if r»? STUCCO-RELli:!" rALAN'iUES, CHIAPAS. Frontispiece. ABOUT MEXICO, P_A.ST AND PRESENT BY HANNAH MORE JOHNSON. WITH SIXTY-THREE MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. PHILADELPHIA : PRESBYTEKIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION, 1334 CHESTNUT STREET. y.K'ir \ y COPYRIGHT, 1887, BY THE TRUSTEES OP THE PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION. All Eighth Reserved. a • ^' ' Westcott & Thomson, Stereotypers and B^ectioti/jters, Philada. PREFACE. It is not judged needful by either author or publisher to assign reasons for laying before the public these chap- ters About Mexico, Past and Present, much less to apol- ogize for so doing, save as they may be inadequate to the importance and the interest of the subject. Our " next neighbor " on the south needs and deserves to be under- stood by the citizens of the United States, and especially by those who have at heart the welfare of their fellow- men and desire the extension to them of the blessings of a pure and elevating Bible Christianity. Near neigh- borhood enhances all the motives which would lead us to study another nation and emphasizes our obligation so to do. In the case of Mexico the romance of her history as Avell as the wonders of her land and the hope of her future renders interest in lier people and in their wel- fare easy. Among the many authorities consulted in the prepara- tion of this work, the author would acknowledge special indebtedness to — History of Columbus, Washington Irving. Houses and Home-Life of the American Aborigines, L. H. Morgan (Government Printing-Office, Washington, D. C, 6 PREFACE. 1881) ; also an article by the same writer in Johnson's Cyclo- pedia, entitled '' Architecture of American Indians." Articles by Ad. F. Bandelier, Eeport of Peabody Museum, 1880. Native Eeligions of Mexico and Peru, Eevelle (1884). Despatches of Hernandez Cortez, with introduction by George Folsom (New York, 1843). Memoirs of Captain Bernal Diaz. History of Mexico, by the Abbe Clavigero. Origin of Written Language, Eev. James F. Eiggs, Mexico. Mexico, by Brantz Mayer. History of Mexico, H. H. Bancroft. Causes and Consequences of the Mexican War, Wil- liam Jay. Mexico and the United States, Gorham D. Abbott, D.D., LL.D. Twenty Years among the Mexicans, by Miss Melinda Eankin (1875). Publications of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, of the American Board of Foreign Missions and the Bible Society Eecord. For the use of valuable engravings which add much to the interest of its pages the book is indebted to the courtesy of the Missouri and Pacific Railway Company, St. Louis, and to the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, New York, to whom the thanks of author and publisher are hereby gratefully tendered. CONTENTS CHAPTER I. A HIDDEN CONTINENT. PAGE Columbus the Pathfinder.— The first Sight of Mexicans.— The Delusion of the Age.— Mexico before the Conquest.— Geogra- phy of the Country. — Climate. — Productions 17 CHAPTER II. EARLY SETTLERS OF MEXICO. Votan.— Whom did he Find in Mexico ?— Old Paths thither.— A New Nation.— Toltec Remains.— The History of a Word . 29 CHAPTER III. THE VALLEY REPEOPLED. Village Indians.— Dialects.— Aztecs.— Maps and Histories.— Character. — Mexico Founded.- The City Described.— Tez- cuco. — Ruined Cities. — Communistic Society. — Pueblos ... 36 CHAPTER IV. LAWS AND LAWGIVERS. Mistakes of Early Historians.— Indian Republics.— Modern In- dian Communism.— The Aztec Clan.— Secession. — The Tez- cucans.— The Confederacy.— Tribal Council.— The Chief-of- Men.— Tribal Laws 50 7 8 CONTENTS. CHAPTER V. ON THE WAR-PATH. PAGE A Nation of Warriors. — To Arms ! — Armor. — Dress. — Commis- sary Department. — The Fight for Chapultepec. — The Price of an Election. — Tactics in War. — The Banner of the Tribe. — The Captives. — Triumphal Processions. — Foray in 1497. — Effects of War 61 CHAPTER VI. SACRED PLACES AND PEOPLE. The Home of the Gods.— Star-Worship.— The One True God.— An Aztec Martyr. — The Temple of Hungry Fox. — The War- God and his Brother. — The Hearer of Prayer. — Feathered Serpent and his Work. — Too much Pulque. — The Temple of the Fair God. — Great Teocallis. — Priests 70 CHAPTER VII. THE HABITATIONS OF CRUELTY. The Aztec Hereafter. — Human Sacrifices. — Cannibalism. — Pen- ances. — Self-Sacrifice. — Year-Binding 83 CHAPTER VIII. CIVILIZATION OF MEXICO. Surprising Ignorance. — A New Species of God/— Freight-Car- riers. — Merchants. — A Mexican Home. — Currency. — Markets. — Baths. — Gardens. — Tyranny of Custom. — Manners. — Cook- ery. — Dress. — Appearance. — Art-Work. — Funerals 92 CHAPTER IX. AMONG THE BOOKS. Origin of Written Language. — Indian Written Languages Com- pared. — Varieties in Penmanship. — Mexican Authors. — Their Romish Imitators. — Celebrated Manuscripts. — Make-Up of an Aztec Book. — Language. — An Indian Poet. — Numeration. — Measurement of Time 105 CONTENTS. 9 CHAPTER X. CHILD-LIFE IN MEXICO. PAUE Endurance. — Obedience to Parents.— Penances. — An Indian Baby. — Naming a Man. — Housekeeping in Anabuac. — Steps in Education. — Discipline. — Public Scliools. — Girls' Work in tbe Temple. — Boys' Work. — Amusements. — Mimic War. — Fisbing-Day. — Snaring Game. — Cadet-Life. — Graduating- Day. — Marriage. — A Midnigbt Eevel. — Motberly Care.— Sick Children. — Baby-Victims. — The Youth of Hungry Fox ... 1 1 3 CHAPTER XI. A GATHERING CLOUD. Strange News in Mexico. — Aztec Tyranny. — Old Hopes Re- vived. — Portents. — Montezuma's Fear. — The Earliest Spanish Colonies. — Slave-Hunts. — Grijalva's Expedition. — Hernandez Cortez. — Unwelcome Guests. — Soldier-Missionaries. — First Lessons in Christianity 128 CHAPTER XII. NEW SPAIN. A Cool Reception. — Taking Possession with the Sword. — The First Tribute. — Palm Sunday. — A Welcome at Last. — The Camp on the Beach. — Teuthile. — Marina, the first American Christian. — Presents to Montezuma. — Startling Despatches. — Presents sent Home to Spain. — " Come no Farther." — First Sermon to Aztecs. — A Great Surprise. — Totonacan Visitors. — Exploration 140 CHAPTER XIII. CEMPOALLA TO TLASCALA. New Seville. — Hospitalities. — New Allies. — Cortez as a Mission- ary. — The New Encampment. — The Thin Edge of a Wedge. — Anxiety in Mexico. — Another Aztec Embassy. — Breach Widens Between Old Foes. — Spanish Duplicity. — A Religious Visit. — Change of Public Sentiment in Mexico. — March from Cempoalla. — Sinking the Ships. — Beauties of the Road. — A Frigid Zone.— A Highland Chief.— Tlascala.— A Week of Battles.— Spanish Victories in Peace and in War 151 10 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XIV. HO FOR THE CAPITAL ! PAGE Are they Gods, or are they Men? — An Aztec Plot. — Reception in Chohila. — The Snare Discovered. — Cruel Vengeance. — The Business of Conversion. — One Pay of Gospel Light. — More Aztec Gifts. — Aztec Position Explained. — The Road to Mex- ico Blocked. — Ascending a Volcano. — Another Embassy . . 169 CHAPTER XV. MEXICO REACHED AT LAST. First View of City. — A Thrilling Message. — An Indian Fort- ress. — Beautiful Iztapalapa. — Reception in Mexico. — Indian Etiquette. — Montezuma's Visit. — His Story. — The Spanish Quarters. — Visiting Montezuma. — A Sermon. — Two Parties in Mexico. — More Preaching. — Were the Aztecs Cannibals? — The Secret Chamber 183 CHAPTER XVI. A CAPTIVE CHIEF. The Aztecs at Home. — Bad News from Villa Rica. — Plots and Counterplots. — The Spaniards not Gods. — Seizure of Monte- zuma. — Spanish Justice. — The Humbled Chief. — The Pleas- ures of Captivity. — Search for a Harbor. — A Southern Colony 195 CHAPTER XVII. THE AZTECS REBEL. Aztec Conspiracy. — The Tezcucan Chief. — Arrested. — Aztecs Swear Allegiance. — A Spanish Quarrel. — Cortez Demands the Temple. — Fears of Aztec Revolt.— The Spaniards Consent to Go. — Shipbuilding. — Enemies from Cuba. — Cortez makes Friends of Enemies. — Conquers Narvaez. — Bad News from Mexico. — Return of Cortez. — Alvarado's Cruelty. — Aztec Ven- geance. — Siege of the Garrison. — The Death of Montezuma. — A Fight on the Temple-Roof. — The War-God has a Tum- ble.— Moving Fortresses. — Bridges Destroyed.— The Noche Triste 203 CONTENTS. 11 CHAPTER XVIII. MEXICO SHALL BE CONQUERED ! PAGE A Eally at Tlacopan. — Eetreat to Tlascala. — Victory at Otum- ba. What will Tlascala Say? — Indian Hospitality. — Juan Yuste. — An Aztec Bribe. — A Successful Foray. — Preparations to Attack Mexico. — Death of the White Man's Friend. — Over- looking Mexico. — Deserted Tezcuco. — New Allies. — Subduing the Valley. — New Boats. — Plans for Attack. — Cutting the Causeway. — Spaniards on a High Altar.— Fire and Sword. — The Tribes Rally. — Cortez Destroys the City.— Guatemozin Captured ' . 221 CHAPTER XIX. THE HEEL OF THE OPPRESSOR. Ruined Mexico. — Extending Conquests. — Search for South Seas. Rebuilding the City. — Guatemozin Betrayed. — Spanish Cru- elty .^-Converting the People. — Cortez Sends for Missionary Helpers. — Their Character. — Spiritual and Financial Success. — Conservative Indians. — The Monks Befriend them. — Abuses of Power. — Enslavement of Indians. — The Council of the In- dies. — Rebellion. — The Chiefs on Horseback. — Riveting the Chains. — Draining Lake Zumpango. — Teaching the Indians . 238 CHAPTER XX. VICEROY ALT Y. Sufferings of Colonists. — The Seven Cities of Cibola. — Uncivil- izing Mexico. — The World's Treasure-House. — New- World Gold for Old- World Wars.— Buying Heaven with Cash.— The Pope and his Imperial Partner. — The Inquisition Set Up. — Expulsion of Jesuits. — Splendid Churches. — Mexican Chris- tianity a Failure. — Those Gachupines/ — Loyalty to Spain. — Hidalgo's Shout for Independence. — His Betrayal and Death. — Nursing a Roman Viper. — The First Congress and its Con- stitution. — Morelos and his Heroes. — His Martyrdom .... 259 12 CONTENTS, CHAPTER XXI. MEXICAN INDEPENDENCE. PACK Liberty Bides her Time.— Shall the Bourbons be Restored ?— Iturbide's Blow for Independence. — The Plan of Iguala. — Victoria Guadalupe.— The Emperor Iturbide.— His Mistake. —His Exile.— His Death.— The Last Foothold of Spain. — Benito Juarez. — Rise of the Church Party. — Tlie Law of Juarez. — The Constitution of 1857. — European Interference. — King-Making, and what Came of It. — Maximilian's Death. — Progress of Constitutional Liberty. — Present State of Mex- ico ... . 277 CHAPTER XXIL TO MEXICO BY EAIL. The Mountain of the Star.— Vera Cruz.— The Castle.— Through the Hot Lands. — Climbing the Sierras. — Indian Hucksters. — Orizaba. — The City of Mexico. — Its Mountain-Sentinels. — Gardens. — Markets. — Water- Works. — Grand Plaza. — Paseos. — Alameda. — Memories of the Inquisition. — Churches for Sale. — The Grand Cathedral.— Aztec Relics. — The Mexican Fourth of July. — Streets and Houses. — City Improvements. — Educa- tion. — Illiteracy. — Worshipers. — Street Scenes. — Chapultepec. — Sulphur-Factory in a Volcano. — The Two Virgins. — Their Political Friends 307 CHAPTER XXIIL THE LAND : ITS PRODUCTS AND CITIES. Present I^imits of Mexico. — Its Harbors. — Prospective Changes. — Tunneling Volcanoes. — Road-Makers. — Unexplored Re- gions.— The Siesta.— The Seasons.— Want of Forests.— The Cactus Family. — The Maguey and Pulque. — Intemperance. — *' An Agricultural Cosmos." — Mines. — Indian Character. — The Mozo. — Railroading. — Burros. — Mexican Homes. — Popula- tion. — The Hacienda.— Old Tezcuco and Tula. — Monterey and its »Suburbs. — Chihuahua. — Zacatecas. — Guanajuato. — Queretaro. — Guadalajara. — Puebla 336 CONTENTS. 13 CHAPTER XXIV. "A LIGHT THAT SHINETH IN A DARK PLACE." PAGE The Gospel in tlie Sixteenth Century. — Political Influence of Luther's Bible. — Romish Antagonism. — Bible Translations. — The Translation of Enzinas. — Escape from the Inquisition. — The Iron Rule in Mexico. — The Circulation of the Bible in Mexico. — A Reading-Circle in the Fields. — The Story of San Roman. — Miss Rankin the Pioneer Missionary. — Blessed Re- sults . 360 CHAPTER XXV. REGENERATION OF MEXICO. Praying in an Unknown Tongue. — Francisco Agailar. — The Church of Jesus. — Death of Aguilar. — Rev. H. C. Riley. — Conversion of Manuel Aguas. — His Death. — Rev. James Hickey. — The Mission Work by the Baptist Church (South). — The Presbyterian Church. — The Presbyterian Church (South). — Friends. — Methodist Episcopal Church. — Methodist Episcopal Church (South).— The A. B. C. F. M.— Martyrs.— Native Evangelists. — Devoted Service. — Glorious Outlook . . 380 ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE Stucco-Eelief, Palanques, Chiapas ..... Frontispiece. POPOCATAPETL ("ThE HiLL THAT SmOKES") 23 Plantation of Maguey {Agave Americana) 25 Ancient Toltec Palace at Tula (orTullan), Mexico . . 33 Ruins in Yucatan 43 A Pueblo (Communal Dwelling) in New Mexico .... 45 A Taos Pueblo 47 Mexican Indian Mat-Makers (Modern) 59 Mexican God of War, Huitizilapochtli, or Humming- bird 73 Temple of Tikal, a Suburb of Flores, Yucatan .... 77 Great Sacrificial Stone of the Aztecs, Mexico .... 79 Aztec Goddess of Death 85 Traders on the Canal (Modern) 95 The Splendid Trogon of Mexico 97 Indigenos OF Northern Guatemala .133 Map of the Mainland of Yucatan, Mexico ....... 134 Present Inhabitants of Merida, Yucatan 137 Orizaba, as seen from the Mexico and Vera Cruz Eatl- ROAD 153 Map of the March to Mexico 154 Transcontinental Profile of Mexico 166 Mexican Basket-Sellers 168 Pyramid of Cholula 173 Near View of Popocatapetl 181 Map of the Valley of Mexico 186 Map of Mexico and Tezcuco 204 Mexican Teocallis 215 Peltblo of Northern Mexico 219 The Valley of Tula, Mexico 231 15 16 ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE Food- Vender 237 The Great Cathedral op the City of Mexico 241 Church of Teotihuacan, Mexico • ... 249 Refreshments for the Hungry (Mexico) 257 A PUEBLOj AS NOW EXISTING IN NeW MeXICO . . • . 263 Miguel Hidalgo 271 Barrack at Saltillo -. . 277 High Bridge on the Mexico and Vera Cruz Railway . 281 Benito Juarez 287 Church of San Domingo, City of Mexico 298 Mexican Officers 301 Street in Vera Cruz 308 Indian Hut in the Tierra Caliente 311 City of Mexico (Distant View) . . 313 The City of Mexico 315 Terminus of Lake Chalco Canal, Mexico City 317 Merchants' Bazaar, Mexico 322 Seller of Bird-Cages, Mexico 323 Mexican Market- Woman 325 A Mexican Senora 326 Chapultepec Castle 329 Summit of Iztaccihuatl, Mexico 330 On the Canal, near Mexico City 337 The Ox-Cart 338 Water-Peddler, Mexico 340 Gathering the Juice of the Maguey for Pulque . . .341 Shop for the Sale of Pulque 343 Native Indian Abode 347 Making Tortillas, Mexico 348 Mexican Water-Works 349 City of Monterey, Mexico 353 City of Queretaro 357 Washing at the Well 360 Monterey 375 Church of San Francisco, Monterey 376 ABOUT MEXICO. CHAPTER I. A HIDDEN CONTINENT. UNTIL Christopher Columbus, by his voyage across the Atlautic, had proved that the world is rouud, no one in Europe thought of going westward to reach India. Merchants and travelers took the old caravan- routes through Syria and the Valley of the Euphrates, or crossed Egypt and went by the Red Sea. Every path to the land of gold led men eastward. Marco Polo, a Venetian traveler of the thirteenth century, journeyed by these old paths so far east that he stood on the pine-clad hills of Xipangu (Japan) and looked out on the broad Pacific Ocean. He supposed that this was one of those great flat seas by which the flat world was encircled, and that if a vessel ventured too far upon it contrary winds might blow such unwary sailors over the edge of the world. Columbus, who was a student as well as a sailor, read the adventures of Marco Polo and other travelers, and came to quite a different con- clusion. If the world is round, as he believed, the water which Marco Polo saw stretching far to the east was the same ocean as that which washed the western shores of Europe. Japan and India could be reached 2 n 18 ABOUT MEXICO. by a vessel from Europe steered due west across the At- lantic Ocean. For eighteen long years Columbus talked and dreamed of this voyage. At last, in the year 1492, after many disheartening delays, he sailed from the harbor of Palos, in Spain, with a little fleet of vessels provided by his sovereigns, Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Cas- tile, king and queen of the united Spains. It was on this voyage to India that Columbus discovered the little island of Guana-hane, one of the Bahamas, named by him ^^ San Salvador." He supposed it to be one of the outlying islands of Asia, and that by pushing on still farther toward the west he Avould soon reach that con- tinent. His great desire was to open up to his coun- trymen a new path to the Spice Islands, the pearl-fish- eries and the mines of gold, silver and precious stones of which they so fondly dreamed, and, better still — for Columbus was an earnest Christian — to tell the story of the cross to its heathen people. He hoped also to build up a new empire for Spain and to become its viceroy, with power to transmit the office to his posterity. He returned to Spain with the news of his discovery, but went back once and again to pursue his search for India, expecting to find some gate through tliese western islands to that country. How strong was his hope is shown by the fact that on his third and last voyage he took with him Arabic interpreters, so that when he met any Moham- medans — at that time the rulers of India — he would be able to hold conversations with them in a language un- derstood by all followers of Mohammed. We can scarcely imagine the ignorance of those times. In 1502, Yasco Nunez de Balboa, a Spanish explorer, climbed to the top of the moimtains on the Isthmus of A HIDDEN CONTINENT. 