretted thatso graceful an art should have been suff ered to fallinto decay .

27

There were no shops in Mexico, but the various

acquainted with the manufacture of silk . Carli supposes that whatCortés cal ls silk was only the fine texture of hair, or down, mentionedin the text. (Lettres Américaines, tom. i . let . But it is certainthey had a Species of caterpillar, unlike our silkworm , indeed, whichspun a thread that was sold in the markets of ancient Mexico. Seethe Essai politique (tom. ii i. pp . where M . de Humboldt hascollected some interesting facts in regard to the culture of silk bythe Aztecs. Stil l, that the fabric should be a matter of uncertaintyat all shows that it coul d not have reached any great excellence orextent .

” Carta del Lic . Zuazo, MS .—Acosta, lib. 4, cap . 37. - Sahagun,

H ist . de Nueva- E spafia, lib. 9, cap . 18—2 1.—Toribio, H ist . de 108 In

dios, MS ., Parte 1, cap . 15.—Rel. d’un gentil’ hu om o , ap. R am u sio ,

tom . iii. fol. 306.—Count Carli is in raptures with a specimen of

feather-painting which he saw in Strasbourg. “Never did I beholdanything so exquisite,” he says, for brilli ancy and nice gradationof color, and for beauty of design . N0 European artist could havemade such a thing.” (Lettres Américaines, let . 21, note.) There isstill one place, P atzqu a ro , where, according to Bustamante, they preserve some knowledge of this interesting art, though it is practisedo n a very limited scale and at great cost. Sahagun, ubi supra, nota.

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

162 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

to it,with its own chief, its own tutelar deity, its

pecul iar festivals , and the like. Trade was held inavowed estimation by the Aztecs . Apply thyself, my son,

” was the advice of an aged chief,to agriculture , or to fes ther-work, or some otherhonorable calling . Thus did your ancestors before you . E lse how would they have providedfor themselves and their families ? Never was itheard that nobility alone was able to maintain itspossessor.” 2 9 Shrewd maxims, that must havesounded somewhat strange in the ear of a Spanishhidalgo!

3°

But the occupation peculiarly respected was thatof the merchant. It formed so important and singular a feature of their social economy as to merita much more particular notice than it has receivedfrom historians . The Aztec merchant was a sortof itinerant trader, who made his j ourneys to theremotest borders of Anahuac, and to the countriesbeyond, carrying with him merchandise of richstuffs, j ewelry, slaves, and other valuable comm odities . The slaves were obtained at the greatmarket of A z capo z alco , not many leagues from thecapital, where fairs were regularly held for thesale of these unfortunate beings . They werebrought thither by their masters, dressed in theirgayest apparel, and instructed to sing, dance, and

”“Procurad de saber algun oficio hon roso, como es el hacer obrasde pluma y otros oficios m ecanico s . M irad que tengais cuidadode lo tocante a la agricultura. E n ningun a parte he visto quealguno se mantenga por su nobleza.” Sahagun, H ist . de NuevaE spafia , lib. 6, cap . 17.

” Col. de Mendoza, ap. Antiq. of Mexico, vol. i . PI. 71; vol. vi .p . 86.

—Torquemada, Monarch. Ind., lib. 2 , cap. 41.

ME RCHANTS 163

display their little stock of personal accomplishments , so as to recommend themselves to the purchaser . Slave - dealing was an honorable callingamong the Aztecs .3 1

With this rich freight, the merchant visited thediff erent provinces , always bearing some presentof value from his own sovereign to their chiefs

,

and usually receiving others in return , with a permission to trade . Should this be denied him , orshou ld he meet with indignity or violence , he hadthe means of resistance in his power. He performed his j ourneys with a number of companionsof his own rank, and a large body of inferior attendan ts who were employed to transport thegoods . F ifty or sixty pounds were the usual loadfor a man . The whole caravan went armed, and sowell provided against sudden hostilities that theycould make good their defence , if necessary, tillreinforced from home . In one instance , a body ofthese militant traders stood a siege of four yearsin the town of Ayotlan , which they fin ally tookfrom the enemy.

3 2 Their own government, however, was always prompt to embark in a war onthis ground , finding it a very convenient pretextfor extending the Mexican empire . It wasnot unusual to allow the merchants to raiselevies themselves, which were placed under theircommand . It was, moreover, very common forthe prince to employ the merchants as a sort ofspies , to furnish him information of the stateof the countries through which they passed,

Sahagun, H ist. de Nueva- E spafia, lib. 9, can . 4, 10—14.

Ibid., lib. 9, cap. 2 .

164 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

and the dispositions of the inhabitants towardshimself.33

Thus their sphere of action was much enlargedbeyond that of a hum ble trader, and they acquireda high consideration in the body politic. They wereallowed to assume insignia and devices of theirown. Some of their number composed what iscalled by the Spanish writers a council of finance ;at least, this was the case in Tez cu co .

34 They weremuch consulted by the monarch , who had some ofthem constantly near his person, addressing themby the title of uncle,

” which may remind one ofthat ofprim o ,

or cousin , by which a grandee ofSpain is saluted by his sovereign . They were allowed to have their own courts, in which civil andcriminal cases, not excepting capital, were determ ined ; so that they formed an independent community, as it were, of themselves . And, as theirvarious traffic supplied them with abundant storesof wealth , they enj oyed many of the most essentialadvantages of an hereditary aristocracy.

35

Sahagun, H ist. de Nneva- E spafia , lib. 9, cap . 2 , 4.—In the Men

doza Codex is a painting representing the execution of a cacique andhis fam ily, with the destruction of his city, for maltreating the persons of some Aztec merchants. Antiq. of Mexico, vol. i. PI. 67.Torquemada, Monarch. Ind., lib. 2 , cap. 41.

—Ixtlilxochitl gives acurious story of one of the royal family of Tezonco, who off ered,with two other merchants, otros m ercaderes , to visit the court of ahostile cacique and brin g him dead or alive to the capital. Theyavailed themselves of a drunken revel, at which they were to havebeen sacrificed, to eff ect their obj ect . H ist. Chich., MS., cap . 69.

” Sahagun, H ist. de Nueva- E spafia, lib . 9, cap . 2 , 5.—~The ninth

book is taken up with an account of the merchants,their pilgrim

ages, the religious rites o n their departure, and the sumptuous way ofliving on their return. The whole presents a very remarkable picture

,

showing they enj oyed a consideration, among the half-civi lized nations of Anahuac, to which there is no parallel, unless it be that pos

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

166 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

The discipline of children, especially at the public schools, as stated in a previous chapter, was exceedingly severe .

37 But after she had come to amature age the Aztec maiden was treated by herparents with a tenderness from which all reserveseemed banished . In the cou nsels to a daughterabout to enter into life, they conjured her to preserve simplicity in her manners and conversation,uniform neatness in her attire, with strict attentionto personal cleanliness . They inculcated modesty,as the great ornament of a woman, and implicitreverence for her husband ; softening their adm o

n ition s by such endearing epithets as showed thefulness of a parent ’s love .3 8

Polygamy was permitted among the Mexicans,though chiefly confined, probably, to the wealthiest

abundant gravity and minuteness by Sahagun, who descends to particulars which his Mexican editor, Bustamante, has excluded, assomewhat too unreserved for the public eye. I f they were more sothan some of the editor’s own notes, they must have bee n very comm u nicative indeed.

‘7Zurita, Rapport, pp. l l 2—134.-The Th ird Part of the Col. de

Mendoza (Antiq. of Mexico, vol . i . ) exhibits the various ingeniouspunishments devised for the refractory child . The flowery path ofknowledge was well strewed with thorns for the Mexican tyro.

‘3 Zurita, Rapport, pp. 151—160.—Sahagun has given us the adm o

nition s of both father and mother to the Aztec maiden o n her comingto years of discretion .Wh at can be more tender than the beginningof the mother’s exhortation ? H ij a mia muy amada, muy queridapalomita : ya has oido y notado las palabras que tu sefio r padre te hadicho ; ellas son pal abras preciosas , y que raramente s e dicen mi seoyen, las qu ales han procedido de las e n trai’ias y corazon en que estaban atesoradas ; y tu muy amado padre bien sabe que eres suhija, engendrada de él, eres su sangre y su carne, y sabe D ios nuestrosenor que es asi ; aunque eres muger, é imagen de tu padre aque maste puedo decir, hija mia, de lo que ya esta dicho ? (H ist . de NnevaE Spa i

’ia , lib. 6, cap . The reader wil l find this interesting docu

ment, which enj oins so much of what is deemed most essential amongcivilized nations, trans lated entire in the Appendix, Part 2 , No. 1.

DOMESTIC MANNERS 167

classes .39 And the obligations of the marriagevow, which was made with all the formality of areligious ceremony, were fully recognized , and impressed o n both parties . The women are describedby the Spaniards as pretty, unlike their u n fo rtunate descendants of the present day, though withthe same serious and rather melancholy cast ofcountenance . Their long black hair, covered, insome parts of the country, by a veil made of thefin e web of the pita , might generally be seenwreathed with flowers , or, among the richer people, with strings of precious stones, and pearlsfrom the Gulf of California . They appear to havebeen treated with much consideration by their husbands , and passed their time in indolent tranquillity, or in such feminine occupations as spinning, embroidery, and the like, while their maidensbeguiled the hours by the rehearsal of traditionarytales and ballads .40

The women partook equally with the men of social festivities and entertainments . These wereoften conducted on a large scale, both as regardsthe num ber of guests and the costliness of thepreparations . Numerous attendants , of both sexes ,waited at the banquet. The halls were scentedwith perfumes , and the courts strewed with odo rif

“Yet we find the remarkable declaration, in the counsels of afather to his so n , that, for the multiplication of the species, God o r

dained one m an only for one woman . “Nota, hij o mio, lo que tedigo

,mira que el mundo ya tiene este estilo de engendrar y mul

tiplica r, y para esta gen e racio n y m ul tiplicacion , ordeno Dios queuna muger usase de u n varon, y u n varon de una muger .” Sahagun ,

H ist. de Nueva- E spar‘

ia, lib. 6, cap . 2 1.

Ibid ., lib . 6, cap . 2 1—23 ; lib. 8, cap. 23 .—Rel. d’

u n gentil’ hu om o,ap. R am u sio , tom. iii. fol. 305 .

—Carta del Lic. Zuazo, MS .

CONQUEST OF MEXICO

erou s herbs and flowers, which were distributed inprofusion among the guests, as they arrived . Cotton napkins and ewers of water were placed beforethem, as they took their seats at the board ; for thevenerable ceremony of ablution before and aftereating was punctiliously observed by the Aztecs .42

Tobacco was then offered to the company, in pipes,mixed up with aromatic substances , or in the formof cigars, inserted in tubes of tortoise - shell or silver. They compressed the nostrils with the fingers ,while they inhaled the smoke , which they frequently swallowed . Whether the women, who satapart from the men at table , were allowed the indulgen ce of the fragrant weed , as in the most pol

As old as the heroic age of Greece, at least. We may fancyourselves at the table of Penelope, where water in golden ewers waspoured into silver basins for the accommodation of her guests, beforebeginning the repast :

Xépwfia d’

(tugbirrollogam3569) e'

n'éxsve ¢épovoa

Kahfi, xpvo sc'

g, inrépapyvpéoco Mfinrog,Nil/m afia ; n opé (53 560777» e

’

r tivvo oe rpén'

eCav.

OATZZ. A .

The feast affords many other points of analogy to the Aztec, inferring a similar stage of civilization in the two nations . One may besurprised, however, to find a greater profusion of the preciousmetals in the barren isle of Ithaca than in Mexico. But the poet’sfancy was a richer mine than either.“Sahagun, H ist . de Nueva- E spafia, lib. 6, cap. 2 2 .

—Amidst someexcellent advice of a parent to his son , on his general deportment,we find the latter punctiliously enj oined not to take his seat at theboard till he has washed his face and hands, and not to leave it till hehas repeated the same thing, and cleans ed his tee th. The directionsare given with a precision worthy of an Asiatic. Al principio dela comida labarte has las manos y la boca, y donde te j untares conotros a comer, no te sientes luego ; mas antes tomaras e l agua y laj icara para que se laben los otros, y echarles has agua a las manos,y despu es de esto, cojeras lo que se ha caido por el suelo y barreras cllugar de la comida, y tambien despu es de comer lavaras te las manosy la boca, y limpiaras los dientes.” Ibid., loc. cit.

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

170 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

cions variety foun d on the North American continent. The different viands were prepared in various ways, with delicate sauces and seasoning, ofwhich the Mexicans were very fond . Their palatewas still further regaled by confections and pastry,for which their maize -flou r and sugar suppliedample materials . One other dish, of a disgustingnature , was sometimes added to the feast , especiallywhen the celebration partook of a religious character. On such occasions a slave was sacrificed , andhis flesh , elaborately dressed, formed one of thechief ornaments of the banquet. Cannibalism, inthe guise of an Epicurean science, becomes even themore revolting.

The meats were kept warm by chafing- dishes .The table was ornamented with vases of silver, andsometimes gold, of delicate workmanship . Thedrinking - cups and spoons were of the same costlymaterials, and likewise of tortoise - shell . The favo rite beverage was the choco la tl, flavored withvanilla and different spices . They had a way ofpreparing the froth of it, so as to make it almostsolid enough to be eaten, and took it cold .

46 The

teresting notices of the history and habits of the wild turkey may befound in the Ornithology both of Buonaparte and of that e n thu siastic lover of nature, Audubon, vow Me leagris , Ga llopavo .

‘5 Sahagun, H ist. de Nueva- E spa fia, lib. 4, cap . 37; lib . 8, cap. 13

lib. 9, cap . 10—14.—Torquemada, Monarch . Ind ., lib. 13, cap. 23 .

Rel . d’u n gentil’ hu om o , ap. R am usio , tom. i i. fol. 306 .

—Father Sahagun has gone into many particulars of the Aztec“cu is ine , and themode of preparing sundry savory messes, making, a ll together, nodespicable contribution to the noble science of gastronomy.“The froth, delicately flavored with Spices and some other ingredien ts, was taken cold by itself. It had the consistency almost of asolid ; and the Anonym ous Conqueror is very careful to inculcatethe importance of Opening the mouth wide, in order to facil itate

DOMESTIC MANNERS 171

fermented juice of the maguey, with a mixture ofsweets and acids , supplied, also , various agreeabledrinks, of different degrees of strength , andformed the chief beverage of the elder part of thecompany.

47

A S soon as they had finished their repast,the

youn g people rose from the table , to close the festivitie s of the day with dancing . They dancedgracefully, to the sound of various instruments ,accompanying their movements with chants of apleasing though somewhat plaintive character.48

The older gu ests co ntinued at table , sipping

pu lqn e , and gossiping about other times, till thevirtues of the exhilarating beverage put them ingood hum or with their own . Intoxication was not

deglutition, that the foam may dissolve gradually, and descend imperceptibly, as it were, into the stomach. It was so nutritious thata single cup of it was enough to sustain a man through the longestday’s march. (Fol. The old soldier discusses th e beveragecon am ore .

‘7Sahagun , H ist . de Nueva- E spa fia, lib. 4, cap . 37; lib. 8, cap. 13.

—Torquemada, Monarch. Ind ., lib. 13, cap. 23 .—Rel. d’

u n gentil’hu om o , ap. R am u sio , tom. iii. fol. 306.

‘3 Herrera, Hist. general, dec . 2 , lib. 7, cap . 8.—Torquemada, Mo

n arch . Ind ., lib. 14, cap . 11.—The Mex ican nobles entertained m in

stre ls in their houses, who composed ballads suited to the times, orthe achievements o f their lord, which they chanted, to the accompan im en t of instruments, at the festivals and dances . Indeed, therewas more or less dancing at most of the festival s, and it was performed in the court -yards of the houses, or in the open squares ofth e city. ( Ibid ., ubi supra.) The principal m en had, also, buffoonsand j ugglers in their service, who amus ed them and astonished theSpaniards by their feats of dexterity and strength (Acosta, lib. 6,cap. 28 ; also Clavige ro (Stor . del Messico, tom. i i . pp . 179who has design ed several representations of their exploits, trulysurprising) . I t is natural that a people of limited refinementshould find their enj oym ent in material rather than intellectualpleasures , and , consequently, Should excel in them . Th e Asiaticnations, as the H indoos and Chinese, for example, surpass the morepolished Europeans in displays of agility and legerdemain .

172 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

rare in this part of the company, and , what is singular

,was excused in them, though severely pun

ished in the younger. The entertainment was concluded by a liberal distribution of rich dresses an dornaments among the guests, when they withdrew,

after midnight, some commending the feas t, andothers condemning the bad taste or extravagan ceof their host ; in the same manner,

” says an oldSpanish writer, as with us .

” 49 Human nature is ,indeed

,much the same all the world over.

In this remarkable picture of manners, whichI have copied faithfully from the records ofearliest date after the Conquest, we find no re

semblance to the other races of North Am ericanIndians . Some resemblance we may trace tothe general style of Asiatic pomp and luxury.

But in Asia, woman, far from being admitted tou nreserved intercourse with the other sex, is

too often j ealously immured within the walls ofthe harem . European civilization, which ao

cords to this loveliest portion of creation herproper rank in the social scale, is still more re

moved from some of the brutish usages of the A z

tecs . That such usages should have existed withthe degree of refinement they showed in otherthings is almost inconceivable . It can only be explain ed as the result of religious superstition ;superstition which clouds the moral pe rception, andperverts even the natural senses , till man, civilized

““Y de esta manera pasaban gran rato de la noche, y se despedian, é iban a sus casas, unos al abando la fiesta, y otros murmurandode las dem as ias y excesos, cosa mui ordinaria en lo s que a semej antes actos se j untan.” Torquemada, Monarch. Ind., lib. 13, cap.

23.—Sahagun, H ist. de Nueva- E spafia, lib. 9, cap. 10—14.

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

174 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

able to add anything to his collection ; for the Indians had suff eredtoo much not to be very shy of Europeans. H is long intercoursewith them, however, gave him ample Opportunity to learn their language and popul ar traditions, and, in the end, to amass a large stockof materials, cons isting of hieroglyphical charts o n cotton, skins, andthe fibre of the maguey ; besides a cons iderable body of Indian m an

u scripts, written after the Co nquest . To all these must be added theprecious documents for placing beyond controversy the miraculousapparition Of the Virgin . With this treasure he returned, after apil grimage of eight years, to the capital.H is zeal, in the mean while, had induced him to procure from

R ome a bull authorizing the coronation of the sacred image atGuadaloupe. The bull, however, though sanctioned by the Audienceof New Spain , had never been approved by the Council of the Indies .In consequence of this in formality, B otu rini was arrested in themidst of his proceedings, his papers were taken from him, and, ashe declined to give an inventory of them, he was thrown into prison,and confined in the same apartment with two criminals ! Not longafterward he was sent to Spain . He there presented a memorialto the Council of the Indies, setting forth his manifold grievances ,and soliciting redress. At the same time, he drew up his Idea,”above noticed, in which he displayed the catalogue of his m us eum in

New Spain, declaring, with aff ecting earnestness, that “he wouldn ot exchange these treasures for a ll the gold and silver, diamondsand pearls, in the New World .

”

After some delay, the Council gave an award in his favor ; acquitting him Of any intentional violation of the law, and pronouncing ahigh encomium o n his deserts. H is papers, however, were not restored. But his Maj esty was graciously pleased to appoint him Historiographer—General of the Indies, with a salary Of one thousanddollars per annum . The stipend was too small to allow him to returnto Mexico. He remained in Madrid, and completed there the firstvolume of a“General H istory of North America,” in 1749. Notlong after this event, and before the publication of the work, hedied . The same inj ustice was continued to his heirs ; and, n o twithstanding repeated appl ications in their behal f, they were neither putin possession of their unfortunate kinsman’ s collection, nor receiveda remuneration for it. What was worse,—as far as the public wasconcerned,—the collection itself was deposited in apartments of thevice- regal palace at Mexico , so damp that they gradually fell topieces, and the few rema ining were still further diminished by thepilfering of the cu rious . When Baron Humboldt visited Mexico,not one- eighth of this inestimable treasure was in existence !I have been thus particular in the account of the unfortunate B oturini, a s affording, o n the whole, the most remarkable example ofthe Serious Obstacles and persecutions which literary enterprise

,di

rected in the path of the national antiquities,has

,from some cause

or other, been exposed to in New Spain .

BOTURINI 175

ini’ s manuscript volume was never printed, and probablyill be, i f indeed it is in existence. This will scarcely provedetriment to science or to his own reputation . He was aa zealous temper, strongly inclined to the marvellous, withthat acuteness requisite for penetrating the tangled mazesu ity, or of the philosophic spirit fitted for calmly weighingts and difficulties . H is Idea affords a sample Of his pecu(I. With abundant learning, ill assorted and ill digested, itble of fact and puerile fiction, interesting details, crazyand fantas tic theories . But it is hardly fair to j udge by thedes of criticism a work which, put together hasti ly, as ae of literary treasures, was designed by the author ratherwhat might be done, than that he coul d do it himself. Ithat talents for action and contemplation are united in theividu al . B otu rin i was eminently qualified, by his enthusiasmseverance, for collecting the materials necessary to illustratequ ities of the country. It requires a more highly giftedavail itsel f o f them .

CHAPTER VI

THE TEZCUCANS—THEIR GOLDEN AGE—A CCOM "

FLISK ED PRINCES—r DE CLINE OF THEIR MON“

JXR CH Y

HE reader would gather but an imperfect notion of the civilization of Anahuac, without

some account Of the Acolhuans, or Tezcucans, asthey are usually called ; a nation of the same greatfamily with the Aztecs, whom they rivalled inpower and surpassed in intellectual culture and thearts of social refinement. Fortunately, we haveample materials for this in the records left by Ixtlilx ochitl, a lineal descendant of the royal line OfTezonco, who flourished in the century of the Conquest . With every opportunity for information hecombined much industry and talent, and, if his narrative bears the high coloring Of one who wouldrevive the faded glories of an ancient but dilapi

[In reading this chapter we must constantly bear in mind thefact that it is founded almost entirely upon traditions . Wemust also remember—first, that Ixtlilxochitl is the principal authority for the legends therein chronicled ; second, that Ixtlilxochitl possessed a very fert ile imagination ; third, that Ixtlilxochitl’s H istoriaChichimecs was not written from an entirely u nprejudiced point o fview. To use the words of Bandelier (A rchwo logical Tour in Mexico, p . Ixtlilxochitl is always a very suspicious authority, notbecause he is more confused than any other Indian writer, but because he wrote for an interes ted Obj ect, and with the view of sustaining tribal claims in the eyes of the Spanish government.—M.]

176

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

178 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

Not long after his flight from the field of hisfather ’s blood, the Tezcucan prince fell into thehands of his enemy, was borne Off in triumph to hiscity, and was thrown into a dungeon. He eff ectedhis escape, however, through the connivance Of thegovernor of the fortress, an Old servant of hisfamily, who took the place of the royal fugitive ,and paid for his loyalty with his life . He was atlength permitted, through the intercession of thereigning family in Mexico, which was allied tohim, to retire to that capital, and subsequently tohis own, where he found a shelter in his ancestralpalace . Here he remained unmolested for eightyears , pursuing his studies under an Old preceptor,who had had the care of his early youth , and whoinstructed him in the various duties be fittin g hisprincely station .

5

At the end of this period the Tepanec usurperdied, bequeathing his empire to his son, Max tla , aman of fierce and suspicious temper. Nez ahu al

coyo tl hastened to pay his Obeisance to him, on hisaccession . But the tyrant refused to receive thelittle present of flowers which he laid at his feet,and turned his back on him in presence of his chieftains . One of his attendants, friendly to the youn gprince, admonished him to provide for his ownsafety, by withdrawing, as speedily as possible,from the palace, where his life was in danger. Helost no time, consequently, in retreating from the

essary, for the latter, to refer the English reader to Cham be rs ’

s“H istory of the Rebellion of a work which proves howthin is the partition in human life which divides romance fromrea lity.

Ixtlilxochitl, Relaciones, MS., NO. 10.

GOLDE N AGE OF TE ZCUCO 179

inhospitable court, and returned to Tezon co .

Max tla , however, was bent on his destruction . Hesaw with j ealous eye the opening talents andpopular manners of his rival, and the favor he was dailywinning from his ancient subjects .“He accordingly laid a plan for making awaywith him at an evening entertainment . It wasdefeated by the vigilance of the prince ’ s tutor

,who

contrived to mislead the assassins and to substituteanother victim in the place Of his pupil .7 The

baffled tyrant now threw Off all disguise , and senta strong party of soldiers to Tez cu co , with ordersto enter the palace, seize the person of Nez ahu al

coyo tl, and slay him on the spot . The prince , whobecame acquainted with the plot through thewatchfulness of his preceptor, instead of flying, ashe was counse lled, resolved to await his enemies .They foun d him playing at ball, when they arrived, in the court of his palace . He received themcourteously, and invited them in, to take some refre shm en ts after their j ourney. While they wereoccupied in this way, he passed into an adj oiningsaloon, which excited no suspicion, as he was stillvisible through the open doors by which the apartments communicated with each other. A burningcenser stood in the passage, and , as it was fed bythe attendants, threw up such clouds of incenseas obscured his movements from the soldiers .Under this friendly veil he succeeded in making

NO. 10.—H ist . Chich .,MS ., cap . 20—24.

’ Idem, H ist . Chich., MS., cap . 2 5. The contrivance was effectedby means of an extraordinary personal resemblance of the parties ;a fruit ful source of comic—as every reader Of the drama knowsthough rarely of tragic interest.

180 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

his escape by a secret passage , which communicatedwith a large earthen pipe formerly used to bringwater to the palace 8 Here he remained till nightfall

,when, taking advantage of the obscurity, he

found his way into the suburbs, and sought a Shelter in the cottage of one of his father ’s vassals .The Tepanec monarch , enraged at this repeated

disappointment, ordered instant pursuit . A pricewas set on the head of the royal fugitive. Whoever should take him, dead or alive, was promised,however humble his degree, the hand Of a noblelady, and an ample domain along with it. TroopsOf armed men were ordered to scour the countryin every direction . In the course of the search , thecottage in which the prince had taken refuge wasentered . But he fortunately escaped detection bybeing hid un der a heap of maguey fibres used formanufacturing cloth . As this was no longer aproper place of concealment, he sought a retreatin the mountainous and woody district lying between the bo rders Of his own state and Tlascala .

9

Here he led a wretched, wandering life , exposedto all the inclemencies Of the weather, hiding himself in deep thickets and caverns , and stealing out,at night, to satisfy the cravings of appetite ; whilehe was kept in constant alarm by the activity of hispursuers, always hovering on his track. On one

l‘It was customary, on entering the presence Of a great lord, tothrow aromatics into the censer. Hecho e n el brasero incienso ycopal, que era u so y costum bre donde estaban los Reyes y Sefiores ,cada vez que los criados entraban con mucha reverencia y acatamiento echaban sahnm e rio en cl brasero ; y as! co n este perfume seobscurecia algo la sala.” Ixtlilxochitl, Relaciones, MS ., No. 11.

°Ixt1ilxochitl, H ist . Chich., MS., cap. 96.—Relaciones, MS ., No.

11.—Veytia, H ist. an tig., lib. 2 , cap . 47.

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

182 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

might be to his feelings, the situation of the princein these mountain solitudes became every day moredistressing. It gave a still keener edge to his ownsufferings to witness those Of the faithful followers who chose to accompany him in his wanderings .Leave me,

” he would say to them , to my fate!Why Should you throw away your own lives forone whom fortun e is never weary of perse cuting?Most of the great Tezcucan chiefs had consultedtheir interests by a timely adhesion to the usurper.But some still clun g to their prince, preferring

pre scription , and death itself, rather than deserthim in his extremity .

12

In the mean time, his friends at a distance wereactive in measures fo r his relief. The oppressionsOf Max tla , and his growing empire , had causedgeneral alarm in the surrounding states , who re

called the mild rule of the Tezcucan princes . Acoalition was formed, a plan Of Operations conce rted, and, on the day appointed for a general rising, Nezahualcoyotl found himself at the head of aforce sufficiently strong to face his Tepanec adversarie s . An engagement came on , in which the latter were totally discomfited ; and the victoriousprince, receiving everywhere on his route thehomage Of his j oyful subjects , entered his capital,not like a proscribed outcast, but as the rightfulheir, and saw himself once more enthroned in thehalls Of his fathers .Soon after, he united his forces with the Mexicans , long disgusted with the arbitrary conduct ofMaxtla . The allied powers , after a series of

1”Ixtlilxochitl, MSS ., ubi supra .—Veytia, ubi supra.

GOLDE N AGE OF TE ZCUCO 183

bloody engagements with the usurper, routed himunder the walls of his own capital . He fled to thebaths, whence he was dragged out , and sacrificedwith the usual cruel ceremonies Of the Aztecs ; theroyal city OfA z capoz alco was razed to the ground,and the wasted territory w as henceforth reservedas the great slave -market for the nations of A n ahuac .13

These events were succeeded by the remarkableleague among the three powers of Tez cu co ,

Mexico, and Tlacopan , Of which some account has beengiven in a previous chapter .14 Historians are notagreed as to the precise terms of it ; the writers ofthe two former nations each insisting on the paramount authority Of his own in the coalition. Allagree in the subordinate position of Tlacopan , astate , like the others , bordering on the lake . It iscertain that in their subsequent operations, whetherof peace or war, the three states shared in eachother ’s councils, embarked in each other

’s enterprises , and moved in perfect concert together, tilljust before the coming of the Spaniards .The first measure of Nezahualcoyotl, on returning to his dominions, was a general amnesty. Itwas his maxim that a monarch might pun ish , butrevenge was unworthy of him .

” 1“In the presentinstance he was averse even to punish, and not onlyfreely pardoned his rebel nobles , but conferredo n some , who had most deeply off ended, posts of

1“Ixtlilx ochitl, H ist . Chich., MS., cap . 28- 31.—Relaciones, MS.,

No. 11.—Veytia, H ist. a n tig. , lib. 2 , cap . 51—54.

See page 2 1 of this volume.“5Qu e venganza no es j usto la procuren lo s Reyes, sino castigar

al que lo m e reciere .

” MS. de Ixtlilxochitl .

CONQUEST OF MEXICO

honor and confidence . Such conduct was doubtless politic, especially as their alienation was owing,probably

,much more to fear of the usurper than

to any disaffection towards him self. But there aresome acts of policy which a magnanimous spiritonly can execute .The restored monarch next set about repairingthe damages sustained under the late misrule, andreviving, or rather remodelling, the various departments of government . He framed a concise, butcomprehensive, code of laws, so well suited, it wasthought, to the exigencies of the times, that it wasadopted as their own by the two other members Ofthe triple alliance . It was written in blood, andentitled the author to be called the Draco ratherthan the Solon of Anahuac,

”as he is fondly

styled by his admirers .” Hum anity is one of thebest fruits of refinement. It is only with in creasing civilization that the legislator studies to econ omize human suffering, even for the guilty ; todevise penalties not so much by way of punishmentfor the past as of reformation for the future .17

He divided the burden of government among anumber of departments , as the council of war, thecouncil Of finance , the council of justice . This lastwas a court of supreme authority, both in civil and

See Clavigero , Stor. del Messico, tom. i. p. 247. -Nez ahu alcoyo tl’

s

code consisted of eighty laws, of which thi rty- four only have comedown to u s , according to Veytia . (H ist. an tig., tom . ii i . p . 2 24, nota. )Ixtlilx ochitl enumerates several of them. H ist . Chich., MS ., cap . 38,

and Relaciones, MS ., Ordenanzas .‘7Nowhere are these principles kept more steadily in view than inthe various writings of our adopted countryman Dr. Lieber, havingmore or less to do with the theory of legislation . Such works couldnot have been produced before the nineteenth century

.

