OCEAN CAPE CAfOCtTg * • ^ 9 - _> OF MEXICO / THE CONQUEST OF MEXICO By W. H. PRESCOTT ILLUSTRATED BY KEITH HENDERSON With an Introduction by T. A. JOYCE VOLUME ONE NEW YORK HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY i 922 ARTIST’S PREFACE T HIS edition is the outcome of an obsession, a certainty that when at last the war should come to an end I must make a picture-book of the Conquest of Mexico. With conquest in the air, soldiering an all too familiar trade, religions in the melting-pot, and on the horizon a romantic brightness, this book seemed to me like the ship in which I would sail away to undiscovered islands. From the outset, however, it was evident that the charm of such an adventure might be complicated by the necessity for an unusual amount of archaeological impedimenta, my objec¬ tive being ancient Mexico, not modern Mexico, where almost every trace of the old splendour was long ago obliterated by Christian zeal. The Gods have fled that country, and now one finds some of them sitting in ghostly quiet in the British Museum. There, when I went to apply for further information, the authorities were so astonishingly kind that at first I thought I must have been mistaken for some important personage. But no. Such courtesy is “ the tradition ” apparently. Mr. Joyce, the high-priest, gave me a table to work at, while from cupboards and cases the treasures of ancient Mexico (their very curves a shock of lovely surprise) one by one were brought out to be studied at leisure, as well as books such as the Codex Zouche, the Codex Borgia, the Codex Conquest of Mexico Laud, the Codex Fejervary-Mayer—superb pictorial achieve¬ ments that every art student ought to investigate. There are no barriers, no unreasonable restrictions, and Mr. Joyce never seems to get tired of answering questions. Yet for all he has taught me, for all those generous hours, and especially for consenting to write so classic an Introduction, I have only gratitude to offer in return. Here, also, I would thank Lord Cowdray, Miss L. E. Elliott, Mr. Alfred Maudslay, Mr. Russell Cairns, Mr. T. A. Sprague, Mr. W. P. Pycraft, and Mr. Julian Huxley for the help they have each given in various ways. As to the illustrations themselves, it may be noted that throughout Book I., that is to say before the discovery of Mexico, and while Mexican art was as yet untainted by European influence, I have annotated the pages with line drawings from native pictures. In Book II. the Europeans arrive. I imagine myself as having arrived with them—as a spy to begin with and eventually a deserter. In the following list of illustrations there are a number of references to the Codices, to early Spanish Chroniclers, and other sources. These I have included, in order that purely archaeological details may easily be verified, and their value not confused with the aesthetic intention—which is, of course, the main issue. KEITH HENDERSON. VI LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS WITH NOTES BY THE ARTIST PAGE Stone rattlesnake, from the British Museum. Title Page. 10. Drawings of flowering plants from ancient Mexican picture-books- known as the Codices Magliabecchiano, pp. 47, 74, 83; and Vaticanus A, 57 (Kingsborough). 11. A thunderstorm. Codex Vaticanus A, p. 139 (Kingsborough). The downward streaks represent lightning. Up above are conventional tongues to show that the heavens are speaking. 11. Unknown shrub. Codex Laud, p. 10. 12. A snowstorm. Codex Vaticanus A, p. 133 (Kingsborough). 12. Tree. Codex Dehesa, p. 4. 13. Tree. Codex Dehesa, p. 3 B. 15. The Mava war-god, whose effigy the Spaniards almost certainly must have seen in Cozumel. Codex Dresden, p. 6 (Kingsborough). 16. Eagle with serpent on a cactus. Codices Borgia, p. 20; Boturini, p. 2 (Kings¬ borough) ; and Fejervary-Mayer, p. 27. 21. A human sacrifice. Codex Laud, p. 8 (Kingsborough). 22. Maize ( Zea mays). Codex Vienna, p. 17. 27. Tepoztecatl, one of the octli (or pulque) gods. Codex Magliabecchiano, p. 49. 28. Spider monkeys (Ateles ater). See p. 362, and the Codices Vaticanus B, p. 86 ;; Borgia, p. 13 ; and Bodley, pp. 13, 32 (Kingsborough). 29. Fishes. Codex Borgia, pp. 13, 14. 33. Profile of a stone head, in the Vienna Museum, and two full faces, the one with staring eyes from the Codex Bodley, p. 16 (Kingsborough), the other from, the mask of the god Xipe in the British Museum (with the flayed, outer mouth omitted). See note to p. 76, Vol. II. ix Conquest of Mexico rP AGE 38. Huitzilopotchli. Codex Borgia, p. 50. Notice the humming - birds, the huitx.itx.ilin on his massive necklace. 39. Quetzalcoatl. Codex Fejervary-Mayer, p. 30. The rare quetzal (Pharomacrus mocinno ) is of a shimmering green that changes to blue or purple or gold. See pp. 100, 183, 363, and note to p. 326. 41. The temple of Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc in Tenochtitlan. Codex Vati- canus A, p. 118 (Kingsborough). 44. Temples. Codices Bologna, p. 11 (Kingsborough) ; Vaticanus B, p. 16; Vaticanus A, p. 118. In their drawings of temples, the Mexican artists very greatly minimised the substructure, the terraces and the great stone stairways leading up to the top platform at the east end of which stood the shrine of the god, because to their minds, so dominated by the idea of a mysterious and supernatural presence within the sanctuary, it was instinctively obvious that the sanctuary should be made to dominate the drawing. See note to p. 46. 45. Maize plants ( Zea mays). Codices Bodley, p. 37 (Kingsborough); and Vaticanus A, p. 62. 46. Tezcatlipoca. Codex Borgia, p. 21. Eyes, noses and usually also teeth were to Mexican artists the beautiful, the essential features. From the chin downwards everything, with the exception of the hands, should be reduced in scale they con¬ sidered, in order to give extra prominence to the more important parts. Promin¬ ence had to be given, too, to the insignia of gods and of illustrious persons, for (without the niceties of portraiture) it was mainly by their insignia that individuals could be recognised. 47. Flowering sprays, probably of one of the mimosea. Lienzo di Tlaxcala, p. 67. 47. A human sacrifice. Codex Borgia, p. 73. 48. Tlaloc. Codex Borgia, p. 11. See also note to p. 213. 57. Woodpeckers. Codex Zouche, pp. 14, 33. The charm of such little drawings as these and of ancient Mexican Art in general is more commonly appreciated now, though less than a century ago even Prescott was but lukewarm. Earlier still, fifty years or so after the Conquest, Acosta (translated by Purchas: Hakluyt series, p. 312) dismissed all Mexican artists’ work as “ foul and deformed,” while Diaz denounced Huitzilopotchli’s statue in its shrine on the great teocalli as merely “ monstrous ” (see Maudslay’s fine translation, also in the Hakluyt series, Vol. II. p. 76). 60. Aloe. Codex Laud, p. 9 (Kingsborough). 61. A rattlesnake and a Xiuhcoatl, a mythical beast typifying fire and lightning. Codex Zouche, p. 79. 61. Flowering plants. Codices Vaticanus A, p. 29 (Kingsborough); and Zouche, p. 20. 66. The Mexican Tonalamatl or calendar. Codex Telleriano-Remensis. x List of Illustrations PAGE 68. A QUAIL ( Cyrtonyx montezumee). See p. 362. These birds were regularly offered up to the gods. Codex Zouche, p. 38. 69. A partial eclipse of the Sun. Codex Vaticanus A, p. 126 (Kingsborough). 70. The Moon. Codex Borgia, p. 10. The ancient Mexicans saw in the moon not a man but a rabbit surrounded with water. 70. A Q UA UHXICALLI OR INCENSE BRAZIER. Codex Laud, p. 17. 71. Flowering plants. Codices Fejervary-Mayer, p. 29; and Borgia, p. 14. 76. A fisherman. Codex Vaticanus B, p. 32. 77 - Cinteotl, the Maize God. Codex Fejervary-Mayer, p. ii. 77. Cacao tree ( Theobroma cacao). Codex Vaticanus A, p. 5 (Kingsborough). 78. Maize (Z ea mays). Codex Fejervary-Mayer, p. 29. 78. Aloes ( Agave atrovirens). Codices Vaticanus B, p. 36 5 and Fejervary-Mhyer, p. 27. 79. Lily (Zephyranthes). Lienzo di Tlaxcala, p. D. 81. Rabbit (Sylvilagus sp.). Codex Borgia, p. 18. Oviedo (Purchas, p. 219) con¬ sidered the Mexican rabbits as “ liker Hares than Conies, yet less than Conies.” 82. Humming-birds. Codices Laud, p. 14 (Kingsborough) ; Borgia, p. 36 ; and Bologna, p. 10. See note to p. 232. 84. Flowering plant. Codex Magliabecchiano, p. 34. 86. Turkeys (iMeleagris ■ america.ua) adorned with the breast-brush of Ocellata. See p. 363, and the Codices Vaticanus B, p. 29 ; and Borgia, p. 50. 86. Guava tree (Pstdium guava). Lienzo di Tlaxcala, p. 76. 97. Flowering plant with seed vessels that suggest Helecteres. Codex Telleriano- Remensis, p. 19. 98. I. Rattlesnake (Crotalus terrijicus). Codex Vaticanus B, p. 27. In addition to- its forked tongue two others of a purely conventional nature issue from the creature’s mouth to show that it is hissing. Its head and rattle have been embellished with plumes, and in its nose are two nose-jewels. 98- 2, 14, 15, 16, 17. Jaguars ( Felis onca). Codices Vaticanus B, p. 25 ; Zouche, 99. pp._ 24, 50; Borgia, p. 44; Laud, p. 22 (Kingsborough). “Terrible beasts,”" Oviedo writes (Purchas, pp. 206, 207), “ in shape like unto a Tigre. Their bodies and their legs are full of black spots one neere unto another and divided with a circumference or fringe of reddish colour, showing, as it were, a faire work and correspondent picture.” 98. 3, 4- Tortoises. Codices Zouche, p. 43, and Bologna, p. 16. 98 5 > 6, 18. Crocodiles. Codices Laud, p. 145 Zouche, p. 75 5 and Fejervary- 99. Mayer, p. 4. The Laud crocodile is furnished with two nose-jewels and a head¬ dress of feathers. xi Conquest of Mexico 99- 7, 8, 9, io. Spider monkeys ( Ateles ater ). Codices Vaticanus B, p. 32 ; Zouch, 100. pp. I, 7, and Selden, p. 18. All of them wear ear-rings and one, the least dignified, a necklace. See p. 362. 11. Racoon ( Procyon lotor). See p. 363 and the Codex Zouche, p. 55 - 12. Peccary. ( Dicotyles ). See p. 363 and the Codex Zouche, p. 73. 13. Wolf ( Canis latrans) or Coyote, properly spelled Coyotl. Codex Zouche, p. 26. 19, 20, 21. Quetzals ( Pharomacrus mocinno). See pp. 183, 363, and notes to pp. 39, 326, and the Codices Zouche, pp. 70, 71, and Borgia 53. 22, 23. Red and blue macaws ( Ara macao). See p. 362,, and the Codex Selden, p. 7. 24. Heron. See p. 329 ; and the Codex Fejervary-Mayer, p. 32. 25. Roseate spoonbill {Ajaja ajaja). Codex Laud, p. 12. 26. Raven (?). See Vol. II. p. 4. Codex Mendoza, p. 35 (Kingsborough). 27. 29. Eagles. See p. 319, and the Codices Borgia, p. 20, and Zouche, p. 69. 28. Vulture. Codex Borgia, p. 68. 103. Trees. Codices Borgia, p. 49 ! Bologna, p. 9 ; and Vaticanus B, p. 17* 104. Stag. See p. 362, and the Codex Vienna, p. 8. 131. Cortes was nineteen when he bade adieu to his native shores in 1504. 