122 G. F. Ruxton, Esq., on the Migration 



outward form of ceremonies which bear resemblance to each 

 other. 



The mind of the savage, however rude and uncultivated, 

 seeks to account for natural phenomena by properly attribut- 

 ing to a Superior and Omnipotent Being the work his senses 

 assure him could not be effected by mortal hands. 



Feeling towards this mysterious power either most abject 

 dread or unlimited adoration and love, he worships him in 

 the form which, according to his notions, will be most agree- 

 able to the Deity ; and whether in the costly sacrifices of the 

 ancient Mosaic creed, the ostentatious forms of Christian 

 worship, or in the humble votive offering of the primitive 

 savage, who blows to the Great Spirit the (to him) costly of- 

 fering of the first exhalation of the fragrant tobacco, the 

 spirit of the rite is still the same. 



But who would argue from this that the Choctaw, who 

 off^ers the first puff of his kinnik-kinnik as a sacrifice to the 

 " Great Spirit,'' is descended from the followers of Moses, 

 who rendered up the costly burnt-offerings of their rams and 

 goats, and oxen. 



The holy fathers, however, who first visited Mexico, went 

 beyond this, and recognised in certain rites of Indian ido- 

 latry, an analogy to the sacraments of baptism and the 

 holy Eucharist. The cross, the sacred emblem of their faith, 

 was also beheld, according to these devout men (who were 

 so strong in faith as to see what otherwise was denied to 

 common sight), raised in the heathen temples of the Aztec, 

 and worshipped with as much zeal as in the churches of their 

 own land ; such crosses having, in fact, been erected by the 

 early Spanish conquerors, who left in their path the holy em- 

 blem, as an authority and warrant for the deeds of bloodshed 

 and rapine which everywhere marked their progress on the 

 soil of Mexico. 



Indeed the accounts of the Monkish historians of the Con- 

 quest, as well as of the other Spaniards who have written 

 upon Mexican history, if not entirely fabulous, must yet be 

 received with caution and distrust, and inno case reliable as 

 authority. The Pueblo Indians, who are the original inha- 

 bitants of New Mexico, are the most industrious portion of 