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

186 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

du ction s of art , and of the nicer fabrics . It decided on the qualifications of the professors in thevarious branches of science , on the fidelity of theirinstructions to their pupils , the deficiency of whichwas severely punished, and it instituted examinations of these latter. In short , it was a generalboard of education for the country. On sta teddays, historical compositions, and po ems treatin gof moral or traditional topics, were recited beforeit by their authors . Seats were provided for thethree crowned heads of the empire, who deliberatedwith the other members on the respective merits ofthe pieces , and distributed prizes of value to thesuccessful competitors .19

Such are the marvellous accounts transmittedto us of this institution ; an institution certainlynot to have been expected among the aborigines ofAmerica. It is calculated to give us a higher ideaof the refinement of the people than even the noble architectural remains which still cover someparts of the continent . Architectur e is, to a certain extent, a sensual gratification . It addressesitself to the eye, and affords the best scope for theparade of barbaric pomp and splendor. It is the

” Ixtlilx ochitl, H ist . Chich ., MS., cap . 36.—Clavigero , Stor. del

Messico, tom. i i . p . 137.—Veytia, H ist. an tig., lib. 3, cap . 7.

—“Concu rrian a este consej o las tres cabezas del imperio, en ciertos dias, ao ir cantar las poesias histé ricas antiguas y modernas, para instruirsede toda su historia, y tambien cuando habia algun nuevo inventoe n cualquiera facultad, para examinarlo, aprobarlo, 6 reprobarlo .

Delante de las sillas de los reyes habia una gran mesa cargada dej oyas de oro y plata, pedre ria , plumas, y otras cosas estimables,y e n los rincones de la sala muchas de mantas de todas cal idades,para premios de las habilidades y es timulo de los profesores, lascuales alhaj as repartian los reyes, en los dias que concu rrian , a

los que s e aventaj aban en el ej ercicio n e sus facultades.” Ibid .

GOLDEN AGE OF TE ZCUCO 187

form in which the revenues of a semi - civilized people are most likely to be lavished . The mostgaudy and ostentatious specimens of it, and sometimes the most stupendous , have been reared bysuch hands . It is one of the first steps in the greatmarch of civilization. But the institution inquestion was evidence of still higher refinement .It was a literary luxury, and argued the existence of a taste in the nation which relied for itsgratification on pleasures of a purely intellectualcharacter.The influence of this academy must have beenmost propitious to the capital, which became thenurse ry not only of such sciences as could becompassed by the scholarship of the period, but ofvarious useful and ornamental arts . Its historians ,orators , and poets were celebrated thr oughout thecoun try.

2 0 Its archives , for which accommodationswere provided in the royal palace , were stored withthe records of primitive ages .2 1 Its idiom, morepolished than the Mexican, was , indeed, the purestof all the Nahuatlac dialects , and continued, longafter the Conquest, to be that in which the bestproductions of the native races were composed.

”Veytia, H ist. a n tig., lib. 3, cap . 7.—Clavige ro , Stor. del Messico,tom. i . p . Q47. —The latter author enumerates four historians, someo f much repute, of the royal house of Tezcu co , descendants ofthe great Nezahualcoyotl. See his Account of Writers, tom. i. pp .

6—91.“1 E n la ciudad de Tezcuco estaban los Archivos Rea les de todaslas cosas referidas , por haver sido la Metropoli de todas las ciencias ,us os , y buenas costumbres , porque los Reyes que fueron de ella sepreciaron de esto.” (Ixtlilx ochitl, H ist. Chich., MS ., Prologo . ) Itwas from the poor wreck of these docum ents, once so carefully preserved by his ancestors, that the historian gleaned the materials, ashe informs u s , for his own works .

188 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

Tezonco claimed the glory of being the Athens ofthe Western world.

2 2

Among the most illustrious of her bards was theemperor himself , - for the Tezcucan writers claimthis title for their chief, as head of the imperial allian ce . He doubtless appeared as a competitorbefore that very academy where he so often sat asa critic. Many of his odes descended to a lategeneration, and are still preserved, perhaps, insome of the dusty repositories of Mexico orSpain.

2 3 The historian Ix tlilxo chitl has left atranslation, in Castilian, of one of the poems of hisroyal ancestor. It is not easy to render his versioninto corresponding English rhyme, without theperfume of the original escaping in this doublefiltration .

2 4 They remind one of the rich breathings of Spanish -Arab poetry, in which an ardentimagination is tempered by a not un pleasing andmoral melancholy.

2 5 But, though sufficiently florid

2” Aunque es tenida la lengua MeJican a por materna, y la Tezencana por mas co rte san a y pulida.” (Camargo, H ist. de Tlasca la,MS . ) “

Tez cuco , says B otu rin i, where the noblemen sent theirsons to acquire the most polished dialect of the Nahuatlac language,and to study poetry, moral philosophy, the heathen theology, astronomy, medicine, a nd history. Idea, p . 142 .

23 He composed sixty songs, says the author last quoted, whichhave probably perished by the incendiary hands of the ignorant.”( Idea, p . B otu rini had translations of two of these in his

museum (Catalogo, p . and another has since come to light .2‘ D ifficul t as the task may be, it has been executed by the handof a fair friend, who, while she has adhered to the Castilian withsingular fidelity, has shown a grace and flexibility in her poeticalmovements which the Castilian version, and probably the Mexican original, cann ot boast . See both translations in Appendix,9, No. 2 .

”5 Numerous s ecim en s of this may be found in Condé’s“Dominacion de los rabes en Espana.” None of them are superior to

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

190 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

thy brow,and seize the j oys of the present ere they

perish .

” 2“But the hours of the Tezcucan monarch were notall passed in idle dalliance with theMuse , nor in thesober contemplations of philosophy, as at a laterperiod . In the freshness of youth and early manhood he led the all ied armies in their annual expedition s , which were ce rtain to result in a wider extent of territory to the empire

27 In the intervalsof peace be fostered those productive arts whichare the surest sources of public prosperity. He eucouraged agricultu re above all ; and there was

26 Io tocaré ca n ta ndoE l mus ico in strum ento sonoro so .

Tu (1c flo re s gozandoDan za. y fe steja aDio s qu e e s poderoso ;O gozem o s de e sta glo n a .

Porque la hum ana Vida e s tran sitoria.MS. DE Ix r u o cnm .

The sentiment, which is common enough, is expressedcommon beauty by the English poet Herrick

Gather the rose buds while yo u may ;

Old Tim e is stil l a - fiying;The fa ire s tflower that bloom s to -dayTo—m orrow m ay be dyin g. "

And with still greater beauty, perhaps, by RacineRion s , chan tons . dit ce tte troupe im pie .

De fle u rs e n fleu rs . de plaisirs e n plaisirs ,Prom e n ons n o s dés irs .

Sur l ’avenir inse n sé qu i se fie .

De n os an s pas sagers le nom bre e s t incertain.HAto n s -nous aujo urd ’huide jouir de la vie ;Q ui sait sinous se ro u s dema in ?

ATHALIE , Acte 2 .

It is interesting to see under what different forms the same sentiment is developed by diff erent races and in di fferent languages. I tis an Epicurean sentiment, indeed, but its universal ity proves itstruth to nature.Some of the provinces and places thus conquered were held by

the allied powers in common ; TlaCOpan , however, only receivingone- fifth of the tribute. It was more usual to annex the vanquishedterritory to that one of the two great states to which it lay nearest.See Ixtlilxochitl. H ist. Chich., MS ., cap . 38.

—Zurita,Rapport

,p. 11.

GOLDEN AGE OF TE ZCUCO 191

scarcely a spot so rude, or a steep so inaccessible,as not to confess the power of cultivation . Theland was covered with a busy population

,and

towns and cities sprang up in places since desertedor dwindled into miserable villages . 2 8

From resources thus enlarged by conquest anddomestic industry, the monarch drew the means forthe large consumption of his own numerous household, 2 9 and for the costly works which he executedfor the convenience and embellishment of the capital . He filled it with stately edifices for his nobles

,

whose constant attendance he was anxious to secure at his court .30 He erected a magnificent pileof buildin gs which might serve both for a royal

” Ixtlilx ochitl, H ist. Chich., MS ., cap . 41. The same writer, inanother work, calls the population of Tez cu co , at this period, doubleof what it was at the Conquest ; founding his estimate o n the royalregisters, and o n the numerous remains of edifices still visible in hisday, in places now depopulated .

“Parece en las historias que en

este tiempo, antes que se destruyesen, havia doblado mas gente de laque hallo al tiempo que vino Co rtés, y los demas E spafio les : porqueyo hall o en los padrones reales , que e l menor pueblo tenia 1100vecinos, y de all i para arriba, y ahora no tienen 900 vecinos, y au n en

algunas partes de todo punto se han acabado. Como se hechade ver en las ru in as, hasta lo s mas altos montes y Sierras tenian suss em en te ras , y casas principales para vivir y morar.

” Relaciones,MS No. 9.

Torquemada has extracted the particulars of the yearly expenditure of the palace from the royal account- book, which came into thehistorian’s possession. The following are some of the items, namely :

fanegas of maize ( the fan ega is equal to about one hu ndred poun ds ) fanegas of cacao ; 8000turkeys ; 1300basketsof salt ; besides an incredible quantity of game of every kind, vegetables, condiments, etc. (Monarch . Ind ., lib. 2 , cap . See, a lso,Ixtlilxochitl , H ist. Chich. , MS ., cap. 35 .

There were more than four hundred of these lordly residencesA s i mismo hizo edifica r muchas casas y palacios para los se iio resy cava lle ro s , que asis tian en su corte, cada uno conforme a la calidady méritos de su persona, la s qu a les llegaron a ser m as de qu atrocientas tasas de senores y cavalle ro s de solar conocido.” Ibid., cap. 38.

192 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

residence and for the public offices . It extended,from east to west , twelve hundred and thirty- fouryards, and from north to south, nine hundred andseventy- eight .* It was encompassed by a wall ofunburnt bricks and cement, six feet wide and ninehigh for one half of the circumference , and fifteenfeet high for the other half. Within this enclosurewere two courts . The outer one was used as thegreat market - place of the city, and continued to beso until long after the Conquest,—if , indeed, it isnot now. The interior court was surrounded bythe council - chambers and halls of justice . Therewere also accommodations there for the foreignambassadors ; and a spacious saloon, with apartments Opening into it, for men of science and poets,who pursued their studies in this retreat or met together to hold converse under its marble porticoes .In this quarter, also, were kept the public archives,which fared better u nder the Indian dynasty thanthey have since under their European successors .311

Adj oining this court were the apartments of theking, including those for the royal harem, as liberally supplied with beauties as that of an Easternsultan. Their walls were incru sted with alabasters

Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 36. Esta plaza cercada deportales, y tenia asi mismo por la parte del poniente otra sala grande,y muchos quartos a la redonda, que era la universidad, en dondeasistian todos los poetas, histéricos, y philosOpho s del reyno, divididos en su s claves , y academias, conforme era la facultad de cadau n o , y asi mismo es taban aqui los archivos reales .”

Bancroft, Native Races, vol. 11. p . 169, points out a mistake intrans lation here, Prescott having made the e s tado the same measure as the vara. The wall was three tiqu es a m an

’

s s ta tu re for onehalf its circumference and five tim es a m a n

’s s ta tu re for the other

hal f.—M.

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

194 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

when they visited the court . The whole of thislordly pile contained three hundred apartments ,some of them fifty yards square .33 The height ofthe buildin g is not mentioned . It was probablynot great, but supplied the requisite room by theimmense extent of groun d which it covered. Theinterior was doubtless constructed of light materials , especially o f the rich woods which , in thatcountry, are remarkable, when polished, for thebrilliancy and variety of their colors . That themore solid materials of stone and stucco were alsoliberally employed is proved by the remains at thepresent day ; remains which have furnished an inexhaustible quarry for the churches and other edifice s since erected by the Spaniards on the site ofthe ancient city.

34

We are not informed of the time occupied inbuilding this palace. But two hundred thousandworkmen, it is said, were employed on it .

3 s However this may be , it is certain that the Tezcucanmonarchs , like those of Asia and ancient Egypt,had the control of immense masses of men, andwould sometimes turn the whole population of a

Ixtlilxochitl, H ist . Chich., MS ., cap . 36.

Some of the terraces on which it stood, says Mr. Bullock,speaking of this palace, are stil l entire, and covered with cement,very hard, and equal in beauty to that found in ancient Roman buildings. The great church, which stands close by, i s almost entirelybuilt of the materials taken from the palace, many of the sculpturedstones from which may be seen in the walls, though most of the ornaments are turned inwards. Indeed, our guide informed us that whoever built a house at Te zcuco made the ruins of the palace serveas his quarry.

”(Six Months in Mexico, chap . Torquemada

notices the appropriation of the materials to the same purpose. Mon arch . Ind., lib. 9, cap . 45.

‘5 Ixtlilxochitl, MS., ubi supra.

GOLDEN AGE OF TE ZCUCO 195

conquered city, including the women, in to the public works .36 The most gigantic monuments ofarchitecture which the world has witnessed wou ldnever have been reared by the hands of freemen .

Adjoin ing the palace were buildings for theking ’ s children .who, by his various wives , amountedto no less than sixty sons and fifty daughters .37

Here they were instructed in all the exercises andaccomplishments suited to their station ; comprehendimg, what would scarce ly find a place in a royaleducation on the other side of the Atlantic, the artsof working in metals, j ewelry, and feather-mosaic.Once in every fou r months , the whole household,not excepting the youngest , and including all theofficers and attendants on the king ’s person, assembled in a grand saloo n of the palace, to listen to adiscourse from an orator, probably one of thepriesthood. The prince s , on this occasion, were alldressed in n equ en ,

the coarsest manufacture of thecountry. The preacher began by enlarging on theobligations of morality and of respect for the gods ,espe cially important in persons whose rank gavesuch additional weight to example . He occa sionally seasoned his homily with a pert in ent application to his audience , if any member of it had beenguilty of a notorious delinquency. From this

” Thus , to punish the Chalcas for their rebellion , the whole population were compelled, women as wel l as men, says the chronicler sooften quoted , to labor o n the royal edifices for four yea rs together ;and large granaries were provided with stores for their maintenancein the mea n time. Ixtlilxochitl, H ist . Chich., MS ., cap . 46.

" I f the people in general were not much addict ed to polygamy,the soverei gn

,it must be confessed ,—and it was the same, we shall

see, in Mexico, —made ample amends for any sel f- deni al o n the partof his subj ects.

196 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

wholesome admonition the monarch himself wasnot exempted, and the orator boldly reminded himof his paramount duty to show respect for his ownlaws . The king, so far from taking umbrage , received the lesson with humility ; and the audience ,we are assured , were often melted into tears by theeloquence of the preacher.3 8 This curious scenemay remind one of similar usages in the Asiaticand Egyptian despotisms, where the sovereign occasion ally condescended to st00p from his pride ofplace and allow his memory to be refreshed withthe conviction of his own mortality .

39 It soothedthe feelings of the subj ect to find himself thusplaced, though but for a moment, on a level withhis king ; while it cost little to the latter, who wasremoved too far from his people to suff er anythingby this short - lived familiarity. It is probable thatsuch an act of public humiliation would have foundless favor with a prince less absolute .Nez ahu alcoyotl

’

s fondness for magnificence wasshown in his numerous villas, which were embellished with all that could make a rural retreat delightful. His favorite residence was at Tez cotzinco, a conical hill about two leagues from thecapital.40 It was laid out in terraces , or hanginggardens, having a flight of steps five hundred and

Ixtlilx ochitl, H ist . Chich ., MS ., cap. 37.The Egyptian priests managed the affair in a more courtly style,

and, while they prayed that all sorts of kingly virtues might descendon the prince, they threw the blame of actual delinquencies on hisministers ; thus, “not by the bitterness of reproof,” says Diodoru s ,but by the allurements of praise, enticing him to an honest way ofli fe. Lib. 1, cap . 70.“Ixtlilxochitl, H ist. Chich ., MS ., cap . 49.

—See Appendix, Part 9,No. 3, for the original description of this royal residence.

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

198 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

dens,or was made to tumble over the rocks in

cascades,shedding refreshing dews on the flowers

and odoriferous shrubs below. In the depths ofthis fragrant wilderness, marble porticoes and pavilion s were erected , and baths excavated in thesolid porphyry, which are still shown by the ign orant natives as the Baths of Montezuma ”

l“The visitor descended by steps cut in the livin gstone and polished so bright as to reflect like mirrors .

45 Towards the base of the hill, in the midstof cedar groves , whose gigantic branches threw arefreshing coolness over the verdure in the sultriestseasons of the year,

46 rose the royal villa, with its

“Bullock speaks of a beautiful basin, twelve feet long by eightwide, having a well five feet by four deep in the centre, etc. , etc.Whether truth lies in the bottom of this well is not so clear. Latrobedescribes the baths as“two singu lar basins, perhaps two feet and ahalf in diameter, not large enough for any monarch bigger thanOberon to take a duck in .

”

(Comp . S ix Months in Mexico, chap .96 ; and Rambler in Mexico, Let. Ward speaks much to the samepurpose (Mexico in 1897 (London, vol. ii. p . whichagrees with verbal accounts I have received of the same Spot.“

‘5 Gradas hechas de la misma pefia tan bien gravadas y lizas queparecian espej os .” (Ixtlilx ochitl , MS., ubi supra. ) The travellersj ust cited notice the beauti ful polish still visible in the porphyry.“Padilla saw entire pieces of cedar among the ruins, ninety feetlong and four in diameter. Some of the massive portals , he observed,were made of a single stone. (H ist . de Santiago, lib . 11, cap .

Peter Martyr notices an enormous wooden beam, used in the construction of the palaces of Te zcu co , which was one hundred andtwenty feet long by eight feet in diameter ! The accounts of this andsimilar huge pieces of timber were so astonishing, he adds, that hecould not have received them except o n the most unexceptionabletestimony. De Orbe Novo, dec. 5, cap .

[Mayer, Mexico as it Was and Is,” gives a picture of thisbath,” p . 934.

-M. ]1[Those who have seen the giant Sequoias of Cali fornia can easilybelieve in those enormous wooden beams.” The Grizzly Giant,” stillstanding in the Mariposa grove, is two hundred and seventy- five feethigh and considerably more than thirty feet in diameter at the groun d.

GOLDEN AGE OF TE ZCUCO 199

light arcades and airy halls, drinking in the sweetperfumes of the gardens . Here the monarch oftenretired, to thr ow o ff the burden of state and refreshhis wearied spirits in the society of his favoritewives, reposing durin g the noontide be ats in theembowering shades of his paradise, or mingling, inthe cool of the evening, in their festive sports anddances . Here he entertained his imperial brothersof Mexico and Tlacopan , and followed the hardierpleasures of the chase in the noble woods thatstretched for miles around his villa, flourishing inall their primeval maj esty. Here, too , he oftenrepaired in the latter days of his life , when age hadtempe red ambition and cooled the ardor of hisblood, to pur sue in solitude the studies of philo sophy and gather wisdom from meditation .

The extraordinary accounts of the Tezcucanarchitecture are confirmed , in the main, by therelics which still cover the hill of Tez co tz in co or arehalf buried beneath its surface . They attract littleattention, indeed , in the country, where their truehistory has long since passed into oblivion ; 47whilethe traveller whose curiosity leads him to the spotspeculates on their probable origin , and, as hestumbles over the huge fragments of scu lptured

‘7It is much to be regretted that the Mexican government shouldnot take a deeper interest in the Indian antiquities . What might notbe eff ected by a few hands drawn from the idl e garrisons of some ofthe neighboring towns and employed in excavat ing this ground, theMoun t Palatine ” of Mexico ! But, unhappily, the age of violencehas been succeeded by one of apathy.

Eleven feet from the ground it is more than sixty- four feet in circum fe ren ce . The Sequoias were not discovered until almost ten yearsafter Prescott wrote this note —MJ

900 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

porphyry and granite , refers them to the primitiveraces who spread their colossal architecture overthe country long before the coming of the Acolhuans and the Aztecs .48

The Tezcucan princes were used to entertain agreat number of concubines . They had but onelawful wife, to Whose issue the crown descended .

49

Nezahualcoyotl remained unmarried to a late period. He was disappointed in an early attachment,as the princess who had been educated in privacyto be the partner of his throne gave her hand toanother. The injured monarch submitted the affair to the proper tribunal . The parties , however,were proved to have been ignorant of the destination of the lady, and the court, with an independence which reflects equal honor on the judges whocould give and the monarch who could receive thesentence, acquitted the young couple . This storyis sadly contrasted by the following.

50

The king devoured his chagrin in the solitude ofhis beautiful villa of Te z co tz in co , or sought to divert it by travelling . On one of his j ourneys he

They are doubtless, says Mr. Latrobe, spea king of what hecalls these inexplicable ruins,” rather of Toltec than Aztec origin,and, perhaps, with still more probabil ity, attributable to a people ofan age yet more remote.” (Rambler in Mexico, Let . I am ofopinion, says Mr. Bullock, “that these were antiquities prior to thediscovery of America, and erected by a people whose history was losteven before the building of the city of Mexico. - Who can solve thisdiflicu lty? ”

(Six Months in Mexico, ubi supra. ) The reader whotakes Ixtlilx ochitl for his guide will have no great trouble in solvingit. He will find here, as he might, probably, in some other instances,that one need go little higher than the Conquest for the origin ofantiquities which claim to be coeval with Phoenicia and ancient“Zurita, Rapport , p . 19.

” Ixtlilx ochitl, H ist . Chich., MS., cap . 43.

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

909 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

and a few weeks placed the hand of his virgin brideat her own disposal .Nezahualcoyotl did not think it prudent to breakhis passion publicly to the princess so soon afterthe death of his victim . He opened a correspondence with her through a female relative , and expressed his deep sympathy for her loss . At thesame time

,he tendered the best consolation in his

power,by an off er of his heart and hand . Her

former lover had been too well stricken in years forthe maiden to remain long inconsolable . She wasnot aware of the pe rfidiou s plot against his life ;and, after a decent time, she was ready to complywith her du ty, by placing herself at the disposal ofher royal kinsman .

It was arranged by the kin g, in order to give amore natural aspect to the affair and prevent allsuspicion of the unworthy part he had acted , thatthe prince ss should present herself in his groundsat Tez cotz in co , to witness some public ceremonythere . Nezahualcoyotl was standing in a balconyof the palace when she appeared, and inquired, asif struck with her beauty for the first time , whothe lovely youn g creature was , in his gardens .

”

When his courtiers had acquainted him with hername and rank, he ordered her to be conducted tothe palace, that she might receive the attentionsdue to her station. The interview was soon followed by a public declaration of his passion ; andthe marriage was celebrated not long after, withgreat pomp, in the presence of his court, and ofhis brother monarchs of Mexico and Tlacopan .

n Ixtlilxochitl, H ist . Chich., MS., cap . 43 .

ACCOMPLISHED PRINCES 903

This story, which furnishes so obvious a counterpart to that of David and Uriah

,is told with great

circumstantiality, both by the king’s son and

grandson , from whose narratives Ixt lilx ochitl derived it .

5 2 They stigmatize the action as the basest in their great ancestor ’ s life . It is indeed toobase not to leave an indelible stain on any characte r,however pure in other respects, and exalted.

The king was strict in the execu tion of his laws ,though his natural disposition led him to temperjustice with mercy. Many anecdotes are told ofthe benevolent interest he took in the concerns ofhis subj ects, and of his anxiety to detect and re

ward merit, even in the most humble . It wascommon for him to ramble among them in disguise,like the celebrated caliph in the“Arabian N ights,”m ingling freely in conversation, and ascertainingtheir actual condition with his own eyes .53

On one such occasion, when attended only by asingle lord, he met with a boy who was gatheringsticks in a field for fuel . He inquired of himwhy he did not go into the neighborin g forest,where he would find a plenty of them.

” To whichthe lad answered, It was the king’ s wood, and hewould punish him with death if he trespassedthere .” The royal forests were very extensive inTez cu co , and were guarded by laws full as severeas those of the Norman tvran ts in England.

What kind of man is your king ?” asked the

“3 Ixtlilxochitl, H ist. Chich ., MS., cap . 43 .““E u traj e de cazador (que lo acostum braba a hacer muy deo rdinaria ) , saliendo a solas , y dis fraz ado para que no fuese conocido,a reconocer las faltas y necesidad que havia e n la republica para remediarlas .” Idem, Hist. Chich., MS ., cap. 46.

904 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

monarch,will ing to learn the effect of these prohi

bitions on his own popularity. A very hardman

,

” answered the boy, who denies his peoplewhat God has given them.

” 5 4 Nezahualcoyotlurged him not to mind such arbitrary laws, but toglean his sticks in the forest, as there was no onepresent who would betray him . But the boysturdily refused, blun tly accusing the disguisedking, at the same time, of being a traitor, and ofwishing to bring him into trouble.Nezahualcoyotl, on returning to the palace, o rdered the child and his parents to be summonedbefore him . They received the orders with astonishm en t, but, on entering the presence, the boy atonce recognized the person with whom he had discoursed so unceremoniously, and he was filled withconsternation . The good- natured monarch , however, relieved his apprehensions, by thanking himfo r the lesson he had given him, and, at the sametime , commended his respect for the laws , andpraised his parents for the manner in which theyhad trained their son . He then dismissed the parties with a liberal largess , and afterwards mitigated the severity of the forest laws , so as to allowpersons to gather any wood they might find on theground, if they did not meddle with the standingtimber.55

An other adventure is told of him, with a poorwoodman and his wife , who had brought their littleload of billets for sale to the market - place of Tezcuco. The man was bitterly lamenting his hard

Uh hombresillo miserable, pues quita a lo s hombres lo que Diosa manos llenas les da.” Ixtlilxochitl, loc . cit .Ibid., cap . 46.

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

906 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

his revenues m u n ificen tly, seeking out poor butmeritorious obj ects on whom to ~be stow them. Hewas particularly mindful of disabled soldiers, andthose who had in any way sustained loss in thepublic service

,and, in case of their death , ex

tended assistance to their surviving families .Open mendicity was a thin g he would nevertolerate

,but chastised it with exemplary

rigor .5 8

It would be incredible that a man of the en

larged mind and endowments of Nezahualcoyotlshould acquiesce in the sordid superstitions of hiscountrymen, and still more in the sanguinary ritesborrowed by them from the Aztecs . In truth,his humane temper shrunk from these cruelceremonies, and he strenuously endeavored torecall his people to the more pure and simpleworship of the ancient Toltecs . A circumstanceproduced a temporary change in his conduct .He had been married some years to the wife hehad so un righteously obtained, but was not blessedwith issue . The priests represented that it wasowing to his neglect of the gods of his country, andthat his only remedy was to propitiate them byhuman sacrifice . The king reluctantly consented,and the altars once more smoked with the blood ofslaughtered captives . But it was all in vain ; andhe indignantly exclaimed, These idols of woodand stone can neither hear nor feel ; much less couldthey make the heavens, and the earth, and man, thelord of it . These must be the work of the all

Ixtlilx ochitl, H ist. Chich., MS., cap. 46.

ACCOMPLISHED PRINCES 907

powerful , unknown G od, Creator of the universe ,on whom alone I must rely for consolation andsupport. ” 59

He then withdrew to his rural palace o f Tez co tzinco , where he remained forty days , fasting andpraying at stated hours , and offering up no othersacrifice than the sweet incense of copal

,and aro

matic herbs and gums . At the expiration of thistime , he is said to have been comforted by a visionassuring him of the success of his petition . At allevents , such proved to be the fact ; and this was f01lowed by the cheering intelligence o f the triumphof his arms in a quarter where he had lately experien ced some humiliating reverses .Greatly strengthened in his former religiousconvictions, he now openly professed his faith , andwas more earnest to wean his subj ects from theirdegrading superstitions and to substitute noblerand more spiritual conceptions of the Deity. Hebuilt a temple in the usual pyramidal form , and onthe summit a tower nine stories high , to representthe nine heavens ; a tenth was surmounted by a roofpainted black, and profusely gilded with stars, on

m” ‘Ve rdaderam en te los Dioses que io adoro, que so n idolos depiedra que no hablan, ui sienten, no pudieron hacer n i formar la hermosura del cielo, cl sol, luna, y estrellas que lo hermosean, y dan luza la tierra, rios, aguas y fuentes, arboles, y plantas que la hermosean,las gentes que la poseen, y todo lo criado ; a lgu n Dios muy poderoso,oculto

,y no conocido es e l Criador de todo e l universo. El solo es él

que puede consolarme en mi afliccio n , y soco rrerm e en tan grandeangustia como mi corazon siente.” MS. de Ixtlilxochitl.MS. de Ixtlilxochitl—The manuscript here quoted is one of the

many left by the author on the antiquities of his country, and formspart of a voluminous compilation made in Mexico by Father Vega,in 1799, by order of the Spanish government . See Appendix, Part9, No. 9.

CONQUEST or MEXICO

the outside, and incrusted with metals and preciousstones within. He dedicated this to the u nkn own

God, the Cau se of cau ses .

” “1 It seems probable,from the emblem on the tower, as well as from thecomplexion of his verses, as we shall see , that hemingled with his reverence for the Supreme theastral worship which existed among the Toltecs .6 2

Various musical instruments were placed on thetop of the tower, and the sound of them, aecom

pan ied by the ringing of a sonorous metal struckby a mallet, summoned the worshippers to prayers,at regular seasons .6 3 No image was allowed in theedifice, as unsuited to the invisible God ; and thepeople were expressly prohibited from profaningthe altars with blood, or any other sacrifices thanthat of the perfume of flowers and sweet - scented

gums .The remainder of his days was chiefly spent inhis delicious solitudes of Tez co tz in co , where he devoted himself to astronomical and, probably, astro logical studies, and to meditation on his immortal destiny, giving utterance to his feelingsin songs , or rather hymns, of much solemnity andpathos . An extract from one of these will convey

Al D ios no conocido, causa de las causas . MS . de Ixtlilxochitl .°2 Their earliest temples were dedicated to the sun. The moonthey worshipped as his wife, and the stars as his sisters. (Veytia,H ist . an tig., tom. i. cap . The ruins still existing at Teotihuacan,about seven leagues from Mexico, are supposed to have been templesraised by this ancient people in honor of the two grea t deities.B o tu rin i, Idea, p . 49.

63MS. de Ixtlilxochitl . This was evidently a gong, says Mr.Ranking, who treads with enviable confidence over the“supposito scin eres in the path of the antiquary . See his H istorical Researcheso n the Conquest of Peru, Mexico, etc ., by the Mongols (London,

p. 310.

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

CONQUEST OF MEXICO

catepetl, with no other memorial of their existencethan the record on the page of the chronicler.The great, the wise, the valiant, the beautiful ,

—alas!where are they now ? They are all mingledwith the clod ; and that which has befallen themshall happen to us, and to those that come after us .Yet let us take courage, illustrious

'nobles andChieftains , true friends and loyal subjects ,—let u saspire to tha t heaven where a ll is etern al and cor

ruption can n ot com e .

6 5 The horrors of the tombare but the cradle of the Sun , and the dark shadowsof death are brilliant lights for the stars .” 6 6 Themystic import of the last sentence seems to pointto that superstition respecting the mansions of theSun, which forms so beautiful a contrast to thedark features of the Aztec mythology.

At length , about the year Nez ahu alco

°5 Aspiremos a l cielo, que all i todo es eterno y nada se corrompe.E 1horror del sepulcro es lisongera cuna para él, y las funestas

sombras, brillantes luces para los astros.”—The original text and aSpanish translation of this poem first appeared, I believe, in a workof Gren ado s y Galvez. (Tardes Americanas (Mexico , p . 90,et seq. ) The original is in the Otomi tongu e, and both, together witha French version, have bee n inserted by M . Tern au x - Compans in theAppendix to his translation of Ixtlilxochitl’s H ist . des Chichim equ es(tom. i . pp . 359 Bustamante, who has, also, publis hed theSpanish version in his Galeria de antiguos Principes Mej icanos(Puebla, 1891, pp. 16, call s it the Ode of the Flower,” whichwas recited at a banquet of the great Tez cucan nobles. I f this last,however, be the same mentioned by Torquemada (Monarch . Ind .,

lib. 9, cap . it must have been written in the Tezcucan tongue ;and, indee d, it is not probable that the Otomi, an Indian dialect, sodistinct from the languages of Anahuac, however well understood bythe royal poet, could have been comprehended by a miscellaneousaudience of his countrymen .

