rCONQUESTS OF THE IMMEDIATE SUCCESSORS OF COLUMBUS.

T'HI iS a collection of original accounts of expeditions to Ame- rica in the first half of the sixteenth century ; and hitherto ex- ceedingly little known. The first series, of which six separate works are already published, is confined to Spanish and Portu- guese America; but the plan admits of similar narratives con- cerning British and French expeditions in the New World ; and, in order to be complete, it ought to include some of the best of them. It is a collection containing information little consulted even by ROBERTSON and other good writers on America ; and it appears very opportunely, when even:old matter may be read with new views. An improved tera seems to be opening in the esta- blishment of civilized colonists among barbarous people ; and simple, genuine descriptions of former expeditions, from the par- ties eugaged in them, will do much to teach us how to avoid the errors and the crimes which have hitherto so fatally perverted the Christian's career in new countries.

The editor, M. TERNAUX-COM PANS, spent many years in Ame- rica; and being a good linguist, he translated into French some of the rarest volumes which enrich his valuable American library. The original narratives, selected for these translations, were written by Germans and Spaniards ; with the important excep- tion of one written by a Mexican Indian, and containing details, taken from original Mexican documents, concerning the court of' MONTEZUMA, at the time of CORTEZ' conquest. This last work was first printed in Mexico in 1826, from a manuscript preserved three centuries in a Mexican convent : the rest appeared in Ger- many, Spain, or Portugal, between the years 1547 and 1576. The Narrative of the First Expedition of Nic BOLAS FEDERM ANN the younger, of Ulm,* is chiefly remaikable on account of the Ger- man merchants under whom he undertook the expedition ; and of whose proceedings in America, in the sixteenth century, little has been hitherto known with accuracy even to Spanish historians.

CHARLES the Fifth borrowed large sums of money (nearly five tons of gold, it is asserted) from the great house of the Witesitas of Augsbourg; and in repayment granted them Venezuela. FE DER- MANN was sent out with a military command ; of which his nar- rative, printed at Haguenau in 1557, gives a full account, so far as relates to a first expedition. His promised narrative of a second expedition has not been found. This volume contains details of his voyage from Spain to Venezuela, by way of His- paniola, in 1529 and 1530; and of his expedition into the interior from September 1830 to March 1831. It is the work of an able, brutal soldier, who is equally unconscious of the iniquity of the cruel acts he tells of and of those he himself performs : but this cool unconsciousness guarantees the truth of his testimony to 'facts.

Of the Indians of Hispaniola he says—" It is useless to de- scribe them, for they have been conquered by the Christians forty years, and they resemble the natives of Coro (Venezuela), whom I

shall speak of hereafter. They are naked like them, and of the same colour. At present they do not possess a single village; but are all slaves of the Christians: at least the few survivors of them are; for hardly any are left. Of the half million found here forty years ago, not so many as twenty thousand are living. The 'rest are destroyed by smallpox, by the sword, by the labour of mines to which the Christians have forced them, and which so feeble a Mee could not support." (Federmann, p. 25.)

At this time, it was the practice of the Spaniards to collect

Indians from all parts for slaves ; so that the fears of the natives raised a serious obstacle to every expedition, whatever might be .the object with which it was undertaken. But the conduct of all ex- peditions of that period was as atrocious as their common pur- pose. On his way from Hispaniola to Venezuela, it was quite of course for FEDERM ANN in the night to seize any of the natives to serve him as guides, " afin d'ubtenir d'eux de gre, ou de force gulls nous conduisissent a Cow." A poor wuman was got hold of; but it turned out that the tribe was friendly, and well known to the settlement he was seeking. The expedition into the interior

furnishes many unhappy scenes in which the reckless careless-

ness of the sufferings of the natives is the predominant feeling, next to the desire to collect gold. The whole narrative takes up little more than one hundred pages ; yet so frequent are these scenes, that it is difficult to select from them one briefly enough -described for the space that can be afforded in this notice.

• Wareatien de premier Voyage de Mader Federation he krone, liaguettan, 1567; it Parisa84,

IThe " True History neid Descriptfon -of trt Netten -ef-Nektel Cannibals in the Country called America," by HANS STAMEN, an unfortunate Hessian, is a narrative of lifs captivity among a Brazilian tribe. &nuns/ was a simple man, who did not see much, in hie six years' residenee in South Amerine; but he tells what he saw; and, to silence any " giddy you* ' who may doubt his word, he kindly recommends a vi,it like leis own,-- captivity, poverty, and all : for it does not appear that early in the sixteenth century the Brazils produced much wealth to the marauding Europeans. His geographical knowledge did not carry him further than to convince him that America must bw an extensive country, at least" many hundred miles from North to South." This was written too at a time when it was a matter of notoriety, and had been stated in many books, that America els tended thousands of miles in that direction.

ULRICH SCHMID/31:S narrative of about the same period, from 1534 to 1554, is more interesting: and deserves to be consulted, as well by a student of early discovery in America generally, as in particular by a reader of the state of the Indians of Paraguay be- fore the time of the Jesuits there.

