History of the Conquest of Mexico, with a Preliminary View of the Ancient Mexican Civilization, and the Life of the Conqueror, Hernando Cortez. By WILLIAM H. PRESCOTT. 3 vols. London: Bentley. 1843. The Despatches of Hernando Cortez, translated into English, from the original Spanish, by G. FOLSOM. Wiley and Putnam. NOTHING is more easy than to depreciate the services of Cortes and his companions in the conquest of Mexico. The genius and heroism. of the conquerors may be rendered apparently doubtful by the critic, by dwelling upon the acknowledged superiority of European civilization, contrasting the inequality of the Indian maquatihl, with its edges of flint, to the Toledan blade of the Spanish cavalier, or the unerring matchlock of the foot-soldier; by enlarging on the terror experienced by the Indians at the wondrous hippocentaur, the Spanish knight, whom they deemed a part of his horse, or worship the steed as the avatar of the war-god, and to compare the mail of the Christian with the plaited cotton of the disciple of Huitzilopotchli. Grant, then, all these qualifying circumstances, make the most of the assistance rendered by the brave natives of Tlascala, the hereditary enemies of the Aztec,-give all the weight that is due to the reverence with which the white men were received by the Indian, as those descendants of the God who were to return from beyond the ocean to rule again in Anahuac,-and the expedition of Cortez still remains a wonder. With little more than five hundred Europeans, with but a few light guns, and sixteen mounted cavaliers, Cortez commenced the conquest of a country that numbered its warriors by hundreds of thousands. Without an Indian to aid him, with his men clothed, not in mail, but quilted cotton, he encountered on the plains of Ceutha the thousands of the warriors of the Tabascan nation. Cramped and crowded in upon on every side by the crowds of dusky warriors, the artillery of the Christians was of little avail, and the tide of battle was gradually circling round and sweeping backwards the small band of adventurers, when the meagre cavalry of Cortez broke in upon the flank of the Indians. The victory was instant,-the Tabascans were soon changed from bitter enemies to friendly allies. With about four hundred foot and fifteen horse, half-a-dozen light guns, and thirteen hundred Indian warriors, Cortez marched from the capital of his Totomac friends to engage the heroic Tlascalans-the republicans who had so long and so successfully warred with the numerous forces of the Aztec emperor. The Tlascalans were no puny warriors to be frightened by horse, or fire from the cannon's mouth. In the very first skirmish they strove to tear the lances from the grasp of the cavaliers, and to drag them from their horses; to them the accustomed terror of the mounted soldier seemed unknown; they might indeed be astounded at the report of fire-arms, and at the secret destruction wrought by this Christian weapon, but they were not intimidated. In the first great battle with the invader, they fought hand to hand with the horsemen, and bore with unflinching bravery the fire of the matchlocks; and when at length eight of their principal chiefs had fallen, the Tlascalans drew off from the field of battle, a defeated but not routed body,-as a well-disciplined army, not as a panic-struck mob of barbarians. Great, of a truth, was the assistance rendered to Cortez by these brave republicans in the wars which he waged against the Aztec empire; but how severe were the battles by which he compelled these warriors to become his friends! Bear in mind the horrors of the Noche Triste, and the maniacal attempts of the Aztecs to storm the palace camp of the Spaniards. Some hundreds of Christians fell in those conflicts,-but a trifle in modern warfare, but an almost unbearable loss when amounting to half the invader's force, and that too in a foreign land, far, far away from his resources. Again, how dreadful was the siege and storm of Mexico when defended by Guatemozin; the long causeways broken up into dikes and canals; the water swarming with Indian canoes, whence the dusky warriors leaped fearlessly on the causeways, and strove to draw their enemies into the waters of the lake, regardless alike of wounds and death; the gradual destruction of the buildings, each day's progress marked by the smoking ruins of the city and the festering corses of Christian and Indian! How closely allied are history and romance! We wish not, however, to dwell on the military horrors of the conquest, content rather to realize to the minds of our readers the difficulties overcome by Cortez, by following Mr. Prescott in his learned and interesting disquisitions on the state of civilization of the nations of Anahuac; for we feel that by the discovery of every new symptom of civilization among the inhabitants of Mexico, we go further in enhancing the difficulty overcome by the Spaniards, than in multiplying or recounting the numbers of their armies or the prowess of their warriors. About the middle of the seventh century a nation came from out the north, and entered the land of Anahuac, establishing their capital at Tula, to the north of the valley of Mexico. Whence they came from, and whither, after a residence of four centuries, they disappeared to, is a mystery; they came and went silently, and passed from out the land in secret, leaving the mighty cities they had raised a prey to the next horde of barbarians. It has oft been conjectured that in the ruins of Palenque, and the deserted cities of Yucatan, we look upon the works of the shadowy Toltecs. The Chichemecs, their