BOOKS.
FANCOURT'S HISTORY OF YUCATAN..
THIS work exhibits considerable ability, with painstaking industry and extensive research, directed to a subject of little general interest. The subject, moreover, is treated on too full a scale, at least in the present volume, which is confined to the discovery, conquest, and settlement of Yucatan. As Superintendent of our settlements in the Bay of Honduras, Mr. Fancourt feels a natural interest in the adjoining region, which the public at large cannot entertain ; for, except its antiquities, which the historian as yet scarcely touches upon, they know nothing of the country beyond its having been a province of Mexico, before it attempted to set up for itself. Neither has Yucatan much of interest in its asso- ciations—of result in its past or of promise in its future. And something of one or of both these things is requisite to impart attraction to history. The world is rather an exacting world, and critical too, as Moliere's M. Jourdain spoke prose. Hard- ship, privation, adventure, attract in a book of personal tra- vel; but let the very same things be transferred in detail to a his- tory, and they cease to sustain the attention. This is in conform- ity to the rule of fitness. History, like epic, deals with large matters—the foundation or fortunes of States, the characters and actions of kings and heroes. The followers of Columbus, the imi- tators of Cortez and Pizarro, might exhibit as much courage and pertinacity, and undergo even greater hardships ; but their discover- ies were small, and must of necessity have been made by some- body., while in other respects they failed. We do not know that much could have been done with the subject of Yucatan by any mode of treatment ; but a geographical memoir might have been an effective way of exhibiting the curious matter that is really connected with its early story. Yucatan is the peninsula forming the South side of the Gulf of Mexico, lying between the 15th and 22d degrees of North latitude and the 86th and 93d degrees of West longitude. It is for the most part a flat country, without mineral riles ; and, from a de- ficiency of water in many parts, it cannot be called very fertile. It is said to have been discovered by Columbus ; but, though Co- lumbus anchored at an island in the bay and visited the coast of Honduras, it is doubtful whether he even saw Yucatan. When, after the failure of his lieutenants by sea, Cortez set out by land to subdue his insurgent officer Christoval de Olid, who had set up for himself in Honduras, the force crossed the root of the penin- sula, making one of the most extraordinary marches ever made through obstacle i opposed to individual and much more to military advance. The country was unknown; forests, rivers, mountains, perpetually intervened ; Cortez was accompanied by doubtful friends, surrounded by open or secret enemies, dependent upon thinly-inhabited districts for provisions, which sometimes nearly failed him altogether. Yet neither material nor mortal difficulties shook the determination of the great adventurer ; who arrived to find his rebellious officer dead, and the soldiery only too happy to hail the appearance of the Conquistador : but with a more nume- rous force or a less hardy band the march would have been impos-
sible.
The other enterprises connected with Yucatan were of little moment. As long as gold was hoped for, successive expeditions were undertaken, which mostly ended in the ruin or death of many concerned in them. Still the country was partially ex- plored, conquered, and settled; the missionary spirit stimulating the flagging hopes of treasure-seekers. Two centuries, however, had nearly expired before the interior of the country was subdued or even discovered, and then only by cutting a road through it ; one expedition starting from Campeachy on the North-western coast of Yucatan, another from Guatemala on the mainland. Probably more interest would have been given to the subject as a history had the author made his narrative illustrative of the topics which it contained, instead of a story of separate enterprises, which ended in failure or small successes, since the march of Cortez was a mere episode. As there were no precious metals to give power and fame to the conquerors, as in Mexico and Peru, and no great fer- tility of soil or docile Indians to work it, as in some of the islands, the colonial system of Spain, and the principle on which the Span- ish Church attempted the conversion of the natives, admit of a purer display in Yucatan than in almost any of the other Spanish colonies. The method of the Court was that of making a liberal grant of the bear's skin when the adventurers could succeed in catching the bear.
