most polished nations of antiquity;[130] but never by any, on a scale to
be compared with those in Anahuac. The amount of victims immolated on
its accursed altars would stagger the faith of the least scrupulous
believer. Scarcely any author pretends to estimate the yearly sacrifices
throughout the empire at less than twenty thousand, and some carry the
number as high as fifty thousand![131]
On great occasions, as the coronation of a king or the consecration of a
temple, the number becomes still more appalling. At the dedication of
the great temple of Huitzilopochtli, in 1486, the prisoners, who for
some years had been reserved for the purpose, were drawn from all
quarters to the capital. They were ranged in files, forming a procession
nearly two miles long. The ceremony consumed several days, and seventy
thousand captives are said to have perished at the shrine of this
terrible deity! But who can believe that so numerous a body would have
suffered themselves to be led unresistingly like sheep to the slaughter?
Or how could their remains, too great for consumption in
[Illustration: FRA BARTOLOMÉ DE LAS CASAS]
[Illustration: Goupil & Cº. Paris]
the ordinary way, be disposed of, without breeding a pestilence in the
capital? Yet the event was of recent date, and is unequivocally attested
by the best-informed historians.[132] One fact may be considered
certain. It was customary to preserve the skulls of the sacrificed, in
buildings appropriated to the purpose. The companions of Cortés counted
one hundred and thirty-six thousand in one of these edifices![133]
Without attempting a precise calculation, therefore, it is safe to
conclude that thousands were yearly offered up, in the different cities
of Anahuac, on the bloody altars of the Mexican divinities.[134]
Indeed, the great object of war, with the Aztecs, was quite as much to
gather victims for their sacrifices as to extend their empire. Hence it
was that an enemy was never slain in battle, if there were a chance of
taking him alive. To this circumstance the Spaniards repeatedly owed
their preservation. When Montezuma was asked “why he had suffered the
republic of Tlascala to maintain her independence on his borders,” he
replied, “that she might furnish him with victims for his gods”! As the
supply began to fail, the priests, the Dominicans of the New World,
bellowed aloud for more, and urged on their superstitious sovereign by
the denunciations of celestial wrath. Like the militant churchmen of
Christendom in the Middle Ages, they mingled themselves in the ranks,
and were conspicuous in the thickest of the fight, by their hideous
aspect and frantic gestures. Strange, that, in every country, the most
fiendish passions of the human heart have been those kindled in the name
of religion![135]
The influence of these practices on the Aztec character was as
disastrous as might have been expected. Familiarity with the bloody
rites of sacrifice steeled the heart against human sympathy, and begat a
thirst for carnage, like that excited in the Romans by the exhibitions
of the circus. The perpetual recurrence of ceremonies, in which the
people took part, associated religion with their most intimate concerns,
and spread the gloom of superstition over the domestic hearth, until the
character of the nation wore a grave and even melancholy aspect, which
belongs to their descendants at the present day. The influence of the
priesthood, of course, became unbounded. The sovereign thought himself
honored by being permitted to assist in the services of the temple. Far
from limiting the authority of the priests to spiritual matters, he
often surrendered his opinion to theirs, where they were least competent
to give it. It was their opposition that prevented the final
capitulation which would have saved the capital. The whole nation, from
the peasant to the prince, bowed their necks to the worst kind of
tyranny, that of a blind fanaticism.
In reflecting on the revolting usages recorded in the preceding pages,
one finds it difficult to reconcile their existence with anything like a
regular form of government, or an advance in civilization.[136] Yet the
Mexicans had many claims to the character of a civilized community. One
may, perhaps, better understand the anomaly, by reflecting on the
condition of some of the most polished countries in Europe in the
sixteenth century, after the establishment of the modern
Inquisition,--an institution which yearly destroyed its thousands, by a
death more painful than the Aztec sacrifices; which armed the hand of
brother against brother, and, setting its burning seal upon the lip, did
more to stay the march of improvement than any other scheme ever devised
by human cunning.
Human sacrifice, however cruel, has nothing in it degrading to its
victim. It may be rather said to ennoble him by devoting him to the
gods. Although so terrible with the Aztecs, it was sometimes voluntarily
embraced by them, as the most glorious death and one that opened a sure
passage into paradise.[137] The Inquisition, on the other hand, branded
its victims with infamy in this world, and consigned them to everlasting
perdition in the next.
One detestable feature of the Aztec superstition, however, sunk it far
below the Christian. This was its cannibalism,[138] though, in truth,
the Mexicans were not cannibals in the coarsest acceptation of the term.
They did not feed on human flesh merely to gratify a brutish appetite,
but in obedience to their religion. Their repasts were made of the
victims whose blood had been poured out on the altar of sacrifice. This
is a distinction worthy of notice.[139] Still, cannibalism, under any
form or whatever sanction, cannot but have a fatal influence on the
nation addicted to it. It suggests ideas so loathsome, so degrading to
man, to his spiritual and immortal nature, that it is impossible the
people who practise it should make any great progress in moral or
intellectual culture. The Mexicans furnish no exception to this remark.
The civilization which they possessed descended from the Toltecs, a race
who never stained their altars, still less their banquets, with the
blood of man.[140] All that deserved the name of science in Mexico came
from this source; and the crumbling ruins of edifices attributed to
them, still extant in various parts of New Spain, show a decided
superiority in their architecture over that of the later races of
Anahuac. It is true, the Mexicans made great proficiency in many of the
social and mechanic arts, in that material culture,--if I may so call
it,--the natural growth of increasing opulence, which ministers to the
gratification of the senses. In purely intellectual progress they were
behind the Tezcucans, whose wise sovereigns came into the abominable
rites of their neighbors with reluctance and practised them on a much
more moderate scale.[141]
In this state of things, it was beneficently ordered by Providence that
the land should be delivered over to another race, who would rescue it
from the brutish superstitions that daily extended wider and wider with
extent of empire.[142] The debasing institutions of the Aztecs furnish
the best apology for their conquest. It is true, the conquerors brought
along with them the Inquisition. But they also brought Christianity,
whose benign radiance would still survive when the fierce flames of
fanaticism should be extinguished; dispelling those dark forms of horror
which had so long brooded over the fair region of Anahuac.
The most important authority in the preceding chapter, and, indeed,
wherever the Aztec religion is concerned, is Bernardino de Sahagun,
a Franciscan friar, contemporary with the Conquest. His great work,
_Historia universal de Nueva-España_, has been recently printed for
the first time. The circumstances attending its compilation and
subsequent fate form one of the most remarkable passages in
literary history.
Sahagun was born in a place of the same name, in old Spain. He was
educated at Salamanca, and, having taken the vows of St. Francis,
came over as a missionary to Mexico in the year 1529. Here he
distinguished himself by his zeal, the purity of his life, and his
unwearied exertions to spread the great truths of religion among
the natives. He was the guardian of several conventual houses,
successively, until he relinquished these cares, that he might
devote himself more unreservedly to the business of preaching, and
of compiling various works designed to illustrate the antiquities
of the Aztecs. For these literary labors he found some facilities
in the situation which he continued to occupy, of reader, or
lecturer, in the College of Santa Cruz, in the capital.
The “Universal History” was concocted in a singular manner. In
order to secure to it the greatest possible authority, he passed
some years in a Tezcucan town, where he conferred daily with a
number of respectable natives unacquainted with Castilian. He
propounded to them queries, which they, after deliberation,
answered in their usual method of writing, by hieroglyphical
paintings. These he submitted to other natives, who had been
educated under his own eye in the College of Santa Cruz; and the
latter, after a consultation among themselves, gave a written
version, in the Mexican tongue, of the hieroglyphics. This process
he repeated in another place, in some part of Mexico, and subjected
the whole to a still further revision by a third body in another
quarter. He finally arranged the combined results into a regular
history, in the form it now bears; composing it in the Mexican
language, which he could both write and speak with great accuracy
and elegance,--greater, indeed, than any Spaniard of the time.
The work presented a mass of curious information, that attracted
much attention among his brethren. But they feared its influence in
keeping alive in the natives a too vivid reminiscence of the very
superstitions which it was the great object of the Christian clergy
to eradicate. Sahagun had views more liberal than those of his
order, whose blind zeal would willingly have annihilated every
monument of art and human ingenuity which had not been produced
under the influence of Christianity. They refused to allow him the
necessary aid to transcribe his papers, which he had been so many
years in preparing, under the pretext that the expense was too
great for their order to incur. This occasioned a further delay of
several years. What was worse, his provincial got possession of his
manuscripts, which were soon scattered among the different
religious houses in the country.
In this forlorn state of his affairs, Sahagun drew up a brief
statement of the nature and contents of his work, and forwarded it
to Madrid. It fell into the hands of Don Juan de Ovando, president
of the Council for the Indies, who was so much interested in it
that he ordered the manuscripts to be restored to their author,
with the request that he would at once set about translating them
into Castilian. This was accordingly done. His papers were
recovered, though not without the menace of ecclesiastical
censures; and the octogenarian author began the work of translation
from the Mexican, in which they had been originally written by him
thirty years before. He had the satisfaction to complete the task,
arranging the Spanish version in a parallel column with the
original, and adding a vocabulary, explaining the difficult Aztec
terms and phrases; while the text was supported by the numerous
paintings on which it was founded. In this form, making two bulky
volumes in folio, it was sent to Madrid. There seemed now to be no
further reason for postponing its publication, the importance of
which could not be doubted. But from this moment it disappears; and
we hear nothing further of it, for more than two centuries, except
only as a valuable work, which had once existed and was probably
buried in some one of the numerous cemeteries of learning in which
Spain abounds.
At length, towards the close of the last century, the indefatigable
Muñoz succeeded in disinterring the long-lost manuscript from the
place tradition had assigned to it,--the library of a convent at
Tolosa, in Navarre, the northern extremity of Spain. With his usual
ardor, he transcribed the whole work with his own hands, and added
it to the inestimable collection, of which, alas! he was destined
not to reap the full benefit himself. From this transcript Lord
Kingsborough was enabled to procure the copy which was published in
1830, in the sixth volume of his magnificent compilation. In it he
expresses an honest satisfaction at being the first to give
Sahagun’s works to the world. But in this supposition he was
mistaken. The very year preceding, an edition of it, with
annotations, appeared in Mexico, in three volumes octavo. It was
prepared by Bustamante,--a scholar to whose editorial activity his
country is largely indebted,--from a copy of the Muñoz manuscript
which came into his possession. Thus this remarkable work, which
was denied the honors of the press during the author’s lifetime,
after passing into oblivion, reappeared, at the distance of nearly
three centuries, not in his own country, but in foreign lands
widely remote from each other, and that almost simultaneously. The
story is extraordinary, though unhappily not so extraordinary in
Spain as it would be elsewhere.
Sahagun divided his history into twelve books. The first eleven are
occupied with the social institutions of Mexico, and the last with
the Conquest. On the religion of the country he is particularly
full. His great object evidently was, to give a clear view of its
mythology, and of the burdensome ritual which belonged to it.
Religion entered so intimately into the most private concerns and
usages of the Aztecs, that Sahagun’s work must be a text-book for
every student of their antiquities. Torquemada availed himself of a
manuscript copy, which fell into his hands before it was sent to
Spain, to enrich his own pages,--a circumstance more fortunate for
his readers than for Sahagun’s reputation, whose work, now that it
is published, loses much of the originality and interest which
would otherwise attach to it. In one respect it is invaluable; as
presenting a complete collection of the various forms of prayer,
accommodated to every possible emergency, in use by the Mexicans.
They are often clothed in dignified and beautiful language, showing
that sublime speculative tenets are quite compatible with the most
degrading practices of superstition. It is much to be regretted
that we have not the eighteen hymns inserted by the author in his
book, which would have particular interest, as the only specimen of
devotional poetry preserved of the Aztecs. The hieroglyphical
paintings, which accompanied the text, are also missing. If they
have escaped the hands of fanaticism, both may reappear at some
future day.
Sahagun produced several other works, of a religious or
philological character. Some of these were voluminous, but none
have been printed. He lived to a very advanced age, closing a life
of activity and usefulness, in 1590, in the capital of Mexico. His
remains were followed to the tomb by a numerous concourse of his
own countrymen, and of the natives, who lamented in him the loss of
unaffected piety, benevolence, and learning.
CHAPTER IV
MEXICAN HIEROGLYPHICS--MANUSCRIPTS--ARITHMETIC--CHRONOLOGY--ASTRONOMY
It is a relief to turn from the gloomy pages of the preceding chapter to
a brighter side of the picture, and to contemplate the same nation in
its generous struggle to raise itself from a state of barbarism and to
take a positive rank in the scale of civilization. It is not the less
interesting, that these efforts were made on an entirely new theatre of
action, apart from those influences that operate in the Old World; the
inhabitants of which, forming one great brotherhood of nations, are knit
together by sympathies that make the faintest spark of knowledge, struck
out in one quarter, spread gradually wider and wider, until it has
diffused a cheering light over the remotest. It is curious to observe
the human mind, in this new position, conforming to the same laws as on
the ancient continent, and taking a similar direction in its first
inquiries after truth,--so similar, indeed, as, although not warranting,
perhaps, the idea of imitation, to suggest at least that of a common
origin.