19 Darien and looked oif over the vast expanse of water toward the west, never realizing that he had discovered a new ocean or that the peak on which he stood formed part of the backbone of a new world. For many years after the western shore of the Atlantic Avas discovered all who landed upon it supposed they were in some part of Asia. They called those countries " the West Indies," and the people of both North and South America " Indians." . In 1502, Columbus was earnestly examining the coast of Central America, hoping to find some passage like the Straits of Gibraltar which w^ould prove to be the loug- looked-for gateway to the land of gold. Indeed, so eager was he in this vain pursuit that he lost sight of everything else. It was during this voyage that Europeans obtained their first glimpse of Mexican wealth and civilization. One party from the little squadron had landed on an island near Cape Honduras to obtain a supply of fresh water. While on the beach they saw a canoe of unusu- al size making its way toward the point on which they stood. Its passengers and crew made a large company ; they seemed to be strangers, and to have come from a long distance. Fernando Columbus, who was with his father at the time, describes the boat as "eight feet wide and as long as a galley, though formed of the trunk of a single tree and shaped like those common in the islands. In the middle of the canoe there was an awning made of palm-leaves, not unlike those of the Venetian gondolas, which formed so close a covering as to protect whatever it contained against the rain and waves. Under this awning were women and children, goods and merchandise. The canoe was rowed by twenty-five men." 20 ABOUT MEXICO. The admiral gave thanks to God for having afforded him samples of the commodities of those countries with- out exposing his men to toil or danger. He ordered such things to be taken as seemed most valuable, amongst which were cotton coverlets and tunics with- out sleeves, curiously worked and dyed with various col- ors ; coverings for the loins, of similar material ; large mantles, in which the female Indians wrapped them- selves like the Moorish women of Granada ; long wooden swords with channels on each side of the blade, edged with sharp flints that cut the naked body as well as steel ; copper hatchets for cutting wood, bells of the same metal, and crucibles in Avhich to melt the metal. For provisions they had roots and grains, a sort of wine made of maize, resembling English beer, and great quan- tities of almonds "^^ of the kind used by the people of New Spain for money. The Spaniards were very much struck by the modest bearing of these new comers, and considered them su- perior to any natives they had yet seen. Columbus ordered their canoe to be restored to them, with Euro- pean goods in exchange for those he had taken. He then let them all go except one old man who was more intelligent than the rest, and who seemed to be their chief — or cacique, as such a person is called in Spanish histories of the New World. This cacique could understand the language spoken in Honduras, and through his interpreters from that country Columbus heard about the old man's home at the west. The historian adds : ^' Although the admiral had heard so much from the Indians concerning the wealth, polite- ness and ingenuity of these ])eople, yet, considering that * Cacao-beans, of which chocohite is made. A HIDDEN CONTINENT. 21 these couD tries lay to leeward, and he could sail thither from Cuba whenever he might think fit, he determined to leave them for another occasion, and persisted in his design of endeavoring to discover the strait across the continent, that he might open the navigation of the South Sea, in order to arrive at the spice c-ountries." How absorbed Columbus was we may know when we read the whole story of this neglected opportunity; for such it proved to be. The natives of Honduras had pictured Mexico as rich and populous beyond all com- parison. They dazzled the Spaniards with stories of people who could afford to wear as their ordinary ap- parel crowns and bracelets and anklets of gold, with garments heavy with golden embroidery ; of others, who had chairs and tables inlaid with gold, and who ate and drank out of vessels of the same precious metal. They professed to be familiar with Indian coral and the spices which had made the trade w^ith India so valuable to Spain. Everything in their own land of which the Spaniards boasted these Indians claimed would be found in that wonderful country toward the setting sun. Even the ships and cannon and horses with which they had been at first so astonished actually figured in some of these fancy-sketches of Mexico. But, though Columbus was convinced that he was in the neighborhood of a rich and civilized people, he had no time to stop by the way until he had fulfilled his great commission from Heaven to enrich the Church from the treasures of India, and to s^et up the standard of Christ among its heathen people. He supposed that he was near one of the provinces of Tartary and that he would soon reach the Ganges, and he was fired with a holy ambition to be the first son of the Church who 22 ABOUT MEXICO. should tell the story of redemption on the banks of this sacred river of the Hindus. He did not dream that be- tween him and the object of his search two continents stretched their vast length almost from one polar circle to another, and that behind them rolled the widest ocean in the world. It was with this great purpose in view that Columbus resolutely turned away from this half-opened door to Mexico and left the discovery and conquest of that country to a man who had the same idea of going west- ward to India, and the same desire to bring the heathen into the fold of the Church, but who had time to turn aside to take possession of all the gold-mines that opened along his way. We need not turn our back on Mexico because Colum- bus did. Let us lift the veil by which it was so long hidden from the European world and look at this beau- tiful land as it appeared BEFORE THE CONQUEST. Mexico, which occupies the tapering southern end of Noi*th America, was then held by various tribes, the chief of which were called "Aztecs.^' Yucatan, which had recently been brought under tribute by these warlike people, was the southern limit of their conquest. Their other boundaries are unknown save that with different kindred tribes they occupied all of what is now known as Mexico. For grandeur of scenery and variety of climate and productions this country is unsurpassed by any other on the globe. The great mountain-chain which runs along the Pacific shore of both continents Avidens out in this region into lofty table-lands. One of these, called POPOCATAPETL ("tHE HILE THAT SMOKES "). 24 ABOUT MEXICO. the " Valley of Mexico," is nearly one thousand square miles in extent and from five thousand to eight thousand feet above the level of the sea. Three hundred yeai-s ago one-tenth part of this plateau was covered with lakes, both salt and fresh. These have dwindled in size since those early days, probably because the surrounding hills have been stripped by the invaders almost bare of the luxuriant forests w^hich once covered them. Lofty hills form a rampart on three sides of this table-land. On the north it opens out on a great natural road lead- ing along the level mountain-tops for a distance of twelve hundred miles. It was probably along this great highway that many of the early settlers of Mex- ico came from their homes at the North. Rising out of this vast mountain-mass are snow-capped peaks, one of which — the highest land on our continent — is a mile and a half higher than the lofty platform on which it stands. Along the nineteenth parallel of lati- tude rise five volcanoes. Two of these overlooked the Aztec capital and bore the Indian names they still hold. Popocatapetl — " the hill that smokes " — has been doing its best to deserve that title ever since it received it; Iztaccihuatl — " the woman in white " — is so called from its fancied resemblance to the form of a woman lying with her face upturned to the sky, a snowy robe folded across her breast. Descending on each side from this rocky platform to the sea, the traveler passes over three great natural ter- races, each of which has a different climate and produc- tions differing with the elevation. In the Aztec country, which lay entirely within the tropics, the whole scale of vegetation could be found. Forests of evergreen oaks and pine flourished on the mountains, below the snow- A HIDDEN CONTINENT. 25 line, with wheat and other northern cereals. Below these, in richer variety, were the flowers and fruits of the temperate zone. Maize, which is found everjAvhere in Mexico, attains its most luxuriant growth in this mild- er climate. The cactus family grows in almost endless forms, the maguey with its rich yellow clusters of flowers, and other trees and plants native to this soil. PLANTATION OF MAGUEY {Agave Americana). The mountains are often cleft by deep ravines in which Nature revels in moisture and warmth and brings out her richest vegetable treasures. Magnificent trees root- ed far below lift their heads into the sunshine, and flow- ering vines clamber everywhere in a wilderness of beau- ty and fragrance. Gay butterflies glance in the sunlight like blossoms on the wing. Air and earth are alive with myriad insects, while birds as rich in flashing plumage as any gem in all the mines of Mexico enliven the woods with songs unheard in otlier tropical countries. Some 26 ABOUT MEXICO. of the most beautiful garden-flowers came from this land. The}^ were first carried to Europe by visitors to Mexico, and thence, after being domesticated in the old gardens of Spain and France, they have found their way back to their native continent as emigrants from the Old World. All the dahlias can trace lineage to some gay beauties that once grew on these mountain-top mead- ows of Mexico. It was years before they could be civ- ilized enough to dress in double sets of petals, and the gardeners of this day have only to let them alone for a while, and they go back to their wild Mexican sin- gleness. It is in the low lands along the sea that we find the luxuriance and variety of tropical vegetation. "Even the sand-dunes,'^ says a recent writer, " blaze in color, lupines in high waving masses of white, yellow and blue, great mats of glittering ice-plants with myriads of rose-colored umbels, lying flat on the white sand, while all the air is sweet Avith fragrance." Here were multitudes of plants which are at home only in Mexico. Among them was the cacao, from which the natives prepared their delicious chocolate, and whose seeds passed from hand to hand instead of coin. The vanilla, which grew only on the seashore, was used then as now for flavoring. The cochineal was also raised on the coast ; it was the insect which fed on the leaves of a cactus-plant. From the dried body of the female was procured a brilliant red color much used by the Aztecs in dyeing their cotton cloth. Next to the bamboo, there is probably no plant which can be used in so many ways as the Mexican agave, or maguey. Of its bruised leaves were made broad sheets of paper, on which the most of Mexican history was A HIDDEN CONTINENT. 27 written. Prepared in another way, these leaves thatched the poor man's cottage. Its thorns served for pins and needles ; its delicate fibres, for thread ; and those which were heavier were twisted into cords or ropes. From its roots a palatable and nutritious food was prepared, while its juices, when fermented, made an intoxicating liquor on which the old Aztecs were accustomed to get drunk. On the coasts there were also forests of mahogany, Brazil-wood, iron-wood, ebony, Campeachy-wood, with numberless varieties of the palm tree. These forests swarmed with small animals, such as tapirs, porcupines, ant-eaters, sloths, monkeys and armadillos, with alliga- tors in the streams. Scorpjons, centipedes and other venomous creatures abounded everywhere. The silk- worm also is indigenous to many parts of the country. Mexico has few rivers of great length, and these are navigable only where they cross the narrow belt of low- land to reach the sea. The mineral wealth of Mexico exceeded that of any other land, not excepting Peru, so famed for its precious metals. Gold was once the staple production of the country, as silver is now. It was found in placers, and was more easily worked than silver. With all that natives and foreigners have taken out of the earth, it is supposed that many valuable mines remain to be dis- covered. Of iron the natives knew nothing, though mountains of solid ore were found when the Spaniards opened this great mineral storehouse. Tin is abundant in Michoacan and Jalisco. Copper is very common, and lead is found in almost every silver-mine. In Oajaca are found amethysts, agates, turquoises and carnelians. The beautiful marbles of Mexico have been used for 28 ABOUT MEXICO. building puq^oses from time immemorial. The Datives employed porphyry and jasper in decoration. Various kinds of greenstone resembling emeralds were found, and were in great demand for ornaments. Amber came from Yucatan, and pearls from California. The salt- lakes of the table-land yielded abundance of that pre- cious commodity, which formed a chief article of com- merce between the people of that region and less favored tribes. CHAPTER II. EARLY SETTLERS OF MEXICO. AMONG the pictures carved on the ancient monu- -^ ments in Mexico are those which represent Yotan, whose history belongs to the earliest dawn of civilization in this Western world. He and his companions are said to have come from a foreign land in ships. They found the people, from the Isthmus to California, clothed in skins, dwelling in caves or rude huts and speaking one language. There are evidences that Votan brought with him to this continent a knowledge of the one true God, which he taught to the people. As we are further told in these traditions that no temples or altars were known in Yotan's day, he must have lived before the Mexican pyramids were built, since these all seem to be designed for places of worship. Votan and his friends married the women of the country, and after establishing a government they made several voyages to their native land. On his return from one of these trips Votan reported that he had been to see the ruins of a building erected by men who intended to climb up on it to heaven, and that the people who lived in its neighborhood said that it was the place where God gave to each family its own language. Who were these aboriginal inhabitants of America whom Votan taught, and when was it that they emerged from their caves and huts to gaze on these first white 29 30 ABOUT MEXICO. men who came to this continent? At some time in their history they no doubt migrated from Central Asia, that cradle of the human race. As to when or by what road they found their way to America we cannot be so sure. A glance at the map of the world will show that away up among the icebergs of the polar circle the north- western corner of America comes so near the north-east- ern corner of Asia that their outlying islands seem like stepping-stones from one continent to the other. The Alaskan Indians, on our side, and their neighbors in Siberia, now find no difficulty in crossing Behring's Straits in their little kyacks, and it is more tlian proba- ble that in the far-away past of which Mexican records tell, some of the wandering tribes of the Old World found their Avay to this continent by this northern road. We hear now of small colonies of Japanese on our western coast Avho have come over by still another route, w^hich can be seen on maps that give the direction of the ocean-currents. One of these great sea-rivers runs north through the Pacific Ocean quite near the eastern shore of Asia until it is opposite Japan; then, turning suddenly, it sweeps due east until it strikes the coast of California. The people of Asia occasionally drift over to America on this ocean-current. Uprooted trees of kinds which do not grow on this continent are found on the shore, and Japanese junks are stranded at the rate of about one every year, and sometimes, it is said, with some of their shipwrecked crew still alive. It is probable that other civilized people succeeded Votan in the possession of Mexico, but until some time in the tenth century no one of them was described. At that period a new nation made its appearance among EARLY SETTLERS OF MEXICO. 