YALE
UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

MEXICO:

BEFORE AND AFTER THE CONQUEST.

BY
MICHEL CHEYALIEK,
AUTHOR OF "SOCIETY, MANNERS, AND POLITICS IN THE UNITED STATES/

TRANSLATED FROM THE- FRENCH,
'1
BY
FAY. EOBltfsONJ

COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME.

PHILADELPHIA: V
CAREY/ AND HART.
1846. ,, ,

Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1846, by
CAREY AND HART,
in the Clerk's Office ofthe District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

PREFACE.

This essay was published during the latter portion of the past year
in La Revue des deux Mondes, and excited in France the liveliest
attention. Mr. Chevalier, the author, is well known in. this country,
through which he traveled some years since, winning, by his gentle
manly bearing and high tone of feeling, many friends. In France he
occupies a high position in the literary and political world, and is
distinguished by the hospitality he has ever extended to Americans. ,
The translator originally contemplated the publication of only a
portion of this essay, intending to omit nearly all of the last half of
the second part, but was deterred from this course by the difficulty of
doing justice to the author unless his whole argument was given.
This book, it is believed, will be found a faithful reflex of the original*
and in the present condition of affairs, an amusing contribution to our
information about a country in many respects interesting to us.
This essay was written as a feeler to the popular mind, and to
awaken it to the great value of Mexico, in a* commercial point of
view, to France. How far it was successful, the public is well aware,
from the great interest taken^by the government and diplomatists
of France in our disputes with that country. ' $

MEXICO:
BEFORE AND AFTER THE CONOUEST.

I. EMBARKATION OF CORTEZ.
* On Hply Thursday, in 1519, an armed flotilla anchored between
the island of St. Juan de Ulloa and the main land. The men it bore
were young, with the exception, perhaps, of two priests of venerable
air. The commander was thirty-four years of age. Courage and
self-confidence animated the expression of every countenance, and
their brows, darkened by the sun, demonstrated that they were not
at the beginning of their wanderings.4 Many of the company, who
had sailed by those shores before, explained to others the bearing of
the seas, the position of the rivers and mountains, and the character
istics of the natives. No sooner had 'they disembarked than one of
the party, standing by the side of the commander, referring to some
detailed description of the soil they stood on,, said or rather sang
a verse from the old ballad of the Enchanter Montesinos.
" Here is France, oh Montesinos,
There the Darro's waters run;
Royal Paris lies before us,
And our journey's end is won."
Meaning to express that he stood on the shore of a mighty empire.
* The author of this essay thinks it his duty to say here that, independently of his
own personal observations in Mexico, and what he has gathered from the older
historians of the conquest and subsequent travelers, among whom' M. Humboldt
is especially worthy of notice, he has made great use of two recent works, the
History of the Conquest of Mexico, by Mr. William Prescott of Boston, and the
collection of documents relative to the discovery of Mexico by M. Vernaux
Compans. This collection, though not yet complete, has already reached the 25th",
volume, and contains documents previously unpublished in French, and many
others which only existed as manuscripts in Spanish.

10 MEXICO.
Cortez, having landed at Cozumel, and made a brief campaign
' against the Indians of Tabasco in the peninsula of Yucatan, had
sailed to the coast of Mexico on which Grijalva had previously
landed, and by some bf the companions of whom he was now ac
companied. The accounts given by that navigator, the information
he had been able to collect in Yucatan, and the vague rumors of the
neighboring islands, all confirmed him in the belief that, in Mexico
he would find a people more industrious than any yet discovered in
America, and who were possessed of much gold. When Cortez
asked whence came the ornaments of gold many of the first inhabi
tants he met with on the main land wore, their answer was from
Culb.ua: thus they called Mexico.
Cortez and his companions were under the necessity of distinguishing
; themselves, by daring exploits. They had committed an offence which
could be expiated only by the achievement of fame or the gibbet,
for the leaders, and imprisonment for the companions of this enter
prise. In flagrant rebellion against orders of the Governor, they had
sailed from Cuba. On the faith of the reports of Grijalva, who at
different points of the Mexican coast had exchanged beads and other
trifles of European manufacture for the beautiful jewelry of the
country, Velasquez had organized a formidable expedition, when we
consider the colony he governed and the age in which he lived, and
had assigned to Cortez the command of it. In this armament Cortez
had invested all that he possessed. At sunrise, on the 18th of No
vember, 1518, Cortez, who had been informed that Velasquez, from
feelings of jealousy, purposed to supersede him, after conference with
his lieutenants, sailed without further leave from St. Jago de Cuba.
Velasquez, informed of his intention, arrived thither only in time to see
Cortez give the signal, and to hear him ask in bitter irony for his
instructions. Thence, to recruit his forces, the bold adventurer had
proceeded to other ports of Cuba: Macaca, Trinidad and Havana,
followed by the powerless anathemas and useless orders of Velasquez
to remain. Everywhere he made additions to the personel and
materiel of his force, and became a rebel, a traitor, and a brigand.
He did this 'with the full knowledge of all of his companions, who
consequently became his accomplices. They were brave : many of
them- were experienced soldiers, having served against the French in
Italy, and the Turks on the shores of the Levant. They determined
to immortalize themselves, which was not very difficultvfor Castilians
of that age to do ; they determined, by their daring exploits, to win
pardon for their offences.
Naturally enough, when they set sail, Cortez and his companions

MEXICO. 1]
estimated the Mexican races to be as powerless and enervated as the
savage tribes of San Domingo and Cuba, who were as indolent as they
were inoffensive, and of this prejudice they were not entirely divested
by the valor with which their landing at Yucatan had been resisted.
They chiefly expected to find gold and treasure ; there was an abund
ance of gold, but as a Spartan chief had said to the Persian monarch,
they must come and take it. To do this Cortez had six hundred and
sixty-three soldiers and sailors, thirteen of whom only had arquebuses,
and thirty-two cross-bows, with ten pieces of artillery and four falco
nets. They had but sixteen horses,* and to collect this small number
the greatest difficulties had been undergone. The rest ofthe armament
was on foot armed with swords, pikes or maces; this was the exhibit
ofthe muster made by Cortez at Cape San Antonio, immediately before
he sailed from Cuba. Six hundred and sixty-three men set sail to
conquer an empire.
And what was this empire ?
In their intercourse with the people of Tabasco, all that Cortez
and his companions had been able to gather, indicated the existence
of a nation in the interior of the continent, of limitless power and
opulence, by no means ignorant of the arts of civilization, since its
people dwelt in large cities, and rich and highly cultivated plains.
The Aztecs (this is the true name of the Mexicans) had extended
their empire hundreds of leagues from Tenochtitlan, (now called the
City of Mexico,) their capital ; they had made conquests of which
they retained possession, and spread everywhere the terror of their
arms. Their supremacy and laws were submitted to in Guatemala.
The name of their Emperor Montezuma inspired the greatest terror
' and respect. Cortez, in his first interview with Tentilla, governor of
the province in which he disembarked, a soldier full of courtesy, a
true courtier, remarkable for his tact and finesse, having said that he
was himself the envoy of a monarch great as the Mexicans' master,
saw with what astonishment he received the intelligence of the exist
ence of any king mighty as Montezuma. Some weeks afterwards,
Cortez asked him to whom he was vassal. " To whom should I'be
but Montezuma?" Later still, on his march into the interior, after his
battle with the Tlascalans, a chief, whom he had asked if Montezuma
was not his sovereign, answered, " Of whom is Montezuma not ., the
sovereign ?" An unheard-of luxury surrounded the person of this
• * There were few horses then in Cuba. Cortez paid for thos% he had four.hun-
dred and fifty or five hundred pesos de oro a piece. According to Prescott, the.
value of the peso de oro is about sixty-four francs; and the value of each beast
thirty thousand four hundred francs.

12 MEXICO.
prince. It was etiquette to speak to him with eyes bent on the
ground. " I believe," wrote Cortez to Charles V., " that no sultan or '
infidel prince is served with such luxury or ceremony ;" and in the
mouth of Cortez the word sultan is one expressing the greatest luxury
and splendor.
The words preserved by Bernal Diaz, with which the emperor
received Cortez, when he gave him audience in his palace in Mexico,
showed him what relation the monarch bore to the population of the
New World, and what enterprise lay before himself in a contest with
countless soldiers and armies. " Your friends of Tlascala have told
you, probably," said he, with a smile, "that I am like the gods— that
I dwell in a palace of gold, silver and gems. These you see are idle
tales; my palace, like the dwellings of other men around, is of wood
and stone. My body (uncovering his arm) is like yours, of flesh and
bone. I certainly inherited from my fathers an immense empire,
vast territories with precious metals, but . . . ."
Let us yet look deeply into things; let us see what was the intel
lectual capital of the Mexican Empire, what moral excellence, what
religious culture it had attained.

II. CONDITION OF ART AND SCIENCE IN MEXICO.
Population, the first source of all wealth, was abundant. The
general tradition is that Montezuma was lord of thirty vassals, each
of whom could put in the field one hundred thousand men. I am
disposed to admit that the West sometimes indulged in exaggerations
by no means less than those of the East, and I have no more faith in_
the existence of Montezuma's three million, than of the one million
said to have crossed the Hellespont with Xerxes ; but every page of
the letters of Cortez, and the stories of Bernal Diaz, and the chroni
clers give an account of armies of forty or fifty thousand men. Every
thing goes to show the country to have been much more populous
than it now is. We know that a small territory in tropical regions
is capable of sustaining a vast population. M. de Humboldt esti
mates the nutritive power of land planted with bananas* as twenty-
five' times greater than that of good corn land in Europe. The
banana, it is true, is not a product of the table land of the valley of
Mexico, growing only in the less elevated districts called now la
tierra caliente, or tierra templada; but on the two declivities of the-
Pacific and Atlantic, the Aztecan Empire was of vast extent, and in
* See PEssai Politique sur la Nouvelle Espagne.

MEXICO. • 13
the table land of the valley called tierra fria, or the cold country,
though fire is unnecessary for comfort at any season of the year,
the maize grew, which in tropical climates yields eight hundred grains
for one,* and then, as now, in the form of tortillas, was the chief
article of food. The great cities were very near each other. Around
the basin of the lakes in the splendid Anahuac,t more smiling and
beautiful then than now,J were twenty cities, the memory of whose
magnificence is still preserved. Besides the superb capital, rising like
Venice from the bosom of the waters, were Tezcuco and Tlacopan,
residences of monarchs, Iztapalapan, a fief of the emperor's brother ;
Chalco, Xochimilco, Xoloc, Culhuacan, Popotla, Tepejacac, Cuit
lahuac, Ajotzinco, Teotihuacan, &c, all of them nearly reduced to
miserable villages,like the metropolis of Greece, like Thebes and Mem
phis, happier though than Babylon, Nineveh and Persepolis, whose
very site even is forgotten. Mexico had a population of more than
three hundred thousand souls. It was muchlarger than the modern
city built by Cortez on the ruins of the first, which now even .con
tains a population of one hundred and fifty thousand. Tezcuco
contained one hundred and fifty thousand. Iztapalapan at least
sixty thousand. At the base of the declivity of the snowy chain
opposite Mexico, was the mercantile and religious capital of Chololan,
containing hot less than one hundred thousand souls.§
A large population is the index of a certain degree of civilization ;
wherever men are crowded together, subsistence cannot be had with
out industry : regular laws must provide for necessary difficulties. To
maintain this multitude, measures for the future must be taken, and
prudence and preparation indicate some degree of science. The
industry of the inhabitants of the table land was remarkable ; the
* The average yield of maize in Mexico is one hundred and fifty fold. Eight
hundred fold is uncommon, and to be attributed to peculiar locations.
t This is the name yet borne by the vast table land which constitutes a large
portion of the actual table land of Mexico. The name signifies near4he water,
and was applied to the large lakes within its circumference.
% Because the Spaniards, to place the city out of all danger of inundation, have
nearly dried up the ponds of water, and exposed to the action'of the sun a soil
impregnated with salt and therefore barren.
$ The road between Tanepantla and Ahuahuetes passes nearly an hour's jour
ney amid the ruins of the ancient city. From it aswell as from the ruins between
Tacuba and Iztapalapan, we may learn how much Mexico, as rebuilt by Cortez,
is smaller than the ancient Tenochtitlan under the reign of the last Montezuma.
The enormous size ofthe market place of Tlatelolco which yet exists, proves the
ancient city to have been immense. — (Essai Politique sur la NouveUe Espagne.-^-
Humboldt, vol. ii. p. 43.) B

14 MEXICO.
first and earliest of all arts, agriculture, the mother of states, was
flourishing. We know not why the soil of Mexico is capable of such
a variety of products. In consequence of the gradual elevation of the
land from the level of the sea to an immense plain between two and
three thousand paces above it, and which is itself the base of moun
tains covered with eternal snow, beneath the torrid zone it presents
in a short space, a succession of all possible climates, from the sea
shore with its burning sands, producing indigo, to the sides of Popo
catepetl, where, while the glance extends to the tierra caliente, the
feet press upon lichees and the vegetation of Iceland and Hudson's
Bay. The Flora Mexicana is of exceeding richness. With maize
and the banana, the Mexicans cultivated cotton, which they knew
how to spin and weave. They cultivated the cacao of which a beve
rage was made that Montezuma delighted in, and which now has
become a favorite in Spain and throughout all Europe ; we have
preserved too the old Aztecan name of chocolatl. They were igno
rant of coffee and the sugar cane, but sugar they made from the stalk
of the maize. They cultivated a vast number of medicinal plants ; a
shrub of their forests produced the vanilla, with which Mexico still
supplies all Europe. From the cactus they produced cochineal,
which now is one of the principal articles of Mexican export. Their
most curious product was.a peculiar kind of aloes, the Mexican agave,
called by them the maguey. It is well known that all nations use
some fermented drink,* and to a physiologist, Islamism appears to
have achieved wonders in restraining the people of the east from the
use of any similar thing. From this fondness, we more correctly
may say, from this general necessity of all nations, results the univer
sal prevalence of the cultivation of the vine. The Aztecs had not
our vine, which, subsequent to the conquest, imported, has succeeded
well in the plains of Anahuac ;t but the maguey filled its place. As soon
as the plant was in flower the juicy shoot was cut off. The saccharine
. moisture which exuded, was collected in a natural calix in the centre
of the plant, and having been fermented under the name of pulque,
* The fermented drink of the Chinese is made from rice, pretty much as our
beer is made from barley. Other nations have fermented the saccharine juice of
different plants.
t The cultivation ofthe vine was the cause or rather the occasion ofthe Mexi
can revolution. ThevSpanish government, thinking only of the interest of the
mother country, prohibited the planting of the vine and olive in the colonies. The
curate of the small city of Dolores, had planted a few vines and attempted to per
suade the Indians to follow his example. The authorities destroyed them • soon
after, with the Indians, he took up arms, and was the first general of the war of
independence.

MEXICO. 15
was esteemed a delicious drink. The leaves ofthe maguey, bruised
and dried in sheets, constituted a species of paper, on which they
wrote as the Egyptians did on papyrus ; the fibres of these leaves
were woven into a coarse cloth, or- like hemp spun into rope; the
spines which covered the leaves answered as needles and bodkins ;
the leaves, when whole answered as tiles ; fhe root was an agreeable
and wholesome food, and, moreover, its pure juice was sweet and
well-flavored. The maguey answered,a thousand different purposes,
and was to them a treasure ; they never have ceased to cultivate it ;
pulque is at this moment the favorite drink of "the present Mexican
nation. The Europeans are the only persons in Mexico who do not
use it daily ; in the environs of every city, vast squares of aloes are
seen far finer than any grown in the hot-beds of Europe. This is
the maguey, whose juices especially please the Mexican palate, and
enrich the treasury * it is as extensively used as it was by the Azte-
cans. Paper is still made of it.* The maguey and the nopal are the
two characteristic plants of Mexico. In the uncultivated portions of
the table-land, one sees immense spaces destitute of all trees except
these two, either solitary or in small groups, a vegetation melancholy
and strange, which renj§|.ins insensible to the voice of the winds in
stead of echoing it as it waves in the blast as our forests do, and by
its unbending rigidness makes the traveler, when out of the hearing
and sight of the hamlets, fancy himself in the heart of a region where
some angry spirit has turned all things into stone.
Mexican agriculture knew well the influence of irrigations ; canals
which have been ruined since the conquest gave fertility to vast dis
tricts. Forest-craft was well known and practised ; severe laws pun
ished the destruction of trees. The Mexican princes knew the influ
ence of trees in moderating the heat of summer, and in keeping up
the supply of moisture so necessary to the regular supply of dews.
Inferior in this to their predecessors, the Spaniards introduced into
Mexico that horror of trees they derive perhaps from the shepherds
from whom they are sprung, and which at this day makes the
plains of Castile the most mournful of all regions. ' Now there is a
scarcity in Mexico of wood for the use of mines of silver, which are
the richest known to exist, and the mind of man has been forced to
provide a substitute for it, in the extraction of the^niiheral by cold
instead of heat, by the intervention of mercury, salt, lime,.and another
mineral ingredient called in the language of Mexico magistral.
If Mexican agriculture was rich in vegetable products, in animal
* ¦
* Mr. Prescott speaks of two factories of pager from the maguey.

16 MEXICO.
life it was very impoverished. Mexico had no beasts of burden ; ,
it had neither the ox, the ass, the horse or the camel, and this is a
positive proof that the Mexicans could have had only accidental in
tercourse with the Eastern Continent, and that they were not emi
grants from Asia. We may draw a similar conclusion from their
ignorance of silk which is so important a part of the productions of
China. The Mexicans had not even the alpaca of Peru.t They
were ignorant of the sheep and the goat. It is easy to understand
what a lacuna must have been created by the absence of quadrupeds
in civilization. It is possible to do without the sheep, it is more easy
to dispense with the goat, but when the beasts of burden are absent
man must occupy their places. In these circumstances the mass of men
must lead a servile existence ; all burdens then, among the Aztecs,
were carried by men; -chiefs were carried in litters by bearers {ta
manes). In a similar manner, in China, when wg pass out of the great
valleys of the rivers or far from canals, transportation is on the backs
of men. It is so in Mexico no longer. Mules for general transporta
tion, and asses for the business of towns, have freed man from this
painful labor, which at the same time is so humiliating. In moun
tainous districts alone, the painful task of bearing burdens even of
wood is perpetuated.!
For the transmission of intelligence and of orders, Montezuma
had relays of men organized to accomplish what he required, with a
speed equal almost to that of our mails. By means of these carriers it
was possible to serve at his table fish, which on the preceding evening
swam in the Gulf of Mexico. Now in Mexico horses are plenty, and
there is over the same route a carriage road, but no one thinks of
such a luxury.
^ As if in gratitude to that nature which had been to them so prodi
gal of the products of the vegetable kingdom, the Aztecs were pas
sionately devoted to the cultivation of flowers. In the splendid
gardens they collected at great expense the perfumed and glittering
flowers which a tropical sun evoked in the depths of every wood and
on the banks of every river. Mingled with them were medicinal
* The Aztecs appear to have been unacquainted with the buffalo or the moun
tain sheep and goat of California.
t The Aztecs were acquainted with a species of silk-worm, different however
from that of China. The manufacture of cloth from it was small, and so incon
siderable that some have doubted if it ever existed, so that, as a substantial fact,
the words of the text may be considered true.
% According to Humboldt, the ordinary load of a man is about thirty or forty
pounds. "'

MEXICO. 17
plants systematically arranged ; shrubs remarkable from their flowers or
foliage, for the excellence of their fruit or virtue of their seed, and majes
tic and elegant trees. They took especial pleasure in the distribution of
parterres and groups of trees on the declivity of the hills, which were
so frequent in their country. In this they equaled the famous hang
ing-gardens of Semiramis, which we of modern days now receive as
one of the wonders of the world ; to them they conducted aqueducts
supplied with water from a great distance, which they diffused in cas
cades and in basins filled with fish of the rarest kinds. Mysterious
pavilions were concealed under the shade of a dense foliage, where
were statues in the midst of labyrinths of flowery paths. All the
curiosities collected in our botanical gardens ; birds of rich and varie
gated plumage, were confined in cages large as houses, wild animals
and hundreds of the graceful and beautiful portion of the animal
creation, ran free in delightful parks and bosquets. At this epoch
Europe had no botanical gardens. When we read the history of the
conquest we are struck with admiration at the splendor of the garden
of Nezahualcoyotl at Tezcotzinco (two leagues from Tezcuco),
hanging on the sides of a hill five hundred ahd twenty paces high,
and which hung over a basin into which water constantly fell from
vases held by gigantic statues. The description of the gardens of
Cuitlahtia, brother of the emperor, and his ephemeral successor, strike
us in a similar manner. These gardens were at his residence of Iztapala
pan. OfasimilarcharacterwerethoseofacaciqueatHuaxtepic,notless:
than two leagues in circumference according to the account of Cortez.
We are astonished at all that had been collected by Montezuma in
his own at Mexico ; and now the traveler who wanders beneath the
shade ofthe gigantic cypresses of Chapoltepec, called Montezuma's^but
in fact older than his era, becomes satisfied of the truth of the supersti
tion, that a soil hallowed by the graves of monarchs cannot be subr
dued, and is satisfied that the Aztec emperor accomplished all tradi
tion says he did, on the plain which surrounds this hill of porphyry,
in assisting the action of a tropical sun by the pure water which
drips from the bosom of the rock; he esteems reasonable the work
now ridiculed as the folly of the young Viceroy Galvez, who built a
superb castle already ruined on the summit of the mount, to be able
to enjoy, the prospect of the superb landscape spread around it. The
humblest individuals partook ofthe taste for flowers. "* When Cortez,,
after his debarkation and the foundation of the city Villa Rica <|e la
Vera Cruz, made his entry into the city of Cempoalla, the natives
came to meet him, and men and women without fear mingled with
soldiers, bearing bouquets and garlands of flowers with which they

18 MEXICO.
decked the necks of his horse and hung around his helmet in bloom
ing chaplets.
Another curiosity which makes the name of the Aztecs almost
Idylic, and diffuses over their story the influence of an innocence',
smiling as that of the shepherds of Arcadia, was the existence of
chinanpas, or floating gardens on the bosom of their lakes. Masses
of lilies or of bulbous plants, doubtless inspired them with the idea of
this, when, like the Jews under the stern law of a gentile Pharaoh,
they prepared themselves for their future destiny. Soil was measured
out to them, as the Bible says straw was to the Israelites. They
added to it by binding together on the surface of the lake, masses of
roots and oziers, over which a layer of earth was spread. This was
done as long as the Aztecs were free. The artificial islands of fifty
or one hundred paces in length, were devoted to the cultivation of
vegetables and flowers for the market of the capital. Some were of
a soil sufficiently firm to support shrubs of considerable size, and
occasionally even huts of slight materials. They were fastened by
cables to the shore, wherever whim dictated, or they were drawn
along by the same means. This spectacle very much astonished the
Spaniards, and made them almost fancy, says Bernal Diaz, that they
had been transported to some enchanted clime, like that described iu
Amadis of Gaul, a popular romance of their era.
The condition of art and design among them was satisfactory.
They produced not only the necessaries of life, but its luxuries.
Cotton and the fibres of the aloes supplied them with clothing ; of
the first of these they made even a species of armor which was
arrow-proof. They knew how to dye cloths in a great number of
mineral and vegetable colors. I have mentioned already cochineal,
which is, to speak exactly, an animal substance. They manufactured
crockery for domestic purposes, and made also utensils of varnished
wood, like the Russians of our own times. They were unacquainted
with iron; this useful metal, on neither of the continents, -was dis
covered until civilization was assured. But resembling in this the
early Greeks and Egyptians, they substituted for it brass, which much
beaten becomes exceedingly hard.* They also substituted for u>a
volcanic mineral substance, like glass, but harder, now called obsi
dian, by them iztli. They had the art of fashioning obsidian into
edged tools; they made of it knives, razors, (for though not as bearded
as we, they still had beards,) arrow and pike-heads. They paid
great attention to their mines, from which they -extracted lead, brass,
* The use of bronze as a substitute for steel is proved, by the ruins of Pompeii
to have been common in antiquity.

