Conquest of Mexico
had the best means for arriving at a correct result. See Humboldt, Essai Politique, tom. i. pp. 318, 319, note.
Page 327 (1).—Rel. Quarta, ap. Lorenzana, pp. 391-394. The petition of the Conquerors was acceded to by government, which further prohibited "attorneys and men learned in the law from setting foot in the country, on the ground that experience had shown, they would be sure by their evil practices to disturb the peace of the community." (Herrera, Hist. General, dec. 3, lib. 5, cap. 2.) These enactments are but an indifferent tribute to the character of the two professions in Castile.
Page 327 (2).—Toribio, Hist. de los Indios, MS., Parte 1, cap. 1.—Camargo, Hist. de Tlascala, MS.
Page 327 (3).—Toribio, Hist. de los Indios, MS., Parte 3, cap. 1. Father Sahagun, who has done better service in this way than any other of his order, describes with simple brevity the rapid process of demolition. "We took the children of the caciques," he says, "into our schools, where we taught them to read, write, and to chant. The children of the poorer natives were brought together in the courtyard, and instructed there in the Christian faith. After our teaching, one or two brethren took the pupils to some neighbouring teocalli, and, by working at it for a few days, they levelled it to the ground. In this way they demolished, in a short time, all the Aztec temples, great and small, so that not a vestige of them remained." (Hist. de Nueva España, tom. iii. p. 77.) This passage helps to explain why so few architectural relics of the Indian era still survive in Mexico.
Page 328 (1).—Clavigero, Stor. del Messico, tom. i. p. 43.—Humboldt, Essai Politique, tom. iii pp. 115, 145.—Esposicion de Don Lucas Alaman (Mexico, 1828), p. 59.
Page 329 (1).—"Much as I esteem Hernando Cortés," exclaims Oviedo, "for the greatest captain and most practised in military matters of any we have known, I think such an opinion shows he was no great cosmographer." (Hist. de las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. 41.) Oviedo had lived to see its fallacy.
Page 330 (1).—Martyr, Opus Epist., ep. 811.
Page 330 (2).—Rel. Quarta, ap. Lorenzana, p. 385.
Page 330 (3).—The illusion at home was kept up, in some measure, by the dazzling display of gold and jewels remitted from time to time, wrought into fanciful and often fantastic forms. One of the articles sent home by Cortés was a piece of ordnance, made of gold and silver, of very fine workmanship, the metal of which alone cost 25,500 pesos de oro. Oviedo, who saw it in the palace, speaks with admiration of this magnificent toy.—Hist. de las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. 41.
Page 331 (1).—Among these may be particularly mentioned the Letters of Alvarado and Diego de Godoy, transcribed by Oviedo in his Hist. de las Ind., MS. (lib. 33, cap. 42-44), and translated by Ramusio, for his rich collection, Viaggi, tom. iii.
Page 331 (2).—See, among others, his orders to his kinsman, Francis Cortés,—"Instruction Civil y Militar por la Expedicion de la Costa de Colima." The paper is dated in 1524, and forms part of the Munñz collection of MSS.
Page 331 (3).—Rel. Quarta, ap. Lorenzana, p. 371. "Well may we wonder," exclaims his archiepiscopal editor, " that Cortés and his soldiers could have overrun and subdued, in so short a time, countries, many of them so rough and difficult of access, that, even at the present day, we can hardly penetrate them! "—Ibid., nota.448
