initial commit of ebook 31413HEADmain

25 files changed, 18822 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6833f05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+* text=auto
+*.txt text
+*.md text
diff --git a/31413-8.txt b/31413-8.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1e22114
--- /dev/null
+++ b/31413-8.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,6183 @@
+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Story of Extinct Civilizations of the
+West, by Robert E. Anderson
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: The Story of Extinct Civilizations of the West
+
+
+Author: Robert E. Anderson
+
+
+
+Release Date: February 26, 2010  [eBook #31413]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF EXTINCT CIVILIZATIONS
+OF THE WEST***
+
+
+E-text prepared by the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading
+Team (http://www.fadedpage.com)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 31413-h.htm or 31413-h.zip:
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/31413/31413-h/31413-h.htm)
+      or
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/31413/31413-h.zip)
+
+
+
+
+
+THE STORY OF EXTINCT CIVILIZATIONS OF THE WEST
+
+by
+
+ROBERT E. ANDERSON, M.A., F.A.S.
+
+Author of
+Extinct Civilizations of the East
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Prehistoric Structure, Uxmal (Yucatan) (p. 76).]
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+  Venient annis saecula seris
+  Quibus Oceanus vincula rerum
+  Laxet, et ingens pateat tellus
+  Tethys que novos detegat orbes.
+
+  --SENECA.
+
+
+
+New York _McClure, Phillips & Co._ MCMIV
+
+Copyright, 1903, by
+D. Appleton and Company
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+  CHAPTER                                                    PAGE
+
+        INTRODUCTION                                            9
+
+     I. PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERIES OF AMERICA                   19
+
+    II. "DISCOVERY OF THE WORLD AND OF MAN"                    36
+
+   III. THE EXTINCT CIVILIZATION OF THE AZTECS                 54
+
+    IV. AMERICAN ARCHEOLOGY                                    71
+
+     V. MEXICO BEFORE THE SPANISH INVASION                     88
+
+    VI. ARRIVAL OF THE SPANIARDS                              106
+
+   VII. CORTÉS AND MONTEZUMA                                  135
+
+  VIII. BALBOA AND THE ISTHMUS                                164
+
+    IX. EXTINCT CIVILIZATION OF PERU                          172
+
+     X. PIZARRO AND THE INCAS                                 186
+
+
+
+
+MAPS, ETC.
+
+
+                                                             PAGE
+
+  Prehistoric Structure, Uxmal (Yucatan)           _Frontispiece_
+
+  Imaginary Continent, South of Africa and Asia                12
+
+  Remains of a Norse Church at Katortuk, Greenland             21
+
+  Map of Vinland                                               24
+
+  The Dighton Stone in the Taunton River, Massachusetts        27
+
+  The Dighton Stone. Fig. 2                                    28
+
+  Cipher Autograph of Columbus                                 46
+
+  Chulpa or Stone Tomb of the Peruvians                        87
+
+  Quetzalcoatl                                                 93
+
+  Ancient Bridge near Tezcuco                                 100
+
+  Teocalli, Aztec Temple for Human Sacrifices                 105
+
+  Monolith Doorway. Near Lake Titicaca. Fig. 1                173
+
+  Image over the Doorway shown in Fig. 1. Near Lake
+  Titicaca. Fig. 2                                            175
+
+  The Quipu                                                   180
+
+  Gold Ornament (? Zodiac) from a Tomb at Cuzco               182
+
+
+
+
+EXTINCT CIVILIZATIONS OF THE WEST
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+Throughout all the periods of European history, ancient or modern, no
+age has been more remarkable for events of first-rate importance than
+the latter half of the fifteenth century. The rise of the New Learning,
+the "discovery of the world and of man," the displacement of many
+outworn beliefs, these with other factors produced an awakening that
+startled kings and nations. Then felt they like Balboa, when
+
+                           with eagle eyes
+  He stared at the Pacific, and all his men
+  Looked at each other with a wild surmise
+  Silent, upon a peak in Darien.
+
+It was at this historical juncture that the "middle ages" came to an
+end, and modern Europe had its beginning. (See Chapter II.)
+
+Why was Europe so long in discovering the vast Continent which all the
+time lay beyond the Western Ocean? Simply because every skipper and
+every "Board of Admiralty" believed that this world on which we live and
+move is flat and level. They did not at all realize the fact that it is
+_ball_-shaped; and that when a ball is very large (say, as large as a
+balloon), then any small portion of the surface must appear flat and
+level to a fly or "mite" traveling in that vicinity. Homer believed that
+our world is a flat and level plain, with a great river, Oceanus,
+flowing round it; and for many ages that seemed a very natural and
+sufficient theory. The Pythagoreans, it is true, argued that our earth
+must be spherical, but why? Oh, said they, because in geometry the
+sphere is the "most perfect" of all solid figures. Aristotle, being
+scientific, gave better reasons for believing that the earth is
+spherical or ball-shaped. He said the shadow of the earth is always
+round like the shadow of a ball; and the shadow of the earth can be seen
+during any eclipse of the moon; therefore, all who see that shadow on
+the moon's disk know, or ought to know, that the earth is ball-shaped.
+Another reason given by Aristotle is that the altitude of any star above
+the horizon changes when the observer travels north or south. For
+example, if at London a star appears to be 40° above the northern
+horizon, and at York the same star at the same instant appears 42-1/2°,
+it is evident that 2-1/2° is the difference (increase) of altitude at
+York compared with London. Such an observation shows that the road from
+London to York is not over a flat, level plane, but over the curved
+surface of a sphere, the arc of a circle, in fact.
+
+Herodotus, the father of history, was a good geographer and an
+experienced traveler, yet his only conception of the world was as a
+flat, wide-extending surface. In Egypt he was told how Pharaoh Necho had
+sent a crew of Phenicians to explore the coast of Africa by setting out
+from the Red Sea, and how they sailed south till they had _the sun on
+their right hand_. "Absurd!" says Herodotus, in his naïve manner, "this
+story I can not believe." In Egypt, as in Greece or Europe generally,
+the sun rises on the left hand, and at noon casts a shadow pointing
+north; whereas in South Africa the sun at noon casts a shadow pointing
+south, and sunrise is therefore on the _right hand_. The honest sailors
+had told the truth; they had merely "crossed the line," without knowing
+it. If Herodotus had known that the world was spherical or ball-shaped,
+he could easily have understood that by traveling due south the sun must
+at last appear at noon to the north instead of the south. A counterpart
+to the story of the Phenician sailors occurs in Pliny: he tells how some
+ambassadors came to the Roman Emperor Claudius from an island in the
+south of Asia, and when in Italy were much astonished to see the sun at
+noon to the south, casting shadows to the north. They also wondered, he
+says, to see the Great Bear and other groups of stars which had never
+been visible in their native land (Nat. Hist., vi, 22).
+
+That there were islands or even a continent in the Western Ocean was a
+tradition not infrequent in classical and medieval times, as we shall
+presently see, but to place a continent in the Southern Ocean was a
+greater stretch of imagination. The great outstanding problem of the
+sources of the Nile probably suggested this Southern Continent to some.
+Ptolemy, the great Egyptian geographer, even formed the conjecture that
+the Southern Continent was joined to Africa by a broad isthmus, as
+indicated in certain maps. Such a connection of the two continents
+would at once dispose of the story that the Phenician sailors had
+"doubled the Cape." In several maps after the time of Columbus,
+Australia is extended westward in order to pass muster for the Southern
+Continent.
+
+[Illustration: Imaginary Continent, south of Africa and Asia. [The
+cardinal points are shown by the four winds.] Beginning of the fifteenth
+century. The word Brumæ = the winter solstices.]
+
+It is with a Western Continent, however, that we are now mainly
+concerned. What lands were imagined by the ancients in the far West
+under the setting sun? The mighty ocean beyond Spain was to the Greeks
+and Latins a place of dread and mystery.
+
+     "Stout was his heart and girt with triple brass," says the Roman
+     poet, "who first hazarded his weak vessel on the pitiless ocean."
+
+Even the western parts of the Mediterranean were shrunk from, according
+to the Odyssey, without speaking of the horrors of the great ocean
+beyond. "Beyond Gades," i. e., scarcely outside of the Pillars of
+Hercules, the extreme limit of the ancient world, "no man," said Pindar,
+"however daring, could pass; only a god might voyage those waters!"
+
+In spite of the dread which the ancient mariners felt for the great
+Western Ocean, their poets found it replete with charm and mystery. The
+imagination rested upon those golden sunsets, and the tales of marvel
+which, after long intervals, sea-borne sailors had told of distant lands
+in the West. The poets placed there the happy home destined for the
+souls of heroes. Thus (Odys. iv, 561):
+
+                                      No snow
+  Is there, nor yet great storm nor any rain,
+  But always ocean sendeth forth the breeze
+  Of the shrill West, and bloweth cool on men.
+
+So far Homer. His contemporary, Hesiod, thus describes the Elysian
+Fields as islands under the setting sun:
+
+  There on Earth's utmost limits Zeus assigned
+  A life, a seat, distinct from human kind,
+  Beside the deepening whirlpools of the Main,
+  In those blest Isles where Saturn holds his reign,
+  Apart from Heaven's immortals calm they share,
+  A rest unsullied by the clouds of care:
+  And yearly thrice with sweet luxuriance crown'd
+  Springs the ripe harvest from the teeming Ground.
+
+The poet Pindar places in the same mysterious West "the castle of
+Chronos" (i. e., "Old Time"), "where o'er the Isles of the Blest ocean
+breezes blow, and flowers gleam with gold, some from the land on
+glistening trees, while others the water feeds; and with bracelets of
+these they entwine their hands, and make crowns for their heads."
+
+_Vesper_, the star of evening, was called Hesperus by the Greeks; and
+hence the Hesperides, daughters of the Western Star, had the task of
+watching the golden apples planted by the goddess Hera in the garden of
+the gods, on the other side of the river Oceanus. One of the labors of
+Hercules was to fetch three of those mystic apples for the king of
+Mycenae. The poet Euripides thus refers to the Gardens of the West, when
+the Chorus wish to fly "over the Adriatic wave":
+
+  Or to the famed Hesperian plains,
+    Whose rich trees bloom with gold,
+  To join the grief-attunèd strains
+    My winged progress hold;
+  Beyond whose shores no passage gave
+  The Ruler of the purple wave.
+
+Of all the lands imagined to lie in the Western Ocean by the Greeks, the
+most important was "Atlantis." Some have thought it may possibly have
+been a prehistoric discovery of America. In any case it has exercised
+the ingenuity of a good many modern scientists. The tale of Atlantis we
+owe to Plato himself, who perhaps learned it in Egypt, just as Herodotus
+picked up there the account of the circumnavigation of Africa by the
+Phenician mariners.
+
+"When Solon was in Egypt," says Plato, "he had talk with an aged priest
+of Sais who said, 'You Greeks are all children: you know but of one
+deluge, whereas there have been many destructions of mankind both by
+flood and fire.'... In the distant Western Ocean lay a continent larger
+than Libya and Asia together."...
+
+     In this Atlantis there had grown up a mighty state whose kings were
+     descended from Poseidon and had extended their sway over many
+     islands and over a portion of the great continent; even Libya up to
+     the gates of Egypt, and Europe as far as Tyrrhenia, submitted to
+     their sway.... Afterward came a day and night of great floods and
+     earthquakes; Atlantis disappeared, swallowed by the waves.
+
+Geologists and geographers have seriously tried to find evidence of
+Atlantis having existed in the Atlantic, whether as a portion of the
+American continent, or as a huge island in the ocean which could have
+served as a stepping-stone between the Western World and the Eastern.
+From a series of deep-sea soundings ordered by the British, American,
+and German Governments, it is now very well known that in the middle of
+the Atlantic basin there is a ridge, running north and south, whose
+depth is less than 1,000 fathoms, while the valleys east and west of it
+average 3,000 fathoms. At the Azores the North Atlantic ridge becomes
+broader. The theory is that a part of the ridge-plateau was the Atlantis
+of Plato that "disappeared swallowed by the waves." (Nature, xv, 158,
+553, xxvii, 25; Science, June 29, 1883.)
+
+Buffon, the naturalist, with reference to fauna and flora, dated the
+separation of the new and old world "from the catastrophe of Atlantis"
+(Epoques, ix, 570); and Sir Charles Lyell confessed a temptation to
+"accept the theory of an Atlantis island in the northern Atlantic."
+(Geology, p. 141.)
+
+The following account "from an historian of the fourth century B. C." is
+another possible reference to a portion of America--from a translation
+"delivered in English," 1576.
+
+     Selenus told Midas that without this worlde there is a continent or
+     percell of dry lande which in greatnesse (as hee reported) was
+     unmeasureable; that it nourished and maintained, by the benifite of
+     the greene meadowes and pasture plots, sundrye bigge and mighty
+     beastes; that the men which inhabite the same climate exceede the
+     stature of us twise, and yet the length of there life is not equale
+     to ours.
+
+The historian Plutarch, in his Morals, gives an account of Ogygia, with
+an illusion to a continent, possibly America:
+
+     An island, Ogygia, lies in the arms of the Ocean, about five days'
+     sail west from Britain.... The adjacent sea is termed the
+     Saturnian, and the continent by which the great sea is circularly
+     environed is distant from Ogygia about 5,000 stadia, but from the
+     other islands not so far.... One of the men paid a visit to the
+     great island, as they called Europe. From him the narrator learned
+     many things about the state of men after death--the conclusion
+     being that the souls of men arrive at the Moon, wherein lie the
+     Elysian Fields of Homer.
+
+The Greek historian, Diodorus Siculus, has a similar account with
+curious details of an "island" which might very well have been part of a
+continent. Columbus believed to the last that Cuba was a continent.
+
+     In the ocean, at the distance of several days' sailing to the west,
+     there lies an island watered by several navigable rivers. Its soil
+     is fertile, hilly, and of great beauty.... There are country
+     houses handsomely constructed, with summer-houses and flower-beds.
+     The hilly district is covered with dense woods and fruit-trees of
+     every kind. The inhabitants spend much time in hunting and thus
+     procure excellent food. They have naturally a good supply of fish,
+     their shores being washed by the ocean.... In a word this island
+     seems a happy home for gods rather than for men (v. 19).
+
+Another Greek writer, Lucian, in one of his witty dialogues, refers to
+an island in the Atlantic, that lies eighty days' sail westward of the
+Pillars of Hercules--the extreme limit of the ancient world, as has
+already been seen. Readers of Henry Fielding and admirers of Squire
+Westers will remember how in the London of the eighteenth century the
+limits of Piccadilly westward was a tavern at Hyde Park corner called
+the _Hercules' Pillars_, on the site of the future Apsley House.[1]
+
+Although neither Greek nor Roman navigators were likely to attempt a
+voyage into the ocean beyond the Straits of Gibraltar, yet a trading
+vessel from Carthage or Phenicia might easily have been driven by an
+easterly gale into, or even across, the Atlantic. Some involuntary
+discoveries were no doubt due to this chance, and the reports brought to
+Europe were probably the germs of such tales as the poets invented about
+the fair regions of the West. In Celtic literature, moreover, "Avalon"
+was placed far under the setting sun beyond the ocean--Avalon or
+"Glas-Inis" being to the bards the Land of the Dead, marvelous and
+mysterious.
+
+[Footnote 1: Tom Jones, xvi. chap. 2, 3, etc.]
+
+In English literature of the middle ages there is a remarkable passage
+relating to our present subject, which was written long before that rise
+of the New Learning mentioned at the beginning of this chapter. It is a
+statement made by Roger Bacon, the greatest of Oxonian scholars of the
+thirteenth century, who, long before the Renascence, did much to restore
+the study of science, especially in geography, chronology, and optics.
+In his Opus Majus, the elder Bacon wrote:
+
+     More than the fourth part of the earth which we inhabit is still
+     unknown to us.... It is evident therefore that between the extreme
+     West and the confines of India, there must be a surface which
+     comprises more than half the earth.
+
+Though Roger Bacon, to use his own words, died "unheard, forgotten,
+buried," our recent historians place his name first in the great roll of
+modern science.
+
+There now remains only one quotation to make from the ancients. We have
+been reserving it for two reasons--first, because it is a singularly
+happy anticipation of the discovery of the New World, so happy that it
+became a favorite stanza with the discoverer himself. This we learn from
+the life of the "Great Admiral," written by his son Ferdinand.
+
+Secondly, because it adorns our title-page and has been characterized as
+"a lucky prophecy"--written in the first century A. D. The author,
+Seneca, was a dramatist as well as a philosopher, the lines occurring at
+the end of one of his choruses--Medea, 376. We may thus translate the
+prophetic stanza:
+
+  For at a distant date this ancient world
+  Will westward stretch its bounds, and then disclose
+  Beyond the Main a vast new Continent,
+  With realms of wealth and might.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERIES OF AMERICA
+
+
+1 _Norse Discovery._--By glancing at a map of the north Atlantic, the
+reader will at once see that the natural approach from Europe to the
+Western Continent was by Iceland and Greenland--especially in those
+early days when ocean navigation was unknown. Iceland is nearer to
+Greenland than to Norway; and Greenland is part of America. But in
+Iceland there were Celtic settlers in the early centuries; and even King
+Arthur, according to the history of Geoffrey of Monmouth, sailed north
+to that "Ultima Thule." During the ninth century a Christian community
+had been established there under certain Irish monks. This early
+civilization, however, was destined to become presently extinct.
+
+It was in A. D. 875, i. e., during the reign of Alfred the Great in
+England, that the Norse earl, Ingolf, led a colony to Iceland. More
+strenuous and savage than the Christian Celts whom they found there, the
+latter with their preaching monks soon sailed to the south, and left the
+Northmen masters of the island. The Norse colony under Ingolf was
+strongly reenforced by Norwegians who took refuge there to avoid the
+tyranny of their king, Harold, the Fair-haired. Ingolf built the town
+Ingolfshof, named after him, and also Reikiavik, afterward the capital,
+named from the "reek" or steam of its hot springs. So important did this
+colony become that in the second generation the population amounted to
+60,000.
+
+Ingolf was admired by the poet James Montgomery (not to be confounded
+with Robert, whom Macaulay criticized so severely), who in 1819 thus
+wrote of him and his island:
+
+  There on a homeless soil his foot he placed,
+  Framed his hut-palace, colonized the waste,
+  And ruled his horde with patriarchal sway
+  --Where Justice reigns, 'tis Freedom to obey....
+  And Iceland shone for generous lore renowned,
+  A northern light when all was gloom around.
+
+     The next year after Ingolf had come to Iceland, Gunnbiorn, a hardy
+     Norseman, driven in his ship westerly, sighted a strange land....
+     About half a century later, judging by the Icelandic sagas, we
+     learn that a wind-tossed vessel was thrown upon a coast far away
+     which was called "Mickle Ireland" (_Irland it Mikla_)--[Winsor's
+     Hist. America, i, 61].
+
+Gunnbiorn's discovery was utilized by Erik the Red, another sea-rover,
+in A. D. 980, who sailed to it and, after three years' stay, returned
+with a favorable account--giving it the fair name _Greenland_. The Norse
+established two centers of population on Greenland. It is now believed
+that after doubling Cape Farewell, they built their first town near that
+head and the second farther north. The former, _Eystribygd_ (i. e.,
+"Easter Bigging"), developed into a large colony, having in the
+fourteenth century 190 settlements, with a cathedral and eleven
+churches, and containing two cities and three or four monasteries. The
+second town, _Westribygd_ (i. e., "Wester Bigging") had grown to ninety
+settlements and four churches in the same time.
+
+The germ and root of that civilization (afterward extinct, as we shall
+see) was due to Leif the son of Red Erik, who visited Norway, the
+mother-country, at the very close of the tenth century.
+
+[Illustration: Remains of a Norse Church at Katortuk, Greenland.]
+
+He found that the king and people there had enthusiastically embraced
+the new religion, _Christianity_. Leif presently shared their fervor,
+and decided to reject Woden, Thor, and the other gods of old
+Scandinavia. A priest was told off to accompany Leif back to Greenland,
+and preach the new faith. It was thus that a Christian civilization
+first found footing in arctic America.
+
+The ruins of those early Christian churches (see illustration above)
+form most interesting objects in modern Greenland; near the chief ruin
+is a curious circular group of large stones.
+
+The poet of "Greenland," to whom we have already referred, quotes from a
+Danish chronicle to the effect that, in the golden age of the colony,
+there were a hundred parishes to form the bishopric; and that the see
+was ruled by seventeen bishops from A. D. 1120 to 1408. Bishop Andrew is
+the last mentioned, ordained in 1408 by the Archbishop of Drontheim.
+
+From the same authority we learn that according to some of the annals
+"the best wheat grew to perfection in the valleys; the forests were
+extensive; flocks and herds were numerous and very large and fat." The
+Cloister of St. Thomas was heated by pipes from a warm spring, and
+attached to the cloister was a richly cultivated garden.
+
+After Leif, son of Erik, had introduced Christianity into Greenland, his
+next step was to extend the Norse civilization still farther within the
+American continent. News had reached him of a new land, with a level
+coast, lying nine days' sailing southwest of Greenland. Picking
+thirty-five men, Leif started for further exploration. One part of the
+new country was barren and rocky, therefore Leif named it _Helluland_
+(i. e., "Stone Land"), which appears to have been Newfoundland. Farther
+south they found a sandy shore, backed by a level forest country, which
+Leif named _Markland_ (i. e., "Wood Land"), identified with Nova Scotia.
+After two days' sail, according to the saga account, having landed and
+explored the new continent along the banks of a river, they resolved to
+winter there. In one of these explorations a German called Tyrker found
+some grapes on a wild vine, and brought a specimen for the admiration of
+Leif and his party. This country was therefore named _Vinland_ (i. e.,
+"Wine Land"), and is identified with New England, part of Rhode Island,
+and Massachusetts.[2]
+
+[Footnote 2: Prof. R. B. Anderson says, "The basin of the Charles River
+should be selected as the most probable scene of the visits of Leif
+Erikson, etc." [_v._ map.]]
+
+Our Greenland poet thus refers to Leif's landing:
+
+  Wineland the glad discoverers called that shore,
+  And back the tidings of its riches bore;
+  But soon return'd with colonizing bands.
+
+The Norsemen founded a regular settlement in Vinland, establishing there
+a Christian community related to that of Greenland. Leif's brother,
+Korvald, explored the interior in all directions. With the natives, who
+are called "Skraelings" in the sagas, they traded in furs; these people,
+who seemed dwarfish to the Norsemen, used leathern boats and were no
+doubt Eskimos:
+
+  A stunted, stern, uncouth, amphibious stock.
+
+The principal settler in Vinland was Thorfinn, an Icelander, who had
+married a daughter-in-law of Erik the Red. She persuaded Thorfinn to
+sail to the new country in order to make a permanent settlement there.
+In the year 1007 A. D. he sailed with 160 men, having live stock and
+other colonial equipments. After three years he returned to Greenland,
+his wife having given birth to a son during their first year in Vinland.
+From this son, Snorre, it is claimed by some Norwegian historians, that
+Thorwaldsen, the eminent Danish sculptor is descended. After the time
+of Thorfinn, the settlement in Vinland continued to flourish, having a
+good export trade in timber with Greenland. In 1121 A. D. according to
+the Icelandic saga, the bishop, Erik Upsi, visited Vinland, that country
+being, like Iceland and Greenland, included in his bishopric. The last
+voyage to Vinland for timber, according to the sagas, was in 1347.
+
+[Illustration: Map]
+
+Professor Horsford, of Cambridge, Mass., finds the site of Norumbega,
+mentioned in various old maps, on the River Charles, near Waltham,
+Mass., and maintains that town to be identical with Vinland of the
+Norsemen. To prove his belief in this theory, the professor built a
+tower commemorating the Norse discoveries. He argued that Norumbega was
+a corruption by the Indians of the word _Norvegr_ a Norse form of
+"Norway."
+
+The abandonment of Vinland by the Norse settlers may be compared with
+that of Gosnold's expedition to the same region near the end of Queen
+Elizabeth's reign. Gosnold was sent to plant an English colony in
+America, after the failure of Sir Walter Raleigh's settlement at Roanoke
+(North Carolina); and the coast explored corresponded exactly to that
+which the Norse settlers had named Vinland, lying between the sites of
+Boston and New York. He gave the name Cape Cod to that promontory, and
+also named the islands Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, and the Elizabeth
+group. Selecting one of these for settling a colony, he built on it a
+storehouse and fort. The scheme, however, failed, owing to the threats
+of the natives and the scarcity of supplies, and all the colonists
+sailed from Massachusetts, just as the Norse settlers had done many
+generations previously.
+
+The expedition of Gosnold to Vinland, however, bore good fruit, from the
+favorable report of the new country which he made at home. The merchants
+of Bristol fitted out two ships under Martin Pring, and in the first
+voyage a great part of Maine (lying north of Massachusetts) was
+explored, and the coast south to Martha's Vineyard, where Gosnold had
+been. This led to profitable traffic with the natives, and three years
+later Pring made a more complete survey of Maine.
+
+Vinland was also the scene of the famous landing of the Mayflower,
+bringing its Puritans from England. It was in Cape Cod Bay that she was
+first moored. After exploring the new country, just as Leif Erikson had
+done so many generations previously, they chose a place on the west side
+of the bay and named the little settlement "Plymouth," after the last
+English port from which they had sailed. Farther north, still in
+Vinland, they soon founded two other towns, "Salem" and "Boston." Those
+three settlements have ever since been important centers of energy and
+intelligence in Massachusetts, as well as memorials of the Norse
+occupation of Vinland.
+
+On the occasion of a public statue being erected in Boston, Mass., to
+the memory of Leif Erikson, a committee of the Massachusetts Historical
+Society formally decided thus: "It is antecedently probable that the
+Northmen discovered America in the early part of the eleventh century."
+
+Prof. Daniel Wilson, in his learned work Prehistoric Man (ii, 83, 85),
+thus gives his opinion as to the Norse colony:
+
+     With all reasonable doubt as to the accuracy of details, there is
+     the strongest probability in favor of the authenticity of the
+     American Vinland.
+
+[Illustration: The Dighton Stone in the Taunton River, Massachusetts.]
+
+Of the Norse colonies in Greenland there are some undoubted remains, one
+being a stone inscription in _runes_, proving that it was made before
+the Reformation, when that mode of writing was forbidden by law. The
+stone is four miles beyond Upernavik. The inscription, according to
+Professor Rask, runs thus:
+
+  Erling the son of Sigvat, and Enride Oddsoen,
+    Had cleared the place and raised a mound
+      On the Friday after Rogation-day;
+
+--date either 1135 or 1170.
+
+Rafn, the celebrated Danish archeologist, states as the result of many
+years' research, that America was repeatedly visited by the Icelanders
+in the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries; that the estuary of
+the St. Lawrence was their chief station; that they had coasted
+southward to Carolina, everywhere introducing some Christian
+civilization among the natives.
+
+[Illustration: The Dighton Stone. Fig. 2.]
+
+A supposed rock memorial of the Norsemen is the Dighton Stone in the
+Taunton River, Massachusetts; one of its sentences, according to
+Professor Rafn, being:
+
+"Thorfinn with 151 Norse seafaring men took possession of this land."
+
+The figures and letters (whether runic or merely Indian) inscribed on
+the Dighton Rock have been copied by antiquaries at the following dates:
+1680, 1712, 1730, 1768, 1788, 1807, 1812. The above illustration (Fig.
+2) shows the last mentioned.
+
+There have been many probable traces of ancient Norsemen found in
+America, besides those already given. At Cape Cod, in the last
+generation, a number of hearth-stones were found under a layer of peat.
+A more famous relic was the skeleton dug up in Fall River, Mass., with
+an ornamental belt of metal tubes made from fragments of flat brass;
+there were also some arrow-heads of the same material. Longfellow, the
+New England poet, naturally had his attention directed to this discovery
+(made, 1831), and founded on it his ballad The Skeleton in Armor,
+connecting it with the Round Tower at Newport. The latter, according to
+Professor Rafn, "was erected decidedly not later than the twelfth
+century."
+
+  I was a Viking old,
+  My deeds, though manifold,
+  No Skald in song has told
+      No Saga taught thee!...
+  Far in the Northern Land
+  By the wild Baltic's strand
+  I with my childish hand
+      Tamed the ger-falcon.
+  Oft to his frozen lair
+  Tracked I the grisly bear,
+  While from my path the hare
+      Fled like a shadow.
+
+  *       *       *       *       *
+
+  Scarce had I put to sea
+  Bearing the maid with me--
+  Fairest of all was she
+      Among the Norsemen!
+  Three weeks we westward bore,
+  And when the storm was o'er,
+  Cloud-like we saw the shore
+      Stretching to leeward;
+  There for my lady's bower,
+  Built I this lofty tower
+  Which to this very hour
+      Stands looking seaward!
+
+Sir Clements Markham, of the Royal Geographical Society, believes that
+the Norse settlers in Greenland were driven from their settlements there
+by Eskimos coming, not from the interior of America, but from West
+Siberia along the polar regions, by Wrangell Land [_v._ Journal, R, G.
+S., 1865, and Arctic Geography, 1875].
+
+There was much curiosity from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century as
+to the site of the lost colonies of Greenland which had so long
+flourished. In 1568 and 1579 the King of Denmark sent two expeditions,
+the latter in charge of an Englishman, but no traces were found. At the
+beginning of the eighteenth century some light was thrown upon the
+problem by a missionary called Egede, who first described the ruins and
+relics observable on the west coast. By the success of his preaching
+among the Greenlanders for fifteen years, assisted by other gospel
+missionaries, the Moravians were induced to found their settlements in
+the country, principally in the southwest.
+
+It seems probable that in early times the climate of Iceland was milder
+than it now is. Columbus, some fifteen years before his great voyage
+across the Atlantic, sailed to this northern "Thule," and reports that
+there was no ice. If so, it is surely possible that Greenland also may
+have been greener and more attractive than during the recent centuries.
+Why should it not at one time have been fully deserving of the name by
+which we still know it? Some would explain the change in climatic
+conditions by the closing in of icepacks. At present Greenland is buried
+deep under a vast, solid ice-cap from which only a few of the highest
+peaks protrude to show the position of the submerged mountains, but at
+former periods, according to geologists, there were gardens and farms
+flourishing under a genial climate. Others suppose that, were the ice
+removed, we should see an archipelago of elevated islands.
+
+2. _Celtic Discovery of America._--We have already glanced at the fact
+that when the Norsemen first seized Iceland they found that island
+inhabited by Irish Celts. These Christianized Celts made way before the
+savage invaders, who did not accept the Catholic religion till about the
+close of the tenth century. Sailing south, those dispossessed Irish
+probably joined their brother Celts who had already long held a district
+on the eastern coast of North America, which some Norse skippers called
+"White Man's Land," and also _Irland-it-Mikla_ (i. e., "Mickle
+Ireland"). Professor Rafn places this district on the coast of Carolina.
+A learned memoir, published 1851, attempts to prove that the mysterious
+"mound-builders" of the Ohio Valley were of the same race as the
+settlers on Mickle Ireland, and related to the "white-bearded men" who
+established an extinct civilization in Mexico. A French antiquary, 1875,
+identified Mickle Ireland with Ontario and Quebec. Beauvois, in his
+Elysée trans-atlantique, derives the name Labrador from the _Innis
+Labrada_, an island mentioned in an ancient Irish romance.[3] Another
+Irish discoverer was St. Brandan,[4] Abbot of Cluainfert, Ireland (died
+May 16, 577), who was told that far in the ocean lay an island which was
+the land promised to the saints. St. Brandan set sail in company with
+seventy-five monks, and spent seven years upon the ocean in two voyages,
+discovering this island and many others equally marvelous, including one
+which turned out to be the back of a huge fish, upon which they
+celebrated Easter.[5]
+
+[Footnote 3: As to the Irish claim for the pre-Columbian discovery of
+America, see also Humboldt (Cosmos, ii, 607), and Laing (Heimsk., i,
+186).]
+
+[Footnote 4: MS. Book of Lismore.]
+
+[Footnote 5: The story is given by Humboldt and D'Avezac.]
+
+Among the Celtic claimants for discovery we must also include the Welsh,
+who lay stress upon certain resemblances between their language and the
+dialects of the native Americans. A better argument is the historical
+account taken from their annals about the expedition of Prince Madoc,
+son of a Welsh chieftain, who sailed due west in the year 1170, after
+the rumor of the Norse discoveries had reached Britain. He landed on a
+vast and fertile continent where he settled 120 colonists. On his return
+to Wales he fitted out a second fleet of ten ships, but the annals give
+no report of the result. Several writers state that the place of landing
+was near the Gulf of Mexico: Hakluyt connecting the discovery with
+Mexico (1589) and again with the West Indies (edition of 1600). In the
+seventeenth century some authors wished to substantiate the story of
+Prince Madoc, in order that the British claim to America should antedate
+the Spanish claim through Columbus. Prince Madoc is, to most readers,
+only known by Southey's poem.[6]
+
+[Footnote 6: Some quotations from Southey's poem are given in Chapters
+V, VI.]
+
+3. _Basque Discovery of America._--Who are the Basque people? A curious
+race of Spanish mountaineers, who have been as great a puzzle to
+ethnologists and historians as their language has been to philologists
+and scholars. We know, however, that in former times they were nearly
+all seamen, making long voyages to the north for whale and Newfoundland
+cod fishing. They have produced excellent navigators; and possibly
+preceded Columbus in discovering America. Sebastian, the lieutenant of
+Magellan, was one of the Basque race. Magellan did not live to complete
+his famous voyage, therefore Sebastian was the first actual
+circumnavigator of our globe.
+
+François Michel, in his work Le Pays Basque, says that the Basque
+sailors knew the coasts of Newfoundland a century before the time of
+Columbus; and that it was from one of these ocean mariners that he first
+learned the existence of a continent beyond the Atlantic. Other
+arguments are derived from comparing the peculiarities of the Basque
+tongue with those of the American dialects. Whitney, an American
+scholar, concludes that "No other dialect of the Old World so much
+resembles the American languages in structure as the Basque."
+
+4. _Jewish Discovery of America._--There is one claim for the discovery
+of America, which, though quite improbable, if not impossible, has been
+upheld and sanctioned by many scholarly works in several languages. It
+is argued that the red Indians represent the ten "Lost Tribes" of the
+Hebrew people who had been deported to Assyria and Media (_v._ Extinct
+Civilizations of the East, p. 109). The theory was first started by some
+Spanish priest-missionaries, and has since been defended by many learned
+divines both in England and America, one leading argument being certain
+similarities in the languages. Catlin (_v._ Smithsonian Report, 1885)
+enumerates many analogies which he found among the Western Indians. The
+most authoritative statement is that of Lord Kingsborough in the
+well-known Mexican Antiquities (1830-'48), chiefly in Vol. VII. Some
+writers actually quote a statement made in the Mormon Bible! Leading New
+England divines, like Mayhew and Cotton Mather, espoused the cause with
+similar faith, as well as Roger Williams and William Penn.
+
+5. _The Italian Discovery of America._--Not through Columbus the
+Genoese, or Amerigo Vespucci, the Florentine, although they were
+certainly Italians, but by two Venetians, Nicolo and Antonio Zeno. In A.
+D. 1380 or 1390 these brothers Zeni were shipwrecked in the North
+Atlantic, and, when staying in Frislanda, made the acquaintance of a
+sailor who, after twenty-six years' absence, had returned, giving them
+the following report:
+
+"Being driven west in a gale, he found an island with civilized
+inhabitants, who had Latin books, but could not speak Norse, and whose
+country was called Estotiland, while a region on the mainland, farther
+south, to which he had also gone, was called Drogeo. Here he had met
+with cannibals. Still farther south was a great country with towns and
+temples."
+
+The two brothers Zeni finally conveyed this account to another brother
+in Venice, together with a map of those distant regions, but these
+documents remained neglected till 1558, when a descendant compiled a
+book to embody the information, accompanied by a map, now famous as
+"the Zeno map."
+
+Humboldt, with reference to this map, remarks that it is singular that
+the name Frislanda should have been applied by Columbus to an island
+south of Iceland. Washington Irving (in his Life of Columbus) explains
+the book by a desire to appeal to the national pride of Italy, since, if
+true, the discovery of the brothers would antedate that of Columbus by a
+century.
+
+Malte-Brun, the distinguished geographer, distinctly accepted the Zeni
+narrative as true, and believed that it was by colonists from Greenland
+that the Latin books had reached Estotiland. Another strong advocate
+afterward appeared in Mr. Major, an official in the map department of
+the British Museum, who believed that much of the map in question
+represented genuine information of the fourteenth century, mixed with
+some spurious parts inserted by the younger Zeno. Mr. Major's paper on
+The Site of the Lost Colony of Greenland Determined, and the
+pre-Columbian Discoveries of America Confirmed, appeared in R. Geog.
+Soc. Journal, 1873; _v_. also Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc., 1874. Nordenskjöld
+also accepted the chief results of this Italian discovery, and as an
+arctic explorer of experience, his opinion carries weight. Mercator and
+Hugo Grotius were also believers in the Zeni account.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+"DISCOVERY OF THE WORLD AND OF MAN"
+
+
+At the beginning of this book a reference was made to the great upheaval
+in European history called the "Renascence" (Fr. _renaissance_) or
+Revival of Learning. In 1453 the Turks took Constantinople, driving the
+Greek scholars to take refuge in Italy, which at once became the most
+civilized nation in Europe. Poetry, philosophy, and art thence found
+their way to France, England, and Germany, being greatly assisted by the
+invention of printing, which just then was beginning to make books
+cheaper than they ever had been. At the same time feudalism was ruined,
+because the invention of gunpowder had previously been changing the art
+of war. For example, the King of France, Louis XI, as well as the King
+of England, Henry VII, had entire disposal of the national artillery;
+and therefore overawed the barons and armored knights. Neither moated
+fortresses nor mail-clad warriors, nor archers with bows and arrows,
+could prevail against powder and shot. The middle ages had come to an
+end; modern Europe was being born. France had become concentrated by the
+union of the south to the north on the conclusion of the "Hundred Years'
+War," the final expulsion of the English, and the abolition of all the
+great feudatories of the kingdom. England, at the same time, had
+entirely swept away the rule of the barons by the recent "Wars of the
+Roses," and Henry had strengthened his position by alliance with
+France, Spain, and Scotland. Spain, by the expulsion of the Moors from
+Granada in A. D. 1492, was for the first time concentrated into one
+great state by the union of Isabella's Kingdom of Castile-Leon to
+Ferdinand's Kingdom of Aragon-Sicily.
+
+From the importance of the word _renaissance_ as indicating the
+"movement of transition from the medieval to the modern world," Matthew
+Arnold gave it the English form "renascence"--adopted by J. R. Green,
+Coleridge, and others. In Germany, this great revival of letters and
+learning was contemporaneous with the Reformation, which had long been
+preparing (e. g., in England since John Wyclif) and was specially
+assisted by the invention of printing, which we have just mentioned. The
+minds of men everywhere were expanded: "whatever works of history,
+science, morality, or entertainment seemed likely to instruct or amuse
+were printed and distributed among the people at large by printers and
+booksellers."
+
+Thus it was that, though the Turks never had any pretension to learning
+or culture, yet their action in the middle of the fifteenth century
+indirectly caused a marvelous tide of civilization to overflow all the
+western countries of Europe. Another result in the same age was the
+increase of navigation and exploration--the discovery of the world as
+well as of man. When the Turks became masters of the eastern shores of
+the Mediterranean, the European merchants were prevented from going to
+India and the East by the overland route, as had been done for
+generations. Thus, since geography was at this very time improved by
+the science of Copernicus and others, the natural inquiry was how to
+reach India by sea instead of going overland. Columbus, therefore,
+sailed due west to reach Asia, and stumbled upon a "New World" without
+knowing what he did; then Cabot, sailing from Bristol, sailed northwest
+to reach India, and stumbled upon the continent of America; and during
+the same reign (Henry VII) the Atlantic coast of both North and South
+America was visited by English, Portuguese, or Spanish navigators. The
+third expedition to reach India by sea was under De Gama. He set out in
+the same year as Cabot, sailing into the South Atlantic, and ultimately
+did find the west coast of India at Calicut, after rounding the cape.
+
+The mere enumeration of so many events, all of first-rate importance,
+proves that that half century (say from A. D. 1460 to 1520) must be
+called "an age of marvels," _sæclum mirabile_. The concurrence of so
+many epoch-making results gave a great impulse, not only to the study of
+literature, science, and art, but to the exploration of many unknown
+countries in America, Africa, and Asia, and the universal expansion of
+human knowledge generally.
+
+I.--We shall now consider the first of these discoverers, who was also
+the greatest.
+
+COLUMBUS, the Latinized form of the Italian Colombo, Spanish, Colon.
+This Genoese navigator must throughout all history be called the
+discoverer of America, notwithstanding all the work of smaller men. From
+his study of geographical books in several languages, Columbus had
+convinced himself that our planet is spherical or ball-shaped, not a
+flat, plane surface. Till then India had always been reached by
+traveling overland toward the rising sun. Why not sail westward from
+Europe over the ocean, and thus come to the eastern parts of Asia by
+traveling toward the setting sun? By doing so, since our world is
+ball-shaped, said Columbus, we must inevitably reach Zipango (i. e.,
+"Japan") and Cathay (i. e., "China"), which are the most eastern parts
+of Asia. India then will be a mere detail. Judging from the accounts of
+Asia and its eastern islands given by Marco Polo, a Venetian, as well as
+from the maps sketched by Ptolemy, the Egyptian geographer, Columbus
+believed that the east coast of Asia was not so very far from the west
+coast of Europe. Columbus was confirmed in this opinion by a learned
+geographer of Florence, named Paul, and henceforward impatiently waited
+for an opportunity of testing the truth of his theory.
+
+He convinced himself, but could not convince any one else, that a
+westerly route to India was quite feasible. First he laid his plans
+before the authorities at Genoa, who had for generations traded with
+Asia by the overland journey, and ought therefore to have been glad to
+learn of this new alternative route, since the Turks were now playing
+havoc with the other; but no, they told Columbus that his idea was
+chimerical! Next he applied to the court of France. "Ridiculous!" was
+the reply, accompanied with a polite sneer. Next Columbus sent his
+scheme to Henry VII of England, a prince full of projects, but miserly.
+"Too expensive!" was the Tudor's reply, though presently, after the
+Spanish success, he became eager to despatch expeditions from Bristol
+under the Cabots. Then Columbus, by the advice of his brother, who had
+settled in Lisbon as a map-maker, approached King John, seeking
+patronage and assistance, pleading the foremost position of Portugal
+among the maritime states. The Portuguese neglected the golden
+opportunity, ocean navigation not being in their way as yet; their
+skippers preferred "to hug the African shore."
+
+At last Columbus gained the ear of Isabella, Queen of Castile; she
+believed in him and tried to get the assistance of her husband,
+Ferdinand, King of Aragon, in providing an outfit for the great
+expedition. Owing to Ferdinand's war in expelling the Moors from
+Granada, Columbus had still to wait several years.
+
+In a previous year, 1477, Columbus had sailed to the North Atlantic,
+perhaps in one of those Basque whalers already referred to, going "a
+hundred leagues beyond Thule." If that means Iceland, as is generally
+supposed, it seems most probable that, when conversing with the sailors
+there he must have heard how Leif, with his Norsemen, had discovered the
+American coasts of Newfoundland and Vinland some five centuries earlier,
+and how they had settled a colony on the new continent. Other writers
+have pointed out that Columbus could very well have heard of Vinland and
+the Northmen before leaving Genoa, since one of the Popes had sanctioned
+the appointment of a bishop over the new diocese. If so, the visit of
+Columbus to Iceland probably gave him confirmation as to the Norse
+discovery of the American continent.
+
+When at last King Ferdinand had taken Granada from the Moors, Columbus
+was put in command of three ships, with 120 men. He set sail from the
+port of Palos, in Andalusia, on a Friday, August 3, 1492, first steering
+to the Canary Islands, and then standing due west. In September, to the
+amazement of all on board, the compass was seen to "vary": an important
+scientific discovery--viz., that the magnetic needle does not always
+point to the pole-star. Some writers have imagined that the compass was
+for the first time utilized for a long journey by Columbus, but the
+occult power of the magnetic needle or "lodestone" had been known for
+ages before the fifteenth century. The ancient Persians and other "wise
+men of the East" used the lodestone as a talisman. Both the Mongolian
+and Caucasian races used it as an infallible guide in traveling across
+the mighty plains of Asia. The Cynosure in the Great Bear was the
+"guiding star," whether by sea or land; but when the heavens were
+wrapped in clouds, the magic stone or needle served to point exactly the
+position of the unseen star. What Columbus and his terrified crews
+discovered was the "variation of the compass," due to the fact that the
+magnetic needle points, not to the North Star, but to the "magnetic
+pole," a point in Canada to the west of Baffin's Bay and north of Hudson
+Bay.
+
+If Columbus had continued steering due west he would have landed on the
+continent of America in Florida; but before sighting that coast the
+course was changed to southwest, because some birds were seen flying in
+that direction. The first land reached was an island of the Bahama
+group, which he named _San Salvador_. As the Spanish boats rowed to
+shore they were welcomed by crowds of astonished natives, mostly naked,
+unless for a girdle of wrought cotton or plaited feathers. Hence the
+lines of Milton:
+
+                         Such of late
+  Columbus found the American, so girt
+  With feathered cincture, naked else and wild,
+  Among the trees on isles and woody shores.
+
+The spot of landing was formerly identified by Washington Irving and
+Baron Humboldt with "Cat Island"; but from the latest investigation it
+is now believed to have been Watling's Island. Here he landed on a
+Friday, October 12, 1492.
+
+So little was then known of the geography of the Atlantic or of true
+longitude, that Columbus attributed these islands to the _east coast of
+Asia_. He therefore named them "Indian Islands," as if close to
+Hindustan, a blunder that has now been perpetuated for four hundred and
+ten years. The natives were called "Indians" for the same reasons. As
+the knowledge of geography advanced it became necessary to say "West
+Indies" or "East Indies" respectively, to distinguish American from
+Asiatic--"Indian corn" means American, but "Indian ink" means Asiatic,
+etc. Even after his fourth and last voyage Columbus believed that the
+continent, as well as the islands, was a portion of eastern Asia, and he
+died in that belief, without any suspicion of having discovered a New
+World.
+
+A curious confirmation of the opinion of Columbus has just been
+discovered (1894) in the Florence Library, by Dr. Wieser, of Innsbruck.
+It is the actual copy of a map by the Great Admiral, drawn roughly in a
+letter written from Jamaica, July, 1503. It shows that his belief as to
+the part of the world reached in his voyages was that it was the east
+coast of Asia.
+
+The chief discovery made by Columbus in his first voyage was the great
+island of Cuba, which he imagined to be part of a continent. Some of the
+Spaniards went inland for sixty miles and reported that they had reached
+a village of more than a thousand inhabitants, and that the corn used
+for food was called _maize_--probably the first instance of Europeans
+using a term which was afterward to become as familiar as "wheat" or
+"barley." The natives told Columbus that their gold ornaments came from
+_Cubakan_, meaning the interior of Cuba; but he, on hearing the syllable
+_kan_, immediately thought of the "Khan" mentioned by Marco Polo, and
+therefore imagined that "Cathay" (the China of that famous traveler) was
+close at hand. The simple-minded Cubans were amazed that the Spaniards
+had such a love for gold, and pointed eastward to another island, which
+they called _Hayti_, saying it was more plentiful there than in Cuba.
+Thus Columbus discovered the second in size of all the West Indian
+islands, Cuba being the first; he, after landing on it, called it
+"Hispaniola," or Little Spain. Hayti in a few years became the
+headquarters of the Spanish establishments in the New World, after its
+capital, San Domingo, had been built by Bartholomew Columbus. It was in
+this island that the Spaniards saw the first of the "caziques," or
+native princes, afterward so familiar during the conquest of Mexico; he
+was carried on the shoulders of four men, and courteously presented
+Columbus with some plates of gold. In a letter to the monarchs of Spain
+the admiral thus refers to the natives of Hayti:
+
+     The people are so affectionate, so tractable, and so peaceable that
+     I swear to your Highnesses there is not a better race of men, nor a
+     better country in the world; ... their conversation is the sweetest
+     and mildest in the world, and always accompanied with a smile. The
+     king is served with great state, and his behavior is so decent that
+     it is pleasant to see him.
+
+The admiral had previously described the Indians of Cuba as equally
+simple and friendly, telling how they had "honored the strangers as
+sacred beings allied to heaven." The pity of it, and the shame, is that
+those frank, unsuspicious, islanders had no notion or foresight of the
+cruel desolation which their gallant guests were presently to bring upon
+the native races--death, and torture, and extermination!
+
+A harbor in Cuba is thus described by Columbus in a letter to Ferdinand
+and Isabella:
+
+     I discovered a river which a galley might easily enter.... I found
+     from five to eight fathoms of water. Having proceeded a
+     considerable way up the river, everything invited me to settle
+     there. The beauty of the river, the clearness of the water, the
+     multitude of palm-trees and an infinite number of other large and
+     flourishing trees, the birds and the verdure of the plains, ... I
+     am so much amazed at the sight of such beauty, that I know not how
+     to describe it.
+
+Having lost his flag-ship, Columbus returned to Spain with the two small
+caravels that remained from his petty fleet of three, arriving in the
+port of Palos March 15, 1493. The reception of the successful explorer
+was a national event. He entered Barcelona to be presented at court with
+every circumstance of honor and triumph. Sitting in presence of the king
+and queen he related his wondrous tale, while his attendants showed the
+gold, the cotton, the parrots and other unknown birds, the curious arms
+and plants, and above all the nine "Indians" with their outlandish
+trappings--brought to be made Christians by baptism. Ferdinand and
+Isabella heaped honors upon the successful navigator; and in return he
+promised them the untold riches of Zipango and Cathay. A new fleet,
+larger and better equipped, was soon found for a second voyage.
+
+With his new ships, in 1498, Columbus again stood due west from the
+Canaries; and at last discovering an island with three mountain summits
+he named it Trinidad (i. e., "Trinity") without knowing that he was then
+coasting the great continent of South America. A few days later he and
+the crew were amazed by a tumult of waves caused by the fresh water of a
+great river meeting the sea. It was the "Oronooko," afterward called
+Orinoco; and from its volume Columbus and his shipmates concluded that
+it must drain part of a continent or a very large island.
+
+  Where Orinoco in his pride,
+  Rolls to the main no tribute tide,
+  But 'gainst broad ocean urges far
+  A rival sea of roaring war;
+  While in ten thousand eddies driven
+  The billows fling their foam to heaven,
+  And the pale pilot seeks in vain,
+  Where rolls the river, where the main.
+
+That was the first glimpse which they had of America proper, still
+imagining it was only a part of eastern Asia. In the following voyage,
+his last, Columbus coasted part of the Isthmus of Darien. It was not,
+however, explored till the visit of Balboa.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+Cipher autograph of Columbus.
+
+The interpretation of the cipher is probably:
+
+SERVATF Christus Maria Yosephus (Christoferens).]
+
+It was during his third voyage that the "Great Admiral" suffered the
+indignity at San Domingo of being thrown into chains and sent back to
+Spain. This was done by Bobadilla, an officer of the royal household,
+who had been sent out with full power to put down misrule. The monarchs
+of Spain set Columbus free; and soon afterward he was provided with four
+ships for his fourth voyage. Stormy weather wrecked this final
+expedition, and at last he was glad to arrive in Spain, November 7,
+1504. He now felt that his work on earth was done, and died at
+Valladolid, May 20, 1506. After temporary interment there his body was
+transferred to the cathedral of San Domingo--whence, 1796, some remains
+were removed with imposing ceremonies to Havana. From later
+investigations it appears that the ashes of the Genoese discoverer are
+still in the tomb of San Domingo.
+
+It was in the cathedral of Seville, over his first tomb, that King
+Ferdinand is said to have honored the memory of the Great Admiral with a
+marble monument bearing the well-known epitaph:
+
+  A CASTILLA Y ARAGON
+  NUEVO MUNDO DIO COLON.
+
+or, "_To the united Kingdom of Castile-Aragon Columbus gave a New
+World_."
+
+After the death of Columbus, it seemed as if fate intended his family to
+enjoy the honors and rewards of which he had been so unjustly deprived.
+His son, Diego, wasted two years trying to obtain from King Ferdinand
+the offices of viceroy and admiral, which he had a right to claim in
+accordance with the arrangement formerly made with his father. At last
+Diego began a suit against Ferdinand before the council which managed
+Indian affairs. That court decided in favor of Diego's claim; and as he
+soon greatly improved his social position by marrying the niece of the
+Duke of Alva, a high nobleman, Diego received the appointment of
+governor (not viceroy), and went to Hayti, attended by his brother and
+uncles, as well as his wife and a large retinue. There Diego Columbus
+and his family lived, "with a splendor hitherto unknown in the New
+World."
+
+II.--Henry VII of England, after repenting that he had not secured the
+services of Columbus, commissioned John Cabot to sail from Bristol
+across the Atlantic in a northwesterly direction, with the hope of
+finding some passage there-abouts to India. In June, 1497, a new coast
+was sighted (probably Labrador or Newfoundland), and named _Prima
+Vista_. They coasted the continent southward, "ever with intent to find
+the passage to India," till they reached the peninsula now called
+Florida. On this important voyage was based the claim which the English
+kings afterward made for the possession of all the Atlantic coast of
+North America. King Henry wished colonists to settle in the new land,
+_tam viri quam feminæ_, but since, in his usual miserly character, he
+refused to give a single "testoon," or "groat" toward the enterprise, no
+colonies were formed till the days of Walter Raleigh, more than a
+century later.
+
+Sebastian Cabot, born in Bristol, 1477, was more renowned as a navigator
+than his father, John, and almost ranks with Columbus. After discovering
+Labrador or Newfoundland with his father, he sailed a second time with
+300 men to form colonies, passing apparently into Hudson Bay. He wished
+to discover a channel leading to Hindustan, but the difficulties of
+icebergs and cold weather so frightened his crews that he was compelled
+to retrace his course. In another attempt at the northwest passage to
+Asia, he reached latitude 67-1/2° north, and "gave English names to
+sundry places in Hudson Bay." In 1526, when commanding a Spanish
+expedition from Seville, he sailed to Brazil, which had already been
+annexed to Portugal by Cabrera, explored the River La Plata and ascended
+part of the Paraguay, returning to Spain in 1531. After his return to
+England, King Edward VI had some interviews with Cabot, one topic being
+the "variation of the compass." He received a royal pension of 250
+marks, and did special work in relation to trade and navigation. The
+great honor of Cabot is that he saw the American continent before
+Columbus or Amerigo Vespucci.
+
+III.--Of the great navigators of that unexampled age of discovery, as
+Spain was honored by Columbus and England by Cabot, so Portugal was
+honored by De Gama. Vasco de Gama, the greatest of Portuguese
+navigators, left Lisbon in 1497 to explore the unknown world lying east
+of the Cape of Good Hope, arriving at Calicut, May, 1498. Before that,
+Diaz had actually rounded the cape, but seems to have done so merely
+before a high gale. He named it "the stormy Cape." Cabrera, or Cabral,
+was another great explorer sent from Portugal to follow in the route of
+De Gama; but being forced into a southwesterly route by currents in the
+south Atlantic, he landed on the continent of America, and annexed the
+new country to Portugal under the name of Brazil. Cabrera afterward drew
+up the first commercial treaty between Portugal and India.
+
+IV.--Magellan, scarcely inferior to Columbus, brought honor as a
+navigator both to Portugal and Spain. For the latter country, when in
+the service of Charles V, he revived the idea of Columbus that we may
+sail to Asia or the Spice Islands by sailing _west_. With a squadron of
+five ships, 236 men, he sailed, in 1519, to Brazil and convinced
+himself that the great estuary was not a strait. Sailing south along the
+American coast, he discovered the strait that bears his name, and
+through it entered the Pacific, then first sailed upon by Europeans,
+though already seen by Balboa and his men "upon a peak in Darien"--as
+Keats puts it in his famous sonnet.[7] From the continuous fine weather
+enjoyed for some months, Magellan naturally named the new sea "the
+Pacific." After touching at the Ladrones and the Philippines, Magellan
+was killed in a fight with the inhabitants of Matan, a small island.
+Sebastian, his Basque lieutenant (mentioned in Chapter I) then
+successfully completed the circumnavigation of the world, sailing first
+to the Moluccas and thence to Spain.
+
+[Footnote 7: The poet, however, makes the clerical blunder of writing
+Cortez for Balboa.]
+
+V.--Of all the world-famous navigators contemporary with Colon, the
+Genoese, there remains only one deserving of our notice, and that
+because his name is for all time perpetuated in that of the New World.
+Amerigo (Latin _Americus_) Vespucci, born at Florence, 1451, had
+commercial occupation in Cadiz, and was employed by the Spanish
+Government. He has been charged with a fraudulent attempt to usurp the
+honor due to Columbus, but Humboldt and others have defended him, after
+a minute examination of the evidence. In a book published in 1507 by a
+German, _Waldseemüller_, the author happens to say:
+
+     And the fourth part of the world having been discovered by
+     Americus, it may be called Amerige, that is the land of Americus,
+     or _America_.
+
+Vespucci never called himself the discoverer of the new continent; as a
+mere subordinate he could not think of such a thing. As a matter of
+fact, he and Columbus were always on friendly terms, attached, and
+trusted. Humboldt explains the blunder of Waldseemüller and others by
+the general ignorance of the history of how America was discovered,
+since for some years it was jealously guarded as a "state secret."
+Humboldt curiously adds that the "musical sound of the name caught the
+public ear," and thus the blunder has been universally perpetuated:
+
+  _statque stabitque
+  in omne volubilis ævum_.
+
+Another reason for the universal renown of Amerigo was that his book was
+the first that told of the new "Western World"; and was therefore
+eagerly read in all parts of Europe.
+
+Cuba, though the largest of the West Indian islands, and second to be
+discovered, was not colonized till after the death of Columbus. Thus for
+more than three centuries and a half, as "Queen of the Antilles" and
+"Pearl of the Antilles," Cuba has been noted as a chief colonial
+possession of Spain, till recent events brought it under the power of
+the United States. The conquest of the island was undertaken by
+Velasquez, who, after accompanying the great admiral in his second
+voyage, had settled in Hispaniola (or Hayti) and acquired a large
+fortune there. He had little difficulty in the annexation of Cuba,
+because the natives, like those of Hispaniola, were of a peaceful
+character, easily imposed upon by the invaders. The only difficulty
+Velasquez had was in the eastern part of the island, where Hatuey, a
+cazique or native chief, who had fled there from Hispaniola, made
+preparations to resist the Spaniards. When defeated, he was cruelly
+condemned by Velasquez to be burned to death, as a "slave who had taken
+arms against his master." The scene at Hatuey's execution is well known:
+
+     When fastened to the stake, a Franciscan friar promised him
+     immediate admittance into the joys of heaven, if he would embrace
+     the Christian faith. "Are there any Spaniards," says he, after some
+     pause, "in that region of bliss which you describe?" "Yes," replied
+     the monk, "but only such as are worthy and good." "The best of them
+     have neither worth nor goodness: I will not go to a place where I
+     may meet with one of that accursed race."
+
+Being thus annexed in 1511, by the middle of the century all the native
+Indians of Cuba had become extinct. In the following century this large
+and fertile island suffered severely by the buccaneers, but during the
+eighteenth century it prospered. During the nineteenth century, the
+United States Government had often been urged to obtain possession of
+it; for example, the sum of one hundred million dollars was offered in
+1848 by President Polk. Slavery was at last abolished absolutely in
+1886. In recent years Spain, by ceding Cuba and the Philippines to the
+United States and the Carolines to Germany, has brought her colonial
+history to a close.
+
+Two other important events occurred when Velasquez was Governor of Cuba:
+first, the escape of Balboa from Hispaniola, to become afterward
+Governor of Darien; and, second, the expedition under Cordova to
+explore that part of the continent of America which lies nearest to
+Cuba. This expedition of 110 men, in three small ships, led to the
+discovery of that large peninsula now known as Yucatan. Cordova imagined
+it to be an island. The natives were not naked, like those of the West
+Indian islands, but wore cotton clothes, and some had ornaments of gold.
+In the towns, which contained large stone houses, and country generally,
+there were many proofs of a somewhat advanced civilization. The natives,
+however, were much more warlike than the simple islanders of Cuba and
+Hispaniola; and Cordova, in fact, was glad to return from Yucatan.
+
+Velasquez, on hearing the report of Cordova, at once fitted out four
+vessels to explore the newly discovered country, and despatched them
+under command of his nephew, Grijalva. Everywhere were found proofs of
+civilization, especially in architecture. The whole district, in fact,
+abounds in prehistoric remains. From a friendly chief Grijalva received
+a sort of coat of mail covered with gold plates; and on meeting the
+ruler of the province he exchanged some toys and trinkets, such as glass
+beads, pins, scissors, for a rich treasure of jewels, gold ornaments and
+vessels.
+
+Grijalva was therefore the first European to step on the Aztec soil and
+open an intercourse with the natives. Velasquez, the Governor, at once
+prepared a larger expedition, choosing as leader or commander an officer
+who was destined henceforth to fill a much larger place in history than
+himself, one who presently appeared capable of becoming a general in the
+foremost rank, Hernando Cortés, greatest of all Spanish explorers.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE EXTINCT CIVILIZATION OF THE AZTECS
+
+
+In the Extinct Civilizations of the East it was shown that the cosmogony
+of the Chaldeans closely resembles that of the Hebrews and the
+Phenicians, and that the account of the deluge in Genesis exactly
+reproduces the much earlier one found on one of the Babylonian tablets.
+
+Traces of a deluge legend also existed among the early Aztecs. They
+believed
+
+     that two persons survived the Deluge, a man named Koksoz and his
+     wife. Their heads are represented in ancient paintings together
+     with a boat floating on the waters at the foot of a mountain. A
+     dove is also depicted, with a hieroglyphical emblem of languages in
+     his mouth.... Tezpi, the Noah of a neighboring people, also escaped
+     in a boat, which was filled with various kinds of animals and
+     birds. After some time a vulture was sent out from it, but remained
+     feeding on the dead bodies of the giants, which had been left on
+     the earth as the waters subsided. The little humming-bird was then
+     sent forth and returned with the branch of a tree in its mouth.
+
+Another Aztec tradition of the deluge is that the pyramidal mound, the
+temple of Cholula (a sacred city on the way between the capital and the
+seaport), was built by the giants to escape drowning. Like the tower of
+Babel, it was intended to reach the clouds, till the gods looked down
+and, by destroying the pyramid by fires from heaven, compelled the
+builders to abandon the attempt.
+
+The hieroglyphics used in the Aztec calendar correspond curiously with
+the zodiacal signs of the Mongols of eastern Asia. "The symbols in the
+Mongolian calendar are borrowed from animals, and four of the twelve are
+the same as the Aztec."
+
+The antiquity of most of the monuments is proved--e. g., by the growth
+of trees in the midst of the buildings in Yucatan. Many have had time to
+attain a diameter of from six to nine feet. In a courtyard at Uxmal, the
+figures of tortoises sculptured in relief upon the granite pavement are
+so worn away by the feet of countless generations of the natives that
+the design of the artist is scarcely recognizable.
+
+The Spanish invaders demolished every vestige of the Aztec religious
+monuments, just as Roman Catholic images and paraphernalia were once
+treated by the "straitest sects" of Protestants, or even Mohammedans.
+
+The beautiful plateau around the lakes of Mexico, as well as other
+central portions of America, were without any doubt occupied from the
+earliest ages by peoples who gradually advanced in civilization from
+generation to generation and passed through cycles of revolutions--in
+one century relapsing, in another advancing by leaps and bounds by an
+infusion of new blood or a change of environment--exactly similar to the
+checkered annals of the successive dynasties in the Nile Valley and the
+plains of Babylonia. In the New World, as in the Old World, from
+prehistoric times wealth was accumulated at such centers, bringing
+additional comfort and refinement, and implying the practise of the
+useful arts and some applications of science. As to the legendary
+migrations or even those extinct races whose names still remain, Max
+Müller said:[8]
+
+[Footnote 8: Chips from a German Workshop, i, 327.]
+
+     The traditions are no better than the Greek traditions about
+     Pelasgians, Æolians, and Ionians, and it would be a mere waste of
+     time to construct out of such elements a systematic history, only
+     to be destroyed again sooner or later, by some Niebuhr, Grote, or
+     Lewis.
+
+_Anahuac_ (i. e., "waterside" or "the lake-country"), in the early
+centuries of our era, was a name of the country round the lakes and town
+afterward called Mexico. To this center, as a place for settlement,
+there came from the north or northwest a succession of tribes more or
+less allied in race and language--especially (according to one theory)
+the _Toltecs_ from Tula, and the _Aztecs_ from Aztlan. Tula, north of
+the Mexican Valley, had been the first capital of the Toltecs, and at
+the time of the Spanish conquest there were remains of large buildings
+there. Most of the extensive temples and other edifices found throughout
+"New Spain" were attributed to this race and the word "toltek" became
+synonymous with "architect."
+
+Some five centuries after the Toltecs had abandoned Tula, the Aztecs or
+early Mexicans arrived to settle in the Valley of Anahuac. With the
+Aztecs came the Tezcucans, whose capital, Tezcuco, on the eastern border
+of the Mexican lake, has given it its still surviving name.
+
+The Aztecs, again, after long migrations from place to place, finally,
+in A. D. 1325, halted on the southwestern shores of the great lake.
+According to tradition, a heavenly vision thus announced the site of
+their future capital:
+
+     They beheld perched on the stem of a prickly-pear, which shot out
+     from the crevice of a rock washed by the waves, a royal eagle of
+     extraordinary size and beauty, with a serpent in its talons, and
+     its broad wings opened to the rising sun. They hailed the
+     auspicious omen, announced by an oracle as indicating the sight of
+     their future city, and laid its foundations by sinking piles into
+     the shallows; for the low marshes were half buried under water....
+     The place was called Tenochtitlan (i. e. "the cactus on a rock") in
+     token of its miraculous origin. [Such were the humble beginnings of
+     the Venice of the Western World.][9]
+
+[Footnote 9: Prescott, i, I, pp. 8, 9.]
+
+To this day the arms of the Mexican republic show the device of the
+eagle and the cactus--to commemorate the legend of the foundation of the
+capital--afterward called Mexico from the name of their war-god. Fiercer
+and more warlike than their brethren of Tezcuco, the men of the latter
+town were glad of their assistance, when invaded and defeated by a
+hostile tribe. Thus Mexico and Tezcuco became close allies, and by the
+time of Montezuma I, in the middle of the fifteenth century, their
+sovereignty had extended beyond their native plateau to the coast
+country along the Gulf of Mexico. The capital rapidly increased in
+population, the original houses being replaced by substantial stone
+buildings. There are documents showing that Tenochtitlan was of much
+larger dimensions than the modern capital of Mexico, on the same site.
+Just before the arrival of the Spaniards, at the beginning of the
+sixteenth century, the kingdom extended from the gulf across to the
+Pacific; and southward under the ruthless Ahuitzotl over the whole of
+Guatemala and Nicaragua.
+
+The Aztecs resembled the ancient Peruvians in very few respects, one
+being the use of knots on strings of different colors to record events
+and numbers. Compare our account of "the quipu" in Chapter X. The Aztecs
+seem to have replaced that rude method of making memoranda during the
+seventh century by picture-writing. Before the Spanish invasion,
+thousands of native clerks or chroniclers were employed in painting on
+vegetable paper and canvas. Examples of such manuscripts may still be
+seen in all the great museums. Their contents chiefly refer to ritual,
+astrology, the calendar, annals of the kings, etc.
+
+Most of the literary productions of the ancient Mexicans were stupidly
+destroyed by the Spanish under Cortés. The first Archbishop of Mexico
+founded a professorship in 1553 for expounding the hieroglyphs of the
+Aztecs, but in the following century the study was abandoned. Even the
+native-born scholars confessed that they were unable to decipher the
+ancient writing. One of the most ancient books (assigned to Tula, the
+"Toltec" capital, A. D. 660, and written by Huetmatzin, an astrologer),
+describes the heavens and the earth, the stars in their constellations,
+the arrangement of time in the official calendar, with some geography,
+mythology, and cosmogony. In the fifteenth century the King of Tezcuco
+published sixty hymns in honor of the Supreme Being, with an elegy on
+the destruction of a town, and another on the instability of human
+greatness.
+
+In the same century the three Anahuac states (Acolhua, Mexico, and
+Tlacopan) formed a confederacy with a constant tendency to give Mexico
+the supremacy. The two capitals looking at each other across the lake
+were steadily growing in importance, with all the adjuncts of public
+works--causeways, canals, aqueducts, temples, palaces, gardens, and
+other evidences of wealth.
+
+The horror and disgust caused by the Aztec sacrificial bloodshed are
+greatly increased by considering the number of the victims. The kings
+actually made war in order to provide as many victims as possible for
+the public sacrifices--especially on such an occasion as a coronation or
+the consecration of a new temple. Captives were sometimes reserved a
+considerable time for the purpose of immolation. It was the regular
+method of the Aztec warrior in battle not to kill one's opponent if he
+could be made a captive; to take him alive was a meritorious act in
+religion. In fact, the Spaniards in this way frequently escaped death at
+the hands of their Mexican opponents. When King Montezuma was asked by a
+European general why he had permitted the republic of Tlascala to remain
+independent on the borders of his kingdom, his reply was, "That she
+might furnish me with victims for my gods."
+
+In reckoning the number of victims Prescott seems to have trusted too
+implicitly to the almost incredible accounts of the Spanish. Zumurraga,
+the first Bishop of Mexico, asserts that 20,000 were sacrificed
+annually, but Casas points out that with such a "waste of the human
+species," as is implied in some histories, the country could not have
+been so populous as Cortés found it. The estimate of Casas is "that the
+Mexicans never sacrificed more than fifty or a hundred persons in a
+year."
+
+Notwithstanding the wholesale bloodshed before the shrines of their gory
+gods, we can still assign to the Aztecs a high degree of civilization.
+The history of even modern Europe will illustrate this statement,
+although apparently paradoxical.
+
+Consider "the condition of some of the most polished countries in the
+sixteenth century after the establishment of the modern Inquisition--an
+institution which yearly destroyed its thousands by a death more painful
+than the Aztec sacrifices, ... which did more to stay the march of
+improvement than any other scheme ever devised by human cunning....
+Human sacrifice was sometimes voluntarily embraced by the Aztecs as the
+most glorious death, and one that opened a sure passage into paradise.
+The Inquisition, on the other hand, branded its victims with infamy in
+this world, and consigned them to everlasting perdition in the next."
+
+The difficulty with the Aztecs is how to reconcile such refinement as
+their extinct civilization showed with their savage enjoyment of
+bloodshed. "No captive was ever ransomed or spared; all were sacrificed
+without mercy, and their flesh devoured." The first of the four chief
+counselors of the empire was called the "Prince of the Deadly Lance,"
+the second "Divider of Men," the third "Shedder of Blood," the fourth
+"the Lord of the Dark House."
+
+The temples were very numerous, generally merely pyramidal masses of
+clay faced with brick or stone. The roof was a broad area on which stood
+one or two towers, from forty to fifty feet in height, forming the
+sanctuaries of the presiding deities, and therefore containing their
+images. Before these sanctuaries stood the dreadful stone of sacrifice.
+There were also two altars with sacred fires kept ever burning.
+
+All the religious services were public, and the pyramidal temples, with
+stairs round their massive sides, allowed the long procession of priests
+to be visible as they ceremoniously ascended to perform the dread office
+of slaughtering the human victims.
+
+Human sacrifices had not originally been a feature of the Aztec worship.
+But about 200 years before the arrival of the Spanish invaders was the
+beginning of this religious atrocity, and at last no public festival was
+considered complete without some human bloodshed.
+
+Prescott takes as an example the great festival in honor of
+Tezcatlipoca, a handsome god of the second rank, called "the soul of the
+world," and endowed with perpetual youth.
+
+     A year before the intended sacrifice, a captive, distinguished for
+     his personal beauty and without a blemish on his body, was
+     selected.... Tutors took charge of him and instructed him how to
+     perform his new part with becoming grace and dignity. He was
+     arrayed in a splendid dress, regaled with incense and with a
+     profusion of sweet-scented flowers.... When he went abroad he was
+     attended by a train of the royal pages, and as he halted in the
+     streets to play some favorite melody, the crowd prostrated
+     themselves before him, and did him homage as the representative of
+     their good deity.... Four beautiful girls, bearing the names of the
+     principal goddesses, were selected, and with them he continued to
+     live idly, feasted at the banquets of the principal nobles, who
+     paid him all the honors of a divinity. When at length the fatal
+     day of sacrifice arrived, ... stripped of his gaudy apparel, one of
+     the royal barges transported him across a lake to a temple which
+     rose on its margin.... Hither the inhabitants of the capital
+     flocked to witness the consummation of the ceremony. As the sad
+     procession wound up the sides of the pyramid, the unhappy victim
+     threw away his gay chaplets of flowers and broke in pieces his
+     musical instruments. ... On the summit he was received by six
+     priests, whose long and matted locks flowed in disorder over their
+     sable robes, covered with hieroglyphic scrolls of mystic import.
+     They led him to the sacrificial stone, a huge block of jasper, with
+     its upper surface somewhat convex. On this the victim was
+     stretched. Five priests secured his head and limbs, while the
+     sixth, clad in a scarlet mantle, emblematic of his bloody office,
+     dexterously opened the breast of the wretched victim with a sharp
+     razor of _itzli_, and inserting his hand in the wound, tore out the
+     palpitating heart, and after holding it up to the sun (as
+     representing the supreme God), cast it at the feet of the deity to
+     whom the temple was devoted, while the multitudes below prostrated
+     themselves in humble adoration.
+
+Such was an instance of the human sacrifices for which ancient Mexico
+became infamous to the whole civilized world.
+
+One instance of a sacrifice differing from the ordinary sort is thus
+given by a Spanish historian:
+
+     A captive of distinction was sometimes furnished with arms for
+     single combat against a number of Mexicans in succession. If he
+     defeated them all, as did occasionally happen, he was allowed to
+     escape. If vanquished he was dragged to the block and sacrificed in
+     the usual manner. The combat was fought on a huge circular stone
+     before the population of the capital.
+
+Women captives were occasionally sacrificed before those bloodthirsty
+gods, and in a season of drought even children were sometimes
+slaughtered to propitiate Tlaloc, the god of rain.
+
+     Borne along in open litters, dressed in their festal robes and
+     decked with the fresh blossoms of spring, they moved the hardest
+     hearts to pity, though their cries were drowned in the wild chant
+     of the priests who read in their tears a favorable augury for the
+     rain prayer.
+
+One Spanish historian informs us that these innocent victims of this
+repulsive religion were generally bought by the priests from parents who
+were poor.
+
+We may now resume the traditional settlement of the ancient Mexicans on
+the region called Anahuac, including all the fertile plateau and
+extending south to the lake of Nicaragua. The chief tribes of the race
+were said to have come from California, and after being subject to the
+Colhua people asserted their independence about A. D. 1325. Soon
+afterward, their first capital, Tenochtitlan, was built on the site of
+Mexico, their permanent center. For several generations they lived, like
+their remote ancestors, the Red Men of the Woods, as hunters, fishers,
+and trappers, but at last their prince or chief cazique was powerful
+enough to be called king. The rule of this Aztec prince, beginning A. D.
+1440, marked the beginning of their greatness as a race. It became a
+rule of their kingdom that every new king must gain a victory before
+being crowned; and thus by the conquest of a new nation furnish a supply
+of captives to gratify their tutelary deity by the necessary human
+sacrifices. In 1502 the younger Montezuma ascended the throne. He is
+better known to us than the previous kings, because it was in his reign
+that the Spanish conquerors appeared on the scene. From the time of
+Cortés the history of the Aztecs becomes part of that of the Mexicans.
+They were easily conquered by the European troops, partly because of
+their betrayal by various of the neighboring nations whom they had
+formerly conquered. At the beginning of the sixteenth century, according
+to Prescott, the Aztec king ruled the continent from the Atlantic to the
+Pacific.
+
+From the scientific side of their extinct civilization it is their
+knowledge of astronomy that chiefly causes astonishment (see also p.
+85). As in the case of the Chaldeans and Babylonians, a motive
+for the study of the stars and planets was the priestly one of
+accurately fixing the religious festivals. The tropical year being thus
+ascertained, their tables showed the exact time of the equinox or sun's
+transit across the equatorial, and of the solstice. From a very early
+period they had practised agriculture, growing Indian corn and "Mexican
+aloe." Having no animals of draft, such as the horse, or ox, their
+farming was naturally of a rude and imperfect sort.
+
+"The degree of civilization," says Prescott, "which the Aztecs reached,
+as inferred by their political institutions, may be considered, perhaps,
+not much short of that enjoyed by our Saxon ancestors under Alfred."
+
+In a passage comparing the Aztecs to the American Indians, we read:
+
+     The latter has something peculiarly sensitive in his nature. He
+     shrinks instinctively from the rude touch of a foreign hand. Even
+     when this foreign influence comes in the form of civilization he
+     seems to sink and pine away beneath it. It has been so with the
+     Mexicans. Under the Spanish domination their numbers have silently
+     melted away. Their energies are broken. They no longer tread their
+     mountain plains with the conscious independence of their ancestors.
+     In their faltering step and meek and melancholy aspect we read the
+     sad characters of the conquered race.... Their civilization was of
+     the hardy character which belongs to the wilderness. The fierce
+     virtues of the Aztec were all his own.
+
+Humboldt found some analogy between the Aztec theory of the universe, as
+taught by the priests, and the Asiatic "cosmogonies." The Aztecs, in
+explaining the great mystery of man's existence after death, believed
+that future time would revolve in great periods or cycles, each
+embracing thousands of years. At the end of each of the four cycles of
+future time in the present world, "the human family will be swept from
+the earth by the agency of one of the elements, and the sun blotted out
+from the heavens to be again rekindled."
+
+The priesthood comprised a large number who were skilled in astrology
+and divination. The great temple of Mexico, alone, had 5,000 priests in
+attendance, of whom the chief dignitaries superintended the dreadful
+rites of human sacrifice. Others had management of the singing choirs
+with their musical accompaniment of drums and other instruments; others
+arranged the public festivals according to the calendar, and had charge
+of the hieroglyphical word-painting and oral traditions. One important
+section of the priesthood were teachers, responsible for the education
+of the children and instruction in religion and morality. The head
+management of the hierarchy or whole ecclesiastical system, was under
+two high priests--the more dignified that they were chosen by the king
+and principal nobles without reference to birth or social station. These
+high priests were consulted on any national emergency, and in precedency
+of rank were superior to every man except the king. Montezuma is said to
+have been a priest.
+
+The priestly power was more absolute than any ever experienced in
+Europe. Two remarkable peculiarities were that when a sinner was
+pardoned by a priest, the certificate afterward saved the culprit from
+being legally punished for any offense; secondly, there could be no
+pardon for an offense once atoned for if the offense were repeated.
+"Long after the conquest, the simple natives when they came under the
+arm of the law, sought to escape by producing the certificate of their
+former confession." (Prescott, i, 33.)
+
+The prayer of the priest-confessor, as reported by a Spanish historian,
+is very remarkable:
+
+     "O, merciful Lord, thou who knowest the secrets of all hearts, let
+     thy forgiveness and favor descend, like the pure waters of heaven,
+     to wash away the stains from the soul. Thou knowest that this poor
+     man has sinned, _not from his own free will_, but from the
+     influence of the sign under which he was born...."
+
+     After enjoining on the penitent a variety of minute ceremonies by
+     way of penance, the confessor urges the necessity of instantly
+     procuring a slave for sacrifice to the Deity.
+
+In the schools under the clergy the boys were taught by priests and the
+girls by priestesses. There was a higher school for instruction in
+tradition and history, the mysteries of hieroglyphs, the principles of
+government, and certain branches of astronomical and natural science.
+
+In the education of their children the Mexican community were very
+strict, but from a letter preserved by one of the Spanish historians, we
+can not doubt the womanly affection of a mother who thus wrote to her
+daughter:
+
+     My beloved daughter, very dear little dove, you have already heard
+     and attended to the words which your father has told you. They are
+     precious words, which have proceeded from the bowels and heart in
+     which they were treasured up; and your beloved father well knows
+     that you, his daughter, begotten of him, are his blood and his
+     flesh; and God our Lord knows that it is so. Although you are a
+     woman, and are the image of your father, what more can I say to you
+     than has already been said?... My dear daughter, whom I tenderly
+     love, see that you live in the world in peace, tranquillity, and
+     contentment--see that you disgrace not yourself, that you stain not
+     your honor, nor pollute the luster and fame of your ancestors....
+     May God prosper you, my first-born, and may you come to God, who is
+     in every place.[10]
+
+[Footnote 10: Sahagun, Hist. de Nueva España, vi, 19.]
+
+Some trace of a "natural piety," which will probably surprise our
+readers, is also found in the ceremony of Aztec baptism, as described by
+the same writer. After the head and lips of the infant were touched with
+water and a name given to it, the goddess Cioacoatl was implored "that
+the sin which was given to us before the beginning of the world might
+not visit the child, but that, cleansed by these waters, it might live
+and be born anew." In Sahagun's account we read:
+
+     When all the relations of the child were assembled, the midwife,
+     who was the person that performed the rite of baptism, was
+     summoned. When the sun had risen, the midwife, taking the child in
+     her arms, called for a little earthen vessel of water.... To
+     perform the rite, she placed herself _with her face toward the
+     west_, and began to go through certain ceremonies.... After this
+     she sprinkled water on the head of the infant, saying, "O my child!
+     receive the water of the Lord of the world, which is our life, and
+     is given for the increasing and renewing of our body. It is to wash
+     and to purify." ... [After a prayer] she took the child in both
+     hands, and lifting him toward heaven said, "O Lord, thou seest here
+     thy creature whom thou hast sent into this world, this place of
+     sorrow, suffering, and penitence. Grant him, O Lord, thy gifts and
+     thine inspiration."
+
+The science of the Aztecs has excited the wonder of all competent
+judges, such as Humboldt (already quoted) and the astronomer La Place.
+Lord Kingsborough remarks in his great work:
+
+     It can hardly be doubted that the Mexicans were acquainted with
+     many scientifical instruments of strange invention;... whether the
+     telescope may not have been of the number is uncertain; but the
+     thirteenth plate of M. Dupaix's Monuments, which represents a man
+     holding something of a similar nature to his eye, affords reason to
+     suppose that they knew how to improve the powers of vision.
+
+References to the calendar of the Aztecs should not omit the secular
+festival occurring at the end of their great cycle of fifty-two years.
+From the length of the period, two generations, one might compare it
+with the "jubilee" of ancient Israel--a word made familiar toward the
+close of Queen Victoria's reign. The great event always took place at
+midwinter, the most dreary period of the year, and when the five
+intercalary days arrived they "abandoned themselves to despair,"
+breaking up the images of the gods, allowing the holy fires of the
+temples to go out, lighting none in their homes, destroying their
+furniture and domestic utensils, and tearing their clothes to rags. This
+disorder and gloom signified that figuratively the end of the world was
+at hand.
+
+     On the evening of the last day, a procession of priests, assuming
+     the dress and ornaments of their gods, moved from the capital
+     toward a lofty mountain, about two leagues distant. They carried
+     with them a noble victim, the flower of their captives, and an
+     apparatus for kindling the _new fire_, the success of which was an
+     augury of the renewal of the cycle. On the summit of the mountain,
+     the procession paused till midnight, when, as the constellation of
+     the Pleiades[11] approached the zenith, the new fire was kindled by
+     the friction of some sticks placed on the breast of the victim. The
+     flame was soon communicated to a funeral-pyre on which the body of
+     the slaughtered captive was thrown. As the light streamed up toward
+     heaven, shouts of joy and triumph burst forth from the countless
+     multitudes who covered the hills, the terraces of the temples, and
+     the housetops.... Couriers, with torches lighted at the blazing
+     beacon, rapidly bore them over every part of the country.... A new
+     cycle had commenced its march.
+
+     The following thirteen days were given up to festivity. ... The
+     people, dressed in their gayest apparel, and crowned with garlands
+     and chaplets of flowers, thronged in joyous procession to offer up
+     their oblations and thanksgivings in the temples. Dances and games
+     were instituted emblematical of the regeneration of the world.
+
+[Footnote 11: A famous group of seven small stars in the Bull
+constellation. The "seven sisters" appear as only _six_ to ordinary
+eyesight: to make out the seventh is a test of a practised eye and
+excellent vision.]
+
+Prescott compares this carnival of the Aztecs to the great secular
+festival of the Romans or ancient Etruscans, which (as Suetonius
+remarked) "few alive had witnessed before, or could expect to witness
+again." The _ludi sæculares_ or secular games of Rome were held only at
+very long intervals and lasted for three days and nights.
+
+The poet Southey thus refers to the ceremony of opening the new Aztec
+cycle, or Circle of the Years.
+
+  On his bare breast the cedar boughs are laid,
+  On his bare breast, dry sedge and odorous gums,
+  Laid ready to receive the sacred spark,
+  And blaze, to herald the ascending sun,
+  Upon his living altar. Round the wretch
+  The inhuman ministers of rites accurst
+  Stand, and expect the signal when to strike
+  The seed of fire. Their Chief, apart from all,
+      ... eastward turns his eyes;
+  For now the hour draws nigh, and speedily
+  He look's to see the first faint dawn of day
+  Break through the orient sky.
+
+  _Madoc_, ii, 26.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+AMERICAN ARCHEOLOGY
+
+
+Long before the time of Columbus and the Spanish conquest there existed
+on the table-land of Mexico two great races or nations, as has already
+been shown, both highly civilized, and both akin in language, art, and
+religion. Ethnologists and antiquaries are not agreed as to their origin
+or the development of their civilization. Many recent critics have held
+the theory that there had been a previous people from whom both races
+inherited their extinct civilization, this previous race being the
+"Toltecs," whom we have repeatedly mentioned in the preceding chapter.
+To that previous race some attribute the colossal stonework around
+Lake Titicaca, as well as other survivals of long-forgotten culture.
+Some would even class them with the "mound-builders" of the Ohio Valley.
+Other recent antiquaries, however, while fully admitting the
+Aztec-Tescucan civilization to be real and historical, treat the Toltec
+theory as partly or entirely mythical. One writer alleges, after the
+manner of Max Müller, that the Toltecs are "simply a personification of
+the rays of light" radiating from the Aztec sun-god.
+
+Leaving abstract theories, we shall devote this chapter to the principal
+facts of American archeology--especially as regards the races and the
+monuments of their long extinct civilizations. Throughout many parts of
+both North and South America, and over large areas, the red-skinned
+natives continued their generations as their ancestors had done through
+untold centuries, scarcely rising above the state of rude, uncultured
+sons of the soil living as hunters, trappers, fishers, as had been done
+immemorially
+
+  When wild in woods the noble savage ran,
+
+as Dryden puts it. But in Mexico, Yucatan, and Central America,
+Colombia, and Peru there were men of the original redskin race who had
+distinctly attained to civilization for unknown generations before the
+time of Columbus. Not only so, but in many centers of wealth and
+population the process of social improvement and advance had been
+continuous for unrecorded ages; and in certain cases a long extinct
+civilization had over-laid a previous civilization still more remotely
+extinct. Some works constructed for supplying water, for example, could
+only have been applied to that purpose when the climate or geological
+conditions were quite different from what they have always been in
+historical times!
+
+Who is the red man? Compared in numbers with the yellow man, the white
+man, or even the black, he is very unimportant, being only one-tenth as
+great as the African race.[12] In American ethnology, however, the red
+man is all-important. Primeval men of this race undoubtedly formed the
+original stock whence during the centuries were derived all the numerous
+tribes of "Indians" found in either North or South America. Throughout
+Asia and Africa there is great diversity in type among the races that
+are indigenous; but as to America, to quote Humboldt:
+
+[Footnote 12: White or Caucasian 640,000,000, yellow or Mongolian
+600,000,000, black or African 200,000,000, red or American 20,000,000.]
+
+     The Indians of New Spain [i. e., Mexico] bear a general resemblance
+     to those who inhabit Canada, Florida, Peru, and Brazil. We have the
+     same swarthy and copper color, straight and smooth hair, small
+     beard, squat body, long eye, with the corner directed upward toward
+     the temples, prominent cheek-bones, thick lips, and expression of
+     gentleness in the mouth, strongly contrasted with a gloomy and
+     severe look.
+
+Whence the original red men of America were derived it is impossible to
+say. The date is too remote and the data too few. From fossil remains of
+human bones, Agassiz estimated a period of at least ten thousand years;
+and near New Orleans, beneath four buried forests, a skeleton was found
+which was possibly fifty thousand years old. If, therefore, the redskins
+branched off from the yellow man, it must have been at a period which
+lies utterly beyond historic ken or calculation.
+
+Some recent ethnologists have borrowed the "glacier theory" from the
+science of geology, in order to trace the development of civilization
+among certain races. In Switzerland and Greenland the signs of the
+action of a glacier can be traced and recognized just as we trace the
+proofs of the action of water in a dry channel. Visit the front of a
+glacier in autumn after the summer heat has made it shrink back, you
+will see (1) rounded rocks, as if planed on the top, with (2) a mixed
+mass of stones and gravel like a rubbish-heap, scattered on (3) a mass
+of clay and sand, containing boulders. The same three tests are
+frequently found in countries where there have been no glaciers within
+the memory of man.
+
+Such traces, found not only in England, Scotland, and Ireland, but in
+northern Germany and Denmark, prove that the mountain mass of
+Scandinavia was the nucleus of a huge ice-cap "radiating to a distance
+of not less than 1,000 miles, and thick enough to block up with solid
+ice the North Sea, the German Ocean, the Baltic, and even the Atlantic
+up to the 100-fathom line." In North America the same thing is proved by
+similar evidence. A gigantic ice-cap extending from Canada has glaciated
+all the minor mountain ranges to the south, sweeping over the whole
+continent. The drift and boulders still remain to prove the fact, as far
+south as only 15° north of the tropic. A warm oceanic current, like the
+Gulf Stream of the Atlantic, would shorten a glacial period. Speaking of
+Scotland, one authority states that "if the Gulf Stream were diverted
+and the Highlands upheaved to the height of the New Zealand Alps, the
+whole country would again be buried under glaciers pushing out into the
+seas" on the west and east.
+
+The theory is that as the climate became warmer, the ice-fronts
+retreated northward by the shrinking of the glaciers, and therefore the
+animals, including man, were able to live farther north. The men of that
+very remote period were "Neolithic," and some of the stone monuments are
+attributed to them that were formerly called "Druidic." A recent writer
+asks; with reference to Stonehenge:
+
+     Did Neolithic men slowly coming northward, as the rigors of the
+     last glacial period abated, domicile here, and build this huge
+     gaunt temple before they passed farther north, to degrade and
+     dwindle down into Eskimos wandering the dismal coasts of arctic
+     seas?
+
+Another writer, with reference to the American ice-sheet, says:
+
+     During the second glacial epoch when the great boreal ice-sheet
+     covered one-half of the North American continent, reaching as far
+     south as the present cities of Philadelphia and St. Louis, and the
+     glaciated portions were as unfit for human occupation as the
+     snow-cap of Greenland is to-day, aggregations of population
+     clustered around the equatorial zone, because the climatic
+     conditions were congenial. And inasmuch as civilization, the world
+     over, clings to the temperate climates and thrives there best, we
+     are not surprised to learn that communities far advanced in arts
+     and architecture built and occupied those great cities in Yucatan,
+     Honduras, Guatemala, and other Central American states, whose
+     populations once numbered hundreds of thousands.
+
+     An approximate date when this civilization was at the acme of its
+     glory would be about ten thousand years ago. This is established by
+     observations upon the recession of the existing glacier fronts,
+     which are known to drop back twelve miles in one hundred years.
+
+     With the gradual withdrawal of the glacial ice-sheet the climate
+     grew proportionately milder, and flora and fauna moved
+     simultaneously northward. Some emigrants went to South America and
+     settled there, carrying their customs, arts, ceremonial rites,
+     hieroglyphs, architecture, etc.; and an immense exodus took place
+     into Mexico, which ultimately extended westward up the Pacific
+     coast.
+
+     In subsequent epochs when the ice-sheet had withdrawn from large
+     areas, there were immense influxes of people from Asia via Bering
+     Strait on the Pacific side, and from northwestern Europe via
+     Greenland on the Atlantic side. The Korean immigration of the year
+     544 led to the founding of the Mexican Empire in 1325.
+
+To trace then the gradations of ascent from the native American--called
+"Indians" by a blunder of the Great Admiral, as afterward they were
+nicknamed "redskins" by the English settlers--to the Mexicans,
+Peruvians, or Colombians is a task far beyond our strength. Leaving the
+question of race, therefore, we now turn to the antiquarian remains,
+especially the architectural.
+
+The prehistoric civilization which was developed to the south of Mexico
+is generally known as "Mayan," although the Mayas were undoubtedly akin
+to the Aztecs or early Mexicans. The Maya tribes in Yucatan and
+Honduras, from abundant evidence, must have risen to a refinement in
+prehistoric times, which, in several respects, was superior to that of
+the Aztecs. In architecture they were in advance from the earliest ages
+not only of the Aztec peoples, but of all the American races.
+
+In Yucatan the Mayas have left some wonderful remains at Mayapan, their
+prehistoric capital, and near it at a place called Uxmal which has
+become famous from its vast and elaborate structures,[13] evidencing a
+knowledge of art and science which had flourished in this region for
+centuries before the arrival of the Spanish. The chief building in Uxmal
+is in pyramidal form, the principal design in the ancient Aztec temples
+(as well as those of Chaldea, etc.), consisting of three terraces faced
+with hewn stone. The terraces are in length 575, 545, and 360 feet
+respectively; with the temple on the summit, 322 feet, and a great
+flight of stairs leading to it. The whole building is surrounded by a
+belt of richly sculptured figures, above a cornice. At Chichen, also in
+Yucatan, there is an area of two miles perimeter entirely covered with
+architectural ruins; many of the roofs having apparently consisted of
+stone arches, painted in various colors. One building, of peculiar
+construction, proves an enigma to all travelers: it is more than ninety
+yards long and consists of two parallel walls, each ten yards thick, the
+distance between them being also ten yards. It has been conjectured that
+the anomalous construction had reference to some public games by which
+the citizens amused themselves in that long-forgotten period. Among
+other memorials of Mayan architecture in this country is the city of
+Tuloom on the east coast, fortified with strong walls and square towers.
+A more remarkable "find" in the dense forests of Chiapas, in the same
+country, is the city recorded by Stephens and other travelers. It is
+near the coast, at the place where Cortés and his Spanish soldiers were
+moving about for a considerable time, yet they do not appear to have
+ever seen the splendid ruins, or to have at all suspected their
+existence. Even if the natives knew, the Spaniards might have found the
+toil of forcing a passage through such forests too laborious. The name
+of the city which had so long been buried under the tropical vegetation
+was quite unknown, nor was there any tradition of it; but when found it
+was called "Palenque," from the nearest inhabited village. There were
+substantial and handsome buildings with excellent masonry, and in many
+cases beautiful sculptures and hieroglyphical figures.
+
+[Footnote 13: See Frontispiece.]
+
+Merida, the capital of Yucatan, is on the site of a prehistoric city
+whose name had also become unknown. When building the present town, the
+Spaniards utilized the ancient buildings as quarries for good stones.
+
+The larger prehistoric structures are frequently on artificial mounds,
+being probably intended for religious or ceremonial purposes. The walls
+both within and without are elaborately decorated, sometimes with
+symbolic figures. Sometimes officials in ceremonial costumes are seen
+apparently performing religious rites. These are often accompanied by
+inscriptions in low relief, with the peculiar Mayan characters which
+some archeologists call "calculiform hieroglyphs" (_v._ p. 82).
+
+On one of the altar-slabs near Palenque there occurs a sculptured group
+
+    of several figures in the act of making offerings to a central
+    object shaped like the Latin cross. "The Latin, the Greek, and the
+    Egyptian cross or _tau_ (T) were evidently sacred symbols to this
+    ancient people, bearing some religious meanings derived from their
+    own cult."[14]
+
+[Footnote 14: D. G. Brinton.]
+
+The cross occurs frequently, not only in the Mayan sculptures, but also
+in the ceremonial of the Aztecs. The Spanish followers of Cortés were
+astonished to see this symbol used by these "barbarians," as they called
+them. Winsor (i, 195) says that the Mayan cross has been explained to
+mean "the four cardinal points, the rain-bringers, the symbol of life
+and health"; and again, "the emblem of fire, indeed an ornamental
+fire-drill."
+
+Students of architecture find a rudimentary form of the arch occurring
+in some of the ruins, notably at Palenque. Two walls are built parallel
+to each other, at some distance apart, then at the beginning of the arch
+the layers on both sides have the inner stones slightly projecting, each
+layer projecting a little more than the previous one, till at a certain
+height the stones of one wall are almost touching those of the wall
+opposite. Finally, a single flat stone closes in the space between and
+completes the arch.
+
+In Honduras, on the banks of the Copan, the Spaniards found a
+prehistoric capital in ruins, on an elevated area, surrounded by
+substantial walls built of dressed stones, and enclosing large groups of
+buildings. One structure is mainly composed of huge blocks of polished
+stone. In several houses the whole of the external surface is covered
+with elaborate carved designs:
+
+     The adjacent soil is covered with sculptured obelisks, pillars, and
+     idols, with finely dressed stones, and with blocks ornamented with
+     skilfully carved figures of the characteristic Maya hieroglyphs,
+     which, could they be deciphered, would doubtless reveal the story
+     of this strange and solitary city.
+
+In western Guatemala, at Utatla, the ancient capital of the Quiches, a
+tribe allied to the Mayas, several pyramids still remain. One is 120
+feet high, surmounted by a stone wall, and another is ascended by a
+staircase of nineteen steps, each nineteen inches in height.
+
+The literary remains (such as Alphabets, Hieroglyphs, Manuscripts, etc.)
+of the Maya and Aztec races are in some respects as vivid a proof of the
+extinct civilizations as any of the architectural monuments already
+discussed. Both Aztecs and Mayans of Yucatan and Central America used
+picture-writing, and sometimes an imperfect form of hieroglyphics. The
+most elementary kind was simply a rough sketch of a scene or historical
+group which they wished to record. When, for example, Cortés had his
+first interview with some messengers sent by Montezuma, one of the
+Aztecs was observed sketching the dress and appearance of the Spaniards,
+and then completing his picture by using colors. Even in recent times
+Indians have recorded facts by pictographs: in Harper's Magazine
+(August, 1902) we read that "pictographs and painted rocks to the number
+of over 3,000 are scattered all over the United States, from the Dighton
+Rock, Massachusetts (_v_. pp. 27, 28), to the Kern River Cañon in
+California, and from the Florida Cape to the Mouse River in Manitoba.
+The identity of the Indians with their ancient progenitors is further
+proved by relics, mortuary customs, linguistic similarities, plants and
+vegetables, and primitive industrial and mechanical arts, which have
+remained constant throughout the ages." The pictographs of the Kern
+River Cañon, according to the same writer, were inscribed on the rocks
+there "about five thousand years ago."
+
+A more advanced form of picture-writing is frequently found in the Mayan
+and other inscriptions and manuscripts. Two objects are represented,
+whose names, when pronounced together, give a sound which suggests the
+name to be recorded or remembered. Thus, the name Gladstone may be
+expressed in this manner by two pictures, one a laughing face (i. e.,
+"happy" or "glad"), the other a rock (i. e., "stone"). It is exactly the
+same contrivance that is used to construct the puzzle called a "rebus."
+
+A third form of hieroglyphic was by devising some conventional mark or
+symbol to suggest the initial sound of the name to be recorded. Such a
+mark or character would be a "letter," in fact; and thus the prehistoric
+alphabets were arrived at, not only among the early Mayans of Yucatan,
+etc., but among the prehistoric peoples of Asia, as the Chinese, the
+Hittites, etc., as well as the primeval Egyptians. Many of the
+sculptures in Copan and Palenque to which we have referred contain
+pictographs and hieroglyphs. A Spanish Bishop of Yucatan drew up a Mayan
+alphabet in order to express the hieroglyphs on monuments and
+manuscripts in Roman letters; but much more data are needed before
+scholars will read the ancient Mayan-Aztec tongues as they have been
+enabled to understand the Egyptian inscriptions or the cuneiform records
+of Babylonia. For the American hieroglyphs we still lack a second Young
+or Champollion.
+
+There are three famous manuscripts in the Mayan character:
+
+     1. The Dresden Codex, preserved in the Royal Library of that city.
+     It is called a "religious and astrological ritual" by Abbé
+     Brasseur.
+
+     2. Codex Troano, in Madrid, described in two folios by Abbé
+     Brasseur.
+
+     3. Codex Peresianus, named from the wrapper in which it was found,
+     1859, which had the name "Perez." It is also known as Codex
+     Mexicanus.
+
+In Lord Kingsborough's great work on Mexican Antiquities there are
+several of the Mayan manuscripts printed in facsimile, and others in a
+book by M. Aubin, of Paris.
+
+Each group of letters in a Mayan inscription is enclosed in an irregular
+oval, supposed to resemble the cross-section of a pebble; hence the term
+_calculiform_ (i. e., "pebble-shaped") is applied to their hieroglyphs,
+as _cuneiform_ (i. e., "wedge-shaped") is applied to the Babylonian and
+Assyrian letters.
+
+The paper which the prehistoric Mexicans (Mayas, Aztecs, or Tescucans,
+etc.) used for writing and drawing upon was of vegetable origin, like
+the Egyptian papyrus. It was made by macerating the leaves of the
+_maguey_, a plant of the greatest importance (_v._ p. 94). When the
+surface of the paper was glazed, the letters were painted on in
+brilliant colors, proceeding from left to right, as we do. Each book was
+a strip of paper, several yards long and about ten inches wide, not
+rolled round a stick, as the volumes of ancient Rome were, but folded
+zigzag, like a screen. The protecting boards which held the book were
+often artistically carved and painted.
