( 



MONKS IN MEXICO ZAVALa's STRICTURES. 139 



that they have hardly the power to do so after being baptised, re- 

 garding the ceremony of baptism as a sort of spell which could not 

 be broken. Occasionally, however, they overcome all imaginary 

 and real obstacles and effect their escape. In such cases, the run- 

 away is immediately pursued, and as it is always known to which 

 tribe he belongs, and as, owing to the enmity subsisting among the 

 tribes, he will not be received by another, he is almost always 

 found and surrendered to the pursuers by his pusillanimous coun- 

 trymen. When brought back to the mission he is always first 

 flogged and then has an iron clog attached to his legs, which has 

 the effect of preventing his running away and marking him out, in 

 terror em, to others." 1 



Additional testimony in regard to the evil practices of the 

 Mexican padres may be found in the delightful volumes of Madame 

 Calderon de la Barca, entitled " Life in Mexico, " and published 

 in 1842. " Alas ! " — exclaims this sprightly lady, — speaking 

 of the wholesome reforms introduced by the viceroy Revilla-Gigedo 

 among the Mexican monks, — "alas! could his excellency have 

 lived to these our degenerate days, and beheld certain monks, of a 

 certain order, drinking pulque and otherwise disporting themselves ; 

 — nay, seen one, as we but just now did from our window, stroll- 

 ing along the street by lamp-light, with an Indian girl tucked 

 under his arm ! " 



The author of this slight but significant passage — an American 

 lady of the highest character and wife of the first minister sent 

 by Spain to Mexico, — cannot be flippantly contradicted by critics 

 who would impute to her either prejudice or ignorance. 



Zavala, in his History of the Revolutions of Mexico from 1808 to 

 1830, sketches briefly and forcibly some of the earlier features of 

 ecclesiastical control in his country. As he was a native and a 

 Catholic, he will not be accused of injustice to a church which he 

 endeavored to fasten on the nation by his adherence to the consti- 

 tution which made the Catholic faith the exclusive religion of the 

 land. " They created missionaries, " says he, "who, by the aid of 

 the soldiery, made prodigious proselytes. * * ***** 

 They prepared catechisms and small formularies in the language of 

 the natives, not for the perusal of the Indians, who could not read, 

 but in order to repeat them in their pulpits and teach them by rote. 

 There was not a single translation of the sacred volume in any 

 idiom of the country, and there was not an elementary work con- 

 taining the principles of their faith. But how could such works 



1 Forbes's California, p. 215. 



