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THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND 
 
 MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID 
 
 4 
 
 Ji^C 
 
\ 
 
AMERICA 
 
 
 FIRST DISCOVERY TO THE PRESENT ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 GIVING AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 EARLY DISCOVERIES BY THE NORTHMEN, SPANIARDS, PORTUGUESE, 
 FRENCH, ENGLISH, DUTCH, ETC., ETC.: ^ 
 
 WITH THEIE 
 
 BUFFERINGS AND PRIVATIONS IN FOUNDINQ COLONIES, THEIR NUMEROUS AND BLOODY 
 WARS WITH THE INDIANS, A DETAILED ACCOUNT OF ALL THE VARIOUS REV- 
 OLUTIONS IN THE SEVERAL COLONIES AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF INDE- 
 PENDENT REPUBLICS, WITH THEIR SUBSEQUENT HISTORY; BEING 
 THE GREAT EXPERIMENT OP THE WORLD. ^ 
 
 BTl^HENRY BROWNELL^A. M. 
 TWO VOLUMES, ROYAL OCTAVO. 
 
 VOL. I. - 
 
 THK NOETHMEX IN AMEEIOA. THE SPANIARDS IN A30:EICA .' MEXICO, PERTT, CHILI, FLOBIDA. 
 
 THE WEST INDIES, ETC., WITH SPANISH AMEBIC AN BEVOLUTIONS. THE PORTUGUESE 
 
 IN AMERICA: BRAZIL. THE DUTCH IN AMERICA. THE FRENCH IN AMERICA: 
 
 CANADA, ACADIA, LOUISIANA, ETC. 
 
 BEAUTIFULLY ILLUSTRATED WITH STEEL PLATE ENGRAVINGS, 
 
 BY THE FIRST ARTISTS IN AMERICA AND lUROP*. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY SUBSCRIPTION ONLV BY 
 
 HURLBUT, WILLIAMS & COMPANY 
 AMERICAN SUBSCRIPTION PUBLISHING HOUSE, 
 
 HARTFORD, CONN., 1863. 
 
EKTBRED ACCORDING TO ACT OP CONGBBSS IN THE TEAR I860, 
 
 BY HURLBUT, KELLOGG, CO. 
 
£12 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 To one inspecting a map of the Western Hemisphere, the terri- 
 tories of that great division, adapted to a civilized population, appear 
 pretty equally divided among the representatives of three European 
 nations — England, Spain, and Portugal. France and Holland, whose 
 transactions on the same theatre of action form a considerable item 
 in the history of the past, have nearly — the first, from the insuffi- 
 ciency of her marine, and the second, from the feebleness of the 
 parent state — lost the footing vv^hich their early enterprise attained, 
 and, for the future, v^^ill probably take but little share in the destinies, 
 social or political, of America. 
 
 Of the three races which have finally succeeded to the vast inher- 
 itance of the New World, that of Portugal, possessing the empire 
 of Brazil — an empire embracing, it is probable, an ampler amount 
 of natural wealth, and more numerous internal resources of greatness 
 than any single country on the globe — must, from the present sparse- 
 ness of population, and the comparatively general ignorance which 
 prevails, be long in attaining any thing like national eminence. 
 
 The colonies of Spain, for some ages the most numerous and 
 valuable that had been held by any nation since the days of Rome, 
 after fruitlessly enriching the mother country, and suffering great 
 oppression in return, nearly simultaneously cast off the yoke, and 
 adopted constitutions more or less liberal — for the most part, unfor- 
 tunately, only to evince, by a chronic state of revolution, their 
 entire incapacity for self-government. 
 
 In the Anglo-American states, at the present time, two experi- 
 ments, political and social, the most important in the history of the 
 world, are being tried — the capacity for absolute self-government 
 
 ^319328 
 
4 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 of a great nation, occupying a territory, from its vastness of extent, 
 and diversity of climate, dependent entirely on moral causes for the 
 union of its inhabitants — and the effect of mingling in a single com- 
 monwealth a variety of European races, each receiving continual 
 accessions of fresh nationality from an unprecedented tide of emi- 
 gration. Up to this moment, a measure of success far greater than 
 the most sanguine could have anticipated, has attended both of these 
 novel phases in the great cycle of human destiny. A liberty, more 
 nearly approaching. to entire non-restraint than any of v^^hich history 
 affords an example, has been found compatible with the highest secu- 
 rity for person and property, and even with a tolerable permanence 
 of national policy, both domestic and foreign. And, strange to say, 
 from the heterogeneous elements so hurriedly thrown into contact, 
 and still in a state of imperfect fusion, a national character is rapidly 
 forming, possessed, it is probable, of stronger elements of greatness 
 than could be found in the constitution of any other people, ancient 
 or modern. A universal mental activity — an inventive genius, 
 bolder, acuter, and more original than has ever before been devel- 
 oped-j-a spirit of enterprise characterized by almost feverish eager- 
 ness and industry — yet, so far, remarkably free from the imputation 
 of aggression — such are some of the prominent traits of a people, 
 as yet in comparative political infancy, and whose ultimate position 
 and history present, both to calculation and imagination, outlines 
 vaster and bolder than any which the experience of the past world 
 can supply. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 THE NORTHMEN IN AMERICA. 
 
 CHAPTER I. PASM 
 
 Ancient Aboriginal Races ; the Scandinavian Voyagers ; Discovery of Iceland ; Eireic the Red ; Dis- 
 covery and Settlement of Greenland; North America accidentally discovered by Biarni Heriulfson ; 
 Voyage of Leif Eirekson ; America named Vinland ; the Voyage and Discoveries of Thorvald — His 
 Death ; Attempt of Thorstein, 17 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Voyage of Thorfinn Karlsefni ; Worship of the God Thor in America ; Transient Settlements ; 
 Fight with the Indians; Return; Noble conduct of Biarni Grimolfson; Mention of Vinland in many 
 Ancient Chronicles; the Story of Biorn Asbrandson ; Icelandic Remains; a Conjectured Welsh 
 Colony, '22 
 
 PART II. 
 THE SPANIARDS IN AMERICA. 
 
 THE DISCOVERIES OF COLUMBUS AKD SETTLEMENT OF THE WEST INDIES. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Early Life of Columbus— His Experience and Attainments ; General Passion for Discovery ; Formation of 
 his Scheme ; Negotiations with the Court of Portugal ; Treachery of the King ; Columbus in Spain — 
 His Poverty ; La Rabida ; Application to the Court of Spain ; Delays ; the Council of Salamanca- 
 Ignorance and Bigotry of its Members 29 
 
 CHAPTER IT. 
 
 Delay and Disappointment experienced by Columbus— His Final Success, and Treaty with the Court o." 
 Spain ; Obstacles to the Project ; the Pinzons ; Sailing of the Expedition ; Particulars of the Voyage , 
 Perseverance of Columbus ; Discovery of Guanahani ; the Natives ; Erroneous Expectations of 
 Columbus 34 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Discovery of other Bahama Islands ; Continued Expectations of finding Asia ; Discovery of Cuba 
 Discovery of Hayti, . or Hispaniola; Character of the inhabitants; the Cacique Guacanagari; the 
 Santa Maria wrecked ; La Navidad fortified ; Columbus sails for Spain ; Further Adventures with the 
 Natives t ^0 
 
 CHAPTER IV, 
 
 The Voyage to Spain ; Peril from Tempests ; Reflections of Columbus ; Perfidious Conduct of a Portu- 
 guese ; Columbus arrives at Lisbon ; Mortification of King John ; the Arrival at Palos ; Death of 
 Pinzon ; Splendid Reception of the Admiral at Court ; Honours conferred on him; His Second Voyage; 
 Great Excitement; Discovery of Dominica, Gaudaloupe, Porto Rico, &c. ; Adventures with the 
 Cannibals, 46 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 Arrival of the Fleet at Hayti ; the Destruction of La Navidad ; City of Isabella founded ; Expeditions to 
 the Interior ; Sufferings and Discontent of the Colonists ; Expedition of Columbus to the West ; Discov- 
 ery of Jamaica ; Intercourse with the Natives ; Tedious Coasting alongCuba ; Supposed to be a portion 
 of Asia ; Extraordinary Process ; the Return Voyage, 52 , 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Misconduct of the Spaniards in Hayti ; Hostilities of the Indians ; their Defeat and Enslavement; Injuri* 
 ous Treatment of Columbus ; Appointment of Aguado ; their Return to Spain, 58 
 
$ CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER Vir. PAGI. 
 
 The Declining Fortunes of Columbus ; Difficulties in Fitting out an Expedition ; Sails on his Third Voyage ; 
 the Discovery of South America; Extraordinary Theory ; Columbus arrives at Hayti ; Disorders there; 
 the Rebellion of Roldan ; Hostilities with the Indians— their Defeat, fi3 
 
 CHAPTBR VIII. 
 
 Triumph of the Rebels ; Columbus Ruined at Court; Appointment of Bobadilla — His Insolence; Colum- 
 bus sent to Spain in Chains; Sensation of the Nation; Verbal Redress; Appointment of Ovando; 
 Fourth and Last Voyage of Columbus to the New World ; Destruction of his Enemies by Tempest; 
 His Cruise on the Coasts of Honduras, Costa Rica, &c., &c. ; Search for a Strait ; His Disappointment, 63 
 
 CHAPTER 12 
 
 Disastrous Attempt to Found a Settlement ; Hostilities with the Indians ; the Vessels finally Stranded on 
 the Island of Jamaica ; Extraordinary Device of Columbus ; Mutiny of his Followers; Treachery of 
 Ovando ; Rescue of the Crews ; Atrocities committed on the Natives of Hayti ; Return of Columbus to 
 Spain — His Treatment — His Death ; Disposal of his Remains, 77 
 
 CHAPTER 2. 
 
 Di-scovery and Survey of Cuba— its Conquest by Velasquez; Memorable Speech of an Indian ; Founda- 
 tion of Havana, &c. ; Conquest of Porto Rico by Ponce deLeon ; Singular Experiment of a Cacique ; 
 Final Subjugation of the Island ; Discovery of Jamaica — its Humane Conquest by Juan de Esquivel ; 
 Subsequent Cruelties of the Spaniards ; Account of Americus Vespucius, 83 
 
 THE SETTLEMENT OF THE ISTHMUS AND DISCOVERY OP THE PACIFIC. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Disastrous Attempts to found a Settlement on the Isthmus ; Vasco Nunez de Balboa ; the Settlement of 
 Darien ; Dealings with the Indians; Rumors of the South Sea; Expedition of Balboa; Contests 
 with the Indians; Discovery of the Pacific 89 
 
 CHAPTER ir 
 
 The Return March ; Appointment of Pedrarias Davilla — His Expedition — His Jealousy of Balboa ; Misfor- 
 tunes of the Colony; Expedition of Morales and Pizarro; Reconciliation of Predrarias and Balboa; 
 Vessels conveyed Overland to the Pacific ; Sudden Arrest, Trial, and Execution of Balboa, 93 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Fernando Magellan — His Voyage to the South-west ; Winters at Port St. Julian ; the Patagonians ; Dis- 
 covery and Passage of the Straits of Magellan ; Voyage through the Pacific to the Philippine Isles ; 
 Rashness and Death of Magellan ; the World Circumnavigated, 97 
 
 THE CONQUEST AND HISTORY OF MEHCO. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 « rogress of Spanish Conquest; Discovery of Yucatan— of Mexico ; Hernando Cortes— His Expedition; 
 Ascent of the Rio de Tabasco ; Contests with the Indians ; Arrival at fean Juan de Ulua 101 
 
 CHAPTEW II. 
 
 The Mexican Aborigines — their Origin and Appearance — their Government, Theology, Manners and 
 Customs, 105 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Emperor Montezuma ; Landing of the Spaniards— their Negotiations with Montezuma— His impolicy : 
 Splendid Presents; Cortes Revolts against Velasquez — Forms an Alliance with the Totonacs — Destroy* 
 ' their Idols — Sets forth for Mexico 110 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The March toward Mexico; Spirited Resistance of the TIascalans; Success of the Spaniards — their Dis- 
 couragements; Firmness of Cortes ; Submission of the TIascalans; Singular Change of Feeling ; Du- 
 plicity of Cortes ; His Zeal for Conversion, 115 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 Submission of Provinces; Cortes marches on Cholula; Plot Discovered ; Massacre of .the Cholulans ; the 
 March to Mexico Resumed; Weak Policy of Montezuma; the Entrance into Mexico; Interviews with 
 the Emperor — His Generosity and Affability...... 119 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Description of the Ancient CapituI of Tenochtitlan or Mexico ; the Palaces of Montezuma ; His Collec- 
 tions of Natural History ; Superstition of the Spaniards ; Hideous Scenes of Sacrifice ; Reflections,. . . 124 
 
CONTENTS. 7 
 
 CHA-PTBR Vir. PA.OB. 
 
 Unprincipled Scheme of Cortes; His Treacherous Seizure of Montezuma; Burning of the Aztec 
 Chiefs ; Outrage on the Emperor's Person ; Frustrated Conspiracy of the Princes ; the Caciques 
 swear Allegiance to the Spanish Crown; Affecting Scene; Great Tribute of Treasure; Rapacity of 
 Cortes 128 
 
 CHAPTBR VIII. 
 
 Heligious Zeal of Cortes; Discontent of the Mexicans; Dangerous Position of the Spaniards; Trans- 
 actions at the Court of Spain; Velasquez dispatches an Expedition against Cortes; Cortes marches 
 against Narvaez; Defeates and takes him Prisoner; His Politic Conduct after Victory ; His Forces 
 greatly augmented, .* 132 
 
 CHA.PTEB IX 
 
 Massacre of the Caciques by Alvarado ; the Garrison Besieged ; Cortes returns to Mexico ; His Anger and 
 Insolence; General Attack by the Aztecs; Desperate Conflict for many days; Montezuma addresses the 
 People ; Disastrous Result ; The Great Teocalli taken by Storm, 137 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Cortes prepares to leave the City ; Death of Montezuma ; The "JVocAe Triple" or Miserable Night ; Great 
 Slaughter of Spaniards and Tlascalans on the Causeway of Tacuba ; The Retreat to Tlascala ; Battle 
 of Otumba, and Extraordinary Victory of the Spaniards, 142 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Fidelity of the Tlascalan Chiefs ; Resolution of Cortes ; the War renewed ; Great Successes of the Span- 
 iards ; Sagacious Policy of Cortes ; He acquires a Great Force of Native Allies ; Death of Cuitlahua, 
 and Accession of Guatemozin to the Aztec Throne ; Cortes marches to the Valley of Mexico ; Takes up 
 his Quarters at Tezcuco, 146 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 The Campaign against Mexico renewed ; Iztapalapan and other Cities taken by Storm ; Great Accessions 
 to the Power of Cortes; Brigantines transported overland from Tlascala; Many Battles with the 
 Aztecs — their Resolution ; Cortes marches around the Lakes, and storms many Cities — Arrives at 
 Tacuba ; Singular Display of Emotion, 150 
 
 CHAPTER Xni. 
 
 Return to Tezcuco; Conspiracy against Cortes — His Extraordinary Policy and Self-command; Launching 
 of the Fleet ; Execution of Xicotencatl ; Defeat of a Great Mexican Flotilla by the Fleet ; Mexico 
 Blockaded ; Continual Assaults on the City ; Courage and Obstinacy of the Combatants 155 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 General Assault on the City ; Artful Device of the Besieged ; Defeat of the Spaniards — their Losses ; Ter- 
 rible Particulars of the Sacrifice of Prisoners ; the Great Drum ; Discouragement and Defection of the 
 Allies — their Return ; Gradual Destruction of the City, 159 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 Terrible Sufferings and Mortality of the Besieged; Obstinate Resistance of Guatemozin ; Courage and 
 Fidelity of his People ; Mexico taken by Storm ; Fearful Massacre ; Capture of Guatemozin ; Reflec- 
 tions on the Conquest, 164 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 The Forture of Guatemozin ; Settlement of the Country ; Fresh Enterprises ; Offices and Titles conferred 
 on Cortes — His Ostentation — His Sagacious Policy ; Great Extension of the Spanish Territory ; the Re- 
 volt of Olid ; Terrible March to Honduras ; the Murder of Guatemozin 168 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Arrival at Honduras; Usurpation in Mexico; Obsequies and Masses performed for Cortes — His Return; 
 Suspicion of the Court ; Cortes sails to Spain ; Honors bestowed on him ; Returns to Mexico; Expensive 
 Expeditions; Cortes again returns to Spain; Unsuccessful at Court ; His Death; His Character; Fate 
 of the Conquerors, m 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 Condition of the Indians and the Spanish Colonists; National Pride; System of Government ; Depreda- 
 tions of the Buccaneers ; Public Works for the Protection of the Capital ; Indian Revolts ; Vera Cruz 
 seized by Agramont; Jesuits Expelled, 176^ 
 
 • CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 Commencement of the First Revolution; Iturrigaray; Hidalgo; First Outbreak ; Insurgents Defeated by 
 Calleja; Rayon and Morelos ; Congress at Chilpanzingo; Declaration of Independence ; Reverses of the 
 Patriots ; Iturbide, I8k 
 
8 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHA.PTaR XX. PAOE. 
 Espousal of the Cause of Independence by Iturbide; Proclamation at Iguiila; Union with the Revolution- 
 ary Party ; Treaty with the Viceroy, and Surrender of the Capital ; Dissensions ; lutrbide made Empe- 
 . ror ; His Overtlirow and Death ; Political Factions ; Spanish Attempts at Reconquest, 185 
 
 CHAPTER SXI. 
 
 Overthrow of Guerrero by Santa Anna and Bustamente ; Tyrannical Proceedings during the Administration 
 of Santa Anna ; Resistance in the Provinces of Zacatecas and Texas ; the Texan War ; Defeat of Santa 
 Anna; Difficulties with France; Civil War; Santa Anna Restored to Power; Revolt, headed by Pare- 
 des ; Herrera President, 190 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 Annexation of Texas to the United States; Indignation of Mexico ; Slidell's Commission ; Preparations 
 against Texas ; General Taylor's March to the Rio Grande ; Commencement of Hostilities; War Declared; 
 Plan of the Mexican Campaign ; Battle of Palo Alto — of Resaca de la Palma ; Matamoras Occupied; 
 Return of Santa Anna to Mexico ; Reduction of Monterey, 193 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 Santa Anna's Change of Policy ; General Scott's Plan of Campaign ; Defeat of the Mexican Army at Buena 
 Vista; Mexican Politics; Capture of Vera Cruz; March into the Interior; Battle of Cerro Gordo; Occu- 
 pation of Puebla ; Guerilla Warfare ; Fruitless Negotiations ; Advance on the Capital 198 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 Movements of Santa Anna ; His Plans Thwarted by Valencia; Battle of Contreras ; Seizure of San An- 
 tonio ; Battle of Churubusco ; Negotiations; Storming of the Molino del Rey and the Casa Mata — of 
 the Fortress of Chapultepec ; Evacuation of the City ; its Occupation by the American Forces ; Final 
 Military Operations ; Treaty at Guadalupe Hidalgo, 203 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 Summary of Naval Operations; Colonel Kearney's Proceedings in New Mexico; Events in California; 
 Union of Colonel Fremont with Commodore Stockton; Kearney's Arrival at San Diego; Campaign of 
 the Combined Forces ; Disputes between the American Commanders ; Colonel Doniphan's Services ; Mex- 
 ico, since the Conclusion of Peace with the United States ; Return of Santa Anna; Difficulties relating 
 to the Mesilla Valley 209 
 
 THE CONQUEST AND HISTORY OF PERU. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The Capital of the Isthmus transferred to Panama ; Account of Francisco Pizarro — His Confederates— His 
 First Voyage in Quest of Peru; Grievous Loss and Suffering; His Return; the Voyage of Almagro ; 
 Extraordinary Contract of Pizarro, Almagro, and Luque, 213 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Second Voyage of Pizarro and Almagro — their Sufferings; Fresh Discoveries; Return of Almagro; the 
 Island of Gallo; Resolution of Pizarro and Twelve Others— their Discovery of Peru— its Treasures; 
 Pizarro repairs to Spain ; Grant of the Crown ; Return of Pizarro with his Brothers ; the Third Expedi- 
 tion to Peru ; Battle at Puna, 216 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Aborigines of Peru ; the Rule of the Incas ; Reflections ; Agricultural Labors ; Llamas ; Immense 
 Public Works ; Warlike Operations ; Public Records ; Religion; Traditions: Early History; Condition 
 of the Race in Modern Times, 221 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Pizarro lands at Tumbez — Marches Southward, and founds San Miguel; Proceeds in Q,uest of the Inca ; 
 Crosses the Andes ; Friendly Messages ; Arrival at Caxamalca ; Interview with Atahuallpa ; his Reserve ; 
 Strength of the Peruvians, 227 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Cruel and Audacious Scheme of Pizarro ; the Visit of the Inca ; Scene with the Friar, Valverde ; Terrible 
 Massacre of the Peruvians ; Seizure of the Inca ; his Fortitude ; Plunder of the City and Camp ; Extra- 
 ordinary Offer of Ransom ; the Murder of Huascar, 230 
 
 CHAPTER VI. • 
 
 The Expedition to Pachacamac ; the Spoils of Cuzco ; Division of Immense Treasure ; the Atrocious Trial, 
 Sentence, and Murder of Atahuallpa ; Hypocrisy of Pizarro ; Reflections ; Eventual Fate of the 
 
 Murderers,. 
 
 231 
 
CONTENTS. 9 
 
 CHAPTBR YII. PA03B. 
 
 Execution of Challcuchima ; Indian Hostilities ; Entrance of the Spaniards into Cuzco ; More Treasure ; 
 Inauguration of the Inca Manco Capac ; Lima founded ; Disputes between Almagro and the Pizarros ; 
 Rising of the Indians ; Siege of Cuzco ; Massacre of the Spaniards ; Civil War between the Spanish 
 Generals ; Defeat and Execution of Almagro, 238 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Mission of Hernando ; His Fate ; Expedition of Gonzalo Pizarro ; Discovery of and Voyage down the 
 Amazon ; Terrible Sufferings ; Conspiracy against Pizarro by the Partizans of Almagro ; His Assassin- 
 ation ; His Character, &c 243 
 
 CHAPTER IS 
 
 Vaca de Castro ; Defeat of Young Almagro at Chupas ; Blasco Nunez de Vela ; Unpopular Decrees ; 
 Rebellion, headed by Gonzalo Pizarro ; Overthrow of the Viceroy, 247 
 
 CHAPTER Z. 
 
 Forces raised by Nunez ; His Flight Northward ; Decisive Battle near Quito ; Death of the Viceroy , Su- 
 premacy of Pizarro ; Mission of Pedro de la Gasca ; His Politic Proceedings; Battle of Huarina; 
 Pizarro at Cuzco, 252 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Cautious Movements of Gasca ; His March to Cusco ; Bloodless Victory at Xaquixaguana ; Execution of 
 Oarbajal and Pizarro; Wise Administration of Gasca; Subsequent Disorders; the Colonial System ; 
 the Mita and Repartimiento ; Insurrection in 1780 '. 257 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Commencement of the Revolution ; Invasion by San Martin ; Occupation of Lima ; Independence Pro- 
 claimed ; Reverses of the Patriots ; Arrival of Bolivar in Peru, 261 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Successes of the Royalists ; Movements of the Patriot Army ; Decisive Victory of Ayacucho ; Siege of 
 Callao ; Bolivar's Administration ; Subsequent Condition of the Republic, 265 
 
 CHILI. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Expedition of Almagro ; Commission of Pedro de Taldivia ; St Jago Founded ; Battle with theMapoch- 
 inians; Embassy of Miranda and Monroy ; Destruction of the duillotan Miners; Valdivia's March 
 Southward ; the Araucanians,. 269 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Battle at the Andalien ; Invasion of Araucania ; Foundation of the City of Valdivia ; Election of Can- 
 polican to the Ofhee of Toqui ; Indian Successes ; Defeat and Death of Valdivia; Defeat of Villagran 
 by Lautaro ; Destruction of the City of Conception, 275 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Mortality among the Indians ; Disputes respecting the Viceroyalty ; Second Destruction of Conception ; 
 Lautaro's Expedition against Santiago ; Don Garcia de Mendoza ; Invasion of Araucania ; Caupelican's 
 Discomfiture ; Expedition to Chiloe, 280 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Caupolican the younger ; Signal Successes of the Spaniards ; Warlike Operations of Antiguenu — of Pail- 
 lamachu ; Recovery of Araucania by the Natives ; Peace Concluded in 1641, 285 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Renewal of War ; Peace of 1773 ; Present Condition of the Araucanians ; the Revolution in Chili ; the 
 Carreras; Reestablishment of Spanish Power; Intervention of San Martin; Civil Wars; Attempt of 
 Ramon Frerye ; Rebellion under Vidaurre ; Establishment of the Republic 289 
 
 FLORIDA. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Juan Ponce de Leon— His Voyage in Search of the Fountain of Youth ; Discovery of Florida ; His See 
 ond Expedition ; His Death ; Disastrous Attempts of Allyon and Narvaez ; Hernando de Soto — Ap 
 pointed Governor of Cuba; His Expedition to Florida ; March to the Interior; Contests with the In 
 dians, S^ 
 
10 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTBB II. PAal 
 
 Delusive Report of an Indian ; Disartrous March through the Interior ; King Tuscaloosa— His State and 
 Haughtiness ; His Secret Treachery ; Great Battle at Mauvila ; Conflagration of the Town, and Victo- 
 ry of the Spaniards; Mutinous Spirit of the Cavaliers; Despondency of De Soto; He resumes the 
 March, 29!* 
 
 CHAPTSR III. 
 
 De Soto Marches Westward ; Losses from Indian Hostility ; Reaches and Crosses the Mississippi , 
 Marches to Arkansas ; Returns to the Mississippi ; His Death and Burial ; Fate of the Survivors ; their 
 Voyage to Mexico, 302 
 
 CHAPTBR IV 
 
 Early French Settlements ; Bloody Contests between the Spanish and French Colonists ; Spanish Mis- 
 sions ; English Depredations and Colonization on the Coast ; Invasions of Florida by Grovemor 
 Moore, 30b 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Yamasees ; Invasion of Florida by Oglethorpe ; Cession to Great Britain ; Dr. TurnbuH's Colony ; 
 Recession to Spain ; Invasion of East Florida from the United States ; Acquisition of Florida by the 
 United States, 3H 
 
 SOUTH AMERICAN REVOLUTIONS. 
 
 COLOMBIA. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Loyalty of the Spanish Colonists ; Arrogance and Tyranny of their Rulers ; Causes of the Revolution ; 
 The Establishment of Juntas; Massacre at Quito; the Junta of Caraccas in Venezuela; Commence- 
 ment of Hostilities ; Declaration of Independence, 316 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Affairs of New Granada ; Expulsion of the Spaniards from Santa Fe and Quito ; Dissensions of the 
 Republicans ; Advantages of the Royalists— their Cruelty ; the "Army of Death ;" Fresh Massacre at 
 Quito ; Alternate successes of the Patriots and Royalists ; the Earthquake at Caraccas ; its Effect ; 
 Overthrow of the Liberals 329 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Simon Bolivar — His Generous and Patriotic Spirit ; His Successes against the Royalists ; Assisted by New 
 Granada; He Re-enters Caraccas; "War to the Death ;" the Servile Insurrection and War; Cruel 
 Deed of Bolivar ; Battles with the Royalists ; Renewed Prostration of the Republican Cause 322 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Restoration of Ferdinand ; Extinction of Loyalty in the Colonies ; Tyrannical Policy of the King ; 
 Spirited Conduct of the Congress of New Granada ; Dissensions of the Republicans ; Injudicious Con- 
 duct of Bolivar, 325 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 Anival of the Spanish Army, under Morillo ; Terrible Blockade of Carthagena ; Renewed Exertions of 
 the Patriots ; Alternate Successes ; Morillo conquers New Granada ; Severities exercised on the Van- 
 quished ; Marches into Venezuela ; Successful Defense of Margarita by the Patriots, 32d 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Attitude of Foreign Nations ; British Volunteers; Campaign of Bolivar in New Granada; Brilliant Suc- 
 cesses ; Defeat and Flight of the Royalists ; Gratitude of the People ; Union of the States of New Gra- 
 nada and Venezuela under the title of Colombia ; Reverses and Successes of the Patriots 332 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Revolution in Spain ; Overtures of the Spanish Leaders; Resolution of the Patriots; the Armistice ; the 
 War renewed ; Humane Policy of Bolivar ; Signal Victories of the Republicans ; The Spaniards Com- 
 pletely Expelled from Columbia ; Independence of that State acknowledged, 335 
 
 BOLIVIA. 
 
 The Revolution in La Paz ; a Junta established ; the City taken by the Royalists— their Cruelties ; the 
 Patriot Army marches fi-om Buenos Ayres — its Success and Subsequent Defeat ; Second Attempt at Rev- 
 olution ; Massacres in Cochabamba and Potosi ; Second Expedition from Buenos Ayres — its Discomfit- 
 ure ' Guerilla Warfare ; Bolivia Emancipated by the Victory of Ayacucho, 339 
 
CONTENTS. 11 
 
 UNITED PROVINCES OF LA PLATA.. 
 
 CHAPTER I. PAQB. 
 
 <'auses of the Revolution in Buenos Ayres ; the Viceroys Liniers and Cisneros ; their Fate ; Wars with 
 the Royalists in Upper Peru — in Monte Video; Dissensions among the Patriots ; Rapid Changes of Gov- 
 ernment; Alternate Successes of the Patriots and Royalists; San Martin ; Fall of Monte Video ; Elec- 
 tion of Pueytedon as Supreme Director, 343 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Feuds of the Patriots ; Obstinacy of Artigas ; the Portuguese take Monte Video, and Defeat the Republi- 
 cans; San Martin; his Passage of the Andes and Victorious Campaign in Chili ; Upper Peru; Contin- 
 ued Resistance of the Banda Oriental, 347 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Affairs in Chili ; Disasters of the PatrioU ; Victory of San Martin at the Plains of Maypu; Independence 
 of Chili secured; Constitution of the United Provinces; Resignation of Pueyredon ; Continued Civil 
 Dissensions ; Final Restoration of Harmony ; the Republic Acknowledged by the United States, 350 
 
 PART III. 
 THE PORTUGUESE IN AMERICA. 
 
 BRAZIL. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Discovery of Brazil by Cabral — of Rio de Janeiro by Sousa ; French Colony ; Aggressions of the Dutch ; 
 their Conquests ; Count Maurice of Nassau ; bis Successes ; his Recall ; Impolicy of the Dutch ; their 
 Expulsion from Brazil 353 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Brazil a Penal Colony ; the Result ; Oppression of the Natives ; The Feudal System ; Governor-general ; 
 Appointed ; Story of Caramuru; Bahia; the Jesuits ; War with the Cahetes; Mem de Sa; his Crusade 
 against Cannibalism ; War with the Ay mores ; their Characteristics, 356 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Brazil under Spanish Influence ; English Piratical Expeditions ; Odium incurred by the Jesuits in Protect- 
 ing the Indians; Revolts ; War with the Negro Nation, the Palmarese — their Subdual ; Gold and Dia- 
 monds ; French Hostilities ; Defeat of Du CJerc ; Rio Janeiro taken by Duguay de Trouin ; the Cruel 
 and Impolitic Expulsion of the Jesuits from Brazil, 359 
 
 CHAPTER IT. 
 
 Flight of the Royal Family from Portugal to Brazil ; the ** Casta Regia ;" Brazil opened to Foreign Trade 
 and Civilization ; Brazil erected into a Kingdom ; Dom John VI. ; Corruption and Discontent ; Insur- 
 rections ; Return of the King to Portugal ; Tyranny of the Portuguese Cortes ; Irritation of the Brazil- 
 ians ; Resistannce of Dom Pedro and his Capital, 363 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Impotent Demonstration of the Portuguese Government ; Dom Pedro proclaimed Protector ; Independence 
 of Brazil declared ; Pedro proclaimed Emperor; Retreat of the Portuguese Troops ; Difficulties with the 
 Democracy ; Insurrection under Carvalho suppressed ; Popular Revolution at Rio ; Abdication of Dom 
 Pedro, and his Retreat to Portugal, 366 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The Child Dom Pedro II. ; the Triple Regency ; the Regency of Feijo— of Lima ; Fresh Revolution ; the 
 Majority of the Emperor proclaimed ; Popular Troubles renewed— Disastrous Result ; the Royal Mar- 
 riages; Capabilities and Neeeuities of Brazil, 2TO 
 
12 CONTENTS. 
 
 PART IV. 
 THE DUTCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 THE NEW NETHERLANDS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. PA,0« 
 
 Captain Henry Hudson ; his Voyages in Search of a Northerly Passage to China ; Employed by the Dutch 
 East India Company ; Sails in the Half-Moon ; Cruises along the American Coast in Search of a North- 
 west Passage ; Discovers and Ascends the Hudson River; Dealings with the Indians, 373 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Hudson turns Homeward ; Murderous Hostilities with the Indians ; his Return to England ; his Last Voy- 
 age and Discovery ; Sufferings during the Winter ; Henry Green ; Mutiny of the Crew ; Hudson and 
 Others set Adrift to Perish, 376 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Voyages of the -Dutch to Mannahata ; Expedition of Blok an(f Christiaanse ; New Amsterdam (New 
 York) founded ; Colony Planted on the Delaware — Singularly Destroyed ; Governors Minuit and Van 
 Twiller ; Settlement of the Swedes on the Delaware, . , 379 
 
 CHAPTER I/. 
 
 Governor Keift ; Governor Stuyvesant — his Character — he Subdues the Swedes ; Untenable Claims of the 
 English ; Grant by Charles II. to the Duke of York ; New Amsterdam taken by Colonel NicoUs — Re- 
 taken by the Dutch ; Final Cession to England, 382 
 
 PART V. 
 THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 CANADA. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Early Fishing Voyages ; Giovanni Verrazano ; his Voyage in the Dauphin ; Arrives at Nonn America ; 
 Description of the Country ; its Inhabitants ; Verrazano coasts Northerly ; Kidnapping ; the Great Har- 
 bor ; Friendliness of the Indiana ; Verrazano sails to Labrador ; Returns to France ; his Subsequent 
 Fate 386 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Jacques Cartier Discovers the St. Lawrence ; his Second Voyage ; Quebec *, Hochelaga, or Montreal ; 
 Friendly Indians ; Treacherous Kidnapping by Cartier; Expedition of Roberval and Cartier; Misfor- 
 tunes and Failure ; Attempts under Henry IV. ; Pontgrav6, Champlain, and De Monts ; their Expedi- 
 tion, 390 
 
 CHAPTER III, 
 
 Champlain Founds Quebec — makes War on the Iroquois— Founds Montreal; Expeditions with the 
 Hurons; his Discouragements; Inconsiderable Settlements; Canada taken by the English ; Restored; 
 the Company of New France ; Death of Champlain— his Character, 39a 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Administration of Montmagny ; Unprosperous Condition of the Province ; D'Argenson ; D'Avangour ; 
 Triumphs of the Iroquois ; Earthquake ; Reinforcements from France ; Mesey ; Tracy ; de Courcelles ; 
 the Comte de Frontenac— his Character ; Turbulent Administration ; de la Barre— his Expedition 
 against the Iroquois— its Failure; Celebrated Speech of Garangula; Magnanimous Conduct of the 
 Iroquois, 39? 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 De Nonville Governor ; his Treachery to the Iroquois ; Renewed Hostilities ; Treaty of Peace ; Broken by 
 Treachery ; Extraordinary Stratagem of Le Rat, a Huron Chief; Terrible Invasion by the Iroquois, and 
 Massacre of the French : Desperate Condition of the Colony, 4(W 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 13 
 
 CHAPTER VI. PA.OB. 
 
 Re-appointment of M. de Frontenac , Negotiations with the Iroquois; Destruction of Schenectady, &c. ; 
 Unsuccessful Expedition of Phipps against Quebec ; Renewed Wars with the Iroquois ; Expedition of 
 Frontenac, 405 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 De Callieres ; Pebce with the Iroquois ; Singular Resolution of the French Prisoners ; De Vaudreuil ; Ex- 
 pedition against Canada — Disconcerted by the Iroquois ; Unsuccessful Expedition of Nicholson ; Treaty 
 of Utrecht ; Extension and Improvement of the Province; De Beauharnois: Peace and Prosperity of 
 Canada, 408 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 EncroachmenU of the French ; Fort Du Quesne ; the French War ; Expedition of Braddock— his Defeat 
 and Death; Colonel Washington ; Expedition against Crown Point, Defeat of Dieskau ; the Marquis 
 de Montcalm — his Successes ; Great Exertions of the English — their Superior force ; Defeat of Aber- 
 crombie at Ticonderoga, . . . ■. 411 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Preparations for the Conquest of Canada ; Armament under Wolfe dispatched to Quebec ; Defeat of the 
 French on the Heights of Abraham ; Death of Wolf and Montculm ; Surrender of Quebec — Besieged 
 by De Levi ; Concentration of the English Forces : Fall of Montreal and of Canada— Cession to 
 England, 414 
 
 ACADIA, ETC. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Expedition of De Monts and Champlain ; First Settlement of Acadia ; Port Royal ; Mortality among the 
 Colonists ; Lescarbot ; the Jesuits ; Settlement at Mount Desert — Broken up by the English ; Destruc- 
 tion of Port Royal ; Alexander ; La Tour; Cessions and Re-cessions of Acadia ; Hostilities of the Eng- 
 lish Colenies ; Piratical Expeditions ; Final Subjection of Acadia to the English, 417 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 Account of the Acadians ; their Innocence, Simplicity, and Happiness ; Description by Raynal ; Enmity 
 of the English ; Massacre at Kennebec — Revenged by the Indians; Further Hostilities; Cruel Expul- 
 sion of the Acadians ; their Transportation and Sufferings ; Affecting Memorial; their Fate, 420 
 
 CAPE BRETON, ETC. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Cession of French Provinces to England ; Louisburg founded on Cape Breton — its Importance; Expedi- 
 tion of Pepperall ; Louisburg taken by the English — Re-ceded to France ; Expedition of Amherst ; 
 Brave Defense of Louisburg— its Surrender and Destructio* ; St. John's — Captured by the English ; In- 
 dian Trophies discovered there, 426 
 
 LOUISIANA. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The Rio Grande ; the Canadian French ; Reports of the Indians ; Father Morquette and M. Joliet— their 
 Expedition in Search of the Mississippi— Voyage down its Stream; Painted Monsters; the Missouri; 
 Ohio ; Arkansas ; Return Voyage ; Death of Father Marquette ; Enthusiasm of the French at his Dis- 
 covery, 4 429 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 La Salle — His AttempU to reach China ; Grant of the King ; Tonti— their Expedition to the West— Dis- 
 concerted by Treachery; Actual and Pretended Discoveries of Father Hennepin; Voyage of La Salle 
 to the Outlet of the Mississippi — he takes Possession of the Valley ; the Return; Imitation of Indian 
 Ferocity 432: 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Expedition of La Salle by Sea in Quest of the Mississippi ; he Misses the Entrance ; Lands at the Bay of 
 St. Bernard : Founds a Colony ; Misfortunes and Discouragements; he sets forth Overland for Canada; 
 his Death ; Fate of the Survivors of the Expedition — of the Colony of St. Louis, 435* 
 
14 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTKH IV PAOB. 
 
 Neglect of the Mississippi Valley; Expedition of Lemoine D'IberviUe— he Founds Settlement* at Biloxi, 
 Mobile, and Isle Dauphine ; Tonti ; Unprosperous Condition of Louisiana ; Death of D'IberviUe ; his 
 Brother Bienville ; Crozat ; the Mississippi Company ; Great Immigration, Suffering, and Mortality ; 
 New Orleans Founded ; Continued Immigration ; Vast Extent of Louisiana, 438 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Hostility of the Natchez ; their Injuries ; Vain Remonstrance ; Plan for the Destruction of the French ; 
 Massacre at Fort Rosalie ; Campaign against the Natchez ; Flight znd Final Destruction of the Tribe ; 
 W^ar with the Chicasaws ; Disastrous Campaign of D'Artegrette and Bienville; Great Loss of the French 
 and their Allies ; Unsatisfactory Result of a Second Campaign 442 
 
 CHAPTBB VI. 
 
 Prosperity of Louisiana; Undisturbed by War; Sugarcane Introduced; Commencement of Troubles 
 with the English; the Ohio Company ; Resisted by DuQuesne; the Virginia Expedition under Wash- 
 ington ; War with the French of Canada, &.c. ; Taking of Fort Du Q,uesne ; Overthrow of the French 
 in Canada ; Public Relinquishment of a Part of Louisinaa to England, and Secret Cession of the Re- 
 mainder to Spain ; Vain Remonstrance, 445 
 
 CHAPTBR VII. 
 
 Arrival of Ulloa as Spanish Governor— his Obstinacy— his Expulsion from the Country ; Arrival of 
 O'Rielly— his Perfidy and Cruelty ; Five Citizens Executed ; Tyranny of O'Reilly ; Great Emigration 
 from Louisiana— that Province Receded to France— Sold by Napoleon to the United States 448 
 
 STATISTICAL TABLE 
 
 RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 DKNOMINATIONS. 
 
 No. of 
 Churches. 
 
 Aggregate Ac- 
 commodation. 
 
 Total value of 
 Church property. 
 
 Average 
 value. 
 
 Baptist, 
 
 8,791 
 812 
 
 1,674 
 324 
 
 1,422 
 
 .361 
 
 714 
 
 327 
 
 31 
 
 1,208 
 
 110 
 
 12,467 
 
 331 
 
 4,584 
 
 1,112 
 15 
 52 
 619 
 243 
 494 
 325 
 
 3,130,878 
 296,050 
 795,177 
 181,986 
 625,212 
 108,605 
 282,823 
 156,632 
 16,576 
 531,100 
 29,900 
 
 4,209,333 
 112,185 
 
 2,040,316 
 620,950 
 5,070 
 35,075 
 213,552 
 136.367 
 205,562 
 115,347 
 
 $10,931,382 
 
 845,810 
 
 7,973,962 
 
 4,096,730 
 
 11,261,970 
 
 1,709,867 
 
 965,880 
 
 371,600 
 
 2,867,886 
 
 94,245 
 
 14,636,671 
 
 '443;347 
 
 14,369,889 
 
 8,973,838 
 
 108,100 
 
 46,025 
 
 690,065 
 
 3,268,122 
 
 1,767,015 
 
 741,980 
 
 $1,244 
 1,041 
 4,763 
 
 12.644 
 7,919 
 698 
 2,395 
 2,953 
 
 11,987 
 2,383 
 856 
 1,174 
 1,339 
 3,135 
 8,069 
 7,026 
 885 
 1,114 
 
 13,449 
 3,576 
 2,283 
 
 Christian, 
 
 
 Dutch Reformed, 
 
 Episcopal 
 
 Free Will, .'.* 
 
 Friends, 
 
 German Reformed, 
 
 Jewish, ',[[[ 
 
 
 Mennonite, 
 
 Methodist, 
 
 Moravian ... , 
 
 
 Roman Catholic, 
 
 Swedenborgian 
 
 1 Lunker, 
 
 Union, 
 
 Unitarians, 
 
 Universalist, 
 
 Minor Sects, 
 
PART I 
 
 "V>^WS«>AAA/S/W%/>A^\/VV/WV»k/WA/SA<N'S^VS^ 
 
 THE NORTHMEN IN AMEEICA 
 
 ANCIENT ABORIGINAL RACES. — THE SCANDINAVIAN YOYAaERS. 
 — DISCOTERY OF ICELAND. — EIREK THE RED. — DISCOYERY AND i 
 SETTLEMENT OF GREENLAND. — NORTH AMERICA ACCIDENT- 
 ALLY DISCOVERED BY BIARNI HERIULFSON. — YOYAQB 
 OF LEIF EIREKSON. — AMERICA NAMED YINLAND. — 
 
 THE VOYAGE AND DISCOVERIES OF THORVALD. 
 
 HIS DEATH. — ATTEMPT OF THORSTEIN. 
 
 The history of those ancient races, which, before the coming of 
 Europeabs, for immemorial ages, inhabited our continent, is, for the 
 most part, at this day dissolved in vague tradition, or locked up in 
 inscrutable hieroglyphic. Excepting the two great semi-civilized 
 empires of Mexico and Peru, (to be noticed in their appropriate 
 place,) scarcely a record has survived of the nations, once so numer- 
 ous and powerful, which, from limited but certain evidence, are known 
 to have existed in the Western World. They "died and made no 
 sign," beyond rude and massive erections, the character of which 
 might assign them to almost any race, that, after partially climbing 
 the steep of civilization, has, from gradual decay or sudden destruc- 
 tion, lapsed into barbarism or vanished altogether. Occasional 
 glimpses, as we proceed, will be caught of the monuments and tra- 
 ditions of these long- vanished communities; but the true history of 
 the American continent may be said to date from the first arrival on 
 its shores of European discoverers. 
 
 That arrival, for several centuries strangely ignored by the histor- 
 ical world, was much earlier than has been commonly supposed. By 
 Vol. III.-2 
 
18 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 mamiscripts of unquestioned autlienticity, by tlie most perfect con- 
 sistence and coincidence of details, and by a host of corroborative 
 facts, it has been made evident that the American continent, five cen- 
 turies before the memorable voyage of Columbus, was discovered 
 and frequently visited by men of European race. Without delaying 
 to cite authorities or adduce evidence on a matter so fully elucidated 
 by others, we shall proceed briefly to present the facts as accepted by 
 the most exact and scrupulous antiquarians of our day. 
 
 Nine hundred years ago, the mariners of the Scandinavian penin- 
 sula were the most daring, skilful, and successful of their age. Their 
 voyages, distinguished by a strange mixture of commerce, piracy, 
 and discovery, added no little to the geographical knowledge of their 
 day. In the year 861, they discovered Iceland, and, fourteen years 
 afterwards, planted a colony there. The main stepping-stone to 
 America thus gained, a century elapsed before any further progress 
 was ipade in a western direction. At the end of that time, a Norwe- 
 gian named Thorvald, with his son, the famous Eirek the Ked, flying 
 their country on account of homicide, took refuge in Iceland. Here 
 Thorvald died, and Eirek, his hands again imbued with blood, was 
 forced again to take refuge on the high seas. He sailed westward, 
 in quest of certain islands,"^ and ere long fell in with the shores of 
 Greenland (982). Coasting to its southern extremity, he selected 
 the site for a colony at a harbour which he called Eireksfiord (Eirek's 
 creek). He then returned to Iceland, and by his inviting descrip- 
 tions of the newly-found land, (which he called Greenland) induced 
 great numbers to join him in his projected settlem^ent. With twenty- 
 five vessels, in 985, he again set sail, but on account of foul weather, 
 only eleven reached the destined harbour. A flourishing colony was 
 soon established, and as it increased in numbers, fresh explorations, 
 rivalling, and, considering the means, surpassing modern enterprise, 
 were made in the icy seas of the Arctic regions. The monuments 
 of these ancient explorers have been found as far north as latitude 
 73', and it is supposed that their surveys extended much farther. 
 
 One Heriulf, a person of consideration, had sailed with Eirek in 
 his second expedition. His son, named Biarni, was absent in Nor- 
 way at the time, and on his return to Iceland, found that his father 
 had departed for the newly-discovered region. He was a man of 
 great courage and enterprise, and, vowing that he would spend the 
 
 * "The rocks of Gunnbiorn" — lost, for nine hundred years, to geography, and 
 only recovered by a recent expedition. 
 
THE NORTHMEN IN AMERICA. 
 
 19 
 
 winter with his father, as he had always done, set forth to find the 
 little settlement on the unknown shores of Greenland. A north- 
 east gale sprung up, and for many days he was driven before it, with- 
 out seeing land. At last he fell in with a coast in the west, wooded 
 and somewhat hilly. No landing was made, and the anxious mari- 
 ners, sailing for two days to the northward, found another land, 
 low and level, and overgrown with woods. Not recognizing the 
 mountains and the icebergs which he expected to find, Biarni, with 
 a south-west wind, for three days more sailed northerly. He then 
 came upon a great island, with high mountains and much ice, but 
 made no attempt to land on its desolate and forbidding shores. 
 Four days more, driven before a violent wind from the south-west, 
 he continued his voyage to higher latitudes, and at the end of that; 
 time, by a piece of singular good fortune, chanced to light on the 
 very location of the Icelandic settlement. 
 
 From the internal evidence afforded by the dates and the courses 
 of this remarkable voyage, as well as from the corroboration of sub- 
 sequent expeditions, it would appear that these tempest-driven mar- 
 iners, long scudding before a north-east gale, yet heading to the 
 westward as much as possible, finally brought up somewhere on the 
 shores of New England. The first land seen, judging from the 
 descriptions, was probably Nantucket or Cape Cod. Two-days' 
 sailing would easily bring them to the level and forest-covered 
 shores of Nova Scotia, and three more to the bleak and precipitous 
 coast of Newfoundland. From that island to the southern extremity 
 of Greenland, the distance is but six hundred miles, which a vessel, 
 running before a favourable gale, might readily accomplish within 
 the given time. To no other region of coast in the vicinity of 
 Greenland will the dates and descriptions so accurately apply, and 
 little doubt can exist that America, by this accidental voyage, was 
 first laid open to men of European race. 
 
 About ten years afterwards, Biarni made a voyage to Norway, 
 where the account of his discoveries excited much interest; and 
 when Leif the son of Eric, four years later, went to the court of 
 Olaf Tryggvason, king of that country, he heard the adventurer 
 much blamed for neglecting to prosecute his discoveries. Stimulated 
 by these conferences, he resolved to attempt a voyage in quest of 
 the new lands; and having received baptism with all his crew, 
 returned to Greenland, bearing with him the germ of northern Chris- 
 tianity, and the spirit of enterprise and discovery. 
 
20 AMEEICA ILLUSTKATED. 
 
 He bought the vessel of Biarni, and, with thirty-five men, some 
 of whom may have been on the former voyage, in the year 1000, 
 set sail in search of the desired region. He first came in sight of 
 the mountainous and sterile coast last seen by Biarni, and landed, but 
 found little or no traces of vegetation. Naming it Hellu-land — "the 
 land of broad stones " (a name strikingly descriptive of the shores of 
 Newfoundland), he proceeded southerly to the low and wooded coasts 
 of Nova Scotia, which he called Markland — "the land of woods." 
 Next he came to an island (probably Nantucket) lying opposite to 
 a north-east projection of the main land. Between this island and 
 the promontory he steered westward, remarking the shoals and cur- 
 rents which still render difiicult the navigation of that passage. 
 
 Keeping westward, the voyagers "passed up a river, and thence 
 into a lake." This channel, it would seem, was the Seaconnet river, 
 the eastern outlet of Narragansett bay, and leading to the beautiful 
 lake-like expanse of water now known as Mount Hope Bay. On 
 the shores of this lake, they built habitations and passed the winter, 
 fishing for salmon, which abounded, and charmed with the compara- 
 tive mildness of the climate. On the shortest day, the sun remained 
 above the horizon from half-past seven in the morning to half-past 
 four in the afternoon — a circumstance indicating the latitude with 
 almost absolute certainty, and, allowing for slight inaccuracy in their 
 computation, corresponding to the situation of Mount Hope Bay. 
 
 In exploring the country on their arrival, one Tyrker, a German, 
 stayed late, and the others went in search of him. They found him 
 in ecstacies of joy at the discovery of a vine laden with fruit— the 
 delicious flavor of which had so transported his thoughts to his 
 native land (the land of the grape) that for some time he could 
 answer them only in German. Great quantities of this pleasant 
 fruit were found, and these natives of the chilling north, delighted 
 at the unaccustomed luxury, filled their large boat with a plentiful 
 supply. All the early voyagers to this coast, speak of the profusion 
 of wild grapes with which it abounds. Martha's Yineyard and the 
 Vineyard Sound, in the immediate vicinity, no doubt received their 
 names from this circumstance. Leif, in joy at its delicious produc- 
 tions, bestowed on it the name of Yinland the Good — a name which 
 it bears in all the ancient chronicles and geographies. In the spring 
 of 1001, with his grapes and a freight of timber, he made his way 
 back to Greenland, where, in commemoration of his enterprise and 
 success, he was ever after called "Leif the Lucky." During the 
 
THE NOETHMEN IN AMEEICA. 
 
 21 
 
 ensuing winter, by tlie death of his father, Eirek, he succeeded to 
 the chief authority in Greenland. 
 
 When spring came on (1002) Thorvald, his younger brother, a 
 man of great courage and enterprise, with thirty companions, set 
 sail for Yinland ; but owing to his death on the return, few particu- 
 lars of this voyage, perhaps the most interesting and important of 
 his day, have survived. With his company, he arrived at Leifsbu- 
 dir (Leifs booths), where his brother had encamped, and there 
 passed the winter. The next spring (1003) he explored the coast 
 in a south-west direction for a great distance, proceeding, it has been 
 thought, as far as the Carolinas. The coast, it is correctly stated, 
 was mostly wooded, with white, sandy shores. 
 
 During the summer (1004) Thorvald, with a part of his crew, 
 passed around Cape Cod to the northward, in quest of fresh discov- 
 eries. Here his vessel was stranded and compelled to stop for 
 repairs ; and the adventurer, setting up the keel of his ship on the 
 promontory, named it Kialar-ness (Keel Cape) in commemoration 
 of the accident. Thence sailing west, he soon made land, somewhere, 
 it would seem, not far from Boston. The Northmen landed on a 
 pleasant promontory, and, meeting with several of the Skrcdlings or 
 natives, killed them. To revenge this injury, the savages soon gath- 
 ered in great numbers, and fiercely attacked the intruders. Thorvald 
 was mortally wounded by an arrow, which, passing between his 
 shield and the ship's side, struck him in the arm-pit. Feeling him- 
 self dying, he charged his comrades "to return home as quickly as 
 possible; but me you shall carry to the promontory which seemed 
 to me so pleasant a place to dwell in ; perhaps the words which fell 
 from me shall prove true, and I shall indeed abide there for a season. 
 There bury me, and place a cross at my head, and another at my 
 feet, and call that place for evermore Kross-a-ness" (Cape of the 
 Crosses). He died, and his companions, having fulfilled his com- 
 mands, returned to Leifsbudir, whence, with a cargo of dried grapes, 
 the next spring (1005) they sailed, and arrived in safety at Eireks- 
 fiord. Such are the brief details which have survived of a voyage, 
 no doubt the most extended and enterprising of any undertaken by 
 the Northmen. 
 
 Thorstein, Eirek's third son, next assumed the adventure, desirous 
 of achieving fresh discoveries, and of bringing home the body of 
 his brother. But after tossing at sea a whole summer, with his v/ife 
 Gudrid, uncertain of his whereabouts, in the autumn he made a 
 
22 AMERICA ILLUSTKATED. 
 
 port on the eastern coast of Greenland, where, not long after, he 
 died. Gudrid, his widow, famous for her beauty and discretion, 
 went to dwell at Brattahlid, in the house of Leif, her brother-in-law. 
 
 h dii dX if i oil ^i. xip. 
 
 THE VOYAGE OE THOEEINN EARLSEENI. WORSHIP OE THE GOD 
 
 THOR INAITERICA. — TRANSIENT SETTLEMENTS. — EIGHT WITH 
 
 THE INDIANS. — RETURN. NOBLE CONDUCT OF BIARNI GRI- 
 
 MOLESON. — MENTION OE VINLAND IN MANY ANCIENT 
 
 CHRONICLES. — THE STORY OE BIORN ASBRANDSON. 
 
 ICELANDIC REMAINS. — A CONJECTURED WELSH COLONY. 
 
 Another adventurous mariner, ere long, undertook the enterprise. 
 Thorfinn Karlsefni, or The Achiever, an Icelander of wealth and fam- 
 ily, in the autumn of 1006, sailed on a voyage of commerce with a 
 large company in two ships for Greenland. They met with kind 
 entertainment from Leif, and passed a merry winter, Thorfinn being 
 married to Gudrid. Much talk was held concerning Yinland, and 
 as spring came oUj a fresh expedition was planned. Three vessels 
 were prepared, aboard which went Thorfinn and his wife, with his 
 friends, Snorri Thorbrandson, Biarni Grimolfson and others, Frey- 
 dis, the daughter of Eirek, with her husband Thorvard, and many 
 others, amounting in all to an hundred and sixty souls. A variety 
 of live stock was taken on board, for the use of the projected colony; 
 and in the spring of 1007, the little fleet set sail. 
 
 Touching at several points, the voyagers came to Hellu-land, with 
 its vast flat stones, thence to Markland, and so to Kialar-ness, where 
 they found the keel lately set up by the ill-fated Thorvald. Coaist- 
 ing along the desolate shores of Cape Cod (which they called Fur- 
 dustrandir — "Long," or "Wonderful Shores,") they came to a bay, 
 and put on shore two Scots, a man and a woman, whom King Olaf 
 had given Leif, and who were "swifter of foot," we are told, "than 
 wild animals." These light-footed couriers ran a considerable distance 
 inland, and returned with a bunch of grapes and an ear of coin. 
 
 Keeping along shore, the explorers came to a bay, with an island 
 opposite, which, on account of the strength of the current, they called 
 
THE NORTHMEN IN AMERICA. 23 
 
 Straum-fiord, or Bay of Streams, and which, it is probable, was what 
 is now known as Buzzard's Bay. Here, finding good pasturage for 
 their cattle, they disembarked, and passed the winter. Soon after 
 their landing, a son was born to Thorfinn and Gudrid. This 
 child, Snorri Thorfinnson, probably the first born in America of 
 European parents, became the founder of a long line of distinguished 
 descendants. Among these may be mentioned the learned bishop 
 Thorlak Eunolfson, his grandson, who probably compiled the 
 accounts of these voyages, and Thorwaldsen, the famous sculptor of 
 our own day. 
 
 A singular incident illustrates the superstition of the age and the 
 recency of the conversion of these people to Christianity. The god 
 Thor, for the first and perhaps the last time, was worshipped in the 
 Western Hemisphere. It happened in this wise. There had sailed 
 in the expedition, says the ancient narrative, one "Thorhall, com- 
 monly called the Hunter, who had, for many years, been the hunts- 
 man of Eirek during the summer, and his steward during the winter. 
 This Thorhall was a man of gigantic stature and of great strength, 
 and swarthy in complexion ; he was a man of very few words^ and 
 when he did speak, it was chiefly in a railing way ; to Eirek he had 
 ever given evil counsel ; and he was besides a very indifferent Chris- 
 tian. He possessed, however, much knowledge of uninhabited lands." 
 
 The winter proving severe, the colonists endured much suffering 
 from scarcity, and all their prayers appeared vain. In this time of 
 famine, Thorhall disappeared, and for three days fruitless search was 
 made for him. "On the morning of the fourth day," proceeds the 
 narrative, "Thorfinn and Biarni Grimolfson found him lying on the 
 top of a rock. There he lay, stretched out, with his eyes open, 
 blowing through his mouth and nose, and mumbling somewhat to 
 himself. They asked him why he had gone there. He answered 
 that it was no business of theirs — that he was old enough to take 
 care of himself without their troubling themselves with, his affairs. 
 They asked him to return home with them, which he did. A short 
 time after, a whale was cast ashore, and they all ran down eagerly 
 to cut it up ; but none knew what kind of whale it was; even Thor- 
 finn, though well acquainted with whales, did not know it. The 
 cooks dressed the whale, and they all eat of it, but were all taken 
 sick immediately afterwards. Then said Thorhall, 'Now you see 
 that Thor is more ready to give aid than your Christ. This food is 
 the reward of a hymn which I composed to Thor, my god, who 
 
24: AMERICA ILLUSTKATED. 
 
 rarely forsakes me.' When they heard this, none would eat any 
 more ; and so they threw all the remainder of the flesh from the 
 rocK:s,^ commending themselves to God." 
 
 This Thorhall, in the spring of the following year (1008), set forth 
 with a few companions to sail around Kialar-ness and make discov- 
 eries; but was driven to sea by westerly gales,. and finally, it is said, 
 reached the shores of Ireland. Thorfinn, with the remainder, in all 
 an hundred and fifty-one, pursued his course westward, and came to 
 Leifsbudir. The region in that vicinity was called by the North- 
 men, Hop. The Indian name was Haup, and the "lake" itself, to 
 this day, is called Mount Hope Bay — perhaps a mere coincidence, 
 but certainly a curious one. Here they had sight of numerous sav- 
 ages, who approached in their canoes, and, after landing and staring 
 at the strangers with astonishment, embarked and retired beyond a 
 promontory in the south-west. The summer and winter were passed 
 at Leifsbudir, the latter season proving so temperate that the cattle 
 remained in the open fields without shelter. The climate, it is prob- 
 able, in that remote period, was somewhat milder in those regions, 
 than it is at present. 
 
 In the spring of 1009, great numbers of the natives resorted to 
 the colony for trafiic — strips of red cloth being eagerly sought, and 
 milh porridge affording them excessive delight. But the sudden 
 appearance and bellowing of a bull frightened them all to their 
 canoes. A few weeks afterwards they returned in great force, rais- 
 ing a shrill cry (probably the war whoop)* and giving signals of 
 defiance. Thorfinn and his men raised the red shield (the northern 
 emblem of war) and a fierce battle commenced. In the midst of the 
 conflict, Freydis, the daughter of Eirek, seeing her countrymen give 
 way, rushed out of her dwelling, and reproached them. The Skrod- 
 lings pursued her, and being near her time, she could not run fast. 
 "She saw," says the chronicle, "a man lying dead. This was Thor 
 brand the son of Snorri, in whose head a flat stone was sticking. His 
 Bword lay naked by his side. This she seized, and prepared to de- 
 fend herself. The Skroellings came up with her. She struck her 
 breast with the naked sword, which so astonished the Skroellings, 
 that they fled back to their canoes, and rowed off as fast as possible." 
 Many of the savages were killed, and it is worthy of remark that 
 the English, on their first arrival in this part of the country, found 
 among the Indians a very distinct tradition of this conflict, of the 
 
 * " Skrodingi valde acute ululerunt," says the Latin translation of the Norse MS. 
 
^.. 
 
THE NORTHMEN IN AMERICA. 25 
 
 ship of the invaders, &c., though, of course, at a loss to what period 
 or what people to assign it. 
 
 Convinced that this place was too perilous for his colon j, Thorfinn 
 now broke up his encampment, and returned to his former quarters 
 at Straum-fiord. Abundant supplies were found, and he sailed round 
 Kialar-ness in search of the missing Thorhall, but without success. 
 In the spring of the following year (1010) the whole, or a consider- 
 able portion of the company, in the two remaining ships, set sail for 
 Greenland. That of Thorfinn arrived safely at Eireksfiord; but the 
 other, commanded by Biarni Grimolfson, was driven to sea, and 
 being riddled with worms, began to sink. Biarni, with half the 
 ship's company, gained by lot the privilege of taking to the boat; 
 but seeing the distress of a young Icelander left on board, relin- 
 quished his place, going back into the ship and placing the other in 
 the boat — "for I see," he said, quietly, "that you are fond of life." 
 This generous action, and these few words, the key of a brave and 
 meditative spirit, are all that survive of this old Northern chief, of 
 whom one could wish to have known more. The boat arrived in 
 safety, but Biarni and his companions doubtless perished in their 
 foundered vessel. 
 
