IN MEXICO. 



269 



idle report which came from a distance. They were 

 also absurdly unguarded in the terms which they 

 used in speaking of the native inhabitants of the 

 country. They delighted, for instance, in con- 

 versation to contrast their own " superior ilus- 

 tracion'*" with the " ignorancia barbara'" of the 

 Mexicans ; and if any one of us, who were in dif- 

 ferent parties, ventured to insinuate, that this ig- 

 norance of the natives might, perhaps, have been 

 produced by the manner in which the coun- 

 try had been governed ; and that, possibly, there 

 might be much intellectual wealth among the in- 

 habitants, though the mines, in which it was hid, 

 had never been worked — they would turn fiercely 

 upon us, and maintain, that the people of whom 

 we spoke were incapable of being educated. If 

 we further suggested that the experiment had 

 never been fairly tried, they flatly denied the fact, 

 and declared there was nothing in the laws which 

 prevented a native from obtaining the same know- 

 ledge, wealth, and power as a Spaniard. But 

 this is not to the purpose ; for whatever the laws 

 may have been, we know well what the actual 

 practice was; and even where exceptions occurred, 