"It was in the year 1526, that, 'being in Madrid, Francisco de Montejo Bolicited the Government of Yucatan, in order to conquer and pacificate that country ' ; and, in consideration of the services he had rendered, both under Grijalva and Cortea, the Emperor, in granting his request, conferred upon • The History of Yucatan, from its Discovery to the Close of the Seventeenth Century. By Charles St. John Fancourt, Esq., recently H. M. Superintendent of the British Settkments in the Bay of Honduras. With a Map. Published by Murray. him the title of Don, with an honourable augmentation to his arms. The commission was accompanied by a • capitulacion ' from the Emperor, con- taining very ample instructions for his conduct in his new office; and the officers under him were Alonso Davila, as royal accountant, Pedro de Lima as treasurer, and Hernando Moreno de Quito, as overseer of the works, though,' says C,ogolludo, 'this last office was not necessary, there being no mines in that kingdom?: The chief features of the capitulacion,' which is dated December 8, 1626, were these—That Don Francisco de Montejo should have licence and power to conquer and people the islands of Yucatan and Cozumel at his own cost, and should erect two fortresses in them at the moat convenient place. That he should set out within one year from the date of the instrument, and retain the office of Governor and Captain-General for life, as well as that of Adelantado, which latter office, on his death, should descend to his heirs and successors for ever. Ten square leagues of land, and four per cent of all the profit or advantage to be derived from all the lands discovered and peopled, were to be given to himself, his heirs and successors for ever. Those who should join the expedition under him were for the first three years to pay only the tenth part of the gold of the mines, the fourth year a ninth part, and the percentage should go on increasing till it reached a fifth part. They should be exempted from export-duty upon the articles they carried with them, provided they were not taken for barter or sale. They were to be allowed portions of land, and, after living on them four years • complete, were to be at liberty to sell them and use them as their own; also to take rebellious Indians for slaves, and to take and buy Indians held by the caciques as slaves under the regulations of the Council of the Indies. The tithes or tenth-parts were granted to be expended in churches and orna- ments, and things necessary for divine worship. It was also provided that no lawyers or attornies should go into those lands from Spain, nor from any other part, on account of the litigation and controversies that would follow them.
"On account of the fame of these expeditions, many flocked to the standard of Montejo; whose expenses in purchasing arms, ammunition, horses, and vessels, were very great ; insomuch that he was obliged to sell his hereditary property, which brought him in an income of a thousand ducats. With the money which he thus raised he fitted out four vessels, and early in 1527 em- barked with about four hundred troops, exclusive of sailors, and set sail from Spain for the conquest of Yucatan. The only ecclesiastic who accompanied the Adelantado was Francisco Hernandez, the chaplain to the expedition ; a circumstance which was afterwards the occasion of much anxiety to the Council of the Indies, who ascribed the ill-success which at first attended the enterprise to the absence of a sufficient number of ecclesiastics, for whom provision had been expressly made in the royal capitulacion: "
The conversion of the Indians, like the other conversions of savages by the Romish Church, was of a very superficial and cere- monial kind. Submission to baptism, attendance at the gorgeous ceremonies of the Church, and the substitution of pilgrimages to a Romish saint for journies to the shrine of a savage idol, measured the extent of their new religion. The missionaries, however, were devout and pious men according to their light; and Yucatan offers a striking contrast to the treachery and cruelty perpetrated in other places under the pretence of Christianity. Into this expo- sition we are not going to enter ; but we may remark, hat the nature of the country and the resolute character of the Indians might have something to do with the frequent mildness of the military chiefs. They were often baffled, and sometimes had to withdraw by stratagem.
"Montejo's resolve [to withdraw from a district] appears to have been the consequence of a battle fought near Chichen-Itzi, the capital of the province of that name, in which the Spaniards lost no less than a hundred and fifty men. His army was reduced by numerous losses; the supplies which he had brought from Spain were still in his vessels on the coast ; there were no practicable roads for transit, and a hostile population surrounded him on every side. He therefore, after a long but ineffectual struggle, relinquished all hope of subjugating the country with the force which still remained at his command, and the word was given to return to the coast : but to accom- plish this object, it was necessary to employ stratagem, and the device which Montejo hit upon was as amusing as it was effectual. "Having noticed that the Indians encamped before Chiehen-Itzfi were careless on their watch, he caused a hungry dog to be tied to the tongue of a large bell, and food to be placed at a distance which the hound could not reach. Having reconnoitred the position of the enemy, tho Spaniards silently left the town, directing their march to the North, in order to reach the sea. When the dog saw them depart he strove to follow them, and his motion rang the bell; every time he tried to reach his food he renewed the ringing, and thus throughout the Indians were deceived, believing that the Spaniards still occupied the town, and that the sound of the bell was a proof of their being on the alert. The Spaniards were by this artifice enabled to reach the coast in safety, and it was not for some hours that the Indians discovered the nature of the trick that had been played them. Finding, how- ever, that the bell-ringing continued after the morning came, they advanced upon the town, and found that the whole of the Spaniards had disappeared. It was not difficult to track their march, and before Montejo's force reached the coast the Indians came up with them and endeavoured to provoke a battle. They did not venture to attack the retreating foe, who held them- selves in good order to receive the assault, but sought by gestures of defiance and injurious language to induce the Spaniards to lay aside their defensive attitude. This the prudence of Montejo and his son, a cavalier of rising merit, would not permit ; and the Indians finally withdrew, with the sole satisfaction of knowing that the invaders had left the Eastern shores of Yu- catan."
The present volume comes down to the close of the seventeenth century, and is complete in itself. The author intends to follow up the story to the present time, should he meet with sufficient encouragement. This period will have more interest for the Eng- lish render; involving the story of our own settlements in Hon- duras, and the quarrels to which they gave rise, as well as per- raitting pictures of the settlement and growth of our stations
during a period when public morality, lax enough upon most points, was most particularly lax about Spanish Colonies.
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