 Thorfinn and his wife, having attained much fame by their tid ven- 
 tures, proceeded to Iceland, where they took up their residence, and 
 where, as well as in Denmark, their descendants attained high honor 
 and consideration. 
 
 In 1011 Freydis and her husband, with some Norway merchants, 
 niade another voyage to the same region. Indeed, to quote the lan- 
 guage of the Norse MS., "Expeditions to Yinland became now very 
 frequent matters of consideration, for that expedition was commonly 
 esteemed both lucrative and honorable." In these ancient records, 
 for several centuries, repeated allusions are made to the country, 
 whose existence appears to have been generally known to the nations 
 of Northern Europe. In an old Faroese ballad, Holdan and Finn, 
 two Swedish princes, are chronicled as crusaders into Yinland, for 
 the love of Ingeborge, daughter of the king of Ireland. It is 
 entered on the "Annals of Iceland," (a contemporaneous authority), 
 that in 1121, Eirek, first bishop of Greenland, sailed from that coun- 
 try to Yinland — it may have been to exercise his spiritual offices in 
 behalf of colonists settled there. In 1347, according to the same 
 authority, a Greenland vessel, returning from Markland (Nova-Scotia) 
 was driven by westerly gales to the shores of Iceland. 
 
26 AMERICA ILLUSTEATED 
 
 In 1285, Adalbrand and Thorvald, two brothers, whose names are 
 well known in Icelandic chronicles, touched upon a coast which, 
 from their description, seems to have been the Hellu-land of Leif ; 
 and the name of "Nyja-fundu-land," (Newfoundland) which they 
 gave it, indicates that it was considered as a country already discov- 
 ered. It bears the same name, in English, at the present day. Three 
 years afterwards, Eirek of Norway, interested by the particulars of 
 their cruise, sent another expedition in the same direction, the details 
 of which have not survived.^ Many other voyages, casual or inten- 
 tional, though unrecorded or lost to history, were undoubtedly made 
 in the course of the 'four centuries during which Scandinavian col- 
 onies flourished in Greenland. 
 
 In the fate of those colonies was involved the history of Yinland, 
 excepting the few particulars preserved in Iceland, most of which 
 we have briefly stated. A vast barrier of ice, which, according to 
 philosophers, at certain periods advances southward from the pole, 
 early in the fifteenth century cut off all communication between the 
 parent-country and its distant colonies of Greenland. When last 
 heard of, these consisted of two hundred and eighty villages ; but 
 from the year 1406, for nearly three centuries, nothing was learned 
 of their fate, and hardly a bark, except that of some adventurous 
 whaler, approached the dreary shores of Greenland. Extensive 
 ruins have since been discovered along the whole line of coast, but 
 no record of the fate of their inhabitants has survived. Isolated 
 from any succour from Iceland or Europe, and pinched by the 
 increasing coldness of the seasons, they probably perished by degrees, 
 and finally became extinct. Early in the last century, some colonies 
 were again planted by Denmark in the same inhospitable region. 
 
 It is worthy of remark, that personages whose existence is well 
 known to history, are occasionally described, in old Norse manu- 
 scripts, as having voyaged to Yinland and other lands lying west of 
 the Atlantic. "To the South of habitable Greenland," says an 
 ancient work on geography, "there are uninhabited and wild tracts, 
 and enormous icebergs. The country of the Skroellings lies beyond 
 these; Markland beyond this, and Vinland the Good beyond the 
 last. Next to this, and something beyond it, lies Albania, that is, 
 Huitramannaland, whither, formerly, vessels came from Ireland. 
 There several Irishmen and Icelanders saw and recognized Ari, the 
 son of Mar and Kotlu, of Eeykianess, concerning whom nothing 
 bad been heard for a long time, and who had been made their chief 
 
THE NORTHMEN IN AMERICA. 27 
 
 by the inliabitants of tlie land." This Ari Marson, it is elsewhere 
 stated, in 983, was driven by tempests to a region lying far west of 
 Ireland, and called Huitramannaland, or Irland it Mikla (Ireland 
 the Great). 
 
 A most romantic account is given, in another chronicle, of the 
 adventures and fate of Biorn Asbrandson, an Icelandic hero, noted 
 for his exploits in Pomerania and Denmark. Eeturning to his native 
 island, he fell in love with Thurid, wife of an insular magnate, and 
 in the frays provoked by the jealousy of the latter, slew several of 
 his assailants. Like Eirek the Ked, he was compelled to betake 
 himself to tlie ocean, and accordingly, about the year 998, set sail, 
 says the narrative, "with a north-east wind, which wind prevailed 
 for a great part of that summer. Of the fate of that ship nothing 
 was for a long time heard." More than thirty years afterwards, one 
 Gudleif Gudlaugson, a noted sea-rover, returning from Dublin to 
 Iceland, "fell in," says another chronicle, "with north-east and east 
 winds, and was driven far into the ocean towards the south-west and 
 west, so that no land was seen, the summer being now far spent. 
 Many prayers were offered by Gudleif and his men that they might 
 escape their perils; and at length they saw land. It was of great 
 extent, and they knew not what land it was." 
 
 Landing, they were seized by the natives, and were carried before 
 a great assembly, that their £»:e might be decided. From this dan- 
 gerous situation they were rescued by an aged man, to whom all 
 present paid respect, and who, to their surprise, addressed them in 
 the Icelandic tongue. He made many inquiries concerning the 
 people of Iceland, and especially concerning Thurid. He sent a 
 golden ring to her, and a sword to her son Kiartan, but refused to 
 tell his name, and hastened the departure of his guests from the 
 dangerous coast. In the autumn, they succeeded in reaching Ireland, 
 and thence, in the following spring, sailed to their native country, 
 where they delivered the ring to the aged Thurid and the sword to 
 Kiartan, of whom Biorn had been commonly reputed the father. 
 There can be little doubt that the giver was the long-lost Icelandic 
 champion, and that the coast on which he and Gudleif were thrown, 
 judging from the description, was somewhere on the Atlantic coast 
 of America, probably below New England. 
 
 It only remains to be added that on the Assoonet or Taunton 
 River, near DIghton, (Mass.) in the immediate vicinity of Mount 
 Hope Bay, is a sculptured inscription, of great antiquity, commonly 
 
28 AMERICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 called tbe "Written Eock," and recording, it seems more than prob- 
 able, the visits of the ancient Northmen to this region. The greater 
 portion consists of Indian hieroglyphics, but there is one genuine 
 Icelandic fragment, representing, with little question, "one hundred 
 and fifty-one men," the exact number, it may be remembered, with 
 which Thorfinn, after the sailing of Thorhall and his eight compan- 
 ions, came to this spot. Other portions, among which sanguine anti- 
 quarians have imagined that they discovered the name of Thorfinn 
 himself, remain undeciphered. 
 
 It has been thought probable by sagacious archaeologists that other 
 colonies of European origin, from choice or accident, may have been 
 founded in the New World, anterior to its discovery by Columbus. 
 Mr. Catlin, the eminent Indian painter and historian, has, in an 
 ingenious essay, made it evident, that the famous Mandan tribe, 
 lately extinguished by the ravages of small-pox, may have been, in 
 part, of 'Welsh origin, and perhaps descended from the adventurers, 
 who early in the fourteenth century sailed westward, with Madoc, 
 prince of Wales, and never regained their native land. The com- 
 plexion of these people, though somewhat modified by intermixture 
 with aboriginal blood, was light, and their hair and features resem- 
 bled those of Europeans. Their language, in some respects, bore an 
 extraordinary similitude to the Welsh, and their light boats, formed 
 of hides stretched upon a frame, were almost identical in their con- 
 struction with the "coracles" still used on the Severn and the Wye. 
 This hypothesis, supported by much ingenious argument and illus- 
 tration, is certainly coherent, and may, very likely, be correct. 
 
# 
 
PART II 
 
 ^AAAi^^^AAi^^Ai^^/S»^'»^^^^^^^^»A/^^^^»^^^ 
 
 THE SPAIIARDS IN AMEEICA. 
 
 uilAiijCiii Jt» 
 
 BARIT LIFE OP COLUMBUS. — HIS EXPERIEKCE AND ATTAIN- 
 MENTS. GENERAL PASSION POR DISCOYERY. — PORMATION 
 
 OP HIS SCHEME. NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE CDURT OP 
 
 PORTUGAL. TREACHERY OP THE KING. — COLUMBUS 
 
 IN SPAIN. HIS POVERTY. LA RABIDA. APPLI- 
 CATION TO THE COURT OP SPAIN. DELAYS. THE 
 
 COUNCIL OP SALAMANCA. IGNORANCE AND 
 
 BIGOTRY OF ITS MEMBERS. 
 
 Christopher Columbus,* the most famous mariner of all time, 
 had his birth in the city of Genoa, about the year 1485, of obscure, 
 but respectable parentage. His early education was good, and, for 
 a short time, he enjoyed the advantage of studying at the renowned 
 university of Padua. At the age of fourteen, like most of the youth 
 of his native city, he went to sea, and for many years only occa- 
 sional glimpses are caught of the adventurous career which he pur- 
 sued. He was engaged in commerce to the Levant, and in the naval 
 warfare so long protracted in the Mediterranean among the rival 
 nations inhabiting its shores. In the year 1470, already of middle 
 age, and possessed of a great store of maritime knowledge, he betook 
 himself to Portugal. 
 
 * His original name was Christofero Colombo — rendered, according to the Spanish 
 idiom, Cristoval Colon — and latinized into Columbus, 
 
so AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 That nation, justly entitled to tlie glory of tlie first revival of dis- 
 covery and geography, was then borne on in the full tide of enter- 
 prise and success. Under the auspices of the adventurous and 
 enlightened Prince Henry, much of the African coast had been 
 explored, and the Azores and the Cape de Yerd islands had been 
 rescued from the oblivion of the ocean. His grand and arduous 
 project, the circumnavigation of Africa, and a maritime intercourse 
 with the shores of India, deferred by his death (1573), was afterwards, 
 with brilliant success, completed by the sovereign who succeeded him. 
 
 The appearance of Columbus, at this time, is described as replete 
 with dignity and courtesy. His hair was already quite white, and 
 his demeanour was distinguished by grave and gentle authority. He 
 was a devout Catholic, and strictly attached to all the offices of reli- 
 gion. Soon after his arrival, he married the daughter of one Pales- 
 trello, a navigator distinguished in the service of Prince Henry, and 
 some time governor of Porto Santo, the lesser of the Madeiras. The 
 charts and journals of the deceased mariner, delivered into his pos- 
 session, awakened in his mind a strong interest in African discovery. 
 He sailed occasionally to that coast, and, with his wife, resided fo^^ 
 some time at Porto Santo. His means were narrow, and he gained 
 precarious living, for the most part, by making maps and charts, an 
 occupation for which, by his education, his extended experience and 
 close observation, he was eminently qualified. 
 
 In this obscure and humble way of life, his mind was gradually 
 and slowly elaborating a scheme the most grand and momentous 
 which has ever been conceived by human genius, or carried out by 
 human courage and perseverance. His occupation naturally incited 
 his thoughts to conjecture and speculation concerning the vast tracts 
 of ocean in which no sail had ever been spread, and of whose 
 unknown shores no chart had ever been constructed. Again and 
 again had mariners, driven westward a little beyond their accustomed 
 course, told wondrous stories of mountainous islands, dimly looming 
 on the western horizon, but still retreating before the bark of the 
 explorer. Such accounts, delusive but inspiriting, lent continual 
 encouragement to the theory which he had formed and the vast 
 design which he was projecting. 
 
 Though firmly believing in the sphericity of the earth, he had 
 singularly underrated its size* — an error shared by many of the 
 learned of his day. Toscanelli, a distinguished Florentine savant, 
 I * "The world," he writes, "is little— far smaller than is commonly supposed." 
 
THE SPANIAEDS IN AMERICA. 31 
 
 to whom, in 1474, lae announced his intention of sailing westward 
 in search of Cathay (China), gave the opinion that the distance could 
 not exceed four thousand miles ; and the vast extent of the Orient, 
 as described by Marco Polo, appeared to confirm this hypothesis. 
 
 "Still, all was uncertainty. The mysterious ocean intervening 
 between the Asian and European shores might be of vast and innav- 
 igable extent, and filled with new and unheard of terrors. The sail 
 might be spread for those unknown regions, but who could tell if it 
 should ever retrace the hazardous way — if fearful seas and currents 
 would not ingulph the audacious keel, or some fixed and awful law 
 of nature forbid the possibility of return. These very doubts and 
 marvels served, perhaps, only as new incentives to a mind alike 
 daring, romantic, and practical. It is certain that from the time 
 when the project of sailing westward to solve the grand problem of 
 the earth first entered the mind of this obscure wanderer, there com- 
 menced a career of patience, perseverance, sagacity, and courage, 
 such as the world, it is probable, had never witnessed. Though 
 mistaken in the particulars of his geographical plan, he would seem, 
 from the first, to have had a premonition of the vastness and real 
 grandeur of his future discovery." 
 
 "When Columbus," says Mr. Irving, "had formed his theory, it is 
 singular the firmness with which it became fixed in his mind, and 
 the efiect it produced upon his character and conduct. He never 
 spoke with doubt or hesitation, but with as much certainty as if his 
 eyes beheld the promised land. No trial or disappointment could 
 afterwards divert him from the steady pursuit of his object. A deep 
 religious sentiment mingled with his meditations, and gave them at 
 times a tinge of superstition, but it was of a sublime and lofty kind. 
 He looked upon himself as standing in the hand of Heaven, chosen 
 from among men for the accomplishment of its high purpose. He 
 read, as he supposed, his contemplated discovery foretold in Holy 
 Writ, and shadowed forth darkly in the mystic revelations of the 
 prophets. The ends of the earth were to be brought together, and 
 all nations and tongues and languages united under the banner of 
 the Redeemer." 
 
 But between the conception and the fulfilment of this glorious 
 undertaking, a long and miserable interval of disappointment, vex- 
 ation and delay, was destined to elapse. Unable, from his obscure 
 position, to command the means of efiecting discovery, he still 
 eagerly sought for knowledge concerning the unknown ocean. In 
 
82 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 1477, he voyaged an hundred leagues beyond Iceland, probably to 
 the westward, and, it may be, wanted but a little of reviving the 
 ancient discoveries of the Northmen, and tracking the steps of Thor- 
 finn to the long-lost shores of Yinland. 
 
 With the accession of John II., in 1481, to the throne of Portugal, 
 a new and brilliant era of enterprise commenced. That enlightened 
 and ambitious sovereign had inherited from his predecessor, Prince 
 Henry, the noble passion for discovery and maritime adventure. 
 T»he scheme for circumnavigating Africa was resumed — a scheme, 
 in due time crowned with the most brilliant and profitable success; 
 and the invention of the astrolabe or quadrant — an invention under- 
 taken directly in furtherance of naval adventure — rewarded the inge- 
 nuity of the men of science who surrounded him. 
 
 At this favourable epoch, Columbus, his project fully matured, 
 presented himself before the sovereign, offering his services in explor- 
 ing the quickest route to the long-coveted shores of India. He pro- 
 posed to sail due westward, and expressed his confidence that a 
 voyage of a thousand leagues would bring him to the island of 
 Cipango or Japan, famed from the glowing descriptions of Marco 
 Polo. The compensation which he demanded, in event of success, 
 was of a princely and magnificent nature — the same, it is probable, 
 which he afterwards obtained from the sovereigns of Spain, and of 
 which penury, disappointment, and the weariness of hope long 
 deferred never could force him to abate one jot or, tittle. 
 
 John, whose ear was ever open to the voice of enterprise, referred 
 the project to his learned men, by whom it was summarily con- 
 demned as chimerical. The king, unsatisfied, and stimulated by the 
 advice of his unprincipled confessor, now had the meanness and per- 
 fidy to attempt defrauding the projector of the glory and reward 
 of his magnificent invention. Having gained possession of the plans 
 and charts of Columbus, he privately dispatched a vessel in the pro- 
 posed direction. But those so hastily called on to undertake the 
 tremendous adventure, were not upheld by the patient enthusiasm 
 of its original author. The crew, meeting with stormy weather, 
 became discouraged, and finally, in despair, put back into Lisbon. 
 Indignant at this mean attempt to forestall his honours, the ag- 
 grieved projector, refusing to hearken to farther overtures, quitted 
 the court abruptly, taking with him his little son Diego (1484). 
 Nothing, for some time, is known of his movements, but his reap- 
 pearance was in distress and poverty, 
 
THE SPANIARDS IN AMEEICA. 33 
 
 Near the little sea-port of Palos, in Andalusia, stood and still stands 
 an ancient convent, named Santa Maria de Eabida. One day a 
 wearied foot-traveller, leading a boy, stopped at the gate, and re- 
 quested of the porter a little bread and water for his child. The 
 prior, Juan Perez, a man of attainments and of quick discernment, 
 passing by chance, was struck with his demeanour, and still more 
 with his conversation. On hearing the grand project of Columbus 
 (for the way-farer was no other) he was filled with admiration. The 
 wanderer was honourably entertained at the convent, and in the 
 spring of 1486, fortified with a letter to Talavera, the queen's con- 
 fessor, set forth to try his fortunes at the Spanish court. 
 
 In that court, the most brilliant, perhaps, in Europe, the cold and 
 selfish policy of Ferdinand was relieved by the virtue and the more 
 liberal spirit of his consort, the high-minded Isabella of Castile; 
 and it was on her well-known love of science, literature, and enter- 
 prise, that the adventurer founded his chief hopes of success. Utter 
 discouragement attended his first attempts. The confessor looked 
 with no favour on his scheme. It was long before he could obtain 
 an audience before the sovereigns, their whole attention engrossed 
 with domestic warfare and foreign policy. During this time he pa- 
 tiently supported himself by his craft of map-making, and by his 
 intelligence and enthusiasm, gradually acquired influential friends 
 at court. 
 
 Through the good ofiices of these, the desired audience was finally 
 obtained, and the sovereigns, moved by his statements, resolved to 
 submit the project to a grand commission at the University of Sala- 
 manca. At that renowned seat of erudition were assembled the 
 most learned and eminent scholars in the kingdom, mostly friars and 
 church dignitaries, before whom the adventurer was commanded to 
 unfold his projected undertaking. In a simple, modest, and eloquent 
 speech, he stated the particulars of his scheme ; but to his intense 
 disappointment was encountered on all hands by the most unworthy 
 objections. His reverend auditors, anxious to display their own learn- 
 ing and orthodoxy, set up all manner of frivolous dogmas, founded 
 on classic philosophy or ecclesiastic subtlety. The unfortunate inno- 
 vator was overwhelmed with a shower of quotations from Scripture — 
 Psalms and prophecies, gospels and epistles. All the saints and 
 fathers of the church were cited in opposition to his audacious — nay, 
 heretical conception. The earth, it was urged by some, could not 
 be otherwise than flat, instead of round, seeing that in both the Old 
 YoL. III.— 3 
 
84 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 and New Testaments, the lieavens were compared to a tent extended 
 over its surface. Others, admitting the possibility of its sphericity, 
 maintained that it was encircled by the torrid zone, an impassable 
 barrier of heat, precluding all communication between the antipodes. 
 Epicurus had affirmed that the southern hemisphere was a mere 
 chaos, and Lactantius Firmianus had denied that there were antipodes 
 at all. If there were, and if a ship could really slide in safety over 
 the enormous round, how was she ever to get up hill again? In 
 short, the majority of his learned auditors "entrenched themselves 
 behind one dogged position ; that after so many profound philoso- 
 phers and cosmographers had been studying the form of the world, 
 and so many able navigators had been sailing about it for several 
 thousand years, it was great presumption in an ordinary man to sup- 
 pose that there remained such a vast discovery for him to make." So 
 great, in fine, were the prejudice, bigotry, and ignorance of a major- 
 ity of the council, that, though a few of the more intelligent were 
 convinced by his arguments or persuaded by his eloquence, the great 
 body of the assembly, after several fruitless conferences, utterly 
 refused to risk their reputation by any countenance to such an 
 nnheard-of innovation. 
 
 U JmL OiOj a ilr iCi Jio X X o 
 
 DELAY AND DISAPPOINTMENT EXPERIENCED BY COLUMBUS. — HIS 
 PINAL SUCCESS AND TREATY WITH THE COURT OFSPAIN. — OB- 
 STACLES TO THE PROJECT. THE PINZONS. — SAILING OF THE 
 
 EXPEDITION. PARTICULARS. OF THE Y.OYAGE. — PERSE- 
 VERANCE OF COLUMBUS. DISCOVERY OF GUANAHANI. — 
 
 THE NATIVES. — ERRONEOUS EXPECTATIONS OF COLUMBFS. 
 
 Years passed by, and Columbus, the victim of hope deferred, 
 stiU protracted his attendance at the Spanish court, gleaning a pre- 
 carious support from his industry, an(^ occasionally assisted by the 
 liberality of his patrons. He fought against the Moors in the cam- 
 paign of 1489, and, it is said, with distinguished courage ; but was 
 repeatedly disappointed in his hopes of obtaining a fresh interview 
 with the sovereigns. Rejecting, from a stern remembrance of past 
 
THE SPANIARDS IN AMEEICA. 
 
 86 
 
 treacliery, the renewed overtures of John II., he dispatched hia 
 brother Bartholomew to England, to seek the aid of Henry YII., 
 in prosecution of his enterprise. He also made application to the 
 powerful dukes of Medina Sidonia and Medina Caeli ; but, after receiv- 
 ing some encouragement, was again thwarted in his wishes, and sick 
 at heart, took his way back to the convent of Rabida. 
 
 The worthy prior, grieved and scandalized at his ill-success, again 
 bestirred himself Mounting his mule, he betook himself to court, 
 and by his eloquence so wrought upon the queen (whose confessor 
 he had formerly been) that she at once recalled Columbus to her 
 presence. The sovereigns, with their army, were then encamped 
 before Granada, the last stronghold of the unfortunate Moors; and 
 he arrived in time to witness its memorable surrender. This long 
 and exhausting contest finally decided, they found more leisure 
 to listen to schemes of enterprise, and accordingly appointed agents 
 (among them Talavera, archbishop of Granada) to confer with the 
 persevering projector. At first all negotiation seemed fruitless, for 
 these high dignitaries, offended at the conditions attached to his pro- 
 posal, utterly refused acceding to terms which they considered pre 
 sumptuous and arrogant in the extreme. Argument was in vain. 
 He would yield absolutely nothing. Seven years had been wasted 
 at the Spanish *court, and he was now far advanced in life ; yet this 
 indefatigable man, on learning their adverse decision, forthwith 
 mounted his beast, and set offj to carry his scheme and his services 
 to the court of France. 
 
 At this unfortunate issue, the few friends of science and enterprise 
 were overwhelmed with mortification. They hastened to the queen, 
 and besought her that no unnecessary scruples should transfer to 
 other hands a project so momentous to the interests of Spain and 
 the extensicto of Christianity. Moved by their eloquence, she fully 
 resolved in favour of the scheme, and with a generous and queenly 
 enthusiasm, resolved that, if needful, the very jewels of her crown 
 should be pledged to procure means for the expedition. An express 
 was immediately dispatched after Columbus, and soon overtook him 
 on the road to France. After hesitating a moment, reluctant to 
 trust himself again to the mercies of the court, he turned the head 
 of his mule, and journeyed back to Granada. 
 
 The interest and ambition of the sovereigns were now fully excited, 
 and the terms demanded by the adventurer were at once acceded to. 
 These were, indeed, of a princely and magnificent nature, and, had 
 
86 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 good faith been observed by the crown, would have resulted in the 
 foundation of family honours and authorities greater than any sub- 
 ject ever received at the hands of a sovereign. He and his heirs for 
 ever were to enjoy the title of ''High Admiral of the Ocean Sea" 
 in all the lands and seas which he should discover, with the office 
 of viceroy and governor-general, invested with almost absolute 
 authority; and for the due support of these high dignities, were 
 to receive an eighth of all profits accruing from the anticipated dis- 
 coveries (April, 1492). To the honour of Columbus, it must be said, 
 that with him these splendid offices and prospective emoluments 
 were not, in themselves, the ultimate reward of his exertions; but 
 only the means by which grander and more worthy schemes (to his 
 view) were to be accomplished. The Grand Khan, with the immense 
 regions under his sway, was to be converted to Christianity — perhaps 
 brought under allegiance to their Most Catholic Majesties. The Holy 
 Sepulchre, by the aid of the expected treasure, was to be rescued 
 from the infidels, and the Faith was to triumph throughout the 
 remotest regions of the earth. 
 
 The little sea-port of Palos, in consequence of some offence to the 
 crown, had been condemned by the council to furnish, when re- 
 quired, two caravels, or small undecked vessels, for the public ser- 
 vice. These little craft, with their crews, were now, by a royal 
 order, placed at the disposition of Columbus. The mariners of that 
 port were among the boldest and most skilful of any who ventured 
 into the dreaded waters of the Atlantic, or coasted along the newly- 
 explored shores of Africa; but when the nature of the proposed 
 expedition was made known, a general thrill of horror ran through 
 the whole community. To sail into an unknown, untraversed sea, 
 with no certain land to steer to, seemed, even to the boldest, the 
 enterprise of madness and a mere tempting of Providence. Every 
 frightful contingency which ignorance and superstition could sug- 
 gest, or ancient rumor confirm, was eagerly adduced against the auda- 
 cious project. Neither vessels nor mariners, despite the peremptory 
 orders of a despotic court, could be procured, and the enterprise 
 seemed at a stand, when the wealth and influence of a single family 
 came successfully to its aid. 
 
 Martin Alonzo Pinzon, one of t-he ablest navigators of the place, 
 and his brother Yicente, persuaded by the arguments of Columbus, 
 now came forward, and threw all their weight in favour of the under- 
 taking. They famished at least one vessel from their private means, 
 
THE SPANIARDS IN AMERICA. 
 
 87 
 
 and by their influence and authority the work went rapidly forward. 
 Every encouragement to those engaged in the project, even to an 
 exemption from the consequences of crime, was afforded by the court, 
 and by the beginning of August, 1492, three small vessels were 
 ready for sea. Aboard the Santa Maria, the largest of these and the 
 only one completely decked, Columbus hoisted his flag ; another, the 
 Pinta, which had been pressed into the service, was commanded by 
 Alonzo Pinzon; and the third, a little caravel called the Nina, by 
 his brother Yicente. The crews amounted to an hundred and 
 twenty souls. 
 
 Letters were prepared by the sovereigns for delivery to the Grand 
 Khan, on whose territories it was supposed the expedition would 
 first light, and whose conversion, (an object of pious, but unrequited 
 zeal, to many devout sovereigns,) it was now confidently expected, 
 would be triumphantly brought about. Columbus, with all his peo- 
 ple, performed the solemn rites of confession and communion, amid 
 the lamentations of the whole community, most of whom had rela- 
 tions aboard, and regarded them as sailing, on a cruise of insanity, 
 to assured destruction. On Friday, the 8d of August, 1492, at eight 
 o'clock in the morning, this little squadron set sail, on an entferpriso 
 the most venturesome and momentous ever undertaken by man. 
 
 By the 9 th of August, Columbus arrived at the Canary islands, 
 where he remained- three weeks to repair and to take in supplies, 
 and whence, on the 6th of Septemjber, amid the tears and lamenta- 
 tions of his crews, he again set forth in quest of an undiscovered 
 world. He steered due westward, charging the other commanders 
 to keep in company with him, and, after sailing seven hundred 
 leagues, to lay to at night, lest they should strike on the coast of 
 India or Japan. Besides his accurate reckoning,' he kept for inspec- 
 tion of the crew a fictitious record, in which a considerable distance 
 was daily subtracted from the actual progress, lest they should be- 
 come disheartened at seeing the entire tract of ocean which inter- 
 vened between them and their homes. 
 
 After sailing two hundred leagues, a variation of the needle was 
 observed, and excited much alarm among his people; but a plausible 
 explanation allayed their fears. They were soon in the trade- winds, 
 and for many days sped westward with a smooth and steady motion, 
 which, almost imperceptibly, bore them hundreds of leagues directly 
 on their course. The weather was delightfully mild and refreshing. 
 Day after day passed by, and no land met the gaze of the eager and 
 
88 AMERICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 I 
 
 anxious mariners. They began to fear that, in these unknown 
 regions of the ocean, the wind might always blow from the eastward, 
 and forbid the possibility of return. Great alarm was also excited 
 by the appearance of vast meadows of floating sea-weed, through 
 whose thick and tangled masses the ships with dif&culty forced their 
 way. Involved in these treacherous nets of the sea, or stranded on 
 submerged rocks beneath, far from any firm land, they would never, 
 they cried, be able to regain their homes. 
 
 The position of Columbus was now critical and perilous in the 
 extreme. His ignorant followers, regarding him as a maniac, or as 
 one whom ambition had made careless of life, were repeatedly on 
 the verge of mutiny. A plan, it is said, was formed for throwing 
 him into the sea, and alleging, on their return, that he had fallen 
 overboard by chance while surveying the heavens and the altitudes 
 of the stars. Nothing saved him but the calm and resolute authority 
 wbich he maintained, cheering the timid by persuasive arguments, 
 inciting the sanguine with promises, and awing the refractory with 
 open threats. By the first of October he had sailed seven, hundred 
 leagues west of the Canaries, though his crew supposed the distance 
 to be considerably less. 
 
 On the 7th he altered his course, and steered for three days south- 
 west. Ko land appeared, and the crews, in a mutinous manner, 
 clamored for return. It has been told, and often repeated, that, to 
 appease their impatience, he promised, if no land appeared in three 
 days, to turn his prows to the eastward; but this story appears to 
 have been reported without sufiicient ground. On the contrary, 
 finding his persuasions ineffectual, he told them sternly that he had 
 been sent to seek the Indies, and, till they were found, nothing should 
 induce him to retrace his course. Overawed by his firmness and 
 dignity, they yielded a sullen submission. On the evening of the 
 11th, the course was again altered to the westward. 
 
 Occasional specimens of fresh vegetation, and a staff artificially 
 carved, had been lately picked up, and added greatly to the encour- 
 agement of their hopes. Every eye was now strained with eager 
 expectation, and Columbus passed the night on the high cabin of 
 his vessel, anxious to be the personal discoverer of the expected land. 
 About ten o'clock, he saw a faintly gleaming and occasionally hidden 
 light in the west, which he regarded as the certain indication of an 
 inhabited land. At two in the following morning (October 12th,) 
 the Pinta, which was ahead of the rest, fired a gun, the signal of 
 
THE SPANIAEDS IN AMERICA. gg 
 
 discovery, and all lay to, awaiting witli intense expectation tlie 
 approach, of morning. 
 
 As the day slowly dawned, a green and beautiful island was seen 
 stretching before them. Kumbers of people, quite naked, were run- 
 ning on the beach, filled with amazement at the strange spectacle 
 which the night had conjured up on their shores. The admiral, in 
 full dress, bearing the royal standard, and gallantly attended, entered 
 his boat, and rowed to shore. Kissing the earth, with tears of joy, 
 he returned thanks to God. His people followed the example, and 
 all, overwhelmed with joy, thronged around him, with embraces, 
 kissing his hands, and, in the intoxication of the moment, almost 
 adoring him. He proceeded to take a solemn and ceremonious pos- 
 session of the island, in the name of the Spanish sovereigns, calling 
 it San Salvador. Its native name was Guanahani, and it is one of 
 that long chain of Bahamas extending from Florida to Hayti. 
 
 The natives, who at first, terrified by the armour and gorgeous 
 array of the strangers, had fled into the woods, now ventured forth, 
 and approached the Spaniards, with many prostrations and signs of 
 adoration. They supposed that these wonderful beings had floated 
 from some celestial region, and gazed, with eager curiosity, on their 
 beards, their raiment, and the whiteness of their complexions. The 
 islanders themselves were of a copper hue, nearly naked, and orna- 
 mented with fantastic paintings. Supposing himself near the eastern 
 shore of Asia, Columbus gave these people the name of Indians — a 
 term since applied to all the native races of the western hemisphere. 
 Their disposition was singularly amiable and affectionate. 
 
 The admiral gave them little presents, Such as coloured beads and 
 hawk's-bells, the tinkling sound of which tickled their ears surpris- 
 ingly, and which they received with rapture as gifts from the celes- 
 tial land. They cried to each other, he says, "with loud voices, 
 * Come and see the men who have come from heaven. Bring them victuals 
 and drinhJ There came many of both sexes, every one bringing 
 something, giving thanks to God, prostrating themselves on the earth 
 and lifting up their hands to heaven." Great numbers came off in 
 their canoes to the vessels, bringing tame parrots and balls of cotton 
 yarn as ofierings to the wonderful visitors. 
 
 Strong interest was excited among the Spaniards by the sight of 
 small ornaments of gold, which the natives wore in their noses, and 
 which they averred, by signs, was procured from the south-west. 
 Columbus understood them as describing, in this vague species of 
 
40 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 communication, a great prince, wlio was served on vessels of that 
 precious substance ; and h,is ardent imagination at once inferred that 
 ne must be in the neighbourhood of Cipango, and of its gorgeous 
 potentate, described by Marco Polo. 
 
 O dbu> JiOi iL (L JU Jju tL Jj <L o 
 
 DISCOVEKY OE OTHER BAHAMA ISLANDS. — CONTINUED EXPECTA 
 TIONS OP PINDING ASIA. — DISCOYERY OF CUBA. DISCOV- 
 ERY OP HAYTI, OR HISPANIOLA. CHARACTER OF THE 
 
 INHABITANTS. THE CACIQUE GUACANAGARI. — THE 
 
 SANTA MARIA WRECKED. LA NAVIDAD FORTI- 
 FIED. — COLUMBUS SAILS FOR SPAIN. — FURTHER 
 ADVENTURES WITH THE NATIVES. 
 
 On the evening of the 14th of October, the admiral got under 
 way, and left San Salvador, steering amid green and beautiful 
 islands, which appeared innumerable. He at once concluded that he 
 was in that great archipelago, reported by his favourite author as 
 consisting of seven thousand four hundred and fifty-eight spice-bearing 
 islands, and lying off the eastern coast of Asia. On the 16th he landed 
 on, and took possession of another island, which he devoutly named 
 "Santa Maria de la Concepcion," and where he found the natives 
 friendly and confiding as before. At the island of Exuma, where 
 he next went on shore, the inhabitants, as usual, thronged around 
 him with their little offerings. The disposition of all these islanders 
 appears \o have been eminently simple, amiable and unsuspicious. 
 "I am of opinion," says Columbus, in his jouroal, ''that they would 
 very readily become Christians, as they appear to have no religion." 
 
 In Exumeta, where, in search of his Japanese potentate, the admi- 
 ral next touched, his soul, ever keenly sensitive to the beauties of 
 nature, was filled with rapture at the loveliness of the scenery and 
 the climate. In his communication to the sovereigns, he says, "It 
 seems as if one would never desire to depart from hence. I know 
 not where first to go, nor are my eyes ever weary of gazing on the 
 beautiful verdure. * -x- * Here are large lakes, and the 
 groves about them are marvellous, and here and in all the island 
 
THE SPANIARDS IN AMERICA. 
 
 41 
 
 every thing is green, and tlie herbage as in April in Andalusia. The 
 singing of the birds is such, that it seems as if one would never 
 desire to depart hence. There are flocks of parrots which obscure 
 the sun, and other birds, large and small, of so many kinds and so 
 different from ours, that it is wonderful; and besides, there are trees 
 of a thousand species, each having its particular fruit, and all of 
 marvellous flavor, so that I am in the greatest trouble in the world 
 not to know them, for I am very certain that they are each of great 
 value. * ^ ^ As I arrived at this Cape, there came 
 off a fragrance so good and soft of the flowers or trees of the land, 
 that it was the sweetest thing in the world." 
 
 The Indians here told him, that in a great island named Cuba, to 
 the southward, much gold abounded, and he understood them as 
 describing large ships which came there to trade for spices and the 
 precious metals. His sanguine imagination at once sprang to the 
 exultant conclusion, that this was the desired Cipango; that the 
 ships in question were those of the Grand Khan ; and that the ex- 
 pected fruit of his expedition lay ripe before him. Forthwith he got 
 under way (October 24th), resolved first to visit the island, and then 
 to cross to the mainland, and deliver his letters to the Khan. 
 
 Three days he sailed south-west, and on the fourth, beheld the 
 high and mountainous shores of Cuba stretching before him. The 
 squadron anchored in a beautiful river, and the commander in his 
 boat explored the country, delighted with its beauty. The most 
 graceful of palms, differing from those of the Old World, every 
 where met the eye ; and he fancied that amid the varied perfumes of 
 tropical vegetation, he could distinguish the flavour of oriental spices. 
 
 Coasting westward, the voyagers fell in with several villages, in 
 which were found implements evincing considerable art and inge- 
 nuity. By another strange mistake, the result of imperfect com- 
 munication with the natives, Columbus now concluded that he was 
 on the mainland of India, and, by his interpreters, endeavoured to 
 reassure the alarmed villagers, and to convince them that he had no 
 connection with the Khan, whom he supposed the object of their 
 especial terror. Encouraged by the friendly message, though part of 
 it only was intelligible, they ventured, in great numbers, to the ships. 
 
 The admiral, supposing that the capital of Tartary, the seat of the 
 Great Khan, could lie at no great distance in the interior, dispatched 
 messengers in quest of it — among them a converted Jew, whom he 
 had taken out expressly to further communication with that poten- 
 
42i AMERICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 tate, and who was equipped with a knowledge of Hebrew, ChaldaiCj 
 and Arabic. Penetrating the country for some distance, this embassy 
 came upon a village of a thousand inhabitants, from whom they 
 received great reverence and hospitality, but on whom the oriental 
 learning of the interpreter was quite thrown away. These people 
 smoked a fragrant herb, prepared in rolls, which they called Taba- 
 cos — a name since universally applied to the plant itself Much cot- 
 ton was cultivated by them, and manufactured into the simple articles 
 which a tropical chmate requires. 
 
 In the south-east, Columbus was now informed, was a land called 
 Babeque, rich in gold, which the people there hammered into bars. 
 From this, and from the name Quisqueya, which they occasionally 
 used, he concluded at once that the latter could be no other than 
 Quisai, the celestial city of the Khan, described, with such lavish 
 ornament, by the enthusiastic Polo. Accordingly, turning from a 
 course which would soon have taken him to the mainland of Amer- 
 ica, Columbus, on the 12th of October, retraced his way, sailing in 
 quest of the ever-fleeting Land of Promise. During this voyage, 
 rendered tedious by baffling winds, Martin Alonzo Pinzon, whose 
 vessel, the Pinta, was the fleetest of the squadron, deserted him, and 
 was soon lost to sight. The admiral slowly worked his way east- 
 ward along the shore, making fresh surveys, and falling in with new 
 tribes of the natives. Their canoes, hollowed from the Ceyba-tree. 
 were of gigantic size — some of them, he says, being capable of accom- 
 modating an hundred and fifty persons. It was not until the 5th of 
 December, that the voyagers, having rounded the eastern extremity 
 of Cuba, beheld a new land, high and mountainous, rising in the 
 south-east. 
 
 It was the beautiful and unfortunate island of Hayti, on which 
 Columbus, in honour of his adopted country, bestowed the name of 
 Hispaniola, but which has since resumed its native appellation. On 
 landing, a party was dispatched into the interior, and found a large 
 village, the inhabitants of which fled at their approach. Encouraged 
 by the assurances of an interpreter, they at length ventured back, 
 to the number of two thousand, and with gestures of the deepest 
 reverence and submission, received the mysterious strangers. Every 
 tribute of simple hospitality was afforded them, and the Indians 
 brought, among other offerings, great numbers of tame parrots, as 
 presents for their guests. Some of these birds had yellow rings on 
 their necks, a peculiarity which Pliny had remarked of the parrots 
 
THE SPANIAEDS IN AMEBICA. 43 
 
 of India, and wTiicli confirmed the sanguine conviction of Columbus 
 that he had arrived on some unknown shore of the Orient. The 
 opinion was not confined to him. "The popiniays and many other 
 things," afterwards writes the learned Peter Martyr, "doe declare 
 that these Hands savour somewhat of India ^ eyther being near vnto 
 it, or else of the same nature." 
 
 The voyagers were enchanted at the beauty of the island, the 
 delicious mildness of the climate, and the gentle manners of the 
 kindly inhabitants. Seldom has the savage life been found in a 
 form more happy, innocent, and alluring, than that depicted by the 
 early voyagers to these fortunate shores. The continual struggle for 
 shelter, warmth, and food, which in general forms the misery of an 
 uncivilized people, was here almost entirely unknown. The mild- 
 ness of the air and the exuberant fertility of the earth freed them 
 from the first evils of barbarism, and their mild and gentle temper- 
 ament of character allayed the usual ferocity of savage enmity. 
 War was unfrequent and not sanguinary, and in general the various 
 tribes mingled together throughout the islands in perfect confidence 
 and friendliness. Columbus is warm in their praise. " They are a 
 very loving race," he informs the sovereigns, "and without covetous- 
 ness ; they are adapted to any use, and I declare to your Highnesses 
 that there is not a better country nor a better people in the world than 
 these. They love their neighbours as they do themselves, and their 
 language is the smoothest and sweetest in the world, being always 
 uttered with smiles. They all, both men and women, go totally 
 naked ; but your Highnesses may be assured that they possess many 
 commendable customs ; their king is served with great reverence, 
 and every thing is practised with such decency that it is highly pleas- 
 ing to witness it." "They display," he says, elsewhere, "a frankness 
 and liberality in their demeanour, which no one would believe with- 
 out witnessing it. No request of any thing from them is ever refused, 
 but they rather invite acceptance of what they possess, and manifest 
 such a generosity, they would give away their own hearts." He set 
 up crosses for their edification, and, from the readiness with which they 
 imitated the Spaniards in making that holy sign, inferred, rather pre- 
 maturely, that they were ripe and ready for conversion. They will- 
 ingly gave their guests what gold they had, and still repeated the allur- 
 ing accounts of islands, richer in the coveted ore, lying still beyond. 
 
 A cacique or native chief of high rank, named puacanagari, had 
 dispatched an embassy of welcome to the strangers, and had enter- 
 
•14 AMERICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 tained at Ms town, with great kindness and hospitality, the mes- 
 sengers sent in return. But while sailing to the residence of this 
 friendly chief, a great misfortune befell the admiral, in the loss of his 
 fihip, which, owing to the carelessness of the mariners, ran on a shoal 
 in the night, and by the force of the sea and current, was soon reduced 
 to a wreck. The crews of both vessels were now crowded into the 
 little caravel Nina, the only one remaining under his command. 
 
 The worthy cacique, with his people, did all he could to alleviate 
 the misfortune. In their light canoes, the Indians unladed the shat- 
 tered vessel, carrying its contents on shore, and religiously guarding 
 them, even to the smallest article, though in their eyes of inestimable 
 value, for the use of the owners. Guacanagari himself, shedding 
 tears of sympathy, went on board, comforting the admiral for his loss, 
 and generously offering all that he possessed. His people brought 
 in considerable gold, which they readily exchanged for trifles ; and 
 the chief, observing the comforting effect of this circumstance on the 
 minds of his guests, assured them that in the mountains abundance 
 of that metal was to be found, at a place which he called Cibao, and 
 which Columbus, as a matter of course, concluded could be no other 
 than the long-sought Cipango. 
 
 So charmed were the crews with the gentleness and kindness of 
 their entertainers, that a number now besought of the admiral per- 
 mission to remain on the island, rather than voyage to Europe in the 
 crowded caravel. This scheme was approved, and all hands, with 
 the assistance of the natives, set eagerly to work at breaking up the 
 wrecked vessel, and constructing a fortress of its materials. Guns 
 were mounted for its defence, and the admiral bestowed on it the 
 pious title of La Navidad or "The Nativity." Thirty -nine volun- 
 teers, under command of Diego de Arana, composed the garrison, 
 and Columbus gave them strict directions for their conduct, espe- 
 cially enforcing the necessity of just and conciliatory treatment of 
 the natives. The good cacique promised his assistance and protection, 
 and with tears of regret took leave of his departing guests. The 
 little caravel Nina, freighted with the momentous tidings of the dis- 
 covery of a new world, on the 4th of January, 1493, set sail for the 
 shores of the old. 
 
 Two days afterwards, while slowly coasting along against baffling 
 winds, to the surprise of Columbus, he saw the Pinta coming before 
 an easterly wind. The vessels joined company, and the admiral 
 thought best to accept the excuses of Pinzon, who averred that acci- 
 
THE SPANIAEDS IN AMEEICA. 45 
 
 dent alone liad prevented his rejoining the squadron. But, in truth, 
 he had sailed in quest of an island, which he supposed to abound in 
 gold; and had lately been engaged in collecting that metal at Hayti 
 and in kidnapping the Indians. These, however, the admiral com- 
 pelled him to restore to their homes. In his own vessel, he carried 
 six of the Indians, whom he had induced to accompany him, to 
 instruct as interpreters, as well as for presentation at the court of 
 Spain, as specimens of the inhabitants of the newly-discovered land. 
 Proceeding along the shore, the returning voyagers anchored in 
 the gulf of Samana, and were presently engaged in combat with the 
 Ciguayans — a bold and warlike race of mountaineers, whose arrows 
 and heavy swords of palm- wood indeed proved of no avail against 
 the steel and fire-arms of the Spaniards. They were put to flight 
 and two of them were wounded — "and thus were spilt the first drops 
 of that vast ocean of blood, which for three centuries has been poured 
 out by the unhappy aborigines of all America, as a libation to the 
 cruelly and avarice of the European races." Despite this untoward 
 commencement of their acquaintance, peace and friendliness were 
 speedily restored between the combatants; and the Indian chief, 
 having visited the ship, pleased with his entertainment, presented 
 to Columbus his coronet of gold — a token of royal generosity, with 
 which Guacanagari had already complimented his visitor. 
 
46 . AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 CHAPTER I?. 
 
 THE YOYAGE TO SPAIN. PERIL PROM TEMPESTS. — REFLEC 
 
 TIONS OF COLUMBUS. — PERFIDIOUS CONDUCT OF A PORTU- 
 GUESE. — COLUMBUS ARRIVES AT LISBON. — MORTIFICA- 
 TION OF KING JOHN. — THE ARRIVAL AT PALOS. — 
 
 DEATH OF PINZON. SPLENDID RECEPTION OF THE 
 
 ADMIRAL AT COURT. — HONORS CONFERRED ON 
 HIM. — HIS SECOND VOYAGE. GREAT EXCITE- 
 MENT. DISCOVERY OF DOMINICA, GUADA- 
 
 LOUPE, PORTO RICO, ETC. ADVENTURES, ' 
 
 WITH THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 On tlie 16tli of January the vessels again set sail, but, until the 
 commencement of the following month, were delayed by adverse 
 winds. They then, for a time, made good headway, but on the 14th 
 of February, in a tremendous storm, the Pinta was lost sight of, and 
 all the nautical skill of Columbus, equal to that of any man of his 
 day, was required to keep his little open craft alive in the tempestuoiis^ 
 seas of the Atlantic. Many pious vows and penances were under- 
 taken — one being that, at the first land they touched, the admiral 
 and all the company, barefooted and in their shirts, should go to offer 
 up prayers to the Holy Virgin. That the tidings of his grand dis- 
 covery might by chance survive, if the vessel should founder, 
 Columbus now wrote briefly two accounts of his voyage, one of 
 which, imbedded in wax, he placed in a barrel and flung overboard 
 — the other, secured in like manner, he placed on the stern, that it- 
 might float off, when the vessel should be ingulphed by the waves. 
 
 His natural grief at the prospect of such an obscure and dreary 
 end to his noble achievements and still grander anticipations, was 
 heightened by the lamentations of his crew, and the remembrance, 
 as he simply states, of the threats and menaces by which he had 
 compelled them to complete the voyage. "I could have supported 
 this evil fortune," he piously writes to his patrons, "with less grief, 
 had my person alone been in jeopardy, since I am a debtor for my 
 life to the Supreme Creator, and have at other times been within a 
 step of death. But it was a cause of infinite sorrow and trouble to 
 think that, after having been illuminated from on high with faith 
 
THE SPANIARDS IN AMEEICA. 47 
 
 and certainty to undertake this enterprise; after having victoriously 
 achieved it, and when on the point of convincing my opponents, and 
 securing to your highnesses great glory and vast increase of domin- 
 ion, it should please the divine majesty to defeat all by my death. 
 * * * * And although, on the one hand, I was com- 
 forted by a faith that the Deity would not permit a work of such 
 great exaltation to his church, wrought through so many troubles 
 and contradictions, to remain imperfect; yet, on the other hand, I 
 reflected on my sins, for which he might intend as a punishment that 
 I should be deprived of the glory which would redound to me in 
 this world." 
 
 On the 15th, during the continuance of the gale, the tempest-tossed 
 caravel finally made land; and, three days afterwards, was enabled 
 to anchor under the lee of St. Mary's, the most southern of the 
 Azore islands. Great curiosity was excited by her arrival, and the 
 Portuguese governor dispatched presents and courteous messages to 
 the admiral, though with treacherous and malignant intent. This 
 presently appeared; for half the crew, while performing their pious 
 vow in a chapel of the virgin, were set upon by a rabble route of 
 the islanders, horse and foot, headed by that functionary himself, 
 who, however, was grievously disappointed at not getting possession 
 of the person of Columbus. It was not until the 23d that the latter 
 could regain his men ; and on the following day, wounded at this 
 ungenerous reception at the hands of civilized men, (so different from 
 that of his kindly entertainers the savage Haytians,) he again got 
 •under way, and steered for Spain. 
 
 On the 4th of March, 1493, the little craft, preserved amid so many 
 perils, entered the mouth of the Tagus. The greatest curiosity and 
 excitement immediately prevailed. The river was covered with 
 boats; and King John, aware of the magnitude of the achievement, 
 received the discoverer with high honours, though secretly devoured 
 with chagrin at the remembrance of the perfidy by which. he had 
 forfeited his own claim to the splendid prize now rescued from 
 the depth of the ocean. Rejecting a proposal for the assassination 
 of Columbus, suggested by his more unprincipled advisers, he re- 
 solved forthwith to dispatch a powerful force to anticipate Spain in 
 the seizure of the tempting lands just brought to light. 
 
 On the 15th, Columbus once more cast anchor in the port of 
 Palos, whence a little more than seven months before he had taken 
 his departure on this most eventful of voyages. The whole com- 
 
48 AMERICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 mnnity was entranced with joy; the bells were rung, and a solemn 
 procession was made to the church. In the midst of these rejoicings, 
 the Pinta reentered the harbour. Pinzon, who had touched at Baj- 
 onne, and thence, with the air of a great discoverer, had dispatched 
 his tidings to the court, was filled with consternation when he beheld 
 the vessel of his commander, which he had supposed swallowed up 
 in the ocean, riding safely in the harbour. He kept in private, and 
 in a fcAV days died of a broken heart, his end being hastened by a 
 reproachful letter which he received from the sovereigns. Such was 
 the melancholy fate of a man whose daring, liberality, and enterprise 
 so materially contributed to the discovery of the New World, but 
 all whose high qualities, by treachery and insubordination, missed of 
 the renown to which they would otherwise have been justly entitled. 
 
 The court of Spain, filled with exultation at the magnificent tid- 
 ings, summoned the successful adventurer to Barcelona ; and, having 
 commenced his preparations for a second voyage, he journeyed 
 thither through roads beset by crowds of curious and admiring 
 gazers. A great multitude, headed by nobles and cavaliers, went 
 forth from the city to meet him ; and as he passed in triumphal pro- 
 cession through the streets, all gazed with intense curiosity on the 
 trophies of the unknown world — on coronets and ornaments of gold, 
 the gift of Indian kings — on the gay birds from the forests of the 
 Antilles — on the tawny natives of the new land — and most eagerly 
 on the majestic person of the great discoverer, already venerable 
 with years, and of a presence and demeanour whose natural nobility 
 seemed adequate to the magnitude and grandeur of his achievement. 
 
 The sovereigns, in a great public assembly, rose from their thrones 
 to receive him — an honour, in that proud and punctilious court, 
 accorded only to royal visitors. In an eloquent and touching nar- 
 rative, he recounted his adventures, and all present, moved to tears 
 by the extraordinary occasion, fell on their knees and returned thanks 
 to God, while a thrilling Te Deum^ chanted by the royal choir, went 
 up to Heaven. 
 
 The most splendid acknowledgment of his services was now made 
 by the grateful sovereigns to their long-neglected protege. In addi- 
 tion to the high honours and dignities already acquired by his suc- 
 cess, he was allowed to quarter the royal arms with his own, and to 
 add a group of islands surrounded by the waves, with the magni- 
 ficent legend: 
 
THE SFxVISIAEDS IN AMEKICA. ^g 
 
 «POR CASTILLA Y POR LEON 
 NUEVO MUNDO HALLO COLON."* 
 
 Througliout Europe, tlie intelligence of liis wonderful achievement 
 was received with the highest rapture and exultation — nor could a 
 spirit like his have desired a fitter reward than in the generous tears' 
 of joy and enthusiasm which men of learning and eminence are 
 reported to have shed on hearing of the wonderful result. In Eng- 
 land, says a contemporary, at the court of Henry YIL, the whole 
 affair was commonly considered "a thing rather divine than human." 
 The real grandeur and importance of the discovery, indeed, as yet, 
 were not even conjectured, and all this exultation appears to have 
 been founded on the practical demonstration of the roundness of the 
 earth, and the fact that its complete survey and connection wero 
 within the compass of the means of civilization. 
 
 The court of Spain exhibited unwonted eagerness and activity in 
 the task of securing and extending its new possession. The pope, 
 at the instance of his faithful allies, the Sovereigns, issued a bull, 
 confirming to them full possession of all the territories which they 
 might discover any where beyond a hundred leagues westward from 
 the Azores. The Portuguese, by a previous instrument, were already 
 invested with unlimited right of discovery and conquest to the east- 
 ward ; and too persevering a search in the allotted directions, in due 
 time, brought the rival nations into contact on the opposite side of 
 the globe. John, indeed, at this very time, had fitted out a power- 
 ful armament, intended to anticipate Spain in the seizure of the new 
 Indies ; but negotiation finally appeared his better policy, and after 
 an infinity of intrigue and attempted circumvention, the matter was 
 settled for a time by removing the line of partition to three hundred 
 and seventy leagues west of the Azores. 
 
 . Columbus, aided by a royal commission, was now intently engaged 
 in fitting out a second expedition, on a scale commensurate with the 
 importance of the discoveries already made, and the sanguine antici- 
 pation of achievements still more brilliant and successful. For this 
 purpose, he was invested with almost unlimited control over the per- 
 sons and property of the subjects. But this arbitrary enforcement, 
 which had well-nigh proved fruitless, when the first grand enterprise 
 depended on its efficiency, was now needless for the furtherance ol 
 
 * "For Castile and for Leon 
 
 Columbus found a New World." 
 
 YoL. m.— 4 
 
50 AMERICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 an undertaking already so prosperously begun. The only difiiculty 
 was in selecting from the host of ardent volunteers, who, moved 
 by cupidity for wealth, ambition for fame, or zeal for conversion, 
 thronged eagerly to join their fortunes to the enterprise. "Here- 
 upon," says Galvano, "there grewe such a common desire of trauaile 
 among the Spanyards that they were ready to leape into the sea to 
 swim, if it had been possible, to those new found parts." . 
 
 With remarkable promptitude, seventeen vessels were equipped, 
 and loaded with materials for the foundation of a colony. Twelve 
 pious ecclesiastics were provided for the conversion of the natives — 
 an object deeply at heart with the benevolent Isabella. It had been 
 intended that only a thousand persons should embark in the expe- 
 dition; but by stealth, importunity, or favour, at least fifteen hun- 
 dred got on board. The multitudes of disappointed applicants who 
 thronged the shores and watched the departing sails, regarded them 
 as the most fortunate of mortals. On the 25th of September, 1493, 
 with all his honours confirmed and augmented, and with the happi- 
 est auspices of success, Columbus set sa^, with favourable breezes 
 from the harbour of Cadiz. The commencement of this voyage, and 
 the busy days which preceded it, were undoubtedly the happiest of 
 his life. For one brief interval, the brilliant sunshine of prosperity 
 shone fairly on a life clouded, almost throughout its duration, by per- 
 secution, misfortune, or neglect. 
 
 At the Canary islands, with a provident forethought, which added 
 greatly to the future wealth and comforts of the ISTevv World, the 
 admiral took on board a variety of live stock, and a quantity of the 
 most useful plants and seeds; and then, on the 13th of October, once 
 more launched forth into the Atlantic, now by his genius and bold- 
 ness for ever divested of its ancient imaginary terrors. The wind 
 was propitious and the fleet sped rapidly westward — keeping a course, 
 however, rather more to the southward than in the former voyage, 
 with a view to effecting fresh discoveries on its way. On Sunday, 
 the 3d of November, the lofty peaks of Dominica (so named in 
 honour of its discovery on the Lord's Day,) were hailed with shouts 
 of exultation. With a gentle breeze, the fleet swept onward into 
 that splendid archipelago, whose summer islands unite every beauty 
 and variety of tropical and mountainous scenery. One of these, at 
 which the admiral touched, is still called Marigalante, after the name 
 of his ship. 
 
 On the 4th, he landed at Guadaloupe, where the natives fled in alarm 
 
t 
 
t" ■ 
 
HE SPANIAEDS IN AMERICA. 51 
 
 from the footsteps of the white men, leaving their villages deserted. 
 In their huts, which were neat and comfortable, the Spaniards found 
 various ingenious implements, and to secure the good-will of the 
 fugitives, bound hawk's-bells and other trinkets upon the children, 
 which, in their hasty flight, had been left behind. The visitors, 
 however, ere long, were horrified at discovering numerous human 
 remains, such as skulls converted into drinking vessels and other 
 domestic utensils. " Our men," says a contemporary, "found in their 
 houses all kinds of earthen vessels, not much vnlike unto ours. 
 They found also in their kytchens, mans flesh, duckes flesh, & goose 
 3esh, all in one pot, and other on the spits ready to be layd to the 
 fire. Entring into their inner lodginges, they found faggot tes of 
 the bones of mens armes and legges, which they reserue to make 
 heades for their arrowes, because they lack iron, the other bones 
 they cast away when they have eaten the flesh. They found like- 
 wise the head of a yong man fastened to a post, and yet bleeding." 
 These people were the Caribs, a fierce race of cannibals, of whom 
 the Spaniards had heard on the former voyage, and from whom the 
 islands and the adjacent sea still take their name. The accounts of 
 their enormities were received with lively interest in Europe, as con- 
 firming the reality of cannibalism, which by many had been sup- 
 posed a mere figment of poetry, engendered in the lively imaginations 
 of the ancient Greek writers. 
 
 At this island the fleet was detained for several days, awaiting the 
 return of nine mariners, who had straggled into the woods, and did 
 not regaih the ships until half starved. Weighing anchor on the 
 10th, the admiral stood for Hispaniola, discovering numerous islands 
 on the way. At Santa Cruz, some of his people became engaged in 
 a fight with a party of Caribs, who, in a canoe, defended themselves 
 with the utmost desperation, killing one of their assailants. The 
 chief person was an Indian queen, of extraordinary courage and 
 fierceness, who, with her son, ("a young man strongly made, of a 
 terrible and frowning countenance, and a Lion's face,") was finally 
 made prisoner. " When they were brought into the admirall's shippe,^ 
 proceeds the old narrative, "they did no more put off their fierce- 
 nes and cruell countenances than do the Lions of Lybia when they 
 perceiue themselues to bee bound in chaynes. There is no man able 
 to behold them, but he shall feele his bo wells grate with a certayne 
 horrour, nature hath endued them with so terrible menacing and 
 cruell aspect." 
 
52 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 CHAPTEH ?. 
 
 ^ERIYAL OP THE PLEET AT HAITI. THE DESTRUCTION OP LA 
 
 NAYIDAD. — CITY OP ISABELLA POUNDED. — EXPEDITIONS 
 
 TO THE INTERIOR. — SUP PERING SAND DISCONTENT OP THE 
 
 COLONISTS. — EXPEDITION OP COLUMBUS TO THE WEST. 
 
 — DISCOYERY OP JAMAICA. INTERCOURSE WITH THE 
 
 NATIYES.— TEDIOUS COASTING ALONG CUBA. SUP- .' 
 
 POSED TO BE A PORTION OP ASIA. EXTRAORDIN- 
 ARY PROCESS. THE RETURN YOYAGE. 
 
 Still keeping nortli-west^ the fleet discovered and touched at the 
 beautiful island of Boriquen or Porto Kico, and after making further 
 discoveries, by the 22d arrived at the eastern extremity of Hayti. 
 The Indians came off to the ships with their accustomed confidence 
 and friendliness; but terrible misgivings were soon awakened by 
 che discovery of several bodies decaying on the shore, one of which, 
 from its beard, was evidently tha]^ of a Spaniard. On the 27th, in 
 the evening, the voyagers arrived off La Kavidad, and fired cannon 
 as a signal to their friends on shore. Ko salute was given in reply, 
 and all on board remained in a state of grievous suspense, until the 
 arrival of messengers from Guacanagari, during the night, confirmed 
 their worst apprehensions. 
 
 After the departure of Columbus, it would appear, the turbulent 
 and mutinous spirits, whom he had left behind, soon abandoned all 
 restraint, quarrelled with each other, and maltreated the Indians. 
 Eleven of them, athirst for the possession of treasure, had set out for 
 the golden region of Cibao, a region ruled by the fierce Carib Caonabo, 
 who had obtained the sovereignty of that province, and was an object 
 of terror to all the surrounding chieftains. Jealous of the intrusion, 
 he had massacred the adventurers, and then, joining his forces to 
 those of a neighbouring cacique, had stealthily marched to the attack 
 of the fortress. The garrison, surprised in the dead of night, after a 
 vain resistance, were slaughtered to a man ; and the village of Gua- 
 canagari, who faithfully stood by his guests, was burned to the ground. 
 These disastrous tidings were confirmei^ by the scene, which the 
 morning light revealed to the eyes of the Spaniards. The fortress 
 lay in ruins, and the Indian village in ashes. Guacanagari was found 
 
THE SPANIARDS IN AMERICA. 53 
 
 suffering from a wound received in tlie contest, and shed tears over 
 the misfortunes of his allies and his people. Several of the latter 
 were wounded, evidently by Indian weapons. 
 
 Despite these confirmatory circumstances, many of the Spaniards 
 doubted the truth of the tale, and insisted that Guacanagari himself 
 had shared in the destruction of his visitors. Father Boyl, the chief 
 of the friars, advised his immediate execution. But Columbus, 
 believing him innocent, exchanged presents with their accustomed 
 friendliness and invited him aboard ship. The chieftain and his 
 people were again filled with amazement at the new and marvellous 
 productions of the old world, or, as they still supposed, of the distant 
 realms of heaven ; and gazed with especial wonder on the horses, 
 now for the first time beheld by Indian eyes. But he saw that to 
 many he was an object of suspicion and hostility, and by refusing to 
 wear the cross, he increased the ill-will of the more fanatical. Soon 
 afterwards, he retreated into the mountains, taking with him some 
 Indian women, whom the Spaniards had captured on their way, and 
 whom he succeeded in enticing from the ships. 
 