MEXICO. 19
silver and gold. They excelled in working in precious metals. The
ornaments and vases of gold and silver which Cortez received from
Montezuma, before he ascended into the table-land, were cast, sol
dered, chased, and enriched with highly-polished gems, and with
enameling then unknown to the goldsmiths of Europe, who acknow
ledged their inferiority, if we may credit the cotemporary historians
ofthe conquest. " No prince in the world," wrote Cortez to Charles
V., "possesses jewels so valuable," and he declared their fashion not
inferior to their value.*
It may be said of Mexico, as of all aristocratic and despotic govern
ments, where the pleasures of the few are the result of the labors of
the many, and where the maxim humanum paucis vivit genus is
rigidly applied. Civilization had the superfluous in excess, and often
was deficient in the necessary. The same reflection presents itself
naturally to the mind relative to another art practised by the Mexi
cans with great success, that of the manufacture of plumaje, or cloth
of feathers. The country, like all tropical climates, abounded with
magnificent birds, whose feathers artistically joined to a cotton roof,
and occasionally to the skins of animals, constituted a tissue of the
richest and most variegated colors, in the most perfect taste, which
was appropriated to the apparel of the rich and the drapery of their
temples. This manufacture occupied a large portion of the working'1
classes, and of all their productions awakened in Europe the greatest
attention. For the battle-field, a Mexican leader hung over his cuirass of gold
a mantelet of plumaje. He wore a casque of wood, leather, or it
might be of silver, over which hung the angry head of some animal,
which served as the crest of his family, with a plume of many colors.
His wrists were adorned with bracelets, and a necklace of go/d' and
gems hung over his chest. Many of them bore bucklers richly en
graved, and also ornamented with feathers. His arms were arrows,
the sling, javelin, pike and maquahuill, a kind of two-handed sword,
like the weapons of the middle ages, about a yard in length, with
two edges of obsidian fixed in a bar of wood. Often the points of
the arrows and pikes were of copper. When the European first
found himself in the presence of such enemies, his ideas were that he
would win no easy victory. Such was Cortez's idea when he found
himself opposed to the Tlasteques, though that people were less
* Cortez, in his letters to Charles V., protests that he exaggerates nothing,, and
his letters bear the impress of truth. Besides, he sent specimens of their jewelers'"
work to the emperor. Las Casas, Oviedo and Peter Martyr confirm his account.

20 MEXICO.
polished and less luxurious than the Mexicans, at the same time that
their arms were inferior, though their valor was not.
Their architecture was monumental in its character. The Mexican
soil furnished different rocks of volcanic origin, amygdaloid lavas of
extreme hardness. The tetzontli, the most commonly employed of
all in Mexico, is porous and consequently comparatively light, which
renders it very handy for building purposes, at the same time that its
consistence is hard and unalterable. For sculpture, to which they
paid great attention, they had black porphyries.
Their palaces were spacio'us, generally of a single floor, and com
posed of many separate corps de logis distributed in a vast circum
ference, very much as is now done in China. We have good reason
to think that an apprehension of earthquakes, which are frequent in
Mexico, though not violent, was the cause of this, though the present
inhabitants of that country, by means of tolerably firm foundations,
have been able to erect edifices of a very considerable height. The
Aztecs ornamented their palaces with odoriferous woods elaborately
carved. The exterior was of a white and solid stucco, which made
them glitter in the sun, so that when the Spaniards saw for the first
time a Mexican city (Cempoalla), the cavalry ofthe advanced guard
returned at speed to say that the houses were plated with silver.
The interior apartments were ornamented with marble and porphyry
or hung with plumaje. The temples were vast pyramids of sun
burned brick, or of earth with a pavement of stone surmounted by
sanctuaries and towers in which were statues of their gods. Above
all, burned day and night fires which in the darkness of a tropical
night gave to their cities a mysterious and imposing appearance. The
immensity of temples and palaces, the enormous labor required for
their construction of the mighty edifices crowded in the vale of
Mexico, among which we must include the bridges of masonry
thrown over the lake, drew exclamations of admiration from the con-
qiiistadores and their general, who in the main were not easily
moved. When Cortez, in his reports to Charles V., mentioned the
city of Iztapalapan, which he marched through on his way to the
metropolis, he said that it contained palaces equal to the most beau
tiful in Spain. With regard to Mexico, after the obstinate defence
of Guatimozin had forced him to demolish it house by house, he tells
the emperor that he did it with the greatest sorrow, because nothing
equal to it remains in the world.
The mechanic arts in Mexico were in their infancy, but in this
respect the most cultivated nations of antiquity had made no greater
advance. Yet the Mexicans had been able to move masses almost

MEXICO. 21
as vast in fact as those moved by the Egyptians. ;. Of this kind was
the vast stone of the zodiac now imbedded in the Walls. of the cathe
dral of Mexico, estimated by Prescott as weighing about fifty thou
sand pounds, which they had transported many "leagues.
A monk who arrived immediately after the conquest, and to whom
we are indebted for one of the best books on their civilization, thus
speaks of the industry ofthe Mexicans:
" In general, they were ignorant of nothing that had reference to the
labors of the fields or work in the city. One Indian never has recourse
to another to build a house, or to procure for it the needful materials.
Wherever they may be, they know where to find building materials of
every kind, fuel, etc. The very children know the names and characteris
tics of animals, trees, grasses, herbs, and countless roots on which they
subsist. All know how to work in stone, to build a house, to make a
rope, and to procure the rough material". They are masters of all trades
which do not require great labor or very delicate tools. When overtaken
by night in the fields, they build huts in a few minutes, especially when
they accompany their chiefs or Spaniards; on which occasions all persons, -
whoever they may be, set to work with great good will." ,
The variety of Mexican manufactures is certified by descriptions
preserved in many accounts, of the market of Mexico, which was held
every fifth day in a square surrounded by porticoes, which Cortez says
was twice as large as the city of Salamanca, and in which sixty thou
sand persons could be accommodated with ease. The order which
governed this multitude and presided over its transactions, the rapidity
with which magistrates appointed for the purpose decided all disputes
and punished infractions of good order, are proofs not to be contra
dicted of the civilization to which the people had attained.
Their system of oral and written numeration was very* simple. *
To speak only of the latter, it was estimated by twenty instead of
ten, which basis was expressed by a flag. The basis of the system
was then divisible not only by the number five, to which all nations.;
appear to have a predilection from the fact that it is the number of
the fingers, but by four which contains a farther division by two.
It is well known that the weak side of our decimal system is the in
divisibility of its base, ten by four. Their signs represented what in,
arithmetical language are called the successive powers of 20, that is-
to say, 20 times 20, or 40Q, which was expressed by a feather of l
20 times 400, or 8000, which was denoted by a purse; and they had
rarely occasion to go beyond the third power, the sign of which they
combined with other figures. ' The effect of this is precisely what
would be the expression by peculiar characters among us often^ an,
hundred and a thousand. From one to twenty the numbersnvere
expressed by writing a point for every unit. This arithmetical wrjt-
2

22 MEXICO-
ing— though inferior to our own, derived from the Hindoos through
the Arabs — is at the least as good as that of the Greeks and Romans;
and resembles it exceedingly,, for the principal Roman figures cor
respond to the successive powers of ten. The signs of 20, 400, 8000,
were broken into fractions of fourths, to indicate without great com
plication all numbers. Thus 200 was expressed by a half of a feather,
6000 by three-fourths of a purse.
I have spoken of the manuscripts of tne Mexicans ; they had a
system of writing; they had even more than one. They used not
only hieroglyphics, figurative as well as symbolic, but also, like the
Egyptians, phonetic characters, expressing not things, ideas or actions,
but sounds. From the last to the alphabet there is but a single step ; or
rather, phonetic systems are alphabets ; but they made use of this
precious discovery even less than the Egyptians, and limited them
selves always within the circle of figurative or symbolic characters.
The consequence was, that writing required greatly to be assisted by
the memory ; their books, in leaves like ours, and not in rouleaux, like
those of antiquity, were preserved in libraries, almost all of which
have been burned. The first Archbishop of Mexico, a man otherwise
deserving of great praise, from the earnestness with which he sought
to protect the Indians from the rapacity of the colonists who came
,^ike birds of prey to devour the fruits of the conquest, collected all the
manuscripts upon which he could lay his hands, and made of them
in the grand plaza of Mexico a solemn auto dafi. The cotemporary
authors say they were mountain-like in height, and every one seemed
to think imitation of this sad example was an evidence of religious
zeal. The condition of their astronomical knowledge would denote
means of observation and methods of appreciation o,f surprising
exactness. They knew the length of the year better than the Romans
of the age of Cesar, better than Europe in the era of Charles V. and
Francis I.: their method of intercalation to keep account of the frac
tion of a day, which enters into the exact duration of a tropical year,
was nearly e'qual in excellence to that established by the Gregorian
reform ; by the latter there is an intercalation of twenty-four days in
one hundred years. The Aztecs intercalated twenty-five days in an
hundred and four years. The difference is exceedingly small. The
length of the tropical year is three hundred and sixty-five days and a
fraction represented by five hours forty-eight minutes forty-nine
seconds. This fractional increase of nearly a quarter of a day a
year, rendering necessary the intercalation of a whole day, or of a
number of days, after the lapse of four or more years, was, in the

MEXICO. 23
calendar of Julius Cesar, supposed to be exactly a quarter of a day ;
so that, in the time of Pope Gregory, the world was more than ten
days in advance of the true reckoning. The Gregorian reform, de
creed in. 1582, intercalates a day in every fourth year, except in the
secular years, when a day is intercalated only three times out of four,
and supposes this fraction to be five hours forty-nine minutes and
twelve seconds. The mean year of. the Gregorian calendar is then
too long by twenty-three seconds, or by one day in four thousand
years. The Mexicans computed this fraction in the mean year at
.five hours forty-six minutes and nine seconds. Their mean year was,
therefore, precisely that of the celebrated astronomers of the Calif
Almamon. La Place, astonished by the approximation of the Mexicans,
wished to attribute to them some communication- with the continent
of Asia, but he was arrested by a very judicious reflection.
" Why, said he, if this exact determination of the length of the year has
been transmitted to them from the north of Asia, have they a division of
time altogether so different from that in use in the Old" World'?"
It is better then to believe that this estimate of time was the work
of the Mexican people themselves.
This computation of time was not among them a barren or isolated
fact, for according to it the return of the seasons and their festivals
was rigorously calculated. This is another reason why we should
attribute to them the credit of the discovery.
By the side of these remarkable proofs of intellectual power and
civilization, we find art in its infancy. For money they used grains
of cacao of a known number in sacks, or gold dust of uncertain quan
tity in the barrels of quills, or bits of other metal in the form of a
T. Skillful as they were in the working of metals, they knew not
how to coin or strike it of an exact and certain weight and purity.
We are even told that they had no computation of weight, which we
can by no means conceive of or admit, though Mr. Prescott seems to
consider it as probable enough. One thing, however, appears certain,
in the Mexican markets, everything was measured by volume or by
number of pieces. So Cortez reports to Charles V., but he takes good
care not to say that the people were without the idea of weight.

III.— LITERATURE OF THE MEXICANS.
I said that the Mexicans had books. They had a literature of
history and poetry. They made verses and composed songs and

24 MEXICO.
odes. The city of Tezcuco,, the flourishing capital of the Jlcolhus,
became celebrated for its love of letters. There was spoken the
most cultivated and refined of the dialects of Anahuac. According
to Mr. Prescott it was the Athens of the New World. From atl
Mexico, the most distinguished families sent their sons thither to be
educated, as Boturini says, to learn the delicacies of language, poetry,
moral philosophy, theology, astronomy, medicine and history. This
literary and scientific movement assumed great activity under the
reign of Nezahualcoyotl, a celebrated prince, who just one century
before the conquest, regained the throne of his fathers, which an
usurper had taken possession of. Under the style of the musical
council, he created an academy, which -mingled with occupation as
litterateurs, administrative and political functions. It was a corps,
devoted to the muses we may say, and the preserver of traditions
and good taste, arid a protector of youthful talent. On certain fixed
days authors came before it to recite their poems, and receive pre
miums awarded them. The three Mexican monarchs, Kings of
Tezcuco, of Tenochtitlan (Mexico), and of Tlacopan, (the three
mountains, to use the ordinary expression ofthe Spanish historians,)
were members of this academy, and participated in its labors as
Napoleon did in those ofthe Institute. They were proud to have, as
^ their associates in this capacity, the most highly educated men ofthe
country of which they were natives. As a council of censure, this
assembly was called upon to decide on works of astronomy, history,
chronology and science generally, before they were put in circulation ;
but its action was not restricted to means of prevention, for it ap
pears that often authors were punished; and this furnishes an example
of the penal code of the nation : an historical falsehood, committed
with premeditation, was visited with capital punishment. It was a
general council of public instruction, decreeing to professors honorary
diplomas, and watching over the studies of their pupils.
King Nezahualcoyotl did not disdain to place himself among
the poets who presented themselves to this academy. He cultivated
the arts with more discernment and greatness than Nero, or than
Louis XIV., who appeared in ballets even with pretence of being
nee pluribus impar, and who is said never to have committed literary
pelitesses, and not to have had any jealousy of his rivals, or to have
become so angry with critics as to send them to places of punishment.
•He bears a strong resemblance to, two great princes of the East,
King David and the Calif Haroun al Raschid; like the first, he.
^exalted a monarchy which was crumbling to ruin ; like the second,
his taste was exquisite, and he exhibited a rare magnificence in all

MEXICO. 25
his architectural designs. Like both of them, he was a legislator, and
organized a complete system of administration, of which he was the
center. He administered the government with real intelligence and
success, so that in all his territory there remained scarcely any uncul
tivated land. Like the Calif of Bagdad he loved to assume disguises,
and pass through his capital with his Mesrour and Giafar, mingling
with crowds to learn what they thought of his government, and
seeking adventures which might afford him a means of exhibiting
his good qualities. We find in the history of his life an episode,
which seems formed on the story of the love of David for Bathsheba,
the wife of the unfortunate Uriah. His odes, some of which have
been preserved, are certainly not equal to the Psalms of David, and
it is of course impossible to form a correct opinion from translations,
which were perhaps extremely loose ; but their substance is remark
able. They are instinct with philosophy of a melancholy and tender
character, and full of confidence in another life. His maxims, col
lected from many sources, and handed down to us with many details
of his life by an Indian directly descended from him, Ixtlixochitl,
who wrote in Spanish, are of rare beauty. From his religious ideas
one might almost fancy him to have had direct intercourse with Plato
or St. Paul. After regaining the throne of his fathers, he published
a general amnesty by these words, , ',
"A king punishes, but does not revenge."
We might almost fancy that we heard Louis XII. saying that the
king does not revenge offence offered to the Duke of Orleans. He it
was who built a magnificent temple with this inscription on the
altar, which recalls to our mind that on the Hill of Mars, so brilliantly
illustrated by St. Paul :
"To the unknown Grod, the cause of causes."
To enable us to judge of the character of his poetry, the following
is an extract, though without the peculiar color of language and
rhythm, of one of his odes : $
"The fleeting pomps of this world are like green willows, which, when
they arrive at an advanced age, are consumed by fire. The axe destroys
their roots, the storm prostrates them, age and decrepitude overcome and,
render us miserable.
"All things on earth are destined to perish. In the fullness of splendor,
in the midst of the drunkenness of joy, a pitiless weakness seizes them, and
they crumble to the dust. I
"The earth is a sepulchre. All that lives and exalts itself above the sur
face must return again under the earth. Rivers, torrents, and mountain
springs descend, but return no more to the pleasant spots of their birth.
They hasten as if the time were fixed for them to precipitate themselves

26 MEXICO.
into the bosom of Tholuca, (the god of the sea.) What was yesterday exists-
not to-day, and who can say that what exists to-day may be found to-moi-
row ? *l v ¦'¦"*¦
"The dust of the sepulchres were once bodies animated by the living
souls of men who sat on thrones, presided over councils, led armies to
victory, subjected empires, and decreed to themselves homage and human
adoration. They were filled with pride and gorged with a desire to rule .
" But all thek glories are dissipated hke the threatening smoke which
rushes from Popocatepetl ; and all that remains of the most glorious life is
reduced to a small fragment of parchment on which the chronicler traces a
few lines."
Afterwards follows a strophe in which the royal legislator and
poet seems inspired at once with the words which dictated to Juve
nal the noble verses beginning —
Expende Annibalem, quot libras in duce summo.
and the words addressed to the faithful on every Ash- Wednesday
by the Christian priest when he makes the sign of the cross.*
"Alas, did I conduct you into the obscure pathways of the Pantheon,
and asked you where are the bones of the mighty king who first ruled over
the Toltecs, and those of Necaxecmitl, the pious adorer of the gods ; did I ask
¦ you to tell me where are the remains of the Empress Xitjhtzal of incom
parable beauty ! If I told you to point out the holy ashes of our first father
Xolotl, those of the magnificent Nopaltzin, and the generous Tlotzin,
and even those yet warm of my father, in spite of his misfortunes glorious
and immortal.,; did I question you in a similar manner about all of my an
cestors, illustrious as they were, what could you answer but indipohdi,
indipohdi, I know not, I know not, for the first and the last have alike
mingled again in the earth ; and as it is with them, one day will it be with
us, and those who come after us."
With these consoling words the royal poet ends:
" But let us remain full of confidence and courage, noble chiefs, and ye
faithful friends, also my, loyal subjects. Let us aspire to heaven where all
is eternal, and everything defies corruption. The tomb with its horrors is
the cradle of the sun, and the melancholy shades of death are the starry
homes of dazzling light. "t

IV. ON THEIR POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CONSTITUTION.
The Mexican empire was a federation of three kingdoms, formed by
the forced or acquiescent union of tribes of the family ofthe Nahuatlacs;
* Mr. Vemaux has published the Otomite text opposite to the translation of the
Spanish version of Granados y Galvez. He has published another ode called the
Lamentation, in Spanish and in French.
t The obscurity of this passage must be attributed to the fact that a mystical
meaning in it refers to the ideas ofthe Mexicans relative to the future state. Para
dise, they thought, was among the stars.

MEXICO. 27
these were the kingdom of the Aztecs, whose, capital we have said was
at Tenochtitlan (Mexico), that of the Acolhues or Tezcucans, whose
king resided at Tezcuco, on the other side of the lake, and the
smaller kingdom of Tlacopan (Tacuba). At first, these three king
doms were of equal rank, or if there was any primacy, it was enjoyed
by Tezcuco, distinguished for its intellectual and moral culture.
United, they did not extend beyond the valley of Mexico, whose cir
cumference is only about three or four hundred miles. The interior
organization of the three kingdoms was nearly the same, as might be
expected to be the case with people of a common origin and lan
guage. By degrees they learned the truth of that maxim so seldom
practised, but so true, that " union is strength." They extended their
domain, and incorporated with them other powerful nations. Of the
three, the greatest conqueror was the kingdom of the Aztecs, whose
population was active, more resolute and energetic than the others-
On the arrival of the Spaniards the Mexican emperor exercised over
his confederates an uncontradicted supremacy. He cousulted them
in •circumstances of grave importance, but they had, in fact, become
only the first of his vassals.
The political organization was military and theocratic, but nbt
without many restrictions. This seems to be the universal point de
dipart of all great nations. Bufit differed from that of India and
Egypt in the fact that the population was unfettered by the slavery
of castes. Children usually adopted the professions of their fathers,
but this happens almost in every established community. There
existed a nobility of more than one degree, possessed of immunities
such as exemption from taxation, but what we call in Europe state
offices, were not hereditary. The emperor delegated them to any
one recommended by his own exploits. Even in the imperial family
when the children were small, they were postponed to the uncle. A
noble detracted nothing from his position by agricultural pursuits.
" Give thyself up," said a father to his son, " to field "labor or to
plumaje; choose some honorable profession. Thus did thy ancestors
before thee ; how otherwise would they have been able to provide
for their own existence and for that of their families. Nowhere have
I learned that man may exist on his nobility alone." Such ideas
suppose between the privileged and the common men an absence
of profound demarkation. Therefore every one who distinguished
himself in war was ennobled. " It is the custom," said one of the
conquerors, " to recompense, very generously soldiers who distinguish
themselves." Were he of the humblest class of men, a brave soldier .
is made a leader and noble ; vassals are given him, and he enjoys

28 MEXICO.
high esteem, and every where is respected as a lord. In one of the,.-
last encounters, a Spanish officer having asked that some nobles
might be sent to treat with him, was'answered, " We are all nobles."'
The Aztec princes had established distinctions similar to our orders"
of chivalry, having their distinctive ensigns and peculiar privileges..
It seems that there was an inferior grade to be acquired in order to
possess the privilege of wearing ornaments on the person ; till that
was gained, all, of whatever social position, were compelled to wear
clothing of the coarse fibres of the aloe. The members of the imperial
family even were subjected to this austere rule of the sumptuary
law. Thus in the chivalry of the middle ages, a knight was forbidden
to bear a banner or inscribe a device on his shield, until he should '
have signalized himself by some warlike emprise. The military
orders ofthe Aztecs were accessible to all, without any distinction of
birth. The emperors were members of them, only under certain
conditions. Similar institutions existed among all the neighbors of
the Aztecs.
In many of their customs we find traces of chivalry as it was
understood in Europe. Thus, during the bloody war,s ofthe Aztecs
and people of Tlascala, the Aztecan nobles sent to the latter cotton,
salt, cacao, and other productions which their country only furnished,
and which during hostility could not be obtained by the people of
Tlascala. These articles were accompanied by courteous messages.
Nothing derogatory to the honor of either party resulted therefrom,
for immediately afterwards, they set to work to cut each others'
throats with the greatest sang-froid.
Men of letters enjoyed the greatest consideration. We have seen
that kings mingled with perfect equality in associations very similar
to our academies. Commerce was held in greatest esteem. Mer
chants passed about in large caravans, which were well armed. To
the state they contributed much, by the information they obtained,
not less than by the wealth which was the result of their exchanges.
The credit enjoyed by this class, and by men of letters, is worthy of
notice, and gives us a favorable idea of the old Mexican civilization.
In the infancy of society, all distinction usually devolves on the war
rior or the priest; no one else can partake of it.
Slavery existed among them, but it was merely personal, and not
hereditary. They had a maxim of public law — that man is born
free. The slave preserved two civil rights, which, not without reason,
have been considered as incompatible with slavery, that of property
and of family. A person became reduced to this condition by a
decree of a court in criminal process, for the discharge of debts to the

MEXICO. 29
state, or by a voluntary sale. Parents in this manner might sell their
children. The laws protected the slave, and rigorously stipulated for
his rights ; by the master he was treated with kindness, as a member
'of his family, as is now done in the East. He rarely sold him except
for vice or positive disobedience. We need not say that prisoners of
war were reduced to slavery, where not appropriated to yet worse
purposes. Laws were regularly promulgated, and tribunals established to
enforce them. Among the Aztecs there were three jurisdictions, the
officers of the first of which were elective, and the last resided, in each
territorial district, in a single judge appointed by the prince, and not
removable, from whose decrees there was no appeal. In civil affairs
there were but two degrees of jurisdiction. In the, kingdom of
Tezcuco, the judicial organization was different* but still was con
formable to principles of justice and equity. Mexican law was:
extremely severe. The penalty of death was awarded to many
crimes, for adultery, for many specified thefts, to the proprietor who
should alter landmarks, and even to an heir who should surrender
himself to drunkenness and dissipate his fortune. In comparison
with the good king Nezahualcoyotl, author of the code of the
kingdom of Tezcuco, his neighbors would have esteemed Draco a
lawgiver full of kindness.
The administration watched over a great many of the public ne
cessities. Taxes were collected with the greatest exactness. They
were paid in kind, and vast granaries and magazines were prepared
to receive them. Woe to the wretch who could not satisfy them! The
inexorable officer sold him as a public debtor ! Originally moderate,
under the last emperors the taxes became onerous, because the
princes had become accustomed to a number pf artificial wants, and
because, to maintain distant provinces in subjection, they were forced
to keep in play large armies.
As in all states who feel their power to be increasing and have a
disposition to conquer, the army was a great object of national
solicitude. Therefore, under the last Montezuma,* the Aztecan
empire was provided with an institution similar to that, whose estab- •
lishment constitutes one of Louis XIV.'s greatest claims to memory —
its Hotel des Invalides.
With the same reference to an increase of their power, the Aztecan
emperors practised arts which seem always to accompany a refined" *
and already corrupted civilization. In the history of the conquest we
* There were two sovereigns\of this name, -the first of whom was 'Celebrated.

