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nation, the antiquity of which was not very remote; which had no communication with enlightened people; which knew not the use of iron, and possessed only an imperfect species of writing, and which was situated in a climate where the faculties of man, are not called forth by want and rigorous necessity,-this nation, we are told, had risen to this degree of eminence by the genius of the people alone.

As soon as the Castilians had conquered Mexico, they divided the best lands among themselves; they reduced to slavery the people who had cleared them, and condemned them to labors incompatible with their constitutions and repugnant to their habits. This system of oppression excited general insurrections. These arose without a concurrence of measures, without a chief to direct them, and without a plan; they were the effect of despair alone; and ended to the disadvantage of the unfortunate Mexicans. An irritated conqueror, with fire and sword in hand, passed with extreme rapidity from one extremity of the empire to the other, and left in all parts memorable traces of vengeance, the details of which would make the firmest heart shudder. There was a barbarous emulation between the officer and the soldier, which should sacrifice most victims; and even the great leader himself, perhaps, surpassed his troops and lieutenants in ferocity.

Cortez, however, did not reap the advantages he expected from so many acts of inhumanity. It became a maxim of policy in the court of Madrid, not to leave such of their subjects as had effected important discoveries, time enough to settle themselves in their authority. They were in perpetual fear that the conquerors might think of rendering themselves independent of the crown. If the conqueror of Mexico did not give an excuse for adopting such a system, he was at least, one of the first victims of it. The unlimited powers he had at first enjoyed, were daily curtailed; and in process of time they were so exceedingly restrained, that he preferred a private situation to the vain appearance of an authority accompanied with the greatest mortification. He was even on the point of being seized and sent to Spain in irons, precisely as Columbus had been served; but the sudden death of Ponce de Leon, the officer ordered upon this service, saved the conqueror of Mexico from the indignity which had been cast on the discoverer of the New World. Disgusted and indignant at this premeditated insult, he returned to Spain, where he was received with outward respect and honors, but not allowed to resume his authority in America. He closed his life in chagrin and disappointment, December 2, 1547. The events described in this history, speak his character. Intrepid, enterprising, and prompt at

expedients, he was nevertheless, sanguinary and remorseless. He is said to have shown symptoms of compunction for the murder of Guatimozin, but it does not appear that the slaughter of half a million of men, sacrificed to his insatiate ambition, ever gave him an uneasy thought.

The city of Mexico was rebuilt by the Spaniards, but hardly a relic of the ancient city is to be seen at the present day. The destruction which fell upon the capital, was also shared by the inferior cities of the empire. The blind and fanatic zeal of the conquerors was directed with especial fury against the monuments of Mexican history and religion. The ravages of war levelled the cities to the ground, and monkish bigotry continued the devastation by overthrowing the temples, statues and monuments, which abounded throughout the country. The researches of modern travellers have discovered tracts of territory strewed with the remains of noble palaces and enormous structures of various descriptions. These gigantic relics, covered with sculpture, paintings and hieroglyphics, attest the ancient magnificence of the Mexican cities, and exhibit the most interesting testimonials of the progress of the arts among this singular people. They appear not to have known the use of iron, yet their statues and other monuments of sculptured stone, exhibit a surprising degree of delicacy and finish. Destitute of the mechanical helps which give such enormous power to modern machinery, they were able, nevertheless, to rear colossal structures, the remains of which, at the present day, strike us with wonder. The Mexicans, also, were familiar with astronomical science; and their hieroglyphical writing, so far as we can judge from the imperfect relics within our reach, appears to have made an approach, like that of the Egyptians, to a phonetic character, and to have become an incipient alphabet. The Spaniards destroyed, with indiscriminate fury, everything that could remind the conquered people of their ancient national existence, or their ancient religion. The hieroglyphical writings, which contained the history and mythology of this people, were committed to the flames, and thus immense piles of manuscripts were irretrievably lost, which were of inestimable value as affording the means of elucidating the origin, antiquities, institutions and manners, of the most powerful and civilized people of the Western World.