 Leaving this ill-omened neighbourhood, on the 7th of December, 
 the governor weighed anchor, and proceeded in quest of a more 
 favourable location for his settlement. About ten leagues east of 
 the lofty promontory which he named Monte Christi, adverse winds 
 compelled him to put into a harbor. The place presented great nat- 
 ural advantages, as well for building as fortification. Two rivera 
 flowed into it, and the golden mountains of Cibao lay but a moderate 
 distance in the interior. Here, therefore, he determined to lay the 
 foundations of a city, and, in honour of his magnanimous patroness, 
 to name it Isabella. All hands, accordingly, were speedily busied in 
 the work of disembarking stores and materials for building; streets 
 and squares were laid out; a church, a public magazine, and a house 
 for the governor, were constructed of stone ; and numerous wooden 
 buildings, for the shelter of the settlers, were speedily erected. 
 
 But the change of climate and unaccustomed toil soon wrought 
 their work on the frames of this over-sanguine multitude. Columbus 
 himself was prostrated with illness ; but in some measure to satisfy 
 the disappointed expectants of immediate wealth, resolved to des- 
 patch an expedition to the interior, to survey its resources, and to 
 lay open the way to the anticipated region of treasure. Alonzo de 
 Ojeda, a young cavalier distinguished for daring and activity, was 
 put in command of a small force, well armed and resolute, with 
 
54 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 which, early in January, 1494, he set forth for the interior The 
 task of exploration proved difficult from the forests and mountains 
 through which their course lay; but they were received, as usual, 
 with much kindness at the Indian villages, and were elated at find- 
 ing in the sands of the mountain torrents glittering particles of the 
 coveted ore. Having been absent for a number of days, they 
 returned with encouraging reports. 
 
 Eeassured by these favourable tidings, Columbus now dispatched 
 to Spain twelve of his vessels, with specimens of the gold and the 
 natural productions of the island, and a number of Caribs whom he 
 had captured in his cruise among the Cannibal Islands. These 
 pagans, he requested, might be instructed in Spanish and Christianity, 
 and thus become useful as missionaries and interpreters among their 
 anthropophagan brethren. Further to promote the work of conver- 
 sion, he proposed to establish a regular trade with the mother-country, 
 by which live stock might be furnished to the colony in exchange for 
 a regular supply of cannibals, duly to be caught and sent home for 
 their spiritual good and the merely incidental value of their services 
 as slaves. This notable scheme, (by which, it was believed, "a vast 
 number of souls would be snatched from perdition and carried as it 
 were by main force to heaven,") fell through, from the benevolent 
 disapprobation of the queen. 
 
 Hardly had the vessels taken their departure, when the impatient 
 colonists, dispirited by work and sickness, and disappointed in their 
 golden hopes, began to exhibit signs of mutiny and a desire to aban- 
 don the settlement. A scheme for seizing the ships was detected by 
 the vigilance of the governor. A slanderous memorial against him 
 was found concealed in one of the buoys. The chief ringleader was 
 sent home to Spain, and others were moderately punished; but 
 enmities and resentments were awakened against the admiral, readily 
 obnoxious as a foreigner, which were destined greatly to thwart and 
 embarrass his future undertakings. On recovering from his illness, 
 his energetic spirit at once found employment in the task of explora- 
 tion. Leaving his brother Diego in command of the town, he set 
 forth, on the 12th of March, with four hundred men, well armed 
 and equipped, for the interior. Crossing the beautiful Yega Eeal, 
 or Eoyal Plain, and every where received with wondering curiosity 
 and unbounded hospitality by the Indians, the expedition finally 
 entered the rugged passes of Cibao, or the " Eegion of Stones," through 
 which the heavy armed soldiers toiled with difficulty, though con* 
 
THE STANIAEDS IN AMERICA. 
 
 55 
 
 soled for the hardships of the way by the sight of golden particles 
 glistening amid the sands of the streams. The most flattering 
 accounts were given by the natives of treasures locked up still deeper 
 in the recesses of the mountains — ^lumps of gold, they said, were to 
 be found as big as an orange, or even as large as the head of a child. 
 
 Having marched eighteen leagues, mostly through a rugged and 
 difficult country, Columbus halted his forces, dispatching a small 
 party to make further exploration, and employing the remainder in 
 the erection of a fortress. His scouts brought back favourable reports 
 of the wealth of the country, and leaving fifty-six men, under com- 
 mand of Pedro Margarite, at the new post, he took his way to Isa- 
 bella, where he arrived after an absence of seventeen days. Here, 
 much to his satisfaction, he found the European plants, which he 
 had committed to the earth, flourishing with remarkable exuberance. 
 "Wheat came to perfecton in a little more than two months from the 
 sowing, and the sugar canes, destined in these islands, at no distant 
 day, to supply the markets of half the world, had thriven most 
 kindly in the virgin soil and tropical climate of Hayti. 
 
 But the influences so benign and propitious to vegetation, were 
 falling with deadly and withering effect on the frames of the colo • 
 nists, as yet unacclimated to the dangerous atmosphere of the island. 
 Fevers and other tropical maladies prevailed ; and that malign dis- 
 order, the terror of licentiousness, contracted from the natives, filled 
 the hearts of the Spaniards with a novel affright and dismay. De- 
 spite these unfavourable circumstances, the governor pushed on his 
 plans; the work of building and cultivatioii went forward; but by 
 compelling the hidalgos and cavaliers in • his train to share in the 
 labours of the infant settlement, he awakened enmities which exer- 
 cised an unfavourable influence on his interests at court. Short 
 allowance became necessary, and Father Boyl, with his ghostly con- 
 federates, was aggrieved and disgusted at being included in the gen- 
 eral order for stinted rations. Many of the unfortunate colonists 
 perished from diseases incident to the climate, aggravated by unac- 
 customed labour, and by change and insufiiciency of diet. 
 
 The ill-conduct of the garrison of the inland fortress of St. Thomas 
 soon provoked the enmity of the Indians, and tidings came that the 
 fierce Caonabo was preparing another attack on the invaders of his 
 country. To refresh the colonists by change of air, as well as to 
 over-awe and conciliate the natives, Columbus now prepared a second 
 grand expedition. Ojeda, with four hundred men, was sent to the 
 
66 ^ AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 fortress, with directions to assume tlie command, while Margarite, 
 with the army, was to make fresh surveys of the country, visiting 
 the various caciques for the purpose of securing their good-will, as 
 well as displaying the power of the Spaniards. Caonabo and his 
 brothers were, if possible, to be secured, and any injuries com- 
 mitted by the Indians were to be summarily punished; but strict 
 injunctions were given that the natives, in general, should be treated 
 in the mildest and most conciliatory manner, and that no provisions 
 should be taken from them wdthout a proper compensation. But 
 these just and politic instructions were little heeded by the rude 
 spirits once freed from his personal control. The expedition, on the 
 9th of April, left Isabella. 
 
 Eager to pursue his more congenial vocation of maritime discovery, 
 Columbus now delegated his authority as governor to his brother 
 Diego, with a council, and on the 24th of April, 1494, with the Nina 
 and two other small caravels, set forth on a new voyage of explora- 
 tion. Steering to the westward, he soon fell in with Cuba and coasted 
 along its southern shore, enjoying, wherever he landed, the most kind 
 and hospitable treatment from the native inhabitants. A great island, 
 they informed him, lying to the southward, was rich in gold ; and 
 therefore, on the 8d of May, he again turned his prow in quest of 
 the ever-fleeting Babeque. The lofty summit of Jamaica soon rose 
 above the horizon, and two days' sailing brought him to its shores. 
 The people of this island, brave and warlike, at first opposed the 
 landing of the strangers, assailing them from their canoes, and hurl- 
 ing their javelins, in great numbers, from the beach. They were 
 put to flight, however, by the superiority of European weapons, and 
 the admiral, landing, took possession of the island, which he named 
 Santiago — a name, indeed, which has proved unable to supplant the 
 beautiful original. The Indians, with their usual placability, were 
 soon on good terms with the victors ; and the little squadron, as it 
 coasted along, was continually surrounded with their canoes. One 
 of these, hollowed from a single tree, probably the Ceiba, was ninety- 
 six feet in length, and eight in breadth. These people seemed more 
 ingenious and industrious than any yet seen by the Europeans. 
 
 Finding no gold in Jamaica, Columbus again took his way to 
 Cuba, where he found the curiosity and reverence of the natives 
 highly excited by the reports of those who had already met the 
 expedition. They knew of no end, they said, to the land in which 
 they dwelt, and he therefore supposed it to be a portion of the main- 
 
THE SPANIAEDS IN AMERICA. 57 
 
 land of Asia. Proceeding westward, lie pushed his way, with much 
 danger and difficulty, through the intricate navigation of thai beau- 
 tiful archipelago, which he named the Queen's Garden, and which 
 he supposed to be the same as that described by his favourite author. 
 Finally, gaining the open sea, he again landed, on the 3d of June, 
 and held intercourse with the natives. Their reports confirmed his 
 error, and even inspired his mind with hopes that he was in th^ 
 neighbourhood of that fabulous potentate, the renowned Prester 
 John, with whom it had been the fruitless aim of so many sover- 
 eigns to communicate. With sanguine hopes, he pressed on, meet- 
 ing the kindest reception from the inhabitants of the coast, who 
 thronged with delight about his vessel. He supposed that by keep- 
 ing along the shore, he should, ere long, arrive at the Gulf of the 
 Ganges and the Arabian Sea, and thence pass to the straits of Babel- 
 mandel. He even conceived the daring project, with his little fleet 
 of open vessels, of coasting around Africa, triumphing over the rival 
 Portuguese, and enrolling his name as the first circumnavigator of 
 the globe. 
 
 But this splendid design, had his theory been correct, must have 
 fallen through from the inefficient state of his command. The car- 
 avels were wretchedly leaky and sea-worn. His provisions had 
 nearly given out. The navigation had again become perilous, and 
 intricate in the extreme, the coast consisting of low swamps and vast 
 thickets of mangroves, and being covered, far and near, with shoals 
 and archipelagos of innumerable islands. The crews, worn out by 
 toil and exposure, earnestly remonstrated against proceeding further. 
 Columbus reluctantly admitted the necessity of return ; but to authen- 
 ticate his supposed ascertainment of the locality, took a singular 
 precaution. Being, it is supposed, somewhere near the Bay of Phil- 
 ippine., all hands were solemnly questioned, before a notary public, 
 as to their opinion of the coast they had surveyed. Prompted by 
 a desire for return, and probably placing implicit faith in the judg- 
 ment of their commander, the whole command, including several 
 experienced geographers and navigators, unanimously concluded, 
 that the land they had so long followed was no other than the coast 
 of Asia ; and the notary proclaimed grievous penalties against any 
 who should afterwards recant his opinion. 
 
 At the time of this extraordinary process, Columbus was so near the 
 western extremity of the island, that two or three days' sail would have 
 brought him to the Gulf of Mexico. To the day of his death, he firmly 
 
58 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 believed that Cuba was the eastern projection of the continent of Asia. 
 On the 13th of June, he turned his prow to the eastward, and ere long 
 discovered the Isle of Pines, which he named Evangelista. The re- 
 turn voyage, retarded by storms and contrary winds, occupied three 
 months, during which much friendly intercourse was held with the 
 natives of Cuba and Jamaica. It was not until the last of Septem- 
 ber that the squadron regained Isabella ; Columbus, epchausted by 
 five months of continual anxiety, watching and exposure, being car- 
 ried ashore completely insensible, and apparently at the point of death. 
 
 CHAPTER ?L 
 
 MISCONDUCT OF THE SPANIARDS IN HAYTI. HOSTILITIES 
 
 OP THE INDIANS. — THEIR DEPEAT AND ENSLAVEMENT. 
 INJURIOUS TREATMENT OP COLUMBUS. — APPOINT- 
 MENT OP AGUADO. THEIR RETURN TO SPAIN. 
 
 During- the protracted absence of their commander, the mutinous 
 colonists, relieved from the weight of his personal authority, had 
 fallen into much license and anarchy. Margarite, instead of fulfilling 
 the duties of his important mission, by visiting the caciques, concili- 
 ating the doubtful and overawing the inimical, had only sought the 
 gratification of his own self-importance and licentiousness. His peo- 
 ple were not slow to follow his example; and the natives, with alarm 
 and disgust, beheld their provisions, their little stock of gold, and 
 their women, forcibly wrested from them by those whom, so little 
 time before, they had welcomed as visitors from the celestial regions. 
 Diego Columbus, wanting sufficient energy, had been unable to re- 
 press these disorders; and finally Margarite and Father Boyl, hav- 
 ing plunged the whole colony into trouble, seized certain of the ships^ 
 and, with their faction, dreading the return of the admiral, left hast- 
 ily for Spain. The army, abandoned by its leader, roved through 
 the country, committing all manner of outrages on the Indians, ana 
 exciting their implacable enmity against the Europeans. 
 
 The island of Hayti, at this time, was divided into five native 
 principalities or kingdoms, each ruled by a separate cacique, to whom 
 all inferior chieftains in his district paid submission. That of Marien, 
 
V 
 
 THE SPANIAEDS IX AMERICA. 59 
 
 in the northern part of the island, and surrounding the settlement 
 of Isabella, was held by Guacanagari, the former friend of Columbus. 
 Over the beautiful Yega Eeal, or Eojal Plain, the richest portion of 
 the island, ruled a powerful chief called Guarionex. The province 
 of Xaragua, including the lake of that name, in the west, was gov- 
 erned by Behechio. Cotubanama held sway over the territory of 
 Higuey, in the east, and the dreaded Caonabo ruled over Maguana, 
 including the golden mountains of Cibao. The population of the 
 island is said, perhaps with exaggeration, to have amounted to a 
 million of souls. 
 
 Those people, though, for the most part, placable and unwarlike, 
 now, offended by repeated injuries, had commenced reprisals; and 
 though not venturiug on any open attack, had cut off stragglers, in 
 one instance to the number of ten, and otherwise harassed the intrud- 
 ers. Caonabo alone, deeming the time propitious, and remembering 
 his triumph at La Navidad, ventured on overt warfare. He marched, 
 with a great force, against the fortress of St. Thomas, where Ojeda 
 was stationed with only fifty Spaniards; but the latter, strongly for- 
 tified, made a gallant defence, and after a siege lasting thirty days, 
 the Indians, weary of the attempt, at last broke up and dispersed to 
 their homes. Their indomitable cacique, still bent on the destruc- 
 tion of the invaders, now applied all his energies to form a general 
 confederacy against the common enemy. All the caciques returned 
 favourable answers, except Guacanagari, who remained faithful to 
 his white allies, and who, in consequence, was exposed to fresh attack 
 and depredation from the neighbouring powers. 
 
 Such was the condition of affairs, distracted by domestic sedition 
 and menaced by native hostility, when Columbus, prostrated by dan- 
 gerous illness, was borne into the harbour of Isabella. The worst 
 consequences might have ensued, but for the circumstance that his 
 brother Bartholomew, a man of stern and energetic character, for 
 many years the sharer of his hopes and disappointments, during his 
 absence, had arrived at the port, in command of a small squadron 
 freighted with supplies. Incapacitated by illness from directing the 
 aftairs of the colony, Columbus conferred on this brother the office 
 of Adelantado or lieutenant-governor — an office for which he was 
 eminently qualified, and his appointment to which was clearly within 
 the scope of the admiral's authority — ^but a measure regarded with 
 deep distrust by the jealous Ferdinand, and doubtless injurious to 
 his interests at the court of Spain. 
 
60 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 The new deputy took vigorous measures for tlie defence of tlie 
 colony and its restoration to order. A hostile force of the Indians 
 was defeated, with much loss, and a new fortress was erected in the 
 Vega. Caonabo, the inveterate enemy of the whites, was secured 
 by an extraordinary piece of craft and audacity practised by Ojeda. 
 That redoubted cavalier, with only ten companions, marching for sixty 
 leagues through the forests, suddenly presented himself at the court 
 of the savage chieftain. The latter, charmed with his boldness, 
 received him well, and even agreed to accompany him to the settle- 
 ment. They set forth, accordingly, with a large force of warriors, 
 and on the way, the wily Spaniard, under pretence of ornament, 
 contrived to fasten on the wrists of his companion a pair of brilliant 
 steel shackles. Having induced the fettered cacique to mount behind 
 him, he gave spurs to his horse, and after a difficult march, succeeded 
 in bringing his prize safely to the settlement. The fierce captive, 
 undaunted by his misfortune, maintained a bold and haughty de- 
 meanour, even to the admiral, and boasted of the destruction of La 
 Navidad. Ojeda, indeed, he treated with high respect, admiring, with 
 true savage appreciation, the audacious trick by which he had been 
 entrapped. One of his brothers, a brave and able warrior, resolved 
 to effect his release, raised a force of several thousand men, with 
 which he marched against the Spanish settlement ; but these unclad 
 and feebly-armed numbers were unable to withstand the unwonted 
 terrors of cavalry and musketry, and were defeated, with much 
 slaughter, by Ojeda. 
 
 In the autumn (1494), much to the relief of the colony, four ves- 
 sels arrived from Spain, bringing supplies, and also a considerable 
 number of mechanics and husbandmen. On their return, Columbus 
 sent home a considerable quantity of gold, and, in accordance with 
 the barbarous usage of the day, by which all infidels and pagans 
 were held as proper subjects for oppression, five hundred Indian 
 captives, for sale in the slave-market of Seville. To the honour of 
 Isabella, on their arrival, she countermanded the order for their sale, 
 and directed that they should be returned to their homes — dispatch- 
 ing at the same time, unhappily with little effect, strict orders for 
 kind and conciliatory treatment toward the natives in general. 
 
 Indignant at the captivity of their fellow-sovereign, all the caciques, 
 except Guacanagari, entered into a fresh and formidable confederacy 
 against the Spaniards. In March, 1495, a great force, sufficient, it 
 was thought, to overwhelm the feeble settlements of the whites, 
 
THE SPANIARDS IN AMEEICA. g^ 
 
 mustered not far from Isabella. Columbus, now recovered from Ma 
 illness, with Bartholomew, at the head of only two hundred men, the 
 whole available force of the colony, marched forth to give them bat- 
 tle. The disparity of force was less than might be supposed, for his 
 men were armed to the teeth, after the European fashion, and were 
 provided with horses and bloodhounds — both objects of especial 
 terror to the Indians. He fell in with the ill- arrayed and undisci- 
 plined masses of the enemy, near the site of the town of St. Jago; 
 and by a skilful manoeuvre, at once succeeded in throwing them 
 into confusion. A charge of cavalry had its usual effect; and the 
 ferocious bloodhounds, the disgrace of Spanish warfare, springing in 
 their midst, and tearing their half-clad bodies, completed the defeat. 
 Many were slain, and many more made prisoners; and the Indian 
 army, seized with a panic, broke up, and took refuge in the mount- 
 ains. The power of the confederacy was completely overthrown. 
 Guacanagari, who. had taken part with the Spaniards, unable to 
 endure the general hatred of his countrymen, betook himself to a 
 solitary place, where he perished of mortification and remorse. 
 
 Nearly the whole island, after this decisive action, submitted to 
 the victors; and Columbus, marching through the country, dictated 
 conditions of peace to the vanquished caciques, severe in the extreme. 
 Fortresses were erected in their several provinces ; and to supply the 
 heavy tribute demanded by the conqueror, their people, in effect, 
 were reduced to complete slavery. Each native over the age of 
 fourteen, was compelled to furnish, every three months, a hawk's- 
 bell filled with gold dust — these tinkling toys, which, so little before, 
 had charmed them as the gifts of heaven, being, by a pitiful coinci- 
 dence, selected as the measure of their toil and enslavement. The 
 admiration which we feel for the genius and the virtues of Colum- 
 bus is most unpleasantly checked by the remembrance of his sever- 
 ities toward those who had welcomed him with such kindness to 
 their shores, and whose feeble enmity had been excited only by 
 repeated wrong and outrage. He was a man, undoubtedly, in advance 
 of his time in liberality and humanity; but, desirous to substantiate 
 the importance of his discoveries, and to keep up his credit with the 
 court by the transmission of treasure, charged his conscience with the 
 enslavement of a whole people — a light charge, he may have thought, 
 in that day of intolerance and cruelty, when unbelievers were held 
 to have no rights at all, or, if any, only to the dry exchange of their 
 corporal services for the priceless opportunity of conversion. 
 
62 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 The careless indolence and the genial dependence on propitious 
 nature, which heretofore had made the happiness of these simple 
 people, was now for ever at an end. Their slender frames, unaccus- 
 tomed to toil, were exhausted by the weary task of searching the 
 sands of their rivulets for a scanty pittance of gold, or of raising food 
 and cotton for the use of their taskmasters. Vainly hoping, by neg- 
 lecting these supplies, to induce their oppressors to depart, they 
 finally abandoned their homes and plantations, and took refage 
 among the mountains. Thither their masters pursued them, to 
 enforce a return to their labours. They wandered from one retreat 
 to another, vainly attempting to elude the vigilance of their merciless 
 pursuers. Many thousands perished of exposure and starvation, and 
 the remainder, despairing of escape, returned, and once more submit- 
 ted to the commands of their conquerors. 
 
 While these affairs wcbc going on, the malcontents who had 
 returned to Spain, filled the ears of the court with clamorous com- 
 plaints or whispered slanders, fatal to the credit of Columbus. His 
 rights were infringed by permitting others to fit out expeditions in 
 the same direction, and a commissioner was appointed to investigate 
 the affairs of Hispaniola. Juan Aguado, the person intrusted with 
 this delicate mission, and a man whom Columbus had much obliged, 
 set sail with four vessels, freighted with supplies, and in October, 
 1495, while the governor was absent in the interior, arrived at the 
 port of Isabella. Mindless of former obligations, and eager to exer- 
 cise his authority, he commenced with indecent haste his task of 
 intermeddling — collecting every species of questionable evidence, and 
 lending a ready ear to the voice of complaint or calumny. * Colum- 
 bus, to avert this hostile influence, prepared to return with the com- 
 missioner, to defend his character and his rights in person. Their 
 departure was delayed by a terrific hurricane, which ravaged the 
 island in a fearful manner, and destroyed every vessel in port, 
 except the Nina. This delay was advantageous to the admiral, 
 enabling him to return under the favourable auspices of a valuable 
 discovery. A fugitive from the law, by the favour of an Indian 
 woman, with whom he had taken refuge, discovered rich gold mines 
 on the southern coast, and purchased his pardon with the intelligence. 
 Columbus, having confirmed the truth of the tidings, at once con- 
 cluded that these were no other than the mines of Ophir, so famous 
 in the days of King Solomon. 
 
 The Nina was repaired and a new caravel was built; and on the 
 
THE SPANIAEDS IN AMEEICA. gg 
 
 lOth of March, 1496, Columbus and Aguado, witti more than two 
 hundred colonists, desirous of return, set sail in company for Spain. 
 There were also thirty Indians, including Caonabo and his brother. 
 The vessels, detained by head winds, were a whole month in getting 
 to Guadaloupe. They left that island on the 20th of April, and for 
 a month longer tediously beat against the trades. The over-crowded 
 crews, beset by the danger of famine, were put on short allowance, 
 and, but for the stern interposition of Columbus, would have thrown 
 overboard or devoured their unhappy captives. The two chiefs 
 "dyed by the way, for very pensiveness and anguish of minde," and 
 the vessels, on the 10th of June, in miserable plight, entered the bay 
 of Cadiz. 
 
 CHAPTER ?IL 
 
 THE DECLINING PORTUNES OF COLUMBUS. — DIPPICULTT I» 
 FITTING OUT AN EXPEDITION- — SAILS ON HIS THIRD VOY- 
 AGE. — THE DISCOYERY OP SOUTH AMERICA. — EXTRAOR- 
 DINARY THEORY. — COLUMBUS ARRIVES AT HAYTI. — 
 
 DISORDERS THERE. THE REBELLION OP ROLDAN. — 
 
 HOSTILITIES WITH THE INDIANS. THEIR DEFEAT. 
 
 Public opinion, disappointed in the returns of treasure which it 
 had expected, now, with its usual reaction, had turned against 
 Columbus, and put an inferior estimate on his discoveries. Like a 
 man disposed to humour th« caprices of Fortune, or perhaps desirous 
 to propitiate her by humiliation, he now appeared in the homely 
 garb of a Franciscan, girt around with a cord, and his beard long 
 and neglected. His patrons, despite the sinister report of Aguado, 
 received him graciously, and promised that six ships, which he 
 desired for the purpose of extending his explorations, should be 
 placed at his disposal. But the intrigues of his enemies, and the 
 engrossing interests of European ambition, in which the sovereigns 
 were involved, subjected him to repeated disappointment and delay. 
 The king, prejudiced by slanderous reports, and jealous of the great 
 powers he had conferred, began to look coldly on him ; but Isabella 
 stood his firm friend, and, as far as she could, protected his interests 
 
64 AMEEICA ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 against the rapacity of rival aspirants. She even offered to create 
 him duke, with an extensive principality in Hispaniola ; but, fearing 
 to excite fresh envy, he declined the tempting proposal. 
 
 The difficulty experienced in fitting out the desired expedition, 
 and the reluctance of adventurers to embark, formed a striking con- 
 trast with the display of royal favour and popular enthusiasm, which 
 had marked his last departure from the shores of Spain. The 
 intrigues of Fonseca, the superintendent of Indian affairs, and his 
 secret enemy, produced delays intolerable to his eager and adventur- 
 ous spirit; and the alarm excited by the reports of the disappointed 
 refugees, withheld volunteers from hastily embarking on a doubtful 
 expedition. Arbitrary orders were finally issued for the impress- 
 ment of vessels and their crews; and to supply the deficiency in the 
 required number of colonists, resort was had to the miserable expe- 
 dient of embarking convicts and other ill characters for the settle- 
 ment of the islands. It was not until the 80th of May, 1498, that 
 Columbus, with six vessels, set sail from the port of San Lucar, on 
 his third voyage to the New World. 
 
 Touching at the Canaries, he dispatched three of his vessels, 
 freighted with supplies, for the use of the colony, and with the re- 
 mainder, on the 5th of June, again took his departure, steering 
 south-west, that he might make the shores of Asia (as he supposed), 
 in the neighbourhood of the equator. This course, ere long, led 
 him into that terrible region of heat and dead atmosphere, extend- 
 ing for several degrees on both sides of the line, and known to navi- 
 gators as "the calm latitudes." It seemed as if the old fables of the 
 torrid zone were to be verified, for, (says an ancient writer) "hee 
 was so vexed with maladies and heate, that his shippes were almost 
 set on fire." The tar boiled from the seams, the casks shrank and 
 fell to pieces, the provisions spoiled, and the crews were withered 
 and prostrated by the heat. By the time he emerged from this bale- 
 ful region into cooler waters and more favourable breezes, the squad- 
 ron was in such a condition that it was necessary to seek land as 
 speedily as possible. Accordingl}^, having steered westward a long 
 time without seeing land, he headed more to the north in search of 
 the Carribean islands. There was only a single cask of water in 
 each vessel, when, on the 31st of July, land was seen from the 
 mast-head. 
 
 The admiral had piously resolved to call the first land he should 
 fall in with after the most Holy Trinity; and that before him oon- 
 
THE SPANIARDS IN AMERICA. 
 
 65 
 
 sisting of three mountainous summits, he regarded the coincidence 
 as a special providence, and accordingly, with much solemnity, be- 
 stowed on it the title of La Trinidad — the title which it still retains. 
 The voyagers coasted along this beautiful island, delighted with the 
 scenery, the climate, and the rustic dwellings of men which they 
 perceived on its shores. The natives, a fair and handsome race, 
 came around the ships in their canoes, but could not be induced to 
 venture on board. On the 1st of August, the explorers made what 
 they supposed to be another island, lying south, but which was in 
 reality a part of the South American continent. Passing the dan- 
 gerous strait which separates the island from the main-land, and 
 which he called "Boca de la Sierpe," (Mouth of the Serpent,) Colum- 
 bus entered the Gulf of Paria. 
 
 As he advanced, the water grew fresher, and he justly concluded 
 that streams so copious as to affect such an expanse of sea could 
 only be the outpouring of a continent. An extraordinary theory 
 now took possession of his mind. The climate, although in a lati- 
 tude so near the equator, was mild and refreshing — a circumstance 
 for which he could account only by supposing that his ships, under 
 the steady and favourable influence of the trades, had gradually 
 ascended an acclivity leading to a portion of the earth's surface ele- 
 vated above the rest. The summit of this wonderful eminence 
 approaching the purer region of the heavens, he concluded, could 
 be no other than the original Garden of Eden, the Terrestrial Para- 
 dise, sought so long in vain by curious geographers and travellers; 
 and the pure streams around him, freshening the ocean wave, had 
 doubtless flowed from the Eiver of Life, still springing from its 
 fountain by the Tree of Knowledge. This extraordinary theory, 
 (quite in accordance, however, with the genius of the age,) Columbus, 
 in a long and elaborate disquisition, urged upon the court of Spain 
 — fortifying his conclusion with copious extracts from the Scriptures, 
 from the saints and fathers, from the writings of heathen philoso- 
 phers, and of the learned of his own day. 
 
 Sailing westward, he found the sea shallower, and by a light expe- 
 dition, verified the existence of a continent and of great rivers which 
 it poured into the ocean. The natives, whom he encountered on the 
 northern shore, were fair in appearance, and of a frank and martial 
 demeanour. They received the Spaniards with profound reverence, 
 and readily parted with their ornaments of pearl, which had attracted 
 the cupidity of their visitors. Turning eastward, the admiral passed 
 
 70L. in.— 5 
 
QQ AMEEICA ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 out of tlie gulf by its northern outlet, a narrow and tumultuous 
 Btrait, to whicli, on account of its perils, he gave the name of "Boca 
 del Dragon," (Mouth of the Dragon). Soon after, he discovered the 
 the islands of Margarita and Cubagua, famous for their pearls, and 
 would doubtless have prosecuted farther his search for the Terrestrial 
 Paradise, but for a painful disease of the eyes, rendering him inca- 
 pable of observation. Altering his course to the north-west, in five 
 days' sailing, he made the island of Hispaniola, and by the 80th of 
 August, came to the river Ozema, near the lately-discovered gold 
 district. Age, exposure, and constant anxiety, as before, had done 
 their work, and he came into port suffering grievously from a com- 
 plication of maladies. 
 
 During the absence of the governor, his brother Bartholomew - 
 whom he had left in comnaand of the colony, had displayed great 
 energy and judgment in conducting its affairs; but the disorderly 
 elements of which, for the most part, it was composed, had proved 
 too turbulent and refractory even for his vigorous rule. His admin- 
 istration, indeed, commenced auspiciously. He founded the city of 
 St. Domingo, on the Ozema, near the new mines, and skilfully ap- 
 plied himself to developing the resources of the country. He made 
 a visit to Behechio, the powerful cacique of Xaragua, who, with his 
 subjects, received him with much kindness and hospitality. These 
 kindly people left no means untried to cheer and divert their visitors, 
 and for their amusement performed their national games and tour- 
 naments, fighting with such spirit, that numbers were slain or 
 wounded. The cacique readily acknowledged the "sovereignty of the 
 Spanish authorities, and agreed to pay a large tribute of cotton and 
 other valuable produce; for his country afforded no gold. "There 
 is something exceedingly affecting in the cheerful and generous spirit 
 which these gentle beings always evinced towards their visitors, until 
 driven into resistance by oppression; and ^he readiness with which 
 they yielded their simple allegiance to the evident superiority of 
 this handful of strangers, proves the ease with which their happiness 
 and the prosperity of the white men might have been reconciled by 
 a humane and considerate policy." 
 
 But while the adelantado was absent on this visit, the brutal and 
 rapacious colonists inflicted such oppressions on the unhappy natives, 
 their serfs and tributaries, that, as we have already mentioned, great 
 numbers took refuge in the mountains, hoping, by this abandonment 
 of their labours, to starve the oppressors into departure. Considera- 
 
THE SPANIAKDS IN AMEEICA. 57 
 
 ble distress ensued, and Bartholemew, on his return, divided tlio 
 malcontents among a chain of military posts which he had established, 
 and also removed a considerable number to St. Domingo. Fresh 
 difficulties were soon occasioned by the bigoted cruelty of the priests, 
 who, to avenge the destruction of some images, in a chapel of the 
 virgin, burned alive, after the merciless custom of their age and order, 
 certain of the subjects of Guarionex. That powerful cacique, indig- 
 nant at this atrocity, set on foot a fresh conspiracy. A general mas- 
 sacre of the Spaniards, to be effected on the day of tribute, was 
 planned, and the Indians of the Yaga, to the number of several 
 thousands, assembled in that beautiful plain. But the adelantado, 
 advised of their scheme, marching by stealth, fell on their quarters 
 in the dead of night, and carried off fourteen of the principal caciques. 
 Two of these were executed, and the Indians, fearing for the others, 
 hastened to submit. Guarionex, in consideration of the great inju- 
 ries which he had received, was, with politic clemency, pardoned by 
 the victor, and peace, for a time, was restored to the island. 
 
 It was much easier, indeed, for the shrewd and vigorous deputy 
 to overawe and conciliate the natives than to maintain authoritj* 
 over the mutinous colonists, by whom he was envied as a foreigner 
 and to whom the wholesome strictness of his rule had rendered him 
 doubly odious. One Francisco Eoldan, a man whom, from the post 
 of a menial in his kitchen, Columbus, discerning his abilities, had 
 raised to the office of alcalde or judge of the island, was the chief 
 mover of sedition. By promises and indulgence, he conciliated a 
 large band of idlers and desperadoes, backed by whom, he set at 
 nought the amiable but feeble rule of Diego, now governor of Isa- 
 bella. Finally, these reprobates, having broken open the public 
 warehouses of that city, and supplied themselves from the contents, 
 took up their march for Xaragua, where, says an author of the day, 
 with fitting indignation, '* this filthy sinke of rebels lined in all kinde 
 of mischiefe, robbing the people, spoyling the countrey, and rauishing 
 both wyves and virgins." The adelantado, having vainly attempted 
 to negotiate with the insurgents, proclaimed them traitors and rebels; 
 but from the inefficiency of the force at his command, was unable to 
 suppress the revolt. 
 
 A fresh conspiracy among the Indians, excited by these wretches, 
 soon occupied his attention, and aroused all his energies. Guarionex, 
 his plans disconcerted, took refuge with Mayonabex, chief of the 
 Ciguayans, who joined him in carrying on a harassing and desultory 
 
68 ' AMERICA I.LLUSTKATED. 
 
 warfare against the whites. The indefatigable Bartholemew, with a 
 small force, made his way into their almost inaccessible mountain 
 fastnesses, defeating a large body of Indians, who opposed him at 
 the passage of a ford, and who, what with paint and the war-whoop, 
 seemed, says the chronicler, "so many deuills incarnat newly broke 
 out of hell." Despite this misfortune, the highland cacique refused 
 to surrender his guest, and when threatened with all the terrors of 
 fire and sword, in event of his obstinacy, replied to the messenger, 
 " Tell the Spaniards that they are bad men, cruel and tyrannical ; 
 usurpers of the territory of others, and shedders of innocent blood ; 
 I have no desire of the friendship of such men. Guarionex is a 
 good man, he is my friend, he is my guest, he has fled to me for 
 refuge, I have promised to protect him, and I will keep my word." 
 But after a long and harassing warfare, the unfortunate caciques, 
 their villages destroyed by fire, were compelled to take refuge among 
 :the cliffs and caves, where, worn out with fatigue and hunger, they 
 were finally captured. Their lives were spared, and the adelantado 
 returned to St. Domingo. 
 
 There, after an absence of two years and a half, Columbus, wearied 
 by toil and exhausted by illness, had just arrived. An infinitude 
 of troubles immediately beset him. The vessels, which he had dis- 
 patched from the Canaries, touching at Xaragua, had afforded the 
 rebels, by means of artifice, a large supply of arms and munitions, 
 and many of the convicts had joined them. Anxious, at all events, 
 to relieve the settlement of this crew of desperadoes, he offered a free 
 passage to Spain to all who desired it, and invited Eoldan, assuring 
 him of safety, to a personal interview. But the latter dispatched an 
 insolent answer ; and so widely had disaffection spread, that the gov- 
 ernor, on mustering his forces, found but a mere handful of men 
 under his flag. He was therefore compelled to send off his ships 
 without them, but wrote to the court, detailing his discoveries, send- 
 ing specimens of gold and pearls, and entreating assistance and 
 countenance. 'The rebels also forwarded a statement of their own, 
 which, backed by men of influence, was highly injurious to his 
 interests at court. 
 
THE SPANIARDS IN AMERICA. Q^ 
 
 GHAPTEH Tin. 
 
 TRIUMPH OP THE REBELS. — COLUMBUS RUINED AT COURT. — 
 APPOINTMENT OP BOBADILLA. HIS INSOLENCE. — COLUM- 
 BUS SENT TO SPAIN IN CHAINS. — SENSATION CP THE 
 NATION. — VERBAL REDRESS. — APPOINTMENT OP OYAN- 
 DO. — FOURTH AND LAST VOYAGE OP COLUMBUS TO 
 THE NEW WORLD. — DESTRUCTION OF HIS ENEMIES 
 
 BY TEMPEST. HIS CRUISE ON THE COASTS OF 
 
 HONDURAS, COSTA RICA, ETC. — SEARCH 
 FOR A STRAIT. — HIS DISAPPOINTMENT. 
 
 Pkejudiced by the representations of his enemies, the sovereigns 
 hesitated to confirm the authority of their governor against the 
 insurgent faction; and he was accordingly compelled to make peace 
 with the rebels on terms dishonourable to his office and to the crown 
 which he represented. Eoldan was reinstated in his post of alcalde, 
 and he and his followers, to quiet their rapacity, received large grants 
 of land, of Indian slaves, and other property and privileges. Co- 
 lumbus would now have returned to Spain, to plead in person his 
 rights and interests, but for a vexatious incident arising from their 
 fresh infringement. Alonzo de Ojeda, his former follower, inflamed 
 by the accounts of his late voyage, had been allowed, by the favour 
 of Fonseca, to fit out an expedition in the same direction. "With 
 him went Amerigo Yespucci, who by a fraudulent claim (made by 
 himself or others in his name) afterwards succeeded in wresting from 
 the true discoverer the glory of conferring a name on the western 
 continent. This expedition, which sailed in May, 1499, guided by 
 the charts of Columbus, had coasted along the shores of South 
 America, and had discovered the Gulf of Venezuela. Touching at 
 various islands, the rapacious commander had kidnapped a store of 
 slaves, and finally, landing in Hispaniola, continued there the same 
 atrocious pursuit. The craft and audacity of Eoldan, whom the 
 governor dispatched against the intruder, compelled him to quit the 
 coast, and, turning his prows to the unprotected islands of the archi- 
 pelago, he made up his living freight, and carried it to the slave- 
 market of Cadii. 
 
 Hardly was this vexatious afiair disposed of, when* a new conspir- 
 
70 AMEEICA ILLPSTEATED. 
 
 acj of the colonists, headed by one Adrian de Moxica, broke out. 
 Columbus, with a few attendants, hastened to the scene, and, com- 
 ing on the insurgents by night, seized the persons of the ringleaders. 
 Moxica was ordered to be hanged on the summit of Fort Concepcion. 
 Hoping, perhaps, to save his own life, he accused some innocent per- 
 sons ; on which the governor, in one of his rare but uncontrollable 
 fits of anger, commanded him to be flung headlong from the battle- 
 ments. The whole revolt was repressed with the utmost sternness 
 and promptitude, and Columbus, a part of the insurgents crushed, and 
 the rest conciliated, began to hope for an opportunity to establish 
 the government on a more stable footing. 
 
 But numerous and powerful enemies, possessing the ear of the 
 court, were continually undermining his reputation ; and troops of 
 discontented vagabonds, shipped from the colony, surrounded the 
 palace, and annoyed its inmates by their clamours for pay, for redress, 
 or for charity. By his pertinacity in enforcing the serfdom of the 
 natives, he had alienated the favour of Isabella, who now ceased to 
 protect his interests; and the jealous Ferdinand, long anxious for a 
 pretext to resume the high dignities which he had unwarily granted, 
 soon found the means to effect his purposes. Columbus had requested 
 that a judge and an umpire, learned in the law, for the purpose of 
 settling disputes, might be sent to the island; and the king, taking 
 advantage of this suggestion, appointed one Francisco Bobadilla, a 
 man of a passionate and vainglorious temper, to this office, provid- 
 ing him with a secret letter, to be produced if the culpability of 
 Columbus should be proved, and conferring on him the supreme 
 authority in the island. 
 
 On the 23d of August, 1500, he arrived at the port of St. Dimingo, 
 where, to his horror and indignation, he beheld the body of a Span- 
 iard hanging to a gibbet on either bank of the river, being those of 
 certain insurgents, executed by order of the governor. Many others 
 were in prison, and on his entrance into the town, he demanded of 
 Diego Columbus, then in command, that they should be delivered 
 over to himself. The latter refusing, he proceeded to church, where, 
 with prodigious pomposity, he read the secret missive of the sover- 
 eigns, and then, with a huge array of malcontents and loiterers, pro- 
 ceeded to the prison. Though no opposition was made, the doughty 
 Knight, provided with scaling-ladders and battering implements, 
 made a ridiculous show of taking it by storm, and made seizure of 
 the prisoners with great assumption of importance. He then took 
 
THE SPANIAEDS IN AMERICA. 7^ 
 
 possession of the house of the absent governor, and seized en all 
 his property; "and, in short, conducted himself with all the insolence 
 and rapacity which might be expected from a man of his character,' 
 whose elevation to office was dependent on his assertion of the guilt 
 of his predecessor." 
 
 Columbus, on hearing of the arrival of Bobadilla, and of certain 
 rash edicts, which, to secure popularity, the latter had issued, wrote 
 a letter of caution to him, supposing that he was imprudently ex- 
 ceeding his powers. The intruder, in reply, asserted the authority 
 he had received, and peremptorily ordered the deposed governor 
 to appear before him. Travelling in a lonely manner, stung to the 
 heart by the ingratitude of his patrons, the injured admiral obeyed; 
 and on his arrival, the vile usurper of his rights, mindless of his 
 age, his dignity, and his great name, ordered him to be ironed like a 
 common felon. This outrage he endured with the calmness of a 
 mind steeled by interior grief against any mere external manifesta- 
 tion of wrong. No word of impatience or resentment escaped him. 
 "Columbus," says his biographer, "could not stoop to deprecate the 
 arrogance of a weak and violent man like Bobadilla. He looked 
 beyond this shallow agent and all his petty tyranny to the sov- 
 ereigns who employed him. It was their injustice and their 
 ingratitude alone that could wound his spirit; and he felt assured 
 that when the truth came to be known, they would blush to find 
 how greatly they had wronged him." His brothers were also 
 arrested, and all were separately confined on board of different 
 vessels, ignorant of the charges against them, while every species 
 of slanderous complaint and corrupt evidence, afforded by such as 
 had felt the strictness of his rule, was greedily received by the 
 new governor. 
 
 In October, 1500, manacled like the vilest of culprits, the most 
 faithful and eminent servant of the Spanish crown was sent home 
 from the island which he had discovered and the city he had founded. 
 The vessel once out at sea, the commander, a man of honour and 
 feeling, would have taken off his irons; but the admiral refused to 
 allow him. "Their majesties," he said, with sternness and gravity, 
 "commanded me by letter to submit to whatever Bobadilla should 
 order in their name; by their authority he has put upon me these 
 chains; I will wear them until they shall order them to be taken off, 
 and I will preserve them afterwards as relics and memorials of the 
 reward of my services." It is said that afterwards they were always 
 
72 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 seen hanging in his cabinet; and he charged that when he died they 
 should be buried with him in the grave.* 
 
 The vessel came into Cadiz, and these disgraceful facts were soon 
 universally known. The nation was shocked and indignant, and the 
 court, eager to rescue itself from obloquy, wrote to Columbus at 
 once, deploring the unhappy results of their mission (which, indeed, 
 they had not anticipated), and inviting him honourably to court. 
 Accordingly, he appeared, with much state and dignity, before the 
 sovereigns at Grranada, and was received with the highest consider- 
 ation. Isabella was moved to tears, and on beholding them, his own 
 fortitude, which unshaken had withstood such rude assaults, gave 
 way, and he fell on his knees before her, speechless from weeping 
 and emotion. Kecovering himself, he entered on an eloquent vindi- 
 cation of his character, and the justice of his administration. He 
 had already written to a friend at court, defending his past career 
 and exposing the injustice of his treatment: "I have been much 
 aggrieved," proceeds this forcible document, ''that a person should 
 be sent out to investigate my conduct, who knew that if the inquest 
 sent home should be of a grave nature, he would remain in the gov- 
 ernment. * * * * * I have been judged as a 
 governor who had been sent to take'charge of a well-regulated city, 
 under the dominion of long-established laws, where there was no 
 danger of every thing running to disorder and ruin ; but I ought to 
 be judged as a captain, sent to subdue a numerous and hostile peo- 
 ple, of manners and religion opposite to ours, living, not in regular 
 towns, but in forests and mountains. It ought to be considered that 
 I have brought all these under subjection to their majesties, giving 
 them dominion over another world, by ^ which Spain, heretofore poor, 
 has suddenly become rich. Whatever errors I may have fallen into, 
 they were not with an evil intention." 
 
 This forcible appeal was not without effect on the minds of the 
 
 * In a letter to the sovereigns, considered authentic, written from the scene of his 
 shipwreck in Jamaica, he assigns a singular reason for this resolve. "Alas!" he 
 exclaims, "piety and justice have retired to their habitations above, and it is a crime 
 to have undertaken and performed too much. * * * Q blessed mother 
 of God, that compassionates the miserable and oppressed, why did not cruel Boba- 
 dilla kill me when he robbed me and my brother of our dearly-purchased gold, and 
 «?ent us to Spain in chains without trial,' crime, or shadow of misconduct? These 
 chains are all the treasures I have, and they shall be buried with me, if I chance to 
 have a coffin or grave ; for I would have the remembrance of so unjust an action perish 
 with me, and for the glory of the Spanish name, he eternally forgotten.''^ 
 
THE SPANIAEDS IN AMERICA. 73 
 
 sovereigns. They promised that Bobadilla should be dismissed from 
 office, and that his honours and dignities, ere long, should be fully 
 restored to Columbus. But this engagement, it is probable, Ferdi- 
 nand, at least, never intended to fulfil. 
 
 The value of his discoveries, and the immense powers v/hich their 
 rule conferred on him, were becoming every day more apparent. 
 Private expeditions, dispatched in infringement of his rights, had 
 demonstrated the existence of immense territories lying in the west- 
 ern ocean. Nino, one of his pilots, in 1499, sailing in a small caravel, 
 had voyaged along much of the northern coast of South America, 
 and had brought home a rich treasure of pearls and gold. Vicente 
 Pinzon, in January of the following year, had crossed the line, made 
 further surveys, and had discovered the mighty river Amazon. 
 Sebastian Cabot, in his voyage of 1497, had ascertained the exist- 
 ence of an extensive continent at the north; and the Portuguese 
 Cabral, sailing for India by the easterly route, had accidentally fallen 
 in with Brazil. All these regions, and those discovered by Colum- 
 bus himself, were, however, still regarded as portions of the coast 
 of Asia or its contiguous islands. The interests of Spain in this 
 newly -found world were regarded by the jealous king, despite his 
 solemn affirmations, as too vast to be entrusted to the fidelity of ^ 
 single subject. 
 
 He promised the admiral that if he would wait for two years, 
 until the troubles of the colony should be quieted by some officer 
 acceptable to all, he should, at the end of that time, be fully rein- 
 stated in all his powers and dignities. With this deceitful assurance 
 Columbus was compelled to appear satisfied ; and Nicholas de Ovando, 
 a man of agreeable manners and of some ability, but mean, rapacious, 
 and cruel in the extreme, was appointed to the supreme command 
 (already, by solemn contract, assured to Columbus) over all lands 
 and islands discovered by Spanish subjects in the New World. It 
 was trusted that by his prudence and authority, and the extraordi- 
 nary outfit which was prepared, he might remedy the disorders pro- 
 duced by the mal-administration of Bobadilla, under whose brief 
 but unprincipled rule, the licentious colonists had plunged in vari- 
 ous excesses, and exercised the crudest tyranny toward the unhappy 
 natives. On the 18th of February, 1501, with thirty sail, carrying 
 twenty -five hundred persons, many of them men of rank and dis- 
 tinction, and bearing the germ of negro slavery, (destined, at a 
 future day, to be the ruin of the island,) Ovando sailed for Hispaniola. 
 
74 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 In a terrible storm, whicli arose just after liis departure, one oi 
 his ships, with an hundred and twenty souls, was swallowed up. 
 The shores of Spain were strewed with articles thrown overboard 
 by the rest; and the sovereigns, in anguish at the supposed loss of 
 the expedition, shut themselves up for many days, incapable of con- 
 solation. But the remainder of the fleet, reassembling at the Cana- 
 ries, held on their course, and in the month of April, arrived at 
 St. Domingo. 
 
 The restless spirit of Columbus, defrauded, for a time, of its con- 
 genial career, endeavoured vainly to engage his patrons in a crusade 
 for the rescue of the Holy Sepulchre ; and failing in this, turned to a 
 scheme more honourable, useful, and suitable to his genius — a scheme 
 for fresh and brilliant discovery. The Portuguese, after many 
 futile attempts, had at last succeeded in reaching India, by doubling 
 Africa, and the value and importance of the newly-opened channel 
 of trade, excited emulation in all rival maritime nations. The admi- 
 ral by this time, had come to the conclusion, that South America 
 was a main-land by itself, lying off the shores of Asia, much in the 
 same manner as the insular continent of Australia does in reality. 
 Cuba he still firmly held to be a portion of the great Eastern Con- 
 tinent; and the impetuous current which flo,ws between them, could 
 issue, he considered, from no other source than the Indian Sea, which 
 discharged its waters into the Atlantic by a strait somewhere in 
 the neighbourhood of what is now known as the isthmus of Darien. 
 This strait, opening, as he supposed, a direct communication with 
 the golden shores of the Orient, he proposed to discover and explore ; 
 and the sovereigns, the precedent for infringing his grants now fully 
 established, willingly lent their countenance to a project for extend- 
 ing their dominions and increasing their wealth, conducted by a man 
 whom experience had shown them to be, of all others, most fitted 
 to the undertaking. He was accordingly permitted to fit out an 
 expedition, and take with him his son Fernando and his brother 
 Bartholomew ; and interpreters, learned in Arabic, were provided to 
 assist in his expected negotiations with the Khan. But the intrigues 
 of his enemies, and especially of Fonseca, as usual, greatly retarded 
 his preparations ; and it was not until the 9th of May, 1502, that, at 
 the age of sixty-six, with a frame broken by hardship and exposure, 
 and a mind depressed by ingratitude and persecution, he set sail from 
 Cadiz, on the last of his voyages of discovery. 
 
 Four small caravels and an hundred and fifty men composed his 
 
THE SPANIARDS IN AMERICA. 
 
 76 
 
 command. On tlie 25t]i lie left the Canaries, and after touching at 
 the Caribbee islands, arrived at St. Domingo, where he trusted to 
 replace one of his vessels, which was nearly unfit for use. But the 
 jealous Ovando, dreading his presence, and fulfilling the selfish com- 
 mands of the sovereigns, ordered him out of the harbour. On this, 
 Columbus, whose maritime experience foretold the approach of a 
 hurricane, entreated the governor at least to delay the sailing of the 
 fleet, which was ready to return to Spain. His warning was unheeded, 
 and he hastened to take refuge in some lonely harbour of the coast. 
 The fleet sailed, and a fearful tempest arose, in which many of the 
 vessels were lost, including the principal ship, in which were Koldan 
 and Bobadilla, with the captive Guarionex, and a great amount of 
 treasure, extorted from the sufferings of the Indians. Only one ves- 
 sel was able to continue the voyage to Spain. 
 
 Narrowly escaping shipwreck, tlje admiral, in July, resumed his 
 voyage in search of the supposed strait, and steering south-west, on 
 the 30th of that month discovered the small island of Guanaja, near 
 the coast of Honduras. Here he fell in with an immense canoe, 
 which had probably come from Yucatan, filled with Indians, who 
 had many ingenious utensils of copper, &c., and who indicated to him 
 a route, which, if followed, would soon have led him to the wealthy 
 provinces lying westward of the Gulf of Mexico. Eager, however, 
 to discover the supposed strait, he passed over to the continent, and 
 doubling Cape Honduras, stood eastward along the coast, leceiving 
 from the natives much kindness and hospitality. For forty days a 
 succession of storms and head-winds retarded the squadron, slowly 
 struggling to the east, and it was not .until the 14:th of September 
 that it rounded Cape Gracias a Dios (so named in gratitude for the 
 final success of the attempt) and stood southward along the Mus- 
 quito coast. 
 
 Along this coast the admiral kept for sixty leagues, losing, by the 
 conflict of stream and tide, a boats' crew in what he called "The 
 Eiver of Disaster," and on the 25th of September, anchored his little 
 fleet, shattered by tempests, in a convenient harbour, between an 
 island and the mainland. A friendly intercourse with the Indians 
 at this place was interrupted by the superstition of both parties — 
 the natives supposing that a notary public, who was ordered to take 
 down their replies, was a magician weaving a spell against them ; 
 whiie a fragrant powder which they burned to dispel the supposed 
 baneful effect of his incantations alarmed the Spaniards in turn, who 
 
76 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 supposed themselves bewitched, and attributed all their ill luck and 
 the storms they had encountered to some Indian enchantment. Co- 
 lumbus, in his dispatches, describes the people of this place (Cariari) 
 as great enchanters, and particularly states that two girls, who came 
 aboard his ship, had a magic powder concealed about their persons. 
 This strange bit of prejudice was not confined to the age or the nation 
 of Columbus and his people. A century later, we find honest John 
 Davis, voyaging among the Esquimaux, thanking God that no harm 
 had come of their diabolical spells; and later still, a similar appre- 
 hension prevailed among the settlers of New England. 
 
 Following the shore of Costa Kica, early in October, Columbus 
 anchored in the great bay of Carnabaco, which he entered by a 
 channel still called "Boca del Almirante," (Mouth of the Admiral). 
 Abundance of gold, much of it in large plates, was found among 
 the natives, and was readily yielded by them in exchange for Eu- 
 ropean trifles. His people would gladly have remained to pursue 
 this lucrative traffic, but the commander, intent on his projected dis- 
 covery, kept on, sailing along the coast of Yeragua, and finding gold 
 plentiful, wherever he landed. Encouraged by the delusive and 
 misunderstood reports of the Indians, he now fancied that he was 
 on the long-eluding track to Asian civilization. A kingdom to the 
 westward which they described in glowing terms, was probably the 
 distant empire of Peru; but Columbus, who, for a man so practical, 
 had certainly the greatest imagination of his time, understood them 
 as specifying fleets, cavalry, and artillery, and confirming his faith 
 in the vicinity of the Ganges and the everlasting Khan. On the 2d 
 of November, he came to anchor in that beautiful harbour on which 
 he bestowed the name of Porto Bello. Soon after, he made Cape 
 Nombre de Dios, where adverse winds and tempestuous weather 
 again forbade his advance. The crews were worn out with contending 
 against continual storms, and the ships were so leaky, from the rav- 
 ages of worms, that it seemed impossible to keep them afloat much 
 longer. He felt compelled therefore, for the time, to relinquish the 
 hope of effecting that grand discovery which should revive his fame 
 and throw a halo around his old age and declining fortunes. The 
 prows were turned for the golden shores of Yeragua, and thus, in 
 the elegant language of Mr. Irving, "ended the lofty anticipations 
 which had elevated Columbus above all personal interests; which 
 had made him regardless of hardships and perils ; and had given a 
 Heroic character to the early part of his voyage. It is true he had 
 
THE SPANIAKDS IN AMERICA. 77 
 
 been in pursuit of a mere chimera, but it was the chimera of a 
 splendid imagination and a penetrating judgment. If be was disap- 
 pointed in his expectation of finding a strait through the isthmus of 
 Darien, it was because nature herself had been disappointed; for 
 she appears to have attempted to make one, but to have attempted 
 in vain." 
 
 VJ JjtL iL^i it J) Jj Jib Ji vO^i o 
 
 DISASTROUS ATTEMPT TO FOUND A SETTLEMENT. — HOSTILITIES 
 
 WITH THE INDIANS. — THE VESSELS FINALLY STRANDED ON 
 
 THE ISLAND OF JAMAICA. — EXTRAORDINARY DEVICE OF 
 
 COLUMBUS. — MUTINY OF HIS FOLLOWERS. — TREACHERY 
 
 OF OVANDO. RESCUE OF THE CREWS. — ATROCITIES 
 
 COMMITTED ON THE NATIVES OF HAYTI. ^-RETURN 
 
 OF COLUMBUS TO SPAIN. HIS TREATMENT.— 
 
 HIS DEATH. DISPOSAL OF HIS REMAINS. 
 
 Involved in fresh tempests, the sea- worn squadron laboured back, 
 and in January, 1503, arrived near the river of Yeragua. Much 
 gold was collected from the natives, and Bartholomew, with sixty- 
 eight men, explored the country, which he reported to be rich in 
 the precious metal. In this inviting region, which he supposed to 
 be the Aurea Chersonesus of thQ ancients, Columbus resolved to 
 found a settlement. The erection of a fortress and of dwellings was 
 commenced v/ith much energy, and eighty of the company were 
 selected as colonists. This promising scheme, however, by the 
 enmity of the natives, was presently disconcerted, with much loss 
 and embarrassment. 
 
 Quibia, the cacique of the country, a brave, fierce, and powerful 
 chieftain, had at first treated the intruders with civility, expecting 
 their speedy departure. But on seeing these preparations for a per- 
 manent establishment in his territories, he resorted to hostilities, and, 
 though once captured and twice defeated, succeeded in killing ten 
 of the Spaniards, and holding the remainder of the settlement, for 
 nine days, in a state of alarming siege and distress — the tempestuous 
 weather, daring that time, preventing the admiral from landing with 
 
78 * AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 reinforcements. The remainder of the colony, with much danger 
 and difficulty, was finally reembarked, and Columbus, leaving one 
 of his caravels rotting in the river, put to sea with the others, and 
 made his way to Porto Bello. There another, riddled by the worms, 
 was abandoned, and with the crews crowded into the two remaining 
 vessels, now little better than wrecks, he steered for Hispaniola. 
 After long tossing about in renewed tempests, finding that they could 
 not be kept afloat much longer, he ran for the nearest land, and on 
 the 24th of June made a harbour of Jamaica, still called "Don Chris- 
 topher's Cove." He ran the vessels aground, and they soon filled 
 with water to the decks. Houses were built upon them as a shelter 
 for the crews, and a defence against attack, and the neighbouring 
 caciques were induced to promise a regular supply of provisions. 
 
 To escape, indeed, from this solitary isle of the sea, lying far from 
 the track even of the few and unfrequent voyages to Hispaniola, 
 seemed almost an hopeless undertaking. But one Diego Mendez, a 
 notary, who, by his courage and policy, had already rendered the 
 most important services to the expedition, now volunteered on the 
 desperate enterprise of gaining the port of St. Domingo. In an 
 Indian canoe, manned by six natives, he boldly set forth, to cross 
 forty leagues of sea, perilous from furious currents; and although, 
 coasting along the shore, he ,was taken prisoner by the Indians, con- 
 trived to effect his escape, regained the ships, and with one Fiesco, 
 a Genoese, with two canoes, again set forth on his adventurous 
 undertaking. In a letter, which, by this precarious conveyance, 
 Columbus dispatched to the sovereigns, he enthusiastically proffered 
 his services as a missionary in converting the Grand Khan, whom, 
 m his next voyage, he confidently expected to find — then, by a sud- 
 den revulsion of feeling, awaking to the forlorn reality of his con- 
 dition, he exclaims, "Until now, I have wept for others; have pity 
 upon me. Heaven, and weep for me, earth ! In my temporal concerns, 
 without a farthing to give in offering; in spiritual concerns, cast 
 away here in the Indies; isolated in my misery, infirm, expecting 
 each day will be my last; surrounded by cruel savages, separated 
 from the holy sacraments of the church, so that my soul will be lost, 
 if separated here from my body. * * If it should please 
 God to deliver me from hence, I humbly supplicate your majesties 
 10 permit me to repair to Eome, and perform other pilgrimages." 
 
 Many months passed by, and no succour came, nor any tidings 
 of the fate of his dauntless messengers. A mutiny, headed by one 
 
THE SPANIARDS IN AMEEICA. 79 
 
 Francisco Porras, sprung up, which the admiral, enfeebled by old 
 age, and crippled by the gout, was unable to suppress. In January, 
 1504, the malcontents, forty-eight in number, seized canoes, and put 
 to sea; but a storm coming up, put back to Jamaica, having mur- 
 dered eighteen Indians whom they had taken as rowers, by driving 
 them overboard. They then commenced a system of plunder and 
 depredation among the native villages. 
 
 The Jamaicans, provoked at these outrages, and, by degrees, sati- 
 ated with European traffic, now discontinued their supplies, and the 
 large body of men still under command of Columbus was threatened 
 with the horrors of starvation. The cunning genius of their leader, 
 by a most subtle device, rescued them from the anticipated evil. 
 Knowing, from his observations, that an eclipse of the moon would 
 speedily occur, he announced to the caciques, in a grand council, that 
 the God of the Spaniards, enraged at the ill-treatment of his worship- 
 pers, intended to visit their island with pestilence — in token whereof, 
 the moon, that very night, would grow dim, and leave her place in 
 the heavens. At first they scoffed at the ominous intelligence, but 
 as night drew on, watched with some anxiety for the predicted event. 
 But when they perceived its actual occurrence, the whole multitude 
 was seized with frantic and uncontrollable terror. The island re- 
 bounded with howling and lamentation, and the chiefs, promising 
 ready obedience for the future, besought the dreaded stranger to 
 intercede with his God in their behalf. Accordingly, he retired to 
 'his cabin, and reappearing, after a decent interval, informed them 
 that his suit was granted, and that the moon would presently be 
 restored to her place in the heavens. Her reappearance was hailed 
 with extravagant joy by the natives, who thenceforward supplie^^ 
 their visitors with an abundance of provisions. 
 
 Eight months having elapsed since the departure of Mendez and 
 Fiesco, it was supposed, of course, that their slender barks had been 
 swallowed up in the ocean. They had nevertheless succeeded, and 
 after a voyage of fearful suffering, in which several of their Indians 
 had died of thirst and fatigue, had gained the port of St. Domingo. 
 But Ovando, one of the meanest, crudest, and most unprincipled 
 wretches that ever played the tyrant in a remote province, hoping 
 that the great admiral, to whom the succession of his office had been 
 promised, might perish obscurely among the savages, put off, under 
 frivolous pretexts, the sending of relief, and even had the baseness 
 to prohibit Mendez from going, in person, to the assistance of his 
 
80 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 shipwrecked companions. At length (perhaps to satisfy himself that 
 Columbus was dead) he sent a small vessel, which, after a brief stop- 
 page, returned without taking a single man from the wrecks . 
 
