shrieks of the human victim do not now resound from temple to temple, nor does the human heart, held up reeking to the Sun, imprecate the vengeance of heaven on the guilty empire. And however impolitically despotic the Spanish governments may be, still do these colonies enjoy the opportunities of improvement, which in every age arise from the knowledge of commerce and of letters, opportunities which were never enjoyed in South America under the reigns of Montezuma and Atabalipa. But if from Spanish we turn our eyes to British America, what a glorious prospect! Here once on the wild lawn, perhaps twice in the year, a few savage hunters kindled their evening fire, kindled it more to protect them from evil spirits and beasts of prey, than from the cold, and with their feet pointed to it, slept on the ground. Here now population spreads her thousands, and society appears in all its blessings of mutual help, and the mutual lights of intellectual improvement. "What work of art, or power, or public utility, has ever equalled the glory of having peopled a continent, without guilt or bloodshed, with a multitude of free and happy common-wealths, to have given them the best arts of life and government!" This, indeed, is the greatest glory of the British crown, "a greater than any other
by supplying the altars, the kings of Mexico were obliged to make war on the neighbouring states. The prisoners of either side died by the hand of the priest. But the number of the Mexican sacrifices so greatly exceeded those of other nations, that the Tlascalans, who were hunted down for this purpose, readily joined Cortez with about 200,000 men, and fired by the most fixed hatred, enabled him to make one great sacrifice of the Mexican nation. Who that views Mexico, steeped in her own blood, can restrain the emotion which whispers to him, This is the hand of heaven!—By the number of these sacred butcheries, one would think that cruelty was the greatest amusement of Mexico. At the dedication of the temple of Vitzuliputzli, A.D. 1486, 64,080 human victims were sacrificed in four days. And, according to the best accounts, the annual sacrifices of Mexico required several thousands. The skulls of the victims sometimes were hung on strings which reached from tree to tree around their temples, and sometimes were built up in towers and cemented with lime. In some of these towers Andrew de Tapia one day counted 136,000 skulls. During the war with Cortez they increased their usual sacrifices, till priest and people were tired of their bloody religion. Frequent embassies from different tribes complained to Cortez that they were weary of their rites, and intreated him to teach them his law. And though the Peruvians, it is said, were more polished, and did not sacrifice quite so many as the Mexicans, yet 200 children was the usual hecatomb for the health of the Ynca, and a much larger one of all ranks honoured his obsequies. The method of sacrifycing was thus; Six priests laid the victim on an altar, which was narrow at top, when five bending him across, the sixth cut up his stomach with a sharp flint, and while he held up the heart reeking to the sun, the others tumbled the carcase down a flight of stairs near the altar, and immediately proceeded to the next sacrifice. See Acosta, Gomara, Careri, the Letters of Cortez to Charles V. &c. &c.