+
+The topics of the ordinary books, so far as we yet know, were religious
+ritual, dreams, and prophecies, the calendar, chronological notes,
+medical superstitions, portents of marriage and birth. The written
+language was in common and extensive use for the legal conveyance and
+sale of property.
+
+One of the most remarkable facts connected with this extinct
+civilization was the accuracy of their calendar and chronological
+system. Their calendar was actually superior to that then existing in
+Europe. They had two years: one for civil purposes, of three hundred and
+sixty-five days, divided into eighteen months of twenty days, besides
+five supplementary days; the other, a ritual or ecclesiastical year, to
+regulate the public festivals. The civil year required thirteen days to
+be added at the end of every fifty-two years, so as to harmonize with
+the ritual year. Each month contained four weeks of five days, but as
+each of the twenty days (forming a month) had a distinct name, Humboldt
+concluded that the names were borrowed from a prehistoric calendar, used
+in India and Tartary.
+
+Wilson (Prehistoric Man, i, 133) remarks:
+
+     By the unaided results of native science the dwellers on the
+     Mexican plateau had effected an adjustment of civil to solar time
+     so nearly correct that when the Spaniards landed on their coast,
+     their own reckoning according to the unreformed Julian calendar,
+     was really eleven days in error, compared with that of the
+     barbarian nation whose civilization they so speedily effaced.
+
+In 1790 there was found in the Square of Mexico a famous relic, the
+Mexican Calendar Stone, "one of the most striking monuments of American
+antiquity." It was long supposed to have been intended for chronological
+purposes; but later authorities call it a votive tablet or sacrificial
+altar.[15] Similar circular stones have been dug up in other parts of
+Mexico and in Yucatan.
+
+[Footnote 15: Pp. 68-70, _v._ p. 95.]
+
+Both the Mayas and the Aztecs excelled in the ordinary arts of civilized
+life. Paper-making has already been spoken of. Cotton being an important
+produce of their soil, they understood its spinning, dyeing, and weaving
+so well that the Spaniards mistook some of the finer Aztec fabrics for
+silk. They cultivated maize, potatoes, plantains, and other vegetables.
+Both in Mexico and Yucatan they produced beautiful work in feathers;
+metal working was not so important as in some countries, being chiefly
+for ornamental purposes. In fact, it was the comparative plenty of gold
+and silver around Mexico that delayed the invasion of the Mayan country
+for more than twenty years. The Mayas had developed trade to a
+considerable extent before the Spanish invasion, and interchanged
+commodities with the island of Cuba. It was there, accordingly, that
+Columbus first saw this people, and first heard of Yucatan.
+
+Of the Mexican remains on the central plateau, the most conspicuous is
+the mound or pyramid of Cholula, although it retains few traces of
+prehistoric art. A modern church with a dome and two towers now occupies
+the summit, with a paved road leading up to it. It is chiefly noted,
+first, by antiquaries, as having originally been a great temple of
+Quetzalcoatl, the beneficent deity, famous in story; and, secondly, for
+the fierce struggle around the mound and on the slopes between the
+Mexicans and Spanish. (_V._ pp. 130-133.)
+
+Another mound in this district, Yochicalco, lies seventy-five miles
+southwest of the capital. It is considered one of the best memorials of
+the extinct civilization, consisting of five terraces supported by stone
+walls, and formerly surmounted by a pyramid.
+
+Passing from the traces of Aztec and Mayan civilization, we may now
+glance at the antiquities of the Colombian states. There are no temples
+or large structures, because the natives, before the Spanish conquest,
+used timber for building, but owing to the abundance of gold in their
+brooks and rivers, they developed skill in gold-working, and produced
+fine ornaments of wonderful beauty. Many hollow figures have been found,
+evidently cast from molds, representing men, beasts, and birds, etc.
+Stone-cutting was also an art of this ancient race, sometimes applied to
+making idols bearing hieroglyphs.
+
+When the Spaniards invaded them to take their gold and precious stones,
+the "Chibchas," who then held the Colombian table-land and valleys,
+threw large quantities of those valuables into a lake near Bogota, the
+capital. It was afterward attempted to recover those treasures by
+draining off the water, but only a small portion was found; and in the
+present year (1903) a new engineering attempt has been made. A Spanish
+writer, in 1858, asserted that evidence was found in the caves and mines
+that in ancient times the Colombians produced an alloy of gold, copper,
+and iron having the temper and hardness of steel. On a tributary of the
+River Magdalena there are many curious stone images, sometimes with
+grotesquely carved faces.
+
+Turning next to the mound-builders, in the Ohio and upper Mississippi
+Valley, we find traces of an extinct civilization in high mounds,
+evidently artificial, extensive embankments, broad deep ditches,
+terraced pyramids, and an interesting variety of stone implements and
+pottery. Some mounds were for burial-places, others for sacrificial
+purposes, others again as a site for building, like those we have seen
+in Mexico and Maya. Many enclosures contain more than fifty acres of
+land; and one embankment is fifty miles long. Among the relics
+associated with those works are articles of pottery, knives, and copper
+ornaments, hammered silver, mica, obsidian, pearls, beautifully
+sculptured pipes, shells, and stone implements. The mounds found in some
+of the Gulf States seem to confirm a theory that the mound-builders were
+the ancestors of the Choctaw Indians and their allies, and had been
+driven southward.
+
+In the lower Mississippi Valley, eastward to the seacoast, there are
+many large earthworks, including round and quadrilateral mounds,
+embankments, canals, and artificial lakes. Similar works can be traced
+to the southern extremity of Florida. Some were constructed as sites for
+large buildings. The tribes to whom they are due are now known to have
+been agricultural--growing maize, beans, and pumpkins; with these
+products and those of the chase they supported a considerable
+population.
+
+Among other antiquarian remains in America are the cliff-houses and
+"pueblos." The former peculiarity is explained by the deep cañons of the
+dry table-land of Colorado. Imagine a narrow deep cutting or narrow
+trench worn by water-courses out of solid rock, deep enough to afford a
+channel to the stream from 500 to 1,500 feet below the plateau above.
+Next imagine one of the caves which the water many ages ago had worn out
+of the perpendicular sides of the cañon; and in that cave a substantial,
+well-built structure of cut stones bedded in firm mortar. Such are the
+"cliff--houses," sometimes of two stories. Occasionally there is a
+watch-tower perched on a conspicuous point of rock near a
+cliff-dwelling, with small windows looking to the east and north. These
+curious buildings, though now prehistoric, in a sense, are believed by
+archeologists to be later than the Spanish conquest. Peru is very
+important archeologically, but some interesting points will properly
+fall under our general account of that country and its conquest by
+Spain.
+
+[Illustration: Chulpa or Stone Tomb of the Peruvians.]
+
+In Peruvian architecture, we find "Cyclopean walls," with polygonal
+stones of five or six feet diameter, so well polished and adjusted that
+no mortar was necessary; sometimes with a projecting part of the stone
+fitting exactly into a corresponding cavity of the stone immediately
+above or below it. Such huge stones are of hard granite or basalt, etc.
+The walls are often very massive and substantial, sometimes from thirty
+to forty feet in thickness. The only approach to the modern "arch" in
+the Peruvian structures is a device similar to that which was described
+under the Mayan architecture.
+
+Some important buildings were surrounded with large upright stones,
+similar to the famous "Druidic" temple at Stonehenge. All of the chief
+structures were accurately placed with reference to the cardinal points,
+and the main entrance always faced the east. The Peruvian tombs were
+very elaborate, one kind being made by cutting caverns in the steep
+precipices of the cordillera and then carefully walling in the entrance.
+Another variety (the _chulpa_) was really a stone tower erected above
+ground, twelve to thirty feet high. The chulpas were sometimes built in
+groups.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+MEXICO BEFORE THE SPANISH INVASION
+
+
+The Aztecs and the Tescucans were the chief races occupying the great
+table-land of Anahuac, including, as we have seen, the famous Mexican
+Valley. In the preceding chapter we have set forth some of the leading
+points in the extinct civilization of those races, and also that of the
+Mayas, who in several respects were perhaps superior to the Anahuac
+kingdoms.
+
+Several features of the early Mexican civilization will come before us
+as we accompany the European conquerors, in their march over the
+table-land. Meantime, we glance first at the geography of this
+magnificent region, and secondly at the manners and institutions of the
+people, their industrial arts, etc., and their terrible religion. The
+last-mentioned topic has already been partly discussed in Chapter III.
+
+The Tropic of Cancer passes through the middle of Mexico, and therefore
+its southern half, which is the most important, is all under the burning
+sun of the "torrid zone." This heat, however, is greatly modified by the
+height of the surface above sea-level, since the country, taken as a
+whole, is simply an extensive table-land. The height of the plain in the
+two central states, Mexico and Puebla, is 8,000 feet, or about double
+the average height of the highest summits in the British Isles. On the
+west of the republic is a continuous chain of mountains, and on the east
+of the table-land run a series of mountainous groups parallel to the
+seacoast, with a summit in Vera Cruz of over 13,400 feet. To the south
+of the capital an irregular range running east and west contains these
+remarkable volcanoes--Colima, 14,400 feet; Jorulla, Popocatepetl,
+17,800; Orizaba (extinct), 18,300, the highest summit in Mexico, and,
+with the exception of some of the mountains of Alaska, in North America.
+The great plateau-basin formed around the capital and its lakes is
+completely enclosed by mountains.
+
+This high table-land has its own climate as compared with the broad
+tract lying along the Atlantic. Hence the latter is known as the hot
+region (_caliente_), and the former the cold region (_fria_). Between
+the two climates, as the traveler mounts from the sea-level to the great
+plateau, is the temperate region (_templada_), an intermediate belt of
+perpetual humidity, a welcome escape from the heat and deadly malaria of
+the hot region with its "bilious fevers." Sometimes as he passes along
+the bases of the volcanic mountains, casting his eye "down some steep
+slope or almost unfathomable ravine on the margin of the road, he sees
+their depths glowing with the rich blooms and enameled vegetation of the
+tropics." This contrast arises from the height he has now gained above
+the hot coast region.
+
+The climate on the table-land is only cold in a relative sense, being
+mild to Europeans, with a mean temperature at the capital of 60°, seldom
+lowered to the freezing-point. The "temperate" slopes form the "Paradise
+of Mexico," from "the balmy climate, the magnificent scenery, and the
+wealth of semitropical vegetation."
+
+The Aztec and Tescucan laws were kept in state records, and shown
+publicly in hieroglyphs. The great crimes against society were all
+punished with death, including the murder of a slave. Slaves could hold
+property, and all their sons were freedmen. The code in general showed
+real respect for the leading principles of morality.
+
+In Mexico, as in ancient Egypt,
+
+     the soldier shared with the priest the highest consideration. The
+     king must be an experienced warrior. The tutelary deity of the
+     Aztecs was the god of war. A great object of military expeditions
+     was to gather hecatombs of captives for his altars. The soldier who
+     fell in battle was transported at once to the region of ineffable
+     bliss in the bright mansions of the sun.... Thus every war became
+     a crusade; and the warrior was not only raised to a contempt of
+     danger, but courted it--animated by a religious enthusiasm like
+     that of the early Saracen or the Christian crusader.
+
+The officers of the armies wore rich and conspicuous uniforms--a
+tight-fitting tunic of quilted cotton sufficient to turn the arrows of
+the native Indians; a cuirass (for superior officers) made of thin
+plates of gold or silver; an overcoat or cloak of variegated
+feather-work; helmets of wood or silver, bearing showy plumes, adorned
+with precious stones and gold ornaments. Their belts, collars,
+bracelets, and earrings were also of gold or silver.
+
+Southey, in his poem, makes his Welsh prince, Madoc, thus boast:
+
+  Their mail, if mail it may be called, was woven
+  Of vegetable down, like finest flax,
+  Bleached to the whiteness of new-fallen snow,
+  ... Others of higher office were arrayed
+  In feathery breastplates, of more gorgeous hue
+  Than the gay plumage of the mountain-cock,
+  Than the pheasants' glittering pride. But what were these
+  Or what the thin gold hauberk, when opposed
+  To arms like ours in battle?
+
+  _Madoc_, i, 7.
+
+We learn of the ancient Mexicans, to their honor, that in the large
+towns hospitals were kept for the cure of the sick and wounded soldiers,
+and as a permanent refuge if disabled. Not only so, says a Spanish
+historian, but "the surgeons placed over them were so far better than
+those in Europe that they did not protract the cure to increase the
+pay."
+
+Even the red man of the woods, as we learn from Fenimore Cooper and
+Catlin, believes reverently in the Great Spirit who upholds the
+universe; and similarly his more civilized brother of Mexico or Tezcuco
+spoke of a Supreme Creator, Lord of Heaven and Earth. In their prayers
+some of the phrases were:
+
+     The God by whom we live, omnipresent, knowing all thoughts, giving
+     all gifts, without whom man is nothing, invisible, incorporeal, of
+     perfect perfection and purity, under whose wings we find repose and
+     a sure defense.
+
+Prescott, however, remarks that notwithstanding such attributes "the
+idea of unity--of a being with whom volition is action, who has no need
+of inferior ministers to execute his purposes--was too simple, or too
+vast, for their understandings; and they sought relief, as usual, in a
+plurality of deities, who presided over the elements, the changes of the
+seasons, and the various occupations of man."
+
+The Aztecs, in fact, believed in thirteen _dii majores_ and over 200
+_dii minores_. To each of these a special day was assigned in the
+calendar, with its appropriate festival. Chief of them all was that
+bloodthirsty monster _Huitsilopochtli_, the hideous god of
+war--tutelary deity of the nation. There was a huge temple to him in
+the capital, and on the great altar before his image there, and on all
+his altars throughout the empire, the reeking blood of thousands of
+human victims was being constantly poured out.
+
+The terrible name of this Mexican Mars has greatly puzzled scholars of
+the language. According to one derivation, the name is a compound of
+two words, _humming-bird_ and _on the left_, because his image has the
+feathers of that bird on the left foot. Prescott naturally thinks that
+"too amiable an etymology for so ruffian a deity." The other name of the
+war-god, _Mexitl_ (i. e., "the hare of the aloes"), is much better
+known, because from it is derived the familiar name of the capital.
+
+[Illustration: Quetzalcoatl.]
+
+The god of the air, _Quetzalcoatl_, a beneficent deity, who taught
+Mexicans the use of metals, agriculture, and the arts of government.
+Prescott remarks that
+
+     he was doubtless one of those benefactors of their species who have
+     been deified by the gratitude of posterity.
+
+There was a remarkable tradition of Quetzalcoatl, preserved among the
+Mexicans, that he had been a king, afterward a god, and had a temple
+dedicated to his worship at Cholula[16] when on his way to the Mexican
+Gulf. Embarking there, he bade his people a long farewell, promising
+that he and his descendants would revisit them. The expectation of his
+return prepared the way for the success of the tall white-skinned
+invaders.
+
+[Footnote 16: The ruins were referred to in chap, iv, (_v._ p. 84, also
+130.)]
+
+In the Aztec agriculture, the staple plant was of course the _maize_ or
+Indian corn. Humboldt tells us that at the conquest it was grown
+throughout America, from the south of Chile to the River St. Lawrence;
+and it is still universal in the New World. Other important plants on
+the Aztec soil were the _banana_, which (according to one Spanish
+writer) was the forbidden fruit that tempted our poor mother Eve; the
+_cacao_, whose fruit supplies the valuable chocolate; the _vanilla_,
+used for flavoring; and most important of all, the _maguey_, or Mexican
+aloe, much valued because its leaves were manufactured into paper, and
+its juice by fermentation becomes the national intoxicant, "pulque." The
+_maguey_, or great Mexican aloe, grown all over the table-land, is
+called "the miracle of nature," producing not only the _pulque_, but
+supplying _thatch_ for the cottages, _thread_ and _cords_ from its tough
+fiber, _pins_ and _needles_ from the thorns which grow on the leaves, an
+excellent _food_ from its roots, and _writing-paper_ from its leaves.
+One writer, after speaking of the "pulque" being made from the "maguey,"
+adds, "with what remains of these leaves they manufacture excellent and
+very fine cloth, resembling holland or the finest linen."
+
+The _itztli_, formerly mentioned as being used at the sacrifices by the
+officiating priest, was "obsidian," a dark transparent mineral, of the
+greatest hardness, and therefore useful for making knives and razors.
+The Mexican sword was serrated, those of the finest quality being of
+course edged with itztli. Sculptured figures abounded in every Aztec
+temple and town, but in design very inferior to the ancient specimens of
+Egypt and Babylonia, not to mention Greece. A remarkable collection of
+their sculptured images occurred in the _place_ or great square of
+Mexico--the Aztec forum--and similar spots. Ever since the Spanish
+invasion the destruction of the native objects of art has been ceaseless
+and ruthless. "Two celebrated bas-reliefs of the last Montezuma and his
+father," says Prescott, "cut in the solid rock, in the beautiful groves
+of Chapoltepec, were deliberately destroyed, as late as the last century
+[i. e., the eighteenth], by order of the government." He further
+remarks:
+
+     This wantonness of destruction provokes the bitter animadversion of
+     the Spanish writer Martyr, whose enlightened mind respected the
+     vestiges of civilization wherever found. "The conquerors," says he,
+     "seldom repaired the buildings that they defaced; they would rather
+     sack twenty stately cities than erect one good edifice."
+
+The pre-Columbian Mexicans inherited a practical knowledge of mechanics
+and engineering. The Calendar Stone, for example (spoken of in the
+preceding chapter), a mass of dark porphyry estimated at fifty tons
+weight, was carried for a distance of many leagues from the mountains
+beyond Lake Chalco, through a rough country crossed by rivers and
+canals. In the passage its weight broke down a bridge over a canal, and
+the heavy rock had to be raised from the water beneath. With such
+obstacles, without the draft assistance of horses or cattle, how was it
+possible to effect such a transport? Perhaps the mechanical skill of
+their builders and engineers had contrived some tramway or other
+machinery. An English traveler had a curious suggestion:
+
+     Latrobe accommodates the wonders of nature and art very well to
+     each other, by suggesting that these great masses of stone were
+     transported by means of the mastodon, whose remains are
+     occasionally disinterred in the Mexican Valley.
+
+The Mexicans wove many kinds of cotton cloth, sometimes using as a dye
+the rich crimson of the cochineal insect. They made a more expensive
+fabric by interweaving the cotton with the fine hair of rabbits, and
+other animals; sometimes embroidering with pretty designs of flowers and
+birds, etc. The special art of the Aztec weaver was in feather-work,
+which when brought to Europe produced the highest admiration:
+
+     With feathers they could produce all the effect of a beautiful
+     mosaic. The gorgeous plumage of the tropical birds, especially of
+     the parrot tribe, afforded every variety of color; and the fine
+     down of the humming-bird, which reveled in swarms among the
+     honeysuckle bowers of Mexico, supplied them with soft aerial tints
+     that gave an exquisite finish to the picture. The feathers, pasted
+     on a fine cotton web, were wrought into dresses for the wealthy,
+     hangings for apartments, and ornaments for the temples.
+
+When some of the Mexican feather-work was shown at Strasbourg: "Never,"
+says one admirer, "did I behold anything so exquisite for brilliancy
+and nice gradation of color, and for beauty of design. No European
+artist could have made such a thing."
+
+Instead of shops the Aztecs had in every town a market-place, where
+fairs were held every fifth day--i. e., once a week. Each commodity had
+a particular quarter, and the traffic was partly by barter, and partly
+by using the following articles as money: bits of tin shaped like an
+Egyptian cross (T), bags of cacao holding a specified number of grains,
+and, for large values, quills of gold-dust.
+
+The married women among the Aztecs were treated kindly and respectfully
+by their husbands. The feminine occupations were spinning and
+embroidery, etc., as among the ancient Greeks, while listening to
+ballads and love stories related by their maidens and musicians
+(Ramusio, iii, 305).
+
+In banquets and other social entertainments the women had an equal share
+with the men. Sometimes the festivities were on a large scale, with
+costly preparations and numerous attendants. The Mexicans, ancient and
+modern, have always been passionately fond of flowers, and on great
+occasions not only were the halls and courts strewed and adorned in
+profusion with blossoms of every hue and sweet odor, but perfumes
+scented every room. The guests as they sat down found ewers of water
+before them and cotton napkins, since washing the hands both before and
+after eating was a national habit of almost religious obligation.[17]
+Modern Europeans believe that tobacco was introduced from America in
+the time of Queen Isabella and Queen Elizabeth, but ages before that
+period the Aztecs at their banquets had the "fragrant weed" offered to
+the company, "in pipes, mixed up with aromatic substances, or in the
+form of cigars, inserted in tubes of tortoise-shell or silver." The
+smoke after dinner was no doubt preliminary to the _siesta_ or nap of
+"forty winks." It is not known if the Aztec ladies, like their
+descendants in modern Mexico, also appreciated the _yetl_, as the
+Mexicans called "tobacco." Our word came from the natives of Hayti, one
+of the islands discovered by Columbus.
+
+[Footnote 17: Sahagun (vi, 22) quotes the precise instructions of a
+father to his son: he must wash face and hands before sitting down to
+table, and must not leave till he has repeated the operation and
+cleansed his teeth.]
+
+The tables of the Aztecs abounded in good food--various dishes of meat,
+especially game, fowl, and fish. The turkey, for example, was introduced
+into Europe from Mexico, although stupidly supposed to have come from
+Asia. The French named it _coq d'Inde_,[18] the "Indian cock," meaning
+American, but the ordinary hearer imagined _d'Inde_ meant from
+Hindustan. The blunder arose from that misapplication of the word
+"Indian," first made by Columbus, as we formerly explained.
+
+[Footnote 18: The Spanish named this handsome bird _gallopavo_ (Lat.
+_pavo_, the "peacock"). The wild turkey is larger and more beautiful
+than the tame, and therefore Benjamin Franklin, when speaking
+sarcastically of the "American Eagle," insisted that the wild turkey was
+the proper national emblem.]
+
+The Aztec cooks dressed their viands with various sauces and condiments,
+the more solid dishes being followed by fruits of many kinds, as well as
+sweetmeats and pastry. Chafing-dishes even were used. Besides the
+varieties of beautiful flowers which adorned the table there were
+sculptured Vases of silver and sometimes gold. At table
+
+     the favorite beverage was the _chocolatl_ flavored with vanilla and
+     different spices. The fermented juice of the maguey, with a mixture
+     of sweets and acids, supplied also various agreeable drinks, of
+     different degrees of strength.
+
+When the young Mexicans of both sexes amused themselves with dances, the
+older people kept their seats in order to enjoy their _pulque_ and
+gossip, or listen to the discourse of some guest of importance. The
+music which accompanied the dances was frequently soft and rather
+plaintive.
+
+The early Mexicans included the Tezcucans as well as the Aztecs proper;
+and since their capitals were on the same lake and both races were
+closely akin, we may devote some space to these Alcohuans or eastern
+Aztecs. Their civilization was superior to that of the western Aztecs in
+some respects, and Nezahual-coyotl, their greatest prince, formed
+alliance with the western state, and then remodeled the various
+departments of his government. He had a council of war, another of
+finance, and a third of justice.
+
+A remarkable institution, under King Nezahual-coyotl, was the "Council
+of Music," intended to promote the study of science and the practise of
+art.
+
+Tezcuco, in fact, became the nursery not only of such sciences as could
+be compassed by the scholarship of the period, but of various useful and
+ornamental arts. "Its historians, orators, and poets were celebrated
+throughout the country.... Its idiom, more polished than the Mexican,
+continued long after the conquest to be that in which the best
+productions of the native races were composed. Tezcuco was the Athens of
+the Western World.... Among the most illustrious of her bards was their
+king himself." A Spanish writer adds that it was to the eastern Aztecs
+that noblemen sent their sons "to study poetry, moral philosophy, the
+heathen theology, astronomy, medicine, and history."
+
+[Illustration: Ancient Bridge near Tezcuco.]
+
+The most remarkable problem connected with ancient Mexico is how to
+reconcile the general refinement and civilization with the sacrifices of
+human victims. There was no town or city but had its temples in public
+places, with stairs visibly leading up to the sacrificial stone, ever
+standing ready before some hideous idol or other--as already described.
+
+In all countries there have been public spectacles of bloodshed, not
+only as in the gladiators in the ancient circus--
+
+     butchered to make a Roman holiday,
+
+or the tournays of the middle ages, but in the prize-ring fights and
+public executions by ax or guillotine, of the age that is just passing
+away. The thousands who perished for religious ideas by means of the
+Holy Roman Inquisition should not be overlooked by the Spanish writers
+who are so indignant that Montezuma and his priests sacrificed tens of
+thousands under the claims of a heathen religion. The very day on which
+we write these words, August 18th, is the anniversary of the last
+sentence for beheading passed by our House of Lords. By that sentence
+three Scottish "Jacobites" passed under the ax on Tower Hill, where
+their remains still rest in a chapel hard by. So lately as 1873, the
+Shah of Persia, when resident as a visitor in Buckingham Palace, was
+amazed to find that the laws of Great Britain prevented him from
+depriving five of his courtiers of their lives. They had just been found
+guilty of some paltry infringement of Persian etiquette. During the last
+generation or the previous one, both in England and Scotland, the
+country schoolmaster on a certain day had the schoolroom cleared so that
+the children and their friends should enjoy the treat of seeing all the
+game-cocks of the parish bleeding on the floor one after another, being
+either struck by a spur to the brain, or else wounded to a painful
+death. When James Boswell and others regularly attended the spectacles
+of Tyburn and sometimes cheered the wretched victim if he "died game,"
+the philosopher will not wonder at the populace of some city of ancient
+Mexico crowding round the great temple and greedily watching the bloody
+sacrifice done with full sanction of the priesthood and the king.
+
+The primitive religions were derived from sun-worship, and as fire is
+the nearest representative of the sun, it seemed essential to _burn_ the
+victim offered as a sacrifice. At Carthage, the great Phenician colony,
+children were cruelly sacrificed by fire to the god Melkarth of Tyre.
+"Melkarth" being simply _Melech Kiriath_ (i. e., "King of the City"),
+and therefore identical with the "Moloch" or "Molech" of the Ammonites,
+Moabites, and Israelites. In the earliest prehistoric age the children
+of Ammon, Moab, and Israel were apparently so closely akin that they had
+practically the same religion and worshiped the same idols. The tribal
+god was originally the god of Syria or Canaan. In more than a dozen
+places of the Old Testament we find the Hebrews accused of burning their
+children or passing them through the fire to the sun-god, but the
+ancient Mexicans did not burn their victims, and _in no case were the
+victims their own children_. The victims were captives taken in war, or
+persons convicted of crime; and thus the Mexicans were in atrocity far
+surpassed by those races akin to the Hebrews who are much denounced by
+the sacred writers, e. g.:
+
+     Josiah ... defiled Topheth that no man might make his son or his
+     daughter to pass through the fire to Molech (2 Kings xxiii, 10).
+
+     They have built also the high places to burn their sons with fire
+     for burnt-offerings (Jer. xix, 5).
+
+     Yea, they shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of
+     their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan (Ps.
+     cvi, 37).
+
+That a father should offer his own child as a sacrifice to the sun-god
+or any other, would to the mild and gentle Aztec be too dreadful a
+conception. It is the enormous number who were immolated that shocks the
+European mind, but to the populace enjoying the spectacle the victims
+were enemies of the king or criminals deserving execution.
+
+Perhaps it is a more difficult problem to explain how so civilized a
+community as the Aztec races undoubtedly were could look with
+complacency upon any one tasting a dish composed of some part of the
+captive he had taken in battle. It is not only repulsive as an idea, but
+seems impossible. Yet much depends on the point of view as well as the
+atmosphere. According to archeologists, all the primeval races of men
+could at a pinch feed on human flesh, but after many generations learned
+to do better without it. We may have simply outgrown the craving, till
+at last we call it unnatural, whereas those ancient Mexicans, with all
+their wealth of food, had refined upon it. Let us again refer to the Old
+Testament:
+
+     Thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters and these hast thou
+     sacrificed to be devoured (Ezek. xvi, 20).
+
+     ... have caused their sons to pass for them through the fire, to
+     devour them (Ezek. xxiii, 37).
+
+We may therefore infer that to the early races of Canaan (including
+Israel), as well as to the primeval Aztecs, it was a privilege and
+religious custom to eat part of any sacrifice that had been offered.
+
+There can be little doubt, to any one who has studied the earliest human
+antiquities, that all races indulged in cannibalism, not only during
+that enormously remote age called Paleolithic, but in comparatively
+recent though still prehistoric times. "This is clearly proved by the
+number of human bones, chiefly of women and young persons, which have
+been found charred by fire and split open for extraction of the marrow."
+Such charred bones have frequently been preserved in caves, as at
+Chaleux in Belgium, where in some instances they occurred "in such
+numbers as to indicate that they had been the scene of cannibal feasts."
+
+The survival of human sacrifice among the Aztecs, with its accompanying
+traces of cannibalism, was due to the savagery of a long previous
+condition of their Indian race; just as in the Greek drama, when that
+ancient people had attained a high level of culture and refinement, the
+sacrifice of a human life, sometimes a princess or other distinguished
+heroine, was not unfrequent. We remember Polyxena, the virgin daughter
+of Hecuba, whom her own people resolved to sacrifice on the tomb of
+Achilles; and her touching bravery, as she requests the Greeks not to
+bind her, being ashamed, she says, "having lived a princess to die a
+slave." A better known example is Iphigenia, so beloved by her father,
+King Agamemnon, and yet given up by him a victim for purposes of state
+and religion.
+
+[Illustration: Teocalli, Aztec Temple for Human Sacrifices.]
+
+From the Greek drama, human sacrifices frequently passed to the Roman;
+nor does such a refined critic as Horace object to it, but only suggests
+that the bloodshed ought to be perpetrated behind the scenes. In
+Seneca's play, Medea (quoted in our Introduction), that rule was grossly
+violated, since the children have their throats cut by their heroic
+mother in full view of the audience. In the same passage (Ars Poët.,
+185, 186) Horace forbids a banquet of human flesh being prepared before
+the eyes of the public, as had been done in a play written by Ennius,
+the Roman poet. The religious sacrifice of human victims by the "Druids"
+or priests of ancient Gaul and Britain seems exactly parallel to the
+wholesale executions on the Mexican _teocallis_, since the wretched
+victims whom our Celtic ancestors packed for burning into those huge
+wicker images, were captives taken in battle, like those stretched for
+slaughter upon the Mexican stone of sacrifice.
+
+Human sacrifice was so common in civilized Rome that it was not till the
+first century B. C. that a law was passed expressly forbidding
+it--(Pliny, Hist. Nat., xxx, 3, 4).
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+ARRIVAL OF THE SPANIARDS
+
+
+The "New Birth" of the world, which characterized the end of the
+fifteenth century, had an enormous influence upon Spain. Her queen, the
+"great Catholic Isabella," had, by assisting Columbus, done much in the
+great discovery of the Western World. Spain speedily had substantial
+reward in the boundless wealth poured into her lap, and the rich
+colonies added to her dominion. Thus in the beginning of the sixteenth
+century the new consolidated Spain, formed by the union of the two
+kingdoms, Castile and Aragon, became the richest and greatest of all the
+European states.
+
+The Spanish governors in the West Indies being ambitious of planting new
+colonies in the name of the Spanish King, conquest and annexation were
+stimulated in all directions. When Cuba and Hayti were overrun and
+annexed to Spain, not without much unjust treatment of the simple
+natives, as we have seen, they became centers of operation, whence
+expeditions could be sent to Trinidad or any other island, to Panama, to
+Yucatan, or Florida, or any other part of the continent. After the
+marvelous experience of Grijalva in Yucatan, then considered an island,
+and his report that its inhabitants were quite a civilized community
+compared with the natives of the isles, Velasquez, the Governor of Cuba,
+resolved at once to invade the new country for purposes of annexation
+and plunder.
+
+Velasquez prepared a large expedition for this adventure, consisting of
+eleven ships with more than 600 armed men on board; and after much
+deliberation chose Fernando Cortés to be the commander. Who was this
+Cortés, destined by his military genius and unscrupulous policy to be
+comparable to Hannibal or Julius Cæsar among the ancients, and to Clive
+or Napoleon Bonaparte among the moderns? Velasquez knew him well as one
+of his subordinates in the cruel conquest of Cuba; before that Cortés
+had distinguished himself in Hayti as an energetic and skilled officer.
+Of an impetuous and fiery temper which he had learned to keep thoroughly
+in command, he was characterized by that quality possessed by all
+commanders of superior genius, the "art of gaining the confidence and
+governing the minds of men." As a youth in Spain he had studied for the
+bar at the University of Salamanca; and in some of his speeches on
+critical occasions one can find certain traces of his academical
+training in the adroit arguments and clever appeals.
+
+Other qualifications as an officer were his manly and handsome
+appearance, his affable manners, combined with "extraordinary address in
+all martial exercises, and a constitution of such vigor as to be capable
+of enduring any fatigue."
+
+Cortés on reviewing his commission from the Governor, Velasquez, was too
+shrewd not to be aware of the importance of his new position. The "Great
+Admiral," with reference to the discovery of the New World, had said: "I
+have only opened the door for others to enter"; and Cortés was conscious
+that now was the moment for that entrance. Filled with unbounded
+ambition he rose to the occasion.
+
+Velasquez somewhat hypocritically pretended that the object he had in
+view was merely barter with the natives of New Spain--that being the
+name given by Grijalva to Yucatan and the neighboring country. He
+ordered Cortés
+
+     to impress on the natives the grandeur and goodness of his royal
+     master; to invite them to give in their allegiance to him, and to
+     manifest it by regaling him with such comfortable presents of gold,
+     pearls, and precious stones as by showing their own good-will would
+     secure his favor and protection.
+
+Mustering his forces for the new expedition, Cortés found that he had no
+sailors, 553 soldiers, besides 200 Indians of the island; ten heavy
+guns, four lighter ones, called falconets. He had also sixteen horses,
+knowing the effect of even a small body of cavalry in dealing with
+savages. On February 18, 1519, Cortés sailed with eleven vessels for the
+coast of Yucatan.
+
+Landing at Tabasco, where Grijalva had found the natives friendly,
+Cortés found that the Yucatans had resolved to oppose him, and were
+presently assembled in great numbers. The result of the fighting,
+however, was naturally a foregone conclusion, partly on account of "the
+astonishment and terror excited by the destructive effect" of the
+European firearms, and the "monstrous apparition" of men on horseback.
+Such quadrupeds they had never seen before, and they concluded that the
+rider with his horse formed one unaccountable animal. Gomara and other
+chroniclers tell how St. James, the tutelar saint of Spain, appeared in
+the ranks on a gray horse, and led the Christians to victory over the
+heathen.
+
+An especially fortunate thing for Cortés was that among the female
+slaves presented after this battle, there was one of remarkable
+intelligence, who understood both the Aztec and the Mayan languages, and
+soon learned the Spanish. She proved invaluable to Cortés as an
+interpreter, and afterward had a share in all his campaigns. She is
+generally called Marina.
+
+If the Spanish accounts are true, stating that the native army consisted
+of five squadrons of 8,000 men each, then this victory is one of the
+most remarkable on record, as a proof of the value of gunpowder as
+compared with primitive bows and arrows. To the simple Americans the
+terrible invaders seemed actually to wield the thunder and the
+lightning. Next day Cortés made an arrangement with the chiefs; and
+after confidence was restored, asked where they got their gold from.
+They pointed to the high grounds on the west, and said _Culhua_, meaning
+Mexico.
+
+The Palm Sunday being at hand, the conversion of the "heathen" was duly
+celebrated by pompous and solemn ceremonial. The army marched in
+procession with the priests at their head, accompanied by crowds of
+Indians of both sexes, till they reached the principal temple. A new
+altar being built, the image of the presiding deity was taken from its
+place and thrown down, to make room for that of the Virgin carrying the
+infant Saviour.
+
+Cortés now learned that the capital of the Mexican Empire was on the
+mountain plains nearly seventy leagues inland; and that the ruler was
+the great and powerful Montezuma.
+
+It was on the morning of Good Friday that Cortés landed on the site of
+Vera Cruz, which after the conquest of Mexico speedily grew into a
+flourishing seaport, becoming the commercial capital of New Spain. A
+friendly conference took place between Cortés and Teuhtlile, an Aztec
+chief, who asked from what country the strangers had come and why they
+had come.
+
+"I am a servant," replied Cortés, "of a mighty monarch beyond the seas,
+who rules over an immense empire, having kings and princes for his
+vassals. Since my master has heard of the greatness of the Mexican
+Emperor he has desired me to enter into communication with him, and has
+sent me as envoy to wait upon Montezuma with a present in token of
+good-will, and with a message which I must deliver in person. When can
+I be admitted to your sovereign's presence?"
+
+The Aztec chief replied with an air of dignity: "How is it that you have
+been here only two days, and demand to see the Emperor? If there is
+another monarch as powerful as Montezuma, I have no doubt my master will
+be happy to interchange courtesies."
+
+The slaves of Teuhtlile presented to Cortés
+
+     ten loads of fine cotton, several mantles of that curious
+     feather-work whose rich and delicate dyes might vie with the most
+     beautiful painting, and a wicker basket filled with ornaments of
+     wrought gold, all calculated to inspire the Spaniards with high
+     ideas of the wealth and mechanical ingenuity of the Mexicans.
+
+Having duly expressed his thanks, Cortés then laid before the Aztec
+chief the presents intended for Montezuma. These were "an armchair
+richly carved and painted; a crimson cap bearing a gold medal emblazoned
+with St. George and the Dragon; collars, bracelets, and other ornaments
+of cut-glass, which, in a country where glass was unknown, might claim
+to have the value of real gems."
+
+During the interview Teuhtlile had been curiously observing a shining
+gilt helmet worn by a soldier, and said that it was exactly like that of
+Quetzalcoatl. "Who is he?" asked Cortés. "Quetzalcoatl is the god about
+whom the Aztecs have the prophecy that he will come back to them across
+the sea." Cortés promised to send the helmet to Montezuma, and expressed
+a wish that it would be returned filled with the gold-dust of the
+Aztecs, that he might compare it with the Spanish gold-dust!
+
+One reporter who was present says:
+
+     He further told Governor Teuhtlile that the Spaniards were troubled
+     with a disease of the heart for which gold was a specific remedy!
+
+Another incident of this notable interview was that one of the Mexican
+attendants was observed by Cortés to be scribbling with a pencil. It was
+an artist sketching the appearance of the strangers, their dress, arms,
+and attitude, and filling in the picture with touches of color. Struck
+with the idea of being thus represented to the Mexican monarch, Cortés
+ordered the cavalry to be exercised on the beach in front of the
+artists.
+
+     The bold and rapid movements of the troops, ... the apparent ease
+     with which they managed the fiery animals on which they were
+     mounted, the glancing of their weapons, and the shrill cry of the
+     trumpet, all filled the spectators with astonishment; but when they
+     heard the thunders of the cannon, which Cortés ordered to be fired
+     at the same time, and witnessed the volumes of smoke and flame
+     issuing from these terrible engines, and the rushing sound of the
+     balls, as they dashed through the trees of the neighboring forest,
+     shivering their branches into fragments, they were filled with
+     consternation and wonder, from which the Aztec chief himself was
+     not wholly free.
+
+This was all faithfully copied by the picture-writers, so far as their
+art went, in sketching and vivid coloring. They also recorded the ships
+of the strangers--"the water-houses," as they were named--whose dark
+hulls and snow-white sails were swinging at anchor in the bay.
+
+Meantime what had Montezuma been doing, the sad-faced[19] and haughty
+Emperor of Mexico, land of the Aztecs and the Tezcucans? At the
+beginning of his reign he had as a skilful general led his armies as far
+as Honduras and Nicaragua, extending the limits of the empire, so that
+it had now reached the maximum.
+
+[Footnote 19: The name Montezuma means "sad or severe man," a title
+suited to his features, though not to his mild character.]
+
+Tezcuco, the sister state to Mexico, had latterly shown hostility to
+Montezuma, and still more formidable was the republic of Tlascala, lying
+between his capital and the coast. Prodigies and prophecies now began to
+affect all classes of the population in the Mexican Valley. Everybody
+spoke of the return from over the sea of the popular god Quetzalcoatl,
+the fair-skinned and longhaired (p. 93). A generation had already
+elapsed since the first rumors that white men in great mysterious
+vessels, bearing in their hands the thunder and lightning, were seizing
+the islands and must soon seize the mainland.
+
+No wonder that Montezuma, stern, tyrannical, and disappointed, should be
+dismayed at the news of Grijalva's landing, and still more so when
+hearing of the fleet and army of Cortés, and seeing their horsemen
+pictured by his artists--the whole accompanied by exaggerated accounts
+of the guns and cannon able to produce thunder and lightning. After
+holding a council, Montezuma resolved to send an embassy to Cortés,
+presenting him with a present which should reflect the incomparable
+grandeur and resources of Mexico, and at the same time forbidding an
+approach to the capital.
+
+The governor Teuhtlile, on this second embassy, was accompanied by two
+Aztec nobles and 100 slaves, bearing the present from Montezuma to
+Cortés. As they entered the pavilion of the Spanish general the air was
+filled with clouds of incense which rose from censers carried by some
+attendants.
+
+     Some delicately wrought mats were then unrolled, and on them the
+     slaves displayed the various articles, ... shields, helmets,
+     cuirasses, embossed with plates and ornaments of pure gold; collars
+     and bracelets of the same metal, sandals, fans, and crests of
+     variegated feathers, intermingled with gold and silver thread, and
+     sprinkled with pearls and precious stones; imitations of birds and
+     animals in wrought and cast gold and silver, of exquisite
+     workmanship; curtains, coverlets, and robes of cotton, fine as
+     silk, of rich and various dyes, interwoven with feather-work that
+     rivaled the delicacy of painting.... The things which excited most
+     admiration were two circular plates of gold and silver, as "large
+     as carriage-wheels"; one representing the sun was richly carved
+     with plants and animals. It was thirty palms in circumference, and
+     was worth about £52,500 sterling.[20]
+
+[Footnote 20: Robertson, the historian, gives £5,000; but Prescott
+reckons a _peso de oro_ at £2 12s. 6d.; whence the 20,000 of the text
+gives 20,000 x 2-5/8 = 2,500 x 21 = £52,500.]
+
+Cortés was interested in seeing the soldier's helmet brought back to him
+full to the brim with grains of gold. The courteous message from
+Montezuma, however, did not please him much. Montezuma excused himself
+from having a personal interview by "the distance being too great, and
+the journey beset with difficulties and dangers from formidable
+enemies.... All that could be done, therefore, was for the strangers to
+return to their own land."
+
+Soon after Cortés, by a species of statecraft, formed a new
+municipality, thus transforming his camp into a civil community. The
+name of the new city was _Villa Rica de Vera Cruz_, i. e., "the Rich
+Town of the True Cross." Once the municipality was formed, Cortés
+resigned before them his office of captain-general, and thus became free
+from the authority of Velasquez. The city council at once chose Cortés
+to be captain-general and chief justice of the colony. He could now go
+forward unchecked by any superior except the Crown.
+
+It was a desperate undertaking to climb with an army from the hot region
+of this flat coast through the varied succession of "slopes" which form
+the temperate region, and at last, on the high table-land, obtain
+entrance upon the great enclosed valley of Mexico. Cortés found that an
+essential preliminary was to gain the friendship of the Totonacs, a
+nation tributary to Montezuma. Their subjection to the Aztecs he had
+already verified, since one day when holding a conference with the
+Totonac leaders and a neighboring cazique (i. e., "prince"), Cortés saw
+five men of haughty appearance enter the market-place, followed by
+several attendants, and at once receive the politest attention from the
+Totonacs.
+
+Cortés asked Marina, his slave interpreter, who or what they were. "They
+are Aztec nobles," she replied, "sent by Montezuma to receive tribute."
+Presently the Totonac chiefs came to Cortés with looks of dire dismay,
+to inform him of the great Emperor's resentment at the entertainment
+offered to the Spaniards, and demanding in expiation twenty young men
+and women for sacrifice to the Aztec gods.
+
+Cortés, with every look of indignation, insisted that the Totonacs
+should not only refuse to comply, but should seize the Aztec messengers
+and hold them strictly confined in prison. Unscrupulous to gain his
+ends, Cortés by lies and cunning duplicity managed to set the Mexican
+nobles free, dismissing them with a friendly message to Montezuma, while
+at the same time securing the confidence of the simple-minded Totonacs,
+urging them to join the Spaniards and make a bold effort to regain their
+independence. Some thought that Cortés was really the kindly divinity
+Quetzalcoatl, promised by the prophets to bring freedom and happiness.
+
+As an instance of the religious enthusiasm of the Spanish invaders, we
+may give the account of the "conversion" of Zempoalla, a city in the
+Totonac district. When Cortés pressed upon the cazique of Zempoalla that
+his mission was to turn the Indians from the abominations of their
+present religion, that prince replied that he could not accept what the
+Spanish priests had told him about the Creator and Ruler of the
+Universe; especially that he ever stooped to become a mere man, weak and
+poor, so as to suffer voluntarily persecution and even death at the
+hands of some of his own creatures. The cazique added that he "would
+resist any violence offered to his gods, who would, indeed, avenge the
+act themselves by the instant destruction of their enemies."
+
+Cortés and his men seized the opportunity. There is no doubt that, after
+witnessing some of the barbarous sacrifices of human victims followed by
+cannibal feasts, their souls had naturally been sickened. They now
+proceeded to force the work of conversion as soon as Cortés had appealed
+to them and declared that "God and the holy saints would never favor
+their enterprise, if such atrocities were allowed; and that for his own
+part, he was resolved the Indian idols should be demolished that very
+hour if it cost him his life.
+
+"Scarcely waiting for his commands the Spaniards moved toward one of the
+principal _teocallis_, or temples, which rose high on a pyramidal
+foundation with a steep ascent of stone steps in the middle. The
+cazique, divining their purpose, instantly called his men to arms. The
+Indian warriors gathered from all quarters, with shrill cries and
+clashing of weapons, while the priests, in their dark cotton robes, with
+disheveled tresses matted with blood, rushed frantic among the natives,
+calling on them to protect their gods from violation! All was now
+confusion and tumult.... Cortés took his usual prompt measures. Causing
+the cazique and some of the principal citizens and priests to be
+arrested, he commanded them to quiet the people, declaring that if a
+single arrow was shot against a Spaniard, it should cost every one of
+them his life.... The cazique covered his face with his hands,
+exclaiming that the gods would avenge their own wrongs.
+
+"The Christians were not slow in availing themselves of his tacit
+acquiescence. Fifty soldiers, at a signal from their general, sprang up
+the great stairway of the temple, entered the building on the summit,
+the walls of which were black with human gore, and dragged the huge
+wooden idols to the edge of the terrace. Their fantastic forms and
+features, conveying a symbolic meaning which was lost on the Spaniards,
+seemed to their eyes only the hideous lineaments of Satan. With great
+alacrity they rolled the colossal monsters down the steps of the
+pyramid, amid the triumphant shouts of their own companions and the
+groans and lamentations of the natives. They then consummated the whole
+by burning them in the presence of the assembled multitude."
+
+After the temple had been cleansed from every trace of the idol-worship
+and its horrors, a new altar was raised, surmounted by a lofty cross,
+and hung with garlands of roses. A reaction having now set in among the
+Indians, many were willing to become Christians, and some of the Aztec
+priests even joined in a procession to signify their conversion, wearing
+white robes instead of their former dark mantles, and carrying lighted
+candles in their hands, "while an image of the Virgin half smothered
+under the weight of flowers was borne aloft, and, as the procession
+climbed the steps of the temple, was deposited above the altar.... The
+impressive character of the ceremony and the passionate eloquence of the
+good priest touched the feelings of the motley audience, until Indians
+as well as Spaniards, if we may trust the chronicler, were melted into
+tears and audible sobs."
+
+Before finally marching westward toward the temperate "slopes" of the
+mountains, Cortés had another opportunity of proving his generalship
+and prompt resource at a critical moment. When Agathocles, the
+autocratic ruler of Syracuse, sailed over to defeat the Carthaginians,
+the first thing he did on landing in Africa was to burn his ships, that
+his soldiers might have no opportunity of retreat, and no hope but in
+victory. Cortés now acted on exactly the same principle.
+
+After discovering that a number of his soldiers had formed a conspiracy
+to seize one of the ships and sail to Cuba, Cortés, on conviction,
+punished two of the ringleaders with death. Soon after, he formed the
+extraordinary resolution of destroying his ships without the knowledge
+of his army.
+
+The five worst ships were first ordered to be dismantled; and, soon
+after, to be sunk. When the rest were inspected, four of them were
+condemned in the same manner.
+
+When the news reached Zempoalla, the army were excited almost to open
+mutiny. Cortés, however, was perfectly cool. Addressing the army
+collectively, he assured them that the ships were not fit for service,
+as had been shown by due inspection. "There is one important advantage
+gained to the army, viz., the addition of a hundred able-bodied recruits
+who were necessary to man the lost ships. Besides all that, of what use
+could ships be to us in the present expedition? As for me, I will remain
+here even without a comrade. As for those who shrink from the dangers of
+our glorious enterprise, let them go back, in God's name! Let them go
+home, since there is still one vessel left; let them go on board and
+return to Cuba. They can tell how they deserted their commander and
+their comrades, and patiently wait till they see us return loaded with
+the spoils of the Aztecs."
+
+Persuasion is the end of true oratory. The reply of the army to Cortés
+was the unanimous shout "To Mexico! To Mexico!"
+
+After beginning the gradual ascent in their march toward the table-land
+of Mexico, the first place noted by the invaders was Jalapa, a town
+which still retains its Aztec name, known to all the world by the
+well-known drug grown there. It is a favorite resort of the wealthier
+residents in Vera Cruz, and that too tropical plain which Cortés had
+just left. The mighty mountain Orizaba, one of the guardians of the
+Mexican Valley, is now full in sight, towering in solitary grandeur with
+its robe of snow.
+
+At last they reached a town so populous that there were thirteen Aztec
+temples with the usual sacrificial stone for human victims before each
+idol. In the suburbs the Spanish were shocked by a gathering of human
+skulls, many thousand in number. This appalling reminder of the
+unspeakable sacrifices soon became a familiar sight as they marched
+through that country.
+
+Cortés asked the cazique if he were subject to Montezuma. "Who is
+there," replied the local prince, "that is not tributary to that
+Emperor?" "_I_ am not," said the stranger general. Cortés assured him
+that the monarch whom the Spaniards served had princes as vassals, who
+were more powerful than the Aztec ruler. The cazique said:
+
+     Montezuma could muster thirty great vassals, each master of 100,000
+     men. His revenues were incalculable, since every subject, however
+     poor, paid something.... More than 20,000 victims, the fruit of his
+     wars, were annually sacrificed on the altars of his gods! His
+     capital stood on a lake, in the center of a spacious valley.... The
+     approach to the city was by means of causeways several miles long;
+     and when the connecting bridges were raised all communication with
+     the country was cut off.
+
+The Indians showed the greatest curiosity respecting the dresses,
+weapons, horses, and dogs of their strange visitors. The country all
+around was then well wooded and full of villages and towns, which
+disappeared after the conquest. Humboldt remarked, when he traveled
+there, that the whole district had, "at the time of the arrival of the
+Spanish, been more inhabited and better cultivated, and that in
+proportion as they got higher up near the table-land, they found the
+villages more frequent, the fields more subdivided, and the people more
+law-abiding."
+
+Before entering upon the table-land, Cortés resolved to visit the
+republic of Tlascala, which was noted for having retained its
+independence in spite of the Aztecs. After sending an embassy,
+consisting of the four chief Zempoallas, who had accompanied the army,
+he set out toward Tlascala, lingering as they proceeded, so that his
+ambassadors should have time to return. While wondering at the delay,
+they suddenly reached a remarkable fortification which marked the limits
+of the republic, and acted as a barrier against the Mexican invasions.
+Prescott thus describes it:
+
+     A stone wall nine feet in height and twenty in thickness, with a
+     parapet a foot and a half broad raised on the summit for the
+     protection of those who defended it. It had only one opening in
+     the center, made by two semicircular lines of wall overlapping each
+     other for the space of forty paces, and affording a passageway
+     between, ten paces wide, so contrived, therefore, as to be
+     perfectly commanded by the inner wall. This fortification, which
+     extended more than two leagues, rested at either end on the bold
+     natural buttresses formed by the sierra. The work was built of
+     immense blocks of stone nicely laid together without cement, and
+     the remains still existing, among which are rocks of the whole
+     breadth of the rampart, fully attest its solidity and size.
+
+Who were the people of this stout-hearted republic? The Tlascalans were
+a kindred tribe to the Aztecs, and after coming to the Mexican Valley,
+toward the close of the twelfth century, had settled for many years on
+the western shore of Lake Tezcuco. Afterward they migrated to that
+district of fruitful valleys where Cortés found them; _Tlascala_,
+meaning "land of bread." They then, as a nation, consisted of four
+separate states, considerably civilized, and always able to protect
+their confederacy against foreign invasion. Their arts, religion, and
+architecture were the same as those of the Aztecs and Tezcucans.
+
+More than once had the Aztecs attempted to bring the little republic
+into subjection, but in vain. In one campaign Montezuma had lost a
+favorite, besides having his army defeated; and though a much more
+formidable invasion followed, "the bold mountaineers withdrew into the
+recesses of their hills, and coolly watching their opportunity, rushed
+like a torrent on the invaders, and drove them back with dreadful
+slaughter from their territories."
+
+The Tlascalans had of course heard of the redoubtable Europeans and
+their advance upon Montezuma's kingdom, but not expecting any visit
+themselves, they were in doubt about the embassy sent by Cortés, and the
+council had not reached a decision when the arrival of Cortés was
+announced at the head of his cavalry. Attacked by a body of several
+thousand Indians, he sent back a horseman to make the infantry hurry up
+to his assistance. Two of the horses were killed, a loss seriously felt
+by Cortés; but when the main body had discharged a volley from their
+muskets and crossbows, so astounded were the Tlascalan Indians that they
+stopped fighting and withdrew from the field.
+
+Next morning, after Cortés had given careful instruction to his army
+(now more than 3,000 in number, with his Indian auxiliaries), they had
+not marched far when they were met by two of the Zempoallans, who had
+been sent as ambassadors. They informed Cortés that, as captives, they
+had been reserved for the sacrificial stone, but had succeeded in
+breaking out of prison. They also said that forces were being collected
+from all quarters to meet the Spaniards.
+
+At the first encounter, the Indians, after some spirited fighting,
+retreated in order to draw the Spanish army into a defile impracticable
+for artillery or cavalry. Pressing forward they found, on turning an
+abrupt corner of the glen, that an army of many thousands was drawn up
+in order, prepared to receive them. As they came into view, the
+Tlascalans set up a piercing war-cry, shrill and hideous, accompanied by
+the melancholy beat of a thousand drums. Cortés spurred on the cavalry
+to force a passage for the infantry, and kept exhorting his soldiers,
+while showing them an example of personal daring. "If we fail now," he
+cried, "the Cross of Christ can never be planted in this land. Forward,
+comrades! when was it ever known that a Castilian turned his back on a
+foe?"
+
+With desperate efforts the soldiers forced a passage through the Indian
+columns, and then, as soon as the horse opened room for the movements of
+the gunners, the terrible "thunder and lightning" of the cannon did the
+rest. The havoc caused in their ranks, combined with the roar and the
+flash of gunpowder, and the mangled carcasses, filled the whole of the
+barbarian army with horror and consternation. Eight leaders of the
+Tlascalan army having fallen, the prince ordered a retreat.
+
+The chief of the Tlascalans, Xicotencatl, was no ordinary leader. When
+Cortés wished to press on to the capital, he sent two envoys to the
+Tlascalan camp, but all that Xicotencatl deigned to reply was
+
+     that the Spaniards might pass on as soon as they chose to Tlascala,
+     and when they reached it their flesh would be hewn from their
+     bodies for sacrifice to the gods. If they preferred to remain in
+     their own quarters, he would pay them a visit there the next day.
+
+The envoys also told Cortés that the chief had now collected another
+very large army, five battalions of 10,000 men each. There was evidently
+a determination to try the fate of Tlascala by a pitched battle and
+exterminate the bold invaders.
+
+The next day, September 5, 1519, was therefore a critical one in the
+annals of Cortés. He resolved to meet the Tlascalan chief in the field,
+after directing the foot-soldiers to use the point of their swords and
+not the edge; the horse to charge at half speed, directing their lances
+at the eyes of their enemies; the gunners and crossbowmen to support
+each other, some loading while others were discharging their pieces.
+
+Before Cortés and his soldiers had marched a mile they saw the immense
+Tlascalan army stretched far and wide over a vast plain. Nothing could
+be more picturesque than the aspect of these Indian battalions, with the
+naked bodies of the common soldiers gaudily painted, the fantastic
+helmets of the chiefs bright with ornaments and precious stones, and the
+glowing panoplies of feather-work....
+
+  The golden glitterance and the feather-mail
+  More gay than glittering gold; and round the helm
+  A coronal of high upstanding plumes....
+  ... With war-songs and wild music they came on.[21]
+
+[Footnote 21: Southey (Madoc, i, 7).]
+
+The Tlascalan warriors had attained wonderful skill in throwing the
+javelin. "One species, with a thong attached to it, which remained in
+the slinger's hand, that he might recall the weapon, was especially
+dreaded by the Spaniards." Their various weapons were pointed with bone
+or obsidian, and sometimes headed with copper.
+
+The yell or scream of defiance raised by these Indians almost drowned
+the volume of sound from "the wild barbaric minstrelsy of shell, atabal,
+and trumpet with which they proclaimed their triumphant anticipations
+of victory over the paltry forces of the invaders."
+
+Advancing under a thick shower of arrows and other missiles, the Spanish
+soldiers at a certain distance quickly halted and drew up in order,
+before delivering a general fire along the whole line. The front ranks
+of their wild opponents were mowed down and those behind were "petrified
+with dismay."
+
+But for the accident of dissension having arisen between the chiefs of
+the Tlascalans, it almost seemed as if nothing could have saved Cortés
+and his Spanish army. Before the battle, the haughty treatment of one of
+those chiefs by Xicotencatl, the cazique, provoked the injured man to
+draw off all his contingent during the battle, and persuade another
+chief to do the same. With his forces so weakened, the cazique was
+compelled to resign the field to the Spaniards.
+
+Xicotencatl, in his eagerness for revenge, consulted some of the Aztec
+priests, who recommended a night attack upon Cortés's camp in order to
+take his army by surprise. The Tlascalan, therefore, with 10,000
+warriors, marched secretly toward the Spanish camp, but owing to the
+bright moonlight they were not unseen by the vedettes. Besides that,
+Cortés had accustomed his army to sleep with their arms by their side
+and the horses ready saddled. In an instant, as it were, the whole camp
+were on the alert and under arms. The Indians, meanwhile, were
+stealthily advancing to the silent camp, and, "no sooner had they
+reached the slope of the rising ground than they were astounded by the
+deep battle-cry of the Spaniards, followed by the instantaneous
+appearance of the whole army. Scarcely awaiting the shock of their
+enemy, the panic-struck barbarians fled rapidly and tumultuously across
+the plain. The horse easily overtook the fugitives, riding them down,
+and cutting them to pieces without mercy." Next day Cortés sent new
+ambassadors to the Tlascalan capital, accompanied by his faithful slave
+interpreter, Marina. They found the cazique's council sad and dejected,
+every gleam of hope being now extinguished.
+
+The message of Cortés still promised friendship and pardon, if only they
+agreed to act as allies. If the present offer were rejected, "he would
+visit their capital as a conqueror, raze every house to the ground, and
+put every inhabitant to the sword." On hearing this ultimatum, the
+council chose four leading chiefs to be entrusted with a mission to
+Cortés, "assuring him of a free passage through the country, and a
+friendly reception in the capital." The ambassadors, on their way back
+to Cortés, called at the camp of Xicotencatl, and were there detained by
+him. He was still planning against the terrible invaders.
+
+Cortés, in the meantime, had another opportunity of showing his resource
+and presence of mind. Some of his soldiers had shown a grumbling
+discontent: "The idea of conquering Mexico was madness; if they had
+encountered such opposition from the petty republic, what might they not
+expect from the great Mexican Empire? There was now a temporary
+suspension of hostilities; should they not avail themselves of it to
+retrace their steps to Vera Cruz?" To this Cortés listened calmly and
+politely, replying that "he had told them at the outset that glory was
+to be won only by toil and danger; he had never shrunk from his share of
+both. To go back now was impossible. What would the Tlascalans say? How
+would the Mexicans exult at such a miserable issue! Instead of turning
+your eyes toward Cuba, fix them on Mexico, the great object of our
+enterprise." Many other soldiers having gathered round, the mutinous
+party took courage to say that "another such victory as the last would
+be their ruin; they were going to Mexico only to be slaughtered." With
+some impatience Cortés gaily quoted a soldiers' song:
+
+  Better die with honor
+  Than live in long disgrace!
+
+--a sentiment which the majority of the audience naturally cheered to
+the echo, while the malcontents slunk away to their quarters.
+
+The next event was the arrival of some Tlascalans wearing white badges
+as an indication of peace. They brought a message, they said, from
+Xicotencatl, who now desired an arrangement with Cortés, and would soon
+appear in person. Most of them remained in the camp, where they were
+treated kindly; but Marina, with her "woman's wit," became somewhat
+suspicious of them. Perhaps some of them, forgetting that she knew their
+language, let drop a phrase in talking to each other, which awoke her
+distrust. She told Cortés that the men were spies. He had them arrested
+and examined separately, ascertaining in that way that they were sent
+to obtain secret information of the Spanish camp, and that, in fact,
+Xicotencatl was mustering his forces to make another determined attack
+on the invading army.
+
+To show the fierceness of his resentment at such treatment, Cortés
+ordered the fifty spy ambassadors to have their hands hacked off, and
+sent back to tell their lord that "the Tlascalans might come by day or
+night, they would find the Spaniards ready for them." The sight of their
+mutilated comrades filled the Indian camp with dread and horror. All
+thoughts of resistance to the advance of Cortés were now abandoned, and
+not long after the arrival of Xicotencatl himself was announced,
+attended by a numerous train. He advanced with "the firm and fearless
+step of one who was coming rather to bid defiance than to sue for peace.
+He was rather above the middle size, with broad shoulders and a muscular
+frame, intimating great activity and strength. He made the usual
+salutation by touching the ground with his hand and carrying it to his
+head." He threw no blame on the Tlascalan senate, but assumed all the
+responsibility of the war. He admitted that the Spanish army had beaten
+him, but hoped they would use their victory with moderation, and not
+trample on the liberties of the republic.
+
+Cortés admired the cazique's lofty spirit, while pretending to rebuke
+him for having so long remained an enemy. "He was willing to bury the
+past in oblivion, and to receive the Tlascalans as vassals to the
+Emperor, his master."
+
+Before the entry into Tlascala, the capital, there arrived an embassy
+from Montezuma, who had been keenly disappointed, no doubt, that Cortés
+had not only not been defeated by the bravest race on the Mexican
+table-land, but had formed a friendly alliance with them.
+
+As Cortés, with his army, approached the populous city, they were
+welcomed by great crowds of men and women in picturesque dresses, with
+nosegays and wreaths of flowers; priests in white robes and long matted
+tresses, swinging their burning censers of incense. The anniversary of
+this entry into Tlascala, September 23, 1519, is still celebrated as a
+day of rejoicing.
+
+Cortés, in his letter to the Emperor, King of Spain, compares it for
+size and appearance to Granada, the Moorish capital. Pottery was one of
+the industries in which Tlascala excelled. The Tlascalan was chiefly
+agricultural in his habits; his honest breast glowed with the patriotic
+attachment to the soil, which is the fruit of its diligent culture,
+while he was elevated by that consciousness of independence which is the
+natural birthright of a child of the mountains.
+
+Cholula, capital of the republic of that name, is six leagues north of
+Tlascala, and about twenty southeast of Mexico. In the time of the
+conquest of the table-land of Anahuac, as the whole district is
+sometimes termed, this city was large and populous. The people excelled
+in mechanical arts, especially metal-working, cloth-weaving, and a
+delicate kind of pottery. Reference has already been made to the god
+Quetzalcoatl, in whose honor a huge pyramid was erected here. From the
+farthest parts of Anahuac devotees thronged to Cholula, just as the
+Mohammedans to Mecca.
+
+The Spaniards found the people of Cholula superior in dress and looks to
+any of the races they had seen. The higher classes "wore fine
+embroidered mantles resembling the Moorish cloak in texture and
+fashion.... They showed the same delicate taste for flowers as the other
+tribes of the plateau, tossing garlands and bunches among the
+soldiers.... The Spaniards were also struck with the cleanliness of the
+city, the regularity of the streets, the solidity of the houses, and the
+number and size of the pyramidal temples." After being treated with
+kindness and hospitality for several days, all at once the scene
+changed, the cause being the arrival of messengers from Montezuma. At
+the same time some Tlascalans told Cortés that a great sacrifice, mostly
+of children, had been offered to propitiate the favor of the gods.
+
+At this juncture, Marina, the Indian slave interpreter, again proved to
+be the "good angel" of Cortés. She had become very friendly with the
+wife of one of the Cholula caziques, who gave her a hint that there was
+danger in staying at the house of any Spaniard; and, when further
+pressed by Marina, said that the Spaniards were to be slaughtered when
+marching out of the capital. The plot had originated with the Aztec
+Emperor, and 20,000 Mexicans were already quartered a little distance
+out of town.
+
+In this most critical position, Cortés at once decided to take
+possession of the great square, placing a strong guard at each of its
+three gates of entrance. The rest of what troops he had in the town, he
+posted without with the cannon, to command the avenues. He had already
+sent orders to the Tlascalan chiefs to keep their soldiers in readiness
+to march, at a given signal, into the city to support the Spaniards.
+Presently the caziques of Cholula arrived with a larger body of levies
+than Cortés had demanded. He at once charged them with conspiring
+against the Spaniards after receiving them as friends. They were so
+amazed at his discovery of their perfidy that they confessed everything,
+laying the blame on Montezuma. "That pretense," said Cortés, assuming a
+look of fierce indignation, "is no justification; I shall now make such
+an example of you for your treachery that the report of it will ring
+throughout the wide borders of Anahuac!"
+
+At the firing of a harquebus, the fatal signal, the crowd of
+unsuspecting Cholulans were massacred as they stood, almost without
+resistance. Meantime the other Indians without the square commenced an
+attack on the Spaniards, but the heavy guns of the battery played upon
+them with murderous effect, and cavalry advanced to support the attack.
+
+     The steeds, the guns, the weapons of the Spaniards, were all new to
+     the Cholulans. Notwithstanding the novelty of the terrific
+     spectacle, the flash of arms mingling with the deafening roar of
+     the artillery, the desperate Indians pushed on to take the places
+     of their fallen comrades.
+
+While this scene of bloodshed was progressing, the Tlascalans, as
+arranged, were hastening to the assistance of their Spanish allies. The
+Cholulans, when thus attacked in rear by their traditional enemies,
+speedily gave way, and tried to save themselves in the great temple and
+elsewhere. The "Holy City," as it was called, was converted into a
+pandemonium of massacre. In memory of the signal defeat of the
+Cholulans, Cortés converted the chief part of the great temple into a
+Christian church.
+
+Envoys again arrived from Mexico with rich presents and a message
+vindicating the pusillanimous Emperor from any share in the conspiracy
+against Cortés. Continuing their march, the allied army of Spaniards and
+Tlascalans proceeded till they reached the mountains which separate the
+table-land of Puebla from that of Mexico. To cross this range they
+followed the route which passes between the mighty Popocatepetl (i. e.,
+"the smoking mountain") and another called the "White Woman" from its
+broad robe of snow. The first lies about forty miles southeast of the
+capital to which their march was directed. It is more than 2,000 feet
+higher than Mont Blanc, and has two principal craters, one of which is
+about 1,000 feet deep and has large deposits of sulfur which are
+regularly mined. Popocatepetl has long been only a quiescent volcano,
+but during the invasion by Cortés it was often burning, especially at
+the time of the siege of Tlascala. That was naturally interpreted all
+over the district of Anahuac to be a bad omen, associated with the
+landing and approach of the Spaniards. Cortés insisted on several
+descents being made into the great crater till sufficient sulfur was
+collected to supply gunpowder to his army. The icy cold winds, varied by
+storms of snow and sleet, were more trying to the Europeans than the
+Tlascalans, but some relief was found in the stone shelters which had
+been built at certain intervals along the roads for the accommodation
+of couriers and other travelers.
+
+At last they reached the crest of the sierra which unites Popocatepetl,
+the "great _Volcan_," to its sister mountain the "Woman in White." Soon
+after, at a turning of the road, the invaders enjoyed their first view
+of the famous Valley of Mexico or Tenochtitlan, with its beautiful lakes
+in their setting of cultivated plains, here and there varied by woods
+and forests. "In the midst, like some Indian empress with her coronal of
+pearls, the fair city with her white towers and pyramidal temples,
+reposing as it were on the bosom of the waters--the far-famed 'Venice of
+the Aztecs.'"
+
+This view of the "Promised Land" will remind some of the picturesque
+account given by Livy (xxi, 35) of Hannibal reaching the top of the pass
+over the Alps and pointing out the fair prospect of Italy to his
+soldiers. We may thus render the passage: "On the ninth day the ridge of
+the Alps was reached, over ground generally trackless and by roundabout
+ways.... The order for marching being given at break of day, the army
+were sluggishly advancing over ground wholly covered with snow,
+listlessness, and despair depicted on the features of all, Hannibal went
+on in front, and after ordering the soldiers to halt on a height which
+commanded a distant view, far and wide, points out to them Italy and the
+plains of Lombardy on both banks of the Po, at the foot of the Alps,
+telling them that at that moment they were crossing not only the walls
+of Italy but of the Roman capital; that the rest of the march was easy
+and downhill." The situation of Hannibal and his Carthaginians
+surveying Italy for the first time is in some respects closely analogous
+to that of Cortés pointing out the Valley of Mexico to his Spanish
+soldiers.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+CORTÉS AND MONTEZUMA
+
+
+We have now seen the Spanish conquerors with a large contingent of 6,000
+natives surmounting the mountains to the east of the Mexican Valley and
+looking down upon the Lake of Tezcuco on which were built the sister
+capitals. Montezuma, the Aztec monarch, was already in a state of
+dismay, and sent still another embassy to propitiate the terrible
+Cortés, with a great present of gold and robes of the most precious
+fabrics and workmanship; and a promise that, if the foreign general
+would turn back toward Vera Cruz, the Mexicans would pay down four loads
+of gold for himself and one to each of his captains, besides a yearly
+tribute to their king in Europe.
+
+These promises did not reach Cortés till he was descending from the
+sierra. He replied that details were best arranged by a personal
+interview, and that the Spaniards came with peaceful motives.
+
+Montezuma was now plunged in deep despair. At last he summoned a council
+to consult his nobles and especially his nephew, the young King of
+Tezcuco, and his warlike brother. The latter advised him to "muster as
+large an army as possible, and drive back the invaders from his capital
+or die in its defense." "Ah!" replied the monarch, "the gods have
+declared themselves against us!" Still another embassy was prepared,
+with his nephew, lord of Tezcuco, at its head, to offer a welcome to the
+unwelcome visitors.
+
+Cortés approached through fertile fields, plantations, and
+maguey-vineyards till they reached Lake Chalco. There they found a large
+town built in the water on piles, with canals instead of streets, full
+of movement and animation. "The Spaniards were particularly struck with
+the style and commodious structure of the houses, chiefly of stone, and
+with the general aspect of wealth and even elegance which prevailed."
+
+Next morning the King of Tezcuco came to visit Cortés, in a palanquin
+richly decorated with plates of gold and precious stones, under a canopy
+of green plumes. He was accompanied by a numerous suite. Advancing with
+the Mexican salutation, he said he had been commanded by Montezuma to
+welcome him to the capital, at the same time offering three splendid
+pearls as a present. Cortés "in return threw over the young king's neck
+a chain of cut glass, which, where glass was as rare as diamonds, might
+be admitted to have a value as real as the latter."
+
+The army of Cortés next marched along the southern side of Lake Chalco,
+"through noble woods and by orchards glowing with autumnal fruits, of
+unknown names, but rich and tempting hues." They also passed "through
+cultivated fields waving with the yellow harvest, and irrigated by
+canals introduced from the neighboring lake, the whole showing a careful
+and economical husbandry, essential to the maintenance of a crowded
+population." A remarkable public work next engaged the attention of the
+Spaniards, viz., a solid causeway of stone and lime running directly
+through the lake, in some places so wide that eight horsemen could ride
+on it abreast. Its length is some four or five miles. Marching along
+this causeway, they saw other wonders; numbers of the natives darting in
+all directions in their skiffs, curious to watch the strangers marching,
+and some of them bearing the products of the country to the neighboring
+cities. They were amazed also by the sight of the floating gardens,
+teeming with flowers and vegetables, and moving like rafts over the
+waters. All round the margin, and occasionally far in the lake, they
+beheld little towns and villages, which, half concealed by the foliage,
+and gathered in white clusters round the shore, "looked in the distance
+like companies of white swans riding quietly on the waves." About the
+middle of this lake was a town, to which the Spaniards gave the name of
+Venezuela[22] (i. e., "Little Venice"). From its situation and the style
+of the buildings, Cortés called it the most beautiful town that he had
+yet seen in New Spain.
+
+[Footnote 22: Not to be confounded with the Indian village on the shore
+of Lake Maracaibo, to which (with similar motive) Vespucci had given
+that name--now capital of a large republic.]
+
+After crossing the isthmus which separates that lake from Lake Tezcuco
+they were now at Iztapalapan, a royal residence in charge of the
+Emperor's brother. Here a ceremonious reception was given to Cortés and
+his staff, "a collation being served in one of the great halls of the
+palace. The excellence of the architecture here excited the admiration
+of the general. The buildings were of stone, and the spacious apartments
+had roofs of odorous cedar-wood, while the walls were tapestried with
+fine cotton stained with brilliant colors.
+
+"But the pride of Iztapalapan was its celebrated gardens, covering an
+immense tract of land and laid out in regular squares. The gardens were
+stocked with fruit-trees and with the gaudy family of flowers which
+belonged to the Mexican flora, scientifically arranged, and growing
+luxuriant in the equable temperature of the table-land. In one quarter
+was an aviary filled with numerous kinds of birds remarkable in this
+region both for brilliancy of plumage and for song. But the most
+elaborate piece of work was a huge reservoir of stone, filled to a
+considerable height with water, well supplied with different sorts of
+fish. This basin was 1,600 paces in circumference, and surrounded by a
+walk."
+
+Readers must remember that at that age no beautiful gardens on a large
+scale were known in any part of Europe. The first "garden of plants" (to
+use the name afterward applied by the French) is said to have been an
+Italian one, at Padua, in 1545, a whole generation after the time of the
+arrival of Cortés in Mexico. It was only under Louis "Le Magnifique"
+that France created the Versailles Gardens, and not till the time of
+George III and his tutor Bute could we boast of the gardens at Kew, now
+admired by all the world. The ancient Mexicans, therefore, under their
+extinct civilization, had developed this taste for the beautiful many
+ages before the most cultivated races in Europe.
+
+Cortés took up his quarters at this residence of Iztapalapan for the
+night, expecting to meet Montezuma on the morrow. Mexico was now
+distinctly full in view, looking "like a thing of fairy creation," a
+city of enchantment.
+
+  There Aztlan stood upon the farther shore;
+  Amid the shade of trees its dwellings rose,
+  Their level roofs with turrets set around
+  And battlements all burnished white, which shone
+  Like silver in the sunshine. I beheld
+  The imperial city, her far-circling walls,
+  Her garden groves and stately palaces,
+  Her temples mountain size, her thousand roofs.
+  And when I saw her might and majesty
+  My mind misgave me then.
+
+  _Madoc_, i, 6.
+
+That following day, November 8, 1519, should be noted in every calendar,
+when the great capital of the Western World admitted the conquering
+general from the Eastern World. The invaders were now upon a larger
+causeway, which stretched across the salt waters of Lake Tezcuco; and
+"had occasion more than ever to admire the mechanical science of the
+Aztecs." It was wide enough throughout its whole extent for ten horsemen
+to ride abreast.
+
+The Spaniards saw everywhere "evidence of a crowded and thriving
+population, exceeding all they had yet seen." The water was darkened by
+swarms of canoes filled with Indians; and here also were those fairy
+islands of flowers. Half a league from the capital they encountered a
+solid work of stone, which traversed the road. It was twelve feet high,
+strengthened by towers at the extremities, and in the center was a
+battlemented gateway, which opened a passage to the troops.
+
+Here they were met by several hundred Aztec chiefs, who came out to
+announce the approach of Montezuma, and to welcome the Spaniards to his
+capital. They were dressed in the fanciful gala costume of the country,
+with the cotton sash around their loins, and a broad mantle of the same
+material, or of the brilliant feather embroidery, flowing gracefully
+down their shoulders. On their necks and arms they displayed collars and
+bracelets of turquoise mosaic, with which delicate plumage was curiously
+mingled, while their ears, under lips, and occasionally their noses were
+garnished with pendants formed of precious stones, or crescents of fine
+gold.
+
+After all the caziques had performed the same formal salutation
+separately, there was no further delay till they reached a bridge near
+the gates of the capital. Soon after "they beheld the glittering retinue
+of the Emperor emerging from the great street leading through the heart
+of the city. Amid a crowd of Indian nobles preceded by three officers of
+state bearing golden wands, they saw the royal palanquin blazing with
+burnished gold. It was borne on the shoulders of nobles, and over it a
+canopy of gaudy feather-work, covered with jewels and fringed with
+silver, was supported by four attendants of the same rank."
+
+At a certain distance from the Spaniards "the train halted, and
+Montezuma, descending from the litter, came forward, leaning on the
+arms of the lords of Tezcuco and Iztapalapan"--the Emperor's nephew and
+brother, already mentioned. "As the monarch advanced, his subjects, who
+lined the sides of the causeway, bent forward, with their eyes fastened
+on the ground, as he passed."
+
+Montezuma wore the ample square cloak common to the Mexicans, but of the
+finest cotton sprinkled with pearls and precious stones; his sandals
+were similarly sprinkled, and had soles of solid gold. His only head
+ornament was a bunch of feathers of the royal green color. A man about
+forty; tall and rather thin; black hair, cut rather short for a person
+of rank; dignified in his movements; his features wearing an expression
+of benignity not to be expected from his character.
+
+After dismounting from horseback, Cortés advanced to meet Montezuma, who
+received him with princely courtesy, while Cortés responded by profound
+expressions of respect, with thanks for his experience of the Emperor's
+munificence. He then hung round Montezuma's neck a sparkling chain of
+colored crystal, accompanying this with a movement as if to embrace him,
+when he was restrained by the two Aztec lords, shocked at the menaced
+profanation of the sacred person of their monarch and master.
+
+Montezuma appointed his brother to conduct the Spaniards to their
+residence in the capital, and was again carried through the adoring
+crowds in his litter. "The Spaniards quickly followed, and with colors
+flying and music playing soon made their entrance into the southern
+quarter."
+
+On entering "they found fresh cause for admiration in the grandeur of
+the city and the superior style of its architecture. The great avenue
+through which they were now marching was lined with the houses of the
+nobles, who were encouraged by the Emperor to make the capital their
+residence. The flat roofs were protected by stone parapets, so that
+every house was a fortress. Sometimes these roofs seemed parterres of
+flowers ... broad terraced gardens laid out between the buildings.
+Occasionally a great square intervened surrounded by its porticoes of
+stone and stucco; or a pyramidal temple reared its colossal bulk crowned
+with its tapering sanctuaries, and altars blazing with unextinguishable
+fires. But what most impressed the Spaniards was the throngs of people
+who swarmed through the streets and on the canals."
+
+Probably, however, the spectacle of the European army with their horses,
+their guns, bright swords and helmets of steel, a metal to them unknown;
+their weird and mysterious music--the whole formed to the Aztec populace
+an inexplicable wonder, combined with those foreigners who had arrived
+from the distant East, "revealing their celestial origin in their fair
+complexions." Many of the Aztec citizens betrayed keen hatred of the
+Tlascalans who marched with the Spaniards in friendly alliance.
+
+At length Cortés with his mixed army halted near the center of the city
+in a great open space, "where rose the huge pyramidal pile dedicated to
+the patron war-god of the Aztecs, second only to the temple of Cholula
+in size as well as sanctity." The present famous cathedral of modern
+Mexico is built on part of the same site.
+
+A palace built opposite the west side of the great temple was assigned
+to Cortés. It was extensive enough to accommodate the whole of the army
+of Cortés. Montezuma paid him a visit there, having a long conversation
+through the indispensable assistance of Marina, the slave interpreter.
+"That evening the Spaniards celebrated their arrival in the Mexican
+capital by a general discharge of artillery. The thunders of the
+ordnance reverberating among the buildings and shaking them to their
+foundations, the stench of the sulfureous vapor reminding the
+inhabitants of the explosions of the great volcano (Popocatepetl) filled
+the hearts of the superstitious Aztecs with dismay."
+
+Next day Cortés had gracious permission to return the visit of the
+Emperor, and therefore proceeded to wait upon him at the royal palace,
+dressed in his richest suit of clothes. The Spanish general felt the
+importance of the occasion and resolved to exercise all his eloquence
+and power of argument in attempting the "conversion" of Montezuma to the
+Christian faith.
+
+For this purpose, with the assistance of the faithful Marina, Cortés
+engaged the Emperor in a theological discussion; explaining the creation
+of the world as taught in the Jewish Scriptures; the fall of man from
+his first happy and holy condition by the temptation of Satan; the
+mysterious redemption of the human race by the incarnation and atonement
+of the Son of God Himself. "He assured Montezuma that the idols
+worshiped in Mexico were Satan under different forms. A sufficient proof
+of this was the bloody sacrifices they imposed, which he contrasted with
+the pure and simple rite of the mass. It was to snatch the Emperor's
+soul and the souls of his people from the flames of eternal fire that
+the Christians had come to this land."
+
+Montezuma replied that the God of the Spaniards must be a good being,
+and "my gods also are good to me; there was no need to further discourse
+on the matter." If he had "resisted their visit to his capital, it was
+because he had heard such accounts of their cruelties--that they sent
+the lightning to consume his people, or crushed them to pieces under the
+hard feet of the ferocious animals on which they rode. He was now
+convinced that these were idle tales; that the Spaniards were kind and
+generous in their nature." He concluded by admitting the superiority of
+the sovereign of Cortés beyond the seas. "Your sovereign is the rightful
+lord of all: I rule in his name."
+
+The rough Spanish cavaliers were touched by the kindness and affability
+of Montezuma. As they passed him, says Diaz, in his History, they made
+him the most profound obeisance, hat in hand; and on the way home could
+discourse of nothing but the gentle breeding and courtesy of the Indian
+monarch.
+
+
+MONTEZUMA'S CAPITAL
+
+Cortés and his army being now fairly domesticated in Mexico, and the
+Emperor having apparently become reconciled to the presence of his
+formidable guests, we may pause to consider the surroundings.
+
+The present capital occupies the site of Tenochtitlan, but many changes
+have occurred in the intervening four centuries. First of all, the salt
+waters of the great lake have entirely shrunk away, leaving modern
+Mexico high and dry, a league away from the waters that Cortés saw
+flowing in ample canals through all the streets. Formerly the houses
+stood on elevated piles and were independent of the floods which rose in
+Lake Tezcuco by the overflowing of other lakes on a higher level. But
+when the foundations were on solid ground it became necessary to provide
+against the accumulated volume of water by excavating a tunnel to drain
+off the flood. This was constructed about one hundred years after the
+invasion of the Spaniards, and has been described by Humboldt as "one of
+the most stupendous hydraulic works in existence."
+
+The appearance of the lake and suburbs of the capital have long lost
+much of the attractive appearance they had at the time of the Spanish
+visit; but the town itself is still the most brilliant city in Spanish
+America, surmounted by a cathedral, which forms "the most sumptuous
+house of worship in the New World."
+
+The great causeway already described as leading north from the royal
+city of Iztapalapan, had another to the north of the capital, which
+might be called its continuation. The third causeway, leading west to
+the town Tacuba from the island city, will be noticed presently as the
+scene of the Spaniards' retreat.
+
+There were excellent police regulations for health and cleanliness.
+Water supplied by earthen pipes was from a hill about two miles distant.
+Besides the palaces and temples there were several important buildings:
+an armory filled with weapons and military dresses; a granary; various
+warehouses; an immense aviary, with "birds of splendid plumage assembled
+from all parts of the empire--the scarlet cardinal, the golden pheasant,
+the endless parrot tribe, and that miniature miracle of nature, the
+humming-bird, which delights to revel among the honeysuckle bowers of
+Mexico." The birds of prey had a separate building. The menagerie
+adjoining the aviary showed wild animals from the mountain forests, as
+well as creatures from the remote swamps of the hot lands by the
+seashore. The serpents "were confined in long cages lined with down or
+feathers, or in troughs of mud and water."
+
+Wishing to visit the great Mexican temple, Cortés, with his cavalry and
+most of his infantry, followed the caziques whom Montezuma had politely
+sent as guides.
+
+On their way to the central square the Spaniards "were struck with the
+appearance of the inhabitants, and their great superiority in the style
+and quality of their dress over the people of the lower countries. The
+women, as in other parts of the country, seemed to go about as freely as
+the men. They wore several skirts or petticoats of different lengths,
+with highly ornamented borders, and sometimes over them loose-flowing
+robes, which reached to the ankles. No veils were worn here as in some
+other parts of Anahuac. The Aztec women had their faces exposed; and
+their dark raven tresses floated luxuriantly over their shoulders,
+revealing features which, although of a dusky or rather cinnamon hue,
+were not unfrequently pleasing, while touched with the serious, even
+sad expression characteristic of the national physiognomy."
+
+When near the great market "the Spaniards were astonished at the throng
+of people pressing toward it, and on entering the place their surprise
+was still further heightened by the sight of the multitudes assembled
+there, and the dimensions of the enclosure, twice as large, says one
+Spanish observer, as the celebrated square of Salamanca. Here were
+traders from all parts; the goldsmiths from Azcapozalco, the potters and
+jewelers of Cholula, the painters of Tezcuco, the stone-cutters,
+hunters, fishermen, fruiterers, mat and chair makers, florists, etc. The
+pottery department was a large one; so were the armories for implements
+of war; razors and mirrors--booths for apothecaries with drugs, roots,
+and medical preparations. In other places again, blank-books or maps for
+the hieroglyphics or pictographs were to be seen folded together like
+fans. Animals both wild and tame were offered for sale, and near them,
+perhaps, a gang of slaves with collars round their necks. One of the
+most attractive features of the market was the display of provisions:
+meats of all kinds, domestic poultry, game from the neighboring
+mountains, fish from the lakes and streams, fruits in all the delicious
+abundance of these temperate regions, green vegetables, and the
+unfailing maize."
+
+This market, like hundreds of smaller ones, was of course held every
+fifth day--the week of the ancient Mexicans being one-fourth of the
+twenty days which constituted the Aztec month. This great market was
+comparable to "the periodical fairs in Europe, not as they now exist,
+but as they existed in the middle ages," when from the difficulties of
+intercommunication they served as the great central marts for commercial
+intercourse, exercising a most important and salutary influence on the
+community.
+
+One of the Spaniards in the party accompanying Cortés was the historian
+Diaz, and his testimony is remarkable:
+
+     There were among us soldiers who had been in many parts of the
+     world, Constantinople and Rome, and through all Italy, and who said
+     that a market-place so large, so well ordered and regulated, and so
+     filled with people, they had never seen.
+
+Proceeding next to the great _teocalli_ or Aztec temple, covering the
+site of the modern cathedral with part of the market-place and some
+adjoining streets, they found it in the midst of a great open space,
+surrounded by a high stone wall, ornamented on the outside by figures of
+serpents raised in relief, and pierced by huge battlemented gateways
+opening on the four principal streets of the capital. The _teocalli_
+itself was a solid pyramidal structure of earth and pebbles, coated on
+the outside with hewn stones, the sides facing the cardinal points. It
+was divided into five stories, each of smaller dimensions than that
+immediately below. The ascent was by a flight of steps on the outside,
+which reached to the narrow terrace at the bottom of the second story,
+passing quite round the building, when a second stairway conducted to a
+similar landing at the base of the third. Thus the visitor was obliged
+to pass round the whole edifice four times in order to reach the top.
+This had a most imposing effect in the religious ceremonials, when the
+pompous procession of priests with their wild minstrelsy came sweeping
+round the huge sides of the pyramid, as they rose higher and higher
+toward the summit in full view of the populace assembled in their
+thousands.
+
+Cortés marched up the steps at the head of his men, and found at the
+summit "a vast area paved with broad flat stones. The first object that
+met their view was a large block of jasper, the peculiar shape of which
+showed it was the stone on which the bodies of the unhappy victims were
+stretched for sacrifice. Its convex surface, by raising the breast,
+enabled the priest to perform more easily his diabolical task of
+removing the heart. At the other end of the area were two towers or
+sanctuaries, consisting of three stories, the lower one of stone, the
+two upper of wood elaborately carved. In the lower division stood the
+images of their gods; the apartments above were filled with utensils for
+their religious services, and with the ashes of some of their Aztec
+princes who had fancied this airy sepulcher. Before each sanctuary stood
+an altar, with that undying fire upon it, the extinction of which boded
+as much evil to the empire as that of the Vestal flame would have done
+in ancient Rome. Here also was the huge cylindrical drum made of
+serpents' skins, and struck only on extraordinary occasions, when it
+sent forth a melancholy, weird sound, that might be heard for miles"
+over the country, indicating fierce anger of deity against the enemies
+of Mexico.
+
+As Cortés reached the summit he was met by the Emperor himself attended
+by the high priest. Taking the general by the hand, Montezuma pointed
+out the chief localities in the wide prospect which their position
+commanded, including not only the capital, "bathed on all sides by the
+salt floods of the Tezcuco, and in the distance the clear fresh waters
+of Lake Chalco," but the whole of the Valley of Mexico to the base of
+the circular range of mountains, and the wreaths of vapor rolling up
+from the hoary head of Popocatepetl.
+
+Cortés was allowed "to behold the shrines of the gods. They found
+themselves in a spacious apartment, with sculptures on the walls,
+representing the Mexican calendar, or the priestly ritual. Before the
+altar in this sanctuary stood the colossal image of Huitzilopochtli, the
+tutelary deity and war-god of the Aztecs. His countenance was distorted
+into hideous lineaments of symbolical import. The huge folds of a
+serpent, consisting of pearls and precious stones, were coiled round his
+waist, and the same rich materials were profusely sprinkled over his
+person. On his left foot were the delicate feathers of the humming-bird,
+which gave its name to the dread deity. The most conspicuous ornament
+was a chain of gold and silver hearts alternate, suspended round his
+neck, emblematical of the sacrifice in which he most delighted. A more
+unequivocal evidence of this was afforded by three human hearts that now
+lay smoking on the altar before him.
+
+"The adjoining sanctuary was dedicated to a milder deity. This was
+Tezcatlipoca, who created the world, next in honor to that invisible
+being the Supreme God, who was represented by no image, and confined by
+no temple. He was represented as a young man, and his image of polished
+black stone was richly garnished with gold plates and ornaments. But the
+homage to this god was not always of a more refined or merciful
+character than that paid to his carnivorous brother."
+
+According to Diaz, whom we have already quoted, the stench of human gore
+in both those chapels was more intolerable than that of all the
+slaughter-houses in Castile. Glad to escape into the open air, Cortés
+expressed wonder that a great and wise prince like Montezuma could have
+faith "in such evil spirits as these idols, the representatives of the
+devil! Permit us to erect here the true cross, and place the images of
+the Blessed Virgin and her Son in these sanctuaries; you will soon see
+how your false gods will shrink before them!"
+
+This extraordinary speech of the general shocked Montezuma, who, in
+reproof, said: "Had I thought you would have offered this outrage to the
+gods of the Aztecs, I would not have admitted you into their presence."
+
+Cortés, as a general, had some of the great qualities of Napoleon, but
+he also resembled him occasionally in a singular lack of delicacy and
+good taste. We do not, however, find that he ever showed such mean
+malignity as the French general did when persecuting Madame de Staël,
+because in her Germany she had omitted to mention his campaigns and
+administration.
+
+Within the same enclosure, Cortés and his companions visited a temple
+dedicated to Quetzalcoatl, a god referred to already. Other buildings
+served as seminaries for the instruction of youth of both sexes; and
+according to the Spanish accounts of the teaching and management of
+these institutions there was "the greatest care for morals and the most
+blameless deportment."
+
+
+SEIZURE OF MONTEZUMA
+
+After being guest of the Mexican Emperor for a week, Cortés resolved to
+carry out a most daring and unprecedented scheme--a purely "Napoleonic
+movement," such as could scarcely have entered the brain of any general
+ancient or modern. He argued with himself that a quarrel might at any
+moment break out between his men and the citizens; the Spaniards again
+could not remain long quiet unless actively employed; and, thirdly,
+there was still greater danger with the Tlascalans, "a fierce race now
+in daily contact with a nation that regards them with loathing and
+detestation." Lastly, the Governor of Cuba, already grossly offended
+with Cortés, might at any moment send after him a sufficient army to
+wrest from him the glory of conquest. Cortés therefore formed the daring
+resolve to seize Montezuma in his palace and carry him as a prisoner to
+the Spanish quarters. He hoped thus to have in his own hands the supreme
+management of affairs, and at the same time secure his own safety with
+such a "sacred pledge" in keeping.
+
+It was necessary to find a pretext for seizing the hospitable Montezuma.
+News had already come to Cortés, when at Cholula, that Escalante, whom
+he had left in charge of Vera Cruz, had been defeated by the Aztecs in a
+pitched battle, and that the head of a Spaniard, then slain, had been
+sent to the Emperor, after being shown in triumph throughout some of the
+chief cities.
+
+Cortés asked an audience from Montezuma, and that being readily granted,
+he prepared for his plot by having a large body of armed men posted in
+the courtyard. Choosing five companions of tried courage, Cortés then
+entered the palace, and after being graciously received, told Montezuma
+that he knew of the treachery that had taken place near the coast, and
+that the Emperor was said to be the cause.
+
+The Emperor said that such a charge could only have been concocted by
+his enemies. He agreed with the proposal of Cortés to summon the Aztec
+chief who was accused of treachery to the garrison at Vera Cruz; and was
+then persuaded to transfer his residence to the palace occupied by the
+Spaniards. He was there received and treated with ostentatious respect;
+but his people observed that in front of the palace there was constantly
+posted a patrol of sixty soldiers, with another equally large in the
+rear.
+
+When the Aztec chief arrived from the coast, he and his sixteen Aztec
+companions were condemned to be burned alive before the palace.
+
+The next daring act of the Spanish general was to order iron fetters to
+be fastened on Montezuma's ankles. The great Emperor seemed struck with
+stupor and spoke never a word. Meanwhile the Aztec chiefs were executed
+in the courtyard without interruption, the populace imagining the
+sentence had been passed upon them by Montezuma, and the victims
+submitting to their fate without a murmur.
+
+Cortés returning then to the room where Montezuma was imprisoned,
+unclasped the fetters and said he was now at liberty to return to his
+own palace. The Emperor, however, declined the offer.
+
+The instinctive sense of human sympathy must have frequently been not
+only repressed but extinguished by all the great conquering generals who
+have crushed nations under foot. Besides those of prehistoric times in
+Asia and Europe, we have examples in Alexander the Greek, Julius Cæsar
+the Roman, Cortés and Pizarro the Spaniards, Frederick the Prussian, and
+Napoleon the Corsican.
+
+The great French general consciously aimed at dramatic effect in his
+exploits, but how paltry his seizing the Duc d'Enghien at dead of night
+by a troop of soldiers, or his coercing the King of Spain to resign his
+sovereignty after inducing him to cross the border into France. In the
+unparalleled case of Cortés, a powerful emperor is seized by a few
+strangers at noonday and carried off a prisoner without opposition or
+bloodshed. So extraordinary a transaction, says Robertson, would appear
+"extravagant beyond the bounds of probability" were it not that all the
+circumstances are "authenticated by the most unquestionable evidence."
+
+The nephew of Montezuma, Cakama, the lord of Tezcuco, had been closely
+watching all the motions of the Spaniards. He "beheld with indignation
+and contempt the abject condition of his uncle; and now set about
+forming a league with several of the neighboring caziques to break the
+detested yoke of the Spaniards." News of this league reached the ears
+of Cortés, and arresting him with the permission of Montezuma, he
+deposed him, and appointed a younger brother in his place. The other
+caziques were seized, each in his own city, and brought to Mexico, where
+Cortés placed them in strict confinement along with Cakama.
+
+The next step taken by Cortés was to demand from Montezuma an
+acknowledgment of the supremacy of the Spanish Emperor. The Aztec
+monarch and chief caziques easily granted this; and even agreed that a
+gratuity should be sent by each of them as proof of loyalty. Collectors
+were sent out, and "in a few weeks most of them returned, bringing back
+large quantities of gold and silver plate, rich stuffs, etc." To this
+Montezuma added a huge hoard, the treasures of his father. When brought
+into the quarters, the gold alone was sufficient to make three great
+heaps. It consisted partly of native grains, and partly of bars; but the
+greatest portion was in utensils, and various kinds of ornaments and
+curious toys, together with imitations of birds, insects, or flowers,
+executed with uncommon truth and delicacy. There were also quantities of
+collars, bracelets, wands, fans, and other trinkets, in which the gold
+and feather-work were richly powdered with pearls and precious stones.
+Montezuma expressed regret that the treasure was no larger; he had
+"diminished it," he said, "by his former gifts to the white men."
+
+The Spaniards gazed on this display of riches, far exceeding all
+hitherto seen in the New World--though small compared with the quantity
+of treasure found in Peru. The whole amount of this Mexican gift was
+about £1,417,000, according to Prescott, Dr. Robertson making it
+smaller.
+
+It was no easy task to divide the spoil. A fifth had to be deducted for
+the Crown, and an equal share went to the general, besides a "large sum
+to indemnify him and the Governor of Cuba for the charges of the
+expedition and the loss of the fleet. The garrison of Vera Cruz was also
+to be provided for. The cavalry, musketeers, and crossbowmen each
+received double pay." Thus for each of the common soldiers there was
+only 100 gold _pesos_--i. e., £2-5/8 X 100 = £262 10s. To many this
+share seemed paltry, compared with their expectations; and it required
+all the tact and authority of Cortés to quell the grumbling.
+
+There still remained one important object of the Spanish invasion, an
+object which Cortés as a good Catholic dared not overlook--the
+conversion of the Aztec nation from heathenism. The bloody ritual of the
+_teocallis_ was still observed in every city. Cortés waited on
+Montezuma, urging a request that the great temple be assigned for public
+worship according to the Christian rites.
+
+Montezuma was evidently much alarmed, declaring that his people would
+never allow such a profanation, but at last, after consulting the
+priest, agreed that one of the sanctuaries on the summit of the temple
+should be granted to the Christians as a place of worship.
+
+An altar was raised, surmounted by a crucifix and the image of the
+Virgin. The whole army ascended the steps in solemn procession and
+listened with silent reverence to the service of the mass. In
+conclusion, "as the beautiful Te Deum rose toward heaven, Cortés and his
+soldiers kneeling on the ground, with tears streaming from their eyes,
+poured forth their gratitude to the Almighty for this glorious triumph
+of the cross." Such a union of heathenism and Christianity was too
+unnatural to continue.
+
+A few days later the Emperor sent for Cortés and earnestly advised him
+to leave the country at once. Cortés replied that ships were necessary.
+Montezuma agreed to supply timber and workmen, and in a short time the
+construction of several ships was begun at Vera Cruz on the seacoast,
+while in the capital the garrison kept itself ready by day and by night
+for a hostile attack. Only six months had elapsed since the arrival of
+the Spaniards in the capital, 1519, and now the army was in more
+uncomfortable circumstances than ever.
+
+Meanwhile, while Cortés had been reducing Mexico and humbling the
+unfortunate Montezuma, the Governor of Cuba had complained to the court
+of Spain, but without success. Charles V, since his election to the
+imperial crown of Germany, had neglected the affairs of Spain; and when
+the envoys from Vera Cruz waited upon him, little came of the conference
+except the astonishment of the court at the quantity of gold, and the
+beautiful workmanship of the ornaments and the rich colors of the
+Mexican feather-work. The opposition of the Bishop of Burgos thwarted
+the conqueror of Mexico, as he had already successfully opposed the
+schemes of the "Great Admiral" and his son Diego Columbus. We shall
+presently see how this influential ecclesiastic was able to thwart
+Balboa when governor of Darien.
+
+Velasquez was now determined to wreak his revenge upon Cortés without
+waiting longer for assistance from Spain. He prepared an expedition of
+eighteen ships with eighty horsemen, 800 infantry, 120 crossbowmen, and
+twelve pieces of artillery. To command these Velasquez chose a hidalgo
+named Narvaez, who had assisted formerly in subduing Cuba and
+Hispaniola. The personal appearance of Narvaez, as given by Diaz, is
+worth quoting:
+
+     He was tall, stout-limbed, with a large head and red beard, an
+     agreeable presence, a voice deep and sonorous, as if it rose from a
+     cavern. He was a good horseman and valiant.
+
+Meanwhile Cortés persuaded Montezuma that some friends from Spain had
+arrived at Vera Cruz, and therefore got permission to leave him and the
+capital in charge of Alvarado and a small garrison. Montezuma, in his
+royal litter, borne on the shoulders of his Aztec nobles, accompanied
+the Spanish general to the southern causeway.