In the Eastern hemisphere we find some nations, as the Greeks, for
instance, early smitten with such a love of the beautiful as to be
unwilling to dispense with it even in the graver productions of
science; and other nations, again, proposing a severer end to
themselves, to which even imagination and elegant art were made
subservient. The productions of such a people must be criticised, not by
the ordinary rules of taste, but by their adaptation to the peculiar end
for which they were designed. Such were the Egyptians in the Old
World,[143] and the Mexicans in the New. We have already had occasion to
notice the resemblance borne by the latter nation to the former in their
religious economy. We shall be more struck with it in their scientific
culture, especially their hieroglyphical writing and their astronomy.
To describe actions and events by delineating visible objects seems to
be a natural suggestion, and is practised, after a certain fashion, by
the rudest savages. The North American Indian carves an arrow on the
bark of trees to show his followers the direction of his march, and some
other sign to show the success of his expeditions. But to paint
intelligibly a consecutive series of these actions--forming what
Warburton has happily called _picture-writing_[144]--requires a
combination of ideas that amounts to a positively intellectual effort.
Yet further, when the object of the painter, instead of being limited to
the present, is to penetrate the past, and to gather from its dark
recesses lessons of instruction for coming generations, we see the
dawnings of a literary culture, and recognize the proof of a decided
civilization in the attempt itself, however imperfectly it may be
executed. The literal imitation of objects will not answer for this more
complex and extended plan. It would occupy too much space, as well as
time in the execution. It then becomes necessary to abridge the
pictures, to confine the drawing to outlines, or to such prominent parts
of the bodies delineated as may readily suggest the whole. This is the
_representative_ or _figurative_ writing, which forms the lowest stage
of hieroglyphics.
But there are things which have no type in the material world; abstract
ideas, which can only be represented by visible objects supposed to have
some quality analogous to the idea intended. This constitutes
_symbolical_ writing, the most difficult of all to the interpreter,
since the analogy between the material and immaterial object is often
purely fanciful, or local in its application. Who, for instance, could
suspect the association which made a beetle represent the universe, as
with the Egyptians, or a serpent typify time, as with the Aztecs?
The third and last division is the _phonetic_, in which signs are made
to represent sounds, either entire words, or parts of them. This is the
nearest approach of the hieroglyphical series to that beautiful
invention, the alphabet, by which language is resolved into its
elementary sounds, and an apparatus supplied for easily and accurately
expressing the most delicate shades of thought.
The Egyptians were well skilled in all three kinds of hieroglyphics.
But, although their public monuments display the first class, in their
ordinary intercourse and written records it is now certain that they
almost wholly relied on the phonetic character. Strange that, having
thus broken down the thin partition which divided them from an alphabet,
their latest monuments should exhibit no nearer approach to it than
their earliest.[145] The Aztecs, also, were acquainted with the several
varieties of hieroglyphics. But they relied on the figurative infinitely
more than on the others. The Egyptians were at the top of the scale, the
Aztecs at the bottom.
In casting the eye over a Mexican manuscript, or map, as it is called,
one is struck with the grotesque caricatures it exhibits of the human
figure; monstrous, overgrown heads, on puny, misshapen bodies, which are
themselves hard and angular in their outlines, and without the least
skill in composition. On closer inspection, however, it is obvious that
it is not so much a rude attempt to delineate nature, as a conventional
symbol, to express the idea in the most clear and forcible manner; in
the same way as the pieces of similar value on a chess-board, while they
correspond with one another in form, bear little resemblance, usually,
to the objects they represent. Those parts of the figure are most
distinctly traced which are the most important. So, also, the coloring,
instead of the delicate gradations of nature, exhibits only gaudy and
violent contrasts, such as may produce the most vivid impression. “For
even colors,” as Gama observes, “speak in the Aztec hieroglyphics.”[146]
But in the execution of all this the Mexicans were much inferior to the
Egyptians. The drawings of the latter, indeed, are exceedingly
defective, when criticised by the rules of art; for they were as
ignorant of perspective as the Chinese, and only exhibited the head in
profile, with the eye in the centre, and with total absence of
expression. But they handled the pencil more gracefully than the Aztecs,
were more true to the natural forms of objects, and, above all, showed
great superiority in abridging the original figure by giving only the
outline, or some characteristic or essential feature. This simplified
the process, and facilitated the communication of thought. An Egyptian
text has almost the appearance of alphabetical writing in its regular
lines of minute figures. A Mexican text looks usually like a collection
of pictures, each one forming the subject of a separate study. This is
particularly the case with the delineations of mythology; in which the
story is told by a conglomeration of symbols, that may remind one more
of the mysterious anaglyphs sculptured on the temples of the Egyptians,
than of their written records.
The Aztecs had various emblems for expressing such things as, from their
nature, could not be directly represented by the painter; as, for
example, the years, months, days, the seasons, the elements, the
heavens, and the like. A “tongue” denoted speaking; a “footprint,”
travelling; a “man sitting on the ground,” an earthquake. These symbols
were often very arbitrary, varying with the caprice of the writer; and
it requires a nice discrimination to interpret them, as a slight change
in the form or position of the figure intimated a very different
meaning.[147] An ingenious writer asserts that the priests devised
secret symbolic characters for the record of their religious mysteries.
It is possible. But the researches of Champollion lead to the conclusion
that the similar opinion formerly entertained respecting the Egyptian
hieroglyphics is without foundation.[148]
Lastly, they employed, as above stated, phonetic signs, though these
were chiefly confined to the names of persons and places; which, being
derived from some circumstance or characteristic quality, were
accommodated to the hieroglyphical system. Thus, the town _Cimatlan_ was
compounded of _cimatl_, a “root,” which grew near it, and _tlan_,
signifying “near;” _Tlaxcallan_ meant “the place of bread,” from its
rich fields of corn; _Huexotzinco_, “a place surrounded by willows.” The
names of persons were often significant of their adventures and
achievements. That of the great Tezcucan prince Nezahualcoyotl signified
“hungry fox,” intimating his sagacity, and his distresses in early
life.[149] The emblems of such names were no sooner seen, than they
suggested to every Mexican the person and place intended, and, when
painted on their shields or embroidered on their banners, became the
armorial bearings by which city and chieftain were distinguished, as in
Europe in the age of chivalry.[150]
But, although the Aztecs were instructed in all the varieties of
hieroglyphical painting, they chiefly resorted to the clumsy method of
direct representation. Had their empire lasted, like the Egyptian,
several thousand years, instead of the brief space of two hundred, they
would doubtless, like them, have advanced to the more frequent use of
the phonetic writing. But, before they could be made acquainted with the
capabilities of their own system, the Spanish Conquest, by introducing
the European alphabet, supplied their scholars with a more perfect
contrivance for expressing thought, which soon supplanted the ancient
pictorial character.[151]
Clumsy as it was, however, the Aztec picture-writing seems to have been
adequate to the demands of the nation, in their imperfect state of
civilization. By means of it were recorded all their laws, and even
their regulations for domestic economy; their tribute-rolls, specifying
the imposts of the various towns; their mythology, calendars, and
rituals; their political annals, carried back to a period long before
the foundation of the city. They digested a complete system of
chronology, and could specify with accuracy the dates of the most
important events in their history; the year being inscribed on the
margin, against the particular circumstance recorded. It is true,
history, thus executed, must necessarily be vague and fragmentary. Only
a few leading incidents could be presented. But in this it did not
differ much from the monkish chronicles of the dark ages, which often
dispose of years in a few brief sentences,--quite long enough for the
annals of barbarians.[152]
In order to estimate aright the picture-writing of the Aztecs, one must
regard it in connection with oral tradition, to which it was auxiliary.
In the colleges of the priests the youth were instructed in astronomy,
history, mythology, etc.; and those who were to follow the profession of
hieroglyphical painting were taught the application of the characters
appropriated to each of these branches. In an historical work, one had
charge of the chronology, another of the events. Every part of the labor
was thus mechanically distributed.[153] The pupils, instructed in all
that was before known in their several departments, were prepared to
extend still further the boundaries of their imperfect science. The
hieroglyphics served as a sort of stenography, a collection of notes,
suggesting to the initiated much more than could be conveyed by a
literal interpretation. This combination of the written and the oral
comprehended what may be called the literature of the Aztecs.[154]
Their manuscripts were made of different materials,--of cotton cloth, or
skins nicely prepared; of a composition of silk and gum; but, for the
most part, of a fine fabric from the leaves of the aloe, _agave
Americana_, called by the natives _maguey_, which grows luxuriantly over
the table-lands of Mexico. A sort of paper was made from it, resembling
somewhat the Egyptian _papyrus_,[155] which, when properly dressed and
polished, is said to have been more soft and beautiful than parchment.
Some of the specimens, still existing, exhibit their original freshness,
and the paintings on them retain their brilliancy of colors. They were
sometimes done up into rolls, but more frequently into volumes, of
moderate size, in which the paper was shut up, like a folding screen,
with a leaf or tablet of wood at each extremity, that gave the whole,
when closed, the appearance of a book. The length of the strips was
determined only by convenience. As the pages might be read and referred
to separately, this form had obvious advantages over the rolls of the
ancients.[156]
At the time of the arrival of the Spaniards, great quantities of these
manuscripts were treasured up in the country. Numerous persons were
employed in painting, and the dexterity of their operations excited the
astonishment of the Conquerors. Unfortunately, this was mingled with
other and unworthy feelings. The strange, unknown characters inscribed
on them excited suspicion. They were looked on as magic scrolls, and
were regarded in the same light with the idols and temples, as the
symbols of a pestilent superstition, that must be extirpated. The first
archbishop of Mexico, Don Juan de Zumárraga,--a name that should be as
immortal as that of Omar,--collected these paintings from every quarter,
especially from Tezcuco, the most cultivated capital in Anahuac, and
the great depository of the national archives. He then caused them to
be piled up in a “mountain-heap”--as it is called by the Spanish writers
themselves--in the market-place of Tlatelolco, and reduced them all to
ashes![157] His greater countryman, Archbishop Ximenes, had celebrated a
similar _auto-da-fé_ of Arabic manuscripts, in Granada, some twenty
years before. Never did fanaticism achieve two more signal triumphs than
by the annihilation of so many curious monuments of human ingenuity and
learning![158]
The unlettered soldiers were not slow in imitating the example of their
prelate. Every chart and volume which fell into their hands was wantonly
destroyed; so that, when the scholars of a later and more enlightened
age anxiously sought to recover some of these memorials of civilization,
nearly all had perished, and the few surviving were jealously hidden by
the natives.[159] Through the indefatigable labors of a private
individual, however, a considerable collection was eventually deposited
in the archives of Mexico,[160] but was so little heeded there that some
were plundered, others decayed piecemeal from the damps and mildews, and
others, again, were used up as waste paper![161] We contemplate with
indignation the cruelties inflicted by the early conquerors. But
indignation is qualified with contempt when we see them thus ruthlessly
trampling out the spark of knowledge, the common boon and property of
all mankind. We may well doubt which has the stronger claim to
civilization, the victor or the vanquished.
