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lated by the conquerors." "He (Cortez) was compelled to demolish and level with the ground every house as he took it, and five thousand Indian workmen followed close to his soldiers to complete the work of destruction. The foundations of the present city are razed and stand on the ruins of the old."

"It was the wish of the Spaniards not to leave a trace of former greatness, or a recollection of the people they had destroyed, and they completely succeeded in their object. Where are the slightest traces of their ancient magnificent city but in the accounts of early writers? It is well known that a map of it was made for Cortez by order of Montezuma, &c. and chance brought it to light-it was purchased and brought to England by his majesty's ship Phaeton, by myself. It is only a fragment, but the world will learn from it that ancient Mexico was double the size of the present city; that it equalled it in the regularity, and excelled it in the number and size of its palaces and temples, and the account given by Cortez to his sovereign, as well as that of Bernal Diaz, will no longer be doubted."

The modern Mexicans,' observes the Abbe Clavegero, 'are as unlike the ancient, as the Greeks of these days are to those who lived in the days of Plato and Pericles. The ancient Mexicans had more fire and were more sensible of impressions of honour.'

'Monsieur Du Paix, speaking of the monuments of antiquity which he discovered, having been sent for that purpose by his Majesty in the year 1805, describes, among other valuable remains, his visit to Teo-pantepec, which signifies the House of God on the hill, where, upon an eminence, or isolated mount, close to others of greater elevation to the west, there is a pyramid with a quadrangular base: it consists of four stories, which regularly diminish in

size; of the highest arena, nothing now remains-this oratory, the style of which is Egyptian, is built of lime and stone and is a solid structure, its extreme surface was coated with square stones, when I had the opportunity of observing it some years ago, which at present is quite a ruin,' &c. It is to be regretted that when we consider the state of these ancient monuments, that that which neither the lapse of time, nor of revolving ages, nor the branches and roots of large trees growing amongst them, insinuating themselves between the interstices of the stones and in a manner separating them, could effect-indiscreet zeal on the one hand, and on the other the greediness of the occupants of the soil, eager to gain possession of the materials, should have been able to accomplish, which seem to have conspired to dismantle and destroy works certainly worthy of lasting preservation and calculated to throw light on the state of the arts among the Mexicans."-p. 423.

Du Paix continues, "it will readily be conceived that in attempting to describe and explain these interesting monuments of antiquity, I must labour under great difficulty, on account of the originality and peculiarity of the style of the Mexican school, which superficial inquirers have spoken of with ill-placed contempt. But I shall not on this account be deterred from endeavouring to rescue them from the oblivion in which they have been shrouded by the lapse of ages, and to exhibit them to the intelligent examination of the lovers of antiquity. In connection which this subject, I will here state my opinion of the real cause of the ignorance and remarkable diversity of sentiment existing among the Indians, as to the etymology and the signification of the ancient names of their towns, and various remains of antiquity, which for the most part were significatory and illustrative of History. The cause of this confusion is most pro

bably to be traced to the mixture by marriage and otherwise, of their various tribes, as well as to the establishment of schools for instruction in the Castilian language. Those causes are sufficient to account for the corruptions of the original tongue, and the change of words and family names peculiar to it." p. 432.

"The monuments of this nation, (which from its antiquity, language, and its cultivation of the arts, might rank amongst the most renowned of former times,) will meet the same, perhaps a more speedy fate. The consuming hand of time removing even the bases of its pyramids, its temples, its sepulchres and palaces, threatens their approaching and total extinction; the broken statues and sculptured stones will crumble away, and thus all the monuments of Mexican grandeur and greatness will be a chaotic heap of ruins."

MONTEZUMA.

Montezuma is peculiarly interesting, as that monarch with whom the calamitous events of the Spanish invasion were immediately connected. He is represented by Clavegero and other historians as having been 'grave, religious, and taciturn. He united the offices of king and priest; and when the nobility went to inform him that he was elected, (a choice which he could not have expected, he having been the youngest of several brothers) they found him sweeping the pavement of the Temple.'

