Conquest of Mexico
acted from a sense of duty! (Conquista. lib. 2, cap. 6, 7.) Solis is even a more steady apologist for his hero, than his own chaplain, Gomara, or the worthy magistrates of Vera Cruz. A more impartial testimony than either, probably, may be gathered from honest Bernal Diaz, so often quoted. A hearty champion of the cause, he was by no means blind to the defects nor the merits of his leader.
Page 198 (1).—This may appear rather indifferent logic to those who consider that Cortés appointed the very body, who, in turn, appointed him to the command. But the affectation of legal forms afforded him a thin varnish for his proceedings, which served his purpose, for the present at least, with the troops. For the future he trusted to his good star,—in other words, to the success of his enterprise, to vindicate his conduct to the Emperor. He did not miscalculate.
Page 198 (2).—The name of the mountain is not given, and probably was not known, but the minute description in the MS. of Vera Cruz leaves no doubt that it was the one mentioned in the text. "Among the mountains is one which overtops in height all the others, for from the summit may be seen and recognized a great part of the sea and of the land. So lofty is it, that if the day it not very clear, the peak cannot be seen, because the upper part is veiled in clouds. Sometimes, in very clear weather, the peak can be seen above the clouds, showing so white that we think it must be snow-clad." (Carta de Vera Cruz, MS.) This huge volcano was called Citlaltepetl or "Starmountain" by the Mexicans. —perhaps from the fire which once issued from its conical summit, far above the clouds. It stands in the intendancy of Vera Cruz, and rises, according to Humboldt's measurement, to the enormous height of 17,368 feet above the ocean. (Essai Politique, tom, i. p. 265.) It is the highest peak but one in the whole range of the Mexican Cordilleras.
Page 198 (3).—Carta de Vera Cruz, MS.—Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 44.
Page 200 (1).—Gomara, Crónica, cap. 32, ap. Barcia, tom. ii.—Herrera, Hist. General, dec. 2, lib. 5, cap. 8.—Oviedo, Hist. de las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. i, "Fair fields and river banks of such beauty that all Spain had nothing more serene and fruitful to show." (Carta de Vera Cruz, MS.) The following poetical apostrophe, by Lord Morpeth, to the scenery of Cuba, equally applicable to that of the tierra caliente, will give the reader a more animated picture of the glorier of these sunny climes, than my own prose can. The verses, which have never been published, breathe the generous sentiment characteristic of their noble author.
"Ye tropic forests of unfading green,
Where the palm tapers and the orange glows.
Where the light bamboo weaves her feathery screen,
And her far shade the matchless ceiba throws!
"Ye cloudless ethers of unchanging blue.
Save where the rosy streaks of eve give way
To the clear sapphire of your midnight hue.
The burnish'd azure of your perfect day!
"Yet tell me not my native skies are bleak.
That flush'd with liquid wealth no cane fields wave;
For Virtue pines and Manhood dares not speak,
And Nature's glories brighten round the Slave."
Page 200 (2).—"The same love of flowers," observes one of the most delightful of modern travellers, "distinguishes the natives now, as in the times of Cortés. And it presents a strange anomaly," she adds, with her usual acuteness; "this love of flowers having existed along with their sanguinary worship and barbarous sacrifices."—Madame Calderon de la Barca, Life in Mexico, vol. i. let. 12.
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