The volumes entitled " The History of Santa erns," by PERO DE MAGALHANES DE GANDAVO, and the " Commentaries" of 13.ALVAR NUNEZ DE VAC A, Governor of Rio de la Plata, abound in passages which throw light upon all the questions arising out of the collision of civilized and uncivilized people. The.Ccmimen• taries of DE VAC A are dedicated to Don C mans, the onfortnnate son of PHILIP the Second ; in order, says the writer, to' open the young intelligence of the Prince, that he might perceive how munificently God pours forth his mercies on the who lintnae race. And seeing that the newly discovered Indians, regenerated by Christian influences, begin to give signs of benefiting by princely protection, his Highness ought, he says, " to cherielswitit religious protection so many tribes whom Heaven was rencuing from the powers of Darkness." (Preface, p. 9.) Thus do. men deceive themselves. The writer meant to act justly ; ba he belongs to that extensive class who, with good words enouglisdo the most atrocious acts: and be hoped sincerely that the convets, sions he boasts of would be multiplied. His own account of his government, however, is a fatal record of violences inflicted on the aborigines without the slightest justification. and of a system that could not produce satisfactory results. Such governors are really more mischievous than many who have no character at all to clothe their iniquities with. Whilst their vices mar every thing, their virtues mask their vices enough to keep them in office.

The Governor's followers knew nothing of the country ; and, lest they should ill-treat the Indians, be forbade all intercourse with the natives on an expedition. The only individuals per- mitted to communicate with them were those who understood the native language, and who were to buy provisions. Every day the Governor himself distributed rations to the soldiers, without charge, in order that there might be no pretence for their assailing the Indians. The least irregularity, says he, was punished; so that the natives flocked to the encampments daily without fear, and the march was like a richly-provided procession. It would be difficult to find stronger terms than those in which the injunctions of the Spanish Government were expressed by this Governor for the protection and conversion of the natives. (P. 103.) But it is plain that this is the fair side of the case. Possession was taken of the country without the slightest respect to the rights of the natives; and when they resisted the invasion, they were dealt with unscrupulously as " thieves and murderers." Da VACA records, that on one occasion he made a sort of judicial process against one tribe, guilty, as he alleges, of the greatest excesses ; and having submitted the documents of the case to the priests, in presence of all the civil and military authorities, the holy men agreed unanimously, " that war must be waged upon the people with fire and sword." (11. 190.) Which advice was followed with the energy that so remarkably characterizes the Christian adventurers of the time.

The country of Rio de la Plata did not offer to the invaders the golden harvests their countrymen had gathered in Mexico and Peru : and the result of their misunderstandings with many of the tribes was, that provisions were not brought to the settlement, as was liberally done before the misconduct of the Christians alienated the natives. The Spaniards were consequently reduced

to great distress. The soldiery were on the point of disbanding themselves to seek gold ; and the officers and priests being con- sulted by Governor Inc Vecs, replied that most of the military

ought to be sent to live among the Indians, and to buy provisions for those who remain in the settlement. If the Indians should refuse to sell what was wanted, texts were cited in proof of the right to take it by force. The Governor accordingly sent out a party with the following instructions. "Captain Gonzalo de Mendoza : these are the orders you are to follow when you arrive at the villages, where you are to seek food to save our men from famine. You are to pay for these provisions, so as to satisfy the natives. You will inform the Socorinos and Sococis, that I am astonished they have not come to visit me as other tribes have done; and that their fame has reached my ears, so as to make me wish to see them. You will give them presents ; and say that they ought to come in like their neighbours, to declare their sub-

mission to the King; signifying to them, that otherwise 1 will not protect them against their enemies. In traversing the villages, you must take the greatest care to prevent your people going into the pative Mtgs.', or injuring the Indians. All your bargains must be settled so as to give no cause of complaint. You will offer to purchase what we want, in friendly terms : if they refuse

to sell their stores, you will make one or more solemn demands, distinctly offering the value. If they then refuse, you will employ force ; and if they resist by force, you will make war upon them. It is hunger that compels us to resort to this. You will perform this whole service with all the moderation that is due to the service of God and the King." (P. 377.)

The expedition failed, as was to be expected. Prone as the Indians were to be friendly to the Christians, years of oppression had completely alienated them. Nor were a few gentle words likely to instil a new spirit into the marauding soldiery whom DE VACA ruled. His government was unfortunate ; and he was sent to Spain a prisoner by the officers whom he could neither control nor reform.

These volumes prove how great a mistake ROBERTSON has fallen into in his History of America, when be states that with the solitary exception of VALYERDR, who was With PIZARRO in Peru, the Spanish priests took no part in the sanguinary violences inflicted by their countrymen upon the miserable Indians: and that whilst the laity held them to be irreclaimable savages, whom they therefore dealt with in the full spirit of that opinion, all the clergy both believed them to be most docile, and also treated them with uniformly unbounded kindness and moderation. (History of America, B. IV., Vol. 2. p. 53; and B. VI., Vol. 3. p. 136; p. 385, note xv.) The philosophic historian might have considered that the religious temper of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries made it impossible for an ecclesiastical body to feel and act as he describes ; and had he read his authorities more carefully, he would have come to another conclusion. It has been seen that the cautious Governor of Rio de la Plata, Da VACA, did not issue his atrocious orders above quoted, before he obtained the sanction of the priests, as well as of the civil officers; and he studiously in- serts this justification in his hook. And quotations might be made from FEDERMANN, among others, showing that monks did not scruple to take a decided part in the most destructive mili- tary operations in South America.

Upon comparing some portions of this work with the originals, we find the translation accurately made. Our cursory notice refers to the six volumes which have already appeared of the promised collection of M. TERNAUX ; who rationally makes its continuance depend on the public approval of the portion already printed. Each volume is judiciously sold as a separate work ; but, from the merit of those which have appeared, together with the character of a Catalogue of Books on America down to 1700, also drawn up by M. TERNAUX, few readers will be satisfied without possessing all he may publish.