31 the shadowy races with which the land was peopled. Tradition says they were white men who came from the north-east in companies, some by sea and some by land ; twenty thousand of these emigrants, led by a dignified old chief, are said to have come at once. They are de- scribed as a good-looking people, wearing long white tunics, sandals and straw hats. They were mostly farmers and skilled mechanics, and were peaceable, orderly and enterprising. They had left their own land, Huehue-Tlapallan, after a struggle of years with the barbarous tribes around them, and made their way south to Mexico — a country with which it is probable they had been familiar as traders. Many suppose that these immigrants were the same people as the Mound- Builders of our own country — that strange, nameless race whose earthworks astonish the archaeologist of to- day. Tools which these old Avorkmen left behind them in the Ohio Yalley and elsewhere are made of a kind of flint which is not found nearer than Mexico. Shells which must have come from the Gulf of Mexico have also been found buried in the graves of the Mound- Builders, showing that ages ago these people must have trafficked with those who lived along its shores. When war disturbed them in their home at the North, the more enterprising of them migrated to Mexico and built cities and temples on the same general plan as those erected by their forefathers, but of so much more substantial mate- rials that many of them have outlasted the centuries which have come and gone since they appeared among the south- ern tribes. These people went by the name of "Toltecs'^ among their Mexican neighbors and successors. When the later tribes came to have a Avritten history — as they did about four hundred years afterward — they ascribed 32 ABOUT MEXICO. all that they knew of civilization to those who pre- ceded them. The Toltecs filled the land with colossal masonry. Many of the temples, pyramids, castles and aqueducts which were in decay when Cortez arrived, in 1519, are supposed to have been built by these people. The half- buried ruins of Tula, or Tullan, one of their great cities, may still have been inhabited at the time of the conquest, but most of the places known to have been built by them were numbered among the antiquities of Mexico when Columbus was near that land, more than twenty years before. In Xochimilco is found a great pyramid with five terraces, built on a platform of solid rock. This rock has been hollowed out, and long galleries with smooth^ glistening sides formed within it. The great pyramid of Cholula, built by the early race, covered forty-five acres of ground and was fourteen hundred feet square at the base. A winding road led to its top, which was flat, with small towers for worship. All these structures were built with their sides squared by the points of the compass. They are now found buried in the depths of vast forests, far away from the haunts of civilized men. As the Indians always seem unwilling to reveal the secret of their ex- istence, many of these are no doubt yet unknown to the white race. The temple of Papantla, fifty miles from Vera Cruz, was hidden in the dense woods west of that city for more than two hundred years after the Spaniards landed on the coast, having been discovered by a party of huutei*s in 1790. This buikling is so old that those who could decipher the picture-language of the Aztecs could not interpret the iiscriptions on its terraced sides, thougli 34 ABOUT MEXICO. when found the characters were almost as fresh as when the ancient sculptors laid down their tools. It is built of ioimense blocks of porphyry put together with mor- tar. A stairway of fifty-seven steps leads to the top, which is sixty feet square. The stone facing of the sides is covered with hieroglyphics of serpents, crocodiles, and other emblems which remind one of the monuments of ancient Egypt. Some, indeed, have supposed that the builders of the old Mexican pyramids belonged to the same family of nations, and have even gone so far as to say that some of the work they left is as old as that of Egypt. Humboldt, who visited some of these ruins, traced their resemblance not only to Egyptian but to Assyrian architecture, and says of their decaying pal- aces, " They equaled those of ancient Greece and Rome in ornamentation.'^ About four hundred years passed away, and the Toltecs disappeared from Mexico ; war, pestilence and famine did their work among these interesting people. They left ac- counts of their nation and polity in carefully written or pictured histories, some of which were extant when Cor- tez came ; none of them can now be found. One of the early Aztec chieftains made a bonfire of some of these books, and the Spaniards, in their fanatical zeal to blot out all traces of heathenism, destroyed libraries of these and other valuable records which would now be worth more to the world than all the monkish legends that ever were written. But there was much that could not be blotted out. The Aztec measurement of time — more perfect ihan any known to the Greeks and the Romans — was taught to them by these old astrologers, who seem to have known the precise length of the tropical year. The ingenious EARLY SETTLERS OF MEXICO. 35 system of picture-writing in use among all the tribes, the more enlightened of their laws and the most refined and humane part of their worship were a legacy from their Toltec predecessors. Very strong light is often thrown on the past by the history of a single word ; the name " Toltec " is an in- stance of this. While many other Mexicans were yet wandering tribes these people came to the valley and began to build the large edifices for which they have since become famous, and to carve the symbols of their faith on the solid rocks about them. Their rude neigh- bors looked on with wonder. They had no word of their own to express the new and strange character of a builder; and when they had need to speak of such a man, they called him a Toltec. CHAPTER III. THE VALLEY BEPEOPLED. AMONG those who became masters of the great table- -^^ land of Anahuac * after the disappearance of the Toltecs were several kindred tribes called Nahuas, or " skilled ones/' who claimed to have entered Mexico at different times from some place at the North. Their civilization, Avhich made them diifer from those tribes that lived by the chase, was shown by their giving up their wandering life and settling down, one after another, as neighbors around Tezcuco, the largest lake on the table- land of Mexico. Thus they became what is known as sedentary, or pueblo (^ tillage ''), Indians. These peo- ple, like other North American tribes, have straight black hair, with a fondness for paint, feathers and gew- gaws. Their nahuatl — the word for language — meant "pleasant sound." This varied as much then among different tribes as is now the case in Mexico, where the people of one Indian village (especially the women) speak a language w^hich those in another — not ten miles distant, perhaps — cannot understand, although they have been neighbors for a century. Like all Indian languages, Aztec proper names had a meaning and were easily written in rude signs or pict- ures. Thus the name of the great chief Nezacoyatl, or " Hungry Fox," was expressed by a picture of a fox, * Meaning " near the water." 36 THE VALLEY BEPEOPLED. 37 and its image, carved in stone, in his lordly pleasure- grounds on the shore of Lake Tezcuco, gave the title and the history of the owner. By giving our readers the English signification of these names they will have some advantages possessed by old Mexican readers, who, it is likely, would have stum- bled as often as we do over the spelling, if not over the pronunciation, of these words. Thus, for instance, Quetzalcohuatl {JcetzcdcowcUUe), a hero-saint who figures in Mexican history, shall be '' Feathered Serpent," and, instead of Huitizilapochtli — that frightful name for their still more frightful war-god — we will say ^' Humming- Bird,'^ which is the decidedly mild interpretation thereof. The Aztec tribe with which our story has most to do were among the latest arrivals on the great table-lands of Mexico. A curious map of their migrations before they came there was still in existence when the Europeans overran the country. It was so different from the maps in use in Spain that the Spanish soldiers who captured it supposed it was an Aztec embroidery-pattern, and sent it as such to the old country. They also had a history of the tribe in picture-writing. This declares that Mexico was peopled by men who came out of a cave and after- ward traveled all over the country on the backs of turtles. Aztlan, the home of the Aztecs, was written with atl, a waved line (^~^— -) — their picture-sign for water — put beside one of a pyramidal temple and a palm tree. We may know by the latter picture that Aztlan was not very far to the north. The Aztecs were a band of fierce savages who took refuge in the swamps near the site of the present City of Mexico after a migratory life elsewhere. It is quite pos- sible to fix the date of this last remove by records kept 38 ABOUT MEXICO. by their more intelligent neighbors. A few of the Tol- tecs no doubt remained in the valley, and they had taught the Alcohuans — a tribe which preceded the Aztecs — who afterward became the most cultured people in Mexico. Their calculations were thus exact enough to guide us in ours, so that we knoAv that the Aztecs entered the Valley of Mexico early in the fourteenth century. Their rec- ords also show that at that time the Aztecs were com- posed of seven related families, or clans, each one of which formed a little community guided by its own chief, and all bearing the same surname. In other words, there were only seven surnames in the w^hole tribe. From the outset these new comers Avere considered intruders, and were obliged to content themselves with a precarious footing on the neutral ground by which, in Indian fashion, the settlements of their neighbors were surrounded. They lived on fish, birds and such water- plants as grew in the swamp, as well as by predatory raids on the peaceful farmers around them. While they were still in this unsettled state the oracle of the tribe is re- ported to have spoken for Humming-Bird, their war- god, in this wise: " I was sent on this journey, and my office it is to carry arms, bows, arrows and shields. War is my chief duty and the object of my coming. I have to look out in all directions, and with my body, head and arms have to do my duty in many tribes, being on the borders and lying in wait for many nations to maintain and gather them, though not graciously.'^ We can picture in imagination the wily old medicine- man who made this speech, and thus fixed the policy of the tribe on a distinctively war-basis. THE VALLEY BEPEOPLED. 39 In 1325, as we learn from their old records, a great change took place in the condition of the Aztecs. Some of the tribe saw on a reedy island on the lake a splendid eagle perched on one of the cactus-plants with which the region abounds. His wings were outstretched toward the rising sun, and he held a writhing serpent in his beak. The old oracle of the tribe was consulted again. He de- cided that this was a token that the gods were smiling on the Aztecs and wished to point out this place as a site on which they ought to build a city. This was begun by sinking piles in the water. On these they first built little thatched cabins, with walls woven out of the reeds they found growing on the lake-shore, and plastered with mud. They called the place Tenochtitlan (or "Stone-cactus City^'), either because of this circumstance or because one of their leading chiefs was called Tenoch {" Stone Cac- tus "). The Aztec capital — for such it became — was afterward named Mexico, after Mexitli, one of their gods. Year after year, as the tribe pushed out and increased in numbers and wealth, the islands on which they lived were linked together and to the mainland by strong cause- ways of stone. The place Mexitli became impregnable to Indian warfare. They continued by means of their long dykes not only to join the island to the mainland, but so to pen up the waters flowing into the lake as to surround the city with deep Avater, and thus defend it in case of a siege. At intervals sluices were cut through the cause- ways, over which openings bridges were throw^n that could be taken up in time of war. It is probable that for many years the tribe owned no other land than that on which their city stood. It was divided into four quarters, or calpullly each having its own chief and temple, council-house, and other public 40 ABOUT MEXICO. buildings. These calpulU were afterward farther sub- divided into communities, each living in houses large enough to contain a small army. The rush huts in time gave place to more substantial edifices, many of which were elegant in design and finish. In Montezuma's day a quarry of soft blood-red stone almost as porous as a sponge was discovered in the mountains near by, and many of the houses in the city were rebuilt of this with fine effect. The city was regularly laid out, with wide, straight, clean streets radiating from the central teocallis, or house of the gods (a plan which was followed throughout Mex- ico), and numerous and beautiful squares. One of these, the principal market-place of the city, Avas sur- rounded by splendid corridors so smoothly paved that they were as slippery as ice. Like Venice, the city was veined with canals, along which the produce of the coun- try was borne in numberless boats into its very centre. A massive stone aqueduct brought an abundance of pure water from a large spring at Chapultepec, a few miles distant. Immense reservoirs cut out of solid rock, with steps leading down to the level of the water, still remain to show the substantial character of Aztec masonry and enterprise. Where the branch streams of this aque- duct crossed the canals they were widened and left open on top, so that the carriers who served out water to fam- ilies could bring their canoes directly under tliese bridge- like reservoirs to be filled, the water being dipped out for them by a man stationed above. The houses of the better class in Mexico were built of stone and were seldom over two stories in height ; they covered a great deal of ground, having large courtyards in the centre. The roofs were flat and terraced, the walls THE VALLEY BEPEOPLED. 