SPECTATOR'S LIBRARY.

Hamar,

,,The Despatches of Hernando Cortes, the Conqueror of Mexico, addressed to the Emperor Charles V., written during the Conquest, and containing a Narrative of its Events. Now first translated from the original Spanish, with an Introduction and Notes. By George Folsom, one of the Secretaries of the New York Historical Society, &c. &e. Wiley and Putnam.

MISCELLANEOUS IATEILATIIRE.

Letters from New York. By Maria Child, Author of " The Mother's Book," " The

Girl's Book," &c. Bentley. Pescrricst. Cmernrrns, Familiar Letters on Chemistry, and its relation to Commerce. Physiology, and Agri- culture. By Justus Liebig, M.D., Ph. D.. F.R.S., Professor of Chemistry iu the University of Giessen. Edited by John Gardner, M.D., Member of the Chemical Society Taylor and Walton.

MR. FOLSOM's TRANSLATION OF THE DESPATCHES OF CORTES.

THE first of the elaborate despatches which CORTES wrote to the Emperor CHARLES the Fifth, descriptive of his landing in Mexico and the success he had met with in receiving as vassals some neighbouring provinces, enemies to MONTEZUMA, has been lost ; perhaps because the uncertainty which hung over the expedition did not induce the Emperor to print the relation. The second letter was published at Seville, in 1522; the third in 1523, at the same town ; and the fourth at Toledo, in 1525. They were all quickly turned into Latin, and one of them into Italian. The three were subsequently translated into Italian, German, and French ; and a complete edition of the originals was published in 1770, by a Spanish ecclesiastic, LORENZANA, who had been Arch- bishop of Mexico. But no English translation appeared, till Mr. Fox.soM, a Secretary to the New York Historical Society, accom- plished the undertaking in the volume before us.

This neglect is perhaps explainable by the absence of any English interest in Mexico, and our possession of the pith of CORTES, and a good deal more, in ROBERTSON'S charming History of America : so that, but for the natural feelings of the present Americans in regard to the early history of their continent, and the laudable efforts of their historical societies, we might still have wanted the con- queror's own account of his conquest. This, in several points of view, would have been a privation. It is ridiculous to compare his narrative, as some have done, to C2ESAR'S Commentaries ; for C2ESAR, in respect to literature, may vie with the greatest of his- torians. But, without allowances for the state of education and letters in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the despatches of CORTES may rank with those of most other generals and con- querors. His style, so far as we may judge from a translation, is exceedingly simple and easy, though rather prolix ; and although telling a story extending over a long period of time, and involving many single and separate transactions, he preserves an interest in his narrative, read even at this distance, when the mysterious novelty of the country, the importance of? the facts, and the un- certainty of the result have long ceased to impart an inte- rest. Nor was CORTES merely a soldier or a politician. The geographical features and pinenomena of the country, the in- tellectual character, manners, and customs of the people, the nature of their buildings, the state of the useful arts, and the social apart from the mere political condition of society, were all observed by hint with greater or less accuracy ; an observation the more remarkable when the constant demands upon his attention are considered, surrounded as be was by open enemies, doubtful

i

allies, and traitors in his camp. Indeed, in his own narrative he is least conspicuous as a soldier ; his warlike exploits suffering in his own account of them, compared with the glowing narrative of ROBERTSON,—who drew incidents from other sources, sometimes containing particulars that CORTES could not narrate. Something, too, must be allowed to the simpleness of mind so often found in conjunction with the highest kind of genius for action, and some- thing to the fact that if a man cannot be a hero to his valet be will be still less a hero to himself. The destruction of the ships, which has furnished so many swelling periods to so many rhetoricians, is thus quietly and critically explained by the author of the exploit.

"I informed your Majesty, I believe, in my former despatch, that some of those persons that accompanied me, who had been servants and friends of Diego Velazquez, were jealous of what I had accomplished iu the service of your Highness; and even sought to create disaffection in our ranks, and com- pel me to abandon the country. The leaders in this business were four Spaniards,—namely, Juan Escudero, Diego Cermeno, a pilot, Gonzalo de tingria, also a pilot, and Alonzo Penate; who, as they voluntarily confessed, had determined to seize a brigantine then in port, put on board a large quantity, of bread and pork, and, after killing the master, to sail for the island of Fer- nandina, [Cuba,] for the purpose of informing Diego Velazquez that I had despatched a ship to your Majesty, with the names of thoi.e who had sailed in it, and the route it had taken, to enable him to send vessels in pursuit and capture it. This he afterwards attempted ; as I have been informed that he despatched a caravel after the ship, which be would bare taken if it had not passed on the outside [to the North] of Cuba, through the Bahama Channel. They also confessed that others had been desirous of sending information to Diego Velazquez. Upon their confessions, I punished the delinquents as justice, the necessity of the case, and the service of your Highness required. But, besides those who from having been the servants and friends of Velazquez wished to leave the country, there were others that entered into the same views, on beholding the great number and power of the people of the country, while the Spaniards were so few and inconsiderable. Believing, therefore, that if I had left the ships there they would mutiny, and all be induced to depart, leaving me almost alone, and by this means the great service rendered to God and your Majesty be made of no avail, I determined, under the pretext that the ships were not seaworthy, to cause them to be stranded on the coast : thus taking away all hope of leaving the country, I pursued my route with greater feelings of security, having no fears that after our backs were turned the people I had left at Vera Cruz would desert me."