133. “ But I came to get gold,” said Cortes. 147. Cort£s at thirty-three. There are no authentic portraits of the Spaniards as they were at the time of the Conquest, though a few of them, including Cortes, were painted afterwards when they were old. 151. Great northern divers ( Gavia immer ). 152. The Spanish soldiers established a friendly intercourse. Private Bernal Diaz (Maudslay, Vol. I. p. 223 ; Vol. II. pp. 60, 151 ; Vol. IV. p. 94)—eventually promoted to the rank of captain—mentions in his memoirs the nondescript outfit of his fellow-adventurers. Very few of them had complete suits of armour, and indeed quite early in the campaign, at Tabasco, the General himself, be it observed, lost one of his sandals. Later on it was definitely laid down in routine orders that each man must be equipped with such unorthodox gear as quilted cap, doublet, leggings, sandals, and so forth. As to the Cozumel natives, it may be noted that their foreheads, unlike those of the Aztec and other Mexicans, are artificially flattened according to the old Maya custom. 154. Cozumel doves {Leptoptila gaumeri). 164. The first cavalry charge at Tabasco. 170. Malinal of Painalla, called by the Spaniards Marina. She is holding Cortes’ helmet and gloves as they are shown in the Hospital de Jesus portrait. Ihere are no contemporary portraits of her or of any of her compatriots. xii I 74 - * 74 - * 74 - J 75 - J 75 - 177. J 77 - 178. 180. 181. 182. 382. 183. 385. 190. 398. 198. * 99 - 199. 199. List of Illustrations Sketching the Spaniards. See the Codex Mendoza, p. 71 (Kingsborough). Sketch of an officer’s charger. Codex Baranda, p. 3A. A trooper feeding the horses. Lienzo di Tlaxcala, p. 28. A MOUNTED MAN AT A CANTER, HOLDING UP A CROSS. Codex Telleriano- Remensis, p. 44. A gun in action. Lienzo di Tlaxcala, p. 15. Scorpion and centipedes. Codices Zouche, p. 27 ; Vaticanus B, pp. 15, 95. A stinging INSECT Codex Borgia, p. 27. Oviedo (Purchas, p. 164) describes kindes 07^”“ “ ' miSchlevous worm ’ which vre number among the Posthumous portrait of Montezuma in his youth as an army officer His face is painted, the upper half yellow, the lower half red. Codex Vaticanus A p. 128 (Kingsborough). ’ The heron standard of Tlaxcala. Lienzo di Tlaxcala, p. 22. Quetzalcoatl. Codex Fejervary-Mayer, p. 30. One of the portents, a strange light towards the East, seen before the arrival of the Spaniards. Codex Vaticanus, A, p. 133. Short-eared owls (Asio flammus). The favourite birds of Mictlantecutli, god of death: sinister birds. See p. 213, and Vol. II. p. 12, and the Codice Vaticanus B, p. 91 ; Bologna, p. 12 ; and Borgia, p. 18. A sacrificed quetzal (Pharomacrus mocinno). See pp. 100, 363 and notes to pp. 39, 326, and the Codex Vienna, p. 42. 3 3 ’ § t0 Montezuma (or, to give him his full name, Montecuzoma Xocovotzin) offering incense TO Quetzalcoatl. The Emperor wears the xiuitzontli, the royal crown f turquoise, while his attitude is one of the stereotyped censing attitudes to be found in almost any of the Codices. His vision of the god—in the rather uncanny mask of Eecatl was suggested by Acosta (Purchas, p. 284) who says that the god^ themselves whom he worshipped “ told Montezuma these heavy tidings of the ruine of his Kingdome and tormented him by visions wherewith he remained so melancholy and troubled as he was void of judgement.” Of Quetzalcoatl the same chronicler says (p. 315), “This Idoll had the form of a man 7 nd « h /1 UPOn -? e - egg » ; c Wlth a thousand other Polish inventions whereof all Archaio e iogyf7oy«!Tl. II P ' ^ ^ ^ ^ P ' 5 ‘’ and M “ ic “ A homily by father Olmedo. The improvised pulpit is a ptaca, a chest for L°d 13Tni m abMme« gregati0n b ° ,]l PrieS ‘ S and Warri ° rS “ ith S “P ed fa “ s Pronghorn antelope ( Antilocapra americana ) in flight. Turkeys ( Meleagris ocellata, with the breast brush of gallo-pavo). Aloe {Agave atrovietus). Aztec paroquet ( Conurus aztec) in flight. Orchid ( Sobraha macracantha). Xlll Conquest of Mexico 20tx The Totonacs came with wreaths and bunches of flowers. See the Codex Magliabecchiano, p. 39 ’ an< ^ R- am i rez (translated by Charnay), p. ioi. 205. Arrival of the Aztec tribute collectors. 210. The Cacique of Cempoalla gave Cortes eight women richly dressed, wearing COLLARS AND ORNAMENTS OF GOLD. 213. Destruction of the idols. The idols are Mictlantecutli, god of death, and Tlaloc, god of rain (see p. 48) ; the latter with trunk-like hose ornament and right hand uplifted in the peculiar gesture of command so frequently represented in the Codices. Bernal Diaz (Maudslay, Vol. I. p. 188) says these idols were “ as big as calves ” : the Anonymous Conqueror says, “ the size of a man or even larger ” (Anonymous Conqueror, Cortes Society, p. 47). 230. Native T amanes to drag the guns and transport the baggage. See the Codex Mendoza, p. 63 (Kingsborough). 232. Humming-bird. See p. 82, and also Oviedo (Purchas, p. 168) who says, This bird, beside her littlenesse, is of such velositie and swiftnesse in flying, that who so seeth her flying in the aire, cannot see her flap or beate her wings after any other sort than doe the humble Bees.” 232. Sun bittern ( Eurypyga major). 234. Orchid ( Coryanthes speciosa). 250. The Tlaxcalan advanced guard. 2£J2. The main body with their plumes and banners, above which floated the. white heron of Tlaxcala. See the Lienzo di Tlaxcala. In the foreground are the war-priests with their bodies dyed black. They are using the atlatl or spear- thrower. See Gesammelte Abhandlungen. Seler, p. 368 et seq. 264. Marina had done much to fortify the drooping spirits of the soldiers. 271. Marina communicated her suspicions to Cort£s. A couple of greyhounds brought over by Cortes—presumably for running down game for the mess—are remarked on by Diaz (Maudslay, Vol. I. p. 140). 274. Courier after courier brought the Emperor intelligence of the Spaniards successes. They—the common couriers—could not, of course, raise their eyes in the Presence. Behind the Emperor is a group of distracted priests. See the Codex Telleriano-Remensis, p. 18. 289. Quetzalcoatl in the mask of Eecatl. Codex Borgia, p. 19. 294. Examination of the Cacique’s wife. 298. Examination of the two priests. The priests wore cassocks and long gowns reaching to their feet (Diaz, Maudslay, Vol. I. pp. 20, 184, 274). Their nails also were very long and their hair so matted that, “ like sheeps’ wool,” it could not be combed. Acosta (Purchas, pp. 347, 348) says “ their hair hung down like tresses or a Horse mane.” Incense was always offered at important interviews. 300. Examination of the Aztec ambassadors. 304. The massacre at Cholula. 311. The Emperor Montezuma trembled on his throne in the mountains. 319. Golden eagle ( Aquila chrysaetus). xiv PAGE L ist of Illustrations 320. Map of Lake Tezcuco as it was, approximately, at the time of the Conquest; its present level being much lower. After Seler and Maudslay. 326. The Prince Cacama of Tezcuco made the Mexican salutation usually addressed to persons of high rank. See Ixtlilxochitl, translated by Ternaux- Compans, p. 215. Fixed in the Prince’s diadem is a panache of quetzal plumes, such as might only be worn by the higher commands in the army. These beautiful iridescent feathers I found to be so airy that even in apparently still weather they continue wavering delicately to and fro. See pp. 99, 183, 363, and note to p. 39. 328. Eager to catch a glimpse of the strangers. See the Codex Mendoza, pp. 61, 64 (Kingsborough). 329. Great white heron {Adea occidentalis). 330. Little snowy egret ( Casmetodus albus egretta). 332. Aztec Caciques came to announce the approach of the Emperor. The Lienzo di Tlaxcala shows clearly that standards were carried on the back during action, but in the hand for all formal or diplomatic occasions. 335. Arrival of the Emperor Montezuma. In the Emperor’s nose and lower lip are carved jadeite chalchiuitls, the most valued of Mexican jewels. In his left hand is the sceptre, half of gold and half of wood, “ like a wand of justice ” that he always held when in his palanquin, according to Diaz (Maudslay, Vol. II. p. 70). 338. Montezuma came forward leaning on the arms of the Lords of Tezcuco AND IZTLAPALAPAN. CORTES ADVANCED TO MEET HIM. That lurcher dog is mentioned by Diaz (Maudslay, Vol. I. p. 220), and it appears on several pages of the Lienzo di Tlaxcala. 347. “ You too,” the Emperor added with a smile, “ have been told, perhaps, that I am a god.” Montezuma is here arrayed in the insignia of the god Tezcatlipoca, with mirrors ( tezcatl) from which smoke (— poca ) issues, one on his celestial head, the other on his celestial ankle. See Mexican Archaeology, Joyce, p. 44. He has assumed the pose of authority referred to in the note to p. 213. He is for a moment trying this on Cortes, about whose divine right he is still fatally uncertain. They are both smelling their ceremonial bouquets in observance of the etiquette of the country. See the Lienzo di Tlaxcala, p. G, the Codex Borgia, p. 21, and Ixtlil¬ xochitl (Ternaux-Compans), p. 199. 362. Axolotl {Amhlystoma tigrinum). Black-tailed deer ( Odocoiles columbianus'). See p. 104. Red and blue macaw ( Ara macao ). See p. 100. Hooded merganser ( Lophodytes cuculatus). Spider monkey ( Ateles ater). See pp. 28, 98. Harlequin quail ( Cyrtonyx montezumae) . See p. 68. Black-winged stilt ( Himantopus mexicanus ). 363. Quetzals ( Pharomacrus mocinno ). See pp. 100, 183, and notes to pp. 39, 326 Racoons ( Procyon lotor ). Californian vulture ( Gymnogyps californianus). King vulture ( Pseudogryphus californianus). Collared peccary ( Dicotyles tajacu). b xv Conquest of Mexico 367. Under the supervision of certain aged females. Just as the Emperor used to identify himself in outward appearance with certain gods, so here his wives have to some extent identified themselves with goddesses such as Chalchiutlicue of the tasselled cape and stepped nose-jewel. See the statues of Chalchiutlicue in the British Museum. A Mexican hairless dog peers round from behind the old nurse, who is scrutinising a feather-work fan, a present, I dare say, to the Chalchiutlicue girl from the Emperor. See Gesammelte Abhandlungen. Seler, p. 3^2> and the Codex Vaticanus A, p. 89 (Kingsborough). 368. The Emperor drank chocolate (or more correctly chocolatV). On his left arm he wears the maconcatl. See Mexican Archaeology, Joyce, pp. 113 > U 5 5 Ramirez (Charnay), p. 89 ; and the Codex Duran, p. 18. 369. Dessert. 370. Music. See the Codices Magliabecchiano, p. 82, and Borbonicus, p. 4. 372. After meals the Emperor’s dancers danced before him. See the Codices Borgia, pp. 62, 64, and Vaticanus B, p. 52. 