OUR NEIGHBOR, MEXICO 



487 



: _ .... 



OLD CHURCH IN WESTERN OAXACA 

 Note the absence of adjacent habitations and bells in the tower 



tives were enslaved by foreign expedi- 

 tions of doubtful authority and kept in 

 bondage for three centuries. 



The United States owes its develop- 

 ment to colonies of God-fearing home- 

 seekers, prepared to win the products of 

 the soil by hard work, while greed for 

 wealth and renown, coupled with a fa- 

 natic zeal for a religion whose precepts 

 he apparently failed to personally apply, 

 encouraged Cortes in his conquest of 

 Mexico. 



Whether we accept Prescott's remark- 

 able narrative or his critics' contentions, 

 the skill, diplomacy, and courage of 

 Cortes and his followers must be ad- 

 mitted, their shrewdness and persistence 

 admired, their duplicity and cruelty con- 

 demned. 



The story of the conquest of Mexico 

 may be overdrawn, the odds against 

 which the Conquistadores fought magni- 

 fied, the victories made too lurid, and the 

 defeats minimized ; but the fact remains 

 that multitudes of the Aztecs and other 



tribes were vanquished by a relatively 

 small Spanish force. 



Whether the status of civilization 

 generally accepted was as advanced as 

 claimed should not lessen appreciation of 

 the fact that Cortes found a people supe- 

 rior to those who 25 to 30 years before 

 met the early discoverers of North 

 America. 



An interesting feature of the celebra- 

 tion in September, 1910, of the centenary 

 of Mexico's independence was a repre- 

 sentation of types of the people who 

 populated Mexico at the time of the 

 Conquest ; but these were not the oldest 

 inhabitants of which there is record. 



ANCIENT RUINS ABOUND 



Mexico has a wealth of archeological 

 relics, remnants of an ancient civilization 

 of which no well-defined trace exists. 

 Volumes have been written to demon- 

 strate that the builders of what are now 

 ruins were of Mongolian, Semitic, or 

 Phoenician origin, but the riddle cannot 