successors in the valley of Mexico, soon fell before the new flood of invaders of higher civilization, yet in all probability of the same race as the Toltecs, who, as Aztecs or Mexicans, and Acolhuans or Tezcucans, founded the monarchies of the two great cities of the great lake of the valley of Anahuac. The Tezcucans were comparatively mild in their religion and manners, until corrupted by the Labits of the fierce and rude Aztecs. They gradually amalgamated with the relics of Chinchemecs, and brought them to the standard of their own civilization; and as their numbers increased, their empire was extended over the ruder tribes of the north, and their capital demonstrated in its populousness and its elegance, the progress of the nation towards civilization. The fate of the Aztecs was not so happy as that of the Tezcucans. Impelled by their natural ferocity, and opposed by the neighbouring tribes on account of their cruelties, the Aztecs wandered for many years around the valley of Mexico, ere they established themselves in any permanent residence. At length, in the year 1325, as they approached the south-western shore of the lake, they beheld a royal eagle of extraordinary size and beauty, settled on the stem of a prickly pear, that sprang out from a rock encompassed by the waters of the lake. In its beak it bore a serpent, and basked with its opened wings in the rays of the rising sun. The omen was accepted, and the first pile of the new city was soon driven into the low marsh that bordered on the lake. In light houses of reeds and wood, they lived on the waters of the lake, and brought a precarious subsistence from the fish that swam beneath their dwellings, the wild fowl that resorted to the marshes, and such vegetables as they could raise on the little gardens that floated round the new city. From the omen of the rock and the cactus, they called this nest of reed-huts Tenochtitlan; as dedicated to their war-god Mexitli, the new city was known as Mexico. The progress of the young monarchy was at first slow; internal dissensions caused a separation from their small party, and thus divided, it was long before the Aztecs could secure to themselves possessions on the mainland. Gradually they increased in numbers and in power, and their name became terrible among their neighbours. The subversion of the kingdom of Tezcuco, by the Tepanecs, was the beginning of their greatness. The Aztecs lent their aid to the dethroned prince, and the Tepanees were defeated, their country seized and given to the Aztecs as their reward, and a triple alliance entered into between the restored crown of Tezcuco, the emperor of the Aztec, and the small state of Thlacopac, that bordered on the great lake to the north of Mexico. The allies worked well together, and the progress of the three states was proportioned to their unanimity in council and in action. The capital gave evidence of the prosperity of the nation, the houses of reeds and wood gave place to palaces of stone, and causeways measuring miles in length connected the island city with the shores of the lake. Old feuds were healed, population increased, year after year new provinces were added to the united empire, and when the Spaniards landed at Vera Cruz the Aztec dominion reached from sea to sea. From a wandering tribe, fighting for life amid numerous other tribes of cognate races, the Aztecs were become a great and terrible nation. From a village of reed huts, Tenochtitlan was a city of palaces, of which the conqueror could thus write in his despatches to his master, but a few months before he levelled it with the ground. We cite from Mr. Folsom's translation of the despatches: "The great city of Temixtitan [Mexico] is situated in this salt lake, and from the main land to the denser parts of it, by whichever route one chooses to enter, the distance is two leagues. There are four avenues, or entrances to the city, all of which are formed by artificial causeways, two spears' length in width. The city is as large as Seville or Cordova; its streets, I speak of the principal ones, are very wide and straight; some of these, and all the inferior ones, are half land and half water, and are navigated by canoes. The city has many public squares, in which are situated the markets and other places for buying and selling. There is one square twice as large as that of the city of Salamanca, surrounded by porticoes, where there are daily assembled more than sixty thousand souls, engaged in buying and selling; and where are found all kinds of merchandise that the world affords, embracing the necessaries of life, as, for instance, articles of food, as well as jewels of gold and silver, lead, brass, copper, tin, precious stones, bones, shells, snails, and feathers. There are also exposed for sale wrought and unwrought stone, bricks burnt and unburnt, timber hewn and unhewn, of different sorts. * Every kind of merchandise is sold in a particular street or quarter assigned to it exclusively, and thus the best order is preserved. They sell everything by number or measure; at least so far we have not observed them to sell anything by weight. There is a building in the great square that is used as an audience house, where ten or twelve persons, who are magistrates, sit and decide all controversies that arise in the market, and order delinquents to be punished. In the same square there are other persons who go constantly about among the people, observing what is sold, and the measure used in selling; and they have been seen to break measures that were not true. This great city contains a large number of temples, or