382. Taking Cortes by the hand, Montezuma pointed out the localities of the neighbourhood, Cortes meanwhile reconnoitring the scene, no doubt, from a purely tactical point of view. 390. Montezuma turned from it with a shudder. The embroidered cloak, the tilmatli, does in fact, I found, give to a squatting figure precisely that odd abbrevi¬ ated look that in the Codices might perhaps be mistaken for careless or inefficient draughtsmanship. For the posture of the head-bearer, see the Codex Borgia, p. 72. 392. Cortes was heard pacing his apartment to and fro. 394. Arrest of the Emperor Montezuma. See the Codex Vaticanus A, p. 86 (Kings¬ borough), and one of the large Panuco figures in the British Museum. Cortes has on the necklace composed of “ golden crabs ” that was given him by the Emperor at their second meeting. See Diaz, Maudslay, Vol. II. p. 43 - The maconcatl, delivered to Cortes only a moment ago, can be seen protruding beyond his right arm. 400. Montezuma was speechless under the infliction of this last insult. Of the men detailed for this unpleasing job (see Cortes second despatch, dated Oct. 30, 1520) two at least are lacking in enthusiasm, for Montezuma was rather popular amongst the troops. Diaz (Maudslay, Vol. II. p. 60) relates how they always took off their caps to him, and has even put it on record (Vol. II. p. 107) that he once kissed the hands of the royal captive, who on this occasion stands resplendent in the plumage of the Bird-Snake, Quetzalcoatl. See the green image of that god in the British Museum. 402. The burning of Quauhpopoca. See Ixtlilxochitl, p. 227. 412. The Prince Cacama endeavoured to rouse the Emperor. 414. When arrested the Prince Cacama abated nothing of his proud and lofty BEARING. XVI INTRODUCTION W HEN William Hickling Prescott wrote the Conquest of Mexico he gave to literature something more than the vivid and polished narrative of one of the most romantic episodes in the world’s history. The com¬ paratively high stage of cultural development attained by the Mexicans, together with their traditions of a still more glorious past, fired his imagination, and he attempted to give also a critical survey of their civilisation and to trace its rise and source. To this subject he devoted his first six chapters and a long appendix, and it is with that portion of his work that this introductory note is in the main concerned. As regards his narrative, comparatively little has come to light during the last eighty years which would tend to modify his account of the operations of the Spaniards in Mexico and the adjoining countries to the south. The discovery by Mrs. Zelia Nuttall of the Cronica de la Nueva Espana by Francisco Cervantes de Salazar, a personal friend of Cortes, in the Biblioteca Nacional of Spain (a work which had been used by the historian Herrera, but to which Prescott had not direct access), indicates that the account of the siege of Mexico city is not always correct in detail. More¬ over, A. P. Maudslay, who has devoted much study to the vexed question of the topography of the city, has been able to prove that the camp of Alvarado was pitched, not in the vicinity of the great pyramid of Tenochtitlan, but close to that of Tlaltelolco. But, however important such details may be for the intensive study of a single episode, they should be viewed in their proper proportion to the whole work. From this aspect it may be claimed that few historical treatises have stood the test of time so triumphantly. The achievement becomes the more remarkable, and it is in no sense of apology that this point of view is introduced, when the work is regarded as a compilation from an enormous mass of material, much of it biassed, by a man who was practically blind. With the archaeological and ethnological chapters of Prescott’s work, however, the case is somewhat different. The remarkable xix Conquest of Mexico advance made in the various branches of Anthropological science during the last eighty years has wrought a profound difference, not only in the point of view from which primitive communities are regarded, but also in the methods of approaching the problems which they present. Furthermore, the discoveries made since Prescott’s day in Southern Mexico and Central America have entirely revolu¬ tionised the current opinions regarding Mexican culture. But, before proceeding to a short critical examination of Prescott’s archaeological conclusions, it is only just to summarise briefly the condition of Anthropological (in the widest sense) knowledge in the year 1843, which saw the publication of the Conquest of Mexico. It will be seen then that his fine imagination, combined with a singular sense of proportion, carried him far nearer the truth than might legitimately be expected in the case of one equipped only with the meagre critical apparatus of the period. In his attempt to illustrate and elucidate the various features of Mexican culture, he cast his net very wide. He draws parallels from Ethnology, Classical Archaeology, Egyptology, and Oriental Studies all more or less still in embryo ; and, like any other author who employs the comparative method, is to a great degree at the mercy of his material. The result shows a singular clarity of vision and critical balance. In 1843 Anthropology was not yet a science. It is true that the Societe ethnologique de Paris was formed in 1839, but it was not a success. The Ethnological Society of London (of which the Royal Anthropological Institute is the direct successor in unbroken line) was founded in the same year in which Prescott published the Con¬ quest of Mexico. In 1859, sixteen years later, was established the Societe d’anthropologie de Paris, and it is a significant commentary upon the trend of thought of the period, when religion and science were still at loggerheads, that Broca, the founder, “ was bound over to keep the discussions within legitimate and orthodox limits, and a police agent attended its sittings for two years to enforce the stipula¬ tion.” It is true, nevertheless, that the first foundations of modern Anthropology had been laid. The pioneers of biological classifica¬ tion, Linnaeus, Buffon, Blumenbach, had already given to the world works of enormous importance ; but de Quatrefages, yirchow, and Broca were yet to come. The principles of evolution had been fore¬ shadowed in the writings of Lamarck, Cuvier, and Saint Hilaire ; but the great scientific epoch, marked by the works of Darwin, Herbert xx Introduction Spencer, and Huxley, was yet to dawn. So much for Anthropology on the physical side ; when we seek for scientific authors who have tried to deal with mankind on a broad basis, both from the physical and cultural points of view, we find only Prichard and, perhaps, Desmoulins. It is difficult to believe that Prescott had not at least read Prichard’s earlier works, though he never quotes him, but the monumental Natural History of Man was not published until 1843. So far I have mentioned names which serve to illustrate the em¬ bryonic stage of Anthropological science in Prescott’s day; I come now to the authors whose researches have a more direct bearing upon the particular problems with which he was confronted. Prescott’s method is, from one point of view, an early attempt at comparative ethnology, and, to judge from the material at his command, a very successful attempt. But the time of Edward Burnett Tylor, who first raised that branch of Anthropology to a science, was not yet, and one wonders what would have been the effect upon Prescott’s acute brain if he had but skimmed the pages of The Early History of Mankind (1865) and Primitive Culture (1871) which have so pro¬ foundly influenced modern thought. Again, Sociology, as we now understand it, was practically non-existent. Comte, it is true, was available ; but Herbert Spencer, Buckle, Bachofen, Morgan (the founder of Sociology as a science) and M‘Lennan had not produced the works which render their names memorable. Psychology, too, was in its infancy, and it was not brought into true relationship with ethnological studies until the time of Bastian, who was the first to insist upon its Anthropological significance. And Bastian was only seventeen when the Conquest of Mexico was published. The question of primitive religion had not really been faced in Prescott’s day. An unbending, though sincere, church was still blind to the many pagan survivals which it embodied, and which brought some of its rites into direct relation with the ceremonies of primitive peoples, still regarded by a large majority as the direct inspiration of a personal devil. While insisting upon the purely symbolic nature of much of its own ceremonial, it could see no symbolism in the practices of the pagan. It could not even realise how easily symbolism becomes degraded to magic, how easily magic becomes rationalised to sym¬ bolism. That, even in one social complex, the symbolism of the educated is magic in the eyes of the uneducated. Yet, in spite of the atmosphere of his day, Prescott maintains a surprising equilibrium in xxi Conquest of Mexico his treatment of Mexican religion, though he had no full appreciation of its composite nature nor of the inner meaning of much of its ceremonial. To summarise, it is perhaps not a great exaggeration to say that Prescott, on the whole, drew little more, in the way of Anthropological criteria , from his immediate predecessors and con¬ temporaries, than was afforded him by the combined works of Hesiod, Herodotus, Aristotle, Strabo, and Lucretius. Classical studies, limited practically to the field of Greek archaeology, were in advance of Anthropology in 1843, but differed greatly both in extent and in kind from those studies as pursued to-day. For many years, even after Prescott’s time, Greek art, Greek literature, Greek culture was regarded as something of itself, remote from the rest of humanity, a virgin birth, an Athena spring¬ ing in full panoply from the brain of the Greek Zeus. Indeed, at any rate from the point of view of art, the Greek tradition became a tyranny, a Pope, an obsession. Emancipation from that obsession has come only in a very recent period ; and it is only the growth of Anthropological knowledge which has opened the eyes of the Western world to the value of the artistic productions of the Orient, of Ancient America, of Africa, and Polynesia. In 1843 the range of Greek archaeology was confined to the study of coins, which had been the subject of more or less systematic research since the time of Ekhel, to the descriptions of the remains of temples furnished by the accounts of travellers, to inscriptions discovered and copied by scholars, and to certain notable examples of Greek art, such as the sculptures from the Parthenon, from