334 MEXICO. 
article of primary necessity, toward ^which the attention of new settlers 
must naturally be turned, was submitted to this grievous exaction. Nor 
were the demands of the clergy confined to articles of simple and easy 
culture. Its more artificial and operose productions, such as sugar, indigo 
and cochineal, were declared to be tilheahle ; and thus the industry of the 
planter was taxed in every stage of its progress, from its rudest essay to 
its highest improvement. To the weight of this legal imposition, the 
zeal of the American Spaniards made many voluntary additions ; — they 
bestowed profuse donations on churches and monasteries, and thus, unpro- 
fitably wasted a large proportion of that wealth, which might have nour- 
*ished and given vigor to productive labor in a growing colony." 
The Spaniard found a beautiful world, — a land bathed by two oceans, 
rising from one and sloping to the other, — and on both acclivities pos- 
sessing all the climates of the world, from the graceful shadow of the 
palm on the sea-shore, to eternal ice on the mountains overhanging the 
Valley of Mexico. All these climates on the same parallel of latUude, 
produced cotton, sugar, tobacco, rice, cochineal, wheat, barley, corn, wine, 
and every variety of luscious fruit ; while, over all, an eternal spring bent 
its blue and cloudless skies. And, as if the surface of the earth were not 
sufficient to pamper the most craving appetites of her creatures, nature 
had veined the secret depths of the mountains with silver and precious 
materials, in exhaustless quantities. Yet, this prolific richness served but 
to hasten the destinies of the invaders, and to make them careless, depen- 
dent and idle. 
The parallel has so frequently been attempted, that it would perhaps be 
profitless to contrast the settlers of this alluring country with the equally 
enthusiastic but hardy and toilsome bands who peopled our north. But, 
it may not be unwise to remember the stability we have attained, on dreary 
and inhospitable coasts, by the steady march of faith, liberty, and the purity 
of enterprise ; while our southern neighbors, more favored by soil and 
seasons, have failed in producing the results of social and political peace, 
under the influence of a different creed, and the corruptions of a monarch- 
ical Government. 
We have now, however, to deal with a new people. Mexico has thrown 
off" the dominion of old Spain, and there is no marvel greater, in history, 
than that an Empire, with enervated character, — oppressed, ignorant, and 
almost destroyed as was this ^colony, — should still have had the spirit to 
discover and assert her rights. She cast aside the allurements of rank ; 
she converted her whole territory into a battle-field ; she tore herself from 
all the fast-rooted allegiances and loyalties of three centuries ; she aban- 
doned fortune ; she went through fifteen years of civil slaughter, — and, 
at length, alone, unaided, unsympathized with by the rest of the world, 
she achieved her independence. For the victory over such obstacles, 
Mexico deserves praise. She deserves more. She deserves the high and 
