struments, and the benedictions of the people, till its final termination in defeat and in distress, its ruined armies in the prisons of Syracuse, and its heart-broken commanders seeking in death a refuge from a fate still more terrible or as may be read in later times, in those terrific pictures which the pencil of Tacitus has drawn, of an age of political wickedness and personal depravity,-of vice, and misery, and degradation in every shape still increasing, till, as we descend along the stream of history, it seems almost to leave the surface of the earth and the open light of heaven, and to sink into low, deep, subterraneous channels, where it may be heard sullenly and dismally heaving amid the chasms of darkness, and dashing in low and melancholy reverberations against the hollow caverns in which it has sunk. It is in this class-in the province of picturesque history-that the present author will take his place, and to which both the nature of his subject and the bent of his genius have united to lead him. History must take its hue and local colouring from its subject, and that will naturally be chosen by a writer which he feels congenial to him, and on which he trusts successfully to exert his powers. It would perhaps be impossible in moderu times to point at a subject which in itself would form a more splendid and fascinating historical picture than the one before us it possesses unity of subject, with striking contrasts of character, novelty of description, and variety of detail. It is crowded with romantic adventures and noble exploits; it admits the most picturesque associations, and is connected with the most engrossing interests. It describes countries previously unknown, it makes us acquainted with a people living under a form of social intercourse and political regulation not before observed; it opens a new and almost boundless landscape beyond the distant shores; it describes the most astonishing changes of fortune, and the most momentous consequences proceeding from very trifling causes; and lastly, it presents to us both the powers of the mind and the affections and natural virtues of the heart under modifications not before observed, and existing in circumstances that were not known to exist at all. Such is the nature of the history which the present writer has selected to embellish with the graces of his narrative, as well as to illustrate by a supply of richer materials than any of his predecessors could command.*

History is more or less entertaining, we are apt to think, as it is more or less personal. How, for instance, the foremost associations of Grecian history crowd around the persons of a few favourite heroes, as Miltiades or Epaminondas among the earlier, and most prominently around Alexander in the later times; and how they droop and fade and fall away under the reigns of his successors, not because the matter is unimportant, but because the interest is no longer concentrated. If the welfare of the state is added to this personal interest in the principal agent or character, so that history and biography are mingled with each other, nothing more is wanting in attraction of the subject, and these requisites are all found in the present narrative. The characters present many noble portraits for the historical painter; and the history is a record of heroic deeds on the one hand, in defence of national existence; on the other, instigated by the strongest of passions, worldly and religious, that the mind

* See in the Preface, p. v. to p. viii. an account of the new materials which Mr. Prescott possessed, both from Madrid and Mexico, as well as by other sources, public and private. These most important materials were wanting to Robertson, which have since been assembled by the industry of Spanish scholars.

of man could feel. Here was then an adaptation of means to ends, carried on through long and complicated difficulties; evil principles and good mixed, and contending together; things immoral, and low, and base, mixing with all that was virtuous, and ennobling, and praiseworthy; and all this displayed in the most attractive field of all-the field of war and battle; where the imperfect tactics and rude masses of the barbarians were to be brought into collision with the science and ingenuity of the most civilized nation of the globe. The first object of the author was to collect all the authorities to which he could gain access, and which were unknown to or unused by his predecessors; the next was to appreciate their value, to keep a watchful eye on national prejudices, on professional interests, on party views, or on personal habits and temperament.

The author justly observes.

