700
THE CONQUEST ACHIEVED.
Remon dying during the publication, Friar Gabriel Adarzo, "nunc Hydruntinus præsul," Antonio, Bib. Hisp. Nova, iii. 224, took it in charge. Several discrepancies indicate that revisions have been made, and Vazquez, Chron. Guat., 524, whose jealousy as a friar was aroused by allusions to Father Olmedo, Cortés' companion, compared the print with the original copy and pointed out several differences. A second edition, bearing the date 1632, though published later probably, contains an additional chapter on omens, which appears in others of the many editions and translations issued in different countries, even of late years.
Perhaps the most clear-sighted writer on Mexico during the last century was Francisco Javier Clavigero, himself a native of that country, and born at Vera Cruz in 1731. His father was a Leonese, whose official duties called him to different parts of the country, and young Francisco profited by this to acquire a knowledge of its resources and idioms. After a novitiate of three years at the Jesuit college of Tepozotlan, he passed to that at Puebla, and there studied philosophy and theology, and showed particular fondness for languages, both classic and native. He taught rhetoric and philosoplhy in the principal schools of the country, though restricted somewhat by the superiors in his too liberal ideas, for which Mexico was not yet considered ripe. Meanwhile his enthusiasm centred on the study of Aztec history and hieroglyphs, which received a serious check in the expulsion of Jesuits from America in 1767. He sought refuge in Italy, staying chiefly at Bologna, where he founded an academy, and having considerable leisure he began to shape the results of his late studies, impelled in no small degree by the writings of De Pauw and Robertson, which grated on his patriotic spirit. They were prepared in Spanish, but the authorities giving no encouragement for their publication in Spain, an Italian translation was made and issued in four volumes, as Storia Antica del Messico, Cesena, 1780, dedicated to the university at Mexico. Subsequently a Spanish version appeared, but not before several editions had been published in England and other countries. The first volume treats of resources and ancient history, the second of manners and customs, the third of the conquest, and the fourth consists of a series of dissertations on the origin of the Americans, on chronology, physique, languages, and other points. They have been widely quoted, and Francisco Carbajal de Espinosa has shown such appreciation of it as to copy almost the whole text in what he calls his Historia de Mexico, Mex., 1856, 2 vols. Clavigero's work is based to a great extent on aboriginal records and personal observation, and the old chronicles have been largely used; but their cumbrous and confused material is here arranged in a manner worthy of the liberal-minded philosopher and rhetorician. Indeed, no previous work in this field can at all compare with it for comprehensiveness and correctness, depth of thought and clearness of expression. In the former respect he greatly surpasses Robertson and in the latter he may be classed as his equal. His death, which took place at Bologna in 1787, found him in the midst of a number of literary projects, called forth in part by the success of the Storia, and by the different subjects which he had therein touched but lightly. Among these works was the Storia della California, issued at Venice two years after his death. It will be noticed in due order.
