modern mexico—settlement of the country—condition of the natives—christian missionaries—cultivation of the soil—voyages and expeditions

1522-1524

in less than four years from the destruction of mexico, a new city had risen on its ruins, which, if inferior to the ancient capital in extent, surpassed it in magnificence and strength. it occupied so exactly the same site as its predecessor, that the plaza mayor, or great square, was the same spot which had been covered by the huge teocalli and the palace of montezuma; while the principal streets took their departure as before from this central point, and, passing through the whole length of the city, terminated at the principal causeways. great alterations, however, took place in the fashion of the architecture. the streets were widened, many of the canals were filled up, and the edifices were constructed on a plan better accommodated to european taste and the wants of a european population.

on the site of the temple of the aztec war-god rose the stately cathedral dedicated to st. fran{152}cis;[158] and, as if to complete the triumphs of the cross, the foundations were laid with the broken images of the aztec gods.[159] in a corner of the square, on the ground once covered by the house of birds, stood a franciscan convent, a magnificent pile, erected a few years after the conquest by a lay brother, pedro de gante, a natural son, it is said, of charles the fifth.[160] in an opposite quarter of the same square cortés caused his own palace to be constructed. it was built of hewn stone, and seven thousand cedar beams are said to have been used for the interior.[161] the government afterwards appropriated it to the residence of the viceroys; and the conqueror’s descendants, the dukes of monteleone, were allowed to erect a new mansion in another part of the plaza,{*} on the spot which, by an ominous coincidence, had been covered by the palace of montezuma.[162]

{*} [the two palaces “were built on the sites of the old and new palaces of montezuma, located respectively in the western and southeastern parts of the ancient square.” bancroft, mexico, ii. 12. “humboldt’s essai politique misleads prescott about the location of the old palace and places the new where the old really stood.” ibid.—m.]

the houses occupied by the spaniards were of stone: combining with elegance a solid strength which made them capable of defence like so many{153} fortresses.[163] the indian buildings were for the most part of an inferior quality. they were scattered over the ancient district of tlatelolco, where the nation had made its last stand for freedom. this quarter was also provided with a spacious cathedral;[164] and thirty inferior churches attested the care of the spaniards for the spiritual welfare of the natives.[165] it was in watching over his indian flock, and in the care of the hospitals with which the new capital was speedily endowed, that the good father olmedo, when oppressed by growing infirmities, spent the evening of his days.[166]

to give greater security to the spaniards, cortés caused a strong fortress to be erected in a place since known as the matadero.[167] it was provided with a dock-yard, and the brigantines which had served in the siege of mexico were long preserved there as memorials of the conquest. when the fortress was completed, the general, owing to the evil offices of fonseca, found himself in want of artillery and ammunition for its defence. he supplied the former deficiency by causing cannon to be cast in his own founderies, made of the copper which was common in the country, and tin which he obtained with more difficulty from the mines of tasco. by this means, and a contribution which he received from the shipping, he contrived to mount{154} his walls with seventy pieces of ordnance. stone balls, much used in that age, could easily be made; but for the manufacture of his powder, although there was nitre in abundance, he was obliged to seek the sulphur by a perilous expedition into the bowels of the great volcan.[168] such were the resources displayed by cortés, enabling him to supply every deficiency, and to triumph over every obstacle which the malice of his enemies had thrown in his path.