 The rebels ashore, headed by Porras, now resolved on plundering 
 the vessels and seizing the person of their commander, but Don Bar- 
 tholomew, with fifty men, equal to the number of the hostile faction, 
 met them on the road, and routed them, seizing Porras, and killing 
 several with his own hand. The defeated faction, with the most 
 abject servility, now submitted, and took oath of allegiance on a 
 cross and a missal, imprecating terrible penalties on their heads in 
 case of any future misconduct — "that they might die without con- 
 fession or absolution from the pope, or from any cardinal, archbishop, 
 bishop, or any manner of priest; that they should be deprived of 
 the holy sacraments ; that their bodies should be cast into the fields 
 as renegades and heretics ; and, to make all sure, that they should 
 take no benefit at their death from any bulls and indulgences." 
 
 It was not until a year after the shipwreck that the faithful Men- 
 dez could obtain permission to sail to the rescue of his suffering com- 
 mander and shipmates. On the 28th of June, 1504, they embarked 
 in two vessels, and, after a weary voyage of two months, reached St. 
 Domingo, where the people, their prejudices abated, welcomed the 
 great admiral with enthusiastic rejoicing. The base Ovando also 
 paid many hypocritical attentions to the commander whom he had 
 so lately injured and left to perish. 
 
 The administration of this man, during the brief interval since 
 his appointment, had been marked by scenes hardly surpassed in 
 horror and infamy by any even in the history of Spanish colonization. 
 Misfortune attended its commencement in the death of more than a 
 thousand of the eager adventurers whom he had brought over, and 
 who, in their insane thirst for gold, exposed themselves recklessly 
 to disease and famine. The Indians were held in the most intolera- 
 ble slavery, and vast numbers perished under the tyranny of their 
 new task-masters, rapacious of sudden wealth. On the vague report 
 of a meditated conspiracy in Xaragua, the governor marched there 
 with an army, and was received by the queen, Anacaona, the ancient 
 friend of the whites, and by her caciques, with the utmost confidence 
 and hospitality. For several days the crafty Spaniard, enjoying the 
 games and other exhibitions provided for his amusement, dissembled 
 his bloody purpose ; then, without a word of warning, he let loose 
 on the unarmed multitude his ferocious soldiery, which committed 
 
THE SPANIARDS IN AMERICA.. 
 
 81 
 
 a horrible massacre. The queen was hanged by his command, and 
 forty caciques, after enduring the most cruel tortures, were burned 
 alive by firing the palace in which they were confined. The whole 
 province was ravaged with fire and sword, and the surviving inhab- 
 itants were reduced to the most wretched slavery. 
 
 Fresh cruelties soon provoked a war with Cotubanama, the gigan- 
 tic chieftain of Higuey, a mountainous province, which, of all the 
 native sovereignties, alone remained unenslaved. After a long and 
 desperate contest, in which the brave cacique exhibited a most kingly 
 resolution and magnanimity, he was taken and executed, and great 
 numbers of his people were put to death with the most cruel tor- 
 ments. The whole native race was now enslaved or exterminated. 
 Columbus, on his arrival, v/rote to the court, "I am informed that 
 since I left this island, six parts out of seven of the natives are 
 dead ; all through ill-treatment and inhumanity ; some by the sword, 
 others by blows and cruel usage, others through hunger. The 
 greater part have perished in the mountains and glens, whither they 
 had fled, from not being able to support the labor imposed upon 
 them." But the ample remittances of gold, the price of these ini- 
 quities, were, with Ferdinand, an ample apology for their perpetra- 
 tion; and though his consort, with her dying breath, gained his 
 promise that Ovando should be displaced, he never gave himself 
 the trouble to fulfil it. 
 
 Columbus, without power to repress these enormities, and perhaps 
 not without remorse at the fruits of that enslavement which he had 
 been the first to practice, hastened his departure. With all his funds 
 exhausted in providing for his crews, (for whose rights and welfare 
 he always had especial care,) he embarked for Spain, and after a tem- 
 pestuous passage of two months, in November, 1504, arrived at San 
 Lucar. Thence, enfeebled by old age and infirmities, he was borne 
 to Seville, where the few remaining days of his life were mostly 
 passed, while vainly attempting, by the intervention of his friends, 
 to touch the honour or justice of the court. He was reduced to 
 actual poverty, as appears by an affecting passage in a letter to his son. 
 "Little have I profited," he writes, "by twenty years of service, with 
 such toils and perils, since at present I do not own a roof in Spain. 
 If I desire to eat or sleep, I have no resort but an inn, and for the 
 most times, have not wherewithal to pay the bill." The death of Isa- 
 bella, soon after his arrival, defeated his last hope of obtaining justice, 
 and left him dependent on the ingratitude of the selfish Ferdinand. 
 YOL. Ill— 6 
 
32 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 By May, 1505, lie was enabled to travel to court, where that false- 
 hearted prince, as usual, received him with many shallow compliments 
 and unmeaning professions, but studiously evaded the fulfilment of 
 his promises, knowing that death would soon rid him of an applicant 
 whose claims could neither be conveniently granted nor decently 
 denied. The aged admiral felt his end approaching, but still besought 
 the king so far to fulfil his agreements as to appoint Diego to the 
 command which he would speedily, by solemn contract with the 
 crown, inherit. "This," he said, "is a matter which touches my 
 honour. As to the rest, do as your majesty thinks proper; give or 
 withhold, as may be most for your interest, and I shall be content.'^ 
 But all was in vain ; and with calm severity he writes from his death- 
 bed — "It appears that his majesty does not think fit to fulfil that 
 which he has promised me by word and seal, with the queen who 
 is now in glory. For me to contend for the contrary would be to 
 contend with the wind. I have done all that I could do. I leave 
 the rest to God, whom I have ever found propitious to me in my 
 necessities." He made his will, providing, with strict equity, for all 
 claims on his justice or benevolence; and having received those 
 consolations of the church which he valued so highly, murmured, 
 "Into thy hands, oh Lord, I commend my spirit," and expired with 
 great tranquillity, on the 20th of May, 1606, being about seventy 
 years of age. 
 
 The remains of the great admiral have been destined to an extra- 
 ordinary pilgrimage. They were first deposited in the convent of 
 Franciscans at Yalladolid, and seven years afterwards in that of the 
 Carthusians at Seville. ^ In 1536, with those of his son Diego, they 
 were transported to the New World, and were appropriately en- 
 shrined in the Cathedral of St. Domingo, in the island of Hispaniola, 
 always the most favourite region of his affections. "Even here, 
 these precious relics, condemned to wander like their illustrious ten- 
 ant, were not suffered to find their final resting place." For two 
 hundred and sixty years they reposed in this cathedral, but in 1795, 
 on the cession of that island to the French, with the most solemn 
 and impressive ceremonies, were once more disinterred and conveyed 
 to Havana in the island of Cuba. There they were received with 
 all the distinction which official, military, and ecclesiastical pomp 
 could confer, and were deposited with great ceremony in the wall 
 of the cathedral, at the right of the grand altar, where, the object of 
 deep and reverential interest, they still remain. 
 
THE SPANIARDS IN AMERICA". 33 
 
 u <l1 otl JT <L oil J/l cA». 
 
 DISCOVERY AND SURVEY OF CUBA. — ITS CONQUEST BY VELAS- 
 QUEZ. — MEMORABLE SPEECH OF AN INDIAN. — FOUNDATION 
 OF HAVANA, ETC. — CONQUEST OF PORTO RICO BY PONCE 
 DE LEON. — SINGULAR EXPERIMENT OF A CACIQUE. — 
 ITS SUBJUGATION. — DISCOVERY OF JAMAICA. — ITS 
 HUMANE CONQUEST BY JUAN DE ESQUIVEL. — SUB- 
 SEQUENT CRUELTIES OF THE SPANIARDS. — 
 ACCOUNT OF AMERICUS VESPUCIUS. 
 
 It has been already mentioned tliat the island of Cuba, 'discovered 
 by Colnmbus on his memorable first voyage, was regarded by him 
 and by most of his contemporaries as a portion of the continent of 
 Asia. In 1494, and again, in his last voyage of 1502, he made 
 extensive surveys of its coasts, but, by a singular fatality, only con- 
 firmed his original opinion. No further exploration was made until 
 the year 1508, when Nicolas Ovando, then governor of Hispaniola, 
 obeying an order of the court, dispatched Sebastian Ocampo on a 
 voyage of survey. That commander circumnavigated the supposed 
 continent, proving it an island, and made considerable exploration, 
 repairing his vessels in the beautiful harbour of Havana, which he 
 first discovered, (naming it Puerto de Carenas,) the convenience of 
 which, with other natural advantages of the island, he extolled in 
 strong terms, recommending immediate colonization. 
 
 Nothing more was done, however, until the year 1511, when 
 Diego Columbus (son of the admiral), who had succeeded in sup- 
 planting Ovando in the rule of Hispaniola, prepared an expedition 
 of three hundred men, under command of Diego Yelasquez, for the 
 conquest and colonization of the island. That officer disembarked 
 at the harbour of Palmas, not without resistance from the natives, 
 headed by Hatuey, a cacique of Hayti, who, on the subjugation of 
 that island, had taken refuge in Cuba. But his forces, weak and 
 unwarlike, were easily defeated, and the unfortunate chief, being 
 captured, was sentenced by his ferocious conqueror to be burned 
 alive. Being urged as usual, at the stake, to embrace Christianity, 
 and secure the joys of heaven, he inquired if any Spaniards would 
 be there; and being told that there would, made the ever-memorable 
 
84 AMERICA ILLUSTEATE1>. 
 
 answer, **I will not be a Christian then; for I would not go again to 
 a place where I must find men so cruel." 
 
 Thanks, however, to the good offices of Las Casas, the generous 
 advocate of an oppressed race, who accompanied the forces, the con- 
 quest of Cuba was disgraced by comparatively few of these atrocities. 
 Indeed, the gentle and un warlike character of the natives induced 
 them to submit, with very little resistance, to the assumed authority 
 of the strangers, and to embrace the proffered religion with greater 
 readiness than any others of their race. The town of Baracoa was 
 first founded by the invaders, and by 1514, the whole island had 
 been overrun and examined by the increasing numbers of emigrants. 
 The towns of Santiago and Trinidad, on the southern shore, were 
 founded, and those of Bayamo, Puerto Principe, and Santi-Espiritus, 
 near the centre. Batabano, in the south, founded in July, 1515, at 
 first, in honour of the illustrious discoverer, received the name of 
 San Cristoval de la Havana — a name, however, transferred, in 1519, 
 to the capital at present known under the last portion of the appel- 
 lation. The advantages of this splendid site appear to have been 
 first duly appreciated by Hernando de Soto, governor in 1538, who 
 erected a fortress, still standing, and otherwise improved the Havana, 
 just before his memorable and fatal expedition to Florida. So rap- 
 idly did it increase in importance, that ten years afterwards, it was 
 adopted as a residence by the governors, and in 1589, was formally 
 constituted by the crown as the capital of the island. 
 
 The beautiful island of Porto Rico (called Boriquen by the native 
 inhabitants) was, like all the most important of the Antilles, discov- 
 ered by Columbus, on his second voyage, in November, 1493. The 
 natives were an ingenious and industrious people, living in greater 
 comfort and civilization than any which the Spaniards had yet 
 encountered. 
 
 On the subjugation of Hispaniola, Juan Ponce de Leon, a soldier 
 experienced in Moorish warfare, and a companion of Columbus in 
 his second expedition, received as the reward of his activity in quell- 
 ing the refractory natives, the government of Higuey, a province 
 lying directly opposite to the verdant mountains of Porto Rico. 
 Attracted by its beauty, and the reports of its wealth, he made, in 
 1508, an expedition of reconnoisance ; and the following year, hav- 
 ing obtained from the crown an appointment as governor, made a 
 settlement there. Oppression of the natives, as usual, provoked 
 their hostility, but a belief that their invaders, of supernatural ori- 
 
THE SPANIAKDS IN AMEKICA. gg 
 
 gin, were invulnerable and incapable of death, deterred tliem for a 
 while from resistance. A certain cacique, however, of an inquiring 
 and analytic turn, resolved to institute experiments ; and directed 
 his people, who were charged to carry a young Spaniard across a 
 stream, to hold their burden gently under water for a considerable 
 time. Doubt being laid by the result, a general conspiracy was 
 formed for the destruction of the Spaniards. 
 
 The latter, taken by surprise, at first sustained a complete defeat. 
 All their villages were destroyed, an hundred of their number were 
 slain, and the remainder were compelled to take refuge in the fortress 
 of Caparra. But Juan Ponce, receiving reinforcements from His- 
 paniola, renewed the war with such vigour and success, that the 
 whole island was completely subdued, and the natives reduced, as 
 in Hispaniola, to a state of complete slavery and to final extermina- 
 tion. The singular subsequent career of the conqueror, and his 
 romantic search for the Fountain of Youth, are mentioned in the 
 account of the invasion of Florida. 
 
 "Jamaica," commences the grave historian of that island,'^ "had 
 the honour of being discovered by Christopher Columbus, in his 
 second expedition to the New World." Steering along the southern 
 shore of Cuba, that commander, informed of a great island, lying in 
 the south, turned his prows in that direction, and on the 5th of May, 
 1594, reached the shores of Jamaica. On the return from his last 
 disastrous voyage, he was wrecked there, as we have mentioned, on 
 the 24th of June, 1503, being compelled to run his sinking ships 
 ashore, in a harbour still called, from the circumstance, Don Chris- 
 topher's Cove. His miserable sojourn in this place, protracted fox a 
 year, and his final deliverance, have been already narrated. 
 
 After the death of Columbus, his son Diego, unable to obtain 
 justice from the crown, instituted his memorable suit before the 
 council of the Indies for the restitution of his hereditary dignities 
 and revenues. An illustrious marriage favoured his purpose, and 
 that eminent body, after long and patient investigation, decided 
 nearly every point in his favour. With this righteous decision Fer- 
 dinand only partially complied; but Diego, restored to the govern- 
 ment of Hispaniola, proceeded thither, with a splendid retinue, in 
 July, 1508, and entered on such of his rights as the injustice of the 
 king had allowed. But finding that the island of Jamaica, mani- 
 festly within his own jurisdiction, had been granted by the crown 
 * Bryan Edwards, Esq. 
 
86 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 to Ojeda and Nicuesa (then busied witli tlieir schemes for the settle- 
 ment of the main land), he determined to anticipate their movements. 
 
 Accordingly, in November, 1509, a force of seventy men was dis- 
 patched thither, under Juan de Esquivel, a gallant cavalier, and a 
 man of humane and magnanimous temperament. To his eternal 
 honour, the occupation of the island was disgraced by none of those 
 atrocities which have left their indelible stain on the names of nearly 
 all other early Spanish adventurers. Though the island produced no 
 gold, a moderate and settled prosperity was the natural result. *' The 
 affairs of Jamaica," says a Spanish historian, "went on prosperously, 
 because Juan de Esquivel having brought the natives to submission 
 without any effusion of hlood^ they laboured in planting cotton, and 
 raising other commodities which yielded great profit." . This humane 
 and honourable ofiicer, however, having founded the town of New 
 Seville, and established a flourishing colony, died within a few years 
 of his appointment. 
 
 The settlement appears to have increased with surprising rapidity, 
 for, in 1523, only thirteen years after the arrival of Esquivel, Fran- 
 cis de Garay, then holding the command, fitted out an expedition 
 of eight hundred and fifty men, many of whom were cavalry, for 
 the conquest of Panuco, a territory on the Gulf, which, however, 
 Cortes had already secured to the Spanish crown. The customary 
 scenes of cruelty and massacre followed hard on the death of the 
 first governor, and so rapidly did the work of extermination proceed, 
 that in little more than half a century, it is said, nearly the whole 
 native population, consisting of sixty thousand, had perished. Many 
 caves in the mountains, still thickly covered with human bones, attest 
 the miserable end of these unfortunates, who, fleeing from, the sword 
 or lash of the oppressors, died from hunger in those dismal recesses. 
 
 Singular to state, the capital of New Seville, after attaining, in a 
 few years, considerable size and importance, was abandoned — accord- 
 ing to some accounts, by reason of a destructive attack of the natives, 
 and to others, on account of the invasion of an innumerable swarm 
 of ants. Neither of these legends are probable, but it is certain that 
 the 'ruins of extensive buildings, some unfinished, yet remain, and 
 that a new capital city, St. Jago de la Yega, or, as it is now called, 
 Spanish Town, was founded at an early date in the history of the 
 country. The subsequent annals of the island present compara- 
 tively little of interest until its capture by the English, under the 
 active administration of Cromwell, in 1655 — an act of hostility 
 
THE SPANIARDS IN AMERICA. 
 
 87 
 
 mach decried by some -writers, but which appears to have been only 
 a reasonable and moderate reprisal for numerous massacres and 
 atrocities committed by the Spaniards of the West Indies on the 
 inhabitants of all neicfbbouring colonies. 
 
 ACCOUNT OF AMERICUS YESPUCIUS. 
 
 The renown of the discovery of the "Western Continent, and the 
 eternal perpetuation of that renown by the adoption of a name, were 
 certainly due to Christopher Columbus, whose grand genius and 
 indefatigable industry laid open the pathway to its shores. The next 
 claim, in justice, would be that of its first actual discoverer, Sebastian 
 Cabot, who, through a long life-time of enterprise and perseverance, 
 proved himself not unworthy of the high honour which chance 
 accorded to his youth. But, singular to state, a claim founded on 
 the most glaring imposture, and unrelieved either by original genius 
 or great achievement, has resulted in the eternal commemoration of 
 a name otherwise long since lapsed into obscurity — the name of 
 Amerigo Vespucci.* 
 
 He was born at Florence on the 9th of March, 1451, of noble, 
 though decayed parentage, and received a good education under the 
 care of his uncle, an ecclesiastic. Renr\to, afterwards king of Sicily, 
 was his fellow-pupil, and to their subsequent correspondence, or to 
 a fabrication of a portion thereof, America is indebted for its present 
 unsatisfactory name — a name representing no heroism of soul, no 
 life-long devotedness to a great cause — but bearing in its every sylla- 
 ble the continual suggestion of fraud, usurpation and inaptitude. 
 
 For many years Vespucci was engaged successfully in commerce 
 in his native city, but finally, meeting with reverses, was compelled, 
 in 1493, to accept an agency in Spain. At Seville he became ac- 
 quainted with Columbus, and was employed by the sovereigns in 
 fitting out vessels for their exploring expeditions. He sailed with 
 Alonzo de Ojeda in his voyage of 1499, infamous for treachery and 
 cruelty committed on the Indians, and, with that daring but unprin- 
 cipled commander, coasted along a great extent of the shores of 
 South America. The appearance of this expedition on the coast of 
 Hispaniola, and the uneasiness which it caused the admiral, have 
 been mentioned. 
 
 * Latinized into Americus Vespucius. 
 
88 AMEKICxi ILLUSTKATED. 
 
 In 1501, and again in 1503, the Florentine adventurer sailed to 
 Brazil, in the Portuguese service ; and from the interesting accounts 
 which he gave of the new continent, it became fashionable to com- 
 pliment him by giving it the title of America. In 1505, he returned 
 to Spain, and we find him in friendly communication with Columbus, 
 and offering to use his influence with the Spanish court in behalf 
 of the rights of that injured commander — proof almost positive that 
 no claim to the discovery of America had then been broached by 
 nim or by any one in his behalf. He received the office of Grand 
 Pilot of Spain, which he held until his death in 1512. 
 
 "By a most extraordinary piece of imposture, if committed by 
 himself, or of forgery, if committed by another, the claims of Yes- 
 pucius to the glory of the discovery of the New World have now, 
 for centuries, been seriously discussed — though, at the present day, 
 few, except his Florentine countrymen, will allow them even the 
 merit of plausibility, on grounds so utterly untenable. In a letter 
 which he is said to have written to King Eenato, and which was 
 published in 1507, (only a few months after the death of the great 
 admiral) an account is given of a voyage which he claims to have 
 made to the coast of South America in 1497 — a year before the 
 memorable expedition of Columbus. No assertion ever stood more 
 entirely unsupported. By the unanimous testimony of a host of 
 witnesses, it has been proved that, except in this letter, none of his 
 contemporaries, or of those familiar with the Spanish marine, had 
 ever heard of any such voyage. His own conduct and the tenor of 
 his numerous remaining letters are all directly opposed to the reality 
 of any such exploit ; and at this distance of time we are unable to 
 decide whether the account is a forgery of some other person, or 
 whether, actuated by a miserable vanity, he thought it possible, at 
 least with his correspondent, to arrogate to himself the discovery of 
 the continent. It is certainly more agreeable to suppose the former 
 than to admit that a man of the real reputation of Vespucius, and to 
 whose good character Columbus himself has borne testimony, should 
 bave been capable of such unblushing impudence and falsehood."* 
 ♦" ** Discoverers, &c., of America." 
 
THE SETTLEMENT OF THE ISTHMUS, 
 
 AND DISCOVERY OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 DISASTROUS ATTEMPTS TO POUND A SETTLEMENT ON THE 
 
 ISTHMUS. — VASCO NUNEZ DE BALBOA. — THE SETTLEMENT OP 
 
 DARIEN. — DEALINGS WITH THE INDIANS. — RUMOURS OP 
 
 THE SOUTH SEA. — EXPEDITION OP BALBOA. — CONTESTS 
 
 WITH THE INDIANS. — DISCOVERY OP THE PACIPIC. 
 
 The first attempts of the Spaniards to plant their footsteps on the 
 shores of the American mainland, were attended with grievous suf- 
 fering, loss and disappointment. A small settlement named San 
 Sebastian was founded bj Alonzo de Ojeda, in the year 1509, on the 
 east side of the Gulf of Uraba; but, despite the impetuous bravery 
 of the commander and the hardy endurance of his followers, the 
 implacable enmity of the surrounding savages effected its destruction. 
 Great numbers were slain, and the survivors were compelled to 
 relinquish the undertaking. A similar, attempt, under Diego de 
 Nicuesa, at Nombre de Dios, resulted in equal suffering, mortality, 
 and failure. Despite these misfortunes, or in ignorance of them, 
 eager adventurers still turned their prows to a land which, more than 
 any yet discovered, was supposed to teem with wealth of the precious 
 metals. The name most memorable among these early settlers of 
 the continent, both for brilliancy of discovery and natural high 
 qualities, is that of Vasco Nunez de Balboa. 
 
 His early life, in common with most of the Spanish pioneers, had 
 been of a roving, unsettled, and perhaps profligate character. To 
 avoid arrest from his creditors in Hispaniola, where he had been 
 unsuccessfully engaged in planting, he contrived to be smuggled in 
 a cask on board the vessel of Martin Enciso, who was sailing to the 
 Isthmus in search of the colony of Ojeda. After experiencing soma 
 
90 AMEKICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 misfortunes, tlie adventurers, under the guidance of Balboa, who 
 had before explored the coast, made their way to the Indian village 
 of Darien, on the gulf of that name, where they found much plunder 
 and established a settlement (1510). The active and intriguing 
 genius of Balboa soon succeeded in wresting the chief command 
 from Enciso ; and desirous of propitiating the favour of the crown 
 by remittances of gold, as usual, he dispatched Francisco Pizarro, 
 afterwards so celebrated for the Conquest of Peru, with a small force 
 on a tour of exploration. This attempt, from native hostility, proved 
 a failure, but accident soon showed the way to profitable pillage. 
 
 Two Spanish refugees, who had been living on the hospitality of 
 Careta, a wealthy cacique, were found by the new settlers, and 
 treacherously suggested an attack on their late host. The governor, 
 accordingly, with a considerable force, marched upon his town and 
 plundered it, after the unscrupulous fashion of the age; but peace 
 was restored by the marriage of the chief's daughter to the conqueror, 
 and the latter made a campaign against the enemies of his father- 
 in-law, from which he also reaped a considerable booty. ' 
 
 More profitable still than these unprincipled forays was a peace- 
 able visit which he made to the great cacique of Comagre, who 
 received him with much honour, and whose son, a prince of spirit 
 and generosity, bestowed on him sixty slaves and four thousand 
 ounces of gold. The royal share deducted, Balboa, less anxious for 
 wealth than for renown and authority, commanded his followers to 
 divide the remainder. They wrangled noisily around the scales, till 
 the prince, moved with contempt, struck the instrument, and scattered 
 the gold over the floor. " Why should you quarrel for such a trifle ?" 
 he said : "Behold those lofty mountains. Beyond them lies a mighty 
 sea, which may be discerned from their summit. All the streams 
 which flow down the southern side of those mountains into that sea, 
 abound in gold ; and the kings who reign upon its borders eat and 
 drink out of golden vessels. Gold, in fact, is as common and plenti- 
 ful among those people of the south, as iron is among you Spaniards." 
 The way to this tempting region, he added, was difiicult, and beset 
 with savage tribes ; but ofiered his services in a march thither. His 
 guest listened with eager interest, and his heart beat high with the 
 hope of achieving an exploit which should place his name high in 
 the list of discoverers and conquerors. 
 
 On his return to Darien, he dispatched a large sum of gold, for the 
 royal treasury, to Hispaniola, and entreated assistance from Diego 
 
THE SETTLEMENT OF THE ISTHMUS. Ql 
 
 Columbus, then viceroy of that island. He next set forth, with an 
 hundred and seventy men, to search for the famous temple of Do- 
 bayba, whose walls, according to the native reports, shone with 
 golden ornaments of inestimable value. He soon came upon a 
 strange tract of marshes, interspersed with great trees, among whose 
 spreading branches the people of that dismal region had their abodes. 
 Under the palace of Abebeiba, their king, the Spanish maraudei-s 
 halted, calling on his majesty by their interpreters, and bidding him 
 come down. "But hee denyed," says the old chronicle, "that hee 
 would come out of his house, desyring them to suffer him to lyve 
 after his fashione. * * When he hadde denyed them 
 againe, they fell to hewing the tree with their axes. Abebeiba, see- 
 ing the chippes fall from the tree on every side, chaunged his pur- 
 pose, and came downe, with onely two of his sons." Urged to produce 
 his store of the precious metal, the simple monarch replied that "hee 
 had no golde, and that hee neuer had any neede thereof, nor yet 
 regarded it any more then stones." But seeing them "very instant 
 with him," he promised to bring them some from the neighbouring 
 mountains, and took his departure. Meanwhile, his unscrupulous 
 guests refreshed themselves from the royal larder and cellar, which 
 latter, that the "wine" (more probably maize-beer) might not be dis- 
 turbed by the oscillations of the palace, was kept in a species of 
 vault at the foot of the tree. They waited several days, but in vain, 
 for the return of their host, with the expected store of gold. Per- 
 haps he never returned to his airy habitation, for the narrative sub- 
 sequently mentions "Abebeiba, the inhabitourof the tree, who had 
 now likewise forsaken his countrey fbr feare of our men, and wan- 
 dered in the desolate mountaines and woodes." 
 
 Unable to find the desired temple, Balboa, having collected con- 
 siderable plunder, returned to the town, where his energies were 
 speedily called forth by sedition and Indian hostility. Both were 
 suppressed with sternness and promptitude; and his authority was 
 soon confirmed by a letter from the treasurer of Hispaniola. 
 
 Aware, however, that the influence of his enemies at court was 
 great, he row resolved, by some notable exploit, to place his fortunes 
 on a steadier foundation. To discover the great sea beyond the 
 mountains^ and turn its streams of* gold into the Spanish treasury, 
 would assure him fame and immunity. Accordingly, on the 1st of 
 September, 1513, with an hundred and ninety companions, well 
 armed and resolute, after a solemn religious ceremonial, he set out 
 
92 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 to fight Ms way to the shores of the unexplored ocean. On the 20th 
 he left the territories of Ponca, a chief whom, he had defeated and 
 conciliated, and was soon involved in a region perilous by its vast 
 marshes and other natural obstacles. Quaraqua, the chief of this 
 country, with a great army, set on him, while entangled in these 
 difficulties; but the fire-arms and the ferocious blood-hounds of the 
 invaders were too much for the undisciplined courage and inefficient 
 weapons of the Indian multitudes ; they were signally defeated, with 
 a loss of six hundred, including their cacique. Several of the pris- 
 oners, with a cruelty habitual to the Spaniards, were given to be torn 
 m pieces by the hounds; and considerable plunder, in gold and 
 jewels, was found in the conquered villages. 
 
 By this time, from wounds, fatigue and illness, so many of the 
 command had become disabled, that Balboa, with only sixty-seven 
 companions, commenced the ascent of the mountains. On the 26th 
 of September, 1513, as they approached the summit, the general 
 halted his force, and ordered that no man should stir from his place. 
 He ascended alone, and on gaining the highest point, beheld the 
 distant Pacific, never before surveyed by European eyes, glittering 
 in the south. Overcome with joy, he kneeled and returned fervent 
 thanks to God. His people, with uncontrollable eagerness, hastened 
 up. A solemn Te Deum was sung by all, and formal possession of 
 the new ocean, with all its coasts and islands, was made by proclama- 
 tion in the name of Castile. It is not a little singular that the first 
 European settlement on the Western Continent should have been at 
 the only spot from which the Great Western Ocean was accessible, and 
 that a discovery of such importance should have followed so closely 
 on a report of its possibility; but this very circumstance tended 
 greatly to mislead future explorers, and to foster delusive hopes of 
 reaching it as easily in other latitudes — as witness the attempt of La 
 Salle by the St. Lawrence, and of Hudson by the North Kiver, to 
 gain the shores of China — the belief of the Virginian settlers that the 
 Chesapeake led thither, and the confident expectation, so long enter- 
 tained, of finding an easy passage to India by the north of America. 
 
 Leaving a cross and a pile of stones to mark the scene of his 
 memorable discovery, Balboa hastened to the shore of the yet-dis- 
 tant ocean. He defeated many savages, and gained vast booty in 
 gold on the way. Arrived at last' on the sea-shore, he grasped a 
 banner, and, plunging into the waves, took solemn possession in the 
 oame of the Spanish crown, vowing to maintain, against all chal- 
 
BALBOA ASCENDING THE MOUNTAIN , 
 
THE SETTLEMENT OF THE ISTHMUS. 93 
 
 lengers, Christian or infidel, its "empire and dominion over these 
 Indies, islands, and Terra Firma, northern and southern, with all 
 their seas, both at the Arctic and Antarctic poles, on either side of 
 the equinoctial line, whether within or without the tropics of Cancer 
 and Capricorn, both now and in all times, as long as the world 
 endures, and until the final judgment of all mankind." Of all the 
 vast regions of sea and land included in this swelling annunciation, 
 what now remains to a nation whose conquests were stained with 
 such hideous murder and cruelty, and whose government was marked 
 by such oppression, rapacity, and illiberal exclusiveness I 
 
 O WW Juit Ji Ji (Li Jb6 WW* 
 
 THE RETURN MARCH. — APPOINTMENT OF PEDRARIAS DAYILA. 
 — HIS EXPEDITION. — HIS JEALOUSY OF BALBOA. — MISFOR- 
 TUNES OF THE COLONY. — EXPEDITION OF MORALES AND PI- 
 ZARRO. — RECONCILIATION OF PEDRARIAS AND BALBOA. 
 — VESSELS CONVEYED OVERLAND TO THE PACIFIC. — 
 SUDDEN ARREST, TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF BALBOA. 
 
 Seizing some Indian canoes, which he found on the shore, Bal- 
 boa, with sixty men, launched boldly forth into the unknown ocean. 
 Storms, and the dangers of the coast, forbade any extensive voyage 
 in these frail craft, but the adventurer learned of the natives enough 
 to fire his highest ambition and to excite his utmost energies. The 
 land, they assured him, had no end, and far in the south gold was 
 to be found in abundance, and certain animals were used as beasts 
 of burden. They moulded in clay the figure of a lama, in confirm- 
 ation of their story, and readily furnished large quantities of gold 
 and pearls to their rapacious visitors. Early in November, the expe- 
 dition set out on its return, taking many Indians to assist in carry- 
 ing the treasure, which had become too bulky for transportation by 
 its ovv-ners. The march homeward was distinguished by extreme 
 suffering and great cruelty inflicted on the native inhabitants. Num- 
 bers of the Indian porters, burdened with gold, not being permitted 
 to carry sufficient food for their support, perished on the way; and 
 the atrocities inflicted on the people of those districts through which 
 
94 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 the Spaniards passed, may be inferred from tlie fact that, in a single 
 instance, they "gaue four Kings" (chiefs) "to be devoured by dogges." 
 Nearly three months were consumed in this terrible return march, 
 but the relics of the force finally reached Darien with a treasure in 
 pearls and gold, which cast into the shade all booty acquired by 
 previous marauders. 
 
 Meanwhile, the enemies of Balboa, possessing the ear of the court, 
 had procured the appointment of Pedrarias Davila, a man of a cruel 
 and treacherous character, as governor of Darien. The accounts 
 already received of an ocean, and of wealthy kingdoms lying beyond 
 the mountains, had inflamed the public mind with sanguine expecta- 
 tion ; and accordingly, for the first time since the memorably-disas- 
 trous voyage of Ovando, cavaliers and speculators flocked in crowds 
 to join an expedition to the New World. With fifteen sail, carry- 
 ing two thousand impatient adventurers, the new governor, on the 
 12th of April, 1514, took his departure. Just afterwards, arrived 
 a messenger from Balboa, announcing his splendid discovery, and 
 bearing dazzling specimens of the wealth of the isthmus. Propiti- 
 ated by these tidings, Ferdinand, regretting his precipitancy, at once 
 dispatched fresh instructions, constituting the fortunate discoverer 
 Lieutenant of the South Sea, and conferring on him the rule of 
 important provinces in the adjoining region. 
 
 Pedrarias, on his arrival, found the colony, by the indefatigable 
 exertions of his predecessor, in a state of considerable prosperity, 
 Darien already containing five hundred European inhabitants, with 
 thrice that number of natives. The deposed governor readily sub- 
 mitted to the authority of his rival, and the latter, with excessive 
 meanness, having, by a pretended friendliness, gained full informa- 
 tion of the late surveys and discoveries, began to attempt his ruin, 
 On the arrival of the royal missive, he withheld it for a time, and 
 finally, through the interposition of Quevedo, bishop of the province, 
 only so far relaxed his injustice as to permit its acceptance on con- 
 dition of the dependence of the Lieutenant on his own authority 
 His jealous and irritable temper was further inflamed by the arrival 
 of a vessel from Cuba, with seventy hardy adventurers, who had 
 come to accompany Balboa on a fresh expedition to the Pacific. He 
 arbitrarily forbade the projected excursion, and it is said was with dif- 
 ficulty dissuaded from confining the object of his suspicion in a cage. 
 
 His own administration, from the commencement, was marked by 
 ill-fortune and mismanagement. Of the rash and improvident mul- 
 
THE SETTLEMENT OF THE ISTHMUS. 95 
 
 titiide which he had brought over, seven hundred soon perished of 
 disease and hunger; others took refuge in Cuba, and many, in miser- 
 able plight, returned to Spain. A force of four hundred men, which 
 he dispatched to open a line of communication with the Pacific, 
 failed, with much disaster, from the hostility of the Indians; and 
 another, of two hundred, which, under Balboa and Luis Carillo, 
 again set forth in quest of the temple of Dobayba, was compelled 
 by the same cause to retreat to Darien, with the loss of more than 
 half their number. 
 
 A more fortunate expedition was made by Gaspar Morales, a rela- 
 tive of the governor, who, accompanied by Francisco Pizarro, a 
 spirit as fierce and cruel as himself, set forth, in command of sixty 
 men, to cross the mountains. Arriving at the South Sea, (whither 
 Pizarro had already journeyed with Balboa,) the two commanders, 
 with a small force, in four canoes, embarked for the Pearl Islands, 
 lying some distance from the coast. The chief cacique, after a spir- 
 ited resistance, was defeated ; and submitting with the best grace he 
 could assume, conducted the victors to his palace, where he received 
 baptism at their hands, and bestowed on them a basket of pearls, of 
 m,ore than a hundred weight, some of which were large as hazel-nuts. 
 He took the leaders to the summit of a tower, whence he showed them 
 the long line of coast stretching to the golden realms of the Incas — 
 the destined prey of an obscure adventurer then standing beside him. 
 
 The return of this company, harassed by Indian hostilities, was 
 marked by the most frightful scenes of massacre and cruelty. A 
 native force, attacked by surprise, in the dead of night, was cut off 
 to the number of seven hundred; and eighteen caciques, taken by 
 stratagem, were devoured alive by blood-hounds. The Spaniards, 
 worn out by repeated attacks, retreated slowly, killing their prison- 
 ers on the way, that the fierceness of the pursuit might be checked 
 by the lamentations of their friends over the bodies; and one of the 
 marauders, unable to keep up the march, hanged himself to a tree, 
 rather than fall into the hands of the avenging natives. After ex- 
 treme and well-deserved suffering, the relics of the expedition, with 
 a vast hoard of ill-gotten treasure, arrived at Darien. 
 
 The enmity of the surrounding tribes, now thoroughly aroused, 
 kept the settlers in a state of constant anxiety. An hundred and 
 eighty men, well armed and supplied with artillery, attacked among 
 tangled forests and morasses, were cut off to a man. The town itself 
 was soon almost in a state of siege ; and the governor was compelled 
 
96 AMEEICA ILLUSTKATED. 
 
 reluctantly to accept tlie services of his able and experienced rival, 
 as the only means of preserving the colony. To cement the doubt- 
 ful alliance, which was brought about by Quevedo, it was agreed 
 that Balboa should receive in marriage a daughter of the governor, 
 to be sent for from Spain (1516). 
 
 That active commander, permitted to resume his ambitious career, 
 made strenuous exertions in preparing for a great expedition to the 
 South Sea. He built two vessels on the shore of the Atlantic, which, 
 with almost incredible labour, were carried piecemeal over the mount- 
 ains, and put together on the shores of the Pacific. Numbers of the 
 natives perished in this exhausting task, but it was observed that the 
 Spaniards, and especially negroes, of hardier frame, endured the labour 
 with less distress and mortality. Two brigantines, the first of Eu- 
 ropean build that ever floated on the Pacific, were finally launched 
 upon the Eiver Balsas, and Balboa, with his companions, embarking, 
 pushed with exultation into the waters of the unknown ocean. The 
 course which he pursued, along the shore of the isthmus, would have 
 brought him in time to the wealthy regions of Peru ; but, after pass- 
 ing the great gulf of San Miguel, the winds proved so adverse that 
 he was compelled to retrace his course. He landed on the main- 
 land, where he defeated a large force of Indians, and then, proceed- 
 ing to the Pearl Islands, set about building two additional vessels. 
 
 In the midst of his ardent and ambitious projects, sudden ruin 
 and destruction overtook the discoverer and intended explorer of 
 the Pacific. The falsehood and treachery of one Garabito, his secret 
 enemy, whom he had dispatched on business to the settlement, so 
 worked on the jealous mind of Pedrarias, that, supposing his rival 
 to aspire to a kingdom of his own, he resolved on his immediate 
 overthrow. The unsuspecting commander, by a friendly message, 
 requesting an interview, was induced to cross the mountains ; and 
 was met on the way by an armed force under Pizarro, who put him 
 in chains, and conveyed him to the town of Ada. He was imme- 
 diately put on trial for treason, and though the evidence against him 
 was little more than the perjurj^ of Garabito, the alcalde, overawed 
 by the governor, gave reluctantly a judgment of conviction. The 
 latter, with sanguinary haste, ordered his immediate execution, and 
 that of four of his associates. The unfortunate man, after confessing 
 and partaking of the sacrament, laid his head, with his accustomed 
 courage, on the fatal block, and, at a single stroke, amid the lament- 
 ations of the people, it was severeid from his body (1517). 
 
THE SETTLEMENT OF THE ISTHMUS. 97 
 
 Thus perished, at the age of forty-two, one of the boldest, most 
 sagacious, and, for a brief time, most fortunate, of the early Spanish 
 adventurers. How confident were his hopes, and how ardent his zeal 
 for enterprise, appears in the indignant vindication of his conduct to 
 the implacable governor. "I had four ships," he says, "ready for 
 sea, three hundred men at my command, and an open sea before me. 
 What had I to do but to set sail and press forward ? There was 
 no doubt of finding a land, whether rich or poor, enough for me and 
 mine, far beyond your control." That his life, if spared a few years 
 longer, would have received fresh illustration from new and grand 
 discoveries, can hardly be doubted; and it is probable that, but for 
 this sudden and tragic occurrence, the career of Pizarro would have 
 been anticipated, and that the discoverer of the Pacific would also 
 have been the conqueror of the wealthiest kingdoms lying on ita 
 shores. 
 
 \j iLJ) i/>(i> <L (L JLi (Lo iL tL Jb o 
 
 FERNANDO MAGELLAN. — HIS VOYAGE TO THE SOUTH-WEST. — 
 WINTERS AT PORT ST. JULIAN. — THE PATAGONIANS. — DIS- 
 COVERY AND PASSAGE OF THE STRAITS OF MAGELLAN. 
 
 VOYAGE THROUGH THE PACIFIC TO THE PHILIPPINE 
 
 ISLES. RASHNESS AND DEATH OF MAGELLAN. 
 
 THE WORLD CIRCUMNAVIGATED. 
 
 The brilliant exploit of Balboa in attaining the Pacific oy au 
 overland route, was in a few years followed up by the extraordinary 
 voyage of Magellan, who first reached it by sea, and to whom is 
 justly due the credit of first circumnavigating the globe. The hope 
 of finding a westerly passage to the fragrant seas of India, so long 
 the favourite object of Columbus and other enterprising voyagers, 
 had been gradually relinquished, as the vast extent of the American 
 continent became apparent. Spain, however, jealously disputing 
 with Portugal her title, under the Papal grant, to the Moluccas or 
 Spice islands, was constantly on the alert to take advantage of any 
 opportunity which might give her priority of possession; and Fer 
 nando Magellan, a subject of the rival powor, disapoointed in his 
 YoL. III.— 7 
 
98 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 hopes of j^romotion for service in India, carried his brilliant talents, 
 his splendid courage, and invincible perseverance to the court of 
 Charles Y. There he strongly urged the feasibility of an attempt 
 once more to reach India from the west, and Ximenes, the enlight- 
 ened minister of that monarch, favoured his proposals. AYith five 
 small vessels and two hundred and thirty men, on the 20th of Sep- 
 tember, 1519, he set sail from the port of San Lucar. 
 
 Coasting southerly along the shores of Brazil, he found a conve- 
 nient harbour, which he named Port St. Julian, in about the fiftieth 
 degree of south latitude. Here he anchored his squadron, and passed 
 the winter of 1520, which, extending from May to September, proved 
 exceedingly severe. A formidable mutiny, which broke out at this 
 place, was suppressed by Magellan with great promptness and sever- 
 ity ; two of the ringleaders being put to death, and a third set on 
 shore to perish. For two months none of the natives were seen, 
 but one day a man of gigantic stature, nearly naked, was seen danc- 
 ing violently on the beach, and throwing dust on his head, in token 
 of friendship or submission. Kumbers of these people, all of great 
 size, soon appeared, "marvelling vastly to see such large ships and 
 such little men." From the uncouth covering of their feet, rudely 
 shaped from thb hide of the guanaco, the Spaniards gave them the 
 name of Patagones, or " clumsy -hoofed " — a name by which they 
 have ever since been known. One of them learned to repeat the 
 Lord's Prayer,, on which signal evidence of conversion he was bap- 
 tized under the name of Juan Gigante ("John Giant"). Two of 
 these poor savages were treacherously seized, as curiosities; but a 
 vile stratagem to get possession of some of the women (to propagate 
 a breed of giants in Spain) was deservedly defeated, and resulted 
 in the death of one of the invaders. 
 
 The Spring came on, and Magellan, getting his little squadron 
 under way, again stood southward. In the latter part of October, 
 to his great exultation, he beheld an opening in the westward through 
 the iron-bound coast which had hitherto seemed interminable. Into 
 this famous strait, which still bears his name, favoured by a strong 
 current, the dauntless discoverer, with three ships, boldly pushed 
 his way — though his crews, disheartened, were clamorous for return. 
 He would press onward, he assured them, even if they were reduced 
 to eat the "hides from the ships' rigging — an anticipation of famine 
 literally fulfilled; and reminding them of the fate of the late muti- 
 neers, sternly repressed all opposition. For thirty-seven days, amid 
 
THE SETTLEMENT OF THE ISTHMUS. 99 
 
 storms and foul weather, the little squadron struggled westward 
 through this perilous and intricate passage. On the 28th of Novem- 
 ber, the open sea was seen stretching illimitably before them. Ma- 
 gellan burst into tears of joy, and ordered a public thanksgiving for 
 the memorable event. 
 
 Having stood northward awhile, to gain a more genial climate, 
 the little ileet for four months was wafted along by breezes so gentle 
 and propitious, that the name of the "Pacific," which Magellan gave 
 to tlie great ocean lie Avas exploring, seemed aptly enough bestowed. 
 But famine pressed terribly on the adventurous mariners, so long 
 secluded from the possibility of obtaining supplies; and when, on 
 the 16th of March, 1521, they arrived at the Philippine Isles, twenty 
 of their number were dead, and the remainder were in a forlorn 
 condition of suffering and emaciation. Singular to state, only two 
 islands had been passed in this long and remarkable voyage, and 
 those so lonely and forbidding in their appearance as to receive the 
 name of Desventaduras, or the Unfortunate. On the 5th of April, 
 the ships arrived at the town and harbour of Zebu, with the prince 
 of which island Magellan soon formed an apparently friendly alliance. 
 With the customary zeal for conversion, he immediately commenced 
 propagating the faith, and by a mixture of force and friendship, soon 
 gained great numbers of proselytes. This promising career was cut 
 short by an extraordinary piece of rashness and hardihood. The 
 sovereign of Matan, a neighbouring island, was at feud with the king 
 of Zebu, and to the demand of Magellan that he should yield trib- 
 ute and allegiance to Spain, returned a haughty refusal. Naturally 
 fierce and irritable, and now flushed with success and ambition, the 
 fiery Portuguese determined to end all opposition with the sword. 
 With forty-nine of his bravest men, clad in complete armour, he 
 made a landing on the refractory island, and was soon engaged in 
 desperate conflict with a force of three thousand natives. The battle 
 was obstinately contested for many hours, but the Spaniards, over- 
 powered by numbers, were at last compelled to give way. Magellan, 
 though wounded by a poisoned arrow, and with his helmet struck 
 ofl:', continued to fight with desperation, until, his sword arm disabled, 
 he was beaten to the ground, and perished under a shower of javelins. 
 Eight of his men were killed, and twenty-two wounded. The sur- 
 vivors, with difficulty, regained their boats. In this obscure skirmish 
 perished the boldest, firmest, and, but for his rashness, the most 
 fortunate of that brilliant line of navigators who succeeded to the 
 
XOO AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 honours of Columbus. At the time of his death, he had nearly 
 completed the circumnavigation of the globe, having in a former 
 voyage, sailed far to the eastward. 
 
 The king of Zebu, seeing the misfortune of his allies, took ad- 
 vantage to commit a treacherous massacre on a number of them, 
 whom he had enticed into his palace, and the remainder of the 
 Spaniards, in precipitate alarm, hastened their departure from the 
 island. Only one vessel of the fleet, the Yitoria, a little bark of 
 sixty tons, succeeded in completing this extraordinary voyage. After 
 a cruise of three years, during which she traversed fifty thousand 
 miles of ocean, this slender craft, with the mere remnant of a crew, 
 on the 6th of September, 1522, arrived at San Lucar. She was 
 drawn ashore, and remained for many years a monument of the 
 most remarkable achievement of the century. Her commander, 
 Sebastian del Cano, inheriting, as survivor, the honours due to 
 the unfortunate Magellan, was ennobled by the emperor, and received 
 for his arms the device of a globe, with the memorable legend: 
 
 "primus me circumdedisti," 
 
 (Thmi first liast encompassed me,) 
 
CONQUEST AID HISTORY OF MEXICO. 
 
 PROGRESS OP SPANISH CONQUEST. — DISCOVERY OF YUCATAK 
 — OP MEXICO. — HERNANDO CORTES. — HIS EXPEDITION. 
 
 ASCENT OF THE RIO DE TABASCO. — CONTESTS WITH 
 
 THE INDIANS. ARRIVAL AT SAN JUAN DE ULUA. 
 
 The singular compound of crusading fanaticism and of practical 
 rapacity which distinguished the Spaniards in their conquest of the 
 New World, as well as the wonderfully-rapid successes which those 
 traits, so repulsively mingled, insured them, are hardly to be paral- 
 leled, except in the early career of Mahometanism. With the sword 
 in one hand and the missal in the other, leaving crosses and stakes 
 the tokens of his march, the Spaniard pressed on to plunder, to con- 
 quest, and conversion, with a fierceness and inflexibility which, to 
 this day, have left their withering traces on the entire scene of action. 
 The feeble and unwarlike races of the archipelago had fallen an easy 
 prey before the invader; his footsteps were firmly planted on the 
 main-land ; and in rapid succession the two great native empires of 
 the Northern and Southern Continents — empires strong in ancient 
 rule, and far advanced in civilization — were destined to vanish from 
 the earth with a suddenness and a horror which, at this day, must 
 surprise and appal the historical spectator. 
 
 The island of Cuba, first colonized in 1511, had been settled with 
 extraordinary rapidity, and the ever-restless adventurers began soon 
 to look around for wider fields of conquest, and richer objects of 
 plunder. Ilenandez de Cordova, in 1517, sailing to the Bahamas in 
 quest of slaves to replace the half-depopulated tribes of that island, 
 was driven westward by gales, and finally made land at Cape Catoche, 
 in Yucatan. Massive buildings, and other evidences of civilization. 
 
102 AMEEICA ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 were observed, but the discoverers, every where fiercely withstood 
 oy tbe natives, were compelled to quit the coast, and, after losing 
 more than half their number, regained the shores of Cuba. In the 
 following year (May 1st, 1518) Velasquez, the Cuban governor, dis- 
 patched four vessels, under his nephew, Juan de Grijalva, in the 
 same direction. That officer, after touching at the island of Cozu- 
 mel, coasted along the great southern peninsula, meeting, wherever 
 he landed, a fierce and determined resistance from the inhabitants. 
 Keeping westward, he arrived on the shores of Mexico, and engaged 
 in friendly traffic with the people of that country. Gold and jewels 
 were obtained in abundance, and after a voyage of six months, in 
 which a large extent of the main-land coast had been explored, the 
 squadron returned to Cuba. Stimulated by this success, and by the 
 flattering accounts of Grijalva, the governor proceeded to fit out an 
 expedition on a more extensive scale. 
 
 Hernando Cortes, to whom he had resolved to entrust l^e com- 
 mand, was a native of Medellin, in Estramadura, and was, at this 
 time, thirty-three years of age. From boyhood, he had been of a 
 reckless, adventurous disposition, and, at the age of nineteen, had 
 sailed for Hispaniola to seek his fortune. Arrived there, he was 
 kindly received by the governor, Ovando, who offered him a tract 
 of land. "I came to get gold," replied the haughty and rapacious 
 youth, "not to till the soil like a peasant.^' He accepted the grant, 
 however, with its accustomed quota of Indian slaves, and was fre- 
 quently engaged, under Yelasquez, in the defeat and enslavement of 
 the insurgent natives. He accompanied that commander, in 1512, 
 on the conquest of Cuba, and acquired, by mining and planting, con- 
 siderable property. During his residence on that island, he was 
 alternately under the favour and displeasure of his chief, who, at 
 one time, it is said, was so enraged against him as to have been on 
 the point of ordering his execution. They became reconciled, how- 
 ever, Cortes embarking all his means in the projected enterprise, 
 and Yelasquez, acquainted with his courage and abilities, assuring 
 him of the command. Under the stimulus of ambition and oppor- 
 tunity, his character, marked before by levity, sensuality, and rash- 
 ness, underwent a marked change ; and all the extraordinary faculties 
 of energy, policy, and perseverance, hitherto latent, took the com- 
 plete ascendency. 
 
 So splendid appeared the anticipated prize, that the colonists of 
 the island, though hardly settled in their new possessions, flocked in 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HISIORY OF MEXICO. IQS 
 
 great numbers to his standard. Three hundred volunteers were 
 soon assembled in the town of St. Jago, and preparations were made 
 with great eagerness and abandonment. "ISTothing was to be seen," 
 says one of the company, "or spoken of, but selling lands to purchase 
 arms and horses, quilting coats of mail, making bread, and salting 
 pork, for sea-stores." Instructions were made out by the governor, 
 enjoining the conversion ©f the natives and the furtherance of traf- 
 fic with them. They were also to be invited to give in their alle- 
 giance to his Most Catholic Majesty, "and to manifest it by regaling 
 him with such comfortable presents of gold, pearls, and precious 
 stones, as by showing their own good will, would secure his favor 
 and protection." 
 
 But, when all was ready, Yelasquez, of an irritable and jealous 
 disposition, was seized with a sudden distrust of his officer, and 
 resolved to deprive him of the command. Cortes, apprized of his 
 intention, with all haste got his squadron under way, and set sail at 
 midnight, the enraged governor arriving on the shore just in time 
 to witness his departure. He touched at several points on the coast, 
 strengthening his forces and equipment, and on the 10th of Feb- 
 ruary, 1519, sailed from Havana for Cape San Antonio. There he 
 was joined by fresh reinforcements, the whole command consisting 
 of eleven vessels, manned by six hundred and sixty-three men. 
 He had ten cannon and sixteen horses, the last of inestimable 
 value in warfare with the feebly-armed and half-naked tribes of 
 America. On the 18th of February, the whole fleet laid its course 
 for Yucatan. 
 
 At the island of Cozumel, where they first arrived, the Spaniards 
 found several temples, massively constructed of stone and lime. The 
 Indians proved friendly, and two reverend friars, attached to the 
 expedition, addressed them, with little efiect, on the merits of Chris- 
 tianity; and Cortes, to their amazement, tumbled down their most 
 venerated idol, and replaced it with a statue of the Virgin. On the 
 4th of March, the fleet again set sail, and soon arrived at the Eio de 
 Tabasco, near the southern extremity of the gulf. This river Cor- 
 tes, with a part of his army, ascended in boats, and, on the second 
 day, was encountered by a great body of Indians, drawn up on the 
 bank to oppose his passage and defend their town of Tabasco. A 
 notary public made solemn proclamation that the expedition waa 
 "on God's service and the King's," and invoked on the heads of the 
 natives the responsibility of a contest — "all which," says Captain 
 
104 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 Diaz,* "being duly explained to tliem, produced no effect; they 
 seemed as determined to oppose us as they were before." They were 
 defeated, after a pretty sharp resistance, by the novel terror of fire • 
 arms, and the town was taken by the victors ; but to their great disgust^ 
 all the treasure had been removed before their arrival. Cortes, with 
 much form, took possession of the country, drawing his sword and 
 giving three cuts upon a great Ceiba-tree, and vowing to defend the 
 claim of the Spanish monarch against all opponents. 
 
 Learning that a great force of Indians was assembled on the neigh- 
 bouring plain of Ceutla, he resolved, by striking the first blow, to 
 inspire terror through the country. Horses and artillery were accord- 
 ingly landed, and, on the' 25th of March, he set forth against the 
 hostile camp. The main body, defiling over a long causeway, en- 
 gaged the enemy in front, while Cortes, with the -slender squadron 
 of cavalry, drew a circuit to attack them in the rear. The Indians 
 fought with desperation for more than an hour, to the rude and dis- 
 cordant music of conchs, flutes of cane, and drums hollowed from 
 the trunks of trees ; and flung clouds of dust into the air to conceal 
 the havoc which the cannon made in their crowded ranks. But when 
 taken in the rear by the novel and terrible apparition of armed 
 horsemen, sheathed in glittering steel, charging among them, a gen- 
 eral panic seized the whole multitude. The infantry renewed their 
 exertions, and the unwieldy mass of the Indian army was soon com- 
 pelled to a flight which it was considered imprudent to follow. 
 This signal victory was ascribed by some contemporary histori- 
 ans to the personal exertions of St. Jago, the patron of Spanish 
 conquest. Others held that the achievement was due to St. Peter; 
 but honest Diaz, who was present, says, "it might be the case, and 
 I, sinner as I am, was not worthy to be permitted to see it. * * 
 But although I, unworthy sinner that I am, was unfit to behold 
 either of those Holy Apostles — upwards of. four hundred of us were 
 present ; let their testimony be taken." 
 
 Ere long, the caciques of the vanquished nation, completely over- 
 awed, presented themselves at the camp, bearing propitiatory offer- 
 ings, and tendering the submission of their people. They were filled 
 with wonder at all which they beheld — the strange persons and 
 accoutrements of the invaders, the terrible power of the cavalry, 
 and the mystic celebration of Catholic ceremony. To the inquisitive 
 
 * A soldier distinguished in the Wars of the Conquest. His Memoirs are among 
 the most valuable, as well as amusing, of all original histories. 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HISTORY OF MEXICO. 105 
 
 demands of tlie Spaniards concerning the region of gold, they 
 answered, pointing to the west, "Culchna" and "Mexico" — a name 
 destined to a wide and unhappy celebrity. 
 
 Coasting westward, after this triumph, the expedition arrived at 
 the island of San Juan de Ulua, opposite the present site of ^era 
 Cruz. With the natives of this place, who, conciliated by the for- 
 mer visit of Grijalva, came off in numbers to the ships, Cortes was 
 enabled to communicate by the double interpretation of a Spaniard 
 once resident with the Indians of the South, and of Donna Marina, 
 a Mexican female, who had been given him by the caciques of 
 Tabasco. She was young and beautiful, and of remarkable intelli- 
 gence, soon acquiring such a knowledge of Castilian as to spare the 
 necessity of a second interpreter. She became the mistress of Cortes, 
 to whom she bore a son, and in all the eventful scenes which distin- 
 guished the conquest, bore a conspicuous part, as his interpreter and 
 companion. But before proceeding to a narration of those scenes, 
 it is proper to give some account of that singular nation, the first, 
 and, with one other exception, the only people encountered by Eu- 
 ropeans in the New World, possessed of regular government, illus- 
 trated by national history, and adorned with the arts of civilization. 
 
 \j iLJb u;d> <L cL JU J>Ci Jb J; • 
 
 THE MEXICAN ABORIOINES.— THEIR ORIGIN AND 
 APPEARANCE. — THEIR GOVERNMENT, THEOL- 
 OGY, MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 
 
 The original inhabitants of ancient Mexico were so unlike the 
 timid and unsophisticated islanders with whom the Spanish discov- 
 erers of America first held intercourse, that the early historians of 
 the Conquest, themselves partakers in the enterprise, were at a loss 
 for language in which to express their admiration. The dim and 
 uncertain records and traditions of the natives throw little light upon 
 the question of their origin, and of the rise and progress of their 
 civilization. It appears that, at a remote period, the nation of the 
 Toltecs migrated from some unknown northern region to the beau- 
 tiful Yalley of Mexico; and that, after a period of power and 
 
106 AMEEICA ILLUSTKATED. 
 
 prosperity, they became reduced by pestilence and other causes, 
 and were succeeded or driven off by the barbarous Chichimecas. 
 These, in turn, gave place to the seven tribes of the N'ahuatlacas, to 
 which nation belonged the tribe of the Aztecs, the possessors of the 
 country at the period of European discovery. The foundation of 
 their capital upon the lake was commenced, according to their chro- 
 nology, in the year 1325. 
 
 The Aztecs, like their predecessors, came originally from the north, 
 and in their gradual progress southward formed many temporary 
 settlements upon the route — at least the character of the ruins still 
 to be seen between the Yalley and the borders of Upper California 
 appears to corroborate the national tradition of the migration. 
 
 Of their general physical conformation, the following brief descrip- 
 tion, given by Pritchard, in his Natural History of Man, from Cla- 
 vigero, will suffice: "The Mexicans are of a good stature, generally 
 rather exceeding than falling short of the middle size, and well pro- 
 portioned in all their limbs. They have good complexions, narrow 
 foreheads, black eyes, clean, firm, regular white teeth ; thick, black, 
 coarse, glossy hair; thin beards, and generally no hair upon their 
 legs, thighs, and arms : their skin is of an olive colour. 
 
 "There is scarcely a nation upon earth in which there are fewer 
 persons deformed; and it would be more difficult to find a single 
 hump-backed, lame, or squint-eyed man among a thousand Mexicans 
 than among a hundred of any other nation. Among the young 
 women of Mexico, there are many very beautiful and fair; whose 
 beauty is rendered! more attractive by the sweetness and natural 
 modesty of their behaviour." 
 
 Their mental capacity was, without doubt, greatly superior to that 
 of the wilder races of North America.' Their architectural skill 
 and their proficiency in the mechanic arts gave proof of no small 
 measure of ingenuity, industry, and enterprise, and notwithstanding 
 the ferocious cruelty and loathsome cannibalism attendant upon their 
 strange system of religion, they evinced, in many respects, a refine- 
 ment, a moral purity, and an intuitive perception of the proprieties 
 of life, superior to that 'of their European contemporaries. A gen- 
 eral idea of the national character and customs can be gathered frona 
 the detail of the events of the conquest. 
 
 The succession to the crown was not entirely hereditary, but 
 depended upon the decision of four electors, from among the nobles. 
 who were to decide which of the deceased monarch's brothers, or 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HISTORY OF MEXICO. IQT 
 
 nephews sliould be elevated to the vacant office ; a peculiarity, so 
 far as regards the exclusion of lineal descendants, singularly uniform 
 among the aborigines of America. 
 
 There appears to have existed a body of powerful nobles, each 
 despotic within his own district, who held their estates or offices by 
 a feudal tenure of military service. The king originated all laws, 
 but the chief magistrates, or judges to whom was confided their 
 administration, although appointed by the crown, held office for life, 
 and from their decision there was no appeal. The criminal code 
 was severe, and severely enforced; many offences generally consid- 
 ered as venial being punishable by death. As far as can be gathered 
 from the uncertain accounts of the old historians, an established 
 order and system was observable in the whole machinery of govern- 
 ment, in the collection of revenue, and the administration of the laws. 
 
 The splendour of the monarch's court, with the punctilious eti- 
 quette and wearisome ceremonial by which he maintained his dig- 
 nity, are described at great length in the early accounts of Mexico. 
 No prince ever exacted or received more obsequious homage from 
 his nobles and attendants ; and, as may well be supposed, these sub- 
 ordinates were not behind-hand in ostentation and parade in the 
 presence of their inferiors. 
 
 In the Mexican system of religion and religious ceremouial 
 were seen the strangest incongruities and contradictions. In several 
 particulars most striking coincidences appeared between their form 
 of worship and their code of morals, and those of the Christian reli- 
 gion, in hideous contrast to which stands out their horrible custom 
 of human sacrifice and cannibalism. The extent to which this was 
 practiced cannot now be correctly ascertained: early computations 
 present such remarkable discrepancies that we are at a loss in arriving 
 at the truth, but it is generally agreed that the annual number of 
 victims, about the time of the conquest, must be computed by thou- 
 sands. These were, for the most part, prisoners taken m war or 
 exacted from some subordinate kingdom or province, as an atone- 
 ment for national offences. 
 