A few of the Mexican manuscripts have found their way, from time to
time, to Europe, and are carefully preserved in the public libraries of
its capitals. They are brought together in the magnificent work of Lord
Kingsborough; but not one is there from Spain. The most important of
them, for the light it throws on the Aztec institutions, is the Mendoza
Codex; which, after its mysterious disappearance for more than a
century, has at length reappeared in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. It
has been several times engraved.[162] The most brilliant in coloring,
probably, is the Borgian collection, in Rome.[163] The most curious,
however, is the Dresden Codex, which has excited less attention than it
deserves. Although usually classed among Mexican manuscripts, it bears
little resemblance to them in its execution; the figures of objects are
more delicately drawn, and the characters, unlike the Mexican, appear to
be purely arbitrary, and are possibly phonetic.[164] Their regular
arrangement is quite equal to the Egyptian. The whole infers a much
higher civilization than the Aztec, and offers abundant food for curious
speculation.[165]
Some few of these maps have interpretations annexed to them, which were
obtained from the natives after the Conquest.[166] The greater part are
without any, and cannot now be unriddled. Had the Mexicans made free use
of a phonetic alphabet, it might have been originally easy, by mastering
the comparatively few signs employed in this kind of communication, to
have got a permanent key to the whole.[167] A brief inscription has
furnished a clue to the vast labyrinth of Egyptian hieroglyphics. But
the Aztec characters, representing individuals, or, at most, species,
require to be made out separately; a hopeless task, for which little aid
is to be expected from the vague and general tenor of the few
interpretations now existing. There was, as already mentioned, until
late in the last century, a professor in the University of Mexico,
especially devoted to the study of the national picture-writing. But, as
this was with a view to legal proceedings, his information, probably,
was limited to deciphering titles. In less than a hundred years after
the Conquest, the knowledge of the hieroglyphics had so far declined
that a diligent Tezcucan writer complains he could find in the country
only two persons, both very aged, at all competent to interpret
them.[168]
It is not probable, therefore, that the art of reading these
picture-writings will ever be recovered; a circumstance certainly to be
regretted. Not that the records of a semi-civilized people would be
likely to contain any new truth or discovery important to human comfort
or progress; but they could scarcely fail to throw some additional light
on the previous history of the nation, and that of the more polished
people who before occupied the country.[169] This would be still more
probable, if any literary relics of their Toltec predecessors were
preserved; and, if report be true, an important compilation from this
source was extant at the time of the invasion, and may have perhaps
contributed to swell the holocaust of Zumárraga.[170] It is no great
stretch of fancy to suppose that such records might reveal the
successive links in the mighty chain of migration of the primitive
races, and, by carrying us back to the seat of their possessions in the
Old World, have solved the mystery which has so long perplexed the
learned, in regard to the settlement and civilization of the New.[171]
Besides the hieroglyphical maps, the traditions of the country were
embodied in the songs and hymns, which, as already mentioned, were
carefully taught in the public schools. These were various, embracing
the mythic legends of a heroic age, the warlike achievements of their
own, or the softer tales of love and pleasure.[172] Many of them were
composed by scholars and persons of rank, and are cited as affording the
most authentic record of events.[173] The Mexican dialect was rich and
expressive, though inferior to the Tezcucan, the most polished of the
idioms of Anahuac. None of the Aztec compositions have survived, but we
can form some estimate of the general state of poetic culture from the
odes which have come down to us from the royal house of Tezcuco.[174]
Sahagun has furnished us with translations of their more elaborate
prose, consisting of prayers and public discourses, which give a
favorable idea of their eloquence, and show that they paid much
attention to rhetorical effect. They are said to have had, also,
something like theatrical exhibitions, of a pantomimic sort, in which
the faces of the performers were covered with masks, and the figures of
birds or animals were frequently represented; an imitation to which they
may have been led by the familiar delineation of such objects in their
hieroglyphics.[175] In all this we see the dawning of a literary
culture, surpassed, however, by their attainments in the severer walks
of mathematical science.
They devised a system of notation in their arithmetic sufficiently
simple. The first twenty numbers were expressed by a corresponding
number of dots. The first five had specific names; after which they were
represented by combining the fifth with one of the four preceding; as
five and one for six, five and two for seven, and so on. Ten and fifteen
had each a separate name, which was also combined with the first four,
to express a higher quantity. These four, therefore, were the radical
characters of their oral arithmetic, in the same manner as they were of
the written with the ancient Romans; a more simple arrangement,
probably, than any existing among Europeans.[176] Twenty was expressed
by a separate hieroglyphic,--a flag. Larger sums were reckoned by
twenties, and, in writing, by repeating the number of flags. The square
of twenty, four hundred, had a separate sign, that of a plume, and so
had the cube of twenty, or eight thousand, which was denoted by a purse,
or sack. This was the whole arithmetical apparatus of the Mexicans, by
the combination of which they were enabled to indicate any quantity. For
greater expedition, they used to denote fractions of the larger sums by
drawing only a part of the object. Thus, half or three-fourths of a
plume, or of a purse, represented that proportion of their respective
sums, and so on.[177] With all this, the machinery will appear very
awkward to us, who perform our operations with so much ease by means of
the Arabic or, rather, Indian ciphers. It is not much more awkward,
however, than the system pursued by the great mathematicians of
antiquity, unacquainted with the brilliant invention, which has given a
new aspect to mathematical science, of determining the value, in a great
measure, by the relative position of the figures.
In the measurement of time, the Aztecs adjusted their civil year by the
solar. They divided it into eighteen months of twenty days each. Both
months and days were expressed by peculiar hieroglyphics,--those of the
former often intimating the season of the year, like the French months
at the period of the Revolution. Five complementary days, as in
Egypt,[178] were added, to make up the full number of three hundred and
sixty-five. They belonged to no month, and were regarded as peculiarly
unlucky. A month was divided into four weeks, of five days each, on the
last of which was the public fair, or market-day.[179] This arrangement,
differing from that of the nations of the Old Continent, whether of
Europe or Asia,[180] has the advantage of giving an equal number of days
to each month, and of comprehending entire weeks, without a fraction,
both in the months and in the year.[181]
As the year is composed of nearly six hours more than three hundred and
sixty-five days, there still remained an excess, which, like other
nations who have framed a calendar, they provided for by intercalation;
not, indeed, every fourth year, as the Europeans,[182] but at longer
intervals, like some of the Asiatics.[183] They waited till the
expiration of fifty-two vague years, when they interposed thirteen days,
or rather twelve and a half, this being the number which had fallen in
arrear. Had they inserted thirteen, it would have been too much, since
the annual excess over three hundred and sixty-five is about eleven
minutes less than six hours. But, as their calendar at the time of the
Conquest was found to correspond with the European (making allowance for
the subsequent Gregorian reform), they would seem to have adopted the
shorter period of twelve days and a half,[184] which brought them,
within an almost inappreciable fraction, to the exact length of the
tropical year, as established by the most accurate observations.[185]
Indeed, the intercalation of twenty-five days in every hundred and four
years shows a nicer adjustment of civil to solar time than is presented
by any European calendar; since more than five centuries must elapse
before the loss of an entire day.[186] Such was the astonishing
precision displayed by the Aztecs, or, perhaps, by their more polished
Toltec predecessors, in these computations, so difficult as to have
baffled, till a comparatively recent period, the most enlightened
nations of Christendom![187]
The chronological system of the Mexicans, by which they determined the
date of any particular event, was also very remarkable. The epoch from
which they reckoned corresponded with the year 1091 of the Christian
era. It was the period of the reform of their calendar, soon after their
migration from Aztlan. They threw the years, as already noticed, into
great cycles, of fifty-two each, which they called “sheafs,” or
“bundles,” and represented by a quantity of reeds bound together by a
string. As often as this hieroglyphic occurs in their maps, it shows the
number of half-centuries. To enable them to specify any particular year,
they divided the great cycle into four smaller cycles, or indictions,
of thirteen years each. They then adopted two periodical series of
signs, one consisting of their numerical dots, up to thirteen, the
other, of four hieroglyphics of the years.[188] These latter they
repeated in regular succession, setting against each one a number of the
corresponding series of dots, continued also in regular succession up to
thirteen. The same system was pursued through the four indictions, which
thus, it will be observed, began always with a different hieroglyphic of
the year from the preceding; and in this way each of the hieroglyphics
was made to combine successively with each of the numerical signs, but
never twice with the same; since four, and thirteen, the factors of
fifty-two,--the number of years in the cycle,--must admit of just as
many combinations as are equal to their product. Thus every year had its
appropriate symbol, by which it was at once recognized. And this symbol,
preceded by the proper number of “bundles” indicating the
half-centuries, showed the precise time which had elapsed since the
national epoch of 1091.[189] The ingenious contrivance of a periodical
series, in place of the cumbrous system of hieroglyphical notation, is
not peculiar to the Aztecs, and is to be found among various nations on
the Asiatic continent,--the same in principle, though varying
materially in arrangement.[190]
The solar calendar above described might have answered all the purposes
of the people; but the priests chose to construct another for
themselves. This was called a “lunar reckoning,” though nowise
accommodated to the revolutions of the moon.[191] It was formed, also,
of two periodical series, one of them consisting of thirteen numerical
signs, or dots, the other, of the twenty hieroglyphics of the days.
But, as the product of these combinations would be only 260, and as some
confusion might arise from the repetition of the same terms for the
remaining 105 days of the year, they invented a third series, consisting
of nine additional hieroglyphics, which, alternating with the two
preceding series, rendered it impossible that the three should coincide
twice in the same year, or indeed in less than 2340 days; since 20 × 13
× 9 = 2340.[192] Thirteen was a mystic number, of frequent use in their
tables.[193] Why they resorted to that of nine, on this occasion, is not
so clear.[194]
This second calendar rouses a holy indignation in the early Spanish
missionaries, and Father Sahagun loudly condemns it, as “most
unhallowed, since it is founded neither on natural reason, nor on the
influence of the planets, nor on the true course of the year; but is
plainly the work of necromancy, and the fruit of a compact with the
Devil!”[195] One may doubt whether the superstition of those who
invented the scheme was greater than that of those who thus impugned it.
At all events, we may, without having recourse to supernatural agency,
find in the human heart a sufficient explanation of its origin; in that
love of power, that has led the priesthood of many a faith to affect a
mystery the key to which was in their own keeping.
By means of this calendar, the Aztec priests kept their own records,
regulated the festivals and seasons of sacrifice, and made all their
astrological calculations.[196] The false science of astrology is
natural to a state of society partially civilized, where the mind,
impatient of the slow and cautious examination by which alone it can
arrive at truth, launches at once into the regions of speculation, and
rashly attempts to lift the veil--the impenetrable veil--which is drawn
around the mysteries of nature. It is the characteristic of true science
to discern the impassable, but not very obvious, limits which divide the
province of reason from that of speculation. Such knowledge comes
tardily. How many ages have rolled away, in which powers that, rightly
directed, might have revealed the great laws of nature, have been wasted
in brilliant but barren reveries on alchemy and astrology!
The latter is more particularly the study of a primitive age; when the
mind, incapable of arriving at the stupendous fact that the myriads of
minute lights glowing in the firmament are the centres of systems as
glorious as our own, is naturally led to speculate on their probable
uses, and to connect them in some way or other with man, for whose
convenience every other object in the universe seems to have been
created. As the eye of the simple child of nature watches, through the
long nights, the stately march of the heavenly bodies, and sees the
bright hosts coming up, one after another, and changing with the
changing seasons of the year, he naturally associates them with those
seasons, as the periods over which they hold a mysterious influence. In
the same manner, he connects their appearance with any interesting
event of the time, and explores, in their flaming characters, the
destinies of the new-born infant.[197] Such is the origin of astrology,
the false lights of which have continued from the earliest ages to
dazzle and bewilder mankind, till they have faded away in the superior
illumination of a comparatively recent period.
The astrological scheme of the Aztecs was founded less on the planetary
influences than on those of the arbitrary signs they had adopted for the
months and days. The character of the leading sign in each lunar cycle
of thirteen days gave a complexion to the whole; though this was
qualified in some degree by the signs of the succeeding days, as well as
by those of the hours. It was in adjusting these conflicting forces that
the great art of the diviner was shown. In no country, not even in
ancient Egypt, were the dreams of the astrologer more implicitly
deferred to. On the birth of a child, he was instantly summoned. The
time of the event was accurately ascertained; and the family hung in
trembling suspense, as the minister of Heaven cast the horoscope of the
infant and unrolled the dark volume of destiny. The influence of the
priest was confessed by the Mexican in the very first breath which he
inhaled.[198]
We know little further of the astronomical attainments of the Aztecs.
That they were acquainted with the cause of eclipses is evident from the
representation, on their maps, of the disk of the moon projected on that
of the sun.[199] Whether they had arranged a system of constellations is
uncertain; though that they recognized some of the most obvious, as the
Pleiades, for example, is evident from the fact that they regulated
their festivals by them. We know of no astronomical instruments used by
them, except the dial.[200] An immense circular block of carved stone,
disinterred in 1790, in the great square of Mexico, has supplied an
acute and learned scholar with the means of establishing some
interesting facts in regard to Mexican science.[201] This colossal
fragment, on which the calendar[202] is engraved, shows that they had
the means of settling the hours of the day with precision, the periods
of the solstices and of the equinoxes, and that of the transit of the
sun across the zenith of Mexico.[203]
We cannot contemplate the astronomical science of the Mexicans, so
disproportioned to their progress in other walks of civilization,
without astonishment. An acquaintance with some of the more obvious
principles of astronomy is within the reach of the rudest people. With a
little care, they may learn to connect the regular changes of the
seasons with those of the place of the sun at his rising and setting.