41 well whitened and polished, and the floors made of the smoothest plaster and neatly matted. All the walls were very thick and strong, the ceilings being high and gen- erally of wood. Doors were almost unknown and chim- neys unheard of. The houses were usually kept very neatly. Walls were hung with cotton drapeiy in bright colors and curious feather-work. The beds were often curtained and quite comfortable. Though chairs and tables were not found even in the so-called palace of Montezuma, there were low seats which were easy as well as elegant. The house occupied by Montezuma's clan was very lux- urious in its appointments. Its garden was surrounded by balconies supported by marble columns and floored with jasper elegantly inlaid. In the grounds were ten large pools, in which all the different species of water- birds found in Mexico disported themselves. Sea-birds had tanks of salt water. All were kept pure and sweet, filled by pipes leading from the lake or the aqueduct. Three hundred men were constantly employed to take care of these creatures, and a bird-doctor attended to such as were sick. About these tanks there were pleas- ant corridors, where Montezuma and his brother-chiefs often walked to observe the curious habits of these feathered captives. Spanish writers speak also of a great collection of albinos, another of dwarfs and giants and deformed peo- ple, some of whom had been made such to provide curi- osities for the State museum. Besides the large collection of water-birds, there was another one of such as were found in fields and woods. A menagerie of wild beasts had been gathered from every country known to the Mexicans. 42 ABOUT MEXICO. The official residence of the chiefs of Tezcuco had three hundred rooms; some of the terraces on which it stood are still entire and covered with hard cement. Its richly-sculptured stones form an inexhaustible quarry for the house-builders of this age. The neighboring hill, where once was a summer retreat for these luxurious rulei*s, still shows the stone stairways and terraces which adoilied the place. The city was quite embowered in trees and beautified with many parks and gardens. la fact, the botanical garden found at the time of the Span- ish conquest was a model afterward copied in various parts of Europe. Our faith in the glowing descriptions given by Spanish authors of Mexican art and civilization before the con- quest would not survive their many exaggerated and contradictory stories if we could not turn to the testi- mony left by the old inhabitants themselves. While the monuments reared by the Aztecs in the Valley of Mexico have been swept away, the temples and the dwellings far- ther south exist in vast and splendid desolation, proving that from their very beginning these later tribes were familiar with a style of ai'chitecture whose '4avish mag- nificence has never been excelled.'^ A late traveler speaks of the ruins of Kabah as ^^ orna- mented from the very foundation.'^ The cornices run- ning over the doorways would embellish the art of any known era, and "amid a mass of barbarism of rude and uncouth conceptions it stands an offering by American builders worthy tlie acceptance of a polished people." The remains of Mitla — one of tlie lioly cities of Sontli- ern Mexico — are considered the finest in a country which can furnish ruined cities by the score. These remains are situated in a desert j^lace unsheltered by the dense RUINS IN YUCATAN. 44 ABOUT MEXICO. forests which have overgrown and buried so many others. In the dry air the brilliant red and black of its wonder- ful frescoes have never faded. Some gifted architect of a forgotten age has adorned both the inner and the outer walls of these buildings with panels of mosaic so ex- quisitely Avrought that " they can only be matched by the monuments of Greece and Rome in their best days." The rooms have vaulted ceilings and are in pairs, uncon- nected w^ith other apartments, opening out of doors. Some rude artist of a later day has scrawled coarse figures on these walls, showing that the nameless build- ers of Mitla, like the Aztecs and other tribes, had suf- fered from invasions. The terraced roofs of many of these buildings are now heaped by Nature's kindly hand with luxuriant vegetation, and we can see where the Aztecs learned to make their beautiful roof-gardens. Sculptures, paintings, tesselated pavements, luxurious baths, fountains and artificial lakes, are all found in mournful decay in the silent depths of many a wilderness. The cell-like apartments of one of these elegant build- ings in Mitla led its observer to suppose that it was a convent and to name it " The House of the Nuns," but in comparing it with other buildings in Northern Mexico, some of which are now inhabited by pueblo Indians, we find that this must have been one of those joint tenement-houses which Columbus noticed in Cuba, and which form one of the strongest proofs that society throughout Spanish America was communistic. They were generally large and calculated to hold a clan or a number of related families. Some were several stories high and had hundreds of rooms ; in these a population of from one hundred to three thousand found shelter. In the country these fort-like villages were similar to those 46 ABOUT MEXICO. human hives seen to-day in many parts of China where families composed of hundreds of individuals are banded together for mutual protection under one roof, bearing one name. Their communism in living thus finds expression in their houses. The dwellings of these communities were built on what is called the terraced plan. Imagine a house like a huge staircase, in which each story formed a step ten feet high. The whole interior was made up of numerous small square apartments, often arranged in pairs, having no connection with others, rising tier above tier, without any halls or stairways, each story being wider by one row of rooms than the one above it. In ruins now existing in New Mexico it is evident that the inmates used ladders and trap-doors in the floor or ceiling when they pa&sed from one story to another.* Those who came into the house from the outside climbed to the roof of the first story by laddere, never entering, as we do, by doore on the ground-floor. These ladders were drawn up after the inmates were safely housed. The roof of the first story made a shelf on which to plant a ladder for climbing to the roof of the second, unless, as was sometimes the case, all the stories but the first had outside doorways. Each house had one or more rooms set apart as council-chambers for the clan or as places of ^v()rsllip. There must have been many dark rooms in such buildings, but these people lived in stormy times, and their houses were fortresses. The walls, both * The captain sent by Mendoza (the first Spanish viceroy) to search for the famous "Seven Cities" speaks of "excellent good houses of three or four lofts high, wherein are good loilgings and fair chambers, with ladders instead of stairs, and certain cellars {estufas) under- ground, very good and paved. The seven cities are seven small towns, all made with this kind of house*;." 48 ABOUT MEXICO. inside and outside, Avere very thick and strong, plastered so carefully with a kind of white cement that they shone like enamel and led the Spaniards to think that these were palaces whose stones were plated with silver. Bright unfading colors were often used in decoration, and bricks were laid in ornamental courses. Ventilation was had by small apertures placed opposite each other and in a line with loopholes in the outer walls. Chimneys were un-> known to these ancient masons. The cooking for the community was done by a common fire, or by several fires if the clan was a large one. Outside the large cities these communal dwellings were often grouped by the side of some stream and surrounded by cultivated fields and orchards, or oftener on some com- manding hilltop. This was necessary in case of attack from hostile tribes. A group of these massive buildings surrounded by luxuriant trees must have presented a fine appearance. Some were from five to six hundred feet long, with wings. Towers two or three stories high were often added. The building known as the Casa Grande, on San Miguel River, has walls eight feet in thickness and is supposed to have been seven stories high, with a front of eight hundred feet. Near this building was another, with rooms built around a square. The w^hole country in this region (one hundred and fifty miles north-west of Chihuahua) is full of Indian mounds, in which are found stone axes, mills for grinding corn, broken pot- tery, and other tokens that this was once the home of a large and thriving population. In case of war the terraced roofs were heaped with missiles and bristled with defenders. When defeated, the survivors fled for refuge to the caves which abounded THE VALLEY EEPEOPLED. 49 in that mountainous country. Holes large enough for a living-room are found to-day dug out of the face of a precipice, and so high that in one case the mortar which was used in walling up the front of the excavation must have been carried up four hundred feet. These retreats were generally in the most inaccessible places, where it would be difficult with all the skill of modern times to build fortifications. Water was sometimes led to these places by a secret pipe ; others were supplied by cisterns. In a cemented tank which was recently found in one of these cave-dwellings at the Noi'th the print of a little child's hand is seen as plainly as if the small fingers had touched the soft plaster but yesterday. In some cases immense pine trees have grown up amid these ruins, showing ho\y long ago they were forsaken by human beings. CHAPTEK ly. LAWS AND LAWGIV:ERS. WHAT we know of the social organization and gov- ernment of the Aztec and kindred tribes has come down to us mostly through Spanish sources^ as, excepting some pictures carved on temple-walls and on monuments, most of their early records were swept away at the time of the conquest. But these foreign writers, knew so lit- tle of the peculiarities of the people they professed to de- scribe that their accounts are often contradictory. Thus a great empire is spoken of by one writer as ruled by the despot Montezuma. Kings elect him to his high office. He is surrounded by a great retinue of heredi- tary nobility, and princes from a score of provinces are obliged to attend him as hostages for the good behavior of their people, while a harem of a thousand dark-eyed beauties graces his splendid halls. On the other hand, Cortez informs Charles V. that some of these tribes have a republican form of government. Such, for instance, were the Cholulans, a powerful mercantile tribe about sixty miles from Mexico, and tlie Tlascalans, a race of bold mountaineers whom Cortez met and conquered on his way to that city. Of Tlascala he says : " It resem- bles the States of Venice, Genoa and Pisa, since the supreme authority is not reposed in one pei*son. In war all unite and have a voice in its management and 50 LAWS AND LAWGIVERS. 51 direction.'' Besides these republics, there were many in- dependent tribes. At the very door of the capital was Tezcuco, whose territory rivaled that of the Aztecs in extent, while its history, as related by Tezcucan writers to their adopted countrymen of Spain, shows a line of monarchs some of whom were claimed to be the intel- lectual peers of Socrates, David and Solomon. While the Tezcucans took precedence of the Aztecs with re- gard to culture, the Zapotecs of the South defied them as warriors. We learn from Cortez that no Aztec ever dared to set foot on their territory. There is nothing stranger in the history of the Aztecs than the quiet behavior of the people when their so- called emperor was taken captive. During a morning call at his palace he is arrested by Cortez, and after a brief explanation is carried in his litter through the streets by his weeping nobles to the quarters of an armed band of foreigners and left there a prisoner, to guide the affairs of his realm by their permission and under their direction. Nothing explains the inconsis- tencies of this relation or dispels the mystery which surrounds this Indian potentate until we study the so- cial customs which still prevail among the aborigines of America and examine the deserted homes and tem- ples of the very tribes in question. Such a study clears up many of the mistakes of early historians. We find everywhere evidences of a state of society so widely dif- ferent from that existing in Europe as to be unintelligible there. Cortez speaks of his host as Senor Montezuma — ^" senor " being a title applied to an ordinary Spanish gentleman — while in the same letter he describes the princes and the lords who formed the court of this Indian ruler. Other writers are more consistent, and, 52 ABOUT MEXICO. boldly jumping to the conclusion that this was a great empire with a sovereign like their own, the victories they describe are, of course, greatly magnified. That this Avas the impression of Mexico gained by the rude Spanish soldiery we know from the fact that when they first saw the beautiful cities of the valley in their glorious setting of mountain and lake they feared to grapple with a people whose civilization in some respects outshone their own, and but for the dauntless courage and ambition of Cortez they would have turned back on the very thresh- old without their coveted prize. Two descendants of Tezcucan chiefs, who afterward described their country for the benefit of European readers, give their history the same coloring, claiming the rank of emperors for their ancestors. Further research has shown that all these w^ere fanciful theories, and that not only in Cholula and Tlascala, but throughout Mexico, the republican form of government prevailed. When the Aztecs came into the valley, they were a group of seven distinct but related families, all speak- ing one language and worshiping the same gods. The strange, hard syllables of their seven surnames were per- l^etuated among them until some time near the close of the seventeenth century — almost a hundred years after the Spanish conquest. These families held their lands in common, as all American Indians do, and it is probable that long before they forsook their huts in the swamp for substantial stone houses they lived together on the com- munal plan. In Ste^^hens's Travels in Yucatan we have a glimpse of Indian village-life as it existed then. The author says : " Tlie food is prepared at one hut, and every family sends for its portion; which explains a singular spectacle we had seen on our arrival — a pro- LAWS AND LAWGIVERS. 