 At the celebration of any great occurrence, as the demise of the 
 crown, or the dedication of a temple, immense numbers of prisoners 
 were slaughtered, and their remains were piled in order as ghastly 
 memorials of the event. It is true that in some instances the Spanish 
 invaders may have mistaken an ordinary cemetery for a place of 
 deposit devoted exclusively to the victims of sacrifice. A great 
 
108 AMEEICA ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 variety of ceremonials preceded the ordinary performance of this 
 religious rite, but the mode of death was commonly the same. At the 
 summit of the pyramidal temple, where was enshrined the image of 
 the deity to which it was devoted, the victim was stretched upon a 
 large block of stone, and there held by the assistant priests, while the 
 chief official cut open his breast with a sharp stone, and tore out 
 the heart. 
 
 The body was afterwards prepared for food, and devoured with 
 much ceremony at a grand entertainment. "This was not," says 
 Prescott, "the coarse repast of famished cannibals, but a banquet 
 teeming with delicious beverages and delicate viands, prepared with 
 art and attended by both sexes, who, as we shall see hereafter, con- 
 ducted themselves with all the decorum of civilized life. Surely, 
 never were refinement and the extreme of barbarism brought so 
 closely in contact with each other!" De Solis speaks of the "Rites 
 and Ceremonies of these miserable Heathens," as "shocking and 
 horrible both to Reason and Nature — incongruous, stupid Absurdi- 
 ties, which seemed altogether incompatible' with the Regularity and 
 admirable Oeconomy which was observed in the other parts of that 
 government; and would scarce be believed, were not Histories full 
 of Examples of the like Weaknesses and Errors of Human Capacities 
 in other Nations, who are no less blind, tho' in Parts of the World 
 where they have the Means of being more enlighten'd." 
 
 The Aztecs had no system of writing, except by the hieroglyphic 
 paintings and symbols so generally adopted by a semi-barbarous 
 people. These were executed nipon skins, cotton cloth, or a species 
 of paper; and great numbers of books and rolls containing the 
 records of the empire were carefully preserved, until they were mostly 
 involved in the universal destruction consequent upon the success of 
 the Spaniards. Those which still exist have been subjected to care- 
 ful and critical investigation, and although the key to most of them 
 is lost, probably beyond hope of recovery, some light has been thrown 
 upon Mexican history and civilization by the rude devices whose 
 meaning has been partially deciphered. 
 
 The astronomical attainments of the natives were extremely limited ; 
 so much so as to excite surprise when compared with the wonderful 
 accuracy of their chronological cycles. They had devised a system 
 of computation by which the length of the year was so precisely 
 defined that, according to Prescott, "more than five centuries must 
 elapse before the loss of an entire day. Such was the astonishing 
 
THK CONQUEST AND HISTOKY OF MEXICO. I09 
 
 precision displayed by tlie Aztecs, or, perhaps, by their more pol- 
 ished Toltec predecessors, in these computations, sO difficult as to 
 have baffled, till a comparatively recent period, the most enlightened 
 nations of Christendom." 
 
 In the mechanic arts they had made great proficiency; labouring 
 under the disadvantage of entire ignorance of the use of iron, and 
 compelled to resort to an alloy of copper, tin, &c., they erected 'such 
 massive edifices of hewn stone as to astonish those familiar with the 
 magnificent monuments of the old world. Enormous masses of rock 
 were transported from quarries many miles distant from the edifices 
 for whose construction they were prepared, and this without the aid 
 of beasts of burden. To the skill of the Mexican goldsmiths and 
 lapidaries the contemporary artisans of Europe bore witness, con- 
 fessing their own inferiority in certain branches of the profession. 
 The extraordinary beauty of workmanship which enhanced the value 
 of their plundered treasures, excited admiration even at the court 
 of Spain. 
 
 Although polygamy was allowed, the tie of marriage was deemed 
 as sacred among the Aztecs as with the Christian nations of Europe, 
 and the women were generally treated with a respect and tenderness 
 unknown in a purely barbarous community. Slavery was one of 
 the established institutions of the country, but the master was not 
 allowed an absolute power over the servant, whose privileges were 
 secured by many restrictive provisions of the laws. It seems that 
 no small number of those who occupied this inferior position entered 
 upon it voluntarily for the sake of securing a maintenance, and 
 among the poor, many relieved themselves from the burden of sup- 
 porting a family by a sale of their children. 
 
 The trade of the cc t y was carried on altogether by travelling 
 merchants — a class of pedlers occupying a position very different 
 from that of the present day. The goods were borne upon the backs 
 of slaves, themselves a most important portion of the investment. 
 Gold-dust, cacao-nuts, and a species of tin coin served as the medium 
 of currency; but trading operations were extensively conducted 
 by barter and exchange. Very numerous articles of luxury and 
 comfort — such as rich cloths, feather-work, manufactures from the 
 precious metals, &c. — were in universal use among the wealthier 
 members of society. The variety and excellence of their cookery, 
 and the sumptuous display at their feasts and entertainments, form a 
 copious theme for the Spanish narrators. Drinking and smoking 
 
110 AMEEICA ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 were luxuries generally indulged in, but tlie intemperate use of even 
 the mild fermented liquor whicli tliey manufactured was guarded 
 against by severe penalties. These restrictions were, however, con- 
 fined to the young. 
 
 Among the Mexican Indian population of the present day we look 
 in vain for the national pride, ferocity, energy, and ingenuity of their 
 ancestors. Centuries of slavery and subordination to the European 
 have denationalized them, and certain physical peculiarities alone 
 remain to mark them as the descendants of the wonderful people 
 whose habits we have thus briefly sketched. 
 
 Ij iL(L b6i\i iL <L Jj Jbo Ji iL <L • 
 
 THE EMPEEOR MONTEZUMA. — LANDING OF THE SPANIARDS.— 
 
 THEIR NEGOTIATION WITH MONTEZUMA. — ^HIS IMPOLICY. 
 
 SPLENDID PRESENTS. — CORTES REVOLTS AGAINST VELAS- 
 QUEZ. PORMS AN ALLIANCE WITH THE TOTONACS. 
 
 DESTROYS THEIR IDOLS. SETS PORTH POR MEXICO. 
 
 The throne of the Aztec empire, at this time, was held by Mon 
 tezuma, renowned, beyond any other of the native American race^ 
 for a life marked by strange vicissitudes and a most melancholy fate. 
 On the decease of his uncle, in 1502, he had been elected to the 
 sovereignty in acknowledgment of his services in war and his devo- 
 tion to the national theology — a theology whose mystical tenets and 
 sanguinary rites were intimately blended with the entire system of 
 Mexican government and polity. His name, signifying the "sad" 
 or "severe," was derived from the grave and melancholy expression 
 of his countenance, an expression natural enough to the earnest 
 devotee of a religion so dark and cruel. The military genius of the 
 young emperor soon extended his sway over wider regions of Ana* 
 huac* than had been ruled by the greatest of his predecessors ; and 
 the justice of his administration, and the' great public improvements 
 which he planned, equally evinced his talents for policy and gov- 
 
 * This was the native appellation of those extensive regions since included under 
 the title of New Spain. 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HISTOKY OF MEXICO. m 
 
 ernment. But his domains, continually extended by conquest, had 
 grown so great, and were composed of such heterogeneous materials, 
 as to require a large standing army and the frequent repression of 
 insurrections; and the Aztec empire, not yet consolidated by time, 
 and containing the elements of disorder within, was ill fitted to with 
 stand any vigorous assault from without. 
 
 On the 21st of April, 1519, the Spanish army disembarked on a 
 sandy beach, the site of the present Yera Cruz, and the general 
 presently received a visit from Teuhtile, the chief cacique of the 
 adjoining region. Ceremonious courtesies were interchanged, and 
 Cortes informed his visitor, that the great king of Spain had dis- 
 patched him to the country with presents and a message for its sov 
 ereign. The chief expressed surprise on hearing that there was 
 another monarch equal in power to his master, the great Montezuma, 
 but promised his good offices, and bestowed on the strangers splendid 
 presents, beautifully wrought in gold and other materials. A very 
 paltry offering, in comparison, was all that the Spaniards could dis- 
 patch to the court of Mexico; and with it Teuhtile sent accurate 
 pictures, drawn and coloured by native artists, of the ships, the can- 
 non, the horses, and the strangers themselves, for the inspection of 
 the emperor. 
 
 The visit of Grijalva, faithfully reported by the caciques whom 
 he encountered, had produced a deep and alarming impression on 
 the mind of Montezuma. There was an ancient prediction, firmly 
 believed in Anahuac, that Quetzalcoatl, the founder of the Aztec 
 religion and government, a deity of fair complexion and flowing 
 beard, should one day return from his long sojourn in the east, and 
 resume possession of his empire. Many singular portents and pro- 
 digies of nature had affected the mind of the sovereign ; and it was 
 by his express orders that, on the landing of the second company of 
 strangers, rich gifts had been bestowed on them, and the sedulous 
 attendance of a multitude of natives had ministered to their wants. 
 The news of their coming was borne rapidly to court, and the per- 
 plexed monarch, despite the opposition of his wisest councillors, re- 
 solved to send them a magnificent offering, but to forbid their approach 
 to his city. No course of action could have been devised more apt 
 tc stimulate their rapacity, curiosity, and ambition, to the utmost 
 
 The imperial capital of Tenochtitlan, or Mexico, lay seventy leagues 
 from the coast ; yet eight days after the news was dispatched from 
 Vera Cruz, an embassy from the Aztec sovereign, accompanied by 
 
112 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 a hundred slaves, bearing splendid presents, entered the Spanish 
 camp. The beauty and value of these royal gifts are described in 
 glowing terms by contemporary writers, especially those who beheld 
 them. They consisted of fabrics admirably worked in cotton and 
 variegated feathers, mingled with gems ; of gold and silver skilfully 
 wrought into the shape of animals, &c. ; and especially of a great 
 golden sun, as large as a carriage- wheel, beautifully fashioned, and 
 worth, according to the value of the metal in that da}^, nearly a 
 quarter of a million dollars of the present currency. A courteous 
 message was likewise delivered to the strangers, declining a visit, 
 and politely suggesting their return. 
 
 Cortes, with mingled exultation and disappointment, received the 
 gifts, and the accompanying repulse ; but, with his accustomed per- 
 severance, sent by the returning ambassadors a new present (miser- 
 ably small compared with the magnificent offerings of the emperor) 
 and a renewed request for permission to visit the court. A positive 
 denial, softened, however, by additional presents, was returned ; and 
 the Spanish leader, turning to his officers, said coldly, "Truly this is 
 a great monarch and a rich — by God's permission we must see him." 
 
 Before the next morning the Spanish camp was entirely deserted 
 by the Indians. Thirty of his people, encamped on a spot, reeking, 
 even at the present day, with pestilence and death, had already per- 
 ished ; and Cortes resolved to seek out a more favourable locality. 
 To his great joy, an embassy presently arrived from the Totonacs, 
 a powerful tribe lately subdued by the Aztecs, inviting him to visit 
 their capital of Cempoalla. An important and hazardous experi- 
 ment, however, was first to be attempted. 
 
 Whatever good faith to his patron and coadjutor he might have 
 cherished at the commencement of the enterprise, had been over- 
 come by the value of the anticipated prize ; and he had resolved to 
 disown even a nominal allegiance to Velasquez in the wealthy region 
 which he proposed to conquer. The soldiers, by his machinations, 
 were induced to throng around his tent, and demand the foundation 
 of a settlement. With affected reluctance, he assented, and, having 
 formally resigned his commission received from the governor, was 
 forthwith elected (by the officers and magistrates of his own appoint- 
 ment) as Captain-General of the new colony of Yera Cruz. The 
 immediate friends and partisans of Yalasquez, to quiet their indig- 
 nant remonstrances, were laid in irons ; and, ere long, singular to 
 state, they joined heartily in supporting the authority of Cortes. 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HISTOEY OF MEXICO. H^ 
 
 That active commander, secure in his new authority, now marched 
 with all his troops to Cempoalla. At this place, which contained 
 about thirty thousand inhabitants, the Spaniards met with the most 
 friendly and hospitable reception, and the heart of their leader 
 throbbed high at the prospect of powerful native assistance in his 
 ambitious schemes. He explained to the Cempoallan chieftain, a 
 portly dignitary, the power of his master the emperor, and his zeal 
 for the salvation of souls, and went at considerable length into a 
 doctrinal disquisition on the holy faith. "As soon as the fat cacique 
 had heard him out," says a witness, "heaving a deep sigh, he com- 
 plained bitterly of Montezuma and his officers, saying that having 
 been lately compelled to submit to the yoke of that monarch, he 
 had seized all his gold, and now held him completely enthralled." 
 
 This disaffection promised well; but on the following day, the 
 arrival of five officers from the court of Montezuma filled the Toto- 
 nacs with dismay. Trembling with fear, all hastened to receive the 
 imperial emissaries, who passed to their quarters with extraordinary 
 state, not deigning to cast a look on the Spaniards. They were ele- 
 gantly attired, and each held in his hand a nosegay, which he occa- 
 sionally smelt at — a curious piece of tyrannic foppery, considering 
 their errand. This was nothing less than to demand twenty young 
 people for sacrifice to their gods, in expiation of the offence of receiv- 
 ing the Spaniards. But such was the influence already acquired by 
 Cortes, that the Totonacs, at his command, forthwith' put these high 
 ambassadors in the stocks — the Spanish commander, by artful pol- 
 icy, saving their lives, and secretly dispatching them home to pro- 
 pitiate the emperor. 
 
 The Totonacs, fully committed in rebellion, now took oath of 
 allegiance to the Spanish sovereign ; and a town called Yilla Eica 
 . de la Yera Cruz (at some distance from the present city of that 
 name) was founded by the Spaniards. A fresh embassy, with splen- 
 did presents, soon arrived from Montezuma, and Cortes, having stu- 
 diously displayed to the envoys the terrors of European warfare, 
 reiterated his intention of visiting their master. 
 
 Scandalized at the idolatrous rites and human sacrifices practised by 
 his allies, the Spanish general made fierce remonstrance. Inflamed 
 with crusading zeal, he suddenly issued orders for the immediate 
 destruction of the idols — a work zealously completed by his men, to 
 the horror of their worshippers. The caciques who resisted were 
 seized, and Cortes made a long sermon to the aghast multitude, 
 Vol. III. —8 
 
114 AMEEICA ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 assuring tliem of the protection of the "Virgin, " with many other 
 good and holy reasons and arguments, which could not be better 
 expressed by any one, and all which the people listened to with 
 much attention." Mass was performed, and all the principal persons 
 of the neighbourhood, with respectful, but, no doubt, with greatly- 
 puzzled attention, participated in the ceremony. To propitiate the 
 crown, and to secure its protection against the anticipated vengeance 
 of Yelasquez, Cortes now resolved to dispatch the whole of the splen* 
 did presents of Montezuma as an offering to the emperor (Charles Y.), 
 and, by his almost-unbounded influence with the soldiery, prevailed 
 on them to relinquish their share of the treasure. A letter, entreat- 
 ing a confirmation of his authority, seconded by the petitions of the 
 whole army, was written • and, with wonderful audacity, he assured 
 the emperor that in a brief time the Aztec sovereign should be made 
 to own his sway, or, dead or alive, be placed at his disposal. On the 
 26th of July, a vessel, bearing the treasure and these momentous 
 tidings, was dispatched to Spain; but, by the indiscretion of her 
 commander, in touching at Cuba, Yelasquez became informed of the 
 whole proceedings. With indescribable rage and fury, he set to 
 work to prepare a fresh expedition for the purpose of reducing his 
 refractory officer, and gaining possession of the wealthy realms 
 of Mexico. 
 
 A few malcontents in the army had plotted to seize a vessel and 
 return to the island. This piece of defection was punished with 
 merciless severity ; and, to guard against any renewal of the attempt, 
 Cortes now took the extraordinary resolution of destroying his fleet. 
 Accordingly, all except one small vessel were privately scuttled and 
 sunk. The alarm and indignation of the soldiers were allayed, and 
 their courage inflamed by a harangue so stirring and eloquent, that, 
 when it was finished, they cried eagerly, "To Mexico! to Mexico!" 
 All, indeed, could see that there was no chance of drawing back, and 
 that the only hope of safety itself lay in victory and conquest. 
 Active preparations were now made for the expected campaign. 
 Juan de Escalente, a sure friend of the general's, was left in command 
 of a small garrison at Cerapoalla. With a little more than four hun- 
 dred Spaniards and two thousand Totonacs, on the 16th of August. 
 1519, Cortes set forth on the most wonderful of martial enterprises 
 recorded in history — the March to Mexico. 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HISTOEY OF MEXICO. Hg 
 
 CHAPTER I?. 
 
 THE MARCH TOWARD MEXICO. — SPIRITED RESISTANCE OP THB 
 TLASCALANS. — SUCCESS OF THE SPANIARDS. — THEIR DIS- 
 COURAGEMENTS.— FIRMNESS OF CORTES. — SUBMISSION 
 OF THE TLASCALANS. — SINGULAR CHANGE OF FEELING. 
 — ^DUPLICITY OF CORTES. — HIS ZEAL FOR CONVERSION. 
 
 Emerging from the tierra caliente, the invaders ascended to the 
 great plateau, and were received in a friendly manner at the cities 
 of Jalapa and Naulinco, allies of the Totonacs. At Tlatlauqnitepec, 
 which they reached after several days of wearisome march, were 
 many teocallies or mound-temples, and in the vicinity were a vast 
 number of skeletons, regularly arranged, perhaps those of the victims 
 of sacrifice. The cacique of this city, dreading the anger of his 
 sovereign, gave them a cool reception, and declined imparting to 
 them any gold. He added, however, "should he" (Montezuma) 
 " command it, my gold, my person, and all that I possess, shall be 
 at your disposal." Disappointed in his hopes of treasure, the gen- 
 eral's zeal for conversion seems to have received a sudden stimulus, 
 for, uplifting his voice, he demanded of all present to renounce their 
 idolatries, and would have planted the cross at once, but for the 
 remonstrances of the reverend Father Olmedo, the chaplain of the 
 expedition, who, to his honour, often interfered in behalf of the 
 natives, and who now assured him that the time was unpropitious 
 for making proselytes. 
 
 By advice of his Totonac allies, Cortes now took up his march 
 for Tlascala, an independent republic, which, for many ages, had suc- 
 cessfully stemmed the tide of Aztec conquest. Though surrounded 
 on all sides by the territories of the Mexican sovereigns, these people, 
 from the natural fertility of their country, and the strength of its 
 position, had been enabled to set the conquerors of Anahuac at defi- 
 ance. In their warlike habits, and in the deadly enmity which they 
 cherished toward the Aztecs, the general trusted to dnd efficient alli- 
 ance and assistance in his ambitious schemes. He accordingly sent an 
 Indian embassy, with a letter in Spanish, desiring a friendly interview. 
 
 On coming to their territory, the invaders were surprised to find 
 it protected by a massive wall of masonry, built between two mount- 
 
116 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 ams, and having but a single entrance, curiously constructed for 
 defence. No one, however, appeared to oppose them, and the little 
 army, defiling through the gate-way, pushed on toward the capital. 
 Their hopes of a friendly reception were soon grievously disappointed. 
 A force of three thousand Tlascalans appeared to dispute their pass- 
 age, and though compelled to give ground before the discharge of 
 artillery and the charge of cavalry, retreated in good order. On the 
 next day (September 2d) a fresh body of the enemy appeared, who, 
 to a formal protest, recorded as usual by a notary, replied only with 
 a shower of missiles. A fight commenced, and the Indians, artfully 
 retreating, decoyed their invaders into a narrow defile, where Xicoten- 
 catl, the greatest general of Tlascala, with an army of many thousand 
 warriors, was waiting to receive them. 
 
 Amid the hideous roar of barbarian drums, the shrill notes of flutes, 
 and a terrific outbreak of cries and whistlings, the little army of 
 Cortes engaged the enemy — his Indian allies, now three thousand 
 in number, standing stoutly by him. Destruction, indeed, seemed 
 almost inevitable. "I see nothing but death before us," said one of 
 the chiefs; "we shall never get through the pass alive." But the 
 little body of cavalry, Cortes at their head, charging with the despe- 
 ration of men whose lives were at stake, at length cleared a way for 
 the artillery, which played with terrible efi:ect on the crowded ranks 
 of the enemy. Eight of the bravest Tlascalan chiefs and a great 
 number of their followers fell, and Xicotencatl, discouraged, at last 
 drew off his forces. The Spaniards retreated, for safe encampment, 
 to an eminence called the "Hill of Tzompach," on which stood a 
 temple, the ruins of which yet remain. Their loss had been small, 
 owing to the anxiety of the enemy to take them alive for sacrifice ; 
 but an abundance of cruel wounds were distributed among them, 
 which, with the revolting aid of a chirurgery common in these wars, 
 they dressed with the fat of the Indians who had fallen. 
 
 Overtures of peace, which Cortes now made to the Tlascalans, 
 were fiercely and peremptorily rejected ; and news came that Xicoten- 
 catl, with fifty thousand men, was awaiting the invaders on the road 
 to Tlascala. On hearing these portentous tidings, says the honest 
 chronicler, "b^ing but mortals, and like all others fearing death, 
 we prepared for battle by confessing to our reverend fathers, who 
 were occupied during the whole night in that holy office." On the 
 morning of September 15th, the little host, resolved on conquest or 
 death, again took the road to Tlascala. 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HISTORY OF MEXICO. HJ 
 
 The Indian army, drawn up in a vast meaciow, was awaiting it at 
 no great distance. It formed a splendid sight, many of .the warriors 
 being decorated with armour of gold and silver, and the whole array 
 being gorgeous with mantles of feather- work and the fluttering of 
 innumerable standards. Their weapons were javelins, darts, and 
 arrows, headed with copper or sharp stones — skilfully and elegantly 
 made, but feeble and inefficient in comparison with the artillery, the 
 muskets, sm.d the sabres of their European foes. Still, so determined 
 was their onset, that by mere force of numbers, the Spaniards were 
 at first driven back in confusion. By a desperate use of their swords, 
 room was finally cleared for the artillery, and great havoc was made 
 among the dense ranks of the assailants. The cavalry, under Cor- 
 tes, charged fiercely wherever they had space, and drove back the 
 assailants with much slaughter. Again and again, with terrible 
 loss, did the Tlascalans close around the little army of Spaniards 
 and Totonacs; and, but for dissension among themselves, would, 
 probably, by their overwhelming superiority of numbers, have car- 
 ried the day. But two powerful chiefs, disagreeing with Xicotencatl, 
 retreate'd with their respective forces ; and that general, after a con- 
 test of four hours, during which he had displayed the most chival- 
 rous courage, was fain to draw off the remainder of his command. 
 The Spaniards, exhausted with wounds and fatigue, retreated to 
 Tzompach, where they secretly buried in a subterranean vault the 
 small number of their own soldiers that had fallen. 
 
 It was contrary to the usual custom of the natives of Anahuao 
 to war by night ; yet, stimulated by the encouragement of their priests 
 and wizards, who assured them that the strangers were " Children of 
 the Sun," and dependent on that luminary for strength and protec- 
 tion, the defeated army made a midnight assault on the Spanish 
 camp. But these hardy adventurers, sleeping, as usual, on their 
 arms, were instantly on the alert, and repulsed with considerable 
 loss the advancing assailants — who, however, consoled themselves 
 by sacrificing two of their unreliable wizards. The Tlascalan coun- 
 cil would now have made peace, and for that purpose dispatched to 
 the Christian camp an embassy of their own — which, however, was 
 intercepted on the way by Xicotencatl, eager to avenge the success- 
 ive defeats which he had encountered. The Spaniards themselves, 
 fifty-five of whom had perished since leaving Yera Cruz, were heart- 
 ily wearied of fighting and privation. They strongly remonstrated 
 with Cortes against attempting to reach Mexico, the name ot which 
 
118 AMERICA ILLUSTEATED. ^ 
 
 liad become a common jest in the army, or even Tlascala. But 
 their indomitable commander, in a stern and eloquent harangue, 
 revived their spirits, and assured them of the divine protection. 
 "Wherever we have come," he said, "we have preached to the igno- 
 rant natives the doctrines of our holy faith ; wherefore I trust we 
 shall still receive the divine assistance, and that of my patron, St. 
 Peter; * * * r^n(j ^s to what you say of losses, deaths 
 and fatigues, such is the fortune of war, and we did not come here 
 in search of pastimes and amusements." Any further remonstrances 
 he cut short by quoting from an old song, that "it was better to die 
 at once than to live dishonoured," and by the firmness of his character, 
 and the vehemence of his tone, bore down all opposition. 
 
 A large embassy which Xicotencatl had dispatched to the Span- 
 ish camp, being discovered to be spies, were dismissed with cruel 
 mutilation; and that commander, suddenly abandoning his hopes 
 of resistance, betook himself, with the intercepted envoys, to the 
 presence of the invaders. He took on himself the entire reponsi- 
 bility of the war, and tendered the submission of his countrymen. 
 Almost at the same time a new embassy, of five nobles, with two 
 hundred attendants, bearing magnificent presents, arrived from Mon- 
 tezuma. That unhappy sovereign now offered to furnish regular 
 tribute to the king of Spain, if the dreaded strangers would forego 
 their intended march to his capital — an impolitic overture, which 
 only stimulated the hopes and ambition of Cortes, already fortified 
 by the enmity which he observed to prevail between the two embas- 
 sies. " I was not a little pleased," he writes to the emperor (Charles 
 Y.) "on seeing their want of harmony, as it seemed favourable to my 
 designs, and would enable me to bring them the more easily into 
 subjection, according to the old saying ^De monte^ &c. I likewise 
 applied to this case the authority of the Evangelist, who says, * Every 
 Kingdom divided against itself shall be rendered desolate,' and I 
 dissembled with both parties" — an avowal of complacent duplicity 
 nardly to be paralleled even in private diplomatic correspondence. 
 
 On the 23d of September, a day still observed as a festival in that 
 city, the Spanish army entered Tlascala. The inhabitants, with a 
 strange revulsion of feeling, thronged around it, covering man and 
 horse with fresh roses, and exhibiting every token of the heartiest 
 welcome. This extraordinary change was doubtless due to the 
 respect which valour and superior power always commands from a 
 tialf-civilized race, and also to their hope of a resistless ally in war 
 
THE CONQUEST AND niSTOTvY OF MEXICO. HCf 
 
 against tlieir ancient enemies, the Aztecs. The city proved to be 
 large and populous — thirty thousand persons, it is said, being, on 
 public days, assembled in the market-place; and many eyidences of 
 refinement, such as baths and a police, awakened the admiration of 
 the strangers. Cortes, in his dispatches, adduces an odd proof of 
 the advancement of the natives of New Spain: "There were beg- 
 gars in the streets," he says, "as among any civilized people." 
 
 That zealous polemic, with his accustomed promptitude, at once 
 entered on the work of converting his new allies. Holding up 
 before them "a beauteous image of our Lady, with her precious 
 Son in her arms," he made a long discourse, no doubt of an edify- 
 ing nature, on the Christian faith, and the rewards of its votaries — 
 "whereas," he continued, "by persisting in the worship of your idols, 
 vz-hich are devils, you will be drawn by them into their infernal pit, 
 there to burn eternally in flames of fire." All he could obtain, how 
 ever, was an assent to the display and exercise of his own faith, and 
 the release of victims destined for sacrifice — the latter, however, 
 being of little effect, the Tlascalans quietly perpetrating their usual 
 rites, whenever their guests were out of the way. 
 
 SUBMISSION OF PROVINCES. — CORTES MARCHES ON CHOLULA. 
 
 — PLOT DISCOVERED. — MASSACRE OF THE CHOLULANS. 
 
 THE MARCH TO MEXICO RESUMED. — WEAK POLICY OF MON- 
 TEZUMA. — THE ENTRANCE INTO MEXICO. — INTERVIEWS 
 WITH THE EMPEROR. — HIS GENEROSITY AND AFFABILITY. 
 
 Through fear of the invincible strangers, or from hatred to the 
 Aztec rule, embassies were now sent to Cortes from various districts, 
 tendering submission and tribute. But the people of Cholula, an 
 ancient and celebrated city, the most sacred in all Anahuac, (the 
 Mecca of the Mexican races,) and still famous for its great pyramid, 
 and other massive relics of the Aztec worship, were of a different 
 mind. " They sent a very dry and uncourteous answer to our mes- 
 sage," says the indignant Captain Diaz, ^^and ivithotit any present 
 whatever^ Determined to overawe this refractory and illiberal conk* 
 
120 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 munity, Cortes, after a sojourn of three weeks in Tlascala, acconi' 
 panied by six thousand warriors from that city, took up his march 
 for Cholula, which lay at no great distance. On his arrival, the cit- 
 izens, with apparent readiness, gave in their submission, only request- 
 ing that the Tlascalans, ^vith whom they were at feud, should encamp 
 without the city ; but welcomed the Spaniards with every appearance 
 of joy and Congratulation. 
 
 ISTevertheless, in a few days, it was evident that secret enmity was 
 plotting their destruction. A sacrifice to the war-god, including five 
 children, intimated some notable attempt of a martial nature; and 
 ere long, the visitors were utterly neglected by their hosts — the few 
 citizens, whom they met in the streets, drawing aside, "with a mys- 
 terious kind of sneer on their faces." Through the agency of 
 Marina, the whole particulars of the plot were discovered, and Cortes 
 resolved to make a terrible example of the hostile city. Under 
 pretext of taking his leave, on the following morning he assembled 
 in the great square a large number of the chiefs and citizens. When 
 all was ready, he suddenly broke forth into a fierce address, reproach- 
 ing them with their treason. The caciques admitted the plot, but laid 
 the blame on Montezuma — with what truth does not exactly appear. 
 
 He then at once gave the signal for slaughter, and his soldiers, 
 with artillery and musketry, committed a frightful massacre on the 
 multitude entrapped within the square. The Tlascalans also swarmed 
 in, and before the fury of these ancient enemies could be stayed, six 
 thousand of the Cholulans had perished, and the whole city was 
 ravaged and plundered. This terrible example of the power and 
 vengeance of the Spaniards struck dread throughout all Anahuac. 
 Montezuma, trembling in his distant capital, again dispatched splen- 
 did presents to the victors, and, after a fortnight passed in the de- 
 vastated city, elate with triumph, and strengthened by a force of 
 six thousand of the bravest warriors of Tlascala^ they resumed the 
 march to Mexico. 
 
 It was useless, indeed, to disguise from their minds that, although 
 so far successful to a degree unheard of, they were entering on new 
 and terrible dangers. Marching with constant watchfulness, ("the 
 beard ever on the shoulder," says one of them) they gradually 
 ascended the chain of mountains which surrounds the great Mexican 
 Valley. After much suffering from fatigue, and from the cold air 
 of those elevated regions, they attained the summit, and cast their 
 eyes over "that magnificent prospect, which, to 'this day, charms 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HISTORY OF MEXICO. 121 
 
 every beholder into rapture. Before them, stretching for many a 
 league, and environed on all sides by lofty mountains, lay the Yalley 
 of Mexico — perhaps, after that of Granada, the richest and loveliest 
 in the world. Clusters of glistening towns and villages surrounded 
 the lakes; and far in the distance lay that mighty city, the final 
 prize of their adventurous career." Alarmed at the evidences of 
 the power and population of the empire into which they were so 
 daringly intruding, some would fain have retreated ; but Cortes, with 
 words of eager encouragement, led them down the mountain. A 
 new embassy, with a great present from Montezuma, was soon encoun- 
 tered, bearing anew the impolitic offering of treasure and tribute, 
 if the strangers would desist from their intended entrance into the 
 capital. But the Spanish leader, his ambitious imagination now 
 thoroughly inflamed, resolved, at whatever risk, to complete his 
 intended enterprise. 
 
 The unhappy sovereign of the Aztecs, whose dread was founded 
 more on superstitious fears, than any want of independence or cour- 
 age, now became thoroughly unmanned by the unfavourable omens 
 which attended his sacrifices and devotions. "Of what avail is 
 resistance," he sadly exclaimed to his council, "when the gods have 
 declared themselves against us ! Yet I mourn most for the old and 
 infirm, the women and children, too feeble to fight or to fly. For 
 myself, and the brave men around me, we must bare our breasts to 
 the storm, and meet it as we may." Determined, however, to leave 
 no means of conciliation untried, he dispatched successively his 
 brother, his nephew, and other persons of distinction, to meet and 
 welcome the visitors at the different stations on the road. 
 
 As the Spaniards approached the capital, their amazement in- 
 creased hourly, at the sight of admirable buildings and causeways, 
 massively constructed of hewn stone, of towns swarming with pop- 
 ulation, and all the evidences of luxury, taste, and refinement. On 
 the 8th of November, 1519, they defiled over that memorable cause- 
 way, stretching across the lake, the site of which still forms the 
 chief southern access" to the city of Mexico. On either hand, obscur- 
 ing the surface of the water, swarmed a vast multitude of canoes, 
 filled with curious spectators from all the vicinage. The Spaniards, 
 delayed by long and ceremonial courtesies, advanced slowly toward 
 the city, their minds as rapt with wonder as those of the immense 
 throng which now gazed for the first time on the war-horses, the 
 artillery, the pale faces and portentous beards of Europe. They 
 
122 A.MEEICA ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 would hardly trust their senses. "We could compare it to nothing," 
 says the old chronicler, "but the enchanted scenes we had read of 
 m Amadis de Gaul, from the great towers and temples and other 
 edifices which seemed to rise out of the water. To many of us it 
 appeared doubtful whether we were asleep or awake; * * * 
 never yet did man see or dream of any thing equal to the spectacle 
 which appeared to our eyes on this day." 
 
 As the little body of Spaniards, followed by the Tlascalan army, 
 entered on the great street of the city, Montezuma in person, attended 
 by a great crowd of his nobles, appeared to welcome them. He was 
 borne on a splendid litter, from which, at the approach of his visitors, 
 he alighted. Cortes also dismounted, and these two men, the repre- 
 sentatives of the Old World and the New, each the object of such 
 interest to the other, stood face to face. The emperor, at this time, 
 was about forty years of age, and appeared, says a witness of the 
 scene, "of good stature, well proportioned and thin; his complexion 
 was much fairer than that of the Indians; he wore his hair short, 
 just covering his ears, with very little beard, well-arranged, thin and 
 black. His face was rather long, with a pleasant countenance and 
 good eyes. Gravity and good humour were blended together when 
 he spoke." With the utmost courtesy, and with apparent cordiality, 
 he welcomed the strangers to his capital, and Cortes could not but 
 express, in fitting terms, his thanks for the repeated instances of 
 royal generosity which he had so often experienced. 
 
 After a brief interview, the Spaniards and their allies were con- 
 ducted through an immense multitude, to their destined quarters, 
 in a great palace built by the emperor's father Axayacatl. Every 
 terrace and housetop was crowded with human beings, gazing with 
 insatiate curiosity on the strangers, and marvelling at the entrance 
 of a great army of their hereditary foes. Montezuma was already 
 in the court-yard, waiting their arrival. He hung a massive chain 
 of gold around the -neck of Cortes, repeated his welcome, and then, 
 with refined civility, left him to repose. But that wary general 
 turned his first attention to fortifying the palace, and to planting 
 cannon for its defence, with every precaution against a surprise. 
 "Such was the entrance of this little band, animated by an invinci' 
 ble hardihood, into the renowned Tenochtitlan* — the fairest and 
 most powerful city in the Western Continent ; and whether we con- 
 sider the audacity of the attempt, its wonderful success, or the 
 
 * The native appellation of the ancient city of Mexico. 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HISTOEY OF MEXICO. 123 
 
 strange and exciting novelty of tne attendant circumstances, it must 
 be regarded as the most remarkable exploit, which military genius 
 and desperate courage, in the breasts of a few, have ever accom- 
 plished. * Glory to our Lord Jesus Christ,' exclaims Diaz, with pious 
 self-complacency, 'who gave us courage to venture upon such dan- 
 gers, and brought us safely through them.' * * * 'Here 
 ends,' he proceeds, 'the true and full account of our adventurous and 
 magnanimous entrance into Mexico, on the eighth day of November, 
 in the year of our Lord 1519. Glory be -to Jesus Christ for all.'" 
 
 A visit from the emperor and a fresh display of his liberality con- 
 cluded this eventful day. On the next, Cortes, with several of his 
 officers, repaired to the royal palace, where all were amazed at the 
 fountains, the tapestry of gay plumage, and other tokens of taste 
 and refinement by which it was adorned. The Spaniard, as usual, at 
 once set about the work of conversion, and, seated by the emperor's 
 side, entertained him, through Marina's interpretation, with a long 
 and elaborate discourse on the mysteries of the Faith, assuring him, 
 at the expense both of civility and policy, that "those things which 
 he" (Montezuma) "held to be gods, were not such, but devils, of 
 evil countenances and worse deeds," and announcing that the sov- 
 ereign of Spain had sent him (Cortes) to rescue the soul of the em- 
 peror and those of his subjects from the eternal flames into which 
 their idols would conduct them. To this tirade, Montezuma, with 
 remarkable firmness, civility, and good sense, replied that his gods 
 were good, and so, he presumed, were those of the Christians. In 
 the coming of these white and bearded visitors from the East, he 
 acknowledged, he said, the fulfilment of the ancient oracle, and 
 assured the general that he and his master should share in all his 
 wealth, authority, and dignity. A few tears, touching to record, fell 
 from his eyes as he pronounced these words, the surrender of his 
 ancient hononrs to the dictate of a traditionary superstition ; but he 
 recovered his cheerfulness, conversed with most charming courtesy 
 and affability, and finally dismissed his visitors loaded with fresh 
 presents of gold, deeply impressed with his royal demeanour, and 
 charmed with the kindly fascination of his manners. 
 
124 AMEEICA ILLUSTRATED, 
 
 CHAPTER?!. 
 
 DESCRIPTION OF THE ANCIENT CAPITAL OF TENOCHTITLAN 01s 
 
 MEXICO. — THE PALACES OF MONTEZUMA. — HIS COLLECTIONS 
 
 OF NATURAL HISTORY. — SUPERSTITION OF THE SPANIARDS. 
 
 HIDEOUS SCENES OF SACRIFICE. — REFLECTIONS 
 
 Before entering on a relation of the memorable events which 
 followed the entrance of the Spaniards into Tenochtitlan, and before 
 recording the utter destruction to which those events were the pre- 
 lude, it is proper to give some description of that ill-fated city, as it 
 appeared to Europeans in the brief interval preceding its ruin and 
 annihilation. " The present city of Mexico occupies the site of this 
 ancient capital of the Aztecs, and the long causeways which led 
 through the water still form its principal approaches. But the 
 waters of Lake Tezcuco, by drainage, have shrunk away, and the 
 Indian Yenice which they environed is now surrounded by dusty 
 fields, miles from the shore. At the time of the Conquest, it was 
 probably one of the most beautiful and picturesque of cities. The 
 houses were of reddish stone or brick, and numerous canals, with 
 bridges, intersected it throughout. The number of houses is reported 
 to have been sixty thousand, and the population, it is probable, was 
 nearly half a million. Forty thousand persons are said to have 
 assembled in the market on public days. The extent of its vestiges, 
 at the present day, indicates a city of great population, 
 
 "Sanitary rules were carefully observed. The aqueduct of Cha- 
 pultepec brought a copious supply of fresh water into the city, and 
 a thousand persons were daily employed in cleaning the streets. 
 Among the peculiar ornaments of this marine capital, were the 
 numerous floating islands, of artificial construction, which supported, 
 not only a great variety of flowers and vegetables, but trees of con- 
 siderable size, and the cottage^ of their proprietors. 
 
 "The palaces of the emperor were of vast extent, and contained 
 almost innumerable apartments. Many of these were devoted to the 
 accommodation of a menagerie, the most complete and extensive, it 
 is probable, in the possession of any sovereign of the day. Wild 
 animals, collected throughout the most distant regions of Anahuac, 
 
THE CONQUEST AND IIISTOEY OF MEXICO. 125 
 
 were here lodged in numerous and convenient receptacles; and tlio 
 rarest and most beautiful birds, in vast numbers, were housed in 
 magnificent aviaries, with every convenience to render their confine- 
 ment endurable. But the fierce aspect of the caged animals and 
 reptiles struck the half-civilized conquerors rather with horror than 
 admiration. 'In this accursed house,' says one of them, 'were many 
 vipers and other poisonous serpents, which have in their tail some- 
 what that sounds like castanets, and they are the worst of all vipers. 
 * * These beasts and horrid reptiles were retained to keep 
 company with their infernal gods, and when the lions and tygers 
 roared, and the foxes and jackals howled, and the snakes hissed, 
 'twas a grim thing to hear, and seemed like hell itself.' In this par- 
 ticular, at least, the science and liberality of the Indian naturalist 
 Btand in strong contrast with European prejudice and superstition. 
 Even the learned De Solis, writing a century and a half later, could 
 hardly believe it possible that any prince should have cherished 
 'this poisonous Article of Magnificence,' but conceives the report to 
 have been a vulgar error, founded on the fierce and tyrannic dispo- 
 sition of the Aztec sovereign. 
 
 "A more barbarous, but perhaps not less royal taste, was exhibited 
 in a very extensive collection of monstrosities. 'Muteczuma,' says 
 a writer of the day, 'hath three great houses in a solitary place out 
 of the way to refreshe and recreate himself in the heate of summer; 
 in one of these he hath great plentie of monstrous men, as dwarfes, 
 crooke backes and men with one legge or two heades, &c., &c.' The 
 vast extent and admirable arrangement of the Botanic Gardens of 
 the emperor, as well as of other great lords, indicate refinement 
 of a certain character, to which no European nation, at that age, 
 had attained. 
 
 "The state maintained by the emperor, the populous condition of 
 his harem, and the number of his attendants, who amounted to sev- 
 eral thousands, all bore a strong resemblance to the luxurious court 
 of an Oriental sovereign. 'No one of the Soldans,' says Cortes in 
 his dispatches, 'nor any other infidel Signior, of whom I ever heard, 
 has, to my belief, a court so stately and ceremonious.' In the 
 minute descriptions of the day, handed down by curious observers, 
 we find xhe great Montezuma, after his dinner, smoking tobacco from 
 an ornamented pipe — apparently a novelty to his guests, though 
 Columbus, many years before, had found the natives of ^Juba in the 
 habit of using the same herb in the form of cigars. 
 
126 AMERICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 "Nothing surprised the Spaniards more than the gloomy 'House 
 of Sorrow,' to which the emperor was accustomed to retire, on the 
 death of any of his relations, or in event of any public calamity or 
 failure. It was colored entirely black, and hardly a ray of light 
 could penetrate through the little windows to the funereal apartments 
 within. *In this dismal Habitation he used to continue until the 
 time of Mourning was over, and often,' continues the fanatical Solis, 
 *here the Devil appeared to him; whether it be that the Prince of 
 Darkness took delight in this abode of Horror, or for the Sympathy 
 there is between that malignant Spirit and a melancholy Humour.' "^ 
 
 The emperor, to gratify the curiosity of his guests, four days after 
 their arrival, conducted them to the most remarkable objects in the 
 city. Among these were the great tianguez or market-place, inter- 
 esting from the multitude of its traders and the variety and richness 
 of their wares, and the principal teocalli, or mound-temple, which 
 they ascended by a winding path, a mile in length, and which, from 
 its summit, presented a spectacle so magnificent, that those who had 
 been at Eome and Constantinople exclaimed that they had never 
 seen the like. The emperor, taking Cortes by the hand, pointed 
 out the chief objects of interest; but that zealous champion of the 
 Faith, eager for an opportunity to vindicate his creed, requested that 
 he might be introduced to the presence of the Aztec deities. 
 
 The hideous scenes of sacrifice to which the Spaniards were ac- 
 cordingly conducted, described with revolting particularity by the 
 observers, may be briefly represented. First, on the summit of the 
 teocalli, they were shown the terrible Stone of Sacrifice, on which 
 thousands of living bodies had been stretched, with the breast up- 
 heaved in the air, while the priest, with a sharp flint knife, laid open 
 the space between two ribs, and plucking forth by main force the 
 heart of the sufferer, held it up smoking in the sunshine as an offer- 
 ing to the deity. A hideous figure, resembling a dragon, presided 
 over this dismal altar, and much blood, freshly spilt, attested the 
 recency of its use. 
 
 In a shrine which crowned the summit of the teocalli, were huge 
 misshapen figures, hideous in their distortion, but brilliant with 
 jewels and gold. Of these Huitzilopochtli, the Aztec god of war, 
 who wore a necklace composed of human hearts and heads, wrought 
 In the precious metals, and Tezeatepuca, the god of the infernai 
 world, "covered with little serpent-tailed devils," were the most con- 
 
 * Discoverers, &c., of America. 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HISTORY OF MEXICO 127 
 
 spicuous. The bodies of these images, so gailj tricked out with 
 jewels and gold, were composed of the seeds of certain plants kneaded 
 up with the blood of human beings, expressly slain for the manu- 
 facture. A number of hearts, recently extracted, lay before them, 
 and the walls of their shrine, from long repetition of these hideous 
 offerings, were covered with dried blood to the thickness of two fin- 
 gers. Struck with horror at the revolting spectacle, Cortes raised 
 his voice in vehement remonstrance against this sanguinary idolatry, 
 but only succeeded in shocking the religious prejudices of his host, 
 who, after the departure of his guests, remained, to deprecate, with 
 renewed sacrifice, the supposed indignation of his gods. 
 
 In the great square below, the Spaniards beheld fresh evidences 
 of this wholesale system of human butchery. There was a shrine 
 built in the shape of a huge monster, with mouth wide open, as it 
 were gaping for victims, and clotted, as usual, with the gore of 
 innumerable sacrifices. "We never gave this accursed building," 
 says Diaz, "any name except that of hell." On another teocalli 
 which they -suited, was a vast frame- work, covered with the skulls 
 of more than a hundred thousand victims. Incredible as the state- 
 ment may seem, "in the same square which contained all these 
 enormities, ^ere extensive and admirable institutions for the educa- 
 tion of the youth of both sexes I Not to form too exaggerated an 
 estimate of the horrors of Mexican theology, we must remember that, 
 at this very time, and long afterwards, human sacrifices ^ in their most 
 revolting form, were commonly celebrated by the most refined nations 
 of Europe. On the score of humanity, the sharp flint and uprooted 
 heart of the Aztec are surely preferable to the san-hemto and the 
 stake of the Spaniard ; while, as to the priiicijple involved, one can 
 see little to choose between a blood offering to the shrine of the 
 fierce Huitzilopochtli, or to that of some fantastic theory, such as 
 tb? Real Presence." 
 
J28 # AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 CHAPTER ?IL 
 
 UNPRTNCIPLEI) SCHEME OP CORTES. HIS TREACHEROUS 
 
 SEIZURE OF MONTEZUMA. — BURNING OE THE AZTEC 
 
 CHIEFS. — OUTRAGE ON THE EMPEROR'S PERSON. — 
 
 FRUSTRATED CONSPIRACY OF THE PRINCES. — THE 
 
 CACIQUES SWEARALLEGIANCE TO THE SPANISH 
 
 CROWN.— AFFECTING SCENE. — GREAT TRIBUTE 
 
 OF TREASURE. — RAPACITY OF CORTES. 
 
 A chapel was erected in the palace of Axayacatl, and mass was 
 daily performed, with unusual decorum and solemnity of deport- 
 ment, for the edification of the Aztecs. These, though little moved • 
 by the mysterious spectacle, continued to pay the most assiduous 
 and hospitable attention to the thousands of strangers, both Spaniards 
 and hostile Tlascalans, who, uninvited, had thrust themselves within 
 the walls of the capital. But the ambitious mind of the Spanish 
 leader, aiming at the immediate subjugation of the country, as the 
 only means of attaining the countenance of his sovereign and eluding 
 the vengeance of the incensed Velasquez, was ill at ease, and darkly 
 revolved a plot, "the most daring, politic, and utterly unprincipled, 
 which the mind of man could devise." This was to seize the person 
 of his host, the generous and hospitable Montezuma, and thus gain 
 instant possession of his realm. 
 
 Solemn prayer and religious service, as usual in any case of extreme 
 audacity or villany, was maintained by the Spaniards all the night 
 previous to the attempt; and Cortes, during the same time, was 
 heard pacing his room unquietly like one unable to rest from anxiety. 
 In the morning, after mass and benediction, the general, with Alva- 
 rado, Sandoval, Lujo, Leon, and Avila, five of his bravest captains, 
 repaired to the palace. The emperor was in a joyous mood, and, 
 with his usual liberality, bestowed rich presents on his guests. A 
 number of soldiers, by instruction, had gradually assembled in the 
 court-yard, and Cortes (to use his own words), "after conversing with 
 him in a sportive manner on agreeable topics, and receiving at his 
 hand some jewels of gold, and one of his own daughter s^^'' abruptly 
 changed his tone, and accused his host of the murder of two Span- 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HISTORY OF MEXICO. 129 
 
 iards, lately killed by one Quaupopoca, an Aztec chief, in the neigli- 
 bourhood of Vera Cruz. Montezuma, with every appearance of 
 surprise, declared that he would examine the case, and pulling off 
 his signet, dispatched orders that all concerned in the affair should 
 be transmitted for trial to the capital. 
 
 His design of a quarrel thus foiled, Cortes at last, with what civility 
 he could, broached his insidious project, inviting the emperor, as a 
 mark of confidence, to take up his abode in the Spanish quarters. 
 Perceiving his danger, the unhappy sovereign turned pale, but pres- 
 ently, with a haughty flush on his face, replied, "When was it ever 
 heard that a great prince, like myself, voluntarily left his palace to 
 become a prisoner in the hands of strangers? If I should consent 
 to such a degradation," he continued, in answer to their arguments, 
 "my subjects never would." For two hours he resisted their vile 
 importunity, but at length, threatened with assassination by the fierce 
 Yelasquez de Leon, was compelled to yield. Escorted amid the 
 dense ranks of the Spaniards, he quitted his palace, never to return; 
 and the people, who would have rescued him, were quieted by the 
 assurance (which, to preserve some shadow of his dignity, he gave 
 them) that the Spaniards were his friends, and that he was going with 
 them of his own accord. In justice to Cortes, his end attained, he 
 omitted no attention or show of deference to his captive. Much of 
 the royal establishment was removed to the fortified palace of Axa- 
 yacatl, where he held his court, and governed his empire nearly as 
 usual. The nobleness, generosity, and affability of his demeanour, 
 appear to have inspired the highest admiration and affection in his 
 captors; but they guarded him with the utmost strictness, well 
 knowing that if their imperial hostage were once free, the whole 
 Aztec population would rise in arms against them. 
 
 The accused cacique, Quaupopoca, ere long arrived at court, with 
 fifteen other chiefs, all participant in the act of hostility. Their fate 
 was committed to Cortes, or rather usurped by him, and practising 
 a cruelty, the continually repeated disgrace of the Spanish name, he 
 caused them all to be burned alive in front of the palace. Their 
 funeral pyres were composed of a vast quantity of arrows and jave- 
 lins, taken from the royal arsenal, to diminish the danger of an 
 attack from the citizens. While this atrocious sentence, which the 
 victims underwent with true Indian fortitude, was carried into exe- 
 cution, Cortes, with an attendant, bearing fetters, entered the 
 chamber of the unfortunate Montezuma. With harsh reproaches, 
 Vol. III.— 9 
 
130 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 he ordered them to be fastened to the feet of his captive, and then 
 abruptly quitted him. That unhappy prince, for the first time really 
 awakened to the terrific nature of his fall, uttered low and half-sup- 
 pressed moans, while his attendants, weeping, held his feet in their 
 arms, and tried, by inserting their mantles, to mitigate the harsh 
 contact of the naked iron. The chiefs reduced to ashes, Cortes reen- 
 tered the apartment, and took off the chains with his own hands. 
 The spirit of his captive was completely broken, and he thencefor- 
 ward submitted like a child to nearly every requirement 6f hia 
 conqueror. 
 
 "There is, perhaps, hardly a passage in history more curious than 
 this transaction in the capital of the Aztecs — and could the damning 
 accompaniments of treachery, ingratitude, and cruelty be left out, it 
 might stand as the most splendid example of policy, boldness, and 
 success that ever was recorded. Its effect, for a time, was certainly to 
 put the Spaniards in complete possession of the government of all 
 Mexico. Little compunction seems to have been felt by the actors, 
 exultant in success. Diaz, fifty years afterwards, writes : ' ISTow that 
 I am old, I frequently revolve and reflect on the events of that day, 
 which appear to me as fresh as if they had just passed, such is the 
 impression they have made upon my mind. I say, it was not we 
 who did these things, but that all was guided by the hand of God. 
 * * * There is much food for meditation in this,'" &c. 
 
 The caciques and princes of Mexico, unprepared to prevent the 
 unexpected seizure of their lord, and still uncertain of his exact 
 relations with the Spaniards, though deeply wncerned at his deten- 
 tion, continued, for the most part, to pay him the most loyal obe- 
 dience. Chief among the few who felt the true degradation of the 
 empire, and resolved on attempting its deliverance, was his young 
 nephew Cacama, the prince of Tezcuco. Next to Montezuma, he 
 was the most powerful lord in Mexico, his capital (Tezcuco) contain- 
 ing an hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants, and though by the 
 ambition of his, brother Ixtlilxochitl, despoiled of a portion of his 
 territory, was an enemy by no means to be despised., With the 
 brother of the emperor and a few other great lords, he now con- 
 spired to restore the imprisoned monarch to liberty, and drive the 
 wizard Spaniards and the hated Tlascalans from the land. To the 
 demands of Cortes that he should give in his allegiance to the king, 
 and to his treacherous invitations to visit the capital, this high-spir 
 ited prince replied that "he knew nothing of the Spanish sovereign 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HISTORY OF MEXICO. l^l 
 
 nor his people, nor did lie wisli to know any thing of them — that he 
 would come to Tenochtitlan indeed, but with his sword in his hand, 
 to rescue the emperor and the Aztec gods from slavery." But while 
 preparing to fulfil this patriotic threat, he was treacherously entrapped, 
 and, with his principal confederates, carried in chains to Mexico. 
 
 Cortes, now feeling secure in his position, proceeded rapidly with 
 the work of survey and colonization — his task being aided by a map, 
 admirably delineated, of an hundred and forty leagues of the coast, 
 presented to him by Montezuma, He next exacted from that sov- 
 ereign a formal recognition of the authority of the Spanish crown. 
 The caciques, summoned from all parts of the empire, with surprise 
 and regret, heard their emperor require that their allegiance should 
 be transferred to these strangers — the same, he informed them, whose 
 coming had so long been foretold. "I now beseech you," he said, 
 "to give them some token of submission; they require it of me; 
 let no one refuse. For eighteen years that I have reigned, I have 
 been a kind monarch to you, you have been faithful subjects to me; 
 since my gods will have it so, indulge me with this one instance of 
 your obedience." Tears fell from his eyes, and the caciques, also 
 weeping bitterly, assured him that his will had always been their 
 law, and should be at once complied with. All took the required 
 oath, in presence of many officers and soldiers, "not one of whom," 
 says a witness, "could refrain from weeping, on beholding the .agi- 
 tation and distress of the great and generous Montezuma." With 
 excessive rapacity and impudence, Cortes now suggested that a splen- 
 did present be prepared for his master, the king of Spain, and accord- 
 ingly couriers were dispatched for the, collection of treasure to all 
 parts of the kingdom. 
 
 In addition to the tribute thus obtained, the emperor bestowed 
 upon his gaoler a great hoard of jewels and gold, wrought with 
 masterly skill, which had been amassed by Axayacatl, and the exist- 
 ence of which, in a private room at their quarters, the Spaniards had 
 discovered. "Take this gold," he said, "which is all that could be 
 collected on so short a notice, and also the treasure which I derive 
 from my ancestors, and which you have seen. And this which 1 
 now give," he added, with touching truth, laying a few splendid 
 remains of his regalia with the rest, "is the last of the treasure 
 which has remained with me." The whole amounted to the value 
 of six or seven millions of dollars at the present day, but the com- 
 mon soldiers hardly received a thousand dollars a-piece, the lion's 
 
182 ^AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 share being reserved for the crown, for Velasquez, and for Cortes 
 and his favourites. All the eloquence and all the promises of the 
 general could hardly reconcile these rough spirits to their palpable 
 defraudment, and induce their acceptance of the paltry share allotted 
 to them ; but with the true national passion for gambling, they made 
 cards from their drum-heads, and passed day and night in staking 
 all that they 
 
 CHAPTER ¥11 !• 
 
 RELIGIOUS ZEAL OP CORTES. — DISCONTENT OP THE MEXICANS 
 — DANGEROUS POSITION OF THE SPANIARDS. TRANSAC- 
 TIONS AT THE COURT OP SPAIN. VELASQUEZ DISPATCHER 
 
 AN EXPEDITION AGAINST CORTES. — CORTES MARCHES 
 AGAINST NARYAEZ. — DEFEATS AND TAKES HIM 
 PRISONER. HIS POLITIC CONDUCT AFTER VIC- 
 TORY. HIS FORCES GREATLY AUGMENTED' 
 
 Amid these miserable reverses and spoliations, the emperor, de- 
 throned in all but name, preserved, for the most part, a truly royal 
 yet affable demeanour. " It is impossible," says Diaz, " to describe how 
 noble he was in every thing he did, nor the respect in which he was 
 held by every one around him." On the point of religion, however, he 
 stood firm, and all the arguments and persuasions of the friars, as 
 well as of Cortes himself, who daily introduced the subject, were of 
 ■no effect either on his heart or understanding. "The Devil," argues 
 De Solis, "had got such an Ascendant over his Mind that no Argu- 
 ments were of force enough to touch his obdurate Heart. It was 
 not known whether he had a Communication from the Devil, or if 
 he continued to appear to him, as usual, after the Sjmmards arrived 
 at Mexico; on the contrary, it was believed as certain, that from the 
 first appearance of the Ci^oss of Christ in that City, all those infernal 
 Invocations lost their Force, and the Oracles became silent." It may 
 be imagined, then, how every feeling of religion, of association, and 
 of superstition, was shocked when Cortes proposed that the great 
 y.ocaUi, the most venerated structure in all Anahuac, should be 
 yielded up for the use of the Christian worship. "Why, oh Malin- 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HISTORY OF MEXICO. 133 
 
 che,"* he said, "will you urge matters to an extremity that must 
 surely bring down the vengeance of our gods, and stir up an insur- 
 rection among the people?" But, after a conference with his priests, 
 "with much agitation and the appearance of deep sorrow, he heavily 
 consented" that the Christians should occupy one of the sanctuaries 
 on its summit. Accordingly, an image of the Virgin was set up, and 
 the Mass and other Catholic rites were now solemnly performed, 
 day by day, hard by the blood-stained dwellings of Huitzilopochtli 
 and Tezeatepuca. 
 
 Thus far the people, with extraordinary patience, and unable to 
 divorce in their minds the ancient authority of the emperor from 
 its usurpation by the Spaniards, had meekly submitted to every ex- 
 action and encroachment. But mankind will far more readily put 
 up with any other species of grievance and oppression than with the 
 least affront to old hereditary faith or superstition. Ominous indi- 
 cations of an approaching storm were soon visible. The caciques 
 and nobles held long and gloomy conferences with their sovereign, 
 and the latter finally announced to Cortes (by direct information 
 from Satan, says a Spanish historian) that the Aztec deities, their 
 shrines profaned, were preparing the destruction of the invaders. 
 For their own sake, he counselled the Spaniards to leave the city at 
 once, before a general rising of the people should cut off all chance 
 of escape. To allay the public excitement, the general now promised 
 to leave the country as soon as vessels could be procured; and, to 
 give confidence to his words, ordered the construction of several on 
 the coast. His real object, it is probable, was to gain time for the 
 arrival of expected reinforcements. 
 
 Meanwhile, the Spanish camp was filled with gloom and appre- 
 hension, and the strictest vigilance was used to prevent a surprise. 
 The horses stood night and day ready caparisoned for service, and 
 the soldiers slept on their arms, as if in the very presence of battle. 
 While thus harassed by constant fear and suspicion, their condi- 
 tion was rendered still more precarious by the arrival of startling 
 tidings from the coast. 
 
 The vessel dispatched to Spain by Cortes with tidings of his first 
 achievements, after touching at Cuba, contrary to orders, had held 
 her way to Europe, and in October, 1519, had arrived at the port of 
 San Lucar. The news which she brought, and the magnificent dis- 
 
 * This was the native appellation of Marina, the mistress of Cortes, a name eoon 
 gipnerally applied to himself by the whole population of Mexico. 
 
134 AMEEICA ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 play of treasure, (the early gifts of Montezuma,) now, for the first 
 time, realizing the golden visions of Western ambition, threw all 
 Spain into a fever^of excitement; but owing to the adverse influ- 
 ence of Bishop Fonseca and others, the agents of Cortes were unable 
 to effect any thing in his favour with the emperor, Charles Y. ; and 
 in May, 1520, allured by schemes of European aggrandizement, that 
 sovereign left his kingdom without attempting to settle the command 
 of Mexico, or to further the daring and ill-supplied enterprise for its 
 conquest. As for Velasquez, from the moment he learned the value 
 of the invaded province, and the defection of his general, he set to 
 work with indescribable fury and energy to wrest back the authority 
 which he had so incautiously bestowed, and to achieve an adequate 
 revenge upon his treacherous ally and revolted vassal. By extra- 
 ordinary exertions, he fitted out a fleet of eighteen sail, well provided 
 with artillery and other munitions of war, and manned by nine 
 hundred men, eager to share in the anticipated spoil of the wealthiest 
 kingdom in the Indies. Pamphilo de Narvaez, the governor's fa- 
 vourite officer — a bold, rash, and arrogant man — was placed in com- 
 mand, and the fleet, sailing in March, 1520, arrived at San Juan de 
 Ulua in the latter part of April. 
 
 The rage of Narvaez, on learning of the independence and the 
 extraordinary success of Cortes, was extreme. He proclaimed him 
 a traitor, and sent a priest and a notary to demand the surrender of 
 the fortress of Yera Cruz. But Sandoval, the youthful commander 
 of that post, one of the bravest and fiercest leaders of the conquest, 
 was a devoted adherent of Cortes. He set up a gallows, avowing 
 that he would suspend from it any who might show a sign of disaf- 
 fection ; and, on the arrival of his legal and clerical visitors, bound 
 them hand and foot, and sent them post haste ("like so many damned 
 souls," says the narrative) on the backs of Indian porters, to Mexico. 
 Eelays, as usual, were waiting to receive them every few miles, and 
 thus they were transferred from back to back, and hurried, bewil- 
 dered by their strange conveyance, in a wonderfully-short time, to 
 the capital. Accurate pictures, as usual, of the fleet and the 
 strangers had been dispatched to Montezuma by his ofiicials, and 
 though most of the soldiers exulted in the supposed reinforcement, 
 Cortes shrewdly suspected the real nature of the expedition, and 
 resolved, at every hazard, to hold fast to the brilliant prize which 
 he had won. 
 