They may follow the march of the great luminary through the heavens, by
watching the stars that first brighten on his evening track or fade in
his morning beams. They may measure a revolution of the moon, by marking
her phases, and may even form a general idea of the number of such
revolutions in a solar year. But that they should be capable of
accurately adjusting their festivals by the movements of the heavenly
bodies, and should fix the true length of the tropical year, with a
precision unknown to the great philosophers of antiquity, could be the
result only of a long series of nice and patient observations, evincing
no slight progress in civilization.[204] But whence could the rude
inhabitants of these mountain-regions have derived this curious
erudition? Not from the barbarous hordes who roamed over the higher
latitudes of the North; nor from the more polished races on the Southern
continent, with whom, it is apparent, they had no intercourse. If we are
driven, in our embarrassment, like the greatest astronomer of our age,
to seek the solution among the civilized communities of Asia, we shall
still be perplexed by finding, amidst general resemblance of outline,
sufficient discrepancy in the details to vindicate, in the judgments of
many, the Aztec claim to originality.[205]
I shall conclude the account of Mexican science with that of a
remarkable festival, celebrated by the natives at the termination of the
great cycle of fifty-two years. We have seen, in the preceding chapter,
their tradition of the destruction of the world at four successive
epochs. They looked forward confidently to another such catastrophe, to
take place, like the preceding, at the close of a cycle, when the sun
was to be effaced from the heavens, the human race from the earth, and
when the darkness of chaos was to settle on the habitable globe. The
cycle would end in the latter part of December, and as the dreary season
of the winter solstice approached, and the diminished light of day gave
melancholy presage of its speedy extinction, their apprehensions
increased; and on the arrival of the five “unlucky” days which closed
the year they abandoned themselves to despair.[206] They broke in pieces
the little images of their household gods, in whom they no longer
trusted. The holy fires were suffered to go out in the temples, and none
were lighted in their own dwellings. Their furniture and domestic
utensils were destroyed; their garments torn in pieces; and every thing
was thrown into disorder, for the coming of the evil genii who were to
descend on the desolate earth.
On the evening of the last day, a procession of priests, assuming the
dress and ornaments of their gods, moved from the capital towards a
lofty mountain, about two leagues distant. They carried with them a
noble victim, the flower of their captives, and an apparatus for
kindling the _new fire_, the success of which was an augury of the
renewal of the cycle. On reaching the summit of the mountain, the
procession paused till midnight; when, as the constellation of the
Pleiades approached the zenith,[207] the _new fire_ was kindled by the
friction of the sticks placed on the wounded breast of the victim.[208]
The flame was soon communicated to a funeral pile, on which the body of
the slaughtered captive was thrown. As the light streamed up towards
heaven, shouts of joy and triumph burst forth from the countless
multitudes who covered the hills, the terraces of the temples, and the
house-tops, with eyes anxiously bent on the mount of sacrifice.
Couriers, with torches lighted at the blazing beacon, rapidly bore them
over every part of the country; and the cheering element was seen
brightening on altar and hearthstone, for the circuit of many a league,
long before the sun, rising on his accustomed track, gave assurance that
a new cycle had commenced its march, and that the laws of nature were
not to be reversed for the Aztecs.
The following thirteen days were given up to festivity. The houses were
cleansed and whitened. The broken vessels were replaced by new ones. The
people, dressed in their gayest apparel, and crowned with garlands and
chaplets of flowers, thronged in joyous procession to offer up their
oblations and thanksgivings in the temples. Dances and games were
instituted, emblematical of the regeneration of the world. It was the
carnival of the Aztecs; or rather the national jubilee, the great
secular festival, like that of the Romans, or ancient Etruscans, which
few alive had witnessed before, or could expect to see again.[209]
M. de Humboldt remarked, many years ago, “It were to be wished that
some government would publish at its own expense the remains of the
ancient American civilization; for it is only by the comparison of
several monuments that we can succeed in discovering the meaning of
these allegories, which are partly astronomical and partly mystic.”
This enlightened wish has now been realized, not by any
government, but by a private individual, Lord Kingsborough. The
great work published under his auspices, and so often cited in this
Introduction, appeared in London in 1830. When completed it will
reach to nine volumes, seven of which are now before the public.
Some idea of its magnificence may be formed by those who have not
seen it, from the fact that copies of it, with colored plates, sold
originally at £175, and, with uncolored, at £120. The price has
been since much reduced. It is designed to exhibit a complete view
of the ancient Aztec MSS., with such few interpretations as exist;
the beautiful drawings of Castañeda relating to Central America,
with the commentary of Dupaix; the unpublished history of Father
Sahagun; and, last, not least, the copious annotations of his
lordship.
Too much cannot be said of the mechanical execution of the
book,--its splendid typography, the apparent accuracy and the
delicacy of the drawings, and the sumptuous quality of the
materials. Yet the purchaser would have been saved some superfluous
expense, and the reader much inconvenience, if the letter-press had
been in volumes of an ordinary size. But it is not uncommon, in
works on this magnificent plan, to find utility in some measure
sacrificed to show.
The collection of Aztec MSS., if not perfectly complete, is very
extensive, and reflects great credit on the diligence and research
of the compiler. It strikes one as strange, however, that not a
single document should have been drawn from Spain. Peter Martyr
speaks of a number having been brought thither in his time. (De
Insulis nuper Inventis, p. 368.) The Marquis Spineto examined one
in the Escorial, being the same with the Mendoza Codex, and perhaps
the original, since that at Oxford is but a copy. (Lectures, Lect.
7.) Mr. Waddilove, chaplain of the British embassy to Spain, gave a
particular account of one to Dr. Robertson, which he saw in the
same library and considered an Aztec calendar. Indeed, it is
scarcely possible that the frequent voyagers to the New World
should not have furnished the mother-country with abundant
specimens of this most interesting feature of Aztec civilization.
Nor should we fear that the present liberal government would
seclude these treasures from the inspection of the scholar.
Much cannot be said in favor of the arrangement of these codices.
In some of them, as the Mendoza Codex, for example, the plates are
not even numbered; and one who would study them by the
corresponding interpretation must often bewilder himself in the
maze of hieroglyphics, without a clue to guide him. Neither is
there any attempt to enlighten us as to the positive value and
authenticity of the respective documents, or even their previous
history, beyond a barren reference to the particular library from
which they have been borrowed. Little light, indeed, can be
expected on these matters; but we have not that little. The defect
of arrangement is chargeable on other parts of the work. Thus, for
instance, the sixth book of Sahagun is transferred from the body of
the history to which it belongs, to a preceding volume; while the
grand hypothesis of his lordship, for which the work was
concocted, is huddled into notes, hitched on random passages of the
text, with a good deal less connection than the stories of Queen
Scheherezade, in the “Arabian Nights,” and not quite so
entertaining.
The drift of Lord Kingsborough’s speculations is, to establish the
colonization of Mexico by the Israelites. To this the whole battery
of his logic and learning is directed. For this, hieroglyphics are
unriddled, manuscripts compared, monuments delineated. His theory,
however, whatever be its merits, will scarcely become popular;
since, instead of being exhibited in a clear and comprehensive
form, readily embraced by the mind, it is spread over an infinite
number of notes, thickly sprinkled with quotations from languages
ancient and modern, till the weary reader, floundering about in the
ocean of fragments, with no light to guide him, feels like Milton’s
Devil, working his way through chaos,--
“neither sea,
Nor good dry land; nigh foundered, on he fares.”
It would be unjust, however, not to admit that the noble author, if
his logic is not always convincing, shows much acuteness in
detecting analogies; that he displays familiarity with his subject,
and a fund of erudition, though it often runs to waste; that,
whatever be the defects of arrangement, he has brought together a
most rich collection of unpublished materials to illustrate the
Aztec and, in a wider sense, American antiquities; and that by this
munificent undertaking, which no government, probably, would have,
and few individuals could have, executed, he has entitled himself
to the lasting gratitude of every friend of science.
Another writer whose works must be diligently consulted by every
student of Mexican antiquities is Antonio Gama. His life contains
as few incidents as those of most scholars. He was born at Mexico,
in 1735, of a respectable family, and was bred to the law. He early
showed a preference for mathematical studies, conscious that in
this career lay his strength. In 1771 he communicated his
observations on the eclipse of that year to the French astronomer
M. de Lalande, who published them in Paris, with high commendations
of the author. Gama’s increasing reputation attracted the attention
of government; and he was employed by it in various scientific
labors of importance. His great passion, however, was the study of
Indian antiquities. He made himself acquainted with the history of
the native races, their traditions, their languages, and, as far as
possible, their hieroglyphics. He had an opportunity of showing the
fruits of this preparatory training, and his skill as an antiquary,
on the discovery of the great calendar stone, in 1790. He produced
a masterly treatise on this, and another Aztec monument, explaining
the objects to which they were devoted, and pouring a flood of
light on the astronomical science of the aborigines, their
mythology, and their astrological system. He afterwards continued
his investigations in the same path, and wrote treatises on the
dial, hieroglyphics, and arithmetic of the Indians. These, however,
were not given to the world till a few years since, when they were
published, together with a reprint of the former work, under the
auspices of the industrious Bustamante. Gama died in 1802, leaving
behind him a reputation for great worth in private life,--one in
which the bigotry that seems to enter too frequently into the
character of the Spanish-Mexican was tempered by the liberal
feelings of a man of science. His reputation as a writer stands
high for patient acquisition, accuracy, and acuteness. His
conclusions are neither warped by the love of theory so common in
the philosopher, nor by the easy credulity so natural to the
antiquary. He feels his way with the caution of a mathematician,
whose steps are demonstrations. M. de Humboldt was largely indebted
to his first work, as he has emphatically acknowledged. But,
notwithstanding the eulogiums of this popular writer, and his own
merits, Gama’s treatises are rarely met with out of New Spain, and
his name can hardly be said to have a transatlantic reputation.
CHAPTER V
AZTEC AGRICULTURE--MECHANICAL ARTS--MERCHANTS--DOMESTIC MANNERS
It is hardly possible that a nation so far advanced as the Aztecs in
mathematical science should not have made considerable progress in the
mechanical arts, which are so nearly connected with it. Indeed,
intellectual progress of any kind implies a degree of refinement that
requires a certain cultivation of both useful and elegant art. The
savage wandering through the wide forest, without shelter for his head
or raiment for his back, knows no other wants than those of animal
appetites, and, when they are satisfied, seems to himself to have
answered the only ends of existence. But man, in society, feels numerous
desires, and artificial tastes spring up, accommodated to the various
relations in which he is placed, and perpetually stimulating his
invention to devise new expedients to gratify them.
There is a wide difference in the mechanical skill of different nations;
but the difference is still greater in the inventive power which directs
this skill and makes it available. Some nations seem to have no power
beyond that of imitation, or, if they possess invention, have it in so
low a degree that they are constantly repeating the same idea, without
a shadow of alteration or improvement; as the bird builds precisely the
same kind of nest which those of its own species built at the beginning
of the world. Such, for example, are the Chinese, who have probably been
familiar for ages with the germs of some discoveries,[210] of little
practical benefit to themselves, but which, under the influence of
European genius, have reached a degree of excellence that has wrought an
important change in the constitution of society.
Far from looking back and forming itself slavishly on the past, it is
characteristic of the European intellect to be ever on the advance. Old
discoveries become the basis of new ones. It passes onward from truth to
truth, connecting the whole by a succession of links, as it were, into
the great chain of science which is to encircle and bind together the
universe. The light of learning is shed over the labors of art. New
avenues are opened for the communication both of person and of thought.
New facilities are devised for subsistence. Personal comforts, of every
kind, are inconceivably multiplied, and brought within the reach of the
poorest. Secure of these, the thoughts travel into a nobler region than
that of the senses; and the appliances of art are made to minister to
the demands of an elegant taste and a higher moral culture.
The same enlightened spirit, applied to agriculture, raises it from a
mere mechanical drudgery, or the barren formula of traditional precepts,
to the dignity of a science. As the composition of the earth is
analyzed, man learns the capacity of the soil that he cultivates; and,
as his empire is gradually extended over the elements of nature, he
gains the power to stimulate her to her most bountiful and various
production. It is with satisfaction that we can turn to the land of our
fathers, as the one in which the experiment has been conducted on the
broadest scale and attended with results that the world has never before
witnessed. With equal truth, we may point to the Anglo-Saxon race in
both hemispheres, as that whose enterprising genius has contributed most
essentially to the great interests of humanity, by the application of
science to the useful arts.
Husbandry, to a very limited extent, indeed, was practised by most of
the rude tribes of North America. Wherever a natural opening in the
forest, or a rich strip of _interval_, met their eyes, or a green slope
was found along the rivers, they planted it with beans and Indian
corn.[211] The cultivation was slovenly in the extreme, and could not
secure the improvident natives from the frequent recurrence of
desolating famines. Still, that they tilled the soil at all was a
peculiarity which honorably distinguished them from other tribes of
hunters, and raised them one degree higher in the scale of
civilization.
Agriculture in Mexico was in the same advanced state as the other arts
of social life. In few countries, indeed, has it been more respected. It
was closely interwoven with the civil and religious institutions of the
nation. There were peculiar deities to preside over it; the names of the
months and of the religious festivals had more or less reference to it.
The public taxes, as we have seen, were often paid in agricultural
produce. All except the soldiers and great nobles, even the inhabitants
of the cities, cultivated the soil. The work was chiefly done by the
men; the women scattering the seed, husking the corn, and taking part
only in the lighter labors of the field.[212] In this they presented an
honorable contrast to the other tribes of the continent, who imposed the
burden of agriculture, severe as it is in the North, on their
women.[213] Indeed, the sex was as tenderly regarded by the Aztecs in
this matter, as it is, in most parts of Europe, at the present day.