the general’s next care was to provide a population for the capital. he invited the spaniards thither by grants of lands and houses, while the indians, with politic liberality, were permitted to live under their own chiefs as before, and to enjoy various immunities. with this encouragement, the spanish quarter of the city in the neighborhood of the great square could boast in a few years two thousand families; while the indian district of tlatelolco included no less than thirty thousand.[169] the various trades and occupations were resumed; the canals were again covered with barges; two vast markets in the respective quarters of the capital displayed all the different products and manufactures of the surrounding country; and the city swarmed with a busy, industrious population, in which the white man and the indian, the conqueror and the conquered, mingled together promiscuously in peaceful and picturesque confusion. not{155} twenty years had elapsed since the conquest, when a missionary who visited it had the confidence, or the credulity, to assert that “europe could not boast a single city so fair and opulent as mexico.”[170]

the metropolis of our day would seem to stand in a different situation from that reared by the conquerors; for the waters no longer flow through its streets, nor wash the ample circumference of its walls. these waters have retreated within the diminished basin of tezcuco; and the causeways, which anciently traversed the depths of the lake, are not now to be distinguished from the other avenues to the capital. but the city, embellished, it is true, by the labors of successive viceroys, is substantially the same as in the days of the conquerors; and the massive grandeur of the few buildings that remain of the primitive period, and the general magnificence and symmetry of its plan, attest the far-sighted policy of its founder, which looked beyond the present to the wants of coming generations.

the attention of cortés was not confined to the capital. he was careful to establish settlements in every part of the country which afforded a favorable position for them. he founded zacatula on the shores of the miscalled pacific, coliman in the territory of michoacán, san estevan on the atlantic coast, probably not far from the site of tam{156}pico, medellin (so called after his own birthplace) in the neighborhood of the modern vera cruz, and a port near the river antigua, from which it derived its name. it was designed to take the place of villa rica, which, as experience has shown, from its exposed situation, afforded no protection to shipping against the winds that sweep over the mexican gulf. antigua, sheltered within the recesses of a bay, presented a more advantageous position. cortés established there a board of trade, connected the settlement by a highway with the capital, and fondly predicted that his new city would become the great emporium of the country.[171] but in this he was mistaken. from some cause, not very obvious, the port of entry was removed, at the close of the sixteenth century, to the modern vera cruz, which, without any superiority, probably, of topographical position, or even of salubrity of climate, has remained ever since the great commercial capital of new spain.

cortés stimulated the settlement of his several colonies by liberal grants of land and municipal privileges. the great difficulty was to induce women to reside in the country; and without them he felt that the colonies, like a tree without roots, must soon perish. by a singular provision, he required every settler, if a married man, to bring over{157} his wife within eighteen months, on pain of forfeiting his estate. if he were too poor to do this himself, the government would assist him. another law imposed the same penalty on all bachelors who did not provide themselves with wives within the same period. the general seems to have considered celibacy as too great a luxury for a young country.[172]{158}

his own wife, do?a catalina xuarez, was among those who came over from the islands to new spain. according to bernal diaz, her coming gave him no particular satisfaction.[173] it is possible; since his marriage with her seems to have been entered into with reluctance, and her lowly condition and connections stood somewhat in the way of his future advancement. yet they lived happily together for several years, according to the testimony of las casas;[174] and, whatever he may{159} have felt, he had the generosity, or the prudence, not to betray his feelings to the world. on landing, do?a catalina was escorted by sandoval to the capital, where she was kindly received by her husband, and all the respect paid to her to which she was entitled by her elevated rank. but the climate of the table-land was not suited to her constitution, and she died in three months after her arrival.[175] an event so auspicious to his worldly prospects did not fail, as we shall see hereafter, to provoke the tongue of scandal to the most malicious, but, it is scarcely necessary to say, unfounded, inferences.

in the distribution of the soil among the conquerors, cortés adopted the vicious system of repartimientos, universally practised among his countrymen. in a letter to the emperor, he states that the superior capacity of the indians in new spain had made him regard it as a grievous thing to condemn them to servitude, as had been done in the islands. but, on further trial, he had found the spaniards so much harassed and impoverished that they could not hope to maintain themselves in the land without enforcing the services of the natives, and for this reason he had at length waived his own scruples in compliance with their repeated remonstrances.[176] this was the wretched pretext used on the like occasions by his countrymen to cover up this flagrant act of injustice. the crown,{160} however, in its instructions to the general, disavowed the act and annulled the repartimientos.[177] it was all in vain. the necessities, or rather the cupidity, of the colonists, easily evaded the royal ordinances.{*} the colonial legislation of spain{161} shows, in the repetition of enactments against slavery, the perpetual struggle that subsisted between the crown and the colonists, and the impotence of the former to enforce measures repugnant to the interests, at all events to the avarice, of the latter. new spain furnishes no exception to the general fact.

