HISTORICAL SKETCH OF MEXICO.
From Clavigero, Storia del Messico—from Solis, Boturini, Herrera, Bernal Dias, and other authors, we learn the state of the arts in Mexico prior to the invasion of the Spaniards; the progress made by that people in science; the form of their government, and of their hierarchy: and from the simple and unaffected narrative of Cortez, contained in his letters to Charles the Fifth, we may gather pretty accurate knowledge of their resources, and of the number and character of the population.
Some idea may be formed of the civilization of a people, by the nature of their government, their civil institutions, and the laws by which they are governed. In Mexico, the monarch was elected from among the members of the reigning family, by six electors, chosen from among the thirty princes of the first rank. The political system was feudal. The first class of nobles, consisting of thirty families, had each one hundred thousand vassals. There were more than three thousand families in the second class. The vassals were serfs attached to the soil, over whom the lord exercised the right of life and death. All the lands were divided into allodial, hereditary, and contingent estates—the latter depending upon places in the gift of the crown.
The priests were charged with the education of the youth; and on their testimony of the merit of their scholars, depended their future rank. Each province was subject to a tribute, except certain nobles who were compelled to take the field, in case of a war, with a stated number of followers. The tribute was paid in kind, and was fixed at one thirtieth part of the crop. Besides which, the governors of provinces vied with each other in the magnificence of the presents which they sent to the emperor.
In the quarto edition of Lorenzano, there are plates of the figures, by means of which the receivers and administrators kept an account of the tribute due by each province.
There was an Octroi upon provisions, levied in every city. Posts were established between the capital and the remotest provinces of the empire.
Sacrilege, treason, and murder, were punished with death; and Cortez protests that the Mexicans respected the laws of the empire fully as much as the Spaniards did those of Spain.
The emperor was served with great magnificence and Asiatic pomp.
The attention of the government was principally directed toward the internal commerce, so as to secure an abundant supply to the people.
A court of ten magistrates determined the validity of contracts; and officers were constantly employed to examine the measures and the quality of the goods exposed for sale.
Under Montezuma, the government was despotic, and, in his turn, he was governed by the high-priest. It will be recollected that at the last siege of the capital, when the emperor and his council had resolved to accept any terms rather than prolong a hopeless contest, the high-priest opposed them and broke off the treaty.
Besides the empire of the Mexicans, there were other powerful states, whose form of government was republican; and Cortez compared them to the republics of Pisa, Venice, and Genoa.
I must refer the reader to Clavigero and Lorenzano, for the history of Tlascala, the most powerful of those states, the government of which existed some time after the conquest of Mexico.
Tlascala was a thickly-settled, fertile, and populous country, divided into several districts, under the authority of a chief. These chiefs administered justice, levied the tribute, and commanded the military forces; but their decrees were not valid, or of force, until confirmed by the senate of Tlascala, which was the true sovereign.
A certain number of citizens, chosen from the different districts by popular assemblies, formed this legislative body. The senate elected its own chief. The laws were strictly and impartially executed; and Cortez represents this people as numerous, wealthy, and warlike.
The Mexicans possessed some knowledge of astronomy, and their calendar was constructed with more exactness than that of the Greeks, the Romans, or the Egyptians. Their hieroglyphic drawings and maps—their cities and artificial roads, causeways, canals, and immense pyramids—their government and hierarchy, and administration of laws—their knowledge of the art of mining, and of preparing metals for armament and use—their skill in carving images out of the hardest stone—in manufacturing and dyeing cloths, and the perfection of their agriculture, inspire us with a high opinion of the civilization of the Mexicans at the time of the conquest: especially when we take into consideration the period when they are described to have reached this state of excellence in the arts and sciences. We ought always to bear in mind the state of Europe at the same period, before the Reformation, and before the discovery of the art of printing. Cortez compares Mexico with Spain, and frequently to the advantage of the former. The only circumstance wanting to have rendered their state of society more perfect than that of Spain, appears to have been a more pure religion, and the use of animals for domestic purposes.
The peasants were compelled to carry heavy loads, like beasts of burden; and in their religious worship the most shocking superstition prevailed. Their altars were frequently stained with the blood of human sacrifices.
We cannot judge of the character of the population, prior to the conquest, by the Indians we now see. The priests, who possessed all the learning, were destroyed; the princes and nobles were deprived of their property, and in fact reduced to a level with the lowest class; and the serfs, who are, and always have been an oppressed and degraded people, are alone to represent the former Mexicans.