"The subversion of a great empire by a handful of adventurers, taken with all its strange and picturesque accompaniments, has the air of romance rather than of sober history; and it is not easy to treat such a theme according to the severe rules prescribed by historical criticism. But, notwithstanding the seduc tions of the subject, I have conscientiously endeavoured to distinguish fact from fiction, and to establish the narrative on as broad a basis as possible of contemporary evidence. The distance of the present age from the period of the narrative might be presumed to secure the historian from undue prejudice or partiality. Yet to the American and the English reader, acknowledging so different a moral standard from that of the sixteenth century, I may possibly be thought too indulgent to the errors of the

*

*

*

conquerors; while to a Spaniard, accustomed to the undiluted panegyric of Solís, I may be deemed to have dealt too hardly with them. To such I can only say, that, while, on the one hand, I have not hesitated to expose in their strongest colours the excesses of the conquerors; on the other, have given them the benefit of such mitigating reflections as might be suggested by the circumstances and the period in which they lived. I have endeavoured not only to present a picture true in itself, but to place it in its proper light, and to put the spectator in a proper point of view for seeing it to the best advantage. I have endeavoured, at the expense of some repetition, to surround him with the spirit of the times, and, in a word, to make him, if I may so express myself, a contemporary of the sixteenth century," &c.

It is true that the same period of history and the same events have been described by Robertson, and with all that judgment, grace, and e'cgance in the disposition of his subject, which he so eminently possessed, and which often supplied the place of deeper investigation and a wider circumference of knowledge; but the History of the Conquest of Mexico formed only one part of Robertson's more comprehensive plan; and was therefore as briefly narrated by him as was consistent with a clear and just elucidation of the subject. The present writer has viewed it on a larger scale; the dimensions of his canvass are more extensive; he is enabled to enter into more minute details, and to give a more elaborate finish to his design. Yet it is the very extent of this narrative that occasions the difficulty we feel in conveying our impressions of it. We are embarrassed by the copiousness of the subject, and the exuberant richness of the successive pictures, and the variety of subjects it comprehends. If we take single specimens from different pages of the work, they are but little detached fragments, less pleasing as detached from the general body, and giving little insight, and but partial and scattered glimpses, into the general structure: and, if we were to attempt an abridgment of the whole, it would be dry, tedious, and uninteresting in its altered form.†

Preface, vol. I. p. xii.

+ La methode des abrégés a également les inconveniens. En écartant les détails

Even the first volume alone is so comprehensive in its view as to afford at once a description of the natural features, the climate, and productions of the country, and of the various and remote migrations of the people; a history of their government, laws, and revenue; of their political state, their military institutions, and their religious belief and worship; of the arts of life, and the degree to which they had attained; and of the domestic manners and habits; as well as of the discovery of the country by its future conqueror. One chapter is devoted to a summary of the mythology of the Mexicans; and another to the very curious subject of their hieroglyphics and picture-writing, connected with their astronomy and chronology, their system of notation, and their sacred calendar: and the first book closes with a view of the nation of the Tezcucans, of the golden age of the empire, of the accomplished princes who reigned over them, and especially of their enlightened and illustrious prince, Nezahualcoyotl, and his successor; men truly great, whose wise and generous policy extended through nearly half a century, and whose names are identified with the most glorious period in the annals of the Indian races. Mr. Prescott has also given us a valuable essay on that difficult and controverted subject, the

intermediaires, en depouillent les faits de leur accessoires, elle resserre l'auteur dans un cercle si étroit, qu'il y est comme en captivité. Sa narration devient aride, et cette aridité est une bien essentielle, qu'on ne peut racheter que par l'interêt qu'on suppose que le lecteur prend aux matières qu'on traite sommairement pour ménager son tems."-v. Pauw sur les Americains, vol. i. p. 282.

* In this branch of the subject, the author refers to Lord Kingsborough's splendid work. See vol. i. p. 115. The work is sold at 1757. and the mechanical execution is perfect. The drift of Lord Kingsborough's speculation is, to establish the colonization of Mexico by the Israelites! but Mr. Prescott observes, that it would be unjust, however, not to admit that the noble author, if his logic is not always convincing, shows much acuteness in detecting analogies; that he displays familiarity with his subject, and a fund of erudition, though it often runs to waste; that, whatever be the defects of arrangement, he has brought together a most rich collection of unpublished materials to illustrate the Aztec, and in a wider sense American, antiquities; and that, by this munificent undertaking, which no government, probably, would have, and few individuals could have, executed, he has entitled himself to the lasting gratitude of every friend of science. Mr. Prescott also mentions the name of Antonio Gama, whose works should be consulted by every student of Mexican antiquities. P. 117. The Aztecs when compared to the Egyptians, were at the bottom of the scale in hieroglyphics, and yet it has been observed that the Egyptians had made no advance in their alphabet for twenty-two hundred years. See vol. i. p. 94.