+
+When Cortés was within fifteen leagues' distance of Zempoalla, where
+Narvaez was encamped, the latter sent a message that if his authority
+were acknowledged he would supply ships to Cortés and his army so that
+all who wished might freely leave the country with all their property.
+
+Cortés, however, with his usual astuteness, replied: "If Narvaez bears a
+royal commission I will readily submit to him. But he has produced none.
+He is a deputy of my rival, Velasquez. For myself, I am a servant of the
+King; I have conquered the country for him; and for him I and my brave
+followers will defend it to the last drop of our blood. If we fall it
+will be glory enough to have perished in the discharge of our duty."
+
+Narvaez and his army were meantime spending their time frivolously; and
+when the actual attack was begun in the dead of night, under a pouring
+rain-storm, it appeared that only two sentinels were on guard. Narvaez,
+badly wounded, was taken prisoner on the top of a _teocalli_; and in a
+very short time his army was glad to capitulate. The horse-soldiers whom
+Narvaez had sent to waylay one of the roads to Zempoalla, rode in soon
+after to tender their submission. The victorious general, seated in a
+chair of state, with a richly embroidered Mexican mantle on his
+shoulders, received his congratulations from the officers and soldiers
+of both armies. Narvaez and several others were led in chains.
+
+Cortés not only defeated Narvaez, but, after the battle, enlisted under
+his standard the Spanish soldiers who had been sent to attack
+him--reminding one of the "magnetism" of Hannibal or Napoleon, and the
+consequent enthusiasm caused by mere presence, looks, and words.
+
+Before the rejoicings were finished, however, tidings were brought to
+Cortés from the Mexican capital that the whole city was in a state of
+revolt against Alvarado. On his march back to the great plateau Cortés
+found the inhabitants of Tlascala still friendly and willing to assist
+as allies in the struggle against their ancient foes, the Mexicans. On
+reaching the camp of the Spaniards in Mexico, Cortés found that Alvarado
+had provoked the insurrection by a massacre of the Aztec populace.
+
+Having entered the precincts with his army, Cortés at once made anxious
+preparations for the siege which was threatened by the Aztecs, now
+assembling in thousands.
+
+As the assailants approached "they set up a hideous yell, or rather that
+shrill whistle used in fight by the nations of Anahuac," accompanied by
+the sound of shell and atabal and their other rude instruments of wild
+music. This was followed by a tempest of missiles, stones, darts, and
+arrows. The Spaniards waited until the foremost column had arrived
+within distance, when a general discharge of artillery and muskets swept
+the ranks of the assailants. Never till now had the Mexicans witnessed
+the murderous power of these formidable engines. At first they stood
+aghast, but soon rallying, they rushed forward over the prostrate bodies
+of their comrades.
+
+Pressing on, some of them tried to scale the parapet, while others tried
+to force a breach in it. When the parapet proved too strong they shot
+burning arrows upon the wooden outworks.
+
+Next day there were continually fresh supplies of warriors added to the
+forces of the assailants, so that the danger of the situation was
+greatly increased. Diaz, an onlooker, thus wrote:
+
+     The Mexicans fought with such ferocity that if we had been assisted
+     by 10,000 Hectors and as many Orlandos, we should have made no
+     impression on them. There were several of our troops who had served
+     in the Italian wars, but neither there nor in the battles with the
+     Turks had they ever seen anything like the desperation shown by
+     these Indians.
+
+Cortés at last drew off his men and sounded a retreat, taking refuge in
+the fortress. The Mexicans encamped round it, and during the night
+insulted the besieged, shouting, "The gods have at last delivered you
+into our hands: the stone of sacrifice is ready: the knives are
+sharpened."
+
+Cortés now felt that he had not fully understood the character of the
+Mexicans. The patience and submission formerly shown in deference to the
+injured Montezuma was now replaced by concentrated arrogance and
+ferocity. The Spanish general even stooped to request the interposition
+of the Aztec Emperor; and, at last, when assured that the foreigners
+would leave his country if a way were opened through the Mexican army he
+agreed to use his influence. For this purpose
+
+     he put on his imperial robes; his mantle of white and blue flowed
+     over his shoulders, held together by its rich clasp of the green
+     _chalchivitl_. The same precious gem, with emeralds of uncommon
+     size, set in gold, profusely ornamented other parts of his dress.
+     His feet were shod with the golden sandals, and his brows covered
+     with the Mexican diadem, resembling in form the pontifical tiara.
+     Thus attired and surrounded by a guard of Spaniards, and several
+     Aztec nobles, and preceded by the golden wand, the symbol of
+     sovereignty, the Indian monarch ascended the central turret of the
+     palace.
+
+At the sight of Montezuma all the Mexican army became silent, partly, no
+doubt, from curiosity. He assured them that he was no prisoner; that the
+strangers were his friends, and would leave Mexico of their own accord
+as soon as a way was opened.
+
+To call himself a friend of the hateful Spaniards was a fatal argument.
+Instead of respecting their monarch, though in his official robes, the
+populace howled angry curses at him as a degenerate Aztec, a coward, no
+longer a warrior or even a man!
+
+A cloud of missiles was hurled at Montezuma, and he was struck to the
+ground by the blow of a stone on his head. The unfortunate monarch only
+survived his wounds for a few days, disdaining to take any nourishment,
+or to receive advice from the Spanish priests.
+
+Meanwhile, Cortés and his army met with an unexpected danger. A large
+body of the Indian warriors had taken possession of the great temple, at
+a short distance from the Spanish quarters. From this commanding
+position they kept shooting a deadly flight of arrows on the Spaniards.
+Cortés sent his chamberlain, Escobar, with a body of men to storm the
+temple, but, after three efforts, the party had to relinquish the
+attempt. Cortés himself then led a storming party, and after some
+determined fighting reached the platform at the top of the temple where
+the two sanctuaries of the Aztec deities stood. This large area was now
+the scene of a desperate battle, fought in sight of the whole capital as
+well as of the Spanish troops still remaining in the courtyard.
+
+This struggle between such deadly enemies caused dreadful carnage on
+both sides:
+
+     The edge of the area was unprotected by parapet or battlement; and
+     the combatants, as they struggled in mortal agony, were sometimes
+     seen to roll over the sheer sides of the precipice together.
+     Cortés himself had a narrow escape from this dreadful fate.... The
+     number of the enemy was double that of the Christians; but the
+     invulnerable armor of the Spaniard, his sword of matchless temper,
+     and his skill in the use of it, gave him advantages which far
+     outweighed the odds of physical strength and numbers.
+
+This unparalleled scene of bloodshed lasted for three hours. Of the
+Mexicans "two or three priests only survived to be led away in triumph";
+yet the loss of the Spaniards was serious enough, amounting to
+forty-five of their best men. Nearly all the others were wounded, some
+seriously.
+
+After dragging the uncouth monster, Huitzilopochtli, from his sanctuary,
+the assailants hurled the repulsive image down the steps of the temple,
+and then set fire to the building. The same evening they burned a large
+part of the town.
+
+Cortés now resolved upon a night retreat from the capital; but when
+marching along one of the causeways they were attacked by the Mexicans
+in such numbers that, when morning dawned, the shattered battalion was
+reduced to less than half its number. In after years that disastrous
+retreat was known to the Spanish chroniclers as _Noche Triste_, the
+"Night of Sorrows."
+
+After a hurried six days' march before the pursuers, Cortés gained a
+victory so signal that an alliance was speedily formed with Tlascala
+against Mexico. Cortés built twelve brigantines at Vera Cruz in order to
+secure the command of Lake Tescuco and thus attempt the reduction of the
+Mexican capital. On his return to the great lake he found that the
+throne was now occupied by Guatimozin, a nephew of Montezuma. Using
+their brigantines the Spanish soldiers now began the siege of
+Mexico--"the most memorable event in the conquest of America." It lasted
+seventy-five days, during which the whole of the capital was reduced to
+ruins. Guatimozin, the last of the Aztec emperors, was condemned by the
+Spanish general to be hanged on the charge of treason.
+
+Cortés was now master of all Mexico. The Spanish court and people were
+full of admiration for his victories and the extent of his conquests;
+and Charles V appointed him "Captain-General and Governor of New Spain."
+On revisiting Europe, the Emperor honored him with the order of St. Jago
+and the title of marquis. Latterly, however, after some failures in his
+exploring expeditions, Cortés, on his return to Spain, found himself
+treated with neglect. It was then, according to Voltaire's story, that
+when Charles asked the courtiers, "Who is that man?" referring to
+Cortés, the latter said aloud: "It is one, sire, that has added more
+provinces to your dominions than any other governor has added towns!"
+Cortés died in his sixty-second year, December 2, 1547.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+BALBOA AND THE ISTHMUS
+
+
+In the Spanish conquest of America there are three great generals:
+Cortés, Balbao, and Pizarro. The third may to many readers seem
+immeasurably superior as explorer and conqueror to the second, but it
+must be remembered that Pizarro's scheme of discovering and invading
+Peru was precisely that which Balboa had already prepared. Pizarro
+could afford to say, "Others have labored, and I have merely entered
+into their labors."
+
+What, then, was the work done by Balboa, and what prevented him from
+taking Peru? In 1510, the year before the conquest of Cuba, Balboa was
+glad to escape from Hispaniola, not to avoid the Spanish cruelties, like
+Hatuey, the luckless cazique, but to escape from his Spanish creditors.
+So anxious was he to get on board that he concealed himself in a cask to
+avoid observation. Balboa, however, had administrative qualities, and
+after taking possession of the uncleared district of Darien in the name
+of the King of Spain, he was appointed governor of the new province. He
+built the town Santa Maria on the coast of the Darien Gulf; but so
+pestilential was the district (and still is) that the settlers were glad
+after a short time to remove to the other side of the isthmus.
+
+It was by mere accident that Balboa first heard of a great ocean beyond
+the mountains of Darien, and of the enormous wealth of Peru, a country
+hitherto unknown to Spain or Europe. As several soldiers were one day
+disputing about the division of some gold-dust, an Indian cazique called
+out:
+
+"Why quarrel about such a trifle? I can show you a region where the
+commonest pots and pans are made of that metal."
+
+To the inquiries of Balboa and his companions, the cazique replied that
+by traveling six days to the south they should see another ocean, near
+which lay the wealthy kingdom.
+
+Resolving to cross the isthmus, notwithstanding a thousand formidable
+obstructions, Balboa formed a party consisting of 190 veterans,
+accompanied by 1,000 Indians, and several fierce dogs trained to hunt
+the naked natives. Such were the difficulties that the "six days'
+journey" occupied twenty-five before the ridge of the isthmus range was
+reached.
+
+     Balboa commanded his men to halt, and advanced alone to the summit,
+     that he might be the first who should enjoy a spectacle which he
+     had so long desired. As soon as he beheld the sea stretching in
+     endless prospect below him he fell on his knees; ... his followers
+     observing his transports of joy rushed forward to join in his
+     wonder, exultation, and gratitude.
+
+That was the moment, September 25, 1513, immortalized in Keats's sonnet:
+
+  When with eagle eyes
+  He stared at the Pacific, and all his men
+  Looked at each other with a wild surmise,
+  Silent, upon a peak in Darien.
+
+Balboa hurried down the western slope of the isthmus range to take
+formal possession in the name of the Spanish monarch. He found a fishing
+village there which had been named Panama (i. e., "plenty fish") by the
+Indians, but had also a reputation for the pearls found in its bay.
+
+In his letter to Spain, Balboa said, to illustrate the difficulties of
+the expedition, that of all the 190 men in his party there were never
+more than eighty fit for service at one time. Notwithstanding the
+wonderful news of the discovery of the "great southern ocean," as the
+Pacific was then called, Ferdinand overlooked the great services of
+Balboa, and appointed a new Governor of Darien called Pedrarias, who
+instituted a judicial inquiry into some previous transactions of Balboa,
+imposing a heavy fine as punishment. The new governor committed other
+acts of great imprudence, and at length Ferdinand felt that he had only
+superseded the most active and experienced officer he had in the New
+World. To make amends to Balboa, he was appointed "Lieutenant-Governor
+of the Countries upon the South Sea," with great privileges and
+authority. At the same time Pedrarias was commanded to "support Balboa
+in all his operations, and to consult with him concerning every measure
+which he himself pursued."
+
+Balboa, in 1517, began his preparations for entering the South Sea and
+conveying troops to the country which he proposed to invade. With four
+small brigantines and 300 chosen soldiers (a force superior to that with
+which Pizarro afterward undertook the same expedition), he was on the
+point of sailing toward the coasts of which they had such expectations,
+when a message arrived from Pedrarias. Balboa being unconscious of
+crime, agreed to delay the expedition, and meet Pedrarias for
+conference. On entering the palace Balboa was arrested and immediately
+tried on the charge of disloyalty to the King and intention of revolt
+against the governor. He was speedily sentenced to death, although the
+accusation was so absurd that the judges who pronounced the sentence
+"seconded by the whole colony, interceded warmly for his pardon." "The
+Spaniards beheld with astonishment and sorrow the public execution of a
+man whom they universally deemed more capable than any who had borne
+command in America, of forming and accomplishing great designs." This
+gross injustice amounting to a public scandal was accounted for by the
+malignant influence of the Bishop of Burgos, in Spain, who was the
+original cause of Balboa being superseded as Governor of Darien.
+
+The expedition designed by Balboa was now relinquished; but the removal
+of the colony soon afterward to the Pacific side of the isthmus may be
+considered a step toward the realization of an exactly similar attempt
+by Pizzaro.
+
+To some historical readers the word "Darien" only recalls the bitter
+prejudice entertained against William III, our "Dutch King,"
+notwithstanding the special pleading of Lord Macaulay and others. Some
+Scottish merchants had adopted a scheme recommended by the most reliable
+authorities[23] of that age, viz., the settlement of a half-commercial,
+half-military colony on the Atlantic coast of the isthmus. Such a
+company, in the words of Paterson, would be masters of the "door of the
+seas," and the "key of the universe." The East India Companies both of
+England and Holland showed an envious jealousy of the Scottish
+merchants, and therefore no assistance was to be expected from the King,
+although he had given his royal sanction to the Scots Act of Parliament
+creating the company. The Scottish people, however, zealously continued
+the scheme. Some 1,200 men "set sail from Leith amid the blessings of
+many thousands of their assembled countrymen. They reached the Gulf of
+Darien in safety, and established themselves on the coast in localities
+to which they gave the names of New Caledonia and New St. Andrews." The
+Government of Spain (secretly instigated, it was believed, by the
+English King) resolved to attack the embryo colony. The shipwreck of
+the whole scheme soon followed, due undoubtedly more to the jealousy of
+the English merchants (who believed that any increase of trade in
+Scotland or Ireland was a positive loss to England) and the bad faith of
+our Dutch King, than to all other causes whatever. Of the colony,
+according to Dalrymple (ii, 103), not more than thirty ever saw their
+own country again.
+
+[Footnote 23: E.g., Paterson, founder of the Bank of England, Fletcher
+of Saltoun, the Marquis of Tweeddale, then chief Minister of Scotland,
+Sir John Dalrymple, etc.]
+
+In 1526 a company of English merchants was formed to trade with the West
+Indies and the "Spanish Main," and commanded great success. Other
+merchants did the same. Soon after the Spanish court instituted a
+coast-guard to make war upon these traders; and as they had full power
+to capture and slay all who did not bear the King of Spain's commission,
+there were terrible tales told in Europe of mutilation, torture, and
+revenge. The Windward Islands having been gradually settled by French
+and English adventurers, Frederick of Toledo was sent with a large fleet
+to destroy those petty colonies. This harsh treatment rendered the
+planters desperate, and under the name of buccaneers,[24] they continued
+"a retaliation so horribly savage [_v._ Notes to Rokeby] that the
+perusal makes the reader shudder. From piracy at sea, they advanced to
+making predatory descents on the Spanish territories; in which they
+displayed the same furious and irresistible valor, the same thirst of
+spoil, and the same brutal inhumanity to their captives." The pride and
+presumption of Spain were partly resisted by the English monarchs, but
+not with real effect before the time of Cromwell, strongest of all the
+rulers of Britain. Under his government of the seas Spain was deprived
+of the island of Jamaica; and the buccaneers to their disgust found that
+the flag of the great Protector was a check against all piracy and
+injustice.
+
+[Footnote 24: Named from _boucan_, a kind of preserved meat, used by
+those rovers. They had learned this peculiar art of preserving from the
+native Caribs.]
+
+Under Charles II, however, the buccaneers resumed their conflict with
+the Spanish, and in 1670, Henry Morgan, with 1,500 English and French
+ruffians resolved to cross the isthmus like Balboa, to plunder the
+depositories of gold and silver which lay in the city of Panama and
+other places on the Pacific coast. Having stormed a strong fortress at
+the mouth of the Chagres River, they forced their way through the
+entangled forests for ten days, and after much hardship reached Panama,
+to find it defended by a regular army of twice their number. The
+Spaniards, however, were beaten, and Morgan thoroughly sacked and
+plundered the city, taking captive all the chief citizens in order to
+extort afterward large ransoms.
+
+Ten years afterward the Isthmus of Darien was crossed by Dampier,
+another celebrated buccaneer, but his party was too small to attack
+Panama. They seized some Spanish vessels in the bay and plundered all
+the coast for some distance. The following description by the bold
+buccaneer is not without interest to those who consider the present
+importance of the place:
+
+     Near the riverside stands New Panama, a very handsome city, in a
+     spacious bay of the same name, into which disembogue many long and
+     navigable rivers, some whereof are not without gold; besides that
+     it is beautified by many pleasant isles, the country about it
+     affording a delightful prospect to the sea.... The houses are
+     chiefly of brick and pretty lofty, especially the president's, the
+     churches, the monasteries, and other public structures, which make
+     the best show I have seen in the West Indies.
+
+The present prosperity of Panama is due to its large transit trade,
+which was recently estimated at £15,000,000 a year. The pearl-fisheries,
+famous at the time of Balboa's visit, have now little value. The
+narrowest breadth of the isthmus being only thirty miles, there have
+naturally been many engineering proposals to connect the Pacific and
+Atlantic oceans by a canal. M. de Lesseps founded a French company in
+1881 for the construction of a ship-canal with eight locks, and over
+forty-six miles in length; but in 1889, the excavations stopped after
+some 48-1/2 millions of cubic meters of earth and rock had been removed.
+Meanwhile a railway 47-1/2 miles long connects Colon on the Atlantic
+with Panama on the Pacific.
+
+The Mexican Isthmus of Tehuantepec, only 140 miles across, separates the
+Bay of Campeachy from the Pacific, and failing the Panama Canal some
+engineers were in favor of a _ship-railway_ for conveying large vessels
+_bodily_ from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The scheme met with great
+favor in the United States, but has not yet been carried out.
+
+The third proposal for connecting the two great oceans is probably the
+most feasible because it follows the most deeply marked depression of
+the isthmus. The Nicaraguan Ship-canal will, if the scheme be carried
+out, pass from Greytown on the Atlantic to Brito on the Pacific, about
+170 miles apart, through the republic of Nicaragua, which lies north of
+Panama and south of Guatemala. One obvious advantage of this ship-canal
+is that the great lake is utilized, affording already about one-third of
+the waterway; only twenty-eight miles, in fact, being actual canal, and
+the rest river, lake, and lagoon navigation. In the latest
+specifications the engineers proposed to dam up the river (San Juan) by
+a stone wall seventy feet high and 1,900 feet long, thus raising the
+water to a level of 106 feet above the sea. Only three locks will be
+required to work the Nicaraguan Ship-canal.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+EXTINCT CIVILIZATION OF PERU
+
+
+§ (A) _Peruvian Archeology_
+
+As the extinct civilization of the Incas of Peru is the most important
+phase of development among all the American races, so also their
+prehistoric remains are extremely interesting to the archeologist.
+
+[Illustration: Monolith Doorway. Near Lake Titicaca. Fig. 1.]
+
+1. _Architecture._--In the interior of the country we find many
+remarkable examples of stone building, such as walls of huge polygonal
+stones, four-sided or five-sided or six-sided, some six feet across,
+laid without mortar, and so finely polished and adjusted that the blade
+of a knife can not be inserted between them. The strength of the masonry
+is sometimes assisted by having the projecting parts of a stone fitting
+into corresponding hollows or recesses in the stone above or below it.
+The stones being frequently extremely hard granite, or basalt, etc.,
+antiquarian travelers have wondered how in early times the natives could
+have cut and polished them without any metal tools. The ordinary
+explanation is that the work was done by patiently rubbing one stone
+against another, with the aid of sharp sand, "time being no object" in
+the case of the laborers among savage and primitive races. It is
+believed by most antiquaries that long before the period of the Incas
+there was a powerful empire to which we must attribute such Cyclopean
+ruins; especially as the construction and style differ so greatly from
+what is found in the Inca period. The huge stones occur at Tiahuanacu
+(near Lake Titicaca), Cuzco, Ollantay, and the altar of Concacha. Fig. 1
+is a broken doorway at Tiahuanacu, composed of huge monoliths. Fig. 2 is
+an enlargement of an image over the doorway shown in Fig. 1. The doorway
+forms the entrance to a quadrangular area (400 yards by 350) surrounded
+by large stones standing on end. The gateway or doorway of Fig. 1 is one
+of the most marvelous stone monuments existing, being _one block of hard
+rock_, deeply sunk in the ground. The present height is over seven feet.
+The whole of the inner side "from a line level with the upper lintel of
+the doorway to the top" is a mass of sculpture, "which speaks to us,"
+says Sir C. R. Markham, "in difficult riddles of the customs and art
+culture, of the beliefs and traditions of an ancient" extinct
+civilization.
+
+The figure in high relief above the doorway (Fig. 2) is a head
+surrounded by rays, "each terminating in a circle or the head of an
+animal." Six human heads hang from the girdle, and two more from the
+elbows. Each hand holds a scepter terminating at the lower end with the
+head of a condor--that huge American vulture familiar to the Peruvians.
+That bird of prey was probably an emblem of royalty to the prehistoric
+dynasty now long forgotten.
+
+[Illustration: Image over the doorway shown in Fig. 1.
+
+Near Lake Titicaca. Fig. 2.]
+
+Some older historians speak of richly carved statues which formerly
+stood in this enclosure, and "many cylindrical pillars." Of the
+masonry of these ruins generally, Squier says: "The stone is faced
+with a precision that no skill can excel, its right angles turned with
+an accuracy that the most careful geometer could not surpass. I do not
+believe there exists a better piece of stone-cutting, the material
+considered, on this or the other continent."
+
+The fortress above Cuzco, the capital of the Incas, is considered the
+grandest monument of extinct American civilization. "Like the Pyramids
+and the Coliseum, it is imperishable.... A fortified work, 600 yards in
+length, built of gigantic stones, in three lines, forming walls
+supporting terraces and parapets.... The stones are of blue limestone,
+of enormous size and irregular in shape, but fitted into each other with
+rare precision. One stone is twenty-seven feet high by fourteen; and
+others fifteen feet high by twelve are common throughout the work."
+
+In all the architecture of the prehistoric Peruvians the true arch is
+not found, though there is an approach to the "Maya arch," formerly
+described, finishing the doorway overhead by overlapping stones.
+
+The immense fortresses of Ollantay and Pisac are really hills which, by
+means of encircling walls, have been transformed into immense pyramids
+with many terraces rising above each other. All large buildings, such as
+temples and palaces, were laid out to agree with the "cardinal points,"
+the principal entrance always facing the rising sun. The tomb
+construction of the ancient Peruvians has been already noticed (_v._
+chap. iv).
+
+To the south of Cuzco are the ruins of a temple, Cacha, which is
+considered to be of a date between the Cyclopean structures already
+described and the Inca architecture. The chief part is 110 yards long,
+built of wrought stones; and in the middle of the building from end to
+end runs a wall pierced by twelve high doorways. There were also two
+series of pillars which had formerly supported a floor.
+
+Those traces of the Cyclopean builders point to an extremely early date,
+but several students of the Peruvian antiquities point confidently to
+distinct evidence of a still more primitive race--to be compared,
+perhaps, with those builders of "Druidic monuments" whom it is now the
+fashion to call "neolithic men." Some "cromlechs" or burial-places have
+been found in Bolivia and other parts of Peru; and in many respects they
+are parallel to the stone monuments found in Great Britain as well as
+Brittany and other parts of Europe. Some of those Peruvian cromlechs
+consist of four great slabs of slate, each about five feet high, four or
+five in width, and more than an inch thick. A fifth is placed over them.
+Over the whole a pyramid of clay and rough stones is piled. Possibly
+that race of cromlech builders bore the same relation to the temple
+builders described above that the builders of Kits Coty House, between
+Rochester and Maidstone, bore to the temple builders of Stonehenge on
+Salisbury Plain. If they had to retreat, as the ice-sheet was driven
+farther from the torrid zone, then by the theory of the Glacial Period
+the Cromlech men in both cases would at last be simply Eskimos.
+
+2. _Aqueducts._--The ancient Peruvians attained great skill in the
+distribution of water--especially for irrigation. Artificial lakes or
+reservoirs were formed, so that by damming up the streams in the rainy
+season a good supply was created for the dry season. Some great
+monuments still remain of their hydraulic engineering, such as extensive
+cisterns, solid dikes along the rivers to prevent overflow, tunnels to
+drain lakes during an oversupply, and, in some places, artificial
+cascades.
+
+3. _Roads and Bridges._--The roads and highways of the Incas were so
+excellent that "in many places" they still offer by far the most
+convenient avenues of transit. They are from fifteen to twenty-five feet
+in width, bedded with small stones often laid in concrete. As the use of
+beasts of burden was almost unknown, the roads did not ascend a steep
+inclination by zigzags but by steps cut in the rock. At certain
+distances public shelters were erected for travelers, and some of these
+still offer the best lodging-houses to be found along the routes.
+Bridges were of wood, of ropes made from maguey fiber, or of stone. Some
+of the latter are still in excellent condition, in spite of the violence
+of the mountain torrents which they have spanned for four centuries.
+
+4. _Sculpture._--The Maya race of Yucatan and Central America were much
+superior to the prehistoric Peruvians in stone sculpture. Except those
+examples already referred to under 1, their artists have apparently
+produced nothing to show skill in workmanship, much less fertility of
+imagination. That is largely explained by their lack of suitable tools.
+
+5. _Goldsmith's Work._--In this branch of art the ancient Peruvians
+greatly excelled, especially in inlaying and gilding. Gold-beating and
+gilding had been prosecuted to remarkable delicacy, and the very thin
+layers of gold-leaf on many articles led the Spaniards at first to
+believe they were of the solid metal. These delicate layers showed
+ornamental designs, including birds, butterflies, and the like.
+
+6. _Pottery._--In this department of industrial art the prehistoric
+Peruvians showed much aptitude both "in regard to variety of design and
+technical skill in preparing the material. Vases with pointed bottoms
+and painted sides recalling those of ancient Greece and Etruria are
+often disinterred along the coast." The merit of those artists lay in
+perfect imitation of natural objects, such as birds, fishes, fruits,
+plants, skulls, persons in various positions, faces (often with graphic
+individuality). Some jars exactly resembled the "magic vases" which are
+still found in Hindustan, and can be emptied only when held at a certain
+angle.
+
+7. Though ignorant of perspective and the rules of light and shade,
+these ancient Peruvians had an accurate eye for color. "Spinning,
+weaving, and dyeing," to quote Sir C. R. Markham, "were arts which were
+sources of employment to a great number, owing to the quantity and
+variety of the fabrics.... There were rich dresses interwoven with gold
+or made of gold thread; fine woolen mantles ornamented with borders of
+small square plates of gold and silver; colored cotton cloths worked in
+complicated patterns; and fabrics of aloe fiber and sheep's sinews for
+breeches. Coarser cloths of llama wool were also made in vast
+quantities."
+
+[Illustration: The Quipu.]
+
+8. The _quipu_ (i e., "knot").--Without writing or even any of the
+simpler forms of pictographs which some Indian races inferior to them in
+refinement had invented, the Peruvians had no means of sending a message
+relating to tribute or the number of warriors in an army, or a date,
+except the _quipu_. It consisted of one principal cord about two feet
+long held horizontally, to which other cords of various colors and
+lengths were attached, hanging vertically. The knots on the vertical
+cords, and their various lengths served by means of an arranged code to
+convey certain words and phrases. Each color and each knot had so many
+conventional significations; thus _white_ = silver, _green_ = corn,
+_yellow_ = gold; but in another quipu, _white_ = peace, _red_ = war,
+soldiers, etc. The quipu was originally only a means of numeration and
+keeping accounts, thus:
+
+  a single knot  =    10
+  a double knot  =   100
+  a triple knot  = 1,000
+  two singles    =    20
+  two doubles    =   200
+  etc.
+
+9. The great stone monuments described in our first section belonged,
+according to some writers, to a dynasty called Pirua, who ruled over the
+highlands of Peru and Bolivia long before the times of the Incas. That
+early race had as the center of their civilization the shores of Lake
+Titicaca.
+
+10. _The Ancient Capital._--Cuzco, the center of government till the
+time of the conquest by the Spaniards, and for a long time the only city
+in the Peruvian empire, deserves a paragraph under the head archeology.
+Its wonderful fortress has already been referred to, and there are other
+Cyclopean remains, such as the great wall which contains the "stone of
+twelve corners." Some monuments of the Inca period also attract much
+attention, such as the Curi-cancha temple, 296 feet long, the palace of
+Amaru-cancha (i. e., "place of serpents"), so called from the serpents
+sculptured in relief on the exterior. Of these and other buildings
+Squier remarks that the "joints are of a precision unknown in our
+architecture; the world has nothing to show in the way of stone-cutting
+and fitting to surpass the skill and accuracy displayed in the Inca
+structures of Cuzco." To obtain the site for their capital the Incas had
+to carry out a great engineering work, by confining two mountain
+torrents between walls of substantial masonry so solid as to serve even
+to modern times. The Valley of Cuzco was the source of the Peruvian
+civilization, center and origin of the empire. Hence the name, Cuzco =
+"navel," just as the ancient Greeks called Athens _umbilicus terræ_, and
+our New England cousins fondly refer to Boston, Mass., as "the hub of
+the universe"!
+
+[Illustration: Gold Ornament (? Zodiac) from a Tomb at Cuzco.]
+
+
+§ (B) _Peru before the Arrival of the Spaniards_
+
+The "national myth" of the Peruvians was that at Lake Titicaca two
+supernatural beings appeared, both children of the Sun. One was Manco
+Capac, the first Inca, who taught the people agriculture; the other was
+his wife, who taught the women to spin and weave. From them were
+lineally derived all the Incas. As representing the Sun, the Inca was
+high priest and head of the hierarchy, and therefore presided at the
+great religious festivals. He was the source from which everything
+flowed--all dignity, all power, all emolument. Louis le Magnifique when
+at the height of his power might be taken as a type of the emperor Inca:
+both could literally use the phrase, _L'état c'est Moi,_ "The State! I
+am the State!"
+
+In the royal palaces and dress great barbaric pomp was assumed. All the
+apartments were studded with gold and silver ornaments.
+
+The worship of the Sun, representing the Creator, the Dweller in Space,
+the Teacher and Ruler of the Universe,[25] was the religion of the Incas
+inherited from their distant ancestry. The great temple at Cuzco, with
+its gorgeous display of riches, was called "the place of gold, the abode
+of the Teacher of the Universe." An elliptical plate of gold was fixed
+on the wall to represent the Deity.
+
+[Footnote 25: According to Sir C. R. Markham, F. R. S.]
+
+Sufficient evidence is still visible of the engineering industry evinced
+by the natives before the arrival of Pizarro. We give some particulars
+of the two principal highways, both joining Quito to Cuzco, then passing
+south to Chile. First, the high level road, 1,600 miles in length,
+crossing the great Peruvian table-land, and conducted over pathless
+sierras buried in snow; with galleries cut for leagues through the
+living rock, rivers crossed by means of bridges, and ravines of hideous
+depth filled up with solid masonry. The roadway consisted of heavy
+flags of freestone. Secondly, the low level highway along the coast
+country between the Andes and the Pacific. The prehistoric engineers had
+here to encounter quite a different task. The causeway was raised on a
+high embankment of earth, with trees planted along the margin. In the
+strips of sandy waste, huge piles (many of them to be seen to this day)
+were driven into the ground to indicate the route.
+
+Another colossal effort was the conveyance of water to the rainless
+country by the seacoast, especially to certain parts capable of being
+reclaimed and made fertile. Some of the aqueducts were of great
+length--one measuring between 400 and 500 miles.
+
+The following table gives the Peruvian calendar for a year:
+
+  I. Raymi, the _Festival of the Winter Solstice_,
+     in honor of the Sun           June 22d.
+     Season of plowing               July 22d.
+     Season of sowing                August 22d.
+  II. _Festival of the Spring Equinox_  September 22d.
+     Season of brewing               October 22d.
+     Commemoration of the Dead       November 22d.
+  III. _Festival of the Summer Solstice_ December 22d.
+     Season of exercises             January 22d.
+     Season of ripening              February 22d.
+  IV. _Festival of Autumn Equinox_      March 22d.
+     Beginning of harvest            April 22d.
+     Harvesting month                May 22d.
+
+Since Quito is exactly on the equator, the vertical rays of the sun at
+noon during the equinox cast no shadow. That northern capital,
+therefore, was "held in especial veneration as the favored abode of the
+great deity."
+
+At the feast of Raymi, or New Year's day, the sacrifice usually offered
+was that of the llama, a fire being kindled by means of a concave mirror
+of polished metal collecting the rays of the sun into a focus upon a
+quantity of dried cotton.
+
+The national festival of the Aztecs we compared to the secular
+celebration of the Romans; so now the Raymi of the Peruvians may be
+likened to the Panathenæa of ancient Athens, when the people of Attica
+ascended in splendid procession to the shrine on the Acropolis.
+
+In Mexico the Spanish travelers often experienced severe famines; and in
+India, even at the present day (to the disgrace perhaps of our
+management) nearly every year many thousands die of hunger. It was very
+different under the ancient Peruvians, because by law "the product of
+the lands consecrated to the Sun, as well as those set apart for the
+Incas, was deposited in the _Tambos_, or public storehouses, as a stated
+provision for times of scarcity."
+
+The Spaniards found those prehistoric agriculturists utilizing the
+inexhaustible supply of guano found on all the islands of the Pacific.
+It was not till the middle of the nineteenth century that the British
+farmer found the value of this fertilizer.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+PIZARRO AND THE INCAS
+
+
+When stout-hearted Balboa first reached the summit of the isthmus range
+and looked south over the Bay of Panama, he might have seen the "Silver
+Bell," which forms the summit of the mighty volcano Chimborazo. Still
+farther south in the same direction lay the "land of gold," of which he
+had heard.
+
+Balboa was unjustly prevented from exploring that unknown country, but
+among the Spanish soldiers in Panama there were two who determined to
+carry out Balboa's scheme. The younger, Pizarro, was destined to rival
+Cortés as explorer and conqueror; Almagro, his companion in the
+expedition, was less crafty and cruel. Sailing from Panama, the Spanish
+first landed on the coast below Quito, and found the natives wearing
+gold and silver trinkets. On a second voyage, with more men, they
+explored the coast of Peru and visited Tumbez, a town with a lofty
+temple and a palace for the Incas.
+
+     They beheld a country fully peopled and cultivated; the natives
+     were decently clothed, and possessed of ingenuity so far surpassing
+     the other inhabitants of the New World as to have the use of tame
+     domestic animals. But what chiefly attracted the notice of the
+     visitors was such a show of gold and silver, not only in ornaments,
+     but in several vessels and utensils for common use, formed of those
+     precious metals as left no room to doubt that they abounded with
+     profusion in the country.
+
+After his return Pizarro visited Spain and secured the patronage of
+Charles V, who appointed him Governor and Captain-General of the newly
+discovered country. In the next voyage from Panama, Pizarro set sail
+with 180 soldiers in three small ships--"a contemptible force surely to
+invade the great empire of Peru."
+
+Pizarro was very fortunate in the time of his arrival, because two
+brothers were fiercely contending in civil war to obtain the
+sovereignty. Their father, Huana Capac, the twelfth Inca in succession
+from Manco Capac, had recently died after annexing the kingdom of Quito,
+and thus doubling the power of the empire. Pizarro made friends with
+Atahualpa, who had become Inca by the defeat and death of his brother,
+and a friendly meeting was arranged between them. The Peruvians are thus
+described by a Spanish onlooker:
+
+     First of all there arrived 400 men in uniform; the Inca himself, on
+     a couch adorned with plumes, and almost covered with plates of gold
+     and silver, enriched with precious stones, was carried on the
+     shoulders of his principal attendants. Several bands of singers and
+     dancers accompanied the procession; and the whole plain was covered
+     with troops, more than 30,000 men.
+
+After engaging in a religious dispute with the Inca, who refused to
+acknowledge the authority of the Pope and threw the breviary on the
+ground, the Spanish chaplain exclaimed indignantly that the Word of God
+had been insulted by a heathen.
+
+     Pizarro instantly gave the signal of assault: the martial music
+     struck up, the cannon and muskets began to fire, the horse rallied
+     out fiercely to the charge, the infantry rushed on sword in hand.
+     The Peruvians, astonished at the suddenness of the attack, dismayed
+     with the effect of the firearms and the irresistible impression of
+     the cavalry, fled with universal consternation on every side.
+     Pizarro, at the head of his chosen band, soon penetrated to the
+     royal seat, and seizing the Inca by the arm, carried him as a
+     prisoner to the Spanish quarters.
+
+For his ransom Atahualpa agreed to pay a weight of gold amounting to
+more than five millions sterling.
+
+Instead of keeping faith with the Inca by restoring him to liberty,
+Pizarro basely allowed him to be tried on several false charges and
+condemned to be burned alive.
+
+After hearing of the enormous ransom many Spaniards hurried from
+Guatemala, Panama, and Nicaragua to share in the newly discovered booty
+of Peru, the "land of gold." Pizarro, therefore, being now greatly
+reenforced with soldiers, forced his way to Cuzco, the capital. The
+riches found there exceeded in value what had been received as
+Atahualpa's ransom.
+
+As Governor of Peru, Pizarro chose a new site for his capital, nearer
+the coast than Cuzco, and there founded Lima. It is now a great center
+of trade. Pizarro lived here in great state till the year 1542, when his
+fate reached him by means of a party of conspirators seeking to avenge
+the death of Almagro, his former rival, whom he had cruelly executed as
+a traitor. On Sunday, June 26th, at midday, while all Lima was quiet
+under the siesta, the conspirators passed unobserved through the two
+outer courts of the palace, and speedily despatched the
+soldier-adventurer, intrepidly defending himself with a sword and
+buckler. "A deadly thrust full in the throat," and the tale of daring
+Pizarro was told.
+
+  _Raro antecedentem scelestum_
+  _Deseruit pede Poena claudo._
+
+                            When
+  Did Doom, though lame, not bide its time,
+  To clutch the nape of skulking Crime?
+
+  W. E. GLADSTONE.
+
+
+
+
+GENERAL INDEX.
+
+
+  A.
+
+  Agathocles, 119.
+
+  Agassiz, 73.
+
+  Alfred, King, 19.
+
+  Almagro, Pizarro's rival, 186, 189.
+
+  Alvarado, 158, 159.
+
+  America, Discoveries of, 19-35, 38-45, 48-53.
+
+  America, origin of the name, 50.
+
+  American Archeology, 71-79 (_see_ also AZTEC, PERU, CIVILIZATION).
+
+  Amerigo (_Americus_), (_see_ VESPUCCI).
+
+  Anahuac, 56, 58, 63.
+
+  Archeology, 71-88 (see under AZTEC, MEXICO, PERU,
+    and CIVILIZATION, EXTINCT).
+
+  Aristotle, shape of the earth, 10.
+
+  Arthur, King, 19.
+
+  Atahualpa, Inca, 187, 188.
+
+  Atlantic, ridge, 15.
+
+  Atlantis, island or continent, 14, 15.
+
+  Avalon, 17.
+
+  Aztecs, their traditions, 54, 56, 57, 62, 63.
+
+  Aztecs, antiquities, 55.
+
+  Aztecs, kingdom, 58;
+    empire founded, 76.
+
+  Aztecs, letters, etc., 58, 79-82.
+
+  Aztecs, astronomy, 64, 65, 68, 83.
+
+  Aztecs, human sacrifices, 59, 60, 62, 102, 106;
+    how explained by comparison with Jews, Greeks, Druids, etc., 100-106.
+
+  Aztecs, priesthood, 65, 67.
+
+  Aztecs, religion, 92, 93;
+    laws, 90.
+
+  Aztecs, natural piety, 66-68.
+
+  Aztecs, secular festival, 68-70.
+
+  Aztecs, soldiery, 91, 92.
+
+  Aztecs, agriculture, 94.
+
+  Aztecs, markets, 97, 147.
+
+  Aztecs, banquets, social amusements, 97, 99.
+
+  Aztlan, 56.
+
+
+  B.
+
+  Bacon, Roger, 18.
+
+  Bahamas, 41.
+
+  Balboa, 9, 50, 52, 164, 168.
+
+  Balboa scheme--adopted by Pizarro, 186.
+
+  Balboa hears of the Land of Gold, 165.
+
+  Balboa crosses the isthmus, 166, 167.
+
+  Balboa unjustly treated, 167, 168.
+
+  Barcelona, Columbus honored at Court, 45.
+
+  Basque Discovery, 32.
+
+  Boston in Vinland, 26, 182.
+
+  Brandan, St. discoverer, 32.
+
+  Brito, ship-canal, 172.
+
+  Buccaneers, origin, etc., 169, 170.
+
+  Buffon, 15.
+
+  Burgos, Bishop of, 157, 168.
+
+
+  C.
+
+  Cabot, 38, 48, 49.
+
+  Cabrera reaches Brazil, 49.
+
+  Cakama, prince of Tezcuco, 154.
+
+  Calendar Stone, 83, 84.
+
+  Calicut reached by Gama, 49.
+
+  Canaanites, etc., sun-worship, 102, 103.
+
+  Cannibalism, 102, 103.
+
+  Capac, Inca, 182, 187.
+
+  Carthage, 17, 102.
+
+  Cathay, 39, 43, 45.
+
+  Cazique, 43, 117, etc.
+
+  Celtic discoveries, 19, 30-32.
+
+  Chalco, Lake, 136, 137.
+
+  Charles V. and Cortés, 164.
+
+  Chiapas, 77.
+
+  Chibchas, 85.
+
+  Cholula, 84, 94, 130, 133.
+
+  Civilization, Extinct, chaps, iii, ix.
+
+  Civilization, Celtic, 19.
+
+  Civilization, Norse, 19-25, 27-31.
+
+  Civilization, Aztec, etc., 54-70, 82, 83.
+
+  Civilization, Peru, 172-185.
+
+  Colon (_see_ COLUMBUS);
+    also an Atlantic port on the isthmus of Darien, 172.
+
+  Columbia, 76, 85.
+
+  Columbus, 17-18, 37, 38-46, 157.
+
+  Columbus, early failures, 39.
+
+  Columbus, voyage to Iceland, 39.
+
+  Columbus, variation of the compass, 41, 42, 49.
+
+  Columbus, discovers Bahamas, Cuba, Hayti, 42-44.
+
+  Columbus, discovers Trinidad and Orinoco, 45.
+
+  Columbus, map by (found in 1894), 42.
+
+  Columbus, autograph (cut) and epitaph, 46.
+
+  Columbus, Ferdinand, 18;
+  Bartholomew, 43.
+
+  Columbus, Diego, 47, 157.
+
+  Continent, supposed southern (cut), 12.
+
+  Continent, Western, 13 (_see_ ATLANTIS, HESPERIDES).
+
+  Condor, emblem of prehistoric Inca, 173, 175 (cuts).
+
+  Copan, 79-81.
+
+  Cordova lands on Yucatan, 53.
+
+  Cortés appointed leader, 53, 64, 77, 80.
+
+  Cortés at Cuba and Hayti, 117.
+
+  Cortés at Yucatan, 109.
+
+  Cortés and Teuhtile, in, 112.
+
+  Cortés, generalship, 119, 124, 126, 159.
+
+  Cortés, resource, 127, 128, 158.
+
+  Cortés, cruelty, 129, 132, 153.
+
+  Cortés at Popocatepetl, 133.
+
+  Cortés and Montezuma, 141, 143-143.
+
+  Cortés, lack of delicacy, 152.
+
+  Cortés, arrest of Montezuma, 152-157.
+
+  Cortés, personal courage, 162.
+
+  Cortés, retreat, "Night of Sorrows," 163.
+
+  Cortés, Mexico retaken and its emperor hanged, 164.
+
+  Cortés and Charles V., 164.
+
+  Cliff-houses, 86.
+
+  Cotton, Az. tec., preparation of, 84, 96.
+
+  Cromwell, his influence, 170.
+
+  Cruz, Vera, 110, 114, 120, 156, 157, 163.
+
+  Cuba, 43-45, 51-53, 84.
+
+  Culhua, 110.
+
+  Cuzco, 174, 176, 181, 183, 188.
+
+  Cuzco, Cyclopean remains, 181, 183.
+
+  Cuzco, temple, 183.
+
+  Cyclopean ruins in Peru, 173, 178, 181-183.
+
+  Cyclopean ruins in Peru (cuts), 173, 175.
+
+
+  D.
+
+  Dalrymple, Sir John, 169, 170.
+
+  Dampier, buccaneer, 170.
+
+  Darien, taken by Balboa, 169.
+
+  Darien, Scottish Expedition, 169.
+
+  Darien, causes of failure, 169, 170.
+
+  Darien, crossed by Morgan, 170, 171.
+
+  Darien, crossed by Dampier, 171.
+
+  Diaz, navigator, rounds the Cape of Good Hope and names it the
+    "Stormy Cape," 49.
+
+  Diaz, historian, quoted, 148, 151, 158, 160.
+
+  Dighton Stone, 28 (cuts, 27, 28).
+
+  Diodorus Siculus, 16.
+
+  Druid Sacrifices, 106.
+
+  "Druidic," 74, 177, 178.
+
+
+  E.
+
+  Edward VI and Cabot, 48.
+
+  Elysian Fields, 13, 14, 16.
+
+  Erik the Red, 20.
+
+  Escobar, 162.
+
+  Euripides, quoted, 14.
+
+
+  F.
+
+  Feather-work, 84, 96.
+
+  Ferdinand and Isabella, 40, 41.
+
+  Feudalism ended, 36.
+
+
+  G.
+
+  Gama, De, 38, 58.
+
+  Gardens, 138, 139.
+
+  Glazier, Theory, 73-74.
+
+  Gladstone quoted, 189.
+
+  Gosnold's Expedition, 25, 26.
+
+  Greenland, 19-25, 30, 31.
+
+  Grijalva and Yucatan, 10, 53.
+
+  Guatemala, 58, 76, 79.
+
+  Guatimozin, 163.
+
+  Gunnbiorn, 20.
+
+
+  H.
+
+  Hannibal on the Alps, 134, 135.
+
+  Harold Fair-hair, 20.
+
+  Hatuey, 51, 52.
+
+  Hayti, 43, 98.
+
+  Helluland (Newfoundland), 22.
+
+  Henry VII., 48, 49.
+
+  Hercules' Pillars, 13, 17.
+
+  Herodotus, 10, 11.
+
+  Hesiod, quoted, 13.
+
+  Hesperides, Isles of the Blest, 14.
+
+  Homer, quoted, 10, 13.
+
+  Honduras, 76, 79.
+
+  Huitzilopochtli, god of battles, 93, 94, 150, 151 (_see_ MEXITL.)
+
+  Humboldt, 35, 50, 65, 73, 83, 94.
+
+
+  I.
+
+  Iceland, 19, 20.
+
+  Incas, 172, 182 (_see_ PERU).
+
+  "Indian," as a term applied to the New World by mistake, a blunder
+    still perpetuated, 42 (_cf_. 98.)
+
+  Indians, "Red-skins," 72-74, 80, 90.
+
+  Ingolf, 19.
+
+  Iphigenia, 104.
+
+  Ireland, Mickle, 20, 31, 32.
+
+  Italian Discovery, 34-36.
+
+  Itztli (obsidian), used as a sharp flint, 95.
+
+  Iztapalapan, 138.
+
+
+  J.
+
+  Jamaica, 170.
+
+  Jewish "Discovery," 33.
+
+  Juan, S., ship-canal, 172.
+
+
+  K.
+
+  Katortuk (Greenland), 21, 22 (cut, 21).
+
+  Kingsborough, Lord, 34, 69, 82.
+
+
+  L.
+
+  Leif Erikson, 21-23.
+
+  Lesseps de, 171-173.
+
+  Loadstone, 41, 42.
+
+  Longfellow, quoted, 29.
+
+  Lucian, quoted, 17.
+
+
+  M.
+
+  Madoc, 32, 33, 70.
+
+  Magellan reaches the Pacific Ocean and names it, 49;
+    killed at Matan, 50.
+
+  Magnetic Pole, 41.
+
+  Maguey plant, its singular value, 94.
+
+  Major, Mr., on Pre-Columbian discoveries of America, and site of the
+    Greenland colonies, 35, 36.
+
+  Malte-Brun, 35.
+
+  Marina, "slave-interpreter," 109, 115, 128, 131.
+
+  Markham, Sir C., quoted, 30, 174, 179, 183.
+
+  Markland (Nova Scotia), 22.
+
+  Marvels, Age of, 38, 39.
+
+  Maya, Mayapan, 76, 79.
+
+  Maya, MS., 81, 82.
+
+  Maya, trade, 84.
+
+  _Mayflower_ lands in Vinland, 26.
+
+  Medea, 18, 104.
+
+  Merida, 78.
+
+  Mexico, Mexicans (_see also_ AZTECS).
+
+  Mexico, archeology, 72-86.
+
+  Mexico, geography, 89, 90, 133-135.
+
+  Mexico, valley, 134, 135.
+
+  Mexico, town, 139, 142, 145-151.
+
+  Mexico, wealth, 155.
+
+  Mexico, siege, 160-164.
+
+  Mexico, ferocity in war, 160-164.
+
+  Mexitl, the god of battles, another name for Huitzilopochtli, 93.
+
+  Monolith (cuts), 173, 175.
+
+  Montezuma I., 57.
+
+  Montezuma, 110-113.
+
+  Montezuma, meaning of name, 113.
+
+  Montezuma, power, 120, 121, 135, 141.
+
+  Montezuma, affability, 144.
+
+  Montezuma, dress, etc., 161.
+
+  Montezuma, death, 162.
+
+  Montgomery, James, 20, 22, 23.
+
+  Morgan, buccaneer, 170.
+
+  Mound builders, 31, 71, 85.
+
+  Müller, Max, quoted, 56.
+
+
+  N.
+
+  Narvaez, 158, 159.
+
+  Nicaragua, ship-canal, 58, 172.
+
+  Norse Discovery, 19-32.
+
+  Norse towns in Greenland, 20.
+
+  Norumbega, 25.
+
+
+  O.
+
+  Ocean, Western, 12, 16, 17.
+
+  Ocean, Southern, first name for the Atlantic (q.v.)
+
+  Oceanus, river, 10.
+
+  Ogygia, 16.
+
+  Ollantay, Peru, 174, 176.
+
+  Orinoco, discovered, 45.
+
+  Orizaba, 120.
+
+  Overland Route, 37.
+
+
+  P.
+
+  Pacific, first seen, 166.
+
+  Pacific, first sailed upon, 50.
+
+  Palenque, 77, 79, 81.
+
+  Palos, 41, 45.
+
+  Panama, 166, 171, 172.
+
+  Panama, modern, 171.
+
+  Paper (prehistoric) of Mexico, 82.
+
+  Pedrarias, 167, 168.
+
+  Peru and Incas, chaps. ix., x.
+
+  Peru agriculture, 182, 185.
+
+  Peru aqueducts, roads, etc., 177.
+
+  Peru archeology, 172-182.
+
+  Peru architecture, 87, 172-178.
+
+  Peru calendar, 184, 185.
+
+  Peru chulpas, 87 (cut).
+
+  Peru quipu, 180 (cut).
+
+  Peru sculpture and pottery, 178.
+
+  Peru history and religion, 182.
+
+  Phenicians, 11, 17.
+
+  Pictograph, 80, 112.
+
+  Pindar, quoted, 13.
+
+  Pizarro, 164, 167.
+
+  Pizarro and Atahualpha, 187, 188.
+
+  Pizarro and Peru, 186-189.
+
+  Pizarro, first and second voyages, 186, 187.
+
+  Pizarro imitated Balboa, 165, 186.
+
+  Pizarro invades Peru, 187.
+
+  Pizarro, his treachery and cruelty, 188, 189.
+
+  Pizarro at Cusco, 188.
+
+  Pizarro founds Lima, 188.
+
+  Pizarro, "Doom" at last, 189.
+
+  Plato, 14, 15.
+
+  Plutarch, 16.
+
+  Polo, Marco, 39, 43.
+
+  Polyxena, 104.
+
+  Popocatepetl, 133, 134.
+
+  Ptolemy, 11, 39.
+
+  Pythagorean theory, 10.
+
+
+  Q.
+
+  Quetzalcoatl, 84, 93, 94, 111, 113, 130, 152.
+
+  Quipu, 180, 181 (cut, 180).
+
+
+  R.
+
+  Rafn, 28, 29, 31.
+
+  Raymi, Peruvian festival, 184, 185.
+
+  Renascence, 9, 36, 37.
+
+  Renascence influence on travel and exploration, 38.
+
+  Renascence assisted the Reformation, 37.
+
+  Runes in Greenland, 27, 28.
+
+
+  S.
+
+  Sebastian, Magellan's Basque lieutenant, 33, 50.
+
+  Seneca, 18, 19 (title-page).
+
+  "Scraelings," Vinland, 23.
+
+  "Skeleton in Armor," 29.
+
+  Spain, how consolidated, 37, 106.
+
+  Spain, close of its colonial history, 52.
+
+  Squier, quoted, 176, 181.
+
+
+  T.
+
+  Tambos, Peru, 185.
+
+  Tehuantepec, isthmus, 171.
+
+  Tenochtitlan, Mexico, 57.
+
+  Teocalli, 106, 117, 148-151, 156 (cut, 105).
+
+  Tezcatlipoca, god of youth, 61.
+
+  Tezcuco, eastern capital, Mexico, 56.
+
+  Tezcuco, 56, 57, 136.
+
+  Tezcuco, king of, 100.
+
+  Tezcuco, lake, 139-140.
+
+  Thorfinn, 23.
+
+  Thorwaldsen, 23.
+
+  Titicaca, lake, 71, 182.
+
+  Titicaca (_see_ CYCLOPEAN RUINS), 174, 175.
+
+  Tlaloc, god of rain, 63.
+
+  Tlascala, 113, 121-127, 130, 153, 159, 163.
+
+  Tlascala, people, and siege, 130, 133.
+
+  Toltecs, 56, 71.
+
+  Totonacs, 115.
+
+  Trinidad, 45.
+
+  Tula, 56.
+
+  Tumbez, Peru, 186.
+
+  Turks, causing civilization, 36, 38.
+
+
+  U.
+
+  Utatla, 79.
+
+  Uxmal, 55, 76 (frontispiece).
+
+
+  V.
+
+  Valladolid, 46.
+
+  Velasquez, 51-53, 107, 108, 158.
+
+  Vesper, 14 (_see_ HESPERIDES).
+
+  Vespucci, 49, 51, 52.
+
+  Vinland (New England), 23, 25.
+
+  Vinland, map of, 24.
+
+  Voltaire, story of Cortés, 164.
+
+  W.
+
+  Waldseemüller, 50.
+
+  Watling's Island, 42.
+
+  Welsh Discovery, 32, 33.
+
+  William III. and Darien Scheme, 168-169.
+
+  Wilson, "Prehistoric Man," 26, 81.
+
+  World, shape of, 9-11.
+
+  X.
+
+  Xalapa, 120.
+
+  Xicotencatl, Tlascalan, 124, 126, 127-130.
+
+  Xicotencatl appearance, 129.
+
+  Y.
+
+  Yochicalco, 86.
+
+  Yucatan, 53, 54, 75-77.
+
+  Z.
+
+  Zempoalla, "conversion of," 116.
+
+  Zempoalla, 119, 158, 159.
+
+  Zeni, Italian brothers, 34-35.
+
+  Zeno map, 34, 35.
+
+  Zipango (Japan), 39, 45.
+
+  Zodiac, comparative, 55.
+
+  Zodiac (cut) from a tomb at Cusco, 182.
+
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+The many spelling and hyphenation discrepancies in this text are as in
+the original.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF EXTINCT CIVILIZATIONS
+OF THE WEST***
+
+
+******* This file should be named 31413-8.txt or 31413-8.zip *******
+
+
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/1/4/1/31413
+
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://www.gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit:
+http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
diff --git a/31413-8.zip b/31413-8.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e847111
--- /dev/null
+++ b/31413-8.zip
diff --git a/31413-h.zip b/31413-h.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4b28942
--- /dev/null
+++ b/31413-h.zip
diff --git a/31413-h/31413-h.htm b/31413-h/31413-h.htm
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d0facfc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/31413-h/31413-h.htm
@@ -0,0 +1,6440 @@
+<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
+<head>
+<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" />
+<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Story of Extinct Civilizations of the West, by Robert E. Anderson</title>
+    <style type="text/css">
+
+body {
+    margin-left: 10%;
+    margin-right: 10%;
+}
+
+    h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {
+    text-align: center; /* all headings centered */
+    clear: both;
+}
+
+p {
+    margin-top: .75em;
+    text-align: justify;
+    margin-bottom: .75em;
+}
+
+div.centered {text-align: center;} /* work around for IE centering with CSS problem part 1 */
+div.centered table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: left;} /* work around for IE centering with CSS problem part 2 */
+
+
+
+hr {
+    width: 33%;
+    margin-top: 2em;
+    margin-bottom: 2em;
+    margin-left: auto;
+    margin-right: auto;
+    clear: both;
+    color:  #A9A9A9;
+}
+
+
+.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */
+    /*  visibility: hidden;  */
+    position: absolute;
+    left: 92%;
+    font-size: smaller;
+    text-align: right;
+    color:  #A9A9A9;
+} /* page numbers */
+
+
+
+.blockquot {
+    margin-left: 5%;
+    margin-right: 10%;
+}
+
+.sidenote {
+    width: 20%;
+    padding-bottom: .5em;
+    padding-top: .5em;
+    padding-left: .5em;
+    padding-right: .5em;
+    margin-left: 1em;
+    float: right;
+    clear: right;
+    margin-top: 1em;
+    font-size: smaller;
+    color: black;
+    background: #eeeeee;
+    border: dashed 1px;
+}
+
+
+.bbox     {border: solid 2px;}
+
+.center   {text-align: center;}
+
+.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
+
+
+.caption  {font-weight: bold; font-size: smaller;}
+
+/* Images */
+.figcenter   {
+    margin: auto;
+    text-align: center;
+    margin-top: 3em;
+}
+
+.figleft {
+    float: left;
+    clear: left;
+    margin-left: 0;
+    margin-bottom: 1em;
+    margin-top: 1em;
+    margin-right: 1em;
+    padding: 0;
+    text-align: center;
+}
+
+.figright {
+    float: right;
+    clear: right;
+    margin-left: 1em;
+    margin-bottom:
+    1em;
+    margin-top: 1em;
+    margin-right: 0;
+    padding: 0;
+    text-align: center;
+}
+
+/* Footnotes */
+.footnotes        {border: dashed 1px;}
+
+.footnote         {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;}
+
+.footnote .label  {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;}
+
+.fnanchor {
+    vertical-align: super;
+    font-size: .8em;
+    text-decoration:
+    none;
+}
+
+.author {text-align: right; margin-right: 5%;}
+
+ul.none {list-style-type: none;}
+
+div.backright {
+        background: top right no-repeat;
+        }
+
+    div.backleft {
+        background: top left no-repeat;
+        }
+
+    div.sandbag-left {
+        float:left;
+        clear:left;
+        padding-right: 10px;
+        }
+
+    div.sandbag {
+        float:right;
+        clear:right;
+        padding-left:10px;
+        }
+
+.centerbox { width: 35%;         /* heading box */
+                 margin: 0 auto;
+                 text-align: center;
+                 padding: 1em;
+                 }
+
+
+    hr.full { width: 100%;
+              margin-top: 3em;
+              margin-bottom: 0em;
+              margin-left: auto;
+              margin-right: auto;
+              height: 4px;
+              border-width: 4px 0 0 0; /* remove all borders except the top one */
+              border-style: solid;
+              border-color: #000000;
+              clear: both; }
+    pre      {font-size: 85%;}
+    </style>
+</head>
+<body>
+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Story of Extinct Civilizations of the
+West, by Robert E. Anderson</h1>
+<pre>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+<p>Title: The Story of Extinct Civilizations of the West</p>
+<p>Author: Robert E. Anderson</p>
+<p>Release Date: February 26, 2010  [eBook #31413]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF EXTINCT CIVILIZATIONS OF THE WEST***</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>E-text prepared by<br />
+    the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br />
+    (http://www.fadedpage.com)</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 650px;">
+<a name="frontis" id="frontis"></a>
+<img src="images/illus-fpc.jpg" width="650" height="371" alt="Prehistoric Structure, Uxmal (Yucatan) (p. 76)." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Prehistoric Structure, Uxmal (Yucatan) (p. <a href='#Page_76'>76</a>).</span>
+</div>
+
+<h1>THE STORY OF<br />
+  EXTINCT CIVILIZATIONS<br />
+  OF THE WEST</h1>
+
+  <h4>BY</h4>
+
+  <h2>ROBERT E. ANDERSON, M.A., F.A.S.</h2>
+
+  <h4>AUTHOR OF<br />
+  EXTINCT CIVILIZATIONS OF THE EAST</h4>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 150px;">
+<img src="images/illus-tpg.jpg" width="150" height="138" alt="" title="logo" />
+</div>
+
+<div class="centerbox">
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Venient annis saecula seris</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Quibus Oceanus vincula rerum</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Laxet, et ingens pateat tellus</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tethys que novos detegat orbes.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 9em;">&mdash;<span class="smcap">Seneca.</span></span><br />
+</p></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="center">NEW YORK <i>McCLURE, PHILLIPS &amp; CO.</i> MCMIV<br />
+
+
+<span class="smcap">Copyright, 1903, by</span><br />
+D. APPLETON AND COMPANY</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span></p>
+<div class="centered">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" width="60%" cellspacing="0" summary="CONTENTS">
+<tr><td align="right">&nbsp;</td><td align="left">CHAPTER</td><td align="right">PAGE</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">&nbsp;</td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Introduction</span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_9'>9</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">I.</td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Pre-Columbian Discoveries of America</span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_19'>19</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">II.</td><td align="left">"<span class="smcap">Discovery of the World and of Man</span>"</td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_36'>36</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">III.</td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">The Extinct Civilization of the Aztecs</span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_54'>54</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">IV.</td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">American Archeology</span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_71'>71</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">V.</td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Mexico before the Spanish Invasion</span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_88'>88</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">VI.</td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Arrival of the Spaniards</span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_106'>106</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">VII.</td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Cortés and Montezuma</span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_135'>135</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">VIII.</td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Balboa and the Isthmus</span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_164'>164</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">IX.</td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Extinct Civilization of Peru</span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_172'>172</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">X.</td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Pizarro and the Incas</span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_186'>186</a></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="MAPS_ETC" id="MAPS_ETC"></a>MAPS, ETC.</h2>
+
+
+
+<div class="centered">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" width="60%" cellspacing="0" summary="MAPS ETC">
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">PAGE</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="left">Prehistoric Structure, Uxmal (Yucatan)<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span></td><td align="right"><a href='#frontis'><i>Frontispiece</i></a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="left">Imaginary Continent, South of Africa and Asia</td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_12'>12</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Remains of a Norse Church at Katortuk, Greenland</td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_21'>21</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Map of Vinland</td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_24'>24</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">The Dighton Stone in the Taunton River, Massachusetts</td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_27'>27</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">The Dighton Stone. Fig. 2</td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_28'>28</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Cipher Autograph of Columbus</td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_46'>46</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Chulpa or Stone Tomb of the Peruvians</td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_87'>87</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Quetzalcoatl</td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_93'>93</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Ancient Bridge near Tezcuco</td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_100'>100</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Teocalli, Aztec Temple for Human Sacrifices</td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_105'>105</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Monolith Doorway. Near Lake Titicaca. Fig. 1</td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_173'>173</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Image over the Doorway shown in Fig. 1. Near Lake Titicaca. Fig. 2</td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_175'>175</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="left">The Quipu</td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_180'>180</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Gold Ornament (? Zodiac) from a Tomb at Cuzco</td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_182'>182</a></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="EXTINCT_CIVILIZATIONS_OF_THE_WEST" id="EXTINCT_CIVILIZATIONS_OF_THE_WEST"></a>EXTINCT CIVILIZATIONS OF THE WEST</h2>
+
+<h3>INTRODUCTION</h3>
+
+
+<p>Throughout all the periods of European history, ancient or modern, no
+age has been more remarkable for events of first-rate importance than
+the latter half of the fifteenth century. The rise of the New Learning,
+the "discovery of the world and of man," the displacement of many
+outworn beliefs, these with other factors produced an awakening that
+startled kings and nations. Then felt they like Balboa, when</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 11em;">with eagle eyes</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">He stared at the Pacific, and all his men</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Looked at each other with a wild surmise</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Silent, upon a peak in Darien.</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>It was at this historical juncture that the "middle ages" came to an
+end, and modern Europe had its beginning. (See Chapter <a href='#Page_36'>II</a>.)</p>
+
+<p>Why was Europe so long in discovering the vast Continent which all the
+time lay beyond the Western Ocean? Simply because every skipper and
+every "Board of Admiralty" believed that this world on which we live and
+move is flat and level. They did not at all realize the fact that it is
+<i>ball</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span>-shaped; and that when a ball is very large (say, as large as a
+balloon), then any small portion of the surface must appear flat and
+level to a fly or "mite" traveling in that vicinity. Homer believed that
+our world is a flat and level plain, with a great river, Oceanus,
+flowing round it; and for many ages that seemed a very natural and
+sufficient theory. The Pythagoreans, it is true, argued that our earth
+must be spherical, but why? Oh, said they, because in geometry the
+sphere is the "most perfect" of all solid figures. Aristotle, being
+scientific, gave better reasons for believing that the earth is
+spherical or ball-shaped. He said the shadow of the earth is always
+round like the shadow of a ball; and the shadow of the earth can be seen
+during any eclipse of the moon; therefore, all who see that shadow on
+the moon's disk know, or ought to know, that the earth is ball-shaped.
+Another reason given by Aristotle is that the altitude of any star above
+the horizon changes when the observer travels north or south. For
+example, if at London a star appears to be 40° above the northern
+horizon, and at York the same star at the same instant appears 42&frac12;°,
+it is evident that 2&frac12;° is the difference (increase) of altitude at
+York compared with London. Such an observation shows that the road from
+London to York is not over a flat, level plane, but over the curved
+surface of a sphere, the arc of a circle, in fact.</p>
+
+<p>Herodotus, the father of history, was a good geographer and an
+experienced traveler, yet his only conception of the world was as a
+flat, wide-extending surface. In Egypt he was told how Pharaoh Necho had
+sent a crew of Phenicians to explore the coast of Africa by setting out
+from the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> Red Sea, and how they sailed south till they had <i>the sun on
+their right hand</i>. "Absurd!" says Herodotus, in his naïve manner, "this
+story I can not believe." In Egypt, as in Greece or Europe generally,
+the sun rises on the left hand, and at noon casts a shadow pointing
+north; whereas in South Africa the sun at noon casts a shadow pointing
+south, and sunrise is therefore on the <i>right hand</i>. The honest sailors
+had told the truth; they had merely "crossed the line," without knowing
+it. If Herodotus had known that the world was spherical or ball-shaped,
+he could easily have understood that by traveling due south the sun must
+at last appear at noon to the north instead of the south. A counterpart
+to the story of the Phenician sailors occurs in Pliny: he tells how some
+ambassadors came to the Roman Emperor Claudius from an island in the
+south of Asia, and when in Italy were much astonished to see the sun at
+noon to the south, casting shadows to the north. They also wondered, he
+says, to see the Great Bear and other groups of stars which had never
+been visible in their native land (Nat. Hist., vi, 22).</p>
+
+<p>That there were islands or even a continent in the Western Ocean was a
+tradition not infrequent in classical and medieval times, as we shall
+presently see, but to place a continent in the Southern Ocean was a
+greater stretch of imagination. The great outstanding problem of the
+sources of the Nile probably suggested this Southern Continent to some.
+Ptolemy, the great Egyptian geographer, even formed the conjecture that
+the Southern Continent was joined to Africa by a broad isthmus, as
+indicated in certain maps. Such a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> connection of the two continents
+would at once dispose of the story that the Phenician sailors had
+"doubled the Cape." In several maps after the time of Columbus,
+Australia is extended westward in order to pass muster for the Southern
+Continent.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/illus-012.jpg" width="600" height="579" alt="Imaginary Continent, south of Africa and Asia. [The
+cardinal points are shown by the four winds." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Imaginary Continent, south of Africa and Asia. [The
+cardinal points are shown by the four winds.]<br />Beginning of the fifteenth
+century. The word Brumæ = the winter solstices.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>It is with a Western Continent, however, that we are now mainly
+concerned. What lands were imagined by the ancients in the far West
+under the setting sun? The mighty ocean beyond Spain was to the Greeks
+and Latins a place of dread and mystery.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"Stout was his heart and girt with triple brass," says the Roman
+poet, "who first hazarded his weak vessel on the pitiless ocean."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Even the western parts of the Mediterranean were shrunk from, according
+to the Odyssey, without<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> speaking of the horrors of the great ocean
+beyond. "Beyond Gades," i. e., scarcely outside of the Pillars of
+Hercules, the extreme limit of the ancient world, "no man," said Pindar,
+"however daring, could pass; only a god might voyage those waters!"</p>
+
+<p>In spite of the dread which the ancient mariners felt for the great
+Western Ocean, their poets found it replete with charm and mystery. The
+imagination rested upon those golden sunsets, and the tales of marvel
+which, after long intervals, sea-borne sailors had told of distant lands
+in the West. The poets placed there the happy home destined for the
+souls of heroes. Thus (Odys. iv, 561):</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 12em;">No snow</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Is there, nor yet great storm nor any rain,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But always ocean sendeth forth the breeze</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of the shrill West, and bloweth cool on men.</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>So far Homer. His contemporary, Hesiod, thus describes the Elysian
+Fields as islands under the setting sun:</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">There on Earth's utmost limits Zeus assigned</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A life, a seat, distinct from human kind,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Beside the deepening whirlpools of the Main,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In those blest Isles where Saturn holds his reign,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Apart from Heaven's immortals calm they share,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A rest unsullied by the clouds of care:</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And yearly thrice with sweet luxuriance crown'd</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Springs the ripe harvest from the teeming Ground.</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>The poet Pindar places in the same mysterious West "the castle of
+Chronos" (i. e., "Old Time"), "where o'er the Isles of the Blest ocean
+breezes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> blow, and flowers gleam with gold, some from the land on
+glistening trees, while others the water feeds; and with bracelets of
+these they entwine their hands, and make crowns for their heads."</p>
+
+<p><i>Vesper</i>, the star of evening, was called Hesperus by the Greeks; and
+hence the Hesperides, daughters of the Western Star, had the task of
+watching the golden apples planted by the goddess Hera in the garden of
+the gods, on the other side of the river Oceanus. One of the labors of
+Hercules was to fetch three of those mystic apples for the king of
+Mycenae. The poet Euripides thus refers to the Gardens of the West, when
+the Chorus wish to fly "over the Adriatic wave":</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Or to the famed Hesperian plains,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Whose rich trees bloom with gold,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To join the grief-attunèd strains</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">My winged progress hold;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Beyond whose shores no passage gave</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The Ruler of the purple wave.</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Of all the lands imagined to lie in the Western Ocean by the Greeks, the
+most important was "Atlantis." Some have thought it may possibly have
+been a prehistoric discovery of America. In any case it has exercised
+the ingenuity of a good many modern scientists. The tale of Atlantis we
+owe to Plato himself, who perhaps learned it in Egypt, just as Herodotus
+picked up there the account of the circumnavigation of Africa by the
+Phenician mariners.</p>
+
+<p>"When Solon was in Egypt," says Plato, "he had talk with an aged priest
+of Sais who said, 'You Greeks are all children: you know but of one
+deluge, whereas there have been many de<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span>structions of mankind both by
+flood and fire.'... In the distant Western Ocean lay a continent larger
+than Libya and Asia together."...</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>In this Atlantis there had grown up a mighty state whose kings were
+descended from Poseidon and had extended their sway over many
+islands and over a portion of the great continent; even Libya up to
+the gates of Egypt, and Europe as far as Tyrrhenia, submitted to
+their sway.... Afterward came a day and night of great floods and
+earthquakes; Atlantis disappeared, swallowed by the waves.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Geologists and geographers have seriously tried to find evidence of
+Atlantis having existed in the Atlantic, whether as a portion of the
+American continent, or as a huge island in the ocean which could have
+served as a stepping-stone between the Western World and the Eastern.
+From a series of deep-sea soundings ordered by the British, American,
+and German Governments, it is now very well known that in the middle of
+the Atlantic basin there is a ridge, running north and south, whose
+depth is less than 1,000 fathoms, while the valleys east and west of it
+average 3,000 fathoms. At the Azores the North Atlantic ridge becomes
+broader. The theory is that a part of the ridge-plateau was the Atlantis
+of Plato that "disappeared swallowed by the waves." (Nature, xv, 158,
+553, xxvii, 25; Science, June 29, 1883.)</p>
+
+<p>Buffon, the naturalist, with reference to fauna and flora, dated the
+separation of the new and old world "from the catastrophe of Atlantis"
+(Epoques, ix, 570); and Sir Charles Lyell confessed a temptation to
+"accept the theory of an Atlantis island in the northern Atlantic."
+(Geology, p. 141.)<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The following account "from an historian of the fourth century <span class="smcap">B. C.</span>" is
+another possible reference to a portion of America&mdash;from a translation
+"delivered in English," 1576.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>Selenus told Midas that without this worlde there is a continent or
+percell of dry lande which in greatnesse (as hee reported) was
+unmeasureable; that it nourished and maintained, by the benifite of
+the greene meadowes and pasture plots, sundrye bigge and mighty
+beastes; that the men which inhabite the same climate exceede the
+stature of us twise, and yet the length of there life is not equale
+to ours.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The historian Plutarch, in his Morals, gives an account of Ogygia, with
+an illusion to a continent, possibly America:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>An island, Ogygia, lies in the arms of the Ocean, about five days'
+sail west from Britain.... The adjacent sea is termed the
+Saturnian, and the continent by which the great sea is circularly
+environed is distant from Ogygia about 5,000 stadia, but from the
+other islands not so far.... One of the men paid a visit to the
+great island, as they called Europe. From him the narrator learned
+many things about the state of men after death&mdash;the conclusion
+being that the souls of men arrive at the Moon, wherein lie the
+Elysian Fields of Homer.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The Greek historian, Diodorus Siculus, has a similar account with
+curious details of an "island" which might very well have been part of a
+continent. Columbus believed to the last that Cuba was a continent.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>In the ocean, at the distance of several days' sailing to the west,
+there lies an island watered by several navigable rivers. Its soil
+is fertile, hilly, and of great beauty....<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> There are country
+houses handsomely constructed, with summer-houses and flower-beds.
+The hilly district is covered with dense woods and fruit-trees of
+every kind. The inhabitants spend much time in hunting and thus
+procure excellent food. They have naturally a good supply of fish,
+their shores being washed by the ocean.... In a word this island
+seems a happy home for gods rather than for men (v. 19).</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Another Greek writer, Lucian, in one of his witty dialogues, refers to
+an island in the Atlantic, that lies eighty days' sail westward of the
+Pillars of Hercules&mdash;the extreme limit of the ancient world, as has
+already been seen. Readers of Henry Fielding and admirers of Squire
+Westers will remember how in the London of the eighteenth century the
+limits of Piccadilly westward was a tavern at Hyde Park corner called
+the <i>Hercules' Pillars</i>, on the site of the future Apsley House.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
+
+<p>Although neither Greek nor Roman navigators were likely to attempt a
+voyage into the ocean beyond the Straits of Gibraltar, yet a trading
+vessel from Carthage or Phenicia might easily have been driven by an
+easterly gale into, or even across, the Atlantic. Some involuntary
+discoveries were no doubt due to this chance, and the reports brought to
+Europe were probably the germs of such tales as the poets invented about
+the fair regions of the West. In Celtic literature, moreover, "Avalon"
+was placed far under the setting sun beyond the ocean&mdash;Avalon or
+"Glas-Inis" being to the bards the Land of the Dead, marvelous and
+mysterious.</p>
+
+
+<p>In English literature of the middle ages there is a remarkable passage
+relating to our present subject, which was written long before that rise
+of the New Learning mentioned at the beginning of this chapter. It is a
+statement made by Roger Bacon, the greatest of Oxonian scholars of the
+thirteenth century, who, long before the Renascence, did much to restore
+the study of science, especially in geography, chronology, and optics.
+In his Opus Majus, the elder Bacon wrote:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>More than the fourth part of the earth which we inhabit is still
+unknown to us.... It is evident therefore that between the extreme
+West and the confines of India, there must be a surface which
+comprises more than half the earth.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Though Roger Bacon, to use his own words, died "unheard, forgotten,
+buried," our recent historians place his name first in the great roll of
+modern science.</p>
+
+<p>There now remains only one quotation to make from the ancients. We have
+been reserving it for two reasons&mdash;first, because it is a singularly
+happy anticipation of the discovery of the New World, so happy that it
+became a favorite stanza with the discoverer himself. This we learn from
+the life of the "Great Admiral," written by his son Ferdinand.</p>
+
+<p>Secondly, because it adorns our title-page and has been characterized as
+"a lucky prophecy"&mdash;written in the first century <span class="smcap">A. D.</span> The author,
+Seneca, was a dramatist as well as a philosopher, the lines occurring at
+the end of one of his choruses&mdash;Medea, 376. We may thus translate the
+prophetic stanza:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For at a distant date this ancient world</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Will westward stretch its bounds, and then disclose</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Beyond the Main a vast new Continent,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With realms of wealth and might.</span><br />
+</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2>
+
+<h3>PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERIES OF AMERICA</h3>
+
+
+<p>1 <i>Norse Discovery.</i>&mdash;By glancing at a map of the north Atlantic, the
+reader will at once see that the natural approach from Europe to the
+Western Continent was by Iceland and Greenland&mdash;especially in those
+early days when ocean navigation was unknown. Iceland is nearer to
+Greenland than to Norway; and Greenland is part of America. But in
+Iceland there were Celtic settlers in the early centuries; and even King
+Arthur, according to the history of Geoffrey of Monmouth, sailed north
+to that "Ultima Thule." During the ninth century a Christian community
+had been established there under certain Irish monks. This early
+civilization, however, was destined to become presently extinct.</p>
+
+<p>It was in <span class="smcap">A. D.</span> 875, i. e., during the reign of Alfred the Great in
+England, that the Norse earl, Ingolf, led a colony to Iceland. More
+strenuous and savage than the Christian Celts whom they found there, the
+latter with their preaching monks soon sailed to the south, and left the
+Northmen masters of the island. The Norse colony under Ingolf was
+strongly reenforced by Norwegians who took refuge there to avoid the
+tyranny of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> their king, Harold, the Fair-haired. Ingolf built the town
+Ingolfshof, named after him, and also Reikiavik, afterward the capital,
+named from the "reek" or steam of its hot springs. So important did this
+colony become that in the second generation the population amounted to
+60,000.</p>
+
+<p>Ingolf was admired by the poet James Montgomery (not to be confounded
+with Robert, whom Macaulay criticized so severely), who in 1819 thus
+wrote of him and his island:</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">There on a homeless soil his foot he placed,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Framed his hut-palace, colonized the waste,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And ruled his horde with patriarchal sway</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;Where Justice reigns, 'tis Freedom to obey....</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And Iceland shone for generous lore renowned,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A northern light when all was gloom around.</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>The next year after Ingolf had come to Iceland, Gunnbiorn, a hardy
+Norseman, driven in his ship westerly, sighted a strange land....
+About half a century later, judging by the Icelandic sagas, we
+learn that a wind-tossed vessel was thrown upon a coast far away
+which was called "Mickle Ireland" (<i>Irland it Mikla</i>)&mdash;[Winsor's
+Hist. America, i, 61].</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Gunnbiorn's discovery was utilized by Erik the Red, another sea-rover,
+in <span class="smcap">A. D.</span> 980, who sailed to it and, after three years' stay, returned
+with a favorable account&mdash;giving it the fair name <i>Greenland</i>. The Norse
+established two centers of population on Greenland. It is now believed
+that after doubling Cape Farewell, they built their first town near that
+head and the second farther north. The former, <i>Eystribygd</i> (i. e.,
+"Easter Bigging"), developed into a large colony, having in the
+four<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span>teenth century 190 settlements, with a cathedral and eleven
+churches, and containing two cities and three or four monasteries. The
+second town, <i>Westribygd</i> (i. e., "Wester Bigging") had grown to ninety
+settlements and four churches in the same time.</p>
+
+<p>The germ and root of that civilization (afterward extinct, as we shall
+see) was due to Leif the son of Red Erik, who visited Norway, the
+mother-country, at the very close of the tenth century.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img src="images/illus-021.jpg" width="500" height="363" alt="Remains of a Norse Church at Katortuk, Greenland." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Remains of a Norse Church at Katortuk, Greenland.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>He found that the king and people there had enthusiastically embraced
+the new religion, <i>Christianity</i>. Leif presently shared their fervor,
+and decided to reject Woden, Thor, and the other gods of old
+Scandinavia. A priest was told off to accompany Leif back to Greenland,
+and preach the new faith. It was thus that a Christian civilization
+first found footing in arctic America.</p>
+
+<p>The ruins of those early Christian churches (see illustration above)
+form most interesting objects in modern Greenland; near the chief ruin
+is a curious circular group of large stones.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The poet of "Greenland," to whom we have already referred, quotes from a
+Danish chronicle to the effect that, in the golden age of the colony,
+there were a hundred parishes to form the bishopric; and that the see
+was ruled by seventeen bishops from <span class="smcap">A. D.</span> 1120 to 1408. Bishop Andrew is
+the last mentioned, ordained in 1408 by the Archbishop of Drontheim.</p>
+
+<p>From the same authority we learn that according to some of the annals
+"the best wheat grew to perfection in the valleys; the forests were
+extensive; flocks and herds were numerous and very large and fat." The
+Cloister of St. Thomas was heated by pipes from a warm spring, and
+attached to the cloister was a richly cultivated garden.</p>
+
+<p>After Leif, son of Erik, had introduced Christianity into Greenland, his
+next step was to extend the Norse civilization still farther within the
+American continent. News had reached him of a new land, with a level
+coast, lying nine days' sailing southwest of Greenland. Picking
+thirty-five men, Leif started for further exploration. One part of the
+new country was barren and rocky, therefore Leif named it <i>Helluland</i>
+(i. e., "Stone Land"), which appears to have been Newfoundland. Farther
+south they found a sandy shore, backed by a level forest country, which
+Leif named <i>Markland</i> (i. e., "Wood Land"), identified with Nova Scotia.
+After two days' sail, according to the saga account, having landed and
+explored the new continent along the banks of a river, they resolved to
+winter there. In one of these explorations a German called Tyrker found
+some grapes on a wild vine, and brought a specimen for the admiration of
+Leif and his party.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> This country was therefore named <i>Vinland</i> (i. e.,
+"Wine Land"), and is identified with New England, part of Rhode Island,
+and Massachusetts.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p>
+
+
+
+<p>Our Greenland poet thus refers to Leif's landing:</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Wineland the glad discoverers called that shore,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And back the tidings of its riches bore;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But soon return'd with colonizing bands.</span><br />
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 650px;">
+<img src="images/illus-024.jpg" width="650" height="384" alt="Map" title="" />
+<span class="caption">Map of Vinland</span>
+</div>
+<p>The Norsemen founded a regular settlement in Vinland, establishing there
+a Christian community related to that of Greenland. Leif's brother,
+Korvald, explored the interior in all directions. With the natives, who
+are called "Skraelings" in the sagas, they traded in furs; these people,
+who seemed dwarfish to the Norsemen, used leathern boats and were no
+doubt Eskimos:</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+A stunted, stern, uncouth, amphibious stock.
+</p>
+
+<p>The principal settler in Vinland was Thorfinn, an Icelander, who had
+married a daughter-in-law of Erik the Red. She persuaded Thorfinn to
+sail to the new country in order to make a permanent settlement there.
+In the year 1007 <span class="smcap">A. D.</span> he sailed with 160 men, having live stock and
+other colonial equipments. After three years he returned to Greenland,
+his wife having given birth to a son during their first year in Vinland.
+From this son, Snorre, it is claimed by some Norwegian historians, that
+Thorwaldsen, the eminent Danish<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> sculptor is descended. After the time
+of Thorfinn, the settlement in Vinland continued to flourish, having a
+good export trade in timber with Greenland. In 1121 <span class="smcap">A. D.</span> according to
+the Icelandic saga, the bishop, Erik Upsi, visited Vinland, that country
+being, like Iceland and Greenland, included in his bishopric. The last
+voyage to Vinland for timber, according to the sagas, was in 1347.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>Professor Horsford, of Cambridge, Mass., finds the site of Norumbega,
+mentioned in various old maps, on the River Charles, near Waltham,
+Mass., and maintains that town to be identical with Vinland of the
+Norsemen. To prove his belief in this theory, the professor built a
+tower commemorating the Norse discoveries. He argued that Norumbega was
+a corruption by the Indians of the word <i>Norvegr</i> a Norse form of
+"Norway."</p>
+
+<p>The abandonment of Vinland by the Norse settlers may be compared with
+that of Gosnold's expedition to the same region near the end of Queen
+Elizabeth's reign. Gosnold was sent to plant an English colony in
+America, after the failure of Sir Walter Raleigh's settlement at Roanoke
+(North Carolina); and the coast explored corresponded exactly to that
+which the Norse settlers had named Vinland, lying between the sites of
+Boston and New York. He gave the name Cape Cod to that promontory, and
+also named the islands Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, and the Elizabeth
+group. Selecting one of these for settling a colony, he built on it a
+storehouse and fort. The scheme, however, failed, owing to the threats
+of the natives and the scarcity of supplies, and all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> the colonists
+sailed from Massachusetts, just as the Norse settlers had done many
+generations previously.</p>
+
+<p>The expedition of Gosnold to Vinland, however, bore good fruit, from the
+favorable report of the new country which he made at home. The merchants
+of Bristol fitted out two ships under Martin Pring, and in the first
+voyage a great part of Maine (lying north of Massachusetts) was
+explored, and the coast south to Martha's Vineyard, where Gosnold had
+been. This led to profitable traffic with the natives, and three years
+later Pring made a more complete survey of Maine.</p>
+
+<p>Vinland was also the scene of the famous landing of the Mayflower,
+bringing its Puritans from England. It was in Cape Cod Bay that she was
+first moored. After exploring the new country, just as Leif Erikson had
+done so many generations previously, they chose a place on the west side
+of the bay and named the little settlement "Plymouth," after the last
+English port from which they had sailed. Farther north, still in
+Vinland, they soon founded two other towns, "Salem" and "Boston." Those
+three settlements have ever since been important centers of energy and
+intelligence in Massachusetts, as well as memorials of the Norse
+occupation of Vinland.</p>
+
+<p>On the occasion of a public statue being erected in Boston, Mass., to
+the memory of Leif Erikson, a committee of the Massachusetts Historical
+Society formally decided thus: "It is antecedently probable that the
+Northmen discovered America in the early part of the eleventh century."</p>
+
+<p>Prof. Daniel Wilson, in his learned work Pre<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span>historic Man (ii, 83, 85),
+thus gives his opinion as to the Norse colony:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>With all reasonable doubt as to the accuracy of details, there is
+the strongest probability in favor of the authenticity of the
+American Vinland.</p></blockquote>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 650px;">
+<img src="images/illus-027.jpg" width="650" height="383" alt="The Dighton Stone in the Taunton River, Massachusetts." title="" />
+<span class="caption">The Dighton Stone in the Taunton River, Massachusetts.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Of the Norse colonies in Greenland there are some undoubted remains, one
+being a stone inscription in <i>runes</i>, proving that it was made before
+the Reformation, when that mode of writing was forbidden by law. The
+stone is four miles beyond Upernavik. The inscription, according to
+Professor Rask, runs thus:</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Erling the son of Sigvat, and Enride Oddsoen,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Had cleared the place and raised a mound</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">On the Friday after Rogation-day;</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>&mdash;date either 1135 or 1170.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Rafn, the celebrated Danish archeologist, states as the result of many
+years' research, that America was repeatedly visited by the Icelanders
+in the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries; that the estuary of
+the St. Lawrence was their chief station; that they had coasted
+southward to Carolina, everywhere introducing some Christian
+civilization among the natives.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">
+<img src="images/illus-028.jpg" width="550" height="248" alt="The Dighton Stone. Fig. 2." title="" />
+<span class="caption">The Dighton Stone. Fig. 2.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>A supposed rock memorial of the Norsemen is the Dighton Stone in the
+Taunton River, Massachusetts; one of its sentences, according to
+Professor Rafn, being:</p>
+
+<p>"Thorfinn with 151 Norse seafaring men took possession of this land."</p>
+
+<p>The figures and letters (whether runic or merely Indian) inscribed on
+the Dighton Rock have been copied by antiquaries at the following dates:
+1680, 1712, 1730, 1768, 1788, 1807, 1812. The above illustration (Fig.
+2) shows the last mentioned.</p>
+
+<p>There have been many probable traces of ancient Norsemen found in
+America, besides those already given. At Cape Cod, in the last
+generation,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> a number of hearth-stones were found under a layer of peat.
+A more famous relic was the skeleton dug up in Fall River, Mass., with
+an ornamental belt of metal tubes made from fragments of flat brass;
+there were also some arrow-heads of the same material. Longfellow, the
+New England poet, naturally had his attention directed to this discovery
+(made, 1831), and founded on it his ballad The Skeleton in Armor,
+connecting it with the Round Tower at Newport. The latter, according to
+Professor Rafn, "was erected decidedly not later than the twelfth
+century."</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I was a Viking old,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">My deeds, though manifold,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">No Skald in song has told</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">No Saga taught thee!...</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Far in the Northern Land</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">By the wild Baltic's strand</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I with my childish hand</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Tamed the ger-falcon.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Oft to his frozen lair</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tracked I the grisly bear,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">While from my path the hare</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Fled like a shadow.</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 15%; Margin-left: 2em; Margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em;" />
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Scarce had I put to sea</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bearing the maid with me&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Fairest of all was she</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Among the Norsemen!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Three weeks we westward bore,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And when the storm was o'er,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cloud-like we saw the shore</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Stretching to leeward;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">There for my lady's bower,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Built I this lofty tower</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Which to this very hour</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Stands looking seaward!</span><br />
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Sir Clements Markham, of the Royal Geographical Society, believes that
+the Norse settlers in Greenland were driven from their settlements there
+by Eskimos coming, not from the interior of America, but from West
+Siberia along the polar regions, by Wrangell Land [<i>v.</i> Journal, R, G.
+S., 1865, and Arctic Geography, 1875].</p>
+
+<p>There was much curiosity from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century as
+to the site of the lost colonies of Greenland which had so long
+flourished. In 1568 and 1579 the King of Denmark sent two expeditions,
+the latter in charge of an Englishman, but no traces were found. At the
+beginning of the eighteenth century some light was thrown upon the
+problem by a missionary called Egede, who first described the ruins and
+relics observable on the west coast. By the success of his preaching
+among the Greenlanders for fifteen years, assisted by other gospel
+missionaries, the Moravians were induced to found their settlements in
+the country, principally in the southwest.</p>
+
+<p>It seems probable that in early times the climate of Iceland was milder
+than it now is. Columbus, some fifteen years before his great voyage
+across the Atlantic, sailed to this northern "Thule," and reports that
+there was no ice. If so, it is surely possible that Greenland also may
+have been greener and more attractive than during the recent centuries.
+Why should it not at one time have been fully deserving of the name by
+which we still know it? Some would explain the change in climatic
+conditions by the closing in of icepacks. At present Greenland is buried
+deep under a vast, solid ice-cap from which only a few<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> of the highest
+peaks protrude to show the position of the submerged mountains, but at
+former periods, according to geologists, there were gardens and farms
+flourishing under a genial climate. Others suppose that, were the ice
+removed, we should see an archipelago of elevated islands.</p>
+
+<p>2. <i>Celtic Discovery of America.</i>&mdash;We have already glanced at the fact
+that when the Norsemen first seized Iceland they found that island
+inhabited by Irish Celts. These Christianized Celts made way before the
+savage invaders, who did not accept the Catholic religion till about the
+close of the tenth century. Sailing south, those dispossessed Irish
+probably joined their brother Celts who had already long held a district
+on the eastern coast of North America, which some Norse skippers called
+"White Man's Land," and also <i>Irland-it-Mikla</i> (i. e., "Mickle
+Ireland"). Professor Rafn places this district on the coast of Carolina.
+A learned memoir, published 1851, attempts to prove that the mysterious
+"mound-builders" of the Ohio Valley were of the same race as the
+settlers on Mickle Ireland, and related to the "white-bearded men" who
+established an extinct civilization in Mexico. A French antiquary, 1875,
+identified Mickle Ireland with Ontario and Quebec. Beauvois, in his
+Elysée trans-atlantique, derives the name Labrador from the <i>Innis
+Labrada</i>, an island mentioned in an ancient Irish romance.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> Another
+Irish discoverer was St. Brandan,<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> Abbot of Cluainfert, Ireland (died<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span>
+May 16, 577), who was told that far in the ocean lay an island which was
+the land promised to the saints. St. Brandan set sail in company with
+seventy-five monks, and spent seven years upon the ocean in two voyages,
+discovering this island and many others equally marvelous, including one
+which turned out to be the back of a huge fish, upon which they
+celebrated Easter.<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p>
+
+
+<p>Among the Celtic claimants for discovery we must also include the Welsh,
+who lay stress upon certain resemblances between their language and the
+dialects of the native Americans. A better argument is the historical
+account taken from their annals about the expedition of Prince Madoc,
+son of a Welsh chieftain, who sailed due west in the year 1170, after
+the rumor of the Norse discoveries had reached Britain. He landed on a
+vast and fertile continent where he settled 120 colonists. On his return
+to Wales he fitted out a second fleet of ten ships, but the annals give
+no report of the result. Several writers state that the place of landing
+was near the Gulf of Mexico: Hakluyt connecting the discovery with
+Mexico (1589) and again with the West Indies (edition of 1600). In the
+seventeenth century some authors wished to substantiate the story of
+Prince Madoc, in order that the British claim to America should antedate
+the Spanish claim through Columbus. Prince Madoc is, to most readers,
+only known by Southey's poem.<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p>
+
+
+<p>3. <i>Basque Discovery of America.</i>&mdash;Who are the Basque people? A curious
+race of Spanish<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> mountaineers, who have been as great a puzzle to
+ethnologists and historians as their language has been to philologists
+and scholars. We know, however, that in former times they were nearly
+all seamen, making long voyages to the north for whale and Newfoundland
+cod fishing. They have produced excellent navigators; and possibly
+preceded Columbus in discovering America. Sebastian, the lieutenant of
+Magellan, was one of the Basque race. Magellan did not live to complete
+his famous voyage, therefore Sebastian was the first actual
+circumnavigator of our globe.</p>
+
+<p>François Michel, in his work Le Pays Basque, says that the Basque
+sailors knew the coasts of Newfoundland a century before the time of
+Columbus; and that it was from one of these ocean mariners that he first
+learned the existence of a continent beyond the Atlantic. Other
+arguments are derived from comparing the peculiarities of the Basque
+tongue with those of the American dialects. Whitney, an American
+scholar, concludes that "No other dialect of the Old World so much
+resembles the American languages in structure as the Basque."</p>
+
+<p>4. <i>Jewish Discovery of America.</i>&mdash;There is one claim for the discovery
+of America, which, though quite improbable, if not impossible, has been
+upheld and sanctioned by many scholarly works in several languages. It
+is argued that the red Indians represent the ten "Lost Tribes" of the
+Hebrew people who had been deported to Assyria and Media (<i>v.</i> Extinct
+Civilizations of the East, p. 109). The theory was first started by some
+Spanish priest-missionaries, and has since been defended by many learned
+divines both<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> in England and America, one leading argument being certain
+similarities in the languages. Catlin (<i>v.</i> Smithsonian Report, 1885)
+enumerates many analogies which he found among the Western Indians. The
+most authoritative statement is that of Lord Kingsborough in the
+well-known Mexican Antiquities (1830-'48), chiefly in Vol. VII. Some
+writers actually quote a statement made in the Mormon Bible! Leading New
+England divines, like Mayhew and Cotton Mather, espoused the cause with
+similar faith, as well as Roger Williams and William Penn.</p>
+
+<p>5. <i>The Italian Discovery of America.</i>&mdash;Not through Columbus the
+Genoese, or Amerigo Vespucci, the Florentine, although they were
+certainly Italians, but by two Venetians, Nicolo and Antonio Zeno. In <span class="smcap">A.
+D.</span> 1380 or 1390 these brothers Zeni were shipwrecked in the North
+Atlantic, and, when staying in Frislanda, made the acquaintance of a
+sailor who, after twenty-six years' absence, had returned, giving them
+the following report:</p>
+
+<p>"Being driven west in a gale, he found an island with civilized
+inhabitants, who had Latin books, but could not speak Norse, and whose
+country was called Estotiland, while a region on the mainland, farther
+south, to which he had also gone, was called Drogeo. Here he had met
+with cannibals. Still farther south was a great country with towns and
+temples."</p>
+
+<p>The two brothers Zeni finally conveyed this account to another brother
+in Venice, together with a map of those distant regions, but these
+documents remained neglected till 1558, when a descendant compiled a
+book to embody the informa<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span>tion, accompanied by a map, now famous as
+"the Zeno map."</p>
+
+<p>Humboldt, with reference to this map, remarks that it is singular that
+the name Frislanda should have been applied by Columbus to an island
+south of Iceland. Washington Irving (in his Life of Columbus) explains
+the book by a desire to appeal to the national pride of Italy, since, if
+true, the discovery of the brothers would antedate that of Columbus by a
+century.</p>
+
+<p>Malte-Brun, the distinguished geographer, distinctly accepted the Zeni
+narrative as true, and believed that it was by colonists from Greenland
+that the Latin books had reached Estotiland. Another strong advocate
+afterward appeared in Mr. Major, an official in the map department of
+the British Museum, who believed that much of the map in question
+represented genuine information of the fourteenth century, mixed with
+some spurious parts inserted by the younger Zeno. Mr. Major's paper on
+The Site of the Lost Colony of Greenland Determined, and the
+pre-Columbian Discoveries of America Confirmed, appeared in R. Geog.
+Soc. Journal, 1873; <i>v</i>. also Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc., 1874. Nordenskjöld
+also accepted the chief results of this Italian discovery, and as an
+arctic explorer of experience, his opinion carries weight. Mercator and
+Hugo Grotius were also believers in the Zeni account.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2>
+
+<h3>"DISCOVERY OF THE WORLD AND OF MAN"</h3>
+
+
+<p>At the beginning of this book a reference was made to the great upheaval
+in European history called the "Renascence" (Fr. <i>renaissance</i>) or
+Revival of Learning. In 1453 the Turks took Constantinople, driving the
+Greek scholars to take refuge in Italy, which at once became the most
+civilized nation in Europe. Poetry, philosophy, and art thence found
+their way to France, England, and Germany, being greatly assisted by the
+invention of printing, which just then was beginning to make books
+cheaper than they ever had been. At the same time feudalism was ruined,
+because the invention of gunpowder had previously been changing the art
+of war. For example, the King of France, Louis XI, as well as the King
+of England, Henry VII, had entire disposal of the national artillery;
+and therefore overawed the barons and armored knights. Neither moated
+fortresses nor mail-clad warriors, nor archers with bows and arrows,
+could prevail against powder and shot. The middle ages had come to an
+end; modern Europe was being born. France had become concentrated by the
+union of the south to the north on the conclusion of the "Hundred Years'
+War," the final expulsion of the English, and the abolition of all the
+great feudatories of the kingdom. England, at the same time, had
+entirely swept away the rule of the barons by the recent "Wars of the
+Roses," and Henry had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> strengthened his position by alliance with
+France, Spain, and Scotland. Spain, by the expulsion of the Moors from
+Granada in <span class="smcap">A. D.</span> 1492, was for the first time concentrated into one
+great state by the union of Isabella's Kingdom of Castile-Leon to
+Ferdinand's Kingdom of Aragon-Sicily.</p>
+
+<p>From the importance of the word <i>renaissance</i> as indicating the
+"movement of transition from the medieval to the modern world," Matthew
+Arnold gave it the English form "renascence"&mdash;adopted by J. R. Green,
+Coleridge, and others. In Germany, this great revival of letters and
+learning was contemporaneous with the Reformation, which had long been
+preparing (e. g., in England since John Wyclif) and was specially
+assisted by the invention of printing, which we have just mentioned. The
+minds of men everywhere were expanded: "whatever works of history,
+science, morality, or entertainment seemed likely to instruct or amuse
+were printed and distributed among the people at large by printers and
+booksellers."</p>
+
+<p>Thus it was that, though the Turks never had any pretension to learning
+or culture, yet their action in the middle of the fifteenth century
+indirectly caused a marvelous tide of civilization to overflow all the
+western countries of Europe. Another result in the same age was the
+increase of navigation and exploration&mdash;the discovery of the world as
+well as of man. When the Turks became masters of the eastern shores of
+the Mediterranean, the European merchants were prevented from going to
+India and the East by the overland route, as had been done for
+generations. Thus, since geography was at this very<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> time improved by
+the science of Copernicus and others, the natural inquiry was how to
+reach India by sea instead of going overland. Columbus, therefore,
+sailed due west to reach Asia, and stumbled upon a "New World" without
+knowing what he did; then Cabot, sailing from Bristol, sailed northwest
+to reach India, and stumbled upon the continent of America; and during
+the same reign (Henry VII) the Atlantic coast of both North and South
+America was visited by English, Portuguese, or Spanish navigators. The
+third expedition to reach India by sea was under De Gama. He set out in
+the same year as Cabot, sailing into the South Atlantic, and ultimately
+did find the west coast of India at Calicut, after rounding the cape.</p>
+
+<p>The mere enumeration of so many events, all of first-rate importance,
+proves that that half century (say from <span class="smcap">A. D.</span> 1460 to 1520) must be
+called "an age of marvels," <i>sæclum mirabile</i>. The concurrence of so
+many epoch-making results gave a great impulse, not only to the study of
+literature, science, and art, but to the exploration of many unknown
+countries in America, Africa, and Asia, and the universal expansion of
+human knowledge generally.</p>
+
+<p>I.&mdash;We shall now consider the first of these discoverers, who was also
+the greatest.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Columbus</span>, the Latinized form of the Italian Colombo, Spanish, Colon.