63 cession of women and children, each carrying an earthen bowl containing a quantity of smoking-hot broth, all coming down the same road and dispersing among the different huts. This custom has existed for an unknown length of time/^ Like their neighbors, these Aztecs held as their own an undefined territory over which they might extend their city as they chose. As we have seen, the ground on which Mexico stood was nearly all reclaimed from the salt marshes of Lake Tezcuco. It had about it a fringe of floating gardens which in part supplied the city mar- kets, although Avith the increase of population a still lar- ger supply was drawn from the fields and the orchards of tribes they had forced to pay tribute. The city had four calpuUi, or wards, each of which was governed by its own chief and had its own temple and public buildings. These wards were further subdivided as the tribe increased in numbers. Not only was each ward sovereign in its own territory, but each of its sub- divisions was an independent organization so far as its local interests were concerned. The business of the tribe was transacted in the cen- tral council-house — teepan, or house of the community. This building fronted the great open square in the heart of the city and had a tower for defence and lookout. It is reasonable to suppose that it was this large building which was described by Spanish historiaus as Monte- zuma's palace. As the dwelling of the rich and power- ful clan to which the chief-of-men belonged, the tribal council was probably held within its chambers, that being the custom through all the subdivisions of the tribe. While the settlement on the lake was still new one of 64 ABOUT MEXICO. these original Aztec claDs, or kins, seceded in some family, quarrel and proceeded to set up for itself on the main- land. In 1473 these divided clans had a fierce struggle on the battlefield ; the Aztecs were finally left masters. In punishment for their offence against the tribe, the Tlatilucos, as the seceders were called, were degraded by the tribal council to the rank of women ; no male Indian could fall lower than that. Their young men were denied the rank of warriors and became mere burden-bearers for their victorious brethren. In the peace which followed, the vanquished men were set to w^ork on the great teocallis which the Aztecs were then building. After years of alienation the Tlatilucos were conditionally restored t»j their former rank and allowed their birthright as war- riors, but the two parties never ceased to be bitter enemies. The old hatred was only smothered, and broke out afresh in the time of the Spanish invasion, when an opportunity was taken to pay off old scores, with interest, and those who had been seceders were in league with the enemies of the Aztecs. Among the tribes which had settled in the valley be- fore the Azteas built their island-city were the Alcoliuans, afterward called Tezcucans, after their city, Tezcuco. They were a more humane and cultivated people than the Aztecs, upon whom, from the first, they seem to have looked down as an inferior race. As they advanced in wealth and civilization they extended their conquests to- ward the north. About one hundred years before the Europeans made their appearance in the valley, the Tezcucans — wlio were on the losing side in a conflict witli their neighbors, the Tepanacs, who appear at that time to have been masters of the table-land — entered into a league with the Aztecs LA WS AND LA WGIVLRS. 55 and Tlacopans. In gratitude for the valuable assistance rendered by the former tribe at a time when their nation was nearly crushed, the Tezcucans gave their once-despised neighbors the tribute they levied on the conquered Tepa- nacs, and henceforth the Aztecs were masters of the val- ley. The three allied tribes agreed to stand by each other under all circumstances. In any war in which all united the spoil was divided according to terms agreed upon among themselves, Tezcuco and Mexico, as the largest tribes, taking the lion's share. Each of the con- federate powers was absolute in its own territory, and might carry on war and levy tribute for itself. These tribes lived in friendship for about one hundred years, when, as might have been expected, they fell out over their plunder. By this time the Aztecs had succeeded in bringing an immense territory under tribute, carrying their banners in triumph from the Atlantic to the Pacific and as far south as Guatemala and Yucatan. The whole government of their nation was organized on a strictly war-basis, with a general at its head. The commander-in-chief of the Aztecs was elected for life or during good behavior. The office was not in any sense hereditary, although Montezuma, the chief in power at the time of the Spanish conquest, was the nephew of his predecessor, " the bold and bloody Ahuitzotl." The old warriors of the tribe, the head-chiefs of the confederate tribes and the leading priests were the electors of this officer. These electors constituted a tribal council, which was the fountain of all power, religious and civil. They not only elected the chief and deposed him if he dis- pleased the tribe, but after his inauguration they decided all questions in peace or in war. The chief seems to have been an executive of their decrees, which, like those 56 ABOUT MEXICO. of old Venice, were despotic, and often cruel. The man chosen by this council bore the title of " chief-of-men " (tlaca-tecuJitli). Among the Aztecs the chief had an associate in of- fice whose business it was to look after the revenues of the tribe. This man had the strange title of ^^snake- woman" (cohua-cohuatl), meaning, probably, a mate. From their first appearance in history these warlike people had subsisted on the plunder taken from other tribes, so that whoever had the care of the revenues from this source had the life of the nation in his hands. This associate chief went through the same ceremonies at the time of his inauguration, and wore the same dress, as the " chief-of-men," and in time of emergency he w^as ex- pected to head the army. Tlascala had four chiefs, who acted in concert ; the Zapotecs had a high priest or divine ruler, and the Tez- cucans also had but one. It is a fact established by one of the oldest sculptures in Mexico that the custom of double headship was common there from the earliest times. A nameless artist has given us on the walls of Palenque a picture representing the two chiefs in their official regalia — the very dress which Montezuma wore, as described by Spanish writers. Among the qualifications which were required in the chief-of-men were gravity and dignity of manner, fluency of speech and bravery in war. The prolonged ordeal through which each candidate for ordinary chieftainship was called to pass was a test of his character and of his fitness for office which none but those possessed of every Indian virtue could endure, aud any one selected from among those thus distinguished could scarcely fail to be wortliy of public trust. The candidate was obliged to LAWS AND LAWGIVERS. 57 pass through four days and nights of torment. He ate but little, and that of the poorest food ; he was sur- rounded every hour by a crowd who subjected him to every possible indignity ; he was jeered at, taunted and scourged until he was bleeding and exhausted. This over, he spent a year in close retirement and abstinence. After another four days and nights of the most rigorous and cruel tests of his patience and his fortitude, he was brought out in triumph to enjoy once more the society of friends and allowed to dress and feast at will. The head-chief wore his hair tied up on the top of his head with a narrow band of leather dyed red. As badges of their office the ^^chief-of-men" and his as- sociate wore certain ornaments which it was death for any one else to assume. One of the green stones so much ad- mired in those days was hung from the bridge of the nose ; a golden lip-ring w^as another appendage. Wristbands of exquisite feather-work, armbands and anklets of gold elaborately chased, added to the brilliancy of his attire. Montezuma is described as wearing a large square man- tle of richly-embroidered cotton cloth tied about his neck by two of its knotted corners, a broad sash with fringed ends draped about his loins, sandals with golden soles and thongs of embossed leather. His garments were sprinkled with precious stones and pearls, with a long and hand- some tuft of green feathers fastened on the top of his head and hanging down his back. At the time of his introduction to Europeans he was about forty years of age, tall, thin, with long, straight black hair and but little beard. He had a paler color than most of his race, and a serious, if not a melancholy, expression. If half that we read of Montezuma's epicurean tastes and inactive habits is true, it is reasonable to suppose that he was a 58 ABOUT MEXICO. confirmed dyspeptic, which may in part account for his gloomy views of life at this time. The Mexicans seem to have had no written laws. It is said that in early times their laws were so few that everybody knew them by heart. In later days a record was kept of suits in law, and the decisions given in these cases served as precedents. Thus was established a com- mon law founded on long usage. The despotic decrees of the council were often given after consulting the priests, who were the oracles of the tribe. When the gods had decided, there was no appeal. A number of such cases occurred in the troublous times when the Aztecs were at war with the Spaniards. It is said that all the wisdom of the great Hungry Fox could not avail in a controversy with these priests. The chief loathed the woi'ship of Humming-Bird and sought to bring his peo- ple back to the altars of the Toltecs. But in vain. The oracles declared that all the troubles in which the tribe were then plunged were due to tlie neglect of human sacrifices, and it was decided that henceforth the cruel war-god should have his fill of them. The punishment of crime was most severe. Every petty theft was punished by the temporary enslavement of the culprit to the person he had wronged, or by death. Stealing a tobacco-pouch or twenty ears of corn or pilfer- ing in the market-place Avas thus atoned for. In the lat- ter case the thief was clubbed to death ou the spot. Any one who was guilty of stealing gold offended Xipe, the patron god of those who worked in the precious metals ; he was therefore doomed to be skinned alive before the altar of this deity. The effect of these severe laws against robbery was everywhere seen in treasures being left unguarded. A man who died drunk was dressed for MEXICAN INDIAN MAT-MAKEES (MODERN). 60 ABOUT MEXICO. burial in the robes worn by the goddess of strong drink, his patron saint. Drunkenness in young people, since it unfitted them for public duty, was punishable with death, though the same fault was winked at in an older person. Slanderers fared somewhat better, and escaped with singed hair. Any member of the calpulli who failed to till the little portion of the public land assigned to him became an outcast, and was condemned to menial service. If he failed to till the lands of any minor for whom he was guardian, his breach of trust was punished with death. True slavery, in our sense of that word, was unknown among these people. As outcasts they forfeited their tribal privileges, but could be readopted by their breth- ren after some meritorious act. It was a capital offence to wear any part of a chief's regalia or for a man or a woman to put on the dress be- longing to the other sex or to change the boundaries of lands. These old communal lands were most jealously guarded. The people had strong local attachments, and it is said that thousands in Mexico are still living on the plots of ground tilled by their ancestors hundreds of years ago. Many of these were not Aztecs, though most of them had been at some time tributary to them. We learn from picture-records that four cities on the coast of Mexico paid each, yearly, four thousand hand- fuls of the feathers needed in the exquisite mosaic-work for which these tribes were so famous, two hundred bags of cocoa, forty tiger-skins, one hundred and sixty kinds of certain colors needed in the temple- worship or for pei-sonal decoration. Other places paid tribute in cochi- neal, dyestuffs, gold, precious stones, besides the victims for sacrifice — the most valuable of all revenues. OHAPTEE V. ON THE WAR-PATH. A MONG some of the tribes of Anahuac a farmer or -^^ a mechanic or a merchant might be counted as a man ; not so was it with the fierce Aztecs. Every male in that tribe was born to be a warrior ; it was only when he was maimed, sick, old, or, worse than all, an outcast from his clan, that he could not claim the privilege of going to the battlefield. Even the priests took a leading part in every conflict. It was not only their business to interpret the will of the gods, but they marched at the head of the Aztec troops bearing a little image, or talis- man, of the most famous of the war-gods of Mexico. It was also the duty of the priests to give the signal for the battle to begin. When war was decided upon by the great council, a messenger was sent to the tribe to be attacked, and in case the help of their allies and tribu- taries was needed word was sent also to them. No one dared to refuse to join the Aztecs when they took the war-path. Like the Sioux and other tribes on our borders, the Aztec braves had a war-dance around a blazing fire the night before they set out on a raid, and ceremonies as heathenish and disgusting as any of those in which our wild Indians engage were common among them. The humble wigwams on our prairies and the proud, lux- urious city enthroned on Lake Tezcuco sent out the 61 62 ABOUT MEXICO. same kind of men in war-time. We can readily believe in the savage orgies held in the splendid square of Tlatililco when we remember the impurity and cruelty of old Rome when her Avarriors^ builders and poets, her historians and statesmen, were moulding a civilization which made her the mistress of the world. When the great snake-drum on the temple sounded the call to arms, the warriors from fifteen years old and upward gathered at the armory or house of darts belong- ing to their calpuUi, where the weapons of their clan were kept. We have pictures of the armor they wore which correspond with the descriptions given by Cortez and his soldiers. The spear was their main weapon. It was made of hard and elastic cane, with flint points fastened into a slit at the end with gum and the strong fibres of the maguey. The spear sometimes had several of these flint tips. Their swords were made of tough wood, with grooves cut along the edge, in which w^as inserted a hard stone whose sharp edge was easily broken, but which cut like a blade of the finest steel. The bow was made of cane, and the arrows were carried in a quiver on the shoulder. They also had slings for throwing stones, which they used very skillfully. Shields were made of canes netted together, inwoven with cotton, encased with gilded boards and decorated with feathers. These were carried on the left arm, and were so hard that the Span- iards found that nothing but the arrows from their cross- bows could pierce them. Every warrior, from the chief-of-men down to the rank and file, was painted. The common soldier some- times had scarcely any other dress than the colors of his clan, fancifully applied to face and body; at best, he went to the field with head, feet and arms bare. A ON THE WAR-PATH. 63 quilted cotton tunic two fingers thick was so much like a coat of mail that the Spaniards were very glad to bor- row the cheap and useful fashion. A chief wore his hair cropped above his ears, and a wooden helmet, over which he often stretched the skin of some wild bird or animal, the grinning teeth and fierce eyes of a bear or a tiger sur- mounting the painted face. The head of an eagle with hooked beak was a favorite device to represent the spirit of the wearer or the name he had won in battle. Lip- pendants, ear-rings and other gewgaws were worn if the soldier's means permitted such extravagance. The chief- of-men and his associate wore their hair tied with strips of leather colored red with cochineal. The towering plume of green feathers on the helmet was a mark of the highest rank which no other warrior dared to assume. A green stone hung from the bridge of the nose, and the ear- and lip-rings were of wrought gold. Bands of exquisite feather-work encircled the arms, wrists and an- kles of the chief. On the field of battle a long tress of