Egina, and from Bassae. Upon this material, combined with the identification of many sites by Leake, scholars such as Muller and Boeckh laid the foundation of Greek historical archaeology. But it was after the publication of the Conquest of Mexico that Layard opened up a new era in archaeological investigation by his excavations at Nimroud, and though the researches of Newton and Wood advanced the science still further, it was not until the results of Schliemann’s labours at Hissarlik (1871) were given to the world that our knowledge of the early ages of Greece began. It is true that Greek literature could furnish Prescott with details as to Greek manners and customs, religion and polity ; but the prevailing trend of thought, which re¬ garded the culture of Classical Greece as something apart, inhibited their full use as Anthropological parallels. It is only of quite recent xxii Introduction years that the intellectual courage of Ridgeway enforced the view that even the Greek colossus had his feet firmly rooted in the ooze of primal superstitions and usages. In 1843 Egyptology was in the slack water between the great wave, already past, of Champollion, and the greater wave of Lepzius and Brugsch yet to come. For ethnological parallels Prescott had at his disposal the works of classical writers and of Wilkinson ; and the works of Wilkinson, though in advance of his age, were strongly in¬ fluenced by classical tradition. In fact, in this branch of archaeology also, the solvent of Anthropological criteria had yet to be applied to the complex. It is unnecessary to labour the point. In a note Prescott writes: “ It is impossible not to be struck with the great resemblance, not merely in a few empty forms, but in the whole way of life, of the Mexican and Egyptian priesthood.” In truth, the sole resemblance is the elemental resemblance which one organised priesthood bears to another, based upon an identity of function. The institution of religious communities devoted to the service, or associated with the cult, of certain major or minor divinities, is not the peculiar characteristic of Mexico and Ancient Egypt. With the position of Oriental Studies in Prescott’s day, it is almost impossible to deal adequately within the limited scope of an introduc¬ tion such as this. It will be sufficient, perhaps, to refer only to Buddhism, to which Prescott makes more than one allusion. This great philosophy, comparatively simple in its original form, but in course of time elaborated in some regions into a religion with a pantheon of “ gods ” and an organised priesthood (against both of which it was, in its inception, a revolt), was known to the western world only in the form of a mere travesty before the researches of Hodgson revealed to Europe the Sanskrit texts upon which the know¬ ledge of to-day is primarily based. Hodgson did not leave Nepal until 1843, but it is true that he had published certain most illuminat¬ ing papers before the Conquest of Mexico appeared. However it is clear that Prescott had no knowledge of them. In any case, it was not until 1844 that Burnouf, basing his work upon Hodgson’s discoveries, published his Introduction a VHistoire du Bouddhisme Indien , which has a valid claim to be considered the first, even approximately, correct presentation of the subject as a whole to the Western world. Two quotations will suffice to show the class of information from which Prescott drew his material in this subject. In a note referring to the xxiii Conquest of Mexico “ virgin birth ” of Huitzilopotchli he quotes Milman : “ Buddh, according to a tradition known in the West, was born of a virgin.” It is regarded as an historical fact to-day that the Buddha, Prince Siddhartha, was the son of Suddhodana, a chieftain of the Sakya, and his wife Maya. And, though the circumstances of his birth have been surrounded with certain miraculous phenomena, there exists no oriental tradition that he was the son of a virgin. Again, Prescott writes : “ The probability of . . . communication with Eastern Asia is much strengthened by the resemblance of sacerdotal institu¬ tions,” to which is the footnote : “ And monastic institutions were found in Tibet and Japan from the earliest ages.” Now the first monastery in Tibet was founded at Sam-yas, and the order of lamas instituted, by Padma-Sambhava in 749 a.d., which can hardly be regarded as belonging to the “ earliest ages.” Furthermore in matters of detail, the Tibetan “ monks ” stand in far closer relation¬ ship to those of the Church of Rome than to the Aztec priesthood. In fact there is practically nothing in common between them save the elementary conception of a class of men devoted professionally to the service of certain divinities. Such then was the critical equipment which Prescott could bring to bear upon the problems, historical, ethnographical, sociological, and archaeological, presented by the Valley of Mexico. With regard to the problems themselves, it must be realised that the very material upon which he had to work was in the main literary. The products of the spade and, in the tropical lands, of the axe and machete were comparatively insignificant, and could hardly, at that period, be brought into true relation with literary evidence. Above all, the existence of the great Maya culture, extending over that portion of Central America divided to-day between Northern Honduras, Guatemala, British Honduras, and the Mexican States of Chiapas and Yucatan, was still unrealised by writers on America. Prescott refers, almost uneasily, to the pioneer researches of Dupaix and de Waldeck at Palenque and Uxmal, and suggests tentatively that the “ mysterious ” ruins there may have been erected by the Toltecs after their expulsion from Mexico. The work of Stephens and Catherwood he mentions in the preliminary notice to his appendix, but even this notable book did not provide him with the evidence which he needed in order to see the culture of the Mexican Valley in its proper light. Indeed it was not until the year 1881 that an xxiv Introduction investigation of Maya remains, upon strictly scientific lines, was begun, an investigation which was destined to wreak a sea-change upon the ideas prevailing concerning the culture of Mexico and Central America. The foundations of Maya studies were laid by the discovery, twenty years after the appearance of Prescott’s work, of a manu¬ script history of Yucatan by Fray Diego de Landa, dated 1566. In 1881 A. P. Maudslay made his first expedition to Central America, the first of no less than seven during the next twenty years, through¬ out which he explored, cleared forest, measured, photographed, and obtained casts. The publication of his results, completed in 1892, crowned a task justly described by Dr. S. G. Morley, one of the leading authorities on Maya archaeology at the present time, as “ the greatest archaeological investigation ever accomplished in the Maya field,” and gave to the world a work which the same authority distinguishes as “ the most important publication by which the science has been enriched.” The application of Maudslay’s researches to Landa’s Relation afforded scholars, such as Forstemann, Goodman, Seler, and Bowditch (to mention a few of the pioneers), material for the works which have revealed not only the nature and extent of Maya culture, with its remarkable chronological system, but also the intimate bearing which it has upon the culture of the Mexican Valley. Maya culture seems to have had its origin in the tropical country on the Atlantic slope lying between the northern boundary of the Peten district of Guatemala and the extreme north of Honduras. The commencement of its most glorious period, though not yet settled beyond dispute, owing to the difficulty of correlating the native chronological system with our own, is assigned by the most trustworthy authorities to the first or second century of our era. After some three centuries, the older sites were abandoned, and the centre of Maya “ civilisation,” which had spread both west and north-east, was transferred to Yucatan. In a westerly direction its effect was destined to produce notable consequences. By way of Oaxaca the Maya culture, with its calendar, religion, art, and crafts¬ manship, reached the Mexican Valley, becoming ever more and more attenuated on the journey ; but there it took root, and, fostered by immigrants from the more virile, though less cultured, north, flourished as something almost specifically different. The main authorities whose works were available to Prescott connected the beginning of XXV Conquest of Mexico culture with the Toltec, with whom were associated the god Quet- zalcoatl, the calendar, agriculture, the arts of stone-cutting and pottery, and the great pyramids at Cholula and San Juan Teotihuacan. Now the name Quetzalcoatl is a literal translation of one of the most important Maya gods, Kukulkan. The Mexican calendar is a much simplified form of that of the Maya, and, unlike its parent, is unfitted to deal with long periods of time. Further, the recent excavations at Teotihuacan have revealed a style of art obviously based upon that of the Maya. To judge from the evidence afforded by the scanty excavations conducted on serious lines in the Mexican Valley, three main periods may be distinguished in its culture-history. First a primitive period, the remains of which show affinities with those of the Tarascans of Michoacan and the early inhabitants of the Panuco Valley. From this archaic culture there is a transition to remains of the Toltec period. This Toltec period was evidently of long duration, and the remains of the subsequent Aztec period represent a very short space of time. The Toltecs were immigrants from the north, a region where culture was at a comparatively low stage, and where no build¬ ings on pyramidal substructures, so characteristic of the Maya, are found. They were the first wave of Nahuatl-speaking invaders, whose tongue reaches as far north as the State of Montana, to break upon the Mexican Valley. Here they came into contact with that offshoot of the Maya culture which had spread up from the south and east, and proved such good foster-mothers that in Mexico it became associated with their name. Other groups of Nahuatl- speakers followed, and finally came the Aztec, a band of skinclad hunter-warriors, armed with a weapon hitherto unknown in Mexico, the bow. In the last stages of the Toltec period, a development in religious thought led to the introduction of human sacrifice, a practice which appears to have been alien to the early Maya culture. This was adopted by the more recently arrived Nahuatl tribes ; trouble and discontent arose in the