A n approximation to a date is the most one can hope to arriveat with Ixtlilxochitl, who ha s ‘

en tangled his chronology in a mannerbeyond my skill to unravel. Thus, after tel ling u s that Nez ahualcoyotl was fifteen years old when his father was slain in 1418, he says

ACCOMPLISHED PRINCES 911

yo tl, full of years and honors, felt himself drawingnear his end . Almost half a century had elapsedsin ce he mounted the throne of Te z cu co . He hadfound his kin gdom dismembered by fact ion andbowed to the dust beneath the yoke of a foreigntyrant . He had broken that yoke ; had breathednew life into the nation, renewed its ancient institu tion s , extended wide its domain ; had seen itflourishing in all the activity of trade and agricu lture , gathering strength from its enlarged re

sour ces , and daily advancing higher and higherin the great march of civiliz ation . All this hehad seen , and might fairly attribute no smallportion of it to his own wise and ben eficen t rule .His long and glorious day was now drawingto its close ; and he contemplated the event withthe same serenity which he had shown underthe clouds of its mornin g and in its meridiansplendor.A short time before his death , he gatheredaround him those of his children in whom he mostconfided , his chief counsellors, the ambassadors ofMexico and Tlacopan , and his little son, the heirto the crown, his only o ff spring by the queen. Hewas then not eight years old , but had already given ,as far as so tender a blossom might, the rich promise of future excellence .6 8

Af ter tenderly embracing the child, the dyingmonarch threw over him the robes of sovereignty.

He then gave audience to the ambassadors , and,

he died at the age of seventy- one, in 1469. Ins ta r om n iwm . Comp.H ist. Chich. , MS ., cap . 18, 19, 49.“MS

.de Ixtlilxochitl, —als o H ist. Chich ., MS. , cap . 49 .

919 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

when they had retired, made the boy repeat thesubstance of the conversation . He followed thisby such counsels as were suited to his comprehension

, and which, when remembered through thelong vista of after- years, would serve as lights toguide him in his government of the kingdom . Hebesought him not to neglect the worship of theunknown God,

” regretting that he himself hadbeen unworthy to know him, and intimating hisconviction that the time would come when heshould be known and worshipped throughout theland .

He next addressed himself to that one of hissons in whom he placed the greatest trust, andwhom he had selected as the guardian of the realm .

From this hour , said he to him, you will fill theplace that I have filled, of father to this child ; youwill teach him to live as he ought ; and by yourcounsels he will rule over the empire . Stand in hisplace, and be his guide , till he shall be of age togovern for himself.” Then, turning to his otherchildren, he admonished them to live united withone another, and to show all loyalty to their prince,who, though a child, already manifested a discretion far above his years . Be true to him ,

” headded, and he will maintain you in

'

your rightsand dignities .” 7°

con sen tiendo que haya sacrificios de gente humana, queDios s e enoj a de ello, castigando con rigor a los que lo hicieren ; quee l dolor que llevo es no tener luz, n i conocimiento, u i ser merecedorde conocer tan gran Dios, el qual tengo por cierto que ya que lo spresentes no lo conozcan, ha de ven ir tiempo en qu e s ea con o cido yadorado en es ta tierra .

” MS. de Ixtlilxochitl .7° Idem, ubi supra ; als o H ist. Chich ., MS ., cap. 49.

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

914 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

vassals, and supplyin g their wants from the royalgranaries . He put no faith in the idolatrous worship o f the coun try. He was well instructed inmoral science, and sought, above all things, toobtain light for kn owing the true God . He believed in one God only, the Creator of heaven andearth, by whom we have our being, who never revealed himself to us in human form, nor in anyother ; with whom the souls of the virtuous are todwell after death , while the wicked will sufferpains unspeakable . He invoked the Most High ,as He by whom we live ,

’ and Who has allthings in himself. ’ He recognized the Sun for hisfather, and the Earth for his mother. He taughthis children not to confide in idols , and only to conform to the outward worship of them from deference to public opinion .

72 If he could not entirelyabolish human sacrifices, derived from the Aztecs,he at least restricted them to slaves and captives . ” 73

I have occupied so much space with this illustrions prince that but little remains for his son andsuccessor, Nez ahu alpilli. I have thought it better,in our narrow limits, to present a complete view ofa single epoch , the most interesting in the Tezencan annals , than to spread the inquiries over abroader but comparatively barren field . Yet Nez ahu alpilli, the heir to the crown , was a remarkable person, and his reign contains many inci

7’ Solia amonestar a su s hij03 en secreto que no adorasen a aquella s figu ras de idolos, y que aquello que hiciesen en publico fues esolo po r cumplim ien to. Ixtlilxochitl.7“Idem, ubi supra.

ACCOMPLISHED PRINCES

dents which I regret to be obliged to pass over insilence .74

He had, in many respects , a taste similar to hisfather ’s, and , like him , displayed a profuse magn ificen ce in his way of living and in his public edifice s . He was more severe in his morals , and, inthe execution of justice , stern even to the sacrificeof natural aff ection . Several remarkable instancesof this are told ; one , among others , in relation tohis eldest son , the heir to the crown , a prince ofgreat promise . The young man entered into apoetical correspondence with one of his father’sconcubines , the lady of Tula, as she was called , awoman of humble origin, but of uncommon endowments . She wrote verses with ease , and could discuss graver matters with the king and his ministers .She maintained a separate establishment , where shelived in state , and acquired, by her beauty and ao

complishm en ts , great ascendency over her royallover.75 With this favorite the prince carried on a7‘ The name Nezahu a lpilli sign ifies the prince for whom one hasfas ted,”—in allusion , no doubt. to the long fast of his father previousto his birth. (See Ixtlilxochitl, H ist. Chich., MS ., cap . I haveexplained the meaning of the equally euphonious name of his parent,Nez ahu alcoyo tl . (A n te, ch. I f it be true that

Cze sa r o r E pam in o ndasCould ne '

er without nam es have be en known to u s ,

it is no less certain that such names as those of the two Tezcucanprinces, so d ifficul t to be pronounced or remembered by a European,are most unfavorable to immortality.75 De las concubinas la que mas privé con el rey fue la que llamaban la Senora de Tula, no por linage, sino porque era hija de n umercader, y era tan sabia que competia con e l rey y con los massabios de su reyno, y era en la poesia muy aventaj ada, que con estasgracias y dones naturales tenia al rey muy sugeto a su voluntad detal manera que lo que queria alcanz aba de él, y asi vivia sola por sicon grande aparato y magestad e n unos palacios que e l rey le mandéedificar .

”Ixtlilxochitl, H ist. Chich., MS., cap . 57.

916 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

correspondence in verse, - whether of an amorousnature does not appear. At all events, the off encewas capital. It was submitted to the regular tribunal, who pronounced sentence of death on theunfortunate youth ; and the king, steeling his heartagainst all entreaties and the voice of nature, suffered the cruel judgment to be carried into execution . We might, in this case , suspect the influenceof baser passions on his mind, but it was not asolitary instance of his inexorable justice towardsthose most near to him. He had the stern virtueof an ancient Roman, destitute of the softergraces which make virtue attractive Whenthe sentence was carried into effect, he shut himself up in his palace for many weeks, and comm anded the doors and windows of his son ’s residence to be walled up , that it might never again beoccupied .

76

Ne z ahu alpilli resembled his father in his passionfor astronomical studies , and is said to have had anobservatory on one of his palaces .77 He was devoted to war in his youth , but, as he advanced inyears , resigned himself to a more indolent way of

Ixtlilxochitl, H ist . Chich., MS., cap. 67.—The Tezcucan historianrecords several appalling examples of this severity,—one in particular, in relation to his guilty wife. The story, reminding one of thetales of an Oriental harem, has been translated for the Appendix,Part 9, No. 4. See also Torquemada (Monarch. Ind., lib. 9, cap .

and Zurita (Rapport, pp . 108, He was the terror, in particular,of all unj ust magistrates . They had little favor to expect from them an who could stifle the voice of nature in his own bosom in obedience to the laws. As Suetonius said of a prince who had not hisvirtue, Vehem en s et in coercendis quidem de lictis imm odicus .

”

V ita Galbae, sec. 9.

Torquemada saw the remains of this, or wha t pas s ed for su ch, inhis day. Monarch. Ind., lib. 9, cap . 64.

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

918 CONQUEST or MEXICO

grave ; 8° happy, at least, that by this timely death

he escaped witnessing the fulfilment of his ownpredictions

,in the ruin of his country, and the ex

tinction of the Indian dynasties fo reve r .

81

In reviewing the brief sketch here presented ofthe Tezcucan monarchy, we are strongly impressedwith the conviction of its superiority, in all thegreat features of civilization , over the rest of A n ahuac . The Mexicans showed a similar proficiency,no doubt, in the mechanic arts, and even in mathem atical science . But in the science of government,in legislation, in speculative doctrines of a religiousnature, in the more elegant pursuits of poetry, elo

qu en ce , and whatever depended on refin ement oftaste and a polished idiom , they confessed themselves inferior, by resorting to their rivals forinstruction and citing their works as the masterpieces o f their tongue . The best histories, the bestpoems , the best code of laws, the purest dialect,were all allowed to be Tezcucan . The Aztecsrivalled their neighbors in splendor of living, andeven in the magnificence of their structures . Theydisplayed a pomp and ostentatious pageantry trulyAsiatic. But this was the development of the material rather than the intellectual principle . They

8°Ixtlilxochitl, H ist. Chich .,MS., cap .75 .—Or, rather, at the age of

fifty, i f the his torian is right in placing his birth, as he does in a preceding chapter, in 1465. (See cap. I t is not easy to decide what istrue, when the writer does not take the trouble to be true to himsel f.

8‘ H is obsequies were celebrated with sanguinary pomp. Two

hundred male and one hundred female slaves were sacrificed at histomb . H is body was consumed, amidst a heap of j ewels, preciousstuff s, and incense, on a funeral pile ; and the ashes, depos ited in agolden urn, were placed in the great temple of H u itz ilOpochtli, forwhose worship the king, notwithstanding the lessons of his father,had some partial ity. Ixtlilxochitl .

MD M N A fi L/H X 2 1

wanted the refinement of manners essential to acontinued advance in civilization . An in surm ou n t

able lim it was put to theirs by that bloody mythology which threw its witherin g taint over the veryair that they breathed .

The superiority of the Tezcucans was owing,doubtless , in a great measure to that of the twosovereigns whose reign s we have been depicting.

There is no position which affords such scope forameliorating the condition of man as that occupiedby an absolute ruler over a nation imperfectly civiliz ed. From his elevated place , commanding allthe resource s of his age , it is in his power to diffusethem far and wide among his people . He may bethe copious reservoir on the mountain- top , drinkingin the dews of heaven , to se nd them in fertilizingstreams along the lower slopes and valleys , clothingeven the wilderness in beauty. Such were Nezahu alcoyo tl and his illustrious successor, whose enlightened policy, extending through nearly a century, wrought a most salutary revolution in thecondition of their country. It is remarkable thatwe, the inhabitants of the same continent, shouldbe more familiar with the history of many a barbarian chief, both in the Old and New World, thanwith that of these truly great men, whose namesare identified with the most glorious period in theannals of the Indian races .What was the actual amount of the Tezcucancivilization it is not easy to determine , with the imperfect light aff orded us . It was certainly far below anything which the word conveys , measured bya European standard . In some of the arts , and

990 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

in any walk of science , they could only have made ,as it were, a beginning . But they had begun inthe right way, and already showed a refinement insentiment and mann ers, a capacity for receivinginstruction

,which , under good auspices, might

have led them on to indefinite improvement . U n

happily,they were fast falling under the dominion

of the warlike Aztecs . And that people repaid thebenefits received from their more polished neighbors by imparting to them their own ferocious su

perstition , which , falling like a mildew on the land,would soon have blighted its rich blossoms ofpromise and turned even its fruits to dust andashes .

Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl, who flourished in the beginning ofthe sixtee nth century,* was a native of Te z cu co , and descended in adirect line from the sovereigns of that kingdom . The royal posteritybecame so numerous in a few generations that it was common to seethem reduced to great poverty and earning a painful subsistenceby the most humble occupations. Ixtlilxochitl, who was descendedfrom the principal wi fe or queen of Ne z ahu a lpilli, maintained a veryrespectable position . He fill ed the office of interpreter to the viceroy, to which he was recommended by his acquaintance with theancient hieroglyphics and his knowledge of the Mexican and Spanishlanguages . H is birth gave him access to persons of the highest rankin his own nation, some of whom occupied important civil postsunder the new government, and were thus enabled to make large collections of Indian manuscripts, which were liberally Opened to him.

He had an extensive library of his own, also, and with these meansdiligently pursued the study of the Tezcucan antiquities. He deciphered the hieroglyphics, made himsel f master of the songs andtraditions, and fortified his narrative by the oral testimony of somevery aged persons, who had themselves been acquainted with theConquerors. From such authentic sources he composed variousworks in the Castilian, on the primitive history of the Toltec and the

[Ixtlilxochitl (born about 1568) wrote in the early part of theseventeenth century. A certificate which he presented to the viceroybears the date of November 18, 1608 . The error is apparently aclerical o n e ; though a previous passage in the text seems to indicatesome confusion on the author’s part ]

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

999 CONQUEST OF ME XICO

writers in Mexico, and liberally transferred to their pages ; and hisreputation

,like Sahagu n ’

s , has doubtless suffered by the process.H i s H is toria Chichim eca i s now turned into French by M . Tern aux

Compans,forming part of that inestimable series of translations

from unpublished documents which have so much enlarged our acquaintance with the early American history. I have had ample oppo rtu n ity of proving the merits of his version of Ixtlilxochitl, andam happy to bear my testimony to the fidelity and elegance withwhich it is executed.

Nor a —In a note which has heretofore appeared at the end ofthis first book Mr. Prescott states that it had been his intention toconclude the introductory portion of the work with an inquiry intothe origin of the Mexican civilization . But because he agreedwith Humboldt, that “the general question of the origin of theinhabitants of a continent is beyond the limits prescribed to history,” and with Livy, that for the maj ority of readers theorigin and remote antiquities of a nation can have comparativelylittle interest,” he had decided, o n further consideration, to throwhis observations on this topic into the Appendix. A man of extrao rdin ary modesty, he feared lest the reader should become so weariedwith his presentation of the story of the earlier civilization, in thefirst book, that he woul d not have energy enough left for theproper consideration of the tale of the Conquest, set forth withsuch conscientious care in the succeeding chapters . The essay hasnow been taken from the Appendix and placed in its properpos ition . —M.

THE ORIGIN OF THE MEXICAN

CIVILIZATION

PRELIM INARY NOTICE

HE following Essay was originally designedto close the Introductory Book, to which it

properly belongs . It was writte n three yearssince, at the same time with that part of the work .

I know of no work of importance , having referenceto the general subj ect of discussion, which has appeared since that period, except Mr . Bradford

’svaluable treatise on A m erican A n tiqu ities . But inrespect to that part of the discussion which treatsof American Ar chitecture a most important contribu tion has been made by Mr. Stephen s

’

s twoworks, containing the account of his visits to Central Am erica and Yucatan, and especially by thelast of these publications . Indeed

,the ground

,

before so imperfectly known , has now been so diligently explored that we have all the light whichwe can reasonably expect to aid us in making upour opinion in regard to the mysterious monumentsof Yucatan . It only remains that the exquisiteillustrations of Mr. Catherwood should be published on a larger scale, like the great works on thesubj ect in France and England, in order to exhibit

ses

994 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

to the eye a more adequate representation of thesemagnificent ruins than can be given in the limitedcompass of an octavo page .But

,notwithstanding the importance of Mr.

Stephen s’

s researches, I have not availed myself ofthem to make any additions to the original draftof this Essay, nor have I rested my conclusions inany instance on his authority. These conclusionshad been formed from a careful study of the n arratives ofDupaix and Waldeck, together with thatof their splendid illustrations of the remains ofPalenque and Uxmal , two of the principal placesexplored byMr. Stephens ; and the additional factscollected by him from the vast field which he hassurveyed, so far from shaking my previous dedu ctions, have only served to confirm them . The onlyobj ect of my own speculations on these remainswas to ascertain their probable origin, or rather tosee what light, if any, they could throw on theorigin of Aztec Civilization . The reader, on comparing my reflections with those of Mr. Stephensin the closing chapters of his two works , will seethat I have arrived at inferences, as to the originand probable antiquity of these structures, precisely the same as his . Conclusions formed undersuch different circumstances serve to corroborateeach other ; and, although the reader will find heresome things which would have been different hadI been guided by the light now thrown on the path ,yet I prefer not to disturb the foundations onwhich the argum ent stands , nor to impair its value—if it has any—as a distinct and independent testim ony.

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

996 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

revived the old story of Plato ’ s Atlantis , that hugeisland

,now submerged , which might have stretched

from the shores of Africa to the eastern borders ofthe new continent ; while they saw vestiges of asimilar convulsion of nature in the green islands

[The existence at some former period of such an is land, or rathercontinent

,seems to be regarded by geologists as a well- attested fact .

But few would admit that its subsidence can have taken placethrough any sudden convulsion or within the period of human exis

tence. Such, however, is the theory maintained by M . Brasseur deBourbourg

,who dates the event six or seven thousand years ago,”

and believes that the traditions of it have been faithfully preserved .

This is the great cataclysm with which all mythology begins. I tmay be traced through the myths of Greece, Egypt, India, and

America, all being identical and having a common origin . I t is thesubj ect of the Teo—A m ox tli, of which several of the Mexican manuscripts, the B o rgian and Dresden Codices in particular, are the hieroglyphical transcriptions, and of which “the actual letter,” “in theNahu atlac language,” is found in a manuscript in B o tu rin i

’s Co llee

t ion . This manuscript is“in appearance ” a history of the Toltecsand of the kings of Colhuacan and Mexico ; but under the ciphersof a fastidious chronology, under the recital more or less animatedof the Toltec history, are concealed the profoundest mysteries co ncerning the geological origin of the world in its existing form andthe cradle of the religions of antiquity.

” The Toltecs are“telluricpowers, agents of the subterranean fire ; they are identical with theCabiri, who reappear a s the Cyclops, having“hollowed an eye intheir forehead ; that is to say, raised themselves with masses of earthabove the surface and fi lled the craters of the volcanoes with fire.”“The Chichimecs and the Aztecs are also symbolical names

,bor

rowed from the forces of nature. To llan ,“the marshy or reedy

place,” was the low, fertile region ” now covered by the Gul f ofMexico. Quetzalcoatl is “merely the personification of the landswallowed up by the ocean .

” Tlapallan, Aztlan, and other namesare similarly explained . Osiris, Pan , Hercules, and Bacchus havetheir respective parts assigned to them ; for not only all the sourcesof ancient mythology, but even the most mysterious details, eventhe obscurest enigmas , with which that mythology is enveloped, areto be sought in the two mediterraneans hollowed out by the cataclysm , and in the islands , great and small , which separate them fromthe ocean.” (Quatre Lettres sur le Mexique. ) There can be norefutation of such a theory, or of the assumptions on which it rests ;but it may be proper to remark that its author has not succeeded indeciphering a single hieroglyphical character, and has publishedno translation of the real or supposed Teo - A m ox tli,—a point o n

which some misapprehension seems to exist. —K. ]

OR IGIN OI" ME XICA N CIVILIZA TION 927

sprinkled over the Pacific, once the mountain summits of a vast continent, now buried beneath thewaters .3 Some , distrusting the existence of revolutions of which no record was preserved , supposedthat animals might have found their way across theocean by various means ; the birds of stronger wingby flight over the narrowest spaces ; while the tamerkinds of quadrupeds might easily have been transpo rted by men in boats , and even the more ferociou s , as tigers , bears , and the like, have beenbrought over, in the same manner, when youn g,for amusement and the pleasure of the chase 4

Others, again, maintained the equally probableopinion that angels , who had, doubtless , takencharge of them in the ark , had also supe rintendedtheir distribution afterwards over the diff erentparts of the globe .5 Such were the extremities towhich even thinking minds were reduced, in theireagerness to reconcile the literal interpretation ofScripture with the phenomena of nature! Thephilosophy of a later day conceives that it is nodeparture from this sacred authority to follow thesuggestions of science , by referring the new tribeso f animals to a creation , since the deluge , in thoseplaces for which they were clearly intended by constitu tion and habits .6

Count Carli shows much ingenuity and learn ing in support of thefamous Egyptian tradition, recorded by Plato in his “Timaeus,”of the good faith of which the Italian philosopher nothing doubts .Le ttres Americ ., tom. i i. let. 36—39.

Garcia, Origen de lo s Indios de el nuevo Mundo (Madrid,cap . 4.“Torquemada, Monarch . Ind . , l ib . 1, cap . 8.“Prichard , Researches into the Physical H istory of Mankind(London, vol . i . p . 81, et seq

—H e may find an orthodox au

tho rity of respectable antiquity, for a similar hypothesis, in St. A u

998 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

Man would not seem to present the same embarrassm en ts , in the discussion, as the inferior orders .He is fitted by nature for every climate, the burning sun of the tropics and the icy atmosphere ofthe North . He wanders indifferently over thesands of the desert, the waste of polar snows, andthe pathless ocean . Neither mountains nor seas intim idate him, and, by the aid of mechan ical contrivan ce s , he accomplishes j ourneys which birds ofboldest wing would perish in attempting. Without ascending to the high northern latitudes, wherethe continents of Asia and Am erica approachwithin fifty miles of each other, it would be easyfor the inhabitant of Eastern Tartary or Japan tosteer his canoe from islet to islet, quite across tothe American shore, without ever being on theocean more than two days at a time.7 The comm u n ication is somewhat more difficult on the A tlantic side . But even there, Iceland was occupiedby colonies of Europeans many hundred yearsbefore the discovery by Columbus ; and the transitfrom Iceland to America is comparatively easy.

8

Independently of these channels, others wereopened in the Southern hemisphere , by means of

gustine, who plainly intimates his belief that, as by God’ s command,at the time of the creation, the earth brought forth the l iving creature after his kind, so a s imilar proces s must have taken place afterthe deluge, in islands too remote to be reached by animals from thecontinent .” De Civitate Dei, ap. Opera (Parisiis, tom. v.p . 987.7B eechey, Voyage to the Pacific and B eering’

s Strait (London,Part 9, Appendix.—Humboldt, Examen critique de I’H istoire

de la Geographic du Nouveau - Co ntinent (Paris, tom. ii . p . 58.

Whatever skepticism may have been entertained as to the visit ofthe Northmen, in the eleventh century, to the coasts of the great contin en t, it is probably set at rest in the minds of most scholars since

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

CONQUEST OF MEXICO

The real difficu lty is not, as with the animals, toexplain how man could have reached America, butfrom what quarter he actually has reached it. Insurveying the whole extent of the New World, itwas foun d to contain two great families, one inthe lowest stage of civilization, composed of hun ters, and another nearly as far advanced in refin e

ment as the semi - civilized empires of Asia . Themore polished races were probably unacquaintedwith the existence of each other on the differentcontinents of Am erica, and had as little in tercoursewith the barbarian tribes by whom they were surrounded. Yet they had some things in commonboth with these last and with one another, whichremarkably distinguished them from the inhabitants of the Old World. They had a common complexion and physical organization,—at least, bearing a more uniform character than is foun d amongthe nations of any other quarter of the globe.They had some usages and institutions in common,and spoke languages of similar construction, curiou sly distinguished from those in the Easternhemisphere .Whence did the refin ement of these more pol

ished races come ? Was it only a higher development of the same Indian character which we see,in the more northern latitudes, defying every at

tempt at permanent civilization ? Was it en

grafted on a race of higher order in the scaleoriginally, but self- instructed, working its way upward by its own powers ? Was it, in short, anindigenous civilization ? or was it borrowed in somedegree from the nations in the Eastern World ?

ORIGIN OF MEXICAN CIVILIZATION 931

If indigenous , how are we to explain the singularcoincidence with the East in institutions and Opinions ? If Oriental , how shall we account for thegreat dissimilarity in language, and for the ign orance o f some of the most simple and usefu l arts,which , once known , it woul d seem scarcely possibleshould have been forgotten ? This is the riddl e ofthe Sphinx , which no ( E dipu s has yet had the in

gen uity to solve . It is, however, a question ofdeep interest to every curious and intelligent ohserver o f his species . And it has accordingly o ccupied the thoughts of men, from the first discoveryof the country to the present time ; when theextraordinary monuments brought to light inCentral America have given a new impulse toinquiry, by suggestin g the probability—the possibility, rather—that surer evidences than anyhitherto kn own might be afforded for establishingthe fact of a positive commun ication with theother hemisphere .It is not my intention to add many pages to thevolumes already written on this inexhaustible topic .The subject—as remarked by a writer of a philosophical mind himself, and who has done more thanany other for the solution of the mystery—is of tooSpeculative a nature for history, almost forphilo sophy.

11 But this work would be incomplete withoutaffording the reader the means of judging forhimself as to the true sources of the peculiar civili

11“La question générale de la premiere origine des habitans d ’uncontinent est au - dela des limites prescrites a l

’

histoire ; peut—etrememe n’est- elle pas une question philosophique. Humboldt

,Essai

politique, tom . i . p . 349.

939 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

z ation already described, by exhibiting to him thealleged points of resemblance with the ancientcontinent . In doing this , I shall confine myselfto my proper subj ect, the Mexicans, or to what, insome way or other, may have a bearing on thissubj ect ; proposing to state only real points of resemblance , as they are supported by evidence, andstripped, as far as possible , of the illusions withwhich they have been invested by the pious credulity of one party, and the visionary systembuilding of another.An obvious analogy is found in cosm ogon a l

tradition s and religiou s u sages . The reader hasalready been made acquainted with the Aztec system of four great cycles , at the end of each ofwhich the world was destroyed, to be again regenerated.

12 The belief in these periodical convulsionsof nature, through the agency of some one or otherof the elements , was familiar to many countries inthe Eastern hemisphere ; and, though varying indetail, the general resemblance of outline furnishesan argument in favor of a common origin .

13

No tradition has been more widely spread amongnations than that of a Deluge . Independently oftradition, indeed, it would seem to be naturallysuggested by the interior structure of the earth ,

1’ A n te, p . 75.

13 The fanciful divi sion of time into four or five cycles or ages wasfound among the H indoos (Asiatic Researches, vol. i i. mem. theThibetian s (Humboldt, Vues des Co rdilleres , p . the Persians(Bailly, Traité de

'

l’A stron om ie (Paris, tom. i . discours pré

liminaire) , the Greeks (Hes iod, ”E pya v

'

Hpépa i, v. 108, et

and other people, doubtless. The five ages in the Grecian cosm ogony had reference to moral rather than physical phenomena—a

proof of higher civilization.

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

934 CONQUEST OF ME XICO

was filled with various kinds of animals and birds .After some time, a vulture was sent out from it,but remained feeding on the dead bodies of thegiants

,which had been left on the earth , as the

waters subsided . The little hummin g - bird, hu itzitz ilin ,

was then sent forth , and returned with atwig in its mouth . The coincidence of both theseaccounts with the Hebrew and Chaldean narrativesis obvious . It were to be wished that the authorityfor the M ichoacan version were more satisfac

tory.

16

On the way between Vera Cru z and the capital,not far from the modern city of Puebla, stands thevenerable relic—with which the reader will becomefamiliar in the course of the narrative—called thetemple of Cholula. It is a pyramidal mound,built, or rather cased, with unburnt brick, risingto the height of nearly one hundred and eightyfeet. The popular tradition of the natives isthat it was erected by a family of giants, whohad escaped the great inundation and designed

of a genuine Aztec picture, with the appearance of being retouched,especially in the costumes, by some later artist . The painting of thefour ages, in the Vatican Codex, No . 3730, represents, also, the twofigures in the boat, escaping the great cataclysm. Antiq. of Mexico, vol . i . Pl. 7.

1°1 have met with no other vouch er for this remarkable traditionthan Clavige ro (Stor. del Messico, dissert. a good, though certain ly not the best, authority, when he gives us no reason for ourfaith . Humboldt, however, does not distrust the tradition . (SeeVues de s Cordillere s, p . He is not so skeptical as Vater ; who,in allusion to the stories of the Flood, remarks, I have purposelyomitted noticing the resemblance of religious notions, for I do notsee how it is possible to separate from such views every influenceof Christian ideas, i f it be only from an imperceptible confusionin the mind of the narrator . M ithridates, oder allgemeine Sprachenku nde (Berlin, Theil ii i. A btheil . 3, p . 89, note.

ORIGIN OF MEXICAN CIVILIZATION 935

to raise the building to the clouds ; but the gods ,off ended with their presumption, sent fir es fromheaven on the pyramid, and compelled them toabandon the attempt .” The partial coincidenceof this legend with the Hebrew account of thetower of Babel , received also by other nations ofthe East, cannot be denied .

18 But one who hasnot examined the subj ect will scarcely credit whatbold hypo theses have been reared on this slenderbasis .Another point of coincidence is found in the“This story, so irreconcilable with the vulgar Aztec tradition,which adm its only two survivors of the Deluge, was still lingeringamong the natives of the place on M . de Humboldt’s visit there.(Vues des Co rdilleres , pp . 31, It agrees with that given by theinterpreter of the Vatican Codex (Antiq. of Mexico, vol . vi . p . 199,

et seq ) ; a writer—probably a monk of the sixteenth century—inwhom ignorance and dogmatism contend for mastery. See a preciousSpecimen of bo th, in his account of the Aztec chronology, in the verypages above referred to.

1”A tradition, very simil ar to the Hebrew one, exis ted among theChaldeans and the H indoos. (Asiatic Researches, vol . ii i. mem.

The natives of Chiapa, also, according to the bishop Nufiez de laVega

,had a story, cited as genuine by Humboldt (Vues des Cor

dilleres , p . which not only agree s with the Scripture accoun tof the manner in which Babel was built, but with that of the subsequent dispers ion and the confus ion of tongues . A very marvellouscoincidence ! But who shall vouch for the authenticity of the tradition ? The bishop flourished towards the close of the seventeenth century. He drew his information from hieroglyphical maps, and a n

Indian MS., which B otu rin i in vain endeavored to recover. In explo ring thes e, he borrowed the aid of the natives, who, as B o tu rin iinforms us, frequently led the good man into errors and absurdities ;of which he gives several Specimens. ( Idea, p . 116, e t seq . )—Boturini himsel f has fallen into an error equally great, in regard to amap of this same Cho lu lan pyramid, which Clavigero shows, farfrom be ing a genuine antique, was the forgery of a later day.

(Stor. del Messico, tom . i . p . 130, nota. ) It is impossible to get afirm footing in the quicksands of tradition . The further we areremoved from the Conquest, the more difficult it becomes to decidewhat belongs to the primitive Aztec and what to the Christianconvert .

936 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

goddess Cio aco atl , our lady and mother ; thefirst goddess who brought forth ; who be

qu eathed the suff erings of childbirth to women, asthe tribute of death ; by whom sin came into theworld .

” Such was the remarkable language applied by the Az tecs to this venerated deity. Shewas usually represented with a serpent near her ;and her name signified the serpent -woman .

” Inall this we see much to remind us of the mother ofthe human family, the Eve of the Hebrew andSyrian nations .19

But none of the deities of the country suggestedsuch astonishing analogies with Scripture as Quetz alco atl, with whom the reader has already beenmade acquainted.