{*} [this remark would imply that the instructions were published and some attempts at least made to enforce them. that such was not the case we learn from a remarkable private letter of cortés to the emperor, sent with the “relacion quarta,” and bearing the same date,—october 15, 1524. referring first to an order that the spanish settlers should be allowed to have free intercourse with the indian population as a means of promoting conversion, he declines to comply with it on the ground that the effects would be most pernicious. the natives, he says, would be subjected to violence, robbery, and vexations of all kinds. even with the present rigorous rule forbidding any spaniard to leave his settlement and go among the indians without a special license, the evils resulting from this intercourse were so great that if he and his officers should attend solely to their suppression they would be unable to effect it, the territory being so vast. if all the spaniards now in the country or on their way to it were friars engaged in the work of conversion, entire freedom of intercourse would no doubt be profitable. but, the reverse being the case, such also would be the effect. most of the spaniards who came were men of base condition and manners, addicted to every sort of vice and sin; and if free intercourse were allowed, the natives would be converted to evil rather than to good, and, seeing the difference between what was preached and what was practised, would make a jest of what was taught them by the priests, thinking it was meant merely to bring them into servitude. the injuries done them would lead to rebellion; they would profit by their acquired knowledge to arm themselves better, and being so many and the spaniards so few, the latter would be cut off singly, as had already happened in many cases, and the greatest work of conversion since the time of the apostles would come to a stop.

turning then to the emperor’s prohibition of the repartimientos, as a thing which his conscience would not suffer, the theologians having declared that since god had made the indians free their liberty ought not to be taken away, cortés states that he has not only not complied with this order, but he has kept it secret except from the officials, whom he has forbidden to make it public. his reasons for thus acting are as follows: 1st. the spaniards are unable to live except by the labor of the indians, and if deprived of this they would be obliged to leave the country. 2d. his system of repartimientos is such that by it the indians are in fact taken out of captivity, their condition under their former masters having been one of intolerable servitude, in which they were not only deprived of all but the barest means of subsistence, but they and their children were sacrificed to the idols in numbers horrible to hear of, it being a certified fact that in the great temple of mexico alone, at a single festival, one of many that were held annually, eight thousand persons had been sacrificed; all this, with innumerable other wrongs, had now ceased; and the surest punishment which could be inflicted on the indians was the threat to send them back to their former masters. 3d. enumerating the various provisions he has made for obviating the evils of the system as practised in the islands, where, during a residence of twenty years, he had ample knowledge of its workings, he asserts that, in the mode in which it has been established and regulated by him, it will lead not to the diminution but to the preservation and increase of the natives, besides securing a provision for the settlers and large revenues to the crown, and he contends that the repartimientos, instead of being abrogated, should be made hereditary, so that the possessors might have a stronger interest in the proper cultivation of the soil, instead of seeking to extract from it the most that was possible in a given time.

the letter, which concludes by noticing and rejecting some minor points in the emperor’s instructions, has been recently discovered, and is perhaps the ablest document that has come down to us with the signature of cortés. it has been published by se?or icazbalceta, in his col. de doc. para la hist. de méxico, tom. i.—k.]

