It would, however, be venturing too much to reject so important a statement merely on the grounds alleged. In order to save it, we could fairly say, that he omitted his references through carelessness. Accepting this position, let us then seek to ascertain, who his informants might have been, and chiefly inquire what they were able to tell him about the manufacture of bronze in Mexico.
The circumstances accompanying the arrival of the precious gifts from the capital at the Camp of Cortes, their shipping and unlading at Palos, and their registration at the custom-house, are perfectly known. From them we gather the following points: First, no Spaniard had yet set foot in the interior, they were still loitering on the shores of Vera Cruz, where the embassies of Motezuma made their appearance. Hence, they were still shut off from the opportunity of inspecting the workshops of Tezcuco, Mexico and Azcapotzalco, the centres from which this special class of merchandise was spread over the whole isthmus. Cortes, who had many reasons for hastening the transfer of the precious treasures to the ships, without much delay despatched one of them, intrusting two of his friends, Montejo and Puerto Carrero, with the mission of presenting to the Emperor the report of his startling discoveries and the presents coming from the new vassal-king. Petrus Martyr, indeed, mentions these two cavaliers, as being Cortes’ messengers, and it is highly probable that it was from their lips that he gathered among other correct information also that about the manufacture of paper. The special kind of paper he describes, is one which was manufactured and used exclusively on the coast of Yucatan and Vera Cruz, not the paper of the maguey-plant which grows on the high plateaus, but that of the amatl-tree, a native of the tierra caliente. Being in the very country where this kind of paper was manufactured, the Spanish writers, therefore, had the opportunity of hearing how paper was made, even, possibly, of seeing the process itself, which they had not enjoyed in the case of bronze. Could they have got the information from the mouths of the embassadors? We know they held shyly aloof. The intercourse was very ceremonious, and difficult besides, since the conversation passed through the two native languages, and we cannot fairly imagine that the technical question of manufacturing bronze should have become one of the topics of inquiry. Moreover, we do not believe that special attention would have been paid to these bronze implements, if we consider the overpowering impression which the richness and rareness of the other objects must have caused them. Finally, would they not have believed the yellow metal to be gold? since they dreamt of nothing else, and were far from imagining that the opulent ruler of Mexico would have made their Emperor a present of poor bronze tools.
We are not able to offer any conclusive evidence against the remarkable statement made by Petrus Martyr. We are fully aware how many positive proofs are required to render it totally invalid. But we deemed it to be our duty not to withhold from our readers the many grave doubts we entertain against its too ready acceptance. We have still to add, that this statement stands isolated and without support in the whole literature of the Conquest. His contemporary writers, indeed, occasionally speak of copper axes that were tempered by an alloy. None of them, however, goes so far as he, to impute to the early Mexicans the preparation of an artificial bronze, as was so manifestly implied by the words, argute temperatis.
The passages which speak about the axes used by the natives are cited below[[17]]. Three kinds are mentioned, stone, copper and bronze axes. The first of them must have been in use among such tribes as lived outside of the circle of Mexican trade and civilization, or among those which intentionally held themselves aloof. For its retention and use the complete absence of ores in certain districts may have had a decided influence, as for instance was the case with the peninsula of Yucatan.[[18]] The shape of the Yucatecan blades and that of the handle and the adjustment of both, at least as far as is shown (see cut [8]) by the pictures of the Dresden Codex, which are of genuine Yucatecan origin, appear to have been identical with those of the interior of Anahuac.
Cut 8.
Axes of Yucatan.
Among the copper and bronze axes noted below, those of Nicaragua appear to have been of an uncommonly rich alloy of gold. The reader will smile at Herrera’s account of the shrewdness shown by the native ladies in keeping for themselves the plates of pure gold they were attired with, and burdening the soldiers of Gonzales with heavy metal axes.[[19]] The axes mentioned by Gomara, undoubtedly came from the mines of Anahuac, since their alloy was not only gold, but tin and silver. Gomara is the first who notes the chisel and the borer.
Let us further ascertain, what Father Sahagun[[20]] is able to tell us about Mexican metal tools. As a teacher of the young native generation, he made it his life’s task to teach his pupils all that concerned the religious belief, the history and the industry of their forefathers. We extract from Lib. 10, Cap. 7, the following passages and translate them as literally as possible: “The goldsmith is an expert in the selection of good metal. He knows how to make of it whatever he likes and does it with skill and elegance. He is conversant with all kinds of devices, and all this he does with composure and accuracy. (Con medida y compas). He knows how to purify the ore, and makes plates of silver as well as of gold from the cast metal. He knows likewise how to make moulds of carbon (moldes de carbon), and how to put the metal into the fire in order to smelt it. The unskilful goldsmith does not know how to purify the silver, he leaves it mixed up with the ashes, and has his sly ways in taking and stealing something of the silver.” Further on in Cap. 24: “he who is a trader in needles (agujas), casts, cleans, and, polishes them well; he makes also bells (cascabeles), filters (aguijillos), punches (punzones), nails (clavos), axes (hachas), hatchets (destrales), cooper’s adzes (azuelas), and chisels (escoplos).”
In these two passages is summed up all that we sought to gather piecewise from the writers of the Conquest, on our special question. A few new features, however, are cropping out in this enumeration of implements, which give rise to the suspicion, that the goldsmith is described, not as he worked before the year 1521, but as he had perfected himself and enlarged his technical knowledge through the intervention of Spanish mechanics, in the year of Sahagun’s writing, about 1550. We mean the moulds of carbon, the nails,[[21]] and the cooper’s adze, of which we read in Sahagun exclusively, and of which no pictures or other evidences of their ante-Spanish existence have been preserved.
Pictures of needles frequently occur in the Mexican paintings. But it is understood that they are without an eye, the introduction of our sewing needle having been an actual revelation to the natives. The head of a Mexican needle, or rather pin, was full, and split like that of an animal’s bone. The borer, certainly, had no handle or spiral point. Of all these stitching, piercing and drilling instruments nothing has been preserved, in kind.