Who would not think that the scene of the following story was not at the Court of Persia or of Delhi, so Asiatic its character? who would have placed it in a barbarous city, in an unknown country, and among a savage people?

ters.

"The elder son of the King (Nezahualpilli), heir to the crown, a prince of great promise, entered into a poetical correspondence with one of his father's concubines, the lady of Tula, a woman of humble origin, but of uncommon endowments. She wrote verses with ease, and could discuss graver matters with the king and his minisShe maintained a separate establishment, where she lived in state, and acquired by her beauty and accomplishments great ascendancy over her royal lover. With this favourite the prince carried on a correspondence in verse,-whether of an amorous nature does not appear. At all events, the offence was capital. It was submitted to the regular tribunal, who pronounced sentence of death on the unfortunate youth; and the king, steeling his heart against all entreaties, and the voice of nature, suffered the cruel judgment to be carried into execution. We might, in this case, suspect the influence of baser passions on his mind, but it was not a solitary instance of his inexorable justice towards those most near to him. He had the stern virtue of an ancient Roman, destitute of the softer graces which make virtue attractive. When the sentence was carried into effect, he shut himself up in his palace for many weeks, and commanded the doors and windows of his son's residence to be walled up, that it might never again be occupied." Vol. i. p. 182.

origin of Mexican civilization, as connected with the magnificent ruins and architectural antiquities of Central America, discovered by Mr. Stephens, and with the remains of Palinque and Uxmul, described by Dupaix and Waldeck. Much light has been thrown into the darkness of this mysterious subject, though a much greater portion is still hidden under an impenetrable veil, which no distinction of races, or analysis of language, or history of rites and customs, can remove.

Let us begin our extracts with one where our author introduces us to the country and the people where the scene of his history is to be laid :"Midway across the continent, yet somewhat nearer to the Pacific than the Atlantic, at an elevation of nearly seven thousand five hundred feet above the level of the sea, is the celebrated valley of Mexico. It is of an oval form, about sixty-seven leagues in circumference, encompassed by lofty ramparts of porphyritic rock, and the soil white with the incrustation of salts. Five lakes are spread over its surface, occupying about a fifth of its extent. Here stood the cities of Mexico and Tezcuco, the capitals of the two states of Anahuac; whose history," says the author," with that of the mysterious races that preceded them, exhibits some of the nearest approaches to civilization to be met with anciently on the American continent." Of these races the most conspicuous were the Toltecs, who entered the territory of Anahuac probably about the close of the seventh century, but from what region they came is uncertain. Remains of the extensive buildings which formed their ancient capital of Tula, were still remaining at the time of the Conquest. After a period of about four centuries, this people, who had extended their sway over the remotest borders of Anahuac, disappeared from the land as silently and mysteriously as they had entered it. A few perhaps lingered behind, but the greater number of them spread over the region of Central America, and the traveller now speculates on the ruins of Mitla and Palenque as possibly the work of this extraordinary people, since whose existence so many ages have rolled away. As the author says, their shadowy history reminds us of those primitive races who preceded the ancient Egyptians in the march of civilization. These were succeeded by a numerous and rude tribe called the Chichemecs, and after them came the Aztecs, or Mexicans, and the Acolhuans, better known as Tezcucans, from the name of their capital, on the eastern border of the Mexican lake. The Mexicans came also from the remote regions of the north, and arrived on the borders of Anahuac towards the beginning of the thirteenth century, and after wandering in an unsettled state for some period, probably halted on the southern borders of that lake in 1325. They laid the foundation of their capital by sinking poles into the shallows of the lake, and they named it after their war-god, Mexitli. Such were the humble beginnings of the Venice of the Western World. Soon after this, a league was formed between Mexico, Tezcuco, and the neighbouring kingdom of Tlacopan, so remarkable, as to be said to have no parallel in history; they agreed to support each other in war, and that in the distribution of the spoil onefifth should be assigned to Tlacopan, and the remainder divided between the other powers. Success crowned the warlike adventures of the conferacy; and by the middle of the fifteenth century, under the reign of the first Montezuma, the dominion spread down to the borders of the Gulf of Mexico. The throne was filled by a succession of able monarchs: no state was able to meet the accumulated strength of the confederates; year after year their armies returned home laden with the spoils of conquered