the tlascalans, in gratitude for their signal services, were exempted, at the recommendation of cortés, from the doom of slavery. it should be added that the general, in granting the repartimientos, made many humane regulations for limiting the power of the master, and for securing as{162} many privileges to the natives as were compatible with any degree of compulsory service.[178] these limitations, it is true, were too often disregarded; and in the mining districts, in particular, the situation of the poor indian was often deplorable. yet the indian population, clustering together in their own villages and living under their own magistrates, have continued to prove by their numbers, fallen as these have below their primitive amount, how far superior was their condition to that in most other parts of the vast colonial empire of spain.[179] this condition has been gradually ameliorated, under the influence of higher moral views and larger ideas of government, until the servile descendants of the ancient lords of the soil have been permitted, in republican mexico, to rise—nominally, at least—to a level with the children of their conquerors.

whatever disregard he may have shown to the political rights of the natives, cortés manifested a commendable solicitude for their spiritual welfare. he requested the emperor to send out holy men to the country; not bishops and pampered prelates, who too often squandered the substance of the{163} church in riotous living, but godly persons, members of religious fraternities, whose lives might be a fitting commentary on their teaching. thus only, he adds,—and the remark is worthy of note,—can they exercise any influence over the natives, who have been accustomed to see the least departure from morals in their own priesthood punished with the utmost rigor of the law.[180] in obedience to these suggestions, twelve franciscan friars embarked for new spain, which they reached early in 1524. they were men of unblemished purity of life, nourished with the learning of the cloister, and, like many others whom the romish church has sent forth on such apostolic missions, counted all personal sacrifices as little in the sacred cause to which they were devoted.[181]{164}

the presence of the reverend fathers in the country was greeted with general rejoicing. the inhabitants of the towns through which they passed came out in a body to welcome them; processions were formed of the natives bearing wax tapers in their hands, and the bells of the churches rang out a joyous peal in honor of their arrival. houses of refreshment were provided for them along their route to the capital; and when they entered it they were met by a brilliant cavalcade of the principal cavaliers and citizens, with cortés at their head. the general, dismounting, and bending one knee to the ground, kissed the robes of father martin of valencia, the principal of the fraternity. the natives, filled with amazement at the viceroy’s humiliation before men whose naked feet and tattered garments gave them the aspect of mendicants, henceforth regarded them as beings of a superior nature. the indian chronicler of tlascala does not conceal his admiration of this edifying condescension of cortés, which he pronounces “one of the most heroical acts of his life!”[182]{165}

the missionaries lost no time in the good work of conversion. they began their preaching through interpreters, until they had acquired a competent knowledge of the language themselves. they opened schools and founded colleges, in which the native youth were instructed in profane as well as christian learning.{*} the ardor of the indian neophyte emulated that of his teacher. in a few years every vestige of the primitive teocallis was effaced from the land. the uncouth idols of the country, and, unhappily, the hieroglyphical manuscripts, shared the same fate. yet the missionary and the convert did much to repair these{166} losses by their copious accounts of the aztec institutions, collected from the most authentic sources.[183]

{*} [a singular tribute to the thoroughness of the instruction thus given, and the facility with which it was imbibed, is rendered in a long complaint on the subject addressed to the emperor by gerónimo lopez, under date of october 20, 1541. the writer, a person evidently commissioned to send home reports on the condition of the country, denounces the system of education instituted by the franciscan monks as diabolically pernicious,—“muy da?oso como el diablo.” he considers that the indians should at the most be taught to repeat the pater noster and ave maria, the creed and the commandments, without any expositions, or any distinction of the persons of the trinity and their attributes, above all without learning to read and write. instead of this, they are taught not only these pernicious branches of knowledge, but punctuation, music,—nay, even grammar! their natural ability is so great, and the devil is so largely interested in the matter, that they have acquired a skill in forming different kinds of letters which is marvellous, and a great number of them are thus enabled to carry on a correspondence and learn what is going on in the country from one sea to the other. there are boys among them who speak as elegant latin as tullius. they have translated and read the whole of the scriptures,—the same thing that has ruined so many in spain and given birth to a thousand heresies. a secular ecclesiastic told him that, having visited one of the colleges, he found there two hundred students, who stunned him with questions about religion, till the place seemed to him hell, and its inmates disciples of satan.—icazbalceta, col. de doc. para la hist, de méxico, tom, ii.—k.]