20 He was the white man , wearing a long beard, who came from the East, andwho, after presiding over the golden age of Anahuac, disappeared as mysteriously as he had come,on the great Atlantic Ocean . As he promised toreturn at some future day, his reappearance waslooked for with confidence by each succeeding gen

Sahagun, H ist. de Nueva- Espana, lib. 1, cap . 6 ; lib. 6, cap . 98,

33.—Torquemada, not content with the honest record of his predecessor, whose MS. lay before him, tells us that the Mexican Evehad two sons, Cain and Abel . (Monarch, Ind ., l ib . 6, cap. Theancient interpreters of the Vatican and Tellerian Codices add thefurther tradition of her bringing sin and sorrow into the world byplucking the forbidden ros e (Antiq. of Mexico, vol . vi ., explan . ofPI. 7, and Veytia remembers to have seen a Toltec or Aztecmap representing a garden with a s ingle tree in it, round whichwas coiled the serpent with a human face ! (H ist. an tig., lib. 1,cap . After this we may be prepared for Lord Kingsbo rough ’

s

deliberate conviction that the Aztecs had a clear knowledge of theOld Testament, and, most probably, of the New, though somewhatcorrupted by time and h ieroglyphics ”! Antiq. of Mexico, vol. vi.

”A n te, pp. 71—73.

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

938 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

while man and nature wore so strange an aspect,they were astonished by occasional glimpses ofrites and ceremonies which reminded them of apur er faith . In their amazement, they did notreflect whether these things were not the naturalexpression of the religious feeling common to all

nations who have reached even a moderate civiliz ation . They did not inquire whether the samethings were not practised by other idolatrous people . They could not suppress their wonder, asthey beheld the Cross,"6 the sacred emblem of theirown faith , raised as an object of worship in thetemples of An ahuac . They met with it in variousplaces ; and the image of a cross may be seen atthis day, sculptured in has - relief, on the walls of

[The Cross symbol has been the subj ect of endless controversy.As usual, we find that Bancroft has given the subj ect careful co nsideration . (Native Races, ii i. ) Brinton (Myths of the New World,pp . 95, 96) quotes authorities to demonstrate in it the four ca rdinalpoints, the rain- bringers, the sym bol of life and health. He wasthe first writer to connect the Palenque cross with the four cardinalpoints. Charles Rau (Palenque Tablet in U. S . National Museum,

in No. 331 Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge) concludesthat it is a Phallic symbol . Bandelier thinks it was the emblem offire. Squier calls it the tree of li fe of the Mexicans. Payne (America, n . p . 86 ) thinks it was a representation of a human sacrifice tothe su n . The cross ” is simply the conventional representation ofa tree. At Palenque the bird which surmounts the tree is a turkey.The celebrant, decorated with a necklace, makes an offering to thewinged deity. The living fetish was called Qu etz alhu exo lo tl, and thetree was called the tree of the plumed turkey.

” The sacrifice presented is a diminutive hum an figure. The monstrous head whichthe roots of the tree surround is human, but with serpentine details.I t represents the “Female Serpent,” the earth goddess to whomthe tree owes its growth and nutrit ion .Father De Roo (America before Columbus, vol . i . ch. xv u, pp .

493—455 ) concludes that “Christ and his cross were known in an

cient America.” In his subsequent chapters he describes remainsof Christian ceremonies, baptism, confirmation, a eucharist, confessron , penance, etc . - M. ]

ORIGIN OF MEXICAN CIVILIZATION 939

one of the buildings of Palenque , while a figurebearing some resemblance to that of a child is heldup to it, as if in adoration.

2 4

Their surprise was heightened when they witn essed a religious rite which reminded them of theChristian communion . On these occa sions an image of the tutelary deity of the Aztecs was madeof the flour of maize, mixed with blood, and , afterconsecration by the priests , was distributed amongthe people, who, as they ate it, showed signs ofhumiliation and sorrow, declaring it was the fleshof the deity! 2 5 How could the Roman Catholicfail to recognize the awfu l ceremony of the Eucharist ?

“Antiquités Mexicaines, exped. 3, Pl. 36.—The figures are sur

rounded by hieroglyphics of most arbitrary character, perhaps phonetic . (See, also, Herrera, Hist . general, dec. 9, lib. 3, cap . 1.

Gomara, Cronica de la Nu eva - Espana, cap. 15, ap. Barcia, tom .

Mr. Stephens considers that the celebrated Cozumel Cross,” preserved at Merida, which claims the credit o f being the same originally worshipped by the natives of Cozumel, is, after all, nothingbut a cross that was erect ed by the Spaniards in one of their owntemples in that island after the Conquest . The fact he regards as“completely inval idating the strongest proof off ered at this daythat the Cross was recogn ized by the Indians as a sym bol of worship .

”(Travels ih Yucatan, vol . i i . chap . But, adm itting the

truth of this statement, that the Cozumel Cross is only a Christianrelic, which the ingenious traveller has made extremely probable,his inference is by no means admissible. Nothing could be morenatu ral than that the friars in Merida should endeavor to givecelebrity to their convent by making it the possessor of so remarkablea monument a s the very relic which proved , in their eyes, that Christian ity had been preached at some earlier date among the natives .But the real proof of the existence of the Cross, as an obj ect ofworship , in the New World, does not rest on such spurious monuments as these, but on the un equivocal testimony of the Spanish discoverers themselves .

”“Lo recibian con gran reverencia, hum iliacion , y lagrimas, diciendo que com ian 1a carne de su D ios. Veytia, H ist. an tig. lib . 1,cap. 18.

—Also, Acosta, lib. 5, cap . 94.

940 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

With the same feelings they witnessed anotherce remony, that of the Aztec baptism ; in which ,after a solemn invocation, the head and lips of theinfant were touched with water, and a name wasgiven to it ; while the goddess Cioaco atl, who presided over childbirth, was implored that the sinwhich was given to us before the beginnin g of theworld might not visit the child, but that , cleansedby these waters , it might live and be born anew!

” 2 6

It is true , these several rites were attended withmany peculiarities , ve rv un like those in any Chris

26 A n te , p. 78.—Sahagun, H ist . de Nueva- Espana, lib . 6, cap .

37.—That the reader may see for himself how l ike, yet how unlike,the Aztec rite was to the Christian, I give the translation of Sahagun’s account, at length : “When everything necessary for the baptism had been made ready, all the relations of the child were assembled, and the midwife, who was the person that performed therite of baptism, was summoned . At early dawn , they met togetherin the court—yard of the house. When the sun had risen, the midwife, taking the child in her arms, called for a little earthen vesselof water, while those about her placed the ornaments which hadbeen prepared for the baptism in the midst of the court . To perform the rite of baptism, she placed herself with her face towardsthe west, and immediately began to go through certain ceremonies .After this she sprinkled water on the head of the infant, say

ing, ‘0 my child ! take and receive the water of the Lo rd of theworld, which is our li fe, and is given for the increasing and re

newing of our body. It is to wash and to puri fy. I pray that theseheavenly drops may enter into your body, and dwell there ; thatthey m ay destroy and remove from you all the evil and sin whichwas given to you before the beginning of the world ; since a ll of u sare under its power, being all the children of Chal chivitlycu e ’

[the goddess of water ] . She then washed the body of the child withwater, and spoke in this manner : ‘Whencesoever thou comest, thouthat art hurt ful to this child, leave him and depart from him, forhe now liveth anew, and is born anew ; now is he purified andcleansed afresh, and our mother Chalchivitlycu e again bringethhim into the world .

’ Having thus prayed, the midwife took the childin both hands, and, lifting him towards heaven, said, ‘ O Lord, thouseest here thy creature, whom thou hast sent into this world, thisplace of sorrow, suffering, and penitence. Grant him , 0 Lo rd, thygifts and thine inspiration, for thou art the great God, and with thee

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

949 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

half believing it themselves—a correspondence between their own faith and that of their conquerors .30

The ingenuity of the chronicler was taxed tofind out analogies between the Aztec and Scripturehistories, both old an d new. The migration fromAztlan to Anahuac was typical of the Jewish exodus .31 The places where the Mexicans halted onthe march were identified with those in the j ourneyof the Israelites ; 32 and the name of Mexico itse lfwas found to be nearly identical with the Hebrewname for the Messiah .

33 The Mexican hieroglyphics afforded a boundless field for the display ofthis critical acuteness . The most remarkable passages in the Old and New Testaments were readin their mysterious characters ; and the eye offaith could trace there the whole story of thePassion, the Saviour suspended from the cross,

l” The diflicu lty of obtaining anything like a faithful report fromthe natives is the subj ect of complaint from more than one writer,and explains the great care taken by Sahagun to compare their narratives with each other. See H ist. de Nueva- E spafia , P rologo ,Ixtlilxochitl, H ist. Chich., MS Pr61.,—B otu rin i, Idea, p . 116.

‘1The parallel was so closely pressed by Torquemada that he wascompelled to suppress the chapter containing it, o n the publicationof his book. See the Proemio to the edition of 1793, s ee . 9.

The devil,” says Herrera, chose to imitate, in everything, thedeparture of the Israelites from Egypt, and their subsequent wanderings.” (H ist. general , dec . 3 , lib. 3, cap . But a ll that hasbeen done by monkish annalist and missionary to establish the para!lel with the children of Israel falls far short of Lord Kingsbo rough

’s learned labors, spread over nearly two hundred folio pages.

(See Antiq. of Mexico, tom . vi. pp . 989 Qua n tum inane!“The word rpm from which is derived Chris t, “the anointed,”is still more nearly—not“precisely, as Lo rd K ingsborough states(Antiq. of Mexico, vol . vi. p . 186 )—identical with that of Mexi, orMesi, the chief who was said to have led the Aztecs on the plains ofAnahuac.

ORIGIN OF MEXICAN CIVILIZATION 943

and the Virgin Mary with her attendantangels!34

The Jewish and Christian schemes werestrangely mingled together, and the brains ofthe good fathers were still further bewildered bythe mixture of heathenish abominations whichwere so closely intertwined with the most orthodoxObservances . In their perplexity, they looked onthe whole as the delusion of the devil, who counterfeited the rites of Christianity and the traditionso f the chosen people , that he might allure hiswretched victim s to their own destruction .

”

But, although it is not necessary to resort to thisstartling supposition , nor even to call up an apostle from the dead, or any later missionary, to explain the coincidences with Christianity, yet thesecoincidences must be allowed to furnish an argument in favor of some primitive commun icationwith that great brotherhood of nations on the oldcontinent, among whom similar ideas have been sowidely diffused .

* The probability of such a com

“In terp. of Cod . Tel - Rem. et Vat., Antiq. of Mexico, vol . vi.

Sahagun, H ist. de Nueva- Espana, l ib. 3, Suplem .- Veytia, H is t.

an tig., lib. 1, cap. 16.“This opinion finds favor with the best Spanish and Mexicanwriters , from the Conquest downwards. Solis sees nothing improbable in the fact that“the malignant influence, so frequently noticedin sacred history, should be found equally in profane.” H ist. de laConquista, lib. 9, cap . 4.

D . G. Brinton, International Congress of Anthropology, 1893

(Harper’s Magazine, March, 1903, p. Up to the present t imethere has not been shown a single dialect, not an art or an institution,not a myth or religious rite, not a domesticated plant or animal, not atool, weapon, game, or sym bol, in use in America at the time of thediscovery, which had been previously imported from Asia, or fromany other continent of the Old World.”—M.

944 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

m u n ication , especially with Eastern Asia, is muchstrengthened by the resemblance of sacerdotal institution s , and of some religious rites , as those ofmarriage,36 and the burial of the dead ;

37 by thepractice of human sacrifice s , and even of cannibalism, traces of which are discernible in the Mongolraces ; 38 and, lastly, by a conformity of socialusages and manners, so striking that the de scription of Montezuma’ s court may well pass for thatof the Grand Khan ’s, as depicted by Maundevill e

and Marco Polo .

” It would occupy too muchroom to go into details in this matter, withoutwhich, however, the strength of the argument cannot be felt, nor fully established . It has be en doneby others ; and an occasional coincidence has beenadverted to in the precedin g chapters .The bridal ceremony of the H indoos , in particular, contains

curious points of analogy with the Mexican . (See Asiatic Researches,vol. vii . mem. The institution of a numerous priesthood, withthe practices of confession and penance, was familiar to the Tartarpeople. (Maundeville , Voiage , chap. And monastic establishments were found in Thibet and Japan from the earliest ages .Humboldt, Vues des Co rdilleres , p . 179.

3’ “Doubtless,” says the ingenious Carli, “the fashion of burningthe corpse, collecting the ashes in a vase, burying them under pyram ida l mounds, with the immolation of wives and servants at thefuneral, all remind one of the customs of Egypt and H indostan.”Lettres Americ., tom. ii. let . 10.

” Marco Polo notices a civi lized people in Southeastern China, andanother in Japan, who drank the blood and ate the flesh of theircaptives, esteeming it the most savory food in the world, la piusaporita et migliore, che si possa tru ovar al mondo.” (Viaggi, lib.9, cap . 75 ; lib. 3, 13, The Mongols, according to S ir John Maundeville, regarded the ears “sowced in vyn egre as a particulardainty. Voiage, chap . 93 .

” Marco Polo, Viaggi , lib. 9, cap . 10.—Maundeville , Voiage, cap.

90, et al ibi—See, also, a striking parall el between the Eastern Asiatics and Americans, in the Supplement to Ranking’ s H istorical R esearches ; a work embodying many curious details of Oriental history and manners in support of a whimsical theory.

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

946 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

Such minute coincidences are not unfrequent ;while the accumulation of those of a more generalcharacter

,though individually of little account,

greatly strengthens the probability of a communication with the East.A proof o f a higher kind is found in the analogies of scien ce . We have seen the peculiar chronological system of the Aztecs ; their method ofdistributing the years into cycles, and of reckoningby means of periodical series , instead of numbers .A similar process was used by the various A siatic nations of the Mongol family, from Indiato Japan. Their cycles, indeed, consisted ofsixty, instead of fifty- two years ; and for theterms of their periodical series they employed thenam es of the elements and the signs of the zodiac,of which latter the Mexicans , probably, had noknowledge. But the principle was precisely thesame .42

A correspondence quite as extraordinary is

found between the hieroglyphics use d by the Aztecs for the signs of the days , and those zodiacalsigns which the Eastern Asiatics employed as oneof the terms of their series . The symbols in theMongolian calendar are borrowed from animals .Four of the twelve are the same as the Aztec.Three others are as nearly the same as the diff er

his facts he has shown much sagacity, as well as industry ; and, i fthe formal and somewhat repul sive character of the style has beenunfavorable to a popul ar interest, the work must always have aninterest for those who are engaged in the study of the Indian antiqu ities . His fanciful speculations on the subj ect of Mexican mythology may amuse those whom they fail to convince.“A n te, p . 196, et seq.

ORIGIN OF ME XICAN CIVILIZATION 947

ent species of an imals in the two hemisphereswould allow. The remaining five refer to no creature then found in An ahuac ." 3 The resemblancewent as far as it could .

“The similarity of theseconventional symbols among the several nationsof the East can hardly fail to carry conviction ofa common origin for the system as regards them.

Why should not a similar conclusion be appliedto the Aztec calendar, which , although relating todays instead of years , was, like the Asiatic, equally

“This will be better shown by enumerating the zodiacal signs,used as the nam es o f the yea rs by the Eastern Asiatics. Among theMongols, these were—1, mouse ; 9, ox ; 3, leopard ; 4, hare ; 5, crocodile ; 6, serpent ; 7, horse ; 8, sheep ; 9, monkey ; 10, hen ; 11, dog ; 19,hog. The Man tchou Tartars, Japanese, and Thibe tian s have nearlythe same terms, substituting, however, for NO. 3, t iger ; 5, dragon ;8, goat. In the Mex ican signs for the names of the days we alsomeet with ha re, s erpen t, m on key, dog. Instead of the“leopard,”“crocodile,” and “hen,” —neither of which animals was known inMexico at the time of the Conquest,—we find the oce lo tl, the liza rd,and the eagle —The lunar calendar of the H indoos exhibits a correspondence equally extraordinary. S ix of the terms agree withthose of the Aztecs, namely, s e rpen t, ca n e, razo r, pa th of the su n ,

dog’s ta il, hous e . (Humboldt, Vues des Co rdilleres, p. Thes e

terms, it will be observed, are still more arbitrarily sel ected, notbeing confined to animals ; as , indeed, the hieroglyphics of the Azteccalendar were derived indifferently from them, and other obj ects, likethe signs of our zodiac. These scientific analogies are set in the strongest light by M. de Humboldt, and occupy a large and, to the philosophical inquirer, the most interesting port ion of his great work. (Vuesde s Co rdilleres , pp . 195 He ha s not embraced in his tables,however, the Mongol calendar, which affords even a closer approximation to the Mexican than that of the other Tartar races . Comp.Ranking, Resea rches , pp. 370, 371, note.There is some inaccuracy in Humboldt’s definition of the oce lo tl

as the tiger,” “the j aguar .” ( Ibid ., p . It is smaller than thej aguar, though quite a s ferocious, and is as graceful and be autifulas the leopard, which it more nearly resembles . I t is a native ofNew Spain , where the tiger is not known . (See Buffon, H istoirenaturelle (Paris, An VII I ) , tom . vow Oce lo tl.) The adoptionof this latter name, therefore, in the Aztec calendar, leads to an lnference somewhat exaggerated.

948 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

appropriated to chronological uses and to those ofdivination ? 45

I shall pass over the further resemblance to thePersians, shown in the adjustment of time by asimilar system of intercalation ; 4“and to the Egyptians

,in the celebration of the remarkable festival

of the winter solstice ; 47since, although suflicien tlycurious, the coincidences might be accidental, andadd little to the weight of evidence offered by anagreement in combinations of so complex and artificial a character as those before stated.

Amid these intellectual analogies, one would expeet to meet with that of langu age ,

’le the vehicle ofintellectual communication, which usually exhibitstraces of its origin even when the science and literatu re that are embodied in it have widely diverged. No inquiry, however, has led to satisfactory results . The languages spread over theWestern continent far excee d in number thosefound in any equal population in the Eastern .

48

Both the Tartars and the Aztecs indicated the year by its sign ;as the year of the hare ” or rabbit,” etc. The Asiatic signs, l ikewise, far from being limited to the years and months, presided alsoover days, and even hours. (Humboldt, Vues des Co rdill ere s , p .

The Mexicans had also astrological sym bols appropriated tothe hours. Gama, Descripcion , Parte 9, p. 117.“A n te, p . 197, note.

‘7Achill es Tatius notices a custom of the Egyptians,—who, as thesun descended towards Capricorn, put on mourning, but, as the dayslengthened, their fears subsided, they robed themselves in wh ite,and, crowned with flowers, gave themselves up to j ubilee, like theAztecs. This account, transcribed by Carli’s French translator, andby M . de Humboldt, is more fully criticized by M . Jom ard in theVues des Cordillere s, p . 309, et seq .“Jeff erson (Notes o n Virgini a (Lo ndon, 1787) p . confirmedby Humboldt (Essai politique, tom. i . p. Mr. Gall atin comes

[See note, an te, p .

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

950 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

greatest num be r of ideas within the smallest possible compass

,condenses whole sentences into a sin

gle word,5 2 displaying a curious mechanism, 111

which some discern the hand of the philosopher,and others only the spontaneous eff orts of thesavage .5 3

The etymological affinities detected with the ancient continent are not very numerous, and they aredrawn indiscriminately from all the tribes scatteredover America. On the whole , more analogies havebeen found with the idioms of Asia than of anyother quarter. But their amount is too in con siderable to balance the opposite conclusion inferred bya total dissim ilarity o f structure .‘54 A remarkableexception is found in the Othomi or Otomi language, which covers a wider territory than anyother but the Mexican in New Spain,6 5 and which,

The Mexican language, in particular, i s most flexible ; admittingof combinations so eas ily that the most simple ideas are often buriedunder a load of accessories . The forms of express ion, though pictu resqu e, were thus made exceedingly cumbrous. A “pri est,” forexample, was called no tla z om ahu iz teopiz ca ta tz in , meaning venerableminister of God, that I love as my father.” A still more comprehen sive word is am a tla cu ilo litqu itca tlax tlahu itli, signi fying “thereward given to a messenger who bears a hieroglyphical map conveying intelligence.”See, in particul ar, for the latter view of the subj ect, the argu

ments of Mr. Gallatin, in his acute and masterly disquisition o n theIndian tribes ; a disquisition that throws more light on the intricatetopics of which it treats than whole volumes that have preceded it.Transactions of the American Antiquarian Society, vol. ii. Introd .,

sec. 6.“This comparative anatomy of the languages of the two hemispheres, begun by Barton (Origin of the Tribes and Nations ofAmerica (Philadelphia, 1797) has been extended by Vater (M ithridates , Theil iii. Abtheil . 1, p . 348, et A selection of themost striking analogies may be found, al so, in Mal te Brun, book75, table.“Othom i, from otho, stationary, and m i, “nothing. (Naj era,

ORIGIN OF MEXICAN CIVILIZATION 951

both in its monosyllabic composition, so diff erentfrom those around it, and in its vocabulary, shows avery singular affinity to the Chinese .56 The existence of this in sulated idiom in the heart of thisvast continent off ers a curious theme for specul ation, entirely beyond the province of history.

The Am erican languages , so num erous andwidely diversified, present an immense field ofinquiry, which , notwithstanding the labors of several distinguished philologists, remain s yet to beexplored . It is only after a wide comparison ofexamples that conclusions founded on analogy canbe trusted. The difficulty of making such comparisons increases with time , from the facilitywhich the peculiar structure of the Indian languages affords for new combinations ; while theins ensible influence of contact with civilized man,in producing these , must lead to a still further distrust of our conclusions .The theory of an Asiatic origin for Aztec civili

z ation derives stronger confirmation from the lightof tradition , which , shining steadily from the farNorthwest, pierces through the dark shadows thathistory and mythology have alike thrown aroundthe traditions of the country. Traditions of aWestern or Northwestern origin were found

D issert , a t infra .) The etymology intimates the condition of th isrude nation of warriors, who, imperfect ly reduced by the Aztecarms, roamed over the high lands north of the Valley of Mexico.“See Naje ra ’

s Disse rtatio de Lin gua Othomitorum , ap. Transac

tions of the American Philosophical Society, vol. v. New Series .The author, a learned Mexican, has given a most satisfactory analysisof this remarkable language, which stands alone among the idioms ofthe New World, as the Basque—the solitary wreck, perhaps, of aprim itive age—exis ts among those of the Old.

959 CONQUEST OF ME XICO

among the more barbarous tribes,57 and by theMexicans were preserved both orally and in theirhieroglyphical maps

,where the diff erent stages of

their migration are carefully noted . But who, atthis day, shall read them ?

5 8 They are admitted toagree

,however, in representing the populous

North as the prolific hive of the American races .59

In this quarter were placed their Az tlan and theirH u ehu etlapallan ,

—the bright abodes of their ance sto rs , whose warlike exploits rivalled thosewhich the Teutonic nations have recorded of Odin“7Barton, p . 99.

—H eckewelder, chap . 1, ap. Transactions of theH ist. and Lit . Committee of the Am. Phil. Soc., vol. i.—The varioustraditions have been as sembled by M . Warden, in the AntiquitésMexicaines , part 9, p . 185, et seq.

I”The recent work of Mr. Delafield ( Inquiry into the Origin ofthe Antiquities of America (Cincinnati, 1839) has an engraving ofone of these maps, said to have been obtained by Mr. Bul lock fromB otu rini

’s collection. Two such are specified o n page 10 of that

antiquary’s Catal ogue. This map has all the appearance of a genuine Aztec painting, of the rudest character. We may recognize,indeed, the symbols of some dates and places, with others denotingthe aspect of the country, whether fertile or barren, a state of waror peace, etc. But it is altogether too vague, and we know toolittle of the allusions, to gather any knowledge from it of the courseof the A ztec migration —Gemelli Carreri’s celebrated chart containsthe names of many places on the route, interpreted, perhaps, byS i guenza h imself, to whom it belonged (Giro del Mondo, tom. vi .

and Clavigero has endeavored to ascertain the various localities with some precision . (Stor. del Messico, tom . i . p . 160, et seq. )But, as they are all within the boundaries of New Spain, and, indee d,south of the R io Gila, they throw little light, of course, on the vexedquestion of the primitive abodes of the Aztecs.

5° This may be fairly gathered from the agreement of the traditiona ry interpretations of the maps of the various people of Anahuac,according to Veytia ; who, however, admits that it is next to impossible,” with the lights of the present day, to determine the preciseroute taken by the Mexicans. (H ist . an tig., tom . i. cap . Loren z an a is not so modest . “Los Mexicanos por tradicion vinieronpor el norte,” says he, y s e saben ciertamente s us mans iones .”(H ist. de Nueva- E spafia, p . 81, nota. ) There are some antiquarieswho see best in the dark .

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

954 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

whose dialects, both in the termination and generalsound of the words, bear considerable resemblanceto the Mexican.

6 3 Such are the vestiges , few, in

deed,and feeble, that still exist to attest the truth

of traditions which themselves have remainedsteady and consistent through the lapse of centuriesand the migrations of successive races .The conclusions suggested by the intellectu aland moral analogies with Eastern As ia derive considerable support from those of a physica l natu re .

The aborigines of the Western World were distingu ished by certain peculiarities of organization,which have led physiologists to regard them as aseparate race . These peculiarities are shown intheir reddish complexion, approaching a cinnamoncolor ; their straight, black, and exceedingly glossyhair ; their beard thin, and usually eradicated ;“4their high cheek - bones , eyes obliquely directed towards the temples, prominent nose s, and narrowforeheads falling backwards with a greater inclination than those of any other race except the African .

6 5 From this general standard, however, thereare deviations, in the same manner, if not to the

Vater has examined the languages of three of these nations, between 50° and 60° north, and collated their vocabularies with theMexican, showing the probabil ity of a common origin of many of thewords in each. Mithridates, Theil iii. Abtheil. 3, p . 919.“The Mexicans are noticed by M. de Humboldt as distinguishedfrom the other aborigines whom he had seen, by the quantity bothof beard a nd moustaches. (Essai politique, tom. i . p . Themodern Mexican, however, broken in spirit and fortunes, bears asl ittle resemblance, probably, in physical as in moral characteristics tohis ancestors, the fierce and independent Aztecs.“Prichard, Physical H istory, vol . 1. pp . 167—169, 189, et seq .

Morton , Crania Americana, p . 66.—Mcculloh, Researches, p. 18.

Lawrence, Lectures, pp. 317, 565 .

ORIGIN OF MEXICAN CIVILIZATION 955

same extent, as in other quarters of the globe,though these deviations do not seem to be influen ced by the same laws of local position .

6 6 Anatomists, also, have discerned in crania disinterredfrom the moun ds , and in those of the inhabitantsof the high plains of the Cordilleras, an obviousdiff erence from those of the more barbarous tribes .This is seen especially in the ampler forehead

,inti

mating a decided intellectual superiority.

67 Thesecharacteristics are fou nd to bear a close resemblance to those of the Mongolian family, and especially to the people of Eastern Tartary ;

6 8 so that,notwithstanding certa in difieren ce s recognized byphysiologists , the skulls of the two races cou ld notbe readily distingu ished from one another by acommon observer. No inference can be surelydrawn , however, without a wide range of compariso n . That hitherto made has been chiefly founded

“Thus we find, amidst the generally prevalent copper or cinnam o n tint, nearly all gradations of color, from the Europea n white, toa black, almost African ; while the complexion capriciously variesamong difle ren t tribes in the neighborhood of each other. See examples in Humboldt (Essai politique, tom. i . pp . 358, alsoPrichard (Physical H istory, vol. ii . pp . 459, 599, et alibi ) , a writerwhose various research and dispassionate j udgment have made hiswork a text - book in this department of science.

" Such is the conclusion of Dr. Warren, whose excell ent colleetion has afforded him ample means for study and comparison. (Seehis Remarks before the British Association for the Advancementof Science, ap. Lo ndon Athenaeum, Oct , In the specimenscollected by Dr. Morton, however, the barbarous tribes would seemto have a somewhat larger facial angle, and a greater quantity ofbrain, than the semi- civil ize d. Crania Americana, p . 959 .

On n e peut se refus er d’adm ettre que l’espece humaine n ’

ofl'

re

pas de races plus voisines que le sont celles des Américaines, desMongols, des Man tchoux , et des Malais .” Hum boldt, Essai politique, tom. 1. p . 367.

—Also, Prichard, Physical H istory, vol . i . pp .184—186 ; vol. ii. pp. 365—367. —Lawrence, Le ctures, p. 365.

956 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

on specimens from the barbarous tribes ." 9 Perhapsa closer comparison with the more civiliz ed maysupply still stronger evidences of affin ity.

70

In seeking for analogies with the Old World, weshould not pass by in silence the architectu ral rem ain s of the country, which, indeed, from theirresemblance to the pyramidal structures of theEast

,have suggested to more than one antiquary

the idea of a common origin .

71 The Spanish in

” Dr. Morton’s Splendid work on American crania ha s gone farto supply the requisite inform ation . Out of about one hundred andfifty specimens of skulls, of which he has ascertained the dimensionswith admirable precision, one- third belong to the semi- civil iz ed races ;and of them thi rteen are Mexican. The number of these last is toosmall to found any general conclusions upon, considering the gr eatdiversity found in individuals of the same nation, not to say kindred .

-Blumenbach’s observations o n American skull s were chiefly made,according to Prichard (Physical H istory, vol. i. pp . 183, fromspecimens of the Carib tribes, as unfavorable, perhaps, as any on thecontinent .Yet these specimens are not so easy to be obtained. With u n

common advantages for procuring these mysel f in Mexico, I havenot succeeded in obtaining any specimens of the genuine Aztec skull .The difficulty of this may be readily comprehended by any o n e whoconsiders the length of time that has elapsed since the Co nquest,and that the burial - places of the ancient Mexicans have continuedto be used by their descendants. Dr. Morton more than once refersto his specimens as those of the genuine Toltec skull, from cemeteries in Mexico, older than the Conquest.” (Crania Americana,pp . 159, 155, 931, et al ibi.) But how does he know that the headsare Toltec ? That nation is reported to have left the country aboutthe middle of the eleventh century, nearly eight hundred years ago,—according to Ixtlilxochitl, indeed, a century earlier ; and it seemsmuch more probable that the Specimens now found in these burialplaces should belong to some of the races who have since occupiedthe country, than to one so far removed . The presumption ismanifestly too feeble to authorize any positive inference.The tower of Belus, with its retreating stories, described by

Herodotu s (Clio, sec. has been selected as the model of theteoca lli; which leads Vater somewhat shrewdly to remark that itis strange no evidence of this shoul d appear in the erection of similar structures by the Aztecs in the whole course of their j ourney

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

2 58 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

zinco,

” the colossal calendar- stone in the capital,are of sufficient magnitude, and wrought withsufficient skill, to attest mechanical powers in theA z tecs not unworthy to be compared with thoseof the ancient Egyptians .But

,if the remains on the Mexican soil are so

scanty,they mu ltiply as we descend the southeast

ern slope of the Cordilleras, traverse the rich Valley of Oaxaca, and penetrate the forests of Chiapaand Yucatan . In the midst of these lonely regionswe meet with the ruins , recently discovered, ofseveral ancient cities, M itla, Palenque , and Itzalana or Uxmal,7

5 which argue a higher civilization

covered, all cut in the hard stone. As the detached blocks foundamong the ruins are sculptured with ha s - reliefs in like ma nner, it isprobable that the whole building was covered with them. It seemsprobable, als o, as the same pattern extends over '

difl’erent stones ,

that the work was executed after the walls were raised—In the hillbeneath, subterraneous galleries, six feet wide and high, have beencut to the length of one hundred and eighty feet, where they terminate in two balls , the vaulted ceil ings of which connect by a sort of tunnel with the buildings above. These subterraneous works are alsolined with hewn stone. The size of the blocks, and the hard qualityof the granite of which they consist, have made the buildings ofXochicalco a choice quarry for the proprietors of a neighboringsugar- refin ery, who have appropriated the upper stories of the temple to this ignoble purpose ! The Barberini at least built pal aces,beauti ful thems elves, as works of art, with the plunder of the Coliseum. See the full description of this remarkable building, bo thby Dupaix and Alzate. (Antiquités Mexicaines, tom. i . Exp. 1, pp .