'After having been conducted to the palace and seated on the throne, he was addressed by the king of Acolhuacan : his virtues were eulogized, and the love of the omnipotent God was declared to be evinced in so happy a choice. Montezuma heard the address with much attention, and

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was so greatly affected, that thrice he essayed in vain to reply, being interrupted by tears. At length checking his emotion, he with great bumility expressed his unworthiness of such exaltation, and offering his thanks to the king, he returned to the Temple to pass four days fasting. At the end of that period he was conducted in royal state to the palace.'1—Claveg. Histor. Research. pp. 313, 14.

The Mexicans by many unwonted and reiterated signs and prodigies, had been forewarned of some extraordinary event, which from the character of these presages they deemed calamitous. These subjects of direful foreboding continued thoughout the empire during three years before the arrival of the invaders. "These sinister presages continued till 1509, when there was seen, according to the Le Tellier Ms. during forty nights and days, a vivid light towards the east which seemed to arise from the ground, and which," adds the narrator, "perhaps was the zodiacal light, the splendour of which is very great.”—Antiq. Mex. vol. vi. p. 178.

"The Letters of Cortez to Charles v. fully prove, that about the time when the Spaniards first arrived in America, the expectation was very general of the re-appearance of Quetzalcoatl, and for many years afterwards. So difficult is it," adds the commentator, "to root out ancient prejudices, since the mere report of his having come to redeem them induced the Capotecas to revolt in 1550, a most striking proof of the firmness of their faith."

The expectation in itself was one of great joy; but there could not fail to have been much perplexity in the minds of Montezuma and his councillors as to the identity of the subject of their expectation. On the year of one cane' they expected their Messiah, and on the year of that sign

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1 For a description of the state of Montezuma, see Appendix.

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Cortez happened to arrive. On consulting the oracle in the Temple, Montezuma was admonished not to receive these new visitors. Whether,' adds the Abbe, this oracle was the devil, as some authors are 'persuaded, who delivered it in order to keep every path shut to the gospel, or as some others have apprehended, from the priests for the common benefit of themselves and their people, Montezuma resolved from that time to refuse admission to the Spaniards; but that he might appear to act with dignity, and to follow the dictates of his own mind, he sent an embassy to them with a present entirely worthy of his royal munificence.'Clavegero.

It appears that before the fatal arrival a Spanish vessel in which was the brother of Cortez, touched on the Mexican coast, but as the advanced state of the season did not admit of effecting a landing, they intimated to some Indians who were always stationed on the coast that they were proceeding at that time to their own country, but would return speedily to visit their king; whom meanwhile they were to apprise of this intention. The Indians who had this intelligence came in haste to Mexico, and requested an immediate interview with the Monarch, to whom their arrival

1 "Some viewed the rapid progress of the Spanish arms, as the necessary consequence of the general commotion into which the empire was thrown by the rumour everywhere circulated that the Messiah had come to take possession of His kingdom."-Antiq. Mex. Vol. vi.

Torquemeda, in the Antiq. of Mexico, observes, "On every symptom and demonstration of a change or rumour of any novelty, they immediately thought it was He: and when they received the intelligence which we have mentioned, and further heard that the Spaniards had arrived in the quarter where He had disappeared, and that they had come in large ships through the midst of so vast and dangerous an ocean, they felt convinced that it was He, and could be no one else; and for this reason they were still more vigilant in watching His return; placing sentinels to keep a look-out for him towards the sea-not for three days only during every month in the year, like the sages of the east, but night and day the entire year round; at the expiration of which period, Juan de Grizalva, having sailed to Cuba, and the expedition of F. Cortez by the same route being in consequence on his return, it necessarily followed that the Indians saw his ships, and in obedience to the commands of their king, proceeded post to carry him the intelligence, taking with them paintings," &c.

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