Valley, and culminated with the rise of the Aztec and a wholesale migration of tribes who had preserved the Toltec blood and tradition in purer form. Numbers of them appear to have wandered forth through Puebla, Vera Cruz, and Tabasco, and even to have reached Yucatan, where their art is certainly reflected in the later monuments at Chichen Itza. Where they passed or settled they sowed the seeds of their culture, so that the works of xxvi Introduction art and craftsmanship, which, in the days of the later Aztec “ Empire,” were sent to Mexico in the form of tribute from Puebla and Vera Cruz, may be reckoned among the principal treasures of the capital. The culture of the Valley of Mexico, as the Spanish Conquista- dores found it, was therefore obviously complex. Here, successive waves of nomads had come in contact with a form of civilisation higher than their own, and had absorbed it according to their capacity, adopting a settled form of life, and devoting themselves to agriculture and the practice of arts and crafts. But they did more than receive, they modified, interpreted, and imposed. To take an instance from the Aztec alone ; like most Nahuatl tribes, they brought with them a tribal god, Huitzilopotchli, who was regarded as their personal leader, a deity who was, at any rate originally, a star-god (though later he became associated with the sun), a god of hunting and war. When they settled in the Valley, and turned to agriculture and crafts¬ manship, they adopted whole-heartedly the worship of Tlaloc and Quetzalcoatl, the two, gods of the Valley-dwellers who presided respectively over these departments of life. I mention two only of the local deities who held a place in the Aztec pantheon, but there were very many more, and their number tended to increase as the Aztec grew in power and came into contact with tribes outside the Valley. The Aztec, in fact, showed a remarkable tolerance and catholicity in religious matters, and if they insisted upon the para- mountcy of their own tribal god, Huitzilopochtli, it is at least signi¬ ficant that, when the great pyramid of Tenochtitlan was built, the shrine of Tlaloc, the old fertility-god of the Valley, shared the summit with that of the tribal god of the conquerors. A detailed analysis of the component elements of Mexican culture as found by the Spaniards is far beyond the scope of a mere introduction, but a very illuminating illustration is afforded by funerary rites. There were two methods practised in the disposal of the dead—inhumation and cremation. The method depended upon the cause of death. Men killed in battle or on the stone of sacrifice (in the Aztec mind there was no distinction, either was the fitting death of a warrior) were cremated. Men drowned, or dying of dropsical affections, were buried. Prescott knew that these two methods existed, but did not understand their true significance. The souls of the cremated were supposed to be translated to the Paradise of the Sun, with whom, in the days of Aztec domination, Huitzilopotchli was identified. The xxvii Co?iquest of Mexico souls of the buried entered the paradise of Tlaloc, which was regarded as hardly less desirable. The modern anthropologist sees in this dual practice a clear indication that the immigrant worshippers of Huitzilopotchli habitually practised cremation, while the early dwellers in the Valley, who acknowledged the supremacy of Tlaloc, buried their dead unburned. And the evidence of archaeology supports this conclusion. Prescott saw clearly the composite nature of Mexican beliefs and ritual, and calls attention to it in more than one passage ; but he had not the material which could lead him to an analysis of the complex. A good illustration of this fact is afforded by his treatment of the Mexican calendar. He hardly seems to realise that the Mexican method of dating the solar year was based upon the ritual calendar of 260 days, which bears every sign of being much older than the solar reckoning. To this ritual calendar he refers as a “ lunar reckoning,” adding “ though nowise accommodated to the revolutions of the moon.” And indeed the first phrase is an absolute misnomer, since the system which he describes bears no relation whatever to lunar reckoning of time. The ritual calendar, or Tonalmatl , of the greatest importance in the art of divination, was based upon the combination of twenty signs with the numerals one to thirteen. Since 20 and 13 have no common factor, it is evident that 20 x 13 = 260 days must pass until the combination of a given numeral and sign repeats itself. Now the Tonalmatl reckoning ran continuously and concurrently with the 365-day period of the solar year. The year was distinguished by the sign and numeral of the days on which it began, and, since 20 (the number of the signs) when divided into 365 leaves 5, it follows that each year bore a sign fifth in order from the previous year. And since 5 occurs four times in a series of 20 without remainder, it follows that there were only four signs which could give their name to a year. With regard to the numerals, 365 is divisible by 13 with 1 as remainder. Hence each year bore a numeral one in advance of the preceding year, and all the numerals appeared in the year-names. The same numeral would not appear in combination with the same sign until after the lapse of 4x13 = 52 years, and this was the lesser cycle of the Mexicans. But, as Prescott records, a greater cycle of 104 years was recognised, though he did not know the reason. Concurrently with the solar year, the Mexicans observed the synodical revolution of the planet Venus, the heliacal rising of which, occurring on five of the day-signs xxviii Introduction combined with the thirteen numerals, coincided with the solar year only once in 104 years. The observation of Venus-periods, which seems to be of earlier date than that of solar periods, afforded a check upon sun-time, and may have provided the Americans with a means of correcting their calendar at long intervals. Certainly they appear to have had no system of intercalary days such as suggested by Prescott. The word “ Americans ” has been used above advisedly, since the dating systems mentioned were all practised by the Maya long before the Toltec entered Mexico. A full discussion of the calendar as we now know it is impossible in an introduction such as this. I have dealt with the subject at length in my Mexican Archeology, and I would refer those interested in the subject to that book. Three points only need be mentioned here. Prescott refers to two series of gods associated with the count of days; nine “ Lords of the night,” and thirteen “ Lords of the day.” In addition it may be stated that the Aonalmatl was usually arranged in five columns of fifty-two days each. To each of the longitudinal and transverse columns a presiding god was assigned. The name of Huitzilopotchli, the tutelary god of the Aztec, is almost entirely absent, and when it does appear, it dis¬ places the name of an earlier deity. This fact affords cogent evidence that this god was a late addition to the Mexican pantheon. The second point is this. Prescott states that the four signs used in de¬ nominating the years represented the four elements. The statement is definitely incorrect ; the signs in question were associated with the four “ world-directions,” north, east, south, and west, which (often appearing as five, with the addition of the centre) constituted so important an element in Mexican, as it had in Maya, ceremonial. Finally it is worth pointing out that the occurrence of the number thirteen as a basic element in the American calendar, for which no satisfactory explanation is yet forthcoming, differentiates it from any other system of time-reckoning at present known. As regards his treatment in general of Mexican religion, almost the only criticism which can in fairness be levelled at Prescott is that he might perhaps have made more extended use of Sahagun. But the principal weakness of this section of his work is due to the fact that the modes of thought and belief characteristic of primitive peoples had not been sympathetically and systematically studied. Prescott did not understand that the victim in the great festival to Tezcatli- poca was regarded as the actual incarnation of the god himself ; and xxix Conquest of Mexico that, just as it was necessary that the human vehicle of the divine soul should be a youth of bodily perfection, so it was of paramount importance that he should be killed, and the soul transferred to another perfect body, before the least trace of physical infirmity or waning vigour impaired the virility of the deity upon whom the general prosperity, not only of the tribe, but of mankind in general, was supposed to depend. Nor was it only in the case of Tezcatlipoca that the victim was identified with the god ; the same underlying idea may be observed in certain sacrifices to the goddesses of fertility and to Xipe. Viewed in the light of these facts, the ceremonial cannibalism which accom¬ panied some of the festivals becomes far less repulsive, since it was an instance of the practice of eating the god which is still very widely distributed throughout mankind, and which appears in a form more intelligible to Prescott in the ceremonies at which small images of the deity, made of maize-flour and other vegetable products, were devoured by the worshippers. Prescott omits many of the sacrificial rites, since he could see in them nothing but the promptings of vain and bloodthirsty cruelty. In actuality, however, they have another aspect. Thus, the women sacrificed to the Fertility-goddesses were usually decapitated, a rite symbolising the reaping of a maize-ear, and supposed, in some mystic manner, to ensure a good harvest. In a sacrifice to Xipe, at which the victim was shot to death with arrows, the blood which streamed upon the ground represented, and was believed to promote, a copious rainfall, and so to bring prosperity to the fields. One important feature of Mexican religion, however, Prescott saw clearly, the very close connection between it and war, and the highly ceremonial nature of the latter. The Aztec believed that only by the hearts of men offered in sacrifice could the vigour of the gods be sustained. War therefore was a necessity, and they fought not to kill but to capture. This belief, which, as Prescott points out, more than once saved the Spaniards from annihilation, coloured the whole of Aztec policy towards the surrounding peoples with whom they came in contact. They made no attempt to weld the neighbour¬ ing tribes into a solid empire, for that, if successful, would have brought peace. In the days of their greatest