The historian of America has been charged with too great leniency to the Spaniards for their cruelties to the aboriginal in- habitants : and, speaking generally, perhaps the censure is just.

With regard to CORTES, we apprehend that the reader of his letters will derive from them a higher idea of' his character than even ROBERTSON conveys. The original attack, like most other attacks of a superior upon an inferior nation, was indeed utterly indefensible. The invasion of Mexico, like our invasion of Af- ghanistan, or Scinde, or most of our other Indian wars—or for that matter, like many of the wars that have been waged in Eu-

rope—was a barefaced determination on the part of the strong to benefit themselves at the expense of the weak, without regard

to human rights or human misery ; though CORTES had a plea

which modern politicians have not, for he believed in the rights that discovery and the Pope's bull conveyed to the Spanish Crown. But,

putting the origin of the war aside, he conducted it with a politic humanity, almost unknown in that age, and not always practised in any ; overlooking offences which the fickleness of the savage charac- ter is prone continually to create, yielding willingly to excuses from opponents, or even finding them, and controlling, so far as one indi- vidual much in advance of the opinion of his age could control, the vindictive and savage spirit of his Indian allies, and the not much less bloody spirit of his Spaniards. Instances, no doubt, are continually found of terrible slaughter in action, and of a cal- lous feeling in the narrative of these slaughters ; but the spirit is common to all warriors narrating their exploits; and the numbers slain were a sort of necessity, looking at the numbers to which CORTES was opposed. Cases, too, may be adduced of deceit in his policy : but simulation and dissimulation are part of the diploma- tist's recognized tools, and they were not carried by CORTES to an unusual length. Brought to the test to which all men of action should be brought, the practice of their age, we think that HER- NANDO CORTES will not only be found to have done little which the age would not justify, but to have been often in advance of it, as well as to have been often controlled by the feelings or practices of his times in a way which no one could escape. He could not, for instance, avoid satisfying his half-mutinous followers by providing for them, according to usage, by an assignment of lands and Indians—which was, indeed, their only mode of maintaining them- selves ; but he struggled against it as much as he could, and sug- gested a method to the Emperor by which it might be obviated. Though gold was the grand object of every expedition-in the New World, and the wealth of Mexico soon became proverbial, the saga- city of CORTES seems to have jumped to the modern discovery that mines and precious metals do not enrich the countries where they are found ; for he formed plantations wherever the soil was suitable and the disposition of the inhabitants permitted it. His occasional remarks on the Indian character incidentally exhibit a rare freedom from national prejudice, that most difficult of prejudices to over- come : the letters of CORTES display a less depreciatory and caste- like feeling towards the Mexicans than C1ESAR'S Commentaries towards the Gauls.

With these feelings, and it would seem, for a soldier, a strong sense of personal humanity, CORTES had no amiable weakness or chivalrous magnanimity. His resolution shrank from no danger, and no deed either of severity or of risk. He went to Mexico for a definite end, and that end he would accomplish or perish. The orders of the Emperor himself were treated with the profound- est respect, but their " execution " was another matter ; and the Council, or rather the Council's master, set them aside as coolly as ever our Indian Government disobeyed the orders of the Di- rectors, though on the more respectful plea that the execution would not contribute to his Majesty's advantage.

A great natural genius was undoubtedly possessed by CORTES; but mere nature does not suffice to form a character like hie. In the words of CiESAR, he " knew his letters,"—meaning that the mind had been expanded by philosophy and humanized by literature. Des- tined by his family for the church, he had received a liberal and for the age a learned education. Failing in his endeavours to be em- ployed in the Italian wars, he embarked for the New World in his twentieth year; was kindly received by his kinsman, the Governor of St. Domingo ; and saw some service against the natives. Several years afterwards, he embarked in the expedition of Hum VELAS- QUEZ against Cuba : on the conquest of that island he seems soon to have abandoned the notion of hunting for gold, and settled down as a planter and merchant, besides filling various public offices, as he had previously done at St. Domingo. When, therefore, he de- parted for the conquest of Mexico at the age of thirty-four, he was not, like PIZARRO and some others, a brutal and ignorant adven- turer ; but a man of native ability, formed by education, and trained to the task he embarked in by some experience both of public and private affairs.