+This Genoese navigator must throughout all history be called the
+discoverer of America, notwithstanding all the work of smaller men. From
+his study of geographical books in several languages, Columbus had
+convinced himself that our planet is spherical<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> or ball-shaped, not a
+flat, plane surface. Till then India had always been reached by
+traveling overland toward the rising sun. Why not sail westward from
+Europe over the ocean, and thus come to the eastern parts of Asia by
+traveling toward the setting sun? By doing so, since our world is
+ball-shaped, said Columbus, we must inevitably reach Zipango (i. e.,
+"Japan") and Cathay (i. e., "China"), which are the most eastern parts
+of Asia. India then will be a mere detail. Judging from the accounts of
+Asia and its eastern islands given by Marco Polo, a Venetian, as well as
+from the maps sketched by Ptolemy, the Egyptian geographer, Columbus
+believed that the east coast of Asia was not so very far from the west
+coast of Europe. Columbus was confirmed in this opinion by a learned
+geographer of Florence, named Paul, and henceforward impatiently waited
+for an opportunity of testing the truth of his theory.</p>
+
+<p>He convinced himself, but could not convince any one else, that a
+westerly route to India was quite feasible. First he laid his plans
+before the authorities at Genoa, who had for generations traded with
+Asia by the overland journey, and ought therefore to have been glad to
+learn of this new alternative route, since the Turks were now playing
+havoc with the other; but no, they told Columbus that his idea was
+chimerical! Next he applied to the court of France. "Ridiculous!" was
+the reply, accompanied with a polite sneer. Next Columbus sent his
+scheme to Henry VII of England, a prince full of projects, but miserly.
+"Too expensive!" was the Tudor's reply, though presently, after the
+Spanish success, he became eager to despatch expeditions from Bristol
+under the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> Cabots. Then Columbus, by the advice of his brother, who had
+settled in Lisbon as a map-maker, approached King John, seeking
+patronage and assistance, pleading the foremost position of Portugal
+among the maritime states. The Portuguese neglected the golden
+opportunity, ocean navigation not being in their way as yet; their
+skippers preferred "to hug the African shore."</p>
+
+<p>At last Columbus gained the ear of Isabella, Queen of Castile; she
+believed in him and tried to get the assistance of her husband,
+Ferdinand, King of Aragon, in providing an outfit for the great
+expedition. Owing to Ferdinand's war in expelling the Moors from
+Granada, Columbus had still to wait several years.</p>
+
+<p>In a previous year, 1477, Columbus had sailed to the North Atlantic,
+perhaps in one of those Basque whalers already referred to, going "a
+hundred leagues beyond Thule." If that means Iceland, as is generally
+supposed, it seems most probable that, when conversing with the sailors
+there he must have heard how Leif, with his Norsemen, had discovered the
+American coasts of Newfoundland and Vinland some five centuries earlier,
+and how they had settled a colony on the new continent. Other writers
+have pointed out that Columbus could very well have heard of Vinland and
+the Northmen before leaving Genoa, since one of the Popes had sanctioned
+the appointment of a bishop over the new diocese. If so, the visit of
+Columbus to Iceland probably gave him confirmation as to the Norse
+discovery of the American continent.</p>
+
+<p>When at last King Ferdinand had taken Granada from the Moors, Columbus
+was put in com<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span>mand of three ships, with 120 men. He set sail from the
+port of Palos, in Andalusia, on a Friday, August 3, 1492, first steering
+to the Canary Islands, and then standing due west. In September, to the
+amazement of all on board, the compass was seen to "vary": an important
+scientific discovery&mdash;viz., that the magnetic needle does not always
+point to the pole-star. Some writers have imagined that the compass was
+for the first time utilized for a long journey by Columbus, but the
+occult power of the magnetic needle or "lodestone" had been known for
+ages before the fifteenth century. The ancient Persians and other "wise
+men of the East" used the lodestone as a talisman. Both the Mongolian
+and Caucasian races used it as an infallible guide in traveling across
+the mighty plains of Asia. The Cynosure in the Great Bear was the
+"guiding star," whether by sea or land; but when the heavens were
+wrapped in clouds, the magic stone or needle served to point exactly the
+position of the unseen star. What Columbus and his terrified crews
+discovered was the "variation of the compass," due to the fact that the
+magnetic needle points, not to the North Star, but to the "magnetic
+pole," a point in Canada to the west of Baffin's Bay and north of Hudson
+Bay.</p>
+
+<p>If Columbus had continued steering due west he would have landed on the
+continent of America in Florida; but before sighting that coast the
+course was changed to southwest, because some birds were seen flying in
+that direction. The first land reached was an island of the Bahama
+group, which he named <i>San Salvador</i>. As the Spanish boats rowed to
+shore they were welcomed by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> crowds of astonished natives, mostly naked,
+unless for a girdle of wrought cotton or plaited feathers. Hence the
+lines of Milton:</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 11em;">Such of late</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Columbus found the American, so girt</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With feathered cincture, naked else and wild,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Among the trees on isles and woody shores.</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>The spot of landing was formerly identified by Washington Irving and
+Baron Humboldt with "Cat Island"; but from the latest investigation it
+is now believed to have been Watling's Island. Here he landed on a
+Friday, October 12, 1492.</p>
+
+<p>So little was then known of the geography of the Atlantic or of true
+longitude, that Columbus attributed these islands to the <i>east coast of
+Asia</i>. He therefore named them "Indian Islands," as if close to
+Hindustan, a blunder that has now been perpetuated for four hundred and
+ten years. The natives were called "Indians" for the same reasons. As
+the knowledge of geography advanced it became necessary to say "West
+Indies" or "East Indies" respectively, to distinguish American from
+Asiatic&mdash;"Indian corn" means American, but "Indian ink" means Asiatic,
+etc. Even after his fourth and last voyage Columbus believed that the
+continent, as well as the islands, was a portion of eastern Asia, and he
+died in that belief, without any suspicion of having discovered a New
+World.</p>
+
+<p>A curious confirmation of the opinion of Columbus has just been
+discovered (1894) in the Florence Library, by Dr. Wieser, of Innsbruck.
+It is the actual copy of a map by the Great Admiral, drawn roughly in a
+letter written from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> Jamaica, July, 1503. It shows that his belief as to
+the part of the world reached in his voyages was that it was the east
+coast of Asia.</p>
+
+<p>The chief discovery made by Columbus in his first voyage was the great
+island of Cuba, which he imagined to be part of a continent. Some of the
+Spaniards went inland for sixty miles and reported that they had reached
+a village of more than a thousand inhabitants, and that the corn used
+for food was called <i>maize</i>&mdash;probably the first instance of Europeans
+using a term which was afterward to become as familiar as "wheat" or
+"barley." The natives told Columbus that their gold ornaments came from
+<i>Cubakan</i>, meaning the interior of Cuba; but he, on hearing the syllable
+<i>kan</i>, immediately thought of the "Khan" mentioned by Marco Polo, and
+therefore imagined that "Cathay" (the China of that famous traveler) was
+close at hand. The simple-minded Cubans were amazed that the Spaniards
+had such a love for gold, and pointed eastward to another island, which
+they called <i>Hayti</i>, saying it was more plentiful there than in Cuba.
+Thus Columbus discovered the second in size of all the West Indian
+islands, Cuba being the first; he, after landing on it, called it
+"Hispaniola," or Little Spain. Hayti in a few years became the
+headquarters of the Spanish establishments in the New World, after its
+capital, San Domingo, had been built by Bartholomew Columbus. It was in
+this island that the Spaniards saw the first of the "caziques," or
+native princes, afterward so familiar during the conquest of Mexico; he
+was carried on the shoulders of four men, and courteously presented
+Columbus with some plates of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> gold. In a letter to the monarchs of Spain
+the admiral thus refers to the natives of Hayti:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>The people are so affectionate, so tractable, and so peaceable that
+I swear to your Highnesses there is not a better race of men, nor a
+better country in the world; ... their conversation is the sweetest
+and mildest in the world, and always accompanied with a smile. The
+king is served with great state, and his behavior is so decent that
+it is pleasant to see him.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The admiral had previously described the Indians of Cuba as equally
+simple and friendly, telling how they had "honored the strangers as
+sacred beings allied to heaven." The pity of it, and the shame, is that
+those frank, unsuspicious, islanders had no notion or foresight of the
+cruel desolation which their gallant guests were presently to bring upon
+the native races&mdash;death, and torture, and extermination!</p>
+
+<p>A harbor in Cuba is thus described by Columbus in a letter to Ferdinand
+and Isabella:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>I discovered a river which a galley might easily enter.... I found
+from five to eight fathoms of water. Having proceeded a
+considerable way up the river, everything invited me to settle
+there. The beauty of the river, the clearness of the water, the
+multitude of palm-trees and an infinite number of other large and
+flourishing trees, the birds and the verdure of the plains, ... I
+am so much amazed at the sight of such beauty, that I know not how
+to describe it.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Having lost his flag-ship, Columbus returned to Spain with the two small
+caravels that remained from his petty fleet of three, arriving in the
+port of Palos March 15, 1493. The reception of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> successful explorer
+was a national event. He entered Barcelona to be presented at court with
+every circumstance of honor and triumph. Sitting in presence of the king
+and queen he related his wondrous tale, while his attendants showed the
+gold, the cotton, the parrots and other unknown birds, the curious arms
+and plants, and above all the nine "Indians" with their outlandish
+trappings&mdash;brought to be made Christians by baptism. Ferdinand and
+Isabella heaped honors upon the successful navigator; and in return he
+promised them the untold riches of Zipango and Cathay. A new fleet,
+larger and better equipped, was soon found for a second voyage.</p>
+
+<p>With his new ships, in 1498, Columbus again stood due west from the
+Canaries; and at last discovering an island with three mountain summits
+he named it Trinidad (i. e., "Trinity") without knowing that he was then
+coasting the great continent of South America. A few days later he and
+the crew were amazed by a tumult of waves caused by the fresh water of a
+great river meeting the sea. It was the "Oronooko," afterward called
+Orinoco; and from its volume Columbus and his shipmates concluded that
+it must drain part of a continent or a very large island.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Where Orinoco in his pride,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Rolls to the main no tribute tide,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But 'gainst broad ocean urges far</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A rival sea of roaring war;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">While in ten thousand eddies driven</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The billows fling their foam to heaven,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And the pale pilot seeks in vain,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Where rolls the river, where the main.</span><br />
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>That was the first glimpse which they had of America proper, still
+imagining it was only a part of eastern Asia. In the following voyage,
+his last, Columbus coasted part of the Isthmus of Darien. It was not,
+however, explored till the visit of Balboa.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img src="images/illus-046.jpg" width="500" height="322" alt="Cipher autograph of Columbus.
+" title="" />
+<span class="caption">Cipher autograph of Columbus.<br />
+
+The interpretation of the cipher is probably:<br />
+
+servatf Christus Maria Yosephus (Christoferens).</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>It was during his third voyage that the "Great Admiral" suffered the
+indignity at San Domingo of being thrown into chains and sent back to
+Spain. This was done by Bobadilla, an officer of the royal household,
+who had been sent out with full power to put down misrule. The monarchs
+of Spain set Columbus free; and soon afterward he was provided with four
+ships for his fourth voyage. Stormy weather wrecked this final
+expedition, and at last he was glad to arrive in Spain, November 7,
+1504. He now felt that his work on earth was done, and died at
+Valladolid, May 20, 1506. After temporary interment there his body was
+transferred to the cathedral of San Domingo&mdash;whence, 1796, some remains
+were removed with imposing ceremonies to Ha<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>vana. From later
+investigations it appears that the ashes of the Genoese discoverer are
+still in the tomb of San Domingo.</p>
+
+<p>It was in the cathedral of Seville, over his first tomb, that King
+Ferdinand is said to have honored the memory of the Great Admiral with a
+marble monument bearing the well-known epitaph:</p>
+
+<div class="centerbox bbox">
+<p class="center">
+A CASTILLA Y ARAGON<br />
+NUEVO MUNDO DIO <big>COLON</big>
+</p></div>
+
+<p>or, "<i>To the united Kingdom of Castile-Aragon Columbus gave a New
+World</i>."</p>
+
+<p>After the death of Columbus, it seemed as if fate intended his family to
+enjoy the honors and rewards of which he had been so unjustly deprived.
+His son, Diego, wasted two years trying to obtain from King Ferdinand
+the offices of viceroy and admiral, which he had a right to claim in
+accordance with the arrangement formerly made with his father. At last
+Diego began a suit against Ferdinand before the council which managed
+Indian affairs. That court decided in favor of Diego's claim; and as he
+soon greatly improved his social position by marrying the niece of the
+Duke of Alva, a high nobleman, Diego received the appointment of
+governor (not viceroy), and went to Hayti, attended by his brother and
+uncles, as well as his wife and a large retinue. There Diego Columbus
+and his family lived, "with a splendor hitherto unknown in the New
+World."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>II.&mdash;Henry VII of England, after repenting that he had not secured the
+services of Columbus, commissioned John Cabot to sail from Bristol
+across the Atlantic in a northwesterly direction, with the hope of
+finding some passage thereabouts to India. In June, 1497, a new coast
+was sighted (probably Labrador or Newfoundland), and named <i>Prima
+Vista</i>. They coasted the continent southward, "ever with intent to find
+the passage to India," till they reached the peninsula now called
+Florida. On this important voyage was based the claim which the English
+kings afterward made for the possession of all the Atlantic coast of
+North America. King Henry wished colonists to settle in the new land,
+<i>tam viri quam feminæ</i>, but since, in his usual miserly character, he
+refused to give a single "testoon," or "groat" toward the enterprise, no
+colonies were formed till the days of Walter Raleigh, more than a
+century later.</p>
+
+<p>Sebastian Cabot, born in Bristol, 1477, was more renowned as a navigator
+than his father, John, and almost ranks with Columbus. After discovering
+Labrador or Newfoundland with his father, he sailed a second time with
+300 men to form colonies, passing apparently into Hudson Bay. He wished
+to discover a channel leading to Hindustan, but the difficulties of
+icebergs and cold weather so frightened his crews that he was compelled
+to retrace his course. In another attempt at the northwest passage to
+Asia, he reached latitude 67&frac12;° north, and "gave English names to
+sundry places in Hudson Bay." In 1526, when commanding a Spanish
+expedition from Seville, he sailed to Brazil, which had al<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span>ready been
+annexed to Portugal by Cabrera, explored the River La Plata and ascended
+part of the Paraguay, returning to Spain in 1531. After his return to
+England, King Edward VI had some interviews with Cabot, one topic being
+the "variation of the compass." He received a royal pension of 250
+marks, and did special work in relation to trade and navigation. The
+great honor of Cabot is that he saw the American continent before
+Columbus or Amerigo Vespucci.</p>
+
+<p>III.&mdash;Of the great navigators of that unexampled age of discovery, as
+Spain was honored by Columbus and England by Cabot, so Portugal was
+honored by De Gama. Vasco de Gama, the greatest of Portuguese
+navigators, left Lisbon in 1497 to explore the unknown world lying east
+of the Cape of Good Hope, arriving at Calicut, May, 1498. Before that,
+Diaz had actually rounded the cape, but seems to have done so merely
+before a high gale. He named it "the stormy Cape." Cabrera, or Cabral,
+was another great explorer sent from Portugal to follow in the route of
+De Gama; but being forced into a southwesterly route by currents in the
+south Atlantic, he landed on the continent of America, and annexed the
+new country to Portugal under the name of Brazil. Cabrera afterward drew
+up the first commercial treaty between Portugal and India.</p>
+
+<p>IV.&mdash;Magellan, scarcely inferior to Columbus, brought honor as a
+navigator both to Portugal and Spain. For the latter country, when in
+the service of Charles V, he revived the idea of Columbus that we may
+sail to Asia or the Spice Islands by sailing <i>west</i>. With a squadron of
+five ships, 236 men, he sailed, in 1519, to Brazil and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> convinced
+himself that the great estuary was not a strait. Sailing south along the
+American coast, he discovered the strait that bears his name, and
+through it entered the Pacific, then first sailed upon by Europeans,
+though already seen by Balboa and his men "upon a peak in Darien"&mdash;as
+Keats puts it in his famous sonnet.<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> From the continuous fine weather
+enjoyed for some months, Magellan naturally named the new sea "the
+Pacific." After touching at the Ladrones and the Philippines, Magellan
+was killed in a fight with the inhabitants of Matan, a small island.
+Sebastian, his Basque lieutenant (mentioned in Chapter I) then
+successfully completed the circumnavigation of the world, sailing first
+to the Moluccas and thence to Spain.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>V.&mdash;Of all the world-famous navigators contemporary with Colon, the
+Genoese, there remains only one deserving of our notice, and that
+because his name is for all time perpetuated in that of the New World.
+Amerigo (Latin <i>Americus</i>) Vespucci, born at Florence, 1451, had
+commercial occupation in Cadiz, and was employed by the Spanish
+Government. He has been charged with a fraudulent attempt to usurp the
+honor due to Columbus, but Humboldt and others have defended him, after
+a minute examination of the evidence. In a book published in 1507 by a
+German, <i>Waldseemüller</i>, the author happens to say:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>And the fourth part of the world having been discovered by
+Americus, it may be called Amerige, that is the land of Americus,
+or <i>America</i>.</p></blockquote><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Vespucci never called himself the discoverer of the new continent; as a
+mere subordinate he could not think of such a thing. As a matter of
+fact, he and Columbus were always on friendly terms, attached, and
+trusted. Humboldt explains the blunder of Waldseemüller and others by
+the general ignorance of the history of how America was discovered,
+since for some years it was jealously guarded as a "state secret."
+Humboldt curiously adds that the "musical sound of the name caught the
+public ear," and thus the blunder has been universally perpetuated:</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>statque stabitque</i></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>in omne volubilis ævum</i>.</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Another reason for the universal renown of Amerigo was that his book was
+the first that told of the new "Western World"; and was therefore
+eagerly read in all parts of Europe.</p>
+
+<p>Cuba, though the largest of the West Indian islands, and second to be
+discovered, was not colonized till after the death of Columbus. Thus for
+more than three centuries and a half, as "Queen of the Antilles" and
+"Pearl of the Antilles," Cuba has been noted as a chief colonial
+possession of Spain, till recent events brought it under the power of
+the United States. The conquest of the island was undertaken by
+Velasquez, who, after accompanying the great admiral in his second
+voyage, had settled in Hispaniola (or Hayti) and acquired a large
+fortune there. He had little difficulty in the annexation of Cuba,
+because the natives, like those of Hispaniola, were of a peaceful
+character, easily imposed upon by the invaders. The only difficulty
+Velasquez had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> was in the eastern part of the island, where Hatuey, a
+cazique or native chief, who had fled there from Hispaniola, made
+preparations to resist the Spaniards. When defeated, he was cruelly
+condemned by Velasquez to be burned to death, as a "slave who had taken
+arms against his master." The scene at Hatuey's execution is well known:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>When fastened to the stake, a Franciscan friar promised him
+immediate admittance into the joys of heaven, if he would embrace
+the Christian faith. "Are there any Spaniards," says he, after some
+pause, "in that region of bliss which you describe?" "Yes," replied
+the monk, "but only such as are worthy and good." "The best of them
+have neither worth nor goodness: I will not go to a place where I
+may meet with one of that accursed race."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Being thus annexed in 1511, by the middle of the century all the native
+Indians of Cuba had become extinct. In the following century this large
+and fertile island suffered severely by the buccaneers, but during the
+eighteenth century it prospered. During the nineteenth century, the
+United States Government had often been urged to obtain possession of
+it; for example, the sum of one hundred million dollars was offered in
+1848 by President Polk. Slavery was at last abolished absolutely in
+1886. In recent years Spain, by ceding Cuba and the Philippines to the
+United States and the Carolines to Germany, has brought her colonial
+history to a close.</p>
+
+<p>Two other important events occurred when Velasquez was Governor of Cuba:
+first, the escape of Balboa from Hispaniola, to become afterward
+Governor of Darien; and, second, the expe<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span>dition under Cordova to
+explore that part of the continent of America which lies nearest to
+Cuba. This expedition of 110 men, in three small ships, led to the
+discovery of that large peninsula now known as Yucatan. Cordova imagined
+it to be an island. The natives were not naked, like those of the West
+Indian islands, but wore cotton clothes, and some had ornaments of gold.
+In the towns, which contained large stone houses, and country generally,
+there were many proofs of a somewhat advanced civilization. The natives,
+however, were much more warlike than the simple islanders of Cuba and
+Hispaniola; and Cordova, in fact, was glad to return from Yucatan.</p>
+
+<p>Velasquez, on hearing the report of Cordova, at once fitted out four
+vessels to explore the newly discovered country, and despatched them
+under command of his nephew, Grijalva. Everywhere were found proofs of
+civilization, especially in architecture. The whole district, in fact,
+abounds in prehistoric remains. From a friendly chief Grijalva received
+a sort of coat of mail covered with gold plates; and on meeting the
+ruler of the province he exchanged some toys and trinkets, such as glass
+beads, pins, scissors, for a rich treasure of jewels, gold ornaments and
+vessels.</p>
+
+<p>Grijalva was therefore the first European to step on the Aztec soil and
+open an intercourse with the natives. Velasquez, the Governor, at once
+prepared a larger expedition, choosing as leader or commander an officer
+who was destined henceforth to fill a much larger place in history than
+himself, one who presently appeared capable of becoming a general in the
+foremost rank, Hernando Cortés, greatest of all Spanish explorers.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2>
+
+<h3>THE EXTINCT CIVILIZATION OF THE AZTECS</h3>
+
+
+<p>In the Extinct Civilizations of the East it was shown that the cosmogony
+of the Chaldeans closely resembles that of the Hebrews and the
+Phenicians, and that the account of the deluge in Genesis exactly
+reproduces the much earlier one found on one of the Babylonian tablets.</p>
+
+<p>Traces of a deluge legend also existed among the early Aztecs. They
+believed</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>that two persons survived the Deluge, a man named Koksoz and his
+wife. Their heads are represented in ancient paintings together
+with a boat floating on the waters at the foot of a mountain. A
+dove is also depicted, with a hieroglyphical emblem of languages in
+his mouth.... Tezpi, the Noah of a neighboring people, also escaped
+in a boat, which was filled with various kinds of animals and
+birds. After some time a vulture was sent out from it, but remained
+feeding on the dead bodies of the giants, which had been left on
+the earth as the waters subsided. The little humming-bird was then
+sent forth and returned with the branch of a tree in its mouth.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Another Aztec tradition of the deluge is that the pyramidal mound, the
+temple of Cholula (a sacred city on the way between the capital and the
+seaport), was built by the giants to escape drowning. Like the tower of
+Babel, it was intended to reach the clouds, till the gods looked down
+and, by destroying the pyramid by fires from heaven, compelled the
+builders to abandon the attempt.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The hieroglyphics used in the Aztec calendar correspond curiously with
+the zodiacal signs of the Mongols of eastern Asia. "The symbols in the
+Mongolian calendar are borrowed from animals, and four of the twelve are
+the same as the Aztec."</p>
+
+<p>The antiquity of most of the monuments is proved&mdash;e. g., by the growth
+of trees in the midst of the buildings in Yucatan. Many have had time to
+attain a diameter of from six to nine feet. In a courtyard at Uxmal, the
+figures of tortoises sculptured in relief upon the granite pavement are
+so worn away by the feet of countless generations of the natives that
+the design of the artist is scarcely recognizable.</p>
+
+<p>The Spanish invaders demolished every vestige of the Aztec religious
+monuments, just as Roman Catholic images and paraphernalia were once
+treated by the "straitest sects" of Protestants, or even Mohammedans.</p>
+
+<p>The beautiful plateau around the lakes of Mexico, as well as other
+central portions of America, were without any doubt occupied from the
+earliest ages by peoples who gradually advanced in civilization from
+generation to generation and passed through cycles of revolutions&mdash;in
+one century relapsing, in another advancing by leaps and bounds by an
+infusion of new blood or a change of environment&mdash;exactly similar to the
+checkered annals of the successive dynasties in the Nile Valley and the
+plains of Babylonia. In the New World, as in the Old World, from
+prehistoric times wealth was accumulated at such centers, bringing
+additional comfort and refinement, and implying the practise of the
+useful arts<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> and some applications of science. As to the legendary
+migrations or even those extinct races whose names still remain, Max
+Müller said:<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p>
+
+
+<blockquote><p>The traditions are no better than the Greek traditions about
+Pelasgians, Æolians, and Ionians, and it would be a mere waste of
+time to construct out of such elements a systematic history, only
+to be destroyed again sooner or later, by some Niebuhr, Grote, or
+Lewis.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p><i>Anahuac</i> (i. e., "waterside" or "the lake-country"), in the early
+centuries of our era, was a name of the country round the lakes and town
+afterward called Mexico. To this center, as a place for settlement,
+there came from the north or northwest a succession of tribes more or
+less allied in race and language&mdash;especially (according to one theory)
+the <i>Toltecs</i> from Tula, and the <i>Aztecs</i> from Aztlan. Tula, north of
+the Mexican Valley, had been the first capital of the Toltecs, and at
+the time of the Spanish conquest there were remains of large buildings
+there. Most of the extensive temples and other edifices found throughout
+"New Spain" were attributed to this race and the word "toltek" became
+synonymous with "architect."</p>
+
+<p>Some five centuries after the Toltecs had abandoned Tula, the Aztecs or
+early Mexicans arrived to settle in the Valley of Anahuac. With the
+Aztecs came the Tezcucans, whose capital, Tezcuco, on the eastern border
+of the Mexican lake, has given it its still surviving name.</p>
+
+<p>The Aztecs, again, after long migrations from place to place, finally,
+in <span class="smcap">A. D.</span> 1325, halted on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> southwestern shores of the great lake.
+According to tradition, a heavenly vision thus announced the site of
+their future capital:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>They beheld perched on the stem of a prickly-pear, which shot out
+from the crevice of a rock washed by the waves, a royal eagle of
+extraordinary size and beauty, with a serpent in its talons, and
+its broad wings opened to the rising sun. They hailed the
+auspicious omen, announced by an oracle as indicating the sight of
+their future city, and laid its foundations by sinking piles into
+the shallows; for the low marshes were half buried under water....
+The place was called Tenochtitlan (i. e. "the cactus on a rock") in
+token of its miraculous origin. [Such were the humble beginnings of
+the Venice of the Western World.]<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></p></blockquote>
+
+
+<p>To this day the arms of the Mexican republic show the device of the
+eagle and the cactus&mdash;to commemorate the legend of the foundation of the
+capital&mdash;afterward called Mexico from the name of their war-god. Fiercer
+and more warlike than their brethren of Tezcuco, the men of the latter
+town were glad of their assistance, when invaded and defeated by a
+hostile tribe. Thus Mexico and Tezcuco became close allies, and by the
+time of Montezuma I, in the middle of the fifteenth century, their
+sovereignty had extended beyond their native plateau to the coast
+country along the Gulf of Mexico. The capital rapidly increased in
+population, the original houses being replaced by substantial stone
+buildings. There are documents showing that Tenochtitlan was of much
+larger dimensions than the modern capital of Mexico, on the same site.
+Just before the arrival of the Spaniards, at the beginning of the
+sixteenth century,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> the kingdom extended from the gulf across to the
+Pacific; and southward under the ruthless Ahuitzotl over the whole of
+Guatemala and Nicaragua.</p>
+
+<p>The Aztecs resembled the ancient Peruvians in very few respects, one
+being the use of knots on strings of different colors to record events
+and numbers. Compare our account of "the quipu" in Chapter X. The Aztecs
+seem to have replaced that rude method of making memoranda during the
+seventh century by picture-writing. Before the Spanish invasion,
+thousands of native clerks or chroniclers were employed in painting on
+vegetable paper and canvas. Examples of such manuscripts may still be
+seen in all the great museums. Their contents chiefly refer to ritual,
+astrology, the calendar, annals of the kings, etc.</p>
+
+<p>Most of the literary productions of the ancient Mexicans were stupidly
+destroyed by the Spanish under Cortés. The first Archbishop of Mexico
+founded a professorship in 1553 for expounding the hieroglyphs of the
+Aztecs, but in the following century the study was abandoned. Even the
+native-born scholars confessed that they were unable to decipher the
+ancient writing. One of the most ancient books (assigned to Tula, the
+"Toltec" capital, <span class="smcap">A. D.</span> 660, and written by Huetmatzin, an astrologer),
+describes the heavens and the earth, the stars in their constellations,
+the arrangement of time in the official calendar, with some geography,
+mythology, and cosmogony. In the fifteenth century the King of Tezcuco
+published sixty hymns in honor of the Supreme Being, with an elegy on
+the destruction of a town, and another on the instability of human
+greatness.</p>
+
+<p>In the same century the three Anahuac states<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> (Acolhua, Mexico, and
+Tlacopan) formed a confederacy with a constant tendency to give Mexico
+the supremacy. The two capitals looking at each other across the lake
+were steadily growing in importance, with all the adjuncts of public
+works&mdash;causeways, canals, aqueducts, temples, palaces, gardens, and
+other evidences of wealth.</p>
+
+<p>The horror and disgust caused by the Aztec sacrificial bloodshed are
+greatly increased by considering the number of the victims. The kings
+actually made war in order to provide as many victims as possible for
+the public sacrifices&mdash;especially on such an occasion as a coronation or
+the consecration of a new temple. Captives were sometimes reserved a
+considerable time for the purpose of immolation. It was the regular
+method of the Aztec warrior in battle not to kill one's opponent if he
+could be made a captive; to take him alive was a meritorious act in
+religion. In fact, the Spaniards in this way frequently escaped death at
+the hands of their Mexican opponents. When King Montezuma was asked by a
+European general why he had permitted the republic of Tlascala to remain
+independent on the borders of his kingdom, his reply was, "That she
+might furnish me with victims for my gods."</p>
+
+<p>In reckoning the number of victims Prescott seems to have trusted too
+implicitly to the almost incredible accounts of the Spanish. Zumurraga,
+the first Bishop of Mexico, asserts that 20,000 were sacrificed
+annually, but Casas points out that with such a "waste of the human
+species," as is implied in some histories, the country could not have
+been so populous as Cortés found it. The estimate of Casas is "that the
+Mexicans never sacri<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span>ficed more than fifty or a hundred persons in a
+year."</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding the wholesale bloodshed before the shrines of their gory
+gods, we can still assign to the Aztecs a high degree of civilization.
+The history of even modern Europe will illustrate this statement,
+although apparently paradoxical.</p>
+
+<p>Consider "the condition of some of the most polished countries in the
+sixteenth century after the establishment of the modern Inquisition&mdash;an
+institution which yearly destroyed its thousands by a death more painful
+than the Aztec sacrifices, ... which did more to stay the march of
+improvement than any other scheme ever devised by human cunning....
+Human sacrifice was sometimes voluntarily embraced by the Aztecs as the
+most glorious death, and one that opened a sure passage into paradise.
+The Inquisition, on the other hand, branded its victims with infamy in
+this world, and consigned them to everlasting perdition in the next."</p>
+
+<p>The difficulty with the Aztecs is how to reconcile such refinement as
+their extinct civilization showed with their savage enjoyment of
+bloodshed. "No captive was ever ransomed or spared; all were sacrificed
+without mercy, and their flesh devoured." The first of the four chief
+counselors of the empire was called the "Prince of the Deadly Lance,"
+the second "Divider of Men," the third "Shedder of Blood," the fourth
+"the Lord of the Dark House."</p>
+
+<p>The temples were very numerous, generally merely pyramidal masses of
+clay faced with brick or stone. The roof was a broad area on which stood
+one or two towers, from forty to fifty feet in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> height, forming the
+sanctuaries of the presiding deities, and therefore containing their
+images. Before these sanctuaries stood the dreadful stone of sacrifice.
+There were also two altars with sacred fires kept ever burning.</p>
+
+<p>All the religious services were public, and the pyramidal temples, with
+stairs round their massive sides, allowed the long procession of priests
+to be visible as they ceremoniously ascended to perform the dread office
+of slaughtering the human victims.</p>
+
+<p>Human sacrifices had not originally been a feature of the Aztec worship.
+But about 200 years before the arrival of the Spanish invaders was the
+beginning of this religious atrocity, and at last no public festival was
+considered complete without some human bloodshed.</p>
+
+<p>Prescott takes as an example the great festival in honor of
+Tezcatlipoca, a handsome god of the second rank, called "the soul of the
+world," and endowed with perpetual youth.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>A year before the intended sacrifice, a captive, distinguished for
+his personal beauty and without a blemish on his body, was
+selected.... Tutors took charge of him and instructed him how to
+perform his new part with becoming grace and dignity. He was
+arrayed in a splendid dress, regaled with incense and with a
+profusion of sweet-scented flowers.... When he went abroad he was
+attended by a train of the royal pages, and as he halted in the
+streets to play some favorite melody, the crowd prostrated
+themselves before him, and did him homage as the representative of
+their good deity.... Four beautiful girls, bearing the names of the
+principal goddesses, were selected, and with them he continued to
+live idly, feasted at the banquets of the principal nobles, who
+paid him all the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> honors of a divinity. When at length the fatal
+day of sacrifice arrived, ... stripped of his gaudy apparel, one of
+the royal barges transported him across a lake to a temple which
+rose on its margin.... Hither the inhabitants of the capital
+flocked to witness the consummation of the ceremony. As the sad
+procession wound up the sides of the pyramid, the unhappy victim
+threw away his gay chaplets of flowers and broke in pieces his
+musical instruments. ... On the summit he was received by six
+priests, whose long and matted locks flowed in disorder over their
+sable robes, covered with hieroglyphic scrolls of mystic import.
+They led him to the sacrificial stone, a huge block of jasper, with
+its upper surface somewhat convex. On this the victim was
+stretched. Five priests secured his head and limbs, while the
+sixth, clad in a scarlet mantle, emblematic of his bloody office,
+dexterously opened the breast of the wretched victim with a sharp
+razor of <i>itzli</i>, and inserting his hand in the wound, tore out the
+palpitating heart, and after holding it up to the sun (as
+representing the supreme God), cast it at the feet of the deity to
+whom the temple was devoted, while the multitudes below prostrated
+themselves in humble adoration.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Such was an instance of the human sacrifices for which ancient Mexico
+became infamous to the whole civilized world.</p>
+
+<p>One instance of a sacrifice differing from the ordinary sort is thus
+given by a Spanish historian:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>A captive of distinction was sometimes furnished with arms for
+single combat against a number of Mexicans in succession. If he
+defeated them all, as did occasionally happen, he was allowed to
+escape. If vanquished he was dragged to the block and sacrificed in
+the usual manner. The combat was fought on a huge circular stone
+before the population of the capital.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Women captives were occasionally sacrificed before those bloodthirsty
+gods, and in a season of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> drought even children were sometimes
+slaughtered to propitiate Tlaloc, the god of rain.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>Borne along in open litters, dressed in their festal robes and
+decked with the fresh blossoms of spring, they moved the hardest
+hearts to pity, though their cries were drowned in the wild chant
+of the priests who read in their tears a favorable augury for the
+rain prayer.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>One Spanish historian informs us that these innocent victims of this
+repulsive religion were generally bought by the priests from parents who
+were poor.</p>
+
+<p>We may now resume the traditional settlement of the ancient Mexicans on
+the region called Anahuac, including all the fertile plateau and
+extending south to the lake of Nicaragua. The chief tribes of the race
+were said to have come from California, and after being subject to the
+Colhua people asserted their independence about <span class="smcap">A. D.</span> 1325. Soon
+afterward, their first capital, Tenochtitlan, was built on the site of
+Mexico, their permanent center. For several generations they lived, like
+their remote ancestors, the Red Men of the Woods, as hunters, fishers,
+and trappers, but at last their prince or chief cazique was powerful
+enough to be called king. The rule of this Aztec prince, beginning <span class="smcap">A. D.</span>
+1440, marked the beginning of their greatness as a race. It became a
+rule of their kingdom that every new king must gain a victory before
+being crowned; and thus by the conquest of a new nation furnish a supply
+of captives to gratify their tutelary deity by the necessary human
+sacrifices. In 1502 the younger Montezuma ascended the throne. He is
+better<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> known to us than the previous kings, because it was in his reign
+that the Spanish conquerors appeared on the scene. From the time of
+Cortés the history of the Aztecs becomes part of that of the Mexicans.
+They were easily conquered by the European troops, partly because of
+their betrayal by various of the neighboring nations whom they had
+formerly conquered. At the beginning of the sixteenth century, according
+to Prescott, the Aztec king ruled the continent from the Atlantic to the
+Pacific.</p>
+
+<p>From the scientific side of their extinct civilization it is their
+knowledge of astronomy that chiefly causes astonishment (see also p.
+<a href='#Page_85'>85</a>). As in the case of the Chaldeans and Babylonians, a motive
+for the study of the stars and planets was the priestly one of
+accurately fixing the religious festivals. The tropical year being thus
+ascertained, their tables showed the exact time of the equinox or sun's
+transit across the equatorial, and of the solstice. From a very early
+period they had practised agriculture, growing Indian corn and "Mexican
+aloe." Having no animals of draft, such as the horse, or ox, their
+farming was naturally of a rude and imperfect sort.</p>
+
+<p>"The degree of civilization," says Prescott, "which the Aztecs reached,
+as inferred by their political institutions, may be considered, perhaps,
+not much short of that enjoyed by our Saxon ancestors under Alfred."</p>
+
+<p>In a passage comparing the Aztecs to the American Indians, we read:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>The latter has something peculiarly sensitive in his nature. He
+shrinks instinctively from the rude touch<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> of a foreign hand. Even
+when this foreign influence comes in the form of civilization he
+seems to sink and pine away beneath it. It has been so with the
+Mexicans. Under the Spanish domination their numbers have silently
+melted away. Their energies are broken. They no longer tread their
+mountain plains with the conscious independence of their ancestors.
+In their faltering step and meek and melancholy aspect we read the
+sad characters of the conquered race.... Their civilization was of
+the hardy character which belongs to the wilderness. The fierce
+virtues of the Aztec were all his own.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Humboldt found some analogy between the Aztec theory of the universe, as
+taught by the priests, and the Asiatic "cosmogonies." The Aztecs, in
+explaining the great mystery of man's existence after death, believed
+that future time would revolve in great periods or cycles, each
+embracing thousands of years. At the end of each of the four cycles of
+future time in the present world, "the human family will be swept from
+the earth by the agency of one of the elements, and the sun blotted out
+from the heavens to be again rekindled."</p>
+
+<p>The priesthood comprised a large number who were skilled in astrology
+and divination. The great temple of Mexico, alone, had 5,000 priests in
+attendance, of whom the chief dignitaries superintended the dreadful
+rites of human sacrifice. Others had management of the singing choirs
+with their musical accompaniment of drums and other instruments; others
+arranged the public festivals according to the calendar, and had charge
+of the hieroglyphical word-painting and oral traditions. One important
+section of the priesthood were teachers, responsible for the edu<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span>cation
+of the children and instruction in religion and morality. The head
+management of the hierarchy or whole ecclesiastical system, was under
+two high priests&mdash;the more dignified that they were chosen by the king
+and principal nobles without reference to birth or social station. These
+high priests were consulted on any national emergency, and in precedency
+of rank were superior to every man except the king. Montezuma is said to
+have been a priest.</p>
+
+<p>The priestly power was more absolute than any ever experienced in
+Europe. Two remarkable peculiarities were that when a sinner was
+pardoned by a priest, the certificate afterward saved the culprit from
+being legally punished for any offense; secondly, there could be no
+pardon for an offense once atoned for if the offense were repeated.
+"Long after the conquest, the simple natives when they came under the
+arm of the law, sought to escape by producing the certificate of their
+former confession." (Prescott, i, 33.)</p>
+
+<p>The prayer of the priest-confessor, as reported by a Spanish historian,
+is very remarkable:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"O, merciful Lord, thou who knowest the secrets of all hearts, let
+thy forgiveness and favor descend, like the pure waters of heaven,
+to wash away the stains from the soul. Thou knowest that this poor
+man has sinned, <i>not from his own free will</i>, but from the
+influence of the sign under which he was born...."</p>
+
+<p>After enjoining on the penitent a variety of minute ceremonies by
+way of penance, the confessor urges the necessity of instantly
+procuring a slave for sacrifice to the Deity.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>In the schools under the clergy the boys were taught by priests and the
+girls by priestesses.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> There was a higher school for instruction in
+tradition and history, the mysteries of hieroglyphs, the principles of
+government, and certain branches of astronomical and natural science.</p>
+
+<p>In the education of their children the Mexican community were very
+strict, but from a letter preserved by one of the Spanish historians, we
+can not doubt the womanly affection of a mother who thus wrote to her
+daughter:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>My beloved daughter, very dear little dove, you have already heard
+and attended to the words which your father has told you. They are
+precious words, which have proceeded from the bowels and heart in
+which they were treasured up; and your beloved father well knows
+that you, his daughter, begotten of him, are his blood and his
+flesh; and God our Lord knows that it is so. Although you are a
+woman, and are the image of your father, what more can I say to you
+than has already been said?... My dear daughter, whom I tenderly
+love, see that you live in the world in peace, tranquillity, and
+contentment&mdash;see that you disgrace not yourself, that you stain not
+your honor, nor pollute the luster and fame of your ancestors....
+May God prosper you, my first-born, and may you come to God, who is
+in every place.<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></p></blockquote>
+
+
+<p>Some trace of a "natural piety," which will probably surprise our
+readers, is also found in the ceremony of Aztec baptism, as described by
+the same writer. After the head and lips of the infant were touched with
+water and a name given to it, the goddess Cioacoatl was implored "that
+the sin which was given to us before the beginning of the world might
+not visit the child, but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> that, cleansed by these waters, it might live
+and be born anew." In Sahagun's account we read:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>When all the relations of the child were assembled, the midwife,
+who was the person that performed the rite of baptism, was
+summoned. When the sun had risen, the midwife, taking the child in
+her arms, called for a little earthen vessel of water.... To
+perform the rite, she placed herself <i>with her face toward the
+west</i>, and began to go through certain ceremonies.... After this
+she sprinkled water on the head of the infant, saying, "O my child!
+receive the water of the Lord of the world, which is our life, and
+is given for the increasing and renewing of our body. It is to wash
+and to purify." ... [After a prayer] she took the child in both
+hands, and lifting him toward heaven said, "O Lord, thou seest here
+thy creature whom thou hast sent into this world, this place of
+sorrow, suffering, and penitence. Grant him, O Lord, thy gifts and
+thine inspiration."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The science of the Aztecs has excited the wonder of all competent
+judges, such as Humboldt (already quoted) and the astronomer La Place.
+Lord Kingsborough remarks in his great work:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>It can hardly be doubted that the Mexicans were acquainted with
+many scientifical instruments of strange invention;... whether the
+telescope may not have been of the number is uncertain; but the
+thirteenth plate of M. Dupaix's Monuments, which represents a man
+holding something of a similar nature to his eye, affords reason to
+suppose that they knew how to improve the powers of vision.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>References to the calendar of the Aztecs should not omit the secular
+festival occurring at the end of their great cycle of fifty-two years.
+From the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> length of the period, two generations, one might compare it
+with the "jubilee" of ancient Israel&mdash;a word made familiar toward the
+close of Queen Victoria's reign. The great event always took place at
+midwinter, the most dreary period of the year, and when the five
+intercalary days arrived they "abandoned themselves to despair,"
+breaking up the images of the gods, allowing the holy fires of the
+temples to go out, lighting none in their homes, destroying their
+furniture and domestic utensils, and tearing their clothes to rags. This
+disorder and gloom signified that figuratively the end of the world was
+at hand.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>On the evening of the last day, a procession of priests, assuming
+the dress and ornaments of their gods, moved from the capital
+toward a lofty mountain, about two leagues distant. They carried
+with them a noble victim, the flower of their captives, and an
+apparatus for kindling the <i>new fire</i>, the success of which was an
+augury of the renewal of the cycle. On the summit of the mountain,
+the procession paused till midnight, when, as the constellation of
+the Pleiades<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> approached the zenith, the new fire was kindled by
+the friction of some sticks placed on the breast of the victim. The
+flame was soon communicated to a funeral-pyre on which the body of
+the slaughtered captive was thrown. As the light streamed up toward
+heaven, shouts of joy and triumph burst forth from the countless
+multitudes who covered the hills, the terraces of the temples, and
+the housetops.... Couriers, with torches lighted at the blazing
+beacon, rapidly bore them over every part of the country.... A new
+cycle had commenced its march.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The following thirteen days were given up to festivity. ... The
+people, dressed in their gayest apparel, and crowned with garlands
+and chaplets of flowers, thronged in joyous procession to offer up
+their oblations and thanksgivings in the temples. Dances and games
+were instituted emblematical of the regeneration of the world.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Prescott compares this carnival of the Aztecs to the great secular
+festival of the Romans or ancient Etruscans, which (as Suetonius
+remarked) "few alive had witnessed before, or could expect to witness
+again." The <i>ludi sæculares</i> or secular games of Rome were held only at
+very long intervals and lasted for three days and nights.</p>
+
+<p>The poet Southey thus refers to the ceremony of opening the new Aztec
+cycle, or Circle of the Years.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">On his bare breast the cedar boughs are laid,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">On his bare breast, dry sedge and odorous gums,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Laid ready to receive the sacred spark,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And blaze, to herald the ascending sun,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Upon his living altar. Round the wretch</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The inhuman ministers of rites accurst</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Stand, and expect the signal when to strike</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The seed of fire. Their Chief, apart from all,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">... eastward turns his eyes;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For now the hour draws nigh, and speedily</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">He look's to see the first faint dawn of day</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Break through the orient sky.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 11em;"><i>Madoc</i>, ii, 26.</span><br />
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2>
+
+<h3>AMERICAN ARCHEOLOGY</h3>
+
+
+<p>Long before the time of Columbus and the Spanish conquest there existed
+on the table-land of Mexico two great races or nations, as has already
+been shown, both highly civilized, and both akin in language, art, and
+religion. Ethnologists and antiquaries are not agreed as to their origin
+or the development of their civilization. Many recent critics have held
+the theory that there had been a previous people from whom both races
+inherited their extinct civilization, this previous race being the
+"Toltecs," whom we have repeatedly mentioned in the preceding chapter.
+To that previous race some attribute the colossal stonework around
+Lake Titicaca, as well as other survivals of long-forgotten culture.
+Some would even class them with the "mound-builders" of the Ohio Valley.
+Other recent antiquaries, however, while fully admitting the
+Aztec-Tescucan civilization to be real and historical, treat the Toltec
+theory as partly or entirely mythical. One writer alleges, after the
+manner of Max Müller, that the Toltecs are "simply a personification of
+the rays of light" radiating from the Aztec sun-god.</p>
+
+<p>Leaving abstract theories, we shall devote this chapter to the principal
+facts of American archeology&mdash;especially as regards the races and the
+monuments of their long extinct civilizations. Throughout many parts of
+both North and South<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> America, and over large areas, the red-skinned
+natives continued their generations as their ancestors had done through
+untold centuries, scarcely rising above the state of rude, uncultured
+sons of the soil living as hunters, trappers, fishers, as had been done
+immemorially</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">When wild in woods the noble savage ran,</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>as Dryden puts it. But in Mexico, Yucatan, and Central America,
+Colombia, and Peru there were men of the original redskin race who had
+distinctly attained to civilization for unknown generations before the
+time of Columbus. Not only so, but in many centers of wealth and
+population the process of social improvement and advance had been
+continuous for unrecorded ages; and in certain cases a long extinct
+civilization had over-laid a previous civilization still more remotely
+extinct. Some works constructed for supplying water, for example, could
+only have been applied to that purpose when the climate or geological
+conditions were quite different from what they have always been in
+historical times!</p>
+
+<p>Who is the red man? Compared in numbers with the yellow man, the white
+man, or even the black, he is very unimportant, being only one-tenth as
+great as the African race.<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> In American ethnology, however, the red
+man is all-important. Primeval men of this race undoubtedly formed the
+original stock whence during the centuries were derived all the numerous
+tribes of "Indians"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> found in either North or South America. Throughout
+Asia and Africa there is great diversity in type among the races that
+are indigenous; but as to America, to quote Humboldt:</p>
+
+
+<blockquote><p>The Indians of New Spain [i. e., Mexico] bear a general resemblance
+to those who inhabit Canada, Florida, Peru, and Brazil. We have the
+same swarthy and copper color, straight and smooth hair, small
+beard, squat body, long eye, with the corner directed upward toward
+the temples, prominent cheek-bones, thick lips, and expression of
+gentleness in the mouth, strongly contrasted with a gloomy and
+severe look.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Whence the original red men of America were derived it is impossible to
+say. The date is too remote and the data too few. From fossil remains of
+human bones, Agassiz estimated a period of at least ten thousand years;
+and near New Orleans, beneath four buried forests, a skeleton was found
+which was possibly fifty thousand years old. If, therefore, the redskins
+branched off from the yellow man, it must have been at a period which
+lies utterly beyond historic ken or calculation.</p>
+
+<p>Some recent ethnologists have borrowed the "glacier theory" from the
+science of geology, in order to trace the development of civilization
+among certain races. In Switzerland and Greenland the signs of the
+action of a glacier can be traced and recognized just as we trace the
+proofs of the action of water in a dry channel. Visit the front of a
+glacier in autumn after the summer heat has made it shrink back, you
+will see (1) rounded rocks, as if planed on the top, with (2) a mixed
+mass of stones and gravel like a rubbish-heap,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> scattered on (3) a mass
+of clay and sand, containing boulders. The same three tests are
+frequently found in countries where there have been no glaciers within
+the memory of man.</p>
+
+<p>Such traces, found not only in England, Scotland, and Ireland, but in
+northern Germany and Denmark, prove that the mountain mass of
+Scandinavia was the nucleus of a huge ice-cap "radiating to a distance
+of not less than 1,000 miles, and thick enough to block up with solid
+ice the North Sea, the German Ocean, the Baltic, and even the Atlantic
+up to the 100-fathom line." In North America the same thing is proved by
+similar evidence. A gigantic ice-cap extending from Canada has glaciated
+all the minor mountain ranges to the south, sweeping over the whole
+continent. The drift and boulders still remain to prove the fact, as far
+south as only 15° north of the tropic. A warm oceanic current, like the
+Gulf Stream of the Atlantic, would shorten a glacial period. Speaking of
+Scotland, one authority states that "if the Gulf Stream were diverted
+and the Highlands upheaved to the height of the New Zealand Alps, the
+whole country would again be buried under glaciers pushing out into the
+seas" on the west and east.</p>
+
+<p>The theory is that as the climate became warmer, the ice-fronts
+retreated northward by the shrinking of the glaciers, and therefore the
+animals, including man, were able to live farther north. The men of that
+very remote period were "Neolithic," and some of the stone monuments are
+attributed to them that were formerly called "Druidic." A recent writer
+asks; with reference to Stonehenge:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span></p>
+
+<blockquote><p>Did Neolithic men slowly coming northward, as the rigors of the
+last glacial period abated, domicile here, and build this huge
+gaunt temple before they passed farther north, to degrade and
+dwindle down into Eskimos wandering the dismal coasts of arctic
+seas?</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Another writer, with reference to the American ice-sheet, says:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>During the second glacial epoch when the great boreal ice-sheet
+covered one-half of the North American continent, reaching as far
+south as the present cities of Philadelphia and St. Louis, and the
+glaciated portions were as unfit for human occupation as the
+snow-cap of Greenland is to-day, aggregations of population
+clustered around the equatorial zone, because the climatic
+conditions were congenial. And inasmuch as civilization, the world
+over, clings to the temperate climates and thrives there best, we
+are not surprised to learn that communities far advanced in arts
+and architecture built and occupied those great cities in Yucatan,
+Honduras, Guatemala, and other Central American states, whose
+populations once numbered hundreds of thousands.</p>
+
+<p>An approximate date when this civilization was at the acme of its
+glory would be about ten thousand years ago. This is established by
+observations upon the recession of the existing glacier fronts,
+which are known to drop back twelve miles in one hundred years.</p>
+
+<p>With the gradual withdrawal of the glacial ice-sheet the climate
+grew proportionately milder, and flora and fauna moved
+simultaneously northward. Some emigrants went to South America and
+settled there, carrying their customs, arts, ceremonial rites,
+hieroglyphs, architecture, etc.; and an immense exodus took place
+into Mexico, which ultimately extended westward up the Pacific
+coast.</p>
+
+<p>In subsequent epochs when the ice-sheet had withdrawn from large
+areas, there were immense influxes of people from Asia via Bering
+Strait on the Pacific side, and from northwestern Europe via
+Greenland on the Atlantic side.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> The Korean immigration of the year
+544 led to the founding of the Mexican Empire in 1325.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>To trace then the gradations of ascent from the native American&mdash;called
+"Indians" by a blunder of the Great Admiral, as afterward they were
+nicknamed "redskins" by the English settlers&mdash;to the Mexicans,
+Peruvians, or Colombians is a task far beyond our strength. Leaving the
+question of race, therefore, we now turn to the antiquarian remains,
+especially the architectural.</p>
+
+<p>The prehistoric civilization which was developed to the south of Mexico
+is generally known as "Mayan," although the Mayas were undoubtedly akin
+to the Aztecs or early Mexicans. The Maya tribes in Yucatan and
+Honduras, from abundant evidence, must have risen to a refinement in
+prehistoric times, which, in several respects, was superior to that of
+the Aztecs. In architecture they were in advance from the earliest ages
+not only of the Aztec peoples, but of all the American races.</p>
+
+<p>In Yucatan the Mayas have left some wonderful remains at Mayapan, their
+prehistoric capital, and near it at a place called Uxmal which has
+become famous from its vast and elaborate structures,<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> evidencing a
+knowledge of art and science which had flourished in this region for
+centuries before the arrival of the Spanish. The chief building in Uxmal
+is in pyramidal form, the principal design in the ancient Aztec temples
+(as well as those of Chaldea, etc.), consisting of three terraces faced
+with hewn stone. The terraces are in length 575, 545, and 360 feet
+respectively; with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> the temple on the summit, 322 feet, and a great
+flight of stairs leading to it. The whole building is surrounded by a
+belt of richly sculptured figures, above a cornice. At Chichen, also in
+Yucatan, there is an area of two miles perimeter entirely covered with
+architectural ruins; many of the roofs having apparently consisted of
+stone arches, painted in various colors. One building, of peculiar
+construction, proves an enigma to all travelers: it is more than ninety
+yards long and consists of two parallel walls, each ten yards thick, the
+distance between them being also ten yards. It has been conjectured that
+the anomalous construction had reference to some public games by which
+the citizens amused themselves in that long-forgotten period. Among
+other memorials of Mayan architecture in this country is the city of
+Tuloom on the east coast, fortified with strong walls and square towers.
+A more remarkable "find" in the dense forests of Chiapas, in the same
+country, is the city recorded by Stephens and other travelers. It is
+near the coast, at the place where Cortés and his Spanish soldiers were
+moving about for a considerable time, yet they do not appear to have
+ever seen the splendid ruins, or to have at all suspected their
+existence. Even if the natives knew, the Spaniards might have found the
+toil of forcing a passage through such forests too laborious. The name
+of the city which had so long been buried under the tropical vegetation
+was quite unknown, nor was there any tradition of it; but when found it
+was called "Palenque," from the nearest inhabited village. There were
+substantial and handsome buildings with excellent masonry, and in many<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span>
+cases beautiful sculptures and hieroglyphical figures.</p>
+
+
+<p>Merida, the capital of Yucatan, is on the site of a prehistoric city
+whose name had also become unknown. When building the present town, the
+Spaniards utilized the ancient buildings as quarries for good stones.</p>
+
+<p>The larger prehistoric structures are frequently on artificial mounds,
+being probably intended for religious or ceremonial purposes. The walls
+both within and without are elaborately decorated, sometimes with
+symbolic figures. Sometimes officials in ceremonial costumes are seen
+apparently performing religious rites. These are often accompanied by
+inscriptions in low relief, with the peculiar Mayan characters which
+some archeologists call "calculiform hieroglyphs" (<i>v.</i> p. 82).</p>
+
+<p>On one of the altar-slabs near Palenque there occurs a sculptured group</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>of several figures in the act of making offerings to a central
+object shaped like the Latin cross. "The Latin, the Greek, and the
+Egyptian cross or <i>tau</i>&nbsp;&nbsp;(<big>T</big>)
+were evidently sacred symbols to this ancient people, bearing some
+religious meanings derived from their own cult."<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a></p></blockquote>
+
+
+<p>The cross occurs frequently, not only in the Mayan sculptures, but also
+in the ceremonial of the Aztecs. The Spanish followers of Cortés were
+astonished to see this symbol used by these "barbarians," as they called
+them. Winsor (i, 195) says that the Mayan cross has been explained to
+mean "the four cardinal points, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> rain-bringers, the symbol of life
+and health"; and again, "the emblem of fire, indeed an ornamental
+fire-drill."</p>
+
+<p>Students of architecture find a rudimentary form of the arch occurring
+in some of the ruins, notably at Palenque. Two walls are built parallel
+to each other, at some distance apart, then at the beginning of the arch
+the layers on both sides have the inner stones slightly projecting, each
+layer projecting a little more than the previous one, till at a certain
+height the stones of one wall are almost touching those of the wall
+opposite. Finally, a single flat stone closes in the space between and
+completes the arch.</p>
+
+<p>In Honduras, on the banks of the Copan, the Spaniards found a
+prehistoric capital in ruins, on an elevated area, surrounded by
+substantial walls built of dressed stones, and enclosing large groups of
+buildings. One structure is mainly composed of huge blocks of polished
+stone. In several houses the whole of the external surface is covered
+with elaborate carved designs:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>The adjacent soil is covered with sculptured obelisks, pillars, and
+idols, with finely dressed stones, and with blocks ornamented with
+skilfully carved figures of the characteristic Maya hieroglyphs,
+which, could they be deciphered, would doubtless reveal the story
+of this strange and solitary city.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>In western Guatemala, at Utatla, the ancient capital of the Quiches, a
+tribe allied to the Mayas, several pyramids still remain. One is 120
+feet high, surmounted by a stone wall, and another is ascended by a
+staircase of nineteen steps, each nineteen inches in height.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The literary remains (such as Alphabets, Hieroglyphs, Manuscripts, etc.)
+of the Maya and Aztec races are in some respects as vivid a proof of the
+extinct civilizations as any of the architectural monuments already
+discussed. Both Aztecs and Mayans of Yucatan and Central America used
+picture-writing, and sometimes an imperfect form of hieroglyphics. The
+most elementary kind was simply a rough sketch of a scene or historical
+group which they wished to record. When, for example, Cortés had his
+first interview with some messengers sent by Montezuma, one of the
+Aztecs was observed sketching the dress and appearance of the Spaniards,
+and then completing his picture by using colors. Even in recent times
+Indians have recorded facts by pictographs: in Harper's Magazine
+(August, 1902) we read that "pictographs and painted rocks to the number
+of over 3,000 are scattered all over the United States, from the Dighton
+Rock, Massachusetts (<i>v</i>. pp. 27, 28), to the Kern River Cañon in
+California, and from the Florida Cape to the Mouse River in Manitoba.
+The identity of the Indians with their ancient progenitors is further
+proved by relics, mortuary customs, linguistic similarities, plants and
+vegetables, and primitive industrial and mechanical arts, which have
+remained constant throughout the ages." The pictographs of the Kern
+River Cañon, according to the same writer, were inscribed on the rocks
+there "about five thousand years ago."</p>
+
+<p>A more advanced form of picture-writing is frequently found in the Mayan
+and other inscriptions and manuscripts. Two objects are repre<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span>sented,
+whose names, when pronounced together, give a sound which suggests the
+name to be recorded or remembered. Thus, the name Gladstone may be
+expressed in this manner by two pictures, one a laughing face (i. e.,
+"happy" or "glad"), the other a rock (i. e., "stone"). It is exactly the
+same contrivance that is used to construct the puzzle called a "rebus."</p>
+
+<p>A third form of hieroglyphic was by devising some conventional mark or
+symbol to suggest the initial sound of the name to be recorded. Such a
+mark or character would be a "letter," in fact; and thus the prehistoric
+alphabets were arrived at, not only among the early Mayans of Yucatan,
+etc., but among the prehistoric peoples of Asia, as the Chinese, the
+Hittites, etc., as well as the primeval Egyptians. Many of the
+sculptures in Copan and Palenque to which we have referred contain
+pictographs and hieroglyphs. A Spanish Bishop of Yucatan drew up a Mayan
+alphabet in order to express the hieroglyphs on monuments and
+manuscripts in Roman letters; but much more data are needed before
+scholars will read the ancient Mayan-Aztec tongues as they have been
+enabled to understand the Egyptian inscriptions or the cuneiform records
+of Babylonia. For the American hieroglyphs we still lack a second Young
+or Champollion.</p>
+
+<p>There are three famous manuscripts in the Mayan character:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>1. The Dresden Codex, preserved in the Royal Library of that city.
+It is called a "religious and astrological ritual" by Abbé
+Brasseur.</p>
+
+<p>2. Codex Troano, in Madrid, described in two folios by Abbé
+Brasseur.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>3. Codex Peresianus, named from the wrapper in which it was found,
+1859, which had the name "Perez." It is also known as Codex
+Mexicanus.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>In Lord Kingsborough's great work on Mexican Antiquities there are
+several of the Mayan manuscripts printed in facsimile, and others in a
+book by M. Aubin, of Paris.</p>
+
+<p>Each group of letters in a Mayan inscription is enclosed in an irregular
+oval, supposed to resemble the cross-section of a pebble; hence the term
+<i>calculiform</i> (i. e., "pebble-shaped") is applied to their hieroglyphs,
+as <i>cuneiform</i> (i. e., "wedge-shaped") is applied to the Babylonian and
+Assyrian letters.</p>
+
+<p>The paper which the prehistoric Mexicans (Mayas, Aztecs, or Tescucans,
+etc.) used for writing and drawing upon was of vegetable origin, like
+the Egyptian papyrus. It was made by macerating the leaves of the
+<i>maguey</i>, a plant of the greatest importance (<i>v.</i> p. 94). When the
+surface of the paper was glazed, the letters were painted on in
+brilliant colors, proceeding from left to right, as we do. Each book was
+a strip of paper, several yards long and about ten inches wide, not
+rolled round a stick, as the volumes of ancient Rome were, but folded
+zigzag, like a screen. The protecting boards which held the book were
+often artistically carved and painted.</p>
+
+<p>The topics of the ordinary books, so far as we yet know, were religious
+ritual, dreams, and prophecies, the calendar, chronological notes,
+medical superstitions, portents of marriage and birth. The written
+language was in common and ex<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span>tensive use for the legal conveyance and
+sale of property.</p>
+
+<p>One of the most remarkable facts connected with this extinct
+civilization was the accuracy of their calendar and chronological
+system. Their calendar was actually superior to that then existing in
+Europe. They had two years: one for civil purposes, of three hundred and
+sixty-five days, divided into eighteen months of twenty days, besides
+five supplementary days; the other, a ritual or ecclesiastical year, to
+regulate the public festivals. The civil year required thirteen days to
+be added at the end of every fifty-two years, so as to harmonize with
+the ritual year. Each month contained four weeks of five days, but as
+each of the twenty days (forming a month) had a distinct name, Humboldt
+concluded that the names were borrowed from a prehistoric calendar, used
+in India and Tartary.</p>
+
+<p>Wilson (Prehistoric Man, i, 133) remarks:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>By the unaided results of native science the dwellers on the
+Mexican plateau had effected an adjustment of civil to solar time
+so nearly correct that when the Spaniards landed on their coast,
+their own reckoning according to the unreformed Julian calendar,
+was really eleven days in error, compared with that of the
+barbarian nation whose civilization they so speedily effaced.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>In 1790 there was found in the Square of Mexico a famous relic, the
+Mexican Calendar Stone, "one of the most striking monuments of American
+antiquity." It was long supposed to have been intended for chronological
+purposes; but later authorities call it a votive tablet or sacrificial
+altar.<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> Similar circular stones have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> been dug up in other parts of
+Mexico and in Yucatan.</p>
+
+
+<p>Both the Mayas and the Aztecs excelled in the ordinary arts of civilized
+life. Paper-making has already been spoken of. Cotton being an important
+produce of their soil, they understood its spinning, dyeing, and weaving
+so well that the Spaniards mistook some of the finer Aztec fabrics for
+silk. They cultivated maize, potatoes, plantains, and other vegetables.
+Both in Mexico and Yucatan they produced beautiful work in feathers;
+metal working was not so important as in some countries, being chiefly
+for ornamental purposes. In fact, it was the comparative plenty of gold
+and silver around Mexico that delayed the invasion of the Mayan country
+for more than twenty years. The Mayas had developed trade to a
+considerable extent before the Spanish invasion, and interchanged
+commodities with the island of Cuba. It was there, accordingly, that
+Columbus first saw this people, and first heard of Yucatan.</p>
+
+<p>Of the Mexican remains on the central plateau, the most conspicuous is
+the mound or pyramid of Cholula, although it retains few traces of
+prehistoric art. A modern church with a dome and two towers now occupies
+the summit, with a paved road leading up to it. It is chiefly noted,
+first, by antiquaries, as having originally been a great temple of
+Quetzalcoatl, the beneficent deity, famous in story; and, secondly, for
+the fierce struggle around the mound and on the slopes between the
+Mexicans and Spanish. (<i>V.</i> pp. 130-133.)</p>
+
+<p>Another mound in this district, Yochicalco, lies<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> seventy-five miles
+southwest of the capital. It is considered one of the best memorials of
+the extinct civilization, consisting of five terraces supported by stone
+walls, and formerly surmounted by a pyramid.</p>
+
+<p>Passing from the traces of Aztec and Mayan civilization, we may now
+glance at the antiquities of the Colombian states. There are no temples
+or large structures, because the natives, before the Spanish conquest,
+used timber for building, but owing to the abundance of gold in their
+brooks and rivers, they developed skill in gold-working, and produced
+fine ornaments of wonderful beauty. Many hollow figures have been found,
+evidently cast from molds, representing men, beasts, and birds, etc.
+Stone-cutting was also an art of this ancient race, sometimes applied to
+making idols bearing hieroglyphs.</p>
+
+<p>When the Spaniards invaded them to take their gold and precious stones,
+the "Chibchas," who then held the Colombian table-land and valleys,
+threw large quantities of those valuables into a lake near Bogota, the
+capital. It was afterward attempted to recover those treasures by
+draining off the water, but only a small portion was found; and in the
+present year (1903) a new engineering attempt has been made. A Spanish
+writer, in 1858, asserted that evidence was found in the caves and mines
+that in ancient times the Colombians produced an alloy of gold, copper,
+and iron having the temper and hardness of steel. On a tributary of the
+River Magdalena there are many curious stone images, sometimes with
+grotesquely carved faces.</p>
+
+<p>Turning next to the mound-builders, in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> Ohio and upper Mississippi
+Valley, we find traces of an extinct civilization in high mounds,
+evidently artificial, extensive embankments, broad deep ditches,
+terraced pyramids, and an interesting variety of stone implements and
+pottery. Some mounds were for burial-places, others for sacrificial
+purposes, others again as a site for building, like those we have seen
+in Mexico and Maya. Many enclosures contain more than fifty acres of
+land; and one embankment is fifty miles long. Among the relics
+associated with those works are articles of pottery, knives, and copper
+ornaments, hammered silver, mica, obsidian, pearls, beautifully
+sculptured pipes, shells, and stone implements. The mounds found in some
+of the Gulf States seem to confirm a theory that the mound-builders were
+the ancestors of the Choctaw Indians and their allies, and had been
+driven southward.</p>
+
+<p>In the lower Mississippi Valley, eastward to the seacoast, there are
+many large earthworks, including round and quadrilateral mounds,
+embankments, canals, and artificial lakes. Similar works can be traced
+to the southern extremity of Florida. Some were constructed as sites for
+large buildings. The tribes to whom they are due are now known to have
+been agricultural&mdash;growing maize, beans, and pumpkins; with these
+products and those of the chase they supported a considerable
+population.</p>
+
+<p>Among other antiquarian remains in America are the cliff-houses and
+"pueblos." The former peculiarity is explained by the deep cañons of the
+dry table-land of Colorado. Imagine a narrow deep cutting or narrow
+trench worn by water-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span>courses out of solid rock, deep enough to afford a
+channel to the stream from 500 to 1,500 feet below the plateau above.
+Next imagine one of the caves which the water many ages ago had worn out
+of the perpendicular sides of the cañon; and in that cave a substantial,
+well-built structure of cut stones bedded in firm mortar. Such are the
+"cliff&mdash;houses," sometimes of two stories. Occasionally there is a
+watch-tower perched on a conspicuous point of rock near a
+cliff-dwelling, with small windows looking to the east and north. These
+curious buildings, though now prehistoric, in a sense, are believed by
+archeologists to be later than the Spanish conquest. Peru is very
+important archeologically, but some interesting points will properly
+fall under our general account of that country and its conquest by
+Spain.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 330px;">
+<img src="images/illus-087.jpg" width="330" height="500" alt="Chulpa or Stone Tomb of the Peruvians." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Chulpa or Stone Tomb of the Peruvians.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>In Peruvian architecture, we find "Cyclopean walls," with polygonal
+stones of five or six feet diameter, so well polished and adjusted that
+no mortar was necessary; sometimes with a projecting part of the stone
+fitting exactly into a corre<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span>sponding cavity of the stone immediately
+above or below it. Such huge stones are of hard granite or basalt, etc.
+The walls are often very massive and substantial, sometimes from thirty
+to forty feet in thickness. The only approach to the modern "arch" in
+the Peruvian structures is a device similar to that which was described
+under the Mayan architecture.</p>
+
+<p>Some important buildings were surrounded with large upright stones,
+similar to the famous "Druidic" temple at Stonehenge. All of the chief
+structures were accurately placed with reference to the cardinal points,
+and the main entrance always faced the east. The Peruvian tombs were
+very elaborate, one kind being made by cutting caverns in the steep
+precipices of the cordillera and then carefully walling in the entrance.
+Another variety (the <i>chulpa</i>) was really a stone tower erected above
+ground, twelve to thirty feet high. The chulpas were sometimes built in
+groups.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2>
+
+<h3>MEXICO BEFORE THE SPANISH INVASION</h3>
+
+
+<p>The Aztecs and the Tescucans were the chief races occupying the great
+table-land of Anahuac, including, as we have seen, the famous Mexican
+Valley. In the preceding chapter we have set forth some of the leading
+points in the extinct civilization of those races, and also that of the
+Mayas, who in several respects were perhaps superior to the Anahuac
+kingdoms.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Several features of the early Mexican civilization will come before us
+as we accompany the European conquerors, in their march over the
+table-land. Meantime, we glance first at the geography of this
+magnificent region, and secondly at the manners and institutions of the
+people, their industrial arts, etc., and their terrible religion. The
+last-mentioned topic has already been partly discussed in Chapter III.</p>
+
+<p>The Tropic of Cancer passes through the middle of Mexico, and therefore
+its southern half, which is the most important, is all under the burning
+sun of the "torrid zone." This heat, however, is greatly modified by the
+height of the surface above sea-level, since the country, taken as a
+whole, is simply an extensive table-land. The height of the plain in the
+two central states, Mexico and Puebla, is 8,000 feet, or about double
+the average height of the highest summits in the British Isles. On the
+west of the republic is a continuous chain of mountains, and on the east
+of the table-land run a series of mountainous groups parallel to the
+seacoast, with a summit in Vera Cruz of over 13,400 feet. To the south
+of the capital an irregular range running east and west contains these
+remarkable volcanoes&mdash;Colima, 14,400 feet; Jorulla, Popocatepetl,
+17,800; Orizaba (extinct), 18,300, the highest summit in Mexico, and,
+with the exception of some of the mountains of Alaska, in North America.
+The great plateau-basin formed around the capital and its lakes is
+completely enclosed by mountains.</p>
+
+<p>This high table-land has its own climate as compared with the broad
+tract lying along the Atlantic. Hence the latter is known as the hot<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span>
+region (<i>caliente</i>), and the former the cold region (<i>fria</i>). Between
+the two climates, as the traveler mounts from the sea-level to the great
+plateau, is the temperate region (<i>templada</i>), an intermediate belt of
+perpetual humidity, a welcome escape from the heat and deadly malaria of
+the hot region with its "bilious fevers." Sometimes as he passes along
+the bases of the volcanic mountains, casting his eye "down some steep
+slope or almost unfathomable ravine on the margin of the road, he sees
+their depths glowing with the rich blooms and enameled vegetation of the
+tropics." This contrast arises from the height he has now gained above
+the hot coast region.</p>
+
+<p>The climate on the table-land is only cold in a relative sense, being
+mild to Europeans, with a mean temperature at the capital of 60°, seldom
+lowered to the freezing-point. The "temperate" slopes form the "Paradise
+of Mexico," from "the balmy climate, the magnificent scenery, and the
+wealth of semitropical vegetation."</p>
+
+<p>The Aztec and Tescucan laws were kept in state records, and shown
+publicly in hieroglyphs. The great crimes against society were all
+punished with death, including the murder of a slave. Slaves could hold
+property, and all their sons were freedmen. The code in general showed
+real respect for the leading principles of morality.</p>
+
+<p>In Mexico, as in ancient Egypt,</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>the soldier shared with the priest the highest consideration. The
+king must be an experienced warrior. The tutelary deity of the
+Aztecs was the god of war. A great object of military expeditions
+was to gather hecatombs of captives for his altars. The soldier who
+fell in battle was transported at once to the region of ineffable
+bliss in the bright<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> mansions of the sun.... Thus every war became
+a crusade; and the warrior was not only raised to a contempt of
+danger, but courted it&nbsp;&mdash;animated by a religious enthusiasm like
+that of the early Saracen or the Christian crusader.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The officers of the armies wore rich and conspicuous uniforms&mdash;a
+tight-fitting tunic of quilted cotton sufficient to turn the arrows of
+the native Indians; a cuirass (for superior officers) made of thin
+plates of gold or silver; an overcoat or cloak of variegated
+feather-work; helmets of wood or silver, bearing showy plumes, adorned
+with precious stones and gold ornaments. Their belts, collars,
+bracelets, and earrings were also of gold or silver.</p>
+
+<p>Southey, in his poem, makes his Welsh prince, Madoc, thus boast:</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Their mail, if mail it may be called, was woven</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of vegetable down, like finest flax,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bleached to the whiteness of new-fallen snow,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">... Others of higher office were arrayed</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In feathery breastplates, of more gorgeous hue</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Than the gay plumage of the mountain-cock,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Than the pheasants' glittering pride. But what were these</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Or what the thin gold hauberk, when opposed</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To arms like ours in battle?</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 11em;"><i>Madoc</i>, i, 7.</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>We learn of the ancient Mexicans, to their honor, that in the large
+towns hospitals were kept for the cure of the sick and wounded soldiers,
+and as a permanent refuge if disabled. Not only so, says a Spanish
+historian, but "the surgeons placed over them were so far better than
+those in Europe that they did not protract the cure to increase the
+pay."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Even the red man of the woods, as we learn from Fenimore Cooper and
+Catlin, believes reverently in the Great Spirit who upholds the
+universe; and similarly his more civilized brother of Mexico or Tezcuco
+spoke of a Supreme Creator, Lord of Heaven and Earth. In their prayers
+some of the phrases were:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>The God by whom we live, omnipresent, knowing all thoughts, giving
+all gifts, without whom man is nothing, invisible, incorporeal, of
+perfect perfection and purity, under whose wings we find repose and
+a sure defense.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Prescott, however, remarks that notwithstanding such attributes "the
+idea of unity&mdash;of a being with whom volition is action, who has no need
+of inferior ministers to execute his purposes&mdash;was too simple, or too
+vast, for their understandings; and they sought relief, as usual, in a
+plurality of deities, who presided over the elements, the changes of the
+seasons, and the various occupations of man."</p>
+
+<p>The Aztecs, in fact, believed in thirteen <i>dii majores</i> and over 200
+<i>dii minores</i>. To each of these a special day was assigned in the
+calendar, with its appropriate festival. Chief of them all was that
+bloodthirsty monster <i>Huitsilopochtli</i>, the hideous god of
+war&mdash;tutelary deity of the nation. There was a huge temple to him in
+the capital, and on the great altar before his image there, and on all
+his altars throughout the empire, the reeking blood of thousands of
+human victims was being constantly poured out.</p>
+
+<p>The terrible name of this Mexican Mars has greatly puzzled scholars of
+the language. According to one derivation, the name is a com<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span>pound of
+two words, <i>humming-bird</i> and <i>on the left</i>, because his image has the
+feathers of that bird on the left foot. Prescott naturally thinks that
+"too amiable an etymology for so ruffian a deity." The other name of the
+war-god, <i>Mexitl</i> (i. e., "the hare of the aloes"), is much better
+known, because from it is derived the familiar name of the capital.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 374px;">
+<img src="images/illus-093.jpg" width="374" height="400" alt="Quetzalcoatl." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Quetzalcoatl.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The god of the air, <i>Quetzalcoatl</i>, a beneficent deity, who taught
+Mexicans the use of metals, agriculture, and the arts of government.
+Prescott remarks that</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>he was doubtless one of those benefactors of their species who have
+been deified by the gratitude of posterity.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>There was a remarkable tradition of Quetzalcoatl, preserved among the
+Mexicans, that he had been a king, afterward a god, and had a temple<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span>
+dedicated to his worship at Cholula<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> when on his way to the Mexican
+Gulf. Embarking there, he bade his people a long farewell, promising
+that he and his descendants would revisit them. The expectation of his
+return prepared the way for the success of the tall white-skinned
+invaders.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>In the Aztec agriculture, the staple plant was of course the <i>maize</i> or
+Indian corn. Humboldt tells us that at the conquest it was grown
+throughout America, from the south of Chile to the River St. Lawrence;
+and it is still universal in the New World. Other important plants on
+the Aztec soil were the <i>banana</i>, which (according to one Spanish
+writer) was the forbidden fruit that tempted our poor mother Eve; the
+<i>cacao</i>, whose fruit supplies the valuable chocolate; the <i>vanilla</i>,
+used for flavoring; and most important of all, the <i>maguey</i>, or Mexican
+aloe, much valued because its leaves were manufactured into paper, and
+its juice by fermentation becomes the national intoxicant, "pulque." The
+<i>maguey</i>, or great Mexican aloe, grown all over the table-land, is
+called "the miracle of nature," producing not only the <i>pulque</i>, but
+supplying <i>thatch</i> for the cottages, <i>thread</i> and <i>cords</i> from its tough
+fiber, <i>pins</i> and <i>needles</i> from the thorns which grow on the leaves, an
+excellent <i>food</i> from its roots, and <i>writing-paper</i> from its leaves.
+One writer, after speaking of the "pulque" being made from the "maguey,"
+adds, "with what remains of these leaves they manufacture excellent and
+very fine cloth, resembling holland or the finest linen."</p>
+
+<p>The <i>itztli</i>, formerly mentioned as being used at the sacrifices by the
+officiating priest, was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> "obsidian," a dark transparent mineral, of the
+greatest hardness, and therefore useful for making knives and razors.
+The Mexican sword was serrated, those of the finest quality being of
+course edged with itztli. Sculptured figures abounded in every Aztec
+temple and town, but in design very inferior to the ancient specimens of
+Egypt and Babylonia, not to mention Greece. A remarkable collection of
+their sculptured images occurred in the <i>place</i> or great square of
+Mexico&mdash;the Aztec forum&mdash;and similar spots. Ever since the Spanish
+invasion the destruction of the native objects of art has been ceaseless
+and ruthless. "Two celebrated bas-reliefs of the last Montezuma and his
+father," says Prescott, "cut in the solid rock, in the beautiful groves
+of Chapoltepec, were deliberately destroyed, as late as the last century
+[i. e., the eighteenth], by order of the government." He further
+remarks:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>This wantonness of destruction provokes the bitter animadversion of
+the Spanish writer Martyr, whose enlightened mind respected the
+vestiges of civilization wherever found. "The conquerors," says he,
+"seldom repaired the buildings that they defaced; they would rather
+sack twenty stately cities than erect one good edifice."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The pre-Columbian Mexicans inherited a practical knowledge of mechanics
+and engineering. The Calendar Stone, for example (spoken of in the
+preceding chapter), a mass of dark porphyry estimated at fifty tons
+weight, was carried for a distance of many leagues from the mountains
+beyond Lake Chalco, through a rough country crossed by rivers and
+canals. In the passage its weight broke down a bridge over a canal, and
+the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> heavy rock had to be raised from the water beneath. With such
+obstacles, without the draft assistance of horses or cattle, how was it
+possible to effect such a transport? Perhaps the mechanical skill of
+their builders and engineers had contrived some tramway or other
+machinery. An English traveler had a curious suggestion:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>Latrobe accommodates the wonders of nature and art very well to
+each other, by suggesting that these great masses of stone were
+transported by means of the mastodon, whose remains are
+occasionally disinterred in the Mexican Valley.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The Mexicans wove many kinds of cotton cloth, sometimes using as a dye
+the rich crimson of the cochineal insect. They made a more expensive
+fabric by interweaving the cotton with the fine hair of rabbits, and
+other animals; sometimes embroidering with pretty designs of flowers and
+birds, etc. The special art of the Aztec weaver was in feather-work,
+which when brought to Europe produced the highest admiration:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>With feathers they could produce all the effect of a beautiful
+mosaic. The gorgeous plumage of the tropical birds, especially of
+the parrot tribe, afforded every variety of color; and the fine
+down of the humming-bird, which reveled in swarms among the
+honeysuckle bowers of Mexico, supplied them with soft aerial tints
+that gave an exquisite finish to the picture. The feathers, pasted
+on a fine cotton web, were wrought into dresses for the wealthy,
+hangings for apartments, and ornaments for the temples.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>When some of the Mexican feather-work was shown at Strasbourg: "Never,"
+says one admirer, "did I behold anything so exquisite for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> brilliancy
+and nice gradation of color, and for beauty of design. No European
+artist could have made such a thing."</p>
+
+<p>Instead of shops the Aztecs had in every town a market-place, where
+fairs were held every fifth day&mdash;i. e., once a week. Each commodity had
+a particular quarter, and the traffic was partly by barter, and partly
+by using the following articles as money: bits of tin shaped like an
+Egyptian cross&nbsp;&nbsp; (<big>T</big>), bags of cacao holding a
+specified number of grains, and, for large values, quills of gold-dust.</p>
+
+<p>The married women among the Aztecs were treated kindly and respectfully
+by their husbands. The feminine occupations were spinning and
+embroidery, etc., as among the ancient Greeks, while listening to
+ballads and love stories related by their maidens and musicians
+(Ramusio, iii, 305).</p>
+
+<p>In banquets and other social entertainments the women had an equal share
+with the men. Sometimes the festivities were on a large scale, with
+costly preparations and numerous attendants. The Mexicans, ancient and
+modern, have always been passionately fond of flowers, and on great
+occasions not only were the halls and courts strewed and adorned in
+profusion with blossoms of every hue and sweet odor, but perfumes
+scented every room. The guests as they sat down found ewers of water
+before them and cotton napkins, since washing the hands both before and
+after eating was a national habit of almost religious obligation.<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a>
+Modern Europeans believe<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> that tobacco was introduced from America in
+the time of Queen Isabella and Queen Elizabeth, but ages before that
+period the Aztecs at their banquets had the "fragrant weed" offered to
+the company, "in pipes, mixed up with aromatic substances, or in the
+form of cigars, inserted in tubes of tortoise-shell or silver." The
+smoke after dinner was no doubt preliminary to the <i>siesta</i> or nap of
+"forty winks." It is not known if the Aztec ladies, like their
+descendants in modern Mexico, also appreciated the <i>yetl</i>, as the
+Mexicans called "tobacco." Our word came from the natives of Hayti, one
+of the islands discovered by Columbus.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>The tables of the Aztecs abounded in good food&mdash;various dishes of meat,
+especially game, fowl, and fish. The turkey, for example, was introduced
+into Europe from Mexico, although stupidly supposed to have come from
+Asia. The French named it <i>coq d'Inde</i>,<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> the "Indian cock," meaning
+American, but the ordinary hearer imagined <i>d'Inde</i> meant from
+Hindustan. The blunder arose from that misapplication of the word
+"Indian," first made by Columbus, as we formerly explained.</p>
+
+
+<p>The Aztec cooks dressed their viands with various sauces and condiments,
+the more solid dishes being followed by fruits of many kinds, as well as
+sweetmeats and pastry. Chafing-dishes even were used. Besides the
+varieties of beautiful flowers<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> which adorned the table there were
+sculptured Vases of silver and sometimes gold. At table</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>the favorite beverage was the <i>chocolatl</i> flavored with vanilla and
+different spices. The fermented juice of the maguey, with a mixture
+of sweets and acids, supplied also various agreeable drinks, of
+different degrees of strength.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>When the young Mexicans of both sexes amused themselves with dances, the
+older people kept their seats in order to enjoy their <i>pulque</i> and
+gossip, or listen to the discourse of some guest of importance. The
+music which accompanied the dances was frequently soft and rather
+plaintive.</p>
+
+<p>The early Mexicans included the Tezcucans as well as the Aztecs proper;
+and since their capitals were on the same lake and both races were
+closely akin, we may devote some space to these Alcohuans or eastern
+Aztecs. Their civilization was superior to that of the western Aztecs in
+some respects, and Nezahual-coyotl, their greatest prince, formed
+alliance with the western state, and then remodeled the various
+departments of his government. He had a council of war, another of
+finance, and a third of justice.</p>
+
+<p>A remarkable institution, under King Nezahual-coyotl, was the "Council
+of Music," intended to promote the study of science and the practise of
+art.</p>
+
+<p>Tezcuco, in fact, became the nursery not only of such sciences as could
+be compassed by the scholarship of the period, but of various useful and
+ornamental arts. "Its historians, orators, and poets were celebrated
+throughout the country.... Its idiom, more polished than the Mexican,
+continued long after the conquest to be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> that in which the best
+productions of the native races were composed. Tezcuco was the Athens of
+the Western World.... Among the most illustrious of her bards was their
+king himself." A Spanish writer adds that it was to the eastern Aztecs
+that noblemen sent their sons "to study poetry, moral philosophy, the
+heathen theology, astronomy, medicine, and history."</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img src="images/illus-100.jpg" width="500" height="272" alt="Ancient Bridge near Tezcuco." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Ancient Bridge near Tezcuco.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The most remarkable problem connected with ancient Mexico is how to
+reconcile the general refinement and civilization with the sacrifices of
+human victims. There was no town or city but had its temples in public
+places, with stairs visibly leading up to the sacrificial stone, ever
+standing ready before some hideous idol or other&mdash;as already described.</p>
+
+<p>In all countries there have been public spectacles of bloodshed, not
+only as in the gladiators in the ancient circus&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>butchered to make a Roman holiday,</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>or the tournays of the middle ages, but in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> prize-ring fights and
+public executions by ax or guillotine, of the age that is just passing
+away. The thousands who perished for religious ideas by means of the
+Holy Roman Inquisition should not be overlooked by the Spanish writers
+who are so indignant that Montezuma and his priests sacrificed tens of
+thousands under the claims of a heathen religion. The very day on which
+we write these words, August 18th, is the anniversary of the last
+sentence for beheading passed by our House of Lords. By that sentence
+three Scottish "Jacobites" passed under the ax on Tower Hill, where
+their remains still rest in a chapel hard by. So lately as 1873, the
+Shah of Persia, when resident as a visitor in Buckingham Palace, was
+amazed to find that the laws of Great Britain prevented him from
+depriving five of his courtiers of their lives. They had just been found
+guilty of some paltry infringement of Persian etiquette. During the last
+generation or the previous one, both in England and Scotland, the
+country schoolmaster on a certain day had the schoolroom cleared so that
+the children and their friends should enjoy the treat of seeing all the
+game-cocks of the parish bleeding on the floor one after another, being
+either struck by a spur to the brain, or else wounded to a painful
+death. When James Boswell and others regularly attended the spectacles
+of Tyburn and sometimes cheered the wretched victim if he "died game,"
+the philosopher will not wonder at the populace of some city of ancient
+Mexico crowding round the great temple and greedily watching the bloody
+sacrifice done with full sanction of the priesthood and the king.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The primitive religions were derived from sunworship, and as fire is
+the nearest representative of the sun, it seemed essential to <i>burn</i> the
+victim offered as a sacrifice. At Carthage, the great Phenician colony,
+children were cruelly sacrificed by fire to the god Melkarth of Tyre.
+"Melkarth" being simply <i>Melech Kiriath</i> (i. e., "King of the City"),
+and therefore identical with the "Moloch" or "Molech" of the Ammonites,
+Moabites, and Israelites. In the earliest prehistoric age the children
+of Ammon, Moab, and Israel were apparently so closely akin that they had
+practically the same religion and worshiped the same idols. The tribal
+god was originally the god of Syria or Canaan. In more than a dozen
+places of the Old Testament we find the Hebrews accused of burning their
+children or passing them through the fire to the sun-god, but the
+ancient Mexicans did not burn their victims, and <i>in no case were the
+victims their own children</i>. The victims were captives taken in war, or
+persons convicted of crime; and thus the Mexicans were in atrocity far
+surpassed by those races akin to the Hebrews who are much denounced by
+the sacred writers, e. g.:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>Josiah ... defiled Topheth that no man might make his son or his
+daughter to pass through the fire to Molech (2 Kings xxiii, 10).</p>
+
+<p>They have built also the high places to burn their sons with fire
+for burnt-offerings (Jer. xix, 5).</p>
+
+<p>Yea, they shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of
+their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan (Ps.
+cvi, 37).</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>That a father should offer his own child as a sacrifice to the sun-god
+or any other, would to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> the mild and gentle Aztec be too dreadful a
+conception. It is the enormous number who were immolated that shocks the
+European mind, but to the populace enjoying the spectacle the victims
+were enemies of the king or criminals deserving execution.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps it is a more difficult problem to explain how so civilized a
+community as the Aztec races undoubtedly were could look with
+complacency upon any one tasting a dish composed of some part of the
+captive he had taken in battle. It is not only repulsive as an idea, but
+seems impossible. Yet much depends on the point of view as well as the
+atmosphere. According to archeologists, all the primeval races of men
+could at a pinch feed on human flesh, but after many generations learned
+to do better without it. We may have simply outgrown the craving, till
+at last we call it unnatural, whereas those ancient Mexicans, with all
+their wealth of food, had refined upon it. Let us again refer to the Old
+Testament:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>Thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters and these hast thou
+sacrificed to be devoured (Ezek. xvi, 20).</p>
+
+<p>... have caused their sons to pass for them through the fire, to
+devour them (Ezek. xxiii, 37).</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>We may therefore infer that to the early races of Canaan (including
+Israel), as well as to the primeval Aztecs, it was a privilege and
+religious custom to eat part of any sacrifice that had been offered.</p>
+
+<p>There can be little doubt, to any one who has studied the earliest human
+antiquities, that all races indulged in cannibalism, not only during<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span>
+that enormously remote age called Paleolithic, but in comparatively
+recent though still prehistoric times. "This is clearly proved by the
+number of human bones, chiefly of women and young persons, which have
+been found charred by fire and split open for extraction of the marrow."
+Such charred bones have frequently been preserved in caves, as at
+Chaleux in Belgium, where in some instances they occurred "in such<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span>
+numbers as to indicate that they had been the scene of cannibal feasts."</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 650px;">
+<img src="images/illus-105.jpg" width="650" height="387" alt="Teocalli, Aztec Temple for Human Sacrifices." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Teocalli, Aztec Temple for Human Sacrifices.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The survival of human sacrifice among the Aztecs, with its accompanying
+traces of cannibalism, was due to the savagery of a long previous
+condition of their Indian race; just as in the Greek drama, when that
+ancient people had attained a high level of culture and refinement, the
+sacrifice of a human life, sometimes a princess or other distinguished
+heroine, was not unfrequent. We remember Polyxena, the virgin daughter
+of Hecuba, whom her own people resolved to sacrifice on the tomb of
+Achilles; and her touching bravery, as she requests the Greeks not to
+bind her, being ashamed, she says, "having lived a princess to die a
+slave." A better known example is Iphigenia, so beloved by her father,
+King Agamemnon, and yet given up by him a victim for purposes of state
+and religion.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>From the Greek drama, human sacrifices frequently passed to the Roman;
+nor does such a refined critic as Horace object to it, but only suggests
+that the bloodshed ought to be perpetrated behind the scenes. In
+Seneca's play, Medea (quoted in our Introduction), that rule was grossly
+violated, since the children have their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> throats cut by their heroic
+mother in full view of the audience. In the same passage (Ars Poët.,
+185, 186) Horace forbids a banquet of human flesh being prepared before
+the eyes of the public, as had been done in a play written by Ennius,
+the Roman poet. The religious sacrifice of human victims by the "Druids"
+or priests of ancient Gaul and Britain seems exactly parallel to the
+wholesale executions on the Mexican <i>teocallis</i>, since the wretched
+victims whom our Celtic ancestors packed for burning into those huge
+wicker images, were captives taken in battle, like those stretched for
+slaughter upon the Mexican stone of sacrifice.</p>
+
+<p>Human sacrifice was so common in civilized Rome that it was not till the
+first century <span class="smcap">B. C.</span> that a law was passed expressly forbidding
+it&mdash;(Pliny, Hist. Nat., xxx, 3, 4).</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2>
+
+<h3>ARRIVAL OF THE SPANIARDS</h3>
+
+
+<p>The "New Birth" of the world, which characterized the end of the
+fifteenth century, had an enormous influence upon Spain. Her queen, the
+"great Catholic Isabella," had, by assisting Columbus, done much in the
+great discovery of the Western World. Spain speedily had substantial
+reward in the boundless wealth poured into her lap, and the rich
+colonies added to her dominion. Thus in the beginning of the sixteenth
+century the new consolidated Spain, formed by the union<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> of the two
+kingdoms, Castile and Aragon, became the richest and greatest of all the
+European states.</p>
+
+<p>The Spanish governors in the West Indies being ambitious of planting new
+colonies in the name of the Spanish King, conquest and annexation were
+stimulated in all directions. When Cuba and Hayti were overrun and
+annexed to Spain, not without much unjust treatment of the simple
+natives, as we have seen, they became centers of operation, whence
+expeditions could be sent to Trinidad or any other island, to Panama, to
+Yucatan, or Florida, or any other part of the continent. After the
+marvelous experience of Grijalva in Yucatan, then considered an island,
+and his report that its inhabitants were quite a civilized community
+compared with the natives of the isles, Velasquez, the Governor of Cuba,
+resolved at once to invade the new country for purposes of annexation
+and plunder.</p>
+
+<p>Velasquez prepared a large expedition for this adventure, consisting of
+eleven ships with more than 600 armed men on board; and after much
+deliberation chose Fernando Cortés to be the commander. Who was this
+Cortés, destined by his military genius and unscrupulous policy to be
+comparable to Hannibal or Julius Cæsar among the ancients, and to Clive
+or Napoleon Bonaparte among the moderns? Velasquez knew him well as one
+of his subordinates in the cruel conquest of Cuba; before that Cortés
+had distinguished himself in Hayti as an energetic and skilled officer.
+Of an impetuous and fiery temper which he had learned to keep thoroughly
+in command, he was characterized by that quality possessed by all
+commanders of superior genius, the "art of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> gaining the confidence and
+governing the minds of men." As a youth in Spain he had studied for the
+bar at the University of Salamanca; and in some of his speeches on
+critical occasions one can find certain traces of his academical
+training in the adroit arguments and clever appeals.</p>
+
+<p>Other qualifications as an officer were his manly and handsome
+appearance, his affable manners, combined with "extraordinary address in
+all martial exercises, and a constitution of such vigor as to be capable
+of enduring any fatigue."</p>
+
+<p>Cortés on reviewing his commission from the Governor, Velasquez, was too
+shrewd not to be aware of the importance of his new position. The "Great
+Admiral," with reference to the discovery of the New World, had said: "I
+have only opened the door for others to enter"; and Cortés was conscious
+that now was the moment for that entrance. Filled with unbounded
+ambition he rose to the occasion.</p>
+
+<p>Velasquez somewhat hypocritically pretended that the object he had in
+view was merely barter with the natives of New Spain&mdash;that being the
+name given by Grijalva to Yucatan and the neighboring country. He
+ordered Cortés</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>to impress on the natives the grandeur and goodness of his royal
+master; to invite them to give in their allegiance to him, and to
+manifest it by regaling him with such comfortable presents of gold,
+pearls, and precious stones as by showing their own good-will would
+secure his favor and protection.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Mustering his forces for the new expedition, Cortés found that he had no
+sailors, 553 soldiers, besides 200 Indians of the island; ten heavy
+guns,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> four lighter ones, called falconets. He had also sixteen horses,
+knowing the effect of even a small body of cavalry in dealing with
+savages. On February 18, 1519, Cortés sailed with eleven vessels for the
+coast of Yucatan.</p>
+
+<p>Landing at Tabasco, where Grijalva had found the natives friendly,
+Cortés found that the Yucatans had resolved to oppose him, and were
+presently assembled in great numbers. The result of the fighting,
+however, was naturally a foregone conclusion, partly on account of "the
+astonishment and terror excited by the destructive effect" of the
+European firearms, and the "monstrous apparition" of men on horseback.
+Such quadrupeds they had never seen before, and they concluded that the
+rider with his horse formed one unaccountable animal. Gomara and other
+chroniclers tell how St. James, the tutelar saint of Spain, appeared in
+the ranks on a gray horse, and led the Christians to victory over the
+heathen.</p>
+
+<p>An especially fortunate thing for Cortés was that among the female
+slaves presented after this battle, there was one of remarkable
+intelligence, who understood both the Aztec and the Mayan languages, and
+soon learned the Spanish. She proved invaluable to Cortés as an
+interpreter, and afterward had a share in all his campaigns. She is
+generally called Marina.</p>
+
+<p>If the Spanish accounts are true, stating that the native army consisted
+of five squadrons of 8,000 men each, then this victory is one of the
+most remarkable on record, as a proof of the value of gunpowder as
+compared with primitive bows and arrows. To the simple Americans the
+terrible invaders seemed actually to wield the thun<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span>der and the
+lightning. Next day Cortés made an arrangement with the chiefs; and
+after confidence was restored, asked where they got their gold from.