30 MEXICO.
learn that Montezuma had in his pay some ofthe intimate advisers of
sovereigns who were allied with him; in this manner he was able to
prepare a stratagem for Cacamatzin, who occupied the throne of
Tezcuco,. and to place him in the hands- of Cortez.
The government was an absolute monarchy ; not, however, without
some limitations. There were great vassals with whom much diplo
macy was necessary to keep on good terms. He kept them near his
person, during a great portion of the year, in his capital, where they led
an idle existence, surrounded by his creatures : these were the chiefs
of conquered tribes whose assimilation with the Aztecs was im
perfect, because as yet unsanctioned by the passage of time. The
Aztecan monarchs had, however, been able to convert fidelity to their
persons into a species of religious dogma, which, at the time of the
conquest, was observed in the ratio of the time since the conquest of
the several countries and their proximity to the. metropolis. In the
prince all legislative power was concentrated, though there is reason
to believe the great Caciques preserved it somewhat modified in their
several domains.
In the second place the people had a valuable guarantee against
absolutjsm in the immobility of the judges ofthe highest grade. What
ever respect may have surrounded the person of the prince, the people
do not appear to have lived in the degradation of servility. Their
utter submission was not without its dignity, and we may believe that
to the Mexican the sentiment of duty to his sovereign corresponded
to a certain degree with the preservation of individual rights. Some
proof of this may be found in the discourses preserved by the Oidor
Zurita, in which the chiefs address the emperor, and their wives the
empress. They are opinions frankly expressed, and no legislative
chamber of Europe, whatever spirit of opposition might animate it,
would venture thus to address a sovereign. The following phrase is
a fair exemplification of their general tenor.
" God has done you a great favor in putting you in his place ; doubt not,
therefore, that the powerful master who has given you so weighty a charge
will assist you, and reward you with the crown of honor if you be not con
quered by wickedness."
The discourse of the high priest to the emperor;on the occasion of
what may be called his consecration, was of a similar character. It
contained ceremonies well calculated to impress on the lofty of the
earth their duty towards the people. " The new dignitary (the future
sovereign elevated to the rank of a Tecle), was conducted into the
interior of the temple, where he sometimes remained for one or two
years in penitential observance. He sat upon the earth by day, and

MEXICO. 31
at night a mat only was given him to rest upon. At given hours of
the night he entered the temple to burn incense, and during each of
the first four days he slept only for a few hours. Near him were
guards who, whenever he became wearied, pricked him with the
met I or maguey, which are shaiip as needles, saying, " Arouse thee ;
thou shouldst not sleep, but watch over the interest of thy vassals,
and reflect on it. Thou hast taken charge of them not to win thee rest.
Sleep should fly from thy eyelids, which should ever be unclosed that
thou mayest watch over thy people."*
In the forms of taking possession of power we may easily trace
indications of the exercise of popular sovereignty. The heir pre
sumptive was probably decorated with the title of Tecle or Tecuitle,
the most honorable of their distinctions. After many religious cere
monies^ the people insulted him with opprobrious language, and
heaped blows on him to test his patience. Such was their resignation
that not a word was uttered, and the head even unturned to see who
they were who thus treated with indignity the future monarch.
The political and social organization of the Aztecs was thus sum
med up by Cortez to Charles V. " As far as the obedience they show
towards their sovereign, and their daily life, these Indians very much
resemble the Spaniards, and there is among them good order almost
equal to that in Spain. If we take into consideration that this people
is barbarous, and without a knowledge of God, and of any connection
with other people, and without reason,* we must with astonishment
behold how wisely everything is administered."

V.— OF THE PECULIARITIES OF THE RELIGION OF THE MEXICANS
AND OF THEIR PRAYERS.
The Mexicans believed in a Supreme God, Creator, and master
of the universe. In their prayers, they distinguished him thus:
"God, through whom we live, who art omnipresent and omniscient,
the giver of all good ;" or " the invisible, incorporeal God, perfection
and purity, under whose wings are found eternal repose and an in
violate asylum." Inferior to this Supreme Being were ranged thirteen
* This passage and the preceding one are extracts from Zurita. The first refers
to the sons and heirs of the chiefs of Tlascala, which was governed by an oligar
chy of four chiefs. The second refers not only to Tlascala but to Cholula, a fief
of the Aztecan empire, and to Huetzocingo, which, though a kindred, was always
an independent nation.
t The phrase without reason used by Cortez means barbarous; he elsewhere
says the Mexicans are1 intellectual.

32 MEXICO.
inferior divinities, and more than two hundred of a yet lower grade,
having each a day consecrated to them and receiving appropriate
honors. The Aztecans especially honored the god of war Huitzilo
pochtli, whose image was borne before them as the Hebrews bore
the ark of the Lord, in their long pilgrimage from Aztlan to Te
nochtitlan. •
Among the divinities of the Mexican Olympus, another whose
name during the conquest is often heard, was the god of air, Quet-
zalcoatl. He had dwelt upon the earth and taught mankind the arts
of agriculture, of working in minerals, and the more difficult yet, of
government. He closed his ears, it was said, whenever spoken to of
war. According to the Aztecan mythology, he had imparted to the
man the incomparable pleasures of the golden age of the Greeks.
Under his control, the earth without cultivation was covered with
fruits and flowers ; a single stalk of maize afforded sustenance for a
man, as did the bunches of grapes which the hungry Jews, after
wanderings for forty years, found in the land of Canaan; cotton
grew on the bush already dyed in many and rich hues. The air
was filled with perfume, and birds of brilliant plumage uttered cease
lessly an ever-changing melody. But this paternal God incurred the
enmity of a more powerful divinity, and was forced to quit the coun- "
try. In his exile he paused at the city of Cholula, where afterwards
a temple was erected to him, the pyramidal base of which yet exists.
When he reached the shores of the Mexican Gulf he took leave of the
faithful few who had followed him thus far, and promised that some
day his children would return. Having said this, he entered his
skiff made of the skins of serpents, aud steered his course towards the
mystic land of Tlapallan, nothing of which was known except that
it was in the east beyond the seas, that is to say, in the direction of
Europe. Was the fable of Quetzalcoatl a tradition under a mar
velous form, of the domination of the Toltecs, who had introduced
into Mexico the arts and sciences, and subsequently disappeared. Did
it refer to the appearance on some point of the American continent
of a lost child of Europe, borne by the current which is found near
the equator, and the gentle winds which prevail there, or else tem
pest driven on the shores of the Mexican Gulf? Or does it indicate
a cloudy tradition of some Scandinavian expedition to America during
the tenth, eleventh, or twelfth century ?
Whatever may be the truth, the memory of the happy era of Quet
zalcoatl, and the hope of his return, were graven in their hearts ; they,
expected him as a Messiah. The red-skinned and almost beardless
Indians impressed on their children that Quetzalcoatl was of lofty

MEXICO. 33
stature, with a white skin, black hair and bearded. There could not
be fabricated a better prophecy ofthe coming ofthe Spaniards.
The tradition of Quetzalcoatl has many prototypes in the mytholo
gies of the Old World ; but the Mexicans had legends which in other
modes resembled the fabulous stories of Greece. As we read what
has been preserved of them, we almost fancy a translation of the
metamorphoses of Ovid is before us. I shall quote for example's sake
an extract from Boturini, until now untranslated.
" A man named Yappan, wishing to win the favor of the gods, left his
wife and family, and withdrew into a desert to lead a life of chastity and
contemplation, and built a cabin near an altar of stone consecrated to peni
tence ; but the gods, who doubted the sincerity of his conversion, charged
Yaotl, his mortal enemy, to watch him continually and keep an account
of every action. Yappan for a ldhg time resisted many beautiful women
sent to tempt him, so that the gods began to,praise his virtue and laugh at
Tlazolteotl, the goddess of love, and say that Yappan was not, like other
mortals, subject to her; until, piqued by their ridicule, she said, Do you
believe that Yappan will persevere to the end to merit the recompense you
grant to the virtuous ? I will myself descend to the earth to show how fra
gile is human virtue, and how little mankind are. able to resist my power.
" The goddess approached the house of Yappan, but perceiving him seated
on the altar of penitence, knew that there she could exert no power over
him. She said, in a tender voice, Come hither to me, Yappan ; I am the god
dess Tlazolteotl, come to bring to thee the reward of thy virtue. Deceived
by her words, Yappan hastened to her, but scarcely had he left the altar
when he felt a new fire circulate through his veins, and he fell into the
snare prepared for him.
" Yaotl, who all the while watched him, became indignant at this conduct,
so that he could not restrain himself, but approached Yappan saying,
Wretch, are you not ashamed to deceive the gods and profane their sanc
tuary ? and cut off his head with one blow of the sword. Yappan fell upon
the earth with his arms open, and the gods changed him into a scorpion of
the color of ashes, which always has its limbs extended. The vengeance of
Yaotl was not yet satisfied, but he went to look for Tlahuitzin, Yappan's
wife, and said to her, after showing her the body of her husband, See how
I have punished one who dared to offend the gods ; but my vengeance will
be unsatisfied till you partake of his lot. He immediately slew her also,
and her head fell close by Yappan's. She too was changed into a female
scorpion, and entering into a crevice of the altar to' hide herself, found her
husband there.
" The Mexicans say all scorpions are descended from these two, and
that, mortified at the crime of Yappan, they dare not show themselves, but
hide behind stones. Yaotl did not escape punishment for his double
crime, but was changed into a grasshopper." — {Idea deuna Nueva Historia
de la America Septentrional, par Boturini.)
In the popular faith of Mexico, many traits of common resemblance
to all the religions ofthe Old World will be found, from which a har
mony results which cannot be accounted for, except by the supposition
that all have a common cradle. Thus the Mexicans believed in the.

34 MEXICO.
deluge ; their Noah, called Coxcox, was saved in a vessel. They had
a legend which recalls to us the Tower of Babel ; the history of our
mother Eve and the serpent had its analogous story in their faith. A
more surprising thing also is that many of their practices and their
dogmas bear a close resemblance to Christianity ; they believed in
the existence of original sin, and purified themselves from it by bap
tism. They thought the human race had been placed on the earth
for punishment, and implored, with never-ceasing prayers, the pity of
God. "When a child is born," says Zurita, "its parents salute it
saying : thou art come to suffer, suffer, therefore, and be patient."
Among the objects of their worship the cross was conspicuous. This
fact is well established by twenty testimonies from Yucatan, which
adjoined ancient Mexico, and is a part of the modern republic. It
cannot be doubted to have been so in Mexico proper, for we read in
the voyages of Grijalva, the predecessor of Cortez, on this coast, "at
the island called Uloa, (now St. John d'UUoa,the citadel of Vera Cruz,)
a cross of white marble was worshiped, on the summit of which is
a crown of gold ; on this cross they say one beautiful and glorious as
the sun died." They had confession and absolution established among
them. The secrets of their penitential tribunal, for here the word
may be applied with great propriety, were inviolable. But they
confessed but once in a lifetime, and therefore postponed it as long as
possible. Probably, because at the epoch of the arrival ofthe Span
iards, there was a confusion between the political act and the religious
rite, in consequence ofthe pre-eminence assumed by the clergy in state
affairs, and the influence which they exerted over the mind of the
emperor ; and religious absolution purified them from crime, even
of responsibility to the secular power ; so that, after the conquest,
Indians prosecuted by the civil power have been known to tender
in full justification a confessional ticket signed by the priest of their
village. Finally, they had a ceremony very similar to that of the
Eucharist, in which their priests distributed among them fragments
of an image of their divinities, which they swallowed with signs of
humiliation, saying it was the very flesh of the god they worshiped.
Their priests preached sentiments of charity,- pardon, and the for
giveness of wrong. " Live in peace with all the world," said one of
their homilies, " bear injuries with humility, and confide to an all-
seeing God the duty of revenge."
The rules of individual morality inspired the kindest feelings
towards their fellows ; one might truly say a Christian charity. In
the exhortation with which the confession terminated, the priest said
to the penitent, "Feed thou the hungry, clothe the naked, whatever

MEXICO. ' ¦ 35
privations be thine own in consequence thereof, for the flesh of the
unfortunate is thy flesh, and they are men as thou art human."

VI. ON MANNERS AND SOCIAL INTERCOURSE.
The manners of the Aztecs were not dissolute ; on the contrary,
they were rather severe. With the exception of the chiefs who pos
sessed many concubines, they had but one wife, and the concubines
of princes were recognized by law, and enjoyed certain privileges.-
"Whoso looks at a woman with too much curiosity, commits adul
tery with his eyes." These are almost the words of Christ recorded
by Saint Matthew. Marriage was protected by many formalities,
and celebrated with great solemnity. Divorce was only permitted
under certain circumstances, and by the decision of a tribunal espe
cially established to decide on disputes originating from the marriage-
tie. Adultery was capitally punished, and the history of the reign
of King Nezahualpilli offers three striking examples of its inflic
tion. One on the queen, wife of this prince, who was of no lower
rank than that of a daughter of the imperial house, The princess
and her accomplices were judged and sentenced according to all the
rigor of the law in spite of their exalted rank. The second instance
was that of a noble lady who surrendered her person to him without
revealing that she, was married, and the third was his own son who
had carried on in verse a correspondence with one of the royal con
cubines, for cases of which kind the law made a special provision.
The tribunals pronounced the sentence, and the father suffered it to
be enforced, though for weeks afterwards he shut himself within his
palace, devoured by grief, and secluding himself from every one.
The social position of women more closely resembled what they
occupy in Europe than in Asia. They were not shut up in harems,,
nor were their feet mutilated. They went unveiled, as with us, and
were guests at every entertainment and festival. We in France, in
the nineteenth century, have a province in which women are not
admitted to festivals, and seem to live only to serve with due humi
lity, the lords of creation. Mexican women were exempt from hard
labor, which men reserved to themselves with a delicacy which might
now be imitated with much propriety in many parts of Western '
Europe, and which, of all civilized nations, the English and their
descendants alone observe. In Mexico, it is true, things were not
in the position they now are in England, but the intention existed. ,
There are few signs which so clearly demonstrate the advance of

36 MEXICO.
civilization, as courtesy to females. In savage tribes, women are
beasts of burden. There is, on the whole surface of the globe, neither
for man nor beast, a worse condition than that occupied by the squaws.
of the North American Indians throughout the whole extent of the
territories of the United States. How often, in our own provinces,
seeing women ascend steep declivities with baskets of manure on
their shoulders, and descend with bundles of hay and corn from the
lofty table-lands, have I wished that there might be within the cir
cumference of the valley no Englishman come to purchase a warra'i
sun and genial sky with his British guineas. A certain test of the
position of the women in Mexico, is that they were admitted to the .
sacerdotal profession. The Mexicans had priestesses as well as
priests, and there was a similar scale of rank for one sex as well as
the other ; but the great sacrifices, it will be seen hereafter, were
reserved only to the priests of the highest rank. The purity of the
Mexican priestesses has been attested by the Spanish monks who
accompanied the conquerors, who still, however, heaped anathemas
on the religion of the Aztecs, in which they saw everywhere the
distinct impression of the cloven foot of the devil, and the whisking
of his tail.
An intimate and exact knowledge of a civilization may be ob
tained by examination of its social habits, and forms of intercourse,
and of civility. Now, of those of the Mexicans, we can form a very
positive opinion from1 the instructions of a father to his son, of a
mother to her daughter, in each of the social grades, which happily
have been preserved and published by Zurita. I shall- quote at
length the. advice of parents ofthe middle classes, or in Zurita's own
words, inhabitants of the town, merchants and mechanics. They are
at once a collection of moral precepts, and an abridged code of juve
nile purity and honor.* advice of a father to his son.
" Ah, my beloved son, created by the will of God, under the eyes of thy
parents, like a fledgeling just escaped from the shell, thpu seekest to fly, but
canst do so with difficulty. We know not when the great God will per
mit us to rejoice in thee : pray to him, my child, to assist thee, for he is thy
Creator, and loves thee better than I can do. Address to him thine aspira
tions by night and by day, and he will be merciful to thee, and deliver thee
from every danger. Respect the image of thy God and all that is his.
Pray to him devoutly, bbserve his festivals ; for who offends God dies
miserably and'guiltily.
* Alonzo de Zurita was a lawyer, who wrote in Mexico, where he lived for
nineteen years. He was auditor of the high court (la audiencia real) of Mexico.

MEXICO. 37
" Honor and respect the aged ; console the poor and the afflicted by thy
words and good works.
. " Revere and love thy father and mother ; obey them, for bitter is. the
repentance of the ill-behaving.
"Honor and treat all with respect, then wilt thou live in peace.
" Copy not the conduct of fools who live like animals, hear no advice, and
respect not their parents.
" Be careful, my son, not to laugh at the aged, the sick, the halt, or any.
who are unhappy. Be not haughty to them nor hate them, but Humble
thyself before God, through fear that thou mayst become unhappy as they
are. " Poison no one, lest thou offend God in the person of his creature. Thy
crime will surely be discovered, and thou wilt die the same death.
" Be honest, polite, and insult no one.
" Mingle not uncalled for in the affairs of others, lest thou be called trouble
some, and indiscreet.
" Wound not the feelings of another ; avoid adultery and luxury. These
are vices which ruin whoever yields to them, and are hateful to God.
" Give no bad advice.
" Be modest in thy conversation, interrupt not those who speak. If they
speak badly, they commit an error ; be thou careful not to imitate them.
Speak not when thou hast no cause, and when questioned, answer openly
and honestly without passion or falsehood. If you are careful, my son, not
to circulate stories and repeat unpleasant jests, you will avoid falsehood,
and create no discord, which produces much grief Jo whoever indulges in
them. Be not a lounger in the streets, lose not thy time in the baths and
public places, lest a devil tempt and enslave thee.
" Be not too careful in thy dress, for it is an index of a petty mind.
"In whatever situation thou mayst be, conduct thyself with modesty.
Make no grimaces, and avoid vulgar gestures, else thou wilt be thought a
libertine, and this is one of the devil's own snares. Take no one by th*e
hand or garments, for this is a sure mark of indiscretion. Pay attention,
when you walk- not to obstruct the pathway.
" Should any one ask you to take charge of any business, and offer you
any inducement, reflect if it be not a snare set for thee, and if you think so,
excuse thyself, though profit ultimately may result to thee from it. Do so,
and thou wilt be considered wise and prudent. N
" Neither enter nor leave a room before thy superiors ; take not precedence
of them ; leave to them always the place of honor, and seek not to deprive
any one of it, at least until thy dignity shall have been exalted'. Be modest,
for humility wins the grace of God, and of the great. ,
" Be not eager in eating or drinking, and if at table, be courteous to all
around thee, offering frequently. If thou feastest in company ahd gorgest
thyself, thou wilt be esteemed a glutton. When thou eatest, keep thine.
eyes cast down, and finish not before others do, lest thou give offence.
"Scorn not any offering that may be made thee, and think not that thou .
deservest more, for then thou wilt receive it neither from God nor man.
" Confide thyself entirely to God, for from him all good things come, and
thou canst not know how near is the approach of death .'
" I shall be careful to provide thee wjlh .al^-thou needest ; suffer and be
patient. If thou wishest a wife, say so to me, but as thou art my child,
take not one without consulting me.
" Be neither a gamester nor a thief, for one of these vices produceth the

38 MEXICO.
other. If thou follow my advice, thou wilt not be abused in the streets and
public places.
" Follow the path of rectitude, oh my son. Sow good seed, and thou shalt
gather a rich harvest. Thou wilt live by thine own labor, and thy parents
will be happy in thee.
" Man can live only with sorrow — and the necessaries of life are had with
difficulty. With much trouble have I brought thee up, yet have never
abandoned thee or done aught to make thee biush.
" Wouldst thou live quietly, indulge not in slander, for it produceth many
disputes. " Keep closely what you hear; it is better another tell things than thee; but
when you do speak, speak boldly.
" Tell not what you see. Be discreet, for a chattering disposition is an
evil thing, and the liar is sure of punishment. Be silent, for no man profits
by talking.
" If thou shouldst be sent to any one who receives thee with severity, and
who should abuse the person who sent thee, bear not'back this answer,
spoken, perhaps, in anger. Shouldst thou be questioned as to thy recep
tion, answer kindly, in mild language. Conceal the reproaches that have
been spoken, lest both parlies be irritated and do some rash act, so that
hereafter thou shalt say 'had I but held my peace J' It will then be too
late, and you will be esteemed an inexcusable mischief-maker.
" Have nothing to do with your neighbor's wife ; live chastely, for we
cannot live this life twice over, and it is short and a troublesome career.
" Offend no one; attack no one's honor; render thyself worthy of the recom
penses God grants to whomsoever he wills. Receive from and be thankful
'( to him for whatever he may bestow, but become not proud. If thou art
humble, thy merit will be the greater, and others will have no occasion to
murmur. But if, on the other hand, thou shouldst attribute to thyself what
thou meritest not, men will be offended at, and God angry with thee.
Jf " When any one speaketh to thee, move neither the hands nor the feet,
"look neither to the right nor left, move thyself not from thy seat, nor take one.
If thou actest otherwise, thou wilt be able to remain in theJiouse of no one.
"My son, if thou,hearken not to thy father's words, thy end will come soon,
because thou deservest that it should.
¦¦ f,"Be not .angry that God hath given less to thee than to others, for then
' thou wilt offend God, who has placed thee in an honorable position.
" If thou art what thou shouldst be, thou wilt be held up to others as atnodel.
'"This, oh son, is the advice of a father who loveth thee ; abide by it,
and t^iou wilt prosper." ADVICE OF A MOTHER TO HER DAUGHTER.
f
u\ have borne thee, my daughter; I have properly educated and nourished
thee. The' honor of thy father rests on thee. If thou dost not thy duty,
thou canst not live with virtuous Vomen, and no one will marry thee.
" We live in this world with pain and trouble; our strength becometh ex
hausted ; we must then obey the God who will aid us, sustain us, and grant
us health. .We must be active and careful to acquire what our necessities
tlemand. " Avoid, my beloved daughter, idleness and negligence ; be neat and
industrious; take care of thine own room, and see that it be in good order,
that everything be in its proper place. Thus wilt thou have learned to
discharge thy duty when thou becomest a wife.

MEXICO.