 On the arrival of the alarmed and bewildered messengers, he 
 
THE CONQUEST AND IIISTOKY OF MEXICO. ^35 
 
 treated them in the most gracious manner, ''said so many civil 
 things to them, and anointed their fingers so well with gold, that in 
 a few days he sent back, as tractable as lambs, those who had set 
 out against him like roaring lions." By their hands he dispatched a 
 conciliatory message to Narvaez, tendering submission, if the latter 
 were provided with a royal commission, well knowing that he had 
 none. He also sent the worthy Father Olmedo, an ecclesiastic popu- 
 lar from his wit and good-humour, as well as formidable from his 
 powers of policy and intrigue, with a liberal supply of gold, to make 
 a party in his favour among the new comers. He next resolved on 
 a step of extraordinary boldness and hazard. It was nothing less 
 than to fling himself boldly into the enemy's camp, and trust to his 
 own popularity, and the tried valour of his soldiers, to gain the 
 entire command of Mexico. 
 
 Leaving an hundred and forty men, under charge of Pedro de 
 Alvarado, to hold the city and the captive emperor, he set forth in 
 the middle of May, with only seventy men, on his way to the coast 
 Keinforced at Cholula by Velasquez de Leon, whom, with an hun- 
 dred and twenty, he had lately dispatched to found a certain colony, 
 he marched to Tlascala, and was soon joined by sixty more, being 
 the late garrison of Vera Cruz, under command of the devoted San- 
 doval. As he approached Cempoalla, where the force of Narvaez 
 was quartered, he sent forward Velasquez de Leon, a relation of the 
 governor, but a staunch adherent to his own faction, on a fresh errand 
 of insinuation among the hostile forces. 
 
 On a dark and stormy night, he arrived before the city, and har- 
 angued his troops in a strain of rude and forcible eloquence. He 
 recounted their perils, their losses, their wonderful achievements; 
 "and now, gentlemen," he continued, "Narvaez comes, and immedi- 
 ately upon landing proclaims war against us, with fire, sword, and 
 rope, as if we were infidel Moors." So fired were the soldiers with 
 this rough but stirring address, that all cried out that they were 
 resolved to conquer or die, and that if he again spoke of dividing 
 the country with his rival, they would plunge their swords into his 
 body. Meanwhile the cacique of Cempoalla vainly remonstrated 
 with Narvaez on his supineness. "What are you doing?" he cried, 
 " and how careless are you ! Do you think Malinche and his Teules* 
 are so? I tell you that when you least expect it, he will come upon 
 you and put you all to death." But that commander, confiding ia 
 
 * Spirits or supernatural beings — daemons. 
 
136 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 the number of his troops and the strength of his position, treated 
 the alarm lightly, and even boasted, it is said, that he would cut off 
 Cortes' ears, broil them, and eat them. 
 
 In the dead of night, his adversary, with two hundred and sixty 
 men, shrouded by the storm, moved warily into the town. As he 
 approached the camp of Narvaez, the alarm was given, and the 
 invaders, shouting "Santo Spirito! Santo Spiritol" rushed on to the 
 attack. Before the garrison could get fairly on their guard, the 
 enemy were in their midst, and though Narvaez and many of his 
 people made a gallant resistance, yet by firing the sanctuary, which 
 they were defending, they were compelled to yield. Their leader, 
 receiving a disabling blow, cried, "Holy Mary, assist me! they have 
 killed me, and struck out one of my eyes." The party of Cortes 
 caught up the word. "I^arvaez is killed! victory, for the Holy 
 Spirit!" was shouted by all, and the remaining portions of the garri- 
 son, which still held out, supposing their leader killed, surrendered. 
 "With a loss of only six of his men, and twice that number of the 
 enemy, Cortes had succeeded in overcoming a force three times 
 greater than his own, strongly intrenched and provided with artillery. 
 This remarkable result was owing partly to the favourable circum- 
 stances of the night, partly to the suddenness and fury of his attack, 
 and still more, perhaps, to the interest which his gold had procured 
 him among the new levies. 
 
 "'By this time,' says a witness, 4t was clear day. Cortes, seated 
 in an arm-chair, a mantle of orange colour thrown over his shoulders, 
 his arms by his side, and surrounded by his officers and soldiers, 
 received the salutations of the cavaliers, who, as they dismounted, 
 came up to kiss his hand. It was wonderful to see the affability and 
 the kindness with which he spoke to and embraced them, and the 
 compliments which he made to them.' Nearly all, both officers and 
 soldiers, took the oath of allegiance to him as Captain-General, and 
 were assured that they should share in the fruits of the Conquest. 
 Thus, by an extraordinary concurrence of policy, audacity and good 
 fortune, he suddenly found himself, as if by magic, from a desperate 
 adventurer, the commander of a large and well-appointed force for the 
 retention and extension of his conquests." The new recruits were 
 etill further propitiated by the restoration of all their horses, arms, and 
 other articles which had been seized on the night of the attack ; and 
 Buch liberal presents were showered upon them as to excite the envy 
 and discontent of the successful faction. They compared the conduct 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HISTORY OF MEXICO. I37 
 
 of their general to that of Alexander, who, it was said, always lav- 
 ished more favours on the vanquished than on those who had won 
 him the victory. 
 
 MASSACRE OP THE CACIQUES BY ALVARADO. — THE GARR180S 
 BESIEGED. — CORTES RETURNS TO MEXICO. — HIS ANGER AND 
 INSOLENCE. — GENERAL ATTACK BY THE AZTECS. — DES- 
 PERATE CONFLICT POR MANY DAYS. — MONTEZUMA 
 ADDRESSES THE PEOPLE. — DISASTROUS RESULT. — 
 THE GREAT TEOCALLI TAKEN BY STORM. 
 
 The exultation which Cortes had evidently felt at his wonderful 
 success was almost immediately damped by disastrous tidings from 
 the capital. Alvarado, his deputy, (afterwards the Conqueror of 
 Guatemala,) a man of equal ferocity and courage, had granted per- 
 mission to a great number of the Aztec nobility to celebrate in the 
 court of the chief teocalli, fronting the Spanish quarters, a grand 
 dance in honour of their god Huitzilopochtli. Six hundred in 
 number, unarmed, and attired in their gayest robes, like the Mame- 
 lukes of Ali, they entered the fatal square. But while they were 
 fully engaged in this solemnity, Alvarado, excited by the vague 
 report of conspiracy, with a cruelty and rashness almost incredible, 
 had fallen on these defenceless beings with his ferocious spldiery, 
 and had butchered them to a man I The pavement ran with blood, 
 as with water after a heavy rain ; and the bodies of the victims, rich 
 in golden ornaments, were plundered, with shameless rapacity, by 
 their murderers. Maddened at this outrage, the Aztecs, hitherto so 
 peaceful and submissive, had risen en masse against the garrison. 
 Seven of the Spaniards were killed and a great number wounded. 
 Two brigantines, which they had built, were destroyed; and though 
 the assailants, at the intercession of Montezuma, finally desisted from 
 the attack, it was only to form a regular blockade of the palace, to 
 destroy the Spaniards and their six thousand allies by famine. 
 
 Leaving only a hundred men at Vera Cruz, Cortes, with the 
 remainder of his force, amounting to a thousand foot and one hun- 
 
138 ' AMERICA ILLT7STEATED. 
 
 dred horsemen, marched rapidly to the relief of the garrison. At 
 Tlascala he was reinforced bj two thousand of the hardy warriors 
 of that republic. Thus strengthened, he pushed on to the Yalley 
 with all speed, and soon reached the great city of Tezcu^o. Every 
 thing betokened an ominous change. Yery few inhabitants were to 
 be seen, and the cold, unfriendly looks of those evinced, in despite 
 of prudence, the extent of their animosity. On the 24th of June, 
 1520, crossing the causeway, Cortes, riding gloomily^ at the head of 
 his columns, reentered Mexico. The utter desertion and silence of 
 the streets afforded a striking contrast to the eager and multitudinous 
 manner in which they had been thronged on his first memorable 
 entrance into that ill-fated city. Arrived at the palace, he answered 
 sternly to the relation of Alvarado, "You have done badly. You 
 have been false to your trust. Your conduct has been that of a 
 madman. " He refused to listen or speak to Montezuma, who came 
 to offer his welcome, and the captive emperor, deeply wounded and 
 offended, retired to his apartment. The conduct of Cortes, on this 
 his second visit to the capital, evinces a degree of passion and irri- 
 tability of which we find few exhibitions in his whole career, and 
 which was due partly to the insolence of suddenly-acquired power, 
 and in part to the extraordinary perplexities of his position. 
 
 More than twelve hundred Spaniards and eight thousand Tlasca- 
 lans were now crowded in the palace of Axayacatl, scantily supplied 
 with food, and utterly shunned by the Mexican , population. To a 
 renewed request for an interview by Montezuma, Cortes, to the dis- 
 pleasure of his own captains, fiercely answered, "Away with him! 
 the dog! why does he neglect to supply us? * * What do 
 I owe," he fiercely continued, in answer to their remonstrances, "to 
 a dog who treated secretly with Narvaez, and who neglects to send 
 provisions? Go tell your master and his people," he said, turning 
 fariously to the Aztec caciques, "to open the markets, or we will do 
 it for them, and to their cost." This haughty message, faithfully 
 reported, increased the sullenness of the aggrieved Mexicans; and 
 Cortes, at a suggestion of Montezuma, dismissed his brother Cuitla- 
 hua, who had been captured with Cacama, to treat with the populace 
 in behalf of the Spaniards. 
 
 But the released cacique, a man of brave and patriotic character 
 and the destined successor to the throne, so far from fulfilling his 
 invidious commission, at once took command of the insurgents, and 
 encouraged them to a general assault. The effect was almost imme 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HISTOEY OF MEXICO. I39 
 
 diato. Every roof and terrace surrounding the palace was soon 
 covered with a dense throng of Aztec warriors, who sent showers 
 of missiles among the garrison, and every avenue was filled with a 
 strong column, moving on, with fierce yells and whistlings, to the 
 fissault. Eegardless of the repeated discharges of artillery, by which 
 hundreds were swept away, they pressed up to the rampart. "Some 
 put themselves," says a Spanish author, with disparaging acknowl- 
 edgment, "under the very Cannon, and assaulted with incredible 
 Kesolution, making Use of their flinted Instruments to break the 
 Gates, and pick the Walls; Some got upon their Companions* 
 Shoulders to come within reach of their Weapons; Others made 
 Ladders of their own Lances and Pikes to gain the Windows and 
 Terraces; and all in general exposed themselves to Fire and Sword 
 like enrag'd Beasts. Notable Instances of a fearless Temerity^ and 
 which might have passed for gallant Actions^ had true Valour ^performed 
 ihatj tvhichj in Reality, was no other than a salvage FerocityP 
 
 All day the contest raged with great fury, the Indians battering 
 the ramparts with timbers, and pressing on, regardless of havoc 
 made in their dense ranks by the artillery. They burned the com- 
 bustible portion of the palace, and drove back the Spaniards, who, 
 undei* Diego Ordaz, made a determined sally, with considerable loss. 
 Nightfall, according to the custom of Anahuac, stayed the assault; 
 but early the next morning the square and its approaches were again 
 filled with warriors, orderly arrayed under the great standard of 
 Mexico, and commanded by the fierce Cuitlahua in person. The 
 Spanish general, as they approached, ordered a general discharge of 
 musketry and artillery, and then, with the most efficient portion of 
 his army, sallied forth, and charged furiously into the dense columns 
 of the enemy. lie drove them to a barricade, which was levelled 
 by the artillery, and a conflict ensued, hand to hand, with such des- 
 peration and recklessness of life as the Spaniards had never wituessed 
 before. *' Some of our Soldiers who had been in Italy swore," says 
 Diaz, "that neither among Christians or Turks, nor the King of 
 France's artillery, had they ever seen such desperation as was mani 
 fested in the attacks of those Indians." So great was the number of 
 the Mexicans, that no amount of slaughter weakened their strength 
 — fresh warriors continually pressing to the combat, and every canal 
 swarming with canoes, ready to carry off prisoners for sacrifice. 
 Nearly the whole day was spent in this terrible conflict, but the 
 Spaniards and Tlascalans, after burning several hundred houses, 
 
140 AMEKICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 finally, with mucli loss, regained their fortress. At nightfall, as 
 asual, the besiegers ceased hostilities, with the exception of showers 
 of arrows, which they kept up during the night, with shrill cries 
 and whistlings. Their wild animals, they assured the Spaniards, 
 had been kept fasting for two days, to devour them. They made 
 many other threats, equally terrifying to the imagination, and, at 
 times, with a child-like vacillation of feeling, would plaintively en- 
 treat that their king might be released to them. 
 • Another desperate attempt was made, the next morning, to take 
 the palace by storm; but all who succeeded in scaling the walls were 
 slain by those within. Cortes, founding some hope on the devoted 
 loyalty which the people exhibited, now resolved to try the effect 
 of the emperor's intercession in person. The unfortunate Monte- 
 zuma was exceedingly reluctant to make the attempt, alleging that 
 the people would never listen to him, nor suffer a Spaniard to leave 
 the walls alive. Overpowered at length by repeated persuasion, he 
 put on, for the last time, his magnificent robes of state, and with a 
 few Aztec nobles, who still faithfully attended on his person, pro- 
 ceeded to the battlements. "A change, like magic, came over the 
 scene. The clang of instruments, the fierce cries of the assailants, 
 were hushed, and a death-like stillness pervaded the whole assembly, 
 so fiercely agitated, but a few moments before, by the wild tumult 
 of war. Many prostrated themselves on the ground ; others bent the 
 knee; and all turned with eager expectation toward the monarch 
 whom they had been taught to reverence.""'^ 
 
 Montezuma, in a composed, royal, and paternal manner, addressed 
 the vast multitude, which listened in the most absolute silence. The 
 Spaniards, he assured them, would depart as soon as a way was peace- 
 fully opened. He commanded them to lay down their arms and 
 retire to their homes; the strangers should return to their own land, 
 and all should be well again in the walls of Tenochtitlan. As he 
 concluded, four principal caciques came forward, and, with touching 
 loyalty, lamented his misfortunes and captivity. Their prayers, they 
 said, were daily offered for his safety; but they had sworn to their 
 gods the destruction of every Spaniard. They would yet rescue him, 
 and venerate him as before, and trusted that he would pardon their 
 boldness. But the more ferocious spirits in the crowd, enraged at 
 seeing their emperor in the hands of the enemy, now raised a storm 
 of invective. Stones began to fly, and though the Spaniards hastily 
 
 * Prescott's Conquest of Mexico. 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HTSTOHY OF MEXICO. 14]_ 
 
 put up their bucklers to shield his person, the unhappy prince re- 
 ceived three wounds, one in the head, which laid him senseless on 
 the rampart. Horror-stricken at this act of sacrilege, the vast mul- 
 titude simultaneously uttered a terrible cry or groan, which resounded 
 through the whole city, and then, dispersing in all directions, left 
 the square utterly deserted. Their ill-fated monarch, borne to his 
 apartment, was recovered from his swoon, but only to fall into an 
 agony of grief at the treatment he had undergone. He tore the 
 bandages from his head as often as they were applied, refused all. 
 food or medicine, and was evidently determined to end his life and 
 dignity together. 
 
 The attack, awhile suspended by this melancholy incident, was 
 ere long renewed with fresh fury, and from the great teocalli^ com- 
 manding the palace, a perfect tempest of stones and arrows was 
 showered upon the garrison. With the boldness of desperation, 
 Cortes resolved on taking it by storm, and with three hundred cav- 
 aliers, and several thousand Tlascalans, made a furious sortie from 
 his fort. The summit was only to be gained by a winding pathway, 
 a mile in length, four times encircling the vast edifice ; and as the 
 Spaniards slowly forced their way along, huge stones, beams, and 
 every species of missile, came thundering on their heads from above. 
 By desperate exertions they finally gained the great plateau of the 
 temple, where, in full view of the whole city and the beleaguered 
 garrison, a combat, hand to hand, was maintained with the utmost 
 valour and resolution by both parties, for the space of three hours. 
 There was no parapet on its verge, and the combatants, in the heat of 
 their engagement, frequently missed their footing, and met a horrible 
 death on the rocky pavement below. " Here," says Diaz, with enthu- 
 siasm, "Cortes showed himself the man he really was I what a des- 
 perate engagement we had there! every man of us covered with 
 blood, and above forty dead upon the spot." Victory finally declared 
 for the Spaniards and their allies, every one of the many hundreds 
 of Aztec warriors who had manned the post being slain or hurled 
 from the summit. The image of the war-god was also flung down 
 among his worshippers, and the sanctuary was fired ; after which, 
 many of his men being dead, and all badly wounded, Cortes, with 
 great difficulty, regained his quarters. That same night, he made 
 another sally, and burned three hundred houses — no easy task, as, 
 from the nature of their construction, each dwelhng was necessarily 
 fired separately. 
 
ii2 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 CORTES PREPARES TO LEAVE THE CITY. — DEATH OP MONTB 
 
 ZUMA. THE "NOCHE TRISTE," OR MISERABLE NIGHT. 
 
 GREAT SLAUGHTER OP SPANIARDS AND TLASCALANS ON 
 
 THE CAUSEWAY OF TACURA. — THE RETREAT TO TLAS- 
 
 CALA. — BATTLE OF OTUMBA, AND EXTRAORDINARY 
 
 VICTORY OP THE SPANIARDS. 
 
 Though his situation was evidently getting desperate, the Spanish 
 leader thought it prudent to preserve a confident demeanour, and 
 accordingly proposed peace to the Mexicans, but only on the condi- 
 tion of their submission, threatening that otherwise he would destroy 
 their city and every soul of its inhabitants. But the besiegers, with 
 equal spirit, answered, that if they could only kill a single Spaniard 
 for the loss of every thousand of their own people, it would be 
 enough, for they had computed his number and their own. " The 
 bridges," they added, "are broken down, and you cannot escape. 
 There will be too few of you left to glut the vengeance of our gods." 
 An immediate retreat, though involving the utmost hazard, was now 
 resolved on ; and it was determined to attempt forcing an outlet by 
 the causeway of Tlacopan or Tacuba, the shortest, and therefore the 
 safest of the several approaches to the city. To clear the principal 
 street, leading to this precarious means of egress, a huge tower on 
 wheels was constructed, and, filled with armed Spaniards, was rolled 
 along to attack the enemy on the terraces, After some days of des- 
 perately hard fighting, in which Cortes and the other cavaliers dis- 
 tinguished themselves by the utmost bravery, no less than seven 
 canals, by which the street was crossed, had been filled up, and the 
 assage to the causeway was at last considered clear. 
 The life of the unhappy Montezuma, who, preserving an utter 
 silence, firmly rejected all food or medicine, was fast drawing to its 
 close. The worthy Father Olmedo and others, with a generous, 
 though mistaken anxiety for his salvation, used every efibrt to induce 
 him to profess the faith ; but he waved the crucifix aside, and finally 
 said, coldly, "I have but a few moments to live, and will not at this 
 hour desert the faith of my fathers." Ee then entreated Cortes to 
 
THE CONQUEST AND IIISTOHy OP MEXICO. I43 
 
 protect his children, and endeavour to secure to them, from the 
 Spanish monarch, some portion of their inheritance. "Your lord 
 will do this," he said, "if it were only for the friendly offices I have 
 rendered to the. Spaniards, and the love I have shown them — though 
 it has brought me to this condition I But for this I bear them no 
 ill-will." Having spoken these words, he expired, on the 30th of 
 June, 1520, at the age of forty-one, after a reign of eighteen years. 
 "Of all . 
 
 *Sad stories of the death of kings,* 
 
 none, perhaps, is more strange and affecting than that of this ill-fated 
 sovereign of a half-civilized empire, in the midst of a universal rev- 
 erence, hardly short of adoration, so suddenly struck down by the 
 hand of a mysterious Destiny, and doomed, after drinking the dregs 
 of humiliation at the hands of his oppressors, to perish by those of 
 his own distracted people. Fierce and rude as were the old ' Con- 
 quistadors,' they appear to have felt some natural compunction at the 
 melancholy fate of one whose generous and hospitable spirit they 
 had so often experienced, and whose utter ruin their own violence 
 had occasioned. 'Cortes and our captains wept for him,' says Diaz, 
 * and he was lamented by them and all the soldiers who had known 
 him, as if he had been their father; nor is it to be wondered at, see- 
 ing how. good he was.'' His remains, royally attired, were delivered 
 to his people, and were borne away. A distant sound of wailing 
 and lamentation was heard; but, to this day, the resting-place of the 
 Last of the Montezumas is forgotten and unknown."* 
 
 The night of the following day (July 1st) proving dark and stormy, 
 hasty preparation was made for departure. Eight wounded horses 
 and eighty Tlascalans were loaded with treasure : but a vast quantity 
 still remained scattered on the floor of thft ualace. "Let every sol- 
 dier take what he will," said Cortes; "better so, than that it should 
 remain for these dogs of Mexicans." Most of the soldiery, especially 
 the new comers, hastened to load themselves with the precious en- 
 cumbrance; though the veterans were more wary in assuming a 
 burden which might prove so fatal. Mass was solemnly performed, 
 and in the dead of night, the relics of the two armies, as quietly as 
 possible, defiled into the streets, which were quite deserted. The 
 first ranks had emerged on to the causeway, when the alarm was 
 given by a sentinel. "The Teules are going I" was yelled by a 
 
 * Discoverers, &c., of America. 
 
144 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 hundred voices. The great drum on the teocalli* sent forth it3 
 dismal sound, and with the swiftness of enchantment an innumer- 
 able swarm of Aztec warriors, with fierce whoops and whistlings, 
 closed round the devoted columns both bj land and water. With 
 admirable strategy, though doubtless fully prepared, they had 
 deferred their assault until the moment when it could be made with 
 the most fatal effect. 
 
 Fighting their way valiantly, the Spaniards soon came to a breach 
 in the causeway, and, in the midst of a storm of missiles, succeeded 
 in laying across it a strong portable bridge, constructed for such an 
 emergency. Over this the whole army slowly defiled, defending them- 
 selves with desperate valour against the Aztecs, who, from both sides, 
 attacked them fiercely, running their canoes against the causeway 
 with such fury as to dash them asunder. Another breach, ere long, 
 arrested their progress, and when the rear-guard attempted to raise 
 the bridge, it was found, by the pressure of the heavy artillery, to 
 be immovably wedged between the piers. The Indians redoubled 
 their attacks, and the whole mass of fugitives pressing forward, forced 
 the front ranks into the second chasm, which gradually became filled 
 with cannon, wagons, and the bodies of men and horses. Over this 
 horrible wreck the survivors slowly struggled, but only to be stopped 
 by a third breach, which finally was filled up in the same hideous man- 
 ner. During all this time, the Mexicans were busy in dragging victims 
 into their canoes and hurrying them off for sacrifice. Indeed, to the 
 intense anxiety which they felt for this object, the Spaniards, in 
 these wars, were frequently indebted for their lives; for the hope of 
 offering the hearts of the detested strangers to their gods frequently 
 induced them to relinquish the certainty of slaughter for a bare 
 chance of making prisoners. 
 
 During all the remainder of this terrible night (still known as the 
 Noclie Tristef) the relics of the Spanish and Tlascalan force, using 
 their weapons with the resolution of despair, worked their way 
 onward, and by day-light gained the firm land. Cortes, on beholding 
 how few were left, covered his face with his hands, and burst into 
 tears. Four hundred and fifty Spaniards, in this frightful passage, 
 nad been slain or carried off for sacrifice, and, with the previous 
 
 * This drum, of immense size, was made of the skins of serpents, and was beaten 
 only on the most solemn occasions. Its deep and melancholy tones could be heard 
 for leagues. 
 
 t « Sad," or Terrible Night." 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HISTOKY OF MEXICO. I4.5 
 
 losses, only a third of tlie number whicli had entered tho city re- 
 mained. Four thousand Tlascalans had met the same fate, and this, 
 with their losses in the siege, reduced their ranks to less than a fourth 
 of their original number. All the artillery and muskets were lost, 
 ,and nothing was left the wearied and wounded adventurers but the 
 swords with whjch they had hewed their way through the enemy. 
 
 But for the exultation of the victors, and the eagerness with which 
 they proceeded to celebrate their triumph by sacrifice, the feeble 
 remains of the invading force might easily have been overwhelmed. 
 In the middle of the following night, Cortes led forth his men from 
 a temple in which they had taken refuge, and marched by a circuit- 
 ous route toward Tlascala. Suffering grievously from wounds, hun- 
 ger, and fatigue, and diminished in number by desultory attacks of 
 the enemy, on the 7th of July they arrived at the summit of a 
 mountain overlooking the Yalley of Otumba. The view it afforded 
 was enough, it might seem, to quench the last hope of ever reaching 
 their homes in safety. An immense army, prepared to intercept 
 them, filled the valley, and being clad in white cotton doublets, gave 
 it the appearance of a field of snow. Nothing remained for the allies 
 but the courage of desperation ; and Cortes, after a brief but stirring 
 address, invoked the protection of the Virgin and St. Jago, and led 
 his people down the mountain. 
 
 So furious was the charge of the little Spanish and Tlascalan force, 
 that it broke into the dense mass of the Aztec army, and there, sur- 
 rounded on all sides by overwhelming numbers, fought hand to hand 
 with the fury of despair. All were determined to sell their lives 
 as dearly as possible, and the enemy, exultant with their recent vic- 
 tory, attacked with extraordinary fierceness. "Oh, what it was," 
 Bays honest Diaz, "to see this tremendous battle! how we closed 
 foot to foot, and with what fury the dogs fought us!" The ground 
 was fortunately level, which enabled the little band of surviving 
 cavaliers — Cortes, Olid, Sandoval and others — to charge with good 
 effect; and by directing their assault entirely against the chiefs, who 
 were conspicuous by their plumes, rich arms, and golden ornaments, 
 they succeeded in greatly disordering the Mexican ranks. The con- 
 test raged for several hours, and the allies, fainting with wounds and 
 fatigue, were almost overpowered, when a brilliant exploit of their 
 leader redeemed the day. Looking eagerly for the chief cacique, 
 Cortes at last espied him, in a litter, accompanied by the great stand- 
 ard, directing the fight. Followed by the other horsemen, he charged 
 Vol. ni.— 10 
 
146 AMEEICA ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 with fury, broke througli the ranks of his attendants, and, with a blow 
 of his lance, dashed him to the earth. The banner was taken, and 
 so great a panic seized his forces at this ominous misfortune, that they 
 gave ground and retreated, leaving the field cumbered with dead 
 bodies, yielding the richest spoil. This victory over a foe so vastly 
 superior in numbers, is perhaps the most remarkable of any in these 
 wars, as it was gained without the almost resistless advantage of 
 artillery or any description of fire-arms. 
 
 uJliLi/ldrXJuaTi cA>jt* 
 
 f IPELITT OP THE TLASCALAN CHIEFS. — EESOLTITION OF CORTES 
 THE WAR RENEWED. GREAT SUCCESSES OF THE SPAN- 
 IARDS. SAGACIOUS POLICY OF CORTES. — HE ACQUIRES 
 
 k GREAT FORCE OF NATIVE ALLIES- — DEATH OF CUITLA- 
 
 HUA, AND ACCESSION OF GUATEMOZIN TO THE AZTEC 
 
 THRONE. — CORTES MARCHES TO THE VALLEY OF 
 
 MEXICO. TAKES UP HIS QUARTERS AT TEZCUCO. 
 
 Arrived at Tlascala, the relics of the force were received with 
 unbounded kindness and hospitality, and the chiefs of that nation 
 assured Cortes that they would stand by him to the death. Kecov- 
 ering with diJOGiculty from a dangerous fever, brought on by his 
 wounds, he learned of fresh misfortunes — forty-five of the garrison 
 of Yera Cruz, marching to join him, having been cut off, with the 
 loss of much treasure — and twelve others having been slain in Tep- 
 eaca. His followers, "cursing the gold they had left in the ditches 
 of Mexico," clamored for a return to Cuba, and sent in a formal 
 remonstrance, attested by a notary, against attempting any thing 
 -further. But despite these discouraging circumstances and his own 
 feeble condition, their iron-souled general had determined on using 
 every effort to wrest back the splendid prize, gained by such daring 
 and fortune, and lost with such ruinous defeat. With his accustomed 
 fire and eloquence, he replied to the malcontents, "giving at least 
 ten reasons for his plan, to every one which they alleged against it." 
 His commanding influence reasserted its wonted authority, and the 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HISTOEY OF MEXICO. ^47 
 
 veterans, attached to his person, overawed by their resolution the 
 murmurings of the disaffected. 
 
 On the death of Montezuma, his brother Cuitlahua, the leader of 
 the insurrection, had been duly elected monarch of the Aztecs. 
 That brave and patriotic cacique, his capital repaired and fortified, 
 now sent an embassy, bearing presents, to the Tlascalan senate, pro- 
 posing that past enmities should be forgotten, and that all Anahuac 
 should rise to complete the sacrifice (brilliantly commenced at his 
 own coronation) of the detested strangers. After a fierce debate 
 among the caciques, Xicotencatl strongly urging an acceptance of 
 the proposed alliance, "ancient enmity proved more than equal to 
 the claims of policy or religion." The overtures of Cuitlahua were 
 peremptorily rejected, and the young chief who had advocated their 
 acceptance, narrowly escaped with life from the hands of his enraged 
 fellow-counsellors. 
 
 Cortes, recovered from his illness, lost no time in resuming the 
 offensive. With four hundred Spaniards and as many thousand 
 Tlascalans, he marched against Tepeaca, defeated the people of that 
 hostile province in two sanguinary engagements, entered their cap- 
 ital in triumph, and reduced great numbers of the citizens to slavery. 
 Established in this post, he made frequent sallies into the adjoining 
 provinces, taking several strong places by storm, and putting their 
 garrisons to the sword. On one occasion, he defeated a force of 
 thirty thousand Mexicans, who had been sent against him, and by 
 his own exertions and those of his ofiicers, whom he dispatched on 
 frequent expeditions, succeeded in conquering a wide extent of ter- 
 ritory. He displayed great policy in his treatment of the vanquished, 
 overlooking former offences, and attempting, with excellent success, 
 to unite them all in a league against the Aztecs, to whom they had 
 all been lately subjected. "Ever since his expulsion from Mexico, 
 the Spanish leader had been brooding fiercely over the remembrance 
 of his disastrous retreat, and planning new means to achieve the sub- 
 jection of the Aztecs. That powerful and justly-enraged people, he 
 well knew, could never be vanquished by the handful of Spaniards 
 who remained, though the surprise of superstition, and his prompt, 
 unscrupulous policy, had once opened the gates of their capital to a 
 force equally insignificant. But to the powerful alliance of Tlascala 
 was now added that of numerous other provinces, united by his 
 address, and eager for plunder and revenge. Eemembering the 
 disasters of the causeway, he now resolved to attack Mexico by water. 
 
148 AMEEICA ILjLUblEATED. 
 
 He therefore dispatched his ship-builder, Martin Lopez, to Tlascala, 
 with orders to construct thirteen brigantines, using the iron and rig 
 ging which, with wonderful forethought, he had saved from the two 
 fleets destroyed at Yera Cruz."* 
 
 A few of his people, who could not be reconciled to perse ver- 
 ance in the enterprise, he now dismissed, and by rare good fortune 
 his ranks were speedily recruited. From two additional vessels 
 which Yelasquez had dispatched, and which his partisans entrapped 
 at Yera Cruz, and from an unsuccessful expedition from Jamaica, 
 he gained the reinforcement of an hundred and fifty soldiers, with * 
 a good supply of horses, arms, and ammunition. He again wrote 
 to the emperor, of whose inclinations he yet remained totally igno- 
 rant, narrating his exploits and misfortunes, avowing his inten- 
 tion of persevering in the conquest, and requesting that the regions 
 added by his arms to the Spanish crown might be honoured with 
 the title of New Spain. A petition for th^ confirmation of his 
 authority, signed by nearly every Spaniard in the country, was dis- 
 patched at the same time. Having thus, as far as possible, fortified 
 his interests at court, the Spanish general devoted his undivided 
 energy to the task of avenging his humiliation and completing 
 the conquest. 
 
 The small-pox, imported in the fleet of Narvaez, had, as usual 
 among a people unaccustomed to its virulence, committed terrible 
 ravages throughout all Anahuac. Among the victims was Cuitlahua, 
 who perished after a reign of only four months, distinguished, indeed, 
 by policy, patriotism, and success. The caciques then elected to 
 the sovereignty the famous Guatemozin, a nephew of the two late 
 emperors, and, though young, already distinguished for his courage, 
 patriotism, and inveterate enmity to the Spaniards. "He was a 
 young man," says one who often saw him, "about the age of twenty- 
 five years, of elegant appearance, very brave, and so terrible to his 
 own subjects that they all trembled at the sight of him." This fierce 
 and patriotic prince, from the moment of his accession, devoted every 
 faculty to the defence of his country and the extirpation of the in- 
 vaders. High rewards were offered for every Spaniard who should 
 be slain, and still higher, if captured for sacrifice. The garrison of 
 Mexico was strengthened and disciplined, and his subjects were every 
 where commanded to hold out against the invaders to the last. The 
 whole nation, animated by his intrepid spirit, resolved on resisting 
 to the death. % Discoverers, &c., of America. 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HISTOEY OF MEXICO. 149 
 
 The army of Cortes, reinforced as we have mentioned, now 
 amounted to less than six hundred Spaniards, with forty horses 
 and nine cannon — a force in itself preposterously inadequate to the 
 vast exploit of subjecting the Aztec empire. But from Tlascala, 
 Cholula, Tepeaca, and other conquered or allied provinces, a vast 
 swarm of native warriors, amounting, it is said, to a hundred thou- 
 sand, and already partially trained in European discipline, flocked 
 to his standard. Leaving the greater part of those levies at Tlascala, 
 to await his orders, the Spanish chief, on the 28th of December^ 
 1520, set forth on his second invasion of the Yalley of Mexico. 
 
 Crossing the mountains by rugged and difficult passes, the Span- 
 iards once more came in view of that beautiful scene, the theatre of 
 such marvellous adventure and fatal misfortune. " We could see," 
 writes Cortes to the emperor, "all the provinces of Mexico and 
 Temixtitan, both on the lakes and around them. But although we 
 regarded them with great satisfaction, this feeling was not unmixed 
 with sadness, when we recalled the losses we had experienced there, 
 and we all resolved never to quit the country again without victory, 
 even should it cost us our lives." Meeting little opposition, except 
 from desultory parties of skirmishers, the invaders approached the 
 city of Tezcuco, which was destined for their head-quarters. Coan- 
 aco, sovereign of that city, (brother to Cacama, who perished in the 
 "Noche Triste,") sent a friendly message to the advancing army; and 
 on the 80th of December, it entered the city. It appeared almost 
 deserted, and from the summit of the great teocalli^ the Spaniards 
 beheld the citizens pouring forth in multitudes, both by land and 
 water. Great numbers, and among them Coanaco himself, had taken 
 refuge in Mexico. .Many relics of the victims of sacrifice, suspended 
 in the temples — the heads and hands of Spaniards, and the shoes 
 and skins of their horses — ^horrified the survivors, and increased 
 their desire for vengeance. 
 
150 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 kJ ijjdt JbOt dj tL Jll (Lb c6a> Jb Ji • 
 
 THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST MEXICO RENETED. — IZTAPALAPA^ 
 
 AND OTHER CITIES TAKEN BY STORM. GREAT ACCESSIONS 
 
 TO THE POWER OF CORTES. — BRIGANTINES TRANSPORTED 
 OVERLAND FROM TLASCALA. — MANY BATTLES WITH 
 
 THE AZTECS. THEIR RESOLUTION. — CORTES 
 
 MARCHES AROUND THE LAKES, AND STORMS 
 
 MANY CITIES. ARRIVES AT TACUBA. 
 
 SINGULAR DISPLAY OF EMOTION. 
 
 IxTLiLXOCHiTL, a fierce and warlike chieftain, who had wrested 
 from his brother Cacama no small portion of territory, presently 
 succeeded, by the authority of Cortes, to the sovereignty of the 
 entire province of Tezcuco. Influenced by ambition and ancient 
 enmity, he became a firm ally of the Spaniards, and, with his people, 
 in the events which followed, rendered them the most important 
 services. All was now eager and active preparation for the cam- 
 paign. Eight thousand Indians were employed in digging a canal 
 to the lake, which was half a league from the city, for the purpose 
 of securely launching the brigantines, when completed. Cortes re- 
 solved to commence operations, by overpowering, one at a time, the 
 many cities surrounding the lakes, in the hands of the Aztecs, and 
 thus gradually compelling them to take refuge in their capital. He 
 first marched with a strong force against Iztapalapan, formerly the 
 capital of Cuitlahua, a city of fifty thousand inhabitants; and first 
 defeating a large force which defended it without, took the place by 
 storm. Six thousand, including women and children, perished under 
 the vengeful weapons of the Spaniards and their allies. The town 
 was also set on fire ; but the exultation of the victors was damped 
 by the despair of the vanquished, who, as a last t-esource, destroyed 
 their dikes, and flooded the place with water. So sudden was the 
 inundation, that they escaped with much difficulty, wet to the skin, 
 with the loss of all their ammunition and plunder. Moreover, a 
 large detachment from the garrison of Mexico, crossing in canoes, 
 •attacked them fiercely at daybreak, and they returned, with consid- 
 erable loss, to Tezcuco. 
 
 Many cities and provinces now, from dread of his arms or enmity 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HISTOKY OF MEXICO. 15-^ 
 
 to the Aztec rule, gave in their adhesion to Cortes ; among them the 
 city of Chalco, lying on the lake of that name, a place of considera- 
 ble importance. To^ his demands for the surrender of the capital, 
 Guatemozin returned an obstinate silence; but sufficiently showed 
 his determination by energetic efforts for the defence of his city and 
 the retention of his tributaries, as well as by sacrificing every Span- 
 iard who fell into his hands. His people, however, crossing the lake 
 in canoes, sustained several severe defeats from the allied forces. 
 
 Early in the spring of 1521, the brigantines, thirteen in number, 
 were completed at Tlascala. Protected by ten thousand warriors, 
 under the cacique Chichemecatl, they were carried piecemeal, by 
 nearly as many labourers, over the mountains, and safely deposited 
 in Tezcuco. For half a day, the long lines of porters and their 
 escort continued to file into that city, with shouts of " Castile and 
 Tlascala! Long live the emperor I" This extraordinary undertaking, 
 as we have seen, had been already achieved, on a smaller scale, by 
 the unfortunate Balboa, who, five years before, had transported his 
 vessels over the Isthmus, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. 
 
 Strengthened by the arrival of these auxiliaries, Cortes resolved, 
 while the vessels were being put together, on making a brisk cam- 
 paign against the enemy. With rather more than half his Spaniards 
 and the whole force of natives, he attacked Xaltocan, a strong city, 
 lying in the lake of that name, and accessible from the land only by 
 causeways. The assailants, stopped by an impassable breach in that 
 which they attempted to cross, were surrounded on all sides by 
 canoes, and, overwhelmed with showers of missiles, were compelled 
 to retreat. By means of a ford, however, they finally gained the 
 town, which they took by storm, putting the garrison to the sword, 
 and devoting the place to plunder and conflagration. 
 
 Next, the allies marched, with little resistance, to Tacuba, where, 
 after twice defeating the Aztec force which protected it, they took 
 up their temporary quarters. The Mexicans, undiscouraged by their 
 misfortunes, engaged them daily, with various success. Once, by an 
 artful manoeuvre, they decoyed the Spanish general on the causeway 
 so fatal to him the year before, and closing on his column, with a 
 multitude of canoes, compelled him, with much loss, to retreat. The 
 caciques fiercely rejected all attempts at negotiation, and sneeringly 
 asked when he would pay them another visit. "They often pre- 
 tended," he writes, "to invite us to enter the city, saying, 'Go in, 
 go in, and enjoy yourselves I' and at another time they said to us, 
 
152 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 • Do you think there is now a second Montezuma, to do every thing 
 you wish?'" After remaining in Tacnba for six days, enlivened, by 
 continuous skirmishing, and many chivalrous personal combats, he 
 led back his forces, considerably annoyed by the way, to their quar- 
 ters in Tezcuco. 
 
 Perceiving that any attempt against the capital, strongly fortified, 
 valiantly garrisoned, and accessible only by water, must at present 
 be futile, he busied his people with lesser enterprises. Sandoval, one 
 of his bravest and most skilful captains, marched, with a considera- 
 ble force, against Huaxtepec, a strong fortress of the enemy, and 
 took it by storm. Here was a splendid palace, with royal gardens, 
 two leagues in circumference, stocked with every variety of plants. 
 Thence this active commander proceeded to Jacapichtla, a fortress 
 perched upon a huge rock, and almost inaccessible. The garrison 
 defended themselves with desperation, rolling huge stones on the 
 heads of the assailants ; but the place was finally taken by storm, 
 and all were put to the sword' — the stream below running discoloured 
 with blood, for the space of an hour. The people of Chalco, about 
 this time, also defeated a large force of Aztecs, dispatched by G-uate- 
 mozin, in two thousand canoes, against their city. Overawed, or 
 encouraged by these successes, and by the probable downfall of Mex- 
 ico, numerous provinces, some lying on the Gulf, now dispatched 
 embassies, with a tender of their service and allegiance, to the Span- 
 ish general. But the Aztecs, unterrified at the circle of enemies 
 daily closing around them,' still fiercely maintained hostilities, and 
 even made three desperate attempts to burn the brigantines on the 
 stocks at Tezcuco. 
 
 A reinforcement of two hundred Spaniards, with eighty horses, 
 probably from Hispaniola, now arrived at Yera Cruz, and thence 
 took their way to head-quarters. Among them was Julian de Alde- 
 rete, treasurer of the crown, and a Dominican friar, Fray Pedro 
 Malgarejo de Urrea, who, in anticipation of uncomfortable con- 
 sciences, had laid in a goodly supply of papal indulgences. So 
 great was the demand for these consolatory wares, that the reverend 
 gentleman, at the end of a few months, returned to Spain with a 
 handsome fortune. 
 
 Cortes now determined, during the interval which must elapse 
 before the completion of the canal and the building of the brigan- 
 tines, to make the complete circuit of the lakes, subduing numer- 
 ous hostile cities by which they were still environed. With three 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HISTOEY OF MEXICO. I53 
 
 hundred and thirty Spaniards and a force of natives, on the 5th of 
 April, 1521, he set out for Chalco. At that city he was joined by 
 twenty thousand warriors, dispatched by his allies of the neighbour- 
 hood, "and certainly attracted," says Captain Diaz, "by' the hope of 
 spoil and a voracious appetite for human flesh, just as the scald" 
 crows and other birds of prey follow our armies in Italy, in order 
 to feed on the dead bodies after a battle." Proceeding southerly, the 
 army slowly forced its way over rugged sierras, experiencing con- 
 siderable loss in attempting, with various success, the capture of 
 several mountain fortresses, bravely defended by the Aztecs. 
 
 The towns were mostly deserted at the approach of the invaders, 
 but on the ninth day, their advance was stopped at Cuernavaca, a 
 strong and wealthy city, subject to the Aztec emperor, and, from its 
 situation, almost impregnable. A narrow ravine, of frightful depth, 
 lay just before the walls, from which the defenders kept up a shower 
 of missiles, greatly annoying the perplexed assailants. A daring 
 feat relieved the latter from the embarrassment of their situation. 
 Two great trees, growing on opposite sides of the abyss and leaning 
 together, interlocked their branches in mid-air. By this precarious 
 footing, an active Tlascalan succeeded in secretly passing. Many of 
 his countrymen and thirty of the Spaniards followed him — three 
 only being lost in this frightful passage. Taken by surprise, the 
 garrison were disconcerted; and Cortes, having effected another 
 approach, poured in his forces, and drove them from the city. It 
 was delivered to plunder, but the lives of the inhabitants, at the 
 intercession of their cacique, were spared. This place, singularly 
 favoured by nature, afterwards became a favourite residence of 
 the victor. 
 
 Crossing the mountains, the allies next fell on a large and beauti- 
 ful city on the lake, named Xochimilco, or "the field of flowers," 
 from the floating gardens with which it was environed. An assault, 
 attempted by the causeway, was repulsed by the Aztecs; but by 
 fording the shallows, despite a spirited resistance, the invaders entered 
 the city. Here a desperate battle ensued, in which Cortes narrowly 
 escaped with his life. His horse fell, and half-stunned by a blow on 
 the head, he was dragged away by the enemy, who manifested an 
 intense anxiety to carry him off alive for sacrifice. He was finally 
 rescued by the valour of the Tlascalans, and during a pause in the 
 battle, ascended the teocalli to reconnoitre the scene of action. The 
 causeways leading from the capital were crowded with troops, and 
 
164 AMEKICA ILLUSTKATED. 
 
 the lake was alive with canoes, all hurrying to the lescue of 
 Xochimilco. 
 
 During the night, as usual, no attack was made, but in the morn 
 ing, the Aztec army, increased by strong reinforcements, forced its 
 way, with great courage, into the city. They were, however, re- 
 pulsed by the artillery, and pursued by the Spanish cavalry; but 
 the latter, in its turn, overwhelmed by the multitude of the enemy, 
 was compelled to make a hasty retreat. Both armies soon became 
 thoroughly engaged, and an obstinate battle, fought hand to hand, 
 was long maintained. The Spaniards and Tlascalans were finally 
 triumphant, and pursued the defeated Aztecs, with terrible slaughter, 
 on the road to Mexico. The town afforded much plunder; but the 
 triumph was much alloyed by the sudden seizure of several Span- 
 iards, who, taken unawares near the shore, were surprised by the 
 canoes of the enemy, and carried off for sacrifice. The town was 
 burned, and the army set out for Tacuba. 
 
 On the way, considerable fighting occurred. Once, overpowered 
 by numbers, on a certain causeway, the Spaniards were compelled 
 to retreat; and again, Cortes, with the cavalry, being decoyed into 
 an ambush, owed his safety only to the most desperate exertions. 
 Two of his favourite attendants were carried off alive — a circum- 
 stance which so affected him, that he rejoined the army "very sad 
 and weeping." Arrived at Tacuba, he ascended the teocalli with his 
 officers, and all were struck with the magnificence of the cities lying 
 around the lake, and the vast number of canoes employed in fishing 
 or rapidly passing to and fro. The grief of Cortes, on beholding 
 the scenes of his former misfortunes, the strength of the enemy, 
 and the prospect of renewed conflict and crime, was redoubled, and 
 the emotion which he displayed became the subject of a rude ballad, 
 which, or a portion of it, still survives.* The friar and his officers 
 attempted to console him, assuring him that he was not Nero, re 
 joicing in the conflagration of Eome. His answer curiously betrays 
 the secret working of a mind compunctious, perhaps, for past vio- 
 lence, yet seeking apology for its renewal. "You are my witnesses,' 
 
 * "£71 Tacvha estd Cortes^ "In Tacuba was Cortes 
 CO su esquadron esforcado With all his valiant crew. 
 
 triste esiaua, y muy penoso Sad he stood and very mournful, 
 triste^ y con gran cuidadOf Sad, with mighty cares opprest; 
 
 la vna mano en la mexillo One hand lifted to his cheek, 
 yla otra en el costado^ <!j^c. And the other on his breast," &c 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HISTORY OF MEXICO. I55 
 
 he said, "how often I have endeavoured to persuade yonder capital 
 peacefully to submit. It fills me with grief when I think of the toils 
 and dangers my brave followers have yet to encounter before we 
 can call it ours. But the time is come when we must put our hands 
 to the work." 
 
 Ij Jb(L uiM iL (If (Li u)6 t6oi» J( J< Ju • 
 
 RETFRN TO TEZCUCO. — CONSPIRACY AGAINST CORTES. — HIS 
 
 EXTRAORDINARY POLICY AND SELF-COMMAND. — LAUNCHING 
 
 OF THE FLEET. — EXECUTION OF XICOTENCATL. — DEFEAT 
 
 OF A GREAT MEXICAN FLOTILLA BY THE FLEET. — MEXICO 
 
 BLOCKADED.- -CONTINUAL ASSAULTS ON THE CITY. 
 
 — COURAGE AND OBSTINACY OF THE COMBATANTS. 
 
 After an absence of three weeks, the allied army, " fatigued, worn 
 out, and diminished in numbers, " regained its quarters at Tezcuco. 
 A conspiracy, of the most dangerous nature, for the assassination of 
 Cortes and his chief officers, had been matured during his absence ; 
 but one of those engaged in it, moved by remorse, on the day before 
 that appointed for its execution, disclosed to him the whole matter. 
 Forthwith he privately arrested Yillafana, the chief of the conspira- 
 tors, and found on his person a paper containing the names of all 
 concerned in the plot. The culprit, by summary trial, was found 
 guilty, and after d uly receiving the consolations of the church, was 
 hanged from a window of the apartment. Cortes, after glancing 
 over the scroll, and indelibly impressing on his mind the names of 
 his secret enemies, had destroyed it, and then, with extraordinary 
 policy and presence of mind, gave out, in a public speech, that the 
 accomplices of the criminal were unknown. He thus avoided com- 
 pelling them to desperate measures or depriving his already scanty 
 force of their services; while he was enabled to take precautions 
 against their enmity by employing them at a distance from his person. 
 
 The canal, after two months' labour, was now completed, and the 
 vessels, amid the firing of cannon, the celebration of mass, Te Deum^ 
 and other imposing ceremonies, were launched into the lake. A large 
 gun was placed on board of each vessel, and three hundred Spaniards 
 
156 AMERICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 were detailed for the management of the fleet. Tlie force, in all, 
 with late reinforcements, amounted to eighty-seven horse, and more 
 than eight hundred foot; and a vast swarm of native alHes, exultant 
 in the prospect of conquest and plunder, summoned from all quarters, 
 flocked to Tezcuco and Chalco. The Tlascalans alone, under Xico- 
 tencatl and Chichemecatl, numbered fifty thousand men. Half of 
 these, with two hundred Spaniards, under Alvarado, were ordered to 
 occupy Tacuba, and command the causeway of the "Noche Triste," 
 while Olid, with an equal force, was dispatched to Cojohuacan, the 
 terminus of another avenue leading from the capital. Cortes deter- 
 mined to take charge of the fleet in person, and to commence opera- 
 tions by a fresh attack on Iztapalapan, from the causeway of which 
 he had been recently repulsed. 
 
 A singular instance of the fidelity of the Tlascalans presently 
 occurred. Xicotencatl, between whom and Cortes there had never 
 been any real cordiality, prompted by some private motive, suddenly 
 left his command and hastened to Tlascala. This act of desertion 
 was punished by his arrest, and speedily afterwards by his execution 
 on the gallows, in the great square of Tezcuco; and, singular to 
 state, this act of unscrupulous violence, committed against their 
 bravest and most patriotic chief, does not appear to have alienated, 
 in any serious manner, the attachment which that warlike people 
 had conceived' to the Spanish commander. 
 
 The campaign opened disastrously. Alvarado and Olid, setting 
 f6rth in company, on the 10th of May (1521), soon reached Tacuba, 
 where they took up their quarters. After some hard fighting, they 
 succeeded in destroying a portion of the aqueduct of Chapultepec, 
 and cutting off the copious supply of water which it had hitherto 
 afforded to the capital. The next day they marched boldly on to 
 the fatal causeway, the scene of the "Noche Triste." It was strongly 
 fortified, and bravely defended by a multitude of Aztec warriors. 
 Swarms of canoes, on either side, poured in a storm of missiles. 
 Both Spaniards and Tlascalans fought long and obstinately, but were 
 at last compelled, from the natural difficulty of the place and the 
 valour of the defenders, to retreat, with much loss and grief, to their 
 quarters in Tacuba. Olid, with his forces, the next day, marched, 
 according to his orders, to Cojohuacan. 
 
 The assault under Cortes, in person, was more successful, and the 
 terrors of a fleet under sail, provided with artillery, were now first 
 displayed to the astonished Aztecs. Sandoval, by hard fighting, had 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HISTORY OF MEXICO. I57 
 
 taken a portion of Iztapalapan, and Cortes, sailing with the fleet to 
 assist him, gained a signal victory on the way. Being assailed with 
 missiles from a fort perched on a steep cliff, (" The Kock of the Mar- 
 quess,") he landed, and taking the position by storm, put its defend- 
 ers to the sword. As he reembarked, a vast number of canoes 
 (four thousand, according to some accounts) came over from Mexico 
 to give him battle. From their multitude and the brilliancy of the 
 native arms and plumage, they formed a spectacle both beautiful 
 and terrible. Favoured, however, by a sudden gust of wind, the brig- 
 antines bore down among these frail craft, and, dashing them 
 asunder successively, whelmed their crews in the lake. " We broke," 
 says the general in his dispatches, "an immense number of canoes, 
 and destroyed many of the enemy in a style worthy of admiration. 
 * * * It was," he continues, " the most gratifying specta- 
 cle, as well as the most desirable one in the world." 
 
 Those who escaped took refuge in the canals of Mexico, and Cor- 
 tes, following up his advantage, sailed round the city, every tower 
 and terrace of which was covered with an innumerable multitude, 
 watching with awe these new demonstrations of the power of the 
 naughty strangers. After firing some shot among them, rather for 
 bravado than attack, he sailed to Xoloc, where the great southern 
 causeway was intersected by that of Cojohuacan. The garrison 
 which occupied this important post was compelled to relinquish it, 
 and the Spaniards took up their quarters there. The Aztecs, how- 
 ever, with invincible courage, endeavoured to regain it, day and 
 night, especially from those basins which the vessels could not enter, 
 keeping up such showers of arrows that the ground of the camp was 
 completely covered with them. "The multitude," says Cortes, "was 
 so great, that neither by land or water could we see any thing but 
 human beings, who uttered such dreadful howls and outcries, that it 
 seemed as if the v/orld would come to an end. * -Jf * 
 Considering," he presently proceeds, with extraordinary coolness and 
 naivete, "that the inhabitants of this city were rebels, and that they 
 discovered so strong a determination to defend themselves or perish, 
 I inferred two things; first, that we should recover little or none of 
 the wealth of which they had deprived us; [!] and secondly, that they 
 had given us occasion and compelled us utterly to exterminate them." 
 
 This terrible avowal was followed up by the action best adapted 
 to ensure its fulfilment. The third causeway, that of Tepejacac, on 
 the north, hitherto left open, was now occupied by a large forco 
 
158 AMERICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 under Simdoval, and the city was tlms completely blockaded. A 
 general assault was then made from each of these three approaches, 
 Cortes, on foot, leading a heavy column over the great southern 
 causeway, while his generals attempted those allotted to their charge. 
 Neither Alvarado nor Sandoval, desperately opposed, were able to 
 penetrate the city ; but the force led by Cortes, assisted by the brig- 
 antines sailing on either side, despite the valiant defence of the 
 Aztecs, carried barrier after barrier, and filled up breach after breach 
 in the long dike which led to the great street of Mexico. As they 
 forced their way, fighting furiously, up that splendid avenue, the scene, 
 two years before, of their peaceful and triumphant entry, a tempest 
 of missiles, from every roof and terrace, was showered upon their 
 heads. They entered the houses, and by destroying the partitions, 
 slowly forced their way into the heart of the city. They were held 
 at bay for two hours before a strong stone barricade, which, however, 
 was finally broken down by the artillery, and at last gained the great 
 square. Here Cortes, with a number of his companions, ascended 
 the teocalli, and with his own hand tore from the face of the idol, 
 again enshrined in his gory dwelling, a mask of gold and jewels. 
 As he rejoined his force below, the Aztecs made an attack so furious 
 that the whole allied army, Spaniards and Tlascalans, were driven 
 in confusion down the street. Nothing saved them from utter defeat, 
 except the exertions of the cavalry, who in some measure were 
 enabled to protect their retreat to their quarters. That this daring 
 and obstinate assault should have met with so much success as it did, 
 is certainly wonderful. 
 
 The besieging force was soon augmented by fifty thousand Tez- 
 cucans, under Ixtlilxochitl, and, with the aid of these forces, which 
 he distributed among the three camps, Cortes planned a fresh gen- 
 eral assault. After a repetition of the scenes already described, he 
 once more made his way into the square, and fired the palace of 
 Axayacatl, his former quarters, and a magnificent aviary, called 
 **The House of Birds," one of the finest ornaments of the city. 
 "Although it grieved me much," he writes, "yet, as it grieved the 
 enemy more, I determined to burn these palaces; whereupon they 
 manifested great sorrow, as well as their allies from the cities on the 
 lake, because none of them had supposed we should be able to pen- 
 etrate so far into the city. This filled them with terrible dismay" — 
 a .dismay not a little increased, he adds, when his allies " displayed 
 to the inhabitants of the city the bodies of their countrymen cut 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HISTORY OF MEXICO. I59 
 
 into pieces, exclaiming at the same time that thej would have them 
 for supper that night and for breakfast the next day, as was in fact 
 the case." Indeed, throughout this horrible siege, cannibalism, both 
 from necessity and from the habits of the combatants, appears to 
 have played a most conspicuous part; and it is certain that, but for 
 the sustenance afforded to the garrison by their numerous victims, 
 the defence could never have been so long protracted. 
 
 Ixtlilxochitl, the fierce young prince of Tezcuco, signalized him- 
 self in this engagement, fighting by the side of Cortes, amid yells 
 and reproaches from his Aztec countrymen, and slaying their gen- 
 eral with his own hand. Alvarado, on his part, though his men had 
 made the most desperate exertions, was unable to effect an entrance, 
 and Cortes himself finally judged it prudent to retreat to his camp, 
 The Mexicans hung on his rear, fighting with such fury and reck- 
 lessness of life, that nearly all the Spaniards were wounded before 
 they could regain their quarters. This scene was repeated for many 
 ensuing days, Cortes continually assaulting the city from his cause 
 way, and the Mexicans, though compelled to give way before the 
 cavalry and the superior arms of their enemies, always annoying the 
 retreat with great obstinacy. "Their conduct," says that general 
 himself, "was certainly worthy of admiration, for however great the 
 evils and losses to which they were exposed in harassing our march, 
 they did not relax their pursuit till they saw us out of the city." 
 
 uiiAirxjuii cA,iV« 
 
 GENERAL ASSAULT ON THE CITY. — ARTFUL DEVICE OF THE 
 BESIEGED. — DEFEAT OF THE SPANIARDS. — THEIR LOSSES. 
 TERRIBLE PARTICULARS OF THE SACRIFICE OF PRIS- 
 ONERS. — THE GREAT DRUM. — DISCOURAGEMENT AND 
 DEFECTION OF THE ALLIES. — THEIR RETURN. — 
 GRADUAL DESTRUCTION OF THE CITY. 
 
 The brave Guatemozin, though famine began to press heavily on 
 the multitudes crowded within his walls, rejected all overtures for 
 peace and capitulation, and bent his sole energies to the annoyance 
 of the enemy. He made frequent and furious sallies upon the three 
 
16(J AMERICA ILLUSi'KATED. 
 
 camps, especially those where Cortes did not command in person^ 
 and once succeeded in seizing two of the brigantines. A number of 
 the Spaniards, to the inexpressible delight of his people, had been 
 taken alive for sacrifice, and the dread inspired by this circumstance 
 induced the survivors to fight to the death rather than encounter a 
 similar fate. A vast swarm of Indian allies, (a hundred and fifty 
 thousand in number, according to Cortes,) attracted by the hope of 
 sharing the plunder of the Aztec capital, now flocked into the 
 Christian camps, and assisted in rendering the siege more strict 
 They were also employed, with good effect, against the outposts and 
 detached strongholds of the Mexican emperor, and such cities as yet 
 remained faithful to his sway. 
 
 On the three causeways, the fighting was almost continual, and 
 many gallant actions, both by besiegers and besieged, for want of 
 space, are necessarily omitted in this account. "For ninety-three 
 days together," says Diaz, who was with Alvarado, "we were en- 
 gaged in the siege of this great and strong city, and every day and 
 night we were engaged with the enemy. Were I to extend my 
 narrative to include every action which took place, it would be 
 almost endless, and my history would resemble that of Amadis and 
 the other books of chivalry." Cortes, his army swelled by vast 
 reinforcements, at last resolved on a grand attempt to take the city 
 by storm. Alvarado and Sandoval were instructed to use every 
 exertion to effect an entrance by the causeway of Tacuba, while he 
 attempted that of the south, and all were to endeavour to gain pos- 
 session of the great market-place, that a communication might be 
 opened between the opposite camps. 
 
 "On the following morning, the army of Cortes having entered 
 the city, moved in three great bodies along the same number of 
 parallel avenues, or causeways, flanked by deep canals, all leading 
 to the market-place. The Mexicans made no very formidable resist- 
 ance; barricade after barricade was carried; and the ditches, except 
 in one lamentable instance, were carefully filled up. But when the 
 desired goal was nearly gained, all of a sudden, the horn of Guate- 
 mozin sent forth its shrill blast from the summit of the teocalU. At 
 the sound, as if by magic, swarms of Aztec warriors closed around 
 the advancing columns. The water was covered with their canoes, 
 and the air was darkened by their missiles. The foremost column, 
 driven back in confusion, was arrested by a deep gap, which they 
 had neglected properly to fill up. Plunged into the water by the 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HISTOEY OF MEXICO, IQl 
 
 fnry of their pursuers, they vainly attempted to cross the fatal breach 
 Great numbers were slain or drowned, and others, a more horrible 
 fate, were carried off alive. 
 
 "Cortes, who had hastened to the spot, in vain endeavoured to 
 assist his unfortunate companions. 'At the moment I reached this 
 bridge of troubles,' he relates, 'I discovered some Spaniards and 
 many of our allies flying back in great haste, and the enemy like 
 dogs in pursuit of them; and when I saw such a rout, I began to 
 cry 'Hold! Hold!' and on approaching the water, I beheld it full of 
 Spaniards and Indians, in so dense a mass that it seemed as if there 
 was not room for a straw to float. * * * The cause- 
 way,' he continues, 'was small and narrow, and on the same level 
 with the water, which had been effected by these dogs, on purpose 
 to annoy 'lis; and as the road was also crowded with our allies who 
 had been routed, much delay was thereby occasioned, enabling the 
 enemy to come up on both sides by water, and to take and destroy 
 as many as they pleased.' 
 
 "Cortes himself barely escaped becoming, in person, a notable 
 sacrifice to the idols. Seized by six Aztec chiefs, he was dragged 
 toward a canoe, and was rescued only by the loss of several of his 
 faithful attendants, who laid down their lives in his defence. Getting 
 at last to the little body of cavalry on firm ground, he led them on 
 a fierce charge against the enemy, and brought off the remnant of 
 his unfortunate companions. All the divisions retreated from the 
 city, and were fiercely attacked in their own quarters. 
 
 "Alvarado and Sandoval, who had also penetrated nearly to the 
 rendezvous, were likewise soon compelled to retreat before the furi- 
 ous assault of the Aztecs, who flung before them five bloody heads, 
 exclaiming that one of them was that of Malinche (Cortes). While 
 retreating, hotly pressed, 'we heard,' says Diaz, 'the dismal sound 
 of the great drum, from the top of the principal temple of the god 
 of war, which overlooked the whole city. Its mournful noise was 
 such as may be imagined the music of the infernal gods, and it might 
 be heard almost to the distance of three leagues. They were then 
 sacrificing the hearts of ten of our companions to their idols. Shortly 
 after this, the king's horn was blown, giving notice to his captains 
 that they were then to take their enemies prisoners or die in the 
 attempt. It is impossible to describe the fury with which they closed 
 upon us, when they heard this signall.' 
 
