[VI-58] 'Espaldar de vuestra silla.' Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 75.
[VI-59] 'He that delivered this prayer before Tezcatlipoca, stood on his feet, his feet close together, bending himself towards the earth. Those that were very devout were naked. Before they began the prayer they offered copal to the fire, or some other sacrifice, and if they were covered with a blanket, they pulled the knot of it round to the breast, so that they were naked in front. Some spoke this prayer squatting on their calves, and kept the knot of the blanket on the shoulder.' Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 75.
[VI-60] Father Bernardino de Sahagun, a Spanish Franciscan, was one of the first preachers sent to Mexico; where he was much employed in the instruction of the native youth, working for the most part in the province of Tezcuco. While there, in the city of Tepeopulco, in the latter part of the sixteenth century, he began the work, best known to us as the Historia General de las Cosas de Nueva España, from which the above prayers have been translated, and from which we shall draw largely for further information. It would be hard to imagine a work of such a character constructed after a better fashion of working than his. Gathering the principal natives of the town in which he carried on his labors, he induced them to appoint him a number of persons, the most learned and experienced in the things of which he wished to write. These learned Mexicans being collected, Father Sahagun was accustomed to get them to paint down in their native fashion the various legends, details of history and mythology, and so on that he wanted; at the foot of the said pictures these learned Mexicans wrote out the explanations of the same in the Mexican tongue; and this explanation the Father Sahagun translated into Spanish: that translation purports to be what we now read as the Historia General. Here follows a translation of the Prologo of his work, in which he describes all the foregoing in his own way: "All writers labor the best that they can to make their works authoritative; some by witnesses worthy of faith, others by the writings of previous writers held worthy of belief, others by the testimony of the Sacred Scriptures. To me are wanting all these foundations to make authoritative what I have written in these twelve books [of the Historia General]. I have no other foundation, but to set down here the relation of the diligence that I made to know the truth of all that is written in these twelve books. As I have said in other prologues to this work, I was commanded in all holy obedience by my chief prelate to write in the Mexican language that which appeared to me to be useful for the doctrine, worship, and maintenance of Christianity among these natives of New Spain, and for the aid of the workers and ministers that taught them. Having received this commandment, I made in the Spanish language a minute or memorandum of all the matters that I had to treat of, which matters are what is written in the twelve books, ... which were begun in the pueblo of Tepeopulco, which is in the province of Culhuacán or Tezcuco. The work was done in the following way. In the aforesaid pueblo, I got together all the principal men, together with the lord of the place, who was called Don Diego de Mendoza, of great distinction and ability, well experienced in things ecclesiastic, military, political, and even relating to idolatry. They being come together, I set before them what I proposed to do, and prayed them to appoint me able and experienced persons, with whom I might converse and come to an understanding on such questions as I might propose. They answered me that they would talk the matter over and give their answer on another day; and with this they took their departure. So on another day the lord and his principal men came, and having conferred together with great solemnity, as they were accustomed at that time to do, they chose out ten or twelve of the principal old men, and told me that with these I might communicate and that these would instruct me in any matters I should inquire of. Of these there were as many as four instructed in Latin, to whom I, some few years before, had myself taught grammar in the college of Santa Cruz, in Tlaltelolco. With these appointed principal men, including the four instructed in grammar, I talked many days during about two years, following the order of the minute I had already made out. On all the subjects on which we conferred they gave me pictures—which were the writings anciently in use among them—and these the grammarians interpreted to me in their language, writing the interpretation at the foot of the picture. Even to this day I hold the originals of these.... When I went to the chapter, with which was ended the seven years' term of Fray Francisco Torál—he that had imposed the charge of this work upon me—I was removed from Tepeopulco, carrying all my writings. I went to reside at Santiago del Tlaltelolco. There I brought together the principal men, set before them the matter of my writings, and asked them to appoint me some able principal