Wealth and the baseless fabrics of martial glory were the alluring objects of this migrating column of men.
“Hast thou gold?” exclaimed they to the Mexican princes. “I and my companions have a malady which is only cured by gold.”
After these four centuries of occupation of the elevated plains and table-lands of Mexico, where the mean temperature does not exceed 77° Fahrenheit, and where the mildness of climate, the wealth of a wonderful, prolific nature, excite the ambition and the cupidity of men; and after the long efforts at colonization, in which the parent country was almost exhausted by the drain of her best blood,—Spain finds that the predictions of Dr. Knox are rapidly being realized, and that only 600,000 Europeans and their hybrid descendants, and but 8000 Spaniards of pure blood, can be found of all the numberless hosts that have embarked for these lands. Spain halts, and reflects upon this report of her scientific commission, which shows a decrease of one half since the estimate of Humboldt, in 1793; whilst France, always blind to reason whenever the eagles of glory desire to expand their wings, persists in her useless occupation of Algeria, where Gaul has again and again vainly endeavored to rear her colonies in times past; and she now attempts to unfurl her standards and establish her institutions on those Mexican shores where the blood and energy of a stronger and better adapted people have been expended in vain. Idle effort! The elements of nature are stronger than the will of men; neither do they give way to the desires or attacks of human ambition.
There are geographical boundaries which races cannot pass in pursuit of wealth or the dreams of ambition. A single generation will not determine the law of expansion and decay.
V.
In this connection it will be proper to glance over the past, among those phenomena which men have observed, and those laws which the Creator has thus far revealed to us for guidance in the procession of races or the march of intellect.
In the mysteries of the material world everything is governed by fixed and positive laws. Not a flower appears in the field to gladden the hearts of men but what rises up with invariable structure, and blooms at definite periods. Not a sparrow falls to the earth but in accordance with Nature’s law. Not a star shines in the firmament but in unison with the great and illimitable designs of God. Everywhere do we observe harmony in space, in movement; everywhere visible signs of a beneficent, protecting Creator. It is the same with the enormous forms of living animals as with the insignificant shapes of the insect world: all play their part in the problem of Nature. Size is nothing with the Creator; form is nothing. Perchance
“the poor beetle, that we tread upon,
In corporal sufferance feels a pang as great
As when a giant dies.”
VI.
History indicates mysterious laws in the progress of the typical stocks of the human families; and it shows, in the colonization of the past, how frail are human calculations in migration and settlement unless based upon science. “It is not unknown to me,” said the Roman soldier, two thousand years ago, when about to attack the remnant of the army of Brennus, that had passed over into Asia Minor, and conquered the land by the fierceness of their attack, and the terror of their name,—“it is not unknown to me,” said Manlius, “that of all the nations inhabiting Asia, the Gauls have the highest reputation as soldiers.