Brinton.] ^^ [Jan. 5, 



the Spaniards, he was charged with idolatry, sorcery and dis- 

 turbing the peace, and was ignominiously hanged.* 



Not less definitely inspired by the same ideas was the Mixe 

 Indian, known as " Don Pascual," who led the revolt of the 

 Tehuantepec tribes in 16GI. He sent out his summons to the 

 " thirteen governors of the Zapotecs and Chontales " to come to 

 his aid, and the insurrection threatened to assume formidable 

 proportions, prevented only by bi'inging to bear upon the natives 

 the whole power of the Roman Church through the Bishop of 

 Oaxaca, Cuevas Davalos.f 



Nearly the same locality had been the scene of the revolt of 

 the Zapotecs in 1550, when they were led by a native priest who 

 claimed to be an incarnation of the old god Quetzalcoatl, the 

 patron deity of the nagualists.| 



In the city of Mexico itself, in the year 1692, there was a vio- 

 lent outbreak of the natives, when they destroyed three million 

 dollars worth of property. Doubtless this was partly attribut- 

 able to the scarcity of food which prevailed ; but that the au- 

 thorities traced it also to some secret ceremonials is evident 

 from the law which was immediately passed forbidding the In- 

 dians to wear the piochtli, or scalp-lock, a portion of the hair 

 preserved from birth as part of the genethliac rituals, § and the 

 especial enactments against the octli. 



As for the revolt of the Tzentals of Chiapas, in 1712, it was 

 clearly and confessedly under the leadership of the nagualistic 

 priesthood, as I shall indicate on a later page. 



The history of the native American race under the Spanish 

 power in North America has never yet been written with the 

 slightest approach to thoroughness. He who properly qualifies 



* See Pedro Sanchez de Aguilar, Informe contra Idolum CuUores en Yucathan (Madrid, 

 16;!9) ; Eligio Ancona, Historia de Yucatan, Tom. ii, pp. 12S, 129. 



t The chief authority on this revolt is Juan de Torres Castillo, Relacion de lo Sucedido 

 en las Provincias de Nexapa, Izlcpcx y Villa Alta (Mexico, 1662). See also Cavo, Los Tres 

 Sighs de Mexico durante el Gobierno Espai'iol, Tom. ii, p. 41, and a pamphlet by Christoval 

 Miiiiso de Contreras, Relacion cierta y verdadera de lo que sucedio en esta Provincia de Tehu- 

 antepec, etc. (printed at Mexico, 1661), which I know only through the notes of Dr. Be- 

 rendt. Mr. H. H. Bancroft, in his very meagre account of this event, mistakingly insists 

 that it took place in 1660. History of Mexico, Vol. iii, p. 161. 



I See Bnisseur de Bourbourg, His'.oiredes Nations Civilisees dela Mexique, Tom iv, 824. 



§ Cavo, Los Trcs Siglog, etc., Tom. ii, p. 82. On the u.se and significance of the piochlli 

 we have some information in Vetancurt, Teatro Mexicano, Tom. ii, p. 464, andde laSerna, 

 Manual de Minislros, pp. 166, 167. It was the badge of a certain order of the native 

 priesthood. 