There was no want of judgment in the management of their ground. When
somewhat exhausted, it was permitted to recover by lying fallow. Its
extreme dryness was relieved by canals, with which the land was
partially irrigated; and the same end was promoted by severe penalties
against the destruction of the woods, with which the country, as already
noticed, was well covered before the Conquest. Lastly, they provided for
their harvests ample granaries, which were admitted by the Conquerors to
be of admirable construction. In this provision we see the forecast of
civilized man.[214]
Among the most important articles of husbandry, we may notice the
banana, whose facility of cultivation and exuberant returns are so fatal
to habits of systematic and hardy industry.[215] Another celebrated
plant was the cacao, the fruit of which furnished the chocolate,--from
the Mexican _chocolatl_,--now so common a beverage throughout
Europe.[216] The vanilla, confined to a small district of the sea-coast,
was used for the same purposes, of flavoring their food and drink, as
with us.[217] The great staple of the country, as, indeed, of the
American continent, was maize, or Indian corn,[218] which grew freely
along the valleys, and up the steep sides of the Cordilleras to the high
level of the table-land. The Aztecs were as curious in its preparation,
and as well instructed in its manifold uses, as the most expert New
England housewife. Its gigantic stalks, in these equinoctial regions,
afford a saccharine matter, not found to the same extent in northern
latitudes, and supplied the natives with sugar little inferior to that
of the cane itself, which was not introduced among them till after the
Conquest.[219] But the miracle of nature was the great Mexican aloe, or
_maguey_, whose clustering pyramids of flowers, towering above their
dark coronals of leaves, were seen sprinkled over many a broad acre of
the table-land. As we have already noticed, its bruised leaves afforded
a paste from which paper was manufactured;[220] its juice was fermented
into an intoxicating beverage, _pulque_, of which the natives, to this
day, are excessively fond;[221] its leaves further supplied an
impenetrable thatch for the more humble dwellings; thread, of which
coarse stuffs were made, and strong cords, were drawn from its tough and
twisted fibres; pins and needles were made of the thorns at the
extremity of its leaves; and the root, when properly cooked, was
converted into a palatable and nutritious food. The _agave_,[222] in
short, was meat, drink, clothing, and writing-materials, for the Aztec!
Surely, never did Nature enclose in so compact a form so many of the
elements of human comfort and civilization![223]
It would be obviously out of place to enumerate in these pages all the
varieties of plants, many of them of medicinal virtue, which have been
introduced from Mexico into Europe. Still less can I attempt a catalogue
of its flowers, which, with their variegated and gaudy colors, form the
greatest attraction of our greenhouses. The opposite climates embraced
within the narrow latitudes of New Spain have given to it, probably, the
richest and most diversified flora to be found in any country on the
globe. These different products were systematically arranged by the
Aztecs, who understood their properties, and collected them into
nurseries, more extensive than any then existing in the Old World. It is
not improbable that they suggested the idea of those “gardens of plants”
which were introduced into Europe not many years after the
Conquest.[224]
The Mexicans were as well acquainted with the mineral as with the
vegetable treasures of their kingdom. Silver, lead, and tin they drew
from the mines of Tasco; copper from the mountains of Zacotollan. These
were taken not only from the crude masses on the surface, but from veins
wrought in the solid rock, into which they opened extensive galleries.
In fact, the traces of their labors furnished the best indications for
the early Spanish miners.[225] Gold, found on the surface, or gleaned
from the beds of rivers, was cast into bars, or, in the form of dust,
made part of the regular tribute of the southern provinces of the
empire. The use of iron, with which the soil was impregnated, was
unknown to them. Notwithstanding its abundance, it demands so many
processes to prepare it for use that it has commonly been one of the
last metals pressed into the service of man. The age of iron has
followed that of brass, in fact as well as in fiction.[226]
They found a substitute in an alloy of tin and copper, and, with tools
made of this bronze, could cut not only metals, but, with the aid of a
silicious dust, the hardest substances, as basalt, porphyry, amethysts,
and emeralds.[227] They fashioned these last, which were found very
large, into many curious and fantastic forms. They cast, also, vessels
of gold and silver, carving them with their metallic chisels in a very
delicate manner. Some of the silver vases were so large that a man could
not encircle them with his arms. They imitated very nicely the figures
of animals, and, what was extraordinary, could mix the metals in such a
manner that the feathers of a bird, or the scales of a fish, should be
alternately of gold and silver. The Spanish goldsmiths admitted their
superiority over themselves in these ingenious works.[228]
They employed another tool, made of _itztli_, or obsidian, a dark
transparent mineral, exceedingly hard, found in abundance in their
hills. They made it into knives, razors, and their serrated swords. It
took a keen edge, though soon blunted. With this they wrought the
various stones and alabasters employed in the construction of their
public works and principal dwellings. I shall defer a more particular
account of these to the body of the narrative, and will only add here
that the entrances and angles of the buildings were profusely ornamented
with images, sometimes of their fantastic deities, and frequently of
animals.[229] The latter were executed with great accuracy. “The
former,” according to Torquemada, “were the hideous reflection of their
own souls. And it was not till after they had been converted to
Christianity that they could model the true figure of a man.”[230] The
old chronicler’s facts are well founded, whatever we may think of his
reasons. The allegorical phantasms of his religion, no doubt, gave a
direction to the Aztec artist, in his delineation of the human figure;
supplying him with an imaginary beauty in the personification of
divinity itself. As these superstitions lost their hold on his mind, it
opened to the influences of a purer taste; and, after the Conquest, the
Mexicans furnished many examples of correct, and some of beautiful,
portraiture.
Sculptured images were so numerous that the foundations of the cathedral
in the _plaza mayor_, the great square of Mexico, are said to be
entirely composed of them.[231] This spot may, indeed, be regarded as
the Aztec forum,--the great depository of the treasures of ancient
sculpture, which now lie hid in its bosom. Such monuments are spread all
over the capital, however, and a new cellar can hardly be dug, or
foundation laid, without turning up some of the mouldering relics of
barbaric art. But they are little heeded, and, if not wantonly broken in
pieces at once, are usually worked into the rising wall or supports of
the new edifice.[232] Two celebrated bas-reliefs of the last Montezuma
and his father, cut in the solid rock, in the beautiful groves of
Chapoltepec, were deliberately destroyed, as late as the eighteenth
century, by order of the government![233] The monuments of the barbarian
meet with as little respect from civilized man as those of the civilized
man from the barbarian.[234]
The most remarkable piece of sculpture yet disinterred is the great
calendar stone, noticed in the preceding chapter. It consists of dark
porphyry, and in its original dimensions, as taken from the quarry, is
computed to have weighed nearly fifty tons. It was transported from the
mountains beyond Lake Chalco, a distance of many leagues, over a broken
country intersected by watercourses and canals. In crossing a bridge
which traversed one of these latter, in the capital, the supports gave
way, and the huge mass was precipitated into the water, whence it was
with difficulty recovered. The fact that so enormous a fragment of
porphyry could be thus safely carried for leagues, in the face of such
obstacles, and without the aid of cattle,--for the Aztecs, as already
mentioned, had no animals of draught,--suggests to us no mean ideas of
their mechanical skill, and of their machinery, and implies a degree of
cultivation little inferior to that demanded for the geometrical and
astronomical science displayed in the inscriptions on this very
stone.[235][236]
The ancient Mexicans made utensils of earthenware for the ordinary
purposes of domestic life, numerous specimens of which still
exist.[237] They made cups and vases of a lackered or painted wood,
impervious to wet and gaudily colored. Their dyes were obtained from
both mineral and vegetable substances. Among them was the rich crimson
of the cochineal, the modern rival of the famed Tyrian purple. It was
introduced into Europe from Mexico, where the curious little insect was
nourished with great care on plantations of cactus, since fallen into
neglect.[238] The natives were thus enabled to give a brilliant coloring
to the webs which were manufactured, of every degree of fineness, from
the cotton raised in abundance throughout the warmer regions of the
country. They had the art, also, of interweaving with these the delicate
hair of rabbits and other animals, which made a cloth of great warmth as
well as beauty, of a kind altogether original; and on this they often
laid a rich embroidery, of birds, flowers, or some other fanciful
device.[239]
But the art in which they most delighted was their _plumaje_, or
feather-work. With this they could produce all the effect of a beautiful
mosaic. The gorgeous plumage of the tropical birds, especially of the
parrot tribe, afforded every variety of color; and the fine down of the
humming-bird, which revelled in swarms among the honeysuckle bowers of
Mexico, supplied them with soft aerial tints that gave an exquisite
finish to the picture. The feathers, pasted on a fine cotton web, were
wrought into dresses for the wealthy, hangings for apartments, and
ornaments for the temples. No one of the American fabrics excited such
admiration in Europe, whither numerous specimens were sent by the
Conquerors. It is to be regretted that so graceful an art should have
been suffered to fall into decay.[240]
There were no shops in Mexico, but the various manufactures and
agricultural products were brought together for sale in the great
marketplaces of the principal cities. Fairs were held there every fifth
day, and were thronged by a numerous concourse of persons, who came to
buy or sell from all the neighboring country. A particular quarter was
allotted to each kind of article. The numerous transactions were
conducted without confusion, and with entire regard to justice, under
the inspection of magistrates appointed for the purpose. The traffic was
carried on partly by barter, and partly by means of a regulated
currency, of different values. This consisted of transparent quills of
gold dust; of bits of tin, cut in the form of a [Illustration: bold
letter, sans-serif T]; and of bags of cacao, containing a specified
number of grains. “Blessed money,” exclaims Peter Martyr, “which exempts
its possessors from avarice, since it cannot be long hoarded, nor hidden
under ground!”[241]
There did not exist in Mexico that distinction of castes found among the
Egyptian and Asiatic nations. It was usual, however, for the son to
follow the occupation of his father. The different trades were arranged
into something like guilds; each having a particular district of the
city appropriated to it, with its own chief, its own tutelar deity, its
peculiar festivals, and the like. Trade was held in avowed estimation by
the Aztecs. “Apply thyself, my son,” was the advice of an aged chief,
“to agriculture, or to feather-work, or some other honorable calling.
Thus did your ancestors before you. Else how would they have provided
for themselves and their families? Never was it heard that nobility
alone was able to maintain its possessor.”[242] Shrewd maxims, that must
have sounded somewhat strange in the ear of a Spanish _hidalgo_![243]
But the occupation peculiarly respected was that of the merchant. It
formed so important and singular a feature of their social economy as to
merit a much more particular notice than it has received from
historians. The Aztec merchant was a sort of itinerant trader, who made
his journeys to the remotest borders of Anahuac, and to the countries
beyond, carrying with him merchandise of rich stuffs, jewelry, slaves,
and other valuable commodities. The slaves were obtained at the great
market of Azcapozalco, not many leagues from the capital, where fairs
were regularly held for the sale of these unfortunate beings. They were
brought thither by their masters, dressed in their gayest apparel, and
instructed to sing, dance, and display their little stock of personal
accomplishments, so as to recommend themselves to the purchaser.
Slave-dealing was an honorable calling among the Aztecs.[244]
With this rich freight, the merchant visited the different provinces,
always bearing some present of value from his own sovereign to their
chiefs, and usually receiving others in return, with a permission to
trade. Should this be denied him, or should he meet with indignity or
violence, he had the means of resistance in his power. He performed his
journeys with a number of companions of his own rank, and a large body
of inferior attendants who were employed to transport the goods. Fifty
or sixty pounds were the usual load for a man. The whole caravan went
armed, and so well provided against sudden hostilities that they could
make good their defence, if necessary, till reinforced from home. In one
instance, a body of these militant traders stood a siege of four years
in the town of Ayotlan, which they finally took from the enemy.[245]
Their own government, however, was always prompt to embark in a war on
this ground, finding it a very convenient pretext for extending the
Mexican empire. It was not unusual to allow the merchants to raise
levies themselves, which were placed under their command. It was,
moreover, very common for the prince to employ the merchants as a sort
of spies, to furnish him information of the state of the countries
through which they passed, and the dispositions of the inhabitants
towards himself.[246]
Thus their sphere of action was much enlarged beyond that of a humble
trader, and they acquired a high consideration in the body politic. They
were allowed to assume insignia and devices of their own. Some of their
number composed what is called by the Spanish writers a council of
finance; at least, this was the case in Tezcuco.[247] They were much
consulted by the monarch, who had some of them constantly near his
person, addressing them by the title of “uncle,” which may remind one of
that of _primo_, or “cousin,” by which a grandee of Spain is saluted by
his sovereign. They were allowed to have their own courts, in which
civil and criminal cases, not excepting capital, were determined; so
that they formed an independent community, as it were, of themselves.