39

" Wherever thou goest, be modest ; walk not too rapidly, laughing and
looking behind thee at the men who pass. Do thus, and thy reputation for
modesty will be established. ...4.
"Be polite, and speak with circumspection; and when a question is
asked thee, answer it circumspectly and clearly.
" Mind thy housework, weave and spin. Thou wilt then be loved and
wilt merit to receive the necessaries of life ; thou wilt be happy if thou
thankest God, who hath gifted thee with such talents.
" Yield not thyself to sloth or idleness. Be not anxious to remain in
bed, in the shade, or in the fresh air, for if thou dost- so, thou wilt become
idle and negligent. Such women will neither be respected nor loved.
" Whether sitting or walking, resting or working, render thy conduct
always praiseworthy, my daughter. Do thy duty as thou hast been com
manded by God and thy parents.
" Let not thyself be called twice ; come promptly to see what is wanted
with thee, that no one may be compelled to rebuke thy sloth and disobedience.
" Listen to the commands given thee and answer not saucily ; and if
thou canst not obey them without sin, excuse thyself, but do not utter a false
hood or deceive any one, for God sees thee.
" If thou hearest a person called Who is not near, go promptly thyself to
see what is wanted. Do whatever may be asked, and people will think
kindly of thee.
" Should any one give thee good advice, profit by and despise it not, lest
people have bad thoughts of thee.
" Walk neither hastily nor boldly, lest people think thee an impure
woman. " Be charitable ; hate and despise no one ; avoid avarice, put no bad inter
pretation on trifles, and be not jealous of the gifts of God to others.
" Wrong no one lest thou too suffer wrong; avoid evil, and follow not the
promptings of thy heart, which may deceive thee and render thee vicious, ¦
an object of shame to thyself and thy parents. *
"Avoid the society of liars, of idle and gossiping women; they will ruin
thee. ' ,
" Take care of thy house, go not out of doors for amusement, waste, not
thy time in the market place, the public squares and baths. To do so. is
wrong, and thus young women become corrupt and vicious, and bad thoughts
are produced.
" Wlien a man speaketh to thee, listen not to him, nor answer, but be*
silent. Speak not to him, for thy words will but inflame his passion ; if you-
pay no attention to him, he will cease to follow thee. , ', .-'
" Go not unnecessarily into the house of thy neighbor, lest they, chatter
about thee when thou art gone.
" If thou goest to see thy relations,, be respectful to them; be riot id^le, but
assist in any occupation they may be engaged in if thou knowes't how, but
sit not as an idle spectator. ' '
" If thy parents select for thee a husband, thou shouldst love, hearken to,
obey, and take pleasure in whatever he enjoins. When he speaks to thee,
turn not thy head away as if he uttered something unpleasant ; seek to con
quer thy dislike. If he liveth from thy property, do not on that account .
despise him ; be neither rude nor unkind, for then thou wilt offend God, arid
thy husband will dislike thee. Tell him1 thy thoughts kindly; use. npt
offensive language to him when others are by, or even when ye be alone.
If thou dost so, the shame and contempt are thine own.

40 MEXICO.
" Should any qne visit thy husband receive him kindly.
" Should thy husband misbehave, tell him freely, but kindly thine opinion,
and advise him to take care of his estate.
" Be attentive to what labor is being done on thy lands, and take care
of the products thereof.
"Waste not thy stores; aid thy husband in his labor. Thus wilt thou,
not want necessaries, and thou wilt provide for thy family and the education
of thy children.
"My daughter, if thou abidest by my advice, thou wilt be loved and re
spected by all; thou wilt live happily. If not, the fault will be thine; you
will soon learn the consequences of not having listened to me, and will not
be able to say that I gave thee not good advice as a mother should."
In the discourse of a father to his son, and especially in that of a
mother to her daughter, there is not a single word which in this the
nineteenth century, parents would think unfit advice to give to a child.
A yet more remarkable thing is, that very little could even now be
added to it.*

VII. HUMAN SACRIFICE.
Did we judge by the sentiments alone propagated by the religion
of the Aztecans, by the practices recommended to govern the mutual
intercourse 'of men, by the moral ideas received among them as rules
of conduct, they were a wise and benevolent people ; and Philadel
phia could not more justly advance a claim to be called the city of
brotherly love than Mexico. But alas for the fragile nature of man,
and the contradictions of the human heart! These charitable prac
tices and sentiments, this benevolence and equity, this solicitude for
the condition of women, justly considered a conclusive proof of the
existence of gentle manners and social refinement, by a frightful
sophistication of the heart and reason, were combined with constant
offering of human sacrifices and the festivals of cannibals. Men
were often sacrificed on the altars of their gods, and the bodies ofthe
victims were solemnly devoured at the most luxuriously prepared
banquets and festivals. They had, we have said, a sacrament resem
bling the Eucharist ; the bread which was there made use of was satu
rated with blood. The mind seems utterly confounded when it dis
covers that among the Mexicans, these ceremonies were not a relic of
barbarism, transmitted from father to son, ahd maintained by a civil
ized nation from a stupid respect for its barbarous progenitors. It is a
sufficient reason t,o change into a bitter skepticism that faith in human
perfectibility which many generous souls so fondly cherish. These
* These relics of Aztecon literature bear internal evidence of having been re
touched by some Spanish priest. — Translator.

MEXICO. 41
frightful ideas took possession of the Aztecs when they had progressed
far on the road to civilization. In proportion as they advanced, and
their knowledge of the arts increased, the more devoted they seemed
to become to these atrocities. They seem to have been fascinated
,by an infernal demon, and, as the Spaniards thought, to have almost
had direct intercourse with Satan.
We will quote a few passages from M. Humboldt, relative to the
origin of the human sacrifices of Mexico.
"After the commencement of the fourteenth century, the Aztecs lived
under the government of the King of Colhuacan. They had principally
contributed to the victory gained by this king over the Xochimilqjjes.
When the war was over, they wished to offer a sacrifice to their principal
god, Huitzilopochtli or Mexitli, the god of war, whose image placed in
a wicker-chair, called the seat of God, was borne by four priests; they
asked of their master, the King of Colhuacan, to give them some valuables,
wherewith to perform this solemn rite. The king sent them a dead bird
wrapped in coarse cloth; and to add yet another insult, offered himself to
be present at the sacrifice. The Aztecs pretended to be content with this
offer, but at the same time they resolved to perform a sacrifice which should
strike terror into the hearts of their masters. After a long dance around
their idol, they led forward four Xochimilque prisoners, whom they had
for a long time concealed. These unfortunates were immolated with cere
monies, which were subsequently faithfully copied until the coming ofthe
Spaniards, on the platform of the great pyramid of Tenochtitlan, dedicated
to the god of war, Huitzilopochtli. The Colhues exhibited a just horror
at the human sacrifice, the first in their land. Fearing the atrocity of
the Aztecs, who were subject to them, but who had become presuming on
account of their victory over the Xochimilques, they enfranchized them on
the sole condition that they left immediately the territory of Colhuacan.
" The first sacrifice led to happy results for an oppressed people. The
cause of the second was revenge. After the building of Tenochtitlan,
Aztec was hunting on the shore of the lake for some animal to be offered
as a sacrifice to Mexitli, and met an inhabitant of Colhuacan, called
Xomimitl. Irritated against his old oppressors, he immediately attacked
the Colhua, who was overcome and taken a prisoner to the new city, where
he was immolated on the fatal stone placed at the feet of the idol.
"The circumstances ofthe third sacrifice are yet more horrible. Peace
had been apparently established, between the Acolhues and the Aztecs.
But the priests of Mexitli could not restrain their anger against that
nation, which once had been their masters. They meditated a terrible ven
geance. They persuaded the King of Colhuacan to confide ,to them his
only daughter to be educated in the temple of Mexitli, that after her death
she might be adored as the mother of the protecting god of the Aztecs.
They said that the God himself had so ordered by the mouth of his image.
The credulous king brought his daughter, and accompanied her into the
gloomy enclosure of the temple. There the priest separated the father and
child, and a tumult was heard in the sanctuary. The father could dis
tinguish the cries of his daughter; a censor was placed in his hand, and he
was told to light the copal it contained. By the flickering blaze which
rose from it, he saw his daughter lifeless and gory, bound to a stake. He
lost immediately his reason, which he never regained. He could not re-

42 ' MEXICO.
venge himself, and the Acolhues were afraid to enter into a contest with a
people who struck terror, by such barbarity, into the minds of all their
enemies. The murdered girl was placed among the Aztecan divinities, .*
and' called Tetcionan, mother ofthe gods, or Tocitzin, our grandmother, "
a goddess we must not confound with Eve or the serpent's wife, called
Tonantzin." In a short time they began to devour the bodies of their victims.
Whatever may have been the origin of human sacrifices among
the Aztecs, this abominable custom originated, not in bestial ferocity
but from religious superstition. The Mexicans regarded the sojourn
of man upon earth as an expiation arid period of probation. Every
dogma of their religion shows they believed all beings on earth doomed
to languish, and to be redeemed, as St. Paul says. They were satis
fied that the divinity is appeased by blood. Blood, they thought,
satisfies aiid turns away wrath. Thus it was that they preserved as
a religious ceremony, what in its origin had been an horrible revenge
on the King of Colhuacan. Solis, in his Conquest of Mexico,
places this explanation ofthe origin of human sacrifices in the mouth
of a' venerable Tlascalan Cacique, Magiscatzin {called by Mr.
Prescott, Maxixca). In an interview with Cortez, this chief said
his countrymen could not conceive of any efficacious sacrifice other
than the death of one individual for the good of his fellows.
This religious idea of the Mexicans relative to the efficacy. of blood
shed upon the altars was common to them and to the rest of antiquity,
, All mankind, civilized and savage, before the coming of Christ, in the
spilling of blood expected to find redemption, because blood, the
spnrce of life, appeared to them the most agreeable offering to the
enraged gods. Until the era of Christianity, the blood of man was
everywhere shed as an expiation of the anger ofthe gods, in spite of
the protestations of reason and humanity. Generally, but not uni
versally, thje blood of man was replaced by that of animals. It has
been remarked that in all the Mosaic ceremonies there is not a single
one of which the oblation of blood is not a necessary item. Even
Christianity, which forbids the effusion of blood, has preserved in
what De Maistre calls the doctrine of substitution, a recognition of
this old idea. The sins of our fathers and of ourselves are washed
away by an expiation of blood. For the absolution of the world from
the original sin, a baptism of blood was required. The most learned
doctors of the church teach that " in the immolation of Christ the altar
was on Calvary, but the blood of the victim was poured forth on the
universe." This was said by Origen, who did not wish his words to be
taken in a purely metaphorical sense, but with reference to a mysteri-

MEXICO. 43
ous accomplishment of all that he had expressed. Once, however, the
blood of God was shed, and dispensed with that of any other host,
and now our temples are unsullied by any earthly victim. It may
be moreover noticed that the sacrifice of the Redeemer was not once
for all, but is perpetual; that the mass is not a simple commemoration,
and that the blood of Christ is a daily offering.
From the experience of the world it is, easy to see that as De
Maistre has said, the human sacrifices of the Mexicans, and of
people of ancient and modern times, who were strangers to Chris
tianity, had their origin in the universal conscience of the human
race, and in a truth whose purity was forgotten and unappreciated.
Religious causes alone can fully account for the rigor of the penal
code of the Mexicans, for the idea of enforcing obedience by the
influence of fear alone, is insufficient to explain it. The Mexicans
thought, as Cesar represents the Druids to have imagined, that the
punishment of crime was pleasant to the gods.»
In vindication of these customs we must say that human sacri
fices were adopted in Mexico, only after great resistance. The
adjoining tribes conceived the greatest horror of the Aztecs. At a
later day the great King Nezahualcoyotl contended for a long
time against the inclination his subjects had conceived for these
butcheries, and attempted to lead them back to the pure faith of the
Toltecs. But as no children were born to him by the wife he
had taken from the old lord of Tepechfan, the priests persuaded
him it was because of the anger of the gods, who were indignant that
no blood was shed upon their altars, so that at last he yielded. The
blood of nian was again offered to the gods, though the expected hen;
came not, so that he cried out " These idols of wood and stone can
neither hear nor feel ; it is impossible that they are the lords'of earthV'
and of man its master. There is an unknown omnipotent and invi
sible God, Creator of all things, who alone can sustain me in the
trouble and anguish I suffer." He retired to the gardens of Tezcot
zinco, and passed forty days in fasting and prayer, and in offering
to the gods incense of copal and aromatic herbs. His wishes were
granted. Then avowing openly antipathy to these bloody sacrifices,
he erected a temple to the God we have referred to, with this inscrip
tion, " To the unknown God, the Cause of Causes," and forbade
human and even animal oblations in the temples. After his death,
which took place in 1470, a half century before the conquest, the "
temples of the kingdom of Tezcuco again were befouled with blood,
almost, equally with those ofthe Aztecs.
Mr. Prescott, who has Httle taste for theological discussions, has

44 MEXICO.
assigned purely human motives to the origin of the Mexican sacri
fices. I have already declared what, according to the cotemporary
historians of the conquest, I believe to be the real cause. But Mr..
Prescott's assertion that every act of man has a human origin, yet
exists. The policy of the emperors and the ambition of the sacer
dotal officers, both were advanced by these sacrifices.' All earthly
powers love to inspire fear; this inclination they cannot overcome.
Fear inculcates obedience, which is the first demand of government;
but in proportion as governments reap advantage from this axiom,
they wish to extend its influence, and after, instead of respectful fear,
have recourse to that of vague apprehension. Beyond the influence of
European civilization we have constant evidence of this, and the spec
tacle is not unknown in the bosom of our own institutions. The exe
crable sacrifices of the Aztecs were not only the results of a sincere
religious belief, as everything goes to show, in the minds of the princes
and priests, but were, moreover, necessary to the maintenance of
their authority. As has been remarked ofthe gladiatorial spectacles
of the Romans, £he sight of blood nourished the military energy of
the people, and counterbalanced the influence of art and luxury
which tended to enervate them. These sacrifices increased the
chances of the Aztecan emperor to keep alive the energy of the
army required to overawe his subject provinces. Whether it be the -
consequence of superstition, or of frightful policy, in proportion as
the empire was enlarged, human sacrifices became more numerous;
never were there so many sacrifices as under the reign of the last
Montezuma, who continually increased the number of his victims.
The companions of Cortez had patience and nerve enough to count
the skulls arranged as trophies in the enclosure of one ofthe temples,
in which they found 136,000. The moderate computations say that
at the era of the conquest, 20,000 a year were sacrificed. At the
inauguration of the great temple of the god Huitzilopotchli, at
Mexico, in^ 1486, thirty-three years before the conquest, 70,000
victims, collected from every portion of the empire during many
( years, were sacrificed'at one time. This butchery continued without
ceasing for many days. The procession of victims was mile's in
length. The victims were criminals, and rebels; when a cily had broken
its faith to the emperor, it was ordered to surrender as victims a
certain number of men, women, and children. But war was princi
pally depended on to supply victims. At an interview with Cortez,
the emperor, in reply to a question of El Conquistador, said that the
reason why he did not make peace with the Tlascalans,,w1io Were

MEXICO. 45
willing to recognize his authority, was, that he knew not whitjier
else to send his, army for victims to the gods.
But all captives were not devoted to slaughter. The Mexicans
had a great respect for personal courage, and they offered to the
bravest of their prisoners a chance of safety.
" In the center of every city were circular edifices of brick or stone,
about ten feet high. Steps led to the top of them, which were circular
platforms, in the center of which were stones, in the center of each of which
was an orifice. After certain ceremonies, the prisoner was placed on the
platform, and attached by a cord around the ankle to this center stone.
A sword apd buckler were given him, and his captor advanced to attack
him. Were he a second time successful, his courage was considered as
tested, and he received an acknowledgment of it. If the prisoner were
successful against his captor and six others, he was liberated, and all that
he had lost in war restored to him. It happened once that a king of a
town called Huecicingua (Huexotzingo), in a contest with the lord of a
neighboring city named Tula, advanced so far in the midst of his enemies
that his own men could not keep pace with him. He performed feats of
great prowess, but the enemy took him a prisoner to their own town. They
celebrated their usual feast, and placed him on the platform, where seven
men in succession advanced to attack him, each of whom he overcame.
The inhabitants of Huexotzingo, who had witnessed his Valor, thought that
should they liberate him they would have no future peace. They there
fore resolved to kill him. They did so, but were ever afterwards con
demned as disloyal traitors, because they had violated the established
custom regarding captive chiefs."
Sprung from notions whose religious faith was identical, the vic
tims submitted to their fate without murmurs. The populace looked
on them as messengers sent to the deity, who received them kindly
as sufferers in his name; oft besought them to intercede in its be
half with the gods, and remind them of what it wished for. Every
one uttered to them his prayer, thus : " Since you go to the presence
of God, beseech him to hearken to my prayer." They were richly
dressed, and loaded with presents before their immolation. In the
temple the captive partook«of the festival and dance, and at the mo
ment of his death the most important request fo the gods was im
pressed upon his memory.
In the conquests of the Mexicans we meet with, even by the side
of these frightful reservations for the altars of the gods, many traits of
clemency. The history of the gradual increase of the Aztecan em
pire by Tezozomoc, recently published by AI. Ternaux, proves them
not to have been pitiless conquerors. Sometimes they disguised
their generosity in the most ingenious manner, as was afterward done
by the barbarous enemies of the Roman Empire, and the bandit chiefs
of the middle ages. I take one example from the annals of Tezo
zomoc It relates to the Emperor Axayacatl, the father of Monte-

46 MEXICO.
zum,a, after the assault ofthe city of Tlatelolco, towards its old men,
women and children. The warriors of Tlatelolco had acted with
much arrogance :
" Axayacatl and the principal Mexican chiefs went then to look for the old
men, women and children, whom they found concealed among the rushes.
A large part of them were in the water up to their waists or even the chin.
He said to them, ' You women, before you leave the water, must imitate the
cry of the water-fowl as a testimony of respect to me.' The old women
then began to imitate the cry of one kind of fowl, and young ones of another
called cuachif, or yacatzintli, so that one might almost fancy the water was
filled with birds of that kind. Axayacatl then bade them come out of the
water and set them at liberty."
In spite of the existence of these sacrifices, some traits exhibiting a
very humane sentiment, were found iu the religion of the Mexicans.
In tlieir idea of the future were contained three conditions of exist7
ence, which may be expressed by our Paradise, purgatory and hell,
but the latter, as they conceived it, was free from physical torment ;
moral pain was its only punishment. The damned were given up
to their own remorse, in the bosom of eternal darkness, while the
people, who had so exalted and correct an idea of the future life,
surrendered .themselves, in the name of religion, to the most hideous
butcheries in this stage of existence. The funeral pile of other reli
gions conceals the victim in clouds of smoke ; here the offering was
au effusion of blood ; blood was poured forth prodigally, and paraded
,in the face of heaven, before an immense crowd. The victim was
led hy priests in solemn procession to the sound of music and spiritual
hymns, and made to ascend the steps of the pyramid of the temple,
and pass around the circumference of each of the terraces ot stories
into which it was divided. Above all stood the sacrificial stone be
tween two altars, on which burned by day and night the holy fire,
before a tower containing the statue of the god. The people at a
distance stood in profound silence and iii deep contemplation. At
length, after long prayers, the victim was extended on the sacrificial
stone. The priest, taking off the floating black robe, put on one of
scarlet, and took into his hand a knife of itzli, with which he opened
the breast of the victim, and tore out the reeking heart. He sprinkled
with blood the statues of the god, and letting the blood flow on the
earth around him, kneaded with it flour of the maize. Yet the persons
who participated in these horrible sacrifices were earnestly devoted
to the cultivation of flowers. These were the exhibitions which four
times a day were enacted before persons who passed the greater part
of their time inhaling a perfumed air, on the banks of their beautiful
lake, or the fairy islands which floated on its bosom.

1 MEXICO. 4*7
Many circumstances increase the astonishment caused by these
practices, and compel us to think that, as we have said,, they proceeded
from the doctrine of expiation, interpreted with frightful atrocity.
Fear is manyfold more barbarous than courage. Mingled with this
bloody ceremonial, the Aztecan worship presented many traits of the
purest innocence, which recall to us the worship of the Most High,'
by the sinless Abel. It abounded in processions intermingled with
songs and dances, where the youth of both sexes, in the gayest dresses,
exhibited their grace and light-heartedness. Young girls and children,
with their brows bound round with flowers, made offerings of the pro
duce of the earth, the first fruits of the season, which were placed on
the altars redolent with perfumes. The victims offered in conjunction
with fruits, were usually callow birds. These were the ancient sacri
fices of the Toltecs, on which the Aztecs had engrafted their sterner
rites. Many of the former remained uncontaminated by the impres
sion of the bloody hand of their successors, an^ contrasted strongly
with the bloody imaginations of the Aztecs.
These inventions, so awful and mystic in their suggestions, were
prepared with much pomp and art. Each of these sacrifices was
a drama, descriptive of some passage in the career of the God to
whom they were consecrated, and conveyed some moral lesson.
Among others, though in this age the human mind would be revolted
at some of its features, was the festival of the new fire, a description
of which none can read without a lively impression of its grandeur,
splendor, and I had almost written the grace which characterized it.
A yet more striking example is that of the god Tezcatiipoca, the
generator of the universe, and soul of the world.
According to the cosmogony of the Aztecs, the world had been
four times destroyed. They expected yet another catastrophe at the
termination of one of the cycles of fifty-two years, when all things,
even the sun itself, would vanish. At the termination of the cycle,
which, like the year, ended with the winter solstice, they celebrated
a festival commemorative 'of the four occasions of the ruin of the
world, and-as a sort of prophecy ofthe fifth cataclysm ofthe human
race, when the stars, without excepting the great focus of light and
heat, should grow dimmer in consequence of the divine wrath.
The five unlucky days at the close of the year were surrendered
to manifestations of despair. The images of the gods, which were
the ornaments and protection of their houses, like the ancient lares,
were broken. The sacred fires which burned on the pyramids of
each teocalli, were, extinguished. The domestic hearth was left un-
kindled, and personal appearance universally neglected. Everything

48 MEXICO.
wore the impression of despair in expectation of the descent to
earth of the destroying spirits.
On the evening of the fifth day, the priests taking the ornaments
from the statues of their gods, marched in procession to a moun
tain, about two leagues distant, taking with them the noblest victim
in their power. On the top ofthe mountain they awaited in silence
the moment of midnight; when the constellation of the Pleiades,
which was a prominent object in their astronomy, approached the
zenith, then the victim was sacrificed. By rapid attrition pieces
of wood placed above his heaving bosom, were lighted. This was
the new fire, with which the funeral pile was lighted, and the body
of the victim consumed. As soon as the flames of the pile were seen,
cries of joy and triumph rose from the neighboring villages, from the
temples and roofs of the nouses, whence the eyes of an entire nation
were directed with anxiety to the bursting forth of the signal of safety.
From the funeral pile, couriers sped with rapidity bearing burning
torches to distribute the new fire which soon shone on a thousand
altars and hearths. In a short time after, the rising sun declared that
the gods were compassionate to man, and that for yet another cycle,
the human race need fear no destruction; but that when the new
cycle should have expired they would be destroyed, if in the interim,
they were not faithful to the law prescribed by the gods. The twelve
or thirteen intercalary days which intervened were consecrated to
festivals. Houses were repaired, and order everywhere restored;
the whole people in new clothing gave thanks to the divinities.
The festival of the god Tezcatlipoca was of a different character.
In the Aztecan mythology, he was represented as a being of perfect
beauty and eternal youth. A year before it occurred, the most beau
tiful of all the captives was selected without a single corporeal defect
or a scar. From that day he was treated as the representative of the
gOd and priests, appointed to instruct him how to conduct himself
with grace and dignity. He was magnificently clothed, and lived in
the midst of elegance and splendor. His steps were among parterres
of flowers, and he breathed the air of luxurious perfumes. When
he walked abroad, which he was freely permitted to do, he was at
tended by pages adorned with royal magnificence. In the public
places through which he often passed, he paused from time to time to
play any melody which pleased him. On which occasions the crbvvd
prostrated itself before him, as if he were the divine source of life.
He led an existence of luxury and enervation, until within one
month of the festival. At that time four beautiful virgins were
Drought to him, to whom the names of the most powerful female

MEXICO. 49
divinities were given. This month he passed in luxury of sumptHous
banquets, which were partaken of by his beautiful mistresses and
the principal personages of the state, who appeared to contend with
each other in offering to him honors due seemingly to none but the
gods. But the day of sacrifice came ; pleasure vanished, and he bade
farewell to his beautiful companions. One of the imperial barges
bore him across the lake to the base of a pyramid, consecrated to the
god. The whole nation surrounded him. He slowly ascended the
steps of the teocalli, turning, as was the custom, from time to time,
towards the crowd. At every platform he cast off a portion of his
glittering decorations, or broke the musical instruments on which he
executed the sweetest melodies. At the top of the pyramid he was
received by six priests, five of whom were clad in robes of black,
with their hair floating in the wind. The sacrifice was performed,
and the heart of the victim, exposed to the sun, was placed at the
feet of the statue of the god. Then, from these ceremonies of terror
and awe, the priests drew solemn admonitions to the people. Such,
said they, was the fate of man, on whom all things in early life ap
peared to smile, and who afterward dies overpowered with grief and
disaster ; admonishing them that a single step only not rarely inter
venes between the most brilliant prosperity and disaster of the
darkest hue.