power they exercised no more than a loose suzerainty over the dependent, cities, which were left very much to their own devices, provided that they were XXX Introduction punctual in the payment of tribute. This lack of political control almost encouraged revolt, and revolt on the part of a tributary was by no means unwelcome to the Aztec, since it afforded an opportunity of obtaining more victims for sacrifice. It would be possible to show that Prescott, as in his treatment of Mexican religion, so too in his account of the inheritance of chiefly rank (which appears to rest upon a matriarchal basis) and social observances generally, did not always perceive the true significance of the practices which he recorded ; but space is lacking. The study of his introductory pages, read in the light of the knowledge of his time, leaves the most critical reader wondering, not only at Prescott’s indefatigable industry, but at the sanity and perspicacity of his judgment. Actual errors are very few in number, and two only will be mentioned here. Prescott rightly interprets the name “ Anahuac ” as signifying “ Near the Water,” but he is wrong in identifying the “ Water ” with the lakes in the Valley. The name Anahuac was never employed to signify the Valley of Mexico ; the “Water” is the sea, and the word was applied to two districts; Anahuac Ayotlan was the name given to the region of the Pacific coast around Tehuantepec, while Anahuac Xicalanco denominated the southern portion of Vera Cruz and the coast of Tabasco. The other mistake is found in his description of the Mexican Teocalli. He states that the flights of steps by which they were ascended were situated at an angle of the pyramid. In this he has apparently been misled by the illustrator of the account of the “ Anonymous Conqueror,” who himself misinterpreted the author’s description. In truth the shrine at the summit of the Teocalli was approached by a single broad stairway in the centre of one of the faces of the pyramid (in the case of the great Teocalli, the western face). By this stair¬ way the ceremonial processions mounted to the shrines, leaving it, as they reached each of the tiers of which the pyramid was composed, to encircle the building in their course. Allusion has been made more than once to the even balance of Prescott s critical faculty, which was indeed m advance of his time, but the same praise cannot be given to his artistic judgment, which is fully in accord with the ideas then prevailing. Those who are acquainted with such works of art as the Zouche, Fejervary-Mayer and Bologna codices , will certainly not endorse his statement that the Egyptians u handled the pencil more gracefully than the Aztecs, c xxxi Conquest of Mexico were more true to the natural forms of objects. . . For, even though these manuscripts are probably not the work of Aztec artists in the narrowest sense of the word, they are at any rate Mexican, and were produced at a period when Aztec power was at its height. More¬ over, in this passage, Prescott is using the term Aztec as equivalent to Mexican. Most surprising is his endorsement of Torquemada’s views on the low artistic value of Mexican sculpture, followed by the comment that only when the old beliefs lost their hold upon the native mind “ it opened to the influences of a purer taste ; and, after the Conquest, the Mexicans furnished many examples of correct, and some of beautiful, portraiture.” Yet in his defence it may be pleaded that only in the last few years has the indigenous art of America been rated at its proper value. Prescott’s appendix, dealing with the analogies borne by Mexican culture to that of the Old World, and its origin, cannot be discussed fully within the limits of an introduction. The question is broader, and far more complicated, than even he realised. Even to-day there hardly exists the material upon which a conclusive judgment could be founded. But there is no doubt as to the merit of the appendix. Since the discovery of Mexico the most fantastic theories have been spun in the attempt to relate the culture revealed by the Conquest with that of the Old World. Prescott’s method is truly Herodotean. He refers practically to all such theories propounded up to his day, applying to them a cool and fatal judgment. Since his time, many works and treatises have been written in the same strain, backed by the wider material which the growth of Anthropological and Oriental studies has rendered available. It is perhaps noteworthy that nearly all such works have been produced by authors whose special know¬ ledge is confined to some branch of Old-World archaeology, but not by those who have studied in detail the archaeology of America. In any case the result to-day may be summed in the very words used by Prescott in the two paragraphs which conclude this portion of his great work, with the rider that the contribution of Asia to America cannot yet be proved to be more than a racial element arriving at a time so remote that it possessed no culture worthy of the name to bring with it. In conclusion I should like to add a personal note of appreciation regarding the illustrations which constitute so notable a feature of phis edition. Regarded as artistic productions, their merit is evident xx^ii Introduction to all who read these volumes. But they possess the further merit of being bp far the most correct interpretations of Ancient Mexican costumes, ornaments, and warlike equipment, which have pet supple¬ mented the text of a historp of that countrp. I know the manp weeks of real research which Mr. Keith Henderson spent at the British Museum, collecting details from manuscripts, sculptures and potterp, and archaeological works. From the material thus labori- ouslp acquired, a vivid imagination and a cunning hand have produced upon the work of a great historian a pictorial commentarp which is not only in everp wap worthp of it, but even adds to its value. T. A. JOYCE. XXXlll CONTENTS BOOK I INTRODUCTION—VIEW OF THE AZTEC CIVILISATION CHAP. !• Ancient Mexico—Climate and Products—Primitive Races—Aztec Empire II. Succession to the Crown—Aztec Nobility—Judicial System—Laws and Re¬ venues—Military Institutions ....... III. Mexican Mythology—The Sacerdotal Order—The Temples—Human Sacrifices . IV. Mexican Hieroglyphics—Manuscripts—Arithmetic—Chronology—Astronomy . V. Aztec Agriculture—Mechanical Arts—Merchants—Domestic Manners . VI. Tezcucans—Their Golden Age—Accomplished Princes—Decline of their Monarchy ......... BOOK II DISCOVERY OF MEXICO I. Spain under Charles V. —Progress of Discovery—Colonial Policy—Conquest of Cuba—Expeditions to Yucatan ...... II. Hernando Cortes— His Early Life—Visits the New World— His Residence in Cuba—Difficulties with Velasquez—Armada intrusted to Cortes . III. Jealousy of Velasquez—Cortes embarks—Equipment of his Fleet— His Person and Character—Rendezvous at Havana—Strength of his Armament IV. Voyage to Cozumel—Conversion of the Natives—Jeronimo de Aguilar—Army ARRIVES AT TABASCO-GREAT BaTTLE WITH THE INDIANS-CHRISTIANITY INTRO¬ DUCED . . . . . . . . PAGE 9 20 36 55 75 90 119 129 142 I5 1 XXXV CHAP. PAGtt Conquest of Mexico V. Voyage along the Coast—DoSa Marina—Spaniards land in Mexico—Inter¬ view with the Aztecs . . . . . . .168 VI. Account of Montezuma—State of his Empire—Strange Prognostics—Embassy and Presents—Spanish Encampment . . . . .177 VII. Troubles in the Camp—Plan of a Colony—Management of Cortes—March to Cempoall\—Proceedings with the Natives—Foundation of Vera Cruz . 193 VIII. Another Aztec Embassy—Destruction of the Idols—Despatches sent to Spain— Conspiracy in the Camp—The Fleet sunk .... 208 BOOK III MARCH TO MEXICO I. Proceedings at Cempoalla-—The Spaniards climb the Tableland—Picturesque Scenery—Transactions with the Natives—Embassy to Tlascala . . 229 II. Republic of Tlascala—Its Institutions—Early History—Discussions in the Senate—Desperate Battles . . . . . • .241 III. Decisive Victory—Indian Council—Night Attack—Negotiations with the Enemy —Tlascalan Hero . . . . . . • 255 IV. Discontents in the Army—Tlascalan Spies—Peace with the Republic—Em¬ bassy from Montezuma ....... 267 V. Spaniards enter Tlascala—Description of the Capital—Attempted Con¬ version—Aztec Embassy—Invited to Cholula .... 278 VI. City of Cholula—Great Temple—March to Cholula—Reception of the Spaniards—Conspiracy Detected ...... 287 VII. Terrible Massacre—Tranquillity Restored—Reflections on the Massacre— Further Proceedings—Envoys from Montezuma .... 303 VIII. March Resumed—Ascent of the great Volcano—Valley of Mexico—Impression on the Spaniards—Conduct of Montezuma—They descend into the Valley . 315 IX. Environs of Mexico—Interview with Montezuma—-Entrance into the Capital —Hospitable Reception—Visit to the Emperor . . . . 33 1 XXXVI Contents BOOK IV RESIDENCE IN MEXICO CHAP. PAGE !• Tezcucan Lake—Description of the Capital—Palaces and Museums—Royal Household—Montezuma’s Way of Life 357 II. Market of Mexico—Great Temple—Interior Sanctuaries—Spanish Quarters 375 III. Anxiety of Cortes—Seizure of Montezuma— His Treatment by the Spaniards—■ Execution of his Officers—Montezuma in Irons—Reflections 388 IV. Montezuma’s Deportment— His Life in the Spanish Quarters—Meditated In¬ surrection—Lord of Tezcuco seized—Further Measures of Cortes 406 Notes to Vol. I. . 