Notes
If it were not treating a grave discussion too lightly, I should crave leave to refer the reader to the renowned Diedrich Knickerbocker's History of New York (Book 1, chap, 5) for a luminous disquisition on the knotty question. At all events, he will find there the popular arguments subjected to the test of ridicule; a test showing, more than any reasoning can, how much, or rather how little, they are really worth.
Page 310 (1).—Los Dioses blancos.—Camargo, Hist. de Tlascala, MS.—Torquemada, Monarch. Ind., lib. 4. cap. 40.
Page 310 (2).—Sahagun, Hist. de Nueva España, MS., lib. 12, cap. 11. In an old Aztec harangue, made as a matter of form on the accession of a prince, we find the following remarkable prediction. "Perhaps ye are dismayed at the prospect of the terrible calamities foreseen and foretold, though not felt by our fathers!. . .When the destruction and desolation of the empire shall come, when all shall be plunged in darkness, when the hour shall arrive in which they shall make us slaves throughout the land, and we shall be condemned to the lowest and most degrading offices!" (Ibid., lib. 6, cap. 16.) This random shot of prophecy, which I have rendered literally, shows how strong and settled was the apprehension of some impending revolution.
Page 312 (1).—Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 83.
Page 312 (2).—Veytia, Hist. Antiq, tom. i. cap. 13.
Page 312 (3).—Humboldt, Vues des Cordillères, p. 32.
Page 313 (1).—Rel. Seg. de Cortés, ap. Lorenzana, p. 69.—Gomara, Crónica, cap. 63.—Oviedo, Hist. de las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. 5.—Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 84.
Page 313 (2).—The language of the text may appear somewhat too unqualified, considering that three Aztec codices exist with interpretations. (See ante, pp. 68, 69.) But they contain very few and general allusions to Montezuma, and these strained through commentaries of Spanish monks, oftentimes manifestly irreconcilable with the genuine Aztec notions. Even such writers as Ixtlilxochitl and Camargo, from whom, considering their Indian descent, we might expect more independence, seem less solicitous to show this, than their loyalty to the new faith and country of their adoption. Perhaps the most honest Aztec record of the period is to be obtained from the volumes, the twelfth book particularly, of father Sahagun embodying the traditions of the natives soon after the Conquest. This portion of his great work was re-written by its author, and considerable changes were made in it at a later period of his life. Yet it may be doubted if the original version reflects the traditions of the country as faithfully as the reformed, which is still in manuscript, and which I have chiefly followed.
Page 314 (1).—Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 84, 85.—Rel. Seg. de Cortés ap. Lorenzana, p. 67.—Gomara, Crónica, cap. 60.—Oviedo, Hist. de las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. 5.
Page 315 (1).—"Andavamos," says Diaz, in the homely but expresive Spanish proverb," la barba sobre el ombro."—Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 86.
Page 316 (1).—Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 86.—Rel. Seg. de Cortés, ap. Lorenzna, p. 70.—Torquemada, Monarch. Ind., lib. 4, cap. 41.
Page 316 (2).—"They called the volcano Popocatepetl, and the snow-mountain Iztaccihuatl; that is to say, 'the mountain which smokes,' and 'the white woman.'"—Camargo, Hist. de Tlascala, MS.
Page 316 (3).—"They regarded the snow mountain and the volcano as gods, and as wife and husband."—Ibid., MS.471