VIIL— OF THE PRIESTHOOD.
After these details about human sacrifices, the relative position
ofthe priesthood in Mexican society may be comprehended, and the
influence they exerted, understood. When such honors are required
by the gods, their servants, the organs of communication with the
populace, cannot be contemned.
The Mexican clergy was numerous, rich and powerful, so that
in the great temple of Mexico, the place of the worship of all the
gods, in which Cortez found forty sanctuaries, five- thousand priests
were assembled. Td every temple a glebe-land was assigned for
the support ofthe priests, and the maintenance of its peculiar worship.
Their lands were leased out fo tenants with the liberality which cha
racterized the monastic proprietors of the soil of France and Spain of ,
that era. By degrees the greater portion of the soil of Mexico
passed into the hands of the priesthood ; the superstition of the em-
*perors or their mistaken policy, induced them to favor the aggrand-

50 MEXICO.
izement of the ecclesiastical domains. Under the last Montezuma,
the territorial wealth of the clergy was immense. The gifts of the
faithful added yet farther to their opulence. But in spite of this, the
Mexican clergy was sober; the priests lived within the temples,
praying frequently, practising fasts and submitting to flagellation
daily. They mingled with the world, not to partake of its pleasures,
but to secure their own influence. Relative to the celibacy of the
vpriests, there are many contradictory accounts. Cortez expressly says
" the priests are unmarried, and have no intercourse with women."
It seems probable that men who subjected the mass of the commu
nity to such severe ordeals, must have made to its prejudices some
sacrifices. But Mr. Prescott thinks otherwise. May it not be that a
portion only of the clergy was restricted to the observation of so
severe a requisition? This explanation of Peter of Ghent seems to
explain all contradictions. Ofthe excess of their revenues they gave
the most liberal alms conceivable, so that the prodigality of the
Spanish 'convents almost is recalled to us. But, like the Monks of the
Peninsula, they seem to have been disposed to encourage fanaticism,
or at least to tolerate it. The necessity of labor appears to be the
basis of all the injunctions of the liberty of the Aztecs.
They had engrossed the monopoly of education, and consequently
received into their temples the children of the nobles and of the
middle classes ; the priests educating the boys, and the female serv
ants of the gods, the girls. The children of chiefs remained under
their control as long as they were unmarried, and until then they
were designated by their long hair. Their education had many gra
dations, but all had a religious tendency. The girls were in their
hours of leisure occupied in preparing ornaments for the altars and
statues of the gods, the boys in nursing the holy fires and singing -
like our choristers, besides being charged with the cultivation of the
flowers and 'the preparation of garlands, which were so frequently
used in their oblations. They were initiated in the secrets of sci
ence—to read and write in the hieroglyphical characters. In schools
of the higher order they were taught astronomy and astrology, and
made familiar with the principles of government. The regulation
of the schools was extremely strict. Falsehood was forbidden, and if
a child persisted in it and could not be reformed, its lip was cloven.
Manners were protected with the greatest severity.
After having sufficiently hardened the hearts of the youth, the
Mexican priesthood thrust them into society, as an additional secu
rity of their own influence.
The Sacerdotal order was presided over by two priests, who were

MEXICO. 51
chosen from the bod^of the clergy by the prince and his chief nobles.
This dignity was conferred on capacity, without reference to birth.
Next to the sovereign the two high priests took precedence of all the
officials of the state, and were consulted in all affairs of importance.

IX. OF THE ORIGIN OF MEXICAN CIVILIZATION.
Now we can ask ourselves a question:
Whence did the civilization of Mexicans originate ? We cannot
answer with any certainty. About the end of the twelfth century
many tribes of the same family came from the north, established
themselves in the beautiful vale of Mexico, known even now by its
old name Anahuac. These were the Chichimeques, a barbarous
race, and subsequently the Nahucetlaques in seven distinct tribes,
among which were the Acolhues or people of Tezcuco, the Mexi
cans proper or Aztecs, the inhabitants of Tlascala, of Chalco, of
Xochiacilco and the Tepaniques. The mysterious place whence
they emanated was called by the Mexicans Aztlan, and was far
from Tenochtitlan in the direction of the north-west. THeir pil
grimage was long and dangerous, and marked by many vicissitudes.
It had been interrupted by many pauses, one of which is probably
marked by the nhns on the Rio Gila, known as the Casas Grandes
(great houses). But at length they paused when they had met with
the sign the oracle hnd taught them to expect, which was an eagle
perched on the top of a nopal rising from the bosom of the waves,
and holding in its beak a serpent.* Here they founded their city of
Tenochtitlan, which afterwards was known as Mexico, and one of the
most beautiful in the world. We are told that on the shores of Nootka
Sound, and in the country between the fiftieth and sixtieth degrees of
latitude, tribes are found with an idiom closely resembling the ancient
Mexican tongue. The bands which invaded the Mexican table land
in the twelfth century, found it in the possession of races already pos
sessed of many of the attributes of civilization, who were thelheirs,
though not immediate ones, of the Toltecs, a gentle, industrious,
and partially civilized people, who, as far as we can learn, had made
their appearance in Anahuac about the year of our era 648, but who,
four centuries afterwards, in 1051, having been decimated by the
plague and famine, had emigrated yet farther south, and probably
founded the cities of Mitla, Uxmal, and Palenque, whose ruins
* Now the arms ofthe Mexican Republic.

52 MEXICO.
are yet found in Yucatan, having survived the injuries of time and
decay ; consequent on the rank vegetation of a tropical clime. The
Toltecs had commemorated their existence by vast buildings. To
them must be attributed the group of pyramids at Saint John of Teo
tihuacan, which are of clay with a revetment of stone, similar to
those at Sackarah in Upper Egypt; and even, like them, divided into
stories. Like the pyramids of Egypt, which, from the statues in them,
we know were appropriated to religious purposes, those of Teotihua- i
can faced towards the cardinal points. They were also the architects
of the great pyramid of Cholula, the sanctuary of Quetzalcoalt, '
the god of the air, on the summjt of which even now the traveler may
see a sanctuary overshadowed by trees and attended by an Indian
monk. ¦
According to appearances, we must refer to the Toltecs the ma
jority of the useful arts and sciences known to the Aztecs.
We may think that Asia, the common mother of the civilization
of the Old World, contributed its part to Mexican cultivation, or at
least furnished contingent to the stock of religious ideas and sciences
in Anahuac. -Traditions which, as has been seen, bear a close resem
blance to our biblical creed, appear to have reached them. The
communication between America and Asia in the north-west is very
practicable. Behring's Strait, which separates the two continents at
the sixty-sixth parallel, is less in width than an hiindred miles; and
even in this narrow channel are some islands which might serve as
resting-places. Without having proceeded as far north as this lati
tude, where in Asia are only icy deserts and savage tribes, it would
be easy to pass in a canoe from Kamschatka, or even Japan, by way
ofthe Kourile Isles, to the American shore; passing from one island to
the other of the Aleutian group, and not remain at any one time more
than forty-eight hours on the water. We may, moreover, remark,
that a long chain of islands extends, though with greater intervening
distances, from China to America. For while the 'Aleutian islands
stretch out from America to Kamschatka, between the latter country
and China, we find first Formosa, then the Leo-Keo group, the Ja
panese islands and the Kouriles. At that time, when the spirit of
Chinese government tended rather to expansion than as now to isola-
lation, commerce and religious propagandism may have induced
men to cross this expanse of five thousand miles by a voyaging some
times on the bosom of the deep, and again by land marches across
the links of the Archipelago uniting Asia and the New World. Two
hundred years before our era, the Chinese annals speak of the mysti
cal expedition of Thsin-Chi-Houang-Ti, who sailed over the eastern

MEXICO. 53
seas in search of an elixir to render certain the immortality of the
soul. These commercial and maritime nations at that time used the
mariner's compass, and it is not difficult to imagine they may have
discovered the continent of America. To a civilized people, a voy
age to the New World was by no means a formidable undertaking,
compared with the deeds of many savage tribes on the same element.
For instance, a voyage must have been made over the sea from New
Zealand to Tahiti, if we pay any attention to the analogy of customs
and language, and which are two thousand miles apart.
The anatomical similarity between the inhabitants of the farthest
east and the indigenes of America is so close, that Humboldt has
said: " We must confess that no races so closely resemble each other
as the Americans, Mongols, Mantchous, and Malays." But this ar
gument by no means suffices to show, that the inhabitants of America
proceeded from Asia. Science does not contradict the unity of the
human race according to the. biblical tradition; and as soon as that
is admitted, it follows almost necessarily that contiguity of location,
and similarity of condition must superinduce similarity of conforma
tion, as in the case of the vegetable productions of two neighboring
islands or countries ; a strong instance of which is afforded by the
Fauna and Sylvas of the two shores of Behring's Straits. But -in the
scientific ideas ofthe Mexicans, we find some points of identity with
the condition of art in Asia, which compel us to admit contact to have
ensued between the inhabitants of the two continents. I shall quote
one example, which is perhaps the most striking instance to be met
with: The Aztecs expressed the days of their calendar by the figure of
certain animals. People of Mongol origin express by animals the
signs of the zodiac. Of the twelve beasts adopted in Asia for this pur
pose, four are found in the Mexican calendar. Three others did not
exist in Anahuac, though similar ones did, by which the correspond
ing signs were expressed ; the five other Mongol characters had np
similar ones, or anything identical in Mexico, and for them, therefore,-
altogether different animals were substituted. And we must not for
get that the Mongol signs were also used to indicate the years of the
series which composed their cycles, and also to represent the days,
months, and hours. In conclusion, the signs of the Aztecan calendar,
like the Mongol, were applied to astrological purposes, whence per
haps originated their similarity.*
* Among the Mongols, there are the leopard, crocodile, and chicken, replaced
in the Mexican calendar by the Ocelotl lizard and eagle ; the five other signs are ,

54 MEXICO.
The lunar calendar of the Hindoos, constructed of yet more arbi
trary signs, strongly corresponds with that of the Aztecs. If we do
not recognize these circumstances as evidences of a communication
between the two continents, we must have a very profound respect
for the majesty of chance, as a philosophic king has said.
The inhabitants of the New World then must have had some com
munication with the civilized nations of Asia; some of the elements
of Mexican art show this very clearly, but it would be more than
rash to consider Mexican civilization as an offshoot from that of ,
Asia. All our institutions in Europe are lineally descended from
those of Greece and Rome. Without the assistance of philology,
technology and the study of religion and manners, history would
suffice to teach us this. By means of conquest or colonization we
are all descended from the Greeks and Romans, and among us we
find without any difficulty the traces of a yet more venerable origin.
Between Asia and Mexico there are no such links. In civilization,
descent is recognized by striking similitudes in every-day affairs.
And the Mexicans brought from Asia neither the horse, the ox, the
sheep, camel, nor the grain manufactured into bread. Asiatic popu
lation is everywhere nourished by rice, American by maize. Their
numerical system and written characters bore no resemblance to
those of Asia ; as yet there have been discovered no links connecting
together the languages of the two continents. Had Mexico been
colonized from Asia, we could not but find countless evidences ofthe
fact. The Chinese and Japanese have regular histories and annals,
in which, in spite of what De Guignes says, we find no commemo
ration of the discovery of a continent or of intercourse with America.
Neither did there exist in America any recollection of China or of
India. The Mexicans, therefore, were neither descendants, colonists
nor the pupils of Asia. The communication between Anahuac and
the eastern shore of the other continents was confined to the isolated
visits of a few persons, who never returned to their home,' from
whom the Mexicans derived some notions of astrology and traditions
of cosmogony. We must believe that all the information the Mexi
cans ever received from the other hemisphere was second hand and
already corrupted.
We are inclined, if we credit mere tradition, to think that the Mexi
cans received the seed of their civilization from the European, rather
than the Asiatic shore of this continent. In the well established
the ox,'horse, sheep and hog. The four common to both, are the hare, snake, ape
and dog.

MEXICO. 55
empires, found by the Spaniards in the New World, on the three
table-lands of Mexico, Peru and Cundinamarca, tradition represents
their ancestors to have come from the East. In Mexico, Quetzal- :
coatl, in Cundinamarca Bochica, and in Peru Manco Capac, came
from beyond the mountains and seas, where the, sun rises; and the
accounts of their personal appearance handed down by tradition cor
respond more correctly with the Caucasian than with any other race.
But the safest conjecture of all is, that Mexican civilization was
autochthon. The red man found in himself the material of his
religious, social and political edifice. Lofty minds, in their own
recesses, or by means of one of those divine revelations, to which all
who wish to trace back the origin of civilization, must attribute the
first cause of every amelioration of the condition of mankind, had
pointed out to their fellows the first steps in the march onwards.
Though striking analogies, which have been pointed out in favor of
many systems, to show that Mexican civilization arose in the Old
World, may exist, and almost persuade us that it could have no other
origin ; though pyramids of similar colossal character exist in both
hemispheres ; 'will it not be well to suppose that we must attribute
them and all similar works to the fact, that the produce of man's
labor in the two worlds is similar as is his person, and, to ask our
selves if it would not seem strange, that, in similar relative epochs, in
identical climates, though separated by expanses of ocean, there
should not be many traits of similarity ?*
To prove how easily the mind may be mistaken in the consequences
drawn from similarity between the ancient civilization of America,
and that of the other continent, Mr. Prescott remarks that in the
funeral ceremonies ofthe Aztecs, we find much that recalls to us the
customs of Catholic nations, as well as of Mohammedans, Tartars,
and those of Greece and Rome. Must we from this fact decide that
Aztecan civilization is to be traced back to all of these nations? Is it
* Among these systems we must not forget that of Lord Kingsborough, who at-'.
tempts to prove that Mexican civilization sprang directly from the Jews. To sup
port this conjecture many plausible circumstances may be advanced; but none
possessing the elements of certainty, or at all as probable as that system which
attributes it to intercourse across Behring's Straits. If this system has convinced
no one it has yet been the cause of a vast historical and literary monument.
Lord Kingsborough pubhshed /ac-similes of all the Aztecan manuscripts. known
exist and drawings of many of the ruins of central America— in combination

to

with the text of the Universal History of New Spain by the Franciscan Sahagun,
who lived long in Mexico. The luxurious liberality of which the British aris
tocracy is so prodigal, was strongly exemplified in this work.

56 MEXICO.
not better to believe that it is autochthon, and indebted to none of thel
nations on either side of the continent, unless by a casual contact
perhaps with both ? <
But how came European civilization to be engrafted on that of
Mexico ? What was the character, and what the incidents of the
conquest of Cortez ?

PART SECOND.

To a man of the nineteenth century, who is a legitimate descend
ant of the eighteenth, and who, consequently, in everything that he
does, is but little of a devotee, an effort is necessary to understand the
spirit that animated the Spanish conquerors of the New World.
Men judge the morality of historical events by the ideas of their own
age, and often, it is true, for the better, for we may flatter ourselves
as being better initiated in our notions of eternal justice, than the
generations that have preceded us for many centuries, and our scale
is more exact. We are in possession of secrets which the cotempo
rary of those events was ignorant of; coming after him, we can
perceive effects which he could not distinguish, and, in fine, we are
not as he was, both judge and party. Moreover, when a man la
bors, not to examine the morality of actions, but simply to observe
their distinguishing features, he regards them with the eyes of his era,
and consequently is misled. In most instances, then, it is a panorama,
where the objects are in a false light, because the observed is placed
out of the proper point of view.
Religious feelings being no longer, at the present day, the insti
gators of conquest, we are inclined to neglect or lessen their influence
in past ages. We repeat against the Spaniard the decision which the,
eighteenth century, inspired by its passions, and without properly1
understanding the matter, has pronounced against him, and we be
lieve that the thirst for gold was the only instigator of his adventures
in the New World. I do not pretend- that the love of riches, the
hope of great fortunes and great names were foreign to these won
derful expeditions; there are human motives in all human actions;
but to the praise of our species, it is certain that always when there
has been an exhibition of heroic qualities long sustained, man has
obeyed noble inspirations. It is repugnant to our feelings to believe
that cupidity alone has made heroes.
In Cortez and his companions there was more than a simple desire
to enrich or to win rank for themselves in the Indies. As well

58 MEXICO.
might We say that when France, in 1789, rose up in the cause of
liberty, the sublime enthusiasm which filled the nation, and which
gave it, during twenty-five years, so glorious a career, was not inspired
by a profound feeling for the rights of the human race, and that the
prodigies with which our country astonished the world during a
quarter of a century, proceeded simply from a foolish jealousy on the
part of the citizen of the advantages of the noble.
The monuments of history are sufficiently numerous and varied,
to give us all the light we desire on this subject. They show us that
the expeditions of the Spaniards to the New World, were made
under the auspices of religious feeling. That with this sentiment
were connected ideas of interest and ambition, I do not hesitate to
acknowledge, any more than I would to grant that there are in man
two instincts, or that the body is united to a soul. I will not go back
to Columbus, who set sail in the hope of meeting and converting the
grand Khan, and who, when he had seen the gold of the New World,
sought for it only to assist in the expenses of a new crusade in the
Holy Land ; though all this did not prevent him from attaching great
value to his title of Admiral of Castile, and to the material advantages '
attached to that title. But let us turn now to Cortez and Mexico.
Cortez, like Columbus, like all the Spaniards of that age, who achieved
the subjugation ofthe Moors, had in his soul an active and enduring
faith. Imaginations were excited in the Peninsula. It was faith
\that had given a band of scattered cavaliers in the Asturias power
to triumph over mighty caliphs. What could a man not achieve,
when he fought for his faith ? The natural religious ardor of that
age was joined to everything which could inflame the sacred fire of
patriotism. To make the infidel submit; to -establish the cross iri
countries where the sign of redemption was not known, was the
sovereign ambition, the supreme glory, the happiness without parallel
of the youth who had sprung from the soil on which trod the con
querors of Grenada and of Cordova. An expedition to the New World
was a crusade. War against the Indians, from the fact that they were
infidels, was a holy war. To force them to confess the faith was an
incomparable merit. For this prize it was of little importance
whether the actor had been unbridled in his passions, whether he had
been licentious, avaracious, or blood-thirsty ; every sin was wiped
out by so good a work, and he went guiltless to Heaven. Against
the infidel (and each disbeliever was one) every means was lawful,
provided you could force him to be baptized. Thus thought the
¦ many, though some of the chiefs were more enlightened ancf more
humane.

MEXICO. 59
Cortez, like all men who are really great, was a man of his own
age. He partook, in different degrees, as he had courage or faith, of
the illusions or prejudices of his time. His chaplain, Gomara, has
preserved to us the address that he made to his troops, in a review at
Cape San Antonio, at the moment of finally leaving the island of Cuba.
He finished by these words—" Though they were few, they had with
them the Almighty God, who never had abandoned the Spaniard in
his struggles with the infidel. What matter the number of the
enemy, provided they fought under the banner of the cross?" This
conviction never left him, he maintained it always in presence of his
companions; a good reason why they triumphed. The best means
by which a man can accomplish any deed, however difficult it may
be, is to. persuade himself that he cannot fail. Cortez was a man of
wonderful sagacity, of extreme political skill, unequaled courage,
untiring vigilance, and of consummate prudence ; his daring was
excessive. He possessed, in a high degree, self-command, a proof of
his fitness to command others. To all these natural gifts was joined
an incredible good fortune ; the elements and events seemed to con
spire for him. But more than all this, the principal cause, of his
success was his faith.
In the island of Cozumel, the first land made, he could with diffi
culty reassure the inhabitants, whom Alvarado, his lieutenant, having
landed before him, had caused to fly by the violence used to con
vert them. On their refusal to renounce their idolatry, he ordered
his men to throw the statues of their gods from the top to the bottom
of their temple, built as those of the Mexicans, in the form of pyra-
.mids An altar was there erected in the pagan sanctuary ; the Father
Olmedo said mass, and the Indians, astounded that their gods had'
not stricken to the earth the strangers who had outraged their sanc
tuaries and their images, suffered themselves to be baptized. From
thence they passed on to the province of Tabasco, in the peninsula of
Yucatan, and discovered there a more numerous, more warlike, and
more civilized people, who yet offered human sacrifices. The Indians
refused to communicate with the expedition, and a battle ensued ;
the combat was stubborn and bloody.
A saint, mounted on a gray horse, was seen to descend from Hea
ven, and placing himself at the head of the Spanish cavaliers, led
them to the charge. No one in the army doubted this fact ; and
Cortez, in the account of this affair he rendered to the sovereigns of -'
Castile, said, "Your royal highnesses may rest assured that this vie- #
tory was owing less to our forces than to the will of God, for what *'
could we, only four hundred in number, do against forty thousand *

60 MEXICO.
warriors?" Terrified by the artillery and cavalry ; stupefied at the
audacity of this handful of men, whom they looked upon as super
natural beings, the Indians became converted. Their conversion
was celebrated in the following week, on Palm-Sunday, by a pomp
ous ceremony, and they then set sail for the Mexican provinces,,
where they were informed a mighty sovereign and chief of a people
possessing much gold dwelt. Interviews soon took place between
Cortez and Teutila, who governed for Montezuma the province
now known as the district of Vera Cruz. Great etiquette was ob
served in their intercourse, as became the representatives of two
mighty sovereigns, each of whom esteemed himself the greatest
monarch of the universe. Montezuma was tormented by his anxiety
to keep the Spaniards from his capital. He delayed their coming
by informing them by his messengers, in the tone of a man accus
tomed to be obeyed, that it is not agreeable to him ; yet as a magnifi
cent and liberal prince, he loaded them with presents. These consisted
of cotton fabrics of great beauty, of stuffs composed of feathers, (an
article peculiar to the Mexicans, and in which they much excelled,)
and jewels of gold and silver of great weight, and of a style equal to
the material. He also sent them urns filled with gold dust, for Cortez
had informed Teutila that his companions were subject to an affec
tion of the heart, for which gold dust was a sovereign specific. Cortez
returned these splendid presents as well as he was able, by a helmet
ornamented with a golden medal, representing St. George and the
dragon, by the finest Holland shirts which he possessed, (the Mexi
cans were not acquainted with flax), and by many kinds of beads,
which would appear of great value to these people who were igno
rant of the art of making glass. Through the exchange of these
presents a good understanding was established ; the Indians of the
neighborhood brought provisions in abundance, and placed themselves
under the orders of the Spaniards to relieve all their wants. Cortez
continued to negotiate for permission to go to Tenochtitlan (Mexico);
but in the midst of a conference the hour of vespers sounded, and he
imagined the moment come, to teach the Aztecs the religious law
he desired so much to give them. By his order Father Olmedo
commenced a sermon in which he explained the mysteries of Chris
tianity, and announced that the Spaniards had come to extirpate
idolatry and establish the worship of the true God.
He finished by distributing little images of the Virgin with Christ
in her arms. Two interpreters, the Spaniard Aguilar, who had been
a captive in Yucatan, and a young Indian girl name,d Malincho,
who had been given to Cortez by one of the caciques of Tabasco,