It has happened to CORTES, as to many others, that his public character has suffered more from his conduct towards individuals than towards numbers,—the torture of GuAristormst and his nobles, to enforce the discovery of treasures ; the alleged ingratitude to- wards DIEGO VIILASQUEZ, in placing himself at the bead of the expedition which DIEGO had fitted out, thus robbing him of the profit if not of the glory ; and his execution of GUATIMOTZIN and other noble Indians, for alleged conspiracies or open resistance. To the first charge no defence can be offered : a lust of wealth, not sordid but rapacious, stained the character of CORTES, dragged him down to the level of adventurers he led, and infected him with the cruelty of his nation. As regards his ingratitude to VsLaa- QUEZ, we think Mr. Forsora's defence in his excellent Intro- duction is sufficient,—that the expedition was chiefly undertaken by the means and credit of CORTES, VELASQUEZ trying to back out of the expenses and retain the profits and credit - that be would have prevented the sailing of CORTES if he could, and when he had sailed did all in his power to destroy him. The execution of many Mexican chiefs, and especially of the heroic GUATIMOTZIN, is the crime that has stamped his memory with the greatest odium, and was remarked upon even by Spaniards of his own age, accustomed as they were to the practice of all kinds of atrocities. Yet, though the act itself justifies any censure that may be passed upon it, there is some doubt whether a defence does not exist as regards the character of CORTES. He assumes all along that the Mexicans were vassals of the Spanish crown under the Papal grant, never connecting the name of MONTEZUMA with a title of sovereignty ; and after the formal submission of the latter, this vassalage received a legal ratification in the notions of CORTES. He did not, however, abuse the rights of conquest, but at first received GUATIMOTZIN with favour ; nor was it till con- spiracies took place in which the dethroned Emperor was impli- cated, or of which he was the object, that CoarEs executed him : a deed, like some other executions of the conqueror, investing its object with the halo of martyrdom, but prompted by a sterner ne- cessity than that which caused the military slaughter of DUMNORIX by CasAR, the assassination of D'ENGHIEN by NAPOLEON, the formal murder of CARACGIOLI by NELSON, or the tacit connivance of WELLINGTON at the taking off of NEY ; no necessity, or pretence of necessity existing for the two latter deeds of blood.

By a critical design, or more probably by the nature cf the subject, the letters of CORTES embrace three large epochs. The first letter, dated the 30th October 1520, narrates his first success and failure,—the advance to Mexico ; the quiet sub- mission of MONTEZUMA as a vassal to CHARLES ; the descrip- tion of the city ; and the means adopted by CORTES to explore the country and uphold his success, until the arrival of NAR- VAR; the tool of DIEGO VELASQUEZ, representing CORTES as an unauthorized adventurer to the Mexicans, compelled him to quit the capital, and caused the outbreak which finally ended in the disasters of "la noche triste," and the expulsion of the Spaniards from the city. The second letter is dated the 15th May 1522 ; and contains the account of CORTES'S second advance upon the capital, the preparations and preliminary operations for the siege, with the long assault and final capture of Mexico, and the overthrow of its dynasty. The third letter, dated 15th October 1524, is occupied with a detail of the writer's proceedings in settling and extending his conquest, making discoveries, and sup- pressing disputes among his own people. Comparing the length of these letters with ROBERTSON'S history of the conquest of Mexico, it is not likely that they will ever be generally read ; for few will consult an original document, of neces- sity incomplete, when they can at perhaps a less expense of time, peruse a comprehensive and finished account. The De- spatches of Hernando Cortes will occupy a shelf in every library of character; but it will rarely be disturbed, except by the student, or the inquirer into particular points, respecting which he will attain a clearer view by perusing an original narrator than he can from a second-band narrative however able. In the one case, be must have a judgment, or at the best a statement ; in the other, he has the evidence itself.

One of these points is the comparative civilization of the Mex- icans ; whose advance has been affirmed by some and denied by others—the affirmatives exceeding in number, the sceptics in weight. Here is CORTES'S description of the traffic of the capital; a topic on which mistake or exaggeration was less probable than in judg- ments upon the arts, though it was the writer's cue to exalt the civilization of the people to enhance the importance of the country.

MEXICO AT THE ARRIVAL OF THE SPANIARDS.

