them a rallying point upon the continent, then, with that skillful mixture of military law and spiritual despotism which has always constituted the phenomenon of their ascendency in the Christian world, they pushed forward their corpse-like trainbands of helpless devotees, in eager emulation for more extended explorations and "Reductions," upon the wilderness fastnesses of the north-west, in search of the sources of certain great traditionary outlets of the then boundless limits of the New World, which they meant to claim and assert as their own, since the old seemed passing so rapidly from their grasp. Gold as well as souls seemed always to have been most discreetly mingled with their aspirations for conquest in America; and the earliest delusions of gold in Acadia, which so rapidly gave way before the sterner facts of a bleak and inhospitable reality, had been kept alive by vague rumors of a mighty empire, drained by endless rivers flowing through sands of gold, which held their sources far in a mysterious interior, and had fired anew immaculate ecstaticisms which look to their final realization in a "golden city," which, either in heaven or on earth was to constitute their reward. The prodigious results of the conquests of Cortez and the Pizarros had not wanted of circulation through the right hands-but then, although the holy Order of Jesus had not been organized, its founders had not failed to participate in, and comprehend the benefits of, such acquisitions-indeed, it had been during the immediate ferment of European mind, caused by the introduction of this new and mighty element, that the crafty and sagacious intellect of Loyola projected this late and most fatal organization on this the sole predominating idea of Jesuitism--though the enmity to Protestantism was the next of course, as he saw in it the mortal antagonism of spiritual despotism!

That these apparently unselfish enterprises of the early Jes uits should have proceeded from such causes, why need we stop to argue? But it may be well that we should give a few preliminary facts as illustrating, here and there, the condition in which the early catholic conquest left Old and New Mexico. First, as showing in how much the Catholic Church proper has conserved to the preservation of the ancient literature and arts of all countries which have been conquered by Catholic

arms. This event we now quote, occurred during the reign of Charles V, of Spain, when as the dominant power of Europe, he could afford to wage single-handed war against the rest of the world-when Cortez was sending him the ravished treasures of the New World, and completing the conquest of the whole Mexican empire-when his steel-clad cohorts were led by tonsiled priests bearing the holy cross and every new scene of rapine and massacre was only consecrated by the Catholic Priests. One of their own number, Clavigero, in a formal history of the early Mexican Empire and conquest by his own friends, is compelled to relate as follows, in his zeal as an antiquarian, concerning one incident of the conquest of Yucatan :

Though games, dances, and music, conduced less to utility than pleasure, this was not the case with History and Painting: two arts which ought not to be separated in the history of Mexico, as they had no other historians than their painters, nor any other writings than their paintings to commemorate the events of the nation.

The Toltecas were the first people of the New World who employed the art of painting for the ends of history; at least we know of no other nation which did so before them. The same practice prevailed, from time immemorial, among the Acolhuas, the seven Aztecan tribes, and among all the polished nations of Anahuac. The Chechemecas and the Otomies were taught it by the Acolhuas and the Toltecas, when they deserted their savage life.

Among the paintings of the Mexicans, and all those nations, there were many which were mere portraits or images of their gods, their kings, their heroes, their animals, and their plants. With these the royal palaces of Mexico and Tezcuco both abounded. Others were historical, containing an account of particular events, such as are the first thirteen paintings of the collection of Mendoza, and that of the journey of the Aztecas, which appears in the work of the traveler Gemelli. Others were mythological, containing the mysteries of their religion. Of this kind is the volume which is preserved in the great library of the Order of Bologna. Others were codes, in which were compiled their laws, their rites, their customs, their taxes, or tributes; and such are all those of the above mentioned collection of Mendoza, from the