MEXICO. 61
translated the words of the good father to the astonished Aztecs.
From that moment all intercourse ceased. None of the natives pre
sented themselves at the camp ; provisions were no longer brought ;
and the followers of Cortez, become discontented, murmured that the
expedition should return to Cuba with the magnificent presents of
Montezuma. In the meantime Cortez received a message from the chief of the
Totonaques, who were settled around Cempoalla in the Tierra Cali
ente. Wearied with the demands of the Aztecs, this cacique
asked the assistance of the wonderful strangers who launched the
thunders, and who brought with them animals of irresistible impetu
osity. This cacique was powerful, and boasted of having one hun
dred and fifty thousand warriors under his command ; an extreme
exaggeration, although his capital, Cempoalla, had really thirty thou
sand souls. To Cortez this was a revelation. This great Mexican
empire was hot then united and compact; a skillful policy might
enable him to make way and overthrow it. The overture of the
cacique was accepted with friendship. They were about to march to
Cempoalla ; yet, before commencing the journey, Cortez would
assure himself of his personal independence. Under the pretence of
a-new organization, based on the independence which communities
in Spain then enjoyed, he broke the bonds of apparent subordination
which attached him to the Governor of Cuba, Velasquez. This
revolution appeared to be nothing more than the establishment of a
colony, which, by virtue of its municipal rights, selected its own offi
cers. Some days after, they arrived at Cempoalla amid the acclama
tions of the Indian population. Cortez artfully compromised the
cacique with the Aztecs by an affront which he determined, with
out the apparent participation of the Spaniards, to offer to the officers
sent to collect tribute for the emperor. He then reconciled him to a
neighboring people, and assured him of his protection against every
one, and at the same time undertaking to convert him. The cacique
proposed to marry to Spanish officers eight young girls selected from
the -most distinguished families of his principality. Cortez accepted
the proposition on condition that they should be baptized, and inti
mated to the cacique that he himself must become a Christian.
The Indian wished to argue the matter, and declared that he would
resist every attempt against the images of his gods, stating that if
even he was rendered powerless, they would know how to avenge
themselves; but the Spaniards were disgusted with this bloody idola
try, and sickened at these horrible feasts, when, at an infernal com
munion, they devoured their victims. They shouted with enthusiasm

62 MEXICO.
when their general told them it was necessary to put an end to this ;
that if they bore much longer with this infernal worship, God, who
only could enable them to succeed, would desert them. They followed
Cortez, who, sword in hand, pointed to the temples. The cacique
called his warriors to arms, and his priests, with dishevelled locks and
black-robes stained with blood, obstructed the path of the Spaniards.
Cortez caused the chief, the principal priests, and the most renowned
warriors of the Totonaques to be surrounded and seized. "You are
foolish," he exclaimed; "you have no refuge but in me; for if I
abandon you, the hand of Montezuma will soon fall heavy^on you. -
It is necessary then that you obey me, and I ordain the destruction
of your idols." The cacique yielded to this thought, and burying his
face in his hands, cried out to Cortez to do. what he wished, but that
the anger of the gods would be manifested against these profane
strangers. Fifty men of Castile mounted to the summit of the pyra
mid, tore down the wooden idols, and rolling them into the court of
the temple, made of them a brilliant bonfire. At this spectacle, to
the great astonishment of the natives, the heavens were still silent.
The sanctuary was then purified, an altar erected, and in procession
they placed on it, an image of the Virgin, decorated with flowers.
Many of the priests of the sanguinary gods of the Mexicans, joined
the cortege, dressed in white robes. Father Olmedo celebrated mass,
and addressed the audience in language which brought tears from all
the assistants. Cortez did not only satisfy his conscience, but was
assured of the fidelity of the people of Cempoalla. His confidence
was doubled. He set out from Cempoalla on his rout to Mexico, not
withstanding the prohibition of Montezuma, taking with him 400 foot
'soldiers, 15 cavaliers, and 7 pieces of artillery. The rest of the troop,
under the command of Escalante, who was devoted to him, he left at^
Vera Cruz, as a post of observation on the sea-coast. Thirteen
hundred Totonaque warriors, who kept constantly increasing, and
1000 tamanes or porters, charged with the care of the baggage, joined
him. After the council with the people of Cempoalla, Cortez directed
his steps through the territory of Tlascala, inhabited by a nation who
had maintained in its mountains, its independence against the power
ful Montezuma : like the Swiss, who, having thrown off the yoke,
were in their defiles, and in the midst of their rocks, invincible against
the heir of the Cesars, the Emperor of Germany. , The Tlascalans
were of the same origin as the Aztecs ; they spoke a dialect of the
same language, possessed the same habits and customs, were addicted
to the same bloody sacrifices, and were less refined : notwithstanding
these points of resemblance, however, they detested the Aztecs with

MEXICO. 63
a ferocious hate ; they were kindred enemies. Cortez, in marching
to them, had been led on by the hope of getting their assistance
against the Mexican empire, but he had little dreamed of the fierce
ness of these mountaineers. They had refused to submit to Monte
zuma, because they wished to be their own masters ; what proba
bility was there that they would accept an unknown sovereign?
Here commenced for Cortez, the war ofthe conquest. Until then, he
had not had an obstacle to his onward career, but five ordinary chiefs.
It was necessary now boldly to cut loose from the Governor Velas
quez, whose subordinate he was, to" recruit his men and provide
supplies for them ; there were also in his little troop partisans of Velas
quez, whom he must intimidate or reduce, to prevent them from
exposing the intrigue at Vera Cruz, on account of which he had cast
off his dependence on the Governor of Cuba. He had to reduce to
obedience undisciplined men brought together from all parts ; then
again he had to put down plots — the discontent of these adven
turers which he essayed to repress having engendered more than one
rebellion. He had to induce his men to give up to their sovereign,
without reserving anything, all the presents of Montezuma which
they thought to be their own property ; he was obliged to ask this
sacrifice, counting on the fact that the sight of all this gold and sil
ver would conciliate the court, would make it pass over the comedy
performed by the municipality1 of Vera Cruz, and silence the emissa
ries of Velasquez ; and lastly, he had to quiet the murmurs which
were produced by the news of the burning of the fleet, by which they
were separated from their friends, and exposed — a mere handful of
men — to the mercy of innumerable and valiant enemies. I do not add
to these the battles he had to gain over the inhabitants of Tabasco.
With a spirit fertile in expedients, and a rude dexterity strong in that
resolution which is communicative ; cautious even in his daring,
and, aided by the experience he had acquired, although young in the
middle of an agitated life, Cortez had been able to free himself from
all these embarrassments. It was, up to this time, an affair of intellec
tual resources and moral force. But now to contend, with arms in
their hands, against these valiant Tlascalans, who refused either to
receive them or to allow them a passage, material force must be re
sorted to. What then was to be done ? Nothing was easier for the
enemy than to put into line 50,000 proved warriors ; they were all
ready ; their defiles were easy to guard ; their soil was covered with,.
forests where ambuscades could be prepared. Local advantages
and rlumbers were in their favor. Cortez, as we have before said,
had 400 men, 15 horses, and 7 smalj pieces of artillery. He had also .

64 MEXI'CO.-
been joined, when he entered the country of the Tlascalans by
3000 native warriors. The Tlascalans were commanded by a
young native named Xicotencatl, as shrewd as he was courageous.
In the first battle that was fought, Cortez remained the victor with
the severe loss of two of his fifteen horses. Some days afterwards a
more serious engagement took place ; the fight was continued during
the whole day ; the artillery, the horses, and the lances, made of the
good steel of Toledo, worked wonders, and Xicotencatl was forced
to abandon the field, retiring, however, in good order. Cortez, whose
little army contained many wounded men, sent to propose peace.
Xicotencatl, at the head of his troops, answered that the road to
Tlascala should never be open to the Spaniards unless to lead them
to the altar of sacrifice, and that if they remained in their camp he
would seize them. On the 5th of September, 1519, a new battle
was fought ; the Indians were numerous and full of resentment.
Cortez appealed to the faith of his troop. " God is with you : God
wishes that the cross should be planted in these beautiful regions;
and how, can this be done if we lose ground?" The two armies
engaged. Victory was yet undecided, when one of the Indian chiefs
who had quarreled with Xicotencatl, left the field with his men,and
carried off with him another chief in his premeditated flight. Xicoten
catl continued the battle for four hours longer, and then retreated
without being pursued. Cortez again renewed his propositions for
peace. The answer was a night attack. Happily Cortez had accus
tomed his men to be always ready ; they never quitted their arms,
sleeping in order of battle, and guarded by vigilant sentinels. By
good luck this night there was a moon. The Tlascalans again
failed, and Cortez sent Indians bearing words of peace, not this time
to the enemy, but to the city of Tlascala itself. The proposition was
favorably received. A solemn embassy set out to find Cortez. The
obstinate Xicotencatl retired to his camp and prepared to take his
revenge. During this time dissatisfaction had penetrated among the
Spaniards. They counted their dead and wounded men ; they saw
their general prostrated by fever, and in this elevated part of the
country, sleeping at night under the open sky, they also suffered
from cold. They said to each other that the idea of penetrating
to Mexico was foolish. The party of Velasquez revived, and a
deputation of the discontented presented to the general the suffer
ings of the army. " It may be that nature is against us," replied
Cortez, " but God is stronger than nature." He quoted to them the
, words of an old romance, the sentiment of which was, that it was
tr better to'die with glory than to live with dishonor. The disaffected
, were calmed, and a short time afterwards the people of Tlascala

MEXICO. 65
appeared with white flags in sign of peace, bringing with them provis
ions from Xicotencatl. Joy spread through the camp. But Marina,
who had observed these people closely, warned Cortez that this was
only a stratagem, and that they had been sent to spy out the secrets
of the troop. On being satisfied of the truth of this, Cortez sent
back these emissaries to Xicotencatl with their hands cut off. This
had been done with less justice by Cesar, at the siege of Alesia, to
men who were not traitors. " Tell your general," said Cortez, as he
cast them from the camp " that he may come by day or night, when he
pleases and as he pleases, and he will learn what we are." Xicoten
catl was seized with consternation at the sight of his mutilated
emissaries. These extraordinary strangers knew then how to read
his thoughts ! He despaired of triumphing over the Spaniards, either
by open force or by cunning, and was converted to peace. He came
himself to assure them of its truth. A few days afterwards they set
out together in harmony for Tlascala, where Cortez was received in
the palace of the father of Xicotencatl, and the union between
them was cemented. The Spaniards did not owe their success over
the Tlascalans only to their bravery.- One of the companions of
Cortez affirmed that no one could be more courageous than these
Indians; he frequently saw one of 'them defend himself against two,
three, and four cavaliers. The superiority of the Spanish arms, their
powder, and cannon, their admirable discipline, and ever ready vigi
lance, their superior tactics, and the genius of Cortez, decided their suc
cess. Their horses, a kind of winged monsters, alarmed the bravest of
the Tlascalan warriors more than the elephants of Pyrrhus did the
Romans, and exerted a great influence in the battles. Cortez had
singularly disciplined nis men. He had inspired them with his won
derful presence of mind, and had steeled their bodies by all kinds of
proofs. The persevering will of a good general operates like bath
ing in the Styx. By a peculiar effect of temperament, whenever a
great sentiment animates^the Spaniard, he possesses military quali
ties which you vainly seek for elsewhere. The Englishman is cer
tainly very brave, but an English army deprived of the comforts of
food and tea* is demoralized and lost. The Spaniard is above hun
ger, thirst, and sleep ; he can support heat or cold, and can make
with an empty stomach, the most unheard-of marches. The soldiers
of Cortez had employment for all the resources which they possessed.
I believe, however, that nothing sustained them in the same degree
as the conviction that, with the cross in their hands, they were cer*
tain of an infallible and necessary triumph. Since the expulsion of -
* ! Translator.

66 MEXICO.
the Moors, they were sure that the infidel could not resist them.
This was what Marina told a chief of the Cempoallans in one of the
battles against the Tlascalans ; and Cortez, in his addresses to his
companions, when he recounted to them the difficulties by which
they were surrounded, always finished by telling them that the ban
ner of the cross, and that alone, was sufficient to extricate them. But
this strong and indomitable faith, which gave Cortez such power and
success, also brought with it perils and dangers. Once, at Tlascala,
he asked himself how he could tolerate the worship of these false
gods around him.
His new friends and allies, on whom he counted in his enterprise
against Montezuma, were idolators ; they offered up human victims.
and eat them with great gusto. Shall these atrocious sacrileges be.
suffered to continue, and shall the cross traverse the state of Tlascala
without purifying it from this defilement ? Happily, Father Olmedo
moderated the ardor of the hero. " Everything should be done at its
proper time," said he ; " let us await our opportunity ;" and soon in fact
the occasion did present itself. The Tlascalan chiefs proposed to
Cortez and his officers to marry their daughters. Cortez answered,
that it was impossible unless Tlascala were converted. He explained to
them the difference of their religion from his own, and told them they
were doomed to eternal' perdition unless they left their dark ways.
A controversy ensued, and the Tlascalan senators alledged, in the
words of a maxim often found' in the mouth of the Indians, that being
content with their gods, they ought to defend them; that they, the
old men of the nation, would never abjure the worship of divinities
who had protected their young years; that this abjuration would
1>ring down the anger of heaven, and excite fthe people, and finally,
that they would as leave give up their liberty as their belief, and
would shed the last drop of their blood in defence of both the one and
the other. After the conference, Cortez, who could ill accommodate
himself to obstacles, showed signs of irritation; but Father Olmedo
renewed his prayers that he would temporize. " Patience," said he ;
" what good will it do to violate the conscience of these people ? Sup
pose you have the power to overthrow their altars, the idols will re
main in their hearts! Let us persuade them; the work is slower, but
it will be more sure." Alvarado and Velasquez de Leon joined their
prayers to those of the charitable and better advised monk ; Cortez
condescended to yield the principle of religious toleration. The Span
iards observed publicly their religion, but no constraint was exer
cised towards the natives. A large cross was planted in the streets
of Tlascala, and an altar erected, where mass was celebrated every

MEXICO. 67
day ; five or six young girls of the first families of the nation were bap
tized, and married to Spanish officers. One of them was the daugh
ter of the old Xicotencatl, and sister of the young general who had
defended the soil of his country with such courage and perseverance.
She became the wife of Alvarado, for whom the Tlascalans en
tertained great admiration; and who, on account of his open and
pleasing manners, his alluring boldness, and his flaxen hair, which
fell in curls over his fair face, had received the name of the sun
(Tonatiuh). From this marriage sprung children, who afterwards
intermarried with the most noble families of Castile. It was a happy
circumstance for Cortez, that the prudence of Father Olmedo, and the
probably worldly views of some of his lieutenants, had cooled the
ardor of his proselytism ; and that they were able by their advice to
bring him back to that circumspection which was natural to him.
He had raised a storm that would have overwhelmed his reduced
and weakened troop ; and even if he had conquered the Tlascalans,
which is not probable, this exhibition of brutal proselytism would
have shut out to him the road to Mexico. The whole enterprise
would have failed. History would have mentioned his name as that
of a partizan, who had annihilated by his fanaticism the magnificent
hopes excited by his first successes. How important is a moment in
the life of a great man ! How important is good advice ! A magni
ficent page in history, written in imperishable characters, in place of
one of those indifferent, fugitive and obscure notices which are the lot
of imprudent adventurers, and which oftentimes are the only recom
pense of better men, in whom nature has put the material of heroes,
but who have been unfortunate! Cortez, once more restored to the
path which his excellent judgment and penetration enabled him to
retain, formed his plans of campaign. He determined to go straight
to Mexico in spite of all opposition ; and he possessed a powerful ally
in the inveterate antipathy entertained by the Tlascalans agjiinst
the Aztecs. The earth was again firm under his feet, and he possessed
the key to the weakness of the Mexican empire. What he learned
at Tlascala, had confirmed the truth ofthe information given him by
a cacique of Cempoalla, that a portion of the people in subjection felt
the most lively hatred to their oppressors. Montezuma was detested in
the conquered provinces, and a powerful liberator, who would offer to
free the people from their heavy yoke, would find allies in abundance.
At the very gates of Mexico, the conqueror knew that he would find
friends. The Prince Ixtlixochitl, brother of Cacamatzin, the King
' of Tezcuco, and son of Nezahualpilli, who had been driven from the*
throne of Tezcuco, and reduced to an humble situation, through the

68 MEXICO.
influence of Montezuma, burned to revenge himself. He was dis
tinguished for his courage, and offered his services to Cortez. More
over, at Mexico, the emperor had yielded to an afflicting perplexity.
At bottom, generous and intelligent, this prince, after being distin
guished by his bravery, had given himself up to a frightful supersti
tion and to a bloody bigotry, to what degree we will see after
wards. It is difficult to judge what passed in his mind; we are too
ignorant of the ideas of empire under which they then lived in
Mexico; and superstition, with its follies, is one of those tortuous and
dark labyrinths, in which, it is impossible to know what course a man
will lake when environed by its complicated folds. If the ideas
which spring, from a blind superstition, associated with astrology,
were not almost always contrary to the natural order of reason, the
opposites of logic and good sense, we might explain" the want of
decision of Montezuma and the contradictions of his vacillating
policy, by saying that he was ruled by his wishMo conform to the .
prophecies which foretold the return of Quetzalcoatl, or of his de
scendants, and by his desire to retain empire even in spite of the
envoys of that venerated god. Jealous of his sovereignty, Monte
zuma feared those strangers, concerning whom the most fearful
accounts were brought him. Contact with these formidable beings
could not fail to be fatal to his authority. On the other side, might it
not be Quetzalcoatl, who, in accordance with tradition, was com
ing back, or had sent his children? A vague rumor had been in
circulation for many years, that the solemn moment for the return
of this good and powerful prince was near, and if so, what would be
the result if he failed to receive the Spaniards with the greatest
respect and eagerness? Threatening presages were multiplied. The
¦ astrologers predicted that calamities were impending over the empire,
and without doubt to this motive is to be attributed the increase of
human sacrifices offered to the gods in expiation. In the midst of his
indecision, before the arrival ofthe Spaniards, Montezuma had called
together the great council of the empire, of which the Kings of Tez
cuco and Tlacopan were members.
Who were these men of an unknown race ? How should they be
received ? Was this or not the return of Quetzalcoatl? Were they
human or supernatural beings? They ought to be human ; but many
good reasons were given why they might be envoys of Quetzalcoatl ;
they came from the east; they were white and wore beards, and they
were brave and invincible. Still, if they came on behalf of Quetzal
coatl, why were they enemies of the gods of the country? Some,
among whom was Cacamatzin, who, as we have before stated, had

MEXICO. 69
succeeded his father, Nezahualpilli, on the throne of Tezcuco, were
in favor of receiving them well ; but this was not to the taste of Mon
tezuma. Finally, the emperor attached himself to neither party. In
his embarrassment he neither opened his capital to the Spaniards nor
employed any force to prevent them from reaching it, but dispatched
ambassadors to them. The most skillful among them, Teutila, was
instructed to learn what there was in common between the Spaniards
and Quetzalcoatl, and seeing upon the head of a soldier a gilded
helmet similar to the one which was placed upon the image of the
god, he asked that it should be given to him to be sent in great haste
to Mexico as a proof. Cortez still insisted on being permitted to
deliver to the emperor the message, which he pretended to have
brought from his sovereign. He even accomplished more ; he made
friends of them while they were refusiag him permission to ad
vance. In the meantime, he was at Tlascala, among the enemies
of the Aztecs. He had shown himself more formidable than they
had supposed. It was difficult to refuse his demand, but by some
deceit they might be able to free themselves from their embarrass
ments. At Tlascala, then, Cortez was met by a last embassy from
Montezuma, bringing with them, as before, rich presents. This time
Cortez was invited to visit the emperor, and an effort was made to
prevent him from allying himself to the Tlascalans, whom they
represented as barbarians and people of bad repute. It was
suggested to him to visit the capital by the rout of Cholula,
alledging that extensive preparations had been made in that city to
receive him. If the Spanish historians can be believed, all this was
a plot prepared for him.
I shall not particularly mention the events of Cholula, though they
are a remarkable episode fullof horrors. I shall similarly treat the
details of the march from Cholula to Tenochtitlan, though in doing s6
I omit a description of interesting cities and gardens, more luxurious
¦than those of Semiramis, of mountains, whose defiles recall to us the
enchanted scenes of chivalric romances. Behold him in that Venice
of the mountains. He inhabited a palace built by the Emperor Ax
ayacatl, the father of Montezuma, at the base of the grea,t Pyramid.
This mighty mansion, composed of many separate dwellings, sur
rounded by one enclosure, served as quarters for the Spaniards and
men of Tlascala, who accompanied them, with the numberless
attendants supplied them by the emperor. They were in want of
nothing. The inhabitants of the city exhibited to them the greatest
hospitality, fully satisfied of their being more than human from
the feats of prowess they had achieved, the dangers they safely

70 MEXICO.
passed through. They were called white gods. But this was of little
importance to Cortez ; he had not gone thither to enjoy the luxury
of imperial hospitality. His great object was continually before him,
and in this he had a vast advantage over Montezuma, harassed by
a thousand uncertainties. The Aztecan monarch still exerted a
mighty power. The terror he excited in the minds of remoter parts
of the empire was lessened, and this terror was the main source of his
authority. Between Cholula and the capital, Cortez heard many
murmurs against his empire, yet at the very gates of Mexico the
Cempoallans, who till thenjiad blindly followed Cortez, had such an
opinion of the emperor's power, that they came to say he would be
unable to extricate himself from the city should he offend Montezuma.
In a solemn interview with Montezuma surrounded by his court,
Cortez was told that it was impossible not to recognize him and his
companions as envoys from the Most High, as well on account of the
feats they had accomplished as the direction whence they came. The
emperor considered Cortez a descendant of the good Quetzalcoatl,
the beneficent civiUzer of Anahuac. The monarch in whose name
he came might be that god. As Montezuma thus spoke, his eyes
became filled with tears, so that the stern conqueror could not doubt
his sincerity. In the succeeding days he loaded the Spaniards with
presents, so that every soldier had at least two gorgets of gold.
;Cortez, in the interim, had carefully estimated the vast resources of
the emperor. He saw how earnestly devoted to him was the count
less population of Tenochtitlan and its environs. The violent
;temperament of his followers, excited by a brilliant series of victories,
by the sight of measureless treasure, to which they already began to
arrogate the victor's right, inspired him with anxiety, doubled by the
ferocity of his Tlascalan allies, who detested the Aztecs and were
looked on with similar disgust. The Tlascalans could not restrain
,the arrogance excited by their success. Above all, he was anxious
'relative to the answer to his messages, which he expected from Spain.
Velasquez might have influence enough to effect his recall, or he
might experience the envy Fonseca exhibited uniformly to all merit
in the colonies. The Governor of Cuba might send out a new expe
dition commanded by men with the prestige of heroic deeds already
performed. There was then no time to be lost. Montezuma was under
the influence of a fascination of which he must be quick to take
advantage. By such thoughts was the bosom of Cortez agitated for
eight days after his entrance into the city. He had made it neces
sary for him to succeed, ahd add to the crown of Charles V. so
rich a gem, that all his boldness might be pardoned. But there

