188 MEXICO. 
step without treading mi them ; the lake and canals were filled with them, 
and the stench was intolerable. 
" When all those who had been able, quitted the city, we went to ex- 
amine it, which was as I have described ; and some poor creatures were 
crawling about in different stages of the most offensive disorders, the con- 
sequences of famine and improper food. There was no water ; the ground 
had been torn up and the roots gnawed. The very trees were stripped 
of their bark; yet, notwithstanding they usually devoured their prisoners, 
no instance occurred when, amidst all the famine and starvation of this 
siege, they preyed upon each other. The remnant of the population went, 
at the request of the conquered Guatimozin, to the neighboring villages, 
until the town could be purified and the dead removed." Cortez affirms, 
that more than fifty thousand perished. 
Nor was this all : there seems to have been a disposition, on the part 
of the conqueror, to obliterate the nation from the face of the earth. As 
his army advanced gradually into the town in the various attacks made 
upon it, the huildings were levelled to the ground ; but when the final con- 
flict had ended, the bigotry of the priesthood was added to the ferocity of 
the soldier, and hand in hand they went to the work of destruction. After 
they had secured every article of intrinsic value, — palace and temple were 
given up to ruin. The materials of which the houses of the nobles and 
wealthy citizens had been built, were used to fill the canals. Every idol 
was broken that could be destroyed, while those that were too large to be 
mutilated by the hand or by gunpowder, were buried in the lake or the 
squares ; and finally, every historical record, paper, and painting, that 
could be found, was torn and burned, with a fanaticism as ignorant and 
stupid as it was zealous and bigoted. 
From that time, of course, but little has descended to us, except a few 
fragments of manuscripts, which are now preserved in the royal collec- 
tions of Berlin, Dresden, Vienna and the Vatican ; the idols and images 
with which the Museum is filled ; and the magnificent ruins of Palenque, 
Uxmal, and Guatamala. 
It is impossible for us not to sympathize with the conquered in the 
fall and subjection of their Empire, notwithstanding the cruelty of their 
worship. Cortez was, at best, but a great pirate, around whom a troop of 
needy adventurers and brave soldiers had gathered, with all the appe- 
tite for conquest and the temper of freebooters. It is undeniable, that 
he was a man of extraordinary capacity. Brave, sagacious, cool, endu- 
ring, intrepid ; a statesman, orator, historian, soldier, poet ; he united in 
himself every manly attribute and accomplishment, and he added to them 
an indomitable resolution, which quailed as little before the magnitude 
or danger of an enterprise, as before the multitudes who were sent to 
encounter him. He was worthy of a better cause, and the founding of a 
greater empire. 
As for Montezuma, he seemed to have had a fatal presentiment of his 
country's destiny, from the period of his first interview with Cortez ; and 