men, with whom I might examine and talk over the writings I had brought from Tepeopulco. The governor, with the alcaldes, appointed me as many as eight or ten principal men, selected from all the most able in their language, and in the things of their antiquities. With these and with four or five collegians, all trilinguists, and living for the space of a year or more secluded in the college, all that had been brought written from Tepeopulco was clearly emended and added to; and the whole was rewritten in small letters, for it was written with much haste. In this scrutiny or examination, he that worked the hardest of all the collegians was Martin Jacobita, who was then rector of the college, an inhabitant of the ward of Santa Ana. I, having done all as above said in Tlaltelolco, went, taking with me all my writings, to reside in San Francisco de México, where, by myself, for the space of three years, I examined over and over again the writings, emended them, divided them into twelve books, and each book into chapters and paragraphs. After this, Father Miguel Navarro being provincial, and Father Diego de Mendoza commissary-general in Mexico, with their favor I had all the twelve books clearly copied in a good hand, as also the Postilla and the Cantáres [which were other works on which Sahagun was engaged]. I made out also an Art of the Mexican language with a vocabulary-appendix. Now the Mexicans added to and emended my twelve books [of the Historia General] in many things while they were being copied out in full; so that the first sieve through which my work passed was that of Tepeopulco, the second that of Tlaltelolco, the third that of Mexico; and in all these scrutinies collegiate grammarians had been employed. The chief and most learned was Antonio Valeriano, a resident of Aztcapuzalco; another little less than the first, was Alonso Vegerano, resident of Cuauhtitlan; another was Martin Jacobita, above mentioned; another Pedro de Santa Buenaventura, resident of Cuauhtitlan; all expert in three languages, Latin, Spanish, and Indian [Mexican]. The scribes that made out the clear copies of all the works are Diego Degrado, resident of the ward of San Martin, Mateo Severino, resident of Xochimilco, of the part of Ullác. The clear copy being fully made out, by the favor of the fathers above mentioned and the expenditure of hard cash on the scribes, the author thereof asked of the delegate Father Francisco de Rivera that the work be submitted to three or four religious, so that they might give an opinion on it, and that in the provincial chapter, which was close at hand, they might attend and report on the matter to the assembly, speaking as the thing might appear to them. And these reported in the assembly that the writings were of much value and deserved such support as was necessary toward their completion. But to some of the assembly it seemed that it was contrary to their vows of poverty to spend money in copying these writings; so they commanded the author to dismiss his scribes, and that he alone with his own hand should do what copying he wanted done; but as he was more than seventy years old, and for the trembling of his hand not able to write anything, nor able to procure a dispensation from this mandate, there was nothing done with the writings for more than five years. During this interval, and at the next chapter, Father Miguel Navarro was elected by the general chapter for custos custodium, and Father Alonso de Escalona, for provincial. During this time the author made a summary of all the books and of all the chapters of each book, and prologues, wherein was said with brevity all that the books contained. This summary Father Miguel Navarro and his companion, Father Gerónimo de Mendieta, carried to Spain, and thus in Spain the things that had been written about this land made their appearance. In the mean time, the father provincial took all the books of the author and dispersed them through all the province, where they were seen by many religious and approved for very precious and valuable. After some years, the general chapter meeting again, Father Miguel Navarro, at the petition of the author, turned with censures to collect again the said books; which, from that collecting, came within about a year into the hands of the author. During that time nothing was done in them, nor was there any one to help to get them translated into the vernacular Spanish, until the delegate-general Father Rodrigo de Sequera came to these parts, saw and was much pleased with them, and commanded the author to translate them into Spanish; providing all that was necessary to their being re-written, the Mexican language in one column and the Spanish in another, so that they might be sent to Spain; for the most illustrious Señor Don Juan de Ovando, president of the Council of Indies, had inquired after them, he knowing of them by reason of the summary that the said Father Miguel Navarro had carried to Spain, as above said. And all the above-said is to show that this work has been examined and approved by many, and during many years has passed through many troubles and misfortunes before reaching the place it now has." Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. i., Prólogo, pp. iii. vii. As to the date at which Sahagun wrote he says: 'These twelve books and the Art and the vocabulary-appendix were finished in a clear copy in the year 1569; but not translated into Spanish.' Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. i., Introduccion, p. xv. The following scanty sketch of the life of Sahagun, is taken, after Bustamante, from the Menealógio Seráfico of Father Betancourt: 'Father Bernardino Sahagun, native of Sahagun, took the robe in the convent of Salamanca, being a student of that university. He passed into this province [Mexico] in the year 1529, in the company of Father Antonio de Ciudad Rodrigo. While a youth he was endowed with a beauty and grace of person that corresponded with that of his soul. From his tenderest years he was very observant, self-contained, and given to prayer. Father Martin de Valencia held very close communion with him, owing to which he saw him many times snatched up into an ecstasy. Sahagun was very exact in his attendance in the choir, even in his old age, he never was absent at matins. He was gentle, humble, courteous in his converse with all. He was elected secondly with the learned Father Juan de Gaona, as professor at Tlaltelolco in the college of Santa Cruz; where he shone like a light on a candlestick, for he was perfect in all the sciences. His possession of the Mexican language was of a perfectness that has never to this day being equaled; he wrote many books in it that will be mentioned in the catalogue of authors. He had to strive with much opposition, for to some it did not seem good to write out in the language of the Mexicans their ancient rites, lest it should give occasion for their being persevered in. He watched over the honor of God against idolatry, and sought earnestly to impress the Christian faith upon the converted. He affirmed as a minister of much experience, that during the first twenty years [of his life in the province] the fervor of the natives was very great; but that afterward they inclined to idolatry, and became very lukewarm in the faith. This he says in the book of his Postillas that I have, in which I learnt much. During the first twenty years of his life [in the province] he was guardian of some convents; but after that he desired not to take upon himself any office or guardianship for more than forty years, so that he could occupy himself in preaching, confessing, and writing. During the sixty and one years that he lived in the province, for the most part in college, without resting a single day, he instructed the boys in civilization and good customs, teaching them reading, writing, grammar, music, and other things in the service of God and the state. This went on till the year 1590, when, the approach of death becoming apparent to every one, he entered the hospital of Mexico; where he died on the 23rd of October. There assembled to his funeral the collegians, trailing their becas, and the natives shedding tears, and the members of the different religious houses giving praises to God our Lord for this holy death, of which the martyrology treats—Gonzaga, Torquemada, Deza, Rampineo, and many others. In the library of Señor Eguiara, in the manuscript of the Turriana collection, I have read the article relating to Father Sahagun; in it a large catalogue of works that he wrote is given. I remember only the following: Historia General de las Cosas de Nueva España; Arte de gramática mexicana; Diccionario trilingue de español, latin, y mexicano; Sermones para todo el año en mexicano, (poséo aunque sin nombre de autor); Postillas ó commentarios al evangelio, para las misas solemnes de dia de precepto; Historia de los primeros pobladores franciscanos en Mexico; Salmodia de la vida de Cristo, de la virgen y de los santos, que usaban los indios, y preceptos para los casados; Escala espiritual, que fué la primera obra que se imprimió en Mexico en la imprenta que trajo Hernan Cortés de España.' Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. i., pp. vii.-ix. As to the manner in which the Historia General of Sahagun, 'whom,' says Prescott, Mex., vol. i., p. 67, 'I have followed as the highest authority' in matters of Mexican religion—at last saw the light of publication, I give Prescott's account, Mex., vol. i., p. 88, as exact save in one point, for which see the correction in brackets:—'At length, toward 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. [It was published in two parts, in the fifth and seventh volumes of that compilation, and the exact date of the publication was 1831.] In it he expresses an honest satisfaction at being the first to give Sahagun's work 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 8vo. 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.... 