Conquest of Mexico
Page 285 (1).—Ante, p. 165.
Page 286 (1).—"If they would not come to me, I would come to them, and would destroy them, proceeding against them as against rebels; saying to them that all these regions, as well as other greater lands and lordships, were the property of your Highness." (Rel. Seg. de Cortés, ap. Lorenzana, p. 63.) "Rebellion" was a very convenient term, fastened in like manner by the countrymen of Cortés on the Moors, for defending the possessions which they had held for eight centuries in the Peninsula. It justified very rigorous reprisals.—See the History of Ferdinand and Isabella, Part I. chap 13 et alibi.
Page 287 (1).—Rel. Seg., ap. Lorenzana, p. 67.—According to Las Casas, the place contained 30,000 vecinos, or about 150,000 inhabitants. (Brevissima Relatione della Distruttione dell' Indie Occidentale.) [Venetia, 1643.] This latter, being the smaller estimate, is à priori the most credible; especially—a rare occurrence—when in the pages of the good bishop of Chiapa.
Page 287 (2).—Humboldt, Essai Politique, tom. iii. p. 159.
Page 287 (3).—Veytia carries back the foundation of the city to the Ulmecs, a people who preceded the Toltecs. (Hist. Antig., tom. i. cap. 13, 20.) As the latter, after occupying the land several centuries, have left not a single written record, probably, of their existence, it will be hard to disprove the licentiate's assertion,—still harder to prove it.
Page 287 (4).—Herrera, Hist. General, dec. 2, lib. 7, cap. 2.
Page 288 (1).—Camargo, Hist. de Tlascala, MS.—Gomara, Crónica, cap. 58.—Torquemada, Monarch. Ind., lib. 3, cap. 19.
Page 288 (2).—Veytia, Hist. Antig., tom. i. cap. 15, et seq.—Sahagun, Hist. de Nueva España, lib. I, cap. 5; lib. 3.
Page 288 (3).—Later divines have found in these teachings of the Toltec god, or high priest, the germs of some of the great mysteries of the Christian faith, as those of the Incarnation, and the Trinity, for example. In the teacher himself they recognise no less a person than St. Thomas the Apostle!—See the Dissertation of the irrefragable Dr. Mier, with an edifying commentary by Señor Bustamente, ap. Sahagun. (Hist. de Nueva España, tom. i. Suplemento.) The reader will find further particulars of this matter in Appendix, Part I, of this History.
Page 288 (4).—Such, on the whole, seems to be the judgment of M. de Humboldt, who has examined this interesting monument with his usual care. (Vues des Cordillères, p. 27, et seq.— Essai Politique, tom. ii. p. 150, et seq.) The opinion derives strong confirmation from the fact, that a road, cut some years since across the tumulus, laid open a large section of it, in which the alternate layers of brick and clay are distinctly visible. (Ibid., loc. cit.) The present appearance of this monument, covered over with the verdure and vegetable mould of centuries, excuses the scepticism of the more superficial traveller.
Page 289 (1).—Several of the pyramids of Egypt, and the ruins of Babylon, are, as is well known, of brick. An inscription on one of the former, indeed, celebrates this material as superior to stone. (Herodotus, Euterpe, sec. 136.)—Humboldt furnishes an apt illustration of the size of the Mexican teocalli, by comparing it to a mass of bricks covering a square four times as large as the place Vendôme, and of twice the height of the Louvre.—Essai Politique, tom. ii. p. 152.
Page 289 (2).—A minute account of the costume and insignia of Quetzalcoatl is given by Father Sahagun, who saw the Aztec gods before the arm of the Christian convert had tumbled them from "their pride of place."—See Hist. de Nueva España, lib. I, cap. 3.
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