MEXICO. 71
was one thing more to do, and this step was the most difficult of all
his career. He was now the guest of Montezuma. He must be
come the emperor's master. Cortez trusted himself to fortune.
Montezuma would become 'the vassal of the Spanish monarch, and
Cortez had a certain pledge of the subordination and obedience of
the emperor. This pledge would be the captivity of Montezuma.
Cortez had performed many bold and daring feats, but this act was
one of excessive temerity. Under pretext of perfidious conduct in a
Mexican Governor, Quauhpopoca, who some time previous had order
ed two Spanish soldiers to be killed, Cortez, accompanied by five or six
of his most intrepid followers, went to the imperial palace, and after
an interview, ordered the emperor to follow him to the quarters of the
Spaniards. Montezuma refused ; but was told he must do so. He
offered, as hostages, his children ; he was told he must come himself/
and the Spaniards placed their hands upon their swords. This seemed
like madness. The Imperial house was filled with guards — and the
city with soldiers.. Montezuma was powerful, as he had once said
he had only to lift his finger to call myriads of warriors to the massacre
of the Spaniards and Tlascalans. But Cortez, with the perception
of genius, understood the advantage he had over Montezuma, and
perceived his personal influence was greater than the power of the
emperor over his subjects. This very absolute power of the emperor,
-as soon as he should have him in his keeping, would be a means of
advancing his own views. Montezuma, fascinated by the daring
Conquistador, yielded, but his vanity was excessive, and he wished to
accompany him as if he went willingly. His court, guards and people '
-all obeyed his edicts blindly from old habit, and a feeling of duty, and
therefore when he expressed his intention to accompany the Span
iards, they did not resist, but accompanied him to that prison, which,
though irksome, he submitted to as if willingly ; but when he called
for his litter, saying that he purposed to fix himself in the Spanish
barrack, the nobles, chiefs of his guard, and household looked on
him with astonishment, and seemed to discredit what they saw and
heard. The crowd in the streets saw him pass, and looked on the
strange scene as an awful sacrilege ; but no one moved. Montezuma
said that he had determined to live with the Spaniards. He was re
ceived in the Spaniard's quarters with the greatest respect. His family
.and attendants accompanied him in his captivity.
As soon as Montezuma was in the power of Cortez, he was made
to feel that if Emperor of Tenochtitlan, he was a vassal of the King
of Spain. The unfortunate Quauhpopoca was tried, sentenced,
and burned alive. During the period of execution, the unfortunate

72 MEXICO.
Montezuma, as a guilty accomplice, was placed in irons. From that
day Montezuma felt himself degraded. After the punishment of
Quauhpopoca, Cortez attempted in vain to soothe him with all the
exterior marks of respect. Montezuma was deeply mortified, and
his influence over the people shaken to the foundation. The young
King of Tezcuco, Cacamatzin, who was indebted to him for his crown,
and was his nephew, expressed aloud his indignation, and undertook
the organization of resistance to Cortez. Montezuma ordered him
to appear before him, and was answered, that Cacamatzin intended
to appear in Tenochtitlan, but that it would be for the purpose of
re establishing a degraded religiou, and restoring to the empire its
dignity and renown. That he would come with his hand on his
breast, not as a suppliant, but on his sword, to exterminate the
Spaniards who had brought on Anahuac such desolation. Cacamat
zin persisted in his intention, but Montezuma, who was perfidious
towards those who confided in him, as he was cowardly towards
these who were powerful, ordered him to be seized at a conference
to which he had invited him, and delivered him up to Cortez. A
more yielding prince was placed on the throne of TEZcuco. Freed '
from all embarrassment on this account, el Conquistador, acting on
the principle that one concession is only a means of exacting another,
demanded from the unfortunate emperor a formal recognition of the
sovereignty of Charles V., and of his own power. In their first in
terview Montezuma had told him, if we can believe the Spanish
historians, that he was disposed to own himself a vassal of the King
of Spain.
All the chiefs of the empire were convoked in a species of parlia
ment. Montezuma recalled to them the tradition of Quetzalcoatl:
" You remember that this powerful god, when he left us, declared
that some day he would return to resume his authority. The time
is come. These white men come from a land beyond the seas, where
the sun rises, and reclaim for their monarch his authority over our
land. I am ready to abandon it to them. You have been my faithful
vassals during the many years I have occupied the throne ; you will
now give me a final proof of your obedience. You will acknowledge
as your master the great prince ofthe countries beyond the seas, and
obey in his absence the captain he has sent to you. You will pay to
him the tribute usually brought to me, and henceforward he will dis
pose of them as he pleases." At these words tears and sobs interrupted
his utterance, and his illustrious companions could not suppress their
emotions. Each answered that if such were his orders, he should be
<obeyed. Immediately after, the oath of fidelity was administered, and

MEXICO. 73
a record of the proceedings drawn up by a royal notary. Spaniards,'
with the titles of collectors of tributes, were sent to the distant pro
vinces. Cortez already began to make establishments in the country,
and detached fifty men under the command of Velasquez de Leon,
to establish a colony at the mouth of the Guazacoalco, the best port
in the Gulf of Mexico, and where he expected to find a natural pas
sage between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Thus within six months
all was accomplished, and the dream of Cortez became a reality.
We have proceeded too rapidly ; he was but on the verge of his
undertaking. The religious ardor of Cortez, long restrained, could not
longer be repressed, and difficulties opened before him, compared with
which his bloody contest with the Tlascalans were but child's play.
At the first interview with Montezuma, Cortez had spoken to him
of his conversion. He had explained to him the Christian ideas of
the creation of the world, and unfolded all the theological erudition
he was possessed of. He told Montezuma he was a worshiper of
Satan, and that eternal damnation would be the consequence of his
persisting in it. He conjured him to save his soul, and secure the
safety of his subjects, by adopting the holy faith of Christ, and hum
bling himself before the cross signed with the holy price ofthe blood of
God. Montezuma replied, that the god ofthe Spaniards was doubtless
a great god ; that his own idea of the creation of the world was not
very different from that of Cortez;- but that the gods of the Aztecs
also were powerful,and had established his empire. He said he would
continue faithful to them. A few days afterwards, visiting, in company
with the emperor, the great temple in which were collected the sanc
tuaries of all the gods, Cortez, at the sight of the human blood
which stained them, thus addressed the emperor. "How can so
glorious and powerful a prince adore these idols, which are but repre
sentations of Satan? Ah, would you but permit me to erect here the
cross, and images of the virgin and her son, you would then see what
would become of these abominable gods." "Those gods," said Mon
tezuma, "have always led the Aztecs to victory. They send us
the seed time and the harvest, and had. I known you would not treat
them with respect, I would not have admitted you into their presence."
This scene took place before the captivity of the emperor. Father
Olmedo, who was present, soothed the temper of Cortez, and soon
temporal cares occupied all the attention of the great captain. But
as soon as Montezuma submitted to acknowledge Charles V., the
religious zeal of Cortez became more impetuous. "If I have done
much for the Spanish crown," said he, " what have I done for the -
holy faith? Must it be said, that human sacrifices continue to.be*
n.(r„..,,/l nn in thic nU-ir nf Vii« Cathnlir. maiestv?"

74 MEXICO.
Followed by his principal officers, Cortez entered the private rooms
of the emperor, and asked that ihe great temple be surrendered to'
the Spaniards for the worship of the Almighty, and that the Mexican7
people be invited to participate in the benefits of the religion of
Christ. "But, Malintzin," replied the frightened emperor, "your
demands are so outrageous that the anger of the gods will be excited ;
and my people will, rebel before they will suffer their temples to be
profaned." And, in truth, religion is the last institution which
a people will suffer to be profaned, and as long as a nation believes
its religion to be true, it will sooner part with its nationality and inde
pendence than with it. After a conference with the priests, Monte
zuma declared that one of the sanctuaries of the great temple would
be relinquished to him. An altar was erected arid mass celebrated
with great pomp, by Fathers Olmedo and Diaz, while the next sanc
tuary, that of the god of war, echoed with the groans of the indig
nant Aztecs.
From this day everything in Mexico wore an altered aspect.
Until then Montezuma had been affable to the Spaniards. He was
delighted with the society of some of them, and amused himself
among them, always leaving them tokens of his munificence. He
now became moody, avoided them, and passed his time among the
most distinguished Aztecan warriors and priests. The people could
scarcely restrain their animosity, their pride being every day mortified.
The emperor sent for Cortez, and told him that the gods had informed
his priests of their wrath, and demanded, under penalty of the severest
punishments, that the Spaniards should be expelled. " You have no
chance of escape," said he, " but in retreat. Return to your homes,
and you may be safe." Cortez, with great sang-froid, replied, that
he was willing to leave the country, but that to do so, he must have
vessels. Under the direction of Martin Lopez, a fleet was begun at
Vera Cruz ; but Cortez took care that everything should be done with
as little haste as possible. In the mean time the whole capital as
sumed a melancholy and angry look. The Mexicans prepared for
attack, the Spaniards for defence ; at the first pretext swords would
be drawn.
All at once they learned that a fleet had appeared at Vera Cruz. It
was large, and manned with Spanish soldiers. Their number was
nine hundred, of whom eighty were cavalry, and as many arquebus
men, four times as numerous as the Castilians who were with Cortez
in the city. At this news the Spaniards were delighted, and cried aloud
• with joy. They were safe. Vain illusion ! this was the most danger
ous blow aimed at Cortez. This expedition came from Cuba, having
been organized by Velas""0' f" ""p"-'""-" <"<» nortootat «<¦ »u„ „*„».,„

MEXICO. 75
Cortez had erected for himself in the temple of fame. From la villa
rka de la Vera Cruz, Cortez had dispatched two of his officers to
Spain with the sumptuous presents he had received for the emperor
from Montezuma, and had cautioned them not to touch at Cuba.'
But one of them, owning property there, could not resist so strong a
temptation to visit it, and through him the whole island had learned
the el dorado so unexpectedly discovered by Cortez. The anger of
Velasquez was excessive. He exhausted all his resources, to fit out
an expedition Cortez would not dare to resist, and which would
suffice to conquer the mighty Mexican empire. This was the expe
dition about to disembark at Vera Cruz, commanded by Narvaez,
an officer of well-known courage.
Cortez soon decided. With seventy Mexicans he left Mexico,
placing Alvarado in command of the rest of his men, and advising
him to be prudent and cautious. On his way he ordered to join him
the hundred and fifty men he had detached to establish a colony on
the banks of the Guazacoalco, and marched directly to meet Nar
vaez, who kept by no means a rigid watch. He managed to com
municate with his soldiers, distributed warily gold among them,
promised brilliantly, and luckily took Narvaez prisoner in a night
attack, when he induced him to believe he had an overpowering
force. 'All the companions of Narvaez, astonished at the wonders
he had accomplished, and corrupted by his brilliant promises, placed
themselves beneath his standard, and Cortez returned to Mexico on
the 24th of June, 1520.
On his entry the city seemed almost deserted. Scarcely an Aztec
hailed his triumphant return ; on the whole lake beside the long
causeway, there was not one canoe seen. The reason was, that
Alvarado had added yet another grief to the religious indignities of
the Aztecs. By an act of the foulest perfidy he had murdered a
majority of the youthful nobles while celebrating the festival of the
god of war, probably to obtain possession of the valuable ornaments
they wore. The number of Alvarado's victims was six hundred.
As soon as Cortez entered his quarters he was besieged. "He had
taken precaution to build two brigantines as a means of escape over
the lake, but the enraged people had burned them. A furious siege
of the Spaniards began. A cloud of arrows continually fell on
the palace of Axayacatl, which was their fortress. They returned it
with artillery and musketry, which made terrible breeches in the
serried ranks of the Aztecs. But what of that ? The assailants were
innumerable, and died willingly if their lives purchased the death
of a child of the sun. Cortez made sorties in which he always had

76 MEXICO.- /
the advantage, but he did not continue the less closely blockaded.
The terraces ofthe houses were covered with soldiers; the bridges of
the canals which bisect the streets'were torn away. " You are ours,"
cried the Aztecs, "and the sacrificial stone is prepared; the knife of
the priest is sharpened. The beasts ofthe menagerie growl with
eagerness for your blood, which at last will flow to delight our god>
Huitzilopotchli. We have cages in which we shall fatten the
caitiff children of Anahuac (the Tlascalans) who are with you, that
they may be worthy of sacrifice." " Speaking thus," says Bernal
Diaz, ." they fought so bravely that many of us who had ,served in
France and Italy, against the giants of those countries, or in the
Levant against the Turks, declared they had seen no people fight
Ijke the Indians. The brother of Montezuma commanded the siege,
and distinguished himself by his intrepidity. Luckily Cortez was not
easily intimidated. He had a body of iron and a soul of bronze. He
hoped by means of this constant carnage, the Indians would be forced
to yield. He attempted to frighten them with warlike machines of
the most formidable kind. He tried negotiations, and made use of
Montezuma as a mediator. The unfortunate emperor appeared in
great pomp on the terrace of the Spanish quarter. At his appearance
the crowd, tfsed to obey, bowed itself. ' Are you come to rescue
me?' said he, with the calm tone of a man used to obey ; 'if so, I am
no prisoner. I remain here among the white men, who are my
guests. Are you come to compel them to leave ? If so, they are
about to do so voluntarily.' The terms of friendship used by Monte
zuma towards the Spaniards, excited anew the rage of the, populace;
as soon as he had called himself the friend of the hated strangers, he
became a traitor to his country and the gods. A volley of stones and
arrows was directed against him, and being wounded by one of
them, died in consequence a few days after."
This event satisfied Cortez that his enemies would not submit.
Besides, his provisions were exhausted, and only one course remained
for him to adopt ; to cut a passage through. But to extricate himself
he must pass through long streets, every house of which was a citadel
with terraces covered with projectiles and men. Beyond the streets
were long causeways across the lake, on the sides of which were boats
loaded with armed men. To render themselves surer of their prey
the Mexicans had destroyed the bridges, erected barricades, and
broken even the causeways. Yet Cortez, in a night march, reached
the terra firma beyond the causeway of Tlacopan, the shortest of
the three. But what a night was that ? In the stories of the Con-
quistadores, and Spanish histories, it is known as la noche triste.

MEXICO. 77
Cortez lost one-half of his army. All who had encumbered them
selves with booty perished or were made prisoners. All the artillery
was taken by the Aztecs, to whom, however, it was useless from the
lucky fact that it had been forbidden to teach them the secret of
manufacturing powder. The greatest bravery had been necessary
to accomplish even what they had achieved, to escape from the city.
The women, even, fought heroically. Two of the Spaniards distin
guished themselves— especially the general and Alvarado, whose
valor the Aztecs even applauded. They had preserved all who
were saved. Alvarado had reached a place in the causeway where
the bridge was broken. The horsemen locked together, threw them
selves into the breach, and carried over a great portion of the foot,
but he alone remained on the other side to beat back the pursuers.
It seemed that he could not escape, when, leaning on his long lance,
and bracing himself on it with all his strength, he leaped over the in
terval and landed among his countrymen. , Struck with amazement,
the Aztecs cried out that he was a veritable child of the sun. The
leap of Alvarado has been commemorated, and amid all his ex
ploits, has been selected to preserve his name. The second in com
mand of Cortez, the conqueror of the kingdom of Quiche, is desig
nated in chronicles as Alvarado or the Leap.
Once on the main land, Cortez was attacked by an army -which he
conquered, when, like Cesar at Munda, he thought that at Otumba he
was defeated, and that nothing was left except to die with glory.
'Then he proceeded to Tlascala to recruit and rest his army, and
prepared to return with new forces to Tenochtitlan. 1 shall not
speak of the course he adopted to render himself sure of the fidelity of
the Tlascalans ; of the expeditions he made to nations whose fidelity .
had been shaken by the event of the noche triste, of the alliances he
contracted and treaties he made, of the discontents and cabals which
arose among his Spanish followers. The series of events and prodi
gies seems almost miraculous. I shall not speak of the embassy sent
to Tlascala from Tenochtitlan, to concert a league of all the
nations of Anahuac to expel the cruel strangers, enemies of gods and
men, or of the debates in the Tlascalan senate relative to this matter.
Yet it is as noble as the best scenes handed down to us ofthe Roman
senate. Let us proceed with Cortez to Mexico, before which he
appeared at the head of a large auxiliary force, whose armament he
rendered perfect, and whom he subjected to severe discipline. A
flotilla of three* brigantines was to operate from the lake on the city.
The brother of Montezuma, who succeeded to the empire, died after
a reign of four months, of the small-pox, which had been introduced,

78 MEXICO.
into the country by the soldiers of Narvaez. In his place, Guati-
mozin, a nephew and son-in-law of Montezuma, was chosen, a young
man of twenty-five years of age; of established courage, of remark
able intelligence and great beauty, who, like Hannibal against the
Romans, had vowed an irreconcilable hatred to the Spaniards. Cortez,
who fully appreciated his difficulties, and neglected nothing to insure
his success, established a code of regulations, obedience to which he
positively enjoined. This body of regulations has been preserved. The
great object of his expedition, which he was careful to inculcate on
his soldiers, was the conversion of the Pagans ; this was the secret
of their strength and success. " On any other terms," says he, " our
war is unjust, and all the benefit we can acquire from it will be
wealth won with crime." Blasphemy, gambling, etc., were forbidden
under severe penalties. One might have called it a crusade and com
pany of adventurous knights, and Cortez supposed it such, and him
self a Godfrey of Bouillon. On tne other hand the priests, who
exerted a great influence over Guatimozin, preached to the Aztecs
that no compromise with the Spaniards was possible ; that they must
either conquer or die. As in the Girusalemme liberata, Heaven is
unfolded both as a Pagan Olympus and a pit of fallen angels. As in
the Iliad, men think the inhabitants of realmsabove participate in
their quarrels. This, at least, happened to the Spaniards, who be
lieved that the Virgin Mary appeared in the air, and that their patron
Santiago charged in their ranks on his spotless charger of white, to
gether with St. Peter, the patron of Cortez.
On each side there was a countless host, for Cortez had one hun
dred and fifty thousand auxiliaries; on each side there were great valor
and ardor. The Aztecs defended themselves as a people, fighting /?ro
arisetfocis, fights always. The Spaniards, like those who fought under
the commands of gods, or like ambitious men who fight for honor.
and fame. The Indian auxiliaries strove to gratify old enmities and '
be revenged for long oppression. They wished to annihilate the crue
masters who so long tyrannized over them. More than once the vic
tory was doubtful, in spite ofthe ferocious valor ofthe Tlascalans,.
and the deep determination ofthe Prince of Tezcuco, Ixtlixochitl.
The intrepidity of the handful of Spaniards, and personal bravery of
Cortez, everywhere won success, but at a dear price. They fought on
the lake as well as on the water, at a distance, and hand to hand, by
day and by night, on the platforms of the pyramids, the terraces of
the houses, and the thick ooze of the lake. Stratagem and audacity
were made use of, and often the cunning of Guatimozin endangered
the conquistadores. In la nOche triste, Cortez had undergone great

MEXICO. 79
peril. In the attack of Xochimilco {the field of flowers), one of the
cities of the valley, he was for a few minutes a prisoner. All had
been over with him, but for the disposition of the Aztecs to reserve
him as an ultra-solemn sacrifice ; a Tlascalan and two of his own
attendants rescued him. On the next day, he sought for the Tlas
calan to reward him ; but vainly: he could not be found, and it was
believed by the army, that Saint Peter under this disguise had rescued
the general. During the siege of Mexico, Cortez, at the very eager
solicitation of his companions, determined on a certain day to make a
general assault. " We are left," said the soldiers, "exposed to all the
inclemencies of the season, a prey to famine, while the city of pagans
could so easily be carried by a coup de main. Did we not long
since, by main force, penetrate into the very heart of the city, to the
palace of the emperor, and the temple where Satan is adored under the
name of the infamous idol Huitzilopotchli? Did we not set fire to
their infamous sanctuary, and throw to the base of the pyramid the
guilty priests who presided over it ? . Lead us to the assault." " Be
it so," said Cortez, alarmed by the general murmurs. Two columns
of attack were formed, the one commanded by Alvarado, the other
by Cortez ; after mass they were moved forward. Cortez subdivided
his column into three bodies, and advised the chiefs to be circumspect.
The Aztecs retreated, but fought valiantly ; the Spaniards, conducted-
by the treasurer Alderete, (all the men of that expedition were heroes,)
by Andres de Tapia, and the brother of Alvarado, pressed them
warmly. They had reached the centre of the city, and victory seemed
within their grasp. Suddenly, from the top of a teocalli, the horn of
Guatimozin was heard. At once the flying Indians turned, others con
cealed within the houses showed themselves on the terraces; the
cross streets were filled with warriors ; men rushed from the willows
on the banks of the lake, and attacked the Spaniards and their allies
with fury. Disorder seized every rank, and the artillery became
useless ; all was a frightful melie. Many Spaniards were killed or
taken. Cortez himself wounded, was seized by six athletic men,
who, seeing him alone, cried out, " Seize Malintzin ! seize him,"
and rushed on him. He was again rescued from them, but the
horn of Guatimozin, which seemed powerful as that of Jtstolfo,?
again sounded, and the impetuosity of the Aztecs returned. They
threw at the feet of Cortez the heads of many Spaniards, crying:
« There is Tonatiuh! (this was the name given to Alvarado ;) there
is Sandoval ! (the bosom friend of Cortez.) Against the column of
Alvarado they threw other heads, saying, there was Malintzin.
Fortunately, neither the general nor Alvarado, nor Sandoval had
«._n.„ . u„* »i,„ c^ni,rH? wsre routed, and reached their entrench-

80 MEXICO.
ments with great difficulty, and at night, could not, without terror,
behold the awful ceremony enacted on the great Teocalli. Their
companions, who were prisoners, were immolated before the statues
of the gods, and the bloody corpses thrown amid a mob which strove
eagerly to devour them.
This victory of Guatimozin excited the greatest enthusiasm among
the Aztecs, and the nations which had remained faithful to them.
The priests proclaimed that the gods, satisfied by the sacrifice of the
Spanish prisoners, had promised to free the country from the in
truders, and that within eight days this would be accomplished.
At this intelligence, the allies of the Spaniards became terrified.
They deserted in large numbers, not to the Aztecs, whose indigna
tion they feared, but to return home. But Cortez watched his camp
rigidly. The sorties of the besieged were repulsed, and the Spaniards
had lost nothing.jexcept the services of a few marauders. The allies,
seeing that the oracle had erred, returned to the Spanish camp. The
ardor of the besieged grew cold, and they found themselves face to
face, with scourges by which they had long been threatened — famine
and diseases engendered by .misery, and a too dense population.
From exaltation they passed to despair ; they saw their old vassals
demolish the parts of the city of which Cortez had possessed himself,
and level to the ground its edifices.
Cortez, who understood their situation, sent to Guatimozin three
chiefs he had made captives, and besought him to submit, promising
to leave him in possession ofthe crown; and that the Aztecs should re
tain their possessions and dignities under the sovereignty of the King
of Spain." The young prince" received the envoys with distinction,
and heard respectfully their commission. Probably because he was
not fully authorized himself to act, he referred them to a council com
posed of the principal military chiefs, and most distinguished of his
subjects. Some advised that the proposition of Cortez should be ac
cepted, but the priests who understood that, under the government of
the Christians, their influence was lost, interposed. " Peace," they said
to the emperor, " is a great blessing except with the whites, violators
of every promise, of limitless avarice, and ever offending the gods.
Let us confide in the gods who have ever been protectors of our
nation. Is it not better to die, than live the slaves of those false and
wicked men ?" The courage of Guatimozin was restored, if it had
ever wavered, by their eloquence, and he said, " Well, we will
die on the field of battle ; woe to him who shall speak of surrender.''
As an answer to the message of Cortez, after the expiration of two
days, Guatimozin ordered a general sortie, which/was unsuccessful.
The Aztecs were beaten back, and shut up in a few Quarters of