houses for their idols, very handsome edifices, which are situated in the different districts and the suburbs; in the principal ones religious persons of each particular sect are constantly residing, for whose use, besides the houses containing the idols, there are other convenient habitations. All these persons dress in black, and never cut or comb their hair from the time they enter the priesthood until they leave it; and all the sons of the principal inhabitants, both nobles and respectable citizens, are placed in the temples and wear the same dress from the age of seven or eight years until they are taken out to be married; which occurs more frequently with the first-born, who inherit estates, than with the others. The priests are debarred from female society, nor is any woman permitted to enter the religious houses. They also abstain from eating certain kinds of food, more at some seasons of the year than others. Among these temples there is one which far surpasses all the rest, whose grandeur of architectural details no human tongue is able to describe; for within its precincts, surrounded by a lofty wall, there is room enough for a town of five hundred families. Around the interior of this enclosure there are handsome edifices, containing large halls and corridors, in which the religious persons attached to the temple reside. There are full forty towers, which are lofty and well-built, the largest of which has fifty steps leading to its main body, and is higher than the tower of the principal church at Seville. The stone and wood of which they are constructed are so well wrought in every part, that nothing could be better done, for the interior of the chapels containing the idols consists of curious imagery, wrought in stone, with plaster ceilings, and wood-work carved in relief, and painted with figures of monsters and other objects. All these towers are the burial-places of the nobles, and every chapel in them is dedicated to a particular idol, to which they pay their devotions." No wonder that the mind of Cortez misgave him, when, from the city of Iztalapan, he gazed upon the royal city, but a few miles distant, and looked across the blue waters of the lake, "Where Azthan stood upon the further shore;' And battlements all burnished white, which shone The imperial city, her far circling walls, Her garden, groves, and stately palaces, Her temples mountain size, her thousand roofs." The Government of the Aztecs was an Elective Monarchy from the members of one family. Prowess in war was the main requisite, and the priestly office was no disqualification, however it might influence the four noble Electors in whom the selection of a sovereign vested. "The new monarch was installed in his regal dignity with much parade of religious ceremony; but not until, by a victorious campaign, he had obtained a sufficient number of captives to grace his triumphal entry into the capital, and to furnish victims for the dark and bloody rites which stained the Aztec superstition. Amidst this pomp of hunian sacrifice he was crowned. The crown, resembling a mitre in its form, and curiously ornamented with gold gems and feathers, was placed on his head by the Lord of Tezcuco, the most powerful of his royal allies. The Aztec princes, especially towards the close of the dynasty, lived in a barbaric pomp, truly oriental. Their spacious palaces were provided with halls for the different councils, who aided the monarch in the transaction of business. The chief of these was a sort of privy council, composed in part, probably, of the four Electors chosen by the nobles after the accession, whose places, when vacant by death, were immediately supplied as before. It was the business of this body, so far as can be gathered from the very loose accounts given of it, to advise the king, in respect to the government of the provinces, the administration of the revenues, and, indeed, on all great matters of public interest."-Prescott, Conq. Mex. pp. 22, 23. The body guard of the King comprised the first nobles of his realm, and many among this powerful class, which held the most important offices in the capital and in the provinces, could trace their descent to the founders of the monarchy. Setting aside the exagge rated accounts of Torquemada and Herrera, and taking with somewhat of a discount the thirty great chiefs, each numbering an hundred thousand warriors in his train, it is clear that there was a numerous and powerful Aztec nobility, many of whom, if not all, lived and acted as independent princes, regarding the Emperor as rather primus inter pares, than as actually supreme over their order. In the tenure by which this noble class held its estates, we recognise the features of the feudal system, though falling far short of the harmonious system by which feudal service was regulated in Europe. "Their estates," says Mr. Prescott, "appear to have been held by various tenures, and to have been subject to different restrictions. Some of them earned by their own good swords, or received as the recompense of public services, were held without any limitation, except that the possessors should not dispose of them to a plebeian. Others were entailed on the eldest male heirs, and, in default of such, reverted to the crown. Most of them seem to have been burdened with the obligation of military service. The principal chiefs of Tezcuco, according to the chronicler, were expressly obliged to support their prince with their armed vassals, to attend his courts, and aid him in the council. Some, instead of these services, were to provide for the repairs of his buildings, |