feather-work hung from the crown to the girdle. From this was suspended a small drum or horn, which the chief used in making signals to his men. As habits of luxury increased among the Aztecs their chief went out in a splendid litter. Gayly-dressed pages carried a gorgeous canopy over his head ; and if obliged to alight, he was supported by chiefs of the highest rank. Cortez declares that these Indian chiefs came out to meet him in battle as they would go to some holiday parade, and that even the hardy Tlascalans had in this respect declined from their republican simplicity. The army was readily prepared for a march. The common soldier carried his own provision. He had in his pouch corn-cake baked very hard, ground beans and 64 ABOUT MEXICO. chia (a berry out of which he made a palatable drink). Coffee was unknown among these people until after the conquest, and chocolate was a beverage which none but the wealthy could afford. He had plenty of red pepper, and used it not only as a condiment, but also as food. Salt for seasoning was obtained from the lake that sur- rounded the city. Cornstalk sugar was a common luxury, and formed part of the bill of fare in camp. Special carriers accompanied the army, loaded with whatever was needed, such as tents, tent-poles, mats for bedding, camp-kettles and ammunition. They also had the ornaments with which braves who should distinguish themselves in battle were to be decorated before they left the field. One of these tokens was the privilege of wear- ing a wrap of peculiar color. If the army passed through the land of one of its tributaries on its way, provisions were always furnished to it by the people, and friends and allies brought presents as a token of good-will. The Mexicans needed no other strongholds than their massive houses and temples. The conntiy was peculiarly adapted to their methods of warfare. Paths like that through the famous pass of Thermopylae, or still more easily defended, were common. There were hilltops and precipices from which stones could be rolled down on an assailing force, and retreats among the mountains where a great army could hide in ambuscade as did thirty thousand of the men of Israel behind the city of Ai in Joshua's day. The burning of the teocallis was always the token of victory. The warriors of the place who survived either fled or were taken captive, and the women and children, who were generally sent to some cliff-dwelling among the hills before the storm ON THE WAB-PATH. 65 broke on their homes, came back — if they came at all — to a scene of utter desolation. But war did not always end thus. When a tribe refused to pay a valuable tribute, no attempt was made to destroy it, but merely to force obedience. The Aztecs once paid tribute to the Tepanacs, a tribe on the main- land, near Mexico. When their city became strong enough to rebel, a struggle took place for the mastery, in which the Aztecs were victorious. The immediate cause of this war was the possession of the great spring at Chapultepec, by which the city was supplied with water through an aqueduct. As this was on the yaotlalli, or neutral ground, between the Aztecs and Tepanacs, any attempt of the latter to cut off the water-supply of Mexic© was taken as a challenge to war. Their success in this struggle made the Aztecs the leading power in the table- land. They became the head of a strong confederacy of tribes, and rnled with a high hand for nearly a hundred years, until, hated and feared by all their neighbors and crushed at home by the despotism of the council, the Aztecs were ripe for rebellion, and their beautiful domain fell an easy prey into the hands of the foreign invaders. It is said that when Montezuma was asked why he had suffered the little republic of Tlascala to lift a defiant head between Mexico and the sea, he replied that the Aztecs would have crushed it long^ a^o but that they needed victims for sacrifice and could get them readily in the skirmishes which constantly took place between the two tribes. Thus, with war as their chief business in life and a religion which demanded thou- sands of human sacrifices yearly, the Aztecs were glad of any pretext for an attack on their neighbors. The choice of a new war-chief was sure to bring on a con- 66 ABOUT MEXICO. flict with somebody, as the ceremonies of his induction to office were never complete until he had brought home a train of caj)tives. Some of these he must capture with his own hands — a feat which was sometimes accomplished by strategy, but oftener in a hand-to-hand fight. Al- though all these tribes believed that heaven was made for warriors and that none had higher seats there than those who died on the bloody stone of sacrifice, yet they had a natural love of life, and never yielded to their fat^ without a struggle. A Mexican's first aim in battle was not to kill his enemies, but to take captives. He would sacrifice a score of lives rather than fail in this aim. The tactics of the Aztecs in war were those of rude nations. A favorite device was to feign retreat, and thus to decoy their victims into snares. Their ingenuity in such stratagems was equaled only by the patience with which they were carried into execution. The most dar- ing warriors, and even the " chief-of-men '^ himself, would hide in some pit dug on a road toward which the enemy was enticed, and here they would remain motionless for hours, even days, like tigers waiting for a chance to spring on their hapless victims. They never left the field without carrying off their dead and wounded — a custom which sometimes turned victory into defeat. These tribes all went into battle with a defiant war- whoop. Each clan had its own war-cry — usually its own name — and every pueblo had its standard. The device of Mexico was a cactus on a stone, rudely painted on a banner and carried on a pole high over the troop by a chosen stiindard-bearer ; and it was as high a point of honor then as now to defend the flag at all risks. When captives were taken, they were secured, if many, by wooden collars and fastened together in gangs; if few, ON THE WAE-PATH. 67 each warrior cared for his own prize. In the old picture- records of this country and carved on the stones of the monuments captors are seen holding prisoners by their long hair. On the sides of the sacrificial stone these scenes are carefully cut, the hand of one figure being raised to grasp the head-ornaments of his victim, who drops his weapons helplessly. Sometimes the captives helped to bear the spoils of war to the city of the con- queror. In every case they were considered as sacred objects devoted to the war-god, and were well fed and cared for. Ransom was entirely out of the question. The captor dared not spare his victim's life even when his own was in danger, as any loss in this respect was defrauding the war-god. The lynx-eyed priests were ever on the watch to detect and punish those who would be merciful, if any such there were in those dark days. The careless warrior who lost a captive and made the excuse of one of old, "As thy servant was busy here and there he was gone,'' met the same doom : " Thy life shall go for his life." When the wretched victims had been led home in triumph, they were taken first to the chief teocaMis, or house of the gods, and after bowing to Hum- ming-Bird and his hideous brother they were marched solemnly around the great stone of sacrifice, then taken away to a house set apart for those who were thus ap- pointed to die. The home-coming of such an expedition was a great event. The warriors were received with the wildest din of music ; flowers were showered upon them, and the air was filled with the odor of burning frankin- cense. The old men of the tribe carried the censers, standing in rows on each side of the path, their long hair tied on the back of their heads with gay strips of leather, and sometimes they bore a shield with a rod and 68 ABOUT MEXICO. rattle, which they sounded iu token of rejoicing that they were the fatliers of such braves. Along the road were erected bowers decked with the choicest flowers to be gathered in that flowery land. In 1497 a great army was sent out by the confederated tribes. It went far southward to Tehuantepec, and came back loaded with plunder and with multitudes of captives. Some of the ruined cities now found in those solitudes may then have been laid waste, but no record remains to tell of the scenes of carnage and rapine which must have marked this campaign. The confederates afterward ravaged all the Totonac region as far east as the Gulf- coast, swept it clean and recolonized it with their own people. The victors in the tribal wars cared not to change the customs or the laws of a subjugated people ; all they asked Avas tribute, and the question was often settled in one battle. When this was concluded by the burning of the teocallis — the signal of surrender — the amount and kind of articles of tribute and the time when this was to be paid were immediately arranged. The vanquished party were henceforth watched with jealous care by a tax- gatherer appointed by the victor ; a house was set apart for his use and as a place of storage for the tribute until it should be sent away. Some tribes paid their tribute every eighty days, and others once a year. This tribute- money was sometimes borne to the capital on the backs of human victims who had been chosen by lot to suffer for the tribe on the altars of the conqueror. These sad proces- sions must have been a common sight even iu the few peaceful days known among these war-loving people. After ea(»h fresh conquest the Aztecs adorned their city with a new temple, bearing the name of the conquered ON THE WAR-PATH. 69 people and filled with their gods. These senseless blocks of wood and stone were prisoners, and as such were punished severely when the tribe they represented rebelled. The victors sought to make the worship of these captured idols acceptable by stationing in each such building priests from the tribe from which the idols were taken.- At the time of the Spanish invasion the whole country seemed to be on the eve of one of those terrible conflicts by which some of the fairest portions of the earth had been desolated. The Aztecs had maintained their suprem- acy for nearly a hundred years, and now the tribes far and near, outraged by their oppressions, were brooding over their wrongs, awaiting some leader who should head a new confederacy and mete out justice to Mexico. She was drunk with human blood, and the tide of war was turning — as, in time, it always will turn against a people whose only right is might. Unheard by it, God had said of the beautiful Aztec city, as he had said of Baby- lon of old, "The cup which she hath filled, fill to her double.'^ CHAPTER yi. SACRED PLACES AND PEOPLE. A BOUT thirty miles north of Mexico are the remains -^-^ of Teotihuacan, a city so old that it was falling into decay when the Aztecs entered the valley. The ground upon which it stood seems to have been built over by succeeding generations. Three successive concrete plat- forms for houses, one above the other, have been found buried under the cornfields which have flourished there for centuries. So large was this city that its ruins cover a space twenty miles in circumference. It was a shrine where of olden time the native worshipers flocked with their votive offerings — little clay images, men's heads, arrows and pottery decorated in bright colors. Thou- sands of these now strew the plain or are brought to light by the rude ploughs of the country. There are two large pyramids — one dedicated to the sun, the other to the moon — standing like grass-grown hills among these ruins. One wide, straight street — called " the Path of the Dead" — is raised above the level of the plain and leads up to the pyramid of the moon. This is bordered by many small pyramids, which are sup- posed to contain the now-nameless builders of these great monuments. This worship of the sun and the moon seems to have at one time prevailed throughout Mexico, and was still 70 SACRED PLACES AND PEOPLE. 71 retained in all the temples when other forms of idolatry were introduced by later settlers. In some forgotten age of their history the Mexicans had " exchanged the truth of God for a lie/' Their belief in an invisible Creator and Ruler of the universe and the names and the char- acter they gave him show that the ancestors of these people must have known of the one living and true God. They spoke of him as " He who is all in him- self/' " He in whom we live, all-wise, all-seeing, al- mighty and everywhere present, the Giver of every good, a Being of infinite purity and grace and the hearer and answerer of prayer.'' No images of this God were made ; a prayer said to have been found among the old Aztec records tells us how he was regarded. Besides the sad picture which it gives us of the famines which often prevailed in Mexico, it reveals the breathings of one who, like Cornelius of old, was '^ sl devout man and prayed to God alway:" " O our Lord, protector most strong and compassionate, invisible, impalpable, thou art the giver of life. Lord of all and Lord of all battles, I present myself here before thee to say a few words ; the need of the poor people, the people of none estate or intelligence. Know, O Lord, that thy subjects and servants sufPer a sore poverty that cannot be told of more than that it is a sore poverty and desolateness. The men have no garments, nor the women, to cover themselves with, but only rags rent in every part, that let the wind and cold in. If they be merchants, they now sell only cakes of salt and broken pepper. The people that have something despise them, so that they go out to sell from door to door and from house to house ; and when they sell nothing, they sit down sadly by some fence or wall or in some corner. 72 ABOUT MEXICO. biting their lips and gnawing their nails for the hunger that is in them. They look on one side and on the other at the mouths of those who pass by, hoping, peradven- ture, that some one will speak some word to them/' Hungry Fox, a great Tezcucan chief, built a temple to this god toward the close of his long life, when he had become heartsick at the abominations of the religion of the Mexicans. This temple was nine stories high. A tenth story, overhanging the others like a canopy, was painted black, to represent the sky at night, gilded with stars outside and decorated within with precious gems and metals in the highest style of art known to his peo- ple. This temple he dedicated "To the Unknown God." No image of him was allowed in this beautiful shrine, and nothing but incense, fruit and flowers was offered upon its altar. A sonorous piece of metal struck by a mallet called the worshipers together. The common people seem to have known but very little of this good and great being. The gods they served were like those who made them — fierce, unholy and delighting in blood. Thirteen of these were superior to the rest, and two hundred were of lower rank. At the head of all these the Aztecs put their frightful war-god, Huiti- zilapochtli, or " Humming-Bird.