GUATEMALA appears never to have formed a part of the empire of Mexico. At the arrival of the Spaniards it contained many distinct kingdoms or principalities. The subjugation of Mexico by Cortez, struck a terror into the people of Guatemala, and some of the chiefs sent embassies to the conqueror, offering to submit to

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him, and acknowledge themselves vassals of the king of Spain. Cortez sent Pedro de Alvarado, one of his officers, who had been most active in the conquest of Mexico, to take possession of the country. Alvarado marched from Mexico in November, 1523, with three hundred Spaniards and a large auxiliary force of Mexicans. He met, however, with much opposition in his progress. The Indians were defeated in Teguantepec, Soconusco and Tonala, and the Spaniards remained masters of those provinces. They next entered the kingdom of Quiche, where they met with a more serious resistance. The invaders, however, on the 14th of May, 1524, gained the victory in a great battle. Alvarado continued his march to the capital of the king of Kachiquel, who had sent his submission to Cortez. This prince received the Spaniards cordially, and on the 29th of July, 1524, the conquerors laid the foundation of the ancient city of Guatemala. The conquest of the remaining provinces followed shortly after, although many wild districts have remained to the present day, very little explored or known by the conquerors.

CHAPTER IX.

Search of Columbus for the South Sea.-Expedition of Ojeda and Nicuessa.— Nunez de Balboa penetrates into the country of Darien.-Discovers the Pacific Ocean.-Expedition of Pedrarias.-Foundation of Panama.-The invasion of Peru projected by Pizarro and Almagro.-Arrival of the Spaniards at Tumbez. -State of the empire of Peru on the arrival of the invaders.-Interview of the Inca Atahualpa with the Spaniards.-Massacre of the Peruvians.-Enormous ransom paid by the Inca.-Amount of spoil shared by the soldiers.-Atahualpa put to death.-Capture of Cuzco.-Conquest and devastation of the whole empire of Peru.

COLUMBUS rightly conjectured that, beyond the continent he had discovered, was another ocean, which terminated at the East Indies, and that these two seas might have a communication with each other. In order to discover this, he sailed, in 1502, as close along the coast of America as possible. He touched at all places that were accessible, and, contrary to the custom of other navigators, who behaved, in the countries they visited, as if they were never to return to them, he treated the inhabitants with a degree of kindness that gained their good will. The Gulf of Darien particularly engaged his attention. He thought that the rivers which ran into it might afford the communication he had sought through so many dangers and fatigues. Disappointed in these expectations, he wished to leave a small colony upon the river Belem, in the

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country of Veragua. The avidity, the pride, and the barbarism of his countrymen prevented him from having the satisfaction of forming the first European establishment upon the continent of the new hemisphere. Some years elapsed after this, and still the Spaniards had not fixed themselves upon the spot.

As the Spanish adventurers only received from government the permission of making discoveries, it seldom entered their minds to employ themselves in agriculture or commerce. The prospect of distant fortunes, that might have been made by these prudent means, was far beyond the prejudices of these barbarous times. Nothing but the allurement of immediate gain could stimulate men to enterprises so bold as those for which this century was distinguished. Gold, alone, attracted them to the continent of America, and made them brave dangers, diseases and death. By a terrible vengeance, the cruelty of the Europeans, instigated by their lust of mineral treasures, exhausted at once the two hemispheres of their inhabitants, and destruction fell equally upon the plunderers and the plundered.

It was not till the year 1509, that Ojeda and Nicuessa formed, though separately, the design of making solid and lasting conquests. To encourage them in their resolution, Ferdinand gave to the first the government of the countries that begin at Cape de la Vela and terminate at the Gulf of Darien; and to the second, that of all the space extending from this gulf to Cape Gracias a Dios. Both these adventurers were instructed to announce to the natives at their landing, the tenets of the Christian religion, and to inform them of the gift which the Roman pontiff had made of their country to the king of Spain. If the savages were unwilling to submit quietly to a double yoke, the Spaniards were authorized to pursue them with fire and sword, and to reduce the nations to bondage.

But it was more easy to grant by commission these absurd and atrocious privileges, than to put the barbarous and superstitious adventurers who solicited such rights in actual possession of them. The Indians rejected every kind of intercourse with a set of rapacious intruders, who threatened equally their life and liberty. Arms were not more favorable to the Spaniards than their perfidious caresses. The people of the continent, accustomed to carry on war with each other, received them with a boldness unexperienced in the islands that had been so easily subdued. Poisoned arrows were showered upon them from all quarters, and not one of those who were wounded escaped death. To the arrows of the enemy, other causes of destruction were soon joined; shipwrecks, unavoidable in these unknown latitudes; an almost continual