Humboldt says, that “it is difficult to appreciate, justly, the moral character of the native Mexicans, if we consider this caste, which has so long suffered under a barbarous tyranny, only in its present state of degradation. At the commencement of the Spanish conquest, the wealthy Indians, for the most part, perished, victims of the ferocity of the Europeans. Christian fanaticism persecuted the Aztec priests; they exterminated the Teopixqui, or ministers of the Divinity, all who inhabited the teocalli, or temples, and who could be regarded as depositaries of historical, mythological, and astronomical knowledge. The monks burnt the hieroglyphic paintings, by which knowledge of every sort was transmitted from generation to generation. Deprived of these means of instruction, the people relapsed into a state of ignorance so much the more profound, that the missionaries, little skilled in the Mexican languages, substituted few new ideas for the ancient. The Indian women, who preserved some fortune, preferred allying themselves with the conquerors, to partaking the contempt entertained for the Indians. There remained, therefore, of the natives, none but the most indigent, the poor cultivators, mechanics, porters, who were used as beasts of burden—and, above all, the dregs of the people, that crowd of beggars, which marked the imperfection of the social institutions and the feudal yoke, and who, even in the time of Cortez, filled the streets of the great cities of Mexico. How, then, shall we judge from these miserable remains of a powerful people, either of the degree of civilization to which it had reached, from the twelfth to the sixteenth century, or of the intellectual development of which it is susceptible?”
Shortly after Cortez landed his small army at Vera Cruz, he received messengers from Montezuma, bringing with them presents to a considerable amount, and entreating the Spanish commander not to march further into the country. The sight of this display of wealth stimulated the cupidity of the Spaniards, and confirmed Cortez in his determination to penetrate to the capital. In his route he had to contend against the republic of Tlascala, a nation continually involved in war with the empire of Mexico. Cortez vanquished the republicans in two battles, and, after compelling them to make peace, he found no difficulty in enlisting them against Montezuma. Six thousand Tlascalans were added to his European troops as auxiliaries, and he continued his march upon the capital of the empire in the guise of friendship. As he advanced, he continued to augment his forces by treaties with other nations or tribes, which were inimical to Montezuma; and with a European force of five hundred infantry and fifteen horsemen, and a large army of Indians, he reached the city of Tenochtitlan on the 8th of November, 1519. The emperor received him with a degree of magnificence that excited the astonishment of the Spaniards. The whole army was lodged and entertained sumptuously, and Cortez himself received presents to a great amount. Some of these he enumerates to Charles the Fifth, in order to give him an idea of the riches and ingenuity of this extraordinary people.
It is not surprising, that at the sight of so much wealth, Cortez should form the wish to become possessed of it. He soon acquired an ascendency over the timid Mexicans, and Montezuma found that in admitting an armed and powerful friend into the heart of his capital, he had delivered himself and his people into the hands of a ferocious enemy.
The Mexican general, Qualpopoca, who had committed some hostilities upon the colony left by the Spaniards at Vera Cruz, was, on the demand of Cortez, delivered up to him, bound hand and foot, and by his order was burnt alive. Soon after this barbarous act, he contrived to get possession of the person of Montezuma, and detained him prisoner. But what, perhaps, irritated the people more even than this violation of the person of the emperor, was the contempt with which their religious rites and idols were treated by the Spaniards.
The arrival of Narvaez on the coast, with a large force, despatched by Velasco to deprive Cortez of the command, compelled the latter to leave Alvarado in command of the force at Tenochtitlan, and to march against this unexpected enemy. His departure from the capital was the signal for the people to manifest the hostile feeling they had long indulged toward the Spaniards. They took up arms against them, burnt the vessels which Cortez had constructed to command the lake, and laid siege to the building in which the Spaniards were lodged.
At this period Cortez returned, after having surprised and vanquished Narvaez. By this action he acquired a great accession of force; and he is said to have had, after his arrival at the capital, one thousand infantry and one hundred horse. The siege was prosecuted with vigor and determination on the part of the natives, and the place defended with equal obstinacy and valor on the part of the Spaniards. Montezuma, who had ascended the terrace to address his subjects and to quell the insurrection, was killed by a stone or arrow, and his brother Quetlavaca proclaimed his successor. This gave renewed vigor to the Mexicans, and Cortez was compelled to retreat. His own account of his flight, in one of his letters, is well worth reading. The night of this disastrous retreat was called La Noche triste, the melancholy night.
Cortez continued to retreat upon Tlascala, the Mexicans pursuing and harassing his rear. At Otumba, he was obliged to turn and give them battle. He describes his own troops as worn out with fatigue, but says that the enemy were so numerous that they could neither fight nor fly; and that the slaughter continued the whole day, until one of their principal chiefs was killed, which put an end to the battle and to the war. He reached Tlascala without further trouble, with the remnant of his forces, and was well received by his old allies.