And, as their various traffic supplied them with abundant stores of
wealth, they enjoyed many of the most essential advantages of an
hereditary aristocracy.[248]
That trade should prove the path to eminent political preferment in a
nation but partially civilized, where the names of soldier and priest
are usually the only titles to respect, is certainly an anomaly in
history. It forms some contrast to the standard of the more polished
monarchies of the Old World, in which rank is supposed to be less
dishonored by a life of idle ease or frivolous pleasure than by those
active pursuits which promote equally the prosperity of the state and of
the individual. If civilization corrects many prejudices, it must be
allowed that it creates others.
We shall be able to form a better idea of the actual refinement of the
natives by penetrating into their domestic life and observing the
intercourse between the sexes. We have, fortunately, the means of doing
this. We shall there find the ferocious Aztec frequently displaying all
the sensibility of a cultivated nature; consoling his friends under
affliction, or congratulating them on their good fortune, as on occasion
of a marriage, or of the birth or the baptism of a child, when he was
punctilious in his visits, bringing presents of costly dresses and
ornaments, or the more simple offering of flowers, equally indicative of
his sympathy. The visits at these times, though regulated with all the
precision of Oriental courtesy, were accompanied by expressions of the
most cordial and affectionate regard.[249]
The discipline of children, especially at the public schools, as stated
in a previous chapter, was exceedingly severe.[250] But after she had
come to a mature age the Aztec maiden was treated by her parents with a
tenderness from which all reserve seemed banished. In the counsels to a
daughter about to enter into life, they conjured her to preserve
simplicity in her manners and conversation, uniform neatness in her
attire, with strict attention to personal cleanliness. They inculcated
modesty, as the great ornament of a woman, and implicit reverence for
her husband; softening their admonitions by such endearing epithets as
showed the fulness of a parent’s love.[251]
Polygamy was permitted among the Mexicans, though chiefly confined,
probably, to the wealthiest classes.[252] And the obligations of the
marriage vow, which was made with all the formality of a religious
ceremony, were fully recognized, and impressed on both parties. The
women are described by the Spaniards as pretty, unlike their unfortunate
descendants of the present day, though with the same serious and rather
melancholy cast of countenance. Their long black hair, covered, in some
parts of the country, by a veil made of the fine web of the _pita_,
might generally be seen wreathed with flowers, or, among the richer
people, with strings of precious stones, and pearls from the Gulf of
California. They appear to have been treated with much consideration by
their husbands, and passed their time in indolent tranquillity, or in
such feminine occupations as spinning, embroidery, and the like, while
their maidens beguiled the hours by the rehearsal of traditionary tales
and ballads.[253]
The women partook equally with the men of social festivities and
entertainments. These were often conducted on a large scale, both as
regards the number of guests and the costliness of the preparations.
Numerous attendants, of both sexes, waited at the banquet. The halls
were scented with perfumes, and the courts strewed with odoriferous
herbs and flowers, which were distributed in profusion among the guests,
as they arrived. Cotton napkins and ewers of water were placed before
them, as they took their seats at the board; for the venerable ceremony
of ablution[254] before and after eating was punctiliously observed by
the Aztecs.[255] Tobacco was then offered to the company, in pipes,
mixed up with aromatic substances, or in the form of cigars, inserted in
tubes of tortoise-shell or silver. They compressed the nostrils with the
fingers, while they inhaled the smoke, which they frequently swallowed.
Whether the women, who sat apart from the men at table, were allowed the
indulgence of the fragrant weed, as in the most polished circles of
modern Mexico, is not told us. It is a curious fact that the Aztecs also
took the dried leaf in the pulverized form of snuff.[256]
The table was well provided with substantial meats, especially game;
among which the most conspicuous was the turkey, erroneously supposed,
as its name imports, to have come originally from the East.[257] These
more solid dishes were flanked by others of vegetables and fruits, of
every delicious variety found on the North American continent. The
different viands were prepared in various ways, with delicate sauces and
seasoning, of which the Mexicans were very fond. Their palate was still
further regaled by confections and pastry, for which their maize-flour
and sugar supplied ample materials. One other dish, of a disgusting
nature, was sometimes added to the feast, especially when the
celebration partook of a religious character. On such occasions a slave
was sacrificed, and his flesh, elaborately dressed, formed one of the
chief ornaments of the banquet. Cannibalism, in the guise of an
Epicurean science, becomes even the more revolting.[258]
The meats were kept warm by chafing-dishes. The table was ornamented
with vases of silver, and sometimes gold, of delicate workmanship. The
drinking-cups and spoons were of the same costly materials, and likewise
of tortoise-shell. The favorite beverage was the _chocolatl_, flavored
with vanilla and different spices. They had a way of preparing the froth
of it, so as to make it almost solid enough to be eaten, and took it
cold.[259] The fermented juice of the maguey, with a mixture of sweets
and acids, supplied, also, various agreeable drinks, of different
degrees of strength, and formed the chief beverage of the elder part of
the company.[260]
As soon as they had finished their repast, the young people rose from
the table, to close the festivities of the day with dancing. They danced
gracefully, to the sound of various instruments, accompanying their
movements with chants of a pleasing though somewhat plaintive
character.[261] The older guests continued at table, sipping _pulque_,
and gossiping about other times, till the virtues of the exhilarating
beverage put them in good humor with their own. Intoxication was not
rare in this part of the company, and, what is singular, was excused in
them, though severely punished in the younger. The entertainment was
concluded by a liberal distribution of rich dresses and ornaments among
the guests, when they withdrew, after midnight, “some commending the
feast, and others condemning the bad taste or extravagance of their
host; in the same manner,” says an old Spanish writer, “as with
us.”[262] Human nature is, indeed, much the same all the world over.
In this remarkable picture of manners, which I have copied faithfully
from the records of earliest date after the Conquest, we find no
resemblance to the other races of North American Indians. Some
resemblance we may trace to the general style of Asiatic pomp and
luxury. But in Asia, woman, far from being admitted to unreserved
intercourse with the other sex, is too often jealously immured within
the walls of the harem. European civilization, which accords to this
loveliest portion of creation her proper rank in the social scale, is
still more removed from some of the brutish usages of the Aztecs. That
such usages should have existed with the degree of refinement they
showed in other things is almost inconceivable. It can only be explained
as the result of religious superstition; superstition which clouds the
moral perception, and perverts even the natural senses, till man,
civilized
[Illustration: OUR LADY OF GUADALOUPE]
[Illustration: _Goupil & Cº. Paris_]
man, is reconciled to the very things which are most revolting to
humanity. Habits and opinions founded on religion must not be taken as
conclusive evidence of the actual refinement of a people.
The Aztec character was perfectly original and unique. It was made up of
incongruities apparently irreconcilable. It blended into one the marked
peculiarities of different nations, not only of the same phase of
civilization, but as far removed from each other as the extremes of
barbarism and refinement. It may find a fitting parallel in their own
wonderful climate, capable of producing, on a few square leagues of
surface, the boundless variety of vegetable forms which belong to the
frozen regions of the North, the temperate zone of Europe, and the
burning skies of Arabia and Hindostan.
One of the works repeatedly consulted and referred to in this
Introduction is Boturini’s _Idea de una nueva Historia general de
la América Septentrional_. The singular persecutions sustained by
its author, even more than the merits of his book, have associated
his name inseparably with the literary history of Mexico. The
Chevalier Lorenzo Boturini Benaduci was a Milanese by birth, of an
ancient family, and possessed of much learning. From Madrid, where
he was residing, he passed over to New Spain, in 1735, on some
business of the Countess of Santibañez, a lineal descendant of
Montezuma. While employed on this, he visited the celebrated shrine
of Our Lady of Guadaloupe, and, being a person of devout and
enthusiastic temper, was filled with the desire of collecting
testimony to establish the marvellous fact of her apparition. In
the course of his excursions, made with this view, he fell in with
many relics of Aztec antiquity, and conceived--what to a
Protestant, at least, would seem much more rational--the idea of
gathering together all the memorials he could meet with of the
primitive civilization of the land.
In pursuit of this double object, he penetrated into the remotest
parts of the country, living much with the natives, passing his
nights sometimes in their huts, sometimes in caves and the depths
of the lonely forests. Frequently months would elapse without his
being able to add anything to his collection; for the Indians had
suffered too much not to be very shy of Europeans. His long
intercourse with them, however, gave him ample opportunity to learn
their language and popular traditions, and, in the end, to amass a
large stock of materials, consisting of hieroglyphical charts on
cotton, skins, and the fibre of the maguey; besides a considerable
body of Indian manuscripts, written after the Conquest. To all
these must be added the precious documents for placing beyond
controversy the miraculous apparition of the Virgin. With this
treasure he returned, after a pilgrimage of eight years, to the
capital.
His zeal, in the mean while, had induced him to procure from Rome a
bull authorizing the coronation of the sacred image at Guadaloupe.
The bull, however, though sanctioned by the Audience of New Spain,
had never been approved by the Council of the Indies. In
consequence of this informality, Boturini was arrested in the midst
of his proceedings, his papers were taken from him, and, as he
declined to give an inventory of them, he was thrown into prison,
and confined in the same apartment with two criminals! Not long
afterward he was sent to Spain. He there presented a memorial to
the Council of the Indies, setting forth his manifold grievances,
and soliciting redress. At the same time, he drew up his “Idea,”
above noticed, in which he displayed the catalogue of his _museum_
in New Spain, declaring, with affecting earnestness, that “he would
not exchange these treasures for all the gold and silver, diamonds
and pearls, in the New World.”
After some delay, the Council gave an award in his favor;
acquitting him of any intentional violation of the law, and
pronouncing a high encomium on his deserts. His papers, however,
were not restored. But his Majesty was graciously pleased to
appoint him Historiographer-General of the Indies, with a salary of
one thousand dollars per annum. The stipend was too small to allow
him to return to Mexico. He remained in Madrid, and completed there
the first volume of a “General History of North America,” in 1749.
Not long after this event, and before the publication of the work,
he died. The same injustice was continued to his heirs; and,
notwithstanding repeated applications in their behalf, they were
neither put in possession of their unfortunate kinsman’s
collection, nor received a remuneration for it. What was worse,--as
far as the public was concerned,--the collection itself was
deposited in apartments of the vice-regal palace at Mexico, so damp
that they gradually fell to pieces, and the few remaining were
still further diminished by the pilfering of _the curious_. When
Baron Humboldt visited Mexico, not one-eighth of this inestimable
treasure was in existence!
I have been thus particular in the account of the unfortunate
Boturini, as affording, on the whole, the most remarkable example
of the serious obstacles and persecutions which literary
enterprise, directed in the path of the national antiquities, has,
from some cause or other, been exposed to in New Spain.
Boturini’s manuscript volume was never printed, and probably never
will be, if indeed it is in existence. This will scarcely prove a
great detriment to science or to his own reputation. He was a man
of a zealous temper, strongly inclined to the marvellous, with
little of that acuteness requisite for penetrating the tangled
mazes of antiquity, or of the philosophic spirit fitted for calmly
weighing its doubts and difficulties. His “Idea” affords a sample
of his peculiar mind. With abundant learning, ill assorted and ill
digested, it is a jumble of fact and puerile fiction, interesting
details, crazy dreams, and fantastic theories. But it is hardly
fair to judge by the strict rules of criticism a work which, put
together hastily, as a catalogue of literary treasures, was
designed by the author rather to show what might be done, than that
he could do it himself. It is rare that talents for action and
contemplation are united in the same individual. Boturini was
eminently qualified, by his enthusiasm and perseverance, for
collecting the materials necessary to illustrate the antiquities of
the country. It requires a more highly gifted mind to avail itself
of them.
CHAPTER VI[263]
THE TEZCUCANS--THEIR GOLDEN AGE--ACCOMPLISHED PRINCES--DECLINE OF
THEIR MONARCHY
The reader would gather but an imperfect notion of the civilization of
Anahuac, without some account of the Acolhuans, or Tezcucans, as they
are usually called; a nation of the same great family with the Aztecs,
whom they rivalled in power and surpassed in intellectual culture and
the arts of social refinement. Fortunately, we have ample materials for
this in the records left by Ixtlilxochitl, a lineal descendant of the
royal line of Tezcuco, who flourished in the century of the Conquest.
With every opportunity for information he combined much industry and
talent, and, if his narrative bears the high coloring of one who would
revive the faded glories of an ancient but dilapidated house, he has
been uniformly commended for his fairness and integrity, and has been
followed without misgiving by such Spanish writers as could have access
to his manuscripts.[264] I shall confine myself to the prominent
features of the two reigns which may be said to embrace the golden age
of Tezcuco, without attempting to weigh the probability of the details,
which I will leave to be settled by the reader, according to the measure
of his faith.
