1877.] Concerning Two Divisions of Indians. 745 
tion of the church. So the church owned the rich, and the rich 
owned the poor. Thus it was until Mexico became a repub- 
lic and the church lost its power. Since the United States ac- 
quired that part of the country under consideration the Aztecs 
and Toltecs have been left to choose their own manners and cus- 
toms, except those that have already become peons, who were 
under the authority of their owners, and so remained until after 
the late war, when the Congress of the United States passed a 
law abolishing peonage or servitude for debt. 
The published accounts by the early Spanish historians have 
been copied by most modern historians as if they could be any- 
thing but inaccurate ; few imply even doubt as to the truthful- 
ness of the accounts. But if they had visited the country and 
seen the nature of the soil, the climate, and natural productions 
at the present time, and then looked back at the Indian without 
modern tools, machinery, domestic animals, modern fire-arms, 
clothing, and introduced grains, etc., and left out of sight the 
Europeans and their customs, the historians would have copied 
much less from old authorities. The actual condition of the In- 
dian and his surroundings before he was at all tampered with by 
Europeans, when impartially viewed, will compel any one to 
adopt different conclusions from the old chroniclers. 
Let us consider the descriptions of what they are uaa to 
- call Montezuma’s palaces and his entertainments of Cortez and 
his followers. There is scarce a European monarch that could 
produce more pomp and: extravagance. Only contemplate the 
feasts of the reported magnitude gotten up by the Aztecs! They 
could not have had houses large enough, nor is it possible for a 
rude people with their native resources to have obtained the va- 
riety and quantity of articles said to have been used by the re- 
puted Montezuma to feed the Spaniards; it would take but a 
short time to eat out an Indian community, with only their native 
_ mode of farming; it would require more executive ability than 
is generally possessed by even the smartest of the Toltecs, much 
less the Aztec Indians, to carry on an establishment of the char- 
acter of that attributed to the so-called Montezuma. Consider 
‘what it must take to feed the army of servants he is said to have 
had; then the wealth he gave to the Spaniards and that they 
took by force. One can come to no other conelusion than that 
the Indians have sadly degenerated since that time, for they 
could not bring forth food or wealth at this day as they are _ 
said to have done at the conquest. There is something unnat- 