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fourteenth to the sixty-third. Others were chronological, astronomical, or astrological, in which was represented their calendar, the position of the stars, the changes of the moon, eclipses, and prognostications of the variations of the weather. This kind of painting was called by them Tonalamatl. Siguenza makes mention of a painting representing such like prognostications which he inserted in his Ciclographia Mexicana. Acosta relates that in the province of Yucatan, there were certain volumes, bound up according to their manner, in which the wise Indians had marked the distribution of their seasons, the knowledge of the planets, of animals, and other natural productions, and also their antiquity; things all highly curious and minutely described;' which, as the same author says, were lost by the indiscreet zeal of an ecclesiastic, who, imagining them to be full of superstitious meanings, burned them, to the great grief of the Indians, and the utmost regret of the curious among the Spaniards. Other paintings were topographical, or chorographical, which served not only to show the extent and boundaries of possessions, but likewise the situation of places, the direction of the coasts, and the course of rivers. Cortez says, in his first letter to Charles V, that having made inquiries to know if there was any secure harbor for vessels in the Mexican gulf, Montezuma presented him a painting of the whole coast, from the port of Chalchiuhcuecan, where at present Vera Cruz lies, to the river Coatzacualco. Bernal Diaz relates that Cortez also, in a long and difficult voyage which he made to the Bay of Honduras, made use of a chart which was presented to him by the lords of Coatzacualco, in which all the places and rivers were marked from the coast of Coatzacualco to Huejacallan.

The Mexican empire abounded with all those kinds of paintings; for their painters were innumerable, and there was hardly anything left unpainted. If those had been preserved, there would have been nothing wanting to the history of Mexico; but the first preachers of the gospel, suspicious that superstition was mixed with all their paintings, made a furious destruction of them. Of all those which were to be found in Tezcuco, where the chief school of painting was, they

In his work entitled, Libra Astronomica, printed in Mexico.

collected such a mass, in the square of the market, it appeared like a little mountain; to this they set fire and buried in the ashes the memory of many most interesting and curious events. The loss of those monuments of antiquity was inexpressibly afflicting to the Indians, and regretted sufficiently afterward by the authors of it, when they became sensible of their error; for they were compelled to endeavor to remedy the evil, in the first place, by obtaining information from the mouths of the Indians; secondly, by collecting all the paintings which had escaped their fury, to illustrate the history of the nation; but although they recovered many, these were not sufficient; for from that time forward, the possessors of paintings became so jealous of their preservation and concealment from the Spaniards, it has proved difficult, if not impossible to make them part with one of them."

"The History of Mexico; Collected from Spanish and Mexican Historians, from Manuscripts and ancient Paintings of the Indians, together with the Conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards; Illustrated by Engravings, with Critical Dissertations on the Land, Animals, and Inhabitants of Mexico. By Abbé D. Francesco Saverio Clavigero. Translated from the original Italian, by Charles Cullen, Esq. In three volumes. Vol. ii.

CHAPTER X.

Vandalism of the Catholic Priesthood continued in New Mexico-Antiquarian researches concerning the first Missions to New Mexico-Conquest of California-Various efforts to penetrate the mysterious gold region by the Catholic governors of California-Extermination of the Catholic Spaniards of the Conquestador-Occupation-Hidden ruins and strange Traditions-Ruins of magnificent Catholic Cities-Marvelous treasures won by Cortez from Montezuma.

CLAVIGERO'S account of the destructive proclivities of the Catholic priests who accompanied the Conquestadors under Cortez, to the dismemberment and annihilation of the nationalities of the Mexican empire, does not cover the whole ground of complaint with which universal history teems. against these rare conservators of the literature and science of the world. Nor was it to Old Mexico proper, that these vandalish ravages of savage intolerance were confined. We shall turn to New Mexico, which is nearer home, for the examples of exterminating bigotry, which surpass in enormity the wrongs of even the old empire.

The gold-craving white man seems to have been destined, according to the ancient faith of the natives of Mexico, to be its scourge and conqueror."

The

Cortez found Mexico half conquered for him by an old tradition. It was taught in their temples, and believed by the whole Indian population, that a race of white men was to come from the east to rule the natives of the land. apparition of a band of fair-complexioned men clothed in arrow-proof garments of steel, and armed with the deathdealing firebolts of heaven, sealed the truth of this immemorial prediction to the awe-struck Mexicans, and they bowed in the helpless submission of their superstitious fears, to the wonderful strangers. However this belief originated, it is See Appendix, for curious nota.