 "On this disastrous day, besides the loss of cannon and horses, 
 Vol. III.— 11 
 
162 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 many of the Spaniards had been killed, and nearly all wounded. 
 Worst of all, sixty-two (mostly under Cortes), and a multitude of 
 their Indian allievS, had fallen alive into the hands of the enemy, and 
 been carried oflP for sacrifice. That very evening, the dismal roar of 
 the great drum was again heard ; and the last rays of the setting sun 
 fell on a long procession winding up the sides of the huge teocalU. 
 Among the victims, stripped to their waists, several were seen to be 
 white men ; and the Spaniards, with unutterable horror, beheld their 
 miserable comrades, with fans in their hands, and gaudily decked 
 with' plumes, compelled to dance before the hideous idol, and then 
 stretched upon the fearful Stone of Sacrifice. As heart after heart 
 was plucked out and laid before the altar, the bodies were hurled 
 down the steep sides of the pyramid, and prepared by the priests 
 below for a grand cannibal festivity. 
 
 "Night after night, these hideous scenes were repeated in full view 
 of the camp of Alvarado; and the Spaniards, with sickening hearts, 
 were compelled to witness the fearful solemnities of a fate which any 
 day might be their own. "During each night of this period," says 
 a horrified witness, "the enemy continued beating their accursed 
 drum in the great temple. Nothing can equal the dismal impression 
 its soiind conveyed. They were then in the execution of their infer- 
 nal ceremonies ; the whole place was illuminated, and their shrieks 
 at certain intervals pierced the air. * * -h- j^q^ ^^q 
 •reader imagine what were our sensations! 'Oh, heavenly God,' we 
 said to ourselves, ' do not permit us to be sacrificed by these wretches f 
 * * For ten nights together were they thus employed in put - 
 ting to death our unfortunate companions.' The priests eager in 
 their horrid ministry, seemed, amid the glare of sacrificial fires, like 
 demons flitting about in their native element, and busied with the 
 torments of the condemned."* 
 
 Exulting in their victory, the besieged, every morning, made 
 furious assaults upon the several camps, exclaiming, with loud re- 
 vilings, to the Spaniards, that their flesh was too bitter to be eaten — 
 "and truly," says honest Diaz, "it seems that such a miracle was 
 wrought." The Mexican priests now predicted that within eight 
 days the gods would deliver the enemy into their hands. Terrified 
 at this ominous announcement, the fulfilment of which seemed her- 
 alded by their late misfortunes, all the vast swarm of allies, sav3 
 those of Tlascala and Tezcuco, smitten with a superstitious panic, 
 
 * Discoverers, &c., of America, 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HISTORY OF MEXICO. ^gg 
 
 melted away and dispersed to their homes. But, with the assistance 
 of these faithful and powerful coadjutors, the Christians still man- 
 aged to hold possession of,tbe causeways, and their brigantines, com- 
 manding the lalves, cut off nearll^ all supplies from the beleaguered 
 city. The appointed period liaving passed without witnessing their 
 destruction, the allies flocked back ; and the Spanish captains, by a 
 short but successful campaign against the few provinces still faithful 
 ti) Guatemozin, confined all hostility or resistance to the limits of the 
 heroic, but solitary capital. The arrival of a fresh vessel at Yera 
 Cruz strengthened the assailants, and the siege was vigorously pressed. 
 
 It seemed, however, that nothing short of its complete destruction 
 could break the invincible spirit of the Aztecs; and accordingly, as 
 the assailants gained ground, building after building was levelled to 
 the earth. The materials were used to fill up the canals, and an 
 open desolate space, suited to the charge of the cavalry, was thus 
 gradually formed within the limits of the hitherto almost-impene- 
 trable city. The inhabitants, in despair at the destruction of their 
 homes and palaces, cried aloud to the allies, who carried on the work, 
 ** Go on ! the more you destroy, the more you will have to build up 
 again hereafter. If we conquer, you shall build for us; if your 
 white friends conquer, they will make you do as much for them." 
 
 Guatemozin, remembering the unhappy fate of his uncle, Monte- 
 zuma, still sternly rejected all overtures for capitulation. "Let no 
 man henceforth," he said to the chiefs, "who values his life, talk of 
 surrender. We can at least die like warriors." Once more, fight- 
 ing under the eye of their emperor, the enfeebled garrison, with des- 
 perate valour, attacked the hostile camps; but every dike was swept 
 by artillery, and after terrible losses they were driven back into the 
 city. Despite their determined resistance, the palace of Guatemozin 
 himself was levelled to the ground, and a free communication was 
 at last opened through the city with the opposite camp of Tacuba. 
 
164 • AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 TEERIBLE SUFFERINGS AND MORTALITY OF THE BESIEGED. — 
 
 OBSTINATE RESISTANCE OF GUATEMOZIN. — COURAGE AND 
 
 FIDELITY OF HIS PEOPLE. — MEXICO TAKEN BY STORM. 
 
 — FEARFUL MASSACRE. — CAPTURE OF GUATEMO- 
 
 ZIN. — REFLECTIONS ON THE CONQUEST. 
 
 As the destruction of the city gradually went on, the most fear- 
 ful scenes of death, disease, and starvation, were constantly disclosed. 
 The canals were choked and the narrow streets were strewn with 
 corpses. The allies, eager to avenge past injuries, massacred indis- 
 criminately all that fell alive into their hands. Alvarado, carrying 
 on the same system of levelling and destruction, finally penetrated 
 to the great tianguez or market-place, and took by storm the teocalli 
 which commanded it. Many of the heads of the sacrificed Span- 
 iards were found in the sanctuary, affixed to beams, with their hair 
 and beaiids much grown, and tears came into the eyes of those who 
 recognized their friends. As the opposite divisions met in the long- 
 desired rendezvous, Cortes, with a few cavaliers, rode through the 
 great square, now abandoned by the warriors. Every roof and ter- 
 race which surrounded it was crowded with the starving populace, 
 gazing sullenly on their triumphant enemies. Seven-eighths of the 
 city, by this time, had been destroyed, and in the portion yet stand- 
 ing was crowded a vast multitude of wretches, sufiering all the 
 agonies of famine, disease, and despair. 
 
 Guatemozin still held out, and his brave warriors, enfeebled by 
 hunger, made a vain attempt to drive the enemy from the square. 
 His position was still tolerably strong, and the Spaniards, their am- 
 munition failing, were unable to dislodge him by means of artillery. 
 In this emergency, a soldier named Sotelo, who had served in the 
 wars of Italy, and who "was eternally boasting of the wonderful 
 military machines which he knew the art of constructing," persuaded 
 Cortes to make trial of a species of catapult or mangonel, for throw- 
 ing huge stones or other missiles. But when, after infinite pains, 
 the engine had been built, and a stone as large as a bushel had 
 been launched into the air, instead of flying in the direction of the 
 enemy, it returned exactly to the place whence it started, and, amid 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HISTORY OF MEXICO. Ig5 
 
 the derision of the soldiery and the rage of the general, dashed the 
 machine to pieces. 
 
 Famine, however, was doing its work for the besiegers more 
 swiftly and surely than their most formidable engines of deaths. 
 The remaining streets, says Cortes, were so crowded with carcasses, 
 that no one could step in them without setting his foot on a dead 
 body. The emperor, apparently determined to bury himself, with 
 the last relics of the Aztec name, in the ruins of his capital, even 
 now sternly refused to listen to any proposals of peace, and, it is said, 
 even sacrificed one of his own nobles who had been sent by Cortes 
 to demand a surrender. Several times, indeed, he agreed to a per- 
 sonal conference with the Spaniard; but, fearing treachery, held aloof. 
 
 His people, with almost unheard-of fidelity, still rendered their 
 obedience, though assured of certain destruction. The Aztec chiefs, 
 Cortes tells us, as he rode near them, would cry out, "You are said 
 to be the Child of the Sun, but the Sun, in a single day, completes 
 his course over all the world — why will not you as quickly destroy 
 us, and relieve our sufferings? — for we long to die, and go to our god 
 Orchilobus (Huitzilopotchtli), who is waiting to give us rest in heaven." 
 The fate they invoked was rapidly approaching. On the 12th of 
 August, 1521, the overwhelming forces under command of Cortes 
 were ordered to storm the remainder of the city. The Aztecs, though 
 without a shadow of hope, fought as became the lastfelics of a great 
 and warlike nation. They placed their strongest warriors in the van, 
 and wielded their rude weapons with a courage that almost compen- 
 sated for the feebleness of hunger. Overpowered, however, by 
 numbers, and by the superior strength of health, they were slain 
 and repulsed, and the allies, in overwhelming numbers, flocked in, 
 and commenced the work of massacre. "So terrible was the cry," 
 says Cortes, "and especially of the women and children, that it was 
 enough to break one's heart. * ^ * Never did I see a people 
 of such cruelty, nor so utterly destitute of humanity as these Indians." 
 Before he could draw off his infuriated allies, forty thousand of the 
 helpless multitude, he tells us, had perished by their hands. 
 
 The next day he renewed his summons that the wretched sur- 
 vivors should surrender; but the chief magistrate of the city, who 
 appeared, only gave the melanchol}' reply, "Guatemozin will dio 
 where he is, but will hold no interview with the Spanish commander; 
 it is for you to work your pleasure.'' " Go then," said the Conqueror 
 sternly, "and prepare your countrymen for death. Their hour is 
 
166 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 come." A fresh and furious assault, both, by land and water, was 
 accordingly made, and the wretched Aztecs, men, women, and chil- 
 dren, enfeebled by famine and disease, and crowded in helpless 
 masses on the water's edge, were massacred in fearful numbers. The 
 brigantines, scouring the lake, intercepted the canoes in which some 
 endeavoured to escape, and gained the greatest -prize of the day. As 
 they attacked one of these frail craft, a young warrior, armed with 
 sword and buckler, stood prepared to beat off the assailants; but 
 when the Spanish captain forbade his men to fire, lowered his weapons, 
 and said, with dignity, "I am Guatemozin; lead me to Malinche 
 (Cortes) ; I am his prisoner ; but let no harm come to my wife and 
 my followers." Elated with the greatness of their prize, the captors 
 hurried with him to their general. The noble prince, with a calm 
 and resolute air, approached closely to him, and said, "Malinche, I 
 have done that which was my duty, in defence of my kingdom and 
 my people. My efforts have failed; and since I am your prisoner," 
 (laying his hand on the hilt of the Spaniard's dagger) "draw that 
 poniard from your side, and strike me to the heart." The victor, 
 admiring his heroic demeanour, assured him of kindness and pro- 
 tection for himself, as well as for all his household. 
 
 The garrison, on learning the capture of their emperor, abandoned 
 all further resistance, and the conquerors, having committed a fright- 
 ful slaughter among them, were compelled, by the terrible effluvia 
 from the corpses, to withdraw from the city?' With the night there 
 came on, says a witness, "the greatest tempest of rain, thunder, and 
 lightning, especially about midnight, that ever was known," as if 
 the very elements of nature were convulsed in sympathy with this 
 terrible fall of an ancient dynasty and ifatipn. This memorable day, 
 the 13th of August, 1521, chanced to be that r of 'St. Hypolito, who, 
 on this account, was selected by the victors as the guardian saint of 
 their new empire. 
 
 A hushed and terrible silence succeeded the clamorous and dis- 
 cordant uproar, which, day and night, for so many weeks, had been 
 raging around the devoted city. So deafened had the soldiers become 
 with this continued clamour, that they felt, according to their account, 
 like men who had long been confined in a steeple, with the bells 
 ringing about their ears. On the next day, the forlorn relics c/f the 
 garrison and the citizens, variously estimated at thirty to seventy 
 thousand in number, were permitted to pass out of the city. For 
 three days, the several causeways were covered each with its file of 
 
IHfi CONQUEST AND IIISTOKY OF MEXICO. IftJ 
 
 wretched, emaciated beings, dragging their feeble limbs with such 
 pain and weariness that, sajs a witness, "it was misery to behold 
 them." The population of many adjacent cities and provinces had 
 been crowded into the capital, and the number which perished during 
 the siege can never be accurately known. It has been estimated at 
 least at a hundred and twenty thousand, and by some nearly as high 
 as a quarter of a million. Diaz says that he had read of the destruc- 
 tion of Jerusalem, and thinks that the mortality in that ill-fated city 
 was fully equalled by that which occurred in Mexico. Great num- 
 bers of the allies had also perished during the siege — among them, 
 it is said, no less than thirty thousand of the Tezcucans. A mortality 
 so terrible during a siege of only three months, sufficiently indicates 
 the valour and ruthlessness of the besiegers, the constancy of the 
 besieged, and the sanguinary nature of the combats in which they 
 were daily engaged. 
 
 Thus terminated a series of events, undoubtedly the most remark- 
 able in the whole range of American history. A nation which by 
 valour, by natural genius, and by the far-sighted policy of its rulers, 
 had gained complete ascendancy over all surrounding provinces, 
 whose power had become, in great measure, consolidated by time 
 and strong in hereditary affection, in less than two years was pros- 
 trated to the earth, enslaved, and half-exterminated by a little com- 
 pany of strangers, so small in number as almost to render the belief 
 of their achievement impossible. "The whole story," says Mr. 
 Prescott, in his brief and eloquent summary of these events, "has 
 the air of fable rather than of history ! a legend of romance, a tale 
 of the genii I Whatever," he continues, "may be thought of the 
 Conquest in a moral view, regarded as a military achievement, it 
 must fill us with astonishment. That a handful of adventurers, 
 indifferently armed and equipped, should have landed on the shores 
 of a powerful empire, inhabited by a fierce and warlike race, and in 
 defiance of the reiterated prohibitions of its sovereign, have forced 
 their way into the interior; — that they should have done this, with- 
 out knowledge of the language of the land, without chart or compass 
 |0 guide them, without any idea of the difficulties they were to 
 •encounter, totally uncertain whether the next step might bring them 
 on a hostile nation or on a desert, feeling their way along in the dark, 
 as it were;-Trthat, though nearly overwhelmed by their first encounter 
 with the inhabitants, they should have still pressed on to the capital 
 of the empire, and, having reached it, thrown themselves unhesi- 
 
168 AMEEICA ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 tatingly into the midst of their enemies; that so far from being 
 daunted by the extraordinary spectacle there exhibited of power 
 and civilization, they should have been but more confirmed in their 
 original design; — that they should have seized the monarch, have 
 executed his ministers before the eyes of his subjects, and when 
 driven forth with ruin from the gates, have gathered their scattered 
 wreck together, and, after a system of operations, pursued with con- 
 summate policy and daring, have succeeded in overturning the cap- 
 ital, and establishing their sway over the country; — that all this 
 should have been so effected by a mere handful of indigent adven- 
 turers, is a fact little short of the miraculous — too startling for the 
 probabilities demanded by fiction, and without a parallel in the pages 
 of history." 
 
 CHAPTEH I?I 
 
 IHE TORTURE OP GUATEMOZIN. — SETTLEMENT 07 THE COUN- 
 TRY. — PRESH ENTERPRISES. — OPPICES AND CITIES CON- 
 FERRED ON CORTES. HIS OSTENTATION. — HIS SAGACIOUS 
 
 POLICY. GREAT EXTENSION OP THE SPANISH TERRI- 
 TORY. THE REVOLT OP OLID. TERRIBLE MARCH 
 
 TO HONDURAS. THE MURDER OP GUATEMOZIN. 
 
 Success so wonderful might well seem to excuse a commensurate 
 exultation. The victors, their sanguinary triumph completed, sat 
 down to a feast, enlivened by the generous wine of Spain, their long 
 abstinence irom which, while it gave a double zest to the genial 
 draught, heightened its exhilerating effect. The revelry at last 
 waxed so frantic, that Father Olmedo, scandalized at the scene, inter- 
 fered, and a solemn religious ceremonial, by his direction, was per- 
 formed as the fitter celebration of the triumph of the faith. 
 
 A most disgraceful scene was presently enacted. Disappointed by 
 the smallness of the booty (for the garrison, as a last revenge, had 
 sunk or destroyed their treasures) the rapacious soldiery demanded 
 that Guatemozin should be tortured to effect a discovery. Cortes, 
 fearing to irritate them by refusal, and perhaps sharing in their 
 rapacious cruelty, to his eternal dishonour, complied. But the young 
 
/ 
 
 THE CONQUEST AND HISTORY OF MEXICO. 109 
 
 emperor withstood their diabolical devices with the same courage 
 and firmness which he had displayed in the defence of his city. The 
 chief of Tacuba, his relative, who was tortured at the same time, 
 groaned aloud ; but the monarch rebuked this expression of feeble- 
 ness by the significant remark, " Do you think, then, that I am taking 
 my pleasure in the bath?" Nothing was extorted from them beyond 
 the avowal that the treasures had been sunk in the lake; but nearly 
 all attempts to find the lost valuables proved fruitless — a great golden 
 sun, discovered in a pond in the palace, being almost the only fruit 
 of the search. 
 
 The supremacy of the Spaniards had been for some time acknowl- 
 edged with alacrity by numerous tribes and provinces, surrounding 
 the old imperial domain; and the tidings of this terrible success 
 overawed opposition in nearly all the remaining regions of the 
 former Aztec empire, and led their inhabitants to seek safety in 
 immediate submission to the victors. In the district of Panuco, 
 indeed, a formidable opposition was encountered, but was suppressed 
 with great ferocity and cruelty by a force under Sandoval, no less 
 than four hundred caciques being executed on the stake or the gal- 
 lows — "by which means, God be praised," says Cortes, piously, in 
 his report, "the province was restored to tranquillity." Almost 
 immediately after his triumph, he dispatched exploring parties, who 
 made their way to the waters of the Pacific, and projected fresh 
 schemes of extensive conquest among its shores and islands. 
 
 The ancient empire of Anahuac thus subverted, and its very name 
 changed by the victor to New Spain, the natives, as a matter of 
 course, were speedily reduced to a state of vassalage — the Tlascalans 
 alone, on account of their early alliance and constant fidelity, (as 
 well, perhaps, as their warlike and stubborn character,) being ex- 
 empted. Fulfilling the despairing prediction of the vanquished 
 A-ztecs, Cortes at once employed a vast number of his serfs in re- 
 building, on a magnificent European plan, the ruined capital of 
 Mexico. Within four years, another great city, with palaces, cathe- 
 drals, and fortresses, was reared upon the very site of the vanished 
 metropolis so terribly and ruthlessly destroyed. 
 
 It is an extraordinary fact, that the Conqueror, from his first 
 embarkation to the final achievement of his gigantic task, had not 
 received from the Spanish court the slightest intimation of its favour 
 or disapproval. This may be partly accounted for by the rarity 
 of communication ; but, considering the magnitude of the prize at 
 
170 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 stake, the course of the government seems to have been unusually 
 dilatory and indecisive. Fonseca, who still held the control of 
 Indian affairs, had indeed, at the instigation of Yelasquez, appointed 
 a commissioner, with authority to examine the affairs of the province, 
 and even to seize the person and property of the general; but that 
 officer, arriving not long after the conquest, was induced, partly by 
 force and partly by bribery, to rid the country of his presence. On 
 the return of Charles V., in July, 1522, to his Spanish dominions, 
 his ears were immediately filled with clamorous accusation and fierce 
 vindication of the conduct of Cortes. He referred the whole affair 
 to a High Commission, which, after an impartial investigation, 
 impressed with the extraordinary achievements of the Conqueror, 
 decided nearly every thing in his favour. In October of the same 
 - year, he was appointed governor, captain-general, and judge of all 
 Kew Spain, almost the entire authority, both military and civil, 
 being centred in his single person. His favourite officers were pro- 
 portionably rewarded, and the common soldiers received an abund- 
 ance of flattering promises. Both Fonseca and Yelasquez died shortly 
 after this signal discomfiture — it is said, of chagrin and mortification 
 at the triumph of their adversary. 
 
 The victor, even before the receipt of these welcome tidings, took 
 thp most prompt and energetic measures for the settlement and 
 extension of his realms. Numerous adventurers, attracted by his 
 liberal offers, flocked to the shores of Mexico, and Spanish colonies 
 ^were planted in all directions, even as far as California. To increase 
 ^the population, all married men were obliged to bring their wives, 
 and all bachelors, under stringent liabilities, to marry — a sumptuary 
 measure, professedly for the good of their souls, and to which the 
 legislator himself, with some chagrin, was compelled to conform, by the 
 ^unexpected arrival of his own wife. Donna Catalina, from Cuba. She 
 , did not long survive her arrival. Elated with triumph, the governor, 
 immediately on receiving his commissions, assumed an almost regaJ 
 state and dignity. Every where he went, attended by an immense 
 retinue^ fit for a king, with conquered caciques riding in his train, 
 and all the populace, as, in the days of their ancient sovereigns, cast 
 themselves on their faces by the roadside as he passed. 
 
 Abounding in natural wealth, and stocked with a vast multitude 
 of submissive laborers, the great colony of New Spain speedily 
 became the most valuable possession of the Spanish crown. Within 
 three years from the destruction of the capital, a vast extent of 
 
THE CO'NQUEST AND HISTORY OF MEXICO. IJl 
 
 countrj, measuring, according to Cortes, four hundred leag/ies on 
 tlie Pacific coast, and five hundred on that of the Atlantic, had been 
 brought under the sway of the Spaniards, and the native inhabitants 
 settled in obedience to their conquerors. These people, singular to 
 state, (considering the reluctance of mankind to abandon religious 
 horrors,) received Christianity with remarkable readiness. The 
 Franciscan friars, of whom the first deputation arrived in 1524, 
 boasted that, in less than twenty years, nine millions of Indians (a 
 great exaggeration) had been gathered within the pale of the church. 
 
 The governor, his ambition unquenched by a success the most 
 brilliant of his age, continually agitated fresh enterprises. An expe- 
 dition which he fitted out, under the ferocious Alvarado, at an 
 immense expense of human life and sufiering, brought under his sway 
 the wealthy regions of Guatemala. He dispatched another, under 
 Olid, to Honduras, and made vain attempts to discover the long-con- 
 jectured strait which should unite the Atlantic and Pacific. The 
 latter ofl&cer, of a haughty and seditious nature, after establishing a 
 colony on the shore of the new province, openly disowned the 
 authority of the governor, and set up a small principality of his own. 
 When Cortes heard of this daring defection, the veins of his throat 
 and nostrils, according to his wont, swelled and dilated with rage. 
 He at once undertook the hazardous and precarious enterprise of 
 marching to Honduras through the vast wilderness which intervened. 
 
 It was in October, 1524, that, with only a hundred cavalry and 
 three or four thousand Indians, he set forth on this terrible adventure, 
 the toils and perils of which were too numerous to be recorded in 
 these pages. For many months, enduring every extremity of fam- 
 ine, exposure, and fatigue, he struggled through almost interminable 
 marshes, toiled over flinty mountains, and bridged innumerable 
 rivers. His mind, distracted by weariness and obstacles, at last 
 became moody and irritable, and by a fresh crime he imprinted a 
 new and indelible stain on his memory. The unfortunate Guatemo- 
 zin, whom, dreading his influence with the natives, he always carried 
 with him, was accused, on the most false and frivolous grounds, of 
 a l^rojected conspiracy ; and Cortes, anxious, no doubt, to be rid of 
 an object of perpetual jealousy, after the mere pretence of an inves- 
 tigation, ordered his execution. The prince, with the calmness of 
 courage and innocence, said, "Malinche/ here 3^ our false words and 
 promises have ended — in my death. I should have fallen by my own 
 hand, in my city of Mexico, rather than have trusted myself to you. 
 
172 AMEKTCA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 Wliy do you unjustly take my life? May God demajid of you this 
 innocent blood!" He was hanged, with the cacique of Tacuba, and 
 other chiefs, upon a huge Ceiba-tree. They died, we are told, "like 
 good Christians, and, for Indians, most piously;" and among even 
 the rough spirits by whom Cortes was surrounded, there was but 
 one opinion, that the sentence was unjust and cruel in the extreme. 
 
 uJbiAiri,iljii Avii 
 
 ARRIYAL AT HONDURAS. — USURPATION IN MEXICO. — OBSE 
 
 QUIES AND MASSES PERFORMED FOR CORTES. — HIS RETURN. 
 
 — SUSPICION OF THE COURT. — CORTES SAILS TO SPAIN. — 
 
 HONOURS BESTOWED ON HIM. RETURNS TO MEXICO. — 
 
 EXPENSIVE EXPEDITIONS. — CORTES AGAIN RETURNS 
 
 TO SPAIN. — UNSUCCESSFUL AT COURT. — HIS DEATH. 
 
 — HIS CHARACTER. — FATE OF THE CONQUERORS. 
 
 After enduring extreme suffering, the relics of the Spanish force 
 finally arrived at Honduras, where Cortes learned that his authority 
 had already been restored by a counter-revolution, planned by his 
 friends, and that Olid was already beheaded. With his accustomed 
 energy, he immediately busied himself in fresh exploration, but was 
 arrested in the midst of extensive schemes of discovery and conquest 
 by the tidings that his deputies in Mexico had usurped the govern- 
 ment. Catching at a vague rumoui*, that, with his army, he had 
 perished in the swamps of Chiapas, they had seized all his property, 
 with a part of which they propitiated the church by the purchase 
 of eternal masses for his soul. Further to colour the report, the fac- 
 tor, with great ceremony, erected a monument to his memory, "and 
 then," says Diaz, "proclaimed himself governor and captain-general 
 of New Spain, with the sound of Kettle-drums and trumpets, and 
 issued out an order that all women who had any regard for their 
 souls, and whose husbands had gone with Cortes, should consider 
 them dead in law, and marry again forthwith." On learning of 
 these high-handed proceedings, the governor at once embarked for 
 Mexico. He encountered severe tempests in the Grulf, and was twice 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HISTOEY OF MEX;CO 173 
 
 driven back, and it was not until after an absence of nearly two 
 years, that in June, 1526, lie reentered the capital. His fortune had 
 been greatly injured by the rapacity of these interlopers; but he 
 spared their lives, and resumed, without the shadow of opposition, 
 the government they had usurped. 
 
 Meanwhile, however, as usual in similar cases, the slanders of 
 his enemies at court had proved sufficient to undermine his interests ; 
 and a report being raised that he was intending a revolt, a commis- 
 sioner was dispatched from Spain, to inquire into the affairs of the 
 province. This functionary died soon after his arrival, and so did 
 another, who had been appointed to succeed him ; but their end is 
 to be attributed to the insalubrity of the climate, and not, as the 
 enemies of Cortes insinuated, to any underhanded treachery of his. 
 The person next appointed gave him such annoyance, that he re- 
 solved to appear before the court, and, by his personal influence, to 
 sustain his waning interests. With a great treasure in gold and 
 jewels, and many natural curiosities of the country, in May, 1528, 
 he arrived at the little sea-port of Palos, the same which, thirty-six 
 years before, had witnessed the memorable departure of Columbus. 
 Here, at the convent of La Eabida, the ancient home of that great 
 discoverer, he fell in with Francisco Pizarro, then engaged in pro- 
 viding means for the Conquest of Peru, and whose plans, it is said, 
 he furthered by liberal advances. At this place died Sandoval, the 
 most faithful, brilliant, and talented of that remarkable band of 
 officers by whom his achievements had been promoted. 
 
 The journey of Cortes to the court at Toledo was a continued 
 triumph, and the most honourable and distinguished reception was 
 accorded to him. He was created "Marquis of Oaxarca," with an 
 immense grant of land, and twenty thousand Mexican serfs, in that 
 beautiful province, and soon after married into one of the noblest 
 families of Spain. Despite these marks of ftivour, the imperial jeal- 
 ousy, stimulated by the slanders of his enemies, proved too strong 
 to allow of full justice to his deserts. His office of captain-general 
 he was allowed to retain, but that of governor was resumed by the 
 crown, lest such an accumulation of dignities should render him too 
 powerful for a subject. He was, indeed, empowered to make fresh 
 Conquests and discoveries in the west and in the Pacific, and, with 
 a mind inspired with the hope of fresh achievements, in the spring 
 of 1530, he took his departure for Mexico. 
 
 On his arrival, he was received in the capital with great enthusiasm 
 
174 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 by his late subjects, botb Spanish and Indian ; but lie soon retired 
 to his city of Cuernavaca, and there busied himself with improving 
 the country, and fitting out expeditions of discovery. By one of 
 these the peninsula of California was discovered, and Cortes himself, 
 in an arduous voyage on the coast of that region, underwent the 
 greatest dangers and hardships. These and other expeditions, highly 
 conducive to geographical knowledge, but unremunerative in a 
 pecuniary view, cost him a great part of his fortune, none of which 
 was ever made good to him by the government. To obtain compen- 
 sation and to support his rights, in 1540, he once more betook him- 
 self to the Spanish court. He was received with empty honours, but 
 prospered little in his suit, and the following year, to his great per- 
 sonal loss and misfortune, was engaged in the disastrous expedition 
 against Algiers, undertaken by Charles Y. Several years longer he 
 haunted the court, vainly seeking the satisfaction of his claims and 
 the acknowledgment of his services. He besought the emperor to 
 order his council to come to so;ne decision, seeing that (in the words 
 of his memorial) "he was too old to wander about like a vagrant, 
 but ought rather, during the brief remainder of his life, to stay at 
 home and settle his account with Heaven, occupied with the concerns 
 of his soul, rather than with his substance." Meeting little encour- 
 agement, he prepared to return to his estate in Mexico ; but, on the 
 way, was seized with a mortal illness at Seville, where, having re- 
 ceived the comforts of the church, he expired, with much tranquil- 
 lity, on the 2d of December, 1547. He was in his sixty-third year. 
 His remains were transported to the city of Mexico, where they long 
 reposed in the vault of a certain chapel; but in 1823, it was found 
 necessary secretly to remove them, for security against the fury of 
 the revolutionists. 
 
 Thus died, as usual, amid neglect and ingratitude, another illus- 
 trious servant of the Spanish crown. Whatever were his faults, the 
 Conqueror of Mexico had been only too faithful to the selfish and 
 unfeeling monarch, who, like his predecessor, looked with jealous 
 distrust on any man who had dared "to deserve too much." Not 
 only by feats of unprecedented daring, strategy and perseverance, 
 had he overcome numerous and hostile nations, and brought them 
 in subjection to the imperial sway, but by his extraordinary policy 
 and talents for government he had united both victors and vanquished 
 in one powerful state, submissive to its rulers, and yielding splendid 
 revenues both to the nation and the crown. His character, continually 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HISTORY OF MEXICO I75 
 
 exhibiting antitheses the strangest and most difficult to reconcile, is 
 strikingly presented by the Historian of the two great American 
 Conquests. "He was avaricious, yet liberal; bold to desperation, 
 yet cautious and calculating in his plans; magnanimous, yet very 
 cunning; courteous and affable in his deportment, yet inexorably 
 stern ; lax in his notions of morality, yet (not uncommon) a sad bigot. 
 The great feature in his character was constancy of purpose; a con- 
 stancy not to be daunted by danger, nor baffled by disappointment, 
 nor wearied out by impediments or delays." 
 
 Of his companions in the Conquest, the officers mostly found either 
 a speedy death or a brilliant elevation. While some, like Sandoval, 
 Olid, and De Leon, perished from violence or disease, others, like 
 Alvarado, secured wealth and dominion over private principalities. 
 By far the greater portion of the soldiers in the original armament 
 met with untimely deaths, in war, or on the Stone of Sacrifice, or in 
 private brawl, or by the hand of justice for acts of violence, which 
 they continued to commit after the peaceful settlement of the coun- 
 try. *' Concerning their tombs and monuments," dolefully concludes 
 the aged Diaz, (when he wrote, one of the five survivors of the 
 whole armament,) "I tell you that their tombs were the maws of 
 cannibal Indians, who devoured their limbs, and of tygers, serpents, 
 and birds of prey, which feasted on their mangled bodies. Such 
 were their sepulchres, and such their monuments! But to me, it 
 appears, that the names of those ought to be written in letters of 
 gold, who died so cruel a death, for the service of God and his 
 Majesty, to give light to those who sat in darkness, and to procure 
 wealthy which all men desired It would be hard to depict more 
 accurately, than by the unconscious naivete of this expression, that 
 extraordinary mixture of religious crusading fanaticism and of tem- 
 poral greed, which, of all men, distinguished the early conquerors 
 of Mexico, and which prompted and sustained them through such 
 marvellous adventures. 
 
176 AMERICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 LiiAlrijuii JLvxii 
 
 CONIHTION OF THE INDIANS, AND OF THE SPANISH COLONISTS 
 — NATIONAL PRIDE. — SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT. — DEPREDA- 
 TIONS OF THE BUCANIERS. — PUBLIC WORKS FOR THE PRO- 
 TECTION OF THE CAPITAL. — INDIAN REVOLTS. — VERA 
 CRIJZ SEIZED BY AGRAMONT. — JESUITS EXPELLED. 
 
 The condition of Mexico under the sway of the Spanish viceroys 
 was hopeless in the extreme. The aboriginal population, subjected 
 10 every oppression by the cruel and avaricious masters of the soil, 
 diminished in number year by year, and gradually lost nearly every 
 trace of the spirit and energy which characterized the subjects of 
 the Montezumas. Their attempts to shake off the servitude imposed 
 upon them by the Spaniards were promptly crushed, and, in most 
 instances, were followed by bloody massacres and aggravated im- 
 positions. 
 
 The established European inhabitants, and the mixed race sprung 
 from their union with the native women, were constantly compelled 
 to feel their entire subservience to the monarch of the parent-coun- 
 try. Foreign viceroys and minor officials held the supreme control 
 over all public affairs, and hordes of bigoted priests lent their pow- 
 erful influence to keep the superstitious minds of the inhabitants 
 from independent thoughts and plans. Apathy and a total want of 
 enterprise thus became characteristic of the nation, and still appear 
 in the weakness and uncertainty of its government, and its steady 
 decline in prosperity and political importance. The extent and 
 severity of the restrictions imposed by royal decrees, upon education, 
 commerce, agriculture, and manufactures, in the province of Mexico, 
 almost exceed belief. Whatever industrial enterprise appeared likely 
 to interfere with the monopolies of the Spanish producers in the old 
 world was promptly interdicted. Every thing which Spain could 
 furnish must be imported, in order to insure a diligent working of 
 the mines, and a steady supply of gold and silver in exchange for 
 European commodities. 
 
 In the midst of these oppressions and exactions, pride and super- 
 stition still combined to impress all classes, of Spanish descent, with 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HISTOEY OF MEXICO. I77 
 
 a reverence for tlie parent-country, which took the place of a natural 
 patriotic love of their own birth-place. "The only object," says a 
 writer in the Quarterly Review^ "to which they looked up with 
 respect, was Spain and its monarch. The only subject of pride 
 which ihey dwelt upon with complacency was that they were 
 Spaniards. They believed (for it had been artfully and sedulously 
 impressed on their minds) that the king of Spain was the chief 
 monarch of the universe, in whose dominions the sun never set, 
 and that* France, Italy, and the other countries of Europe, were 
 tributaries to the nation of which they formed a part. The lowest 
 of the Creoles, if but a tenth-part of the blood that circulated in 
 their veins was of Spanish origin, would exclaim, Somos Espanioles, 
 with a tone and emphasis that bespoke a sense of the dignity which 
 they imagined to be derived from that nation." 
 
 The supreme authority of government was vested in a viceroy, 
 almost universally sent out from old Spain, whose acts were more 
 or less under the supervision of the Council of Audience. The 
 members of this body were also Spaniards, and in all matters they 
 appear to have acted solely for the advantage of the patrons to 
 whom they owed their offices, regardless of the welfare of the 
 unfortunate country over which they were established. The utmost 
 venality and corruption prevailed in the procurement and retention 
 of every valuable office in the gift of the crown. 
 
 In the early days of the viceroyalty, some effi)rts were made to 
 relieve the miserable aborigines from the intolerable oppression and 
 cruelties under which they were wasting away; but the powerful 
 influence of the landed proprietors, whose wealth consisted chiefly 
 in their slaves, rendered the provisions for this purpose nearly 
 nugatory. Being themselves subjected to the control of tyrannical 
 officials, in whose appointment they had no voice or influence, the 
 white inhabitants of Mexico were the more tenacious of their irre- 
 aponsible claims to the servitude of the conquered Mexicans. 
 
 Towards the close of the sixteenth century, during the adminis- 
 tration of Don Pedro de Contreras, sixth viceroy of Mexico, and 
 the first who held office as a servant of the holy inquisition in that 
 country, stringent examination was made into the conduct of the 
 corrupt officers of government, and severe measures were resorted 
 to in punishment of their iniquitous courses. At this period also 
 the power of the church was further strengthened by the operations 
 of the indefatigable Jesuits, who, with their usual zeal and energy 
 YoL. III.— 12 
 
178 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 in behalf of tlieir faith, commenced a regular system of instructing 
 the Indian population. 
 
 Under the government of Don Pedro's successor, Mexico suffered 
 severely from the depredations of the bucaniers, who ravaged por- 
 tions of the western coast and plundered the rich galeons freighted 
 with precious metal, or with cargoes of rare goods from the East, 
 bound for Mexican ports. The names of Drake and Cavendish, 
 among others, were a terror to the defenceless population, who, from 
 the restrictions against bearing arms imposed by the government, 
 were prevented from opposing any effectual resistance. A galeon 
 laden with commodities from the Philippine islands, and destined 
 for the port of Acapulco, was captured by Drake near the entrance 
 of the gulf of California, and, after being plundered, was set on fire 
 and abandoned. This loss was heavily felt, as the restrictive policy 
 of Spain precluded any commerce with the East Indies, further than 
 the cargo of a single vessel in the course of a year. Such tyrannical 
 ordinances necessarily induced an extensive system of smuggling, 
 which was conducted, especially in later times, with extraordinary 
 boldness, by armed vessels from different European countries. These 
 illicit traders were often sufficiently strong to cope successfully with 
 the Spanish guarda costas, whose employment Was the protection of 
 the revenue and the exclusion of forbiddeji traffic. 
 
 The year 1607 was memorable for the commencement of the 
 gigantic works by which the city of Mexico has been secured against 
 the disastrous inundations to which it was formerly liable. Enrique 
 Martinez, a distinguished engineer, was commissioned for the under- 
 taking by the viceroy, Don Louis Yelasco. The waters of the upper 
 lakes, Zumpango and San Christoval, had been with partial success 
 excluded by dikes from overflowing the city, when swollen by the 
 rise of their tributary streams. It was proposed to carry off the 
 excess of water by a canal through the lower portion of the elevated 
 or mountainous region which hems in the Yalley of Mexico. Some 
 fifteen thousand Indians were compelled to enter upon the labours 
 of this stupendous undertaking, and the main obstacle, the hill of 
 Nochistongo, was tunnelled in less than a year. The canal was 
 finished, and might have fully answered its purpose but for the 
 imperfect construction of the subterraneous works. Bpccming re- 
 peatedly clogged and out of' repair, it was abandoned for a series of 
 years, and the old dikes were rebuilt. In 1629 Martinez was again 
 directftci tn open the canal. While the work was in progress, this 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HISTORY OF MEXICO. I79 
 
 engineer caused the entrance of the gallery to be closed, in order, as 
 he afterwards averred, to protect his unfinished works from destruc- 
 tion by an anticipated rise of water. "In one night," says Ward, 
 "the whole town of Mexico was laid under water, with the exception 
 of the great square and one of the suburbs. In all the other streets 
 the water rose upwards of three feet; and during five years, from 
 1629 to 1634, canoes formed the only medium of communication 
 between them. The foundations of many of the principal houses 
 were destroyed ; trade was paralyzed ; the lower classes reduced to 
 the lowest state of misery; and orders were actually given by the 
 court of Madrid to abandon the town, and build a new capital in 
 the elevated plains between Tacuba and Tacubaya, to which the 
 waters of the lakes, even before the Conquest, had never been 
 known to extend." 
 
 At a subsequent period an immense embankment or dyke was 
 constructed between the lakes of Tezcuco and San Christoval, and 
 the gallery of Nochistongo was converted into an open channel, by 
 removing an enormous amount of superincumbent earth. To com- 
 plete this canal, known as the Desague of Huehuetoca, and the dam 
 which separated the two lakes, involved an immense expenditure of 
 life and suffering. In the words of the writer above quoted: "In 
 those days the sacrifice of life, and particularly of Indian life, in 
 public works, Avas not regarded. Many thousands of the natives 
 perished before the desague was completed; and to their loss, as 
 well as to the hardships endured by the survivors, may be ascribed 
 the horror with which the name of Huehuetoca is pronounced by 
 their descendants." 
 
 Little of general interest pertains to Mexican history from this 
 time until the occurrence of the events connected with the first rev- 
 olution. The resources of the country were still constantly drained 
 to supply the demands of Spain ; the bloody sacrifices of the inquis- 
 itorial system were enacted where in earlier times the altars smoked 
 with human offerings to the Aztec divinities; and tyranny and mis- 
 rule only became the more open and the more insufferable. Until 
 the year 1670, the warlike Tarahumaras made a stand against the 
 Spaniards, waging a desultory but vexatious war with the white 
 settlers. They were at last surprised and defeated through the 
 treachery of one of their own people. Ten years later a moie seri- 
 ous revolt occurred among the Indians of New Mexico. With the 
 aid of the rude mountain tribes, they overrg,n the country, destroying 
 
150 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 tlie unprotected and scattered plantations and settlements of the 
 colonists, and reduced Santa Fe by siege. The garrison and inhab- 
 itants made their escape by night, but the place was plundered and 
 completely destroyed. An expedition, sent out in the following year 
 by the Marquis de Laguna, then viceroy, found no enemies to 
 encounter, as the Indians had retired to their own quarters in the 
 wilderness. The only means which proved effectual in regaining 
 possession of the country was the establishment of numerous garri- 
 sons at various military posts provided for the protection of the 
 inhabitants. A force was thus constantly in readiness to meet and 
 ward off an unexpected attack. 
 
 Towards the close of Laguna's viceroyalty Mexico suffered unu- 
 sual loss by the seizure of the richly freighted galeons laden with 
 treasure for the old world, by English and French privateers. These 
 lawless and audacious rovers did not confine their operations to the 
 plundering of vessels at sea, but kept the towns upon the coast in 
 continual terror. In May, 1683, Yera Cruz was seized upon by 
 Nicholas Agramont and his companions, who enriched themselves 
 with an enormous booty. 
 
 One of the most important events which occurred in Mexico during 
 the eighteenth century was the expulsion of the Jesuits by order of 
 Charles III. This zealous and powerful body of ecclesiastics was 
 highly popular in Kew Spain, where its teachers had so long been 
 engaged in extending civilization to the natives, and in the exercise 
 of their professional duties among the whites. Whatever may have 
 been the evils and dangers attendant upon such an extensive com- 
 bination of enthusiastic devotees to a religious cause, certain it is that 
 the conduct of the Jesuits in America was generally conscientious 
 and benevolent. The sympathy of the Mexican populace was in 
 vain extended towards the proscribed order, and under the viceroy- 
 alty of the Marques de Croix, the colleges of the Jesuits were seized 
 upon by the government, and their inmates shipped to the old world, 
 onty to be superseded by a more mercenary, intolerant, and selfish 
 priesthood. 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HISTOEY OF MEXICO. 181 
 
 CHAPTEB III. . 
 
 COM¥E>sCElIENT 0? THE FIRST REYOLFTION. — ITURRIGARAY. — 
 HiriLGO. — PIRST OUTBREAK. — INSURGENTS DEFEATED BT 
 CALLEJA. — RAYON AND MORELOS. — CONGRESS AT CHIL- 
 PANZINGO. — DECLARATION 01 INDEPENDENCE. — RE- 
 VERSES OP THE PATRIOTS. — ITURBIDE. 
 
 The overthrow of the Spanish monarchy by Napoleon, and the 
 estabhshment of his brother Joseph upon the throne of Charles lY., 
 gave the original impulse to that independent movement which 
 resulted in the first Mexican revolution. Don Jose Iturrigaray, who 
 came out as viceroy in 1803, distracted by contradictory orders from 
 the different claimants of authority in Spain, attempted to secure 
 himself by sharing the responsibility of making choice with a body 
 of the principal inhabitants, whom he proposed to assemble as an extra- 
 ordinary council. This convention was to be composed partly of 
 native inhabitants; and the powerful party of Spanish-born immi- 
 grants immediately took the alarm, and endeavoured to check by 
 violence their first demonstration of independent action. They seized 
 upon the person of the viceroy, and sent him, a prisoner, to Spain. 
 
 The Creole population of Mexico had by this time begun to per- 
 ceive that Spain was no longer invincible ; that, instead of being, as 
 they had ever been taught, the mightiest kingdom of the earth, she 
 was fast sinking to insignificance ; and, for the first time, they began 
 to indulge hopes of freedom. It is to be observed, however, that 
 upon the deposition of Ferdinand YII., the Spaniards in Mexico, 
 conscious that their own supremacy must depend upon their support 
 of the actual government, generally favoured the cause of Joseph, 
 and acquiesced in the authority of his ministers ; while the Creoles 
 retained their loyalty to the legitimate monarch, and forwarded 
 immense sums, raised by voluntary contribution, to assist his ad- 
 herents in Old Spain. Between the two races, the natives and the 
 Spanish immigrants, old feelings of jealousy and enmity now became 
 .greatly embittered by political differences, and in 1810 a conspiracy 
 was formed among the Creoles for the purpose of overthrowing the 
 authority of their foreign tyrants. 
 
182 AMERICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 A premature development of the plot only hastened the uprising. 
 The secret of the contemplated outbreak having been communicated 
 to the government by a priest, who had learned the particulars by 
 the confession of a dying man, the viceroy immediately took mea- 
 sures to secure the principal persons concerned in the rebellion. The 
 most noted of these was one Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, an ecclesias- 
 tic, residing near the town of San Miguel el Grande in Guanajuanto. 
 Hidalgo received intimation of his danger in time to avoid arrest, 
 and, with the aid of Ignacio Allende, a military commandant at San 
 Miguel, instantly put himself at the head of a motley force of Indians 
 and Creoles, and openly marched into the neighbouring town, and 
 proclaimed his revolutionary purpose. 
 
 A civil war ensued, which, for the ferocity and cruelty exhibited 
 by both parties, has seldom been surpassed in the history of the 
 world. The Spaniards were the first objects of attack by the insur- 
 gents; but so large a portion of these were of aboriginal descent, 
 and so reckless and unsparing was the conduct of the revolted faction, 
 that the Creole population, to no small extent, united in opposing 
 their progress. The city of Guanajuanto first fell before the rebellious 
 army, and, after a terrible scene of slaughter, was delivered over to be 
 plundered. The followers of Hidalgo already amounted, it is said, to 
 twenty thousand men. At Las Cruces, the army of the government, 
 under Truxillo, was completely routed, and nothing but an over- 
 estimate of its defences appears to have prevented Hidalgo from 
 seizing upon the city of Mexico. 
 
 After having encamped for a few days in the vicinity of the capi- 
 tal, he drew off his forces, leaving leisure and opportunity to the 
 viceroy for the collection and equipment of a formidable army. The 
 royal troops, under command of the notorious Calleja, were soon in 
 pursuit of the insurgents. A pitched battle took place at Aculco, 
 in which the artillery and discipline of the Spaniards more than 
 compensated for their inferiority in numbers. The Indians 'fought 
 with their usual desperate courage, but after immense loss were 
 compelled to retreat. Pushing on to Guanajuanto, Calleja wreaked 
 his vengeance upon those among the inhabitants who were supposed 
 to favour the rebellion, by a brutal massacre of men, women and 
 children. Thousands of these wretched victims, we are told, were led 
 into the public square, and put to death by cutting their throats. Hi- 
 dalgo's party retaliated by the commission of similar atrocities when- 
 r.ver Spaniards or those of pure Spanish descent fell into their hands. 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HISTORY OF MEXICO. 183 
 
 In January, 1811, another battle was fouglit, at the bridge of 
 Calderon, near Guanajuanto, in which the insurgents were utterly 
 defeated, and their leaders with the remnant of their forces retreated 
 to Saltillo. Two months later, while preparing to visit the United 
 States for the purpose of purchasing arms and ammunition for a 
 future attempt, Hidalgo and his principal associates were betrayed 
 by one of their own number into the hands of the Spaniards. The 
 rebel chief had little mercy to expect from his captors : he was shot 
 in the month of July following. 
 
 After the death of Hidalgo, most prominent among the revolu- 
 tionists appeared .Kayon, one of his companions in arms, and the 
 distinguished Morelos, also an ecclesiastic. A year passed away in 
 disturbance and uncertainty, but without any very important mili- 
 tary operations. There was no longer a powerful and concentrated 
 body of armed rebels to excite the terror of the friends of the gov- 
 ernment, but the seditious and independent spirit awakened by what 
 had already passed, was constantly on the increase. A junta was 
 formed at Zitacuaro, then in possession of the insurgents, in Septem- 
 ber, 1811, and negotiations were vainly opened with the viceroy, 
 Yenegas, for the purpose of a peaceful settlement of the government 
 It was proposed to offer the throne of Mexico to the disgraced king 
 of Spain, and to establish a government independent of the old 
 country so long as the latter should remain subject, in effect, to 
 foreign dominion. 
 
 These overtures were received with utter contempt, and with the 
 commencement of the year 1812, hostilities were renewed on a 
 larger scale. After pushing his way triumphantly until within a 
 few miles of the city of Mexico, Morelos established himself at 
 Cuautla de Amilpas in the " tierra caliente," to await the expected 
 attack of the government forces, under Calleja. That energetic 
 officer, after seizing upon Zitacuara, from which the revolutionary 
 council, or junta, escaped by a timely flight, and but^'-hering a great 
 number of its inhabitants, marched against Morelos, and laid siege 
 to Cuautla. All supplies being cut off, nothing remained for the 
 besieged but flight, as little was to be hoped from a pitched battle. 
 
 This retreat, which took place at the beginning of May, 1812, 
 proved but the commencement of a series of brilliant successes. 
 Morelos made his head-quarters at Oaxaca, and with little difficulty 
 extended his authority throughout the province. Acapulco was taken 
 in August, 1813. In the month of November following, a congress, 
 
184 AMEEICA ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 consisting of the members of the former junta, together with 
 deputies from the conquered or revolutionized province of Oaxaca, 
 convened at Chilpanzingo, and operilj made declaration of the 
 independence of Mexico. 
 
 The bright prospects of the insurgents were, however, soon clouded. 
 Morelos, having undertaken an expedition against Yalladolid, was 
 defeated by the government troops under Llano and the celebrated 
 Agustin de Iturbide; his bravest and most trust- worthy associates 
 in the revolutionary movement, Don Miguel Bravo, Galeana, and 
 Matamoros, perished in battle, or by the hands of the executioner; 
 and the new congress, like the junta at Zitacuaro, was driven from 
 its temporary capital. Oaxaca was reconquered by the government. 
 The brave and devoted Morelos was taken prisoner, and shot about 
 the close of the year 1815. 
 
 From this period until the espousal of the patriotic cause by Itur- 
 bide, in February of 1821, however the revolutionary spirit may 
 have spread among the masses of the people, outward demonstration 
 was of little avail. The power of the royalists was established 
 throughout the greater portion of the country, and the military 
 chieftains who still maintained a hostile attitude, unable to unite 
 their forces, were content to maintain their position as best they might 
 in the different districts where they were stationed. In Ward's 
 Mexico, the following summary is given of the position of the prin- 
 cipal insurgent leaders subsequent to the death of Morelos: 
 "Guerrero occupied the west coast, where he maintained himself 
 until the year 1821, when he joined Iturbide. Kayon commanded 
 in the vicinity of Tlalpujahua, where he successively maintained 
 two fortified camps on the Cerra del Gallo and on Coporo. Teran 
 held the district of Tehuacan in Puebla. Bravo was a wanderer 
 throughout the country. The Bajio was tyrannized over by the 
 Padre Torres, while Guadalupe Victoria occupied the important 
 province of Yera Cruz." 
 
 The officer last mentioned had done good service to the cause of 
 the patriots under Morelos, and in after-times filled the first office 
 of the republic. At the dark period of which we are now speaking, 
 he was reduced to the last extremity by the persecution of the royal- 
 *ists. Deserted by his few remaining followers, and of too incorrupt- 
 ible a spirit to be seduced from the cause to which he had devoted 
 himself, he was compelled to seek safety by a solitary life in the 
 wilderness. He "departed for the mountains, where he wandered 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HISTOEY OF MEXICO. I35 
 
 for thirty montlis, living on the fruits of the forest, and gnawing 
 the bones of dead animals found in their recesses. Nor did ho 
 emerge from this impenetrable concealment until two faithful In- 
 dians, whom he had known in prosperous days, sought him out 
 with great difficulty; and, communicating the joyous intelligence 
 «f the revolution of 1821, brought him back once more to their 
 villages, where he was received with enthusiastic reverence, as a 
 patriot raised from the dead."* 
 
 The most interesting events of the year 1817 are those connected 
 with the gallant but unprofitable career of Xavier Mina, a Spanish, 
 adventurer, who, with a small force, espoused the cause of the Mex- 
 ican revolution. After various successes, he was taken prisoner, 
 and shot in the month of November of the same year. 
 
 CHAPTEH II. 
 
 JiSPOUSAL OF THE CAUSE OF INDEPENDENCE BY ITtJRBIDE. — 
 PROCLAMATION AT lOFALA. — UNION WITH THE REVOLU- 
 TIONARY PARTY. TREATY WITH THE VICEROY, AND 
 
 SURRENDER OF THE CAPITAL. — DISSENSIONS. — 
 
 ITURBIDE MADE EMPEROR. HIS OVERTHROW 
 
 AND DEATH. — POLITICAL FACTIONS. 
 
 SPANISH ATTEMPTS AT RECONQUEST. 
 
 Under the viceroyalty of Don Juan Euiz de Apodaca, the sixty- 
 first Spanish governor of Mexico, the prospects of the revolutionists 
 were so unfavourable, that a convenient opportunity appeared to 
 be presented for the restoration of the ancient system of absolute 
 tyranny. Certain franchises and a partial representation had been 
 secured to the people by the provisions of the constitution promul- 
 gated by the Spanish Cortes in 1812 : in endeavouring to annul 
 these privileges, and to reestablish the irresponsible and unchecked 
 power of royalty, Apodaca only hastened the final overthrow of 
 Spanish rule in Mexico. 
 
 Agustin de Iturbide, as being a gallant and efficient soldier, and 
 thoroughly favourable to the royal cause, was selected to assume 
 
 » Mexico, Aztec, Spanish, and Republican, by Brantz Mayer. 
 
186 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 the command of the western provinces, and at the same time lo 
 proclaim the king's absolute authority, and to put an end to the 
 constitutional system. The views of Iturbide had, however, under- 
 gone a great change since his successful campaign against the patri- 
 ots; and he only accepted the high office conferred upon him, the 
 more efficiently to carry out his own secret purposes. These were 
 first made known by his celebrated proclamation, issued at the town 
 of Iguala, where he was encamped in the month of February, 1821, 
 on his march westward. The "plan of Iguala," as this manifesto 
 was termed, contained, among other provisions, the following bold 
 and comprehensive declaration, as given by Mr. Mayer in his history 
 of Mexico: 
 
 "Article I. — The Mexican nation is independent of the Spanish nation, and of 
 
 every other, even on its own continent. 
 " Art. II. — Its religion shall be the Catholic, which all its inhabitants profess. 
 "Art. III. — They shall all be united, without any distinction between Americans 
 
 and Europeans. 
 '"Art. IV. — The government shall be a constitutional monarchy." 
 
 A junta was to be formed, under the presidency of the existing 
 viceroy, by which a congress should be convoked; Ferdinand YIL, 
 or, in default of his acceptance, one of his brothers, was to be invited 
 to the throne ; public officers of every grade, who should profess 
 themselves in favour of independence, were to be continued in office, 
 while banishment, "without taking with them their families and 
 effects," awaited non-conformist officials ; and in support of these 
 principles an army was to be formed, to be called "the Army of the 
 Three Guaranties," viz: "Independence, the maintenance of Eoman 
 Catholicity, and Union." 
 
 Iturbide's little army of eight hundred men readily embarked in 
 his enterprise, and, marching to the western coast, he effected a 
 union with Guerrero and his insurgent forces. The revolutionists 
 throughout Mexico, with singular unanimity, espoused the cause of 
 the new popular leader, eager to secure independence of Spain upon 
 any terms, and hopeless of carrying out their designs for individual 
 liberty in the then present posture of affiiirs. Apodaca exhibited 
 no energy or determination in a crisis which called for vigorous 
 action, and the Spanish portion of the population of the capital 
 seized upon him, and threw him into confinement, as being unfit for 
 his responsible office. 
 
 His successor, Juan O'Donoju, found the great mass of the people 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HISTOKY OF MEXICO. I37 
 
 eager in support of Iturbide. That successful general made proposi- 
 tions to the viceroy for a peaceful adoption of his own scheme by 
 treaty ; and as nothing remained subject to Spanish dominion, except 
 the city of Mexico and the strong fortress of San Juan de Ulloa, his 
 offers were accepted. The capital was surrendered in the month of 
 September (1821), and a temporary junta, with Iturbide at its head, 
 proceeded to enter upon the duties of government; the new congress 
 met on the 24th of the ensuing February. 
 
 This body, composed as it was of conflicting elements, soon fell 
 into great disorder. The republicans were impatient of the mon- 
 archical provisions of the new system; the constitutionalists were 
 no less opposed to any innovation; while a strong party, carried 
 away by enthusiasm for their leader, aimed at nothing less than his 
 elevation to the supreme authority. The latter faction ultimately 
 prevailed, and by an irregular and violent demonstration proclaimed 
 Iturbide emperor of Mexico. 
 
 Assuming the title of Agustin the First, he commenced his brief 
 reign in the month of May, 1822, and such was the prepossession in 
 his favour, as being the one to whom was chiefly due the independ- 
 ence of the nation, that, with wise and judicious government, he 
 might perhaps have gained over all his enemies. He proved, how- 
 ever, to be unfitted for power. He interfered forcibly with the 
 decisions of the congress; and in a few months after his accession 
 to the throne, dissolved that body, substituting an assembly of his 
 own nomination. 
 
 The Mexican people were ill-prepared, by a successful revolution, 
 to submit to a mere change of tyrants. , Disaffection spread rapidly, 
 and soon ripened into open revolt. General Garza, in the North, 
 Santa Anna, who was governor of Yera Cruz, and other notable 
 officials headed the insurrection. The emperor was forced to suc- 
 cumb, and in March, 1823, abdicated the throne, and loft the country 
 in a vessel provided by the members of the former congress, whom 
 he had convened for the purpose of tendering his resignation. The 
 leaders of the new revolution took possession of the city of Mexico, 
 and proceeded to reorganize the government. 
 
 "Victoria, Bravo, and Negrete," says Mayer, "entered the capital 
 on the 27t}i of March, and were chosen by the old congress, which 
 quickly reassembled, as a triumvirate to exercise supreme executive 
 powers until the new congress assembled in the following August 
 In October, 1824, this body finally sanctioned the federal constitution, 
 
188 AMERICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 whicli, after various revolutions, overt"hrows, and reforms, was 
 readopted in the yfear 1847." 
 
 The unwise and unfortunate emperor returned to Mexico in July, 
 1824, in disguise, probably in the hope of restoring his fallen fortunes. 
 He was recognized, taken prisoner, and delivered over by General 
 Garza to the authorities of the province of Tamaulipas. In conformity 
 with a decree previously passed by the general congress, the provin- 
 cial legislative body at once condemned the returned exile to death, 
 and he was accordingly shot on the 19th of the same month. 
 
 Upon the convention of the Mexican congress in 1825, the patri- 
 otic Guadalupe Victoria received the appropriate reward for his suf- 
 ferings and self-devotion in the cause of freedom, by being declared 
 president of the republic. At this period the party in favour of a 
 free federal government was completely in the ascendancy; various 
 seditious attempts to overturn the constitution of the previous year 
 had been promptly and forcibly suppressed ; and so completely had 
 the power and influence of the old Spaniards declined, that they were 
 mostly removed from office, and their places were supplied by native- 
 born inhabitants. The last hold of Spain upon her immense North 
 American provinces was by her retention of the strong fortress of 
 San Juan de Ulloa. 
 
 Opposed to the existing constitution, and anxious to secure a form 
 of government less dependent upon the will of the masses, was a 
 strong minority, consisting mainly of landed proprietors, those con- 
 nected with the church, and others intimately associated with the 
 interests of these powerful portions of the community. The move- 
 ments of this opposition were centralized by the establishment of a 
 secret society, of Masonic formation, denominated the Escocesses. 
 A formidable insurrection, headed by Nicolas Bravo, who had es- 
 poused this side of the question, was quelled by the instrumentality 
 of Guerrero, without an engagement, although the insurgents had 
 gathered in great force, with the apparent determination to make a 
 desperate effort for the overthrow of the federal government. 
 
 Gomez Pedraza, the successor to Victoria in the presidential chair, 
 was, notwithstanding, a member of this obnoxious party. At this 
 juncture it was confidently hoped, in Spain, that these dissensions 
 between different factions in Mexico had so weakened the power of 
 the republic as to offer the opportunity for a hostile demonstra- 
 tion upon the coast. Such efficient measures were, however, resorted 
 to by the republic, that these attempts proved abortive. The Mexi 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HISTORY OF MEXICO. Xgg 
 
 can fleet, under command of Commodore Porter, of the United 
 States' navj, not only proved sufficient to ward off the attack of the 
 Spanish vessels, but succeeded in taking numerous valuable prizes 
 from the enemy. 
 
 An army of about four thousand men, under command of Gen 
 eral Barradas, was landed at Tampico for the purpose of marching 
 into the interior, and taking advantage of the unsettled state of 
 affairs at the capital, to reestablish the Spanish dominion. This 
 force, much reduced, it is said, by the sickness attendant upon a 
 summer spent near the Mexican sea-board, was attacked and defeated 
 in September of 1880, by the republican army under General 
 Santa Anna. 
 
 Pedraza, being opposed in principles to the great mass of the 
 community, was unable to retain his position. He had been elected 
 by a majority of but two votes, and the leaders of the popular party, 
 feeling assured that their course would be sustained by the country, 
 violently and unconstitutionally overturned his administration. The 
 chief of these new revolutionists were Generals Antonio Lopez de 
 Santa Anna, Guerrero, Montezuma, and Lobald, and Lorenzo de 
 Zavala, the grand master of the masonic lodge called the Yorkinos, 
 and opposed to that of the Escocesses. 
 
 After a season of sanguinary tumult, order was restored in the 
 capital. With the commencement of the year 1829, congress again 
 assembled, and formally installed Guerrero, Pedraza's ojjposing can- 
 didate, in tlie office of president 
 
190 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 1 iLm wOj Ji J) JLi u>u b6oj (Zoj Ji 
 
 OYERTHROW OP GUEREEEO BY SANTA ANNA AND BUSTAMENTK. — 
 TYRANNICAL PROCEEDINGS DURING THE ADMINISTRATION 
 
 OF SANTA ANNA. RESISTANCE IN THE PROYINCES OF ZAC- 
 
 ATECAS AND TEXAS. — THE TEXAN WAR. — DEFEAT OF 
 
 SANTA ANNA. DIFFICULTIES WITH FRANCE. — CIVII 
 
 WAR. — SANTA ANNA RESTORED TO POWER. — REVOLT 
 HEADED BY PAREDES. — HERRERA PRESIDENT. 
 