MEXICO. 81
the city. Famine became more oppressive to them ; they supported
themselves on lizards and rats ; they searched for reptiles and insects,
and gnawed the barks of the trees, and during the night searched for
roots. In the meantime, Cortez, who had no other means of sub
duing them, continued the work of destruction, though with great
unwillingness. Pyramids/ and palaces were torn down, as well as
the huts inhabited by the populace. The work of ruin was carried
on by the allies, to whom the Aztecs cried out, "Wretches, the
more you tear down, the 'more you will be forced to rebuild; for
should we conquer, our capital must be restored to its prior magnifi
cence. If the white men succeed, they will demand not less than
we." In spite of the presence of innumerable difficulties, the brave
Aztecs kept up their courage. They replied with hauteur and dis
dain when told they had no provisions. One of the chiefs attached
to Cortez, remonstrated with them relative to their awful condition,
at one of the conferences, which were so frequent between the as
saults and sorties. They threw tortillas in his face, saying they
yet had enough for themselves and their soldiers.
But famine and disease decimated them. Cortez saw them pale and
thin wandering about the terraces and barricades, as street after street
was wrested from them ; they were found full of bodies evidently
victims of famine. Careful as they were to pay punctually every
funeral honor in happier days, now all were neglected. In the
houses famished women and children were found, scarcely able to
drag along their bodies ; for all able to move, of course took refuge in
the yet unconquered quarters of the city. In this sad state they y^t
reproached the Spaniards that they did not terminate the contest*
" Ye are not children of the sun, for he is rapid in his course, while
ye are slow and languid. Be quick, that we may rejoin our God
Huitzilopotchli, who will reward us for all we have suffered on
his account." At other times they insulted ; they said they would
look in vain for treasures; that all their gold was concealed where it
could never be found. Cortez, having sent a prisoner of high rank
to Guatimozin, to induce him to surrender, the unfortunate envoy
was sacrificed. t
But at length the Aztecs were shut up within a single quarter, the
smallest of all, and only about an eighth of the area of the whole
city, without a sufficient number of buildings to shelter them. Many
remained both by day and night in the open air in boats, and among
the rushes of the lake. Every day Cortez had fresh proof of the
misery of their situation. For some time they had subsisted on the
prisoners made in their sorties. This resource even they were de-

82 MEXICO.
prived of. Men were taken at night seeking for offal which at other
times they would have disdained, or attempting with their nails to
dig up a handful of roots. Mothers were said to have murdered and
devoured their own Children. An epidemic caused by the miasma
with which the atmosphere was filled, decimated those who had
escaped from famine. Cortez pitied them ; he gave orders to cease all
acts of aggression. How could he make himself obeyed by the fero
cious Tlascalans, the former vassals of the Aztecan empire, who
strove to revenge themselves for the great oppression they had suf
fered? He strove again to induce Guatimozin to submit. At the
instance of his chiefs, the young monarch at last consented to an
interview. They were to have met in the vast market-place, where
Cortez, under a rich canopy, had prepared a magnificent banquet, and
wished to invite his enemy to satisfy his hunger. At the appointed
hour Guatimozin did not come, but sent a message by the chiefs who
had been sent to him by Cortez,*excusing himself. The cause of this
may have been that he feared el Conquistador wished to get him into
his power, and that the fate of Montezuma, who had been a passive
instrument to effect his own overthrow, appeared the greatest of all
misfortunes ; or it may be he was prevented by the influence of the
¦priests. The Conquistador made all the Aztecs who had met him,
satisfy their hunger, and, with provisions, sent another invitation for
Guatimozin to meet him. The proud Guatimozin sent back other
"presents in return; the same persons returned to the Spanish camp
bearing cotton cloths, but without the emperor. Cortez again pressed
an interview with such success that a promise of Guatimozin to
visit him at noon, was made. He was again disappointed, and saw
with regret, that the besieged prepared silently to defend their last
stronghold. On the next day there was a massacre, rather than a
fight. The allies of Cortez slaughtered forty thousand Aztecs, with
out sparing age or sex. Their fury excited the indignation of
Cortez, who, writing to his master, said : " The cries of the children
and women who were murdered remorselessly, were so frightful, that
the hearts of each of us was moved. . . . Never have I seen such
cruelty," (he spoke of the allies.) Yet on the next day Guatimozin
refused to treat with the Spanish leader. ^
This took place on the 13th of August, 1521. This was the last
day of an empire, which but three years before was so flourishing.
Before giving the orders for a final attack, Cortez invited the emperor
to appear. The messenger returned with the cihuacoatl, a magis
trate of the first rank, who declared with an air of consternation
that Guatimozin knew how to die, but would not treat. Then turn-

MEXICO. 83
ing to Cortez, he said, "Do what you choose." "Be it so," said Cortez ;
" return to your friends and say they must die." The troops advanced.
There were a final melee and carnage on the lake, and in the city.
The exhausted Mexicans, in their despair and devotion, looked for
strength for a final contest. Guatimozin, driven to the banks of the
lake, with a few warriors entered a boat, and sought to escape, but
a brigantine of the Spanish flotilla pursued him, by which hfe was
captured and taken to Cortez, who received him with all the respect
due to a king. Advancing with dignity on the terrace prepared for
the sad interview of a captive king with his conqueror, he said, " I have
done everything in my power, Malintzin, to preserve my crown and
people. You see how I have fallen, and you can do with me as you
please." Then pointing to the poignard at the conquistador's girdle,
he said, "Draw it and finish with me." "No," said Cortez, "you shall
be treated with profound respect. You have defended your capital like
a gallant prince, and Spaniards know how to honor the valor even of
an enemy." He then ascertained where was the empress, a daughter
of Montezuma, and sent an escort for her. He ordered a meal to be
prepared for the august consorts. The Aztecan empire had ceased to
exist, and the Spanish rule was established in Mexico. The cross
was raised over this beautiful country, in which it was allowed to
have no rival.

When we look at the conquest of Mexico under political and
religious aspects, it presents features of great interest, but in other.
.points of view also it is interesting. We seem in its history to read
an epic poem or chivalric romance. So vast and stupendous are
its incidents and events, the men appear gigantic, aud the miraculous
enters into its composition. To form an idea of the grandeur of the
r events, we have only to retrace what was achieved. An adventurer,
who left Cuba with 553 soldiers, 110 sailors, 16 horses, 1 3 arquebuses,
32 arbalets, 10 cannon, and 4 falconets, dares to attack an empire
evidently populous and brave, whose sovereign was feared by every
one, and had among his vassals 130 tributaries, each of whom could
bring into the field 100,000 -armed men. Cortez not only compelled
it to recognize as its sovereign, his master Charles V., but to
abandon its religion, the greatest- sacrifice a people can be called on
to make. He willed it, dared to attempt it, and succeeded within
the space of thirty months.
Compared with such a subject, the theme of the Iliad seems small
and uninteresting. What indeed is the subject of the great poem of
Homer but the restoration of a good understanding between Achilles

84 MEXICO.
and Agamemnon, without any crisis, for it results in nothing, in
which the leader of the defenders of Troy is* conquered by the
^bravest of the Greeks. The iEneid is not constructed on the largest
scale. Two chiefs of tribes, ^Eneas and Turnus, with nearly an
equal number of followers, contend for the hand of the daughter of
the King of Latium. In each of these two chefs d'ceuvres, the poet
has drawn upon his own resources for the miraculous, and the rich
embroidery of adventure. In either case it was necessary to strew
over the true history, geographical and historical ideas, far in advance
of those of the author's age. On this account the Iliad and iEneid
are, as it were, encyclopedias of two epochs important in the annals
of the human race, written in the most admirable form by men of
rare genius and information. They present an animated picture of
thoughts and faith, knowledge and habits of life, of manners and
arts of the two great people from whom our civilization is sprung,
and with whom we feel ourselves united as if by the umbilical cord.
Consequently they take hold of our feelings, and remain immortal
monuments, which will remain in all vividness so long as the civili
zation of the West of Europe shall last. And this civilization is not
likely to terminate, uniting as it does Rome and the Empire of Japan.
The Girusalemme liberata records the* shock of two masses of great
but almost equal power. The. truth there triumphs, because it is the
truth ; a just conclusion, doubtless, but one which the reader foresees,
' and which destroys in him all enthusiasm. It was in vain that care
was taken to. mingle with it much of the marvelous ; the poem was
not wonderful. Nothing can in point of intrinsic value of result be
compared with the conquest of Mexico, except that of Asia by Alex
ander, or the foundation of the Portuguese power in India. In each
of these two instances there was a marked disproportion between
the respective powers. The smaller triumphed over the greater/
The force of genius was revealed in all its splendor ; by a sublime
effort, man passed beyond the sphere to which he is ordinarily
limited, and accomplished miracles.
If the conquest of Mexico, considered as a whole, is surprising,
its details are no less so; we know not what to admire in this brilliant
succession of incidents, for everywhere astonishment springs forth
from its details as light does from a diamond, as dazzling lustre ema
nates from purple and gold. Shall we decree the highest praise to the
prompt decision which induced the. conqueror to burn .the fleet, that
he might insure conquest or failure to himself, or to the daring which
prompted him to arrest the emperor in his palace ? Shall we decree
the palm to the campaign against Narvaez or to the battle of Otumba,

MEXICO. 85
where Cortez, with his numbers reduced to a mere handful, nearly
routed and without artillery conquered the Mexican forces, maddened
with the success of la noche triste, and in the hour of his victory
killed the Mexican general. Where, in history or romance, is
there such an event recorded as his combat on the platform of the
great teocalli, where the two parties precipitate each other from
declivities 120 feet high ? But' look yet more closely into the detail;
everywhere you will find deeds which recall to you the days of chi
valry. Look at the leap of Alvarado, and the daring of those young
Mexicans, who take each other by the hand, and rush down the grand
pyramid with the hope of bearing Cortez with them, willing to die if
they can thus destroy the enemy of their gods and country. And
look at the daring of the five soldiers who go to gather sulphur in
the crater of Popocatepetl, when, for want of that mineral, the
army is without ammunition for their artillery. They are not sure, but
suspect the volcano produces sulphur. Five men volunteer to ascend
it. No one attempted it from that time till 1827. After labor of
many days, they reach the summit in spite of the lava and ashes, of
the blinding glare of the snow, and the excess of cold. They lookinto
an abyss of 1000 feet, in the depth of which they see a blue flame,
with which are minglfed poisonous vapors. They cast lots to decide
who shall venture to descend. The chief of the small band, Montano,
is the one the fates select. They place him in a basket fastened to a
cord, and lower him. After a descent of 400 feet he carefully collects
the sulphur, and returns as if he had done nothing more extraordi
nary than strolling through the gardens of Sevilla or Cordovai
In this drama a variety of strongly defined- characters appear. I
do not say that they are equaUy so with those of the iEneid, for this
expression would be too feeble, but with those of the Iliad itself. He,
whom the Aztecs called Tonatiuh, (the sun,) on account of his lofty ¦*
stature and his long golden hair, Alvarado del Salto, with the colosr
sal figure of the lofty Ajax, the valor of the son of Tydeus, the daring
ofthe other Ajax, pauses at nothing, not even at sacrilege. By the side
of this terrible figure we love to look at the young and heroic San
doval, whom Cortez calls his son, and who is to him afidus Achates •
or Patroclus. But he far surpasses the friend of iEneas or the son of
Mencetius. He commands admiration by his energy and courage.'
He is interesting on account of admiration he inspires in and receives
from Cortez. After an assault, in which the Spaniards had been re
pulsed by Guatimozin, he left his tent to visit the head-quarters of
Cortez, whom the Aztecs boasted to have slain; he passed on his
IiorsR worn hv the. toils of a hard-foueht battle, a field thronging

86 MEXICO.
with his enemies, through which every reader follows him with such
an interest as Tancrede and Rinaldo rarely excite. Christoval.de
Olid, who afterwards proves a traitor to his leader, Velasquez de
Leon, Avila, Quinones, Tapia and Escalante, may surely be compared
with Idomeneus, Philoctetes, Merion, Menelaus, Antilochus and Me-
nestheus. The cowardly Thersites, the scandal-monger of the Iliad,
finds his equal among the conspirators who surround the general and
attempt his> life, or among the followers of Narvaez, who, loaded
with booty, attempt their escape, and try to effect a safe return to
Cuba. The Father 01 meda, a clergyman of enlightened faith and
true charity, who restrains the eager propagandism of the Spaniards,
is more human and interesting than the inanimate Calchas. Who
would exchange the watchful pilot Alaminos for the sleeping Pali-
nurus ? The leader of all, Cortez, to the inflexible majesty of the
great Agamemnon, and the high qualities of command which dis
tinguish the king of kings, adds the impetuosity of Achilles and the
skill of Ulysses, ever fruitful in expedients and artifice.
Among the Indian auxiliaries we distinguish the Prince of Tez
cuco, Ixtlixochitl, brave and faithful to the side he has selected,
who, often called a traitor by the Aztecs, ever refutes the charge by *
deeds of almost incredible daring ; and Xicotencatl, of Tlascala, a
hero yet more complete, who is constantly molested and mortified by
the reproaches of the Aztecs, and a suspicion that the Spaniards are
come to enslave all the red men. These, too, strangely contrast. How
different, too, are their fates ? The one becomes cacique of Tezcuco';
the other dies on the scaffold as a deserter, because, during a siege, he
left their ranks in disgust, and took refuge in the mountains — a ter
rible example Cortez thought necessary to hold up to the new vassals
of his master, that they might fully comprehend their new duties, and
r*the dangers of disobedience. Another chief of the Tlascalans, the
aged Magiscazin, by his prudence and fidelity, and by the energy
with which, w'hen the envoys of the Aztecs had almost persuaded
the Tlascalan senate to abandon Cortez, then a refugee and exile^
he persuaded it to be true, resembles Nestor, faithful to the gods
when he saw the Greeks retreat before Hector. He argued with
Cortez as the King of Pylas would have done, of the truth of the re
ligion of his fathers.
The characters of the Mexicans are not less strongly defined.
Hector does not make Guatimozin seem diminutive, and we would
trust ourselves rather in a city defended by him than to the aegis of thp
son of Priam. At the age of twenty-five, this prince, the last emperor
of the Aztecs, bursts forth in heroic sr-ueatness and splendor at the

MEXICO. 87
moment when an opposition to oppression is to be organized : of unim
peachable bravery, he shows himself familiar with all the stratagems
of war. In disaster his resignation appears sublime. On the brazier
on which Cortez, to satisfy the avidity of his companions, had placed
him to make him reveal where he had concealed his treasures, which
he had not done, because he had no more to conceal, he continues a
monarch. He dies like a king, when el Conquistador, led astray
by false news, during a long and painful campaign in the Isthmus of
Honduras, destroys him.' ;The brother of Montezuma, Cuitlahua,
brave and intelligent captain and warrior, and devoted patriot, is
more interesting than Agenor or iEneas. Among the other Trojan
chiefs, none is more interesting than the cacique of Tezcuco, Caca^
matzin, when he receives with indignation the order sent him by
Montezuma to obey the Spaniards. And among the Aztecs there
was no Paris to retreat unworthily, for every one died in his harness.
Montezuma himself, the unfortunate Montezuma, is not cast in a
common type. Liberal and generous even to prodigality, elegant
almost to the verge of effeminacy, royally affable, his mind too is
highly cultivated. In his youth he had been brave, and belonged to
the order of Quachictin, who were the bravest of the brave. By
degrees, however, he fell under the influence of an imbecile bigotry.
He believed that the astrological signs and ancient prophecies of his
nation demanded him to submit to the Spaniards. With an'incon-
ceivable contradiction, which reveals much weakness of mind, super
stition effaced in his heart the feeling of patriotism, and made him
basely yield to those whose avowed object was the destruction of his
religion. Vainly the love of country, the sentiment of ambition, and
the passion of power, so fascinating to any one who has once enjoyed
it, united to arouse him ; he could find in his mind nothing but the
debased cunning of a Greek of the lower empire. Mr. Prescott has'
somewhere compared him to Louis XlV., and, in doing so has greatly
wronged the French monarch. If Louis XIV,, like Mbntezuma, Was
so luxurious as to neglect his subjects, he had the excuse of great
age ; he suffered himself to be influenced by false ideas so as to re
voke the edict of Nantes, an event in the history of France to be ever
regretted and lamented. It is true that the predominating trait of
his mind continued always to be love of country. He ever felt him
self the representative of nationality, and as such, under the necessity
of never bending his head ; and on the eve of the day of Denain,
when the fortunes of France were at stake, his words to the auda
cious Villars were sublime. While alive, no mortal could have ironed
i,:™ Wonroirnr cmr,A in nth«r maiiRftta fh«u may be, characters with-

88 MEXICO.
out decision play a contemptible part in history. Of these was Mon
tezuma. Louis XIV., on the contrary, was always distinguished for
his resolution. Thus it was that he established a great monarchy,
and founded a political system, whije Montezuma suffered his empire
to crumble away beneath him.
The women are not wanting in the epopea of the conquest. There,
it is true, there is neither a noble and touching Andromache, nor a gen
tle and tender Iphigema, nor. a hielancholyv Hecuba, nor inconsolable
Dido. Yet the character of the young and beautiful girl of Guaza-
coalco, daughter of a cacique, but sold by an inhuman mother to a
slave-merchant, is exceedingly noble. When become the property of
Cortez, to whom she had been presented by a cacique of Yucatan,
she became the interpreter^the faithful adviser, and, to speak plainly,
mistress of the conqueror. Dona Marina, always the companion of
Cortez, was not solely engaged in interpreting his orders to the Mexi
cans. By means of that power of intuition which a woman who
loves possesses in a much higher degree than any man, she frequently
gave him salutary warnings. By means of her, Cortez ascertained.
who were the spies sent by Xicotencatl to lull his' vigilance, and
her advice afterwards sent 'them back to their master with their
hands amputated. By her means, also", in the sacerdotal and
commercial city of Cholula, he discovered a conspiracy to extermi
nate at once the little band of Castilians. Marina had great influence
on the natives; beautiful, says Comergo, the historian of Tlascala,
as a divinity, she seemed to the Mexicans something of a superior
order to themselves. Her relation to Cortez, which no one was
ignorant of, induced them to speak of her always- next lo him. Her
real name was Malinche; Cortez was known only as Malintzin. The
interview and reconciliation of Marina and her mother, who, by
some strange casualty, chanced to be in the line of march of Cortez
to Honduras, are an interesting page of history.
Should we wish to compare the material of the Iliad with that of
the conquest, superiority will be found entirely on the side ofthe lat
ter event. The mWee of la noche triste has much more true gran
deur *than the assault of the defences ofthe Greeks. What is this
defence compared with that in which the Tlascalans fortified them
selves against the Aztecs, or the entrenchments of Cortez during the
siege ? What is the attack of Hector on tbe vessels compared to the
assaults. of the quarters of Cortez, before his retreat, by the Aztecs?
What comparison is there between the building of the wooden
horse, and the construction of the thirteen vessels in the forests of
Tlascala, by the naval architect, Martin Lob*"7 spH rhp.ir transnni-ta-

MEXICO. 89
tion in pieces on the backs of men for twenty leagues to the banks
of the lake, in which was the capital of Tenochtitlan ?
The historian and poet are not called upon to imagine the mar
velous, the intervention of Heaven in the conquest of Mexico. The
actors of the conquest have rendered that trouble unnecessary. I have
already said that among the cOmpanions.nf Cortez were men whose
youth had been passed in war against the French in Italy, in naval
contests with the Turks, ,who; believed* they saw the Apostle St.
James fighting in their behalf on his white steed, and the Virgin
Mary encouraging him. They saw this, says Bernal Diaz. Cortez
himself was persuaded that his patron St. Peter assumed the arms
and appearance of a Tlascalan to save his life. To the Spaniards
the Mexican divinities seemed personations- of Satan, who unfolded
against them sorceries, and to which Heaven replied, of course, by
miracles. At the early part of the conquest, the cavaliers were sup
posed to be a separate class of physical beings ; the man and horse
were supposed components parts of one body. The fable of the
Centaurs was renewed. The men seemed themselves divine, and we
are told they were called the white gods. Certainly, the vague
rumors from Yucatan of the arrival of those singular beings, and fair-
haired and bearded men, were l^elieved4iterally throughout the
empire. The imagination drew evil auguries from their arrival.
On his death-bed, Nezahualpilli, "King of Tezcuco, learned in
astrology, announced to Montezuma that the end of the empire was
come. The gods to him appeared to pe enraged. A blazing comet
appeared. The waters of the lake swelled and overflowed the city
without any preceding tempest or earthquake. A conflagration de
vastated the capital ; loud and, wailing voices were heard^in the air,
and the Princess PAPANTziN,sister of the emperpr, who had been
four days dead, left her tomb, to announce to him coming calamity.,
What can be more strange and more likely to influence them than
the tradition that the God Quetzalcoatl, he ofthe pale face and long
beard, was about to return from the east' to reclaim^ his empire, or
else send his descendants in his' stead? Does not this popular idea
seemingly point expressly to the expedition of Cortez ? ,„ ; '
Among the motives which authorize poets to mingle inVith earthly
affairs, divine acts, and so to say, to give corporeality to their fictions,
so as to induce the mass of men to believe them literally, we -may
especially mark two. One is the facility of accounting for otherwise
inexplicable acts ; the other, the concurrence of many accidents,
among the number of which it is not forbidden to indlude genius,
rini^h nflfor snlntinns oDnosed to all. probability, and which', in*com-
A *¦ & *'

twhinr

90 MEXICO.
mon parlance, we call the insolence of prosperity. This is what the
skeptic attributes to chance ; but the mass of men and religieux (woe
to the poet who is not religious!) to Providence. When religious,;
facts present to us one or the other of these varieties of character, we
have only to pass them through the mirror of fancy to see all that is
wonderful in them. N6w, from the very embarkation of Cortez to
the taking of Mexico, all things are. of this character. At every step
we meet with an apparently insurmountable obstacle, which, how
ever, was overcome by an almost incredible union of intelligence,
daring and decision, or fortuitous chances contradicting every proba
bility. The Spaniards at this era, but, let us do no injustice to the
country of Vasco de Gama and Albuquerca, and say the inhabitants
of the whole peninsula^ were then the great nation in Europe, and
Heaven itself seemed to assist' them.
But I return to what I said iu the -beginning of this essay. The
distinguishing character of the. conquest was derived from its religious
propagandism. In our days the love of glory and devotion to liberty
excite men to great actions. The ruling passion of: the Spaniards of
that era was the advancement of the holy faith. 'They were, as it
were, possessed of this, idea. A motive powerful as this was required
to produce, even in such a nature as Cortez, the achievements he
performed. Those who say such heroism was inspired by avarice,
are "either ignorant of, or calumniate human nature. I have' attempt
ed to restore to the conquest its true character, and to attribute to
Cortez and his 'companions their true motives. My object has been
not merely to define the truth' .of an isolated historical event, but to
recall to an age. little prone to faith, what true religious zeal is capable '
of.'. It alone gives us the key to Mexican history down to the present
time, and'of the present condition of thi,s vast empire. In it alone
\ rests the secret of its rapid decay, and equally rapid possible regene
ration! Cortez was one of thosegiants who gave such violent impulse
to nations they interfere with, that centuries must pass before they
can recover from the blow. His personal character is imprinted on
the features of Mexico, even on institutions which arose after he had
passed from the stage. This beautiful.country is exclusively Catholic,
and its inhabitants", thoroughly imbued with the spirit of Catholicism,
have no prospects in advance separate from their faith Persons who
have sojourned among them *and studied*their nature, are doubtful
whether they will rettocede into: barbarity, or will undergo a new
conquest by a Protesfant race which promises to itself the empire
of the world, and which is pow inflamed by the possession of Texas:
or whether they will remain free, and progress in the Dathwav of

MEXICO. 91
.civilization. We may believe from the rank occupied by Mexico
in the New World, that, all the republics which were Spanish colo
nies will follow its destiny, whatever it may be. The question here,
which a few years will suffice to solve for Mexico, and the resolution
of which is of great import to the whole of the new continent, is
more closely connected than is generally conceived with the vaster
one ; viz., whether the genius of Catholicism, when in close con.tact
with that of Protestantism, "can preserve its position, or whether in
our times Catholicism can restore a healthy tone to a people struck
with the languor of decay. Let us remember that France has a
vaster interest than is generally conceived in this question, for it has
ever been 'and still is the corypheus of Catholic nations; and from
this fact derives its chiefest claim to greatness.

THE END.-

YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

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