106 MILITARY SYSTEM AND HOSPITALS, COIN REVENUES. 



deity in all likelihood, because it was necessary to free the country 

 from dangerous Indians, who could neither be imprisoned, for they 

 were too numerous, nor allowed to return to their tribes, because 

 they would speedily renew the attack on their Aztec liberators. 



Accordingly we find that the Mexican armies were properly 

 officered, divided, supported and garrisoned, throughout the em- 

 pire ; — that there were military orders of merit ; — that the dresses 

 of the leaders, and even of. some of the regiments, were gaudily 

 picturesque ; — that their arms were excellent ; — and that the 

 soldier who died in combat, was considered by his superstitious 

 countrymen, as passing at once to " the region of ineflfable bliss in 

 the bright mansions of the sun." Nor were these military establish- 

 ments left to the caprice of petty officers for their judicial system. 

 They possessed a set of recorded laws which were as sure and 

 severe as the civil or criminal code of the empire ; — and, finally, 

 when the Aztec soldier became too old to fight, or was disabled 

 in the national wars, he was provided for in admirable hospitals 

 which were established in all the principal cities of the realm. 



But all this expensive machinery of state and royalty, was not 

 supported without ample revenues from the people. There was a 

 currency of different values regulated by trade, which consisted of 

 quills filled with gold dust ; of pieces of tin cut in the form of a T ; 

 of balls of cotton, and bags of cacao containing a specified number 

 of grains. The greater part of Aztec trade was, nevertheless, 

 carried on by barter ; and, thus, we find that the large taxes which 

 were derived by Montezuma from the crown lands, agriculture, 

 manufactures, and the labors or occupations of the people gene- 

 rally, were paid in u cotton dresses and mantles of featherwork ; 

 ornamented armor ; vases of gold ; gold dust, bands and bracelets ; 

 crystal, gilt and varnished jars and goblets ; bells, arms and uten- 

 sils of copper ; reams of paper ; grain ; fruits, copal, amber, coch- 

 ineal, cacao, wild animals, birds, timber, lime, mats," and a general 

 medley in which the luxuries and necessaries of life were strangely 

 mixed. It is not a little singular that silver, which since the 

 conquest has become the leading staple export of Mexico, is not 

 mentioned in the royal inventories which escaped destruction. 1 



The Mexican Mythology was a barbarous compound of spiritual- 

 ism and idolatry. The Aztecs believed in and relied on a supreme 

 God whom they called Teotl, "God," or Ipalnemoani — "he by 

 whom we live," and Tloque Nahuaque, — " he who has all in him- 

 self ; " while their counter-spirit or demon, who was ever the enemy 



1 Prescott, vol. 1, p. 39, and compare Lorenzana's edition of Cortez's letters. 