15—90; tom. iii. Exp . 1, PI. A recent investigation has been madeby order of the Mexican government, the report of which differs, insome of its details, from the preceding. Revista Mexicana, tom . i.mem. 5 .

" A u to, pp . 196—199.

" It is impossible to look at Waldeck’ s finished drawin gs ofbuildings, where Time seems scarcely to have set his mark on thenicely chiselled stone, and the clear tints are hardly defaced by aweather- stain, without regarding the artist’ s work as a res tora tion ;a picture true, it may be, of those buildings in the day of their glory,but not of their decay.—Cogolludo, who saw them in the middle of

ORIGIN OF MEXICAN CIVILIZATION 2 59

than anything yet found on the American continent ; and , although it was not the Mexicans whobuilt these cities , yet, as they are probably the worko f cognate races, the present inquiry would be incomplete without some attempt to ascertain whatlight they can throw on the origin of the Indian,and consequently of the Aztec civilization.

76

Few works of art have been found in the neighbo rho od of any of the ruins .* Some of them,

consisting of earthen o r marble vases, fragments ofstatues , and the like, are fantastic, and even hideous ; others show much grace and beauty of design,

the seventeenth century, Speaks of them with adm iration, as worksof accomplis hed architects,” of whom history has preserved notradition . Historia de Yucatan (Madrid, lib. 4, cap.

In the original text is a description of some of these ruins, especially of those of M itla and Palenque. I t would have had novel tyat the time in which it was written, since the only accounts of thesebuildings were in the colossal publications o f Lord K ingsborough,and in the Antiqu ités Mexicaines, not very accessible to most rea ders.But it is unnecessary to repeat descriptions now familiar to every one,and so much better executed than they can be by me, in the spiritedpages of Stephens.

[Bandelier (Archaeological Tour in Mexico ) gives an account o fthe statues, etc., found in Mex ico up to the year 1881.

—M. ]1[The age of these ancient cities is still an unsolved problem, butthe convict ion seems to be growing that many of them were inhabitedat the t ime of the Conques t. The sacred edifices at Uxmal did notcease to be used until some time after the Spaniards had becomelords of the land . Charnay (Ancient Cities of the New World, p. 328)thinks Chichen Itza was inhabited“scarcely s ixty years before theConquest .” Bandel ier (Peabody Museum Report, i i . 196) says ofthe Tablet of the Cross at Palenque, “These tablets and figuresshow in dress such a striking analogy of what we know of the military accoutrements of the Mexicans, that it is a strong approachto identity.” Bancroft (Native Races , vol. iv.) specifies the literature dealing with Palenque. For a while scholars were mystifiedby Waldeck’s a bsurd elephants on the walls of Palenque. Butafter a time these animal representations were shown to have existedonly in the artist’s brain.—M.]

2 60 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

and are apparently well executed .

77 It may seemextraordinary that no iron in the buildings themselves

,nor iron tools, should have been discovered,

considering that the materials used are chieflygranite, very hard, and carefully hewn and polished. Red copper chisels and axes have beenpicked up in the midst of large blocks of graniteimperfectly cut , with fragments of pillars andarchitraves , in the quarries near M itla.7

8 Tools ofa similar kind have been discovered, also, in thequarries near Thebe s ; and the difficulty, nay, impossibility, o f cutting such masses from the livingrock with any tools which we possess , except iron,has confirmed an ingenious writer in the supposition that this metal must have be en employed bythe Egyptians , but that its tendency to decomposition , especially in a nitrous soil, has prevented anyspecimens of it from be ing preserved.

79 Yet ironhas been found, after the lapse of some thousandsof years, in the remains of antiquity ; and it iscertain that the Mexicans , down to the time of theConquest, us ed only copper instruments , with analloy of tin, and a silicious powder, to cut the hardest stones, some of them of enormous dimensions .This fact, with the additional circumstance that

77See, in particular, two terra- cotta busts with helmets, found inOaxaca, which might well pass for Greek, both in the style of theheads and the casques that cover them. Antiquités Mexicaines, tom.

ii i . Exp . 9, PI. 36.

Dupaix speaks of these tools a s made of pure copper. Butdoubtless there was some alloy mix ed with it, as was practised bythe Aztecs and Egyptians ; otherwise their edges must have beeneasily turned by the hard substances on which they were employed.

”Wilkinson, Ancient Egyptians, vol. ii i. pp . 246—254.

so A n te, p . 155.

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

2 62 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

mind us of the Egyptian or of the Oriental . It is ,indeed, more conformable , in the perpendicu larelevation of the walls , the moderate size of thestones

,and the general arrangement of the parts ,

to the European. It must be admitted, however,to have a character of originality pecul iar to itself.More positive proofs of communication with the

East might be looked for in their sculpture and inthe conventional forms of their hieroglyphics .But the sculptures on the Palenque buildings arein relief, unlike the Egyptian, which are usually inin taglio . The E gyptians were not very successfulin their representations of the human figure , whichare on the same invariable model, always in profile,from the greater facility of execution this presentsover the front view ; the full eye is placed on theside of the head, while the countenance is similarin all, and perfectly destitu te of expression .

83

The Palenque artists were equally awkward inrepresenting the various attitudes of the body,which they delineated also in profile. But the partsare executed with much co rrectness, and sometimesgrace fully ; the costume is rich and various ; andthe ornamented head - dress, typical, perhaps, likethe Az tec, of the name and condition of the personrepresented, conforms in its magnificence to theOriental taste . The countenance is various, andoften expressive . The contour of the head is, in

l" The various causes of the stationary condition of art in Egypt,for so many ages, are clearly exposed by the Duke di Serradifalco,in his A n tichita della Sicilia (Palermo, 1834, tom . ii. pp . 33, awork in which the author, while illustrating the antiquities of a littleisland, has thrown a flood of light on the arts and literary cultureof ancient Greece.

ORIGIN OF MEXICAN CIVILIZATION 263

deed, most extraordinary, describing almost a semicircle from the forehead to the tip of the nose, andcontracted towards the crown , whether from theartificial pressure practised by many of the aborigin es , or from some preposterous notion of idealbeauty.

84 But, while superior in the execution o f

the details , the Palenque artist was far inferior tothe Egyptian in the number and variety of theobjects displayed by him, which on the Thebantemples comprehend animals as well as men, andalmost every conceivable obj ect o f use or elegantart .

The hieroglyphics are too few on the Americanbuildings to authorize any decisive inference . Oncomparing them, however, with those of the Dresden Codex , probably from this same quarter o f thecountry,

85 with those on the monument o f Xochicalco, and with the ruder picture -writing of theAztecs, it is not easy to discern anything which indicates a common system . Still less obvious is theresemblance to the Egyptian characters, whose refined and delicate abbreviations approach almost

The ideal is not always the beauti ful , as Winckelmann trulysays, referring to the Egyptian figures . (H istoire de l ’A rt chez lesAnciens, liv. 4, chap . 2 , trad. Fr . ) It is not impo ssible, however,that the portraits mentioned in the text may be copies from life.Some of the rude tribes of America distorted their infants’ headsinto forms quite as fantastic ; and Garcilaso de la Vega speaks of anation discovered by the Spani ards in Florida, with a formationapparently not unlike the Palenque : “Tien en cabezas increiblem an ta la rgas , y aha s ada s pa ra a rriba , que las ponen asi con artifi

cio, atandose las desde e l punto, que nasceu las criaturas, hasta queso n de nueve 6 diez afios .

” La Florida (Madrid, p . 190.

3° For a notice of this remarkable codex, see a n te, p. 119. Thereis , indeed, a resemblance, in the use of straight lines and dots,between the Palenque writ ing and the Dresden MS. Possibly thesedots denoted years, like the rounds in the Mexican system.

2 64: CONQUEST OF MEXICO

to the simplicity of an alphabet . Yet the Palenquewriting shows an advanced stage of the art , and,though somewhat clumsy, intimates , by the convention al and arbitrary forms of the hieroglyphics ,that it was symbolical, and perhaps phonetic , in itscharacter.80 That its mysterious import will everbe deciphered is scarcely to be expected. Thelanguage of the race who employed it, the raceitself, is unknown . And it is not likely that another Rosetta stone will be found, with its trilingual inscription, to supply the means of comparison, and to guide the American Champollion in thepath of discovery.

It is impossible to contemplate these mysteriousmonuments of a lost civilization without a strongfeeling of curiosity as to who were their architectsand what is their probable age . The data on whichto rest our conj ectures of their age are not verysubstantial ; although some find in them a warrantfor an antiquity of thousands of years , coeval withthe architecture of Egypt and H indostan .

87 Butthe interpretation of hieroglyphics , and the apparent duration of trees , are vague and un satisfac

8" The hieroglyphics are arranged in perpendicular lines. The headsare uniformly turned towards the right, as in the Dresden MS .

97 Les ruines,” says the enthusiastic chevalier Le Noir, “sansnom, a qui l

’on a donné celui de P a len qu e , peuvent remonter comme

les plus anciennes ruines du monde a trois mill e ans . Ceci n’est pointm on Opinion seule ; c’est celle de tou s les voyageurs qui ont vu lesruines dont il s’agit, de tous les archéologues qui en ont examinéles dessins o n In les descriptions, enfin des historiens qui ont faitdes recherches, et qui n ’

on t rien trouvé dans les annal es du mondequi fasse soupcon n er l’époqu e de la fondation de tels monuments,dont l’o rigin e se perd dans la nuit des temps.” (Antiquités Mexicaines, tom. ii ., Examen, p . Colonel Galindo, fired with the contemplation of the American ruins, pronounces th is country the true

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

2 66 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

would be decisive of a very great antiquity. Butin the rich soil of Yucatan, and under the ardentsun of the tropics , vegetation bursts forth with irrepressible exuberance, and generations of plantssucceed each otherWithout intermission, leaving anaccumulation of deposits that would have perishedunder a northern winter. Another evidence oftheir age is afforded by the circumstance that ino n e of the courts of Uxmal the granite pavement,alt

on which the figures of tortoises were raised in relief, is worn nearly smooth by the feet of thecrowds who have passed over it ; 91 a curious fact,suggesting inferences both in regard to the age andpopulation of the place. Lastly, we have authorityfor carrying back the date of many of these ruinsto a certain period, since they were found in adeserted, and probably dilapidated, state by thefirst Spaniards who entered the country. Theirnotices, indeed, are brief and casual, for theold Conquerors had little respect for works ofart ; 9 2 and it is fortunate for these structures

existence of thes e buildings ; especially considering that the accum u

lation was in the sheltered position of an interior court .9‘Waldeck, Voyage en Yucatan, p. 97.The chaplain of Grij alva speaks with admiration of the“lofty

towers of stone and lime, some of them very ancient,” found in Yucatan . ( Itinerario, MS. Bernal Diaz , with similar expressions of wonder, refers the curious antique relics found there to theJews. (H ist. de la Conquista, cap. 2 , Alvarado, in a letter to

[Ober, Travels in Mexico, p. 76. This granite pavement withits carven tortoises has never been seen by mortal man, althoughdescribed by the unreliable and wonder- seeking Waldeck. It is truethat there are many sculptures of this kind in Uxmal, but only onthe doors and cornices , Ancona in his history says, Estes tortugas ,expuestas a las piedras de la muchedumbre, solo han existido en laim agin acion de Waldeck .” Ancona was the native historian ofYucatan .—M.]

ORIGIN OF MEXICAN CIVILIZATION 2 67

that they had ceased to be the living templeso f the gods , since no merit of architecture,probably, would have availed to save themfrom the general doom of the monuments ofMexico .If we find it so difficult to settle the age of thesebuildings, what can we h0pe to know of their architects ? Little can be gleaned from the rude peopleby whom they are surrounded. The old Tezcucanchronicler so often quoted by me, the best authorityfor the traditions of his country, reports that theToltecs , on the breakin g up of their empire,which he places earlier than most authorities , in themiddle of the tenth century,—migratin g fromAnahuac, spread themselves over Guatemala, Tehuantepec, Campeachy, and the coasts and neigh

Cortes , expatiates o n the“maravillosos et grandes edificio s to beseen in Guatemala. (Oviedo, H ist . de las Ind ., MS ., lib. 33, cap.

According to Co golludo, the Spaniards, who could get no tradition of their origin, referred them to the Phce n icians or Garthagin ian s . (H ist. de Yucatan, l ib. 4, cap. He cites the followingemphatic notice of these remains from Las Casas : Ciertamentela tierra de Yucathan da 6 entender cosas mui especiales, y de mayoranti guedad, por las grandes , admirables, y excessivas maneras deedificios, y letreros de ciertos caracteres, que e n otra ninguna partese hallan. (Loc. cit. ) Even the inquisitive Martyr has collectedno particulars respecting them, merely noticing the buildings of thisregion with general expressions of admiration . (De Insul is nuperInven tis , pp . 334 What is quite as surprising is the silence ofCo rtes , who traversed the country forming the base of Yucatan, inhis famous expedition to Honduras, of which he has given many details we would gladly have exchanged for a word respecting theseinteres ting memorials . Carta Quinta de Cortés, MS.

—I must addthat some remarks in the above paragraph in the text woul d havebeen omitted, had I enj oyed the benefit of Mr. Stephen s ’

s researcheswhen it was originally written. This is especially the case with thereflections on the probable condition of these structures at the timeof the Conquest ; when some of them would appear to have been stillused for their original purposes.

2 68 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

boring isles on both sides of the Isthmus .9 3 Thisassertion

,important, considering its source, is con

firmed by the fact that several of the nations in thatquarter adopted systems of astronomy and ebron o logy, as well as sacerdotal institutions, very similar to the Aztec,

94 which , as we have seen, were alsoprobably derived from the Toltecs , their morepolished predecessors in the land .

If so recent a date for the construction of theAmerican buildings be thought incompatible withthis oblivion of their origin , it should be remembered how treacherous a thing is tradition, and howeasily the links of the chain are severed . The builders of the pyramids had been forgotten before thetime of the earliest Greek historians .9 5 The anti

qu ary still disputes whether the frightful inclin ation of that architectural miracle , the tower ofPisa, standing, as it does , in the heart of a popul ouscity, was the work of accident or design. And wehave seen how soon the Tezcucans , dwelling amidstthe ruins of their royal palaces, built just beforethe Conquest, had forgotten their history, while the“3 Asimismo los ’

I\11tecas que escaparon se fueron por las costasdel Mar del Sur y Norte, como son H u atim a la , Tecuantepec, Cu auhz acu a lco , Campechy, Tecolotlan, y los de las Islas y Costas de unamar y otra, que de spu es se vinieron a mul tiplicar.” Ixtlilxochitl,Relaciones, MS ., No. 5 .

9‘ Herrera, H ist. general, dec. 4, lib. 10, cap . 1- 4.—Cogolludo, H ist.

de Yucatan, lib. 4, cap . 5 .—Pet. Martyr, De In su lis , ubi supra —M.

Waldeck comes to j ust the Opposite inference, namely, that the inhabitants of Yucatan were the true sources of the Toltec and Azteccivilization. (Voyage en Yucatan, p . Doubt must be our lotin everything,” excla ims the honest Captain Dupaix, the tru e fa itha lways excepted.

” Antiquités Mexicaines, tom. i. p. 21.“5 Inter omnes eos non constat a quibus factze sint, ju stissim o

casu, obliteratis tantas vanitatis au cto ribu s .

” Pliny, H ist. Nat., lib.36, cap. 17.

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

270 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

iron, for example ; arts so simple, yet so importantto domestic comfort, that when once acquired theycould hardly be lost.The Az tecs had no useful domesticated animals .And we have seen that they employed bronze , as asubstitute for iron, for all mechanical purposes .The bison, or wild cow of America, however, whichranges in countless herds over the magnificentprairies of the west, yields milk like the tame animal of the same species in Asia and Europe ; 9 8

and iron was scattered in large masses over the surface of the table - land . Yet there have been peopleconsiderably civilized in E astern Asia who werealmost equally strangers to the u s e of milk.

9 9 Thebuff alo range was not so much on the westerncoast as on the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains ; 100 and the migratory Aztec might well

“9 The mixed breed, from the buff alo and the European stock, wasknown formerly in the northwestern counti es of Virginia, says Mr.Gallatin (Synopsis, sec . who is , however, mistaken in assertingthat the bison is not known to have ever bee n domesticated by theIndians.” (Ubi supra. ) Gomara Speaks of a nation, dwelling about40° north latitude, o n the northwestern borders of New Spain, whosechief weal th was in droves of these cattle (buyes con u na giba sobrela cru z, oxen with a hump on the from which theygot their clothing, food, and drink, which last, however, appears tohave been only the blood of the animal . H istoria de las Indias, cap.

214, ap. Barcia, tom. ii .“The people of parts of China, for example, and, above all, ofCochin China, who never milk their cows, according to Macartney,cited by Humboldt, Essai politiqu e, tom. i ii . p . 58, note. See, also,p. 118.

The native regions of the buffalo were the vast prairies of theM issouri, and they wandered over the long reach of country east ofthe Rocky Mountains, from 55

° north, to the headwaters of thestreams between the M ississippi and the R io del Norte. The Columbia plains, says Gallatin, were as naked of game as of trees. (Syn op

ORIGIN OF MEXICAN CIVILIZATION 271

doubt whether the wild, uncouth monsters whom heoccasionally saw bounding with such fury over thedistant plains were capable of domestica tion, likethe meek animals which he had left grazing in thegreen pastures of Asia . Iron , too, though metwith on the surface of the ground , was more tenacions , and harder to work , than Copper, whichhe also found in much greater quantities on hisroute . It is possible, moreover, that his migration may have been previous to the time when ironwas used by his nation ; for we have seen morethan one people in the Old World employingbronze and copper with entire ignorance, apparently, of any more serviceable —Such

sis , sec. That the bison was sometimes found also on the otherside of the mountains, is plain from Gom ara

’

s statement. (H ist. delas Ind ., loc. cit. ) See, also, Laet, who traces their southern wanderings to the river Vaqu imi in the province of Cinaloa, o n theCali fornia Gul f. Novus Orbis (Lugd. Bat., p . 286.

1m A n te , p . 155.

Thus LucretiusE t prior saris e rat, quam ferr i cogn itu s usus ,Quo rac ilis magis e s t natura. e t co pia m ajor.E re so lum te rrae tractaba n t , m re q ue be l liMisceba n t fluctus .

"

DE RE R UMNATUR A , lib. 5.

According to Carli, the Chinese were acquainted with iron 3000years before Christ . (Lettres Americ., tom . ii . p . Sir J . G.

Wilkinson, in an elaborate inquiry into its first appea rance amongthe people of E u rOpe and Western Asia, finds no traces of it earlierthan the sixtee nth century before the Christian era. (AncientEgyptians, vol. ii i. pp. 241 The origin of the most useful artsis lost in darkness . Their very utility is one cause of this, fromthe rapidity with which they are difi‘

u sed among d istant nations.Another cause is, that in the first ages of the discovery m en aremore occupied with availing themselves of it than with recordingits history ; until time turns history into fiction. Instances are famil iar to every school- boy.

272 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

is the explanation, unsatisfactory, indeed , butthe best that suggests itself, of this curiousanomaly.

The consideration of these and similar difficultieshas led some writers to regard the antique American civilization as purely indigenous . Whicheverway we turn, the subj ect is full of embarrassment .It is easy, indeed, by fastening the attention onone portion of it, to come to a conclusion . In thisway, while some feel little hesitation in pron ou n cing the American civilization original, others , noless certainly, discern in it a Hebrew, or an Egyptian, or a Chinese , or a Tartar origin, as theireyes are attracted by the light of analogy tooexclusively to this or the other quarter. Thenumber of contradictory lights , of itself, perplexesthe judgment and prevents us from arrivingat a precise and positive inference . Indeed, theaff ectation of this , in so doubtful a matter,argues a most unphilosophical mind . Yet wherethere is most doubt there is often the mostdogmatism.

The reader of the preceding pages may perhapsacquiesce in the general conclusions ,—not startlingby their novelty,First, that the coincidences are sufficiently strongto authorize a belief that the civilization of Anahuac was in some degree influenced by that ofEastern Asia .And, secondly, that the discrepancies are such asto carry back the communication to a very remoteperiod ; so remote that this foreign influence hasbeen too feeble to interfere materially with the

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

OF MEXICO

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

278 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

trade,manufactures, and even the more elegant

arts,began to flourish ; while a higher education

called forth the first blossoms of that literaturewhich was to ripen into so rich a harvest beforethe close of the century. Arms abroad kept pacewith arts at home . Spain found her empire sudden ly enlarged by important acquisitions both inEurope and Africa, while a New World beyondthe waters poured into her lap treasur es of coun tless wealth and opened an unbounded field forhonorable enterprise .Such was the condition of the kingdom at theclose of the long and glorious reign of Ferdin andand Isabella, when, on the 2 3d of January, 1516,the sceptre passed into the hands of their daughterJoanna, or rather their grandson,ale Charles the

[The grandson of Ferdinand and Isabell a was not Charles theFifth when the sceptre of Spain was thrust into his hands becausehis mother Joanna was unfit to rule. Charles called himself kin gwhen he made his triumphal entry into Val ladolid in 1517. Butit was only with the greatest difficul ty that the Cortes of Castilewas induced to accept him as titular so vereign in con ju n ction with

his m other. Her name was to take precedence of his in all royaldocuments. Until her death in 1555, the year before her son’s abdication, Joanna was the rightful sovereign o f Spain. Charles waselected emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in 1519, only twoyears after he had assumed the control of Spanis h affairs. It isnot remarkable, therefore, that he should be known to most peopleonly by the more important title. Charles was born in Ghent, Febru ary 24, 1500. H is father was Philip the Fair, the heir of theGerm an possessions of the house of Hapsburg, and the territories ofthe house of Burgundy. When the marriage of Philip and Joanna was arranged no one dreamed that their so n would succeedto the crown of Spain, for Joanna’s elder brother and elder sisterwere both alive. Charles scarcely knew his parents. When Isabellaof Castil e died his father and mother went to Spain to take possession of the kingdom she had left to her daughter. This was in 1506,and from that t ime until 1517Charles did not see his mother. His

character was slow in forming. Only in athletic sports did he ea rlyachieve success. In 1517the Papal legate Campeggi declared him

1517] SPAIN UNDER CHAR LES V 279

F ifth , who alone rul ed the monarchy during thelong and imbecile existence of his unfortu natemother. During the two years following Ferdin and

’

s death , the regency, in the absence ofCharles, was held by Cardinal Ximenes , a manwhose intrepidity, extraordin ary talents, and ca

pacity for great enterprises were accompanied bya haughty spirit, which made him too indiff erent asto the means of their execution . His administration, therefore, notwithstandin g the uprightnessof his intentions , was , from his total disregard offorms, unfavorable to constitutional liberty ; forrespect for forms is an essential element of freedom . With all his faults, however, Ximenes wasa Spaniard ; and the obj ect he had at heart wasthe good of his country.

It was otherwise on the arrival of Charles, who ,after a long absence , came as a foreigner into theland of his fathers . (November, H ismann ers , sympathies , even his langu age , were foreigh , for he spoke the Castilian w ith difficulty. Heknew little of his native country, of the characterof the people or their institutions . He seemed tocare still less for them ; while his natural reserveprecluded that freedom of commun ication whichmight have counteracted, to some extent, at least,the errors of education . In everything, in short,

more fit to be governed than to govern . He was never a good scholar,and was a singularly bad linguis t . French was the language he firstlearned to speak. H is native tongu e, Flemish, he did not begin tolearn until he was thirteen . When he went to Spain he knew solittl e Spanish that one of the first demands made by the Cortes ofCastile was that he should learn that language. He never thoroughlymastered German .—M. ]

2 80 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

he was a foreigner, and resigned himself to thedirection of his Flemish counsellors w ith a docilitythat gave little augury of his future greatness .On his entrance into Castile, the young monarchwas accompanied by a swarm of courtly syco

phan ts , who settled, like locusts, on every place ofprofit and honor throughout the kingdom. AFleming was made grand chancellor of

i

Castile ;

another Fleming was placed in the archiepiscopalsee of Toledo . They even ventured to profane thesanctity of the Cortes , by intruding themselves onits deliberations . Yet that body did not tamelysubmit to these usurpations , but gave vent to itsindignation in tones becoming the representativesof a free people .1

The deportment of Charles, so diff erent fromthat to which the Spaniards had been accustomedunder the benign administration of Ferdinand andIsabella, closed all hearts against him ; and, as hischaracter came to be understood, instead of thespontaneous outpourings of loyalty which usuallygreet the accession of a new and youthful sovereign , he was everywhere encountered by opposi

1The following passage—one among many—from that faithfulmirror of the times, Peter Martyr’s correspondence, does ample j ustice to the intemperance, avarice, and intolerable arrogance of theFlemings . The testimony is worth the more, as coming from onewho, though resident in Spain, was not a Spaniard. Crum en as

auro ful cire inhian t ; huic u ni studio invigilan t . Nec detrectat juvenis Rex. Farcit qu acu nqu e posse datu r ; n on satiat tamem. Qu ze

qu alisve sit gens haec, depingere adhu c nescio. In su ffiat vul gus hicin omne genus hom in um n on arctoum . M inores faciu n t H ispanos,quam si nati esse n t inter corum cloacas . R ugiun t j am Hispan i,labra mordent, subm u rm u rant taciti, fatorum vices tal es esse conqu e run tu r , quod ipsi dom ito re s regn oru m ita floccifian t ab his,quorum Deus u n icu s ( sub rege temperato ) Bacchus est cum Citherca .

” Opus E pistolarum (Am stelodam i, ep. 608.

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

2 82 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

The same pestilent foreign influence was felt,though much less sensibly, in the colonial administration . This had be en placed, in the precedingreign, under the immediate charge of the twogreat tribunals, the Council of the Indies , andthe Casa de Con tra tacion , or India House , at Seville . It was their business to further the progressof discovery, watch over the infant settlements ,and adjust the disputes which grew up in them .

But the licenses granted to private adventurersdid more for the cause of discovery than the patromage of the crown or its officers . The longpeace

,enj oyed with slight interruption by Spain

in the early part of the sixteenth century, wasmost auspicious for this ; and the restless cavalier, who could no longer win laurels on the fieldsof Africa or Europe , turned with eagerness

country ” of Charles V., and the“land of his fathers, although,as hardly any reader will need to be rem inded, he was born in theNetherlands and was of Spanish descent only o n the maternal side.The term foreigner ” is applied to him as if it indicated somevicious trait in his nature ; and the training which he had receivedas the heir to the Austro- Burgundian dominions is spoken of aserroneo us, merely because it had not fitted him for a different positiou. H is manners are contras ted with those of native Spanishsovereigns, as i f wanting in graciousness and afl’

ability; yet theSpaniards, who alone ever made this complaint, recognize d their ownideal of royal demeanor in that of the taciturn and phlegmaticPhilip I I. In like manner, Charles is supposed to have made hisfirst acquaintance with free institutions o n his arrival in Spain ;whereas he had been brought up in a country where the power of thesovereign was perhaps more closely restricted by the charteredrights and immun ities of the subj ect than was the case in any otherpart of Europe. That the union of Spain and the Netherlands wasa most incongruous one, disastrous to the freedom, the independence,and the development of both countries, is undeniable ; but it wasnot Charles’s early partiality for the one, but his successor’s farstronger partiality for the other, which rendered the incompatibilityapparent and led to a rupture of the connection. -K.]

1517] COLONIZATION 2 83

to the brilliant career opened to him beyond theocean .

It is difficult for those of our time, as familiarfrom childhood with the most remote places on theglobe as with those in their own neighborhood , topicture to themselves the feelings of the men wholived in the sixteenth century. The dread mysterywhich had so long hung over the great deep had,in deed, been removed . It was no longer beset withthe same un defined horrors as when Columbuslaunched his bold bark on its dark and un knownwaters . A new and glorious world had beenthrown open . But as to the precise spot where thatworld lay, its extent , its history, whether it wereisland or continent, —o f all this they had veryvague and confused conceptions . Many, in theirignorance, blindly adopted the erroneous conclusion into which the great Admiral had been led byhis superior science,—that the new countries werea part of Asia ; and, as the mariner wanderedamong the Bahamas , or steered his caravel acrossthe Caribbean Seas, he fancied he was inhaling therich odors of the spice - islands in the Indian Ocean.

Thus every fresh discovery, interpreted by thisprevious delusion, served to confirm him in hiserror, or, at least, to fil l his mind with new per

plexitie s .

The career thus thrown open had all the fascinations of a desperate hazard, on which the adventurer staked all his hopes of fortune , fame , andlife itse lf. It was not often, indeed , that he wonthe rich prize which he most coveted ; but then hewas sure to win the meed of glory, scarcely less

2 84 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

dear to his chivalrous spirit ; and, if he survived toreturn to his home, he had wonderful stories to recoun t, o f perilous chances among the strange people he had visited, and the burning climes whoserank fertility and magnificence of vegetation sofar surpassed anything he had witnessed in hisown . These reports added fresh fuel to imaginations already warmed by the study of those talesof chivalry which formed the favorite reading ofthe Spaniards at that period . Thus romance andreality acted on each other, and the soul of theSpaniard was exalted to that pitch of enthusiasmwhich enabled him to encounter the terrible trialsthat lay in the path of the discoverer. Indeed, thelife of the cavalier of that day was romance putinto action . The story of his adventures in theNew World forms one of the most remarkablepages in the history of man .

Under this chivalrous spirit of ente rprise, theprogress of discovery had extended, by the beginning of Charles the Fifth ’s reign , from the Bay ofHonduras, along the winding shores of Darien,and the South Am erican continent, to the Rio dela Plata. The mighty barrier of the Isthmus hadbe en climbed , and the Pacific descried , by Nufiez

de Balboa, second only to Columbus in this valiantband of ocean chivalry.

” The Bahamas andCaribbee Islands had been explored, as well as thePeninsula of Florida on the northern continent .This latter point had been reached by SebastianCabot in his descent along the coast from Labrador, in 1497. So that before 1518, the period whenour narrative begins, the eastern borders of both

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

2 86 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

cans, - who devoted themselves to the good workof conversion in the New World with the same zealthat they showed for persecution in the Old, —but,abo ve all, those of Las Casas, induced the regent,Ximenes, to send out a commission with full powers to inquire into the alleged grievances and to redress them . It had authority, moreover, to investigate the conduct of the civil officers, and toreform any abuses in their administration . Thisextraordin ary commission consisted of three H ieronym ite friars and an eminent jurist, all men oflearnin g and unblemished piety.

They conducted the inquiry in a very dispassionate manner, but, after long deliberation, came toa conclusion most unfavorable to the demands ofLas Casas, who insisted on the entire freedom ofthe natives . This conclusion they justified on thegrounds that the Indian s would not labor withoutcompulsion, and that, unless they labored, theycould not be brought in to communication with thewhites, nor be converted to Christianity. Whatever we may think of this argument, it was doubtless urged with sincerity by its advocates, whoseconduct through their whole administration placestheir motives above suspicion . They accompaniedit with many careful provisions for the protectionof the natives . But in vain . The simple people,accustomed all their days to a life of indolence andease, sank under the oppressions of their masters ,and the population wasted away with even morefrightful rapidity than did the aborigines in ou r

own country under the operation of other causes .It is not necessary to pursue these details further,

1511] DISCOVERY OF CUBA 2 87

into which I have been led by the desire to put thereader in possession of the general policy and stateof affairs in the New World at the period whenthe present narrative begins .3

Of the islan ds, Cuba was the second discovered ;but no attempt had been made to plant a colonythere during the lifetime of Columbus , who , indeed, after skirting the whole extent of its southern coast, died in the conviction that it was partof the continent .4 At length , in 1511, D iego, theson and successor of the Adm iral ,

” who stillmaintained the seat of governm ent in H ispan io la ,

ale

finding the mines much exhausted there , proposedto occupy the neighboring island of Cuba, or Fernandina, as it was called in compliment to theSpanish monarch .

