MEXICO. 



195 



Mexico, prince resisted with invincible fortitude all the cruelty 

 T ' of bi tormentors, but his fellow-sufferer expired under 

 the violence of the anguish ; and Cortes, at lenpth 

 ashamed of such barbarous proceedings, rescued the 

 royal victim from the hands of his persecutors. The 

 provinces *f Mexico, after the fall of the capital, sub- 

 mitted to the conquerors without farther resistance; 

 and small detachments of Spaniards marched without 

 interruption in different directions to the shores of the 

 Great Southern Ocean. 



Eren before any legal authority could be transmit- 

 ted from the Spanish court, Cortes proceeded to exer- 

 cise all the powers of a viceroy ; and endeavoured, by 

 various arrangements, to secure and improve the con- 

 quest which he had achieved. Having determined to 

 establish the seat of government in its ancient station, 

 he began to rebuild the ruined capital on a more exten- 

 sive and magnificent plan. He employed skilful person* 

 to search for mines, and encouraged his principal offi- 

 cers, by Urge grants of land and other privileges, to 

 settle in the remote provinces. The natives, at times 

 rendered desperate by their oppressions, ran to arms 

 for the recovery of their liberties, but were uniformly 

 overpowered by European discipline and valour. 

 These efforts to regain their independence only served 

 to aggravate their sufferings ; and after every insurrec- 

 tion (which the Spaniard* affected to consider as re- 

 bellion against a lawful sovereign,) the leaders were 

 put to death by the most excruciating torment*, while 

 the common people were reduced to the state of per- 

 sonal servitude. In the country of I'.muco, sixty ca- 

 cique* and 400 noble* were burnt at one time ; and 

 Che families and relative* of the wretched victims were 

 om pel led to be spectator* of their dying agonies. 1'he 

 captive prince Guatimoxin, upon a slight suspicion of 

 having devised plot for shaking off the yoke, was 

 ordered, without even the formality of a trial, toge- 

 ther with two of the most distinguished chiefs of the 

 empire, to be publicly hanged ; and these act* of bar- 

 barity, coolly committed by Cortes and Sandoral, were 

 readily imiuted by person* of subordinate ranks in the 

 perpetration of still greater excesses. The miserable 

 Indian* were every where dragged away to search in 

 the rivers and torrent* for the precious metal* ; but 

 k doe* not appear that their avaricious oppressors pro- 

 fted greatly by their labours, and the early historian* 

 f America abound with accounts of the hardship* and 

 poverty of it* conquerors. It was not till SO year* 

 after the conquest, that the richer mine* of New 

 Spain were discovered ; and that, under a more or- 

 derly government, more gainful researches were prose- 

 MM. 



Besides being dragged from their homes to labour in 

 the mines, a great number of Indians were obliged to 

 follow the armies, and to carry burdens above their 

 strength, withoot sufficient nourishment or repose. In 

 Mexico particularly, where a powerful and martial 

 people made a more prolonged resistance to the inva- 

 der, great multitudes fell in the field of battle. The 

 introduction also of the small-pox, a disease unknown 

 in the country, proved extremely fatal to the natives. 

 By all these causes combined, the origin.il inhabitant* 

 were rapidly diminishing in number. Numerou* re- 

 f alation* were enacted by the Spanish government to 

 protect the native Americans from the oppression of 

 he European settler* ; but all were ineffectual to re- 

 strain these rapacious and daring adventurers, when 

 removed to so great a distance from the seat of autho- 

 rity. The Spanish ecclesiastic* and missionaries ex- 



erted themselves incessantly for the protection of the Mexic. 

 natives, and are still considered by the Indians as "" T 1 

 their natural guardians, to whom they owe the various 

 regulations enacted in their favour, and to whom they 

 have recourse under every hardship to which they are 

 subjected. One of the principal regulations intended 

 for the protection of the Indians, but perverted to the 

 very opposite purpose, was the system of encomiendas, 

 by which the remains of the conquered race, instead 

 of being left to be seized as slaves indiscriminately, 

 were parcelled out in tribes of several hundred* of 

 families, as grant* to certain individuals as their pro- 

 tectors and proprietors. They were thus attached to 

 the soil, and their work became the property of their 

 masters, whose names they frequently assumed. But 

 the evil thus only became worse, and more systema- 

 tic; and it was not till Uie 18th century that the situa- 

 tion of the natives beglto to be ameliorated. As the 

 families of these original jfroprietors became extinct, 

 the encomiendas being considered as fiefs, were not 

 renewed. The viceroys, and particularly the auden- 

 ciai, watched over the interests of the Indians; and, 

 in some provinces, their liberty and comfort have been 

 gradually augmenting. Charles III. particularly, be- 

 came their great benefactor, by annulling the enco- 

 miendas, and prohibiting the practices of the Corregi- 

 dors, who were accustomed to supply the Indians witli 

 various articles at extravagant price*, so as to make 

 them little better than slaves, by making them their 

 debtors. But the establishment of intendancics, during 

 the ministry of the Count de Galves, in the beginning 

 of this century, was the most memorable event in the 

 v of Indian prosperity in New Spain, and under 

 the active stiperintendance of the inlendants, the na- 

 tive rare have begun to enjoy advantages and securi- 

 ties of which they were deprived by the tyranny of 

 the subaltern Spanish and Indian magistrates. 



\\hen the Mexicans had been brought to bear pa- Intnrrec- 



the yoke of their conquerors, and the colonists ' '""* 

 had become tranquil possessors of nil the treasures of 

 the country, the warlike spirit insensibly declined, and 

 the kingdom of New Spain, with the other settlement*, 

 enjoyed a peace of two centuries and a half. The in- 

 ternal tranquility of Mexico ha* been rarely disturbed 

 ince the year 1596', when the dominion of the Span- 

 iard* was established over all the territories, from the 

 peninsula of Yucatan and the gulph of Tehuantepec, te 

 the sources of the Kio del Norte and the coast of New 

 California. Disturbances among the Indians took place 

 in 1601, 1609, 162>, iGyt ; and, in the last of these 

 commotions, the palace of the Viceroy, and some other 

 public buildings, were burned by the insurgent*. These 

 disturbances, however, were occasioned chiefly by a de- 

 ficiency of provision ; and, as long as the native Creole* 

 were so few in number a* to continue united with the 

 European Spaniard*, no spirit of independence appear, 

 ed in the country. The first symptoms of such a spirit 

 arose about the middle of the seventeenth century, af- 

 ter the commotions in New England ; and, a few yean 

 before the peace of Versailles, the serious insurrection 

 of TUJMC Amaru, in Peru, alarmed the C'ourt of Madrid 

 with the apprehension of political commotion* among 

 the colonies ; but it i* only since the last 30 year* that 

 the colonists, having been brought, by greater freedom 

 of trade, into contact with the United State*, the Bri- 

 tish, French, and Danes, the political events in Eu- 

 rope, sfnce 1788, have excited an interest among tin- 

 Spanish Creoles, and led them to aspire after their own 

 rights a* a people. The measure* employed by the 