the business of conversion went on prosperously among the several tribes of the great nahuatlac family. in about twenty years from the first advent of the missionaries, one of their body could make the pious vaunt that nine millions of converts—a number probably exceeding the population of the country—had been admitted within the christian fold![184] the aztec worship was remarkable for its burdensome ceremonial, and prepared its votaries for the pomp and splendors of the romish ritual. it was not difficult to pass from the fasts and festivals of the one religion to the fasts and festivals of the other; to transfer their homage from the fantastic idols of their own creation to the beautiful forms in sculpture and in painting which decorated the christian cathedral. it is true, they could have comprehended little of the{167} dogmas of their new faith,{*} and little, it may be, of its vital spirit. but, if the philosopher may smile at the reflection that conversion, under these circumstances, was one of form rather than of substance, the philanthropist will console himself by considering how much the cause of humanity and good morals must have gained by the substitution of these unsullied rites for the brutal abominations of the aztecs.

{*} [as little as did clovis and his franks, when that doughty warrior embraced christianity.—m.]

the conquerors settled in such parts of the country as best suited their inclinations. many occupied the southeastern slopes of the cordilleras towards the rich valley of oaxaca. many more spread themselves over the broad surface of the table-land, which, from its elevated position, reminded them of the plateau of their own castiles. here, too, they were in the range of those inexhaustible mines which have since poured their silver deluge over europe. the mineral resources of the land were not, indeed, fully explored or comprehended till at a much later period; but some few, as the mines of zacatecas, guanaxuato, and tasco,—the last of which was also known in montezuma’s time,—had begun to be wrought within a generation after the conquest.[185]

but the best wealth of the first settlers was in the vegetable products of the soil, whether in{168}digenous, or introduced from abroad by the wise economy of cortés. he had earnestly recommended the crown to require all vessels coming to the country to bring over a certain quantity of seeds and plants.[186] he made it a condition of the grants of land on the plateau, that the proprietor of every estate should plant a specified number of vines on it.[187] he further stipulated that no one should get a clear title to his estate until he had occupied it eight years.[188] he knew that permanent residence could alone create that interest in the soil which would lead to its efficient culture, and that the opposite system had caused the impoverishment of the best plantations in the islands. his various regulations, some of them not a little distasteful to the colonists, augmented the agricultural resources of the country by the addition of the most important european grains and other vegetables, for which the diversified climate of new spain was admirably adapted. the sugar-cane was transplanted from the neighboring islands to the lower level of the country, and, together with indigo, cotton, and cochineal, formed a{169} more desirable staple for the colony than its precious metals. under the sun of the tropics, the peach, the almond, the orange, the vine, and the olive, before unknown there, flourished in the gardens of the table-land, at an elevation twice as great as that at which the clouds are suspended in summer above our heads. the importation of a european fruit or vegetable was hailed by the simple colonists with delight. the first produce of the exotic was celebrated by a festival, and the guests greeted each other, as on the appearance of an old familiar friend, who called up the remembrance of the past and the tender associations of their native land.[189]

while thus occupied with the internal economy of the country, cortés was still bent on his great schemes of discovery and conquest. in the preceding chapter we have seen him fitting out a little fleet at zacatula to explore the shores of the pacific. it was burnt in the dock-yard when nearly completed. this was a serious calamity, as most of the materials were to be transported across the country from villa rica. cortés, however, with his usual promptness, took measures to repair the loss. he writes to the emperor that another squadron will soon be got ready at the same port, and, “he doubts not, will put his majesty in possession{170} of more lands and kingdoms than the nation has ever heard of!”[190] this magnificent vaunt shows the common sentiment of the spaniards at that time, who looked on the pacific as the famed indian ocean, studded with golden islands and teeming with the rich treasures of the east.