5 He prepared a small forcefor ' the conquest, which he placed un der the comman d of Don D iego Velasquez ; a man describedby a contemporary as possessed of considerable

I will take the liberty to refer the reader who is des irous of bein gmore minutely acquainted with the Spanish colonial administrationand the sta te of discovery previous to Charles V., to the H istoryof the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabel la ”

(Part 2 , ch. 9, wherethe subj ect is trea ted in ex tens o.1See the curious document attesting this, and drawn up by order

of Co lumbus, ap. Navarr ete, Co leccion de los Viages y de Descubrim ien tos (Madrid, tom . i i. Col . Dip ., No. 76.

The island was original ly called by Co lumbus Juana, in honor ofPrince John, heir to the Castil ian crown . After his death it receivedthe name of Fern andina, at the king's desire. The Indian name hassurvived both. Herrera, H ist. general, Descrip., cap. 6.

[Now Haiti and Santo Domingo .—M. ]1[All the documents relative to the commission sent out byXimenes, in cluding many reports from the commissioners, havebe en printed in the Co l . de Doc. in éd. relativos al Descubrimiento,Conquista y Co lonizacion de las Posesiones es pafiolas en Américay Oceania, tom . i.—K. ]

2 88 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

expe rience in military affairs, having served seven teen years in the European wars ; as honest, illu striou s by his lineage and reputation, covetous ofglory, and somewhat more covetous of wealth .

” 6

The portrait was sketched by no unfriendly hand.

Velasquez , or rather his lieutenant, Narvaez,who took the office on himself of scouring thecountry, met with no serious opposition from thein habitants, who were of the same family with theeff eminate natives of H ispaniola . The conquest,through the merciful interposition of Las Casas,the protector of the Indians,

” who accompaniedthe army in its march , was effected without muchbloodshed . One chief, indeed, named Hatuey,havin g fled originally from St. Domingo to escapethe oppression of its invaders , made a desperateresistance, for which he was condemn ed by Velasquez to be burned alive . It was he who made thatmemorable reply, more eloquent than a volume ofinvective. When urged at the stake to embraceChristianity, that his soul might find admissioninto heaven , he inquired if the white men wouldgo there . On being answered in the affirmative, heexclaimed , Then I will not be a Christian ; forI would not go again to a place where I must findmen so cruel! 7

After the conquest , Velasquez, now appointed

Erat Didacu s , u t hoc in loco de eo semel tantum dicam u s , veteranns miles, rei militaris guarus, quippe qui septem et decem anuosin H ispania m ilitiam exercitu s fu e rat, homo probus, opibu s, generee t fama clarus , honoris cupidu s , pecu n iae aliqu an to cupidior . DeRebus ge stis Ferdinandi Co rte sii, MS .7The story is told by Las Casas in his appalling record of thecruelties of his countrymen in the New World, which charity—and

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

2 90 CONQUEST OF ME XICO

encountered a succession of heavy gales whichdrove him far out of his course, and at the end ofthree weeks he found him self on a strange andunknown coast . On landing and asking the nameof the country, he was answered by the natives,Tectetan ,

” meaning, I do not understandyou,

” —but which the Spaniards, misinterpretinginto the name of the place, easily corruptedinto Yucatan . Some writers give a diff erentetymology.

9 Such mistakes, however, were notuncommon with the early discoverers , and havebeen the origin of many a name on the Americancontinent.10

Cordova had landed on the northeastern end ofthe peninsula, at Cape Catoche . He was astonished at the size and solid materials of the buildings, constructed of stone and lime, so differentfrom the frail tenements of reeds and ru shes whichformed the habitations of the islanders . He wasstruck, also, with the higher cultivation of the soil,and with the delicate texture of the cotton garments and gold ornaments of the natives . Everything indicated a civilization far superior to anything he had before witnessed in the New World .

He saw the evidence of a different race, moreover,Gomara, H istoria de las Indias, cap . 52 , ap. Barcia, tom. 11.—Ber

nal D iaz says the word came from the vegetable yu ca , and ta le thename for a hillock in which it is planted . (H ist. de la Conquista,cap . M. Waldeck finds a much more plausible derivation in theIndian word Ouyou cka tan , “listen to what they say.

” Voyage pittore squ e , p. 25 .

Two navigators, Solis and Pinzon, had descried the coast as farback as 1506, according to Herre ra, though they had not taken possession o f it. (H ist. general, dec. 1, lib . 6, cap . It is, indeed,remarkable it shou ld so long have eluded discovery, considering thatit is but two degrees distant from Cuba.

1518] EXPEDITIONS TO YUCATAN 2 91

in the warlike spirit of the people . Rumors of theSpaniards had, perhaps, preceded them, as theywere repeatedly asked if they came from the east ;and wherever they landed they were met with themost deadly hostility. Cordova himself, in one ofhis skirmishes with the Indians , received more thana dozen wounds, and one only of his party escapedunhurt . At length , when he had coasted the peninsul a as far as Campeachy, he returned to Cuba ,which he reached after an absence of severalmonths, having suff ered all the extremities of illwhich these pioneers of the ocean were sometimescalled to endure, and which none but the mostcourageous spirit could have survived . As it was,half the original number, consistin g of one hundred and ten men, perished, includin g their bravecommander, who died soon after his return . Thereports he had brought back of the coun try, and ,still more, the specimens of curiously wroughtgold , convinced Velasquez of the importance ofthis discovery, and he prepared with all despatchto avail himself of it.

l l

He accordingly fitted out a little squadron offour vessels for the newly- discovered lands, andplaced it under the comm and of his nephew, Juande Grij alva, a man on whose probity, prudence,and attachment to himself he knew he could rely.

The fleet left the port of St . Jago de Cuba ,May 1,

u Oviedo , General y natural H istoria de las Indias , MS., lib. 33,cap. 1.

—De Rebus gestis , MS.—Carta del Cabildo de Vera Cruz

(July 10, MS.—Bernal Diaz denies that the origina l obj ect of

the expedition, in which he too k part , was to procure slaves, thoughVelasquez had proposed it. (H ist. de la Conquista, cap . But heis contradicted in this by the other contemporary records above cited .

2 92 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

It took the course pursued by Cordova ,but was driven somewhat to the south , the firstland that it made being the island of Cozumel .From this quarter Grij alva soon passed over to thecontin ent, and coasted the peninsula, touching atthe same place as his predecessor. Everywhere hewas struck, like him, with the evidences of a highercivilization, especially in the architecture ; as hewell might be, since this was the region of those extraordin ary remains which have become recentlythe subj ect of so much speculation . He was aston ished, also, at the sight of large stone crosses,evidently obj ects of worship, which he met within various places . Reminded by these circumstances o f his own country, he gave the peninsulathe name of New Spain, a name since appro

priated to a much wider extent of territory.

13

Wherever Grij alva landed , he experienced thesame unfriendly reception as Cordova ; though hesuffered less , being better prepared to meet it. Inthe R io de Tabasco , or Grijalva , as it is oftencalled, after him, he held an amicable conferencewith a chief who gave him a number of gold platesfashioned into a sort of armor. As he woun dround the Mexican coast, one of his captains, P e

dro de Alvarado,afterwards famous in the Con

1’ Itinerario de la Isola de Iuchathan , novamente ritrovata per ilSignor Joan de Grij alva, per il su o Capellan o , MS.

—The chaplain’ sword may be taken for the date, which is usually put at the eighthof April.

13 De Rebu s gestis, MS.—Itinerario del Capellan o , MS.

[The fleet left Santiago, April 8, 1518, and Cape san Antonio,May 1.

—M.]

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

2 94 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

pectation s—he had accomplished the chief obj ectof his mission. He steadily refused the solicitations of his followers to plant a colony on the spot,—a work of no little difficulty in so populous andpowerful a country as this appeared to be. Tothis, indeed , he was inclined, but deemed it contrary to his instructions, which limited him to barter with the natives . He therefore despatchedAlvarado in one of the caravels back to Cuba , withthe treasure and such intelligence as he had gleanedof the great empire in the interior, and then pu rsued his voyage along the coast.He touched at San Juan de Ulua, and at the

Isla de los Sacrificios , so called by him from thebloody remains of human victims foun d in one ofthe temples. He then held on his course as far asthe province of Panuco , where, findin g some difficulty in doubling a boisterous headland, be re

turned o n his track, and , after an absence o f nearlysix months, reached Cuba in safety. Grij alva hasthe glory of being the first navigator who set footon the Mexican soil and opened an intercourse withthe Aztecs .16

On reaching the island, he was surprised to learnthat another and more formidable armament hadbeen fitted out to follow up his own discoveries,and to find orders , at the same time , from the govem o r , couched in no very courteous language, torepair at once to St. Jago . He was received bythat personage not merely with coldn ess , but withreproaches for having neglected so fair an opportu n ity of establishing a colony in the country heItinerario del Capell ano , MS.

—Carta de Vera Cruz, MS.

1518] EXPEDITIONS TO YUCATAN 2 95

had visited. Velasquez was one of those caption sspirits who, when things do not go exactly to theirminds, are sur e to shift the responsibility of thefailu re from their own shoulders , where it shouldlie, to those of others . He had an ungenerous nature, says an old wr iter, credulous , and easilymoved to su spicion .

17 In the present instance itwas most unmerited . Grij alva , naturally a modest, unassuming person, had acted in obedience tothe instructions of his commander, given beforesailing, and had done this in opposition to his ownjudgment and the importunities of his followers .H is conduct merited anything but censure from hisemployer.18

When Alvarado had returned to Cuba with hisgolden freight, and the accounts of the rich empireofMexico which he had gathered from the natives,the heart of the governor swelled with rapture ashe saw his dreams of avarice and ambition so likelyto be realized . Impatient of the long absence ofGrij alva, he despatched a vessel in search of himunder the command of Olid, a cavalier who tookan important part afterwards in the Conquest.F inally he resolved to fit out another armament ona sufficient scale to insure the subjugation of thecountry.

He previously solicited authority for this from

" “Hombre de terr ible condicion,” says Herrera, citing the goodBisho p of Chiapa, “para los que le servian, i aiudaba n , i que facilmente se indign aba contra aquellos.” H ist. general, dec . 2 , lib. 3,cap . 10.

At least,such is the testimony of Las Casas, who knew both the

parties well, and had often conversed with Grij alva upon his voyage.H istoria general de las Indias, MS., lib. 3, cap. 113.

2 96 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

the Hieronymite commission in St . Domingo. Hethen despatched his chaplain to Spain with theroyal share of the gold brought from Mexico, and afull account of the intelligence gleaned there . Heset forth his own manifold services, and solicitedfrom the court full powers to go on with the conquest and colonization of the newly- discoveredregions .19 Before receiving an answer, he beganhis preparations for the armament, and, first of all,endeavored to find a suitable person to share theexpense of it and to take the command . Such aperson he foun d, after some difficu lty and delay, inHernando Cortés ; the man of all others best calcu lated to achieve this great enterprise —the lastman to whom Velasquez, could he have forese enthe results , would have confided it.

1" Itinerario del Cape llan o, MS .—Las Casas, H ist. de las Indias,

MS., lib. 3, cap . 113.—The most circums tantial account of Grij alva’s

expedition is to be found in the Itine ra ry of his chaplain abovequoted . The original is lost, but an indifferent Italian version waspublished at Venice in 152 2 . A copy, which belonged to FerdinandColumbus, is still extant in the library of the great church of Seville. The book had become so exceedingly rare, however, that thehistoriographer Munoz made a transcript of it with his own hand ;and from his manuscript that in my possession was taken.*

[Several editions of the I tinerario have been published . The mosteasily accessible may be found in the Co leccion de docu m en tos pa rala his toria de Mexico, e tc., tom. i.—M.]

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

UM ; fire man of all ot!“h ave this great en terpri

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

2 98 CONQUE ST OF MEXICO

the Gothic monarchy.

3 This royal genealogy wasnot found out till Cortés had acquired a namewhich would confer distinction on any descent,however noble. H is father, Mart in Cortés deMonroy, was a captain of infantry, in moderatecircumstances , but a man of unblemished honor ;and both he and his wife, Dona Catalina PizarroAltamirano , appear to have been much regardedfor their excellent qualities .4

In his infancy Cortés is said to have had a feebleconstitution, which strengthened as he grew older.

5

At fourteen, he was sent to Salamanca, as his father, who conceived great hopes from his quickand showy parts , proposed to educate him for thelaw, a profession which held out better in ducements to the young aspirant than any other. The

son, however, did not conform to these views . Heshowed little fondness for books , and, after loitering away two years at college , returned home, tothe great chagrin of his parents . Yet his time hadnot been wholly m isspent, since he had laid up a

Argensola, in particul ar, has bestowed great pa ins on the prosapiaof the house Of Co rtes ; which he traces up, nothing doubting, toNarn es Cortes, king Of Lombardy and Tuscany. Anales de Aragon(Zaragoza, pp. 621—625 .

—Also, Caro de Torres, H istoria delas Ordenes militares (Madrid, fol. 103 .

‘ De Rebus ge stis , MS.—Las Casas, who knew the father, bears

stronger testimony to his poverty than to his noble birth . U h

escudero,” he says of him, “que yo co noci harto pobre y humilde,aunque cristiano, viej o y diz en qu e hida lgo.” H ist. de las Indias,MS ., lib. 3, cap. 27.

[His parents had cast lots to decide which of the apostles shoul dbe chosen as his patron saint. The lot fell upon Peter, which ex

plains the especial devotion which Cortés professed, through hiswhole li fe, to that saint, to whose watchful care he attributed theimprovement in his health . Alaman, Disertacion es histéricas, tom. ii .p .

1503 ] HERNANDO CORTE S 999

little store of Latin, and learned to write goodprose , and even verses of some estimation, considering

—as an old writer quaintly remarksCortés as the author.” 6 He now passed his daysin the idle , unprofitable manner of one who, toowilful to be guided by others , proposes no objectto himself. His buoyant spirits were continuallybreaking out in troublesome frolics and capricioushumors, quite at variance with the orderly habits ofhis father’s household. He showed a particularinclin ation for the military profession, or ratherfor the life Of adventure to which in those days itwas sure to lead . And when, at the age of seventeen , he proposed to enroll himself under the banners of the Great Captain , his parents, probablythinking a life of hardship and hazard abroadpreferable to one of idleness at home, made no ob

jection .

The youthful cavalier, however, hesitated whether to seek his fortunes under that victoriouschief, or in the New World, where gold aswell as glory was to be won, and where the verydangers had a mystery and romance in them in

expressibly fascinating to a youthful fancy. Itwas in this direction, accordingly, that the hot spirits of that day foun d a vent, especially from thatpart of the coun try where Cortés lived , the neighbo rhood of Seville and Cadiz , the focus of nauticalenterprise . He decided on this latter course, and

Argensola, Anales , p . 2 20.—Las Casas and Bernal Diaz bo th state

that he was Bachelor of Laws at Salamanca. (H ist . de las Indias,MS. , ubi supra —H ist. de la Conquista, cap. The degree wasgiven probably in later life, when the University might feel a pridein claiming him among her sons .

300 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

an Opportunity offered in the splendid armamentfitted out un der Don Nicolas de Ovando, successorto Columbus . An unlucky accident defeated thepurpose of Cortés .7

As he was scaling a high wall, one night, whichgave him access to the apartment of a lady withwhom he was engaged in an intrigue, the stonesgave way, and he was thrown down with much violence and buried under the ruins . A severe contusion, though attended with no other serious consequences, confined him to his bed till after thedeparture of thefle et.

8

Two years longer he remained at home, profiting little, as it would seem, from the lesson he hadreceived. At length he availed himself of anotheropportunity presented by the departure of a smallsquadron of vessels bound to the Indian islands .He was nineteen years of age when he bade adieuto his native shores in 1504, - the same year inwhich Spain lost the best and greatest in her longline of prince s, Isabella the Catholic .The vessel in which Cortés sailed was com

m anded by one Alonso Quintero . The fleettouched at the Canaries, as was common in the outward passage . While the other vessels were detain ed there taking in supplies , Quintero secretlystole out by night from the islands, with the designof reaching H ispaniola and securing the marketbefore the arrival of his companions . A furiousstorm which he encountered, however, dismasted

" De Rebus ge stis , MS.—Gomara, Cronica, cap . 1.

3 De Rebus gestis , MS .—Gomara, Ibid.—Argensola states the cause

of his detention concisely enough : Su spendio el viaj e, por anom orado y por qu a rtana rio . Anal es, p . 621.

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

302 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

son ally known in Spain. Ovando was absent onan expedition into the interior, but the youn g manwas kindly received by the secretary, who assuredhim there would be no doubt of his obtain ing aliberal grant of land to settle on. But I cameto get gold, replied Cortés, not to till the soil ,like a peasant.”

On the governor’ s return, Cortés consented togive up his roving thoughts, at least for a time, asthe other labored to convince him that he would bemore likely to realize his wishes from the slow, in

deed, but sure, returns of husbandry, where thesoil and the laborers were a free gift to the planter,than by taking his chance in the lottery of adventure, in which there were so many blanks to a prize .He accordingly received a grant of land, with arepartimien to of Indians , and was appointed notary of the town or settlement of A qu a . Hisgraver pursuits, however, did not prevent his indu lgen ce of the amorous propensities which belongto the sunny clime where he was born ; and thisfrequently involved him in affairs of honor, fromwhich, though an expert swordsman, he carriedaway scars that accompanied him to his grave .11

He occasionally, moreover, found the means ofbreakin g up the monotony of his way of life byengaging in the military expeditions which , un derthe command of Ovando ’s lieutenant, D iego Velasqu ez , were employed to suppress the in su rrections of the natives . In this school the young ad

venturer first studied the wild tactics of Indianwarfare ; he became familiar with toil and danger,

Bern al D iaz, H ist. de la Conquista, cap. 203.

1511] SOJOURN IN CUBA 303

and with those deeds of cruelty which have tooOften, alas!stained the bright scutcheons of theCastilian chivalry in the New World . He wasonly prevented by illn ess—a most fortunate one,on this occasion—from embarking in Nicu essa ’

s

expedition, which furnished a tale of woe not oftenmatched in the ann als of Spanish discovery.

Providence reserved him for higher ends .At length, in 1511, when Velasquez undertookthe conquest of Cuba, Co rtes willingly abandonedhis quiet life for the stirring scenes there opened,and took part in the expedition . He displayed,throughout the invasion , an activity and couragethat won him the approbation of the commander ;while his free and cordial manners , his good humor and lively sallies of wit, made him the favoriteof the soldiers . He gave little evidence, says acontemporary, of the great qualities which heafterwards Showed.

” It is probable these qualitieswere not known to himself ; while to a commonobserver his careless manners and j ocund reparteesmight well seem incompatible with anything seriou s o r profoun d ; as the real depth of the currentis not suspected under the light play and sun nysparklin g of the surface .12

After the reduction of the island, Cortés seemsto have been held in great favor by Velasquez , nowappointed its govern or. According to Las Casas ,he was made one of his se cretaries .13 He still re

De Rebus gestis, MS.—Gomara, Crénica, cap . 3, 4.

- Las Casas ,H ist . de las Indias , MS., lib. 3, cap. 27.

” H ist.de las Indias, MS., loc. cit. Res omnes arduas diffici

lesqu e per Co rtes ium , quem in dies magis m agisqu e amplecteba tu r,

304 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

tain ed the same fondness for gallantry, for whichhis handsome person afforded obvious advantages,but which had more than once brought him intotrouble in earlier life . Am ong the families whohad taken up their residence in Cuba was one ofthe name of Kuarez, from Granada in Old Spain .

It consisted Of a brother, and four sisters remarkable for their beauty. With one of them, namedCatalina, the susceptible heart of the young soldier became enamored .

14 How far the intimacywas carried is not quite certain . But it appears hegave his promise to marry her,—a promise which ,when the time came , and reason, it may be, had gotthe better of passion, he showed no alacrity inkeeping . He resisted, indeed, all remonstrancesto this eff ect, from the lady

’s family, backed bythe governor, and somewhat sharpened, no doubt,in the latter by the particular interest he took inon e of the fair sisters , who is said not to have repaid it with ingratitude .Whether the rebuke of Velasquez or some othercause of disgust rankled in the breast of Cortés,

'

he now became cold towards his patron, and conn ected himself with a disaff ected party tolerablynumerous in the island. They were in the habit ofmeeting at his house and brooding over their causesof discontent, chiefly founded, it would appear, on

Velasqu iu s agit. Ex eO ducis favore et gratia magna Cortesio invidiaes t orta.” De Rebus ges tis, MS.Solis has found a patent of nobility for this lady also , doncella

noble y recatada.” (H istoria de la Conquista de Méj ico (Paris,lib . 1, cap . Las Casas treats her with less ceremony : Una hermana de u n Juan Kuarez, gen te pobre.

” H ist. de las Indias, MS., lib.5, cap. 17.

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

306 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

at command sufficient to shield them from punishment. The Spanish colonial history, in its earlierstages , affords striking instances of the ex traordinary assumption and abuse of powers by thesepetty potentates ; and the sad fate of VasquezNufiez de Balboa, the illustrious discoverer Of thePacific, though the most signal, is by no means asolitary example, that the greatest services couldbe requited by persecution and an ignominiousdeath.

The governor of Cuba, however, although irascible and suspicious in his nature , does not seem tohave been vindictive, nor particularly cruel . Inthe present instance , indeed, it may well be doubtedwhether the blame would not be more reasonablycharged on the unfounded expectations of his followers than on himself.Cortés did not long remain in durance . He con

trived to throw back one of the bolts of his fetters,and, after extricatin g his limbs , succeeded in fo rcing open a window with the irons so as to admit ofhis escape . He was lodged on the second floor ofthe building, and was able to let himself down tothe pavement without injury, and unobserved .

He then made the best of his way to a neighboringchurch , where he claimed the privilege of sanctu ary.

Velasquez , though incensed at his escape , wasafraid to violate the sanctity of the place by employing force . But he stationed a guard in theneighborhood, with orders to seize the fugitive ifhe should forget himself so far as to leave thesanctuary. In a few days this happened . As

1513 ] DIFFICULTIES WITH VELASQUEZ 307

Cortés was carelessly standing without the wallsin front of the bu ildin g, an algu acil suddenlysprang on him from behind and pinioned his arms ,while others rushed in and secured him . Thisman, whose name was Juan Escudero, was afterwards hung by Cortés for some off ence in NewSpain.

The unlucky prisoner was again put in irons,and carried on bo ard a vessel to sail the next morning for Hispaniola, there to undergo his trial.Fortune favored him once more . He succeeded ,after much difficulty and no little pain , in passinghis feet through the rings which shackled them. Hethen came cautiously on deck, and, covered by thedarkness of the night, stole quietly down the sideo f the ship into a boat that lay floating below. Hepushed o ff from the vessel with as little noise aspossible . As he drew near the shore , the streambe came rapid and turbulent . He hesitated to trusthis boat to it, and , as he was an excellent swimmer,prepared to breast it himself, and boldly plungedin to the water. The current was strong, but thearm of a man struggling for life was stronger ;and , after buff eting the waves till he was nearlyexhausted , he succeeded in gaining a lan ding ;when he sought refuge in the same sanctuary whichhad protected him before . The facility with whichCortés a second time effected his escape may leadone to doubt the fidelity of his guards ; who perhaps looked on him as the victim of persecution,and felt the influence of those popular manners

‘7Las Casas,H is t. de las Indias, MS., loc. cit—Memorial de Mar

tin ez , MS.

308 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

which seem to have gained him friends in every society into which he was thrown .

18

For some reason not explained,—perhaps frompolicy,—he now relinquished his obj ections to themarriage with Catalin a Kuarez . He thus securedthe good offices of her family. Soon afterwardsthe governor himself relented, and became reconciled to his un fortunate enemy. A strange storyis told in conn ection with this event . It is saidhis proud spir it refused to accept the proff ers ofreconciliation made him by Velasquez ; and thatone evening, leaving the sanctuary, he presentedhimself un expectedly before the latter in his ownquarters, when on a military excursion at some distance from the capital . The governor, startled bythe sudden apparition of his enemy completelyarmed before him, with some dismay inquired themeaning of it . Cortés answered by insisting on afull explanation of his previous conduct. Aftersome hot discussion the interview terminated ami

cably; the parties embraced, and, when a messenger arrived to announce the escape of Cortés, hefound him in the apartments of his Excellency,where, having retired to rest, both were actuallysleeping in the same bed! The anecdote is re

peated without distrust by more than one biographer of Cortés .19 It is not very probable, however,Gomara, CrOn ica , cap . 4.

—Herrera tell s a sil ly story of his beingunable to swim, and throwing himself o n a plank, which, after beingcarried out to sea, was washed ashore with him at flood tide. H ist.general , dec. 1, lib . 9, cap . 8.

1“Gomara, Cronica, cap . 4. Coen at cubatqu e Cortesiu s cum Ve

la squio eodem in lecto . Qui postero die fugae Co rtes ii nuntius ven erat, Ve lasqu ium et Co rtesium j uxta accuban tes in tuitu s , miratu r .

”

De Rebus gestis , MS.

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

310 CONQUEST OF ME XICO

God, who alone kn ows at what cost of Indianlives it was Obtained,

” exclaims Las Casas , willtake accoun t of it!” 2 2 H is days glided smoothlyaway in these tranquil pursuits, and in the societyo f his beautiful wife, who, however ineligible as aconnection, from the inferiority of her condition,appears to have fulfill ed all the relations of a faithful and aff ectionate partner. Indeed , he was oftenheard to say at this time, as the good bishop abovequoted remarks, that he lived as happily with heras if she had been the daughter of a duchess .”

Fortun e gave him the means in after- life of verifying the truth of his assertion.

2 3

Such was the state of things , when Alvarado retu rned with the tidin gs Of G rijalva

’

s discoveriesand the rich fruits of his traffic with the natives .The news spread like wildfire throughout the island ; for all saw in it the promise of more important results than any hitherto Obtained. The govern o r , as already noticed, resolved to follow up thetrack of discovery with a more considerable armament ; and he looked around for a proper personto share the expense of it and to take the command.

Several hidalgos presented themse lves, whom,

from want of proper qualifications, or from hisdistrust of their assuming an independence of theiremployer, he, one after another, rej ected .

‘

Therewere two persons in St. Jago in whom he placed

”“Los que por sacarle el oro m u r1e ro n D ios abra tenido mej orcuenta que yo.” H ist. de las Indias, MS ., lib . 3, cap . 27. The textis a free translation .Estando conmigo, me 10 dixo que estava tan contento con ella

como si fuera hij a de una Duqu es sa .

” H ist. de las Indias, MS ., ubi

supra. - Gomara, Cronica, cap. 4.

1518] ARMADA INTRUSTED TO CORTE S 311

great confiden ce ,—Am ador de Lares, the con tador ,or royal treasu rer, 2 4 an d his own secretary, Andresde Duero . Cortés was also in close intimacy withboth these persons ; and he availed himself of it toprevail on them to recommend him as a suitableperson to be intrusted with the expedition. It issaid he reinforced the proposal by promising a liberal share of the proceeds of it. However thismay be , the parties urged his selection by the gove rn o r with all the eloquence of which they werecapable . That officer had had ample experienceof the capacity and courage of the candidate.He knew, too , that he had acquired a fortunewhich would enable him to co - operate materially in fitting out the armament . H is popul arityin the island would speedily attract followers tohis standard .

2 5 A ll past animosities had long sincebeen buried in Oblivion, and the confidence he wasnow to repose in him would insure his fidelity andgratitude . He lent a willing ear, therefore, to therecommendation of his counsellors, and, sendingfor Cortés, announced his purpose of making himCaptain -General of the Armada. 2 6

Cortés had now attained the Object of his wishes,—the obj ect for which his soul had panted everThe treasurer used to boast he had pas sed some two- and- twenty

yea rs in the wars of I taly. He was a Shrewd personage, and LasCasas

,thinking that country a slippery school for moral s, warned the

governor, he says, more than once to bew are of the twenty- twoyears in I taly.” H ist. de las Indias , MS. , lib. 3, cap . 113.

Si 61no fuera por Capitan, que no fuera la tercera parte de lagente que con 6] fue.

” Declaracion de Pue rtoca rre ro , MS. (Coru r'

ia,

30de Abril,” Bernal Diaz

,H ist. de la Conquista, cap . 19.

—De Rebus gestis,MS .

—Gomara, Cronica, cap . 7.—Las Casas, H ist. general de lasIndias, MS ., lib . 3 , cap. 113.

312 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

since he had set foot in the New World. He wasno longer to be condemn ed to a life of mercenarydrudgery, nor to be cooped up within the precinctsof a pe tty island ; but he was to be placed on a newand independent theatre of action, and a boundlessprospective was Opened to his view, which mightsatisfy not merely the wildest cravings of avarice ,but, to a bold, aspiring spirit like his, the far moreimportunate cravings of ambition . He fully appreciated the importance of the late discoveries,and read in them the existence o f the great empirein the far West, dark hints of which had floated,from time to time , to the Islands, and of whichmore certain glimpses had been caught by thosewho had reached the continent . This was the country intimated to the Great Admiral in his visitto Honduras in 1502 , and which he might havereached had he held on a northern course , insteadof striking to the south in quest of an imaginarystrait . As it was, he had but opened the gate ,

”

to use his own bitter expression, for others toenter The time had at length come when theywere to enter it ; and the young adventurer, whosemagic lance was to dissolve the spell which had solong hung over these mysterious regions, now stoodready to assume the enterprise.From this hour the deportment of Cortés seemedto un dergo a change. His thoughts, instead ofevaporating in empty levities or idle flashes ofmerriment, were wholly concentrated on the greatObject to which he was devoted . His elastic spiritswere shown in cheering and stimulating the companions of his toilsome duties, and he was roused

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

314 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

friends o f Cortés are to be believed, nearly thewhole burden fell on him ; since, while he suppliedthe squadron without remuneration, the governorsold many of his own stores at an exorbitant

profit.2 8 Yet it does not seem probable that Velas

quez, with such ample means at his command,should have thrown on his deputy the burden ofthe expedition, nor that the latter—had he doneso—could have been in a condition to meet theseexpenses, amoun ting, as we are told, to more thantwenty thousand gold ducats . Still it cann ot bedenied that an ambitious man like Cortés, who wasto reap all the glory of the enterprise , would verynaturally be less solicitou s to count the gains of it,than his employer, who, inactive at home, and having no laurels to win, must look on the pecuniaryprofits as his only recompense . The question gaverise, some years later, to a furious litigation between the parties, with which it is not necessary atpresent to embarrass the reader.It is due to Velasquez to state that the in structions delivered by him for the conduct of the ex

” The letter from the Municipality of Vera Cruz, after statingthat Velasquez bore only one- third of the original expense, adds,“Y sepan Vras . Magestades que la mayor parte de la dicha tercia parte que e l dicho D iego Velasquez gasto en hacer la dicha armada fue emplear su s dineros en vinos y e n ropas, y en otras cosasde poco valor para nos 10 vender aca en mucha m as cantidad de loque é. él le costo, por manera que podemos decir que entre nosotroslos Espanoles vasallos de Vras . Reales Altezas ha hecho Diego Velasqu e z su rescate y gran osea de su s dineros cobrando lo s muy bien.”(Carta de Vera Cruz, MS.) Pu e rtoca rrero and Montej o, also, intheir depositions taken in Spain, both Speak Of Cortés’ having furnished two- thirds of the cost of the flotilla. (Decla racion de Puertocarrero , MS .

—Decl a racion de Montej o, MS. ( 29 de Abril,The letter from Vera Cruz, however, was prepared under the eyeOf Cortes ; and the last two were his confidential Officers .

1518 ] ARMADA INTRUSTED To CORTE S 315

pedition cannot be charged with a narrow or mercen ary spirit. The first obj ect of the voyage wasto find Grij alva, after which the two commanderswere to proceed in company together. Reportshad bee n brought back by Cordova , on his returnfrom the first visit to Yucatan, that six Christianswere said to be lingering in captivity in the interiorof the country. It was supposed they might belong to the party of the unfortunate Nicu essa , andorders were given to find them out, if possible , andrestore them to liberty. But the great obj ect ofthe expedition was barter with the natives . Inpursuing this , special care was to be taken thatthey should receive no wrong, but be treated withkindness and humanity. Cortés was to bear inmind, above all things, that the obj ect which theSpanish monarch had most at heart was the conversion of the Indians . He was to impress onthem the grandeur and goodness of his royal master, to invite them to give in their allegiance tohim, and -to manifest it by regaling him with suchcomfortable presents of gold, pearls, and preciousstones as, by showing their own good will, wouldsecure his favor and protection .