417 xxxvu NOTE I T is always a difficult question to decide how far, if at all, the actual text of a standard work should be emended by an editor. In the case of Prescott, the question is the more important since it arises in the main from his spelling of native names, which, in many cases, is incorrect, when judged by the knowledge of to-day, and certainly inconsistent. There is little doubt that the name of the Aztec ruler should be written, not Montezuma, but Montecuzoma, the “ u ” being but the faintest breathing between the “ c ” and the “ z.” (An even more correct form would be Montec’zoma.) Yet it must be admitted that the spelling of Prescott in this case has the sanction of tradition in all but strictly scientific works. But when Prescott writes Guatemozin for the name of Montezuma’s successor, he is neither correct nor consistent. To be, even approximately, correct, he should have written Guatemotzin, but this spelling would not remove the inconsistency, since the termination tz,in is an honorific suffix to the name commonly spelt Guatemoc. If Prescott used the honorific form of the name of this ruler, he should have written Montecuzomatzin for Montezuma, and Ahuitzotzin for Ahuitzotl. But even the form Guatemoc, which is that most familiar to the general reader of history, is not strictly correct. The name itself is derived from the Aztec word for eagle, the accepted spelling of which is Quauhtli, and thus should be written Quauhtemoc. The names, therefore, have been left as Prescott wrote them, and the reasons are threefold. First, the consideration that any alteration would have to be radical, and would introduce many forms unfamiliar to the general reader. Second, the knowledge that no system of orthography would meet with universal acceptance even from the comparatively small circle of scientific readers. Third, the natural reluctance on the part of any editor to interfere with the written word of a great historian. T. A. J. xxxviii CONQUEST OF MEXICO PREFACE A S the Conquest of Mexico has occupied the pens of Solis and of. Robertson, two of the ablest historians of their respective nations, it might seem that little could remain at the present day to be gleaned by the historical inquirer. But Robertson’s narrative is necessarily brief, forming only part of a more extended work; and neither the British nor the Castilian author was provided with the important materials for relating this event, which have been since assembled by the industry of Spanish scholars. The scholar who led the way in these researches was Don Juan Baptista Munoz, the celebrated historiographer of the Indies, who, by a royal edict, was allowed free access to the national archives, and to all libraries, public, private, and monastic, in the kingdom and its colonies. The result of his long labours was a vast body of materials, of which unhappily he did not live to reap the benefit himself. His manuscripts were deposited, after his death, in the archives of the Royal Academy of History at Madrid; and that collection was subsequently augmented by the manuscripts of Don Vargas Ponge, President of the Academy, obtained, like those of Munoz,. from different quarters, but especially from the Archives of the Indies at Seville. On my application to the Academy, in 1838, for permission to copy that part of this inestimable collection relating to Mexico and Peru, it was freely acceded to, and an eminent German scholar, one of their own number, was appointed to superintend the collation and transcription of the manuscripts; and this, it may be added, before I had any claim on the courtesy of that respectable body, as one of its associates. This conduct shows the advance of a liberal VOL. I.—a 1 Conquest of Mexico spirit in the Peninsula since the time of Dr. Robertson, who com¬ plains that he was denied admission to the most important public repositories. The favour with which my own application was regarded, however, must chiefly be attributed to the kind offices of the venerable President of the Academy, Don Martin Fernandez de Navarrete; a scholar whose personal character has secured to him the same high consideration at home, which his literary labours have obtained abroad. To this eminent person I am under still further obligations, for the free use which he has allowed me to make of his own manuscripts,—the fruits of a life of accumulation, and the basis of those valuable publications with which he has at different times illustrated Spanish colonial history. From these three magnificent collections, the result of half a century’s careful researches, I have obtained a mass of unpublished documents, relating to the Conquest and Settlement of Mexico and of Peru, comprising altogether about eight thousand folio pages. They consist of instructions of the Court, military and private journals, correspondence of the great actors in the scenes, legal instruments, contemporary chronicles, and the like, drawn from all the principal places in the extensive colonial empire of Spain, as well as from the public archives in the Peninsula. I have still further fortified the collection, by gleaning such materials from Mexico itself as had been overlooked by my illustrious predecessors in these researches. For these I am indebted to the courtesy of Count Cortina, and, yet more, to that of Don Lucas Alaman, Minister of Foreign Affairs in Mexico; but, above all, to my excellent friend Don Angel Calderon de la Barca, late Minister Plenipotentiary to that country from the Court of Madrid,—a gentleman whose high and estimable qualities, even more than his station, secured him the public confidence, and gained him free access to every place of interest and importance in Mexico. I have also to acknowledge the very kind offices rendered to me by the Count Camaldoli at Naples; by the Duke of Serradifalco in Sicily, a nobleman whose science gives additional lustre to his rank; and by the Duke of Monteleone, the present representative of Cortes, who has courteously opened the archives of his family to my inspection. To these names must also be added that of Sir Thomas Phillips, Bart., whose precious collection of manuscripts probably surpasses in extent that of any private gentleman in Great Britain, if not in Europe; that of Mons. Ternaux-Compans, the proprietor of the valuable literary collection of Don Antonio Uguina, including the papers of Munoz, the fruits of which he is giving to the world in his excellent translations; and, lastly, that of my friend and countryman, Arthur Middleton, Esq., late Charge d’Affaires from the United States at the Court of Madrid, for the efficient aid he has afforded me in prosecuting my inquiries in that capital. In addition to this stock of original documents obtained through these various sources, I have diligently provided myself with such printed works as have reference to the subject, including the magni¬ ficent publications which have appeared both in France and England on the Antiquities of Mexico, which, from their cost and colossal dimensions, would seem better suited to a public than to a private library. Having thus stated the nature of my materials, and the sources whence they are derived, it remains for me to add a few observations on the general plan and composition of the work.—Among the remarkable achievements of the Spaniards in the sixteenth century, there is no one more striking to the imagination than the conquest of Mexico. The subversion of a great empire by a handful of adven¬ turers, taken with all its strange, and picturesque accompaniments, has the air of romance rather than of sober history; and it is not easy to treat such a theme according to the severe rules prescribed by historical criticism. But, notwithstanding the seductions of the subject, I have conscientiously endeavoured to distinguish fact from fiction, and to establish the narrative on as broad a basis as possible of contemporary evidence; and I have taken occasion to corroborate the text by ample citations from authorities, usually in the original, since few of them can be very accessible to the reader. In these extracts I have scrupulously conformed to the ancient orthography, however obsolete and even barbarous, rather than impair in any degree the integrity of the original document. Although the subject of the work is, properly, only the Conquest of Mexico, I have prepared the way for it by such a view of the civilisation of the ancient Mexicans, as might acquaint the reader with the character of this extraordinary race, and enable him to understand the difficulties which the Spaniards had to encounter in their subjugation. This introductory part of the work, with the essay in the Appendix, which properly belongs to the Introduction, 3 Conquest of Mexico although both together making only half a volume, has cost me as much labour, and nearly as much time, as the remainder of the history. If I shall have succeeded in giving the reader a just idea of the true nature and extent of the civilisation to which the Mexicans had attained, it will not be labour lost. The story of the Conquest terminates with the fall of the capital. Yet I have preferred to continue the narrative to the death of Cortes, relying on the interest which the development of his character in his military career may have excited in the reader. I am not in¬ sensible to the hazard I incur by such a course. The mind previously occupied with one great idea, that of the subversion of the capital, may feel the prolongation of the story beyond that point superfluous, if not tedious; and may find it difficult, after the excitement caused by witnessing a great national catastrophe, to take an interest in the adventures of a private individual. Solis took the more politic course, of concluding his narrative with the fall of Mexico, and thus leaves his readers with the full impression of that memorable event undisturbed on their minds. To prolong the narrative is to expose the historian to the error so much censured by the French critics in some of their most celebrated dramas, where the author by a premature denouement has impaired the interest of his piece. It is the defect that necessarily attaches, though in a greater degree, to the history of Columbus, in which petty adventures among a group of islands make up the sequel of a life that opened with the magnificent discovery of a World; a defect, in short, which it has required all the genius of Irving, and the magical charm of his style, perfectly to overcome. Notwithstanding these objections, I have been induced to con¬ tinue the narrative partly from deference to the opinion of several Spanish scholars, who considered that the biography of Cortes had not been fully exhibited, and partly from the circumstance of my having such a body of original materials for this biography at my command. And I cannot regret that I have adopted this course ; since, whatever lustre the Conquest may reflect on Cortes as a military achievement, it gives but an imperfect idea of his enlightened spirit, and of his comprehensive and versatile genius. To the eye of the critic there may seem some incongruity in a plan which combines objects so dissimilar as those embraced by the present history, where the Introduction, occupied with the antiquities 4 and origin of a nation, has somewhat the character of a philosophic theme, while the conclusion is strictly biographical , and the two may be supposed to match indifferently with the main body, or historical portion of the work. But I may hope that such objections will be found to have less weight in practice than in theory ; and, if properly managed, that the general views of the Introduction will prepare the reader for the particulars of the Conquest, and that the great public events narrated in this will, without violence, open the way to the remaining personal history of the hero who is the soul of it. Whatever incongruity may exist in other respects, I may hope that the unity of interest , the only unity held of much importance by modern critics, will be found still to be preserved. . The distance