+They pointed to the high grounds on the west, and said <i>Culhua</i>, meaning
+Mexico.</p>
+
+<p>The Palm Sunday being at hand, the conversion of the "heathen" was duly
+celebrated by pompous and solemn ceremonial. The army marched in
+procession with the priests at their head, accompanied by crowds of
+Indians of both sexes, till they reached the principal temple. A new
+altar being built, the image of the presiding deity was taken from its
+place and thrown down, to make room for that of the Virgin carrying the
+infant Saviour.</p>
+
+<p>Cortés now learned that the capital of the Mexican Empire was on the
+mountain plains nearly seventy leagues inland; and that the ruler was
+the great and powerful Montezuma.</p>
+
+<p>It was on the morning of Good Friday that Cortés landed on the site of
+Vera Cruz, which after the conquest of Mexico speedily grew into a
+flourishing seaport, becoming the commercial capital of New Spain. A
+friendly conference took place between Cortés and Teuhtlile, an Aztec
+chief, who asked from what country the strangers had come and why they
+had come.</p>
+
+<p>"I am a servant," replied Cortés, "of a mighty monarch beyond the seas,
+who rules over an immense empire, having kings and princes for his
+vassals. Since my master has heard of the greatness of the Mexican
+Emperor he has desired me to enter into communication with him, and has
+sent me as envoy to wait upon Montezuma with a present in token of
+good-will, and with a message<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> which I must deliver in person. When can
+I be admitted to your sovereign's presence?"</p>
+
+<p>The Aztec chief replied with an air of dignity: "How is it that you have
+been here only two days, and demand to see the Emperor? If there is
+another monarch as powerful as Montezuma, I have no doubt my master will
+be happy to interchange courtesies."</p>
+
+<p>The slaves of Teuhtlile presented to Cortés</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>ten loads of fine cotton, several mantles of that curious
+feather-work whose rich and delicate dyes might vie with the most
+beautiful painting, and a wicker basket filled with ornaments of
+wrought gold, all calculated to inspire the Spaniards with high
+ideas of the wealth and mechanical ingenuity of the Mexicans.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Having duly expressed his thanks, Cortés then laid before the Aztec
+chief the presents intended for Montezuma. These were "an armchair
+richly carved and painted; a crimson cap bearing a gold medal emblazoned
+with St. George and the Dragon; collars, bracelets, and other ornaments
+of cut-glass, which, in a country where glass was unknown, might claim
+to have the value of real gems."</p>
+
+<p>During the interview Teuhtlile had been curiously observing a shining
+gilt helmet worn by a soldier, and said that it was exactly like that of
+Quetzalcoatl. "Who is he?" asked Cortés. "Quetzalcoatl is the god about
+whom the Aztecs have the prophecy that he will come back to them across
+the sea." Cortés promised to send the helmet to Montezuma, and expressed
+a wish that it would be returned filled with the gold-dust of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span>
+Aztecs, that he might compare it with the Spanish gold-dust!</p>
+
+<p>One reporter who was present says:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>He further told Governor Teuhtlile that the Spaniards were troubled
+with a disease of the heart for which gold was a specific remedy!</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Another incident of this notable interview was that one of the Mexican
+attendants was observed by Cortés to be scribbling with a pencil. It was
+an artist sketching the appearance of the strangers, their dress, arms,
+and attitude, and filling in the picture with touches of color. Struck
+with the idea of being thus represented to the Mexican monarch, Cortés
+ordered the cavalry to be exercised on the beach in front of the
+artists.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>The bold and rapid movements of the troops, ... the apparent ease
+with which they managed the fiery animals on which they were
+mounted, the glancing of their weapons, and the shrill cry of the
+trumpet, all filled the spectators with astonishment; but when they
+heard the thunders of the cannon, which Cortés ordered to be fired
+at the same time, and witnessed the volumes of smoke and flame
+issuing from these terrible engines, and the rushing sound of the
+balls, as they dashed through the trees of the neighboring forest,
+shivering their branches into fragments, they were filled with
+consternation and wonder, from which the Aztec chief himself was
+not wholly free.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>This was all faithfully copied by the picture-writers, so far as their
+art went, in sketching and vivid coloring. They also recorded the ships
+of the strangers&mdash;"the water-houses," as they were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> named&mdash;whose dark
+hulls and snow-white sails were swinging at anchor in the bay.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime what had Montezuma been doing, the sad-faced<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> and haughty
+Emperor of Mexico, land of the Aztecs and the Tezcucans? At the
+beginning of his reign he had as a skilful general led his armies as far
+as Honduras and Nicaragua, extending the limits of the empire, so that
+it had now reached the maximum.</p>
+
+
+<p>Tezcuco, the sister state to Mexico, had latterly shown hostility to
+Montezuma, and still more formidable was the republic of Tlascala, lying
+between his capital and the coast. Prodigies and prophecies now began to
+affect all classes of the population in the Mexican Valley. Everybody
+spoke of the return from over the sea of the popular god Quetzalcoatl,
+the fair-skinned and longhaired (p. 93). A generation had already
+elapsed since the first rumors that white men in great mysterious
+vessels, bearing in their hands the thunder and lightning, were seizing
+the islands and must soon seize the mainland.</p>
+
+<p>No wonder that Montezuma, stern, tyrannical, and disappointed, should be
+dismayed at the news of Grijalva's landing, and still more so when
+hearing of the fleet and army of Cortés, and seeing their horsemen
+pictured by his artists&mdash;the whole accompanied by exaggerated accounts
+of the guns and cannon able to produce thunder and lightning. After
+holding a council, Montezuma resolved to send an embassy to Cortés,
+presenting him with a present which should reflect the incomparable
+grandeur and resources of Mexico,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> and at the same time forbidding an
+approach to the capital.</p>
+
+<p>The governor Teuhtlile, on this second embassy, was accompanied by two
+Aztec nobles and 100 slaves, bearing the present from Montezuma to
+Cortés. As they entered the pavilion of the Spanish general the air was
+filled with clouds of incense which rose from censers carried by some
+attendants.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>Some delicately wrought mats were then unrolled, and on them the
+slaves displayed the various articles, ... shields, helmets,
+cuirasses, embossed with plates and ornaments of pure gold; collars
+and bracelets of the same metal, sandals, fans, and crests of
+variegated feathers, intermingled with gold and silver thread, and
+sprinkled with pearls and precious stones; imitations of birds and
+animals in wrought and cast gold and silver, of exquisite
+workmanship; curtains, coverlets, and robes of cotton, fine as
+silk, of rich and various dyes, interwoven with feather-work that
+rivaled the delicacy of painting.... The things which excited most
+admiration were two circular plates of gold and silver, as "large
+as carriage-wheels"; one representing the sun was richly carved
+with plants and animals. It was thirty palms in circumference, and
+was worth about £52,500 sterling.<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a></p></blockquote>
+
+
+
+<p>Cortés was interested in seeing the soldier's helmet brought back to him
+full to the brim with grains of gold. The courteous message from
+Montezuma, however, did not please him much. Montezuma excused himself
+from having a personal interview by "the distance being too great,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> and
+the journey beset with difficulties and dangers from formidable
+enemies.... All that could be done, therefore, was for the strangers to
+return to their own land."</p>
+
+<p>Soon after Cortés, by a species of statecraft, formed a new
+municipality, thus transforming his camp into a civil community. The
+name of the new city was <i>Villa Rica de Vera Cruz</i>, i. e., "the Rich
+Town of the True Cross." Once the municipality was formed, Cortés
+resigned before them his office of captain-general, and thus became free
+from the authority of Velasquez. The city council at once chose Cortés
+to be captain-general and chief justice of the colony. He could now go
+forward unchecked by any superior except the Crown.</p>
+
+<p>It was a desperate undertaking to climb with an army from the hot region
+of this flat coast through the varied succession of "slopes" which form
+the temperate region, and at last, on the high table-land, obtain
+entrance upon the great enclosed valley of Mexico. Cortés found that an
+essential preliminary was to gain the friendship of the Totonacs, a
+nation tributary to Montezuma. Their subjection to the Aztecs he had
+already verified, since one day when holding a conference with the
+Totonac leaders and a neighboring cazique (i. e., "prince"), Cortés saw
+five men of haughty appearance enter the market-place, followed by
+several attendants, and at once receive the politest attention from the
+Totonacs.</p>
+
+<p>Cortés asked Marina, his slave interpreter, who or what they were. "They
+are Aztec nobles," she replied, "sent by Montezuma to receive tribute."
+Presently the Totonac chiefs came to Cortés<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> with looks of dire dismay,
+to inform him of the great Emperor's resentment at the entertainment
+offered to the Spaniards, and demanding in expiation twenty young men
+and women for sacrifice to the Aztec gods.</p>
+
+<p>Cortés, with every look of indignation, insisted that the Totonacs
+should not only refuse to comply, but should seize the Aztec messengers
+and hold them strictly confined in prison. Unscrupulous to gain his
+ends, Cortés by lies and cunning duplicity managed to set the Mexican
+nobles free, dismissing them with a friendly message to Montezuma, while
+at the same time securing the confidence of the simple-minded Totonacs,
+urging them to join the Spaniards and make a bold effort to regain their
+independence. Some thought that Cortés was really the kindly divinity
+Quetzalcoatl, promised by the prophets to bring freedom and happiness.</p>
+
+<p>As an instance of the religious enthusiasm of the Spanish invaders, we
+may give the account of the "conversion" of Zempoalla, a city in the
+Totonac district. When Cortés pressed upon the cazique of Zempoalla that
+his mission was to turn the Indians from the abominations of their
+present religion, that prince replied that he could not accept what the
+Spanish priests had told him about the Creator and Ruler of the
+Universe; especially that he ever stooped to become a mere man, weak and
+poor, so as to suffer voluntarily persecution and even death at the
+hands of some of his own creatures. The cazique added that he "would
+resist any violence offered to his gods, who would, indeed, avenge the
+act themselves by the instant destruction of their enemies."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Cortés and his men seized the opportunity. There is no doubt that, after
+witnessing some of the barbarous sacrifices of human victims followed by
+cannibal feasts, their souls had naturally been sickened. They now
+proceeded to force the work of conversion as soon as Cortés had appealed
+to them and declared that "God and the holy saints would never favor
+their enterprise, if such atrocities were allowed; and that for his own
+part, he was resolved the Indian idols should be demolished that very
+hour if it cost him his life.</p>
+
+<p>"Scarcely waiting for his commands the Spaniards moved toward one of the
+principal <i>teocallis</i>, or temples, which rose high on a pyramidal
+foundation with a steep ascent of stone steps in the middle. The
+cazique, divining their purpose, instantly called his men to arms. The
+Indian warriors gathered from all quarters, with shrill cries and
+clashing of weapons, while the priests, in their dark cotton robes, with
+disheveled tresses matted with blood, rushed frantic among the natives,
+calling on them to protect their gods from violation! All was now
+confusion and tumult.... Cortés took his usual prompt measures. Causing
+the cazique and some of the principal citizens and priests to be
+arrested, he commanded them to quiet the people, declaring that if a
+single arrow was shot against a Spaniard, it should cost every one of
+them his life.... The cazique covered his face with his hands,
+exclaiming that the gods would avenge their own wrongs.</p>
+
+<p>"The Christians were not slow in availing themselves of his tacit
+acquiescence. Fifty soldiers, at a signal from their general, sprang up
+the great<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> stairway of the temple, entered the building on the summit,
+the walls of which were black with human gore, and dragged the huge
+wooden idols to the edge of the terrace. Their fantastic forms and
+features, conveying a symbolic meaning which was lost on the Spaniards,
+seemed to their eyes only the hideous lineaments of Satan. With great
+alacrity they rolled the colossal monsters down the steps of the
+pyramid, amid the triumphant shouts of their own companions and the
+groans and lamentations of the natives. They then consummated the whole
+by burning them in the presence of the assembled multitude."</p>
+
+<p>After the temple had been cleansed from every trace of the idol-worship
+and its horrors, a new altar was raised, surmounted by a lofty cross,
+and hung with garlands of roses. A reaction having now set in among the
+Indians, many were willing to become Christians, and some of the Aztec
+priests even joined in a procession to signify their conversion, wearing
+white robes instead of their former dark mantles, and carrying lighted
+candles in their hands, "while an image of the Virgin half smothered
+under the weight of flowers was borne aloft, and, as the procession
+climbed the steps of the temple, was deposited above the altar.... The
+impressive character of the ceremony and the passionate eloquence of the
+good priest touched the feelings of the motley audience, until Indians
+as well as Spaniards, if we may trust the chronicler, were melted into
+tears and audible sobs."</p>
+
+<p>Before finally marching westward toward the temperate "slopes" of the
+mountains, Cortés had another opportunity of proving his generalship<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span>
+and prompt resource at a critical moment. When Agathocles, the
+autocratic ruler of Syracuse, sailed over to defeat the Carthaginians,
+the first thing he did on landing in Africa was to burn his ships, that
+his soldiers might have no opportunity of retreat, and no hope but in
+victory. Cortés now acted on exactly the same principle.</p>
+
+<p>After discovering that a number of his soldiers had formed a conspiracy
+to seize one of the ships and sail to Cuba, Cortés, on conviction,
+punished two of the ringleaders with death. Soon after, he formed the
+extraordinary resolution of destroying his ships without the knowledge
+of his army.</p>
+
+<p>The five worst ships were first ordered to be dismantled; and, soon
+after, to be sunk. When the rest were inspected, four of them were
+condemned in the same manner.</p>
+
+<p>When the news reached Zempoalla, the army were excited almost to open
+mutiny. Cortés, however, was perfectly cool. Addressing the army
+collectively, he assured them that the ships were not fit for service,
+as had been shown by due inspection. "There is one important advantage
+gained to the army, viz., the addition of a hundred able-bodied recruits
+who were necessary to man the lost ships. Besides all that, of what use
+could ships be to us in the present expedition? As for me, I will remain
+here even without a comrade. As for those who shrink from the dangers of
+our glorious enterprise, let them go back, in God's name! Let them go
+home, since there is still one vessel left; let them go on board and
+return to Cuba. They can tell how they deserted their commander and
+their comrades, and pa<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span>tiently wait till they see us return loaded with
+the spoils of the Aztecs."</p>
+
+<p>Persuasion is the end of true oratory. The reply of the army to Cortés
+was the unanimous shout "To Mexico! To Mexico!"</p>
+
+<p>After beginning the gradual ascent in their march toward the table-land
+of Mexico, the first place noted by the invaders was Jalapa, a town
+which still retains its Aztec name, known to all the world by the
+well-known drug grown there. It is a favorite resort of the wealthier
+residents in Vera Cruz, and that too tropical plain which Cortés had
+just left. The mighty mountain Orizaba, one of the guardians of the
+Mexican Valley, is now full in sight, towering in solitary grandeur with
+its robe of snow.</p>
+
+<p>At last they reached a town so populous that there were thirteen Aztec
+temples with the usual sacrificial stone for human victims before each
+idol. In the suburbs the Spanish were shocked by a gathering of human
+skulls, many thousand in number. This appalling reminder of the
+unspeakable sacrifices soon became a familiar sight as they marched
+through that country.</p>
+
+<p>Cortés asked the cazique if he were subject to Montezuma. "Who is
+there," replied the local prince, "that is not tributary to that
+Emperor?" "<i>I</i> am not," said the stranger general. Cortés assured him
+that the monarch whom the Spaniards served had princes as vassals, who
+were more powerful than the Aztec ruler. The cazique said:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>Montezuma could muster thirty great vassals, each master of 100,000
+men. His revenues were incalculable, since<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> every subject, however
+poor, paid something.... More than 20,000 victims, the fruit of his
+wars, were annually sacrificed on the altars of his gods! His
+capital stood on a lake, in the center of a spacious valley.... The
+approach to the city was by means of causeways several miles long;
+and when the connecting bridges were raised all communication with
+the country was cut off.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The Indians showed the greatest curiosity respecting the dresses,
+weapons, horses, and dogs of their strange visitors. The country all
+around was then well wooded and full of villages and towns, which
+disappeared after the conquest. Humboldt remarked, when he traveled
+there, that the whole district had, "at the time of the arrival of the
+Spanish, been more inhabited and better cultivated, and that in
+proportion as they got higher up near the table-land, they found the
+villages more frequent, the fields more subdivided, and the people more
+law-abiding."</p>
+
+<p>Before entering upon the table-land, Cortés resolved to visit the
+republic of Tlascala, which was noted for having retained its
+independence in spite of the Aztecs. After sending an embassy,
+consisting of the four chief Zempoallas, who had accompanied the army,
+he set out toward Tlascala, lingering as they proceeded, so that his
+ambassadors should have time to return. While wondering at the delay,
+they suddenly reached a remarkable fortification which marked the limits
+of the republic, and acted as a barrier against the Mexican invasions.
+Prescott thus describes it:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>A stone wall nine feet in height and twenty in thickness, with a
+parapet a foot and a half broad raised on the summit for the
+protection of those who defended it. It had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> only one opening in
+the center, made by two semicircular lines of wall overlapping each
+other for the space of forty paces, and affording a passageway
+between, ten paces wide, so contrived, therefore, as to be
+perfectly commanded by the inner wall. This fortification, which
+extended more than two leagues, rested at either end on the bold
+natural buttresses formed by the sierra. The work was built of
+immense blocks of stone nicely laid together without cement, and
+the remains still existing, among which are rocks of the whole
+breadth of the rampart, fully attest its solidity and size.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Who were the people of this stout-hearted republic? The Tlascalans were
+a kindred tribe to the Aztecs, and after coming to the Mexican Valley,
+toward the close of the twelfth century, had settled for many years on
+the western shore of Lake Tezcuco. Afterward they migrated to that
+district of fruitful valleys where Cortés found them; <i>Tlascala</i>,
+meaning "land of bread." They then, as a nation, consisted of four
+separate states, considerably civilized, and always able to protect
+their confederacy against foreign invasion. Their arts, religion, and
+architecture were the same as those of the Aztecs and Tezcucans.</p>
+
+<p>More than once had the Aztecs attempted to bring the little republic
+into subjection, but in vain. In one campaign Montezuma had lost a
+favorite, besides having his army defeated; and though a much more
+formidable invasion followed, "the bold mountaineers withdrew into the
+recesses of their hills, and coolly watching their opportunity, rushed
+like a torrent on the invaders, and drove them back with dreadful
+slaughter from their territories."</p>
+
+<p>The Tlascalans had of course heard of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> redoubtable Europeans and
+their advance upon Montezuma's kingdom, but not expecting any visit
+themselves, they were in doubt about the embassy sent by Cortés, and the
+council had not reached a decision when the arrival of Cortés was
+announced at the head of his cavalry. Attacked by a body of several
+thousand Indians, he sent back a horseman to make the infantry hurry up
+to his assistance. Two of the horses were killed, a loss seriously felt
+by Cortés; but when the main body had discharged a volley from their
+muskets and crossbows, so astounded were the Tlascalan Indians that they
+stopped fighting and withdrew from the field.</p>
+
+<p>Next morning, after Cortés had given careful instruction to his army
+(now more than 3,000 in number, with his Indian auxiliaries), they had
+not marched far when they were met by two of the Zempoallans, who had
+been sent as ambassadors. They informed Cortés that, as captives, they
+had been reserved for the sacrificial stone, but had succeeded in
+breaking out of prison. They also said that forces were being collected
+from all quarters to meet the Spaniards.</p>
+
+<p>At the first encounter, the Indians, after some spirited fighting,
+retreated in order to draw the Spanish army into a defile impracticable
+for artillery or cavalry. Pressing forward they found, on turning an
+abrupt corner of the glen, that an army of many thousands was drawn up
+in order, prepared to receive them. As they came into view, the
+Tlascalans set up a piercing war-cry, shrill and hideous, accompanied by
+the melancholy beat of a thousand drums. Cortés spurred on the cavalry
+to force a passage for the infantry,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> and kept exhorting his soldiers,
+while showing them an example of personal daring. "If we fail now," he
+cried, "the Cross of Christ can never be planted in this land. Forward,
+comrades! when was it ever known that a Castilian turned his back on a
+foe?"</p>
+
+<p>With desperate efforts the soldiers forced a passage through the Indian
+columns, and then, as soon as the horse opened room for the movements of
+the gunners, the terrible "thunder and lightning" of the cannon did the
+rest. The havoc caused in their ranks, combined with the roar and the
+flash of gunpowder, and the mangled carcasses, filled the whole of the
+barbarian army with horror and consternation. Eight leaders of the
+Tlascalan army having fallen, the prince ordered a retreat.</p>
+
+<p>The chief of the Tlascalans, Xicotencatl, was no ordinary leader. When
+Cortés wished to press on to the capital, he sent two envoys to the
+Tlascalan camp, but all that Xicotencatl deigned to reply was</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>that the Spaniards might pass on as soon as they chose to Tlascala,
+and when they reached it their flesh would be hewn from their
+bodies for sacrifice to the gods. If they preferred to remain in
+their own quarters, he would pay them a visit there the next day.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The envoys also told Cortés that the chief had now collected another
+very large army, five battalions of 10,000 men each. There was evidently
+a determination to try the fate of Tlascala by a pitched battle and
+exterminate the bold invaders.</p>
+
+<p>The next day, September 5, 1519, was there<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span>fore a critical one in the
+annals of Cortés. He resolved to meet the Tlascalan chief in the field,
+after directing the foot-soldiers to use the point of their swords and
+not the edge; the horse to charge at half speed, directing their lances
+at the eyes of their enemies; the gunners and crossbowmen to support
+each other, some loading while others were discharging their pieces.</p>
+
+<p>Before Cortés and his soldiers had marched a mile they saw the immense
+Tlascalan army stretched far and wide over a vast plain. Nothing could
+be more picturesque than the aspect of these Indian battalions, with the
+naked bodies of the common soldiers gaudily painted, the fantastic
+helmets of the chiefs bright with ornaments and precious stones, and the
+glowing panoplies of feather-work....</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The golden glitterance and the feather-mail</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">More gay than glittering gold; and round the helm</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A coronal of high upstanding plumes....</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">... With war-songs and wild music they came on.<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a></span><br />
+</p>
+
+
+<p>The Tlascalan warriors had attained wonderful skill in throwing the
+javelin. "One species, with a thong attached to it, which remained in
+the slinger's hand, that he might recall the weapon, was especially
+dreaded by the Spaniards." Their various weapons were pointed with bone
+or obsidian, and sometimes headed with copper.</p>
+
+<p>The yell or scream of defiance raised by these Indians almost drowned
+the volume of sound from "the wild barbaric minstrelsy of shell, atabal,
+and trumpet with which they proclaimed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> their triumphant anticipations
+of victory over the paltry forces of the invaders."</p>
+
+<p>Advancing under a thick shower of arrows and other missiles, the Spanish
+soldiers at a certain distance quickly halted and drew up in order,
+before delivering a general fire along the whole line. The front ranks
+of their wild opponents were mowed down and those behind were "petrified
+with dismay."</p>
+
+<p>But for the accident of dissension having arisen between the chiefs of
+the Tlascalans, it almost seemed as if nothing could have saved Cortés
+and his Spanish army. Before the battle, the haughty treatment of one of
+those chiefs by Xicotencatl, the cazique, provoked the injured man to
+draw off all his contingent during the battle, and persuade another
+chief to do the same. With his forces so weakened, the cazique was
+compelled to resign the field to the Spaniards.</p>
+
+<p>Xicotencatl, in his eagerness for revenge, consulted some of the Aztec
+priests, who recommended a night attack upon Cortés's camp in order to
+take his army by surprise. The Tlascalan, therefore, with 10,000
+warriors, marched secretly toward the Spanish camp, but owing to the
+bright moonlight they were not unseen by the vedettes. Besides that,
+Cortés had accustomed his army to sleep with their arms by their side
+and the horses ready saddled. In an instant, as it were, the whole camp
+were on the alert and under arms. The Indians, meanwhile, were
+stealthily advancing to the silent camp, and, "no sooner had they
+reached the slope of the rising ground than they were astounded by the
+deep battle-cry of the Spaniards, followed by the in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span>stantaneous
+appearance of the whole army. Scarcely awaiting the shock of their
+enemy, the panic-struck barbarians fled rapidly and tumultuously across
+the plain. The horse easily overtook the fugitives, riding them down,
+and cutting them to pieces without mercy." Next day Cortés sent new
+ambassadors to the Tlascalan capital, accompanied by his faithful slave
+interpreter, Marina. They found the cazique's council sad and dejected,
+every gleam of hope being now extinguished.</p>
+
+<p>The message of Cortés still promised friendship and pardon, if only they
+agreed to act as allies. If the present offer were rejected, "he would
+visit their capital as a conqueror, raze every house to the ground, and
+put every inhabitant to the sword." On hearing this ultimatum, the
+council chose four leading chiefs to be entrusted with a mission to
+Cortés, "assuring him of a free passage through the country, and a
+friendly reception in the capital." The ambassadors, on their way back
+to Cortés, called at the camp of Xicotencatl, and were there detained by
+him. He was still planning against the terrible invaders.</p>
+
+<p>Cortés, in the meantime, had another opportunity of showing his resource
+and presence of mind. Some of his soldiers had shown a grumbling
+discontent: "The idea of conquering Mexico was madness; if they had
+encountered such opposition from the petty republic, what might they not
+expect from the great Mexican Empire? There was now a temporary
+suspension of hostilities; should they not avail themselves of it to
+retrace their steps to Vera Cruz?" To this Cortés<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> listened calmly and
+politely, replying that "he had told them at the outset that glory was
+to be won only by toil and danger; he had never shrunk from his share of
+both. To go back now was impossible. What would the Tlascalans say? How
+would the Mexicans exult at such a miserable issue! Instead of turning
+your eyes toward Cuba, fix them on Mexico, the great object of our
+enterprise." Many other soldiers having gathered round, the mutinous
+party took courage to say that "another such victory as the last would
+be their ruin; they were going to Mexico only to be slaughtered." With
+some impatience Cortés gaily quoted a soldiers' song:</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Better die with honor</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Than live in long disgrace!</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>&mdash;a sentiment which the majority of the audience naturally cheered to
+the echo, while the malcontents slunk away to their quarters.</p>
+
+<p>The next event was the arrival of some Tlascalans wearing white badges
+as an indication of peace. They brought a message, they said, from
+Xicotencatl, who now desired an arrangement with Cortés, and would soon
+appear in person. Most of them remained in the camp, where they were
+treated kindly; but Marina, with her "woman's wit," became somewhat
+suspicious of them. Perhaps some of them, forgetting that she knew their
+language, let drop a phrase in talking to each other, which awoke her
+distrust. She told Cortés that the men were spies. He had them arrested
+and examined separately, ascertaining in that way that they were sent
+to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> obtain secret information of the Spanish camp, and that, in fact,
+Xicotencatl was mustering his forces to make another determined attack
+on the invading army.</p>
+
+<p>To show the fierceness of his resentment at such treatment, Cortés
+ordered the fifty spy ambassadors to have their hands hacked off, and
+sent back to tell their lord that "the Tlascalans might come by day or
+night, they would find the Spaniards ready for them." The sight of their
+mutilated comrades filled the Indian camp with dread and horror. All
+thoughts of resistance to the advance of Cortés were now abandoned, and
+not long after the arrival of Xicotencatl himself was announced,
+attended by a numerous train. He advanced with "the firm and fearless
+step of one who was coming rather to bid defiance than to sue for peace.
+He was rather above the middle size, with broad shoulders and a muscular
+frame, intimating great activity and strength. He made the usual
+salutation by touching the ground with his hand and carrying it to his
+head." He threw no blame on the Tlascalan senate, but assumed all the
+responsibility of the war. He admitted that the Spanish army had beaten
+him, but hoped they would use their victory with moderation, and not
+trample on the liberties of the republic.</p>
+
+<p>Cortés admired the cazique's lofty spirit, while pretending to rebuke
+him for having so long remained an enemy. "He was willing to bury the
+past in oblivion, and to receive the Tlascalans as vassals to the
+Emperor, his master."</p>
+
+<p>Before the entry into Tlascala, the capital, there arrived an embassy
+from Montezuma, who<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> had been keenly disappointed, no doubt, that Cortés
+had not only not been defeated by the bravest race on the Mexican
+table-land, but had formed a friendly alliance with them.</p>
+
+<p>As Cortés, with his army, approached the populous city, they were
+welcomed by great crowds of men and women in picturesque dresses, with
+nosegays and wreaths of flowers; priests in white robes and long matted
+tresses, swinging their burning censers of incense. The anniversary of
+this entry into Tlascala, September 23, 1519, is still celebrated as a
+day of rejoicing.</p>
+
+<p>Cortés, in his letter to the Emperor, King of Spain, compares it for
+size and appearance to Granada, the Moorish capital. Pottery was one of
+the industries in which Tlascala excelled. The Tlascalan was chiefly
+agricultural in his habits; his honest breast glowed with the patriotic
+attachment to the soil, which is the fruit of its diligent culture,
+while he was elevated by that consciousness of independence which is the
+natural birthright of a child of the mountains.</p>
+
+<p>Cholula, capital of the republic of that name, is six leagues north of
+Tlascala, and about twenty southeast of Mexico. In the time of the
+conquest of the table-land of Anahuac, as the whole district is
+sometimes termed, this city was large and populous. The people excelled
+in mechanical arts, especially metal-working, cloth-weaving, and a
+delicate kind of pottery. Reference has already been made to the god
+Quetzalcoatl, in whose honor a huge pyramid was erected here. From the
+farthest parts of Anahuac devotees thronged to Cholula, just as the
+Mohammedans to Mecca.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The Spaniards found the people of Cholula superior in dress and looks to
+any of the races they had seen. The higher classes "wore fine
+embroidered mantles resembling the Moorish cloak in texture and
+fashion.... They showed the same delicate taste for flowers as the other
+tribes of the plateau, tossing garlands and bunches among the
+soldiers.... The Spaniards were also struck with the cleanliness of the
+city, the regularity of the streets, the solidity of the houses, and the
+number and size of the pyramidal temples." After being treated with
+kindness and hospitality for several days, all at once the scene
+changed, the cause being the arrival of messengers from Montezuma. At
+the same time some Tlascalans told Cortés that a great sacrifice, mostly
+of children, had been offered to propitiate the favor of the gods.</p>
+
+<p>At this juncture, Marina, the Indian slave interpreter, again proved to
+be the "good angel" of Cortés. She had become very friendly with the
+wife of one of the Cholula caziques, who gave her a hint that there was
+danger in staying at the house of any Spaniard; and, when further
+pressed by Marina, said that the Spaniards were to be slaughtered when
+marching out of the capital. The plot had originated with the Aztec
+Emperor, and 20,000 Mexicans were already quartered a little distance
+out of town.</p>
+
+<p>In this most critical position, Cortés at once decided to take
+possession of the great square, placing a strong guard at each of its
+three gates of entrance. The rest of what troops he had in the town, he
+posted without with the cannon, to command the avenues. He had already
+sent<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> orders to the Tlascalan chiefs to keep their soldiers in readiness
+to march, at a given signal, into the city to support the Spaniards.
+Presently the caziques of Cholula arrived with a larger body of levies
+than Cortés had demanded. He at once charged them with conspiring
+against the Spaniards after receiving them as friends. They were so
+amazed at his discovery of their perfidy that they confessed everything,
+laying the blame on Montezuma. "That pretense," said Cortés, assuming a
+look of fierce indignation, "is no justification; I shall now make such
+an example of you for your treachery that the report of it will ring
+throughout the wide borders of Anahuac!"</p>
+
+<p>At the firing of a harquebus, the fatal signal, the crowd of
+unsuspecting Cholulans were massacred as they stood, almost without
+resistance. Meantime the other Indians without the square commenced an
+attack on the Spaniards, but the heavy guns of the battery played upon
+them with murderous effect, and cavalry advanced to support the attack.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>The steeds, the guns, the weapons of the Spaniards, were all new to
+the Cholulans. Notwithstanding the novelty of the terrific
+spectacle, the flash of arms mingling with the deafening roar of
+the artillery, the desperate Indians pushed on to take the places
+of their fallen comrades.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>While this scene of bloodshed was progressing, the Tlascalans, as
+arranged, were hastening to the assistance of their Spanish allies. The
+Cholulans, when thus attacked in rear by their traditional enemies,
+speedily gave way, and tried to save themselves in the great temple and
+else<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span>where. The "Holy City," as it was called, was converted into a
+pandemonium of massacre. In memory of the signal defeat of the
+Cholulans, Cortés converted the chief part of the great temple into a
+Christian church.</p>
+
+<p>Envoys again arrived from Mexico with rich presents and a message
+vindicating the pusillanimous Emperor from any share in the conspiracy
+against Cortés. Continuing their march, the allied army of Spaniards and
+Tlascalans proceeded till they reached the mountains which separate the
+table-land of Puebla from that of Mexico. To cross this range they
+followed the route which passes between the mighty Popocatepetl (i. e.,
+"the smoking mountain") and another called the "White Woman" from its
+broad robe of snow. The first lies about forty miles southeast of the
+capital to which their march was directed. It is more than 2,000 feet
+higher than Mont Blanc, and has two principal craters, one of which is
+about 1,000 feet deep and has large deposits of sulfur which are
+regularly mined. Popocatepetl has long been only a quiescent volcano,
+but during the invasion by Cortés it was often burning, especially at
+the time of the siege of Tlascala. That was naturally interpreted all
+over the district of Anahuac to be a bad omen, associated with the
+landing and approach of the Spaniards. Cortés insisted on several
+descents being made into the great crater till sufficient sulfur was
+collected to supply gunpowder to his army. The icy cold winds, varied by
+storms of snow and sleet, were more trying to the Europeans than the
+Tlascalans, but some relief was found in the stone shelters which had
+been built at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> certain intervals along the roads for the accommodation
+of couriers and other travelers.</p>
+
+<p>At last they reached the crest of the sierra which unites Popocatepetl,
+the "great <i>Volcan</i>," to its sister mountain the "Woman in White." Soon
+after, at a turning of the road, the invaders enjoyed their first view
+of the famous Valley of Mexico or Tenochtitlan, with its beautiful lakes
+in their setting of cultivated plains, here and there varied by woods
+and forests. "In the midst, like some Indian empress with her coronal of
+pearls, the fair city with her white towers and pyramidal temples,
+reposing as it were on the bosom of the waters&mdash;the far-famed 'Venice of
+the Aztecs.'"</p>
+
+<p>This view of the "Promised Land" will remind some of the picturesque
+account given by Livy (xxi, 35) of Hannibal reaching the top of the pass
+over the Alps and pointing out the fair prospect of Italy to his
+soldiers. We may thus render the passage: "On the ninth day the ridge of
+the Alps was reached, over ground generally trackless and by roundabout
+ways.... The order for marching being given at break of day, the army
+were sluggishly advancing over ground wholly covered with snow,
+listlessness, and despair depicted on the features of all, Hannibal went
+on in front, and after ordering the soldiers to halt on a height which
+commanded a distant view, far and wide, points out to them Italy and the
+plains of Lombardy on both banks of the Po, at the foot of the Alps,
+telling them that at that moment they were crossing not only the walls
+of Italy but of the Roman capital; that the rest of the march was easy
+and downhill." The situation of Hannibal<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> and his Carthaginians
+surveying Italy for the first time is in some respects closely analogous
+to that of Cortés pointing out the Valley of Mexico to his Spanish
+soldiers.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2>
+
+<h3>CORTÉS AND MONTEZUMA</h3>
+
+
+<p>We have now seen the Spanish conquerors with a large contingent of 6,000
+natives surmounting the mountains to the east of the Mexican Valley and
+looking down upon the Lake of Tezcuco on which were built the sister
+capitals. Montezuma, the Aztec monarch, was already in a state of
+dismay, and sent still another embassy to propitiate the terrible
+Cortés, with a great present of gold and robes of the most precious
+fabrics and workmanship; and a promise that, if the foreign general
+would turn back toward Vera Cruz, the Mexicans would pay down four loads
+of gold for himself and one to each of his captains, besides a yearly
+tribute to their king in Europe.</p>
+
+<p>These promises did not reach Cortés till he was descending from the
+sierra. He replied that details were best arranged by a personal
+interview, and that the Spaniards came with peaceful motives.</p>
+
+<p>Montezuma was now plunged in deep despair. At last he summoned a council
+to consult his nobles and especially his nephew, the young King<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> of
+Tezcuco, and his warlike brother. The latter advised him to "muster as
+large an army as possible, and drive back the invaders from his capital
+or die in its defense." "Ah!" replied the monarch, "the gods have
+declared themselves against us!" Still another embassy was prepared,
+with his nephew, lord of Tezcuco, at its head, to offer a welcome to the
+unwelcome visitors.</p>
+
+<p>Cortés approached through fertile fields, plantations, and
+maguey-vineyards till they reached Lake Chalco. There they found a large
+town built in the water on piles, with canals instead of streets, full
+of movement and animation. "The Spaniards were particularly struck with
+the style and commodious structure of the houses, chiefly of stone, and
+with the general aspect of wealth and even elegance which prevailed."</p>
+
+<p>Next morning the King of Tezcuco came to visit Cortés, in a palanquin
+richly decorated with plates of gold and precious stones, under a canopy
+of green plumes. He was accompanied by a numerous suite. Advancing with
+the Mexican salutation, he said he had been commanded by Montezuma to
+welcome him to the capital, at the same time offering three splendid
+pearls as a present. Cortés "in return threw over the young king's neck
+a chain of cut glass, which, where glass was as rare as diamonds, might
+be admitted to have a value as real as the latter."</p>
+
+<p>The army of Cortés next marched along the southern side of Lake Chalco,
+"through noble woods and by orchards glowing with autumnal fruits, of
+unknown names, but rich and tempting hues." They also passed "through
+cultivated fields waving with the yellow harvest, and irri<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span>gated by
+canals introduced from the neighboring lake, the whole showing a careful
+and economical husbandry, essential to the maintenance of a crowded
+population." A remarkable public work next engaged the attention of the
+Spaniards, viz., a solid causeway of stone and lime running directly
+through the lake, in some places so wide that eight horsemen could ride
+on it abreast. Its length is some four or five miles. Marching along
+this causeway, they saw other wonders; numbers of the natives darting in
+all directions in their skiffs, curious to watch the strangers marching,
+and some of them bearing the products of the country to the neighboring
+cities. They were amazed also by the sight of the floating gardens,
+teeming with flowers and vegetables, and moving like rafts over the
+waters. All round the margin, and occasionally far in the lake, they
+beheld little towns and villages, which, half concealed by the foliage,
+and gathered in white clusters round the shore, "looked in the distance
+like companies of white swans riding quietly on the waves." About the
+middle of this lake was a town, to which the Spaniards gave the name of
+Venezuela<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> (i. e., "Little Venice"). From its situation and the style
+of the buildings, Cortés called it the most beautiful town that he had
+yet seen in New Spain.</p>
+
+
+<p>After crossing the isthmus which separates that lake from Lake Tezcuco
+they were now at Iztapalapan, a royal residence in charge of the
+Emperor's brother. Here a ceremonious recep<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span>tion was given to Cortés and
+his staff, "a collation being served in one of the great halls of the
+palace. The excellence of the architecture here excited the admiration
+of the general. The buildings were of stone, and the spacious apartments
+had roofs of odorous cedar-wood, while the walls were tapestried with
+fine cotton stained with brilliant colors.</p>
+
+<p>"But the pride of Iztapalapan was its celebrated gardens, covering an
+immense tract of land and laid out in regular squares. The gardens were
+stocked with fruit-trees and with the gaudy family of flowers which
+belonged to the Mexican flora, scientifically arranged, and growing
+luxuriant in the equable temperature of the table-land. In one quarter
+was an aviary filled with numerous kinds of birds remarkable in this
+region both for brilliancy of plumage and for song. But the most
+elaborate piece of work was a huge reservoir of stone, filled to a
+considerable height with water, well supplied with different sorts of
+fish. This basin was 1,600 paces in circumference, and surrounded by a
+walk."</p>
+
+<p>Readers must remember that at that age no beautiful gardens on a large
+scale were known in any part of Europe. The first "garden of plants" (to
+use the name afterward applied by the French) is said to have been an
+Italian one, at Padua, in 1545, a whole generation after the time of the
+arrival of Cortés in Mexico. It was only under Louis "Le Magnifique"
+that France created the Versailles Gardens, and not till the time of
+George III and his tutor Bute could we boast of the gardens at Kew, now
+admired by all the world. The ancient Mexicans, therefore, under<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> their
+extinct civilization, had developed this taste for the beautiful many
+ages before the most cultivated races in Europe.</p>
+
+<p>Cortés took up his quarters at this residence of Iztapalapan for the
+night, expecting to meet Montezuma on the morrow. Mexico was now
+distinctly full in view, looking "like a thing of fairy creation," a
+city of enchantment.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">There Aztlan stood upon the farther shore;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Amid the shade of trees its dwellings rose,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Their level roofs with turrets set around</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And battlements all burnished white, which shone</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Like silver in the sunshine. I beheld</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The imperial city, her far-circling walls,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Her garden groves and stately palaces,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Her temples mountain size, her thousand roofs.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And when I saw her might and majesty</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">My mind misgave me then.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 11em;"><i>Madoc</i>, i, 6.</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>That following day, November 8, 1519, should be noted in every calendar,
+when the great capital of the Western World admitted the conquering
+general from the Eastern World. The invaders were now upon a larger
+causeway, which stretched across the salt waters of Lake Tezcuco; and
+"had occasion more than ever to admire the mechanical science of the
+Aztecs." It was wide enough throughout its whole extent for ten horsemen
+to ride abreast.</p>
+
+<p>The Spaniards saw everywhere "evidence of a crowded and thriving
+population, exceeding all they had yet seen." The water was darkened by
+swarms of canoes filled with Indians; and here also were those fairy
+islands of flowers. Half<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> a league from the capital they encountered a
+solid work of stone, which traversed the road. It was twelve feet high,
+strengthened by towers at the extremities, and in the center was a
+battlemented gateway, which opened a passage to the troops.</p>
+
+<p>Here they were met by several hundred Aztec chiefs, who came out to
+announce the approach of Montezuma, and to welcome the Spaniards to his
+capital. They were dressed in the fanciful gala costume of the country,
+with the cotton sash around their loins, and a broad mantle of the same
+material, or of the brilliant feather embroidery, flowing gracefully
+down their shoulders. On their necks and arms they displayed collars and
+bracelets of turquoise mosaic, with which delicate plumage was curiously
+mingled, while their ears, under lips, and occasionally their noses were
+garnished with pendants formed of precious stones, or crescents of fine
+gold.</p>
+
+<p>After all the caziques had performed the same formal salutation
+separately, there was no further delay till they reached a bridge near
+the gates of the capital. Soon after "they beheld the glittering retinue
+of the Emperor emerging from the great street leading through the heart
+of the city. Amid a crowd of Indian nobles preceded by three officers of
+state bearing golden wands, they saw the royal palanquin blazing with
+burnished gold. It was borne on the shoulders of nobles, and over it a
+canopy of gaudy feather-work, covered with jewels and fringed with
+silver, was supported by four attendants of the same rank."</p>
+
+<p>At a certain distance from the Spaniards "the train halted, and
+Montezuma, descending from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> the litter, came forward, leaning on the
+arms of the lords of Tezcuco and Iztapalapan"&mdash;the Emperor's nephew and
+brother, already mentioned. "As the monarch advanced, his subjects, who
+lined the sides of the causeway, bent forward, with their eyes fastened
+on the ground, as he passed."</p>
+
+<p>Montezuma wore the ample square cloak common to the Mexicans, but of the
+finest cotton sprinkled with pearls and precious stones; his sandals
+were similarly sprinkled, and had soles of solid gold. His only head
+ornament was a bunch of feathers of the royal green color. A man about
+forty; tall and rather thin; black hair, cut rather short for a person
+of rank; dignified in his movements; his features wearing an expression
+of benignity not to be expected from his character.</p>
+
+<p>After dismounting from horseback, Cortés advanced to meet Montezuma, who
+received him with princely courtesy, while Cortés responded by profound
+expressions of respect, with thanks for his experience of the Emperor's
+munificence. He then hung round Montezuma's neck a sparkling chain of
+colored crystal, accompanying this with a movement as if to embrace him,
+when he was restrained by the two Aztec lords, shocked at the menaced
+profanation of the sacred person of their monarch and master.</p>
+
+<p>Montezuma appointed his brother to conduct the Spaniards to their
+residence in the capital, and was again carried through the adoring
+crowds in his litter. "The Spaniards quickly followed, and with colors
+flying and music playing soon made their entrance into the southern
+quarter."</p>
+
+<p>On entering "they found fresh cause for admiration in the grandeur of
+the city and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> superior style of its architecture. The great avenue
+through which they were now marching was lined with the houses of the
+nobles, who were encouraged by the Emperor to make the capital their
+residence. The flat roofs were protected by stone parapets, so that
+every house was a fortress. Sometimes these roofs seemed parterres of
+flowers ... broad terraced gardens laid out between the buildings.
+Occasionally a great square intervened surrounded by its porticoes of
+stone and stucco; or a pyramidal temple reared its colossal bulk crowned
+with its tapering sanctuaries, and altars blazing with unextinguishable
+fires. But what most impressed the Spaniards was the throngs of people
+who swarmed through the streets and on the canals."</p>
+
+<p>Probably, however, the spectacle of the European army with their horses,
+their guns, bright swords and helmets of steel, a metal to them unknown;
+their weird and mysterious music&mdash;the whole formed to the Aztec populace
+an inexplicable wonder, combined with those foreigners who had arrived
+from the distant East, "revealing their celestial origin in their fair
+complexions." Many of the Aztec citizens betrayed keen hatred of the
+Tlascalans who marched with the Spaniards in friendly alliance.</p>
+
+<p>At length Cortés with his mixed army halted near the center of the city
+in a great open space, "where rose the huge pyramidal pile dedicated to
+the patron war-god of the Aztecs, second only to the temple of Cholula
+in size as well as sanctity." The present famous cathedral of modern
+Mexico is built on part of the same site.</p>
+
+<p>A palace built opposite the west side of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> great temple was assigned
+to Cortés. It was extensive enough to accommodate the whole of the army
+of Cortés. Montezuma paid him a visit there, having a long conversation
+through the indispensable assistance of Marina, the slave interpreter.
+"That evening the Spaniards celebrated their arrival in the Mexican
+capital by a general discharge of artillery. The thunders of the
+ordnance reverberating among the buildings and shaking them to their
+foundations, the stench of the sulfureous vapor reminding the
+inhabitants of the explosions of the great volcano (Popocatepetl) filled
+the hearts of the superstitious Aztecs with dismay."</p>
+
+<p>Next day Cortés had gracious permission to return the visit of the
+Emperor, and therefore proceeded to wait upon him at the royal palace,
+dressed in his richest suit of clothes. The Spanish general felt the
+importance of the occasion and resolved to exercise all his eloquence
+and power of argument in attempting the "conversion" of Montezuma to the
+Christian faith.</p>
+
+<p>For this purpose, with the assistance of the faithful Marina, Cortés
+engaged the Emperor in a theological discussion; explaining the creation
+of the world as taught in the Jewish Scriptures; the fall of man from
+his first happy and holy condition by the temptation of Satan; the
+mysterious redemption of the human race by the incarnation and atonement
+of the Son of God Himself. "He assured Montezuma that the idols
+worshiped in Mexico were Satan under different forms. A sufficient proof
+of this was the bloody sacrifices they imposed, which he contrasted with
+the pure and simple rite of the mass. It was to snatch the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> Emperor's
+soul and the souls of his people from the flames of eternal fire that
+the Christians had come to this land."</p>
+
+<p>Montezuma replied that the God of the Spaniards must be a good being,
+and "my gods also are good to me; there was no need to further discourse
+on the matter." If he had "resisted their visit to his capital, it was
+because he had heard such accounts of their cruelties&mdash;that they sent
+the lightning to consume his people, or crushed them to pieces under the
+hard feet of the ferocious animals on which they rode. He was now
+convinced that these were idle tales; that the Spaniards were kind and
+generous in their nature." He concluded by admitting the superiority of
+the sovereign of Cortés beyond the seas. "Your sovereign is the rightful
+lord of all: I rule in his name."</p>
+
+<p>The rough Spanish cavaliers were touched by the kindness and affability
+of Montezuma. As they passed him, says Diaz, in his History, they made
+him the most profound obeisance, hat in hand; and on the way home could
+discourse of nothing but the gentle breeding and courtesy of the Indian
+monarch.</p>
+
+
+<h3>MONTEZUMA'S CAPITAL</h3>
+
+<p>Cortés and his army being now fairly domesticated in Mexico, and the
+Emperor having apparently become reconciled to the presence of his
+formidable guests, we may pause to consider the surroundings.</p>
+
+<p>The present capital occupies the site of Tenochtitlan, but many changes
+have occurred in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> intervening four centuries. First of all, the salt
+waters of the great lake have entirely shrunk away, leaving modern
+Mexico high and dry, a league away from the waters that Cortés saw
+flowing in ample canals through all the streets. Formerly the houses
+stood on elevated piles and were independent of the floods which rose in
+Lake Tezcuco by the overflowing of other lakes on a higher level. But
+when the foundations were on solid ground it became necessary to provide
+against the accumulated volume of water by excavating a tunnel to drain
+off the flood. This was constructed about one hundred years after the
+invasion of the Spaniards, and has been described by Humboldt as "one of
+the most stupendous hydraulic works in existence."</p>
+
+<p>The appearance of the lake and suburbs of the capital have long lost
+much of the attractive appearance they had at the time of the Spanish
+visit; but the town itself is still the most brilliant city in Spanish
+America, surmounted by a cathedral, which forms "the most sumptuous
+house of worship in the New World."</p>
+
+<p>The great causeway already described as leading north from the royal
+city of Iztapalapan, had another to the north of the capital, which
+might be called its continuation. The third causeway, leading west to
+the town Tacuba from the island city, will be noticed presently as the
+scene of the Spaniards' retreat.</p>
+
+<p>There were excellent police regulations for health and cleanliness.
+Water supplied by earthen pipes was from a hill about two miles distant.
+Besides the palaces and temples there were several important buildings:
+an armory<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> filled with weapons and military dresses; a granary; various
+warehouses; an immense aviary, with "birds of splendid plumage assembled
+from all parts of the empire&mdash;the scarlet cardinal, the golden pheasant,
+the endless parrot tribe, and that miniature miracle of nature, the
+humming-bird, which delights to revel among the honeysuckle bowers of
+Mexico." The birds of prey had a separate building. The menagerie
+adjoining the aviary showed wild animals from the mountain forests, as
+well as creatures from the remote swamps of the hot lands by the
+seashore. The serpents "were confined in long cages lined with down or
+feathers, or in troughs of mud and water."</p>
+
+<p>Wishing to visit the great Mexican temple, Cortés, with his cavalry and
+most of his infantry, followed the caziques whom Montezuma had politely
+sent as guides.</p>
+
+<p>On their way to the central square the Spaniards "were struck with the
+appearance of the inhabitants, and their great superiority in the style
+and quality of their dress over the people of the lower countries. The
+women, as in other parts of the country, seemed to go about as freely as
+the men. They wore several skirts or petticoats of different lengths,
+with highly ornamented borders, and sometimes over them loose-flowing
+robes, which reached to the ankles. No veils were worn here as in some
+other parts of Anahuac. The Aztec women had their faces exposed; and
+their dark raven tresses floated luxuriantly over their shoulders,
+revealing features which, although of a dusky or rather cinnamon hue,
+were not unfrequently pleasing, while<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> touched with the serious, even
+sad expression characteristic of the national physiognomy."</p>
+
+<p>When near the great market "the Spaniards were astonished at the throng
+of people pressing toward it, and on entering the place their surprise
+was still further heightened by the sight of the multitudes assembled
+there, and the dimensions of the enclosure, twice as large, says one
+Spanish observer, as the celebrated square of Salamanca. Here were
+traders from all parts; the goldsmiths from Azcapozalco, the potters and
+jewelers of Cholula, the painters of Tezcuco, the stone-cutters,
+hunters, fishermen, fruiterers, mat and chair makers, florists, etc. The
+pottery department was a large one; so were the armories for implements
+of war; razors and mirrors&mdash;booths for apothecaries with drugs, roots,
+and medical preparations. In other places again, blank-books or maps for
+the hieroglyphics or pictographs were to be seen folded together like
+fans. Animals both wild and tame were offered for sale, and near them,
+perhaps, a gang of slaves with collars round their necks. One of the
+most attractive features of the market was the display of provisions:
+meats of all kinds, domestic poultry, game from the neighboring
+mountains, fish from the lakes and streams, fruits in all the delicious
+abundance of these temperate regions, green vegetables, and the
+unfailing maize."</p>
+
+<p>This market, like hundreds of smaller ones, was of course held every
+fifth day&mdash;the week of the ancient Mexicans being one-fourth of the
+twenty days which constituted the Aztec month. This great market was
+comparable to "the periodical fairs in Europe, not as they now exist,
+but as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> they existed in the middle ages," when from the difficulties of
+intercommunication they served as the great central marts for commercial
+intercourse, exercising a most important and salutary influence on the
+community.</p>
+
+<p>One of the Spaniards in the party accompanying Cortés was the historian
+Diaz, and his testimony is remarkable:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>There were among us soldiers who had been in many parts of the
+world, Constantinople and Rome, and through all Italy, and who said
+that a market-place so large, so well ordered and regulated, and so
+filled with people, they had never seen.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Proceeding next to the great <i>teocalli</i> or Aztec temple, covering the
+site of the modern cathedral with part of the market-place and some
+adjoining streets, they found it in the midst of a great open space,
+surrounded by a high stone wall, ornamented on the outside by figures of
+serpents raised in relief, and pierced by huge battlemented gateways
+opening on the four principal streets of the capital. The <i>teocalli</i>
+itself was a solid pyramidal structure of earth and pebbles, coated on
+the outside with hewn stones, the sides facing the cardinal points. It
+was divided into five stories, each of smaller dimensions than that
+immediately below. The ascent was by a flight of steps on the outside,
+which reached to the narrow terrace at the bottom of the second story,
+passing quite round the building, when a second stairway conducted to a
+similar landing at the base of the third. Thus the visitor was obliged
+to pass round the whole edifice four times in order to reach the top.
+This had a most imposing effect<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> in the religious ceremonials, when the
+pompous procession of priests with their wild minstrelsy came sweeping
+round the huge sides of the pyramid, as they rose higher and higher
+toward the summit in full view of the populace assembled in their
+thousands.</p>
+
+<p>Cortés marched up the steps at the head of his men, and found at the
+summit "a vast area paved with broad flat stones. The first object that
+met their view was a large block of jasper, the peculiar shape of which
+showed it was the stone on which the bodies of the unhappy victims were
+stretched for sacrifice. Its convex surface, by raising the breast,
+enabled the priest to perform more easily his diabolical task of
+removing the heart. At the other end of the area were two towers or
+sanctuaries, consisting of three stories, the lower one of stone, the
+two upper of wood elaborately carved. In the lower division stood the
+images of their gods; the apartments above were filled with utensils for
+their religious services, and with the ashes of some of their Aztec
+princes who had fancied this airy sepulcher. Before each sanctuary stood
+an altar, with that undying fire upon it, the extinction of which boded
+as much evil to the empire as that of the Vestal flame would have done
+in ancient Rome. Here also was the huge cylindrical drum made of
+serpents' skins, and struck only on extraordinary occasions, when it
+sent forth a melancholy, weird sound, that might be heard for miles"
+over the country, indicating fierce anger of deity against the enemies
+of Mexico.</p>
+
+<p>As Cortés reached the summit he was met by the Emperor himself attended
+by the high priest.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> Taking the general by the hand, Montezuma pointed
+out the chief localities in the wide prospect which their position
+commanded, including not only the capital, "bathed on all sides by the
+salt floods of the Tezcuco, and in the distance the clear fresh waters
+of Lake Chalco," but the whole of the Valley of Mexico to the base of
+the circular range of mountains, and the wreaths of vapor rolling up
+from the hoary head of Popocatepetl.</p>
+
+<p>Cortés was allowed "to behold the shrines of the gods. They found
+themselves in a spacious apartment, with sculptures on the walls,
+representing the Mexican calendar, or the priestly ritual. Before the
+altar in this sanctuary stood the colossal image of Huitzilopochtli, the
+tutelary deity and war-god of the Aztecs. His countenance was distorted
+into hideous lineaments of symbolical import. The huge folds of a
+serpent, consisting of pearls and precious stones, were coiled round his
+waist, and the same rich materials were profusely sprinkled over his
+person. On his left foot were the delicate feathers of the humming-bird,
+which gave its name to the dread deity. The most conspicuous ornament
+was a chain of gold and silver hearts alternate, suspended round his
+neck, emblematical of the sacrifice in which he most delighted. A more
+unequivocal evidence of this was afforded by three human hearts that now
+lay smoking on the altar before him.</p>
+
+<p>"The adjoining sanctuary was dedicated to a milder deity. This was
+Tezcatlipoca, who created the world, next in honor to that invisible
+being the Supreme God, who was represented by no<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> image, and confined by
+no temple. He was represented as a young man, and his image of polished
+black stone was richly garnished with gold plates and ornaments. But the
+homage to this god was not always of a more refined or merciful
+character than that paid to his carnivorous brother."</p>
+
+<p>According to Diaz, whom we have already quoted, the stench of human gore
+in both those chapels was more intolerable than that of all the
+slaughter-houses in Castile. Glad to escape into the open air, Cortés
+expressed wonder that a great and wise prince like Montezuma could have
+faith "in such evil spirits as these idols, the representatives of the
+devil! Permit us to erect here the true cross, and place the images of
+the Blessed Virgin and her Son in these sanctuaries; you will soon see
+how your false gods will shrink before them!"</p>
+
+<p>This extraordinary speech of the general shocked Montezuma, who, in
+reproof, said: "Had I thought you would have offered this outrage to the
+gods of the Aztecs, I would not have admitted you into their presence."</p>
+
+<p>Cortés, as a general, had some of the great qualities of Napoleon, but
+he also resembled him occasionally in a singular lack of delicacy and
+good taste. We do not, however, find that he ever showed such mean
+malignity as the French general did when persecuting Madame de Staël,
+because in her Germany she had omitted to mention his campaigns and
+administration.</p>
+
+<p>Within the same enclosure, Cortés and his companions visited a temple
+dedicated to Quetzalcoatl, a god referred to already. Other build<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span>ings
+served as seminaries for the instruction of youth of both sexes; and
+according to the Spanish accounts of the teaching and management of
+these institutions there was "the greatest care for morals and the most
+blameless deportment."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="SEIZURE_OF_MONTEZUMA" id="SEIZURE_OF_MONTEZUMA"></a>SEIZURE OF MONTEZUMA</h2>
+
+
+<p>After being guest of the Mexican Emperor for a week, Cortés resolved to
+carry out a most daring and unprecedented scheme&mdash;a purely "Napoleonic
+movement," such as could scarcely have entered the brain of any general
+ancient or modern. He argued with himself that a quarrel might at any
+moment break out between his men and the citizens; the Spaniards again
+could not remain long quiet unless actively employed; and, thirdly,
+there was still greater danger with the Tlascalans, "a fierce race now
+in daily contact with a nation that regards them with loathing and
+detestation." Lastly, the Governor of Cuba, already grossly offended
+with Cortés, might at any moment send after him a sufficient army to
+wrest from him the glory of conquest. Cortés therefore formed the daring
+resolve to seize Montezuma in his palace and carry him as a prisoner to
+the Spanish quarters. He hoped thus to have in his own hands the supreme
+management of affairs, and at the same time secure his own safety with
+such a "sacred pledge" in keeping.</p>
+
+<p>It was necessary to find a pretext for seizing the hospitable Montezuma.
+News had already come to Cortés, when at Cholula, that Escalante, whom
+he had left in charge of Vera Cruz, had been defeated by the Aztecs in a
+pitched bat<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span>tle, and that the head of a Spaniard, then slain, had been
+sent to the Emperor, after being shown in triumph throughout some of the
+chief cities.</p>
+
+<p>Cortés asked an audience from Montezuma, and that being readily granted,
+he prepared for his plot by having a large body of armed men posted in
+the courtyard. Choosing five companions of tried courage, Cortés then
+entered the palace, and after being graciously received, told Montezuma
+that he knew of the treachery that had taken place near the coast, and
+that the Emperor was said to be the cause.</p>
+
+<p>The Emperor said that such a charge could only have been concocted by
+his enemies. He agreed with the proposal of Cortés to summon the Aztec
+chief who was accused of treachery to the garrison at Vera Cruz; and was
+then persuaded to transfer his residence to the palace occupied by the
+Spaniards. He was there received and treated with ostentatious respect;
+but his people observed that in front of the palace there was constantly
+posted a patrol of sixty soldiers, with another equally large in the
+rear.</p>
+
+<p>When the Aztec chief arrived from the coast, he and his sixteen Aztec
+companions were condemned to be burned alive before the palace.</p>
+
+<p>The next daring act of the Spanish general was to order iron fetters to
+be fastened on Montezuma's ankles. The great Emperor seemed struck with
+stupor and spoke never a word. Meanwhile the Aztec chiefs were executed
+in the courtyard without interruption, the populace imagining the
+sentence had been passed upon them by Montezuma, and the victims
+submitting to their fate without a murmur.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Cortés returning then to the room where Montezuma was imprisoned,
+unclasped the fetters and said he was now at liberty to return to his
+own palace. The Emperor, however, declined the offer.</p>
+
+<p>The instinctive sense of human sympathy must have frequently been not
+only repressed but extinguished by all the great conquering generals who
+have crushed nations under foot. Besides those of prehistoric times in
+Asia and Europe, we have examples in Alexander the Greek, Julius Cæsar
+the Roman, Cortés and Pizarro the Spaniards, Frederick the Prussian, and
+Napoleon the Corsican.</p>
+
+<p>The great French general consciously aimed at dramatic effect in his
+exploits, but how paltry his seizing the Duc d'Enghien at dead of night
+by a troop of soldiers, or his coercing the King of Spain to resign his
+sovereignty after inducing him to cross the border into France. In the
+unparalleled case of Cortés, a powerful emperor is seized by a few
+strangers at noonday and carried off a prisoner without opposition or
+bloodshed. So extraordinary a transaction, says Robertson, would appear
+"extravagant beyond the bounds of probability" were it not that all the
+circumstances are "authenticated by the most unquestionable evidence."</p>
+
+<p>The nephew of Montezuma, Cakama, the lord of Tezcuco, had been closely
+watching all the motions of the Spaniards. He "beheld with indignation
+and contempt the abject condition of his uncle; and now set about
+forming a league with several of the neighboring caziques to break the
+detested yoke of the Spaniards." News of this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> league reached the ears
+of Cortés, and arresting him with the permission of Montezuma, he
+deposed him, and appointed a younger brother in his place. The other
+caziques were seized, each in his own city, and brought to Mexico, where
+Cortés placed them in strict confinement along with Cakama.</p>
+
+<p>The next step taken by Cortés was to demand from Montezuma an
+acknowledgment of the supremacy of the Spanish Emperor. The Aztec
+monarch and chief caziques easily granted this; and even agreed that a
+gratuity should be sent by each of them as proof of loyalty. Collectors
+were sent out, and "in a few weeks most of them returned, bringing back
+large quantities of gold and silver plate, rich stuffs, etc." To this
+Montezuma added a huge hoard, the treasures of his father. When brought
+into the quarters, the gold alone was sufficient to make three great
+heaps. It consisted partly of native grains, and partly of bars; but the
+greatest portion was in utensils, and various kinds of ornaments and
+curious toys, together with imitations of birds, insects, or flowers,
+executed with uncommon truth and delicacy. There were also quantities of
+collars, bracelets, wands, fans, and other trinkets, in which the gold
+and feather-work were richly powdered with pearls and precious stones.
+Montezuma expressed regret that the treasure was no larger; he had
+"diminished it," he said, "by his former gifts to the white men."</p>
+
+<p>The Spaniards gazed on this display of riches, far exceeding all
+hitherto seen in the New World&mdash;though small compared with the quantity
+of treasure found in Peru. The whole amount of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> this Mexican gift was
+about £1,417,000, according to Prescott, Dr. Robertson making it
+smaller.</p>
+
+<p>It was no easy task to divide the spoil. A fifth had to be deducted for
+the Crown, and an equal share went to the general, besides a "large sum
+to indemnify him and the Governor of Cuba for the charges of the
+expedition and the loss of the fleet. The garrison of Vera Cruz was also
+to be provided for. The cavalry, musketeers, and crossbowmen each
+received double pay." Thus for each of the common soldiers there was
+only 100 gold <i>pesos</i>&mdash;i. e., £2-5/8 X 100 = £262 10s. To many this
+share seemed paltry, compared with their expectations; and it required
+all the tact and authority of Cortés to quell the grumbling.</p>
+
+<p>There still remained one important object of the Spanish invasion, an
+object which Cortés as a good Catholic dared not overlook&mdash;the
+conversion of the Aztec nation from heathenism. The bloody ritual of the
+<i>teocallis</i> was still observed in every city. Cortés waited on
+Montezuma, urging a request that the great temple be assigned for public
+worship according to the Christian rites.</p>
+
+<p>Montezuma was evidently much alarmed, declaring that his people would
+never allow such a profanation, but at last, after consulting the
+priest, agreed that one of the sanctuaries on the summit of the temple
+should be granted to the Christians as a place of worship.</p>
+
+<p>An altar was raised, surmounted by a crucifix and the image of the
+Virgin. The whole army ascended the steps in solemn procession and
+listened with silent reverence to the service of the mass. In
+conclusion, "as the beautiful Te Deum rose toward heaven, Cortés and his
+sol<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span>diers kneeling on the ground, with tears streaming from their eyes,
+poured forth their gratitude to the Almighty for this glorious triumph
+of the cross." Such a union of heathenism and Christianity was too
+unnatural to continue.</p>
+
+<p>A few days later the Emperor sent for Cortés and earnestly advised him
+to leave the country at once. Cortés replied that ships were necessary.
+Montezuma agreed to supply timber and workmen, and in a short time the
+construction of several ships was begun at Vera Cruz on the seacoast,
+while in the capital the garrison kept itself ready by day and by night
+for a hostile attack. Only six months had elapsed since the arrival of
+the Spaniards in the capital, 1519, and now the army was in more
+uncomfortable circumstances than ever.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, while Cortés had been reducing Mexico and humbling the
+unfortunate Montezuma, the Governor of Cuba had complained to the court
+of Spain, but without success. Charles V, since his election to the
+imperial crown of Germany, had neglected the affairs of Spain; and when
+the envoys from Vera Cruz waited upon him, little came of the conference
+except the astonishment of the court at the quantity of gold, and the
+beautiful workmanship of the ornaments and the rich colors of the
+Mexican feather-work. The opposition of the Bishop of Burgos thwarted
+the conqueror of Mexico, as he had already successfully opposed the
+schemes of the "Great Admiral" and his son Diego Columbus. We shall
+presently see how this influential ecclesiastic was able to thwart
+Balboa when governor of Darien.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Velasquez was now determined to wreak his revenge upon Cortés without
+waiting longer for assistance from Spain. He prepared an expedition of
+eighteen ships with eighty horsemen, 800 infantry, 120 crossbowmen, and
+twelve pieces of artillery. To command these Velasquez chose a hidalgo
+named Narvaez, who had assisted formerly in subduing Cuba and
+Hispaniola. The personal appearance of Narvaez, as given by Diaz, is
+worth quoting:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>He was tall, stout-limbed, with a large head and red beard, an
+agreeable presence, a voice deep and sonorous, as if it rose from a
+cavern. He was a good horseman and valiant.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Meanwhile Cortés persuaded Montezuma that some friends from Spain had
+arrived at Vera Cruz, and therefore got permission to leave him and the
+capital in charge of Alvarado and a small garrison. Montezuma, in his
+royal litter, borne on the shoulders of his Aztec nobles, accompanied
+the Spanish general to the southern causeway.</p>
+
+<p>When Cortés was within fifteen leagues' distance of Zempoalla, where
+Narvaez was encamped, the latter sent a message that if his authority
+were acknowledged he would supply ships to Cortés and his army so that
+all who wished might freely leave the country with all their property.</p>
+
+<p>Cortés, however, with his usual astuteness, replied: "If Narvaez bears a
+royal commission I will readily submit to him. But he has produced none.
+He is a deputy of my rival, Velasquez. For myself, I am a servant of the
+King; I have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> conquered the country for him; and for him I and my brave
+followers will defend it to the last drop of our blood. If we fall it
+will be glory enough to have perished in the discharge of our duty."</p>
+
+<p>Narvaez and his army were meantime spending their time frivolously; and
+when the actual attack was begun in the dead of night, under a pouring
+rain-storm, it appeared that only two sentinels were on guard. Narvaez,
+badly wounded, was taken prisoner on the top of a <i>teocalli</i>; and in a
+very short time his army was glad to capitulate. The horse-soldiers whom
+Narvaez had sent to waylay one of the roads to Zempoalla, rode in soon
+after to tender their submission. The victorious general, seated in a
+chair of state, with a richly embroidered Mexican mantle on his
+shoulders, received his congratulations from the officers and soldiers
+of both armies. Narvaez and several others were led in chains.</p>
+
+<p>Cortés not only defeated Narvaez, but, after the battle, enlisted under
+his standard the Spanish soldiers who had been sent to attack
+him&mdash;reminding one of the "magnetism" of Hannibal or Napoleon, and the
+consequent enthusiasm caused by mere presence, looks, and words.</p>
+
+<p>Before the rejoicings were finished, however, tidings were brought to
+Cortés from the Mexican capital that the whole city was in a state of
+revolt against Alvarado. On his march back to the great plateau Cortés
+found the inhabitants of Tlascala still friendly and willing to assist
+as allies in the struggle against their ancient foes, the Mexicans. On
+reaching the camp of the Spaniards in Mexico, Cortés found that Alvarado
+had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> provoked the insurrection by a massacre of the Aztec populace.</p>
+
+<p>Having entered the precincts with his army, Cortés at once made anxious
+preparations for the siege which was threatened by the Aztecs, now
+assembling in thousands.</p>
+
+<p>As the assailants approached "they set up a hideous yell, or rather that
+shrill whistle used in fight by the nations of Anahuac," accompanied by
+the sound of shell and atabal and their other rude instruments of wild
+music. This was followed by a tempest of missiles, stones, darts, and
+arrows. The Spaniards waited until the foremost column had arrived
+within distance, when a general discharge of artillery and muskets swept
+the ranks of the assailants. Never till now had the Mexicans witnessed
+the murderous power of these formidable engines. At first they stood
+aghast, but soon rallying, they rushed forward over the prostrate bodies
+of their comrades.</p>
+
+<p>Pressing on, some of them tried to scale the parapet, while others tried
+to force a breach in it. When the parapet proved too strong they shot
+burning arrows upon the wooden outworks.</p>
+
+<p>Next day there were continually fresh supplies of warriors added to the
+forces of the assailants, so that the danger of the situation was
+greatly increased. Diaz, an onlooker, thus wrote:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>The Mexicans fought with such ferocity that if we had been assisted
+by 10,000 Hectors and as many Orlandos, we should have made no
+impression on them. There were several of our troops who had served
+in the Italian wars, but neither there nor in the battles with the
+Turks had they ever seen anything like the desperation shown by
+these Indians.</p></blockquote><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Cortés at last drew off his men and sounded a retreat, taking refuge in
+the fortress. The Mexicans encamped round it, and during the night
+insulted the besieged, shouting, "The gods have at last delivered you
+into our hands: the stone of sacrifice is ready: the knives are
+sharpened."</p>
+
+<p>Cortés now felt that he had not fully understood the character of the
+Mexicans. The patience and submission formerly shown in deference to the
+injured Montezuma was now replaced by concentrated arrogance and
+ferocity. The Spanish general even stooped to request the interposition
+of the Aztec Emperor; and, at last, when assured that the foreigners
+would leave his country if a way were opened through the Mexican army he
+agreed to use his influence. For this purpose</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>he put on his imperial robes; his mantle of white and blue flowed
+over his shoulders, held together by its rich clasp of the green
+<i>chalchivitl</i>. The same precious gem, with emeralds of uncommon
+size, set in gold, profusely ornamented other parts of his dress.
+His feet were shod with the golden sandals, and his brows covered
+with the Mexican diadem, resembling in form the pontifical tiara.
+Thus attired and surrounded by a guard of Spaniards, and several
+Aztec nobles, and preceded by the golden wand, the symbol of
+sovereignty, the Indian monarch ascended the central turret of the
+palace.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>At the sight of Montezuma all the Mexican army became silent, partly, no
+doubt, from curiosity. He assured them that he was no prisoner; that the
+strangers were his friends, and would leave Mexico of their own accord
+as soon as a way was opened.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>To call himself a friend of the hateful Spaniards was a fatal argument.
+Instead of respecting their monarch, though in his official robes, the
+populace howled angry curses at him as a degenerate Aztec, a coward, no
+longer a warrior or even a man!</p>
+
+<p>A cloud of missiles was hurled at Montezuma, and he was struck to the
+ground by the blow of a stone on his head. The unfortunate monarch only
+survived his wounds for a few days, disdaining to take any nourishment,
+or to receive advice from the Spanish priests.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, Cortés and his army met with an unexpected danger. A large
+body of the Indian warriors had taken possession of the great temple, at
+a short distance from the Spanish quarters. From this commanding
+position they kept shooting a deadly flight of arrows on the Spaniards.
+Cortés sent his chamberlain, Escobar, with a body of men to storm the
+temple, but, after three efforts, the party had to relinquish the
+attempt. Cortés himself then led a storming party, and after some
+determined fighting reached the platform at the top of the temple where
+the two sanctuaries of the Aztec deities stood. This large area was now
+the scene of a desperate battle, fought in sight of the whole capital as
+well as of the Spanish troops still remaining in the courtyard.</p>
+
+<p>This struggle between such deadly enemies caused dreadful carnage on
+both sides:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>The edge of the area was unprotected by parapet or battlement; and
+the combatants, as they struggled in mortal agony, were sometimes
+seen to roll over the sheer sides of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> the precipice together.
+Cortés himself had a narrow escape from this dreadful fate.... The
+number of the enemy was double that of the Christians; but the
+invulnerable armor of the Spaniard, his sword of matchless temper,
+and his skill in the use of it, gave him advantages which far
+outweighed the odds of physical strength and numbers.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>This unparalleled scene of bloodshed lasted for three hours. Of the
+Mexicans "two or three priests only survived to be led away in triumph";
+yet the loss of the Spaniards was serious enough, amounting to
+forty-five of their best men. Nearly all the others were wounded, some
+seriously.</p>
+
+<p>After dragging the uncouth monster, Huitzilopochtli, from his sanctuary,
+the assailants hurled the repulsive image down the steps of the temple,
+and then set fire to the building. The same evening they burned a large
+part of the town.</p>
+
+<p>Cortés now resolved upon a night retreat from the capital; but when
+marching along one of the causeways they were attacked by the Mexicans
+in such numbers that, when morning dawned, the shattered battalion was
+reduced to less than half its number. In after years that disastrous
+retreat was known to the Spanish chroniclers as <i>Noche Triste</i>, the
+"Night of Sorrows."</p>
+
+<p>After a hurried six days' march before the pursuers, Cortés gained a
+victory so signal that an alliance was speedily formed with Tlascala
+against Mexico. Cortés built twelve brigantines at Vera Cruz in order to
+secure the command of Lake Tescuco and thus attempt the reduction of the
+Mexican capital. On his return to the great lake he found that the
+throne was now occupied by Guatimozin, a nephew of Montezuma. Using
+their brigantines the Spanish soldiers now began<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> the siege of
+Mexico&mdash;"the most memorable event in the conquest of America." It lasted
+seventy-five days, during which the whole of the capital was reduced to
+ruins. Guatimozin, the last of the Aztec emperors, was condemned by the
+Spanish general to be hanged on the charge of treason.</p>
+
+<p>Cortés was now master of all Mexico. The Spanish court and people were
+full of admiration for his victories and the extent of his conquests;
+and Charles V appointed him "Captain-General and Governor of New Spain."
+On revisiting Europe, the Emperor honored him with the order of St. Jago
+and the title of marquis. Latterly, however, after some failures in his
+exploring expeditions, Cortés, on his return to Spain, found himself
+treated with neglect. It was then, according to Voltaire's story, that
+when Charles asked the courtiers, "Who is that man?" referring to
+Cortés, the latter said aloud: "It is one, sire, that has added more
+provinces to your dominions than any other governor has added towns!"
+Cortés died in his sixty-second year, December 2, 1547.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+
+<h3>BALBOA AND THE ISTHMUS</h3>
+
+
+<p>In the Spanish conquest of America there are three great generals:
+Cortés, Balbao, and Pizarro. The third may to many readers seem
+immeasurably superior as explorer and conqueror to the second, but it
+must be remembered that Pizarro's scheme of discovering and invading
+Peru was precisely that which Balboa had already pre<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span>pared. Pizarro
+could afford to say, "Others have labored, and I have merely entered
+into their labors."</p>
+
+<p>What, then, was the work done by Balboa, and what prevented him from
+taking Peru? In 1510, the year before the conquest of Cuba, Balboa was
+glad to escape from Hispaniola, not to avoid the Spanish cruelties, like
+Hatuey, the luckless cazique, but to escape from his Spanish creditors.
+So anxious was he to get on board that he concealed himself in a cask to
+avoid observation. Balboa, however, had administrative qualities, and
+after taking possession of the uncleared district of Darien in the name
+of the King of Spain, he was appointed governor of the new province. He
+built the town Santa Maria on the coast of the Darien Gulf; but so
+pestilential was the district (and still is) that the settlers were glad
+after a short time to remove to the other side of the isthmus.</p>
+
+<p>It was by mere accident that Balboa first heard of a great ocean beyond
+the mountains of Darien, and of the enormous wealth of Peru, a country
+hitherto unknown to Spain or Europe. As several soldiers were one day
+disputing about the division of some gold-dust, an Indian cazique called
+out:</p>
+
+<p>"Why quarrel about such a trifle? I can show you a region where the
+commonest pots and pans are made of that metal."</p>
+
+<p>To the inquiries of Balboa and his companions, the cazique replied that
+by traveling six days to the south they should see another ocean, near
+which lay the wealthy kingdom.</p>
+
+<p>Resolving to cross the isthmus, notwithstand<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span>ing a thousand formidable
+obstructions, Balboa formed a party consisting of 190 veterans,
+accompanied by 1,000 Indians, and several fierce dogs trained to hunt
+the naked natives. Such were the difficulties that the "six days'
+journey" occupied twenty-five before the ridge of the isthmus range was
+reached.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>Balboa commanded his men to halt, and advanced alone to the summit,
+that he might be the first who should enjoy a spectacle which he
+had so long desired. As soon as he beheld the sea stretching in
+endless prospect below him he fell on his knees; ... his followers
+observing his transports of joy rushed forward to join in his
+wonder, exultation, and gratitude.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>That was the moment, September 25, 1513, immortalized in Keats's sonnet:</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">When with eagle eyes</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">He stared at the Pacific, and all his men</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Looked at each other with a wild surmise,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Silent, upon a peak in Darien.</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Balboa hurried down the western slope of the isthmus range to take
+formal possession in the name of the Spanish monarch. He found a fishing
+village there which had been named Panama (i. e., "plenty fish") by the
+Indians, but had also a reputation for the pearls found in its bay.</p>
+
+<p>In his letter to Spain, Balboa said, to illustrate the difficulties of
+the expedition, that of all the 190 men in his party there were never
+more than eighty fit for service at one time. Notwithstanding the
+wonderful news of the discovery of the "great southern ocean," as the
+Pacific was then called, Ferdinand overlooked the great services<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> of
+Balboa, and appointed a new Governor of Darien called Pedrarias, who
+instituted a judicial inquiry into some previous transactions of Balboa,
+imposing a heavy fine as punishment. The new governor committed other
+acts of great imprudence, and at length Ferdinand felt that he had only
+superseded the most active and experienced officer he had in the New
+World. To make amends to Balboa, he was appointed "Lieutenant-Governor
+of the Countries upon the South Sea," with great privileges and
+authority. At the same time Pedrarias was commanded to "support Balboa
+in all his operations, and to consult with him concerning every measure
+which he himself pursued."</p>
+
+<p>Balboa, in 1517, began his preparations for entering the South Sea and
+conveying troops to the country which he proposed to invade. With four
+small brigantines and 300 chosen soldiers (a force superior to that with
+which Pizarro afterward undertook the same expedition), he was on the
+point of sailing toward the coasts of which they had such expectations,
+when a message arrived from Pedrarias. Balboa being unconscious of
+crime, agreed to delay the expedition, and meet Pedrarias for
+conference. On entering the palace Balboa was arrested and immediately
+tried on the charge of disloyalty to the King and intention of revolt
+against the governor. He was speedily sentenced to death, although the
+accusation was so absurd that the judges who pronounced the sentence
+"seconded by the whole colony, interceded warmly for his pardon." "The
+Spaniards beheld with astonishment and sorrow the public execution of a
+man<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> whom they universally deemed more capable than any who had borne
+command in America, of forming and accomplishing great designs." This
+gross injustice amounting to a public scandal was accounted for by the
+malignant influence of the Bishop of Burgos, in Spain, who was the
+original cause of Balboa being superseded as Governor of Darien.</p>
+
+<p>The expedition designed by Balboa was now relinquished; but the removal
+of the colony soon afterward to the Pacific side of the isthmus may be
+considered a step toward the realization of an exactly similar attempt
+by Pizzaro.</p>
+
+<p>To some historical readers the word "Darien" only recalls the bitter
+prejudice entertained against William III, our "Dutch King,"
+notwithstanding the special pleading of Lord Macaulay and others. Some
+Scottish merchants had adopted a scheme recommended by the most reliable
+authorities<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> of that age, viz., the settlement of a half-commercial,
+half-military colony on the Atlantic coast of the isthmus. Such a
+company, in the words of Paterson, would be masters of the "door of the
+seas," and the "key of the universe." The East India Companies both of
+England and Holland showed an envious jealousy of the Scottish
+merchants, and therefore no assistance was to be expected from the King,
+although he had given his royal sanction to the Scots Act of Parliament
+creating the company. The Scottish people, however, zealously continued
+the scheme. Some 1,200 men "set sail from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> Leith amid the blessings of
+many thousands of their assembled countrymen. They reached the Gulf of
+Darien in safety, and established themselves on the coast in localities
+to which they gave the names of New Caledonia and New St. Andrews." The
+Government of Spain (secretly instigated, it was believed, by the
+English King) resolved to attack the embryo colony. The shipwreck of
+the whole scheme soon followed, due undoubtedly more to the jealousy of
+the English merchants (who believed that any increase of trade in
+Scotland or Ireland was a positive loss to England) and the bad faith of
+our Dutch King, than to all other causes whatever. Of the colony,
+according to Dalrymple (ii, 103), not more than thirty ever saw their
+own country again.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>In 1526 a company of English merchants was formed to trade with the West
+Indies and the "Spanish Main," and commanded great success. Other
+merchants did the same. Soon after the Spanish court instituted a
+coast-guard to make war upon these traders; and as they had full power
+to capture and slay all who did not bear the King of Spain's commission,
+there were terrible tales told in Europe of mutilation, torture, and
+revenge. The Windward Islands having been gradually settled by French
+and English adventurers, Frederick of Toledo was sent with a large fleet
+to destroy those petty colonies. This harsh treatment rendered the
+planters desperate, and under the name of buccaneers,<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> they continued
+"a retaliation so horribly savage [<i>v.</i> Notes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> to Rokeby] that the
+perusal makes the reader shudder. From piracy at sea, they advanced to
+making predatory descents on the Spanish territories; in which they
+displayed the same furious and irresistible valor, the same thirst of
+spoil, and the same brutal inhumanity to their captives." The pride and
+presumption of Spain were partly resisted by the English monarchs, but
+not with real effect before the time of Cromwell, strongest of all the
+rulers of Britain. Under his government of the seas Spain was deprived
+of the island of Jamaica; and the buccaneers to their disgust found that
+the flag of the great Protector was a check against all piracy and
+injustice.</p>
+
+<p>Under Charles II, however, the buccaneers resumed their conflict with
+the Spanish, and in 1670, Henry Morgan, with 1,500 English and French
+ruffians resolved to cross the isthmus like Balboa, to plunder the
+depositories of gold and silver which lay in the city of Panama and
+other places on the Pacific coast. Having stormed a strong fortress at
+the mouth of the Chagres River, they forced their way through the
+entangled forests for ten days, and after much hardship reached Panama,
+to find it defended by a regular army of twice their number. The
+Spaniards, however, were beaten, and Morgan thoroughly sacked and
+plundered the city, taking captive all the chief citizens in order to
+extort afterward large ransoms.</p>
+
+<p>Ten years afterward the Isthmus of Darien was crossed by Dampier,
+another celebrated buccaneer, but his party was too small to attack
+Panama. They seized some Spanish vessels in the bay and plundered all
+the coast for some dis<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span>tance. The following description by the bold
+buccaneer is not without interest to those who consider the present
+importance of the place:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>Near the riverside stands New Panama, a very handsome city, in a
+spacious bay of the same name, into which disembogue many long and
+navigable rivers, some whereof are not without gold; besides that
+it is beautified by many pleasant isles, the country about it
+affording a delightful prospect to the sea.... The houses are
+chiefly of brick and pretty lofty, especially the president's, the
+churches, the monasteries, and other public structures, which make
+the best show I have seen in the West Indies.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The present prosperity of Panama is due to its large transit trade,
+which was recently estimated at £15,000,000 a year. The pearl-fisheries,
+famous at the time of Balboa's visit, have now little value. The
+narrowest breadth of the isthmus being only thirty miles, there have
+naturally been many engineering proposals to connect the Pacific and
+Atlantic oceans by a canal. M. de Lesseps founded a French company in
+1881 for the construction of a ship-canal with eight locks, and over
+forty-six miles in length; but in 1889, the excavations stopped after
+some 48&frac12; millions of cubic meters of earth and rock had been removed.
+Meanwhile a railway 47&frac12; miles long connects Colon on the Atlantic
+with Panama on the Pacific.</p>
+
+<p>The Mexican Isthmus of Tehuantepec, only 140 miles across, separates the
+Bay of Campeachy from the Pacific, and failing the Panama Canal some
+engineers were in favor of a <i>ship-railway</i> for conveying large vessels
+<i>bodily</i> from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The scheme met with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> great
+favor in the United States, but has not yet been carried out.</p>
+
+<p>The third proposal for connecting the two great oceans is probably the
+most feasible because it follows the most deeply marked depression of
+the isthmus. The Nicaraguan Ship-canal will, if the scheme be carried
+out, pass from Greytown on the Atlantic to Brito on the Pacific, about
+170 miles apart, through the republic of Nicaragua, which lies north of
+Panama and south of Guatemala. One obvious advantage of this ship-canal
+is that the great lake is utilized, affording already about one-third of
+the waterway; only twenty-eight miles, in fact, being actual canal, and
+the rest river, lake, and lagoon navigation. In the latest
+specifications the engineers proposed to dam up the river (San Juan) by
+a stone wall seventy feet high and 1,900 feet long, thus raising the
+water to a level of 106 feet above the sea. Only three locks will be
+required to work the Nicaraguan Ship-canal.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2>
+
+<h3>EXTINCT CIVILIZATION OF PERU</h3>
+
+
+<p class="center">§ (A) <i>Peruvian Archeology</i></p>
+
+<p>As the extinct civilization of the Incas of Peru is the most important
+phase of development among all the American races, so also their
+pre-historic remains are extremely interesting to the archeologist.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img src="images/illus-173.jpg" width="500" height="284" alt="Monolith Doorway. Near Lake Titicaca. Fig. 1." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Monolith Doorway. Near Lake Titicaca. Fig. 1.</span>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>1. <i>Architecture.</i>&mdash;In the interior of the country we find many
+remarkable examples of stone building, such as walls of huge polygonal
+stones, four-sided or five-sided or six-sided, some six feet across,
+laid without mortar, and so finely polished and adjusted that the blade
+of a knife can not be inserted between them. The strength of the masonry
+is sometimes assisted by having the projecting parts of a stone fitting
+into corresponding hollows or recesses in the stone above or below it.
+The stones being frequently extremely hard granite, or basalt, etc.,
+antiquarian travelers have wondered how in early times the natives could
+have cut and polished them without any metal tools. The ordinary
+explanation is that the work was done by patiently rubbing one stone
+against another, with the aid of sharp sand, "time being no object" in
+the case of the laborers among savage and primitive races. It is
+believed by most antiquaries that long before<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> the period of the Incas
+there was a powerful empire to which we must attribute such Cyclopean
+ruins; especially as the construction and style differ so greatly from
+what is found in the Inca period. The huge stones occur at Tiahuanacu
+(near Lake Titicaca), Cuzco, Ollantay, and the altar of Concacha. Fig. 1
+is a broken doorway at Tiahuanacu, composed of huge monoliths. Fig. 2 is
+an enlargement of an image over the doorway shown in Fig. 1. The doorway
+forms the entrance to a quadrangular area (400 yards by 350) surrounded
+by large stones standing on end. The gateway or doorway of Fig. 1 is one
+of the most marvelous stone monuments existing, being <i>one block of hard
+rock</i>, deeply sunk in the ground. The present height is over seven feet.
+The whole of the inner side "from a line level with the upper lintel of
+the doorway to the top" is a mass of sculpture, "which speaks to us,"
+says Sir C. R. Markham, "in difficult riddles of the customs and art
+culture, of the beliefs and traditions of an ancient" extinct
+civilization.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 452px;">
+<img src="images/illus-175.jpg" width="452" height="650" alt="Image over the doorway shown in Fig. 1.
+" title="" />
+<span class="caption">Image over the doorway shown in Fig. 1.<br />
+
+Near Lake Titicaca. Fig. 2.</span>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>The figure in high relief above the doorway (Fig. 2) is a head
+surrounded by rays, "each terminating in a circle or the head of an
+animal." Six human heads hang from the girdle, and two more from the
+elbows. Each hand holds a scepter terminating at the lower end with the
+head of a condor&mdash;that huge American vulture familiar to the Peruvians.
+That bird of prey was probably an emblem of royalty to the prehistoric
+dynasty now long forgotten.</p>
+
+
+<p>Some older historians speak of richly carved statues which formerly
+stood in this enclosure, and "many cylindrical pillars." Of the
+masonry<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> of these ruins generally, Squier says: "The stone is faced
+with a precision that no skill can excel, its right angles turned with
+an accuracy that the most careful geometer could not surpass. I do not
+believe there exists a better piece of stone-cutting, the material
+considered, on this or the other continent."</p>
+
+<p>The fortress above Cuzco, the capital of the Incas, is considered the
+grandest monument of extinct American civilization. "Like the Pyramids
+and the Coliseum, it is imperishable.... A fortified work, 600 yards in
+length, built of gigantic stones, in three lines, forming walls
+supporting terraces and parapets.... The stones are of blue limestone,
+of enormous size and irregular in shape, but fitted into each other with
+rare precision. One stone is twenty-seven feet high by fourteen; and
+others fifteen feet high by twelve are common throughout the work."</p>
+
+<p>In all the architecture of the prehistoric Peruvians the true arch is
+not found, though there is an approach to the "Maya arch," formerly
+described, finishing the doorway overhead by overlapping stones.</p>
+
+<p>The immense fortresses of Ollantay and Pisac are really hills which, by
+means of encircling walls, have been transformed into immense pyramids
+with many terraces rising above each other. All large buildings, such as
+temples and palaces, were laid out to agree with the "cardinal points,"
+the principal entrance always facing the rising sun. The tomb
+construction of the ancient Peruvians has been already noticed (<i>v.</i>
+chap. iv).</p>
+
+<p>To the south of Cuzco are the ruins of a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> temple, Cacha, which is
+considered to be of a date between the Cyclopean structures already
+described and the Inca architecture. The chief part is 110 yards long,
+built of wrought stones; and in the middle of the building from end to
+end runs a wall pierced by twelve high doorways. There were also two
+series of pillars which had formerly supported a floor.</p>
+
+<p>Those traces of the Cyclopean builders point to an extremely early date,
+but several students of the Peruvian antiquities point confidently to
+distinct evidence of a still more primitive race&mdash;to be compared,
+perhaps, with those builders of "Druidic monuments" whom it is now the
+fashion to call "neolithic men." Some "cromlechs" or burial-places have
+been found in Bolivia and other parts of Peru; and in many respects they
+are parallel to the stone monuments found in Great Britain as well as
+Brittany and other parts of Europe. Some of those Peruvian cromlechs
+consist of four great slabs of slate, each about five feet high, four or
+five in width, and more than an inch thick. A fifth is placed over them.
+Over the whole a pyramid of clay and rough stones is piled. Possibly
+that race of cromlech builders bore the same relation to the temple
+builders described above that the builders of Kits Coty House, between
+Rochester and Maidstone, bore to the temple builders of Stonehenge on
+Salisbury Plain. If they had to retreat, as the ice-sheet was driven
+farther from the torrid zone, then by the theory of the Glacial Period
+the Cromlech men in both cases would at last be simply Eskimos.</p>
+
+<p>2. <i>Aqueducts.</i>&mdash;The ancient Peruvians at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span>tained great skill in the
+distribution of water&mdash;especially for irrigation. Artificial lakes or
+reservoirs were formed, so that by damming up the streams in the rainy
+season a good supply was created for the dry season. Some great
+monuments still remain of their hydraulic engineering, such as extensive
+cisterns, solid dikes along the rivers to prevent overflow, tunnels to
+drain lakes during an oversupply, and, in some places, artificial
+cascades.</p>
+
+<p>3. <i>Roads and Bridges.</i>&mdash;The roads and highways of the Incas were so
+excellent that "in many places" they still offer by far the most
+convenient avenues of transit. They are from fifteen to twenty-five feet
+in width, bedded with small stones often laid in concrete. As the use of
+beasts of burden was almost unknown, the roads did not ascend a steep
+inclination by zigzags but by steps cut in the rock. At certain
+distances public shelters were erected for travelers, and some of these
+still offer the best lodging-houses to be found along the routes.
+Bridges were of wood, of ropes made from maguey fiber, or of stone. Some
+of the latter are still in excellent condition, in spite of the violence
+of the mountain torrents which they have spanned for four centuries.</p>
+
+<p>4. <i>Sculpture.</i>&mdash;The Maya race of Yucatan and Central America were much
+superior to the prehistoric Peruvians in stone sculpture. Except those
+examples already referred to under 1, their artists have apparently
+produced nothing to show skill in workmanship, much less fertility of
+imagination. That is largely explained by their lack of suitable tools.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>5. <i>Goldsmith's Work.</i>&mdash;In this branch of art the ancient Peruvians
+greatly excelled, especially in inlaying and gilding. Gold-beating and
+gilding had been prosecuted to remarkable delicacy, and the very thin
+layers of gold-leaf on many articles led the Spaniards at first to
+believe they were of the solid metal. These delicate layers showed
+ornamental designs, including birds, butterflies, and the like.</p>
+
+<p>6. <i>Pottery.</i>&mdash;In this department of industrial art the prehistoric
+Peruvians showed much aptitude both "in regard to variety of design and
+technical skill in preparing the material. Vases with pointed bottoms
+and painted sides recalling those of ancient Greece and Etruria are
+often disinterred along the coast." The merit of those artists lay in
+perfect imitation of natural objects, such as birds, fishes, fruits,
+plants, skulls, persons in various positions, faces (often with graphic
+individuality). Some jars exactly resembled the "magic vases" which are
+still found in Hindustan, and can be emptied only when held at a certain
+angle.</p>
+
+<p>7. Though ignorant of perspective and the rules of light and shade,
+these ancient Peruvians had an accurate eye for color. "Spinning,
+weaving, and dyeing," to quote Sir C. R. Markham, "were arts which were
+sources of employment to a great number, owing to the quantity and
+variety of the fabrics.... There were rich dresses interwoven with gold
+or made of gold thread; fine woolen mantles ornamented with borders of
+small square plates of gold and silver; colored cotton cloths worked in
+complicated patterns; and fabrics of aloe fiber and sheep's sinews for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span>
+breeches. Coarser cloths of llama wool were also made in vast
+quantities."</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 358px;">
+<img src="images/illus-180.jpg" width="358" height="450" alt="The Quipu." title="" />
+<span class="caption">The Quipu.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>8. The <i>quipu</i> (i e., "knot").&mdash;Without writing or even any of the
+simpler forms of pictographs which some Indian races inferior to them in
+refinement had invented, the Peruvians had no means of sending a message
+relating to tribute or the number of warriors in an army, or a date,
+except the <i>quipu</i>. It consisted of one principal cord about two feet
+long held horizontally, to which other cords of various colors and
+lengths were attached, hanging vertically. The knots on the vertical
+cords, and their various lengths served by means of an arranged code to
+convey certain words and phrases. Each color and each knot had so many
+conventional significations; thus <i>white</i> = silver, <i>green</i> = corn,
+<i>yellow</i> =<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> gold; but in another quipu, <i>white</i> = peace, <i>red</i> = war,
+soldiers, etc. The quipu was originally only a means of numeration and
+keeping accounts, thus:</p>
+
+
+
+<div class="centered">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" width="30%" cellspacing="0" summary="The quipu">
+<tr><td align="left">a single knot</td><td align="left">=</td><td align="left">10</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">a double knot</td><td align="left">=</td><td align="left">100</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">a triple knot</td><td align="left">=</td><td align="left">1,000</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">two singles</td><td align="left">=</td><td align="left">20</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">two doubles</td><td align="left">=</td><td align="left">200</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">etc.</td><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="left">&nbsp;</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<p>9. The great stone monuments described in our first section belonged,
+according to some writers, to a dynasty called Pirua, who ruled over the
+highlands of Peru and Bolivia long before the times of the Incas. That
+early race had as the center of their civilization the shores of Lake
+Titicaca.</p>
+
+<p>10. <i>The Ancient Capital.</i>&mdash;Cuzco, the center of government till the
+time of the conquest by the Spaniards, and for a long time the only city
+in the Peruvian empire, deserves a paragraph under the head archeology.
+Its wonderful fortress has already been referred to, and there are other
+Cyclopean remains, such as the great wall which contains the "stone of
+twelve corners." Some monuments of the Inca period also attract much
+attention, such as the Curi-cancha temple, 296 feet long, the palace of
+Amaru-cancha (i. e., "place of serpents"), so called from the serpents
+sculptured in relief on the exterior. Of these and other buildings
+Squier remarks that the "joints are of a precision unknown in our
+architecture; the world has nothing to show in the way of stone-cutting
+and fitting to surpass the skill and accuracy displayed in the Inca
+structures of Cuzco." To obtain the site for their capital the Incas had
+to carry out a great en<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span>gineering work, by confining two mountain
+torrents between walls of substantial masonry so solid as to serve even
+to modern times. The Valley of Cuzco was the source of the Peruvian
+civilization, center and origin of the empire. Hence the name, Cuzco =
+"navel," just as the ancient Greeks called Athens <i>umbilicus terræ</i>, and
+our New England cousins fondly refer to Boston, Mass., as "the hub of
+the universe"!</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img src="images/illus-182.jpg" width="500" height="477" alt="Gold Ornament (? Zodiac) from a Tomb at Cuzco." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Gold Ornament (? Zodiac) from a Tomb at Cuzco.</span>
+</div>
+
+
+<p class="center">§ (B) <i>Peru before the Arrival of the Spaniards</i></p>
+
+<p>The "national myth" of the Peruvians was that at Lake Titicaca two
+supernatural beings appeared, both children of the Sun. One was Manco
+Capac, the first Inca, who taught the people agriculture; the other was
+his wife, who<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> taught the women to spin and weave. From them were
+lineally derived all the Incas. As representing the Sun, the Inca was
+high priest and head of the hierarchy, and therefore presided at the
+great religious festivals. He was the source from which everything
+flowed&mdash;all dignity, all power, all emolument. Louis le Magnifique when
+at the height of his power might be taken as a type of the emperor Inca:
+both could literally use the phrase, <i>L'état c'est Moi,</i> "The State! I
+am the State!"</p>
+
+<p>In the royal palaces and dress great barbaric pomp was assumed. All the
+apartments were studded with gold and silver ornaments.</p>
+
+<p>The worship of the Sun, representing the Creator, the Dweller in Space,
+the Teacher and Ruler of the Universe,<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> was the religion of the Incas
+inherited from their distant ancestry. The great temple at Cuzco, with
+its gorgeous display of riches, was called "the place of gold, the abode
+of the Teacher of the Universe." An elliptical plate of gold was fixed
+on the wall to represent the Deity.</p>
+
+
+<p>Sufficient evidence is still visible of the engineering industry evinced
+by the natives before the arrival of Pizarro. We give some particulars
+of the two principal highways, both joining Quito to Cuzco, then passing
+south to Chile. First, the high level road, 1,600 miles in length,
+crossing the great Peruvian table-land, and conducted over pathless
+sierras buried in snow; with galleries cut for leagues through the
+living rock, rivers crossed by means of bridges, and ravines of hideous
+depth filled up with solid masonry.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> The roadway consisted of heavy
+flags of freestone. Secondly, the low level highway along the coast
+country between the Andes and the Pacific. The prehistoric engineers had
+here to encounter quite a different task. The causeway was raised on a
+high embankment of earth, with trees planted along the margin. In the
+strips of sandy waste, huge piles (many of them to be seen to this day)
+were driven into the ground to indicate the route.</p>
+
+<p>Another colossal effort was the conveyance of water to the rainless
+country by the seacoast, especially to certain parts capable of being
+reclaimed and made fertile. Some of the aqueducts were of great
+length&mdash;one measuring between 400 and 500 miles.</p>
+
+<p>The following table gives the Peruvian calendar for a year:</p>
+
+
+
+<div class="centered">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" width="55%" cellspacing="0" summary="Peruvian calendar">
+<tr><td align="left">I. Raymi, the <i>Festival of the Winter Solstice</i>,</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">in honor of the Sun</span></td><td align="left">June 22d.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Season of plowing</span></td><td align="left">July 22d.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Season of sowing</span></td><td align="left">August 22d.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">II. <i>Festival of the Spring Equinox</i></td><td align="left">September 22d.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Season of brewing</span></td><td align="left">October 22d.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Commemoration of the Dead</span></td><td align="left">November 22d.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">III. <i>Festival of the Summer Solstice</i> December 22d.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Season of exercises</span></td><td align="left">January 22d.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Season of ripening</span></td><td align="left">February 22d.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">IV. <i>Festival of Autumn Equinox</i></td><td align="left">March 22d.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Beginning of harvest</span></td><td align="left">April 22d.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Harvesting month</span></td><td align="left">May 22d.</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<p>Since Quito is exactly on the equator, the vertical rays of the sun at
+noon during the equinox cast no shadow. That northern capital,
+there<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span>fore, was "held in especial veneration as the favored abode of the
+great deity."</p>
+
+<p>At the feast of Raymi, or New Year's day, the sacrifice usually offered
+was that of the llama, a fire being kindled by means of a concave mirror
+of polished metal collecting the rays of the sun into a focus upon a
+quantity of dried cotton.</p>
+
+<p>The national festival of the Aztecs we compared to the secular
+celebration of the Romans; so now the Raymi of the Peruvians may be
+likened to the Panathenæa of ancient Athens, when the people of Attica
+ascended in splendid procession to the shrine on the Acropolis.</p>
+
+<p>In Mexico the Spanish travelers often experienced severe famines; and in
+India, even at the present day (to the disgrace perhaps of our
+management) nearly every year many thousands die of hunger. It was very
+different under the ancient Peruvians, because by law "the product of
+the lands consecrated to the Sun, as well as those set apart for the
+Incas, was deposited in the <i>Tambos</i>, or public storehouses, as a stated
+provision for times of scarcity."</p>
+
+<p>The Spaniards found those prehistoric agriculturists utilizing the
+inexhaustible supply of guano found on all the islands of the Pacific.