” He was to makean accurate survey of the coast, soun ding its baysand inlets for the benefit Of future navigators . Hewas to acquaint himself with the natural productsof the country, with the character of its differentraces , their institutions and progress in civilization ;and he was to send home minute accounts of allthese

,together with such articles as he should Oh

tain in his intercou rse with them . Fin ally, he wasto take the m os t carefu l care to omit nothing that

316 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

might redoun d to the service of God o r his sovereign .

2 9

Such was the general tenor of the instructionsgiven to Cortés ; and they must be admitted to provide for the interests of science and humanity, aswell as for those which had reference only to acommercial speculation . It may seem strange,considering the discontent shown by Velasquezwith his former captain, Grij alva, for not co lon izing, that no directions should have be en given tothat effect here . But he had not yet received fromSpain the warrant for investing his agents withsuch powers ; and that which had been obtainedfrom the Hieronymite fathers in H ispaniola conceded only the right to traffic with the natives .The commission at the same time recogniz ed theauthority of Cortés as Captain -General of the ex

pedition .

30

” The instrument, in the original Castilian, will be found in Appendix, No. 5. I t is Often referred to by writers who neversaw it, as the Agreement between Cortes and Velasquez. I t is, infact, only the instructions given by this latter to his Officer, who wasno party to it.Declaracion de Pu ertocarrero , MS.

—Gomara, Cronica, cap. 7.Velasquez soon after Obtained from the crown authority to colonizethe new countries, with the title of ade la n tado over them. The instrument was dated at Barcelona, Nov. 13th, 1518. (Herrera, H ist.general, dec. 2 , lib. 3, cap. Empty privileges ! Las Casas givesa caustic etymology of the title Of ade lan tado, so often granted tothe Spanish discoverers. Adelantados porque se adelantaran enhazer males y dar’ios tan gravisim o s a gentes pacificas .

” H ist. de lasIndias, MS ., lib. 3, cap. 117.

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

318 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

The words sank deep, however, in the mind of Ve

lasqu ez ,—as, indeed, true j ests are apt to stick.

There were not wanting persons about his Excellen cywho fann ed the latent embers of j ealousyinto a blaze . These worthy gentlemen , some ofthem kinsmen of Velasquez , who probably felt theirown deserts somewhat thrown into the shade by therising fortunes of Cortés , reminded the governorof his ancient quarrel with that officer, and of thelittle probability that affronts so keenly felt at thetime could ever be forgotten . By these and similarsuggestions, and by misconstructions of the present conduct of Cortés , they wrought on the passions ofVelasquez to such a degree that he resolvedto intrust the expedition to other hands .1

He commun icated his design to his confidentialadvisers, Lares and Duero, and these trusty pe rson age s reported it without delay to Cortés , al

though , to a man of half his penetration,” says

Las Casas,‘‘ the thing would have been readily

divined from the governor’ s altered demeanor.” 2

The two functionaries advised their friend to ex

pedite matters as much as possible , and to lose notime in getting his fleet ready for se a , if he wouldretain the command of it. Cortés showed the sameprompt decision on this occasion which more than

Deterrebat, says the anonymous biographer, cum Co rtes ii

natura imperii avida, fidu cia su i ingen s , e t n imiu s sumptu s in classeparanda. Timere itaqu e Velasqu iu s cmpit, si Co rtesiu s cum ea classeiret, nihil ad se vel honoris vel lucri reditu rum . De Rebus gestis ,MS . - Bernal D iaz, H ist. de la Conquista, cap . 19.

-Las Casas, Hist.de las Indias, MS. cap . 114.

Co rtes no avia menester mas para en tendello de mirar e l gesto6. D iego Velasquez segun su as tuta viveza y mundana sabidu ria?’

H ist. de las Indias, MS., cap . 114.

1518] CORTE S EMBARKS 319

once afterwards in a sim ilar crisis gave the direction to his destiny.

He had not yet got his complement of men,nor

of vessels , and was very in adequately providedwith supplies of any kind. But he resolved toweigh anchor that very night. He waited on hisofficers, in formed them of his purpose , and probably of the cause of it ; and at midnight, when thetown was hushed in sleep, they all went quietly onboard, and the little squadron dropped down thebay. F irst, however, Cortés had visited the personwhose business it was to supply the place withmeat, and relieved him of all his stock on hand,notwithstanding his complaint that the citymust suffer for it on the morrow, leaving him,

at the same time , in payment , a massive goldchain of much value, which he wore round hisneck .

3

Great was the amazement of the good citizensof St. Jago when, at dawn , they saw that the fleet,which they knew was so ill prepared for the voyage, had left its moorings and was busily gettingunder way. The tidings soon came to the ears ofhis Excellency, who , springing from his bed, hastily dr essed himself, mounted his horse, and, followed by his retinue, galloped down to the quay.

Cortés , as soon as he descried their approach , entered an armed boat, and came within speakin gdistan ce of the shore . And is it thus you partfrom me ? ” exclaimed Velasquez ; a courteous

Las Casas had the story from Cortés’ own mouth . Hist. de lasIndias

, MS.,cap . 114.

—Gomara, Cronica, cap. 7.—De Rebus gestis , MS.

320 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

way of taking leave, truly! Pardon me, an

swered Cortés ; time presses , and there are somethings that should be done before they are eventhought of. Has your Excellency any commands ? But the mortified governor had nocommands to give ; and Cortés, politely waving hishand, returned to his vessel, and the little fleet instan tly made sail for the port of Macaca, aboutfifteen leagues distant . (November 18,Velasquez rode back to his house to digest his chagrin as he best might ; satisfied, probably, that hehad made at least two blunders ,—one in appointing Cortés to the command, the other in attempting to deprive him of it . For, if it be true that bygiving our confidence by halves we can scarcelyhope to make a friend, it is equally true that bywithdrawing it when given we shall make anenemy .

4

This clandestine departure of Cortés has beenseverely criticised by some writers, especially by

‘ Las Casas , H ist . de las Indias, MS ., cap . ILL—Herrera, H ist.general, dec . 9, lib. 3, cap . 12 .

—Solis, who follows Bernal Diaz insaying that Cortés parted openly and amicably from Velasquez,seems to consider it a great slander on the character of the formerto suppose that he wanted to break with the governor so soon, whenhe had received so little provocation . (Conquista, lib. 1, cap.But it is not necessary to suppose that Cortés intended a rupturewith his employer by this clandestine movement, but only to securehimself in the command . At all events, the text conforms in everyparticular to the statement of Las Casas, who, as he knew boththe parties well, and resided on the island at the time, had amplemeans of information .*

[Las Casas was not residing in Cuba, as Prescott supposes, whenCortés sailed . The weight of authority seems to indicate that thedeparture of Cortés was hasty but not clandestine. Velasquez in his .report to the Emperor does not say the Conqueror of Mexico stoleaway.—M. ]

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

32 2 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

voyage and willing to follow up the discoveryunder an enterprising leader. The fame of Cortésattracted, also, a number of cavaliers of family anddistinction, some of whom, having accompaniedGrij alva, brought much information valuable forthe present expedition . Among these hidalgosmay be mentioned Pedro de Alvarado and his brothers , Cristoval de Olid, Alonso de Avila, JuanVelasquez de Leon, a near relation of the governor, Alonso Hernandez de P u ertocarrero , andGonzalo de Sandoval,—all of them men who tooka most important part in the Conquest . Theirpresence was of great moment, as giving con sid

cration to the enterprise ; and, when they enteredthe little camp of the adventurers , the latterturned out to welcome them amidst lively strainsof music and j oyous salvos of artillery.

Cortés meanwhile was active in purchasing military stores and provisions . Learning that a trading - vessel laden with grain and other commoditiesfor the mines was o ff the coast, he ordered out on eof his caravels to seiz e her and bring her into port.He paid the master in bills for both cargo and ship,and even persuaded this man, named Sedefiof“whowas wealthy, to j oin his fortunes to the expedition.

He also despatched one of his officers , D iego deOrdaz, in quest of another ship ,t of which he had

[Juan Sedefio was the r ichest man in the fleet . H is possessionsincluded a ship, a mare, a negro, and some caz abi bread and bacon.Bernal D iaz very properly gives a list of the horses belonging tothe expedition , remarking that neither horses nor negroes could behad without great expense. (See H ist. de la Conquista, cap.A horse cost from four to five hundred pesos de oro.—M. ]11 [Bancroft (Mexico, i. p. 66) thinks Prescott has made a slightmistake as to these ships, and that Sedefio was the commander of the

1518] EQUIPMENT OF HIS FLEE T 32 3

tidings , with instructions to seize it in like manner,and to meet him with it o ff Cape St . Antonio, thewesterly point of the island.

6 By this be eff ectedanother obj ect, that of getting rid of Ordaz, whowas one of the governor’ s household, and an inconvenient spy on his own actions .While thus occupied , letters from Velasquezwere received by the commander of Trinidad

, re

quiring him to seize the person of Cortés and todetain him , as he had been deposed from the command of the fleet, which was given to another.This functionary communicated his instructions tothe principal officers in the expedition, who counselled him not to make the attempt, as it wouldundoubtedly lead to a commotion among the soldiers , that might end in laying the town in ashes .Verdugo thought it prudent to conform to thisadvice .7

A s Cortés was willing to strengthen himself bystill fu rther reinforcements, he ordered Alvaradowith a small body of men to march across the country to the Havana,

"5 while he himse lf would sail“Las Casas had this, al so, from the lips of Cort és in later li fe.“Todo esto me dixo el mismo Co rtes , co n otras cosas cerca dello

de spu es de Marques ; reindo y mofando é co n estas formalespalabras, A

'

la m i fée a ndu be po r a lli com o u n gan til cosan’

o .

” H ist.de las Indias , MS ., cap. 115.

'De Rebus ges tis , MS .- Gomara, Crénica, cap . 8.

—Las Cas as,H ist . de las Indias , MS., cap. 114, 115.

second vesse l . Bancroft also will have it that the standard of Co rteswas made of tafi

'

eta ,” not ve lvet.—M. ]

[But not across the island . There was no need for Cortés tosa il round the westerly point of Cuba with his squadron . H a

vana, o r San Cristoba l de la Habana, was then upon the south sideof the island . The town where the Havana of to- day stands was notfounded until 1519. Many writers besides Prescott, knowing nothing

32 4 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

round the westerly point of the island and meethim there with the squadron. In this port he againdisplayed his standard, making the usual proclamation. He caused all the large guns to bebrought on shore, and, with the small arms andcross - bows, to be put in order. As there wasabundance of cotton raised in this neighborhood,he had the j ackets of the soldiers thickly quiltedwith it, for a defence against the Indian arrows,from which the troops in the former expeditionshad grievously suff ered. He distributed his meninto eleven companies, each under the command ofan experienced officer ; and it was observed that,although several of the cavaliers in the service werethe personal friends and even kinsmen of Velasquez, he appeared to treat them all with perfectconfidence .His principal standard was of black velvet, embroidered with gold, and emblazoned with a redcross amidst flames of blue and white , with thismotto in Latin beneath : Friends, let us followthe Cross ; and under this sign, if we have faith ,we shall conquer.” He now assumed more state inhis own person and way of living, introducing agreater number of domestics and officers into hishousehold , and placing it on a footing becoming aman of high station . This state he maintainedthrough the rest of his life .8

”Bernal D iaz, H ist. de la Conquista, cap . 24.—De Rebus ges tis ,

MS.—Gomara, Cronica, cap . 8.

—Las Casas, H ist. de las Indias,

of this fact, have fallen into this same error. From Trinidad to thenew Habana would have been a long and difficul t march for Alvarado and his party, and a long and unnecessary voyage for the fleetof Cortes .—M. ]

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

32 6 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

gone some change with change of circumstances ;or, to speak more correctly, the new scenes in whichhe was placed called forth qualities which beforelay dormant in his bosom. There are some hardynatures that require the heats of excited action tounfold their energies ; like the plants which, closedto the mild influence of a temperate latitude, cometo their full growth, and give forth their fruits,only in the burning atmosphere of the tropics .Such is the portrait left to us by his contemporarieso f this remarkable man ; the instrument selected byProvidence to scatter terror among the barbarianmonarchs of the Western World, and lay theirempires in the dust .9

Before the preparations were fully completedat the Havan a, the commander of the place, DonPedro Barba, rece ived despatches from Velasquezordering him to apprehend Cortés and to preventthe departure of his vessels ; while another epistlefrom the same source was delivered to Cortés himself, requesting him to postpone his voyage till thegovernor could communicate with him, as he propo sed, in person . Never,

” exclaims Las Casas ,did I see so little knowledge of affairs shown, asin this letter of D iego Velasquez , —that he shouldhave imagined that a man who had so recently putsuch an aff ront on him would defer his departureat his bidding! 1° It was, indeed, hoping to stay

The most minute notices of the person and habits of Cortés areto be gathered from the narrative of the old cavalier Bernal Diaz

,

who served so long under him, and from Gomara, the general ’ schaplain . See in particular the las t chapter of Gom ara

’s Cronica,

and cap. 203 of the H ist . de la Conquista.Las Casas, H ist . de las Indias, MS., cap . 115.

1519] STRENGTH OF HIS ARMAMENT 327

the flight of the arrow by a word, after it had leftthe bow.

The Captain -General, however, durin g his shortstay, had entirely conciliated the good will ofBarba . And, if that officer had had the inclination,he knew he had not the power, to enforce his principal

’

s orders, in the face of a resolute soldiery, incensed at this ungenerous persecu tion of theircommander, and all of whom,

” in the words ofthe honest chronicler who bore part in the expedition , officers and privates , would have cheerfullylaid down their lives for him .

” 1‘ Barba contentedhimself, therefore , with explaining to Velasquezthe impract icability of the attempt, and at thesame time endeavored to tranquillize his apprehensions by asserting his own confidence in the fidelityof Cortés . To this the latter added a comm u nica

tion of his own , couched“in the soft terms he

kn ew so well how to use,” 12 in which he implored

his Excellency to rely on his devotion to his interests , and concluded with the comfortable assurance that he and the Whole fleet, God willing,would sail on the following morning .

Accordingly, on the l0th of February, 1519, thelittle squadron got under way, and directed itscourse towards Cape St . An tonio, the appointedplace of rendezvous . When all were brought together, the vessels were foun d to be eleven in number ; one of them, in which Cortés himself went,was of a hundred tons ’ burden, three others werefrom seventy to eighty tons ; the remainder were

Bernal Diaz , H ist . de la Conquista, cap. 24.

12 Ibid ., loc . cit.

32 8 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

caravels and open brigantines . The whole was putunder the direction of Antonio de Al amin os , aschief pilot ; a veteran navigator, who had acted aspilot to Columbus in his last voyage, and to Cordova and Grij alva in the former expeditions toYucatan .

Landing on the Cape and mustering his forces ,Cortés foun d they amounted to one hundred andten marin ers, five hundred and fifty- three soldiers,including thirty- two crossbowmen, and thirteenarquebusiers , besides two hundred Indians of theisland, and a few Indian women for menial offices .He was provided with ten heavy guns, four lighterpieces called falcon ets , and with a good supply ofammunition . He had besides sixteen horses .They were not easily procured ; for the difficultyof transporting them across the ocean in the flimsycraft of that day made them rare and incrediblydear in the Islands .14 But Cortés rightfully esti

‘3 Bernal Diaz , H ist. de la Conquista, cap . 26.—There is some dis

crepancy among authorities in regard to the numbers of the army.The Letter from Vera Cruz, which should have been exact , speaksin round terms of only four hundred soldiers . (Carta de VeraCruz, MS.) Velasquez himsel f, in a communication to the ChiefJudge of H ispaniola, states the number at six hundred . (Cartade D iego Velas quez a l Lic. Figueroa, MS . ) I have adopted the estim ate s of Bernal D iaz, who, in his long service, seems to havebecome intimately acquainted with every one of his comrades, theirpersons, and private history.

1‘ Incredibly dear indeed, since, from the statements contained inthe depositions at Vil la Segura, i t appears that the cost of the horsesfor the expedition wa s from four to five hundred pesos de oro each !S i saben que de caballos que el dicho Sefio r Capitan General Hernando Co rtes ha comprado para servir en la dicha Conquista, ques on diez é ocho, que le han costado a qu atrocien to s cinquenta éa quinientos pesos ha pagado, é que deve mas de ocho mil pesos de orodellos.” (Probanza e n Villa Segura, MS. ) The estimation of thesehorses is sufficiently shown by the minute information Bernal Diaz

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

330 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

del, will shield you, though encompassed by a cloudo f enemies ; for your cause is a ju st cau se, and youare to fight under the banner of the Cross . Goforward, then,

” he concluded, with alacrity andconfidence , and carry to a glorious issue the workso auspiciously begun.

” 1“The rough eloquence of the general, touchingthe various chords of ambition, avarice, and reli

giou s zeal , sent a thrill through the bosoms of hismartial audience ; and, receiving it with acclamations , they seemed eager to press forward undera chief who was to lead them not so much to battle,as to triumph .

Cortés was well satisfied to find his own en thu

siasm so largely shared by his followers . Masswas then celebrated with the solemnities usual withthe Spanish navigators when entering on their voyages of discovery . The fleet was placed under theimmediate protection of St . Peter, the patron saintof Cortés, and, weighing anchor, took its departureon the eighteenth day of February, 1519, for thecoast of Yucatan .

”

1°The text is a very condensed abridgment of the original Speechof Cortés,—o r of his chaplain, as the case may be. See it, in Gomara,Cronica, cap. 9.

17Las Casas, H ist . de las Indias, MS., cap . 115.—Gomara, Cronica,

cap . 10.—De ebus gestis, MS .

—“Tantus fuit arm o rum apparatu s,”exclaims the author of the last work, quo alterum terrarum o rbem

bellis Co rtesiu s co n cu tit ; ex tam parvis opibu s tantum imperiumCarolo facit ; ape ritqu e omnium primus H ispana genti H ispaniamn ovam !

” The author of this work is unknown . I t seems to havebeen part of a great compilation De Orbe Novo, written, probably, on the plan of a series of biographical sketches, as the in troduction Speaks of a life of Columbus preceding this of Co rtes . It wascomposed, as it states, while many of the old Conquerors were stillSurviving, and is addressed to the son of Cortés. The historian,therefore, had ample means of veri fying the truth of his own state

LLA’S MANUSCRIPT

o often betray, in his partial ity for his hero,ro n age under which the work was produced.of detail which, however tedious, has its usesent . Unluckily, only the first book was fin

u rvived ; terminating with the events of thisin Latin, in a pure and perspicuous style,some plausibility to be the work of Calvetof the Indies . The original exists in thewhere it was discovered and transcribed byy that in my l ibrary was taken.

CHAPTER IV

VOYAGE To COZUMEL—CONVERSION OF TH E NA

TIVE s—GERONIMO DE AGU ILAR—ARMY ARRIVESAT TABASCO—GREAT BATTLE W ITH TH E INDIANS—CHRIST IAN ITY INTRODUCED

RDE R S were given for the vessels to keepas near together as possible , and to take the

direction of the capitam’

a , or admiral’s ship , which

carried a beacon - light in the stern durin g the night.But the weather, which had been favorable ,changed soon after their departure , and one ofthose tempests set in which at this season are oftenfound in the latitudes of the West Indies . It fellwith terrible force on the little navy, scattering itfar asunder, dismantling some of the ships, anddriving them all considerably south of their proposed destination .

Cortés, who had lingered behind to convoy a disabled vessel, reached the island of Cozumel last.On landing, he learned that one of his captains,Pedro de Alvarado, had availed himself of theshort time he had been there, to enter the temples,rifle them of their few ornaments , and , by his violent conduct, so far to terrify the simple natives

332

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

334 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

of their countrymen in Cozumel with a liberalransom for their release . Meanwhile the generalproposed to make an excursion to the diff erentparts of the island, that he might give employmentto the restless spirits of the soldiers, and ascertainthe resources of the country .

It was poor and thinly peopled . But everywhere he recognized the vestiges Of a higher civiliz ation than what he had before witnessed in theIndian islands . The houses were some of themlarge , and often built of stone and lime . He wasparticularly struck with the temples , in which weretowers constructed of the same solid materials , andrising several stories in height. In the court of oneof these he was amazed by the sight of a cross , ofstone and lime , about ten palms high . It was theemblem of the god of rain. Its appearance suggested the wildest conj ectures, not merely tothe unlettered soldiers

,but subsequently to the

European scholar, who speculated on the characterof the races that had introduced there the sacredsymbol of Christianity. But no such inference , aswe shall see hereafter, could be warranted .

1 Yetit must be regarded as a curious fact that the Crossshould have been venerated as the obj ect of reli

giou s worship both in the New World and in re

gions of the Old where the light of Christianityhad never risen .

2

See an te, p . 241, note 27.’ Carta de Vera Cruz, MS .

—Bernal Diaz, H ist . de la Conquista,cap. 25, e t seq —Gomara, Crén ica, cap . 10, 15 .

—Las Casas , H is t. delas Indias, MS ., lib . 3, cap. 115.

—Herrera, H ist . general, dec. 2 , lib.4, cap. 6.

—Martyr, De In su lis nuper inven tis (Co lon im, p . 344.

—While these pages were passing through the press, but not till

1519 ] CONVERSION OF THE NATIVES 335

The next obj ect of Cortés was to reclaim thenatives from their gross idolatry and to substitutea purer form of worship . In accomplishing thishe was prepared to use force

,if milder measures

shoul d be ineff ectual . There was nothing whichthe Spanish government had more earnestly atheart than the conversion of the Indians . It formsthe constant burden of their instructions

,and gave

to the military expeditions in this Western hemisphere somewhat o f the air of a crusade . Thecavalier who embarked in them entered fully intothese chivalrous and devotional feelings . Nodoubt was entertained of the efficacy of conversion , however su dden might be the change or however violent the means. The sword was a good

two years after they were written, M r. Stephens ’

s important and ihteres ting volumes appea red , containing the account of his second expeditio n to Yucatan. In the latter part of the work he describeshis visit to Cozumel, now an uninhabited island covered with impenetrable forests. Near the shore he saw the remains of ancient Indian structures , which he conceives may possibly have been the samethat met the eyes of Grij alva and Cortés, and which suggest to himsome im portant inferences . He is led into further reflections on theex istence of the cross as a symbol of worship among the islanders.( Incidents of Travel in Yucatan (New York, vol. i i . chap.A s the discussion of these matters would lead me too far from thetrack of our narrative, I shall take occasion to return to them hereafter, when I treat of the architectural remains of the country.’ 1

[In the passages here referred to, the author has noticed variousproofs of the existence of the cross as a symbol of worship amongpagan nations both in the Old World and the New. The fact hasbeen deemed a very puzzling one ; yet the explanation, as traced byDr. Brinton, i s sufficiently simple : “The arms of the cross weredesigned to point to the cardinal points and represent the four winds,—the rain- bringers.” Hence the nam e given to it in the Mexicanlanguage

,signifying Tree of our Li fe, —a term well calculated to

increase the wonderment of the Span ish discoverers. Myths of theNew World, p . 96, et al.—K. ]t A n te, p . 239.

336 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

argument, when the tongue failed ; and the spreadof Mahom etan ism had shown that seeds sown bythe hand of violence, far from perishing in theground, would spring up and bear fruit to aftertime . If this were so in a bad cause, how muchmore would it be true in a good one! The Spanishcavalier felt he had a high mission to accomplishas a soldier of the Cross . However unauthorizedor unrighteous the war into which he had enteredmay seem to us, to him it was a holy war. He wasin arms against the infidel. Not to care for thesoul of his benighted enemy was to put his ownin j eopardy. The conversion of a single soulmight cover a multitude of sins . It was notfor morals that he was concerned, but for the

faith. This, though understood in its most literal an d limited sense, comprehended the wholescheme of Chr istian morality. Whoever died inthe faith, however immoral had been his life,might be said to die ' in the Lord Such wasthe creed of the Castilian kn ight of that day,as imbibed from the preachings of the pulpit, from Cloisters and colleges at home, frommonks and missionaries abroad, —from all saveone, whose devotion, kindled at a purer source,was not, alas!permitted to send forth its ra

dian ce far into the thick gloom by which he wasencompassed.

3

No one partook more fully of the feelings abovedescribed than Hem an Cortés . He was, in truth,the very mirror of the time in which he lived, re

‘ See the biographical sketch of the goo d bishop Las Casas, theProtector of the Indians,” in the Postscript at the clos e of thepresent Book.

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

338 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

Cortés was probably not much of a polem ic . Atall events, he preferred on the present occasion action to argument, and thought that the best way toconvince the Indians of their error was to provethe falsehood of the prediction. He accordingly,without further ceremony, caused the veneratedimages to be rolled down the stairs of the greattemple, am idst the groans and lamentations of thenatives . An altar was hastily constructed , an image o f the Virgin and Child placed over it, andmass was performed by Father Olmedo and hisreverend companion for the first time within thewalls of a temple in New Spain . The patientministers tried once more to pour the light ofthe gospel into the benighted understandings ofthe islanders , and to expound the mysteries of theCatholic faith . The Indian interpreter must haveafforded rather a dubious channel for the transmission o f such abstruse doctrines . But they atlength found favor with their auditors, who, whether overawed by the bold bearing of the invaders

,

or convinced of the impotence of deities that couldnot shield their own shrines from violation, nowconsented to embrace Christianity.

5

‘ Carta de Vera Cruz, MS .—Gomara, Cr6nica, cap . 13.

—Herrera,H ist . general , dec. 2 , lib. 4, cap . 7.

—Ixtlilx ochitl, H ist. Chich., MS .,

cap . 78.—Las Casas, whose enlightened views in religion woul d have

done honor to the present age, insists on the futil ity of these forcedconversions, by which it was proposed in a few days to wean m en

from the idolatry which they had been taught to reverence fromthe cradle. The only way of doing this,” he says, is by long,assiduous, and faithful preaching, until the heathen shal l gathersome ideas of the true nature of the Deity and of the doctrines theyare to embrace. Above all, the lives of the Christians should be suchas to ex emplify the truth of these doctrines, that, seeing this, thepoor Indian may glori fy the Father, and acknowledge him, who

15191 GERONIMO DE AGUILAR 339

While Cortes was thus occupied with the triumphs of the Cross, he received intelligence thatOrdaz had returned from Yucatan without tidingsof the Spanish captives . Though much chagrined

,

the general did not choose to postpone longer hisdeparture from Cozumel . The fleet had beenwell stored with provisions by the friendly inhabitants , and, embarking his troops, Cortés, in the be

giIm ing of March, took leave of its hospitableshores . The squadron had not proceeded far

,how

ever, before a leak in one of the vessels compelledthem to return to the same port . The detentionwas attended with important consequences ; somuch so, indeed, that a writer of the time discernsin it a great mystery and a miracle .” 6

Soon after landing, a canoe with several Indianswas seen making its way from the neighboringshores of Yucatan . On reaching the island, one ofthe men inquired , in broken Castilian, if he wereamong Chr istians,

” and , being answered in theaffirmative, threw himself on his knees and re

turned thanks to Heaven for his delivery. Hewas one of the unfortunate captives for whose fateso much interest had been felt . His name wasGeronimo de Aguilar,ale a native of E cij a, in Old

has such worshippers, for the true and only God . See the originalremarks, which I quote in ewtens o , as a good specimen of the bishop’s style when kindled by his subject into eloquence, in Appendix,No. 6.

Muy gran misterio y milagro de D ios .” Carta de Vera Cruz , MS

[Not long ago, a history of the Spanish Conquest of Yucatan ,written in the Maya language, but in Roman letters, by a nativechief

,Nakuk Pech, about the year 1562 , was brought to light . This

account, the Chronicle of Chicxulub, was translated by Dr. Brinton, and was published by him in the Maya Chronicles,” Philadel

340 CONQUE ST OF MEXICO

Spain, where he had been regularly educated forthe Church . He had been established with the co lony at Darien, and on a voyage from that placeto Hispaniola, eight years previous , was wreckednear the coast of Yucatan . He escaped with several of his companions in the ship ’s boat, wheresome perished from hunger and exposure, whileothers were sacrificed , on their reaching land, bythe cannibal natives of the peninsula . Aguilarwas preserved from the same dismal fate by escaping in to the interior, where he fell into the handsof a powerful cacique, who, though he spared hislife, treated him at first with great rigor. Thepatience of the captive, however, and his singularhumility, touched the better feelings of the chieftain, who would have persuaded Aguilar to take awife among his people, but the ecclesiastic steadilyrefused, in obedience to his vows . This admirableconstancy excited the distrust of the cacique , whoput his virtue to a severe test by various temptations , and much of the same sort as those withwhich the devil is said to have assailed St. A nthony.

7 From all these fiery trials, however, like

7They are enumerated by Herrera with a minuteness which mayclaim at least the merit of giving a much higher notion of Aguilar’ s

phia, 1882 , pp . 187—2 59 . This chronicle, from the pen of one who wasalmost contemporary with the Conquest, corroborates the accountsgiven by the Spanish historians in most particulars. It refers toChichen I tza and Izamal as inhabited when the Spaniards descendedupon the country. It is sometimes inaccurate as to details, as in thisreference to Aguilar : “Thus the land was discovered by Aguilar,who was eaten by Ah Naum Ah Pat at Cu z amil in the yearWe know, of course, that it was another Spaniard who was eatenby Ah Naum Ah Pat . The matter is of smal l consequence to us,though undoubtedly important to Aguilar.—M. ]

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

342 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

the tastes which he had acquired in the freedom ofthe forest could be reconciled to the constraintseither of dress or mann ers imposed by the artificialforms of civilization . Aguilar ’s long residencein the country had familiarized him with theMayan dialects of Yucatan, and, as he graduallyrevived his Castilian, he became of essential importance as an interpreter. Cortés saw the advan

tage of this from the first, but he could not fullyestimate all the consequences that were to flowfrom it.s

The repairs of the vessels being at length com

pleted, the Spanish commander once more tookleave of the friendly natives of Cozumel, and setsail on the fourth of March. Keeping as near as

possible to the coast of Yucatan, he doubled CapeCatoche , and with flowing sheets swept down thebroad bay of Campeachy, fringed with the richdye -woods which have since furnished so importantan article of commerce to Europe . He passed POtouchan, where Cordova had experienced a roughreception from the natives ; and soon after reachedthe mouth of the R io de Tabasco , or Grija lva , inwhich that navigator had carried on so lucrative atraffic. Though mindful of the great obj ect of hisvoyage , —the visit to the Aztec territories,—he wasdesirous of acquainting himself with the resourcesof this country, and determined to ascend the riverand visit the great town on its borders .The water was so shallow, from the accumulaCamargo, H istoria de Tlasca la , MS .

- Oviedo, H ist. de las Indias,MS., lib. 33, cap . l .

—Martyr, De In su lis , p. 347.—Bernal D iaz, H ist.de la Conquista, cap . 2 9.

—Carta de Vera Cruz, MS.—Las Casas,

H ist. de las Indias, MS., lib. 3, cap . 115, 116.

1519 ] ARMY ARRIVES AT TABASCO 343

tion of sand at the mouth of the stream, that thegeneral was obliged to leave the shipsat anchor andto embark in the boats with a part only of hisforces . The banks were thickly studded with mangrove - trees, that, with their roots shooting up andinterlacing one another, formed a kin d of impe rviou s screen or net -work, behind which the darkforms of the natives were seen glancing to andfro with the most menacing looks and gestures .Cortés , much surprised at these un friendly demonstration s , so unlike what he had had reason to expeet, moved cautious ly up the stream . When hehad reached an open place, where a large numberof Indians were assembled, he asked, through hisinterpreter, leave to land, explaining at the sametime his amicable intentions . But the Indians,brandishing their weapons, answered only withgestures of angry defiance . Though much cha

grin ed, Cortés thought it best not to urge the matter fur ther that evening, but withdrew to a neighboring island, where he disembarked his troops,resolved to eff ect a landing on the followingmorning.