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.' As may have been noticed, the editions of Sahagun by both Bustamante and Kingsborough have been constantly used together and collated during the course of this present work. They differ, especially in many minor points of typography, Bustamante's being the more carelessly edited in this respect. Notwithstanding, however, the opinion to the contrary of Mr Harrisse, Bustamante's edition is on the whole the more complete; Kingsborough having avowedly omitted divers parts of the original which he thought unimportant or uninteresting—a fault also of Bustamante's, but to a lesser extent. Fortunately what is absent in the one I have always found in the other; and indeed, as a whole, and all circumstances being considered, they agree tolerably well. The criticism of Mr Harrisse, just referred to, runs as follows, Bib. Am. Vet., p. 208, note 52: 'Historia General de las Cosas de Nueva España; Mexico, 3 vols., 4to, 1829 (edited and castrated by Bustamente [Bustamante] in such a manner as to require for a perfect understanding of that dry but important work, the reading of the parts also published in vols. v. and vi. [v. and vii.], of Kingsborough's Antiquities.)' We are not yet done, however, with editions of Sahagun. A third edition of part of his work has seen the light. It is Bustamante himself that attempts to supersede a part of his first edition. He affirms, that book xii. of that first edition of his, as of course also book xii. of Kingsborough's edition, is spurious and has been garbled and glossed by Spanish hands quite away from the original as written by Sahagun. Exactly how or when this corruption took place he does not show; but he leaves it to be inferred that it was immediately after the original manuscript had been taken from its author, and that it was done because that twelfth book, which treats more immediately of the Conquest, reflected too hardly on the Conquerors. Bustamante having procured, in a manner now to be given in his own words, a correct and genuine copy of the twelfth book, a copy written and signed by the hand of Sahagun himself, proceeded in 1840 to give it to the world under the extraordinary title of La Aparicion de Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe de Mexico, comprobada con la refutacion del argumento negativo que presenta D. Juan Bautista Muñoz, fundandose en el testimonio del P. Fr. Bernardino Sahagun; ó sea, Historia Original de este Escritor, que altera la publicada en 1829 en el equivocado concepto de ser la unica y original del dicho autor. All of which means to say that he, Bustamante, having already published in 1829-30, a complete edition of Sahagun's Historia General, in twelve books, according to the best manuscript he could then find, has found the twelfth book of that history to be not genuine, has found the genuine original of said twelfth book, and now, in 1840, publishes said genuine twelfth book under the above extraordinary name, inasmuch as it contains some reference to what is supposed to be uppermost in every religious Mexican's mind, to wit, the miraculous appearance of the Blessed Virgin to a certain native Mexican, la aparicion de nuestra Señora de Guadalupe de Mexico. Bustamante's own account of all the foregoing, being translated from the above-mentioned Nra. Señora de Guadalupe, pp. iv., viii., xxiii., runs as follows: 'As he [Sahagun] wrote with the frankness proper to truth, and as this was not pleasing to the heads of the then government, nor even to some of his brother friars, he was despoiled of his writings. These were sent to Spain, and ordered to be stored away in the archives of the convent of San Francisco de Tolosa de Navarra, so that no one should ever be able to read them; there they lay hid for more than two centuries. During the reign of Carlos iii., Señor Muñoz was commissioned to write the history of the New World. But he found himself without this work [of Sahagun's] so necessary to his purpose; and he was ignorant of its whereabouts, till, reading the index of the Biblioteca Franciscana he came to know about it, and, furnished by the government with all powers, he took it out of the said monastery. Colonel D. Diego Garcia Panes having come to Madrid at the same time, to publish the works of Señor Veytia, this gentleman contracted a friendship with Muñoz who allowed him to copy the two thick volumes in which Sahagun's work was written.... These two volumes, then, that Colonel Panes had copied, were what was held to be solely the work of Father Sahagun, and as such esteemed; still it does not appear to be proved by attestation that this was the author's original autograph history. Had it been so, the circumstance would hardly have been left without definite mention, when the relation was given of the way in which the book was got hold of, and when the guarantee of the exactness of the copy was procured. I, to-day, possess an original manuscript, written altogether and signed by the hand of Father Sahagun; in which is to be noted an essential variation in certain of the chapters which I now present, from those that I before published in the twelfth book of his Historia General; which is the book treating of the Conquest. Sahagun wrote this manuscript in the year 1585, that is to say, five years before his death, and he wrote it without doubt under a presentiment of the alterations that his work would suffer. He had