+It was not till the middle of the nineteenth century that the British
+farmer found the value of this fertilizer.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2>
+
+<h3>PIZARRO AND THE INCAS</h3>
+
+
+<p>When stout-hearted Balboa first reached the summit of the isthmus range
+and looked south over the Bay of Panama, he might have seen the "Silver
+Bell," which forms the summit of the mighty volcano Chimborazo. Still
+farther south in the same direction lay the "land of gold," of which he
+had heard.</p>
+
+<p>Balboa was unjustly prevented from exploring that unknown country, but
+among the Spanish soldiers in Panama there were two who determined to
+carry out Balboa's scheme. The younger, Pizarro, was destined to rival
+Cortés as explorer and conqueror; Almagro, his companion in the
+expedition, was less crafty and cruel. Sailing from Panama, the Spanish
+first landed on the coast below Quito, and found the natives wearing
+gold and silver trinkets. On a second voyage, with more men, they
+explored the coast of Peru and visited Tumbez, a town with a lofty
+temple and a palace for the Incas.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>They beheld a country fully peopled and cultivated; the natives
+were decently clothed, and possessed of ingenuity so far surpassing
+the other inhabitants of the New World as to have the use of tame
+domestic animals. But what chiefly attracted the notice of the
+visitors was such a show of gold and silver, not only in ornaments,
+but in several vessels and utensils for common use, formed of those
+precious metals as left no room to doubt that they abounded with
+profusion in the country.</p></blockquote><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>After his return Pizarro visited Spain and secured the patronage of
+Charles V, who appointed him Governor and Captain-General of the newly
+discovered country. In the next voyage from Panama, Pizarro set sail
+with 180 soldiers in three small ships&mdash;"a contemptible force surely to
+invade the great empire of Peru."</p>
+
+<p>Pizarro was very fortunate in the time of his arrival, because two
+brothers were fiercely contending in civil war to obtain the
+sovereignty. Their father, Huana Capac, the twelfth Inca in succession
+from Manco Capac, had recently died after annexing the kingdom of Quito,
+and thus doubling the power of the empire. Pizarro made friends with
+Atahualpa, who had become Inca by the defeat and death of his brother,
+and a friendly meeting was arranged between them. The Peruvians are thus
+described by a Spanish onlooker:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>First of all there arrived 400 men in uniform; the Inca himself, on
+a couch adorned with plumes, and almost covered with plates of gold
+and silver, enriched with precious stones, was carried on the
+shoulders of his principal attendants. Several bands of singers and
+dancers accompanied the procession; and the whole plain was covered
+with troops, more than 30,000 men.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>After engaging in a religious dispute with the Inca, who refused to
+acknowledge the authority of the Pope and threw the breviary on the
+ground, the Spanish chaplain exclaimed indignantly that the Word of God
+had been insulted by a heathen.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>Pizarro instantly gave the signal of assault: the martial music
+struck up, the cannon and muskets began to fire, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> horse rallied
+out fiercely to the charge, the infantry rushed on sword in hand.
+The Peruvians, astonished at the suddenness of the attack, dismayed
+with the effect of the firearms and the irresistible impression of
+the cavalry, fled with universal consternation on every side.
+Pizarro, at the head of his chosen band, soon penetrated to the
+royal seat, and seizing the Inca by the arm, carried him as a
+prisoner to the Spanish quarters.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>For his ransom Atahualpa agreed to pay a weight of gold amounting to
+more than five millions sterling.</p>
+
+<p>Instead of keeping faith with the Inca by restoring him to liberty,
+Pizarro basely allowed him to be tried on several false charges and
+condemned to be burned alive.</p>
+
+<p>After hearing of the enormous ransom many Spaniards hurried from
+Guatemala, Panama, and Nicaragua to share in the newly discovered booty
+of Peru, the "land of gold." Pizarro, therefore, being now greatly
+reenforced with soldiers, forced his way to Cuzco, the capital. The
+riches found there exceeded in value what had been received as
+Atahualpa's ransom.</p>
+
+<p>As Governor of Peru, Pizarro chose a new site for his capital, nearer
+the coast than Cuzco, and there founded Lima. It is now a great center
+of trade. Pizarro lived here in great state till the year 1542, when his
+fate reached him by means of a party of conspirators seeking to avenge
+the death of Almagro, his former rival, whom he had cruelly executed as
+a traitor. On Sunday, June 26th, at midday, while all Lima was quiet
+under the siesta, the conspirators passed unobserved through the two
+outer courts of the palace, and speedily despatched the
+soldier-adventurer, in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span>trepidly defending himself with a sword and
+buckler. "A deadly thrust full in the throat," and the tale of daring
+Pizarro was told.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 8em;"><i>Raro antecedentem scelestum</i></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 8em;"><i>Deseruit pede Poena claudo.</i></span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 16em;">When</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Did Doom, though lame, not bide its time,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">To clutch the nape of skulking Crime?</span><br />
+</p>
+<p class="author"><span class="smcap">W. E. Gladstone</span>.<br />
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<h3>GENERAL INDEX.</h3>
+
+
+<ul class="none"><li>  A.</li>
+
+<li>  Agathocles, <a href='#Page_119'>119</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Agassiz, <a href='#Page_73'>73</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Alfred, King, <a href='#Page_19'>19</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Almagro, Pizarro's rival, <a href='#Page_186'>186</a>, <a href='#Page_189'>189</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Alvarado, <a href='#Page_158'>158</a>, <a href='#Page_159'>159</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  America, Discoveries of, <a href='#Page_19'>19</a>-<a href='#Page_35'>35</a>, <a href='#Page_38'>38</a>-<a href='#Page_45'>45</a>, <a href='#Page_48'>48</a>-<a href='#Page_53'>53</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  America, origin of the name, <a href='#Page_50'>50</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  American Archeology, <a href='#Page_71'>71</a>-<a href='#Page_79'>79</a> (<i>see</i> also <span class="smcap">Aztec, Peru, Civilization</span>).</li>
+
+<li>  Amerigo (<i>Americus</i>), (<i>see</i> <span class="smcap">Vespucci</span>).</li>
+
+<li>  Anahuac, <a href='#Page_56'>56</a>, <a href='#Page_58'>58</a>, <a href='#Page_63'>63</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Archeology, <a href='#Page_71'>71</a>-<a href='#Page_88'>88</a> (see under <span class="smcap">Aztec</span>, <span class="smcap">Mexico</span>, <span class="smcap">Peru</span>, and <span class="smcap">Civilization, Extinct</span>).</li>
+
+<li>  Aristotle, shape of the earth, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Arthur, King, <a href='#Page_19'>19</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Atahualpa, Inca, <a href='#Page_187'>187</a>, <a href='#Page_188'>188</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Atlantic, ridge, <a href='#Page_15'>15</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Atlantis, island or continent, <a href='#Page_14'>14</a>, <a href='#Page_15'>15</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Avalon, <a href='#Page_17'>17</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Aztecs, their traditions, <a href='#Page_54'>54</a>, <a href='#Page_56'>56</a>, <a href='#Page_57'>57</a>, <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>, <a href='#Page_63'>63</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Aztecs, antiquities, <a href='#Page_55'>55</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Aztecs, kingdom, <a href='#Page_58'>58</a>;</li>
+<li>    empire founded, <a href='#Page_76'>76</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Aztecs, letters, etc., <a href='#Page_58'>58</a>, <a href='#Page_79'>79</a>-<a href='#Page_82'>82</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Aztecs, astronomy, <a href='#Page_64'>64</a>, <a href='#Page_65'>65</a>, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>, <a href='#Page_83'>83</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Aztecs, human sacrifices, <a href='#Page_59'>59</a>, <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>, <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>, <a href='#Page_102'>102</a>, <a href='#Page_106'>106</a>;</li>
+<li>    <span style="margin-left: 1em;">how explained by comparison with Jews, Greeks, Druids, etc.,</span> <a href='#Page_100'>100</a>-<a href='#Page_106'>106</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Aztecs, priesthood, <a href='#Page_65'>65</a>, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Aztecs, religion, <a href='#Page_92'>92</a>, <a href='#Page_93'>93</a>;</li>
+<li>    <span style="margin-left: 1em;">laws,</span> <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Aztecs, natural piety, <a href='#Page_66'>66</a>-<a href='#Page_68'>68</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Aztecs, secular festival, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>-<a href='#Page_70'>70</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Aztecs, soldiery, <a href='#Page_91'>91</a>, <a href='#Page_92'>92</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Aztecs, agriculture, <a href='#Page_94'>94</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Aztecs, markets, <a href='#Page_97'>97</a>, <a href='#Page_147'>147</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Aztecs, banquets, social amusements, <a href='#Page_97'>97</a>, <a href='#Page_99'>99</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Aztlan, <a href='#Page_56'>56</a>.</li><li>&nbsp;</li><li>  B.</li>
+
+<li>  Bacon, Roger, <a href='#Page_18'>18</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Bahamas, <a href='#Page_41'>41</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Balboa, <a href='#Page_9'>9</a>, <a href='#Page_50'>50</a>, <a href='#Page_52'>52</a>, <a href='#Page_164'>164</a>, <a href='#Page_168'>168</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Balboa scheme&mdash;adopted by Pizarro, <a href='#Page_186'>186</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Balboa hears of the Land of Gold, <a href='#Page_165'>165</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Balboa crosses the isthmus, <a href='#Page_166'>166</a>, <a href='#Page_167'>167</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Balboa unjustly treated, <a href='#Page_167'>167</a>, <a href='#Page_168'>168</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Barcelona, Columbus honored at Court, <a href='#Page_45'>45</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Basque Discovery, <a href='#Page_32'>32</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Boston in Vinland, <a href='#Page_26'>26</a>, <a href='#Page_182'>182</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Brandan, St. discoverer, <a href='#Page_32'>32</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Brito, ship-canal, <a href='#Page_172'>172</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Buccaneers, origin, etc., <a href='#Page_169'>169</a>, <a href='#Page_170'>170</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Buffon, <a href='#Page_15'>15</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Burgos, Bishop of, <a href='#Page_157'>157</a>, <a href='#Page_168'>168</a>.</li><li>&nbsp;</li><li>  C.</li>
+
+<li>  Cabot, <a href='#Page_38'>38</a>, <a href='#Page_48'>48</a>, <a href='#Page_49'>49</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Cabrera reaches Brazil, <a href='#Page_49'>49</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Cakama, prince of Tezcuco, <a href='#Page_154'>154</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Calendar Stone, <a href='#Page_83'>83</a>, <a href='#Page_84'>84</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Calicut reached by Gama, <a href='#Page_49'>49</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Canaanites, etc., sun-worship, <a href='#Page_102'>102</a>, <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Cannibalism, <a href='#Page_102'>102</a>, <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Capac, Inca, <a href='#Page_182'>182</a>, <a href='#Page_187'>187</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Carthage, <a href='#Page_17'>17</a>, <a href='#Page_102'>102</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Cathay, <a href='#Page_39'>39</a>, <a href='#Page_43'>43</a>, <a href='#Page_45'>45</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Cazique, <a href='#Page_43'>43</a>, <a href='#Page_117'>117</a>, etc.</li>
+
+<li>  Celtic discoveries, <a href='#Page_19'>19</a>, <a href='#Page_30'>30</a>-<a href='#Page_32'>32</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Chalco, Lake, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>, <a href='#Page_137'>137</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Charles V. and Cortés, <a href='#Page_164'>164</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Chiapas, <a href='#Page_77'>77</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Chibchas, <a href='#Page_85'>85</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Cholula, <a href='#Page_84'>84</a>, <a href='#Page_94'>94</a>, <a href='#Page_130'>130</a>, <a href='#Page_133'>133</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Civilization, Extinct, chaps, iii, ix.</li>
+
+<li>  Civilization, Celtic, <a href='#Page_19'>19</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Civilization, Norse, <a href='#Page_19'>19</a>-<a href='#Page_25'>25</a>, <a href='#Page_27'>27</a>-<a href='#Page_31'>31</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Civilization, Aztec, etc., <a href='#Page_54'>54</a>-<a href='#Page_70'>70</a>, <a href='#Page_82'>82</a>, <a href='#Page_83'>83</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Civilization, Peru, <a href='#Page_172'>172</a>-<a href='#Page_185'>185</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Colon (<i>see</i> <span class="smcap">Columbus</span>);</li>
+<li>    <span style="margin-left: 1em;">also an Atlantic port on the isthmus of Darien,</span> <a href='#Page_172'>172</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Columbia, <a href='#Page_76'>76</a>, <a href='#Page_85'>85</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Columbus, <a href='#Page_17'>17</a>-<a href='#Page_18'>18</a>, <a href='#Page_37'>37</a>, <a href='#Page_38'>38</a>-<a href='#Page_46'>46</a>, <a href='#Page_157'>157</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Columbus, early failures, <a href='#Page_39'>39</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Columbus, voyage to Iceland, <a href='#Page_39'>39</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Columbus, variation of the compass, <a href='#Page_41'>41</a>, <a href='#Page_42'>42</a>, <a href='#Page_49'>49</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Columbus, discovers Bahamas, Cuba, Hayti, <a href='#Page_42'>42</a>-<a href='#Page_44'>44</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Columbus, discovers Trinidad and Orinoco, <a href='#Page_45'>45</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Columbus, map by (found in 1894), <a href='#Page_42'>42</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Columbus, autograph (cut) and epitaph, <a href='#Page_46'>46</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Columbus, Ferdinand, <a href='#Page_18'>18</a>;</li>
+<li>  <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bartholomew,</span> <a href='#Page_43'>43</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Columbus, Diego, <a href='#Page_47'>47</a>, <a href='#Page_157'>157</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Continent, supposed southern (cut), <a href='#Page_12'>12</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Continent, Western, <a href='#Page_13'>13</a> (<i>see</i> <span class="smcap">Atlantis, Hesperides</span>).</li>
+
+<li>  Condor, emblem of prehistoric Inca, <a href='#Page_173'>173</a>, <a href='#Page_175'>175</a> (cuts).</li>
+
+<li>  Copan, <a href='#Page_79'>79</a>-<a href='#Page_81'>81</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Cordova lands on Yucatan, <a href='#Page_53'>53</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Cortés appointed leader, <a href='#Page_53'>53</a>, <a href='#Page_64'>64</a>, <a href='#Page_77'>77</a>, <a href='#Page_80'>80</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Cortés at Cuba and Hayti, <a href='#Page_117'>117</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Cortés at Yucatan, <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Cortés and Teuhtile, in, <a href='#Page_112'>112</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Cortés, generalship, <a href='#Page_119'>119</a>, <a href='#Page_124'>124</a>, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>, <a href='#Page_159'>159</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Cortés, resource, <a href='#Page_127'>127</a>, <a href='#Page_128'>128</a>, <a href='#Page_158'>158</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Cortés, cruelty, <a href='#Page_129'>129</a>, <a href='#Page_132'>132</a>, <a href='#Page_153'>153</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Cortés at Popocatepetl, <a href='#Page_133'>133</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Cortés and Montezuma, <a href='#Page_141'>141</a>, <a href='#Page_143'>143</a>-<a href='#Page_143'>143</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Cortés, lack of delicacy, <a href='#Page_152'>152</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Cortés, arrest of Montezuma, <a href='#Page_152'>152</a>-<a href='#Page_157'>157</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Cortés, personal courage, <a href='#Page_162'>162</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Cortés, retreat, "Night of Sorrows," <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Cortés, Mexico retaken and its emperor hanged, <a href='#Page_164'>164</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Cortés and Charles V., <a href='#Page_164'>164</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Cliff-houses, <a href='#Page_86'>86</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Cotton, Az. tec., preparation of, <a href='#Page_84'>84</a>, <a href='#Page_96'>96</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Cromwell, his influence, <a href='#Page_170'>170</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Cruz, Vera, <a href='#Page_110'>110</a>, <a href='#Page_114'>114</a>, <a href='#Page_120'>120</a>, <a href='#Page_156'>156</a>, <a href='#Page_157'>157</a>, <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Cuba, <a href='#Page_43'>43</a>-<a href='#Page_45'>45</a>, <a href='#Page_51'>51</a>-<a href='#Page_53'>53</a>, <a href='#Page_84'>84</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Culhua, <a href='#Page_110'>110</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Cuzco, <a href='#Page_174'>174</a>, <a href='#Page_176'>176</a>, <a href='#Page_181'>181</a>, <a href='#Page_183'>183</a>, <a href='#Page_188'>188</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Cuzco, Cyclopean remains, <a href='#Page_181'>181</a>, <a href='#Page_183'>183</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Cuzco, temple, <a href='#Page_183'>183</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Cyclopean ruins in Peru, <a href='#Page_173'>173</a>, <a href='#Page_178'>178</a>, <a href='#Page_181'>181</a>-<a href='#Page_183'>183</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Cyclopean ruins in Peru (cuts), <a href='#Page_173'>173</a>, <a href='#Page_175'>175</a>.</li><li>&nbsp;</li><li>  D.</li>
+
+<li>  Dalrymple, Sir John, <a href='#Page_169'>169</a>, <a href='#Page_170'>170</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Dampier, buccaneer, <a href='#Page_170'>170</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Darien, taken by Balboa, <a href='#Page_169'>169</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Darien, Scottish Expedition, <a href='#Page_169'>169</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Darien, causes of failure, <a href='#Page_169'>169</a>, <a href='#Page_170'>170</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Darien, crossed by Morgan, <a href='#Page_170'>170</a>, <a href='#Page_171'>171</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Darien, crossed by Dampier, <a href='#Page_171'>171</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Diaz, navigator, rounds the Cape of Good Hope and names it the "Stormy Cape," <a href='#Page_49'>49</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Diaz, historian, quoted, <a href='#Page_148'>148</a>, <a href='#Page_151'>151</a>, <a href='#Page_158'>158</a>, <a href='#Page_160'>160</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Dighton Stone, <a href='#Page_28'>28</a> (cuts, <a href='#Page_27'>27</a>, <a href='#Page_28'>28</a>).</li>
+
+<li>  Diodorus Siculus, <a href='#Page_16'>16</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Druid Sacrifices, <a href='#Page_106'>106</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  "Druidic," <a href='#Page_74'>74</a>, <a href='#Page_177'>177</a>, <a href='#Page_178'>178</a>.</li><li>&nbsp;</li><li>  E.</li>
+
+<li>  Edward VI and Cabot, <a href='#Page_48'>48</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Elysian Fields, <a href='#Page_13'>13</a>, <a href='#Page_14'>14</a>, <a href='#Page_16'>16</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Erik the Red, <a href='#Page_20'>20</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Escobar, <a href='#Page_162'>162</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Euripides, quoted, <a href='#Page_14'>14</a>.</li><li>&nbsp;</li><li>  F.</li>
+
+<li>  Feather-work, <a href='#Page_84'>84</a>, <a href='#Page_96'>96</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Ferdinand and Isabella, <a href='#Page_40'>40</a>, <a href='#Page_41'>41</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Feudalism ended, <a href='#Page_36'>36</a>.</li><li>&nbsp;</li><li>  G.</li>
+
+<li>  Gama, De, <a href='#Page_38'>38</a>, <a href='#Page_58'>58</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Gardens, <a href='#Page_138'>138</a>, <a href='#Page_139'>139</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Glazier, Theory, <a href='#Page_73'>73</a>-<a href='#Page_74'>74</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Gladstone quoted, <a href='#Page_189'>189</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Gosnold's Expedition, <a href='#Page_25'>25</a>, <a href='#Page_26'>26</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Greenland, <a href='#Page_19'>19</a>-<a href='#Page_25'>25</a>, <a href='#Page_30'>30</a>, <a href='#Page_31'>31</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Grijalva and Yucatan, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>, <a href='#Page_53'>53</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Guatemala, <a href='#Page_58'>58</a>, <a href='#Page_76'>76</a>, <a href='#Page_79'>79</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Guatimozin, <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Gunnbiorn, <a href='#Page_20'>20</a>.</li><li>&nbsp;</li><li>  H.</li>
+
+<li>  Hannibal on the Alps, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a>, <a href='#Page_135'>135</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Harold Fair-hair, <a href='#Page_20'>20</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Hatuey, <a href='#Page_51'>51</a>, <a href='#Page_52'>52</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Hayti, <a href='#Page_43'>43</a>, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Helluland (Newfoundland), <a href='#Page_22'>22</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Henry VII., <a href='#Page_48'>48</a>, <a href='#Page_49'>49</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Hercules' Pillars, <a href='#Page_13'>13</a>, <a href='#Page_17'>17</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Herodotus, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Hesiod, quoted, <a href='#Page_13'>13</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Hesperides, Isles of the Blest, <a href='#Page_14'>14</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Homer, quoted, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>, <a href='#Page_13'>13</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Honduras, <a href='#Page_76'>76</a>, <a href='#Page_79'>79</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Huitzilopochtli, god of battles, <a href='#Page_93'>93</a>, <a href='#Page_94'>94</a>, <a href='#Page_150'>150</a>, <a href='#Page_151'>151</a> (<i>see</i> <span class="smcap">Mexitl</span>.)</li>
+
+<li>  Humboldt, <a href='#Page_35'>35</a>, <a href='#Page_50'>50</a>, <a href='#Page_65'>65</a>, <a href='#Page_73'>73</a>, <a href='#Page_83'>83</a>, <a href='#Page_94'>94</a>.</li><li>&nbsp;</li><li>  I.</li>
+
+<li>  Iceland, <a href='#Page_19'>19</a>, <a href='#Page_20'>20</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Incas, <a href='#Page_172'>172</a>, <a href='#Page_182'>182</a> (<i>see</i> <span class="smcap">Peru</span>).</li>
+
+<li>  "Indian," as a term applied to the New World by mistake, a blunder still perpetuated, <a href='#Page_42'>42</a> (<i>cf</i>. <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>.)</li>
+
+<li>  Indians, "Red-skins," <a href='#Page_72'>72</a>-<a href='#Page_74'>74</a>, <a href='#Page_80'>80</a>, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Ingolf, <a href='#Page_19'>19</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Iphigenia, <a href='#Page_104'>104</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Ireland, Mickle, <a href='#Page_20'>20</a>, <a href='#Page_31'>31</a>, <a href='#Page_32'>32</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Italian Discovery, <a href='#Page_34'>34</a>-<a href='#Page_36'>36</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Itztli (obsidian), used as a sharp flint, <a href='#Page_95'>95</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Iztapalapan, <a href='#Page_138'>138</a>.</li><li>&nbsp;</li><li>  J.</li>
+
+<li>  Jamaica, <a href='#Page_170'>170</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Jewish "Discovery," <a href='#Page_33'>33</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Juan, S., ship-canal, <a href='#Page_172'>172</a>.</li><li>&nbsp;</li><li>  K.</li>
+
+<li>  Katortuk (Greenland), <a href='#Page_21'>21</a>, <a href='#Page_22'>22</a> (cut, <a href='#Page_21'>21</a>).</li>
+
+<li>  Kingsborough, Lord, <a href='#Page_34'>34</a>, <a href='#Page_69'>69</a>, <a href='#Page_82'>82</a>.</li><li>&nbsp;</li><li>  L.</li>
+
+<li>  Leif Erikson, <a href='#Page_21'>21</a>-<a href='#Page_23'>23</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Lesseps de, <a href='#Page_171'>171</a>-<a href='#Page_173'>173</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Loadstone, <a href='#Page_41'>41</a>, <a href='#Page_42'>42</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Longfellow, quoted, <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Lucian, quoted, <a href='#Page_17'>17</a>.</li><li>&nbsp;</li><li>  M.</li>
+
+<li>  Madoc, <a href='#Page_32'>32</a>, <a href='#Page_33'>33</a>, <a href='#Page_70'>70</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Magellan reaches the Pacific Ocean and names it, <a href='#Page_49'>49</a>;</li>
+<li>  <span style="margin-left: 1em;">killed at Matan,</span> <a href='#Page_50'>50</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Magnetic Pole, <a href='#Page_41'>41</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Maguey plant, its singular value, <a href='#Page_94'>94</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Major, Mr., on Pre-Columbian discoveries of America, and site of the Greenland colonies, <a href='#Page_35'>35</a>, <a href='#Page_36'>36</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Malte-Brun, <a href='#Page_35'>35</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Marina, "slave-interpreter," <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>, <a href='#Page_115'>115</a>, <a href='#Page_128'>128</a>, <a href='#Page_131'>131</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Markham, Sir C., quoted, <a href='#Page_30'>30</a>, <a href='#Page_174'>174</a>, <a href='#Page_179'>179</a>, <a href='#Page_183'>183</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Markland (Nova Scotia), <a href='#Page_22'>22</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Marvels, Age of, <a href='#Page_38'>38</a>, <a href='#Page_39'>39</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Maya, Mayapan, <a href='#Page_76'>76</a>, <a href='#Page_79'>79</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Maya, MS., <a href='#Page_81'>81</a>, <a href='#Page_82'>82</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Maya, trade, <a href='#Page_84'>84</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  <i>Mayflower</i> lands in Vinland, <a href='#Page_26'>26</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Medea, <a href='#Page_18'>18</a>, <a href='#Page_104'>104</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Merida, <a href='#Page_78'>78</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Mexico, Mexicans (<i>see also</i> <span class="smcap">Aztecs</span>).</li>
+
+<li>  Mexico, archeology, <a href='#Page_72'>72</a>-<a href='#Page_86'>86</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Mexico, geography, <a href='#Page_89'>89</a>, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>, <a href='#Page_133'>133</a>-<a href='#Page_135'>135</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Mexico, valley, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a>, <a href='#Page_135'>135</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Mexico, town, <a href='#Page_139'>139</a>, <a href='#Page_142'>142</a>, <a href='#Page_145'>145</a>-<a href='#Page_151'>151</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Mexico, wealth, <a href='#Page_155'>155</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Mexico, siege, <a href='#Page_160'>160</a>-<a href='#Page_164'>164</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Mexico, ferocity in war, <a href='#Page_160'>160</a>-<a href='#Page_164'>164</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Mexitl, the god of battles, another name for Huitzilopochtli, <a href='#Page_93'>93</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Monolith (cuts), <a href='#Page_173'>173</a>, <a href='#Page_175'>175</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Montezuma I., <a href='#Page_57'>57</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Montezuma, <a href='#Page_110'>110</a>-<a href='#Page_113'>113</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Montezuma, meaning of name, <a href='#Page_113'>113</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Montezuma, power, <a href='#Page_120'>120</a>, <a href='#Page_121'>121</a>, <a href='#Page_135'>135</a>, <a href='#Page_141'>141</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Montezuma, affability, <a href='#Page_144'>144</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Montezuma, dress, etc., <a href='#Page_161'>161</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Montezuma, death, <a href='#Page_162'>162</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Montgomery, James, <a href='#Page_20'>20</a>, <a href='#Page_22'>22</a>, <a href='#Page_23'>23</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Morgan, buccaneer, <a href='#Page_170'>170</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Mound builders, <a href='#Page_31'>31</a>, <a href='#Page_71'>71</a>, <a href='#Page_85'>85</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Müller, Max, quoted, <a href='#Page_56'>56</a>.</li><li>&nbsp;</li><li>  N.</li>
+
+<li>  Narvaez, <a href='#Page_158'>158</a>, <a href='#Page_159'>159</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Nicaragua, ship-canal, <a href='#Page_58'>58</a>, <a href='#Page_172'>172</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Norse Discovery, <a href='#Page_19'>19</a>-<a href='#Page_32'>32</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Norse towns in Greenland, <a href='#Page_20'>20</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Norumbega, <a href='#Page_25'>25</a>.</li><li>&nbsp;</li><li>  O.</li>
+
+<li>  Ocean, Western, <a href='#Page_12'>12</a>, <a href='#Page_16'>16</a>, <a href='#Page_17'>17</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Ocean, Southern, first name for the Atlantic (q.v.)</li>
+
+<li>  Oceanus, river, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Ogygia, <a href='#Page_16'>16</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Ollantay, Peru, <a href='#Page_174'>174</a>, <a href='#Page_176'>176</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Orinoco, discovered, <a href='#Page_45'>45</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Orizaba, <a href='#Page_120'>120</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Overland Route, <a href='#Page_37'>37</a>.</li><li>&nbsp;</li>
+
+<li>  P.</li>
+
+<li>  Pacific, first seen, <a href='#Page_166'>166</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Pacific, first sailed upon, <a href='#Page_50'>50</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Palenque, <a href='#Page_77'>77</a>, <a href='#Page_79'>79</a>, <a href='#Page_81'>81</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Palos, <a href='#Page_41'>41</a>, <a href='#Page_45'>45</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Panama, <a href='#Page_166'>166</a>, <a href='#Page_171'>171</a>, <a href='#Page_172'>172</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Panama, modern, <a href='#Page_171'>171</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Paper (prehistoric) of Mexico, <a href='#Page_82'>82</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Pedrarias, <a href='#Page_167'>167</a>, <a href='#Page_168'>168</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Peru and Incas, chaps. ix., x.</li>
+
+<li>  Peru agriculture, <a href='#Page_182'>182</a>, <a href='#Page_185'>185</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Peru aqueducts, roads, etc., <a href='#Page_177'>177</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Peru archeology, <a href='#Page_172'>172</a>-<a href='#Page_182'>182</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Peru architecture, <a href='#Page_87'>87</a>, <a href='#Page_172'>172</a>-<a href='#Page_178'>178</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Peru calendar, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a>, <a href='#Page_185'>185</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Peru chulpas, <a href='#Page_87'>87</a> (cut).</li>
+
+<li>  Peru quipu, <a href='#Page_180'>180</a> (cut).</li>
+
+<li>  Peru sculpture and pottery, <a href='#Page_178'>178</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Peru history and religion, <a href='#Page_182'>182</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Phenicians, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>, <a href='#Page_17'>17</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Pictograph, <a href='#Page_80'>80</a>, <a href='#Page_112'>112</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Pindar, quoted, <a href='#Page_13'>13</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Pizarro, <a href='#Page_164'>164</a>, <a href='#Page_167'>167</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Pizarro and Atahualpha, <a href='#Page_187'>187</a>, <a href='#Page_188'>188</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Pizarro and Peru, <a href='#Page_186'>186</a>-<a href='#Page_189'>189</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Pizarro, first and second voyages, <a href='#Page_186'>186</a>, <a href='#Page_187'>187</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Pizarro imitated Balboa, <a href='#Page_165'>165</a>, <a href='#Page_186'>186</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Pizarro invades Peru, <a href='#Page_187'>187</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Pizarro, his treachery and cruelty, <a href='#Page_188'>188</a>, <a href='#Page_189'>189</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Pizarro at Cusco, <a href='#Page_188'>188</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Pizarro founds Lima, <a href='#Page_188'>188</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Pizarro, "Doom" at last, <a href='#Page_189'>189</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Plato, <a href='#Page_14'>14</a>, <a href='#Page_15'>15</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Plutarch, <a href='#Page_16'>16</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Polo, Marco, <a href='#Page_39'>39</a>, <a href='#Page_43'>43</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Polyxena, <a href='#Page_104'>104</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Popocatepetl, <a href='#Page_133'>133</a>, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Ptolemy, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>, <a href='#Page_39'>39</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Pythagorean theory, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>.</li><li>&nbsp;</li>
+
+<li>  Q.</li>
+
+<li>  Quetzalcoatl, <a href='#Page_84'>84</a>, <a href='#Page_93'>93</a>, <a href='#Page_94'>94</a>, <a href='#Page_111'>111</a>, <a href='#Page_113'>113</a>, <a href='#Page_130'>130</a>, <a href='#Page_152'>152</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Quipu, <a href='#Page_180'>180</a>, <a href='#Page_181'>181</a> (cut, <a href='#Page_180'>180</a>).</li><li>&nbsp;</li>
+
+<li>  R.</li>
+
+<li>  Rafn, <a href='#Page_28'>28</a>, <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>, <a href='#Page_31'>31</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Raymi, Peruvian festival, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a>, <a href='#Page_185'>185</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Renascence, <a href='#Page_9'>9</a>, <a href='#Page_36'>36</a>, <a href='#Page_37'>37</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Renascence influence on travel and exploration, <a href='#Page_38'>38</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Renascence assisted the Reformation, <a href='#Page_37'>37</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Runes in Greenland, <a href='#Page_27'>27</a>, <a href='#Page_28'>28</a>.</li><li>&nbsp;</li>
+
+<li>  S.</li>
+
+<li>  Sebastian, Magellan's Basque lieutenant, <a href='#Page_33'>33</a>, <a href='#Page_50'>50</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Seneca, <a href='#Page_18'>18</a>, <a href='#Page_19'>19</a> (title-page).</li>
+
+<li>  "Scraelings," Vinland, <a href='#Page_23'>23</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  "Skeleton in Armor," <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Spain, how consolidated, <a href='#Page_37'>37</a>, <a href='#Page_106'>106</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Spain, close of its colonial history, <a href='#Page_52'>52</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Squier, quoted, <a href='#Page_176'>176</a>, <a href='#Page_181'>181</a>.</li><li>&nbsp;</li>
+
+<li>  T.</li>
+
+<li>  Tambos, Peru, <a href='#Page_185'>185</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Tehuantepec, isthmus, <a href='#Page_171'>171</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Tenochtitlan, Mexico, <a href='#Page_57'>57</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Teocalli, <a href='#Page_106'>106</a>, <a href='#Page_117'>117</a>, <a href='#Page_148'>148</a>-<a href='#Page_151'>151</a>, <a href='#Page_156'>156</a> (cut, <a href='#Page_105'>105</a>).</li>
+
+<li>  Tezcatlipoca, god of youth, <a href='#Page_61'>61</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Tezcuco, eastern capital, Mexico, <a href='#Page_56'>56</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Tezcuco, <a href='#Page_56'>56</a>, <a href='#Page_57'>57</a>, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Tezcuco, king of, <a href='#Page_100'>100</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Tezcuco, lake, <a href='#Page_139'>139</a>-<a href='#Page_140'>140</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Thorfinn, <a href='#Page_23'>23</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Thorwaldsen, <a href='#Page_23'>23</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Titicaca, lake, <a href='#Page_71'>71</a>, <a href='#Page_182'>182</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Titicaca (<i>see</i> <span class="smcap">Cyclopean ruins</span>), <a href='#Page_174'>174</a>, <a href='#Page_175'>175</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Tlaloc, god of rain, <a href='#Page_63'>63</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Tlascala, <a href='#Page_113'>113</a>, <a href='#Page_121'>121</a>-<a href='#Page_127'>127</a>, <a href='#Page_130'>130</a>, <a href='#Page_153'>153</a>, <a href='#Page_159'>159</a>, <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Tlascala, people, and siege, <a href='#Page_130'>130</a>, <a href='#Page_133'>133</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Toltecs, <a href='#Page_56'>56</a>, <a href='#Page_71'>71</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Totonacs, <a href='#Page_115'>115</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Trinidad, <a href='#Page_45'>45</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Tula, <a href='#Page_56'>56</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Tumbez, Peru, <a href='#Page_186'>186</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Turks, causing civilization, <a href='#Page_36'>36</a>, <a href='#Page_38'>38</a>.</li><li>&nbsp;</li>
+
+<li>  U.</li>
+
+<li>  Utatla, <a href='#Page_79'>79</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Uxmal, <a href='#Page_55'>55</a>, <a href='#Page_76'>76</a> (frontispiece).</li><li>&nbsp;</li><li>  V.</li>
+
+<li>  Valladolid, <a href='#Page_46'>46</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Velasquez, <a href='#Page_51'>51</a>-<a href='#Page_53'>53</a>, <a href='#Page_107'>107</a>, <a href='#Page_108'>108</a>, <a href='#Page_158'>158</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Vesper, <a href='#Page_14'>14</a> (<i>see</i> <span class="smcap">Hesperides</span>).</li>
+
+<li>  Vespucci, <a href='#Page_49'>49</a>, <a href='#Page_51'>51</a>, <a href='#Page_52'>52</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Vinland (New England), <a href='#Page_23'>23</a>, <a href='#Page_25'>25</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Vinland, map of, <a href='#Page_24'>24</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Voltaire, story of Cortés, <a href='#Page_164'>164</a>.</li><li>&nbsp;</li>
+
+<li>  W.</li>
+
+<li>  Waldseemüller, <a href='#Page_50'>50</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Watling's Island, <a href='#Page_42'>42</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Welsh Discovery, <a href='#Page_32'>32</a>, <a href='#Page_33'>33</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  William III. and Darien Scheme, <a href='#Page_168'>168</a>-<a href='#Page_169'>169</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Wilson, "Prehistoric Man," <a href='#Page_26'>26</a>, <a href='#Page_81'>81</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  World, shape of, <a href='#Page_9'>9</a>-<a href='#Page_11'>11</a>.</li><li>&nbsp;</li>
+
+<li>  X.</li>
+
+<li>  Xalapa, <a href='#Page_120'>120</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Xicotencatl, Tlascalan, <a href='#Page_124'>124</a>, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>, <a href='#Page_127'>127</a>-<a href='#Page_130'>130</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Xicotencatl appearance, <a href='#Page_129'>129</a>.</li><li>&nbsp;</li>
+
+<li>  Y.</li>
+
+<li>  Yochicalco, <a href='#Page_86'>86</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Yucatan, <a href='#Page_53'>53</a>, <a href='#Page_54'>54</a>, <a href='#Page_75'>75</a>-<a href='#Page_77'>77</a>.</li><li>&nbsp;</li>
+
+<li>  Z.</li>
+
+<li>  Zempoalla, "conversion of," <a href='#Page_116'>116</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Zempoalla, <a href='#Page_119'>119</a>, <a href='#Page_158'>158</a>, <a href='#Page_159'>159</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Zeni, Italian brothers, <a href='#Page_34'>34</a>-<a href='#Page_35'>35</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Zeno map, <a href='#Page_34'>34</a>, <a href='#Page_35'>35</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Zipango (Japan), <a href='#Page_39'>39</a>, <a href='#Page_45'>45</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Zodiac, comparative, <a href='#Page_55'>55</a>.</li>
+
+<li>  Zodiac (cut) from a tomb at Cusco, <a href='#Page_182'>182</a>.</li></ul>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+
+<h3>FOOTNOTES</h3>
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Tom Jones, xvi. chap. 2, 3, etc.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Prof. R. B. Anderson says, "The basin of the Charles River
+should be selected as the most probable scene of the visits of Leif
+Erikson, etc." [<i>v.</i> map.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> As to the Irish claim for the pre-Columbian discovery of
+America, see also Humboldt (Cosmos, ii, 607), and Laing (Heimsk., i,
+186).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> MS. Book of Lismore.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> The story is given by Humboldt and D'Avezac.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> Some quotations from Southey's poem are given in Chapters
+V, VI.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> The poet, however, makes the clerical blunder of writing
+Cortez for Balboa.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> Chips from a German Workshop, i, 327.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> Prescott, i, I, pp. 8, 9.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> Sahagun, Hist. de Nueva España, vi, 19.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> A famous group of seven small stars in the Bull
+constellation. The "seven sisters" appear as only <i>six</i> to ordinary
+eyesight: to make out the seventh is a test of a practised eye and
+excellent vision.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> White or Caucasian 640,000,000, yellow or Mongolian
+600,000,000, black or African 200,000,000, red or American 20,000,000.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> See Frontispiece.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> D. G. Brinton.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> Pp. 68-70, <i>v.</i> p. 95.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> The ruins were referred to in chap, iv, (<i>v.</i> p. 84, also
+130.)</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> Sahagun (vi, 22) quotes the precise instructions of a
+father to his son: he must wash face and hands before sitting down to
+table, and must not leave till he has repeated the operation and
+cleansed his teeth.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> The Spanish named this handsome bird <i>gallopavo</i> (Lat.
+<i>pavo</i>, the "peacock"). The wild turkey is larger and more beautiful
+than the tame, and therefore Benjamin Franklin, when speaking
+sarcastically of the "American Eagle," insisted that the wild turkey was
+the proper national emblem.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> The name Montezuma means "sad or severe man," a title
+suited to his features, though not to his mild character.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> Robertson, the historian, gives £5,000; but Prescott
+reckons a <i>peso de oro</i> at £2 12s. 6d.; whence the 20,000 of the text
+gives 20,000 x 2-5/8 = 2,500 x 21 = £52,500.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> Southey (Madoc, i, 7).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> Not to be confounded with the Indian village on the shore
+of Lake Maracaibo, to which (with similar motive) Vespucci had given
+that name&mdash;now capital of a large republic.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> E.g., Paterson, founder of the Bank of England, Fletcher
+of Saltoun, the Marquis of Tweeddale, then chief Minister of Scotland,
+Sir John Dalrymple, etc.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> Named from <i>boucan</i>, a kind of preserved meat, used by
+those rovers. They had learned this peculiar art of preserving from the
+native Caribs.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> According to Sir C. R. Markham, F. R. S.</p></div>
+
+
+</div>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<div class="centerbox">
+<p class="center">Transcriber's note:</p>
+
+<p>The many spelling and hyphenation discrepancies in this etext are as in
+the original.</p></div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF EXTINCT CIVILIZATIONS OF THE WEST***</p>
+<p>******* This file should be named 31413-h.txt or 31413-h.zip *******</p>
+<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br />
+<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/1/4/1/31413">http://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/4/1/31413</a></p>
+<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.</p>
+
+<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.</p>
+
+
+
+<pre>
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/license">http://www.gutenberg.org/license)</a>.
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS,' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit: http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Each eBook is in a subdirectory of the same number as the eBook's
+eBook number, often in several formats including plain vanilla ASCII,
+compressed (zipped), HTML and others.
+
+Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks replace the old file and take over
+the old filename and etext number.  The replaced older file is renamed.
+VERSIONS based on separate sources are treated as new eBooks receiving
+new filenames and etext numbers.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org">http://www.gutenberg.org</a>
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+EBooks posted prior to November 2003, with eBook numbers BELOW #10000,
+are filed in directories based on their release date.  If you want to
+download any of these eBooks directly, rather than using the regular
+search system you may utilize the following addresses and just
+download by the etext year.
+
+<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext06/">http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext06/</a>
+
+    (Or /etext 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00, 99,
+     98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90)
+
+EBooks posted since November 2003, with etext numbers OVER #10000, are
+filed in a different way.  The year of a release date is no longer part
+of the directory path.  The path is based on the etext number (which is
+identical to the filename).  The path to the file is made up of single
+digits corresponding to all but the last digit in the filename.  For
+example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at:
+
+http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/0/2/3/10234
+
+or filename 24689 would be found at:
+http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/4/6/8/24689
+
+An alternative method of locating eBooks:
+<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/GUTINDEX.ALL">http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/GUTINDEX.ALL</a>
+
+*** END: FULL LICENSE ***
+</pre>
+</body>
+</html>
diff --git a/31413-h/images/illus-012.jpg b/31413-h/images/illus-012.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f365183
--- /dev/null
+++ b/31413-h/images/illus-012.jpg
diff --git a/31413-h/images/illus-021.jpg b/31413-h/images/illus-021.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6a15a5d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/31413-h/images/illus-021.jpg
diff --git a/31413-h/images/illus-024.jpg b/31413-h/images/illus-024.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..94aae53
--- /dev/null
+++ b/31413-h/images/illus-024.jpg
diff --git a/31413-h/images/illus-027.jpg b/31413-h/images/illus-027.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3d1b9e0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/31413-h/images/illus-027.jpg
diff --git a/31413-h/images/illus-028.jpg b/31413-h/images/illus-028.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2509f02
--- /dev/null
+++ b/31413-h/images/illus-028.jpg
diff --git a/31413-h/images/illus-046.jpg b/31413-h/images/illus-046.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..85d5118
--- /dev/null
+++ b/31413-h/images/illus-046.jpg
diff --git a/31413-h/images/illus-087.jpg b/31413-h/images/illus-087.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6e07629
--- /dev/null
+++ b/31413-h/images/illus-087.jpg
diff --git a/31413-h/images/illus-093.jpg b/31413-h/images/illus-093.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..73af8da
--- /dev/null
+++ b/31413-h/images/illus-093.jpg
diff --git a/31413-h/images/illus-100.jpg b/31413-h/images/illus-100.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..31205d5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/31413-h/images/illus-100.jpg
diff --git a/31413-h/images/illus-105.jpg b/31413-h/images/illus-105.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..05df108
--- /dev/null
+++ b/31413-h/images/illus-105.jpg
diff --git a/31413-h/images/illus-173.jpg b/31413-h/images/illus-173.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..dd8fe14
--- /dev/null
+++ b/31413-h/images/illus-173.jpg
diff --git a/31413-h/images/illus-175.jpg b/31413-h/images/illus-175.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6b994b6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/31413-h/images/illus-175.jpg
diff --git a/31413-h/images/illus-180.jpg b/31413-h/images/illus-180.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e297dee
--- /dev/null
+++ b/31413-h/images/illus-180.jpg
diff --git a/31413-h/images/illus-182.jpg b/31413-h/images/illus-182.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2813b4c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/31413-h/images/illus-182.jpg
diff --git a/31413-h/images/illus-fpc.jpg b/31413-h/images/illus-fpc.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d93c7c8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/31413-h/images/illus-fpc.jpg
diff --git a/31413-h/images/illus-tpg.jpg b/31413-h/images/illus-tpg.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..64fad06
--- /dev/null
+++ b/31413-h/images/illus-tpg.jpg
diff --git a/31413.txt b/31413.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a7712ff
--- /dev/null
+++ b/31413.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,6183 @@
+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Story of Extinct Civilizations of the
+West, by Robert E. Anderson
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: The Story of Extinct Civilizations of the West
+
+
+Author: Robert E. Anderson
+
+
+
+Release Date: February 26, 2010  [eBook #31413]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF EXTINCT CIVILIZATIONS
+OF THE WEST***
+
+
+E-text prepared by the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading
+Team (http://www.fadedpage.com)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 31413-h.htm or 31413-h.zip:
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/31413/31413-h/31413-h.htm)
+      or
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/31413/31413-h.zip)
+
+
+
+
+
+THE STORY OF EXTINCT CIVILIZATIONS OF THE WEST
+
+by
+
+ROBERT E. ANDERSON, M.A., F.A.S.
+
+Author of
+Extinct Civilizations of the East
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Prehistoric Structure, Uxmal (Yucatan) (p. 76).]
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+  Venient annis saecula seris
+  Quibus Oceanus vincula rerum
+  Laxet, et ingens pateat tellus
+  Tethys que novos detegat orbes.
+
+  --SENECA.
+
+
+
+New York _McClure, Phillips & Co._ MCMIV
+
+Copyright, 1903, by
+D. Appleton and Company
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+  CHAPTER                                                    PAGE
+
+        INTRODUCTION                                            9
+
+     I. PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERIES OF AMERICA                   19
+
+    II. "DISCOVERY OF THE WORLD AND OF MAN"                    36
+
+   III. THE EXTINCT CIVILIZATION OF THE AZTECS                 54
+
+    IV. AMERICAN ARCHEOLOGY                                    71
+
+     V. MEXICO BEFORE THE SPANISH INVASION                     88
+
+    VI. ARRIVAL OF THE SPANIARDS                              106
+
+   VII. CORTES AND MONTEZUMA                                  135
+
+  VIII. BALBOA AND THE ISTHMUS                                164
+
+    IX. EXTINCT CIVILIZATION OF PERU                          172
+
+     X. PIZARRO AND THE INCAS                                 186
+
+
+
+
+MAPS, ETC.
+
+
+                                                             PAGE
+
+  Prehistoric Structure, Uxmal (Yucatan)           _Frontispiece_
+
+  Imaginary Continent, South of Africa and Asia                12
+
+  Remains of a Norse Church at Katortuk, Greenland             21
+
+  Map of Vinland                                               24
+
+  The Dighton Stone in the Taunton River, Massachusetts        27
+
+  The Dighton Stone. Fig. 2                                    28
+
+  Cipher Autograph of Columbus                                 46
+
+  Chulpa or Stone Tomb of the Peruvians                        87
+
+  Quetzalcoatl                                                 93
+
+  Ancient Bridge near Tezcuco                                 100
+
+  Teocalli, Aztec Temple for Human Sacrifices                 105
+
+  Monolith Doorway. Near Lake Titicaca. Fig. 1                173
+
+  Image over the Doorway shown in Fig. 1. Near Lake
+  Titicaca. Fig. 2                                            175
+
+  The Quipu                                                   180
+
+  Gold Ornament (? Zodiac) from a Tomb at Cuzco               182
+
+
+
+
+EXTINCT CIVILIZATIONS OF THE WEST
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+Throughout all the periods of European history, ancient or modern, no
+age has been more remarkable for events of first-rate importance than
+the latter half of the fifteenth century. The rise of the New Learning,
+the "discovery of the world and of man," the displacement of many
+outworn beliefs, these with other factors produced an awakening that
+startled kings and nations. Then felt they like Balboa, when
+
+                           with eagle eyes
+  He stared at the Pacific, and all his men
+  Looked at each other with a wild surmise
+  Silent, upon a peak in Darien.
+
+It was at this historical juncture that the "middle ages" came to an
+end, and modern Europe had its beginning. (See Chapter II.)
+
+Why was Europe so long in discovering the vast Continent which all the
+time lay beyond the Western Ocean? Simply because every skipper and
+every "Board of Admiralty" believed that this world on which we live and
+move is flat and level. They did not at all realize the fact that it is
+_ball_-shaped; and that when a ball is very large (say, as large as a
+balloon), then any small portion of the surface must appear flat and
+level to a fly or "mite" traveling in that vicinity. Homer believed that
+our world is a flat and level plain, with a great river, Oceanus,
+flowing round it; and for many ages that seemed a very natural and
+sufficient theory. The Pythagoreans, it is true, argued that our earth
+must be spherical, but why? Oh, said they, because in geometry the
+sphere is the "most perfect" of all solid figures. Aristotle, being
+scientific, gave better reasons for believing that the earth is
+spherical or ball-shaped. He said the shadow of the earth is always
+round like the shadow of a ball; and the shadow of the earth can be seen
+during any eclipse of the moon; therefore, all who see that shadow on
+the moon's disk know, or ought to know, that the earth is ball-shaped.
+Another reason given by Aristotle is that the altitude of any star above
+the horizon changes when the observer travels north or south. For
+example, if at London a star appears to be 40 deg. above the northern
+horizon, and at York the same star at the same instant appears 42-1/2 deg.,
+it is evident that 2-1/2 deg. is the difference (increase) of altitude at
+York compared with London. Such an observation shows that the road from
+London to York is not over a flat, level plane, but over the curved
+surface of a sphere, the arc of a circle, in fact.
+
+Herodotus, the father of history, was a good geographer and an
+experienced traveler, yet his only conception of the world was as a
+flat, wide-extending surface. In Egypt he was told how Pharaoh Necho had
+sent a crew of Phenicians to explore the coast of Africa by setting out
+from the Red Sea, and how they sailed south till they had _the sun on
+their right hand_. "Absurd!" says Herodotus, in his naive manner, "this
+story I can not believe." In Egypt, as in Greece or Europe generally,
+the sun rises on the left hand, and at noon casts a shadow pointing
+north; whereas in South Africa the sun at noon casts a shadow pointing
+south, and sunrise is therefore on the _right hand_. The honest sailors
+had told the truth; they had merely "crossed the line," without knowing
+it. If Herodotus had known that the world was spherical or ball-shaped,
+he could easily have understood that by traveling due south the sun must
+at last appear at noon to the north instead of the south. A counterpart
+to the story of the Phenician sailors occurs in Pliny: he tells how some
+ambassadors came to the Roman Emperor Claudius from an island in the
+south of Asia, and when in Italy were much astonished to see the sun at
+noon to the south, casting shadows to the north. They also wondered, he
+says, to see the Great Bear and other groups of stars which had never
+been visible in their native land (Nat. Hist., vi, 22).
+
+That there were islands or even a continent in the Western Ocean was a
+tradition not infrequent in classical and medieval times, as we shall
+presently see, but to place a continent in the Southern Ocean was a
+greater stretch of imagination. The great outstanding problem of the
+sources of the Nile probably suggested this Southern Continent to some.
+Ptolemy, the great Egyptian geographer, even formed the conjecture that
+the Southern Continent was joined to Africa by a broad isthmus, as
+indicated in certain maps. Such a connection of the two continents
+would at once dispose of the story that the Phenician sailors had
+"doubled the Cape." In several maps after the time of Columbus,
+Australia is extended westward in order to pass muster for the Southern
+Continent.
+
+[Illustration: Imaginary Continent, south of Africa and Asia. [The
+cardinal points are shown by the four winds.] Beginning of the fifteenth
+century. The word Brumae = the winter solstices.]
+
+It is with a Western Continent, however, that we are now mainly
+concerned. What lands were imagined by the ancients in the far West
+under the setting sun? The mighty ocean beyond Spain was to the Greeks
+and Latins a place of dread and mystery.
+
+     "Stout was his heart and girt with triple brass," says the Roman
+     poet, "who first hazarded his weak vessel on the pitiless ocean."
+
+Even the western parts of the Mediterranean were shrunk from, according
+to the Odyssey, without speaking of the horrors of the great ocean
+beyond. "Beyond Gades," i. e., scarcely outside of the Pillars of
+Hercules, the extreme limit of the ancient world, "no man," said Pindar,
+"however daring, could pass; only a god might voyage those waters!"
+
+In spite of the dread which the ancient mariners felt for the great
+Western Ocean, their poets found it replete with charm and mystery. The
+imagination rested upon those golden sunsets, and the tales of marvel
+which, after long intervals, sea-borne sailors had told of distant lands
+in the West. The poets placed there the happy home destined for the
+souls of heroes. Thus (Odys. iv, 561):
+
+                                      No snow
+  Is there, nor yet great storm nor any rain,
+  But always ocean sendeth forth the breeze
+  Of the shrill West, and bloweth cool on men.
+
+So far Homer. His contemporary, Hesiod, thus describes the Elysian
+Fields as islands under the setting sun:
+
+  There on Earth's utmost limits Zeus assigned
+  A life, a seat, distinct from human kind,
+  Beside the deepening whirlpools of the Main,
+  In those blest Isles where Saturn holds his reign,
+  Apart from Heaven's immortals calm they share,
+  A rest unsullied by the clouds of care:
+  And yearly thrice with sweet luxuriance crown'd
+  Springs the ripe harvest from the teeming Ground.
+
+The poet Pindar places in the same mysterious West "the castle of
+Chronos" (i. e., "Old Time"), "where o'er the Isles of the Blest ocean
+breezes blow, and flowers gleam with gold, some from the land on
+glistening trees, while others the water feeds; and with bracelets of
+these they entwine their hands, and make crowns for their heads."
+
+_Vesper_, the star of evening, was called Hesperus by the Greeks; and
+hence the Hesperides, daughters of the Western Star, had the task of
+watching the golden apples planted by the goddess Hera in the garden of
+the gods, on the other side of the river Oceanus. One of the labors of
+Hercules was to fetch three of those mystic apples for the king of
+Mycenae. The poet Euripides thus refers to the Gardens of the West, when
+the Chorus wish to fly "over the Adriatic wave":
+
+  Or to the famed Hesperian plains,
+    Whose rich trees bloom with gold,
+  To join the grief-attuned strains
+    My winged progress hold;
+  Beyond whose shores no passage gave
+  The Ruler of the purple wave.
+
+Of all the lands imagined to lie in the Western Ocean by the Greeks, the
+most important was "Atlantis." Some have thought it may possibly have
+been a prehistoric discovery of America. In any case it has exercised
+the ingenuity of a good many modern scientists. The tale of Atlantis we
+owe to Plato himself, who perhaps learned it in Egypt, just as Herodotus
+picked up there the account of the circumnavigation of Africa by the
+Phenician mariners.
+
+"When Solon was in Egypt," says Plato, "he had talk with an aged priest
+of Sais who said, 'You Greeks are all children: you know but of one
+deluge, whereas there have been many destructions of mankind both by
+flood and fire.'... In the distant Western Ocean lay a continent larger
+than Libya and Asia together."...
+
+     In this Atlantis there had grown up a mighty state whose kings were
+     descended from Poseidon and had extended their sway over many
+     islands and over a portion of the great continent; even Libya up to
+     the gates of Egypt, and Europe as far as Tyrrhenia, submitted to
+     their sway.... Afterward came a day and night of great floods and
+     earthquakes; Atlantis disappeared, swallowed by the waves.
+
+Geologists and geographers have seriously tried to find evidence of
+Atlantis having existed in the Atlantic, whether as a portion of the
+American continent, or as a huge island in the ocean which could have
+served as a stepping-stone between the Western World and the Eastern.
+From a series of deep-sea soundings ordered by the British, American,
+and German Governments, it is now very well known that in the middle of
+the Atlantic basin there is a ridge, running north and south, whose
+depth is less than 1,000 fathoms, while the valleys east and west of it
+average 3,000 fathoms. At the Azores the North Atlantic ridge becomes
+broader. The theory is that a part of the ridge-plateau was the Atlantis
+of Plato that "disappeared swallowed by the waves." (Nature, xv, 158,
+553, xxvii, 25; Science, June 29, 1883.)
+
+Buffon, the naturalist, with reference to fauna and flora, dated the
+separation of the new and old world "from the catastrophe of Atlantis"
+(Epoques, ix, 570); and Sir Charles Lyell confessed a temptation to
+"accept the theory of an Atlantis island in the northern Atlantic."
+(Geology, p. 141.)
+
+The following account "from an historian of the fourth century B. C." is
+another possible reference to a portion of America--from a translation
+"delivered in English," 1576.
+
+     Selenus told Midas that without this worlde there is a continent or
+     percell of dry lande which in greatnesse (as hee reported) was
+     unmeasureable; that it nourished and maintained, by the benifite of
+     the greene meadowes and pasture plots, sundrye bigge and mighty
+     beastes; that the men which inhabite the same climate exceede the
+     stature of us twise, and yet the length of there life is not equale
+     to ours.
+
+The historian Plutarch, in his Morals, gives an account of Ogygia, with
+an illusion to a continent, possibly America:
+
+     An island, Ogygia, lies in the arms of the Ocean, about five days'
+     sail west from Britain.... The adjacent sea is termed the
+     Saturnian, and the continent by which the great sea is circularly
+     environed is distant from Ogygia about 5,000 stadia, but from the
+     other islands not so far.... One of the men paid a visit to the
+     great island, as they called Europe. From him the narrator learned
+     many things about the state of men after death--the conclusion
+     being that the souls of men arrive at the Moon, wherein lie the
+     Elysian Fields of Homer.
+
+The Greek historian, Diodorus Siculus, has a similar account with
+curious details of an "island" which might very well have been part of a
+continent. Columbus believed to the last that Cuba was a continent.
+
+     In the ocean, at the distance of several days' sailing to the west,
+     there lies an island watered by several navigable rivers. Its soil
+     is fertile, hilly, and of great beauty.... There are country
+     houses handsomely constructed, with summer-houses and flower-beds.
+     The hilly district is covered with dense woods and fruit-trees of
+     every kind. The inhabitants spend much time in hunting and thus
+     procure excellent food. They have naturally a good supply of fish,
+     their shores being washed by the ocean.... In a word this island
+     seems a happy home for gods rather than for men (v. 19).
+
+Another Greek writer, Lucian, in one of his witty dialogues, refers to
+an island in the Atlantic, that lies eighty days' sail westward of the
+Pillars of Hercules--the extreme limit of the ancient world, as has
+already been seen. Readers of Henry Fielding and admirers of Squire
+Westers will remember how in the London of the eighteenth century the
+limits of Piccadilly westward was a tavern at Hyde Park corner called
+the _Hercules' Pillars_, on the site of the future Apsley House.[1]
+
+Although neither Greek nor Roman navigators were likely to attempt a
+voyage into the ocean beyond the Straits of Gibraltar, yet a trading
+vessel from Carthage or Phenicia might easily have been driven by an
+easterly gale into, or even across, the Atlantic. Some involuntary
+discoveries were no doubt due to this chance, and the reports brought to
+Europe were probably the germs of such tales as the poets invented about
+the fair regions of the West. In Celtic literature, moreover, "Avalon"
+was placed far under the setting sun beyond the ocean--Avalon or
+"Glas-Inis" being to the bards the Land of the Dead, marvelous and
+mysterious.
+
+[Footnote 1: Tom Jones, xvi. chap. 2, 3, etc.]
+
+In English literature of the middle ages there is a remarkable passage
+relating to our present subject, which was written long before that rise
+of the New Learning mentioned at the beginning of this chapter. It is a
+statement made by Roger Bacon, the greatest of Oxonian scholars of the
+thirteenth century, who, long before the Renascence, did much to restore
+the study of science, especially in geography, chronology, and optics.
+In his Opus Majus, the elder Bacon wrote:
+
+     More than the fourth part of the earth which we inhabit is still
+     unknown to us.... It is evident therefore that between the extreme
+     West and the confines of India, there must be a surface which
+     comprises more than half the earth.
+
+Though Roger Bacon, to use his own words, died "unheard, forgotten,
+buried," our recent historians place his name first in the great roll of
+modern science.
+
+There now remains only one quotation to make from the ancients. We have
+been reserving it for two reasons--first, because it is a singularly
+happy anticipation of the discovery of the New World, so happy that it
+became a favorite stanza with the discoverer himself. This we learn from
+the life of the "Great Admiral," written by his son Ferdinand.
+
+Secondly, because it adorns our title-page and has been characterized as
+"a lucky prophecy"--written in the first century A. D. The author,
+Seneca, was a dramatist as well as a philosopher, the lines occurring at
+the end of one of his choruses--Medea, 376. We may thus translate the
+prophetic stanza:
+
+  For at a distant date this ancient world
+  Will westward stretch its bounds, and then disclose
+  Beyond the Main a vast new Continent,
+  With realms of wealth and might.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERIES OF AMERICA
+
+
+1 _Norse Discovery._--By glancing at a map of the north Atlantic, the
+reader will at once see that the natural approach from Europe to the
+Western Continent was by Iceland and Greenland--especially in those
+early days when ocean navigation was unknown. Iceland is nearer to
+Greenland than to Norway; and Greenland is part of America. But in
+Iceland there were Celtic settlers in the early centuries; and even King
+Arthur, according to the history of Geoffrey of Monmouth, sailed north
+to that "Ultima Thule." During the ninth century a Christian community
+had been established there under certain Irish monks. This early
+civilization, however, was destined to become presently extinct.
+
+It was in A. D. 875, i. e., during the reign of Alfred the Great in
+England, that the Norse earl, Ingolf, led a colony to Iceland. More
+strenuous and savage than the Christian Celts whom they found there, the
+latter with their preaching monks soon sailed to the south, and left the
+Northmen masters of the island. The Norse colony under Ingolf was
+strongly reenforced by Norwegians who took refuge there to avoid the
+tyranny of their king, Harold, the Fair-haired. Ingolf built the town
+Ingolfshof, named after him, and also Reikiavik, afterward the capital,
+named from the "reek" or steam of its hot springs. So important did this
+colony become that in the second generation the population amounted to
+60,000.
+
+Ingolf was admired by the poet James Montgomery (not to be confounded
+with Robert, whom Macaulay criticized so severely), who in 1819 thus
+wrote of him and his island:
+
+  There on a homeless soil his foot he placed,
+  Framed his hut-palace, colonized the waste,
+  And ruled his horde with patriarchal sway
+  --Where Justice reigns, 'tis Freedom to obey....
+  And Iceland shone for generous lore renowned,
+  A northern light when all was gloom around.
+
+     The next year after Ingolf had come to Iceland, Gunnbiorn, a hardy
+     Norseman, driven in his ship westerly, sighted a strange land....
+     About half a century later, judging by the Icelandic sagas, we
+     learn that a wind-tossed vessel was thrown upon a coast far away
+     which was called "Mickle Ireland" (_Irland it Mikla_)--[Winsor's
+     Hist. America, i, 61].
+
+Gunnbiorn's discovery was utilized by Erik the Red, another sea-rover,
+in A. D. 980, who sailed to it and, after three years' stay, returned
+with a favorable account--giving it the fair name _Greenland_. The Norse
+established two centers of population on Greenland. It is now believed
+that after doubling Cape Farewell, they built their first town near that
+head and the second farther north. The former, _Eystribygd_ (i. e.,
+"Easter Bigging"), developed into a large colony, having in the
+fourteenth century 190 settlements, with a cathedral and eleven
+churches, and containing two cities and three or four monasteries. The
+second town, _Westribygd_ (i. e., "Wester Bigging") had grown to ninety
+settlements and four churches in the same time.
+
+The germ and root of that civilization (afterward extinct, as we shall
+see) was due to Leif the son of Red Erik, who visited Norway, the
+mother-country, at the very close of the tenth century.
+
+[Illustration: Remains of a Norse Church at Katortuk, Greenland.]
+
+He found that the king and people there had enthusiastically embraced
+the new religion, _Christianity_. Leif presently shared their fervor,
+and decided to reject Woden, Thor, and the other gods of old
+Scandinavia. A priest was told off to accompany Leif back to Greenland,
+and preach the new faith. It was thus that a Christian civilization
+first found footing in arctic America.
+
+The ruins of those early Christian churches (see illustration above)
+form most interesting objects in modern Greenland; near the chief ruin
+is a curious circular group of large stones.
+
+The poet of "Greenland," to whom we have already referred, quotes from a
+Danish chronicle to the effect that, in the golden age of the colony,
+there were a hundred parishes to form the bishopric; and that the see
+was ruled by seventeen bishops from A. D. 1120 to 1408. Bishop Andrew is
+the last mentioned, ordained in 1408 by the Archbishop of Drontheim.
+
+From the same authority we learn that according to some of the annals
+"the best wheat grew to perfection in the valleys; the forests were
+extensive; flocks and herds were numerous and very large and fat." The
+Cloister of St. Thomas was heated by pipes from a warm spring, and
+attached to the cloister was a richly cultivated garden.
+
+After Leif, son of Erik, had introduced Christianity into Greenland, his
+next step was to extend the Norse civilization still farther within the
+American continent. News had reached him of a new land, with a level
+coast, lying nine days' sailing southwest of Greenland. Picking
+thirty-five men, Leif started for further exploration. One part of the
+new country was barren and rocky, therefore Leif named it _Helluland_
+(i. e., "Stone Land"), which appears to have been Newfoundland. Farther
+south they found a sandy shore, backed by a level forest country, which
+Leif named _Markland_ (i. e., "Wood Land"), identified with Nova Scotia.
+After two days' sail, according to the saga account, having landed and
+explored the new continent along the banks of a river, they resolved to
+winter there. In one of these explorations a German called Tyrker found
+some grapes on a wild vine, and brought a specimen for the admiration of
+Leif and his party. This country was therefore named _Vinland_ (i. e.,
+"Wine Land"), and is identified with New England, part of Rhode Island,
+and Massachusetts.[2]
+
+[Footnote 2: Prof. R. B. Anderson says, "The basin of the Charles River
+should be selected as the most probable scene of the visits of Leif
+Erikson, etc." [_v._ map.]]
+
+Our Greenland poet thus refers to Leif's landing:
+
+  Wineland the glad discoverers called that shore,
+  And back the tidings of its riches bore;
+  But soon return'd with colonizing bands.
+
+The Norsemen founded a regular settlement in Vinland, establishing there
+a Christian community related to that of Greenland. Leif's brother,
+Korvald, explored the interior in all directions. With the natives, who
+are called "Skraelings" in the sagas, they traded in furs; these people,
+who seemed dwarfish to the Norsemen, used leathern boats and were no
+doubt Eskimos:
+
+  A stunted, stern, uncouth, amphibious stock.
+
+The principal settler in Vinland was Thorfinn, an Icelander, who had
+married a daughter-in-law of Erik the Red. She persuaded Thorfinn to
+sail to the new country in order to make a permanent settlement there.
+In the year 1007 A. D. he sailed with 160 men, having live stock and
+other colonial equipments. After three years he returned to Greenland,
+his wife having given birth to a son during their first year in Vinland.
+From this son, Snorre, it is claimed by some Norwegian historians, that
+Thorwaldsen, the eminent Danish sculptor is descended. After the time
+of Thorfinn, the settlement in Vinland continued to flourish, having a
+good export trade in timber with Greenland. In 1121 A. D. according to
+the Icelandic saga, the bishop, Erik Upsi, visited Vinland, that country
+being, like Iceland and Greenland, included in his bishopric. The last
+voyage to Vinland for timber, according to the sagas, was in 1347.
+
+[Illustration: Map]
+
+Professor Horsford, of Cambridge, Mass., finds the site of Norumbega,
+mentioned in various old maps, on the River Charles, near Waltham,
+Mass., and maintains that town to be identical with Vinland of the
+Norsemen. To prove his belief in this theory, the professor built a
+tower commemorating the Norse discoveries. He argued that Norumbega was
+a corruption by the Indians of the word _Norvegr_ a Norse form of
+"Norway."
+
+The abandonment of Vinland by the Norse settlers may be compared with
+that of Gosnold's expedition to the same region near the end of Queen
+Elizabeth's reign. Gosnold was sent to plant an English colony in
+America, after the failure of Sir Walter Raleigh's settlement at Roanoke
+(North Carolina); and the coast explored corresponded exactly to that
+which the Norse settlers had named Vinland, lying between the sites of
+Boston and New York. He gave the name Cape Cod to that promontory, and
+also named the islands Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, and the Elizabeth
+group. Selecting one of these for settling a colony, he built on it a
+storehouse and fort. The scheme, however, failed, owing to the threats
+of the natives and the scarcity of supplies, and all the colonists
+sailed from Massachusetts, just as the Norse settlers had done many
+generations previously.
+
+The expedition of Gosnold to Vinland, however, bore good fruit, from the
+favorable report of the new country which he made at home. The merchants
+of Bristol fitted out two ships under Martin Pring, and in the first
+voyage a great part of Maine (lying north of Massachusetts) was
+explored, and the coast south to Martha's Vineyard, where Gosnold had
+been. This led to profitable traffic with the natives, and three years
+later Pring made a more complete survey of Maine.
+
+Vinland was also the scene of the famous landing of the Mayflower,
+bringing its Puritans from England. It was in Cape Cod Bay that she was
+first moored. After exploring the new country, just as Leif Erikson had
+done so many generations previously, they chose a place on the west side
+of the bay and named the little settlement "Plymouth," after the last
+English port from which they had sailed. Farther north, still in
+Vinland, they soon founded two other towns, "Salem" and "Boston." Those
+three settlements have ever since been important centers of energy and
+intelligence in Massachusetts, as well as memorials of the Norse
+occupation of Vinland.
+
+On the occasion of a public statue being erected in Boston, Mass., to
+the memory of Leif Erikson, a committee of the Massachusetts Historical
+Society formally decided thus: "It is antecedently probable that the
+Northmen discovered America in the early part of the eleventh century."
+
+Prof. Daniel Wilson, in his learned work Prehistoric Man (ii, 83, 85),
+thus gives his opinion as to the Norse colony:
+
+     With all reasonable doubt as to the accuracy of details, there is
+     the strongest probability in favor of the authenticity of the
+     American Vinland.
+
+[Illustration: The Dighton Stone in the Taunton River, Massachusetts.]
+
+Of the Norse colonies in Greenland there are some undoubted remains, one
+being a stone inscription in _runes_, proving that it was made before
+the Reformation, when that mode of writing was forbidden by law. The
+stone is four miles beyond Upernavik. The inscription, according to
+Professor Rask, runs thus:
+
+  Erling the son of Sigvat, and Enride Oddsoen,
+    Had cleared the place and raised a mound
+      On the Friday after Rogation-day;
+
+--date either 1135 or 1170.
+
+Rafn, the celebrated Danish archeologist, states as the result of many
+years' research, that America was repeatedly visited by the Icelanders
+in the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries; that the estuary of
+the St. Lawrence was their chief station; that they had coasted
+southward to Carolina, everywhere introducing some Christian
+civilization among the natives.
+
+[Illustration: The Dighton Stone. Fig. 2.]
+
+A supposed rock memorial of the Norsemen is the Dighton Stone in the
+Taunton River, Massachusetts; one of its sentences, according to
+Professor Rafn, being:
+
+"Thorfinn with 151 Norse seafaring men took possession of this land."
+
+The figures and letters (whether runic or merely Indian) inscribed on
+the Dighton Rock have been copied by antiquaries at the following dates:
+1680, 1712, 1730, 1768, 1788, 1807, 1812. The above illustration (Fig.
+2) shows the last mentioned.
+
+There have been many probable traces of ancient Norsemen found in
+America, besides those already given. At Cape Cod, in the last
+generation, a number of hearth-stones were found under a layer of peat.
+A more famous relic was the skeleton dug up in Fall River, Mass., with
+an ornamental belt of metal tubes made from fragments of flat brass;
+there were also some arrow-heads of the same material. Longfellow, the
+New England poet, naturally had his attention directed to this discovery
+(made, 1831), and founded on it his ballad The Skeleton in Armor,
+connecting it with the Round Tower at Newport. The latter, according to
+Professor Rafn, "was erected decidedly not later than the twelfth
+century."
+
+  I was a Viking old,
+  My deeds, though manifold,
+  No Skald in song has told
+      No Saga taught thee!...
+  Far in the Northern Land
+  By the wild Baltic's strand
+  I with my childish hand
+      Tamed the ger-falcon.
+  Oft to his frozen lair
+  Tracked I the grisly bear,
+  While from my path the hare
+      Fled like a shadow.
+
+  *       *       *       *       *
+
+  Scarce had I put to sea
+  Bearing the maid with me--
+  Fairest of all was she
+      Among the Norsemen!
+  Three weeks we westward bore,
+  And when the storm was o'er,
+  Cloud-like we saw the shore
+      Stretching to leeward;
+  There for my lady's bower,
+  Built I this lofty tower
+  Which to this very hour
+      Stands looking seaward!
+
+Sir Clements Markham, of the Royal Geographical Society, believes that
+the Norse settlers in Greenland were driven from their settlements there
+by Eskimos coming, not from the interior of America, but from West
+Siberia along the polar regions, by Wrangell Land [_v._ Journal, R, G.
+S., 1865, and Arctic Geography, 1875].
+
+There was much curiosity from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century as
+to the site of the lost colonies of Greenland which had so long
+flourished. In 1568 and 1579 the King of Denmark sent two expeditions,
+the latter in charge of an Englishman, but no traces were found. At the
+beginning of the eighteenth century some light was thrown upon the
+problem by a missionary called Egede, who first described the ruins and
+relics observable on the west coast. By the success of his preaching
+among the Greenlanders for fifteen years, assisted by other gospel
+missionaries, the Moravians were induced to found their settlements in
+the country, principally in the southwest.
+
+It seems probable that in early times the climate of Iceland was milder
+than it now is. Columbus, some fifteen years before his great voyage
+across the Atlantic, sailed to this northern "Thule," and reports that
+there was no ice. If so, it is surely possible that Greenland also may
+have been greener and more attractive than during the recent centuries.
+Why should it not at one time have been fully deserving of the name by
+which we still know it? Some would explain the change in climatic
+conditions by the closing in of icepacks. At present Greenland is buried
+deep under a vast, solid ice-cap from which only a few of the highest
+peaks protrude to show the position of the submerged mountains, but at
+former periods, according to geologists, there were gardens and farms
+flourishing under a genial climate. Others suppose that, were the ice
+removed, we should see an archipelago of elevated islands.
+
+2. _Celtic Discovery of America._--We have already glanced at the fact
+that when the Norsemen first seized Iceland they found that island
+inhabited by Irish Celts. These Christianized Celts made way before the
+savage invaders, who did not accept the Catholic religion till about the
+close of the tenth century. Sailing south, those dispossessed Irish
+probably joined their brother Celts who had already long held a district
+on the eastern coast of North America, which some Norse skippers called
+"White Man's Land," and also _Irland-it-Mikla_ (i. e., "Mickle
+Ireland"). Professor Rafn places this district on the coast of Carolina.
+A learned memoir, published 1851, attempts to prove that the mysterious
+"mound-builders" of the Ohio Valley were of the same race as the
+settlers on Mickle Ireland, and related to the "white-bearded men" who
+established an extinct civilization in Mexico. A French antiquary, 1875,
+identified Mickle Ireland with Ontario and Quebec. Beauvois, in his
+Elysee trans-atlantique, derives the name Labrador from the _Innis
+Labrada_, an island mentioned in an ancient Irish romance.[3] Another
+Irish discoverer was St. Brandan,[4] Abbot of Cluainfert, Ireland (died
+May 16, 577), who was told that far in the ocean lay an island which was
+the land promised to the saints. St. Brandan set sail in company with
+seventy-five monks, and spent seven years upon the ocean in two voyages,
+discovering this island and many others equally marvelous, including one
+which turned out to be the back of a huge fish, upon which they
+celebrated Easter.[5]
+
+[Footnote 3: As to the Irish claim for the pre-Columbian discovery of
+America, see also Humboldt (Cosmos, ii, 607), and Laing (Heimsk., i,
+186).]
+
+[Footnote 4: MS. Book of Lismore.]
+
+[Footnote 5: The story is given by Humboldt and D'Avezac.]
+
+Among the Celtic claimants for discovery we must also include the Welsh,
+who lay stress upon certain resemblances between their language and the
+dialects of the native Americans. A better argument is the historical
+account taken from their annals about the expedition of Prince Madoc,
+son of a Welsh chieftain, who sailed due west in the year 1170, after
+the rumor of the Norse discoveries had reached Britain. He landed on a
+vast and fertile continent where he settled 120 colonists. On his return
+to Wales he fitted out a second fleet of ten ships, but the annals give
+no report of the result. Several writers state that the place of landing
+was near the Gulf of Mexico: Hakluyt connecting the discovery with
+Mexico (1589) and again with the West Indies (edition of 1600). In the
+seventeenth century some authors wished to substantiate the story of
+Prince Madoc, in order that the British claim to America should antedate
+the Spanish claim through Columbus. Prince Madoc is, to most readers,
+only known by Southey's poem.[6]
+
+[Footnote 6: Some quotations from Southey's poem are given in Chapters
+V, VI.]
+
+3. _Basque Discovery of America._--Who are the Basque people? A curious
+race of Spanish mountaineers, who have been as great a puzzle to
+ethnologists and historians as their language has been to philologists
+and scholars. We know, however, that in former times they were nearly
+all seamen, making long voyages to the north for whale and Newfoundland
+cod fishing. They have produced excellent navigators; and possibly
+preceded Columbus in discovering America. Sebastian, the lieutenant of
+Magellan, was one of the Basque race. Magellan did not live to complete
+his famous voyage, therefore Sebastian was the first actual
+circumnavigator of our globe.
+
+Francois Michel, in his work Le Pays Basque, says that the Basque
+sailors knew the coasts of Newfoundland a century before the time of
+Columbus; and that it was from one of these ocean mariners that he first
+learned the existence of a continent beyond the Atlantic. Other
+arguments are derived from comparing the peculiarities of the Basque
+tongue with those of the American dialects. Whitney, an American
+scholar, concludes that "No other dialect of the Old World so much
+resembles the American languages in structure as the Basque."
+
+4. _Jewish Discovery of America._--There is one claim for the discovery
+of America, which, though quite improbable, if not impossible, has been
+upheld and sanctioned by many scholarly works in several languages. It
+is argued that the red Indians represent the ten "Lost Tribes" of the
+Hebrew people who had been deported to Assyria and Media (_v._ Extinct
+Civilizations of the East, p. 109). The theory was first started by some
+Spanish priest-missionaries, and has since been defended by many learned
+divines both in England and America, one leading argument being certain
+similarities in the languages. Catlin (_v._ Smithsonian Report, 1885)
+enumerates many analogies which he found among the Western Indians. The
+most authoritative statement is that of Lord Kingsborough in the
+well-known Mexican Antiquities (1830-'48), chiefly in Vol. VII. Some
+writers actually quote a statement made in the Mormon Bible! Leading New
+England divines, like Mayhew and Cotton Mather, espoused the cause with
+similar faith, as well as Roger Williams and William Penn.
+
+5. _The Italian Discovery of America._--Not through Columbus the
+Genoese, or Amerigo Vespucci, the Florentine, although they were
+certainly Italians, but by two Venetians, Nicolo and Antonio Zeno. In A.
+D. 1380 or 1390 these brothers Zeni were shipwrecked in the North
+Atlantic, and, when staying in Frislanda, made the acquaintance of a
+sailor who, after twenty-six years' absence, had returned, giving them
+the following report:
+
+"Being driven west in a gale, he found an island with civilized
+inhabitants, who had Latin books, but could not speak Norse, and whose
+country was called Estotiland, while a region on the mainland, farther
+south, to which he had also gone, was called Drogeo. Here he had met
+with cannibals. Still farther south was a great country with towns and
+temples."
+
+The two brothers Zeni finally conveyed this account to another brother
+in Venice, together with a map of those distant regions, but these
+documents remained neglected till 1558, when a descendant compiled a
+book to embody the information, accompanied by a map, now famous as
+"the Zeno map."
+
+Humboldt, with reference to this map, remarks that it is singular that
+the name Frislanda should have been applied by Columbus to an island
+south of Iceland. Washington Irving (in his Life of Columbus) explains
+the book by a desire to appeal to the national pride of Italy, since, if
+true, the discovery of the brothers would antedate that of Columbus by a
+century.
+
+Malte-Brun, the distinguished geographer, distinctly accepted the Zeni
+narrative as true, and believed that it was by colonists from Greenland
+that the Latin books had reached Estotiland. Another strong advocate
+afterward appeared in Mr. Major, an official in the map department of
+the British Museum, who believed that much of the map in question
+represented genuine information of the fourteenth century, mixed with
+some spurious parts inserted by the younger Zeno. Mr. Major's paper on
+The Site of the Lost Colony of Greenland Determined, and the
+pre-Columbian Discoveries of America Confirmed, appeared in R. Geog.
+Soc. Journal, 1873; _v_. also Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc., 1874. Nordenskjold
+also accepted the chief results of this Italian discovery, and as an
+arctic explorer of experience, his opinion carries weight. Mercator and
+Hugo Grotius were also believers in the Zeni account.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+"DISCOVERY OF THE WORLD AND OF MAN"
+
+
+At the beginning of this book a reference was made to the great upheaval
+in European history called the "Renascence" (Fr. _renaissance_) or
+Revival of Learning. In 1453 the Turks took Constantinople, driving the
+Greek scholars to take refuge in Italy, which at once became the most
+civilized nation in Europe. Poetry, philosophy, and art thence found
+their way to France, England, and Germany, being greatly assisted by the
+invention of printing, which just then was beginning to make books
+cheaper than they ever had been. At the same time feudalism was ruined,
+because the invention of gunpowder had previously been changing the art
+of war. For example, the King of France, Louis XI, as well as the King
+of England, Henry VII, had entire disposal of the national artillery;
+and therefore overawed the barons and armored knights. Neither moated
+fortresses nor mail-clad warriors, nor archers with bows and arrows,
+could prevail against powder and shot. The middle ages had come to an
+end; modern Europe was being born. France had become concentrated by the
+union of the south to the north on the conclusion of the "Hundred Years'
+War," the final expulsion of the English, and the abolition of all the
+great feudatories of the kingdom. England, at the same time, had
+entirely swept away the rule of the barons by the recent "Wars of the
+Roses," and Henry had strengthened his position by alliance with
+France, Spain, and Scotland. Spain, by the expulsion of the Moors from
+Granada in A. D. 1492, was for the first time concentrated into one
+great state by the union of Isabella's Kingdom of Castile-Leon to
+Ferdinand's Kingdom of Aragon-Sicily.
+
+From the importance of the word _renaissance_ as indicating the
+"movement of transition from the medieval to the modern world," Matthew
+Arnold gave it the English form "renascence"--adopted by J. R. Green,
+Coleridge, and others. In Germany, this great revival of letters and
+learning was contemporaneous with the Reformation, which had long been
+preparing (e. g., in England since John Wyclif) and was specially
+assisted by the invention of printing, which we have just mentioned. The
+minds of men everywhere were expanded: "whatever works of history,
+science, morality, or entertainment seemed likely to instruct or amuse
+were printed and distributed among the people at large by printers and
+booksellers."
+
+Thus it was that, though the Turks never had any pretension to learning
+or culture, yet their action in the middle of the fifteenth century
+indirectly caused a marvelous tide of civilization to overflow all the
+western countries of Europe. Another result in the same age was the
+increase of navigation and exploration--the discovery of the world as
+well as of man. When the Turks became masters of the eastern shores of
+the Mediterranean, the European merchants were prevented from going to
+India and the East by the overland route, as had been done for
+generations. Thus, since geography was at this very time improved by
+the science of Copernicus and others, the natural inquiry was how to
+reach India by sea instead of going overland. Columbus, therefore,
+sailed due west to reach Asia, and stumbled upon a "New World" without
+knowing what he did; then Cabot, sailing from Bristol, sailed northwest
+to reach India, and stumbled upon the continent of America; and during
+the same reign (Henry VII) the Atlantic coast of both North and South
+America was visited by English, Portuguese, or Spanish navigators. The
+third expedition to reach India by sea was under De Gama. He set out in
+the same year as Cabot, sailing into the South Atlantic, and ultimately
+did find the west coast of India at Calicut, after rounding the cape.
+
+The mere enumeration of so many events, all of first-rate importance,
+proves that that half century (say from A. D. 1460 to 1520) must be
+called "an age of marvels," _saeclum mirabile_. The concurrence of so
+many epoch-making results gave a great impulse, not only to the study of
+literature, science, and art, but to the exploration of many unknown
+countries in America, Africa, and Asia, and the universal expansion of
+human knowledge generally.
+
+I.--We shall now consider the first of these discoverers, who was also
+the greatest.
+
+COLUMBUS, the Latinized form of the Italian Colombo, Spanish, Colon.
+This Genoese navigator must throughout all history be called the
+discoverer of America, notwithstanding all the work of smaller men. From
+his study of geographical books in several languages, Columbus had
+convinced himself that our planet is spherical or ball-shaped, not a
+flat, plane surface. Till then India had always been reached by
+traveling overland toward the rising sun. Why not sail westward from
+Europe over the ocean, and thus come to the eastern parts of Asia by
+traveling toward the setting sun? By doing so, since our world is
+ball-shaped, said Columbus, we must inevitably reach Zipango (i. e.,
+"Japan") and Cathay (i. e., "China"), which are the most eastern parts
+of Asia. India then will be a mere detail. Judging from the accounts of
+Asia and its eastern islands given by Marco Polo, a Venetian, as well as
+from the maps sketched by Ptolemy, the Egyptian geographer, Columbus
+believed that the east coast of Asia was not so very far from the west
+coast of Europe. Columbus was confirmed in this opinion by a learned
+geographer of Florence, named Paul, and henceforward impatiently waited
+for an opportunity of testing the truth of his theory.
+
+He convinced himself, but could not convince any one else, that a
+westerly route to India was quite feasible. First he laid his plans
+before the authorities at Genoa, who had for generations traded with
+Asia by the overland journey, and ought therefore to have been glad to
+learn of this new alternative route, since the Turks were now playing
+havoc with the other; but no, they told Columbus that his idea was
+chimerical! Next he applied to the court of France. "Ridiculous!" was
+the reply, accompanied with a polite sneer. Next Columbus sent his
+scheme to Henry VII of England, a prince full of projects, but miserly.
+"Too expensive!" was the Tudor's reply, though presently, after the
+Spanish success, he became eager to despatch expeditions from Bristol
+under the Cabots. Then Columbus, by the advice of his brother, who had
+settled in Lisbon as a map-maker, approached King John, seeking
+patronage and assistance, pleading the foremost position of Portugal
+among the maritime states. The Portuguese neglected the golden
+opportunity, ocean navigation not being in their way as yet; their
+skippers preferred "to hug the African shore."
+
+At last Columbus gained the ear of Isabella, Queen of Castile; she
+believed in him and tried to get the assistance of her husband,
+Ferdinand, King of Aragon, in providing an outfit for the great
+expedition. Owing to Ferdinand's war in expelling the Moors from
+Granada, Columbus had still to wait several years.
+
+In a previous year, 1477, Columbus had sailed to the North Atlantic,
+perhaps in one of those Basque whalers already referred to, going "a
+hundred leagues beyond Thule." If that means Iceland, as is generally
+supposed, it seems most probable that, when conversing with the sailors
+there he must have heard how Leif, with his Norsemen, had discovered the
+American coasts of Newfoundland and Vinland some five centuries earlier,
+and how they had settled a colony on the new continent. Other writers
+have pointed out that Columbus could very well have heard of Vinland and
+the Northmen before leaving Genoa, since one of the Popes had sanctioned
+the appointment of a bishop over the new diocese. If so, the visit of
+Columbus to Iceland probably gave him confirmation as to the Norse
+discovery of the American continent.
+
+When at last King Ferdinand had taken Granada from the Moors, Columbus
+was put in command of three ships, with 120 men. He set sail from the
+port of Palos, in Andalusia, on a Friday, August 3, 1492, first steering
+to the Canary Islands, and then standing due west. In September, to the
+amazement of all on board, the compass was seen to "vary": an important
+scientific discovery--viz., that the magnetic needle does not always
+point to the pole-star. Some writers have imagined that the compass was
+for the first time utilized for a long journey by Columbus, but the
+occult power of the magnetic needle or "lodestone" had been known for
+ages before the fifteenth century. The ancient Persians and other "wise
+men of the East" used the lodestone as a talisman. Both the Mongolian
+and Caucasian races used it as an infallible guide in traveling across
+the mighty plains of Asia. The Cynosure in the Great Bear was the
+"guiding star," whether by sea or land; but when the heavens were
+wrapped in clouds, the magic stone or needle served to point exactly the
+position of the unseen star. What Columbus and his terrified crews
+discovered was the "variation of the compass," due to the fact that the
+magnetic needle points, not to the North Star, but to the "magnetic
+pole," a point in Canada to the west of Baffin's Bay and north of Hudson
+Bay.
+
+If Columbus had continued steering due west he would have landed on the
+continent of America in Florida; but before sighting that coast the
+course was changed to southwest, because some birds were seen flying in
+that direction. The first land reached was an island of the Bahama
+group, which he named _San Salvador_. As the Spanish boats rowed to
+shore they were welcomed by crowds of astonished natives, mostly naked,
+unless for a girdle of wrought cotton or plaited feathers. Hence the
+lines of Milton:
+
+                         Such of late
+  Columbus found the American, so girt
+  With feathered cincture, naked else and wild,
+  Among the trees on isles and woody shores.
+
+The spot of landing was formerly identified by Washington Irving and
+Baron Humboldt with "Cat Island"; but from the latest investigation it
+is now believed to have been Watling's Island. Here he landed on a
+Friday, October 12, 1492.
+
+So little was then known of the geography of the Atlantic or of true
+longitude, that Columbus attributed these islands to the _east coast of
+Asia_. He therefore named them "Indian Islands," as if close to
+Hindustan, a blunder that has now been perpetuated for four hundred and
+ten years. The natives were called "Indians" for the same reasons. As
+the knowledge of geography advanced it became necessary to say "West
+Indies" or "East Indies" respectively, to distinguish American from
+Asiatic--"Indian corn" means American, but "Indian ink" means Asiatic,
+etc. Even after his fourth and last voyage Columbus believed that the
+continent, as well as the islands, was a portion of eastern Asia, and he
+died in that belief, without any suspicion of having discovered a New
+World.
+
+A curious confirmation of the opinion of Columbus has just been
+discovered (1894) in the Florence Library, by Dr. Wieser, of Innsbruck.
+It is the actual copy of a map by the Great Admiral, drawn roughly in a
+letter written from Jamaica, July, 1503. It shows that his belief as to
+the part of the world reached in his voyages was that it was the east
+coast of Asia.
+
+The chief discovery made by Columbus in his first voyage was the great
+island of Cuba, which he imagined to be part of a continent. Some of the
+Spaniards went inland for sixty miles and reported that they had reached
+a village of more than a thousand inhabitants, and that the corn used
+for food was called _maize_--probably the first instance of Europeans
+using a term which was afterward to become as familiar as "wheat" or
+"barley." The natives told Columbus that their gold ornaments came from
+_Cubakan_, meaning the interior of Cuba; but he, on hearing the syllable
+_kan_, immediately thought of the "Khan" mentioned by Marco Polo, and
+therefore imagined that "Cathay" (the China of that famous traveler) was
+close at hand. The simple-minded Cubans were amazed that the Spaniards
+had such a love for gold, and pointed eastward to another island, which
+they called _Hayti_, saying it was more plentiful there than in Cuba.
+Thus Columbus discovered the second in size of all the West Indian
+islands, Cuba being the first; he, after landing on it, called it
+"Hispaniola," or Little Spain. Hayti in a few years became the
+headquarters of the Spanish establishments in the New World, after its
+capital, San Domingo, had been built by Bartholomew Columbus. It was in
+this island that the Spaniards saw the first of the "caziques," or
+native princes, afterward so familiar during the conquest of Mexico; he
+was carried on the shoulders of four men, and courteously presented
+Columbus with some plates of gold. In a letter to the monarchs of Spain
+the admiral thus refers to the natives of Hayti:
+
+     The people are so affectionate, so tractable, and so peaceable that
+     I swear to your Highnesses there is not a better race of men, nor a
+     better country in the world; ... their conversation is the sweetest
+     and mildest in the world, and always accompanied with a smile. The
+     king is served with great state, and his behavior is so decent that
+     it is pleasant to see him.
+
+The admiral had previously described the Indians of Cuba as equally
+simple and friendly, telling how they had "honored the strangers as
+sacred beings allied to heaven." The pity of it, and the shame, is that
+those frank, unsuspicious, islanders had no notion or foresight of the
+cruel desolation which their gallant guests were presently to bring upon
+the native races--death, and torture, and extermination!
+
+A harbor in Cuba is thus described by Columbus in a letter to Ferdinand
+and Isabella:
+
+     I discovered a river which a galley might easily enter.... I found
+     from five to eight fathoms of water. Having proceeded a
+     considerable way up the river, everything invited me to settle
+     there. The beauty of the river, the clearness of the water, the
+     multitude of palm-trees and an infinite number of other large and
+     flourishing trees, the birds and the verdure of the plains, ... I
+     am so much amazed at the sight of such beauty, that I know not how
+     to describe it.
+
+Having lost his flag-ship, Columbus returned to Spain with the two small
+caravels that remained from his petty fleet of three, arriving in the
+port of Palos March 15, 1493. The reception of the successful explorer
+was a national event. He entered Barcelona to be presented at court with
+every circumstance of honor and triumph. Sitting in presence of the king
+and queen he related his wondrous tale, while his attendants showed the
+gold, the cotton, the parrots and other unknown birds, the curious arms
+and plants, and above all the nine "Indians" with their outlandish
+trappings--brought to be made Christians by baptism. Ferdinand and
+Isabella heaped honors upon the successful navigator; and in return he
+promised them the untold riches of Zipango and Cathay. A new fleet,
+larger and better equipped, was soon found for a second voyage.
+
+With his new ships, in 1498, Columbus again stood due west from the
+Canaries; and at last discovering an island with three mountain summits
+he named it Trinidad (i. e., "Trinity") without knowing that he was then
+coasting the great continent of South America. A few days later he and
+the crew were amazed by a tumult of waves caused by the fresh water of a
+great river meeting the sea. It was the "Oronooko," afterward called
+Orinoco; and from its volume Columbus and his shipmates concluded that
+it must drain part of a continent or a very large island.
+
+  Where Orinoco in his pride,
+  Rolls to the main no tribute tide,
+  But 'gainst broad ocean urges far
+  A rival sea of roaring war;
+  While in ten thousand eddies driven
+  The billows fling their foam to heaven,
+  And the pale pilot seeks in vain,
+  Where rolls the river, where the main.
+
+That was the first glimpse which they had of America proper, still
+imagining it was only a part of eastern Asia. In the following voyage,
+his last, Columbus coasted part of the Isthmus of Darien. It was not,
+however, explored till the visit of Balboa.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+Cipher autograph of Columbus.
+
+The interpretation of the cipher is probably:
+
+SERVATF Christus Maria Yosephus (Christoferens).]
+
+It was during his third voyage that the "Great Admiral" suffered the
+indignity at San Domingo of being thrown into chains and sent back to
+Spain. This was done by Bobadilla, an officer of the royal household,
+who had been sent out with full power to put down misrule. The monarchs
+of Spain set Columbus free; and soon afterward he was provided with four
+ships for his fourth voyage. Stormy weather wrecked this final
+expedition, and at last he was glad to arrive in Spain, November 7,
+1504. He now felt that his work on earth was done, and died at
+Valladolid, May 20, 1506. After temporary interment there his body was
+transferred to the cathedral of San Domingo--whence, 1796, some remains
+were removed with imposing ceremonies to Havana. From later
+investigations it appears that the ashes of the Genoese discoverer are
+still in the tomb of San Domingo.
+
+It was in the cathedral of Seville, over his first tomb, that King
+Ferdinand is said to have honored the memory of the Great Admiral with a
+marble monument bearing the well-known epitaph:
+
+  A CASTILLA Y ARAGON
+  NUEVO MUNDO DIO COLON.
+
+or, "_To the united Kingdom of Castile-Aragon Columbus gave a New
+World_."
+
+After the death of Columbus, it seemed as if fate intended his family to
+enjoy the honors and rewards of which he had been so unjustly deprived.
+His son, Diego, wasted two years trying to obtain from King Ferdinand
+the offices of viceroy and admiral, which he had a right to claim in
+accordance with the arrangement formerly made with his father. At last
+Diego began a suit against Ferdinand before the council which managed
+Indian affairs. That court decided in favor of Diego's claim; and as he
+soon greatly improved his social position by marrying the niece of the
+Duke of Alva, a high nobleman, Diego received the appointment of
+governor (not viceroy), and went to Hayti, attended by his brother and
+uncles, as well as his wife and a large retinue. There Diego Columbus
+and his family lived, "with a splendor hitherto unknown in the New
+World."
+
+II.--Henry VII of England, after repenting that he had not secured the
+services of Columbus, commissioned John Cabot to sail from Bristol
+across the Atlantic in a northwesterly direction, with the hope of
+finding some passage there-abouts to India. In June, 1497, a new coast
+was sighted (probably Labrador or Newfoundland), and named _Prima
+Vista_. They coasted the continent southward, "ever with intent to find
+the passage to India," till they reached the peninsula now called
+Florida. On this important voyage was based the claim which the English
+kings afterward made for the possession of all the Atlantic coast of
+North America. King Henry wished colonists to settle in the new land,
+_tam viri quam feminae_, but since, in his usual miserly character, he
+refused to give a single "testoon," or "groat" toward the enterprise, no
+colonies were formed till the days of Walter Raleigh, more than a
+century later.
+
+Sebastian Cabot, born in Bristol, 1477, was more renowned as a navigator
+than his father, John, and almost ranks with Columbus. After discovering
+Labrador or Newfoundland with his father, he sailed a second time with
+300 men to form colonies, passing apparently into Hudson Bay. He wished
+to discover a channel leading to Hindustan, but the difficulties of
+icebergs and cold weather so frightened his crews that he was compelled
+to retrace his course. In another attempt at the northwest passage to
+Asia, he reached latitude 67-1/2 deg. north, and "gave English names to
+sundry places in Hudson Bay." In 1526, when commanding a Spanish
+expedition from Seville, he sailed to Brazil, which had already been
+annexed to Portugal by Cabrera, explored the River La Plata and ascended
+part of the Paraguay, returning to Spain in 1531. After his return to
+England, King Edward VI had some interviews with Cabot, one topic being
+the "variation of the compass." He received a royal pension of 250
+marks, and did special work in relation to trade and navigation. The
+great honor of Cabot is that he saw the American continent before
+Columbus or Amerigo Vespucci.
+
+III.--Of the great navigators of that unexampled age of discovery, as
+Spain was honored by Columbus and England by Cabot, so Portugal was
+honored by De Gama. Vasco de Gama, the greatest of Portuguese
+navigators, left Lisbon in 1497 to explore the unknown world lying east
+of the Cape of Good Hope, arriving at Calicut, May, 1498. Before that,
+Diaz had actually rounded the cape, but seems to have done so merely
+before a high gale. He named it "the stormy Cape." Cabrera, or Cabral,
+was another great explorer sent from Portugal to follow in the route of
+De Gama; but being forced into a southwesterly route by currents in the
+south Atlantic, he landed on the continent of America, and annexed the
+new country to Portugal under the name of Brazil. Cabrera afterward drew
+up the first commercial treaty between Portugal and India.
+
+IV.--Magellan, scarcely inferior to Columbus, brought honor as a
+navigator both to Portugal and Spain. For the latter country, when in
+the service of Charles V, he revived the idea of Columbus that we may
+sail to Asia or the Spice Islands by sailing _west_. With a squadron of
+five ships, 236 men, he sailed, in 1519, to Brazil and convinced
+himself that the great estuary was not a strait. Sailing south along the
+American coast, he discovered the strait that bears his name, and
+through it entered the Pacific, then first sailed upon by Europeans,
+though already seen by Balboa and his men "upon a peak in Darien"--as
+Keats puts it in his famous sonnet.[7] From the continuous fine weather
+enjoyed for some months, Magellan naturally named the new sea "the
+Pacific." After touching at the Ladrones and the Philippines, Magellan
+was killed in a fight with the inhabitants of Matan, a small island.
+Sebastian, his Basque lieutenant (mentioned in Chapter I) then
+successfully completed the circumnavigation of the world, sailing first
+to the Moluccas and thence to Spain.
+
+[Footnote 7: The poet, however, makes the clerical blunder of writing
+Cortez for Balboa.]
+
+V.--Of all the world-famous navigators contemporary with Colon, the
+Genoese, there remains only one deserving of our notice, and that
+because his name is for all time perpetuated in that of the New World.
+Amerigo (Latin _Americus_) Vespucci, born at Florence, 1451, had
+commercial occupation in Cadiz, and was employed by the Spanish
+Government. He has been charged with a fraudulent attempt to usurp the
+honor due to Columbus, but Humboldt and others have defended him, after
+a minute examination of the evidence. In a book published in 1507 by a
+German, _Waldseemueller_, the author happens to say:
+
+     And the fourth part of the world having been discovered by
+     Americus, it may be called Amerige, that is the land of Americus,
+     or _America_.