a principal object of this squadron was the discovery of a strait which should connect the atlantic with the pacific. another squadron, consisting of five vessels, was fitted out in the gulf of mexico, to take the direction of florida, with the same view of detecting a strait. for cortés trusted—we at this day may smile at the illusion—that one might be found in that direction which should conduct the navigator to those waters which had been traversed by the keels of magellan![191]

the discovery of a strait was the great object to which nautical enterprise in that day was directed, as it had been ever since the time of columbus. it was in the sixteenth century what the discovery of the northwest passage has been in our own age,—the ignis fatuus of navigators. the vast extent of the american continent had been ascertained by the voyages of cabot in the north, and of magellan very recently in the south. the proximity, in certain quarters, of the two great oceans that{171} washed its eastern and western shores had been settled by the discoveries both of balboa and of cortés. european scholars could not believe that nature had worked on a plan so repugnant, apparently, to the interests of humanity, as to interpose, through the whole length of the great continent, such a barrier to communication between the adjacent waters. the correspondence of men of science,[192] the instructions of the court, the letters of cortés, like those of columbus, touch frequently on this favorite topic. “your majesty may be assured,” he writes, “that, as i know how much you have at heart the discovery of this great secret of a strait, i shall postpone all interests and projects of my own, some of them of the highest moment, for the fulfilment of this great object.”[193]

it was partly with the same view that the general caused a considerable armament to be equipped and placed under the command of cristóval de olid, the brave officer who, as the reader will remember, had charge of one of the great divisions of the besieging army. he was to steer for honduras and plant a colony on its northern coast. a detachment of olid’s squadron was afterwards to cruise along its southern shore towards darien in search of the mysterious strait. the country was reported to be full of gold; so full that “the fishermen used gold weights for their nets.” the life of the spanish discoverers was one long day-dream. illusion after illusion chased one another like the bubbles which the child throws off from his pipe,{172} as bright, as beautiful, and as empty. they lived in a world of enchantment.[194]

together with these maritime expeditions, cortés fitted out a powerful expedition by land. it was intrusted to alvarado, who, with a large force of spaniards and indians, was to descend the southern slant of the cordilleras and penetrate into the countries that lay beyond the rich valley of oaxaca. the campaigns of this bold and rapacious chief terminated in the important conquest of guatemala. the general required his captains to send him minute accounts of the countries which they visited, the productions of the soil, and their general resources. the result was several valuable and interesting communications.[195] in his instructions for the conduct of these expeditions, he enjoined a considerate treatment of the natives, and inculcated a policy which may be called humane, as far as humanity is compatible with a system of subjugation.[196] unfortunately, the character of his officers too often rendered these instructions unavailing.{173}

in the prosecution of his great enterprises, cortés, within three short years after the conquest, had reduced under the dominion of castile an extent of country more than four hundred leagues in length, as he affirms, on the atlantic coast, and more than five hundred on the pacific, and, with the exception of a few interior provinces of no great importance, had brought them to a condition of entire tranquillity.[197] in accomplishing this, he had freely expended the revenues of the crown, drawn from tributes similar to those which had been anciently paid by the natives to their own sovereigns; and he had, moreover, incurred a large debt on his own account, for which he demanded remuneration from the government. the celebrity of his name, and the dazzling reports of the conquered countries, drew crowds of adventurers to new spain, who furnished the general with recruits for his various enterprises.

whoever would form a just estimate of this remarkable man must not confine himself to the history of the conquest. his military career, indeed, places him on a level with the greatest captains of his age. but the period subsequent to the conquest affords different, and in some respects nobler, points of view for the study of his character. for we then see him devising a system of government for the motley and antagonist races, so to speak, now first brought under a common do{174}minion; repairing the mischiefs of war; and employing his efforts to detect the latent resources of the country and to stimulate it to its highest power of production. the narrative may seem tame, after the recital of exploits as bold and adventurous as those of a paladin of romance. but it is only by the perusal of this narrative that we can form an adequate conception of the acute and comprehensive genius of cortés.