This city has many public squares, in which are situated the markets and other places for buying and selling. There is one square twice as large as that of the city of Salamanca, surrounded by porticoes, where are daily assembled more than sixty thousand souls, engaged in buying and selling ; and where are found all kinds of merchandise that the world affords, embracing the neces- saries of life, as for instance articles of food, as well as jewels of gold and silver, lead, brass, copper, tin, precious stones, bones, shells, snails, and feathers. There are also exposed for sale wrought and nnwrought stone, bricks burnt and unburnt, timber hewn and unbewn, of different sorts. There is a street for game, where every variety of birds found in the country are sold, as fowls, partridges, quails, wild-ducks, 9y-catchers, widgeons, turtle-doves, pigeons, reed-birds, parrots, sparrows, eagles, hawks, owls, and kestrels ; they sell like- wise the skins of sonic birds of prey, with their feathers, head, beak, and claws. There are also sold rabbits, hares, deer, and little dogs, which are raised for eating and castrated. There is also an herb street, where may be obtained all sorts of roots and medicinal herbs that the country affords. There are apothe- caries' shops, where prepared medicines, liquids, ointments, and plasters are sold ; barbers' shops, where they wash and shave the head; and restaurateurs, that furnish food and drink at a certain price. There is also a class of men like those called in Castile porters, for carrying burdens. Wood and coals are seen in abundance, and brasiers of earthenware for burning coals: mats of various kinds for beds, others of a lighter sort for seats, and for halls and bed- rooms. There are all kinds of green vegetables, especially onions, leeks, garlic, water-creases, nasturtium, borage, surd, artichokes, and golden thistles; fruits also of numerous descriptions, among which are cherries and plums, similar to those in Spain ; honey and wax from bees, and from the stalks of maize, which are as sweet as the sugar-cane ; honey is also extracted from the plant called maguey, which is superior to.sweet or new wine ; from the same plant they extract sugar and wine which they also sell. Different kinds of cotton threads of all colours in skeins are exposed for sale in one quarter of the market, which has the appearance of the silk-market at Granada, although the former is supplied more abundantly. Painters colours, as numerous as can be found in Spain, and as fine shades; deer-skins dressed and undressed, dyed different colours; earthenware of a large size and excellent quality ; large and small jars, jugs, pots, bricks, and an endless variety of vessels, all made of fine clay, and all or most of them glazed and painted; maize, or Indian corn, in the grain and in the form of bread, preferred in the grain for its flavour to that of the other islands and terra-firma; pates of birds and fish; great quantities of fish, fresh, salt, cooked, and uncooked; the eggs of hens, geese, and of all the other birds I have mentioned, in great abundance, and cakes made of eggs. Finally, every thing that can be found throughout the whole country is sold in the markets, comprising articles so numerous, that to avoid prolixity, and because their names are not retained in my memory or are unknown to me, I shall not attempt to enumerate them. Every kind of merchandise is sold in a par. ticular street or quarter assigned to it exclusively, and thus the best order is preserved. They sell every thing by number or measure; at least so far we have not observed them to sell any thing by weight. There is a building in the great square that is used as an audience-house, where ten or twelve persons, who are magistrates, sit and decide all controversies that arise in the market, and order delinquents to be punished. In the same square there are other persons who go constantly about among the people observing what is sold, and the measures used in selling; and they have been seen to break measures that were not true.

The late discoveries of STEPHENS in Yucatan have revived the interest attached to the subject of the religious buildings of the Mexicans ; of which CORTES gives this account as regards the capital.

MEXICAN TEMPLES.

This great city contains a large number of temples, or houses for their idols, very handsome edifices, which are situated in the different districts and the suburbs : in the principal ones religious persons of each particular sect are con• stantly residing, for whose use, beside the houses containing the idols, there are other convenient habitations. All these persons dress in black, and never cut or comb their hair from the time they enter the priesthood until they leave it ; and all the sons of the principal inhabitants, both nobles and respectable citi- zens, are placed in the temples and wear the same dress from the age of seven or eight years until they are taken out to be married; which occurs more fre- quently with the first-born, who inherit estates, than with the others. The priests are debarred from female society. nor is any woman permitted to enter the religious houses. They also abstain from eating certain kinds of food, more at some seasons of the year than others. Among these temples there is one which far surpasses all the rest, whose grandeur of architectural details no human tongue is able to describe; fur within its precincts, surrounded by a lofty wall, there is room enough for a town of five hundred eamilies. Around the interior of this enclosure there are handsome edifices, containing large halls and corridors, in which the religious persons attached to the temple reside. There are full forty towers, which are lofty and well built, the largest of which has fifty steps leading to its main body, and is higher than the tower of the prin- cipal church at Seville. The stone and wood of which they are constructed are so well wrought in every part, that nothing could be better done; for the interior of the chapels containing the idols consists of curious imagery, wrought in stone, with plaster ceilings, and wood-work carved in relief, and painted with figures of monsters and other objects. All these towers are the bunal-places of the nobles; and every chapel in them is dedicated to a particular idol, to which