already made alterations therein himself, since he confesses (they are his words) that certain defects existed in them, that certain things had been put into the narrative of that Conquest that should not have been put there, while other things were left out that should not have been omitted. Therefore [says Bustamante], this autograph manuscript discovers the alterations that his writings underwent and gives us good reason to doubt the authenticity and exactness of the text seen by Muñoz.... During the revolution of Madrid, in May, 1808, caused by the entrance of the French and the removal of the royal family to Bayonne, the office of the secretary of the Academy of History was robbed, and from it were taken various bundles of the works of Father Sahagun. These an old lawyer of the court bought, and among them one entitled: Relacion de la conquista de esta Nueva España, como la contaron los soldados indios que se hallaron presentes. Convertióse en lengua española llana é inteligible y bien enmendada en este año de 1585. Unfortunately there had only remained [of the Relacion, etc., (?)] a single volume of manuscript, which Señor D. José Gomez de la Cortina, ex-count of that title, bought, giving therefor the sum of a hundred dollars. He allowed me the use of it, and I have made an exact copy of it, adding notes for the better understanding of the Conquest; the before-mentioned being altogether written, as I have said, and signed by the hands of Father Sahagun. This portion, which the said ex-count has certified to, induces us to believe that the other works of Sahagun, relating both to the Conquest and to the Aparicion Guadalupana have been adulterated because they did little honor to the first Conquerors. That they have at all come to be discussed with posterity, has been because a knowledge of them was generally scattered, and in such a way that it was no longer possible to keep them hidden; or, perhaps, because the faction interested in their concealment had disappeared. In proof of the authenticity and identity of this manuscript, we refer to Father Betancur in his Chronicle of the province of the Santo Evangelio de México, making a catalogue of the illustrious men thereof; speaking of Sahagun, he says on page 138: "The ninth book that this writer composed was the Conquest of Mexico by Cortés; which book afterward, in the year 1585, he re-wrote and emended; the [emended] original of this I saw signed with his hand in the possession of Señor D. Juan Francisco de Montemayor, president of the Royal Audiencia, who carried it to Spain with the intention of having it printed; and of this I have a translation wherein it is said that the Marquis of Villa-Manrique, viceroy of Mexico, took from him [Sahagun] the twelve books and sent them to his majesty for the royal chronicler." Bustamante lastly gives a certificate of the authenticity of the manuscript under discussion and published by him. The certificate is signed by José Gomez de la Cortina, and runs as follows: 'Mexico, 1st April, 1840. I certify that, being in Madrid in the year 1828, I bought from D. Lorenzo Ruiz de Artieda, through the agency of my friend and companion, D. José Musso Valiente, member of the Spanish Academies of language and of history, the original manuscript of Father Sahagun, of which mention is made in this work by his Excellency Señor D. Cárlos María Bustamante, as constated by the receipts of the seller, and by other documents in my possession.' So much for Bustamante's new position as a reëditor of a part of Sahagun's Historia General; we have stated it in his own words, and in those of his own witnesses as brought forward by him. The changes referred to do not involve any matter bearing on mythology; it may be not out of place to say however, that the evidence in favor of Bustamante's new views seems strong and truth-like.
[VII-1] Acosta, Hist. Nat. Ind., pp. 353-4; Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., p. 7; Duran, Hist. Ant. de la Nueva España, MS., quoted in Squier's Notes to Palacio, Carta, note 27, pp. 117-8; Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. iii., p. 242; Explicacion del Codex Telleriano-Remensis, lam. ii. and xxvi., in Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. v., pp. 132, 144-5; Spiegazione delle Tavole del Codice Mexicano, tav. xlii., xlix., in Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. v., pp. 185, 188.
[VII-2] See this volume [p. 62].
[VII-3] Mendieta, Hist. Ecles., p. 82.
[VII-4] Temple; see this vol., [p. 192, note 26].
[VII-5] Or perhaps xipacoya, as in Kingsborough's ed. of Sahagun, Mex. Antiq., vol. vii., p. 108.
[VII-6] 'Y acordarseos há de los trabajos y fatigas de la muerte, ó de vuestra ida.' Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. vii., p. 109. 'Y acordarseos ha los trabajos y fatigas de la muerte, ó de vuestra vida.' Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. iii., pp. 245-6.
[VII-7] Hoe of burnt wood. 'Coa: palo tostado, empleado por los indios para labrar la tierra, á manera de hazada. (Lengua de Cuba.)' Voces Americanas Empleadas Por Oviedo, appended to Oviedo, Hist. Gen., tom. iv., p. 596.