He was urged by his officers, and by the garrison of Vera Cruz, to retire to the coast, but refused to abandon the conquest of Mexico; and, in order to maintain the ascendency he had acquired over the people of Tlascala, he made incursions into the territories of the neighboring nations, whence he always returned victorious, and loaded with spoil.
In December, 1521, he again marched upon Tenochtitlan, and took up his quarters in Tezcuco. From this place he carried on the war against the Mexicans and their allies, until the arrival of the frames of thirteen small vessels, which he had ordered to be constructed in Tlascala. They were brought by such a multitude of Indians, Cortez says, that “from the time the first began to enter the city until the last finished, more than six hours elapsed.” In order to launch these brigantines, as he calls them, a canal of half a mile in length was cut from the lake, of such ample dimensions, that eight thousand Indians worked every day at it, for fifty days, before it was completed.
On reviewing his troops, after the vessels were on the lake, he found that he had eighty-six horsemen, one hundred and eighteen fusiliers, and upward of seven hundred infantry, armed with swords and bucklers, three large iron field-pieces, and fifteen small ones of bronze, with ten quintals of powder. He does not give the number of Indians then with him, but on the following day he despatched messengers to Tlascala and other provinces, to inform these people that he was ready to proceed against Tenochtitlan. In consequence of this advice, the captains of Tlascala arrived with their forces, well appointed and well armed; and, according to their report, they amounted to upward of fifty thousand.
He divided his forces into three corps: one, consisting of thirty horsemen, eighteen fusiliers, and one hundred and fifty infantry, armed with sword and buckler, and twenty-five thousand Tlascalans, was commanded by Pedro de Alvarado, and was to occupy Tacuba. Another, commanded by Christoval Olid, consisted of thirty-three horsemen, eighteen fusiliers, and one hundred and seventy infantry, armed with sword and buckler, together with upward of twenty thousand Indians, was to take possession of Cuyoacan. The third division was intrusted to Gonzalo de Sandoval; it amounted to twenty-four horsemen, fifteen fusiliers, and one hundred and fifty infantry, armed with sword and buckler, with thirty thousand Indians. This division was to march upon Iztapalapan, destroy that town, and then, under cover of the vessels, form a junction with that of Olid. Cortez himself commanded the fleet. As soon as they reached their several destinations, Alvarado and Olid destroyed the aqueducts, and cut off the supply of water from the city.
After a siege of seventy-five days, during which both parties displayed the most obstinate courage, the besieged, reduced to the last extremity by disease and famine, made an attempt to evacuate the city by water. They were pursued by the light squadron of the Spaniards; and the canoe which carried the person of the emperor was captured by Garcia Holguin. This capture put an end to the war. When Gautimotzin, who had succeeded to the throne on the death of his uncle, was brought before Cortez, on the terrace where he was standing, and which overlooked the lake—he advanced, says Cortez, toward me, and said that he had done everything which his duty required, to defend himself and his subjects, until he was reduced to this state, and that I might now do with him what I thought proper; and put his hand on a dagger that I wore, telling me to stab him.
The siege was commenced on the 30th of May, 1521, and terminated on the 13th of August; and Cortez says, that during these seventy-five days, not one passed without some combat between the besieged and the Spaniards.
The captured Mexicans were divided among the conquerors; and Cortez informs the emperor that he had preserved his share of the gold and silver, and his fifth of the slaves, and other things, which by right belonged to his Majesty—and as slaves they continued to be treated for centuries, notwithstanding the humane laws passed in Spain for their relief.
It would be tedious and unprofitable to trace the colonial history of Mexico from the conquest to the revolution. From great natural advantages, this country has become rich and powerful, in spite of a most impolitic colonial system. In justice to the government of Spain, it must be acknowledged that the laws of the Indies were wise and just, and the regulations relating to the poor Indians framed in the very spirit of humanity; but their administration was bad, and the Creoles were oppressed by their European masters—and, in their turn, harassed and oppressed the unfortunate natives. Almost the only bright spot in the page of this history, is the period of the administration of the viceroy Revillagigedo. Good roads, leading from the capital to different parts of the kingdom, were laid out and constructed by his orders; and the streets of the principal cities were paved and lighted, and a good police established. The only authentic statistical account of this country was made out at this period; and almost every salutary law or regulation now in existence may be traced to the administration of Revillagigedo.
The immediate causes of the revolution of the Spanish colonies are too generally known to require any further explanation. The invasion of Spain by Napoleon only accelerated a revolution, toward which the Americans were slowly but irresistibly impelled by the conduct of the mother country, and by the political events of the age.—[Poinsett.]