^' This god was repre- sented as a man with a broad face, a wide mouth and terrible eyes. He was girt about with a golden serpent ablaze with jewels, and held a bow in one hand and a bunch of goklen arrows in the other. His dress glit- tered with gold, pearls and precious stones. He wore a necklace of human faces wrought in silver and hearts of gold. His left foot was shod with the feathers of the tiny humming-birds which gave him his name. At the feet of this god stood a little one called Milziton, or MEXICAN GOD OF WAR, HmTIZILAPOCHTLI, OR HUMMING-BIRD. 74 ABOUT MEXICO. " Little Quick One/^ which was borne by the priest at the head of the army in time of war. When this hideous idol was first seen by Europeans, there stood before it a brazier of burning coals in which lay three hearts just torn from the bleeding breasts of human victims. Humming-Bird had a younger brother, a favorite with the Tezcucans, who was also a war-god. His name, Hacahuepanenexcolzin, is almost as bad as his dispo- sition, and we would not venture to write it except to give one of the curiosities of Mexican spelling. These two gods stood side by side in the old temple in Mexico, fitting representations of the dark-minded priests who made them. ^^The smell of this place," says Bernal Diaz, an old Spanish soldier whom we shall often quote, " was that of a charnel-house." We cannot wonder that whitewash and scrubbing-brushes were always brought into use when Cortez got possession of one of these blood- stained shrines. Another prominent figure in Mexican mythology was Tezcaltipoca, " the Hearer of Prayer." His image was of black shining stone. An ear hung by a string from his neck, on which smoke was pictured, whose ascending wreaths represented the prayers of his distressed people. Stone seats were put in some street-corners of Mexico, in the hope that this god would rest upon them Avhen he visited the city. On these sacred seats no one else was permitted to sit. By far the most interesting character among these gods was that of Quetzalcohuatl, or " Feathered Serpent," the god of the air. Stripped of all the romance with which he is invested, this old hero appears as a tall, fair-faced man of a different race from any of those which inhab- SACRED PLACES AND PEOPLE. 75 ited the valley. He had a broad forehead and long black flowing beard and hair, and came to Mexico from some distant land on an errand of benevolence. Some sup- pose him to be the leader of the Toltec tribes, and to have come with their seven ships which figure in Mex- ican history; but this is by no means clear. Neither does he seem to be the Votan of other traditions, al- though he did the same good work among the people which is ascribed to that hero. It was Feathered Ser- pent who taught these still-barbarous tribes those arts of peace so foreign to savage natures. The Mexican calen- dar and picture-writing were his invention. The riches which lay hidden in the bowels of the earth were all un- known until he unveiled them and showed men how to dig and refine gold and silver and to work in all precious metals. During his stay the land became a very Eden. Cities arose, and in the heart of the wilderness fair fields were opened to the sun. But these bright days did not last. The powers of evil became envious of the benev- olent god of the air, and he was obliged to flee for his life. The Mexicans tell a story of the rivalry between Tezcaltipoca and Feathered Serpent which is worthy of heathen idol-makers. Tezcaltipoca, fearing that he was about to lose the reverence of the people, disguised him- self as a hoary-headed sorcerer and persuaded Feathered Serpent to drink pulque, or the fermented sap of the maguey. The event proved that it is no safer for a god to indulge in such intoxicating beverages than it is for men to do so. Poor Feathered Serpent became tipsy and wandered out of the country in disgrace. On his way to the sea to return to his own land he stopped at Cholula, where he found hearts open to receive him; 76 ABOUT MEXICO. there he stayed for twenty years. The people built temples in his honor and sat at his feet to learn. Like Cain, " the Fair God/' as he was called, disapproved of bloody sacrifices, and commanded his followers to offer nothing on his peaceful altars but sweet incense and the fruits of the earth. After twenty happy years Feathered Serpent left Mexico by the way he came. His snake- skin boat was waiting for him on the shore of the Gulf. Turning to his friends who had followed him, he bade them farewell, promising that some day he would come again from his home toward the rising sun and take pos- session of their country. The white race to whom this old hero belonged are indebted to him for their successful entry into Mexico. At the time the Spanish vessels made their appearance, in 1517, there was a universal expectation that the Fair God was about to return, and the white sails of the ves- sels were mistaken for bright-winged birds Avho had come to bring back their benefactor from his long exile. The Aztecs adopted this god, among many others, after they came to Mexico ; his shrine at Cholula was visited by multitudes of devotees from all parts of the country. This city was older than IMexico, and is supposed by many to have been founded by the Toltecs. There, on the top of the famous pyramid of Cholula, was a large hemispherical temple in houor of this Fair God. An- other temple was reared to him within the serpent-wall of the great temple of Mexico ; it was entered through a gate fashioned like the mouth of a hideous dragon. The black, flame-encircled face of his image enshrined there and the altar dripping with blood had taught the people to think of him as a fit companion for the war-god him- self — that most bloodthirsty of all Mexican deities. TEMPLE OF TIKAL, A SUBDRB OF FLORES, YUCATAN. 78 ABOUT MEXICO. There were thousands of temples in Mexico. They were built in the form of terraced pyramids with stair- ways on the outside leading to a paved platform on the top, where all worship was carried on. The great temple of Mexico was three hundred and seventy-five feet high. Each of its lofty terraces had its own flight of steps, ris- ing one above the other on the southern side of the pyra- mid. In their worship the priests, with the victims chosen for sacrifice, climbed the first of these stairways and passed entirely around the terrace until they reached the next flight of steps, and so, ascending in solemn pro- cession, they wound on up and up to the great altar in sight of multitudes assembled on housetops and in the great square which surrounded the building. Three storied towers arose on the flattened top, and between these was the awful stone of sacrifice. The weight of this stone was twenty-five tons. It was an immense round block of green porphyry elaborately carved with strange figures illustrating acts of worship, and humped on its upper surface, so that the breast of the victim, bound and stretched upon it, could better be reached by the sacrificial knife. In the centre was a dishlike cavity with a groove running from it to the edge of the altar, to lead away the blood. The whole was a mute but elo- quent witness to the character of the sacrifices offered upon it. Each temple was not only a place of worship, but a watch-tower from whose commanding height priestly guardians overlooked their congregation. Like watch- men, they used to call out the hours of the night through their trumpets. The sacred fires were in two stoves near the altar. These were fed with wood, and, burning all night, shone out over the city. Here, too, were the 80 ABOUT MEXICO. observatories where astrologers studied the heavens or in that more spiritual worship they had learned of the Toltecs adored the starry host circling overhead. In the towers which formed the corners of the great enclosure were deposited, after cremation, the ashes of the dead heroes of the tribe. In one of these, also, was kept a huge snake-skin drum, which was used to call the peo- ple together to witness a sacrifice or for war. The sound of this drum could be heard, it is said, far beyond the city limits — sometimes to a distance of eight miles. These houses of worship were always the principal buildings in every town or hamlet in the land. Besides, there were many others on hilltops and sacred places throughout Mexico. One of them stood in the centre of every settlement. It was surrounded by a wall, which was often turreted and always high and strong ; for in time of war it was around these temples that the battle raged most fiercely. Fronting the principal roadways, there were entrances to the enclosure on all four sides. These roads stretched, wide, clean and straight, several miles beyond the city, so that a retreating army, when pursued by the enemy, might have no hindrance if it sought the protection of the gods. Standing on one of the lofty towers of the great tem- ple in Mexico, Cortez counted four hundred places of worship in tliat city alone. Of the chief teocaUis (house of the gods) he writes to Charles V., " The grandeur of its architectural details no luiman tongue is able to de- scribe." The square in which it stood was surrounded with the great serpent- wall, each of whose four sides was a quarter of a mile long, giving room within the enclosure for a town of five hundred inhabitants. Forty high and well-built towers were along this wall. The SACRED PLACES AND PEOPLE. 81 largest of these, says Cortez, had forty steps leading to its main body, which was higher than the tower of the principal church in Seville. Another writer says, "There were seventy temples within the square, each one of which had its images and blazing fires. Besides, there were granaries where the first-fruits of the land were gathered for use in the temple, storehouses for other kinds of tribute, a house of entertainment for pilgrims from a distance, a hospital tended by priests, an arsenal and a library, besides a garden where flowers were raised for the temple-service and accommodations for many of the priests." Curious imagery wrouglit in stone, woodwork carved, inlaid or richly painted, orna- mented the interior of every apartment of the great building.* Within the main temple were three large halls adorned with these sculptured figures and the rich feather-work hangings which were among the highest efforts of Aztec art. An army of priests was needed for the elaborate service of this temple. It is said that five thousand w^ere employed in the great teocaUis, besides women and children in multitudes. Seventy fires were to be kept up day and night. Incense was offered four times every day — viz., sunrise, midday, sunset and mid- night. Besides their sacrificial duties, the priests were the school-teachers, historians, poets and painters of the tribe. They must have been hideous objects, dressed in long black robes, with blackened faces and tongues torn and bleeding with frequent penances. Their hair, which *In the year 1881 excavations were made in front of the cathedral in Mexico, where this building once stood, and a few feet below the surface were found the old capitals of the door-posts of the temple. They were heads of large stone serpents, each ten feet long and five feet high, with feathered ornaments carved out of solid stone. 6 82 ABOUT MEXICO. was never cut nor combed from the time they entered the temple-service until they left it, was matted with blood and with cords twisted into the long mass. The chief priests were more elegantly dressed on state occasions.. A costly and magnificent robe like that of the god whose day he celebrated marked the high priest of the nation. A huge tuft of white cotton worn on the breast was his sign of office. There were a few priestesses, who lived a nun's life in the cloisters of this temple. Both priests and nuns were free to come and to go, but those w^ho had made a vow never to marry were punished with the utmost rigor in case they broke their vow. CHAPTER yil. THE HABITATIONS OF CRUELTY. THE Aztecs believed in the immortality of the soul, both of men and of beasts. Heroes who died in battle and those who sacrificed themselves to the gods had the highest place their heaven could offer. They were supposed to be in the service of the Sun, and that after singing in his train as he passed through the heavens their souls went to beautify the clouds and birds and flowers with colors " Bright as a disbanded rainbow." Even women and little children — especially those who died in the service of the gods — had as bright a hope as heathenism could offer. After death the women spent four years in heaven, and then were permitted to become birds, with the privilege of coming back to the scenes of earth if they wished, to live on honey and flowers. Hell was merely a place of darkness. Yet, with these comparatively agreeable provisions for the future, the Aztec religion, wherever it prevailed, made this world "the region and shadow of death." The Psalmist must have had in mind such a religion as this when he prayed that God would have respect to the covenant, since the " dark places of the earth were full of the habitations of cruelty.'' Never, in any nation, was human sacrifice carried to so frightful an extent as 83 84 ABOUT MEXICO. amono^ these refined and cultured Indian tribes. The practice had been common among the Aztecs from the earliest times, and gave to the whole race a fierce and gloomy character which made them hated by all their neighbors. The position which they gained as head of the three confederate tribes afibrded them an opportunity to engraft this hideous custom on the milder worship of the people around the lake. For about one hundred years, or during the time of this supremacy, human sacrifices and the sacrificial eating of human flesh pre- vailed throughout Mexico as never before. About the time of the Spanish conquest the burden of such a re- ligion became intolerable, and Mexico seemed as ripe for destruction as was old Sodom or the Canaanites when their cup of iniquity was full. From Yucatan, on the far south-east, to tlie most distant of the Nahua tribes, on the north, the altars reeked with human blood. The practice was so universal, and so many victims were at last demanded, that death in this terrible form must have stared every one in the face. A large tribe on the Pacific slope was so nearly exterminated in one of the wars begun and carried on to obtain captives for sacrifice that men were not left to till the ground or work the mines ; all who had not been slain outright in defending their homes were borne away to die on Aztec altars. A colony was sent over from Mexico city to take possession of the empty houses and unharvested fields, while tlie proud cities enthroned on the shore of the lake sought for other communities to lay waste. If silent walls could speak, many a beautiful city among the scores now in mournful ruin throughout Mexico could tell of scenes of carnage ^vhcn, in the name of the gods they all worshiped, the foe came down upon them in AZTEC GODDESS OF DEATH. 86 ABOUT MEXICO. fierce attack and swept away the inhabitants as with a besom of destruction. In these days of unbelief there are some who doubt the accounts given by both Spanish and native historians of human beings kept to fatten like cattle in a stall, of still-palpitating bodies thrown from the high altar down to the captor and his friends, who stood waiting to re- ceive this horrible provision for a decorous feast to be eaten as sacred food at the command of the gods. But these writers, though differing from each other in many things, agree in their testimony concerning this, Cortez, who is apt to be more moderate in his statements than his followers, says of one of the Nahua tribes in his letters to the king, " These people eat human flesh — a fact so notorious that I have not taken the trouble to send Your Majesty any proof of it.'^ During the siege of Mexico the Tlascalan allies of Cortez subsisted large- ly on the bodies of the slain, and Montezuma himself was reproved by his Spanish visitors for this horrible practice. One of the descendants of Hungry Fox, the great Tezcucan chief, wrote in Spanish an interesting history of his people. In this he says that his great ancestor became disgusted with the sacrifices and cannibal feasts in which they engaged during their connection with the Aztecs, and that before their confederacy was broken up he made an effort to put a stop to all such practices and to return to the milder rites of their star-worshiping ancestors. But his voice was raised in vain ; the old priests shook their matted locks and protested against his innovations. They pointed to Tenochtitlan, across the lake, as an instance of the glory and success to be won by the faithful votaries of the war-god. To give THE HABITATIONS OF CRUELTY. 