The Acolhuans came into the Valley, as we have seen, about the close of
the twelfth century, and built their capital of Tezcuco on the eastern
borders of the lake, opposite to Mexico. From this point they gradually
spread themselves over the northern portion of Anahuac, when their
career was checked by an invasion of a kindred race, the Tepanecs, who,
after a desperate struggle, succeeded in taking their city, slaying
their monarch, and entirely subjugating his kingdom.[265] This event
took place about 1418; and the young prince, Nezahualcoyotl, the heir to
the crown, then fifteen years old, saw his father butchered before his
eyes, while he himself lay concealed among the friendly branches of a
tree which overshadowed the spot.[266] His subsequent history is as full
of romantic daring and perilous escapes as that of the renowned
Scanderbeg or of the “young Chevalier.”[267]
Not long after his flight from the field of his father’s blood, the
Tezcucan prince fell into the hands of his enemy, was borne off in
triumph to his city, and was thrown into a dungeon. He effected his
escape, however, through the connivance of the governor of the fortress,
an old servant of his family, who took the place of the royal fugitive,
and paid for his loyalty with his life. He was at length permitted,
through the intercession of the reigning family in Mexico, which was
allied to him, to retire to that capital, and subsequently to his own,
where he found a shelter in his ancestral palace. Here he remained
unmolested for eight years, pursuing his studies under an old preceptor,
who had had the care of his early youth, and who instructed him in the
various duties befitting his princely station.[268]
At the end of this period the Tepanec usurper died, bequeathing his
empire to his son, Maxtla, a man of fierce and suspicious temper.
Nezahualcoyotl hastened to pay his obeisance to him, on his accession.
But the tyrant refused to receive the little present of flowers which he
laid at his feet, and turned his back on him in presence of his
chieftains. One of his attendants, friendly to the young prince,
admonished him to provide for his own safety, by withdrawing, as
speedily as possible, from the palace, where his life was in danger. He
lost no time, consequently, in retreating from the inhospitable court,
and returned to Tezcuco. Maxtla, however, was bent on his destruction.
He saw with jealous eye the opening talents and popular manners of his
rival, and the favor he was daily winning from his ancient
subjects.[269]
He accordingly laid a plan for making away with him at an evening
entertainment. It was defeated by the vigilance of the prince’s tutor,
who contrived to mislead the assassins and to substitute another victim
in the place of his pupil.[270] The baffled tyrant now threw off all
disguise, and sent a strong party of soldiers to Tezcuco, with orders to
enter the palace, seize the person of Nezahualcoyotl, and slay him on
the spot. The prince, who became acquainted with the plot through the
watchfulness of his preceptor, instead of flying, as he was counselled,
resolved to await his enemies. They found him playing at ball, when they
arrived, in the court of his palace. He received them courteously, and
invited them in, to take some refreshments after their journey. While
they were occupied in this way, he passed into an adjoining saloon,
which excited no suspicion, as he was still visible through the open
doors by which the apartments communicated with each other. A burning
censer stood in the passage, and, as it was fed by the attendants, threw
up such clouds of incense as obscured his movements from the soldiers.
Under this friendly veil he succeeded in making his escape by a secret
passage, which communicated with a large earthen pipe formerly used to
bring water to the palace.[271] Here he remained till nightfall, when,
taking advantage of the obscurity, he found his way into the suburbs,
and sought a shelter in the cottage of one of his father’s vassals.
The Tepanec monarch, enraged at this repeated disappointment, ordered
instant pursuit. A price was set on the head of the royal fugitive.
Whoever should take him, dead or alive, was promised, however humble his
degree, the hand of a noble lady, and an ample domain along with it.
Troops of armed men were ordered to scour the country in every
direction. In the course of the search, the cottage in which the prince
had taken refuge was entered. But he fortunately escaped detection by
being hid under a heap of maguey fibres used for manufacturing cloth. As
this was no longer a proper place of concealment, he sought a retreat in
the mountainous and woody district lying between the borders of his own
state and Tlascala.[272]
Here he led a wretched, wandering life, exposed to all the inclemencies
of the weather, hiding himself in deep thickets and caverns, and
stealing out, at night, to satisfy the cravings of appetite; while he
was kept in constant alarm by the activity of his pursuers, always
hovering on his track. On one occasion he sought refuge from them among
a small party of soldiers, who proved friendly to him and concealed him
in a large drum around which they were dancing. At another time he was
just able to turn the crest of a hill as his enemies were climbing it on
the other side, when he fell in with a girl who was reaping _chia_,--a
Mexican plant, the seed of which was much used in the drinks of the
country. He persuaded her to cover him up with the stalks she had been
cutting. When his pursuers came up, and inquired if she had seen the
fugitive, the girl coolly answered that she had, and pointed out a path
as the one he had taken. Notwithstanding the high rewards offered,
Nezahualcoyotl seems to have incurred no danger from treachery, such was
the general attachment felt to himself and his house. “Would you not
deliver up the prince, if he came in your way?” he inquired of a young
peasant who was unacquainted with his person. “Not I,” replied the
other. “What, not for a fair lady’s hand, and a rich dowry beside?”
rejoined the prince. At which the other only shook his head and
laughed.[273] On more than one occasion his faithful people submitted to
torture, and even to lose their lives, rather than disclose the place of
his retreat.[274]
However gratifying such proofs of loyalty might be to his feelings, the
situation of the prince in these mountain solitudes became every day
more distressing. It gave a still keener edge to his own sufferings to
witness those of the faithful followers who chose to accompany him in
his wanderings. “Leave me,” he would say to them, “to my fate! Why
should you throw away your own lives for one whom fortune is never weary
of persecuting?” Most of the great Tezcucan chiefs had consulted their
interests by a timely adhesion to the usurper. But some still clung to
their prince, preferring proscription, and death itself, rather than
desert him in his extremity.[275]
In the mean time, his friends at a distance were active in measures for
his relief. The oppressions of Maxtla, and his growing empire, had
caused general alarm in the surrounding states, who recalled the mild
rule of the Tezcucan princes. A coalition was formed, a plan of
operations concerted, and, on the day appointed for a general rising,
Nezahualcoyotl found himself at the head of a force sufficiently strong
to face his Tepanec adversaries. An engagement came on, in which the
latter were totally discomfited; and the victorious prince, receiving
everywhere on his route the homage of his joyful subjects, entered his
capital, not like a proscribed outcast, but as the rightful heir, and
saw himself once more enthroned in the halls of his fathers.
Soon after, he united his forces with the Mexicans, long disgusted with
the arbitrary conduct of Maxtla. The allied powers, after a series of
bloody engagements with the usurper, routed him under the walls of his
own capital. He fled to the baths, whence he was dragged out, and
sacrificed with the usual cruel ceremonies of the Aztecs; the royal city
of Azcapozalco was razed to the ground, and the wasted territory was
henceforth reserved as the great slave-market for the nations of
Anahuac.[276]
These events were succeeded by the remarkable league among the three
powers of Tezcuco, Mexico, and Tlacopan, of which some account has been
given in a previous chapter.[277] Historians are not agreed as to the
precise terms of it; the writers of the two former nations each
insisting on the paramount authority of his own in the coalition. All
agree in the subordinate position of Tlacopan, a state, like the others,
bordering on the lake. It is certain that in their subsequent
operations, whether of peace or war, the three states shared in each
other’s councils, embarked in each other’s enterprises, and moved in
perfect concert together, till just before the coming of the Spaniards.
The first measure of Nezahualcoyotl, on returning to his dominions, was
a general amnesty. It was his maxim “that a monarch might punish, but
revenge was unworthy of him.”[278] In the present instance he was averse
even to punish, and not only freely pardoned his rebel nobles, but
conferred on some, who had most deeply offended, posts of honor and
confidence. Such conduct was doubtless politic, especially as their
alienation was owing, probably, much more to fear of the usurper than to
any disaffection towards himself. But there are some acts of policy
which a magnanimous spirit only can execute.
The restored monarch next set about repairing the damages sustained
under the late misrule, and reviving, or rather remodelling, the various
departments of government. He framed a concise, but comprehensive, code
of laws, so well suited, it was thought, to the exigencies of the times,
that it was adopted as their own by the two other members of the triple
alliance. It was written in blood, and entitled the author to be called
the Draco rather than “the Solon of Anahuac,” as he is fondly styled by
his admirers.[279] Humanity is one of the best fruits of refinement. It
is only with increasing civilization that the legislator studies to
economize human suffering, even for the guilty; to devise penalties not
so much by way of punishment for the past as of reformation for the
future.[280]
He divided the burden of government among a number of departments, as
the council of war, the council of finance, the council of justice. This
last was a court of supreme authority, both in civil and criminal
matters, receiving appeals from the lower tribunals of the provinces,
which were obliged to make a full report, every four months, or eighty
days, of their own proceedings to this higher judicature. In all these
bodies, a certain number of citizens were allowed to have seats with the
nobles and professional dignitaries. There was, however, another body, a
council of state, for aiding the king in the despatch of business, and
advising him in matters of importance, which was drawn altogether from
the highest order of chiefs. It consisted of fourteen members; and they
had seats provided for them at the royal table.[281]
Lastly, there was an extraordinary tribunal, called the council of
music, but which, differing from the import of its name, was devoted to
the encouragement of science and art. Works on astronomy, chronology,
history, or any other science, were required to be submitted to its
judgment, before they could be made public. This censorial power was of
some moment, at least with regard to the historical department, where
the wilful perversion of truth was made a capital offence by the bloody
code of Nezahualcoyotl. Yet a Tezcucan author must have been a bungler,
who could not elude a conviction under the cloudy veil of hieroglyphics.
This body, which was drawn from the best-instructed persons in the
kingdom, with little regard to rank, had supervision of all the
productions of art, and of the nicer fabrics. It decided on the
qualifications of the professors in the various branches of science, on
the fidelity of their instructions to their pupils, the deficiency of
which was severely punished, and it instituted examinations of these
latter. In short, it was a general board of education for the country.
On stated days, historical compositions, and poems treating of moral or
traditional topics, were recited before it by their authors. Seats were
provided for the three crowned heads of the empire, who deliberated with
the other members on the respective merits of the pieces, and
distributed prizes of value to the successful competitors.[282]
Such are the marvellous accounts transmitted to us of this institution;
an institution certainly not to have been expected among the aborigines
of America. It is calculated to give us a higher idea of the refinement
of the people than even the noble architectural remains which still
cover some parts of the continent. Architecture is, to a certain extent,
a sensual gratification. It addresses itself to the eye, and affords the
best scope for the parade of barbaric pomp and splendor. It is the form
in which the revenues of a semi-civilized people are most likely to be
lavished. The most gaudy and ostentatious specimens of it, and sometimes
the most stupendous, have been reared by such hands. It is one of the
first steps in the great march of civilization. But the institution in
question was evidence of still higher refinement. It was a literary
luxury, and argued the existence of a taste in the nation which relied
for its gratification on pleasures of a purely intellectual character.
The influence of this academy must have been most propitious to the
capital, which became the nursery not only of such sciences as could be
compassed by the scholarship of the period, but of various useful and
ornamental arts. Its historians, orators, and poets were celebrated
throughout the country.[283] Its archives, for which accommodations were
provided in the royal palace, were stored with the records of primitive
ages.[284] Its idiom, more polished than the Mexican, was, indeed, the
purest of all the Nahuatlac dialects, and continued, long after the
Conquest, to be that in which the best productions of the native races
were composed. Tezcuco claimed the glory of being the Athens of the
Western world.[285]
Among the most illustrious of her bards was the emperor himself,--for
the Tezcucan writers claim this title for their chief, as head of the
imperial alliance. He doubtless appeared as a competitor before that
very academy where he so often sat as a critic. Many of his odes
descended to a late generation, and are still preserved, perhaps, in
some of the dusty repositories of Mexico or Spain.[286] The historian
Ixtlilxochitl has left a translation, in Castilian, of one of the poems
of his royal ancestor. It is not easy to render his version into
corresponding English rhyme, without the perfume of the original
escaping in this double filtration.[287] They remind one of the rich
breathings of Spanish-Arab poetry, in which an ardent imagination is
tempered by a not unpleasing and moral melancholy.[288] But, though
sufficiently florid in diction, they are generally free from the
meretricious ornaments and hyperbole with which the minstrelsy of the
East is usually tainted. They turn on the vanities and mutability of
human life,--a topic very natural for a monarch who had himself
experienced the strangest mutations of fortune. There is mingled in the
lament of the Tezcucan bard, however, an Epicurean philosophy, which
seeks relief from the fears of the future in the joys of the present.
