would cherish; for gold he bartered gratitude, patriotism, honour, and humanity. Superstition lent its sanction to his proceedings, and seconded deeds of barbarism and cruelty in the name of religion. The splendid fabrics of native skill perished with their builders. The miserable Indian expired amid the flames of his dwelling, or more slowly bowed down by an iron slavery; blood-hounds tracked him in his flight, and rent his unclothed limbs with their fangs. Every device that avarice and cruelty could suggest was put in force; regardless even of the dictates of wiser, though equally selfish prudence. "O'erwhelmed at length with ignominious toil, The whole race sunk beneath the oppressor's rod, An old historian, after describing with much minute ness the palaces of Montezuma, and the vast gardens and pleasure grounds which were attached to them, adds: "Of all these palaces, gardens, and woods, there is now remaining the wood of Chapoltepec only, which the Spanish Viceroys have preserved for their pleasure. All the others were destroyed by the conquerors. They laid in ruins the most magnificent buildings of antiquity, sometimes from an indiscreet zeal for religion, sometimes in revenge, or to make use of their materials. They neglected the cultivation of the royal gardens, cut down the woods, and reduced the country to such a state, that the magnificence of its former kings could not now find belief, were it not confirmed by the testimony of those who were the causes of its annihilation." The Spanish colonists looked, indeed, solely to present aggrandizement. They were alike indifferent to the rights of the unhappy natives, and to the future interests of their own country; so that they could only succeed in obtaining gold with sufficient speed, and thus be able to return home enriched with the spoils of the country to which the genius of Columbus had opened a way. By this means the arts of the natives, wherein they displayed remarkable skill, were entirely lost. The people were undoubtedly enslaved by a most bloody superstition. But the eradication of that necessarily followed on the occupation of their country by the, so called, Christians of Spain. Had these colonists been actuated by a wise moderation they might have found in the well-directed arts of the natives, the wealth which they in vain sought in their spoils; while they would have escaped both the execration, and the retributive punishment, which now alone remain to their descendants, as the sole inheritance of Spain, from that New World which Columbus discovered for them. The same biographer of the great Admiral from whom we have already quoted, exclaims in reference to this subject:"Has not the righteous judgment of Heaven followed with swift vengeance on these accursed deeds? Spain in the fifteenth century stood foremost among the nations of Europe for learning and chivalry; the noblest monuments in arts and literature yet survive to attest her greatness; yet her gold has been the prey of every nation; her colonies have been wrested from her, or have disowned her yoke. Low and degraded, and a by word among the nations, she owns not a foot of soil on the continents discovered and peopled by her sons." The natives of Mexico appear to have been in that stage of progressive civilization, at the time of their discovery, when their acquirements were perhaps most susceptible of being turned to useful account by a superior race. Subject as they were to an absolute monarchy, and a cruel spiritual despotism, the mild but firm rule of a superior race, guided by wise and humane foresight, might have made of them willing tools of the most comprehensive projects of national aggrandizement, in which Spain would have reaped the wealth she vainly sought, and have inherited the blessings instead of the curses of those whom she spoiled without enriching herself. In the old description of the palaces of Montezuma it is remarked:-"In one of the royal buildings was an armoury filled with all kinds of offensive and defensive arms which were made use of by those nations, with military ornaments and ensigns. He kept a surprising number of artificers at work, in manufacturing these and other things. He had numerous artists constantly busied likewise, namely, goldsmiths, mosaic workers, sculptors, painters, and others. "The number of the images by which their gods were represented and worshipped, in the temples, the houses, the streets, and the woods, was infinite. Zumarraga affirms that the Franciscans had, in the course of eight years, broken more than twenty thousand idols; but that number is trifling compared to those of the capital only. They were generally made of clay and certain kinds of stone and wood; but sometimes, also, of gold and other metals; and there were some of gems. In a high mountain of Achiauhtla, in Mizteca, Benedict Fernandez, a celebrated Dominican missionary, found a little idol called by the Miztecas The Heart of the People. It was a very precious emerald, four inches long and two inches broad, upon which was engraved the figure of a bird, and round it that of a little snake. The Spaniards offered fifteen hundred sequins for it; but the zealous missionary, before all the people, and with great solemnity, reduced it to powder." The recent explorations among the remains of ancient native structures, render it almost needless to glance at the descriptions of some of those which were utterly destroyed. Yet the magnificence of the former capital of Montezuma confers on it an interest, in connexion with its remarkable history, which it is impossible to associate with architectural remains, however vast, of the history of which we know nothing. The old historian remarks of the vast metropolitan temple which filled the chief place in the ancient capital of the native Mexicans:-"This great temple occupied the centre of the city; and, together with the other temples and buildings annexed to it, comprehended all that space upon which the great cathedral church now stands, part of the greater market-place, and part likewise of the streets and buildings around. Within the enclosure of the wall which encompassed it in a square form, the conqueror Cortez affirms that a town of five hundred houses might have stood. The wall, built of stone and lime, was very thick, eight feet high, crowned with battlements in the form of niches, and ornamented with many stone figures in the shape of serpents, whence it obtained the name of coatepantli, or the wall of serpents. It had four gates to the four cardinal points: the eastern gate looked to a broad street which led to the lake of Tezcuco: the rest corresponded to the three principal streets of the city, the broadest and the straightest, which formed a continuation with those built upon the lake that led to Iztapalapan, to Tacuba, and to Tepejacae." The builders of these vast temples appear at one time to have occupied a large portion of the North American continent, and are evidently a totally distinct race from the Red Indians, with which the British colonists of America have had to deal. The Smithsonian Institution of Washington, in the United States, have recently published a remarkably interesting volume, entitled "Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley." In this a singularly interesting and extensive series of earth-works, forts, altars, tumuli, and other remains of an early race, are described, accompanied with engravings of numerous relics of their builders. In the sepulchral tumuli especially, a very varied collection of primitive relics were found, many of them obviously pertaining to the same race as the ancient natives of Mexico and Yucatan. In both of these latter countries, the graves and sepulchral monuments of the natives have been ransacked for treasures and relics, from the very earliest times, and it is worthy of notice, that among the sites of the ancient temples and ruined cities both of Mexico and Yucatan, tumuli occur of the same character as those which in other places of the world indicate to us the primitive habits of the human race, ere the arts of civilization have modified this character into the manifold peculiarities of distinct nationalities. During the visit of Mr. Stephens, the well-known traveller, to the village of Chemax, while travelling through Yucatan, the Cura informed them that at some leagues distant, nearer the coast, were several mounds or tumuli. The Indians had been employed shortly before in digging and excavating in the neighbourhood of them for stones for building; and on chancing to dig into one of the tumuli, they uncovered three skeletons, all in a state of extreme decay, which, according to the Cura, were those of a man, woman, and child. At the heads of the skeletons were two large vases of terra cotta, with covers of the same material. In one of these, a large collection of Indian ornaments was found, including beads, stones, and two carved shells. The other vase was filled to the top with arrow-heads, made of obsidian, most probably the work of the ancient Mexicans, in whose country volcanic regions abound. But besides these, Mr. Stephens was struck by being shown a penknife found from the same tumulus, and which he regarded with peculiar interest as a memorial of the European discoverers of Yucatan, and an evidence of the probable date of the tumulus. "Speculation and ingenuity," says he," may assign other causes; but in my opinion the inference is reasonable, if not irresistible, that at the time of the conquest, and afterwards, the Indians were ac |