87 weight to their influence, the tide of battle began to turn against the three confederate tribes, and Hungry Fox was obliged to yield to the popular clamor for human victims wherewith to appease the anger of Humming- Bird, the insatiable war-god. Every month in the year had its bloody festivals. At one of these the handsomest and bravest of all the captives was for one year named Tezcaltipoca, after one of the principal gods, and was obliged to illustrate by his life and death the vanity of all earthly things. For one year he was dressed in the most elegant and costly robes, housed in the most luxurious dwelling the city afforded, married to four beautiful girls and regaled with flowers, music and sweet odors ; his table was loaded with dainties and his couch was royal in its comfort and decoration. At the end of that time he was carried away from his splendid home and gay attendants, stripped of his raiment and led with solemn burial-chants to a little temple outside the city to die on the altar. As the fatal knife descended the old priest called on the gazing crowd to note this scene as the end of his sermon on life. Three times a year, Tlaloc, god of storms, demanded a human sacrifice. His home was in the fiery crater of Popocate- petl. In March, when the people prayed that the clouds whicli overhung his throne might pour out an abundance of rain on the ever-thirsty earth, little children were of- fered. Three times each year women were sacrificed. Once, in its closing days, when Talconian, mother of all gods, held high festival, a female prisoner suffered. She was obliged to dance until the last moment, then was beheaded and skinned and had her body thrown at the feet of the war-god. At one time two perfect victims were called for at once — one for the war-god, the other 88 ABOUT MEXICO. for Tezcaltipoca. At the time corresponding with our month of October, during a feast called " the Coming of the Gods/^ the priests scattered cornmeal on the floor in the place where the gods were expected to enter, hoping to find the sacred footprints of this chief deity. They w^ere not likely to be disappointed for want of contriv- ance on the part of these " medicine-men/' * How far the priests were able to deceive themselves is shown by their long and severe penances. They fasted sometimes to the verge of starvation. They pierced them- selves with thorns, bled their ears and cut holes in their tongues, through which sticks were thrust. It must have been difficult for a priest thus maimed to speak intelligibly. In times of great calamity an Aztec chief and a number of his followers are said to have offered their lives as a voluntary sacrifice on the altar of their country. Priests have been known to retire to the wilderness for a year's mortification of the flesh. Building a small hut, the devotee lived there alone, without light or fire and with scarcely enough of uncooked maize to keep himself alive. No man could go through this '^ great fast '' more than once in a lifetime. The manner of the victims' death afforded scope for variety. They were often dressed in fancy costumes and made to dance in character. Sometimes, like gladiators, they fought for their lives on a large stone platform in the great square of the city. The goddess of harvests * On the island of Cozumel, one of the sacred places visited by- thousands of pilgrims from Mexico, the Spaniards found a huge image standing close against an inner wall of the teniple. Behind this was a private door belonging to the priests, which opened through this wall into the back of the idol, whereby a priest en- tered and from his safe hiding-place answered the prayers of the people in an audible voice. THE HABITATIONS OF CRUELTY. 89 was propitiated by a humaD victim grouod between mill- stones like the corn the deity was asked to bestow. Every expedition in time of war, every trading-party which set out on its travels, the election of a head- chief, the inauguration of a new one or the dedication of a tem- ple was marked by extraordinary sacrifices. When the great teocaUis in Mexico was dedicated, in 1486, forty thousand persons are said to have been sacrificed to the terrible war-god. We would believe this to be an ex- aggeration but for the fact that the skulls were pre- served in houses called zompantU, or "skull-place.'' One Spaniard, who was curious enough to count these ghastly relics arranged in order, gives the number as one hundred and thirty-six thousand. Among the pretexts by which the victims were per- suaded to yield up their lives was one common among Romanists when a young woman enters a convent. She goes to become the bride of Christ ; so the Aztec girls were given to the gods. A story is told of one poor woman who was so determined to forego this honor that she fought for life. In her case it seemed that self-sur- render was necessary to make the sacrifice acceptable, and after struggling with her for a while they let her go. The most solemn of all festivals was that of " year- binding,'' as it was called, which marked the close of the cycle of fifty -two years. The people were taught that in the course of ages the world was to be four times de- stroyed and renewed, and that each of these events was to be looked for at these semi-centennial periods. As the time drew near they gave themselves up to gloom and despair. They did penances for past sins, and then faithlessly threw away their idols altogether, broke up their furniture, rent their clothes, neglected field and 90 ABOUT MEXICO. mine, workshop and garden, and ended by a fast of thirteen days. The holy fire which had been kindled fifty-two years before on the temple-roofs was now suf- fered to die out, and the people sat down in a darkness of soul over which pitying angels must have wept. As the old year died the priests marched in solemn proces- sion to a lofty hill a few miles outside the city, bearing with them the fairest of victims — some noble young chieftain taken in battle and reserved until this fateful day to be offered in sacrifice. He was stretched across the altar with his face upturned to the sky, w^hile the shaggy-haired priests stood about him chanting their wild temple-hymns. Would the gods accept the sacri- fice, or would the spu-its of evil prevail? Unseen by mortal eyes, the air was full of them. From the poorest hut by the lake-side to the most lordly pueblo in the land, men were waiting in breathless silence for an answer. Mothers covered the faces of their little ones lest malio^- nant deities engaged in the battle supposed to be going on in the air should swoop down and carry them away. The devoted father cut his ears till the blood flowed, hoping thus to avert all evil from his family. All eyes gazed aloft till the Pleiades, slowly gliding through the heav- ens, should pass the zenith. The suspense grew awful. Would Tlaloc, god of storms, rise in his fury from his throne on yonder volcano and sweep the valley with a whirlwind ? Would their queenly cities go down in the salt floods of Tezcuco, or would an earthquake prelude the mighty catastrophe which would ruin a guilty world? Slowly the moments pass. The stars go by overhead, and then, at a signal from priestly hands, a shout rends the air. The Seven Stars have crossed the dreaded line : the world is safe for another fifty years. The sacred fire is THE HABITATIONS OF CRUELTY. 91 now kindled anew in the bleeding breast of the victim on the altar, and fleet runners carry it to temples, cities and hamlets far and wide. The people give themselves up to fourteen days of feasting and merriment. They refurnish their houses, spin and weave, and plant their fields. Life flows on as of old. But, in its best estate, all Mexico sat in darkness. Some there were, no doubt, who felt after God, sitting in humble silence at his feet, or as good stewards dispensed his bounty to others. To such his love and fatherly pity must have been revealed, since " in every nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted of him." But no song of joy- ful trust has floated down to us but of the dense dark- ness that covered the land. There was many a cry like that of Solomon — " Vanity of vanities " — many a prayer for mercy, but none had reached the firm foundation where the triumphant Psalmist stood when he sang, " God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea ; though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof/' CHAPTER VIII, CIVILIZA TION OF MEXICO. WHILE the Mexicans built temples to the sun and the moon like those in which their ancestors wor- shiped in Asia and retained many of the religious forms which prevailed there, they forgot many other things which had been known in the Old World from the earliest ages. In the book of Job iron is spoken of as taken out of the earth ; in Mexico mountains of iron-ore are found, but no use was made of it until Europeans showed the people what to do with this most valuable of metals. Antediluvians like Jabal, " the father of all such as dwell in tents and such as have cattle/' and old Tubal Cain, who " worked in brass and iron," Avould have looked upon the Mexicans as far behind the times in which they lived. The farmers of ancient Syria, such as Gideon and Or nan the Jebusite, taught oxen to tread out the grain on their threshing-floors; the Mexicans had never heard of such a thing. Of all the vast herds of cattle which roamed their uplands, not one had ever been tamed. There was not a beast of burden in all Mexico, neither had the people any idea that the milk of cows and of goats was good for human food. The horse was unknown by the Mexicans until they saw those brought from Cuba by Cortez for the use of his cavaliy. For a long time the Indians looked upon n CIVILIZATION OF MEXICO. 93 horse and man as one animal, and supposed them to be supernatural beings. At one time, in an encounter with these people, a Cuban horse was left wounded on the field. The villagers near by, finding him in this con- dition, were full of sympathy for the poor beast. They brought him their finest flowers and their fatted poultry to tempt his appetite, but all in vain. He was only a horse, and he starved to death on fare which would have satisfied some of the best-worshiped idols in all Mexico. Some months afterward, when the Spaniards came that way again, they found the skeleton neatly polished and set up in the village temple as a new god. The spirited mustangs for which the country is now so famous all date from the conquest. Before that time important news was brought to the capital by fleet-footed runners. By means of relays at short intervals these men could bring de- spatches from the coast, two hundred and fifty miles dis- tant, in twenty-four hours ; this seems almost incredible when we remember the lofty mountains to be crossed on the way. The Aztecs boasted that fish which only the day before had been swimming in the Gulf were often brought to Montezuma's table. An Indian road in those days had but one virtue : it was as nearly straight as it could be made, never turn- ing to the right hand or to the left for rugged mountain or for precipitous ravine. A chasm was sometimes filled up with stones or bridged with a log, but otherwise there was only a footpath wide enough for one man. Ordinary travelers kept up a steady trot all day, even when carry- ing burdens — a habit still common among the Mexican Indians. Many footpaths used in these days were trav- eled by Montezuma's carriers, and some are now worn in deep ruts by the feet of many generations. 94 ABOUT MEXICO. As it was considered beneath the dignity of the great chiefs to walk, they were carried in litters on the shoul- ders of porters. When they alighted, they were supported under each arm, and were led about like children when first attempting to walk. The tribe of Zapotecs, in the South, had a high priest who never walked at all, his feet being too sacred to touch the ground. The people bowed with their faces to the earth when he passed, and no one of the vulgar crowd ever saw him except in his litter. The immense stones used in building temples in Mex- ico were hewn in some distant quarry and dragged by long files of men, with ropes, over wooden rollers, to their destination. They were hoisted to their places in lofty walls by some such simple but effective contrivances as were in use when the oldest cities of the world were built. Men were also employed as carriers of merchandise in the trading expeditions from tribe to tribe. Companies of merchants were fitted out by the tribe not only with goods for sale or for exchange, but regularly prepared for battle in case of attack. Their journey was always a dangerous one. As they felt their way cautiously from one tribe to another they always had to cross the yaotalU, or debatable ground, or no man's land, by which each territory was surrounded. An experienced and honor- able chief always led the party, which, when the por- ters were included, often formed a small army. Many a battle was occasioned by the visit of such an armed force, some of whom might always be suspected as spies. The return of such an expedition was an occasion for great public rejoicing, especially if it had come back suc- cessful. It was met by gay processions, and came march- ing home with flying colors, under arches of flowers CIVILIZATION OF MEXICO. 95 aud greeiieiy and pelted with bouquets. The traders went first to the central temple to lay an offering of their best before the idol. From thence they went to the great teepan, or council-house, to meet the chiefs who TRADERS ON THE CANAL (MODERN). had sent them out, and feast with them as honored guesta and in token of fraternity. After these ceremonies they went each man to his own dwelling. A Mexican home was unlike any known in Christian lands. In comparison with the clan to which a man be- longed, the wife and the children held a low place. The 96 ABOUT MEXICO. whole community had a claim upon him in his day of triumph and home-coming. The council of his kindred had named him at birth, educated him, trained him for war, chosen him a wife and married him to her, and they would bury him when he died ; and it was easy to see that duty to them came before all other duties. The habit of giving descriptive titles was shown in the name applied to the merchant. He was called " the man who exchanges one thing for another,'^ or ^' the man who gets more than he gives." Most of the commerce of the country was carried on in the way of barter. The artisan brought his own wares to the town market-place and exchanged them for what- ever he wanted of his neighbor's goods of equal value. The money was cacao-beans, put up in small bags or lots of eight thousand. Expensive articles were paid for in grains of gold, which was passed from hand to hand in quills. Sometimes pieces of cotton cloth were used, or bits of copper instead of coin. The market-place was a great open square surrounded by wide corridors, where venders sat with their goods protected from the weather. Cortez thus describes the market-place in the City of INlexico as he saw it in 1519: ''This city has many public squares, in which are sit- uated the markets and other places for buying and selling. There is one square, twice as large as that of the city of Salamanca, surrounded by porticoes, where are daily as- sembled more than sixty thousand souls engaged in buy- ing and selling, and where arc found all kinds of mer- chandise that the world affords, embracing the necessaries of life — as, for instance, articles of food as well as jewels of gold and silver, lead, brass, copper, tin, precious stones, CIVILIZATION OF MEXICO. 97 bones, shells, snails and feathers. There are also exposed for sale wrought and unwrought stone, bricks burnt and unburnt, timber hewn and unhewn of various sorts. '-^ There is a street for game, where every va- riety of birds found in the country are sold, as fowls, partridges, quails, wild ducks, flycatchers, widgeons, turtle-doves, ^g pigeons, reed-birds, par-