When day broke, the Spaniards saw the opposite banks lined with a much more numerous arraythan on the preceding evening, while the canoesalong the shore were filled with bands of armedwarriors . Cortés now made his preparations forthe attack. He first landed a detachment of ahun dred men under Alonso de Avila, at a pointsomewhat lower down the stream , sheltered by athick grove of palms , from which a road , as heknew

,led to the town of Tabasco, giving orders to

CONQUEST OF MEXICO

his officer to march at once on the place, while hehimself advanced to assault it in front .9

Then, embarking the remainder of his troops,Cortés crossed the river in face of the enemy ; but,before comm encing hostilities, that he might actwith entire regard to justice, and in obedience tothe instructions of the Royal Coun cil,

” 1° he firstcaused proclamation to be made, through the interpreter , that he desired only a free passage forhis men, and that he proposed to revive the friendlyrelations which had formerly subsisted between hiscountrymen and the natives . He assured themthat if blood were spilt the sin would lie on theirheads, and that resistance would be use less, sincehe was resolved at all hazards to take up his quarters that night in the town of Tabasco. This proclamation, delivered in lofty tone , and duly re

corded by the notary, was answered by the Indians—who might possibly have comprehended oneword in ten of it—with shouts of defiance and ashower o f arrows.

Bernal Diaz, H ist. de la Conquista, cap . 31.- Carta de Vera Cruz,

MS.—Gomara, Cronica, cap . 18.

—Las Casas, H ist . de las Indias,MS ., lib. 3, cap . 118—Martyr, De Ins u lis, p . 348.

—There are somediscrepancies between the statements of Bernal D iaz and the Letterfrom Vera Cru z ; both by parties who were present .

1°Carta de Vera Cruz, MS.- Bernal D iaz, H ist. de la Conquista,

cap . 31.

n See, exclaims the Bishop of Chiapa, in his cau stic vein, “thereasonableness of this requisition,’ or, to speak more co rrectly, thefolly and insensibility of the Royal Co uncil, who could find, in therefusal of the Indians to receive it, a good pretext for war.” (H ist.de las Indias, MS., l ib . 3, cap. In another place he pronouncesan animated invective against the iniquity of those who covered uphostilities under this empty form of words, the import of which wasutterly incomprehensible to the barbarians. ( Ibid ., lib. 3, cap.The famous formula, used by the Spanish Conquerors on this occa

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

346 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

them towards the town , where they again tookshelter behind their palisades .Meanwhile Avila had arrived from the opposite

quarter, and the natives, taken by surprise, madeno further attempt at resistance, but abandonedthe place to the Christians . They had previouslyremoved their families and effects . Some provisions fell into the hands of the victors, but littlegold, a circum stance , says Las Casas, whichgave them no particular satisfaction .

” 12 It wasa very populous place . The house s were mostly ofmud ; the better sort of stone and lime ; affording

proofs in the inhabitants of a superior refinementto that found in the Islands, as their stout re sistance had given evidence of superior valor.13

Cortés , having thus made himself master of thetown, took formal possession of it for the crown ofCas tile . He gave three cu ts with his sword on alarge ceiba - tree which grew in the place, and proclaimed aloud that he took possession of the city inthe name and behalf of the Catholic sovereigns ,

Hallaron las llenas de maiz é gallinas y ot ros vastim entos , oroninguno, de lo que ellos no resciviéron mucho plaz er.” H ist.de las Indias , MS ., ubi supra.

13 Peter Martyr gives a glowing picture of this Indian capital .Ad flum inis ripam pro ten tum dicu n t esse Oppidum, quantum n on

ausim dicere : mille qu inge n torum pas su um , ait Al am in u s nauclerus,e t dom orum quinque ac vigin ti millium : stringu n t alij , ingens

tam en faten tu r et celebre. Ho rtis in tersecan tu r domus, qu a; suntegr egié lapidibus at ca lca fabrefa ctaa, m ax im d indu s tria at a rchitec

torum a r ts .

”(De In su lis , p . With his usual inquisitive Spirit,

he gleaned all the particulars from the old pilot Al am inos, and fromtwo of the Oflicers of Cortés who revisited Spain in the course of thatyear. Tabasco was in the neighborhood of those ruined cities ofYucatan which have lately been the theme of so much speculation.The encomiums of Martyr are not so remarkable as the apathy ofother contemporary chroniclers .

1519 ] ARMY ARRIVES AT TABASCO 347

and would maintain and defend the same withsword an d buckler against all who should gainsayit. The same vaunting declaration was also madeby the soldiers , and the whole was duly recordedand attested by the notary. This was the usualsimple but chivalric form with which the Spanishcavaliers asserted the royal title to the conqueredterritories in the New World. It was a good title

,

doubtless, against the claims of any other European potentate .The general took up his quarte rs that night inthe cour t - yard of the principal temple . He postedhis sentinels , and took all the precautions practisedin wars with a civilized foe . Indeed, there was reason for them . A suspicious silence seemed to reignthrough the place and its neighbo rhoo d ; and tidings were brought that the interpreter,Melchorej0,had fled , leaving his Spanish dress hanging on atree . Cortés was disquieted by the desertion of thism an , who would not only inform his countrymenof the small num ber of the Spaniards, but dissipateany illusions that might be entertained of theirsu perior natures .On the follow ing morning, as no traces of theenemy were visible , Cortés ordered out a detachment underAlvarado, and another under Franciscode Luj o, to reconnoitre . The latter Officer had notadvanced a league , before he learned the po sitionof the Indians , by their atta cking him in such forcethat he was fain to take shelter in a large stonebuilding

,where he was closely besieged . F o rtu

n ately, the loud yells of the assailants , like mostbarbarous nations seeking to strike terror by their

348 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

ferocious cries, reached the ears of Alvarado andhis men, who, speedily advancing to the relief oftheir comrades, enabled them to force a passagethrough the enemy. Both parties retreated, closelypursued, on the town, when Cortés, marching outto their support, compelled the Tabascan s to retire.A few prisoners were taken in this skirmish . Bythem Cortés fou nd his worst apprehensions verified. The country was everywhere in arms . Aforce consisting of many thousands had assembledfrom the neighboring provinces, and a general assault was resolved on for the next day. To thegeneral ’s inquiries why he had been received in sodifferent a manner from his predecessor, Grij alva,they answered that the conduct of the Tabas can sthen had given great offence to the other Indiantribes, who taxed them with treachery and cowardice ; so that they had promised, on any return ofthe white men, to resist them in the same manneras their neighbors had done. ” 1“Cortés might now well regret that he had al

lowed himself to deviate from the direct object ofhis enterprise , and to become entangled in a doubtful war which could lead to no profitable result.But it was too late to repent. He had taken thestep

,and had no alternative but to go forward.

To retreat would dishearten his own men at theoutset, impair their confidence in him as theirleader, an d confirm the arrogance of his foes, thetidin gs of whose success might precede him on his

Bernal Diaz, H ist. de la Conquista, cap. 31, 32 .—Gomara,

Crénica, cap. 18.—La s Casas, H ist. de las Indias, MS., lib. 3, cap.

118, 119.—Ixtlilxochitl , H ist. Chich., MS ., cap. 78, 79.

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

350 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

At the first glimmering of light he mustered hisarmy, and declared his purpose not to abide,cooped up in the town, the assault of the enemy,but to march at once against him. For he wellknew that the spirits rise with action, an d that theattacking party gathers a confidence from the verymovement, which is not felt by the one who is passively, perhaps anx iously, awaitin g the assault.The Indians were understood to be encamped ona level ground a few miles distant from the city,called the plain of Ceutla . The general comm anded that Ordaz should march with the foot ,including the artillery, directly across the country,and attack them in front, while he himself wouldfetch a circuit with the horse, and turn their flankwhen thus engaged, or fall upon their rear.These dispositions being completed, the littlearmy he ard mass and then sallied forth fromthe wooden walls of Tabasco. It was Ladyday, the twenty- fifth of March,—long memorablein the annals of New Spain. The district aroundthe town was checkered with patches of maize, and,on the lower level, with plantations of cacao , - supplying the beverage , and perhaps the coin, of thecountry, as in Mexico. These plan tations, re

quiring constant ir rigation, were fed by num erous canals and reservoirs of water, so that thecountry could not be traversed without great toiland difficulty. It was, however, intersected by anarrow path or causeway over which the cannoncould be dragged .

The troops advanced more than a league ontheir laborious march, without descrying the en

1519 ] GREAT BATTLE WITH THE INDIANS 351

emy. The weather was sultry, but few of themwere embarrassed by the heavy mail worn by theEuropean cavaliers at that period . Their cottonj ackets, thickly quilted, aff orded a tolerable protection against the arrows of the Indians, and al

lowed room for the freedom and activity of movement essential to a life of rambling adventure inthe wilderness .At length they came in sight of the broad plainsof Ceutla, and beheld the dusky lines of the enemystretching , as far as the eye could reach , along theedge of the horiz on . The Indians had shown somesagacity in the choice of their position ; and, asthe weary Spaniards came slowly on, flounderingthrough the moras s, the Tabascan s set up theirhideous battle - cries , and discharged volleys of arrows

,stones, and other m issiles, which rattled like

hail on the shields and helmets of the assailants .Many were severely wounded before they couldgain the firm ground, where they soon cleared aspace for themselves, and Opened a heavy fire ofartillery and musketry on the dense columns ofthe enemy

,which presented a fatal mark for the

balls . Numbers were swept down at every discharge ; but the bold barbarians, far from beingdism ayed , thr ew up dust and leaves to hide theirlosses

,and

,sounding their war- instruments, shot

o ff fresh flights of arrows in return .

They even presse d closer on the Spaniards, and ,when driven o ff by a vigorous charge , soon turnedagain

,and

,rolling back like the waves of the

ocean,seemed ready to overwhelm the little band

by weight of numbers . Thus cramped, the latter

352 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

had scarcely room to perform their necessaryevolutions, or even to work their guns witheffect.16

The engagement had now lasted more than anhour, and the Spaniards, sorely pressed, lookedwith great anxiety for the arrival of the horsewhich some unaccoun table impediments must havedetained—to relieve them from their perilous position . At this crisis , the farthest columns of theIndian army were seen to be agitated and throwninto a disorder that rapidly spread through thewhole mass . It was not long before the ears ofthe Christians were saluted with the cheering warcry of San Jago and San Pedro! and they beheld the bright helmets and swords of the Castilianchivalry flashing back the rays of the morning sun,as they dashed through the ranks of the enemy,striking to the right and left, and scattering dismay around them . The eye o f faith , indeed, coulddiscern the patron Saint of Spain, himself,mounted on his gray war- horse , heading the rescue and trampling over the bodies of the falleninfidels l

The approach of Cortés had been greatly re

tarded by the broken nature of the ground. Whenhe came up , the Indians were so hotly engaged that

Las Casas, H ist . de las Ind., MS., lib. 3, cap . 119.—Gomara, Cro

nica, cap . 19, 20.—Herrera, H ist . gen ., dec. 2 , lib . 4, cap . 11.

—Martyr, De In su lis , p . 350—Ixtlilxochitl, H ist . Chich ., MS ., cap . 79 .

Bernal D iaz, H ist . de la Conquista, cap . 33, 36.—Carta de Vera

Cruz, MS.‘7Ixtlilxochitl, H ist . Chich ., MS., cap . 79. Co rtes supposed itwas his own tutelar saint, St. Peter, says Pizarro y Orellana ; butthe common and indubitable opinion is that it was our gloriousapostle St. James, the bulwark and safeguard of our nation .” (Va

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

354 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

at the faces of their opponents,18 who, terrified atthe monstrous apparition,—for they supposed therider and the horse , which they had never beforeseen, to be one and the same ,19 - were seized witha panic. Ordaz availed hims elf of it to commanda general charge along the line, and the Indians,many of them throwing away their arm s , fledwithout attemptin g fu rther resistance .Cortés was too content with the victory to careto follow it up by dipping his sword in the bloodof the fugitives . He drew o ff his men to a copseof palms which skirted the place , and under theirbroad canopy the soldiers Offered up thanksgivings to the Almighty for the victory vouchsafedthem. The field of battle was made the site of atown, called, in honor of the day on which the action took place , S an ta Maria de la Victoria , longafterwards the capital of the province .20 Thenumber of those who fought or fell in the engagement is altogether doubtful . Nothing, indeed, ismore uncertain than numerical estimates of barbarian s . And they gain nothing in probabilitywhen they come , as in the present instance, fromthe reports of their enemies . Most accounts , however, agree that the Indian force consisted of fivesquadr ons of eight thousand men each. Thereis more discrepancy as to the number of slain,It was the order—as the reader may remember—given by Czesa r

to his followers in his battle with PompeyAdve rsosq u e jube t ferro con funde re vul tu s .

Lucan , Pha rsalia, lib. 7, v. 5751’ Equites,” says Paolo Giovio , unum integrum Cen tau ro r um

specie animal esse existim aren t .

” Elogia Viro rum Illu strium (Bas i l,lib . 6, p . 229.

Clavigero , Stor. del Messico, tom . i ii . p. 11.

1519 ] GREAT BATTLE WITH THE INDIANS 355

varying from one to thirty thousand!In this monstrous discordance the common disposition to exaggerate may lead us to look for truth in the neighbo rhood of the smallest num ber. The loss of theChristians was inconsiderable ; not exceeding - if

we receive their own reports , probably, from thesame causes, much diminishing the truth—twokilled and less than a hundred wounded!We mayreadily comprehend the feelin gs of the Conquerors , when they declared that Heaven mus t havefought on their side, since their own strength couldnever have prevailed against such a multitude ofenemies! 2 1

Several prisoners were taken in the battle ,among them two chiefs . Co rtes gave them theirliberty, and sent a message by them to their countrym en that he would overlook the past, if theywould come in at once and tender their submission .

Otherwise he would ride over the land, and putevery living thing in it, man, woman, and child , tothe sword!” With this formidable menace ringing in their ears, the envoys departed .

But the Tabascan s had no relish for further hos

tilities . A body of inferior chiefs appeared thenext day

,clad in dark dresses of cotton, intimating

”“Crean Vras .Reales Altezas por cierto, que esta batalla fue

vencida mas por voluntad de D ios que por n ras . fuerzas, porque paraco n quarenta mil hombres de guerra, poca defensa fuera quatroz ien tos que nosotros e ram os .

”(Carta de Vera Cruz, MS .

—Gomara

, Crén ica, cap . 20.—Bernal D iaz, H ist. de la Conquista, cap.

It is Las Casas who, regulating his mathematics, as usual, byhis feelings

,rates the Indian loss at the exorbitant amount cited

in the text . “This,” he concludes, dryly, “was the first preachingof the gospel by Cortes in New Spain !” H is t. de las Indias , MS.,

lib. 3, cap. 119.

356 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

their abject condition, and implored leave to burytheir dead. It was granted by the general, withmany assurances of his friendly disposition ; but atthe same time he told them he expected their principal caciques, as he would treat with none other .

These soon presented thems elves, attended by , anumerous train of vassals, who followed withtimid cu riosity to the Christian camp . Amongtheir propitiatory gifts were twenty female slaves,which , from the character of one of them, provedof infin itely more cons equence than was anticipated by either Spaniards or Tabascan s . Confidence was soon restored, and was succe eded by afriendly intercourse, and the interchange of Spanish toys for the rude commodities of the country,articles o f food, cotton, and a few gold ornam entso f little value. When asked where the preciousmetal was procured, they pointed to the west , andanswered, Culhua,

” Mexico .” The Spaniardssaw this was no place for them to traffic, or to tarryin. Yet here, they were not many leagues distantfrom a potent and opulent city, or what once hadbeen so, the ancient Palenque . But its glory mayhave even then passed away, and its name havebeen forgotten by the surrounding nations .Before his departure the Spanish commanderdid not omit to provide for one great obj ect of hisexpedition, the conversion of the Indians . Hefirst represented to the caciques that he had beensent thither by a powerful monarch on the otherside of the water, for whom he had now a right toclaim their allegian ce . He then caused the reverend fathers Olmedo and D iaz to enlighten theirminds, as far as pos sible, in regard to the great

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

358 CONQUEST OF ME XICO

estan t, for the purposes of proselyt ism. The dazz ling pomp of its service and its touching appealto the sensibilities affect the imagination of theru de child of nature much more powerfully thanthe cold abstractions of Protestantism, which , addressed to the reason, demand a degree of refinement and mental culture in the audience to comprehend them. The respect, moreover, shown bythe Catholic for the material representations ofD ivinity, greatly facilitates the same obj ect . Itis true, such representations are used by him onlyas incentives, not as the obj ects of worship . Butthis distinction is lost on the savage, who finds su chforms of adoration too analogous to his own to impose any great violence on his feelings . It is onlyrequired of him to transfer his homage from theimage of Quetzalcoatl, the benevolent deity whowalked among men, to that of the Virgin or theRedeemer ; from the Cross , which he has worshipped as the emblem o f the god of rain, to thesame Cross , the symbol of salvation.

These solemnities concluded, Cortés prepared toreturn to his ships, well satisfied with the impression made on the n ew converts , and with the conquests he had thus achieved for Castile and Christian ity. The soldiers , taking leave of their Indianfriends , entered the boats with the pahn - branchesin their hands , and, descending the river, re - embarked on board their vessels , which rode at anchorat its mouth . A favorable breeze was blowing,and the little navy, opening its sails to receive it,was soon on its way again to the golden shores ofMexico.

CHAPTER V

VOYAGE ALONG TH E CoAsT—DONA MARINA—SPANIARDS LAND IN MEX ICO—INTERVIEW W ITH THEAZTECS

HE fleet held its course so near the shore thatthe inhabitants could be seen on it ; and, as

it swept along the winding borders of the Gulf,the soldiers , who had been on the former expedition with Grij alva, pointed out to their companionsthe memorable places on the coast. Here was theR io de A lvarado, named after the gallant adventurer, who was present also in this expedition ;there the R io de Vanderas , in which Grij alva hadcarried on so lucrative a commerce with the Mexicans ; and there the Is la de los Sacrificios , wherethe Spaniards first saw the vestiges of human sacrifice on the coast. P u ertocarrero , as he listenedto these reminiscences of the sailors , repeated thewords of the old ballad of Montesinos , Here isFrance

,there is Paris , and there the waters of the

Duero,

” 1 etc . But I advise you,” he added,

Cata Francia.Mo n te s inos ,Ca ta Paris la Ciudad.

Cata las agua s de Du eroDo van ada r e n la ma r.

"

They are the words of the popular old ballad, first published, I believe

, in the Romancero de Amberes, and lately by Duran, R om ances caballeresco s é histéricos, Parte 1, p . 82 .

360 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

turning to Cortés, to look out only for the richlands, and the best way to govern them .

” Fearnot,

” replied his commander : if Fortune but favors me as she did Orlando, and I have such gallant gentlemen as you for my companions, I shallunderstand myself very well .” 2

The fleet had now arrived o f San Juan de Ulua,the island so named by Grij alva. The weatherwas temperate and serene, and crowds o f nativeswere gathered on the shore of the main land, gazing at the strange phenomenon, as the vesselsglided along under easy sail on the smooth bosomof the waters . It was the evening of Thursday inPassion Week. The air came pleasantly o ff theshore , and Cortés, liking the spot, thought he mightsafely anchor under the lee of the island, whichwould shelter him from the a ortas that sweep overthese seas with fatal violence in the winter, sometimes even late in the spring .

The ships had not been long at ancho r, when alight pirogue, fil led with natives, shot Off from theneighboring continent, and steered for the general

’

s vessel, distinguished by the royal ensign ofCastile floating from the mast . The Indians cameon board with a frank confidence , inspired by theaccounts of the Spaniards spread by their countrymen who had traded with Grij alva . They broughtpresents of fruits and flowers and little ornamentsof gold, which they gladly exchanged for the usualtrinkets . Cortés was baffied in his attempts to holda conversation with his visitors by means of theinterpreter, Aguilar, who was ign orant of the lan

Bernal Diaz, H ist. de la Conquista, cap. 37.

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

362 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

corpse for that of her own daughter, and celebrated the obse quies with mock solemnity. Theseparticulars are related by the honest old soldierBern al D iaz, who knew the mother, and witnessedthe generous treatment of her afterwards by Marina. By the merchants the Indian maiden wasagain sold to the cacique of Tabasco, who delivered her, as we have seen, to the Spaniards .From the place of her birth , she was well ac

qu ain ted with the Mexican tongue, which , indeed,she is said to have spoken with great elegance.Her residence in Tabasco familiarized her withthe dialects of that country, so that she could carryon a conversation with Aguilar, which he in turnrendered into the Castilian . Thus a certain thoughsomewhat circuitous channel was opened to Cortésfor communicating with the Aztecs ; a circumstance of the last importance to the success of hisenterprise . It was not very long, however, beforeMarina, who had a lively genius , made herself sofar mistress of the Castilian as to supersede thenecessity of any other linguist. She learned itthe more readily

,as it was to her the language of

love .Cortés, who appreciated the value of her servicesfrom the first, made her his interpreter, then hissecretary, and, won by her charms, his mistress .She had a son by him , Don Martin Cortés, com en

dador of the Military Order of St. James, lessdistinguished by his birth than his unmerited persecu tion s .

Marina was at this time in the morning of life .She is said to have possessed uncommon personal

15191 DONA MARINA 363

attractions,4 and her open, expressive features indicated her generous temper. She always remained faithful to the coun trymen of her adoption ; and her knowledge of the language an d

customs of the Mexicans, and often of their designs, enabled her to extricate the Spaniards , morethan once , from the most embarrassing and perilous situations . She had her errors , as we have seen .

But they should be rather charged to the defects ofearly education, and to the evil influence of him towhom in the darkness of her spirit she looked withsimple confidence for the light to guide her. Allagr ee that she was full of excellent qualities , andthe important services which she rendered theSpaniards have made her memory deservedly dearto them ; while the name of Malinche

5—the nameby which she is still known in Mexico—was pron oun ced with kindness by the conquered races,

Hermosa como Diosa,” beau tifu l as a goddes s , says Camargoof her . (H ist . de Tla scala, MS . ) A modern poet pays her charmsthe foll owing not inelegant tribute

Adm ira tan lucida ca balgadaY e spectacu lo ta!Do ria Marin a ,

India n oble a l ca udil lo pre se n tada,De fortuna y be l le za pe regrina .

a a a a e a

Co n de spejado e spiritu y vivezaGira la vis ta e n e l co ncurso m udo

Rico man to de extrema s utilezaCo n chapas de o ro autoriza rla pudo .

Pre nchdo con bizarra ge n tile zaSobre los pechos e n a yroso nudoRe yna parece de la Indiana Zo naVarom l y h e rm o s is nm a Amaz o na .

Mo an m . Las Naves de Co rtés de s truidas .is a corruption of the Aztec word “Malin tz in ,

w hich is itself a corruption of the Spanish name“Marina.” TheAztecs

,having no r in their alphabet, substituted 1 for it , while the

t ermination tz z’n was added in token of respect, so tha t the namewas equivalent to Doiia or Lady Marina. Conquista de Méj ico( trad. de Vega, anotada por D. Lucas Alaman ) , tom . ii . pp. 17,

364 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

with whose misfortunes she showed an invariablesympathy.

6

With the aid of his two intelligent interpreters,Cortés entered into conversation with his Indianvisitors . He learned that they were Mexicans, orrather subj ects of the great Mexican empire, ofwhich their own province formed one of the com

paratively recent conquests . The country wasruled by a powerful monarch, called Moctheu

zoma, or by Europeans more commonly Montezuma,7 who dwelt on the mountain plains of theinterior, nearly seventy leagues from the coast ;their own province was governed by one of his nobles, named Teuhtlile , whose residence was eightleagues distant. Cortés acquainted them in turnwith his own friendly views in visiting their country, and with his desire of an interview with theAztec governor. He then dismissed them loadedwith presents, having first ascertained that therewas abundance of gold in the in terior, like thespecimens they had brought.“Las Casas, H ist. de las Indias, MS lib. 3, cap . 120.

—Gomara,CrOn ica , cap . 2 5, 2 6.

—Clavige ro , Stor. del Messico, tom. ii i. pp . 1214.

—Oviedo, H ist . de las Indias, MS., lib. 33, cap . 1.- Ixtlilxochitl,

H ist. Chich., MS., cap . 79.—Camargo, H ist. de Tlasca la, MS.

—Bernal Diaz, H ist . de la Conquista, cap. 37, 38.

—There is some disco rdance in the notices of the early li fe of Marina. I have followedBernal Diaz,—from his means of observation, the best authority.There is happily no diff erence in the estimate of her singular meritsand services.The name of the Aztec monarch, like those of mo st persons and

places in New Spain, has been twisted into all possible varieties oforthography. Co rtes , in his letters, calls him“Mu tecz um a .

” Mode rn Spanish historians usually Spell his name Mo tez um a .

” I havepreferred to conform to the name by which he is usually knownto English readers. It is the one adopted by Bernal D iaz, and bymost writers near the time of the Conquest. Alaman, Disertacion eshistéricas, tom. i., apénd. 2 .

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

366 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

nant marshes , the exhalations from which , quickened by the heat into the pestilent malaria

,have

occasioned in later times wider mortality to European s than all the hurricanes on the coast . Thebilious disorders, now the terrible scourge of thetierra ca lien te, were little known before the Conquest. The seeds of the poison seem to have beenscattered by the hand of civilization ; for it is onlynecessary to settle a town, and draw together abusy European population , in order to call out themalignity of the venom which had before lurkedinnoxious in the atmosphere .9

While these arrangements were in progress , thenatives flocked in from the adj acent district, whichwas to lerably populous in the interior, drawn by anatural curiosity to see the wonderful strangers .They brought with them fruits, vegetables, flowersin abun dance, game, and many dishes cooked afterthe fashion of the country, with little articles ofgold and other ornaments . They gave away someas presents, and bartered others for the wares ofthe Spaniards ; so that the camp, crowded with amotley throng of every age and sex , wore the ap

°The epidemic of the m a tla z aha a tl, so fatal to the Aztecs, isshown by M. de Humboldt to have been essentially different fromthe adm ito, or bilious fever of our day. Indeed, this disease is notnoticed by the ea rly conquerors and colonists, and, Clavigero asserts,was not known in Mexico till 1725 . (Stor. del Messico, tom. 1.

p . 117, nota. ) Humboldt, however, arguing that the same physicalcauses must have produced similar results, carries the disease backto a much higher antiquity, of which he discerns some traditionaland historic vestige s. Il ne faut pas confondre l’époqu e ,” he remarks, with his usual penetration, “a laquelle une maladie a étédécrite pour la premiere fois, parce qu’elle a fait de grands ravagesdans n u court espace de temps, avec l’époqu e de sa premiere apparition.” Essai politique, tom . iv. p . 161 et seq., and 179.

15191 INTERVIEW WITH TH E AZTECS 367

pearan ce of a fair. From some of the visitorsCortés learned the intention of the governor towait on him the following day.

This was Easter. Teuhtlile arrived, as he hadannounced, before noon . He was attended by anumerous train , and was met by Corté s, who conducted him with much ceremony to his tent

,where

his principal officers were assembled . The Aztecchief returned their salutations with po lite thoughformal courtesy. Mass was first said by FatherO lmedo, and the service was listened to by Teuhtlil e and his attendants with decent reverence . Acollation was afterwards served, at which the general entertained his guest with Spanish winesand confections . The interpreters were then introdu ced, and a conversation commenced betweenthe parties .The first inquiries of Teuhtlile were respectingthe country of the strangers and the purport oftheir vis it . Cortés told him that he was the sub

ject o f a po tent monarch beyond the seas , whoruled over an immense empire , and had kings andprinces for his vassals ; that, acquain ted with thegreatness of the Mexican emperor, his master haddesired to enter into a communication with him ,

and had sent him as his envoy to wait on Montezuma with a present in token of his good will, anda message which he must deliver in person .

”

Heconcluded by inquiring of Teuhtlile when he couldbe admitted to his sovereign

’

s presence.To this the Aztec noble somewhat haughtily replied

,How is it that you have been here only

two days,and deman d to see the emperor?

”

He

368 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

then added, with more courtesy, that he wassurprised to learn there was another monarch aspowerful as Montezuma, but that, if it were so,he had no doubt his master would be happy tocommunicate with him. He would send hiscouriers with the royal gift brought by the Spanish commander, and, so soon as he had learnedMontezuma’s will, would commun icate it.

”

Teuhtlile then commanded his slaves to bringforward the present intended for the Spanishgeneral . It consisted o f ten loads of fine cottons,several mantles of that curious feather -work whoserich and delicate dyes might Vie with the mostbeautiful painting, and a wicker basket filled withornaments of wrought gold , all calcul ated to inspire the Spaniards with high ideas o f the wealthand mechanical ingenuity of the Mexicans .Co rtes received these presents with suitable ac

kn owledgm en ts , and ordered his own attendantsto lay before the chief the articles designed forMontezuma. These were an arm- chair richlycarved and painted, a crimson cap of cloth, having a gold medal emblazoned with St. Ge orge andthe dragon, and a quantity of collars, bracelets,and other ornaments of cut glass, which , in acoun try where glass was not to be had, mightclaim to have the value of real gems, and no doubtpassed for such with the inexperienced Mexican ;Teuhtlile observed a soldier in the camp with ashining gilt helmet on his head, which he said re

minded him o f one worn by the god Quetzalcoatlin Mexico ; and he Showed a desire that Montezum a should see it. The coming of the Spaniards,

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

70 CONQUEST OF MEXICO

the troops, as they went through their militaryexercises ; the apparent ease with which they managed the fiery animals on which they weremoun ted ; the glancing of their weapons, and theshrill cry of the trumpet, all filled the spectatorswith astonishment ; but when they heard the thunders of the cannon, which Cortés ordered to befired at the same time, and witnessed the volumesof smoke and flame issuin g from these terribleengines, and the rushing sound of the ball s, as theydashed through the trees of the neighboring forest, shiverin g their branches into fragments, theywere filled with consternation, from which the A z

tec chief himself was not wholly free .Nothing of all this was lost on the painters, whofaithful ly recorded, after their fashion, every particular ; not omitting the ships, the waterhouses,

” as they called them, of the strangers,which, with their dark hulls and snow-white sailsreflected from the water, were swinging lazily atanchor on the calm bosom of the bay. All wasdepicted with a fidelity that excited in their turnthe admiration of the Spaniards, who, doubtless,unprepared for this exhibition of Skill, greatlyoverestimated the merits of the execution.

*

These various matters completed, Teuhtlile

with his attendants withdrew from the Spanish

[According to a curious docum ent published by Icazbalceta

(Col. de Doc . para la H ist. de México, tom . two of the principal caciques present on this occasion communicated secretly withCortes , and, declaring themselves disaff ected subj ects of Montezuma,off ered to facilitate the advance of the Spaniards by furnishingthe general with paintings in which the various fea tures of thecountry would be correctly delineated . The off er was accepted, andon the next visit the paintings were produced, and proved subse

TE RVIEWWITH THE AZTECS 371

with the same ceremony with which hered them ; leaving orders that his people

pply the troops with provisions and othersquisite for their accommodation, till fur°

u ctio n s from the capital .12

hitl, Relaciones, MS ., No. 13.—Idem, H ist . Chich., MS .,

Jmara, Cr én ica , cap . 25, 26 .—Bernal D iaz, H ist. de la

ap. 38.—Herrera, H ist . general, dec . 2 , lib. 5 , cap . 4.

era Cruz, MS.—Torquemada, Monarch. Ind ., lib. 4, cap.

z om oc, Crén . Mexicana, MS., cap . 107.

great service to Cortés, who rewarded the donors withts. But the genuineness of this paper, though supdistinguished a scholar as Seiio r Ramirez, is more thanK. ]