cities, and with throngs of devoted captives. At the beginning of the sixteenth century, just before the arrival of the Spaniards, the Aztec dominion reached across the continent, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and they penetrated even into the farthest corners of Guatemala and Nicaragua. The history of the Aztecs is said to present some striking resemblance to that of the Romans in the early stages of their history; particularly in the policy of associating themselves in wars, with other states, as principals.* Such is a brief outline of the state of Mexico, as seen in its infant cradle. We then proceed with the author to view it in its political and civil regulations, in the law of succession to the crown, in the order of nobility, in the judicial system, and military institutions. The government was an elective monarchy; there was a distinct class of nobles, with large landed possessions and political power. The judges were independent of the crown, and held their offices for life. The rites of marriage were celebrated with religious reverence, and divorces could with difficulty be obtained. Slavery was sanctioned under various forms; but, under all, of a mild character, and no one in Mexico could be born to slavery. The taxation was, something after the spirit of our feudal institutions, in money payment or in personal service. At first light, this grew so burdensome, probably from the increasing luxury of the monarch and the capital, as to breed dissatisfaction through the land, and prepare the way for its conquest by the Spaniards. Their armies were divided into bodies of eight thousand each, and these, again, into companies of three or four hundred. Their knowledge of the tactics of war was not scientific, but their discipline was exact and severe. Their object was not to kill their enemies, but take them prisoners; and they never scalped like the other North American tribes. They had military hospitals, and surgeons were placed over them, "who were so far better (says the old chronicler Torquemada)† than those in Europe, that they did not protract the cure in order to increase their pay." In short, the degree of civilization which this singular and interesting people had attained, has been compared to that enjoyed by our Saxon ancestors under Alfred; but in the nature of that civilization, as well as in other things connected with religion, and with their social relations, they bear a closer resemblance to the Egyptians.

The institution, however, which had the greatest influence in forming the national character, and without maturing which, no just or accurate account could be given of the people, was that of human sacrifices. They were adopted by the Aztecs in the fourteenth century, and consequently had been in use for two centuries before the Conquest. Rare at first, they became more frequent as the empire extended, till every festival was closed with them. The form of sacrifice was rigorously prescribed in the Aztec ritual; women were sometimes selected, and children, and sometimes infants. In the case of a captive, the body was delivered to the warrior who had taken him in battle, and by him, after being dressed, was served up in an entertainment to his friends. "This was not the coarse repast of famished cannibals, but a banquet teeming with delicious

* See Machiavelli, Discorsi sopra T. Livio, lib. 2, cap. 4. The early history of Mexico is best gained from the Historia Antiqua of Veytia, published in 1836. See an interesting account of him and his labours in a note, vol. I. p. 20.

+ Torquemada and Clavigero are the authorities for this part of the history, the last of which is a work of great merit, the avowed object of which was to vindicate his countrymen from the misrepresentations of Robertson, Raynal, and De Pauw: and, as regards the last two, he was perfectly successful.