they pay their devotions. •

The figures of the idols in which these people believe surpass in stature a person of more than the ordinary size : some of them are composed of a mass of seeds and leguminous plants, such as are used for food, ground and mixed to- gether, and kneaded with the blood of human hearts taken from the breasts of living persons, from which a paste is formed in a sufficient quantity to form large statues. When these are completed, they make them offerings of the hearts of other victims, 'which they sacrifice to them, and besmear their faces with the blood. For every thing they have an idol, consecrated by the use of the nations that in ancient times honoured the same gods. Thus they have an idol that they petition for victory in war ; another for success in their labour"; and so for every thing in which they seek or desire prosperity, they have their idols, which they honour and serve. •

The attack upon the city, like other warlike matters, will be read with more effect in the pages of the Scotch divine than of the Spanish soldier ; but we will take a passage from the closing scenes, indicative of the determination of the Mexicans to avert their over- throw as a nation.

THE DESTRUCTION OF ANCIENT MEXICO.

More than five hours had been spent in these conferences; during which time many of the inhabitants were crowded together upon piles of the dead, some were on the water, and others were seen swimming about or drowning in the pert of the lake where the canoes were lying, which was of considerable extent. indeed, so excessive were the sufferings of the people, that no one could imagine how they were able to sustain sufferings ; and an immense multitude of men, women, and children, were compelled to seek refuge with us; many of whom, in their eagerness to reach us, threw themselves into the water, and were drowned among the mass of dead bodies. It appeared that the number of persons who had perished, either from drinking salt water, from famine or pes- tilence, amounted altogether to more than fifty thousand souls. In order to conceal their necessitous condition from our knowledge, the bodies of the dead were not thrown into the water, lest the brigantines should come in contact with them ; nor were they taken away from the places where they had died, lest we should see them about the city. But in those streets where they had perished, we found heaps of dead bodies so frequent, that a person passing could not avoid stepping on them ; and when the people of the city flocked towards us, I caused Spaniards to be stationed through all the streets, to prevent our allies from destroying the wretched persons who came out in such multitudes. I also charged the captains of our allies to forbid, by all means in their power, the slaughter of these fugitives: yet all my precautions were insufficient to prevent it, and that day more than fifteen thousand lost their lives. At the same time, the better classes and the warriors of the city were pent up within narrow limits, confined to a few terraces and houses, or sought refuge on the water: but no concealment prevented our seeing their miserable condition and weakness with sufficient clearness. As the evening approached, and no signs of their surrender appeared, I ordered the two pieces of ordnance to be levelled towards the enemy, to try their effect in causing them to yield: but they suf- fered greater injury when full licence was given to the allies to attack them than from the cannon, although the latter did them some mischief. As this was of little avail, I ordered the musketry to be fired, when a certain angular space where they were crowded together was gained, and some of the people thrown into the water ; those that remained there yielded themselves prisoners without a struggle. In the mean time, the brigantines suddenly entered that part of the lake, and broke through the midst of the fleet of canoes; the war- riors who were in them not daring to make any resistance. It pleased God, that the captain of a brigantine, named Garci Holguin, came up behind a canoe in which there seemed to be persons of distinction ' • and when the archers who were stationed in the bow of the brigantine took aim at those in the canoe, they made a signal that the cacique was there, that the men might not dis- charge their arrows: instantly our people leaped into the canoe, and seized in it Guautimucin, and the Lord of Tacuba, together with other distinguished persons that accompanied the Cacique. Immediately after this occurrence, Garci Holguin, the captain, delivered to me on a terrace adjoining the lake, where I was standing, the Cacique of the city, with other noble prisoners; who, as I bade him sit down, without showing any asperity of manner, came up to me, and said in his own tongue, "That be hail done all that was incumbent on him in defence of himself and his people, until he was reduced to his present condition ; that now I might do with him as I pleased." Be then laid his hand on a poniard that I wore, telling me to strike him to the heart. I spoke encouragingly to him, and bade hirnhave no fears. Thus, the Cacique being taken a prisoner, the war ceased at this point ; which it pleased God our Lord to bring to a conclusion on Tuesday, St. Ilippolytus' day, the thirteenth of August 1521.