“Banish care,” he says: “if there are bounds to pleasure, the saddest
life must also have an end. Then weave the chaplet of flowers, and sing
thy songs in praise of the all-powerful God, for the glory of this world
soon fadeth away. Rejoice in the green freshness of thy spring; for the
day will come when thou shalt sigh for these joys in vain; when the
sceptre shall pass from thy hands, thy servants shall wander desolate in
thy courts, thy sons, and the sons of thy nobles, shall drink the dregs
of distress, and all the pomp of thy victories and triumphs shall live
only in their recollection. Yet the remembrance of the just shall not
pass away from the nations, and the good thou hast done shall ever be
held in honor. The goods of this life, its glories and its riches, are
but lent to us, its substance is but an illusory shadow, and the things
of to-day shall change on the coming of the morrow. Then gather the
fairest flowers from thy gardens, to bind round thy brow, and seize the
joys of the present ere they perish.”[289]
But the hours of the Tezcucan monarch were not all passed in idle
dalliance with the Muse, nor in the sober contemplations of philosophy,
as at a later period. In the freshness of youth and early manhood he led
the allied armies in their annual expeditions, which were certain to
result in a wider extent of territory to the empire.[290] In the
intervals of peace he fostered those productive arts which are the
surest sources of public prosperity. He encouraged agriculture above
all; and there was scarcely a spot so rude, or a steep so inaccessible,
as not to confess the power of cultivation. The land was covered with a
busy population, and towns and cities sprang up in places since deserted
or dwindled into miserable villages.[291]
From resources thus enlarged by conquest and domestic industry, the
monarch drew the means for the large consumption of his own numerous
household,[292] and for the costly works which he executed for the
convenience and embellishment of the capital. He filled it with stately
edifices for his nobles, whose constant attendance he was anxious to
secure at his court.[293] He erected a magnificent pile of buildings
which might serve both for a royal residence and for the public
offices. It extended, from east to west, twelve hundred and thirty-four
yards, and from north to south, nine hundred and seventy-eight.[294] It
was encompassed by a wall of unburnt bricks and cement, six feet wide
and nine high for one half of the circumference, and fifteen feet high
for the other half. Within this enclosure were two courts. The outer one
was used as the great market-place of the city, and continued to be so
until long after the Conquest,--if, indeed, it is not now. The interior
court was surrounded by the council-chambers and halls of justice. There
were also accommodations there for the foreign ambassadors; and a
spacious saloon, with apartments opening into it, for men of science and
poets, who pursued their studies in this retreat or met together to hold
converse under its marble porticoes. In this quarter, also, were kept
the public archives, which fared better under the Indian dynasty than
they have since under their European successors.[295]
Adjoining this court were the apartments of the king, including those
for the royal harem, as liberally supplied with beauties as that of an
Eastern sultan. Their walls were incrusted with alabasters and
richly-tinted stucco, or hung with gorgeous tapestries of variegated
feather-work.[296] They led through long arcades, and through intricate
labyrinths of shrubbery, into gardens where baths and sparkling
fountains were overshadowed by tall groves of cedar and cypress. The
basins of water were well stocked with fish of various kinds, and the
aviaries with birds glowing in all the gaudy plumage of the tropics.
Many birds and animals which could not be obtained alive were
represented in gold and silver so skilfully as to have furnished the
great naturalist Hernandez with models for his work.[297]
Accommodations on a princely scale were provided for the sovereigns of
Mexico and Tlacopan when they visited the court. The whole of this
lordly pile contained three hundred apartments, some of them fifty yards
square.[298] The height of the building is not mentioned. It was
probably not great, but supplied the requisite room by the immense
extent of ground which it covered. The interior was doubtless
constructed of light materials, especially of the rich woods which, in
that country, are remarkable, when polished, for the brilliancy and
variety of their colors. That the more solid materials of stone and
stucco were also liberally employed is proved by the remains at the
present day; remains which have furnished an inexhaustible quarry for
the churches and other edifices since erected by the Spaniards on the
site of the ancient city.[299]
We are not informed of the time occupied in building this palace. But
two hundred thousand workmen, it is said, were employed on it.[300]
However this may be, it is certain that the Tezcucan monarchs, like
those of Asia and ancient Egypt, had the control of immense masses of
men, and would sometimes turn the whole population of a conquered city,
including the women, into the public works.[301] The most gigantic
monuments of architecture which the world has witnessed would never have
been reared by the hands of freemen.
Adjoining the palace were buildings for the king’s children, who, by his
various wives, amounted to no less than sixty sons and fifty
daughters.[302] Here they were instructed in all the exercises and
accomplishments suited to their station; comprehending, what would
scarcely find a place in a royal education on the other side of the
Atlantic, the arts of working in metals, jewelry, and feather-mosaic.
Once in every four months, the whole household, not excepting the
youngest, and including all the officers and attendants on the king’s
person, assembled in a grand saloon of the palace, to listen to a
discourse from an orator, probably one of the priesthood. The princes,
on this occasion, were all dressed in _nequen_, the coarsest manufacture
of the country. The preacher began by enlarging on the obligations of
morality and of respect for the gods, especially important in persons
whose rank gave such additional weight to example. He occasionally
seasoned his homily with a pertinent application to his audience, if any
member of it had been guilty of a notorious delinquency. From this
wholesome admonition the monarch himself was not exempted, and the
orator boldly reminded him of his paramount duty to show respect for his
own laws. The king, so far from taking umbrage, received the lesson with
humility; and the audience, we are assured, were often melted into tears
by the eloquence of the preacher.[303] This curious scene may remind one
of similar usages in the Asiatic and Egyptian despotisms, where the
sovereign occasionally condescended to stoop from his pride of place and
allow his memory to be refreshed with the conviction of his own
mortality.[304] It soothed the feelings of the subject to find himself
thus placed, though but for a moment, on a level with his king; while it
cost little to the latter, who was removed too far from his people to
suffer anything by this short-lived familiarity. It is probable that
such an act of public humiliation would have found less favor with a
prince less absolute.
Nezahualcoyotl’s fondness for magnificence was shown in his numerous
villas, which were embellished with all that could make a rural retreat
delightful. His favorite residence was at Tezcotzinco, a conical hill
about two leagues from the capital.[305] It was laid out in terraces, or
hanging gardens, having a flight of steps five hundred and twenty in
number, many of them hewn in the natural porphyry.[306] In the garden on
the summit was a reservoir of water, fed by an aqueduct that was carried
over hill and valley, for several miles, on huge buttresses of masonry.
A large rock stood in the midst of this basin, sculptured with the
hieroglyphics representing the years of Nezahualcoyotl’s reign and his
principal achievements in each.[307] On a lower level were three other
reservoirs, in each of which stood a marble statue of a woman,
emblematic of the three states of the empire.[308] Another tank
contained a winged lion, (?) cut out of the solid rock, bearing in its
mouth the portrait of the emperor.[309] His likeness had been executed
in gold, wood, feather-work, and stone; but this was the only one which
pleased him.
From these copious basins the water was distributed in numerous channels
through the gardens, or was made to tumble over the rocks in cascades,
shedding refreshing dews on the flowers and odoriferous shrubs below. In
the depths of this fragrant wilderness, marble porticoes and pavilions
were erected, and baths excavated in the solid porphyry, which are still
shown by the ignorant natives as the “Baths of Montezuma”![310] The
visitor descended by steps cut in the living stone and polished so
bright as to reflect like mirrors.[311] Towards the base of the hill, in
the midst of cedar groves, whose gigantic branches threw a refreshing
coolness over the verdure in the sultriest seasons of the year,[312]
rose the royal villa, with its light arcades and airy halls, drinking
in the sweet perfumes of the gardens. Here the monarch often retired, to
throw off the burden of state and refresh his wearied spirits in the
society of his favorite wives, reposing during the noontide heats in the
embowering shades of his paradise, or mingling, in the cool of the
evening, in their festive sports and dances. Here he entertained his
imperial brothers of Mexico and Tlacopan, and followed the hardier
pleasures of the chase in the noble woods that stretched for miles
around his villa, flourishing in all their primeval majesty. Here, too,
he often repaired in the latter days of his life, when age had tempered
ambition and cooled the ardor of his blood, to pursue in solitude the
studies of philosophy and gather wisdom from meditation.
The extraordinary accounts of the Tezcucan architecture are confirmed,
in the main, by the relics which still cover the hill of Tezcotzinco or
are half buried beneath its surface. They attract little attention,
indeed, in the country, where their true history has long since passed
into oblivion;[313] while the traveller whose curiosity leads him to the
spot speculates on their probable origin, and, as he stumbles over the
huge fragments of sculptured porphyry and granite, refers them to the
primitive races who spread their colossal architecture over the country
long before the coming of the Acolhuans and the Aztecs.[314]
The Tezcucan princes were used to entertain a great number of
concubines. They had but one lawful wife, to whose issue the crown
descended.[315] Nezahualcoyotl remained unmarried to a late period. He
was disappointed in an early attachment, as the princess who had been
educated in privacy to be the partner of his throne gave her hand to
another. The injured monarch submitted the affair to the proper
tribunal. The parties, however, were proved to have been ignorant of the
destination of the lady, and the court, with an independence which
reflects equal honor on the judges who could give and the monarch who
could receive the sentence, acquitted the young couple. This story is
sadly contrasted by the following.[316]
The king devoured his chagrin in the solitude of his beautiful villa of
Tezcotzinco, or sought to divert it by travelling. On one of his
journeys he was hospitably entertained by a potent vassal, the old lord
of Tepechpan, who, to do his sovereign more honor, caused him to be
attended at the banquet by a noble maiden, betrothed to himself, and
who, after the fashion of the country, had been educated under his own
roof. She was of the blood royal of Mexico, and nearly related,
moreover, to the Tezcucan monarch. The latter, who had all the amorous
temperament of the South, was captivated by the grace and personal
charms of the youthful Hebe, and conceived a violent passion for her. He
did not disclose it to any one, however, but, on his return home,
resolved to gratify it, though at the expense of his own honor, by
sweeping away the only obstacle which stood in his path.
He accordingly sent an order to the chief of Tepechpan to take command
of an expedition set on foot against the Tlascalans. At the same time he
instructed two Tezcucan chiefs to keep near the person of the old lord,
and bring him into the thickest of the fight, where he might lose his
life. He assured them this had been forfeited by a great crime, but
that, from regard for his vassal’s past services, he was willing to
cover up his disgrace by an honorable death.
The veteran, who had long lived in retirement on his estates, saw
himself with astonishment called so suddenly and needlessly into action,
for which so many younger men were better fitted. He suspected the
cause, and, in the farewell entertainment to his friends, uttered a
presentiment of his sad destiny. His predictions were too soon
verified; and a few weeks placed the hand of his virgin bride at her
own disposal.
Nezahualcoyotl did not think it prudent to break his passion publicly to
the princess so soon after the death of his victim. He opened a
correspondence with her through a female relative, and expressed his
deep sympathy for her loss. At the same time, he tendered the best
consolation in his power, by an offer of his heart and hand. Her former
lover had been too well stricken in years for the maiden to remain long
inconsolable. She was not aware of the perfidious plot against his life;
and, after a decent time, she was ready to comply with her duty, by
placing herself at the disposal of her royal kinsman.
It was arranged by the king, in order to give a more natural aspect to
the affair and prevent all suspicion of the unworthy part he had acted,
that the princess should present herself in his grounds at Tezcotzinco,
to witness some public ceremony there. Nezahualcoyotl was standing in a
balcony of the palace when she appeared, and inquired, as if struck with
her beauty for the first time, “who the lovely young creature was, in
his gardens.” When his courtiers had acquainted him with her name and
rank, he ordered her to be conducted to the palace, that she might
receive the attentions due to her station. The interview was soon
followed by a public declaration of his passion; and the marriage was
celebrated not long after, with great pomp, in the presence of his
court, and of his brother monarchs of Mexico and Tlacopan.[317]
This story, which furnishes so obvious a counterpart to that of David
and Uriah, is told with great circumstantiality, both by the king’s son
and grandson, from whose narratives Ixtlilxochitl derived it.[318] They
stigmatize the action as the basest in their great ancestor’s life. It
is indeed too base not to leave an indelible stain on any character,
however pure in other respects, and exalted.
The king was strict in the execution of his laws, though his natural
disposition led him to temper justice with mercy. Many anecdotes are
told of the benevolent interest he took in the concerns of his subjects,
and of his anxiety to detect and reward merit, even in the most humble.
It was common for him to ramble among them in disguise, like the
celebrated caliph in the “Arabian Nights,” mingling freely in
conversation, and ascertaining their actual condition with his own
eyes.[319]
On one such occasion, when attended only by a single lord, he met with a
boy who was gathering sticks in a field for fuel. He inquired of him
“why he did not go into the neighboring forest, where he would find a
plenty of them.” To which the lad answered, “It was the king’s wood, and
he would punish him with death if he trespassed there.” The royal
forests were very extensive in Tezcuco, and were guarded by laws full as
severe as those of the Norman tyrants in England. “What kind of man is
your king?” asked the monarch, willing to learn the effect of these
prohibitions on his own popularity. “A very hard man,” answered the boy,
“who denies his people what God has given them.”[320] Nezahualcoyotl
urged him not to mind such arbitrary laws, but to glean his sticks in
the forest, as there was no one present who would betray him. But the
boy sturdily refused, bluntly accusing the disguised king, at the same
time, of being a traitor, and of wishing to bring him into trouble.