+
+Vespucci never called himself the discoverer of the new continent; as a
+mere subordinate he could not think of such a thing. As a matter of
+fact, he and Columbus were always on friendly terms, attached, and
+trusted. Humboldt explains the blunder of Waldseemueller and others by
+the general ignorance of the history of how America was discovered,
+since for some years it was jealously guarded as a "state secret."
+Humboldt curiously adds that the "musical sound of the name caught the
+public ear," and thus the blunder has been universally perpetuated:
+
+  _statque stabitque
+  in omne volubilis aevum_.
+
+Another reason for the universal renown of Amerigo was that his book was
+the first that told of the new "Western World"; and was therefore
+eagerly read in all parts of Europe.
+
+Cuba, though the largest of the West Indian islands, and second to be
+discovered, was not colonized till after the death of Columbus. Thus for
+more than three centuries and a half, as "Queen of the Antilles" and
+"Pearl of the Antilles," Cuba has been noted as a chief colonial
+possession of Spain, till recent events brought it under the power of
+the United States. The conquest of the island was undertaken by
+Velasquez, who, after accompanying the great admiral in his second
+voyage, had settled in Hispaniola (or Hayti) and acquired a large
+fortune there. He had little difficulty in the annexation of Cuba,
+because the natives, like those of Hispaniola, were of a peaceful
+character, easily imposed upon by the invaders. The only difficulty
+Velasquez had was in the eastern part of the island, where Hatuey, a
+cazique or native chief, who had fled there from Hispaniola, made
+preparations to resist the Spaniards. When defeated, he was cruelly
+condemned by Velasquez to be burned to death, as a "slave who had taken
+arms against his master." The scene at Hatuey's execution is well known:
+
+     When fastened to the stake, a Franciscan friar promised him
+     immediate admittance into the joys of heaven, if he would embrace
+     the Christian faith. "Are there any Spaniards," says he, after some
+     pause, "in that region of bliss which you describe?" "Yes," replied
+     the monk, "but only such as are worthy and good." "The best of them
+     have neither worth nor goodness: I will not go to a place where I
+     may meet with one of that accursed race."
+
+Being thus annexed in 1511, by the middle of the century all the native
+Indians of Cuba had become extinct. In the following century this large
+and fertile island suffered severely by the buccaneers, but during the
+eighteenth century it prospered. During the nineteenth century, the
+United States Government had often been urged to obtain possession of
+it; for example, the sum of one hundred million dollars was offered in
+1848 by President Polk. Slavery was at last abolished absolutely in
+1886. In recent years Spain, by ceding Cuba and the Philippines to the
+United States and the Carolines to Germany, has brought her colonial
+history to a close.
+
+Two other important events occurred when Velasquez was Governor of Cuba:
+first, the escape of Balboa from Hispaniola, to become afterward
+Governor of Darien; and, second, the expedition under Cordova to
+explore that part of the continent of America which lies nearest to
+Cuba. This expedition of 110 men, in three small ships, led to the
+discovery of that large peninsula now known as Yucatan. Cordova imagined
+it to be an island. The natives were not naked, like those of the West
+Indian islands, but wore cotton clothes, and some had ornaments of gold.
+In the towns, which contained large stone houses, and country generally,
+there were many proofs of a somewhat advanced civilization. The natives,
+however, were much more warlike than the simple islanders of Cuba and
+Hispaniola; and Cordova, in fact, was glad to return from Yucatan.
+
+Velasquez, on hearing the report of Cordova, at once fitted out four
+vessels to explore the newly discovered country, and despatched them
+under command of his nephew, Grijalva. Everywhere were found proofs of
+civilization, especially in architecture. The whole district, in fact,
+abounds in prehistoric remains. From a friendly chief Grijalva received
+a sort of coat of mail covered with gold plates; and on meeting the
+ruler of the province he exchanged some toys and trinkets, such as glass
+beads, pins, scissors, for a rich treasure of jewels, gold ornaments and
+vessels.
+
+Grijalva was therefore the first European to step on the Aztec soil and
+open an intercourse with the natives. Velasquez, the Governor, at once
+prepared a larger expedition, choosing as leader or commander an officer
+who was destined henceforth to fill a much larger place in history than
+himself, one who presently appeared capable of becoming a general in the
+foremost rank, Hernando Cortes, greatest of all Spanish explorers.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE EXTINCT CIVILIZATION OF THE AZTECS
+
+
+In the Extinct Civilizations of the East it was shown that the cosmogony
+of the Chaldeans closely resembles that of the Hebrews and the
+Phenicians, and that the account of the deluge in Genesis exactly
+reproduces the much earlier one found on one of the Babylonian tablets.
+
+Traces of a deluge legend also existed among the early Aztecs. They
+believed
+
+     that two persons survived the Deluge, a man named Koksoz and his
+     wife. Their heads are represented in ancient paintings together
+     with a boat floating on the waters at the foot of a mountain. A
+     dove is also depicted, with a hieroglyphical emblem of languages in
+     his mouth.... Tezpi, the Noah of a neighboring people, also escaped
+     in a boat, which was filled with various kinds of animals and
+     birds. After some time a vulture was sent out from it, but remained
+     feeding on the dead bodies of the giants, which had been left on
+     the earth as the waters subsided. The little humming-bird was then
+     sent forth and returned with the branch of a tree in its mouth.
+
+Another Aztec tradition of the deluge is that the pyramidal mound, the
+temple of Cholula (a sacred city on the way between the capital and the
+seaport), was built by the giants to escape drowning. Like the tower of
+Babel, it was intended to reach the clouds, till the gods looked down
+and, by destroying the pyramid by fires from heaven, compelled the
+builders to abandon the attempt.
+
+The hieroglyphics used in the Aztec calendar correspond curiously with
+the zodiacal signs of the Mongols of eastern Asia. "The symbols in the
+Mongolian calendar are borrowed from animals, and four of the twelve are
+the same as the Aztec."
+
+The antiquity of most of the monuments is proved--e. g., by the growth
+of trees in the midst of the buildings in Yucatan. Many have had time to
+attain a diameter of from six to nine feet. In a courtyard at Uxmal, the
+figures of tortoises sculptured in relief upon the granite pavement are
+so worn away by the feet of countless generations of the natives that
+the design of the artist is scarcely recognizable.
+
+The Spanish invaders demolished every vestige of the Aztec religious
+monuments, just as Roman Catholic images and paraphernalia were once
+treated by the "straitest sects" of Protestants, or even Mohammedans.
+
+The beautiful plateau around the lakes of Mexico, as well as other
+central portions of America, were without any doubt occupied from the
+earliest ages by peoples who gradually advanced in civilization from
+generation to generation and passed through cycles of revolutions--in
+one century relapsing, in another advancing by leaps and bounds by an
+infusion of new blood or a change of environment--exactly similar to the
+checkered annals of the successive dynasties in the Nile Valley and the
+plains of Babylonia. In the New World, as in the Old World, from
+prehistoric times wealth was accumulated at such centers, bringing
+additional comfort and refinement, and implying the practise of the
+useful arts and some applications of science. As to the legendary
+migrations or even those extinct races whose names still remain, Max
+Mueller said:[8]
+
+[Footnote 8: Chips from a German Workshop, i, 327.]
+
+     The traditions are no better than the Greek traditions about
+     Pelasgians, Aeolians, and Ionians, and it would be a mere waste of
+     time to construct out of such elements a systematic history, only
+     to be destroyed again sooner or later, by some Niebuhr, Grote, or
+     Lewis.
+
+_Anahuac_ (i. e., "waterside" or "the lake-country"), in the early
+centuries of our era, was a name of the country round the lakes and town
+afterward called Mexico. To this center, as a place for settlement,
+there came from the north or northwest a succession of tribes more or
+less allied in race and language--especially (according to one theory)
+the _Toltecs_ from Tula, and the _Aztecs_ from Aztlan. Tula, north of
+the Mexican Valley, had been the first capital of the Toltecs, and at
+the time of the Spanish conquest there were remains of large buildings
+there. Most of the extensive temples and other edifices found throughout
+"New Spain" were attributed to this race and the word "toltek" became
+synonymous with "architect."
+
+Some five centuries after the Toltecs had abandoned Tula, the Aztecs or
+early Mexicans arrived to settle in the Valley of Anahuac. With the
+Aztecs came the Tezcucans, whose capital, Tezcuco, on the eastern border
+of the Mexican lake, has given it its still surviving name.
+
+The Aztecs, again, after long migrations from place to place, finally,
+in A. D. 1325, halted on the southwestern shores of the great lake.
+According to tradition, a heavenly vision thus announced the site of
+their future capital:
+
+     They beheld perched on the stem of a prickly-pear, which shot out
+     from the crevice of a rock washed by the waves, a royal eagle of
+     extraordinary size and beauty, with a serpent in its talons, and
+     its broad wings opened to the rising sun. They hailed the
+     auspicious omen, announced by an oracle as indicating the sight of
+     their future city, and laid its foundations by sinking piles into
+     the shallows; for the low marshes were half buried under water....
+     The place was called Tenochtitlan (i. e. "the cactus on a rock") in
+     token of its miraculous origin. [Such were the humble beginnings of
+     the Venice of the Western World.][9]
+
+[Footnote 9: Prescott, i, I, pp. 8, 9.]
+
+To this day the arms of the Mexican republic show the device of the
+eagle and the cactus--to commemorate the legend of the foundation of the
+capital--afterward called Mexico from the name of their war-god. Fiercer
+and more warlike than their brethren of Tezcuco, the men of the latter
+town were glad of their assistance, when invaded and defeated by a
+hostile tribe. Thus Mexico and Tezcuco became close allies, and by the
+time of Montezuma I, in the middle of the fifteenth century, their
+sovereignty had extended beyond their native plateau to the coast
+country along the Gulf of Mexico. The capital rapidly increased in
+population, the original houses being replaced by substantial stone
+buildings. There are documents showing that Tenochtitlan was of much
+larger dimensions than the modern capital of Mexico, on the same site.
+Just before the arrival of the Spaniards, at the beginning of the
+sixteenth century, the kingdom extended from the gulf across to the
+Pacific; and southward under the ruthless Ahuitzotl over the whole of
+Guatemala and Nicaragua.
+
+The Aztecs resembled the ancient Peruvians in very few respects, one
+being the use of knots on strings of different colors to record events
+and numbers. Compare our account of "the quipu" in Chapter X. The Aztecs
+seem to have replaced that rude method of making memoranda during the
+seventh century by picture-writing. Before the Spanish invasion,
+thousands of native clerks or chroniclers were employed in painting on
+vegetable paper and canvas. Examples of such manuscripts may still be
+seen in all the great museums. Their contents chiefly refer to ritual,
+astrology, the calendar, annals of the kings, etc.
+
+Most of the literary productions of the ancient Mexicans were stupidly
+destroyed by the Spanish under Cortes. The first Archbishop of Mexico
+founded a professorship in 1553 for expounding the hieroglyphs of the
+Aztecs, but in the following century the study was abandoned. Even the
+native-born scholars confessed that they were unable to decipher the
+ancient writing. One of the most ancient books (assigned to Tula, the
+"Toltec" capital, A. D. 660, and written by Huetmatzin, an astrologer),
+describes the heavens and the earth, the stars in their constellations,
+the arrangement of time in the official calendar, with some geography,
+mythology, and cosmogony. In the fifteenth century the King of Tezcuco
+published sixty hymns in honor of the Supreme Being, with an elegy on
+the destruction of a town, and another on the instability of human
+greatness.
+
+In the same century the three Anahuac states (Acolhua, Mexico, and
+Tlacopan) formed a confederacy with a constant tendency to give Mexico
+the supremacy. The two capitals looking at each other across the lake
+were steadily growing in importance, with all the adjuncts of public
+works--causeways, canals, aqueducts, temples, palaces, gardens, and
+other evidences of wealth.
+
+The horror and disgust caused by the Aztec sacrificial bloodshed are
+greatly increased by considering the number of the victims. The kings
+actually made war in order to provide as many victims as possible for
+the public sacrifices--especially on such an occasion as a coronation or
+the consecration of a new temple. Captives were sometimes reserved a
+considerable time for the purpose of immolation. It was the regular
+method of the Aztec warrior in battle not to kill one's opponent if he
+could be made a captive; to take him alive was a meritorious act in
+religion. In fact, the Spaniards in this way frequently escaped death at
+the hands of their Mexican opponents. When King Montezuma was asked by a
+European general why he had permitted the republic of Tlascala to remain
+independent on the borders of his kingdom, his reply was, "That she
+might furnish me with victims for my gods."
+
+In reckoning the number of victims Prescott seems to have trusted too
+implicitly to the almost incredible accounts of the Spanish. Zumurraga,
+the first Bishop of Mexico, asserts that 20,000 were sacrificed
+annually, but Casas points out that with such a "waste of the human
+species," as is implied in some histories, the country could not have
+been so populous as Cortes found it. The estimate of Casas is "that the
+Mexicans never sacrificed more than fifty or a hundred persons in a
+year."
+
+Notwithstanding the wholesale bloodshed before the shrines of their gory
+gods, we can still assign to the Aztecs a high degree of civilization.
+The history of even modern Europe will illustrate this statement,
+although apparently paradoxical.
+
+Consider "the condition of some of the most polished countries in the
+sixteenth century after the establishment of the modern Inquisition--an
+institution which yearly destroyed its thousands by a death more painful
+than the Aztec sacrifices, ... which did more to stay the march of
+improvement than any other scheme ever devised by human cunning....
+Human sacrifice was sometimes voluntarily embraced by the Aztecs as the
+most glorious death, and one that opened a sure passage into paradise.
+The Inquisition, on the other hand, branded its victims with infamy in
+this world, and consigned them to everlasting perdition in the next."
+
+The difficulty with the Aztecs is how to reconcile such refinement as
+their extinct civilization showed with their savage enjoyment of
+bloodshed. "No captive was ever ransomed or spared; all were sacrificed
+without mercy, and their flesh devoured." The first of the four chief
+counselors of the empire was called the "Prince of the Deadly Lance,"
+the second "Divider of Men," the third "Shedder of Blood," the fourth
+"the Lord of the Dark House."
+
+The temples were very numerous, generally merely pyramidal masses of
+clay faced with brick or stone. The roof was a broad area on which stood
+one or two towers, from forty to fifty feet in height, forming the
+sanctuaries of the presiding deities, and therefore containing their
+images. Before these sanctuaries stood the dreadful stone of sacrifice.
+There were also two altars with sacred fires kept ever burning.
+
+All the religious services were public, and the pyramidal temples, with
+stairs round their massive sides, allowed the long procession of priests
+to be visible as they ceremoniously ascended to perform the dread office
+of slaughtering the human victims.
+
+Human sacrifices had not originally been a feature of the Aztec worship.
+But about 200 years before the arrival of the Spanish invaders was the
+beginning of this religious atrocity, and at last no public festival was
+considered complete without some human bloodshed.
+
+Prescott takes as an example the great festival in honor of
+Tezcatlipoca, a handsome god of the second rank, called "the soul of the
+world," and endowed with perpetual youth.
+
+     A year before the intended sacrifice, a captive, distinguished for
+     his personal beauty and without a blemish on his body, was
+     selected.... Tutors took charge of him and instructed him how to
+     perform his new part with becoming grace and dignity. He was
+     arrayed in a splendid dress, regaled with incense and with a
+     profusion of sweet-scented flowers.... When he went abroad he was
+     attended by a train of the royal pages, and as he halted in the
+     streets to play some favorite melody, the crowd prostrated
+     themselves before him, and did him homage as the representative of
+     their good deity.... Four beautiful girls, bearing the names of the
+     principal goddesses, were selected, and with them he continued to
+     live idly, feasted at the banquets of the principal nobles, who
+     paid him all the honors of a divinity. When at length the fatal
+     day of sacrifice arrived, ... stripped of his gaudy apparel, one of
+     the royal barges transported him across a lake to a temple which
+     rose on its margin.... Hither the inhabitants of the capital
+     flocked to witness the consummation of the ceremony. As the sad
+     procession wound up the sides of the pyramid, the unhappy victim
+     threw away his gay chaplets of flowers and broke in pieces his
+     musical instruments. ... On the summit he was received by six
+     priests, whose long and matted locks flowed in disorder over their
+     sable robes, covered with hieroglyphic scrolls of mystic import.
+     They led him to the sacrificial stone, a huge block of jasper, with
+     its upper surface somewhat convex. On this the victim was
+     stretched. Five priests secured his head and limbs, while the
+     sixth, clad in a scarlet mantle, emblematic of his bloody office,
+     dexterously opened the breast of the wretched victim with a sharp
+     razor of _itzli_, and inserting his hand in the wound, tore out the
+     palpitating heart, and after holding it up to the sun (as
+     representing the supreme God), cast it at the feet of the deity to
+     whom the temple was devoted, while the multitudes below prostrated
+     themselves in humble adoration.
+
+Such was an instance of the human sacrifices for which ancient Mexico
+became infamous to the whole civilized world.
+
+One instance of a sacrifice differing from the ordinary sort is thus
+given by a Spanish historian:
+
+     A captive of distinction was sometimes furnished with arms for
+     single combat against a number of Mexicans in succession. If he
+     defeated them all, as did occasionally happen, he was allowed to
+     escape. If vanquished he was dragged to the block and sacrificed in
+     the usual manner. The combat was fought on a huge circular stone
+     before the population of the capital.
+
+Women captives were occasionally sacrificed before those bloodthirsty
+gods, and in a season of drought even children were sometimes
+slaughtered to propitiate Tlaloc, the god of rain.
+
+     Borne along in open litters, dressed in their festal robes and
+     decked with the fresh blossoms of spring, they moved the hardest
+     hearts to pity, though their cries were drowned in the wild chant
+     of the priests who read in their tears a favorable augury for the
+     rain prayer.
+
+One Spanish historian informs us that these innocent victims of this
+repulsive religion were generally bought by the priests from parents who
+were poor.
+
+We may now resume the traditional settlement of the ancient Mexicans on
+the region called Anahuac, including all the fertile plateau and
+extending south to the lake of Nicaragua. The chief tribes of the race
+were said to have come from California, and after being subject to the
+Colhua people asserted their independence about A. D. 1325. Soon
+afterward, their first capital, Tenochtitlan, was built on the site of
+Mexico, their permanent center. For several generations they lived, like
+their remote ancestors, the Red Men of the Woods, as hunters, fishers,
+and trappers, but at last their prince or chief cazique was powerful
+enough to be called king. The rule of this Aztec prince, beginning A. D.
+1440, marked the beginning of their greatness as a race. It became a
+rule of their kingdom that every new king must gain a victory before
+being crowned; and thus by the conquest of a new nation furnish a supply
+of captives to gratify their tutelary deity by the necessary human
+sacrifices. In 1502 the younger Montezuma ascended the throne. He is
+better known to us than the previous kings, because it was in his reign
+that the Spanish conquerors appeared on the scene. From the time of
+Cortes the history of the Aztecs becomes part of that of the Mexicans.
+They were easily conquered by the European troops, partly because of
+their betrayal by various of the neighboring nations whom they had
+formerly conquered. At the beginning of the sixteenth century, according
+to Prescott, the Aztec king ruled the continent from the Atlantic to the
+Pacific.
+
+From the scientific side of their extinct civilization it is their
+knowledge of astronomy that chiefly causes astonishment (see also p.
+85). As in the case of the Chaldeans and Babylonians, a motive
+for the study of the stars and planets was the priestly one of
+accurately fixing the religious festivals. The tropical year being thus
+ascertained, their tables showed the exact time of the equinox or sun's
+transit across the equatorial, and of the solstice. From a very early
+period they had practised agriculture, growing Indian corn and "Mexican
+aloe." Having no animals of draft, such as the horse, or ox, their
+farming was naturally of a rude and imperfect sort.
+
+"The degree of civilization," says Prescott, "which the Aztecs reached,
+as inferred by their political institutions, may be considered, perhaps,
+not much short of that enjoyed by our Saxon ancestors under Alfred."
+
+In a passage comparing the Aztecs to the American Indians, we read:
+
+     The latter has something peculiarly sensitive in his nature. He
+     shrinks instinctively from the rude touch of a foreign hand. Even
+     when this foreign influence comes in the form of civilization he
+     seems to sink and pine away beneath it. It has been so with the
+     Mexicans. Under the Spanish domination their numbers have silently
+     melted away. Their energies are broken. They no longer tread their
+     mountain plains with the conscious independence of their ancestors.
+     In their faltering step and meek and melancholy aspect we read the
+     sad characters of the conquered race.... Their civilization was of
+     the hardy character which belongs to the wilderness. The fierce
+     virtues of the Aztec were all his own.
+
+Humboldt found some analogy between the Aztec theory of the universe, as
+taught by the priests, and the Asiatic "cosmogonies." The Aztecs, in
+explaining the great mystery of man's existence after death, believed
+that future time would revolve in great periods or cycles, each
+embracing thousands of years. At the end of each of the four cycles of
+future time in the present world, "the human family will be swept from
+the earth by the agency of one of the elements, and the sun blotted out
+from the heavens to be again rekindled."
+
+The priesthood comprised a large number who were skilled in astrology
+and divination. The great temple of Mexico, alone, had 5,000 priests in
+attendance, of whom the chief dignitaries superintended the dreadful
+rites of human sacrifice. Others had management of the singing choirs
+with their musical accompaniment of drums and other instruments; others
+arranged the public festivals according to the calendar, and had charge
+of the hieroglyphical word-painting and oral traditions. One important
+section of the priesthood were teachers, responsible for the education
+of the children and instruction in religion and morality. The head
+management of the hierarchy or whole ecclesiastical system, was under
+two high priests--the more dignified that they were chosen by the king
+and principal nobles without reference to birth or social station. These
+high priests were consulted on any national emergency, and in precedency
+of rank were superior to every man except the king. Montezuma is said to
+have been a priest.
+
+The priestly power was more absolute than any ever experienced in
+Europe. Two remarkable peculiarities were that when a sinner was
+pardoned by a priest, the certificate afterward saved the culprit from
+being legally punished for any offense; secondly, there could be no
+pardon for an offense once atoned for if the offense were repeated.
+"Long after the conquest, the simple natives when they came under the
+arm of the law, sought to escape by producing the certificate of their
+former confession." (Prescott, i, 33.)
+
+The prayer of the priest-confessor, as reported by a Spanish historian,
+is very remarkable:
+
+     "O, merciful Lord, thou who knowest the secrets of all hearts, let
+     thy forgiveness and favor descend, like the pure waters of heaven,
+     to wash away the stains from the soul. Thou knowest that this poor
+     man has sinned, _not from his own free will_, but from the
+     influence of the sign under which he was born...."
+
+     After enjoining on the penitent a variety of minute ceremonies by
+     way of penance, the confessor urges the necessity of instantly
+     procuring a slave for sacrifice to the Deity.
+
+In the schools under the clergy the boys were taught by priests and the
+girls by priestesses. There was a higher school for instruction in
+tradition and history, the mysteries of hieroglyphs, the principles of
+government, and certain branches of astronomical and natural science.
+
+In the education of their children the Mexican community were very
+strict, but from a letter preserved by one of the Spanish historians, we
+can not doubt the womanly affection of a mother who thus wrote to her
+daughter:
+
+     My beloved daughter, very dear little dove, you have already heard
+     and attended to the words which your father has told you. They are
+     precious words, which have proceeded from the bowels and heart in
+     which they were treasured up; and your beloved father well knows
+     that you, his daughter, begotten of him, are his blood and his
+     flesh; and God our Lord knows that it is so. Although you are a
+     woman, and are the image of your father, what more can I say to you
+     than has already been said?... My dear daughter, whom I tenderly
+     love, see that you live in the world in peace, tranquillity, and
+     contentment--see that you disgrace not yourself, that you stain not
+     your honor, nor pollute the luster and fame of your ancestors....
+     May God prosper you, my first-born, and may you come to God, who is
+     in every place.[10]
+
+[Footnote 10: Sahagun, Hist. de Nueva Espana, vi, 19.]
+
+Some trace of a "natural piety," which will probably surprise our
+readers, is also found in the ceremony of Aztec baptism, as described by
+the same writer. After the head and lips of the infant were touched with
+water and a name given to it, the goddess Cioacoatl was implored "that
+the sin which was given to us before the beginning of the world might
+not visit the child, but that, cleansed by these waters, it might live
+and be born anew." In Sahagun's account we read:
+
+     When all the relations of the child were assembled, the midwife,
+     who was the person that performed the rite of baptism, was
+     summoned. When the sun had risen, the midwife, taking the child in
+     her arms, called for a little earthen vessel of water.... To
+     perform the rite, she placed herself _with her face toward the
+     west_, and began to go through certain ceremonies.... After this
+     she sprinkled water on the head of the infant, saying, "O my child!
+     receive the water of the Lord of the world, which is our life, and
+     is given for the increasing and renewing of our body. It is to wash
+     and to purify." ... [After a prayer] she took the child in both
+     hands, and lifting him toward heaven said, "O Lord, thou seest here
+     thy creature whom thou hast sent into this world, this place of
+     sorrow, suffering, and penitence. Grant him, O Lord, thy gifts and
+     thine inspiration."
+
+The science of the Aztecs has excited the wonder of all competent
+judges, such as Humboldt (already quoted) and the astronomer La Place.
+Lord Kingsborough remarks in his great work:
+
+     It can hardly be doubted that the Mexicans were acquainted with
+     many scientifical instruments of strange invention;... whether the
+     telescope may not have been of the number is uncertain; but the
+     thirteenth plate of M. Dupaix's Monuments, which represents a man
+     holding something of a similar nature to his eye, affords reason to
+     suppose that they knew how to improve the powers of vision.
+
+References to the calendar of the Aztecs should not omit the secular
+festival occurring at the end of their great cycle of fifty-two years.
+From the length of the period, two generations, one might compare it
+with the "jubilee" of ancient Israel--a word made familiar toward the
+close of Queen Victoria's reign. The great event always took place at
+midwinter, the most dreary period of the year, and when the five
+intercalary days arrived they "abandoned themselves to despair,"
+breaking up the images of the gods, allowing the holy fires of the
+temples to go out, lighting none in their homes, destroying their
+furniture and domestic utensils, and tearing their clothes to rags. This
+disorder and gloom signified that figuratively the end of the world was
+at hand.
+
+     On the evening of the last day, a procession of priests, assuming
+     the dress and ornaments of their gods, moved from the capital
+     toward a lofty mountain, about two leagues distant. They carried
+     with them a noble victim, the flower of their captives, and an
+     apparatus for kindling the _new fire_, the success of which was an
+     augury of the renewal of the cycle. On the summit of the mountain,
+     the procession paused till midnight, when, as the constellation of
+     the Pleiades[11] approached the zenith, the new fire was kindled by
+     the friction of some sticks placed on the breast of the victim. The
+     flame was soon communicated to a funeral-pyre on which the body of
+     the slaughtered captive was thrown. As the light streamed up toward
+     heaven, shouts of joy and triumph burst forth from the countless
+     multitudes who covered the hills, the terraces of the temples, and
+     the housetops.... Couriers, with torches lighted at the blazing
+     beacon, rapidly bore them over every part of the country.... A new
+     cycle had commenced its march.
+
+     The following thirteen days were given up to festivity. ... The
+     people, dressed in their gayest apparel, and crowned with garlands
+     and chaplets of flowers, thronged in joyous procession to offer up
+     their oblations and thanksgivings in the temples. Dances and games
+     were instituted emblematical of the regeneration of the world.
+
+[Footnote 11: A famous group of seven small stars in the Bull
+constellation. The "seven sisters" appear as only _six_ to ordinary
+eyesight: to make out the seventh is a test of a practised eye and
+excellent vision.]
+
+Prescott compares this carnival of the Aztecs to the great secular
+festival of the Romans or ancient Etruscans, which (as Suetonius
+remarked) "few alive had witnessed before, or could expect to witness
+again." The _ludi saeculares_ or secular games of Rome were held only at
+very long intervals and lasted for three days and nights.
+
+The poet Southey thus refers to the ceremony of opening the new Aztec
+cycle, or Circle of the Years.
+
+  On his bare breast the cedar boughs are laid,
+  On his bare breast, dry sedge and odorous gums,
+  Laid ready to receive the sacred spark,
+  And blaze, to herald the ascending sun,
+  Upon his living altar. Round the wretch
+  The inhuman ministers of rites accurst
+  Stand, and expect the signal when to strike
+  The seed of fire. Their Chief, apart from all,
+      ... eastward turns his eyes;
+  For now the hour draws nigh, and speedily
+  He look's to see the first faint dawn of day
+  Break through the orient sky.
+
+  _Madoc_, ii, 26.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+AMERICAN ARCHEOLOGY
+
+
+Long before the time of Columbus and the Spanish conquest there existed
+on the table-land of Mexico two great races or nations, as has already
+been shown, both highly civilized, and both akin in language, art, and
+religion. Ethnologists and antiquaries are not agreed as to their origin
+or the development of their civilization. Many recent critics have held
+the theory that there had been a previous people from whom both races
+inherited their extinct civilization, this previous race being the
+"Toltecs," whom we have repeatedly mentioned in the preceding chapter.
+To that previous race some attribute the colossal stonework around
+Lake Titicaca, as well as other survivals of long-forgotten culture.
+Some would even class them with the "mound-builders" of the Ohio Valley.
+Other recent antiquaries, however, while fully admitting the
+Aztec-Tescucan civilization to be real and historical, treat the Toltec
+theory as partly or entirely mythical. One writer alleges, after the
+manner of Max Mueller, that the Toltecs are "simply a personification of
+the rays of light" radiating from the Aztec sun-god.
+
+Leaving abstract theories, we shall devote this chapter to the principal
+facts of American archeology--especially as regards the races and the
+monuments of their long extinct civilizations. Throughout many parts of
+both North and South America, and over large areas, the red-skinned
+natives continued their generations as their ancestors had done through
+untold centuries, scarcely rising above the state of rude, uncultured
+sons of the soil living as hunters, trappers, fishers, as had been done
+immemorially
+
+  When wild in woods the noble savage ran,
+
+as Dryden puts it. But in Mexico, Yucatan, and Central America,
+Colombia, and Peru there were men of the original redskin race who had
+distinctly attained to civilization for unknown generations before the
+time of Columbus. Not only so, but in many centers of wealth and
+population the process of social improvement and advance had been
+continuous for unrecorded ages; and in certain cases a long extinct
+civilization had over-laid a previous civilization still more remotely
+extinct. Some works constructed for supplying water, for example, could
+only have been applied to that purpose when the climate or geological
+conditions were quite different from what they have always been in
+historical times!
+
+Who is the red man? Compared in numbers with the yellow man, the white
+man, or even the black, he is very unimportant, being only one-tenth as
+great as the African race.[12] In American ethnology, however, the red
+man is all-important. Primeval men of this race undoubtedly formed the
+original stock whence during the centuries were derived all the numerous
+tribes of "Indians" found in either North or South America. Throughout
+Asia and Africa there is great diversity in type among the races that
+are indigenous; but as to America, to quote Humboldt:
+
+[Footnote 12: White or Caucasian 640,000,000, yellow or Mongolian
+600,000,000, black or African 200,000,000, red or American 20,000,000.]
+
+     The Indians of New Spain [i. e., Mexico] bear a general resemblance
+     to those who inhabit Canada, Florida, Peru, and Brazil. We have the
+     same swarthy and copper color, straight and smooth hair, small
+     beard, squat body, long eye, with the corner directed upward toward
+     the temples, prominent cheek-bones, thick lips, and expression of
+     gentleness in the mouth, strongly contrasted with a gloomy and
+     severe look.
+
+Whence the original red men of America were derived it is impossible to
+say. The date is too remote and the data too few. From fossil remains of
+human bones, Agassiz estimated a period of at least ten thousand years;
+and near New Orleans, beneath four buried forests, a skeleton was found
+which was possibly fifty thousand years old. If, therefore, the redskins
+branched off from the yellow man, it must have been at a period which
+lies utterly beyond historic ken or calculation.
+
+Some recent ethnologists have borrowed the "glacier theory" from the
+science of geology, in order to trace the development of civilization
+among certain races. In Switzerland and Greenland the signs of the
+action of a glacier can be traced and recognized just as we trace the
+proofs of the action of water in a dry channel. Visit the front of a
+glacier in autumn after the summer heat has made it shrink back, you
+will see (1) rounded rocks, as if planed on the top, with (2) a mixed
+mass of stones and gravel like a rubbish-heap, scattered on (3) a mass
+of clay and sand, containing boulders. The same three tests are
+frequently found in countries where there have been no glaciers within
+the memory of man.
+
+Such traces, found not only in England, Scotland, and Ireland, but in
+northern Germany and Denmark, prove that the mountain mass of
+Scandinavia was the nucleus of a huge ice-cap "radiating to a distance
+of not less than 1,000 miles, and thick enough to block up with solid
+ice the North Sea, the German Ocean, the Baltic, and even the Atlantic
+up to the 100-fathom line." In North America the same thing is proved by
+similar evidence. A gigantic ice-cap extending from Canada has glaciated
+all the minor mountain ranges to the south, sweeping over the whole
+continent. The drift and boulders still remain to prove the fact, as far
+south as only 15 deg. north of the tropic. A warm oceanic current, like the
+Gulf Stream of the Atlantic, would shorten a glacial period. Speaking of
+Scotland, one authority states that "if the Gulf Stream were diverted
+and the Highlands upheaved to the height of the New Zealand Alps, the
+whole country would again be buried under glaciers pushing out into the
+seas" on the west and east.
+
+The theory is that as the climate became warmer, the ice-fronts
+retreated northward by the shrinking of the glaciers, and therefore the
+animals, including man, were able to live farther north. The men of that
+very remote period were "Neolithic," and some of the stone monuments are
+attributed to them that were formerly called "Druidic." A recent writer
+asks; with reference to Stonehenge:
+
+     Did Neolithic men slowly coming northward, as the rigors of the
+     last glacial period abated, domicile here, and build this huge
+     gaunt temple before they passed farther north, to degrade and
+     dwindle down into Eskimos wandering the dismal coasts of arctic
+     seas?
+
+Another writer, with reference to the American ice-sheet, says:
+
+     During the second glacial epoch when the great boreal ice-sheet
+     covered one-half of the North American continent, reaching as far
+     south as the present cities of Philadelphia and St. Louis, and the
+     glaciated portions were as unfit for human occupation as the
+     snow-cap of Greenland is to-day, aggregations of population
+     clustered around the equatorial zone, because the climatic
+     conditions were congenial. And inasmuch as civilization, the world
+     over, clings to the temperate climates and thrives there best, we
+     are not surprised to learn that communities far advanced in arts
+     and architecture built and occupied those great cities in Yucatan,
+     Honduras, Guatemala, and other Central American states, whose
+     populations once numbered hundreds of thousands.
+
+     An approximate date when this civilization was at the acme of its
+     glory would be about ten thousand years ago. This is established by
+     observations upon the recession of the existing glacier fronts,
+     which are known to drop back twelve miles in one hundred years.
+
+     With the gradual withdrawal of the glacial ice-sheet the climate
+     grew proportionately milder, and flora and fauna moved
+     simultaneously northward. Some emigrants went to South America and
+     settled there, carrying their customs, arts, ceremonial rites,
+     hieroglyphs, architecture, etc.; and an immense exodus took place
+     into Mexico, which ultimately extended westward up the Pacific
+     coast.
+
+     In subsequent epochs when the ice-sheet had withdrawn from large
+     areas, there were immense influxes of people from Asia via Bering
+     Strait on the Pacific side, and from northwestern Europe via
+     Greenland on the Atlantic side. The Korean immigration of the year
+     544 led to the founding of the Mexican Empire in 1325.
+
+To trace then the gradations of ascent from the native American--called
+"Indians" by a blunder of the Great Admiral, as afterward they were
+nicknamed "redskins" by the English settlers--to the Mexicans,
+Peruvians, or Colombians is a task far beyond our strength. Leaving the
+question of race, therefore, we now turn to the antiquarian remains,
+especially the architectural.
+
+The prehistoric civilization which was developed to the south of Mexico
+is generally known as "Mayan," although the Mayas were undoubtedly akin
+to the Aztecs or early Mexicans. The Maya tribes in Yucatan and
+Honduras, from abundant evidence, must have risen to a refinement in
+prehistoric times, which, in several respects, was superior to that of
+the Aztecs. In architecture they were in advance from the earliest ages
+not only of the Aztec peoples, but of all the American races.
+
+In Yucatan the Mayas have left some wonderful remains at Mayapan, their
+prehistoric capital, and near it at a place called Uxmal which has
+become famous from its vast and elaborate structures,[13] evidencing a
+knowledge of art and science which had flourished in this region for
+centuries before the arrival of the Spanish. The chief building in Uxmal
+is in pyramidal form, the principal design in the ancient Aztec temples
+(as well as those of Chaldea, etc.), consisting of three terraces faced
+with hewn stone. The terraces are in length 575, 545, and 360 feet
+respectively; with the temple on the summit, 322 feet, and a great
+flight of stairs leading to it. The whole building is surrounded by a
+belt of richly sculptured figures, above a cornice. At Chichen, also in
+Yucatan, there is an area of two miles perimeter entirely covered with
+architectural ruins; many of the roofs having apparently consisted of
+stone arches, painted in various colors. One building, of peculiar
+construction, proves an enigma to all travelers: it is more than ninety
+yards long and consists of two parallel walls, each ten yards thick, the
+distance between them being also ten yards. It has been conjectured that
+the anomalous construction had reference to some public games by which
+the citizens amused themselves in that long-forgotten period. Among
+other memorials of Mayan architecture in this country is the city of
+Tuloom on the east coast, fortified with strong walls and square towers.
+A more remarkable "find" in the dense forests of Chiapas, in the same
+country, is the city recorded by Stephens and other travelers. It is
+near the coast, at the place where Cortes and his Spanish soldiers were
+moving about for a considerable time, yet they do not appear to have
+ever seen the splendid ruins, or to have at all suspected their
+existence. Even if the natives knew, the Spaniards might have found the
+toil of forcing a passage through such forests too laborious. The name
+of the city which had so long been buried under the tropical vegetation
+was quite unknown, nor was there any tradition of it; but when found it
+was called "Palenque," from the nearest inhabited village. There were
+substantial and handsome buildings with excellent masonry, and in many
+cases beautiful sculptures and hieroglyphical figures.
+
+[Footnote 13: See Frontispiece.]
+
+Merida, the capital of Yucatan, is on the site of a prehistoric city
+whose name had also become unknown. When building the present town, the
+Spaniards utilized the ancient buildings as quarries for good stones.
+
+The larger prehistoric structures are frequently on artificial mounds,
+being probably intended for religious or ceremonial purposes. The walls
+both within and without are elaborately decorated, sometimes with
+symbolic figures. Sometimes officials in ceremonial costumes are seen
+apparently performing religious rites. These are often accompanied by
+inscriptions in low relief, with the peculiar Mayan characters which
+some archeologists call "calculiform hieroglyphs" (_v._ p. 82).
+
+On one of the altar-slabs near Palenque there occurs a sculptured group
+
+    of several figures in the act of making offerings to a central
+    object shaped like the Latin cross. "The Latin, the Greek, and the
+    Egyptian cross or _tau_ (T) were evidently sacred symbols to this
+    ancient people, bearing some religious meanings derived from their
+    own cult."[14]
+
+[Footnote 14: D. G. Brinton.]
+
+The cross occurs frequently, not only in the Mayan sculptures, but also
+in the ceremonial of the Aztecs. The Spanish followers of Cortes were
+astonished to see this symbol used by these "barbarians," as they called
+them. Winsor (i, 195) says that the Mayan cross has been explained to
+mean "the four cardinal points, the rain-bringers, the symbol of life
+and health"; and again, "the emblem of fire, indeed an ornamental
+fire-drill."
+
+Students of architecture find a rudimentary form of the arch occurring
+in some of the ruins, notably at Palenque. Two walls are built parallel
+to each other, at some distance apart, then at the beginning of the arch
+the layers on both sides have the inner stones slightly projecting, each
+layer projecting a little more than the previous one, till at a certain
+height the stones of one wall are almost touching those of the wall
+opposite. Finally, a single flat stone closes in the space between and
+completes the arch.
+
+In Honduras, on the banks of the Copan, the Spaniards found a
+prehistoric capital in ruins, on an elevated area, surrounded by
+substantial walls built of dressed stones, and enclosing large groups of
+buildings. One structure is mainly composed of huge blocks of polished
+stone. In several houses the whole of the external surface is covered
+with elaborate carved designs:
+
+     The adjacent soil is covered with sculptured obelisks, pillars, and
+     idols, with finely dressed stones, and with blocks ornamented with
+     skilfully carved figures of the characteristic Maya hieroglyphs,
+     which, could they be deciphered, would doubtless reveal the story
+     of this strange and solitary city.
+
+In western Guatemala, at Utatla, the ancient capital of the Quiches, a
+tribe allied to the Mayas, several pyramids still remain. One is 120
+feet high, surmounted by a stone wall, and another is ascended by a
+staircase of nineteen steps, each nineteen inches in height.
+
+The literary remains (such as Alphabets, Hieroglyphs, Manuscripts, etc.)
+of the Maya and Aztec races are in some respects as vivid a proof of the
+extinct civilizations as any of the architectural monuments already
+discussed. Both Aztecs and Mayans of Yucatan and Central America used
+picture-writing, and sometimes an imperfect form of hieroglyphics. The
+most elementary kind was simply a rough sketch of a scene or historical
+group which they wished to record. When, for example, Cortes had his
+first interview with some messengers sent by Montezuma, one of the
+Aztecs was observed sketching the dress and appearance of the Spaniards,
+and then completing his picture by using colors. Even in recent times
+Indians have recorded facts by pictographs: in Harper's Magazine
+(August, 1902) we read that "pictographs and painted rocks to the number
+of over 3,000 are scattered all over the United States, from the Dighton
+Rock, Massachusetts (_v_. pp. 27, 28), to the Kern River Canyon in
+California, and from the Florida Cape to the Mouse River in Manitoba.
+The identity of the Indians with their ancient progenitors is further
+proved by relics, mortuary customs, linguistic similarities, plants and
+vegetables, and primitive industrial and mechanical arts, which have
+remained constant throughout the ages." The pictographs of the Kern
+River Canyon, according to the same writer, were inscribed on the rocks
+there "about five thousand years ago."
+
+A more advanced form of picture-writing is frequently found in the Mayan
+and other inscriptions and manuscripts. Two objects are represented,
+whose names, when pronounced together, give a sound which suggests the
+name to be recorded or remembered. Thus, the name Gladstone may be
+expressed in this manner by two pictures, one a laughing face (i. e.,
+"happy" or "glad"), the other a rock (i. e., "stone"). It is exactly the
+same contrivance that is used to construct the puzzle called a "rebus."
+
+A third form of hieroglyphic was by devising some conventional mark or
+symbol to suggest the initial sound of the name to be recorded. Such a
+mark or character would be a "letter," in fact; and thus the prehistoric
+alphabets were arrived at, not only among the early Mayans of Yucatan,
+etc., but among the prehistoric peoples of Asia, as the Chinese, the
+Hittites, etc., as well as the primeval Egyptians. Many of the
+sculptures in Copan and Palenque to which we have referred contain
+pictographs and hieroglyphs. A Spanish Bishop of Yucatan drew up a Mayan
+alphabet in order to express the hieroglyphs on monuments and
+manuscripts in Roman letters; but much more data are needed before
+scholars will read the ancient Mayan-Aztec tongues as they have been
+enabled to understand the Egyptian inscriptions or the cuneiform records
+of Babylonia. For the American hieroglyphs we still lack a second Young
+or Champollion.
+
+There are three famous manuscripts in the Mayan character:
+
+     1. The Dresden Codex, preserved in the Royal Library of that city.
+     It is called a "religious and astrological ritual" by Abbe
+     Brasseur.
+
+     2. Codex Troano, in Madrid, described in two folios by Abbe
+     Brasseur.
+
+     3. Codex Peresianus, named from the wrapper in which it was found,
+     1859, which had the name "Perez." It is also known as Codex
+     Mexicanus.
+
+In Lord Kingsborough's great work on Mexican Antiquities there are
+several of the Mayan manuscripts printed in facsimile, and others in a
+book by M. Aubin, of Paris.
+
+Each group of letters in a Mayan inscription is enclosed in an irregular
+oval, supposed to resemble the cross-section of a pebble; hence the term
+_calculiform_ (i. e., "pebble-shaped") is applied to their hieroglyphs,
+as _cuneiform_ (i. e., "wedge-shaped") is applied to the Babylonian and
+Assyrian letters.
+
+The paper which the prehistoric Mexicans (Mayas, Aztecs, or Tescucans,
+etc.) used for writing and drawing upon was of vegetable origin, like
+the Egyptian papyrus. It was made by macerating the leaves of the
+_maguey_, a plant of the greatest importance (_v._ p. 94). When the
+surface of the paper was glazed, the letters were painted on in
+brilliant colors, proceeding from left to right, as we do. Each book was
+a strip of paper, several yards long and about ten inches wide, not
+rolled round a stick, as the volumes of ancient Rome were, but folded
+zigzag, like a screen. The protecting boards which held the book were
+often artistically carved and painted.
+
+The topics of the ordinary books, so far as we yet know, were religious
+ritual, dreams, and prophecies, the calendar, chronological notes,
+medical superstitions, portents of marriage and birth. The written
+language was in common and extensive use for the legal conveyance and
+sale of property.
+
+One of the most remarkable facts connected with this extinct
+civilization was the accuracy of their calendar and chronological
+system. Their calendar was actually superior to that then existing in
+Europe. They had two years: one for civil purposes, of three hundred and
+sixty-five days, divided into eighteen months of twenty days, besides
+five supplementary days; the other, a ritual or ecclesiastical year, to
+regulate the public festivals. The civil year required thirteen days to
+be added at the end of every fifty-two years, so as to harmonize with
+the ritual year. Each month contained four weeks of five days, but as
+each of the twenty days (forming a month) had a distinct name, Humboldt
+concluded that the names were borrowed from a prehistoric calendar, used
+in India and Tartary.
+
+Wilson (Prehistoric Man, i, 133) remarks:
+
+     By the unaided results of native science the dwellers on the
+     Mexican plateau had effected an adjustment of civil to solar time
+     so nearly correct that when the Spaniards landed on their coast,
+     their own reckoning according to the unreformed Julian calendar,
+     was really eleven days in error, compared with that of the
+     barbarian nation whose civilization they so speedily effaced.
+
+In 1790 there was found in the Square of Mexico a famous relic, the
+Mexican Calendar Stone, "one of the most striking monuments of American
+antiquity." It was long supposed to have been intended for chronological
+purposes; but later authorities call it a votive tablet or sacrificial
+altar.[15] Similar circular stones have been dug up in other parts of
+Mexico and in Yucatan.
+
+[Footnote 15: Pp. 68-70, _v._ p. 95.]
+
+Both the Mayas and the Aztecs excelled in the ordinary arts of civilized
+life. Paper-making has already been spoken of. Cotton being an important
+produce of their soil, they understood its spinning, dyeing, and weaving
+so well that the Spaniards mistook some of the finer Aztec fabrics for
+silk. They cultivated maize, potatoes, plantains, and other vegetables.
+Both in Mexico and Yucatan they produced beautiful work in feathers;
+metal working was not so important as in some countries, being chiefly
+for ornamental purposes. In fact, it was the comparative plenty of gold
+and silver around Mexico that delayed the invasion of the Mayan country
+for more than twenty years. The Mayas had developed trade to a
+considerable extent before the Spanish invasion, and interchanged
+commodities with the island of Cuba. It was there, accordingly, that
+Columbus first saw this people, and first heard of Yucatan.
+
+Of the Mexican remains on the central plateau, the most conspicuous is
+the mound or pyramid of Cholula, although it retains few traces of
+prehistoric art. A modern church with a dome and two towers now occupies
+the summit, with a paved road leading up to it. It is chiefly noted,
+first, by antiquaries, as having originally been a great temple of
+Quetzalcoatl, the beneficent deity, famous in story; and, secondly, for
+the fierce struggle around the mound and on the slopes between the
+Mexicans and Spanish. (_V._ pp. 130-133.)
+
+Another mound in this district, Yochicalco, lies seventy-five miles
+southwest of the capital. It is considered one of the best memorials of
+the extinct civilization, consisting of five terraces supported by stone
+walls, and formerly surmounted by a pyramid.
+
+Passing from the traces of Aztec and Mayan civilization, we may now
+glance at the antiquities of the Colombian states. There are no temples
+or large structures, because the natives, before the Spanish conquest,
+used timber for building, but owing to the abundance of gold in their
+brooks and rivers, they developed skill in gold-working, and produced
+fine ornaments of wonderful beauty. Many hollow figures have been found,
+evidently cast from molds, representing men, beasts, and birds, etc.
+Stone-cutting was also an art of this ancient race, sometimes applied to
+making idols bearing hieroglyphs.
+
+When the Spaniards invaded them to take their gold and precious stones,
+the "Chibchas," who then held the Colombian table-land and valleys,
+threw large quantities of those valuables into a lake near Bogota, the
+capital. It was afterward attempted to recover those treasures by
+draining off the water, but only a small portion was found; and in the
+present year (1903) a new engineering attempt has been made. A Spanish
+writer, in 1858, asserted that evidence was found in the caves and mines
+that in ancient times the Colombians produced an alloy of gold, copper,
+and iron having the temper and hardness of steel. On a tributary of the
+River Magdalena there are many curious stone images, sometimes with
+grotesquely carved faces.
+
+Turning next to the mound-builders, in the Ohio and upper Mississippi
+Valley, we find traces of an extinct civilization in high mounds,
+evidently artificial, extensive embankments, broad deep ditches,
+terraced pyramids, and an interesting variety of stone implements and
+pottery. Some mounds were for burial-places, others for sacrificial
+purposes, others again as a site for building, like those we have seen
+in Mexico and Maya. Many enclosures contain more than fifty acres of
+land; and one embankment is fifty miles long. Among the relics
+associated with those works are articles of pottery, knives, and copper
+ornaments, hammered silver, mica, obsidian, pearls, beautifully
+sculptured pipes, shells, and stone implements. The mounds found in some
+of the Gulf States seem to confirm a theory that the mound-builders were
+the ancestors of the Choctaw Indians and their allies, and had been
+driven southward.
+
+In the lower Mississippi Valley, eastward to the seacoast, there are
+many large earthworks, including round and quadrilateral mounds,
+embankments, canals, and artificial lakes. Similar works can be traced
+to the southern extremity of Florida. Some were constructed as sites for
+large buildings. The tribes to whom they are due are now known to have
+been agricultural--growing maize, beans, and pumpkins; with these
+products and those of the chase they supported a considerable
+population.
+
+Among other antiquarian remains in America are the cliff-houses and
+"pueblos." The former peculiarity is explained by the deep canyons of
+the dry table-land of Colorado. Imagine a narrow deep cutting or narrow
+trench worn by water-courses out of solid rock, deep enough to afford a
+channel to the stream from 500 to 1,500 feet below the plateau above.
+Next imagine one of the caves which the water many ages ago had worn out
+of the perpendicular sides of the canyon; and in that cave a substantial,
+well-built structure of cut stones bedded in firm mortar. Such are the
+"cliff--houses," sometimes of two stories. Occasionally there is a
+watch-tower perched on a conspicuous point of rock near a
+cliff-dwelling, with small windows looking to the east and north. These
+curious buildings, though now prehistoric, in a sense, are believed by
+archeologists to be later than the Spanish conquest. Peru is very
+important archeologically, but some interesting points will properly
+fall under our general account of that country and its conquest by
+Spain.
+
+[Illustration: Chulpa or Stone Tomb of the Peruvians.]
+
+In Peruvian architecture, we find "Cyclopean walls," with polygonal
+stones of five or six feet diameter, so well polished and adjusted that
+no mortar was necessary; sometimes with a projecting part of the stone
+fitting exactly into a corresponding cavity of the stone immediately
+above or below it. Such huge stones are of hard granite or basalt, etc.
+The walls are often very massive and substantial, sometimes from thirty
+to forty feet in thickness. The only approach to the modern "arch" in
+the Peruvian structures is a device similar to that which was described
+under the Mayan architecture.
+
+Some important buildings were surrounded with large upright stones,
+similar to the famous "Druidic" temple at Stonehenge. All of the chief
+structures were accurately placed with reference to the cardinal points,
+and the main entrance always faced the east. The Peruvian tombs were
+very elaborate, one kind being made by cutting caverns in the steep
+precipices of the cordillera and then carefully walling in the entrance.
+Another variety (the _chulpa_) was really a stone tower erected above
+ground, twelve to thirty feet high. The chulpas were sometimes built in
+groups.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+MEXICO BEFORE THE SPANISH INVASION
+
+
+The Aztecs and the Tescucans were the chief races occupying the great
+table-land of Anahuac, including, as we have seen, the famous Mexican
+Valley. In the preceding chapter we have set forth some of the leading
+points in the extinct civilization of those races, and also that of the
+Mayas, who in several respects were perhaps superior to the Anahuac
+kingdoms.
+
+Several features of the early Mexican civilization will come before us
+as we accompany the European conquerors, in their march over the
+table-land. Meantime, we glance first at the geography of this
+magnificent region, and secondly at the manners and institutions of the
+people, their industrial arts, etc., and their terrible religion. The
+last-mentioned topic has already been partly discussed in Chapter III.
+
+The Tropic of Cancer passes through the middle of Mexico, and therefore
+its southern half, which is the most important, is all under the burning
+sun of the "torrid zone." This heat, however, is greatly modified by the
+height of the surface above sea-level, since the country, taken as a
+whole, is simply an extensive table-land. The height of the plain in the
+two central states, Mexico and Puebla, is 8,000 feet, or about double
+the average height of the highest summits in the British Isles. On the
+west of the republic is a continuous chain of mountains, and on the east
+of the table-land run a series of mountainous groups parallel to the
+seacoast, with a summit in Vera Cruz of over 13,400 feet. To the south
+of the capital an irregular range running east and west contains these
+remarkable volcanoes--Colima, 14,400 feet; Jorulla, Popocatepetl,
+17,800; Orizaba (extinct), 18,300, the highest summit in Mexico, and,
+with the exception of some of the mountains of Alaska, in North America.
+The great plateau-basin formed around the capital and its lakes is
+completely enclosed by mountains.
+
+This high table-land has its own climate as compared with the broad
+tract lying along the Atlantic. Hence the latter is known as the hot
+region (_caliente_), and the former the cold region (_fria_). Between
+the two climates, as the traveler mounts from the sea-level to the great
+plateau, is the temperate region (_templada_), an intermediate belt of
+perpetual humidity, a welcome escape from the heat and deadly malaria of
+the hot region with its "bilious fevers." Sometimes as he passes along
+the bases of the volcanic mountains, casting his eye "down some steep
+slope or almost unfathomable ravine on the margin of the road, he sees
+their depths glowing with the rich blooms and enameled vegetation of the
+tropics." This contrast arises from the height he has now gained above
+the hot coast region.
+
+The climate on the table-land is only cold in a relative sense, being
+mild to Europeans, with a mean temperature at the capital of 60 deg., seldom
+lowered to the freezing-point. The "temperate" slopes form the "Paradise
+of Mexico," from "the balmy climate, the magnificent scenery, and the
+wealth of semitropical vegetation."
+
+The Aztec and Tescucan laws were kept in state records, and shown
+publicly in hieroglyphs. The great crimes against society were all
+punished with death, including the murder of a slave. Slaves could hold
+property, and all their sons were freedmen. The code in general showed
+real respect for the leading principles of morality.
+
+In Mexico, as in ancient Egypt,
+
+     the soldier shared with the priest the highest consideration. The
+     king must be an experienced warrior. The tutelary deity of the
+     Aztecs was the god of war. A great object of military expeditions
+     was to gather hecatombs of captives for his altars. The soldier who
+     fell in battle was transported at once to the region of ineffable
+     bliss in the bright mansions of the sun.... Thus every war became
+     a crusade; and the warrior was not only raised to a contempt of
+     danger, but courted it--animated by a religious enthusiasm like
+     that of the early Saracen or the Christian crusader.
+
+The officers of the armies wore rich and conspicuous uniforms--a
+tight-fitting tunic of quilted cotton sufficient to turn the arrows of
+the native Indians; a cuirass (for superior officers) made of thin
+plates of gold or silver; an overcoat or cloak of variegated
+feather-work; helmets of wood or silver, bearing showy plumes, adorned
+with precious stones and gold ornaments. Their belts, collars,
+bracelets, and earrings were also of gold or silver.
+
+Southey, in his poem, makes his Welsh prince, Madoc, thus boast:
+
+  Their mail, if mail it may be called, was woven
+  Of vegetable down, like finest flax,
+  Bleached to the whiteness of new-fallen snow,
+  ... Others of higher office were arrayed
+  In feathery breastplates, of more gorgeous hue
+  Than the gay plumage of the mountain-cock,
+  Than the pheasants' glittering pride. But what were these
+  Or what the thin gold hauberk, when opposed
+  To arms like ours in battle?
+
+  _Madoc_, i, 7.
+
+We learn of the ancient Mexicans, to their honor, that in the large
+towns hospitals were kept for the cure of the sick and wounded soldiers,
+and as a permanent refuge if disabled. Not only so, says a Spanish
+historian, but "the surgeons placed over them were so far better than
+those in Europe that they did not protract the cure to increase the
+pay."
+
+Even the red man of the woods, as we learn from Fenimore Cooper and
+Catlin, believes reverently in the Great Spirit who upholds the
+universe; and similarly his more civilized brother of Mexico or Tezcuco
+spoke of a Supreme Creator, Lord of Heaven and Earth. In their prayers
+some of the phrases were:
+
+     The God by whom we live, omnipresent, knowing all thoughts, giving
+     all gifts, without whom man is nothing, invisible, incorporeal, of
+     perfect perfection and purity, under whose wings we find repose and
+     a sure defense.
+
+Prescott, however, remarks that notwithstanding such attributes "the
+idea of unity--of a being with whom volition is action, who has no need
+of inferior ministers to execute his purposes--was too simple, or too
+vast, for their understandings; and they sought relief, as usual, in a
+plurality of deities, who presided over the elements, the changes of the
+seasons, and the various occupations of man."
+
+The Aztecs, in fact, believed in thirteen _dii majores_ and over 200
+_dii minores_. To each of these a special day was assigned in the
+calendar, with its appropriate festival. Chief of them all was that
+bloodthirsty monster _Huitsilopochtli_, the hideous god of
+war--tutelary deity of the nation. There was a huge temple to him in
+the capital, and on the great altar before his image there, and on all
+his altars throughout the empire, the reeking blood of thousands of
+human victims was being constantly poured out.
+
+The terrible name of this Mexican Mars has greatly puzzled scholars of
+the language. According to one derivation, the name is a compound of
+two words, _humming-bird_ and _on the left_, because his image has the
+feathers of that bird on the left foot. Prescott naturally thinks that
+"too amiable an etymology for so ruffian a deity." The other name of the
+war-god, _Mexitl_ (i. e., "the hare of the aloes"), is much better
+known, because from it is derived the familiar name of the capital.
+
+[Illustration: Quetzalcoatl.]
+
+The god of the air, _Quetzalcoatl_, a beneficent deity, who taught
+Mexicans the use of metals, agriculture, and the arts of government.
+Prescott remarks that
+
+     he was doubtless one of those benefactors of their species who have
+     been deified by the gratitude of posterity.
+
+There was a remarkable tradition of Quetzalcoatl, preserved among the
+Mexicans, that he had been a king, afterward a god, and had a temple
+dedicated to his worship at Cholula[16] when on his way to the Mexican
+Gulf. Embarking there, he bade his people a long farewell, promising
+that he and his descendants would revisit them. The expectation of his
+return prepared the way for the success of the tall white-skinned
+invaders.
+
+[Footnote 16: The ruins were referred to in chap, iv, (_v._ p. 84, also
+130.)]
+
+In the Aztec agriculture, the staple plant was of course the _maize_ or
+Indian corn. Humboldt tells us that at the conquest it was grown
+throughout America, from the south of Chile to the River St. Lawrence;
+and it is still universal in the New World. Other important plants on
+the Aztec soil were the _banana_, which (according to one Spanish
+writer) was the forbidden fruit that tempted our poor mother Eve; the
+_cacao_, whose fruit supplies the valuable chocolate; the _vanilla_,
+used for flavoring; and most important of all, the _maguey_, or Mexican
+aloe, much valued because its leaves were manufactured into paper, and
+its juice by fermentation becomes the national intoxicant, "pulque." The
+_maguey_, or great Mexican aloe, grown all over the table-land, is
+called "the miracle of nature," producing not only the _pulque_, but
+supplying _thatch_ for the cottages, _thread_ and _cords_ from its tough
+fiber, _pins_ and _needles_ from the thorns which grow on the leaves, an
+excellent _food_ from its roots, and _writing-paper_ from its leaves.
+One writer, after speaking of the "pulque" being made from the "maguey,"
+adds, "with what remains of these leaves they manufacture excellent and
+very fine cloth, resembling holland or the finest linen."
+
+The _itztli_, formerly mentioned as being used at the sacrifices by the
+officiating priest, was "obsidian," a dark transparent mineral, of the
+greatest hardness, and therefore useful for making knives and razors.
+The Mexican sword was serrated, those of the finest quality being of
+course edged with itztli. Sculptured figures abounded in every Aztec
+temple and town, but in design very inferior to the ancient specimens of
+Egypt and Babylonia, not to mention Greece. A remarkable collection of
+their sculptured images occurred in the _place_ or great square of
+Mexico--the Aztec forum--and similar spots. Ever since the Spanish
+invasion the destruction of the native objects of art has been ceaseless
+and ruthless. "Two celebrated bas-reliefs of the last Montezuma and his
+father," says Prescott, "cut in the solid rock, in the beautiful groves
+of Chapoltepec, were deliberately destroyed, as late as the last century
+[i. e., the eighteenth], by order of the government." He further
+remarks:
+
+     This wantonness of destruction provokes the bitter animadversion of
+     the Spanish writer Martyr, whose enlightened mind respected the
+     vestiges of civilization wherever found. "The conquerors," says he,
+     "seldom repaired the buildings that they defaced; they would rather
+     sack twenty stately cities than erect one good edifice."
+
+The pre-Columbian Mexicans inherited a practical knowledge of mechanics
+and engineering. The Calendar Stone, for example (spoken of in the
+preceding chapter), a mass of dark porphyry estimated at fifty tons
+weight, was carried for a distance of many leagues from the mountains
+beyond Lake Chalco, through a rough country crossed by rivers and
+canals. In the passage its weight broke down a bridge over a canal, and
+the heavy rock had to be raised from the water beneath. With such
+obstacles, without the draft assistance of horses or cattle, how was it
+possible to effect such a transport? Perhaps the mechanical skill of
+their builders and engineers had contrived some tramway or other
+machinery. An English traveler had a curious suggestion:
+
+     Latrobe accommodates the wonders of nature and art very well to
+     each other, by suggesting that these great masses of stone were
+     transported by means of the mastodon, whose remains are
+     occasionally disinterred in the Mexican Valley.
+
+The Mexicans wove many kinds of cotton cloth, sometimes using as a dye
+the rich crimson of the cochineal insect. They made a more expensive
+fabric by interweaving the cotton with the fine hair of rabbits, and
+other animals; sometimes embroidering with pretty designs of flowers and
+birds, etc. The special art of the Aztec weaver was in feather-work,
+which when brought to Europe produced the highest admiration:
+
+     With feathers they could produce all the effect of a beautiful
+     mosaic. The gorgeous plumage of the tropical birds, especially of
+     the parrot tribe, afforded every variety of color; and the fine
+     down of the humming-bird, which reveled in swarms among the
+     honeysuckle bowers of Mexico, supplied them with soft aerial tints
+     that gave an exquisite finish to the picture. The feathers, pasted
+     on a fine cotton web, were wrought into dresses for the wealthy,
+     hangings for apartments, and ornaments for the temples.
+
+When some of the Mexican feather-work was shown at Strasbourg: "Never,"
+says one admirer, "did I behold anything so exquisite for brilliancy
+and nice gradation of color, and for beauty of design. No European
+artist could have made such a thing."
+
+Instead of shops the Aztecs had in every town a market-place, where
+fairs were held every fifth day--i. e., once a week. Each commodity had
+a particular quarter, and the traffic was partly by barter, and partly
+by using the following articles as money: bits of tin shaped like an
+Egyptian cross (T), bags of cacao holding a specified number of grains,
+and, for large values, quills of gold-dust.
+
+The married women among the Aztecs were treated kindly and respectfully
+by their husbands. The feminine occupations were spinning and
+embroidery, etc., as among the ancient Greeks, while listening to
+ballads and love stories related by their maidens and musicians
+(Ramusio, iii, 305).
+
+In banquets and other social entertainments the women had an equal share
+with the men. Sometimes the festivities were on a large scale, with
+costly preparations and numerous attendants. The Mexicans, ancient and
+modern, have always been passionately fond of flowers, and on great
+occasions not only were the halls and courts strewed and adorned in
+profusion with blossoms of every hue and sweet odor, but perfumes
+scented every room. The guests as they sat down found ewers of water
+before them and cotton napkins, since washing the hands both before and
+after eating was a national habit of almost religious obligation.[17]
+Modern Europeans believe that tobacco was introduced from America in
+the time of Queen Isabella and Queen Elizabeth, but ages before that
+period the Aztecs at their banquets had the "fragrant weed" offered to
+the company, "in pipes, mixed up with aromatic substances, or in the
+form of cigars, inserted in tubes of tortoise-shell or silver." The
+smoke after dinner was no doubt preliminary to the _siesta_ or nap of
+"forty winks." It is not known if the Aztec ladies, like their
+descendants in modern Mexico, also appreciated the _yetl_, as the
+Mexicans called "tobacco." Our word came from the natives of Hayti, one
+of the islands discovered by Columbus.
+
+[Footnote 17: Sahagun (vi, 22) quotes the precise instructions of a
+father to his son: he must wash face and hands before sitting down to
+table, and must not leave till he has repeated the operation and
+cleansed his teeth.]
+
+The tables of the Aztecs abounded in good food--various dishes of meat,
+especially game, fowl, and fish. The turkey, for example, was introduced
+into Europe from Mexico, although stupidly supposed to have come from
+Asia. The French named it _coq d'Inde_,[18] the "Indian cock," meaning
+American, but the ordinary hearer imagined _d'Inde_ meant from
+Hindustan. The blunder arose from that misapplication of the word
+"Indian," first made by Columbus, as we formerly explained.
+
+[Footnote 18: The Spanish named this handsome bird _gallopavo_ (Lat.
+_pavo_, the "peacock"). The wild turkey is larger and more beautiful
+than the tame, and therefore Benjamin Franklin, when speaking
+sarcastically of the "American Eagle," insisted that the wild turkey was
+the proper national emblem.]
+
+The Aztec cooks dressed their viands with various sauces and condiments,
+the more solid dishes being followed by fruits of many kinds, as well as
+sweetmeats and pastry. Chafing-dishes even were used. Besides the
+varieties of beautiful flowers which adorned the table there were
+sculptured Vases of silver and sometimes gold. At table
+
+     the favorite beverage was the _chocolatl_ flavored with vanilla and
+     different spices. The fermented juice of the maguey, with a mixture
+     of sweets and acids, supplied also various agreeable drinks, of
+     different degrees of strength.
+
+When the young Mexicans of both sexes amused themselves with dances, the
+older people kept their seats in order to enjoy their _pulque_ and
+gossip, or listen to the discourse of some guest of importance. The
+music which accompanied the dances was frequently soft and rather
+plaintive.
+
+The early Mexicans included the Tezcucans as well as the Aztecs proper;
+and since their capitals were on the same lake and both races were
+closely akin, we may devote some space to these Alcohuans or eastern
+Aztecs. Their civilization was superior to that of the western Aztecs in
+some respects, and Nezahual-coyotl, their greatest prince, formed
+alliance with the western state, and then remodeled the various
+departments of his government. He had a council of war, another of
+finance, and a third of justice.
+
+A remarkable institution, under King Nezahual-coyotl, was the "Council
+of Music," intended to promote the study of science and the practise of
+art.
+
+Tezcuco, in fact, became the nursery not only of such sciences as could
+be compassed by the scholarship of the period, but of various useful and
+ornamental arts. "Its historians, orators, and poets were celebrated
+throughout the country.... Its idiom, more polished than the Mexican,
+continued long after the conquest to be that in which the best
+productions of the native races were composed. Tezcuco was the Athens of
+the Western World.... Among the most illustrious of her bards was their
+king himself." A Spanish writer adds that it was to the eastern Aztecs
+that noblemen sent their sons "to study poetry, moral philosophy, the
+heathen theology, astronomy, medicine, and history."
+
+[Illustration: Ancient Bridge near Tezcuco.]
+
+The most remarkable problem connected with ancient Mexico is how to
+reconcile the general refinement and civilization with the sacrifices of
+human victims. There was no town or city but had its temples in public
+places, with stairs visibly leading up to the sacrificial stone, ever
+standing ready before some hideous idol or other--as already described.
+
+In all countries there have been public spectacles of bloodshed, not
+only as in the gladiators in the ancient circus--
+
+     butchered to make a Roman holiday,
+
+or the tournays of the middle ages, but in the prize-ring fights and
+public executions by ax or guillotine, of the age that is just passing
+away. The thousands who perished for religious ideas by means of the
+Holy Roman Inquisition should not be overlooked by the Spanish writers
+who are so indignant that Montezuma and his priests sacrificed tens of
+thousands under the claims of a heathen religion. The very day on which
+we write these words, August 18th, is the anniversary of the last
+sentence for beheading passed by our House of Lords. By that sentence
+three Scottish "Jacobites" passed under the ax on Tower Hill, where
+their remains still rest in a chapel hard by. So lately as 1873, the
+Shah of Persia, when resident as a visitor in Buckingham Palace, was
+amazed to find that the laws of Great Britain prevented him from
+depriving five of his courtiers of their lives. They had just been found
+guilty of some paltry infringement of Persian etiquette. During the last
+generation or the previous one, both in England and Scotland, the
+country schoolmaster on a certain day had the schoolroom cleared so that
+the children and their friends should enjoy the treat of seeing all the
+game-cocks of the parish bleeding on the floor one after another, being
+either struck by a spur to the brain, or else wounded to a painful
+death. When James Boswell and others regularly attended the spectacles
+of Tyburn and sometimes cheered the wretched victim if he "died game,"
+the philosopher will not wonder at the populace of some city of ancient
+Mexico crowding round the great temple and greedily watching the bloody
+sacrifice done with full sanction of the priesthood and the king.
+
+The primitive religions were derived from sun-worship, and as fire is
+the nearest representative of the sun, it seemed essential to _burn_ the
+victim offered as a sacrifice. At Carthage, the great Phenician colony,
+children were cruelly sacrificed by fire to the god Melkarth of Tyre.
+"Melkarth" being simply _Melech Kiriath_ (i. e., "King of the City"),
+and therefore identical with the "Moloch" or "Molech" of the Ammonites,
+Moabites, and Israelites. In the earliest prehistoric age the children
+of Ammon, Moab, and Israel were apparently so closely akin that they had
+practically the same religion and worshiped the same idols. The tribal
+god was originally the god of Syria or Canaan. In more than a dozen
+places of the Old Testament we find the Hebrews accused of burning their
+children or passing them through the fire to the sun-god, but the
+ancient Mexicans did not burn their victims, and _in no case were the
+victims their own children_. The victims were captives taken in war, or
+persons convicted of crime; and thus the Mexicans were in atrocity far
+surpassed by those races akin to the Hebrews who are much denounced by
+the sacred writers, e. g.:
+
+     Josiah ... defiled Topheth that no man might make his son or his
+     daughter to pass through the fire to Molech (2 Kings xxiii, 10).
+
+     They have built also the high places to burn their sons with fire
+     for burnt-offerings (Jer. xix, 5).
+
+     Yea, they shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of
+     their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan (Ps.
+     cvi, 37).
+
+That a father should offer his own child as a sacrifice to the sun-god
+or any other, would to the mild and gentle Aztec be too dreadful a
+conception. It is the enormous number who were immolated that shocks the
+European mind, but to the populace enjoying the spectacle the victims
+were enemies of the king or criminals deserving execution.
+
+Perhaps it is a more difficult problem to explain how so civilized a
+community as the Aztec races undoubtedly were could look with
+complacency upon any one tasting a dish composed of some part of the
+captive he had taken in battle. It is not only repulsive as an idea, but
+seems impossible. Yet much depends on the point of view as well as the
+atmosphere. According to archeologists, all the primeval races of men
+could at a pinch feed on human flesh, but after many generations learned
+to do better without it. We may have simply outgrown the craving, till
+at last we call it unnatural, whereas those ancient Mexicans, with all
+their wealth of food, had refined upon it. Let us again refer to the Old
+Testament:
+
+     Thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters and these hast thou
+     sacrificed to be devoured (Ezek. xvi, 20).
+
+     ... have caused their sons to pass for them through the fire, to
+     devour them (Ezek. xxiii, 37).
+
+We may therefore infer that to the early races of Canaan (including
+Israel), as well as to the primeval Aztecs, it was a privilege and
+religious custom to eat part of any sacrifice that had been offered.
+
+There can be little doubt, to any one who has studied the earliest human
+antiquities, that all races indulged in cannibalism, not only during
+that enormously remote age called Paleolithic, but in comparatively
+recent though still prehistoric times. "This is clearly proved by the
+number of human bones, chiefly of women and young persons, which have
+been found charred by fire and split open for extraction of the marrow."
+Such charred bones have frequently been preserved in caves, as at
+Chaleux in Belgium, where in some instances they occurred "in such
+numbers as to indicate that they had been the scene of cannibal feasts."
+
+The survival of human sacrifice among the Aztecs, with its accompanying
+traces of cannibalism, was due to the savagery of a long previous
+condition of their Indian race; just as in the Greek drama, when that
+ancient people had attained a high level of culture and refinement, the
+sacrifice of a human life, sometimes a princess or other distinguished
+heroine, was not unfrequent. We remember Polyxena, the virgin daughter
+of Hecuba, whom her own people resolved to sacrifice on the tomb of
+Achilles; and her touching bravery, as she requests the Greeks not to
+bind her, being ashamed, she says, "having lived a princess to die a
+slave." A better known example is Iphigenia, so beloved by her father,
+King Agamemnon, and yet given up by him a victim for purposes of state
+and religion.
+
+[Illustration: Teocalli, Aztec Temple for Human Sacrifices.]
+
+From the Greek drama, human sacrifices frequently passed to the Roman;
+nor does such a refined critic as Horace object to it, but only suggests
+that the bloodshed ought to be perpetrated behind the scenes. In
+Seneca's play, Medea (quoted in our Introduction), that rule was grossly
+violated, since the children have their throats cut by their heroic
+mother in full view of the audience. In the same passage (Ars Poet.,
+185, 186) Horace forbids a banquet of human flesh being prepared before
+the eyes of the public, as had been done in a play written by Ennius,
+the Roman poet. The religious sacrifice of human victims by the "Druids"
+or priests of ancient Gaul and Britain seems exactly parallel to the
+wholesale executions on the Mexican _teocallis_, since the wretched
+victims whom our Celtic ancestors packed for burning into those huge
+wicker images, were captives taken in battle, like those stretched for
+slaughter upon the Mexican stone of sacrifice.
+
+Human sacrifice was so common in civilized Rome that it was not till the
+first century B. C. that a law was passed expressly forbidding
+it--(Pliny, Hist. Nat., xxx, 3, 4).
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+ARRIVAL OF THE SPANIARDS
+
+
+The "New Birth" of the world, which characterized the end of the
+fifteenth century, had an enormous influence upon Spain. Her queen, the
+"great Catholic Isabella," had, by assisting Columbus, done much in the
+great discovery of the Western World. Spain speedily had substantial
+reward in the boundless wealth poured into her lap, and the rich
+colonies added to her dominion. Thus in the beginning of the sixteenth
+century the new consolidated Spain, formed by the union of the two
+kingdoms, Castile and Aragon, became the richest and greatest of all the
+European states.
+
+The Spanish governors in the West Indies being ambitious of planting new
+colonies in the name of the Spanish King, conquest and annexation were
+stimulated in all directions. When Cuba and Hayti were overrun and
+annexed to Spain, not without much unjust treatment of the simple
+natives, as we have seen, they became centers of operation, whence
+expeditions could be sent to Trinidad or any other island, to Panama, to
+Yucatan, or Florida, or any other part of the continent. After the
+marvelous experience of Grijalva in Yucatan, then considered an island,
+and his report that its inhabitants were quite a civilized community
+compared with the natives of the isles, Velasquez, the Governor of Cuba,
+resolved at once to invade the new country for purposes of annexation
+and plunder.
+
+Velasquez prepared a large expedition for this adventure, consisting of
+eleven ships with more than 600 armed men on board; and after much
+deliberation chose Fernando Cortes to be the commander. Who was this
+Cortes, destined by his military genius and unscrupulous policy to be
+comparable to Hannibal or Julius Caesar among the ancients, and to Clive
+or Napoleon Bonaparte among the moderns? Velasquez knew him well as one
+of his subordinates in the cruel conquest of Cuba; before that Cortes
+had distinguished himself in Hayti as an energetic and skilled officer.
+Of an impetuous and fiery temper which he had learned to keep thoroughly
+in command, he was characterized by that quality possessed by all
+commanders of superior genius, the "art of gaining the confidence and
+governing the minds of men." As a youth in Spain he had studied for the
+bar at the University of Salamanca; and in some of his speeches on
+critical occasions one can find certain traces of his academical
+training in the adroit arguments and clever appeals.
+
+Other qualifications as an officer were his manly and handsome
+appearance, his affable manners, combined with "extraordinary address in
+all martial exercises, and a constitution of such vigor as to be capable
+of enduring any fatigue."
+
+Cortes on reviewing his commission from the Governor, Velasquez, was too
+shrewd not to be aware of the importance of his new position. The "Great
+Admiral," with reference to the discovery of the New World, had said: "I
+have only opened the door for others to enter"; and Cortes was conscious
+that now was the moment for that entrance. Filled with unbounded
+ambition he rose to the occasion.
+
+Velasquez somewhat hypocritically pretended that the object he had in
+view was merely barter with the natives of New Spain--that being the
+name given by Grijalva to Yucatan and the neighboring country. He
+ordered Cortes
+
+     to impress on the natives the grandeur and goodness of his royal
+     master; to invite them to give in their allegiance to him, and to
+     manifest it by regaling him with such comfortable presents of gold,
+     pearls, and precious stones as by showing their own good-will would
+     secure his favor and protection.
+
+Mustering his forces for the new expedition, Cortes found that he had no
+sailors, 553 soldiers, besides 200 Indians of the island; ten heavy
+guns, four lighter ones, called falconets. He had also sixteen horses,
+knowing the effect of even a small body of cavalry in dealing with
+savages. On February 18, 1519, Cortes sailed with eleven vessels for the
+coast of Yucatan.
+
+Landing at Tabasco, where Grijalva had found the natives friendly,
+Cortes found that the Yucatans had resolved to oppose him, and were
+presently assembled in great numbers. The result of the fighting,
+however, was naturally a foregone conclusion, partly on account of "the
+astonishment and terror excited by the destructive effect" of the
+European firearms, and the "monstrous apparition" of men on horseback.
+Such quadrupeds they had never seen before, and they concluded that the
+rider with his horse formed one unaccountable animal. Gomara and other
+chroniclers tell how St. James, the tutelar saint of Spain, appeared in
+the ranks on a gray horse, and led the Christians to victory over the
+heathen.
+
+An especially fortunate thing for Cortes was that among the female
+slaves presented after this battle, there was one of remarkable
+intelligence, who understood both the Aztec and the Mayan languages, and
+soon learned the Spanish. She proved invaluable to Cortes as an
+interpreter, and afterward had a share in all his campaigns. She is
+generally called Marina.
+
+If the Spanish accounts are true, stating that the native army consisted
+of five squadrons of 8,000 men each, then this victory is one of the
+most remarkable on record, as a proof of the value of gunpowder as
+compared with primitive bows and arrows. To the simple Americans the
+terrible invaders seemed actually to wield the thunder and the
+lightning. Next day Cortes made an arrangement with the chiefs; and
+after confidence was restored, asked where they got their gold from.
+They pointed to the high grounds on the west, and said _Culhua_, meaning
+Mexico.
+
+The Palm Sunday being at hand, the conversion of the "heathen" was duly
+celebrated by pompous and solemn ceremonial. The army marched in
+procession with the priests at their head, accompanied by crowds of
+Indians of both sexes, till they reached the principal temple. A new
+altar being built, the image of the presiding deity was taken from its
+place and thrown down, to make room for that of the Virgin carrying the
+infant Saviour.
+
+Cortes now learned that the capital of the Mexican Empire was on the
+mountain plains nearly seventy leagues inland; and that the ruler was
+the great and powerful Montezuma.
+
+It was on the morning of Good Friday that Cortes landed on the site of
+Vera Cruz, which after the conquest of Mexico speedily grew into a
+flourishing seaport, becoming the commercial capital of New Spain. A
+friendly conference took place between Cortes and Teuhtlile, an Aztec
+chief, who asked from what country the strangers had come and why they
+had come.
+
+"I am a servant," replied Cortes, "of a mighty monarch beyond the seas,
+who rules over an immense empire, having kings and princes for his
+vassals. Since my master has heard of the greatness of the Mexican
+Emperor he has desired me to enter into communication with him, and has
+sent me as envoy to wait upon Montezuma with a present in token of
+good-will, and with a message which I must deliver in person. When can
+I be admitted to your sovereign's presence?"
+
+The Aztec chief replied with an air of dignity: "How is it that you have
+been here only two days, and demand to see the Emperor? If there is
+another monarch as powerful as Montezuma, I have no doubt my master will
+be happy to interchange courtesies."
+
+The slaves of Teuhtlile presented to Cortes
+
+     ten loads of fine cotton, several mantles of that curious
+     feather-work whose rich and delicate dyes might vie with the most
+     beautiful painting, and a wicker basket filled with ornaments of
+     wrought gold, all calculated to inspire the Spaniards with high
+     ideas of the wealth and mechanical ingenuity of the Mexicans.
+
+Having duly expressed his thanks, Cortes then laid before the Aztec
+chief the presents intended for Montezuma. These were "an armchair
+richly carved and painted; a crimson cap bearing a gold medal emblazoned
+with St. George and the Dragon; collars, bracelets, and other ornaments
+of cut-glass, which, in a country where glass was unknown, might claim
+to have the value of real gems."
+
+During the interview Teuhtlile had been curiously observing a shining
+gilt helmet worn by a soldier, and said that it was exactly like that of
+Quetzalcoatl. "Who is he?" asked Cortes. "Quetzalcoatl is the god about
+whom the Aztecs have the prophecy that he will come back to them across
+the sea." Cortes promised to send the helmet to Montezuma, and expressed
+a wish that it would be returned filled with the gold-dust of the
+Aztecs, that he might compare it with the Spanish gold-dust!
+
+One reporter who was present says:
+
+     He further told Governor Teuhtlile that the Spaniards were troubled
+     with a disease of the heart for which gold was a specific remedy!
+
+Another incident of this notable interview was that one of the Mexican
+attendants was observed by Cortes to be scribbling with a pencil. It was
+an artist sketching the appearance of the strangers, their dress, arms,
+and attitude, and filling in the picture with touches of color. Struck
+with the idea of being thus represented to the Mexican monarch, Cortes
+ordered the cavalry to be exercised on the beach in front of the
+artists.
+
+     The bold and rapid movements of the troops, ... the apparent ease
+     with which they managed the fiery animals on which they were
+     mounted, the glancing of their weapons, and the shrill cry of the
+     trumpet, all filled the spectators with astonishment; but when they
+     heard the thunders of the cannon, which Cortes ordered to be fired
+     at the same time, and witnessed the volumes of smoke and flame
+     issuing from these terrible engines, and the rushing sound of the
+     balls, as they dashed through the trees of the neighboring forest,
+     shivering their branches into fragments, they were filled with
+     consternation and wonder, from which the Aztec chief himself was
+     not wholly free.
+
+This was all faithfully copied by the picture-writers, so far as their
+art went, in sketching and vivid coloring. They also recorded the ships
+of the strangers--"the water-houses," as they were named--whose dark
+hulls and snow-white sails were swinging at anchor in the bay.
+
+Meantime what had Montezuma been doing, the sad-faced[19] and haughty
+Emperor of Mexico, land of the Aztecs and the Tezcucans? At the
+beginning of his reign he had as a skilful general led his armies as far
+as Honduras and Nicaragua, extending the limits of the empire, so that
+it had now reached the maximum.
+
+[Footnote 19: The name Montezuma means "sad or severe man," a title
+suited to his features, though not to his mild character.]
+
+Tezcuco, the sister state to Mexico, had latterly shown hostility to
+Montezuma, and still more formidable was the republic of Tlascala, lying
+between his capital and the coast. Prodigies and prophecies now began to
+affect all classes of the population in the Mexican Valley. Everybody
+spoke of the return from over the sea of the popular god Quetzalcoatl,
+the fair-skinned and longhaired (p. 93). A generation had already
+elapsed since the first rumors that white men in great mysterious
+vessels, bearing in their hands the thunder and lightning, were seizing
+the islands and must soon seize the mainland.
+
+No wonder that Montezuma, stern, tyrannical, and disappointed, should be
+dismayed at the news of Grijalva's landing, and still more so when
+hearing of the fleet and army of Cortes, and seeing their horsemen
+pictured by his artists--the whole accompanied by exaggerated accounts
+of the guns and cannon able to produce thunder and lightning. After
+holding a council, Montezuma resolved to send an embassy to Cortes,
+presenting him with a present which should reflect the incomparable
+grandeur and resources of Mexico, and at the same time forbidding an
+approach to the capital.
+
+The governor Teuhtlile, on this second embassy, was accompanied by two
+Aztec nobles and 100 slaves, bearing the present from Montezuma to
+Cortes. As they entered the pavilion of the Spanish general the air was
+filled with clouds of incense which rose from censers carried by some
+attendants.
+
+     Some delicately wrought mats were then unrolled, and on them the
+     slaves displayed the various articles, ... shields, helmets,
+     cuirasses, embossed with plates and ornaments of pure gold; collars
+     and bracelets of the same metal, sandals, fans, and crests of
+     variegated feathers, intermingled with gold and silver thread, and
+     sprinkled with pearls and precious stones; imitations of birds and
+     animals in wrought and cast gold and silver, of exquisite
+     workmanship; curtains, coverlets, and robes of cotton, fine as
+     silk, of rich and various dyes, interwoven with feather-work that
+     rivaled the delicacy of painting.... The things which excited most
+     admiration were two circular plates of gold and silver, as "large
+     as carriage-wheels"; one representing the sun was richly carved
+     with plants and animals. It was thirty palms in circumference, and
+     was worth about L52,500 sterling.[20]
+
+[Footnote 20: Robertson, the historian, gives L5,000; but Prescott
+reckons a _peso de oro_ at L2 12s. 6d.; whence the 20,000 of the text
+gives 20,000 x 2-5/8 = 2,500 x 21 = L52,500.]
+
+Cortes was interested in seeing the soldier's helmet brought back to him
+full to the brim with grains of gold. The courteous message from
+Montezuma, however, did not please him much. Montezuma excused himself
+from having a personal interview by "the distance being too great, and
+the journey beset with difficulties and dangers from formidable
+enemies.... All that could be done, therefore, was for the strangers to
+return to their own land."
+
+Soon after Cortes, by a species of statecraft, formed a new
+municipality, thus transforming his camp into a civil community. The
+name of the new city was _Villa Rica de Vera Cruz_, i. e., "the Rich
+Town of the True Cross." Once the municipality was formed, Cortes
+resigned before them his office of captain-general, and thus became free
+from the authority of Velasquez. The city council at once chose Cortes
+to be captain-general and chief justice of the colony. He could now go
+forward unchecked by any superior except the Crown.
+
+It was a desperate undertaking to climb with an army from the hot region
+of this flat coast through the varied succession of "slopes" which form
+the temperate region, and at last, on the high table-land, obtain
+entrance upon the great enclosed valley of Mexico. Cortes found that an
+essential preliminary was to gain the friendship of the Totonacs, a
+nation tributary to Montezuma. Their subjection to the Aztecs he had
+already verified, since one day when holding a conference with the
+Totonac leaders and a neighboring cazique (i. e., "prince"), Cortes saw
+five men of haughty appearance enter the market-place, followed by
+several attendants, and at once receive the politest attention from the
+Totonacs.
+
+Cortes asked Marina, his slave interpreter, who or what they were. "They
+are Aztec nobles," she replied, "sent by Montezuma to receive tribute."
+Presently the Totonac chiefs came to Cortes with looks of dire dismay,
+to inform him of the great Emperor's resentment at the entertainment
+offered to the Spaniards, and demanding in expiation twenty young men
+and women for sacrifice to the Aztec gods.
+
+Cortes, with every look of indignation, insisted that the Totonacs
+should not only refuse to comply, but should seize the Aztec messengers
+and hold them strictly confined in prison. Unscrupulous to gain his
+ends, Cortes by lies and cunning duplicity managed to set the Mexican
+nobles free, dismissing them with a friendly message to Montezuma, while
+at the same time securing the confidence of the simple-minded Totonacs,
+urging them to join the Spaniards and make a bold effort to regain their
+independence. Some thought that Cortes was really the kindly divinity
+Quetzalcoatl, promised by the prophets to bring freedom and happiness.
+
+As an instance of the religious enthusiasm of the Spanish invaders, we
+may give the account of the "conversion" of Zempoalla, a city in the
+Totonac district. When Cortes pressed upon the cazique of Zempoalla that
+his mission was to turn the Indians from the abominations of their
+present religion, that prince replied that he could not accept what the
+Spanish priests had told him about the Creator and Ruler of the
+Universe; especially that he ever stooped to become a mere man, weak and
+poor, so as to suffer voluntarily persecution and even death at the
+hands of some of his own creatures. The cazique added that he "would
+resist any violence offered to his gods, who would, indeed, avenge the
+act themselves by the instant destruction of their enemies."
+
+Cortes and his men seized the opportunity. There is no doubt that, after
+witnessing some of the barbarous sacrifices of human victims followed by
+cannibal feasts, their souls had naturally been sickened. They now
+proceeded to force the work of conversion as soon as Cortes had appealed
+to them and declared that "God and the holy saints would never favor
+their enterprise, if such atrocities were allowed; and that for his own
+part, he was resolved the Indian idols should be demolished that very
+hour if it cost him his life.
+
+"Scarcely waiting for his commands the Spaniards moved toward one of the
+principal _teocallis_, or temples, which rose high on a pyramidal
+foundation with a steep ascent of stone steps in the middle. The
+cazique, divining their purpose, instantly called his men to arms. The
+Indian warriors gathered from all quarters, with shrill cries and
+clashing of weapons, while the priests, in their dark cotton robes, with
+disheveled tresses matted with blood, rushed frantic among the natives,
+calling on them to protect their gods from violation! All was now
+confusion and tumult.... Cortes took his usual prompt measures. Causing
+the cazique and some of the principal citizens and priests to be
+arrested, he commanded them to quiet the people, declaring that if a
+single arrow was shot against a Spaniard, it should cost every one of
+them his life.... The cazique covered his face with his hands,
+exclaiming that the gods would avenge their own wrongs.
+
+"The Christians were not slow in availing themselves of his tacit
+acquiescence. Fifty soldiers, at a signal from their general, sprang up
+the great stairway of the temple, entered the building on the summit,
+the walls of which were black with human gore, and dragged the huge
+wooden idols to the edge of the terrace. Their fantastic forms and
+features, conveying a symbolic meaning which was lost on the Spaniards,
+seemed to their eyes only the hideous lineaments of Satan. With great
+alacrity they rolled the colossal monsters down the steps of the
+pyramid, amid the triumphant shouts of their own companions and the
+groans and lamentations of the natives. They then consummated the whole
+by burning them in the presence of the assembled multitude."
+
+After the temple had been cleansed from every trace of the idol-worship
+and its horrors, a new altar was raised, surmounted by a lofty cross,
+and hung with garlands of roses. A reaction having now set in among the
+Indians, many were willing to become Christians, and some of the Aztec
+priests even joined in a procession to signify their conversion, wearing
+white robes instead of their former dark mantles, and carrying lighted
+candles in their hands, "while an image of the Virgin half smothered
+under the weight of flowers was borne aloft, and, as the procession
+climbed the steps of the temple, was deposited above the altar.... The
+impressive character of the ceremony and the passionate eloquence of the
+good priest touched the feelings of the motley audience, until Indians
+as well as Spaniards, if we may trust the chronicler, were melted into
+tears and audible sobs."
+
+Before finally marching westward toward the temperate "slopes" of the
+mountains, Cortes had another opportunity of proving his generalship
+and prompt resource at a critical moment. When Agathocles, the
+autocratic ruler of Syracuse, sailed over to defeat the Carthaginians,
+the first thing he did on landing in Africa was to burn his ships, that
+his soldiers might have no opportunity of retreat, and no hope but in
+victory. Cortes now acted on exactly the same principle.
+
+After discovering that a number of his soldiers had formed a conspiracy
+to seize one of the ships and sail to Cuba, Cortes, on conviction,
+punished two of the ringleaders with death. Soon after, he formed the
+extraordinary resolution of destroying his ships without the knowledge
+of his army.
+
+The five worst ships were first ordered to be dismantled; and, soon
+after, to be sunk. When the rest were inspected, four of them were
+condemned in the same manner.
+
+When the news reached Zempoalla, the army were excited almost to open
+mutiny. Cortes, however, was perfectly cool. Addressing the army
+collectively, he assured them that the ships were not fit for service,
+as had been shown by due inspection. "There is one important advantage
+gained to the army, viz., the addition of a hundred able-bodied recruits
+who were necessary to man the lost ships. Besides all that, of what use
+could ships be to us in the present expedition? As for me, I will remain
+here even without a comrade. As for those who shrink from the dangers of
+our glorious enterprise, let them go back, in God's name! Let them go
+home, since there is still one vessel left; let them go on board and
+return to Cuba. They can tell how they deserted their commander and
+their comrades, and patiently wait till they see us return loaded with
+the spoils of the Aztecs."
+
+Persuasion is the end of true oratory. The reply of the army to Cortes
+was the unanimous shout "To Mexico! To Mexico!"
+
+After beginning the gradual ascent in their march toward the table-land
+of Mexico, the first place noted by the invaders was Jalapa, a town
+which still retains its Aztec name, known to all the world by the
+well-known drug grown there. It is a favorite resort of the wealthier
+residents in Vera Cruz, and that too tropical plain which Cortes had
+just left. The mighty mountain Orizaba, one of the guardians of the
+Mexican Valley, is now full in sight, towering in solitary grandeur with
+its robe of snow.
+
+At last they reached a town so populous that there were thirteen Aztec
+temples with the usual sacrificial stone for human victims before each
+idol. In the suburbs the Spanish were shocked by a gathering of human
+skulls, many thousand in number. This appalling reminder of the
+unspeakable sacrifices soon became a familiar sight as they marched
+through that country.
+
+Cortes asked the cazique if he were subject to Montezuma. "Who is
+there," replied the local prince, "that is not tributary to that
+Emperor?" "_I_ am not," said the stranger general. Cortes assured him
+that the monarch whom the Spaniards served had princes as vassals, who
+were more powerful than the Aztec ruler. The cazique said:
+
+     Montezuma could muster thirty great vassals, each master of 100,000
+     men. His revenues were incalculable, since every subject, however
+     poor, paid something.... More than 20,000 victims, the fruit of his
+     wars, were annually sacrificed on the altars of his gods! His
+     capital stood on a lake, in the center of a spacious valley.... The
+     approach to the city was by means of causeways several miles long;
+     and when the connecting bridges were raised all communication with
+     the country was cut off.
+
+The Indians showed the greatest curiosity respecting the dresses,
+weapons, horses, and dogs of their strange visitors. The country all
+around was then well wooded and full of villages and towns, which
+disappeared after the conquest. Humboldt remarked, when he traveled
+there, that the whole district had, "at the time of the arrival of the
+Spanish, been more inhabited and better cultivated, and that in
+proportion as they got higher up near the table-land, they found the
+villages more frequent, the fields more subdivided, and the people more
+law-abiding."
+
+Before entering upon the table-land, Cortes resolved to visit the
+republic of Tlascala, which was noted for having retained its
+independence in spite of the Aztecs. After sending an embassy,
+consisting of the four chief Zempoallas, who had accompanied the army,
+he set out toward Tlascala, lingering as they proceeded, so that his
+ambassadors should have time to return. While wondering at the delay,
+they suddenly reached a remarkable fortification which marked the limits
+of the republic, and acted as a barrier against the Mexican invasions.
+Prescott thus describes it:
+
+     A stone wall nine feet in height and twenty in thickness, with a
+     parapet a foot and a half broad raised on the summit for the
+     protection of those who defended it. It had only one opening in
+     the center, made by two semicircular lines of wall overlapping each
+     other for the space of forty paces, and affording a passageway
+     between, ten paces wide, so contrived, therefore, as to be
+     perfectly commanded by the inner wall. This fortification, which
+     extended more than two leagues, rested at either end on the bold
+     natural buttresses formed by the sierra. The work was built of
+     immense blocks of stone nicely laid together without cement, and
+     the remains still existing, among which are rocks of the whole
+     breadth of the rampart, fully attest its solidity and size.
+
+Who were the people of this stout-hearted republic? The Tlascalans were
+a kindred tribe to the Aztecs, and after coming to the Mexican Valley,
+toward the close of the twelfth century, had settled for many years on
+the western shore of Lake Tezcuco. Afterward they migrated to that
+district of fruitful valleys where Cortes found them; _Tlascala_,
+meaning "land of bread." They then, as a nation, consisted of four
+separate states, considerably civilized, and always able to protect
+their confederacy against foreign invasion. Their arts, religion, and
+architecture were the same as those of the Aztecs and Tezcucans.
+
+More than once had the Aztecs attempted to bring the little republic
+into subjection, but in vain. In one campaign Montezuma had lost a
+favorite, besides having his army defeated; and though a much more
+formidable invasion followed, "the bold mountaineers withdrew into the
+recesses of their hills, and coolly watching their opportunity, rushed
+like a torrent on the invaders, and drove them back with dreadful
+slaughter from their territories."
+
+The Tlascalans had of course heard of the redoubtable Europeans and
+their advance upon Montezuma's kingdom, but not expecting any visit
+themselves, they were in doubt about the embassy sent by Cortes, and the
+council had not reached a decision when the arrival of Cortes was
+announced at the head of his cavalry. Attacked by a body of several
+thousand Indians, he sent back a horseman to make the infantry hurry up
+to his assistance. Two of the horses were killed, a loss seriously felt
+by Cortes; but when the main body had discharged a volley from their
+muskets and crossbows, so astounded were the Tlascalan Indians that they
+stopped fighting and withdrew from the field.
+
+Next morning, after Cortes had given careful instruction to his army
+(now more than 3,000 in number, with his Indian auxiliaries), they had
+not marched far when they were met by two of the Zempoallans, who had
+been sent as ambassadors. They informed Cortes that, as captives, they
+had been reserved for the sacrificial stone, but had succeeded in
+breaking out of prison. They also said that forces were being collected
+from all quarters to meet the Spaniards.
+
+At the first encounter, the Indians, after some spirited fighting,
+retreated in order to draw the Spanish army into a defile impracticable
+for artillery or cavalry. Pressing forward they found, on turning an
+abrupt corner of the glen, that an army of many thousands was drawn up
+in order, prepared to receive them. As they came into view, the
+Tlascalans set up a piercing war-cry, shrill and hideous, accompanied by
+the melancholy beat of a thousand drums. Cortes spurred on the cavalry
+to force a passage for the infantry, and kept exhorting his soldiers,
+while showing them an example of personal daring. "If we fail now," he
+cried, "the Cross of Christ can never be planted in this land. Forward,
+comrades! when was it ever known that a Castilian turned his back on a
+foe?"
+
+With desperate efforts the soldiers forced a passage through the Indian
+columns, and then, as soon as the horse opened room for the movements of
+the gunners, the terrible "thunder and lightning" of the cannon did the
+rest. The havoc caused in their ranks, combined with the roar and the
+flash of gunpowder, and the mangled carcasses, filled the whole of the
+barbarian army with horror and consternation. Eight leaders of the
+Tlascalan army having fallen, the prince ordered a retreat.
+
+The chief of the Tlascalans, Xicotencatl, was no ordinary leader. When
+Cortes wished to press on to the capital, he sent two envoys to the
+Tlascalan camp, but all that Xicotencatl deigned to reply was
+
+     that the Spaniards might pass on as soon as they chose to Tlascala,
+     and when they reached it their flesh would be hewn from their
+     bodies for sacrifice to the gods. If they preferred to remain in
+     their own quarters, he would pay them a visit there the next day.
+
+The envoys also told Cortes that the chief had now collected another
+very large army, five battalions of 10,000 men each. There was evidently
+a determination to try the fate of Tlascala by a pitched battle and
+exterminate the bold invaders.
+
+The next day, September 5, 1519, was therefore a critical one in the
+annals of Cortes. He resolved to meet the Tlascalan chief in the field,
+after directing the foot-soldiers to use the point of their swords and
+not the edge; the horse to charge at half speed, directing their lances
+at the eyes of their enemies; the gunners and crossbowmen to support
+each other, some loading while others were discharging their pieces.
+
+Before Cortes and his soldiers had marched a mile they saw the immense
+Tlascalan army stretched far and wide over a vast plain. Nothing could
+be more picturesque than the aspect of these Indian battalions, with the
+naked bodies of the common soldiers gaudily painted, the fantastic
+helmets of the chiefs bright with ornaments and precious stones, and the
+glowing panoplies of feather-work....