of the present age from the period of the narrative might be^ presumed to secure the historian from undue prejudice or partiality. Yet to the American and the English reader, acknow- ledging so different a moral standard from that of the sixteenth century, I may possibly be thought too indulgent to the errors of the Conquerors; while to a Spaniard, accustomed to the undiluted panegyric of Solis, I may be deemed to have dealt too hardly with them. To such I can only say, that, while, on the one hand, I have not hesitated to expose in their strongest colours the excesses of the Conquerors; on the other, I have given them the benefit of such mitigating reflections as might be suggested by the circumstances and the period in which they lived. I have endeavoured not only to present a picture true in itself, but to place it in its proper light, and to put the spectator in a proper point of view for seeing it to the best advantage. I have endeavoured, at the expense of some repeti¬ tion, to surround him with the spirit of the times, and, in a word, to make him, if I may so express myself, a contemporary of the sixteenth century. Whether, and how far, I have succeeded in this, he must determine. For one thing, before I conclude, I may reasonably ask the reader’s indulgence. Owing to the state of my eyes, I have been obliged to use a writing-case made for the blind, which does not permit the writer to see his own manuscript. Nor have I ever corrected, or even read, my own original draft. As the chirography, under these disadvantages, has been too often careless and obscure, occasional errors, even with the utmost care of my secretary, must have neces¬ sarily occurred in the transcription, somewhat increased by the 5 I Conquest of Mexico barbarous phraseology imported from my Mexican authorities. I cannot expect that these errors have always been detected even by the vigilant eye of the perspicacious critic to whom the proof-sheets have been subjected. In the preface to The History of Ferdinand and Isabella , I lamented, that, while occupied with that subject, two of its most attractive parts had engaged the attention of the most popular of American authors, Washington Irving. By a singular chance, something like the reverse of this has taken place in the composition of the present history, and I have found myself unconsciously taking up ground which he was preparing to occupy. It was not till I had become master of my rich collection of materials, that I was acquainted with this circumstance; and had he persevered in his design, I should unhesitatingly have abandoned my own, if not from courtesy, at least from policy; for, though armed with the weapons of Achilles, this could give me no hope of success in a competition with Achilles himself. But no sooner was that distinguished writer informed of the preparations I had made, than, with the gentlemanly spirit which will surprise no one who has the pleasure of his acquaintance, he instantly announced to me his intention of leaving the subject open to me. While I do but justice to Mr. Irving by this statement, I feel the prejudice it does to myself in the unavailing regret I am exciting in the bosom of the reader. I must not conclude this Preface, too long protracted as it is already, without a word of acknowledgment to my friend George Ticknor, Esq.,—the friend of many years,—for his patient revision of my manuscript; a labour of love, the worth of which those only can estimate who are acquainted with his extraordinary erudition and his nice critical taste. If I have reserved his name for the last in the list of those to whose good offices I am indebted, it is most assuredly not because I value his services least. WILLIAM H. PRESCOTT. Boston, October I, 1843. 6 Ancient Mexico Climate and Products—Primitive Races _ Aztec Empire O F all that extensive empire which once acknowledged the authority of Spain in the New World, no portion, for interest and importance, can be compared with Mexico; an d this equally, whether we consider the variety of its soil and climate; the inexhaustible stores of its mineral wealth; its scenery, grand and picturesque beyond example ; the character of its ancient inhabitants, not only far surpassing in intelligence that of the other North American races, but reminding us, by their monu¬ ments, of the primitive civilisation of Egypt and Hindostan ; and lastly, the peculiar circumstances of its Conquest, adventurous and romantic as any legend devised by Norman or Italian bard of chivalry. It is the purpose of the present narrative to exhibit the history of this Conquest, and that of the remarkable man by whom it was achieved. ° rd 5 r ^ at t ^ ie rea< ^ er ma y have a better understanding of the subject, it will be well, before entering on it, to take a general survey of the political and social institutions of the races who occupied the land at the time of its discovery. The country of the ancient Mexicans, or Aztecs as they were •called, formed but a very small part of the extensive territories ■comprehended in the modern republic of Mexico. 1 Its boundaries cannot be defined with certainty. They were much enlarged in the latter days of the empire when they may be considered as reaching from about the eighteenth degree north to the twenty-first on the Atlantic ; and from the fourteenth to the nineteenth, including a very narrow strip, on the Pacific. 2 In its greatest breadth, it could not exceed five degrees and a half, dwindling, as it approached its Conquest of Mexico south-eastern limits, to less than two. It covered, probably, less- than sixteen thousand square leagues. 1 Yet, such is the remarkable formation of this country, that though not more than twice as large as New England, it presented every variety of climate, and was capable of yielding nearly every fruit found between the equator and the Arctic circle. All along the Atlantic the country is bordered by a broad tract,, called the tierra caliente, or hot region, which has the usual high temperature of equinoctial lands. Parched and sandy plains are intermingled with others of exuberant fertility, almost impervious from thickets of aromatic shrubs and wild flowers, in the midst of which tower up trees of that magnificent growth which is found only within the tropics. In this wilderness of sweets lurks the fatal malaria, engendered, probably, by the decomposition of rank vege¬ table substances in a hot and humid soil. The season of the bilious fever,— vomito , as it is called,—which scourges these coasts, continues from the spring to the autumnal equinox, when it is checked by the cold winds that descend from Hudson’s Bay. These winds, in the winter season frequently freshen into tempests, and,. sweeping down the Atlantic coast and the winding Gulf of Mexico, burst with the fury of a hurricane on its unprotected shores, and on the neighbouring West India islands. Such are the mighty spells with which Nature has surrounded this land of enchantment, as if to guard Drawings of Flowering Plants. From an ancient MS. Aztec Civilisation the golden treasures locked up within its bosom. The genius and enterprise of man have proved more potent than her spells. After passing some twenty leagues across this burning region, the traveller finds himself rising into a purer atmosphere. His limbs recover their elasticity. He breathes more freely, for his senses are not now oppressed by the sultry heats and intoxicating perfumes of the valley. The aspect of Nature, too, has changed, and his eye no longer revels among the gay variety of colours with which the landscape was painted there. The vanilla, the indigo, and the flowering cocoa-groves dis¬ appear as he advances. The sugar-cane and the glossy-leaved banana still accompany him ; and, when he has ascended about four thousand feet, he sees in the unchanging verdure, and the rich foliage of the liquid-amber tree, that he has reached the height where clouds and mists settle, in their passage from the Mexican Gulf. This is the region of perpetual humidity; but he welcomes it with pleasure, as announcing his escape from the in¬ fluence of the deadly vomito. 1 He has entered the tierra templada, or temperate region, whose character resembles that of the temperate zone of the globe. The features of the scenery become grand, and even terrible. His road sweeps along the base of mighty mountains, once gleaming with volcanic fires, and still resplendent in their mantles of snow, which serve as beacons to the mariner, for many a league at sea. All around he beholds traces of their ancient combustion, as his road passes along vast tracts of lava, bristling in the innumerable fantastic forms into which the fiery torrent has been thrown by the obstacles in its career. Perhaps, at the same moment, as he casts his eye down some steep slope, or almost un- 11 Unknown Shrub. From an ancient MS. Conquest of Mexico fathomable ravine, on the margin of the road, he sees their depths glowing with the rich blooms and enamelled vegetation of the tropics. Such are the singular contrasts presented, at the same time, to the senses, in this picturesque region! Still pressing upwards, the traveller mounts into other climates favourable to other kinds of cultivation. The yellow maize, or Indian corn, as we usually call it, has con¬ tinued to follow him up from the lowest level; but he now first sees fields of wheat, and the other European grains, brought into the country by the conquerors. Mingled with them he views the plantations of the aloe or maguey (agave Americana ), applied to such various and important uses by the Aztecs. The oaks now acquire a sturdier growth, and the dark forests of pine announce that he has entered the tierra fria , or cold region, the third and last of the great natural terraces into which the country is divided. When he has climbed to the height of between seven and eight thousand feet, the weary traveller sets his foot on the summit of the Cordillera of the Andes,—the colossal range that, after traversing South America and the Isthmus of Darien, spreads out, as it enters Mexico, into that vast sheet of tableland which maintains an elevation of more than six thousand feet, for the distance of nearly two hundred leagues, until it gradually declines in the higher latitudes of the north. 1 Across this mountain rampart a chain of volcanic hills stretches, in a westerly direction, of still more stupendous dimensions, forming, indeed, some of the highest land on the globe. Their peaks, entering the limits of perpetual snow, diffuse a grateful coolness over the elevated plateaux below ; for these last, though termed “ cold,” enjoy a 12 Tree. From an ancient MS. © 0 © A e „ A© >'^cv'