+
+  The golden glitterance and the feather-mail
+  More gay than glittering gold; and round the helm
+  A coronal of high upstanding plumes....
+  ... With war-songs and wild music they came on.[21]
+
+[Footnote 21: Southey (Madoc, i, 7).]
+
+The Tlascalan warriors had attained wonderful skill in throwing the
+javelin. "One species, with a thong attached to it, which remained in
+the slinger's hand, that he might recall the weapon, was especially
+dreaded by the Spaniards." Their various weapons were pointed with bone
+or obsidian, and sometimes headed with copper.
+
+The yell or scream of defiance raised by these Indians almost drowned
+the volume of sound from "the wild barbaric minstrelsy of shell, atabal,
+and trumpet with which they proclaimed their triumphant anticipations
+of victory over the paltry forces of the invaders."
+
+Advancing under a thick shower of arrows and other missiles, the Spanish
+soldiers at a certain distance quickly halted and drew up in order,
+before delivering a general fire along the whole line. The front ranks
+of their wild opponents were mowed down and those behind were "petrified
+with dismay."
+
+But for the accident of dissension having arisen between the chiefs of
+the Tlascalans, it almost seemed as if nothing could have saved Cortes
+and his Spanish army. Before the battle, the haughty treatment of one of
+those chiefs by Xicotencatl, the cazique, provoked the injured man to
+draw off all his contingent during the battle, and persuade another
+chief to do the same. With his forces so weakened, the cazique was
+compelled to resign the field to the Spaniards.
+
+Xicotencatl, in his eagerness for revenge, consulted some of the Aztec
+priests, who recommended a night attack upon Cortes's camp in order to
+take his army by surprise. The Tlascalan, therefore, with 10,000
+warriors, marched secretly toward the Spanish camp, but owing to the
+bright moonlight they were not unseen by the vedettes. Besides that,
+Cortes had accustomed his army to sleep with their arms by their side
+and the horses ready saddled. In an instant, as it were, the whole camp
+were on the alert and under arms. The Indians, meanwhile, were
+stealthily advancing to the silent camp, and, "no sooner had they
+reached the slope of the rising ground than they were astounded by the
+deep battle-cry of the Spaniards, followed by the instantaneous
+appearance of the whole army. Scarcely awaiting the shock of their
+enemy, the panic-struck barbarians fled rapidly and tumultuously across
+the plain. The horse easily overtook the fugitives, riding them down,
+and cutting them to pieces without mercy." Next day Cortes sent new
+ambassadors to the Tlascalan capital, accompanied by his faithful slave
+interpreter, Marina. They found the cazique's council sad and dejected,
+every gleam of hope being now extinguished.
+
+The message of Cortes still promised friendship and pardon, if only they
+agreed to act as allies. If the present offer were rejected, "he would
+visit their capital as a conqueror, raze every house to the ground, and
+put every inhabitant to the sword." On hearing this ultimatum, the
+council chose four leading chiefs to be entrusted with a mission to
+Cortes, "assuring him of a free passage through the country, and a
+friendly reception in the capital." The ambassadors, on their way back
+to Cortes, called at the camp of Xicotencatl, and were there detained by
+him. He was still planning against the terrible invaders.
+
+Cortes, in the meantime, had another opportunity of showing his resource
+and presence of mind. Some of his soldiers had shown a grumbling
+discontent: "The idea of conquering Mexico was madness; if they had
+encountered such opposition from the petty republic, what might they not
+expect from the great Mexican Empire? There was now a temporary
+suspension of hostilities; should they not avail themselves of it to
+retrace their steps to Vera Cruz?" To this Cortes listened calmly and
+politely, replying that "he had told them at the outset that glory was
+to be won only by toil and danger; he had never shrunk from his share of
+both. To go back now was impossible. What would the Tlascalans say? How
+would the Mexicans exult at such a miserable issue! Instead of turning
+your eyes toward Cuba, fix them on Mexico, the great object of our
+enterprise." Many other soldiers having gathered round, the mutinous
+party took courage to say that "another such victory as the last would
+be their ruin; they were going to Mexico only to be slaughtered." With
+some impatience Cortes gaily quoted a soldiers' song:
+
+  Better die with honor
+  Than live in long disgrace!
+
+--a sentiment which the majority of the audience naturally cheered to
+the echo, while the malcontents slunk away to their quarters.
+
+The next event was the arrival of some Tlascalans wearing white badges
+as an indication of peace. They brought a message, they said, from
+Xicotencatl, who now desired an arrangement with Cortes, and would soon
+appear in person. Most of them remained in the camp, where they were
+treated kindly; but Marina, with her "woman's wit," became somewhat
+suspicious of them. Perhaps some of them, forgetting that she knew their
+language, let drop a phrase in talking to each other, which awoke her
+distrust. She told Cortes that the men were spies. He had them arrested
+and examined separately, ascertaining in that way that they were sent
+to obtain secret information of the Spanish camp, and that, in fact,
+Xicotencatl was mustering his forces to make another determined attack
+on the invading army.
+
+To show the fierceness of his resentment at such treatment, Cortes
+ordered the fifty spy ambassadors to have their hands hacked off, and
+sent back to tell their lord that "the Tlascalans might come by day or
+night, they would find the Spaniards ready for them." The sight of their
+mutilated comrades filled the Indian camp with dread and horror. All
+thoughts of resistance to the advance of Cortes were now abandoned, and
+not long after the arrival of Xicotencatl himself was announced,
+attended by a numerous train. He advanced with "the firm and fearless
+step of one who was coming rather to bid defiance than to sue for peace.
+He was rather above the middle size, with broad shoulders and a muscular
+frame, intimating great activity and strength. He made the usual
+salutation by touching the ground with his hand and carrying it to his
+head." He threw no blame on the Tlascalan senate, but assumed all the
+responsibility of the war. He admitted that the Spanish army had beaten
+him, but hoped they would use their victory with moderation, and not
+trample on the liberties of the republic.
+
+Cortes admired the cazique's lofty spirit, while pretending to rebuke
+him for having so long remained an enemy. "He was willing to bury the
+past in oblivion, and to receive the Tlascalans as vassals to the
+Emperor, his master."
+
+Before the entry into Tlascala, the capital, there arrived an embassy
+from Montezuma, who had been keenly disappointed, no doubt, that Cortes
+had not only not been defeated by the bravest race on the Mexican
+table-land, but had formed a friendly alliance with them.
+
+As Cortes, with his army, approached the populous city, they were
+welcomed by great crowds of men and women in picturesque dresses, with
+nosegays and wreaths of flowers; priests in white robes and long matted
+tresses, swinging their burning censers of incense. The anniversary of
+this entry into Tlascala, September 23, 1519, is still celebrated as a
+day of rejoicing.
+
+Cortes, in his letter to the Emperor, King of Spain, compares it for
+size and appearance to Granada, the Moorish capital. Pottery was one of
+the industries in which Tlascala excelled. The Tlascalan was chiefly
+agricultural in his habits; his honest breast glowed with the patriotic
+attachment to the soil, which is the fruit of its diligent culture,
+while he was elevated by that consciousness of independence which is the
+natural birthright of a child of the mountains.
+
+Cholula, capital of the republic of that name, is six leagues north of
+Tlascala, and about twenty southeast of Mexico. In the time of the
+conquest of the table-land of Anahuac, as the whole district is
+sometimes termed, this city was large and populous. The people excelled
+in mechanical arts, especially metal-working, cloth-weaving, and a
+delicate kind of pottery. Reference has already been made to the god
+Quetzalcoatl, in whose honor a huge pyramid was erected here. From the
+farthest parts of Anahuac devotees thronged to Cholula, just as the
+Mohammedans to Mecca.
+
+The Spaniards found the people of Cholula superior in dress and looks to
+any of the races they had seen. The higher classes "wore fine
+embroidered mantles resembling the Moorish cloak in texture and
+fashion.... They showed the same delicate taste for flowers as the other
+tribes of the plateau, tossing garlands and bunches among the
+soldiers.... The Spaniards were also struck with the cleanliness of the
+city, the regularity of the streets, the solidity of the houses, and the
+number and size of the pyramidal temples." After being treated with
+kindness and hospitality for several days, all at once the scene
+changed, the cause being the arrival of messengers from Montezuma. At
+the same time some Tlascalans told Cortes that a great sacrifice, mostly
+of children, had been offered to propitiate the favor of the gods.
+
+At this juncture, Marina, the Indian slave interpreter, again proved to
+be the "good angel" of Cortes. She had become very friendly with the
+wife of one of the Cholula caziques, who gave her a hint that there was
+danger in staying at the house of any Spaniard; and, when further
+pressed by Marina, said that the Spaniards were to be slaughtered when
+marching out of the capital. The plot had originated with the Aztec
+Emperor, and 20,000 Mexicans were already quartered a little distance
+out of town.
+
+In this most critical position, Cortes at once decided to take
+possession of the great square, placing a strong guard at each of its
+three gates of entrance. The rest of what troops he had in the town, he
+posted without with the cannon, to command the avenues. He had already
+sent orders to the Tlascalan chiefs to keep their soldiers in readiness
+to march, at a given signal, into the city to support the Spaniards.
+Presently the caziques of Cholula arrived with a larger body of levies
+than Cortes had demanded. He at once charged them with conspiring
+against the Spaniards after receiving them as friends. They were so
+amazed at his discovery of their perfidy that they confessed everything,
+laying the blame on Montezuma. "That pretense," said Cortes, assuming a
+look of fierce indignation, "is no justification; I shall now make such
+an example of you for your treachery that the report of it will ring
+throughout the wide borders of Anahuac!"
+
+At the firing of a harquebus, the fatal signal, the crowd of
+unsuspecting Cholulans were massacred as they stood, almost without
+resistance. Meantime the other Indians without the square commenced an
+attack on the Spaniards, but the heavy guns of the battery played upon
+them with murderous effect, and cavalry advanced to support the attack.
+
+     The steeds, the guns, the weapons of the Spaniards, were all new to
+     the Cholulans. Notwithstanding the novelty of the terrific
+     spectacle, the flash of arms mingling with the deafening roar of
+     the artillery, the desperate Indians pushed on to take the places
+     of their fallen comrades.
+
+While this scene of bloodshed was progressing, the Tlascalans, as
+arranged, were hastening to the assistance of their Spanish allies. The
+Cholulans, when thus attacked in rear by their traditional enemies,
+speedily gave way, and tried to save themselves in the great temple and
+elsewhere. The "Holy City," as it was called, was converted into a
+pandemonium of massacre. In memory of the signal defeat of the
+Cholulans, Cortes converted the chief part of the great temple into a
+Christian church.
+
+Envoys again arrived from Mexico with rich presents and a message
+vindicating the pusillanimous Emperor from any share in the conspiracy
+against Cortes. Continuing their march, the allied army of Spaniards and
+Tlascalans proceeded till they reached the mountains which separate the
+table-land of Puebla from that of Mexico. To cross this range they
+followed the route which passes between the mighty Popocatepetl (i. e.,
+"the smoking mountain") and another called the "White Woman" from its
+broad robe of snow. The first lies about forty miles southeast of the
+capital to which their march was directed. It is more than 2,000 feet
+higher than Mont Blanc, and has two principal craters, one of which is
+about 1,000 feet deep and has large deposits of sulfur which are
+regularly mined. Popocatepetl has long been only a quiescent volcano,
+but during the invasion by Cortes it was often burning, especially at
+the time of the siege of Tlascala. That was naturally interpreted all
+over the district of Anahuac to be a bad omen, associated with the
+landing and approach of the Spaniards. Cortes insisted on several
+descents being made into the great crater till sufficient sulfur was
+collected to supply gunpowder to his army. The icy cold winds, varied by
+storms of snow and sleet, were more trying to the Europeans than the
+Tlascalans, but some relief was found in the stone shelters which had
+been built at certain intervals along the roads for the accommodation
+of couriers and other travelers.
+
+At last they reached the crest of the sierra which unites Popocatepetl,
+the "great _Volcan_," to its sister mountain the "Woman in White." Soon
+after, at a turning of the road, the invaders enjoyed their first view
+of the famous Valley of Mexico or Tenochtitlan, with its beautiful lakes
+in their setting of cultivated plains, here and there varied by woods
+and forests. "In the midst, like some Indian empress with her coronal of
+pearls, the fair city with her white towers and pyramidal temples,
+reposing as it were on the bosom of the waters--the far-famed 'Venice of
+the Aztecs.'"
+
+This view of the "Promised Land" will remind some of the picturesque
+account given by Livy (xxi, 35) of Hannibal reaching the top of the pass
+over the Alps and pointing out the fair prospect of Italy to his
+soldiers. We may thus render the passage: "On the ninth day the ridge of
+the Alps was reached, over ground generally trackless and by roundabout
+ways.... The order for marching being given at break of day, the army
+were sluggishly advancing over ground wholly covered with snow,
+listlessness, and despair depicted on the features of all, Hannibal went
+on in front, and after ordering the soldiers to halt on a height which
+commanded a distant view, far and wide, points out to them Italy and the
+plains of Lombardy on both banks of the Po, at the foot of the Alps,
+telling them that at that moment they were crossing not only the walls
+of Italy but of the Roman capital; that the rest of the march was easy
+and downhill." The situation of Hannibal and his Carthaginians
+surveying Italy for the first time is in some respects closely analogous
+to that of Cortes pointing out the Valley of Mexico to his Spanish
+soldiers.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+CORTES AND MONTEZUMA
+
+
+We have now seen the Spanish conquerors with a large contingent of 6,000
+natives surmounting the mountains to the east of the Mexican Valley and
+looking down upon the Lake of Tezcuco on which were built the sister
+capitals. Montezuma, the Aztec monarch, was already in a state of
+dismay, and sent still another embassy to propitiate the terrible
+Cortes, with a great present of gold and robes of the most precious
+fabrics and workmanship; and a promise that, if the foreign general
+would turn back toward Vera Cruz, the Mexicans would pay down four loads
+of gold for himself and one to each of his captains, besides a yearly
+tribute to their king in Europe.
+
+These promises did not reach Cortes till he was descending from the
+sierra. He replied that details were best arranged by a personal
+interview, and that the Spaniards came with peaceful motives.
+
+Montezuma was now plunged in deep despair. At last he summoned a council
+to consult his nobles and especially his nephew, the young King of
+Tezcuco, and his warlike brother. The latter advised him to "muster as
+large an army as possible, and drive back the invaders from his capital
+or die in its defense." "Ah!" replied the monarch, "the gods have
+declared themselves against us!" Still another embassy was prepared,
+with his nephew, lord of Tezcuco, at its head, to offer a welcome to the
+unwelcome visitors.
+
+Cortes approached through fertile fields, plantations, and
+maguey-vineyards till they reached Lake Chalco. There they found a large
+town built in the water on piles, with canals instead of streets, full
+of movement and animation. "The Spaniards were particularly struck with
+the style and commodious structure of the houses, chiefly of stone, and
+with the general aspect of wealth and even elegance which prevailed."
+
+Next morning the King of Tezcuco came to visit Cortes, in a palanquin
+richly decorated with plates of gold and precious stones, under a canopy
+of green plumes. He was accompanied by a numerous suite. Advancing with
+the Mexican salutation, he said he had been commanded by Montezuma to
+welcome him to the capital, at the same time offering three splendid
+pearls as a present. Cortes "in return threw over the young king's neck
+a chain of cut glass, which, where glass was as rare as diamonds, might
+be admitted to have a value as real as the latter."
+
+The army of Cortes next marched along the southern side of Lake Chalco,
+"through noble woods and by orchards glowing with autumnal fruits, of
+unknown names, but rich and tempting hues." They also passed "through
+cultivated fields waving with the yellow harvest, and irrigated by
+canals introduced from the neighboring lake, the whole showing a careful
+and economical husbandry, essential to the maintenance of a crowded
+population." A remarkable public work next engaged the attention of the
+Spaniards, viz., a solid causeway of stone and lime running directly
+through the lake, in some places so wide that eight horsemen could ride
+on it abreast. Its length is some four or five miles. Marching along
+this causeway, they saw other wonders; numbers of the natives darting in
+all directions in their skiffs, curious to watch the strangers marching,
+and some of them bearing the products of the country to the neighboring
+cities. They were amazed also by the sight of the floating gardens,
+teeming with flowers and vegetables, and moving like rafts over the
+waters. All round the margin, and occasionally far in the lake, they
+beheld little towns and villages, which, half concealed by the foliage,
+and gathered in white clusters round the shore, "looked in the distance
+like companies of white swans riding quietly on the waves." About the
+middle of this lake was a town, to which the Spaniards gave the name of
+Venezuela[22] (i. e., "Little Venice"). From its situation and the style
+of the buildings, Cortes called it the most beautiful town that he had
+yet seen in New Spain.
+
+[Footnote 22: Not to be confounded with the Indian village on the shore
+of Lake Maracaibo, to which (with similar motive) Vespucci had given
+that name--now capital of a large republic.]
+
+After crossing the isthmus which separates that lake from Lake Tezcuco
+they were now at Iztapalapan, a royal residence in charge of the
+Emperor's brother. Here a ceremonious reception was given to Cortes and
+his staff, "a collation being served in one of the great halls of the
+palace. The excellence of the architecture here excited the admiration
+of the general. The buildings were of stone, and the spacious apartments
+had roofs of odorous cedar-wood, while the walls were tapestried with
+fine cotton stained with brilliant colors.
+
+"But the pride of Iztapalapan was its celebrated gardens, covering an
+immense tract of land and laid out in regular squares. The gardens were
+stocked with fruit-trees and with the gaudy family of flowers which
+belonged to the Mexican flora, scientifically arranged, and growing
+luxuriant in the equable temperature of the table-land. In one quarter
+was an aviary filled with numerous kinds of birds remarkable in this
+region both for brilliancy of plumage and for song. But the most
+elaborate piece of work was a huge reservoir of stone, filled to a
+considerable height with water, well supplied with different sorts of
+fish. This basin was 1,600 paces in circumference, and surrounded by a
+walk."
+
+Readers must remember that at that age no beautiful gardens on a large
+scale were known in any part of Europe. The first "garden of plants" (to
+use the name afterward applied by the French) is said to have been an
+Italian one, at Padua, in 1545, a whole generation after the time of the
+arrival of Cortes in Mexico. It was only under Louis "Le Magnifique"
+that France created the Versailles Gardens, and not till the time of
+George III and his tutor Bute could we boast of the gardens at Kew, now
+admired by all the world. The ancient Mexicans, therefore, under their
+extinct civilization, had developed this taste for the beautiful many
+ages before the most cultivated races in Europe.
+
+Cortes took up his quarters at this residence of Iztapalapan for the
+night, expecting to meet Montezuma on the morrow. Mexico was now
+distinctly full in view, looking "like a thing of fairy creation," a
+city of enchantment.
+
+  There Aztlan stood upon the farther shore;
+  Amid the shade of trees its dwellings rose,
+  Their level roofs with turrets set around
+  And battlements all burnished white, which shone
+  Like silver in the sunshine. I beheld
+  The imperial city, her far-circling walls,
+  Her garden groves and stately palaces,
+  Her temples mountain size, her thousand roofs.
+  And when I saw her might and majesty
+  My mind misgave me then.
+
+  _Madoc_, i, 6.
+
+That following day, November 8, 1519, should be noted in every calendar,
+when the great capital of the Western World admitted the conquering
+general from the Eastern World. The invaders were now upon a larger
+causeway, which stretched across the salt waters of Lake Tezcuco; and
+"had occasion more than ever to admire the mechanical science of the
+Aztecs." It was wide enough throughout its whole extent for ten horsemen
+to ride abreast.
+
+The Spaniards saw everywhere "evidence of a crowded and thriving
+population, exceeding all they had yet seen." The water was darkened by
+swarms of canoes filled with Indians; and here also were those fairy
+islands of flowers. Half a league from the capital they encountered a
+solid work of stone, which traversed the road. It was twelve feet high,
+strengthened by towers at the extremities, and in the center was a
+battlemented gateway, which opened a passage to the troops.
+
+Here they were met by several hundred Aztec chiefs, who came out to
+announce the approach of Montezuma, and to welcome the Spaniards to his
+capital. They were dressed in the fanciful gala costume of the country,
+with the cotton sash around their loins, and a broad mantle of the same
+material, or of the brilliant feather embroidery, flowing gracefully
+down their shoulders. On their necks and arms they displayed collars and
+bracelets of turquoise mosaic, with which delicate plumage was curiously
+mingled, while their ears, under lips, and occasionally their noses were
+garnished with pendants formed of precious stones, or crescents of fine
+gold.
+
+After all the caziques had performed the same formal salutation
+separately, there was no further delay till they reached a bridge near
+the gates of the capital. Soon after "they beheld the glittering retinue
+of the Emperor emerging from the great street leading through the heart
+of the city. Amid a crowd of Indian nobles preceded by three officers of
+state bearing golden wands, they saw the royal palanquin blazing with
+burnished gold. It was borne on the shoulders of nobles, and over it a
+canopy of gaudy feather-work, covered with jewels and fringed with
+silver, was supported by four attendants of the same rank."
+
+At a certain distance from the Spaniards "the train halted, and
+Montezuma, descending from the litter, came forward, leaning on the
+arms of the lords of Tezcuco and Iztapalapan"--the Emperor's nephew and
+brother, already mentioned. "As the monarch advanced, his subjects, who
+lined the sides of the causeway, bent forward, with their eyes fastened
+on the ground, as he passed."
+
+Montezuma wore the ample square cloak common to the Mexicans, but of the
+finest cotton sprinkled with pearls and precious stones; his sandals
+were similarly sprinkled, and had soles of solid gold. His only head
+ornament was a bunch of feathers of the royal green color. A man about
+forty; tall and rather thin; black hair, cut rather short for a person
+of rank; dignified in his movements; his features wearing an expression
+of benignity not to be expected from his character.
+
+After dismounting from horseback, Cortes advanced to meet Montezuma, who
+received him with princely courtesy, while Cortes responded by profound
+expressions of respect, with thanks for his experience of the Emperor's
+munificence. He then hung round Montezuma's neck a sparkling chain of
+colored crystal, accompanying this with a movement as if to embrace him,
+when he was restrained by the two Aztec lords, shocked at the menaced
+profanation of the sacred person of their monarch and master.
+
+Montezuma appointed his brother to conduct the Spaniards to their
+residence in the capital, and was again carried through the adoring
+crowds in his litter. "The Spaniards quickly followed, and with colors
+flying and music playing soon made their entrance into the southern
+quarter."
+
+On entering "they found fresh cause for admiration in the grandeur of
+the city and the superior style of its architecture. The great avenue
+through which they were now marching was lined with the houses of the
+nobles, who were encouraged by the Emperor to make the capital their
+residence. The flat roofs were protected by stone parapets, so that
+every house was a fortress. Sometimes these roofs seemed parterres of
+flowers ... broad terraced gardens laid out between the buildings.
+Occasionally a great square intervened surrounded by its porticoes of
+stone and stucco; or a pyramidal temple reared its colossal bulk crowned
+with its tapering sanctuaries, and altars blazing with unextinguishable
+fires. But what most impressed the Spaniards was the throngs of people
+who swarmed through the streets and on the canals."
+
+Probably, however, the spectacle of the European army with their horses,
+their guns, bright swords and helmets of steel, a metal to them unknown;
+their weird and mysterious music--the whole formed to the Aztec populace
+an inexplicable wonder, combined with those foreigners who had arrived
+from the distant East, "revealing their celestial origin in their fair
+complexions." Many of the Aztec citizens betrayed keen hatred of the
+Tlascalans who marched with the Spaniards in friendly alliance.
+
+At length Cortes with his mixed army halted near the center of the city
+in a great open space, "where rose the huge pyramidal pile dedicated to
+the patron war-god of the Aztecs, second only to the temple of Cholula
+in size as well as sanctity." The present famous cathedral of modern
+Mexico is built on part of the same site.
+
+A palace built opposite the west side of the great temple was assigned
+to Cortes. It was extensive enough to accommodate the whole of the army
+of Cortes. Montezuma paid him a visit there, having a long conversation
+through the indispensable assistance of Marina, the slave interpreter.
+"That evening the Spaniards celebrated their arrival in the Mexican
+capital by a general discharge of artillery. The thunders of the
+ordnance reverberating among the buildings and shaking them to their
+foundations, the stench of the sulfureous vapor reminding the
+inhabitants of the explosions of the great volcano (Popocatepetl) filled
+the hearts of the superstitious Aztecs with dismay."
+
+Next day Cortes had gracious permission to return the visit of the
+Emperor, and therefore proceeded to wait upon him at the royal palace,
+dressed in his richest suit of clothes. The Spanish general felt the
+importance of the occasion and resolved to exercise all his eloquence
+and power of argument in attempting the "conversion" of Montezuma to the
+Christian faith.
+
+For this purpose, with the assistance of the faithful Marina, Cortes
+engaged the Emperor in a theological discussion; explaining the creation
+of the world as taught in the Jewish Scriptures; the fall of man from
+his first happy and holy condition by the temptation of Satan; the
+mysterious redemption of the human race by the incarnation and atonement
+of the Son of God Himself. "He assured Montezuma that the idols
+worshiped in Mexico were Satan under different forms. A sufficient proof
+of this was the bloody sacrifices they imposed, which he contrasted with
+the pure and simple rite of the mass. It was to snatch the Emperor's
+soul and the souls of his people from the flames of eternal fire that
+the Christians had come to this land."
+
+Montezuma replied that the God of the Spaniards must be a good being,
+and "my gods also are good to me; there was no need to further discourse
+on the matter." If he had "resisted their visit to his capital, it was
+because he had heard such accounts of their cruelties--that they sent
+the lightning to consume his people, or crushed them to pieces under the
+hard feet of the ferocious animals on which they rode. He was now
+convinced that these were idle tales; that the Spaniards were kind and
+generous in their nature." He concluded by admitting the superiority of
+the sovereign of Cortes beyond the seas. "Your sovereign is the rightful
+lord of all: I rule in his name."
+
+The rough Spanish cavaliers were touched by the kindness and affability
+of Montezuma. As they passed him, says Diaz, in his History, they made
+him the most profound obeisance, hat in hand; and on the way home could
+discourse of nothing but the gentle breeding and courtesy of the Indian
+monarch.
+
+
+MONTEZUMA'S CAPITAL
+
+Cortes and his army being now fairly domesticated in Mexico, and the
+Emperor having apparently become reconciled to the presence of his
+formidable guests, we may pause to consider the surroundings.
+
+The present capital occupies the site of Tenochtitlan, but many changes
+have occurred in the intervening four centuries. First of all, the salt
+waters of the great lake have entirely shrunk away, leaving modern
+Mexico high and dry, a league away from the waters that Cortes saw
+flowing in ample canals through all the streets. Formerly the houses
+stood on elevated piles and were independent of the floods which rose in
+Lake Tezcuco by the overflowing of other lakes on a higher level. But
+when the foundations were on solid ground it became necessary to provide
+against the accumulated volume of water by excavating a tunnel to drain
+off the flood. This was constructed about one hundred years after the
+invasion of the Spaniards, and has been described by Humboldt as "one of
+the most stupendous hydraulic works in existence."
+
+The appearance of the lake and suburbs of the capital have long lost
+much of the attractive appearance they had at the time of the Spanish
+visit; but the town itself is still the most brilliant city in Spanish
+America, surmounted by a cathedral, which forms "the most sumptuous
+house of worship in the New World."
+
+The great causeway already described as leading north from the royal
+city of Iztapalapan, had another to the north of the capital, which
+might be called its continuation. The third causeway, leading west to
+the town Tacuba from the island city, will be noticed presently as the
+scene of the Spaniards' retreat.
+
+There were excellent police regulations for health and cleanliness.
+Water supplied by earthen pipes was from a hill about two miles distant.
+Besides the palaces and temples there were several important buildings:
+an armory filled with weapons and military dresses; a granary; various
+warehouses; an immense aviary, with "birds of splendid plumage assembled
+from all parts of the empire--the scarlet cardinal, the golden pheasant,
+the endless parrot tribe, and that miniature miracle of nature, the
+humming-bird, which delights to revel among the honeysuckle bowers of
+Mexico." The birds of prey had a separate building. The menagerie
+adjoining the aviary showed wild animals from the mountain forests, as
+well as creatures from the remote swamps of the hot lands by the
+seashore. The serpents "were confined in long cages lined with down or
+feathers, or in troughs of mud and water."
+
+Wishing to visit the great Mexican temple, Cortes, with his cavalry and
+most of his infantry, followed the caziques whom Montezuma had politely
+sent as guides.
+
+On their way to the central square the Spaniards "were struck with the
+appearance of the inhabitants, and their great superiority in the style
+and quality of their dress over the people of the lower countries. The
+women, as in other parts of the country, seemed to go about as freely as
+the men. They wore several skirts or petticoats of different lengths,
+with highly ornamented borders, and sometimes over them loose-flowing
+robes, which reached to the ankles. No veils were worn here as in some
+other parts of Anahuac. The Aztec women had their faces exposed; and
+their dark raven tresses floated luxuriantly over their shoulders,
+revealing features which, although of a dusky or rather cinnamon hue,
+were not unfrequently pleasing, while touched with the serious, even
+sad expression characteristic of the national physiognomy."
+
+When near the great market "the Spaniards were astonished at the throng
+of people pressing toward it, and on entering the place their surprise
+was still further heightened by the sight of the multitudes assembled
+there, and the dimensions of the enclosure, twice as large, says one
+Spanish observer, as the celebrated square of Salamanca. Here were
+traders from all parts; the goldsmiths from Azcapozalco, the potters and
+jewelers of Cholula, the painters of Tezcuco, the stone-cutters,
+hunters, fishermen, fruiterers, mat and chair makers, florists, etc. The
+pottery department was a large one; so were the armories for implements
+of war; razors and mirrors--booths for apothecaries with drugs, roots,
+and medical preparations. In other places again, blank-books or maps for
+the hieroglyphics or pictographs were to be seen folded together like
+fans. Animals both wild and tame were offered for sale, and near them,
+perhaps, a gang of slaves with collars round their necks. One of the
+most attractive features of the market was the display of provisions:
+meats of all kinds, domestic poultry, game from the neighboring
+mountains, fish from the lakes and streams, fruits in all the delicious
+abundance of these temperate regions, green vegetables, and the
+unfailing maize."
+
+This market, like hundreds of smaller ones, was of course held every
+fifth day--the week of the ancient Mexicans being one-fourth of the
+twenty days which constituted the Aztec month. This great market was
+comparable to "the periodical fairs in Europe, not as they now exist,
+but as they existed in the middle ages," when from the difficulties of
+intercommunication they served as the great central marts for commercial
+intercourse, exercising a most important and salutary influence on the
+community.
+
+One of the Spaniards in the party accompanying Cortes was the historian
+Diaz, and his testimony is remarkable:
+
+     There were among us soldiers who had been in many parts of the
+     world, Constantinople and Rome, and through all Italy, and who said
+     that a market-place so large, so well ordered and regulated, and so
+     filled with people, they had never seen.
+
+Proceeding next to the great _teocalli_ or Aztec temple, covering the
+site of the modern cathedral with part of the market-place and some
+adjoining streets, they found it in the midst of a great open space,
+surrounded by a high stone wall, ornamented on the outside by figures of
+serpents raised in relief, and pierced by huge battlemented gateways
+opening on the four principal streets of the capital. The _teocalli_
+itself was a solid pyramidal structure of earth and pebbles, coated on
+the outside with hewn stones, the sides facing the cardinal points. It
+was divided into five stories, each of smaller dimensions than that
+immediately below. The ascent was by a flight of steps on the outside,
+which reached to the narrow terrace at the bottom of the second story,
+passing quite round the building, when a second stairway conducted to a
+similar landing at the base of the third. Thus the visitor was obliged
+to pass round the whole edifice four times in order to reach the top.
+This had a most imposing effect in the religious ceremonials, when the
+pompous procession of priests with their wild minstrelsy came sweeping
+round the huge sides of the pyramid, as they rose higher and higher
+toward the summit in full view of the populace assembled in their
+thousands.
+
+Cortes marched up the steps at the head of his men, and found at the
+summit "a vast area paved with broad flat stones. The first object that
+met their view was a large block of jasper, the peculiar shape of which
+showed it was the stone on which the bodies of the unhappy victims were
+stretched for sacrifice. Its convex surface, by raising the breast,
+enabled the priest to perform more easily his diabolical task of
+removing the heart. At the other end of the area were two towers or
+sanctuaries, consisting of three stories, the lower one of stone, the
+two upper of wood elaborately carved. In the lower division stood the
+images of their gods; the apartments above were filled with utensils for
+their religious services, and with the ashes of some of their Aztec
+princes who had fancied this airy sepulcher. Before each sanctuary stood
+an altar, with that undying fire upon it, the extinction of which boded
+as much evil to the empire as that of the Vestal flame would have done
+in ancient Rome. Here also was the huge cylindrical drum made of
+serpents' skins, and struck only on extraordinary occasions, when it
+sent forth a melancholy, weird sound, that might be heard for miles"
+over the country, indicating fierce anger of deity against the enemies
+of Mexico.
+
+As Cortes reached the summit he was met by the Emperor himself attended
+by the high priest. Taking the general by the hand, Montezuma pointed
+out the chief localities in the wide prospect which their position
+commanded, including not only the capital, "bathed on all sides by the
+salt floods of the Tezcuco, and in the distance the clear fresh waters
+of Lake Chalco," but the whole of the Valley of Mexico to the base of
+the circular range of mountains, and the wreaths of vapor rolling up
+from the hoary head of Popocatepetl.
+
+Cortes was allowed "to behold the shrines of the gods. They found
+themselves in a spacious apartment, with sculptures on the walls,
+representing the Mexican calendar, or the priestly ritual. Before the
+altar in this sanctuary stood the colossal image of Huitzilopochtli, the
+tutelary deity and war-god of the Aztecs. His countenance was distorted
+into hideous lineaments of symbolical import. The huge folds of a
+serpent, consisting of pearls and precious stones, were coiled round his
+waist, and the same rich materials were profusely sprinkled over his
+person. On his left foot were the delicate feathers of the humming-bird,
+which gave its name to the dread deity. The most conspicuous ornament
+was a chain of gold and silver hearts alternate, suspended round his
+neck, emblematical of the sacrifice in which he most delighted. A more
+unequivocal evidence of this was afforded by three human hearts that now
+lay smoking on the altar before him.
+
+"The adjoining sanctuary was dedicated to a milder deity. This was
+Tezcatlipoca, who created the world, next in honor to that invisible
+being the Supreme God, who was represented by no image, and confined by
+no temple. He was represented as a young man, and his image of polished
+black stone was richly garnished with gold plates and ornaments. But the
+homage to this god was not always of a more refined or merciful
+character than that paid to his carnivorous brother."
+
+According to Diaz, whom we have already quoted, the stench of human gore
+in both those chapels was more intolerable than that of all the
+slaughter-houses in Castile. Glad to escape into the open air, Cortes
+expressed wonder that a great and wise prince like Montezuma could have
+faith "in such evil spirits as these idols, the representatives of the
+devil! Permit us to erect here the true cross, and place the images of
+the Blessed Virgin and her Son in these sanctuaries; you will soon see
+how your false gods will shrink before them!"
+
+This extraordinary speech of the general shocked Montezuma, who, in
+reproof, said: "Had I thought you would have offered this outrage to the
+gods of the Aztecs, I would not have admitted you into their presence."
+
+Cortes, as a general, had some of the great qualities of Napoleon, but
+he also resembled him occasionally in a singular lack of delicacy and
+good taste. We do not, however, find that he ever showed such mean
+malignity as the French general did when persecuting Madame de Stael,
+because in her Germany she had omitted to mention his campaigns and
+administration.
+
+Within the same enclosure, Cortes and his companions visited a temple
+dedicated to Quetzalcoatl, a god referred to already. Other buildings
+served as seminaries for the instruction of youth of both sexes; and
+according to the Spanish accounts of the teaching and management of
+these institutions there was "the greatest care for morals and the most
+blameless deportment."
+
+
+SEIZURE OF MONTEZUMA
+
+After being guest of the Mexican Emperor for a week, Cortes resolved to
+carry out a most daring and unprecedented scheme--a purely "Napoleonic
+movement," such as could scarcely have entered the brain of any general
+ancient or modern. He argued with himself that a quarrel might at any
+moment break out between his men and the citizens; the Spaniards again
+could not remain long quiet unless actively employed; and, thirdly,
+there was still greater danger with the Tlascalans, "a fierce race now
+in daily contact with a nation that regards them with loathing and
+detestation." Lastly, the Governor of Cuba, already grossly offended
+with Cortes, might at any moment send after him a sufficient army to
+wrest from him the glory of conquest. Cortes therefore formed the daring
+resolve to seize Montezuma in his palace and carry him as a prisoner to
+the Spanish quarters. He hoped thus to have in his own hands the supreme
+management of affairs, and at the same time secure his own safety with
+such a "sacred pledge" in keeping.
+
+It was necessary to find a pretext for seizing the hospitable Montezuma.
+News had already come to Cortes, when at Cholula, that Escalante, whom
+he had left in charge of Vera Cruz, had been defeated by the Aztecs in a
+pitched battle, and that the head of a Spaniard, then slain, had been
+sent to the Emperor, after being shown in triumph throughout some of the
+chief cities.
+
+Cortes asked an audience from Montezuma, and that being readily granted,
+he prepared for his plot by having a large body of armed men posted in
+the courtyard. Choosing five companions of tried courage, Cortes then
+entered the palace, and after being graciously received, told Montezuma
+that he knew of the treachery that had taken place near the coast, and
+that the Emperor was said to be the cause.
+
+The Emperor said that such a charge could only have been concocted by
+his enemies. He agreed with the proposal of Cortes to summon the Aztec
+chief who was accused of treachery to the garrison at Vera Cruz; and was
+then persuaded to transfer his residence to the palace occupied by the
+Spaniards. He was there received and treated with ostentatious respect;
+but his people observed that in front of the palace there was constantly
+posted a patrol of sixty soldiers, with another equally large in the
+rear.
+
+When the Aztec chief arrived from the coast, he and his sixteen Aztec
+companions were condemned to be burned alive before the palace.
+
+The next daring act of the Spanish general was to order iron fetters to
+be fastened on Montezuma's ankles. The great Emperor seemed struck with
+stupor and spoke never a word. Meanwhile the Aztec chiefs were executed
+in the courtyard without interruption, the populace imagining the
+sentence had been passed upon them by Montezuma, and the victims
+submitting to their fate without a murmur.
+
+Cortes returning then to the room where Montezuma was imprisoned,
+unclasped the fetters and said he was now at liberty to return to his
+own palace. The Emperor, however, declined the offer.
+
+The instinctive sense of human sympathy must have frequently been not
+only repressed but extinguished by all the great conquering generals who
+have crushed nations under foot. Besides those of prehistoric times in
+Asia and Europe, we have examples in Alexander the Greek, Julius Caesar
+the Roman, Cortes and Pizarro the Spaniards, Frederick the Prussian, and
+Napoleon the Corsican.
+
+The great French general consciously aimed at dramatic effect in his
+exploits, but how paltry his seizing the Duc d'Enghien at dead of night
+by a troop of soldiers, or his coercing the King of Spain to resign his
+sovereignty after inducing him to cross the border into France. In the
+unparalleled case of Cortes, a powerful emperor is seized by a few
+strangers at noonday and carried off a prisoner without opposition or
+bloodshed. So extraordinary a transaction, says Robertson, would appear
+"extravagant beyond the bounds of probability" were it not that all the
+circumstances are "authenticated by the most unquestionable evidence."
+
+The nephew of Montezuma, Cakama, the lord of Tezcuco, had been closely
+watching all the motions of the Spaniards. He "beheld with indignation
+and contempt the abject condition of his uncle; and now set about
+forming a league with several of the neighboring caziques to break the
+detested yoke of the Spaniards." News of this league reached the ears
+of Cortes, and arresting him with the permission of Montezuma, he
+deposed him, and appointed a younger brother in his place. The other
+caziques were seized, each in his own city, and brought to Mexico, where
+Cortes placed them in strict confinement along with Cakama.
+
+The next step taken by Cortes was to demand from Montezuma an
+acknowledgment of the supremacy of the Spanish Emperor. The Aztec
+monarch and chief caziques easily granted this; and even agreed that a
+gratuity should be sent by each of them as proof of loyalty. Collectors
+were sent out, and "in a few weeks most of them returned, bringing back
+large quantities of gold and silver plate, rich stuffs, etc." To this
+Montezuma added a huge hoard, the treasures of his father. When brought
+into the quarters, the gold alone was sufficient to make three great
+heaps. It consisted partly of native grains, and partly of bars; but the
+greatest portion was in utensils, and various kinds of ornaments and
+curious toys, together with imitations of birds, insects, or flowers,
+executed with uncommon truth and delicacy. There were also quantities of
+collars, bracelets, wands, fans, and other trinkets, in which the gold
+and feather-work were richly powdered with pearls and precious stones.
+Montezuma expressed regret that the treasure was no larger; he had
+"diminished it," he said, "by his former gifts to the white men."
+
+The Spaniards gazed on this display of riches, far exceeding all
+hitherto seen in the New World--though small compared with the quantity
+of treasure found in Peru. The whole amount of this Mexican gift was
+about L1,417,000, according to Prescott, Dr. Robertson making it
+smaller.
+
+It was no easy task to divide the spoil. A fifth had to be deducted for
+the Crown, and an equal share went to the general, besides a "large sum
+to indemnify him and the Governor of Cuba for the charges of the
+expedition and the loss of the fleet. The garrison of Vera Cruz was also
+to be provided for. The cavalry, musketeers, and crossbowmen each
+received double pay." Thus for each of the common soldiers there was
+only 100 gold _pesos_--i. e., L2-5/8 X 100 = L262 10s. To many this
+share seemed paltry, compared with their expectations; and it required
+all the tact and authority of Cortes to quell the grumbling.
+
+There still remained one important object of the Spanish invasion, an
+object which Cortes as a good Catholic dared not overlook--the
+conversion of the Aztec nation from heathenism. The bloody ritual of the
+_teocallis_ was still observed in every city. Cortes waited on
+Montezuma, urging a request that the great temple be assigned for public
+worship according to the Christian rites.
+
+Montezuma was evidently much alarmed, declaring that his people would
+never allow such a profanation, but at last, after consulting the
+priest, agreed that one of the sanctuaries on the summit of the temple
+should be granted to the Christians as a place of worship.
+
+An altar was raised, surmounted by a crucifix and the image of the
+Virgin. The whole army ascended the steps in solemn procession and
+listened with silent reverence to the service of the mass. In
+conclusion, "as the beautiful Te Deum rose toward heaven, Cortes and his
+soldiers kneeling on the ground, with tears streaming from their eyes,
+poured forth their gratitude to the Almighty for this glorious triumph
+of the cross." Such a union of heathenism and Christianity was too
+unnatural to continue.
+
+A few days later the Emperor sent for Cortes and earnestly advised him
+to leave the country at once. Cortes replied that ships were necessary.
+Montezuma agreed to supply timber and workmen, and in a short time the
+construction of several ships was begun at Vera Cruz on the seacoast,
+while in the capital the garrison kept itself ready by day and by night
+for a hostile attack. Only six months had elapsed since the arrival of
+the Spaniards in the capital, 1519, and now the army was in more
+uncomfortable circumstances than ever.
+
+Meanwhile, while Cortes had been reducing Mexico and humbling the
+unfortunate Montezuma, the Governor of Cuba had complained to the court
+of Spain, but without success. Charles V, since his election to the
+imperial crown of Germany, had neglected the affairs of Spain; and when
+the envoys from Vera Cruz waited upon him, little came of the conference
+except the astonishment of the court at the quantity of gold, and the
+beautiful workmanship of the ornaments and the rich colors of the
+Mexican feather-work. The opposition of the Bishop of Burgos thwarted
+the conqueror of Mexico, as he had already successfully opposed the
+schemes of the "Great Admiral" and his son Diego Columbus. We shall
+presently see how this influential ecclesiastic was able to thwart
+Balboa when governor of Darien.
+
+Velasquez was now determined to wreak his revenge upon Cortes without
+waiting longer for assistance from Spain. He prepared an expedition of
+eighteen ships with eighty horsemen, 800 infantry, 120 crossbowmen, and
+twelve pieces of artillery. To command these Velasquez chose a hidalgo
+named Narvaez, who had assisted formerly in subduing Cuba and
+Hispaniola. The personal appearance of Narvaez, as given by Diaz, is
+worth quoting:
+
+     He was tall, stout-limbed, with a large head and red beard, an
+     agreeable presence, a voice deep and sonorous, as if it rose from a
+     cavern. He was a good horseman and valiant.
+
+Meanwhile Cortes persuaded Montezuma that some friends from Spain had
+arrived at Vera Cruz, and therefore got permission to leave him and the
+capital in charge of Alvarado and a small garrison. Montezuma, in his
+royal litter, borne on the shoulders of his Aztec nobles, accompanied
+the Spanish general to the southern causeway.
+
+When Cortes was within fifteen leagues' distance of Zempoalla, where
+Narvaez was encamped, the latter sent a message that if his authority
+were acknowledged he would supply ships to Cortes and his army so that
+all who wished might freely leave the country with all their property.
+
+Cortes, however, with his usual astuteness, replied: "If Narvaez bears a
+royal commission I will readily submit to him. But he has produced none.
+He is a deputy of my rival, Velasquez. For myself, I am a servant of the
+King; I have conquered the country for him; and for him I and my brave
+followers will defend it to the last drop of our blood. If we fall it
+will be glory enough to have perished in the discharge of our duty."
+
+Narvaez and his army were meantime spending their time frivolously; and
+when the actual attack was begun in the dead of night, under a pouring
+rain-storm, it appeared that only two sentinels were on guard. Narvaez,
+badly wounded, was taken prisoner on the top of a _teocalli_; and in a
+very short time his army was glad to capitulate. The horse-soldiers whom
+Narvaez had sent to waylay one of the roads to Zempoalla, rode in soon
+after to tender their submission. The victorious general, seated in a
+chair of state, with a richly embroidered Mexican mantle on his
+shoulders, received his congratulations from the officers and soldiers
+of both armies. Narvaez and several others were led in chains.
+
+Cortes not only defeated Narvaez, but, after the battle, enlisted under
+his standard the Spanish soldiers who had been sent to attack
+him--reminding one of the "magnetism" of Hannibal or Napoleon, and the
+consequent enthusiasm caused by mere presence, looks, and words.
+
+Before the rejoicings were finished, however, tidings were brought to
+Cortes from the Mexican capital that the whole city was in a state of
+revolt against Alvarado. On his march back to the great plateau Cortes
+found the inhabitants of Tlascala still friendly and willing to assist
+as allies in the struggle against their ancient foes, the Mexicans. On
+reaching the camp of the Spaniards in Mexico, Cortes found that Alvarado
+had provoked the insurrection by a massacre of the Aztec populace.
+
+Having entered the precincts with his army, Cortes at once made anxious
+preparations for the siege which was threatened by the Aztecs, now
+assembling in thousands.
+
+As the assailants approached "they set up a hideous yell, or rather that
+shrill whistle used in fight by the nations of Anahuac," accompanied by
+the sound of shell and atabal and their other rude instruments of wild
+music. This was followed by a tempest of missiles, stones, darts, and
+arrows. The Spaniards waited until the foremost column had arrived
+within distance, when a general discharge of artillery and muskets swept
+the ranks of the assailants. Never till now had the Mexicans witnessed
+the murderous power of these formidable engines. At first they stood
+aghast, but soon rallying, they rushed forward over the prostrate bodies
+of their comrades.
+
+Pressing on, some of them tried to scale the parapet, while others tried
+to force a breach in it. When the parapet proved too strong they shot
+burning arrows upon the wooden outworks.
+
+Next day there were continually fresh supplies of warriors added to the
+forces of the assailants, so that the danger of the situation was
+greatly increased. Diaz, an onlooker, thus wrote:
+
+     The Mexicans fought with such ferocity that if we had been assisted
+     by 10,000 Hectors and as many Orlandos, we should have made no
+     impression on them. There were several of our troops who had served
+     in the Italian wars, but neither there nor in the battles with the
+     Turks had they ever seen anything like the desperation shown by
+     these Indians.
+
+Cortes at last drew off his men and sounded a retreat, taking refuge in
+the fortress. The Mexicans encamped round it, and during the night
+insulted the besieged, shouting, "The gods have at last delivered you
+into our hands: the stone of sacrifice is ready: the knives are
+sharpened."
+
+Cortes now felt that he had not fully understood the character of the
+Mexicans. The patience and submission formerly shown in deference to the
+injured Montezuma was now replaced by concentrated arrogance and
+ferocity. The Spanish general even stooped to request the interposition
+of the Aztec Emperor; and, at last, when assured that the foreigners
+would leave his country if a way were opened through the Mexican army he
+agreed to use his influence. For this purpose
+
+     he put on his imperial robes; his mantle of white and blue flowed
+     over his shoulders, held together by its rich clasp of the green
+     _chalchivitl_. The same precious gem, with emeralds of uncommon
+     size, set in gold, profusely ornamented other parts of his dress.
+     His feet were shod with the golden sandals, and his brows covered
+     with the Mexican diadem, resembling in form the pontifical tiara.
+     Thus attired and surrounded by a guard of Spaniards, and several
+     Aztec nobles, and preceded by the golden wand, the symbol of
+     sovereignty, the Indian monarch ascended the central turret of the
+     palace.
+
+At the sight of Montezuma all the Mexican army became silent, partly, no
+doubt, from curiosity. He assured them that he was no prisoner; that the
+strangers were his friends, and would leave Mexico of their own accord
+as soon as a way was opened.
+
+To call himself a friend of the hateful Spaniards was a fatal argument.
+Instead of respecting their monarch, though in his official robes, the
+populace howled angry curses at him as a degenerate Aztec, a coward, no
+longer a warrior or even a man!
+
+A cloud of missiles was hurled at Montezuma, and he was struck to the
+ground by the blow of a stone on his head. The unfortunate monarch only
+survived his wounds for a few days, disdaining to take any nourishment,
+or to receive advice from the Spanish priests.
+
+Meanwhile, Cortes and his army met with an unexpected danger. A large
+body of the Indian warriors had taken possession of the great temple, at
+a short distance from the Spanish quarters. From this commanding
+position they kept shooting a deadly flight of arrows on the Spaniards.
+Cortes sent his chamberlain, Escobar, with a body of men to storm the
+temple, but, after three efforts, the party had to relinquish the
+attempt. Cortes himself then led a storming party, and after some
+determined fighting reached the platform at the top of the temple where
+the two sanctuaries of the Aztec deities stood. This large area was now
+the scene of a desperate battle, fought in sight of the whole capital as
+well as of the Spanish troops still remaining in the courtyard.
+
+This struggle between such deadly enemies caused dreadful carnage on
+both sides:
+
+     The edge of the area was unprotected by parapet or battlement; and
+     the combatants, as they struggled in mortal agony, were sometimes
+     seen to roll over the sheer sides of the precipice together.
+     Cortes himself had a narrow escape from this dreadful fate.... The
+     number of the enemy was double that of the Christians; but the
+     invulnerable armor of the Spaniard, his sword of matchless temper,
+     and his skill in the use of it, gave him advantages which far
+     outweighed the odds of physical strength and numbers.
+
+This unparalleled scene of bloodshed lasted for three hours. Of the
+Mexicans "two or three priests only survived to be led away in triumph";
+yet the loss of the Spaniards was serious enough, amounting to
+forty-five of their best men. Nearly all the others were wounded, some
+seriously.
+
+After dragging the uncouth monster, Huitzilopochtli, from his sanctuary,
+the assailants hurled the repulsive image down the steps of the temple,
+and then set fire to the building. The same evening they burned a large
+part of the town.
+
+Cortes now resolved upon a night retreat from the capital; but when
+marching along one of the causeways they were attacked by the Mexicans
+in such numbers that, when morning dawned, the shattered battalion was
+reduced to less than half its number. In after years that disastrous
+retreat was known to the Spanish chroniclers as _Noche Triste_, the
+"Night of Sorrows."
+
+After a hurried six days' march before the pursuers, Cortes gained a
+victory so signal that an alliance was speedily formed with Tlascala
+against Mexico. Cortes built twelve brigantines at Vera Cruz in order to
+secure the command of Lake Tescuco and thus attempt the reduction of the
+Mexican capital. On his return to the great lake he found that the
+throne was now occupied by Guatimozin, a nephew of Montezuma. Using
+their brigantines the Spanish soldiers now began the siege of
+Mexico--"the most memorable event in the conquest of America." It lasted
+seventy-five days, during which the whole of the capital was reduced to
+ruins. Guatimozin, the last of the Aztec emperors, was condemned by the
+Spanish general to be hanged on the charge of treason.
+
+Cortes was now master of all Mexico. The Spanish court and people were
+full of admiration for his victories and the extent of his conquests;
+and Charles V appointed him "Captain-General and Governor of New Spain."
+On revisiting Europe, the Emperor honored him with the order of St. Jago
+and the title of marquis. Latterly, however, after some failures in his
+exploring expeditions, Cortes, on his return to Spain, found himself
+treated with neglect. It was then, according to Voltaire's story, that
+when Charles asked the courtiers, "Who is that man?" referring to
+Cortes, the latter said aloud: "It is one, sire, that has added more
+provinces to your dominions than any other governor has added towns!"
+Cortes died in his sixty-second year, December 2, 1547.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+BALBOA AND THE ISTHMUS
+
+
+In the Spanish conquest of America there are three great generals:
+Cortes, Balbao, and Pizarro. The third may to many readers seem
+immeasurably superior as explorer and conqueror to the second, but it
+must be remembered that Pizarro's scheme of discovering and invading
+Peru was precisely that which Balboa had already prepared. Pizarro
+could afford to say, "Others have labored, and I have merely entered
+into their labors."
+
+What, then, was the work done by Balboa, and what prevented him from
+taking Peru? In 1510, the year before the conquest of Cuba, Balboa was
+glad to escape from Hispaniola, not to avoid the Spanish cruelties, like
+Hatuey, the luckless cazique, but to escape from his Spanish creditors.
+So anxious was he to get on board that he concealed himself in a cask to
+avoid observation. Balboa, however, had administrative qualities, and
+after taking possession of the uncleared district of Darien in the name
+of the King of Spain, he was appointed governor of the new province. He
+built the town Santa Maria on the coast of the Darien Gulf; but so
+pestilential was the district (and still is) that the settlers were glad
+after a short time to remove to the other side of the isthmus.
+
+It was by mere accident that Balboa first heard of a great ocean beyond
+the mountains of Darien, and of the enormous wealth of Peru, a country
+hitherto unknown to Spain or Europe. As several soldiers were one day
+disputing about the division of some gold-dust, an Indian cazique called
+out:
+
+"Why quarrel about such a trifle? I can show you a region where the
+commonest pots and pans are made of that metal."
+
+To the inquiries of Balboa and his companions, the cazique replied that
+by traveling six days to the south they should see another ocean, near
+which lay the wealthy kingdom.
+
+Resolving to cross the isthmus, notwithstanding a thousand formidable
+obstructions, Balboa formed a party consisting of 190 veterans,
+accompanied by 1,000 Indians, and several fierce dogs trained to hunt
+the naked natives. Such were the difficulties that the "six days'
+journey" occupied twenty-five before the ridge of the isthmus range was
+reached.
+
+     Balboa commanded his men to halt, and advanced alone to the summit,
+     that he might be the first who should enjoy a spectacle which he
+     had so long desired. As soon as he beheld the sea stretching in
+     endless prospect below him he fell on his knees; ... his followers
+     observing his transports of joy rushed forward to join in his
+     wonder, exultation, and gratitude.
+
+That was the moment, September 25, 1513, immortalized in Keats's sonnet:
+
+  When with eagle eyes
+  He stared at the Pacific, and all his men
+  Looked at each other with a wild surmise,
+  Silent, upon a peak in Darien.
+
+Balboa hurried down the western slope of the isthmus range to take
+formal possession in the name of the Spanish monarch. He found a fishing
+village there which had been named Panama (i. e., "plenty fish") by the
+Indians, but had also a reputation for the pearls found in its bay.
+
+In his letter to Spain, Balboa said, to illustrate the difficulties of
+the expedition, that of all the 190 men in his party there were never
+more than eighty fit for service at one time. Notwithstanding the
+wonderful news of the discovery of the "great southern ocean," as the
+Pacific was then called, Ferdinand overlooked the great services of
+Balboa, and appointed a new Governor of Darien called Pedrarias, who
+instituted a judicial inquiry into some previous transactions of Balboa,
+imposing a heavy fine as punishment. The new governor committed other
+acts of great imprudence, and at length Ferdinand felt that he had only
+superseded the most active and experienced officer he had in the New
+World. To make amends to Balboa, he was appointed "Lieutenant-Governor
+of the Countries upon the South Sea," with great privileges and
+authority. At the same time Pedrarias was commanded to "support Balboa
+in all his operations, and to consult with him concerning every measure
+which he himself pursued."
+
+Balboa, in 1517, began his preparations for entering the South Sea and
+conveying troops to the country which he proposed to invade. With four
+small brigantines and 300 chosen soldiers (a force superior to that with
+which Pizarro afterward undertook the same expedition), he was on the
+point of sailing toward the coasts of which they had such expectations,
+when a message arrived from Pedrarias. Balboa being unconscious of
+crime, agreed to delay the expedition, and meet Pedrarias for
+conference. On entering the palace Balboa was arrested and immediately
+tried on the charge of disloyalty to the King and intention of revolt
+against the governor. He was speedily sentenced to death, although the
+accusation was so absurd that the judges who pronounced the sentence
+"seconded by the whole colony, interceded warmly for his pardon." "The
+Spaniards beheld with astonishment and sorrow the public execution of a
+man whom they universally deemed more capable than any who had borne
+command in America, of forming and accomplishing great designs." This
+gross injustice amounting to a public scandal was accounted for by the
+malignant influence of the Bishop of Burgos, in Spain, who was the
+original cause of Balboa being superseded as Governor of Darien.
+
+The expedition designed by Balboa was now relinquished; but the removal
+of the colony soon afterward to the Pacific side of the isthmus may be
+considered a step toward the realization of an exactly similar attempt
+by Pizzaro.
+
+To some historical readers the word "Darien" only recalls the bitter
+prejudice entertained against William III, our "Dutch King,"
+notwithstanding the special pleading of Lord Macaulay and others. Some
+Scottish merchants had adopted a scheme recommended by the most reliable
+authorities[23] of that age, viz., the settlement of a half-commercial,
+half-military colony on the Atlantic coast of the isthmus. Such a
+company, in the words of Paterson, would be masters of the "door of the
+seas," and the "key of the universe." The East India Companies both of
+England and Holland showed an envious jealousy of the Scottish
+merchants, and therefore no assistance was to be expected from the King,
+although he had given his royal sanction to the Scots Act of Parliament
+creating the company. The Scottish people, however, zealously continued
+the scheme. Some 1,200 men "set sail from Leith amid the blessings of
+many thousands of their assembled countrymen. They reached the Gulf of
+Darien in safety, and established themselves on the coast in localities
+to which they gave the names of New Caledonia and New St. Andrews." The
+Government of Spain (secretly instigated, it was believed, by the
+English King) resolved to attack the embryo colony. The shipwreck of
+the whole scheme soon followed, due undoubtedly more to the jealousy of
+the English merchants (who believed that any increase of trade in
+Scotland or Ireland was a positive loss to England) and the bad faith of
+our Dutch King, than to all other causes whatever. Of the colony,
+according to Dalrymple (ii, 103), not more than thirty ever saw their
+own country again.
+
+[Footnote 23: E.g., Paterson, founder of the Bank of England, Fletcher
+of Saltoun, the Marquis of Tweeddale, then chief Minister of Scotland,
+Sir John Dalrymple, etc.]
+
+In 1526 a company of English merchants was formed to trade with the West
+Indies and the "Spanish Main," and commanded great success. Other
+merchants did the same. Soon after the Spanish court instituted a
+coast-guard to make war upon these traders; and as they had full power
+to capture and slay all who did not bear the King of Spain's commission,
+there were terrible tales told in Europe of mutilation, torture, and
+revenge. The Windward Islands having been gradually settled by French
+and English adventurers, Frederick of Toledo was sent with a large fleet
+to destroy those petty colonies. This harsh treatment rendered the
+planters desperate, and under the name of buccaneers,[24] they continued
+"a retaliation so horribly savage [_v._ Notes to Rokeby] that the
+perusal makes the reader shudder. From piracy at sea, they advanced to
+making predatory descents on the Spanish territories; in which they
+displayed the same furious and irresistible valor, the same thirst of
+spoil, and the same brutal inhumanity to their captives." The pride and
+presumption of Spain were partly resisted by the English monarchs, but
+not with real effect before the time of Cromwell, strongest of all the
+rulers of Britain. Under his government of the seas Spain was deprived
+of the island of Jamaica; and the buccaneers to their disgust found that
+the flag of the great Protector was a check against all piracy and
+injustice.
+
+[Footnote 24: Named from _boucan_, a kind of preserved meat, used by
+those rovers. They had learned this peculiar art of preserving from the
+native Caribs.]
+
+Under Charles II, however, the buccaneers resumed their conflict with
+the Spanish, and in 1670, Henry Morgan, with 1,500 English and French
+ruffians resolved to cross the isthmus like Balboa, to plunder the
+depositories of gold and silver which lay in the city of Panama and
+other places on the Pacific coast. Having stormed a strong fortress at
+the mouth of the Chagres River, they forced their way through the
+entangled forests for ten days, and after much hardship reached Panama,
+to find it defended by a regular army of twice their number. The
+Spaniards, however, were beaten, and Morgan thoroughly sacked and
+plundered the city, taking captive all the chief citizens in order to
+extort afterward large ransoms.
+
+Ten years afterward the Isthmus of Darien was crossed by Dampier,
+another celebrated buccaneer, but his party was too small to attack
+Panama. They seized some Spanish vessels in the bay and plundered all
+the coast for some distance. The following description by the bold
+buccaneer is not without interest to those who consider the present
+importance of the place:
+
+     Near the riverside stands New Panama, a very handsome city, in a
+     spacious bay of the same name, into which disembogue many long and
+     navigable rivers, some whereof are not without gold; besides that
+     it is beautified by many pleasant isles, the country about it
+     affording a delightful prospect to the sea.... The houses are
+     chiefly of brick and pretty lofty, especially the president's, the
+     churches, the monasteries, and other public structures, which make
+     the best show I have seen in the West Indies.
+
+The present prosperity of Panama is due to its large transit trade,
+which was recently estimated at L15,000,000 a year. The pearl-fisheries,
+famous at the time of Balboa's visit, have now little value. The
+narrowest breadth of the isthmus being only thirty miles, there have
+naturally been many engineering proposals to connect the Pacific and
+Atlantic oceans by a canal. M. de Lesseps founded a French company in
+1881 for the construction of a ship-canal with eight locks, and over
+forty-six miles in length; but in 1889, the excavations stopped after
+some 48-1/2 millions of cubic meters of earth and rock had been removed.
+Meanwhile a railway 47-1/2 miles long connects Colon on the Atlantic
+with Panama on the Pacific.
+
+The Mexican Isthmus of Tehuantepec, only 140 miles across, separates the
+Bay of Campeachy from the Pacific, and failing the Panama Canal some
+engineers were in favor of a _ship-railway_ for conveying large vessels
+_bodily_ from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The scheme met with great
+favor in the United States, but has not yet been carried out.
+
+The third proposal for connecting the two great oceans is probably the
+most feasible because it follows the most deeply marked depression of
+the isthmus. The Nicaraguan Ship-canal will, if the scheme be carried
+out, pass from Greytown on the Atlantic to Brito on the Pacific, about
+170 miles apart, through the republic of Nicaragua, which lies north of
+Panama and south of Guatemala. One obvious advantage of this ship-canal
+is that the great lake is utilized, affording already about one-third of
+the waterway; only twenty-eight miles, in fact, being actual canal, and
+the rest river, lake, and lagoon navigation. In the latest
+specifications the engineers proposed to dam up the river (San Juan) by
+a stone wall seventy feet high and 1,900 feet long, thus raising the
+water to a level of 106 feet above the sea. Only three locks will be
+required to work the Nicaraguan Ship-canal.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+EXTINCT CIVILIZATION OF PERU
+
+
+Sec. (A) _Peruvian Archeology_
+
+As the extinct civilization of the Incas of Peru is the most important
+phase of development among all the American races, so also their
+prehistoric remains are extremely interesting to the archeologist.
+
+[Illustration: Monolith Doorway. Near Lake Titicaca. Fig. 1.]
+
+1. _Architecture._--In the interior of the country we find many
+remarkable examples of stone building, such as walls of huge polygonal
+stones, four-sided or five-sided or six-sided, some six feet across,
+laid without mortar, and so finely polished and adjusted that the blade
+of a knife can not be inserted between them. The strength of the masonry
+is sometimes assisted by having the projecting parts of a stone fitting
+into corresponding hollows or recesses in the stone above or below it.
+The stones being frequently extremely hard granite, or basalt, etc.,
+antiquarian travelers have wondered how in early times the natives could
+have cut and polished them without any metal tools. The ordinary
+explanation is that the work was done by patiently rubbing one stone
+against another, with the aid of sharp sand, "time being no object" in
+the case of the laborers among savage and primitive races. It is
+believed by most antiquaries that long before the period of the Incas
+there was a powerful empire to which we must attribute such Cyclopean
+ruins; especially as the construction and style differ so greatly from
+what is found in the Inca period. The huge stones occur at Tiahuanacu
+(near Lake Titicaca), Cuzco, Ollantay, and the altar of Concacha. Fig. 1
+is a broken doorway at Tiahuanacu, composed of huge monoliths. Fig. 2 is
+an enlargement of an image over the doorway shown in Fig. 1. The doorway
+forms the entrance to a quadrangular area (400 yards by 350) surrounded
+by large stones standing on end. The gateway or doorway of Fig. 1 is one
+of the most marvelous stone monuments existing, being _one block of hard
+rock_, deeply sunk in the ground. The present height is over seven feet.
+The whole of the inner side "from a line level with the upper lintel of
+the doorway to the top" is a mass of sculpture, "which speaks to us,"
+says Sir C. R. Markham, "in difficult riddles of the customs and art
+culture, of the beliefs and traditions of an ancient" extinct
+civilization.
+
+The figure in high relief above the doorway (Fig. 2) is a head
+surrounded by rays, "each terminating in a circle or the head of an
+animal." Six human heads hang from the girdle, and two more from the
+elbows. Each hand holds a scepter terminating at the lower end with the
+head of a condor--that huge American vulture familiar to the Peruvians.
+That bird of prey was probably an emblem of royalty to the prehistoric
+dynasty now long forgotten.
+
+[Illustration: Image over the doorway shown in Fig. 1.
+
+Near Lake Titicaca. Fig. 2.]
+
+Some older historians speak of richly carved statues which formerly
+stood in this enclosure, and "many cylindrical pillars." Of the
+masonry of these ruins generally, Squier says: "The stone is faced
+with a precision that no skill can excel, its right angles turned with
+an accuracy that the most careful geometer could not surpass. I do not
+believe there exists a better piece of stone-cutting, the material
+considered, on this or the other continent."
+
+The fortress above Cuzco, the capital of the Incas, is considered the
+grandest monument of extinct American civilization. "Like the Pyramids
+and the Coliseum, it is imperishable.... A fortified work, 600 yards in
+length, built of gigantic stones, in three lines, forming walls
+supporting terraces and parapets.... The stones are of blue limestone,
+of enormous size and irregular in shape, but fitted into each other with
+rare precision. One stone is twenty-seven feet high by fourteen; and
+others fifteen feet high by twelve are common throughout the work."
+
+In all the architecture of the prehistoric Peruvians the true arch is
+not found, though there is an approach to the "Maya arch," formerly
+described, finishing the doorway overhead by overlapping stones.
+
+The immense fortresses of Ollantay and Pisac are really hills which, by
+means of encircling walls, have been transformed into immense pyramids
+with many terraces rising above each other. All large buildings, such as
+temples and palaces, were laid out to agree with the "cardinal points,"
+the principal entrance always facing the rising sun. The tomb
+construction of the ancient Peruvians has been already noticed (_v._
+chap. iv).
+
+To the south of Cuzco are the ruins of a temple, Cacha, which is
+considered to be of a date between the Cyclopean structures already
+described and the Inca architecture. The chief part is 110 yards long,
+built of wrought stones; and in the middle of the building from end to
+end runs a wall pierced by twelve high doorways. There were also two
+series of pillars which had formerly supported a floor.
+
+Those traces of the Cyclopean builders point to an extremely early date,
+but several students of the Peruvian antiquities point confidently to
+distinct evidence of a still more primitive race--to be compared,
+perhaps, with those builders of "Druidic monuments" whom it is now the
+fashion to call "neolithic men." Some "cromlechs" or burial-places have
+been found in Bolivia and other parts of Peru; and in many respects they
+are parallel to the stone monuments found in Great Britain as well as
+Brittany and other parts of Europe. Some of those Peruvian cromlechs
+consist of four great slabs of slate, each about five feet high, four or
+five in width, and more than an inch thick. A fifth is placed over them.
+Over the whole a pyramid of clay and rough stones is piled. Possibly
+that race of cromlech builders bore the same relation to the temple
+builders described above that the builders of Kits Coty House, between
+Rochester and Maidstone, bore to the temple builders of Stonehenge on
+Salisbury Plain. If they had to retreat, as the ice-sheet was driven
+farther from the torrid zone, then by the theory of the Glacial Period
+the Cromlech men in both cases would at last be simply Eskimos.
+
+2. _Aqueducts._--The ancient Peruvians attained great skill in the
+distribution of water--especially for irrigation. Artificial lakes or
+reservoirs were formed, so that by damming up the streams in the rainy
+season a good supply was created for the dry season. Some great
+monuments still remain of their hydraulic engineering, such as extensive
+cisterns, solid dikes along the rivers to prevent overflow, tunnels to
+drain lakes during an oversupply, and, in some places, artificial
+cascades.
+
+3. _Roads and Bridges._--The roads and highways of the Incas were so
+excellent that "in many places" they still offer by far the most
+convenient avenues of transit. They are from fifteen to twenty-five feet
+in width, bedded with small stones often laid in concrete. As the use of
+beasts of burden was almost unknown, the roads did not ascend a steep
+inclination by zigzags but by steps cut in the rock. At certain
+distances public shelters were erected for travelers, and some of these
+still offer the best lodging-houses to be found along the routes.
+Bridges were of wood, of ropes made from maguey fiber, or of stone. Some
+of the latter are still in excellent condition, in spite of the violence
+of the mountain torrents which they have spanned for four centuries.
+
+4. _Sculpture._--The Maya race of Yucatan and Central America were much
+superior to the prehistoric Peruvians in stone sculpture. Except those
+examples already referred to under 1, their artists have apparently
+produced nothing to show skill in workmanship, much less fertility of
+imagination. That is largely explained by their lack of suitable tools.
+
+5. _Goldsmith's Work._--In this branch of art the ancient Peruvians
+greatly excelled, especially in inlaying and gilding. Gold-beating and
+gilding had been prosecuted to remarkable delicacy, and the very thin
+layers of gold-leaf on many articles led the Spaniards at first to
+believe they were of the solid metal. These delicate layers showed
+ornamental designs, including birds, butterflies, and the like.
+
+6. _Pottery._--In this department of industrial art the prehistoric
+Peruvians showed much aptitude both "in regard to variety of design and
+technical skill in preparing the material. Vases with pointed bottoms
+and painted sides recalling those of ancient Greece and Etruria are
+often disinterred along the coast." The merit of those artists lay in
+perfect imitation of natural objects, such as birds, fishes, fruits,
+plants, skulls, persons in various positions, faces (often with graphic
+individuality). Some jars exactly resembled the "magic vases" which are
+still found in Hindustan, and can be emptied only when held at a certain
+angle.
+
+7. Though ignorant of perspective and the rules of light and shade,
+these ancient Peruvians had an accurate eye for color. "Spinning,
+weaving, and dyeing," to quote Sir C. R. Markham, "were arts which were
+sources of employment to a great number, owing to the quantity and
+variety of the fabrics.... There were rich dresses interwoven with gold
+or made of gold thread; fine woolen mantles ornamented with borders of
+small square plates of gold and silver; colored cotton cloths worked in
+complicated patterns; and fabrics of aloe fiber and sheep's sinews for
+breeches. Coarser cloths of llama wool were also made in vast
+quantities."
+
+[Illustration: The Quipu.]
+
+8. The _quipu_ (i e., "knot").--Without writing or even any of the
+simpler forms of pictographs which some Indian races inferior to them in
+refinement had invented, the Peruvians had no means of sending a message
+relating to tribute or the number of warriors in an army, or a date,
+except the _quipu_. It consisted of one principal cord about two feet
+long held horizontally, to which other cords of various colors and
+lengths were attached, hanging vertically. The knots on the vertical
+cords, and their various lengths served by means of an arranged code to
+convey certain words and phrases. Each color and each knot had so many
+conventional significations; thus _white_ = silver, _green_ = corn,
+_yellow_ = gold; but in another quipu, _white_ = peace, _red_ = war,
+soldiers, etc. The quipu was originally only a means of numeration and
+keeping accounts, thus:
+
+  a single knot  =    10
+  a double knot  =   100
+  a triple knot  = 1,000
+  two singles    =    20
+  two doubles    =   200
+  etc.
+
+9. The great stone monuments described in our first section belonged,
+according to some writers, to a dynasty called Pirua, who ruled over the
+highlands of Peru and Bolivia long before the times of the Incas. That
+early race had as the center of their civilization the shores of Lake
+Titicaca.
+
+10. _The Ancient Capital._--Cuzco, the center of government till the
+time of the conquest by the Spaniards, and for a long time the only city
+in the Peruvian empire, deserves a paragraph under the head archeology.
+Its wonderful fortress has already been referred to, and there are other
+Cyclopean remains, such as the great wall which contains the "stone of
+twelve corners." Some monuments of the Inca period also attract much
+attention, such as the Curi-cancha temple, 296 feet long, the palace of
+Amaru-cancha (i. e., "place of serpents"), so called from the serpents
+sculptured in relief on the exterior. Of these and other buildings
+Squier remarks that the "joints are of a precision unknown in our
+architecture; the world has nothing to show in the way of stone-cutting
+and fitting to surpass the skill and accuracy displayed in the Inca
+structures of Cuzco." To obtain the site for their capital the Incas had
+to carry out a great engineering work, by confining two mountain
+torrents between walls of substantial masonry so solid as to serve even
+to modern times. The Valley of Cuzco was the source of the Peruvian
+civilization, center and origin of the empire. Hence the name, Cuzco =
+"navel," just as the ancient Greeks called Athens _umbilicus terrae_, and
+our New England cousins fondly refer to Boston, Mass., as "the hub of
+the universe"!
+
+[Illustration: Gold Ornament (? Zodiac) from a Tomb at Cuzco.]
+
+
+Sec. (B) _Peru before the Arrival of the Spaniards_
+
+The "national myth" of the Peruvians was that at Lake Titicaca two
+supernatural beings appeared, both children of the Sun. One was Manco
+Capac, the first Inca, who taught the people agriculture; the other was
+his wife, who taught the women to spin and weave. From them were
+lineally derived all the Incas. As representing the Sun, the Inca was
+high priest and head of the hierarchy, and therefore presided at the
+great religious festivals. He was the source from which everything
+flowed--all dignity, all power, all emolument. Louis le Magnifique when
+at the height of his power might be taken as a type of the emperor Inca:
+both could literally use the phrase, _L'etat c'est Moi,_ "The State! I
+am the State!"
+
+In the royal palaces and dress great barbaric pomp was assumed. All the
+apartments were studded with gold and silver ornaments.
+
+The worship of the Sun, representing the Creator, the Dweller in Space,
+the Teacher and Ruler of the Universe,[25] was the religion of the Incas
+inherited from their distant ancestry. The great temple at Cuzco, with
+its gorgeous display of riches, was called "the place of gold, the abode
+of the Teacher of the Universe." An elliptical plate of gold was fixed
+on the wall to represent the Deity.
+
+[Footnote 25: According to Sir C. R. Markham, F. R. S.]
+
+Sufficient evidence is still visible of the engineering industry evinced
+by the natives before the arrival of Pizarro. We give some particulars
+of the two principal highways, both joining Quito to Cuzco, then passing
+south to Chile. First, the high level road, 1,600 miles in length,
+crossing the great Peruvian table-land, and conducted over pathless
+sierras buried in snow; with galleries cut for leagues through the
+living rock, rivers crossed by means of bridges, and ravines of hideous
+depth filled up with solid masonry. The roadway consisted of heavy
+flags of freestone. Secondly, the low level highway along the coast
+country between the Andes and the Pacific. The prehistoric engineers had
+here to encounter quite a different task. The causeway was raised on a
+high embankment of earth, with trees planted along the margin. In the
+strips of sandy waste, huge piles (many of them to be seen to this day)
+were driven into the ground to indicate the route.
+
+Another colossal effort was the conveyance of water to the rainless
+country by the seacoast, especially to certain parts capable of being
+reclaimed and made fertile. Some of the aqueducts were of great
+length--one measuring between 400 and 500 miles.
+
+The following table gives the Peruvian calendar for a year:
+
+  I. Raymi, the _Festival of the Winter Solstice_,
+     in honor of the Sun           June 22d.
+     Season of plowing               July 22d.
+     Season of sowing                August 22d.
+  II. _Festival of the Spring Equinox_  September 22d.
+     Season of brewing               October 22d.
+     Commemoration of the Dead       November 22d.
+  III. _Festival of the Summer Solstice_ December 22d.
+     Season of exercises             January 22d.
+     Season of ripening              February 22d.
+  IV. _Festival of Autumn Equinox_      March 22d.
+     Beginning of harvest            April 22d.
+     Harvesting month                May 22d.
+
+Since Quito is exactly on the equator, the vertical rays of the sun at
+noon during the equinox cast no shadow. That northern capital,
+therefore, was "held in especial veneration as the favored abode of the
+great deity."
+
+At the feast of Raymi, or New Year's day, the sacrifice usually offered
+was that of the llama, a fire being kindled by means of a concave mirror
+of polished metal collecting the rays of the sun into a focus upon a
+quantity of dried cotton.
+
+The national festival of the Aztecs we compared to the secular
+celebration of the Romans; so now the Raymi of the Peruvians may be
+likened to the Panathenaea of ancient Athens, when the people of Attica
+ascended in splendid procession to the shrine on the Acropolis.
+
+In Mexico the Spanish travelers often experienced severe famines; and in
+India, even at the present day (to the disgrace perhaps of our
+management) nearly every year many thousands die of hunger. It was very
+different under the ancient Peruvians, because by law "the product of
+the lands consecrated to the Sun, as well as those set apart for the
+Incas, was deposited in the _Tambos_, or public storehouses, as a stated
+provision for times of scarcity."
+
+The Spaniards found those prehistoric agriculturists utilizing the
+inexhaustible supply of guano found on all the islands of the Pacific.
+It was not till the middle of the nineteenth century that the British
+farmer found the value of this fertilizer.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+PIZARRO AND THE INCAS
+
+
+When stout-hearted Balboa first reached the summit of the isthmus range
+and looked south over the Bay of Panama, he might have seen the "Silver
+Bell," which forms the summit of the mighty volcano Chimborazo. Still
+farther south in the same direction lay the "land of gold," of which he
+had heard.
+
+Balboa was unjustly prevented from exploring that unknown country, but
+among the Spanish soldiers in Panama there were two who determined to
+carry out Balboa's scheme. The younger, Pizarro, was destined to rival
+Cortes as explorer and conqueror; Almagro, his companion in the
+expedition, was less crafty and cruel. Sailing from Panama, the Spanish
+first landed on the coast below Quito, and found the natives wearing
+gold and silver trinkets. On a second voyage, with more men, they
+explored the coast of Peru and visited Tumbez, a town with a lofty
+temple and a palace for the Incas.
+
+     They beheld a country fully peopled and cultivated; the natives
+     were decently clothed, and possessed of ingenuity so far surpassing
+     the other inhabitants of the New World as to have the use of tame
+     domestic animals. But what chiefly attracted the notice of the
+     visitors was such a show of gold and silver, not only in ornaments,
+     but in several vessels and utensils for common use, formed of those
+     precious metals as left no room to doubt that they abounded with
+     profusion in the country.
+
+After his return Pizarro visited Spain and secured the patronage of
+Charles V, who appointed him Governor and Captain-General of the newly
+discovered country. In the next voyage from Panama, Pizarro set sail
+with 180 soldiers in three small ships--"a contemptible force surely to
+invade the great empire of Peru."
+
+Pizarro was very fortunate in the time of his arrival, because two
+brothers were fiercely contending in civil war to obtain the
+sovereignty. Their father, Huana Capac, the twelfth Inca in succession
+from Manco Capac, had recently died after annexing the kingdom of Quito,
+and thus doubling the power of the empire. Pizarro made friends with
+Atahualpa, who had become Inca by the defeat and death of his brother,
+and a friendly meeting was arranged between them. The Peruvians are thus
+described by a Spanish onlooker:
+
+     First of all there arrived 400 men in uniform; the Inca himself, on
+     a couch adorned with plumes, and almost covered with plates of gold
+     and silver, enriched with precious stones, was carried on the
+     shoulders of his principal attendants. Several bands of singers and
+     dancers accompanied the procession; and the whole plain was covered
+     with troops, more than 30,000 men.
+
+After engaging in a religious dispute with the Inca, who refused to
+acknowledge the authority of the Pope and threw the breviary on the
+ground, the Spanish chaplain exclaimed indignantly that the Word of God
+had been insulted by a heathen.
+
+     Pizarro instantly gave the signal of assault: the martial music
+     struck up, the cannon and muskets began to fire, the horse rallied
+     out fiercely to the charge, the infantry rushed on sword in hand.
+     The Peruvians, astonished at the suddenness of the attack, dismayed
+     with the effect of the firearms and the irresistible impression of
+     the cavalry, fled with universal consternation on every side.
+     Pizarro, at the head of his chosen band, soon penetrated to the
+     royal seat, and seizing the Inca by the arm, carried him as a
+     prisoner to the Spanish quarters.
+
+For his ransom Atahualpa agreed to pay a weight of gold amounting to
+more than five millions sterling.
+
+Instead of keeping faith with the Inca by restoring him to liberty,
+Pizarro basely allowed him to be tried on several false charges and
+condemned to be burned alive.
+
+After hearing of the enormous ransom many Spaniards hurried from
+Guatemala, Panama, and Nicaragua to share in the newly discovered booty
+of Peru, the "land of gold." Pizarro, therefore, being now greatly
+reenforced with soldiers, forced his way to Cuzco, the capital. The
+riches found there exceeded in value what had been received as
+Atahualpa's ransom.
+
+As Governor of Peru, Pizarro chose a new site for his capital, nearer
+the coast than Cuzco, and there founded Lima. It is now a great center
+of trade. Pizarro lived here in great state till the year 1542, when his
+fate reached him by means of a party of conspirators seeking to avenge
+the death of Almagro, his former rival, whom he had cruelly executed as
+a traitor. On Sunday, June 26th, at midday, while all Lima was quiet
+under the siesta, the conspirators passed unobserved through the two
+outer courts of the palace, and speedily despatched the
+soldier-adventurer, intrepidly defending himself with a sword and
+buckler. "A deadly thrust full in the throat," and the tale of daring
+Pizarro was told.
+
+  _Raro antecedentem scelestum_
+  _Deseruit pede Poena claudo._
+
+                            When
+  Did Doom, though lame, not bide its time,
+  To clutch the nape of skulking Crime?
+
+  W. E. GLADSTONE.
+
+
+
+
+GENERAL INDEX.
+
+
+  A.
+
+  Agathocles, 119.
+
+  Agassiz, 73.
+
+  Alfred, King, 19.
+
+  Almagro, Pizarro's rival, 186, 189.
+
+  Alvarado, 158, 159.
+
+  America, Discoveries of, 19-35, 38-45, 48-53.
+
+  America, origin of the name, 50.
+
+  American Archeology, 71-79 (_see_ also AZTEC, PERU, CIVILIZATION).
+
+  Amerigo (_Americus_), (_see_ VESPUCCI).
+
+  Anahuac, 56, 58, 63.
+
+  Archeology, 71-88 (see under AZTEC, MEXICO, PERU,
+    and CIVILIZATION, EXTINCT).
+
+  Aristotle, shape of the earth, 10.
+
+  Arthur, King, 19.
+
+  Atahualpa, Inca, 187, 188.
+
+  Atlantic, ridge, 15.
+
+  Atlantis, island or continent, 14, 15.
+
+  Avalon, 17.
+
+  Aztecs, their traditions, 54, 56, 57, 62, 63.
+
+  Aztecs, antiquities, 55.
+
+  Aztecs, kingdom, 58;
+    empire founded, 76.
+
+  Aztecs, letters, etc., 58, 79-82.
+
+  Aztecs, astronomy, 64, 65, 68, 83.
+
+  Aztecs, human sacrifices, 59, 60, 62, 102, 106;
+    how explained by comparison with Jews, Greeks, Druids, etc., 100-106.
+
+  Aztecs, priesthood, 65, 67.
+
+  Aztecs, religion, 92, 93;
+    laws, 90.
+
+  Aztecs, natural piety, 66-68.
+
+  Aztecs, secular festival, 68-70.
+
+  Aztecs, soldiery, 91, 92.
+
+  Aztecs, agriculture, 94.
+
+  Aztecs, markets, 97, 147.
+
+  Aztecs, banquets, social amusements, 97, 99.
+
+  Aztlan, 56.
+
+
+  B.
+
+  Bacon, Roger, 18.
+
+  Bahamas, 41.
+
+  Balboa, 9, 50, 52, 164, 168.
+
+  Balboa scheme--adopted by Pizarro, 186.
+
+  Balboa hears of the Land of Gold, 165.
+
+  Balboa crosses the isthmus, 166, 167.
+
+  Balboa unjustly treated, 167, 168.
+
+  Barcelona, Columbus honored at Court, 45.
+
+  Basque Discovery, 32.
+
+  Boston in Vinland, 26, 182.
+
+  Brandan, St. discoverer, 32.
+
+  Brito, ship-canal, 172.
+
+  Buccaneers, origin, etc., 169, 170.
+
+  Buffon, 15.
+
+  Burgos, Bishop of, 157, 168.
+
+
+  C.
+
+  Cabot, 38, 48, 49.
+
+  Cabrera reaches Brazil, 49.
+
+  Cakama, prince of Tezcuco, 154.
+
+  Calendar Stone, 83, 84.
+
+  Calicut reached by Gama, 49.
+
+  Canaanites, etc., sun-worship, 102, 103.
+
+  Cannibalism, 102, 103.
+
+  Capac, Inca, 182, 187.
+
+  Carthage, 17, 102.
+
+  Cathay, 39, 43, 45.
+
+  Cazique, 43, 117, etc.
+
+  Celtic discoveries, 19, 30-32.
+
+  Chalco, Lake, 136, 137.
+
+  Charles V. and Cortes, 164.
+
+  Chiapas, 77.
+
+  Chibchas, 85.
+
+  Cholula, 84, 94, 130, 133.
+
+  Civilization, Extinct, chaps, iii, ix.
+
+  Civilization, Celtic, 19.
+
+  Civilization, Norse, 19-25, 27-31.
+
+  Civilization, Aztec, etc., 54-70, 82, 83.
+
+  Civilization, Peru, 172-185.
+
+  Colon (_see_ COLUMBUS);
+    also an Atlantic port on the isthmus of Darien, 172.
+
+  Columbia, 76, 85.
+
+  Columbus, 17-18, 37, 38-46, 157.
+
+  Columbus, early failures, 39.
+
+  Columbus, voyage to Iceland, 39.
+
+  Columbus, variation of the compass, 41, 42, 49.
+
+  Columbus, discovers Bahamas, Cuba, Hayti, 42-44.
+
+  Columbus, discovers Trinidad and Orinoco, 45.
+
+  Columbus, map by (found in 1894), 42.
+
+  Columbus, autograph (cut) and epitaph, 46.
+
+  Columbus, Ferdinand, 18;
+  Bartholomew, 43.
+
+  Columbus, Diego, 47, 157.
+
+  Continent, supposed southern (cut), 12.
+
+  Continent, Western, 13 (_see_ ATLANTIS, HESPERIDES).
+
+  Condor, emblem of prehistoric Inca, 173, 175 (cuts).
+
+  Copan, 79-81.
+
+  Cordova lands on Yucatan, 53.
+
+  Cortes appointed leader, 53, 64, 77, 80.
+
+  Cortes at Cuba and Hayti, 117.
+
+  Cortes at Yucatan, 109.
+
+  Cortes and Teuhtile, in, 112.
+
+  Cortes, generalship, 119, 124, 126, 159.
+
+  Cortes, resource, 127, 128, 158.
+
+  Cortes, cruelty, 129, 132, 153.
+
+  Cortes at Popocatepetl, 133.
+
+  Cortes and Montezuma, 141, 143-143.
+
+  Cortes, lack of delicacy, 152.
+
+  Cortes, arrest of Montezuma, 152-157.
+
+  Cortes, personal courage, 162.
+
+  Cortes, retreat, "Night of Sorrows," 163.
+
+  Cortes, Mexico retaken and its emperor hanged, 164.
+
+  Cortes and Charles V., 164.
+
+  Cliff-houses, 86.
+
+  Cotton, Az. tec., preparation of, 84, 96.
+
+  Cromwell, his influence, 170.
+
+  Cruz, Vera, 110, 114, 120, 156, 157, 163.
+
+  Cuba, 43-45, 51-53, 84.
+
+  Culhua, 110.
+
+  Cuzco, 174, 176, 181, 183, 188.
+
+  Cuzco, Cyclopean remains, 181, 183.
+
+  Cuzco, temple, 183.
+
+  Cyclopean ruins in Peru, 173, 178, 181-183.
+
+  Cyclopean ruins in Peru (cuts), 173, 175.
+
+
+  D.
+
+  Dalrymple, Sir John, 169, 170.
+
+  Dampier, buccaneer, 170.
+
+  Darien, taken by Balboa, 169.
+
+  Darien, Scottish Expedition, 169.
+
+  Darien, causes of failure, 169, 170.
+
+  Darien, crossed by Morgan, 170, 171.
+
+  Darien, crossed by Dampier, 171.
+
+  Diaz, navigator, rounds the Cape of Good Hope and names it the
+    "Stormy Cape," 49.
+
+  Diaz, historian, quoted, 148, 151, 158, 160.
+
+  Dighton Stone, 28 (cuts, 27, 28).
+
+  Diodorus Siculus, 16.
+
+  Druid Sacrifices, 106.
+
+  "Druidic," 74, 177, 178.
+
+
+  E.
+
+  Edward VI and Cabot, 48.
+
+  Elysian Fields, 13, 14, 16.
+
+  Erik the Red, 20.
+
+  Escobar, 162.
+
+  Euripides, quoted, 14.
+
+
+  F.
+
+  Feather-work, 84, 96.
+
+  Ferdinand and Isabella, 40, 41.
+
+  Feudalism ended, 36.
+
+
+  G.
+
+  Gama, De, 38, 58.
+
+  Gardens, 138, 139.
+
+  Glazier, Theory, 73-74.
+
+  Gladstone quoted, 189.
+
+  Gosnold's Expedition, 25, 26.
+
+  Greenland, 19-25, 30, 31.
+
+  Grijalva and Yucatan, 10, 53.
+
+  Guatemala, 58, 76, 79.
+
+  Guatimozin, 163.
+
+  Gunnbiorn, 20.
+
+
+  H.
+
+  Hannibal on the Alps, 134, 135.
+
+  Harold Fair-hair, 20.
+
+  Hatuey, 51, 52.
+
+  Hayti, 43, 98.
+
+  Helluland (Newfoundland), 22.
+
+  Henry VII., 48, 49.
+
+  Hercules' Pillars, 13, 17.
+
+  Herodotus, 10, 11.
+
+  Hesiod, quoted, 13.
+
+  Hesperides, Isles of the Blest, 14.
+
+  Homer, quoted, 10, 13.
+
+  Honduras, 76, 79.
+
+  Huitzilopochtli, god of battles, 93, 94, 150, 151 (_see_ MEXITL.)
+
+  Humboldt, 35, 50, 65, 73, 83, 94.
+
+
+  I.
+
+  Iceland, 19, 20.
+
+  Incas, 172, 182 (_see_ PERU).
+
+  "Indian," as a term applied to the New World by mistake, a blunder
+    still perpetuated, 42 (_cf_. 98.)
+
+  Indians, "Red-skins," 72-74, 80, 90.
+
+  Ingolf, 19.
+
+  Iphigenia, 104.
+
+  Ireland, Mickle, 20, 31, 32.
+
+  Italian Discovery, 34-36.
+
+  Itztli (obsidian), used as a sharp flint, 95.
+
+  Iztapalapan, 138.
+
+
+  J.
+
+  Jamaica, 170.
+
+  Jewish "Discovery," 33.
+
+  Juan, S., ship-canal, 172.
+
+
+  K.
+
+  Katortuk (Greenland), 21, 22 (cut, 21).
+
+  Kingsborough, Lord, 34, 69, 82.
+
+
+  L.
+
+  Leif Erikson, 21-23.
+
+  Lesseps de, 171-173.
+
+  Loadstone, 41, 42.
+
+  Longfellow, quoted, 29.
+
+  Lucian, quoted, 17.
+
+
+  M.
+
+  Madoc, 32, 33, 70.
+
+  Magellan reaches the Pacific Ocean and names it, 49;
+    killed at Matan, 50.
+
+  Magnetic Pole, 41.
+
+  Maguey plant, its singular value, 94.
+
+  Major, Mr., on Pre-Columbian discoveries of America, and site of the
+    Greenland colonies, 35, 36.
+
+  Malte-Brun, 35.
+
+  Marina, "slave-interpreter," 109, 115, 128, 131.
+
+  Markham, Sir C., quoted, 30, 174, 179, 183.
+
+  Markland (Nova Scotia), 22.
+
+  Marvels, Age of, 38, 39.
+
+  Maya, Mayapan, 76, 79.
+
+  Maya, MS., 81, 82.
+
+  Maya, trade, 84.
+
+  _Mayflower_ lands in Vinland, 26.
+
+  Medea, 18, 104.
+
+  Merida, 78.
+
+  Mexico, Mexicans (_see also_ AZTECS).
+
+  Mexico, archeology, 72-86.
+
+  Mexico, geography, 89, 90, 133-135.
+
+  Mexico, valley, 134, 135.
+
+  Mexico, town, 139, 142, 145-151.
+
+  Mexico, wealth, 155.
+
+  Mexico, siege, 160-164.
+
+  Mexico, ferocity in war, 160-164.
+
+  Mexitl, the god of battles, another name for Huitzilopochtli, 93.
+
+  Monolith (cuts), 173, 175.
+
+  Montezuma I., 57.
+
+  Montezuma, 110-113.
+
+  Montezuma, meaning of name, 113.
+
+  Montezuma, power, 120, 121, 135, 141.
+
+  Montezuma, affability, 144.
+
+  Montezuma, dress, etc., 161.
+
+  Montezuma, death, 162.
+
+  Montgomery, James, 20, 22, 23.
+
+  Morgan, buccaneer, 170.
+
+  Mound builders, 31, 71, 85.
+
+  Mueller, Max, quoted, 56.
+
+
+  N.
+
+  Narvaez, 158, 159.
+
+  Nicaragua, ship-canal, 58, 172.
+
+  Norse Discovery, 19-32.
+
+  Norse towns in Greenland, 20.
+
+  Norumbega, 25.
+
+
+  O.
+
+  Ocean, Western, 12, 16, 17.
+
+  Ocean, Southern, first name for the Atlantic (q.v.)
+
+  Oceanus, river, 10.
+
+  Ogygia, 16.
+
+  Ollantay, Peru, 174, 176.
+
+  Orinoco, discovered, 45.
+
+  Orizaba, 120.
+
+  Overland Route, 37.
+
+
+  P.
+
+  Pacific, first seen, 166.
+
+  Pacific, first sailed upon, 50.
+
+  Palenque, 77, 79, 81.
+
+  Palos, 41, 45.
+
+  Panama, 166, 171, 172.
+
+  Panama, modern, 171.
+
+  Paper (prehistoric) of Mexico, 82.
+
+  Pedrarias, 167, 168.
+
+  Peru and Incas, chaps. ix., x.
+
+  Peru agriculture, 182, 185.
+
+  Peru aqueducts, roads, etc., 177.
+
+  Peru archeology, 172-182.
+
+  Peru architecture, 87, 172-178.
+
+  Peru calendar, 184, 185.
+
+  Peru chulpas, 87 (cut).
+
+  Peru quipu, 180 (cut).
+
+  Peru sculpture and pottery, 178.
+
+  Peru history and religion, 182.
+
+  Phenicians, 11, 17.
+
+  Pictograph, 80, 112.
+
+  Pindar, quoted, 13.
+
+  Pizarro, 164, 167.
+
+  Pizarro and Atahualpha, 187, 188.
+
+  Pizarro and Peru, 186-189.
+
+  Pizarro, first and second voyages, 186, 187.
+
+  Pizarro imitated Balboa, 165, 186.
+
+  Pizarro invades Peru, 187.
+
+  Pizarro, his treachery and cruelty, 188, 189.
+
+  Pizarro at Cusco, 188.
+
+  Pizarro founds Lima, 188.
+
+  Pizarro, "Doom" at last, 189.
+
+  Plato, 14, 15.
+
+  Plutarch, 16.
+
+  Polo, Marco, 39, 43.
+
+  Polyxena, 104.
+
+  Popocatepetl, 133, 134.
+
+  Ptolemy, 11, 39.
+
+  Pythagorean theory, 10.
+
+
+  Q.
+
+  Quetzalcoatl, 84, 93, 94, 111, 113, 130, 152.
+
+  Quipu, 180, 181 (cut, 180).
+
+
+  R.
+
+  Rafn, 28, 29, 31.
+
+  Raymi, Peruvian festival, 184, 185.
+
+  Renascence, 9, 36, 37.
+
+  Renascence influence on travel and exploration, 38.
+
+  Renascence assisted the Reformation, 37.
+
+  Runes in Greenland, 27, 28.
+
+
+  S.
+
+  Sebastian, Magellan's Basque lieutenant, 33, 50.
+
+  Seneca, 18, 19 (title-page).
+
+  "Scraelings," Vinland, 23.
+
+  "Skeleton in Armor," 29.
+
+  Spain, how consolidated, 37, 106.
+
+  Spain, close of its colonial history, 52.
+
+  Squier, quoted, 176, 181.
+
+
+  T.
+
+  Tambos, Peru, 185.
+
+  Tehuantepec, isthmus, 171.
+
+  Tenochtitlan, Mexico, 57.
+
+  Teocalli, 106, 117, 148-151, 156 (cut, 105).
+
+  Tezcatlipoca, god of youth, 61.
+
+  Tezcuco, eastern capital, Mexico, 56.
+
+  Tezcuco, 56, 57, 136.
+
+  Tezcuco, king of, 100.
+
+  Tezcuco, lake, 139-140.
+
+  Thorfinn, 23.
+
+  Thorwaldsen, 23.
+
+  Titicaca, lake, 71, 182.
+
+  Titicaca (_see_ CYCLOPEAN RUINS), 174, 175.
+
+  Tlaloc, god of rain, 63.
+
+  Tlascala, 113, 121-127, 130, 153, 159, 163.
+
+  Tlascala, people, and siege, 130, 133.
+
+  Toltecs, 56, 71.
+
+  Totonacs, 115.
+
+  Trinidad, 45.
+
+  Tula, 56.
+
+  Tumbez, Peru, 186.
+
+  Turks, causing civilization, 36, 38.
+
+
+  U.
+
+  Utatla, 79.
+
+  Uxmal, 55, 76 (frontispiece).
+
+
+  V.
+
+  Valladolid, 46.
+
+  Velasquez, 51-53, 107, 108, 158.
+
+  Vesper, 14 (_see_ HESPERIDES).
+
+  Vespucci, 49, 51, 52.
+
+  Vinland (New England), 23, 25.
+
+  Vinland, map of, 24.
+
+  Voltaire, story of Cortes, 164.
+
+  W.
+
+  Waldseemueller, 50.
+
+  Watling's Island, 42.
+
+  Welsh Discovery, 32, 33.
+
+  William III. and Darien Scheme, 168-169.
+
+  Wilson, "Prehistoric Man," 26, 81.
+
+  World, shape of, 9-11.
+
+  X.
+
+  Xalapa, 120.
+
+  Xicotencatl, Tlascalan, 124, 126, 127-130.
+
+  Xicotencatl appearance, 129.
+
+  Y.
+
+  Yochicalco, 86.
+
+  Yucatan, 53, 54, 75-77.
+
+  Z.
+
+  Zempoalla, "conversion of," 116.
+
+  Zempoalla, 119, 158, 159.
+
+  Zeni, Italian brothers, 34-35.
+
+  Zeno map, 34, 35.
+
+  Zipango (Japan), 39, 45.
+
+  Zodiac, comparative, 55.
+
+  Zodiac (cut) from a tomb at Cusco, 182.
+
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+The many spelling and hyphenation discrepancies in this text are as in
+the original.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF EXTINCT CIVILIZATIONS
+OF THE WEST***
+
+
+******* This file should be named 31413.txt or 31413.zip *******
+
+
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/1/4/1/31413
+
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://www.gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit:
+http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
diff --git a/31413.zip b/31413.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9365cf7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/31413.zip
diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6312041
--- /dev/null
+++ b/LICENSE.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fa481e2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #31413 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/31413)