 Guerrero was not long permitted to hold the reins of government. 
 3o disturbed were the times, and so unsettled were the minds of the 
 people, that it was easy for any subtle and politic intriguer to create 
 a popular commotion, and certain unwarrantable or injudicious 
 assumptions of authority on the part of the president gave opportu- 
 nity for the formation of a new faction, whose object was his destruc- 
 tion. At the head of this movement were Santa Anna and the vice- 
 president, Bustamente. Mexico was soon distracted by the renewed 
 horrors of civil war. The unfortunate Guerrero, driven from the 
 seat of government, defeated at all points, and a fugitive on the 
 western sea coast, was finally seized, tried by a court martial for 
 treasonably levying war against the republic, and shot in the month 
 of February, 1831. 
 
 Bustamente had assumed supreme power in the republic, but was 
 enabled to retain his position no longer than suited the views of his 
 more celebrated and able associate Santa Anna. This arch intriguer 
 was among the first to excite an insurrection against the usurper, 
 and, although defeated in the first engagement, had so far gained 
 the favour of the people, that he was enabled to bring about his ends. 
 Bustamente was forced to yield, and Santa Anna, probably for the 
 purpose of gaining over the party of the "Escocesses," restored 
 Pedraza to his lawful position of president. The politic and suc- 
 cessful general was himself elevated to that office in May of 1883. 
 
 One year later, the president, relying upon the adherence of the 
 army, and careless of longer cloaking his own inordinate ambition 
 for self-aggrandizement with an assumed spirit of republicanism, dis- 
 solved congress, and, nullifying the constitution, attempted to place 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HISTOEY OF MEXICO. ig^ 
 
 tlie whole of the Mexican states under the control of a central mili- 
 tary despotism. Every province was speedily compelled to submit, 
 with the exception of Zacatecas and Texas. The reduction of the 
 former was conducted with great cruelty and ferocity. The inhab- 
 itants, after enduring every enormity from an unscrupulous and 
 rapacious soldiery, were disarmed, and compelled to submit to the 
 rule of a military governor. 
 
 The proceedings in Texas, both at this period and during the 
 more important and eventful campaign of the spring of 1836. will 
 be found more fully detailed in our sketch of the history of that 
 state. The Mexican army, under General Cos, overran the refrac- 
 tory province, and without difficulty broke up the legislative assem- 
 bly, and bore down for the time all opposition. The so-called "Plan 
 of Toluca," by which the legislative power of the separate Mexican 
 states was annulled, and a central form of government established, 
 went into operation ; but the Texans, instead of yielding to their 
 fate, assumed an attitude of sterner and more determined resistance. 
 A series of brilliant victories left them free from Mexican usurpation, 
 and the tyrannical president, a prisoner in the hands of his enemies, 
 saw his prospects of ambition blighted, as then appeared, for ever. 
 In 1838 he had opportunities for retrieving his military reputation, 
 upon the occasion of the revolt headed by the unfortunate Mexia, 
 for the purpose of restoring the old republican system. 
 
 During the following winter, the claims of France to remuneration 
 for former injuries received by French subjects in Mexico, and in 
 respect to various other unsettled questions in dispute between the 
 two nations, were enforced by a hostile demonstration. The town 
 of Yera Cruz was blockaded, and the castle of San Juan de Ulloa, 
 deemed impregnable by its Mexican possessors, was taken after a 
 six hours' cannonade. Santa Anna's services on this occasion, in 
 defending the town from the forces landed by the French, are spoken 
 of in terms of high commendation. The loss of his leg, by a small 
 cannon-shot, also served, so far as such a circumstance might affect 
 popular feeling, to secure him a greater degree of sympathy and 
 favour from his countrymen. 
 
 Bustamente was at this period president of Mexico. The success- 
 ful revolution in Texas, and insurrections in the eastern provinces of 
 Coahuila, Tamaulipas, and Durango, and in Yucatan, disturbed the 
 peace of the nation ; while the grievous burden of supporting the 
 heavy expenses of the government and the army, aroused a general 
 
192 AMEEICA ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 discontent. The president became unpopular, and weighty influences 
 were brought to bear for his overthrow. Santa Anna, supported by 
 Paredes, Valencia, and Lombardini, had organized a powerful party, 
 and again aspired to the presidency. The outbreak occurred in the 
 •month of August, 1841 ; the capital itself was the scene of action. 
 
 As described by Mr. Mayer: "For a whole month the contest was 
 carried on with balls and grape-shot in the streets of Mexico ; whilst 
 the rebels, who held the citadel outside the city, finished the shame- 
 less drama by throwing a shower of bombs into the metropolis, 
 shattering the houses, and involving innocent and guilty, citizens., 
 strangers, combatants and non-combatants, in a common fate. This 
 cowardly assault, under the orders of Valencia, was made solely with 
 9 view of forcing the citizens, who were unconcerned in the quarrel 
 between the factions, into insisting upon the surrender of Mexico, in 
 order to save their town and families from destruction." 
 
 An interview was finally brought about between the leaders of 
 the two parties, and the result of their negotiations was the "Plan 
 of Tacubaya," under the provisions of which supreme power was 
 placed in the hands of General Santa Anna, until a congress should 
 be chosen, and assembled to establish a new constitution. That any 
 really independent action could be taken by a convention of dele- 
 gates under such circumstances, was scarcely to be expected. The 
 dictator, perceiving that he could not carry out his original plans 
 for maintaining a central government, again dissolved the assembly, 
 and assumed the entire control of affairs, through a junta of his own 
 appointment. A constitution was formed by this body in 1843, of 
 a character widely variant from that of 1824, and little calculated to 
 meet the approval or acceptance of the people. 
 
 In the winter of 1844, congress having been convened, a large 
 appropriation was made for the purpose of a renewed attempt upon 
 the liberties of the victorious colonists of Texas. Before, however, 
 any effectual measures were adopted for carrying out this project, 
 the opponents of the president, under the direction of General Pa- 
 redes, rose against the existing government. A year passed by, 
 during which the coufitry was distracted by a contest between three 
 parties; for Santa Anna, having violated a provision of the new 
 constitution, by assuming military power without special authority 
 from the congress, had created new opponents upon constitutional 
 grounds. 
 
 In January of 1845 the party of Paredes was successful : Santa 
 

 .U 
 
 mm 
 
 *M 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HISTORY OF MEXICO. I93 
 
 Anna was taken prisoner while endeavouring to make "his escape to 
 the eastward, and General Jos6 Joaquim de Herrera, being president 
 of the council, succeeded to the highest office of the state, in accord- 
 ance with the provision of a previous enactment. 
 
 ANNEXATION OF TEXAS TO THE UNITED STATES. — INDIGNATION 
 
 OF MEXICO. — SEIDELL'S COMMISSION. — PREPARATIONS AGAINST 
 
 TEXAS. — GENERAL TAYLOR'S MARCH TO THE RIO GRANDE. 
 
 — COMMENCEMENT OF HOSTILITIES. — WAR DECLARED. — 
 
 PLAN OF THE MEXICAN CAMPAIGN. BATTLE OF PALO 
 
 ALTO: OF RESACA DE LA PALMA. — MATAMORAS 
 OCCUPIED. — RETURN OF SANTA ANNA TO MEX- 
 ICO. REDUCTION OF MONTEREY. 
 
 The inhabitants of Texas, although they had ever since the year 
 1836 enjoyed the blessings of a free and independent government, 
 were anxious to secure the political and commercial advantages of a 
 union with the United States. Their independence of Mexico, in 
 point of fact, had long since been recognized by the United States 
 and by the principal maritime powers of Europe. In the month of 
 March, 1845, the negotiations for annexation were brought to a 
 successful issue by the passage of a resolution, by congress, admitting 
 the new state upon conditions afterwards complied with by Texas. 
 
 This measure, as might naturally be expected, excited the utmost 
 indignation of the Mexican authorities. General Almonte, minister 
 from Mexico at Washington, after an angry protest, demanded his 
 passports. All friendly communication between the two govern- 
 ments was suspended until the ensuing October, when the Mexican 
 government, upon application through the American consul, Mr. 
 Black, agreed to receive a commissioner from the United States, for 
 the purpose of an amicable arrangement of the disputed question. 
 Mr. John Slidell was appointed to this responsible service, and im- 
 mediately proceeded to Vera Cruz on his way to the capital. 
 
 General Paredes had in the mean time organized a party of those 
 opposed to a peaceful settlement, and so formidable was the aspect 
 Vol. III.— 13 
 
194 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 of this movement, tliat the Mexican ministry, probably to propitiate 
 the malcontents, postponed negotiations with Mr. SUdell upon friv- 
 olous pretexts of irregularity in his commission. At the close of 
 the following December, President Herrera resigned his office to 
 Paredes, and all efforts of the United States' envoy to open, in 
 accordance with further instructions from home, friendly communi 
 cations with the new government, proved fruitless. He therefore 
 left Mexico, leaving the purposes of his mission unaccomplished. 
 
 Under the military dictator who now wielded the destinies of 
 Mexico, immediate preparations were made for the reconquest of 
 Texas. A considerable force was already stationed at Matamoras, 
 and thither General Ampudia was dispatched, in April, 1846, with 
 a body of cavalry. Two thousand more troops were ordered to the 
 same station. 
 
 General Zachary Taylor, who had been for some months previous 
 stationed, in command of United States' troops, at Corpus Ghristi, 
 having received orders to march to the mouth of the Eio Grande, 
 reached Point Isabel on the 25th of March ; and leaving a portion 
 of his troops to occupy a position at that place, moved up the river 
 until opposite Matamoras. He there caused works to be erected, 
 and stationed a battery which commanded the town. Generals 
 Arista and Ampudia were soon upon the spot, in command of a 
 large and constantly-increasing force. Upon communication being 
 'established between the commanding officers of the respective forces, 
 General Taylor was commanded to draw off his troops, as having 
 infringed the Mexican rights of territory. 
 
 Although, as has been truly remarked, the claims of Mexico ex- 
 tended not only to the district lying between the Nueces and the 
 Eio Grande, and traversed by the United States' forces on their 
 march to Matamoras, but to every portion of the revolted province 
 of Texas, the occupation of this tract by the United States has been 
 laid down by many as the true cause of the Mexican war. There is 
 some slight conflict of authorities upon the question of the ancient 
 boundaries of Texas, but the weight of authority seems to point to 
 the Eio Grande as the dividing line. The Texans had always 
 claimed this as the limit of their territory since the time of the 
 revolt, and had included the disputed ground in their assignments 
 of representative districts. 
 
 That it was ever deliberately proposed by the Mexican govern- 
 ment to undertake a war with so powerful a nation as the United 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HISTORY OF MEXICO. 195 
 
 States for the purpose of maintaining its claims to this unsettled 
 district, as distinct from the national sense of injury sustained by 
 the Texan annexation, cannot be for a moment believed. "The 
 true origin of the Mexican war," says Mayer, " was not this march 
 of Taylor and his troops from the Nueces to the Kio Grande through 
 the debatable land : the American and Mexican troops were brought 
 face to face by the act, and hostilities were the natural result after 
 the exciting annoyances on the part of the Mexican government 
 which followed the union of Texas with our confederacy." 
 
 The first encounter took place on the 24:th of April, when a com- 
 pany of United States' dragoons, under Captain Thornton, were 
 waylaid while out upon a scouting expedition up the river bank, 
 and, after some fighting, in which sixteen of their number were 
 killed or wounded, were obliged to surrender. A small party, com- 
 missioned on similar service, had been, previous to this, cut off or 
 taken prisoners by the Mexicans. 
 
 This irregular commencement of open hostilities could hardly fail 
 to produce the greatest excitement throughout the United States. 
 General Taylor's small force had been ordered to the Eio Grande 
 merely as a check upon precipitate action by the Mexican force, 
 without, perhaps, any anticipation of the immediate results. Through- 
 out the Union opinions were various, both in regard to the policy of 
 Texan annexation and to the wisdom of the movement which gave 
 direct occasion for a rupture ; but when the news of this first blood- 
 shed was spread through the country, the general feeling was that 
 the honour of the nation required an immediate and vigorous 
 response to the call of our isolated force on the Kio Grande for pro- 
 tection and assistance. 
 
 Congress was at the time in session, and an immediate appropria- 
 tion of ten millions of dollars was made to meet the expense of the 
 existing war, and the enlistment of fifty thousand volunteers was 
 provided for. It was proposed to invade Mexico simultaneously 
 from several quarters. The "Army of the West," under Kearney, 
 was to penetrate to the western coast, after the reduction of New 
 Mexico; a large force, under General Wool, was to enter the hostile 
 territory from San Antonio de Bexar, as the "Army of the Centre;'* 
 and the conquest of the eastern provinces was to be assigned to 
 General Taylor. The naval forces of the United States, both in the 
 Gulf and in the Pacific, also received general directions for coopera' 
 tion in the war. 
 
196 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 General Taylor, meantime, threatened as lie was by a vastly supe- 
 rior force, in accordance with his instructions in case of emergency, 
 made a requisition upon the states of Louisiana and Texas for a 
 reinforcement of volunteers. He then marched to Point Isabel with 
 the most effective portion of his army, to procure provisions and 
 supplies for the forces opposite Matamoras. While this service was 
 being effected, General Arista transported his army across the river 
 to intercept the escort upon its return. He was in command of some 
 six thousand regular troops, besides a very considerable body of raw 
 recruits. On the 8th of May, the day after its departure from Point 
 Isabel, the army under General Taylor, numbering only two thou- 
 sand two hundred and eighty-eight men, was encountered at Palo 
 Alto b J the forces of Arista. 
 
 Against such overwhelming odds our troops maintained their posi- 
 tion from two o'clock P. M. until night-fall. The Mexicans, having 
 drawn off their forces, a council was held, at which there was some 
 conflict of opinion as to the prudence of further advance. The gal- 
 lant commander decided, however, that the necessity for affording 
 relief to the garrison was sufficient to justify the hazard of the 
 attempt, while the day's experience of the comparative efficiency of 
 the two armies gave reasonable encouragement of success. 
 
 On the day following, Arista was found to have retreated to a 
 strong position at the "Resaca de la Palma," a ravine through which 
 the road led, and which was almost impenetrable on either side from 
 the rank growth of tropical plants and underwood, commonly called 
 the "chapparal." Notwithstanding their favourable position and 
 superior numbers, the Mexicans were unable to defend the pass. 
 Broken and disordered by the fire of the artillery and infantry, they 
 gave way in mass before a charge of cavalry, and, retreating to the 
 river, left the way open for the passage of the army with its supplies 
 to the fort. The 18th of May saw Matamoras in possession of the 
 American forces. 
 
 During the summer, which was passed by General Taylor in 
 strengthening his position, establishing lines of communication, and 
 gradually^ extending his occupation of the country, an important 
 political change took place in Mexico. A revolutionary movement 
 in favour of Santa Anna, then an exile in the West Indies, over- 
 threw the power of the usurper Paredes. The ex-president was 
 allowed to pass the United States' blockading squadron by express 
 orders from government, in the hope that his influence would be 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HISTORY OF MEXICO. I97 
 
 exerted to restore a friendly communication between the belligerent 
 countries and to cement an honourable peace. This piece of policy 
 has been greatly condemned by many, and the implacable animosity 
 since evinced by Santa Anna towards the United States has con- 
 tributed to render it unpopular. There can, however, be no doubt 
 but that the act was in accordance with what then appeared the 
 exigencies of the case, so far as information could be procured as to 
 the purposes and probable conduct of the able but unprincipled 
 leader, who has so long held the most prominent place in Mexican 
 history. 
 
 In the month of September, the divisions under Generals Worth 
 and Taylor, having penetrated to their future head-quarters, the 
 Walnut Springs, not far from Monterey, the capital of New Leon, 
 preparations were made for an attack upon this important city. The 
 place was well defended by artillery, and the flower of the Mexican 
 army, to the number of not far from ten thousand men, was there 
 quartered. 
 
 On the 21st of September, the American forces, only seven 
 thousand strong, were led in two divisions to the attack of the city. 
 General Worth's detachment, after cutting off communication from 
 the south, gained an important position upon a height which com- 
 manded the city, and on which was a fortification known as the Bish- 
 op's palace. The other division, the command of which was in trustee 
 to General Butler, penetrated the city from the north, and notwith- 
 standing the deadly fire of the enemy, who were enabled to fight 
 from covert, and whose artillery raked the streets, continued to 
 extend their occupation until night-fall. On the 22d, the American 
 troops, taking possession of the buildings on either side of the ave- 
 nues through which they had penetrated, cut their way from house to 
 house through the walls, driving the occupants before them. In this 
 manner, with comparative safety, they gained the great central square. 
 
 As the city was now virtually in the power of the assailants, 
 negotiations were opened by Ampudia, and on the 24th, a surrender 
 was agreed upon, with the provision that the Mexican troops should 
 be allowed free exit. That General Taylor did not insist upon 
 severe terms, or follow up his victory by the capture of prisoners, 
 has been made a ground of causeless reproach. No one can accuse 
 the old warrior of a want of decision, energy, or bravery, and his 
 conduct in this instance was fully in accordance with his character 
 as a skilful and prudent general. He had gained an important post ; 
 
198 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 his forces were still numerically inferior to those of the enemy ; and 
 from what could be gathered from the reports of the Mexican officers, 
 there appeared reason to hope for the speedy establishment of a 
 peace, without further bloodshed. A temporary armistice was there- 
 fore arranged between the belligerent armies. 
 
 Ll JbtL J>^ (L di dll iLb c<6bj </oj Ji iL Ji I 
 
 SANTA ANNA'S CHANGE OP POLICY. — GENERAL SCOTT'S PLAN 
 
 OP CAMPAIGN. DEFEAT OF THE MEXICAN AEMY AT BUENA 
 
 VISTA. — MEXICAN POLITICS. — CAPTURE OF VERA CRUZ. 
 — MARCH INTO THE INTERIOR. — BATTLE OF CERRO 
 GORDO. — OCCUPATION OF PUEBLA. — GUERILLA WAR- 
 FARE. — FRUITLESS NEGOTIATIONS. — ADVANCE 
 UPON THE CAPITAL. 
 
 Santa Anna, on his return to Mexico, soon perceived that the 
 views of centralization which he had ever entertained must now be 
 abandoned, if he would maintain his position as a popular leader. 
 He therefore published his intentions to favour the federal system 
 and the reestablishment of the constitution of 1824. With an 
 affectation of modesty and of self-sacrificing devotion to his country, 
 he declined the acceptance of proffered dictatorial powers in the civil 
 government, and avowed his determination to lend his whole ener- 
 gies to the duties of a military commander. After a most enthusi- 
 astic reception at the capital, and a prompt and energetic response 
 to his requisitions for troops, he established himself at San Luis 
 Potosi, withdrawing himself for the time from the political agitations 
 which distracted the city of Mexico, and spending his time in pre- 
 paring and equipping his fine army. Early in the winter of 1846 
 his available force amounted to about twenty thousand men, and he 
 rightly judged that by confirming his military authority he more 
 effectually secured supremacy than by mingling actively in factious 
 politics. He nevertheless accepted office upon his election to the 
 provisional presidency, which took place on the 28d of December. 
 
 The United States' government having appointed General Winfield 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HISTOEY OF MEXICO. igy 
 
 Scott commander-in-chief of tlie army in Mexico, extensive prepara- 
 tions were made for a new campaign, to be conducted in accordance 
 with the views of that veteran chief. It was proposed to seize on 
 Vera Cruz, and thence to march direct for the capital. In collecting 
 the forces necessary for so important an enterprise, great numbers of 
 General Taylor's best troops were drawn off from the conquered 
 district on the Rio Grande, leaving the army of occupation in a con- 
 dition little capable of resisting so formidable a force as that concen- 
 trated at San Luis, were there no disparity between the respective 
 armies other than that of numbers. 
 
 By the interception of a dispatch, the Mexican commander-in-chief, 
 in the month of December, 1846, obtained information respecting 
 the intended descent upon Vera Cruz, and it was soon known that 
 he was busily engaged in preparations for an attack upon the reduced 
 division on the Rio Grande. Knowing that he must prepare to 
 encounter an army more than quadruple the troops under his com- 
 mand, General Taylor concentrated his scattered regiments at the 
 Pass of Angostura, a point in which either flank was protected by 
 mountains, ravines and gullies impassable for cavalry, and scarcely 
 CO be traversed by foot soldiers. An advanced guard was stationed 
 at Agua Nueva, thirteen miles from the pass, under General Wool, 
 to gain intelligence of the expected approach of the enemy. 
 
 Taylor's entire force is set down at about four thousand seven 
 hundred. The little army was, however, disposed with such military 
 skill, and in so favourable a position, that for two days Santa Anna 
 in vain endeavoured to force a passage. , He came upon the Ameri- 
 can encampment on the afternoon of February 22d, 1847, and until 
 night-fall and throughout the following day, kept the Americans 
 constantly engaged. The astonishing result of this hard-fought battle 
 was chiefly owing to the admirable management of the few pieces 
 of artillery possessed by the defenders of the pass. On the night of 
 the 23d, Santa Anna commenced a retreat to San Luis Potosi, having 
 sustained an immense loss, and having witnessed the total failure of 
 his attempt against the weakened army of occupation. The name 
 of the neighbouring hacienda of Buena Vista has always since been 
 applied to distinguish this memorable and important engagement. 
 
 At this period a fierce contention was going on in the Mexican 
 capital between the supporters of the vice-president Farias, and the 
 partisans of the church, some of whose privileges and emoluments 
 had recently been curtailed. Civil war was added anew to the dan- 
 
200 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 ger and anxieties attendant upon foreign invasion. At tlie close of 
 the ensuing month, the friends of the church carried their points in 
 congress : the office of the vice-president was annulled; the president 
 himself was formally put in command of the armies — his place to be 
 supplied by a substitute during his employment in the field ; and a 
 new president was to be elected on the 15th of the ensuing month 
 of May, according to the provisions of the constitution of 1824. 
 Don Pedro Anaya was chosen as the temporary executive. 
 
 Meanwhile, important operations were in progress on the coast. 
 The main body of the American army, under General Scott, sailed 
 from the rendezvous at the island of Lobos, for Vera Cruz, on the 
 7th of March, 1847. Notwithstanding the overwhelming force 
 brought to bear upon the place, the authorities refused to surrender, 
 trusting perhaps to the strength of their renowned fortress, or willing 
 to see their town battered to pieces, rather than permit the hated 
 foreigners to pursue their career of conquest unmolested. A can- 
 nonade was commenced on the 18th, from the ships lying off the 
 harbour and from the batteries planted on the land, which continued, 
 with little intermission, until the 26th, when the garrison capitulated. 
 The town was terribly shattered, and the needless destruction of 
 nearly one thousand of the inhabitants, of every age and sex, was the 
 result of the obstinacy or infatuation of the commanding ofiicers. 
 During the continuance of the bombardment "it is estimated that 
 our army and navy threw into the town about six thousand shot 
 and shells, weighing upwards of 463,000 pounds." 
 
 The castle of San Juan de Ulloa was at the same time surrendered ; 
 and a great amount of arms and artillery was taken possession of by 
 the victors : some five thousand prisoners of war were set at liberty 
 upon parole. The command of Vera Cruz was assigned to General 
 Worth, and the commander-in-chief, with between eight and nine 
 thousand troops, took up his line of march for the interior. 
 
 President Santa Anna, having now hastened to the future scene 
 of action, commenced a reconnoissance of the road for the selection 
 of a suitable spot for a stand to be made against the invaders. He 
 decided upon taking a position at Cerro Gordo, where the highway 
 enters the mountain country. The locality is thus described by Mr. 
 Mayer : " About seven leagues from Jalapa the edge of one of the 
 table lands of the Cordillera sweeps down from the west abruptly 
 into this pass of the river Plan. On both sides of this precipitous 
 ebvation the mountains tower majestically. The road winds slowly 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HISTORY OF MEXICO. 201 
 
 and roughly along the scant sides which have been notched to receive 
 it. When the summit of the pass is attained, one side of the road is 
 found to be overlooked by the Hill of the Telegraph, while on the 
 other side the streamlet runs in an immensely deep and rugged 
 ravine, several hundred feet below the level of the table-land. Be- 
 tween the road and the river many ridges of the neighbouring hills 
 unite and plunge downwards into the impassable abyss. At the foot 
 of the Hill of the Telegraph rises another eminence, known as that 
 of Atalaya, which is hemmed in by other wooded heights rising 
 from below, and forming, in front of the position, a boundary of 
 rocks and forests beyond which the sight cannot penetrate." 
 
 In this strong position, defended by fifty-two pieces of artillery 
 advantageously posted, and an army of between three and four 
 thousand men, exclusive of his reserved forces, Santa Anna awaited 
 an attack. The famous battle of Cerro Gordo, commencing on the 
 17th of April, after a two days' conflict, resulted in the annihilation 
 of the Mexican army. On the 18th a simultaneous assault upon the 
 centre and either flank, in the face of a terrible fire from the numer- 
 ous t^atteries, and conducted under every disadvantage in position, 
 gave the assailants a complete victory. About three thousand pris- 
 oners were taken, among whom were five generals, and nearly three 
 hundred minor ofl&cers. Jalapa and Perots immediately afterwards 
 submitted without resistance. At the latter place was a fortified 
 castle, which, with all its artillery — numbering fifty-four pieces of 
 ordnance — and great stores of munitions of war, fell into the hands 
 of the Americans. . 
 
 Santa Anna, with such forces as he could collect, made an una- 
 vailing attempt to arrest the progress of the advanced division, under 
 General "Worth, and on the 22d of the ensuing month, Puebla was 
 occupied by the American advance. No further serious obstacle 
 was opposed to the progress of General Scott towards the capital. 
 Santa Anna, in the midst of utter political confusion, the details of 
 which would entirely surpass our limits, was still looked upon as the 
 most reliable leader. He was obliged to confine himself to the col- 
 lection of troops for the preservation of the capital, to the increasing 
 of its defences, and to the arousal by every means in his power of 
 the national hatred against the invaders. A bloody guerilla warfare, 
 in which savage cruelty on the part of the lawless bands engaged 
 in its prosecution too often provoked retaliation equally unsparing, 
 attended the onward march of the army, and the maintenance of the 
 
202 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 garrisons and military lines of communication throughout the con- 
 quered districts. 
 
 While General Scott was stationed at Puebla, a negotiation was 
 opened, by the assistance of the British minister, between the Amer- 
 ican commissioner, Mr. Trist, and the Mexican president. Certain 
 violent denunciations in a recent decree of congress against any who 
 should propose or entertain any plans for the conclusion of a treaty 
 with the United States, rendered both the president and the legisla- 
 tive members exceedingly cautious respecting their movements in 
 this emergency. The negotiation proved entirely fruitless, but it led 
 to a singular secret correspondence between Santa Anna and the 
 American commanding officers. The former made propositions for 
 the appointment of commissioners to negotiate a peace, conditionally 
 upon the placing at his own disposal of a considerable sum of money, 
 and the promise of a much larger payment upon the satisfactory con- 
 clusion of a treaty. General Scott, in accordance with the opinions 
 of a majority of his principal military associates, consented to this 
 first payment — amounting to ten thousand dollars — out of a "secret 
 service " fund at his disposal, continuing meanwhile his preparations 
 against the capital. As nothing of importance resulted from this 
 correspondence, it remains merely a matter of curious inquiry 
 whether the Mexican dictator was really influenced by ^ny other 
 motives, in his conduct relating to this affair, than by the hope of 
 private emolument. 
 
 General Scott's army, recruited to about the number of ten thou- 
 sand men, by the middle of August lay encamped at Ayotla, Chalco, 
 and in the vicinity, within the valley of Mexico, and upon the bor- 
 ders of the marshy lake of Chalco. Santa Anna, who had collected 
 three times this number of troops, had not been idle in preparing for 
 the defence of every available route to the city. The extent to 
 which arms and ammunition had been manufactured in the country 
 to meet the exigency of the occasion, and the strength and scientific 
 structure of the fortifications, aroused the admiration of those unac- 
 quainted with the resources of the nation. 
 
 After a thorough reconnoissance of the Mexican defences, the 
 American commander-in-chief decided upon pursuing his march 
 around the southern border of the lake to Tlalpam, or San Agustin. 
 where the road joins the great southern highway leading to the 
 capital. This position was accordingly occupied, little opposition 
 having been experienced upon the route, on the 17th and 18th of 
 
THE CONQUEST AND IIISTOEY OF MEXICO, 203 
 
 tlie month.. The Mexican commander laboured under the disadvan- 
 tage of being compelled to distribute his forces among the various 
 fortifications on either of the four routes by which General Scott 
 might make a descent upon the city, and these posts were at such a 
 distance from each other that several days must elapse before the 
 main body of the army could be concentrated at any threatened point. 
 
 kJ did) (wdt Ji dj iLi JLo c6oj t/oj Jb Y o 
 
 MOVEMENTS OF SANTA ANNA. — HIS PLANS THWARTED BY 
 
 VALENCIA. BATTLE AT CONTRERAS. — SEIZURE OP SAN 
 
 ANTONIO. — BATTLE OP CHURUBUSCO. — NEGOTIATIONS- — 
 STORMING OP THE MOLINO DEL REY AND THE CASA 
 MATA. — OP THE PORTRESS OP CHAPULTEPEC. — 
 EVACUATION OF THE CITY. — ITS OCCUPATION BY 
 THE AMERICAN FORCES. — PINAL MILITARY OP- 
 ERATIONS. — TREATY AT GUADALUPE HIDALGO 
 
 Santa Anna, upon learning the movement of the Americans, 
 hastened to collect the detached divisions of his army in time to 
 intercept the passage of the southern route to the city. He took his 
 own position at the haciend^a of San Antonio upon the main road, 
 and dispatched General Valencia to the defence of the only other 
 practicable route, that by San Angel and Cayacan, leading by a mule 
 path, across the rugged plain of lava called the Pedregal, and along 
 the base of the western mountain range. 
 
 According to the arrangements of the Mexican commander-in-chief, 
 a vastly superior force could be brought into action at either point 
 where the invaders might attempt to force a passage ; but his plans 
 were disconcerted by the disobedience and obstinacy of his subordi- 
 nate. Yalencia, in defiance of orders, moved southward with his 
 forces, and erected works of defence at Contreras, or Padierna, 
 between the Pedregal and the mountains; thus cutting off commu- 
 nication with the army at San Antonio, and rendering his command 
 nearly useless by the occupation of ground said to have been pro- 
 nounced indefensible by competent engineers. 
 
 The result proved the folly of- his conduct. On the 19th of Au- 
 gust, one division of the American army, unaided by cavalry or 
 
204 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 artillery, forced a passage over the rough plain of lava, and attacked 
 the Mexican fortifications. Night came on, with cold and heavy 
 rain, before any decisive result, but on the next morning the works 
 were stormed, and a complete victory was gained by the Americans. 
 The Mexican loss, of those who fell upon the field, or were taken 
 prisoners, was not far from fifteen hundred, and great stores of artil- 
 lery and small-arms, together with mules, horses, &c., fell into the 
 hands of the victors. 
 
 The victory at Contreras was but the commencement of the bril- 
 liant achievements of the American army on this eventful 20th of 
 August. Santa Anna, with a powerful reserve, had approached the 
 scene of action during the contest, but too late to offer any effectual 
 assistance. The works at the hacienda of San Antonio were forced 
 and occupied by a masterly movement of the division under General 
 "Worth, and the garrison of about three thousand men, in full retreat 
 towards the capital, was met, and a second time defeated by the forces 
 under Colonel Clarke, who had made a circuit through the Pedregal 
 from the western road. 
 
 At the village of Churubusco, on the great road, between San 
 Antonio and the city of Mexico, strong military works had been 
 erected. The convent of San Pablo, at that spot, was garrisoned 
 and strongly fortified; the bridge by which the road there crosses a 
 stream was protected by a ''Hete de pontf and every thing connected 
 with the locality offered advantages for a sljand against the invading 
 army. Little time was given to the Mexicans to collect and dispose 
 their forces at this stronghold ere it Avas attacked with the greatest 
 impetuosity. The tete de pont was forced at the point of the bayonet^ 
 and, after several hours' hard fighting, the convent shared the same 
 fate. A detachment under Generals Pierce and Shields had mean- 
 time been engaged in making a detour to cut off retreat to the cap- 
 ital. As the division of the latter approached the main road, it was 
 encountered by some four thousand of the enemy. A severe en- 
 gagement ensued, in which the fortune of the day was still with the 
 Americans. The victorious troops under Generals Worth and Pil- 
 low, after the reduction of Churubusco, continued to press on towards 
 the capital; and, falling in with Shields' division, assisted in the 
 pursuit of the fugitive Mexicans. The latter were now deprived of 
 every means of defence by the southern route up to the walls of the 
 city, and the ancient capital itself appeared already within the grasp 
 of the American commander. 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HISTOEY OF MEXICO. 205 
 
 Ou tlie 21st, as General Scott was already engaged in arrangements 
 for commencing an assault upon the city, proposals for an armistice 
 were received from the Mexican authorities. Willing to spare fur- 
 ther effusion of blood, and conscious of the extreme difficulty and 
 danger of entering a crowded city, strongly built, and still contain- 
 ing a large force of regular soldiery, the American commander-in- 
 chief wisely consented to the temporary cessation of hostilities, for 
 the purpose of negotiating a treaty that might end the war. 
 
 In the beleaguered capital all was tumult and confusion. The 
 congress could hardly be said to exist, as many of its members had 
 already left the city. Intrigues and private animosity precluded any 
 combined and sober action, while an ignorant and infuriated mob 
 continued to cry out for resistance to the last. The Mexicans had 
 begun to lose faith in their president, and powerful parties were at 
 work for his overthrow. In the negotiations which occupied the 
 interval of truce, the American deniands were considered extravagant 
 by the Mexican commissioners and their superiors, and the latter 
 appear to have onl}'' sought delay, by means of which they might, 
 in defiance of stipulations, strengthen their works and reorganize for 
 the defence of their city. 
 
 General Scott therefore gave notice to the president, on the 6th of 
 September, that hostilities would recommence on the following day, 
 unless atonement were previously made for these breaches of treaty. 
 He received, in reply, but threats and defiance. The American gen- 
 eral's head-quarters were fixed at Tacubaya, a few miles south;west 
 of the city, approach to which from that quarter was intercepted by 
 the strong castle of Chapultepec, situated upon a hill, and by strong 
 military works at the foundry called the Molino del Eey, and the 
 Casa Mata, both occupying commanding positions in the immediate 
 vicinity at the westward. 
 
 To force and occupy these all-important positions became necessary 
 before an attack could safely be made upon the city itself, lest, in 
 case of successful assault, the enemy should have a stronghold for 
 retreat, from which the divided and weakened forces of the victors 
 might fail to dislodge them. The plan of General Scott was to carry 
 what may be considered the out-works of Chapultepec at Molino del 
 Eey and Casa Mata; then to make a demonstration upon the south 
 of the city; and, having diverted the attention of the besieged, to 
 storm Chapultepec, and enter the capital from the south-west. 
 
 The reinforced division under General Worth was accordingly 
 
206 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 placed in position before day -light on tlie morning of the 8tli of 
 September. The attack commenced with the first dawn, and, after 
 several hours' hard fighting, the object was attained. The fortifica- 
 tions at the Casa Mata were blown up, and the moulds and ammu- 
 nition at the Molino were destroyed. So remarkable an action 
 deserves a more particular account than we have space to bestow. 
 Mr. Mayer remarks upon it: "This was a great but a rash victory. 
 The American infantry, relying chiefly on the bayonet, and expect- 
 ing to effect its object by surprise, and even at an earlier hour of the 
 morning, advanced with portions of the three thousand two hundred 
 and fifty-one men, to attack at least eleven or twelve thousand Mex- 
 icans, upon a field selected by themselves, protected by stone walls 
 and ditches, commanded by the fortress of Chapul tepee, and the 
 ground swept by artillery, while four thousand cavalry threatened 
 an overwhelming charge!" 
 
 The attention of Santa Anna was fully occupied by the apparent 
 preparations for an attack upon the south, until the 13th. So well 
 were these movements planned and conducted, that it was impossible 
 for him to penetrate the intentions of the American commander, al- 
 though throughout the 12th a heavy cannonade was kept up against 
 the fortress at Chapultepec. The troops stationed at Molino del 
 Key occupied a convenient position for following up any advantage 
 gained by the operations of the artillery, and by them the assault 
 was commenced on the morning of the 13th. A portion of the divi- 
 sions which had been previously threatening the southern entrance 
 to the city, hastened to join in the attack, and the fortress was 
 stormed. About a thousand prisoners were taken, and the fugitives 
 were driven tumultuously within the walls of the city. Notwith- 
 standing the rapid concentration of troops at the assaulted quarter, 
 General Quitman forced his way into the city by the gate of Belen 
 early in the afternoon ; and the forces under Worth gained a secure 
 position for the night in the buildings on the street of San Cosm^, 
 before the gate of that name. 
 
 On the morning of the 14th, intelligence was received, by a com- 
 munication from the civil authorities, that the capital had been evac- 
 uated during the night by the army and the officers of government. 
 Promptly rejecting all proposals for capitulation, General Scott im- 
 mediately proceeded to the military occupation of the city. Great 
 difficulty was at first experienced in subduing the canaille of the 
 capital, who for two days continued to fire upon the Americans from 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HISTOEY OF MEXICO. 207 
 
 places of concealment. • A great number of infamous wretches,, who 
 had been turned loose from the prisons on the night of the evacuation, 
 were the principal actors in this murderous work. 
 
 Of the whole force with which General Scott left Puebla, amounting 
 to less than eleven thousand men, the number of those killed in battle 
 before the complete occupation of the capital is set down at three 
 hundred and eighty-three, and the entire loss, in killed, wounded, 
 and missing, at two thousand seven hundred and three. 
 
 General Quitman was appointed governor of the city, and the 
 commander-in-chief engaged with great energy, though with pru- 
 dence and moderation, in the necessary labour of confirming or 
 establishing some system of law and order. Santa Anna, having 
 summoned a congress to meet at Queretaro, resigned the presidency 
 to the chief justice Pena-y-Pei5a, and with a strong body of cavalry 
 pushed on to Puebla to fall upon the garrison in occupation of that 
 city. He was there joined by General Eea, with some three thou- 
 sand additional troops. The little band of the besieged sustained 
 their position with wonderful firmness and success until relieved 
 by the arrival of General Lane, with fresh forces from Yera Cruz. 
 
 This officer gained a complete victory over each division of the 
 Mexican army, the first, under Santa Anna, who had marched east- 
 ward from Puebla to oppose his advance, and the second under Eea, 
 who had retreated from Puebla, and was in occupation of Atlixco. 
 These were the last important engagements of the war. The work 
 of reducing or disbanding the bodies of banditti who still maintained 
 a guerilla warfare was successfully accomplished. 
 
 In the month of JSTovember a congress was assembled, but such 
 was the animosity of the factions represented, that no important 
 action was taken. Anaya was chosen president until the next 
 meeting of congress, which was to take place m the ensuing January. 
 After the close of the session, the president, through his predecessor 
 Pena-y-Pena, now acting as his minister, opened communication with 
 the American commissioner in regard to the arrangement of a treaty. 
 Although he had already received notice from the United States' 
 government of his recall, Mr. Trist judged it expedient to negotiate 
 while opportunity offered. 
 
 At the January session of congress, as there was not a sufficient 
 number of members to form a quorum, there could be no election, 
 and Pena-y-Pena, according to a constitutional provision, assumed 
 the vacant presidency as chief justice. Commissioners having been 
 
208 AMEEICA ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 appointed by the Mexican government, a meeting was arranged with 
 the United States' envoy, and on the 2d of February, 1848, a treaty 
 was signed at the town of Guadalupe Hidalgo, three miles to the 
 northward of the city of Mexico. 
 
 By the provisions of this important treaty, which, with little alter- 
 ation, was approved and ratified by the United States' senate in the 
 month of March ensuing, the disputed territory between the JSTueces 
 and Eio Grande was relinquished by Mexico, and the whole of 
 Upper California and New Mexico was ceded to the United States. 
 On the other hand, the exhausted coffers of the conquered nation 
 were to be replenished by the payment of fifteen millions of dollars 
 as the price of ceded territory; Mexican liabilities for the private 
 claims of American citizens were to be assumed to the amount of 
 three millions two hundred and fifty thousand dollars ; and the faith 
 of the United States was pledged to protect the northern Mexican 
 frontier from Indian invasion. On the last of May the ratification 
 of this treaty by the Mexican congress left the belligerent nations at 
 peace, and the United States' troops Avere withdrawn from the country. 
 Perhaps in no instance in the history of the world has a victorious 
 invading army remained so long in occupation of conquered territory 
 without proving a burden to the inhabitants. Throughout the 
 campaign the provisions for the army were mostly paid for at fair 
 prices, and the only contributions drawn from the resources of the 
 defeated nation, with the exception of some very moderate imposi- 
 tions, to meet particular exigencies, were derived from duties upon 
 goods landed at the sea-ports in our possession. These duties were, 
 moreover, on an average, less in amount than those formerly levied 
 bythe Mexican customs. 
 
 The ex-president Santa Anna had, upon his own application, pre- 
 viously received -his passports, and permission from the Mexican 
 authorities and the American commander to leave the country. He 
 sailed for Jamaica on the 6th of the preceding month of April. 
 General Herrcra was soon after elected president of the republic. 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HISTORY OB MEXtCO. 209 
 
 uiiAiriiliii aaV. 
 
 81MMARY OF NAVAL OPERATIONS. COLONEL KEARNEY'S PRO- 
 CEEDINGS IN NEW MEXICO. EVENTS IN CALIFORNIA. — 
 
 UNION OF COLONEL FREMONT WITH COMMODORE STOCK- 
 TON. KEARNEY'S ARRIVAL AT SAN DIEGO. — CAMPAIGN 
 
 OF THE COMBINED FORCES. DISPUTES BETWEEN 
 
 THE AMERICAN COMMANDERS. COLONEL DONI- 
 PHAN'S SERVICES. — MEXICO, SINCE THE CON- 
 CLUSION OF PEACE WITH THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 — RETURN OF SANTA ANNA. DIFFICULTIES 
 
 RELATING TO THE MESILLA VALLEY. 
 
 Having now followed out the more important events of the Mexi- 
 can campaign to the close of the war, we recur briefly to the military 
 operations in the more remote provinces. The field of action was so 
 extensive, and so sparsely populated, that the adventures of the little 
 detachments of American troops by which those operations were 
 performed, although replete with interest, had for the most part too 
 little bearing upon the grand result to require minute detail. 
 
 Upon the coast our navy had not been idle : besides its share in 
 the reduction of the important stronghold at Yera Cruz, its inde- 
 pendent operation resulted in the seizure of every port upon the 
 Gulf of sufiicient importance to justify retention, and, in the Pacific, 
 by a strict blockade, trade was cut off with those not in our posses- 
 sion. To the unfortunate conflict of claims, upon the occupation of 
 California by the naval and military forces of the United States, 
 depending upon martial technicalities, and in the discussion of which 
 such infinite confusion has arisen, we can barely allude. 
 
 As early as June, 1846, Colonel Kearney, to whom was first 
 assigned the duty of invading New Mexico and California, left Fort 
 Leavenworth, with sixteen hundred men, en route for Santa Fe. 
 He gained possession of the capital of New Mexico without resist- 
 ance, and having recruited his force by the collection of a consider- 
 able body of emigrants, commenced his march through the western 
 wilderness. Receiving intelligence while on the road that he had 
 been anticipated in his intended military operations, he ordered the 
 
 YoL. ni.— 14 
 
210 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATEB, 
 
 return of the principal portion of his command, and pushed on with 
 a small mounted company. 
 
 That hardy pioneer and gallant officer, Captain (since Colonel) J. 
 C. Fremont, was the first active agent in the reduction of California. 
 In conformity with private orders from government, received in 
 May, 1846, he hastened from Oregon for the Sacramento valley. 
 The American settlers in that region eagerly lent their assistance to 
 the overthrow of Mexican authority. Few as were their numbers, 
 this portion of the community made open declaration of independ- 
 ence of Mexico, early in July, and just before the reception of the 
 news of the opening campaign in Mexico. The revolutionary char- 
 acter of the movement was at once abandoned, and the insurgents 
 gladly devoted themselves to the cause of their parent-country. 
 
 The ports of San Francisco and Monterey having been occupied 
 by the naval forces of the United States, under command of Com- 
 modore Stockton, Fremont joined his forces with those of that officer 
 for the purpose of an attack on Los Angelos. The Mexican troops, 
 under Castro, abandoned the city, which was occupied without a 
 struggle, on the 13th of August. In the following month. General 
 Castro, with recruited forces, regained possession. 
 
 Greneral Kearney, (he had been raised to this rank on receiving 
 his last commission,) with his little band, after a wearisome and dan- 
 gerous march, reached San Diego towards the middle of December, 
 having lost thirty-one men in killed and wounded at San Pascual, 
 where his progress was opposed by a mounted force of the enemy. 
 The command would probably have been entirely cut off but for 
 relief sent out from San Diego. 
 
 General Kearney and Commodore Stockton, after some discussion 
 as to their several powers and appropriate position in command, 
 joined forces, and took up their line of march northward. At the 
 banks of the river San Gabriel they encountered and defeated the 
 Mexicans under Flores. That commander rallied his forces, and 
 made a second stand at the level prairie of the Mesa. A second time 
 compelled to retreat, he proceeded to the plain of Couenga to oppose 
 the advance of Fremont. A parley was held between the respective 
 commanders, and the Mexican general finally agreed upon a cessa- 
 tion of hostilities. His troops were to deliver up their arms, and 
 during the continuance of the war, to submit to the jurisdiction of the 
 United States. The occupation of Los Angelos was resumed, and 
 California remained subject to the American government. Colonel 
 
THE CONQUEST AND IIISTOEY OF MEXICO. 211 
 
 Fremont, having been appointed governor by Commodore Stockton, 
 became entangled in the controversy between that officer and Gen- 
 eral Kearney relative to their respective powers and duties in the 
 ox3cupation and government of the conquered territory. His long 
 and wearisome trial, during the winter of 1847-8, "on charges of 
 mutiny, disobedience, and conduct to the prejudice of good order 
 and military discipline," notwithstanding its unfavourable result, 
 appears to have left no stain upon his character, nor to have at all 
 diminished his deserved popularity. 
 
 At New Mexico, subsequent to the departure of General Kearney, 
 one of the first objects accomplished was the reduction of the Navaho 
 Indians, who had assumed a hostile attitude. This service was per- 
 formed, by Colonel Doniphan, in command of a body of mounted 
 Missourians. With this force he afterwards made his way to Chi- 
 huahua, and having forcibly taken possession of the country, contin- 
 ued his route to the Kio Grande. This march has been not inaptly 
 compared, from its exhibition of endurance, and the skill and pru- 
 dence with which it was conducted, to the famous "Eetreat of the 
 Ten Thousand." 
 
 The command of the forces remaining in New Mexico was at this 
 period committed to Colonel Price, upon whose energy and courage 
 the preservation of the province was soon to depend. A formidable 
 insurrection broke out on the 19th of January, 1847, after the 
 departure of Doniphan, which was not quelled without great sacrifice 
 of life. 
 
 The foregoing outline of the principal events connected with the 
 war between Mexico and the United States, although confined to 
 the leading incidents, may appear to have occupied an undue share 
 of our attention, when compared with the 'preceding sketch of colo- 
 nial history. The importance of the results of this war already wit- 
 nessed, and the still more momentous changes to which it may 
 probably lead, justify this apparent disproportion. Who can over- 
 estimate the influence upon the destinies of the nations of either 
 hemisphere consequent upon the extension of the jurisdiction of the 
 United States over the recent wilderness of California? or who can 
 offer a probable conjecture as to how long the immense resources of 
 this new state might have remained undeveloped under the weak 
 government of Mexico, occupied only by a scattered population, 
 born and bred in national apathy and want of enterprise? 
 
 Since the conclusion of peace with the United States the political 
 
212 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 history of the Mexican republic presents little of permanent interest, 
 No stability of government has been yet attained: a "Mexican rev- 
 olution" has become a by-word: with crippled finances, a constant 
 change of rulers, unceasing disaffection among different factions and 
 provinces, and the decline of every source of national prosperity, 
 unless by some unforeseen concurrence of events her prospects shall 
 brighten, she must continue to decline until, as a separate state, 
 blotted from the list of nations. 
 
 The strong arm, the subtle craft, and the iron will of Santa Anna, 
 have recently been once more brought into requisition, to regulate 
 and guide the disturbed affairs of the republic. If the eame confi- 
 dence could be reposed in his good faith and patriotism, as in his 
 firmness and ability, no living man were better fitted to restore his 
 country's languishing prosperity. He has commenced his administra- 
 tion by prompt and decided measures for ensuring his own suprem- 
 acy ; whether his foreign policy, particularly in intercourse with the 
 United States, is to be just and conciliatory, remains to be seen. 
 
 A new dispute has arisen upon a question of boundary between 
 this country and Mexico, which threatens to breed further difficulty, 
 unless the controversy be conducted in a different spirit from that 
 at first evinced by the governors of the contending provinces. The 
 tract in dispute is the Mesilla valley, claimed by the authorities of 
 New Mexico to have belonged to that province, and to have been 
 consequently included in the district ceded to the United States at 
 the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, although by an erroneous survey 
 laid down as part of the territory of the adjoining Mexican state. 
 
 The movements of both parties may perhaps be considered rather 
 precipitate, in a matter which should certainly in the first instance 
 be made the subject of negotiation between the respective federal gov- 
 ernments. It is to be hoped, however, that the hasty action which 
 led to an armed occupation of the valley, may not so far blind the 
 minds of the parties in interest as to make that a question of feeling 
 which should be one of right and policy ; and that such action may 
 be taken in the premises as shall avert the monstrous folly of an 
 appeal to arms. 
 
CONQUEST AND HISTOM OE PERU. 
 
 THE CAPITAL OF THE ISTHMUS TRANSFERRED TO PANAMA. — 
 ACCOUNT OF FRANCISCO PIZARRO. — HIS CONFEDERATES. 
 
 HIS FIRST VOYAGE IN QUEST OF PERU. — GRIEVOUS 
 
 LOSS AND SUFFERING. — HIS RETURN. — THE VOY- 
 AGE OF ALMAGRO. — EXTRAORDINARY CONTRACT 
 OF PIZARRO, ALMAGRO, AND LUQUE. 
 
 The daring enterprise and indefatigable exertions of Balboa, 
 stimulated by the rumour of golden realms on the Pacific, south of 
 the Isthmus, had laid open the way to those regions of conjectured 
 wealth and splendor. The grand schemes of adventure and ambition 
 which had seemed to perish with him, were, after a brief interval, 
 revived by one fully his equal in genius, courage, and endurance, 
 and, if possible, his superior in fierceness, in rapine, and in cruelty. 
 
 Francisco Pizarro, one of the most renowned and infamous of 
 mankind, was born at Truxillo, in Estramadura, about the year 1471. 
 He was the illegitimate son of Gonzalo Pizarro, an officer of the 
 famous Cordova, and at his birth, by a piece of inhuman abandon- 
 ment, was exposed at the church-door and left as a foundling. ISTay, 
 it is said that for some days the only nourishment he received was 
 derived from a sow, which, in default of a more fiitting nurse, was 
 provided for his sustenance. He was bred up to the calling of a 
 swineherd, and never learned to read or write. It is from souls of 
 high natural genius, degraded in youth by ignorance, privation, and 
 unnatural ignominy, that great criminals are most aptly made; and 
 the candid observer will bestow a portion of his pity on the forlorn 
 circumstances of Pizarro's youth, and a portion of his indignation 
 
214 AMEEICA ILLUSTKATED. 
 
 on the authors of those circumstances, which in great degiee made 
 him what he was. 
 
 At an early age he ran away from his ignoble charge, and made 
 his way to the New World. Only occasional glimpses are caught 
 of his career, but they are such as reveal sternness, endurance, and 
 talent for command. We have already mentioned that he accompa- 
 nied Balboa and afterwards Morales on their memorable expeditions 
 to the South Sea, and that, at the command of Pedrarias, he had 
 arrested the former, and brought him to Ada for execution. Soon 
 after, the governor transferred his capital from Darien, on the 
 Atlantic coast, to a site on the Pacific, called Panama, some distance 
 eastward from the present city of that name. In 1521, an expedition 
 had been dispatched to the southward, in quest of the region of gold, 
 but it proceeded only a little way along the coast. The splendid 
 achievements and wonderful successes of Cortes, however, soon gave 
 a fresh impulse to adventure, and a few daring men, in the capital 
 of the Isthmus, resolved on reviving the neglected enterprise of 
 Balboa. 
 
 Of these the foremost was Pizarro, who, after a life of great vicis- 
 situdes, now, at the age of fifty, was cultivating a little estate near 
 Panama; Diego de Almagro, also a foundling and an old soldier of 
 fortune, was another ; and Hernando de Luque, a priest, of an enter- 
 prising spirit, and provided with funds by a wealthy friend, brought 
 his important aid to the project. These three obscure and uninflu- 
 ential individuals, after several conferences, resolved on prosecuting 
 an enterprise, the magnitude of which, contrasted with the slender 
 means of its projectors, sufficiently evinces their boldness and energy 
 of purpose. This was nothing less than the discovery and conquest 
 of that golden empire, the existence of which had first been indicated 
 in the vague rumours of the Indians of Comagre, and which had 
 afterwards occasionally been confirmed by authority no more exact 
 or reliable. Two small vessels were procured, in one of which 
 Pizarro, with a hundred men, in the middle of November, 1524, set 
 sail, leaving Almagro to follow in the other, as soon as it could be 
 made ready. 
 
 Crossing the Gulf of San Miguel, and following the coast, he first 
 entered the river Biru, and made a disastrous attempt at exploring 
 the marshes, of which the country appeared entirely to consist. 
 Foiled in this endeavour, he again stood southward, during the rainy 
 season, through a succession of gales and thunder-storms, which well 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HISTOEY OF PEEU. 215 
 
 nigh sent his frail bark to the bottom. The shore was still found 
 10 consist of vast swamps and intricate forests. His men, worn out 
 and half-famished, were clamorous for return, but their commander 
 refused to relinquish his project. Landing, with a portion of his 
 force, he dispatched the vessel, with the remainder, homeward, to 
 procure supplies. 
 
 Half of his command soon perished from hunger and exposure, 
 and the rest were saved only by a scanty supply of maize, obtained 
 from an Indian village in the interior. The vessel, after a voyage 
 rendered terrible by similar sufferings, at last returned with supplies, 
 and took off the half-starved wretches who still survived. At their 
 next landing, Pizarro discovered an Indian village, deserted by the 
 affrighted inhabitants, in which he found considerable gold, and saw 
 the unmistakable evidences of cannibalism. At another point, far- 
 ther on, which he called Panta Quemada, he took possession of a 
 fortified village, deserted, as usual, at the approach of the strangers, 
 intending to dispatch the vessel to Panama for repairs. But a furi- 
 ous attack of the Indians, in which five of the Spaniards were killed 
 and a great number wounded, rendered the plan too hazardous. All, 
 therefore, went on board, and set sail homeward — Pizarro, with most 
 of his company, disembarking a Uttle before reaching the town. 
 
 Almagro, with the other vessel, and with sixty or seventy addi- 
 tional recruits, after great delays, had set forth, before this return, 
 and coasting southward, had touched at various points, where, by the 
 notching of trees, he perceived the late visits of his consort. At 
 Quemada he also had a fight with the Indians, in which he lost an 
 eye ; but had pushed on, making several landings, and seizing con- 
 siderable gold, as far as the mouth of the San Juan, four degrees 
 north latitude. The appearances of civilization increased, and fresh 
 accounts of the empire in the south continually reached him. Finding 
 nothing of his partner, however, he turned northward, and rejoined 
 him at his quarters near Panama. Exultant in the prospect of real- 
 izing their ambitious project, each made fresh pledges to prosecute 
 the adventure to an end. 
 
 The countenance of Pedrarias had been secured, at the outset, by 
 admitting him to a share of the anticipated profits ; but, though the 
 scheme now seemed more feasible than before, he obstinately refused 
 to contribute any thing in aid of the enterprise; and, greedy for 
 present gain, relinquished his share in the future wealth of Peru, 
 on receiving a bond, with security, for the payment of a thousand 
 
216 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 pesos (twelve thousand dollars). This incubus removed, "the three 
 confederates met at Panama, and with much form and solemnity 
 executed that memorable contract for the spoliation and division of 
 the unknown realms and treasures of the south. *In the Name of 
 the most Holy Trinity,' commences this singular document, 'Father, 
 Son, and Holy Ghost, three distinct persons, and one only true God, 
 and of the most Holy Virgin, our Lady, we form this partnership.* 
 Neither Pizarro nor Almagro could write, and their names, therefore, 
 were subscribed by the hands of the witnesses; while, the more 
 strongly to bind them to its observance, they took oath upon a 
 missal, tracing a cross thereon, in the name of God and the Holy 
 Evangelists. To make all sure, the worthy Father Luque then 
 administered the sacrament, giving each a portion of the consecrated 
 wafer, and taking the same himself. So impressive was the scene, 
 that the bystanders were melted to tears ; but all these ghostly pre- 
 cautions for amity and fair play eventually proved to be of no more 
 value than is usual where solemn vows and lengthy protestations are 
 used to cover lurking rivalry and distrust. (March 10th, 1526.)"* 
 
 uitliiiirxjijdU i i 
 
 SECOND VOYAGE OF PIZARRO AND ALMAGRO. — THEIR SIJPFER- 
 INGS. — FRESH DISCOYERIES. — RETURN OF ALMAGRO. — THE 
 
 ISLAND OF GALLO. RESOLUTION OF PIZARRO AND TWELVE 
 
 OTHERS. — THEIR DISCOVERY OF PERU. — ITS TREASURES. — 
 
 PIZARRO REPAIRS TO SPAIN. — GRANT OF THE CROWN. 
 
 — RETURN OP PIZARRO WITH HIS BROTHERS. — THE 
 
 THIRD EXPEDITION TO PERU. — BATTLE AT PUNA. 
 
 With the funds furnished by Luque, two vessels were now fitted 
 out anew, and efforts were made to enlist adventurers for the enter- 
 prise. Some dif&culty was experienced, on account of the fatal result 
 of the former expedition ; but, singular to state, nearly all the sur- 
 vivors again enlisted, resolved to see it to an end, and- enough more 
 were at last enrolled to make up the number of an hundred and 
 
 * Discoverers, &c., of America. 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HISTOKY OF PEEU. 217 
 
 sixty. With this insignificant force, supplied with a few horses and 
 fire-arniSj the two adventurers, each in his own vessel, again set sail 
 from Panama. Without touching on the coast, they held their way 
 to the San Juan, where, by plunder of the native villages, they 
 obtained a considerable quantity of gold. With this spoil Almagro 
 was dispatched homeward to allure fresh recruits ; Pizarro, with part 
 of his force, remained on shore; and Euiz, an experienced pilot, pur- 
 sued discovery southward. That voyager found the shores populous 
 and well cultivated, and gained fresh information of the wealth and 
 splendour of Peru, where gold and silver, he was told, were plenty 
 as wood in the royal palaces. Having crossed the line, and captured 
 from an Indian halsa two natives of that kingdom, to serve as inter- 
 preters, he returned to the encampment. 
 
 Pizarro, during his absence, in a march through the tangled forests 
 of the interior, had lost many of his men from the attacks of the 
 Indians, and of the alligators and serpents, with which the region 
 abounded. The survivors suffered terribly from famine, and were 
 compelled to bury themselves to the necks in sand to avoid the 
 insufferable annoyance of the musquitoes. Eevived by the return 
 of Euiz and Almagro, (the latter with eighty recruits,) they again 
 got under way, and after long struggling with a succession of fright- 
 ful tempests, approached the shores of Quito. Here, at Tacamez, a 
 sea-port of two thousand native houses, lately brought under sub- 
 jection to the Incas of Peru, they attempted a landing, but were 
 so sharply opposed by the natives as to be compelled to retreat 
 aboard their vessels. After a fierce debate between the two Spanish 
 captains, evincing much lurking jealousy and hatred, it was agreed 
 that Almagro should again sail to Panama for reinforcements and 
 supplies, and that Pizarro, with a part of the force, should encamp 
 on the island of Gallo. 
 
 The soldiers, dreading starvation in this desolate scene, were 
 clamorous in opposition ; and, though overawed by the sternness and 
 authority of their commander, contrived to send clandestinely to 
 their friends in Panama, entreating rescue from their miserable sit- 
 uation. Accordingly, De los Eios, the new governor of that prov- 
 ince, not only refused any countenance or assistance to Almagro, 
 but sent two vessels, under one of his own officers, to bring off the 
 malcontents forcibly detained on the obnoxious island. Their arrival 
 was hailed with exultation by most of the company, who had already 
 Buffered much from exposure and privation ; but Pizarro, encouraged 
 
218 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 by a letter from his associates in Panama, pledging speedy assistance^ 
 resolved to hold out to the last. Drawing a line with his sword 
 upon the sand, he addressed the men in a few words of harsh but 
 eloquent truth. "Comrades and friends," he said, "this side is that 
 of death, of toils, of famine, of nakedness, of storms and homeless- 
 ness ; the other is that of ease : on that lies Panama and its poverty ; 
 on this Peru and its riches. Let each man choose what becomes a 
 good Castilian." Having uttered these memorable words, he stepped 
 over the line to the southward, and was followed by Euiz and twelve 
 others — a number singularly great, considering the desperation of 
 the resolve. A more signal instance of hardihood or perseverance 
 is hardly to be found in history. 
 
 After the departure of the vessels, the little band of resolute 
 adventurers who remained, passed on a raft to the distant island of 
 Gorgona, and there, for seven long months, suffering great extremi- 
 ties, and supporting their spirits with frequent and regular religious 
 exercises, watched wearily for the expected sail of Almagro. But 
 the latter and his confederate, after much delay and using every 
 exertion, could only prevail on the governor to allow the dispatch 
 of a small vessel with orders to bring off the obstinate adventurers 
 who had remained. But on its arrival, they joyfully embarked, and 
 under the pilotage of Kuiz, at once steered southward. Crossing the 
 line, at the end of twenty days they entered the Gulf of Guayaquil, 
 and beheld before them the Peruvian town of Tumbez, backed by 
 the Andes, and exhibiting strong tokens of wealth and population. 
 The Indians, in multitudes, gathered on the shore to behold the 
 stranger ship, and numbers soon came off in their balsas or native 
 boats, bearing offerings of fruit and several llamas, an animal before 
 unknown to Europeans. 
 
 Among these visitors was a Peruvian noble, to whom Pizarro, by 
 an interpreter, explained that he was come to claim the allegiance 
 of the country in behalf of his master, the king of Spain, and to 
 rescue the people from the perdition to which their evil spirits, 
 which they called gods, were conducting them. However surprised 
 at this impudent announcement, the chief preserved an attitude of 
 discreet non-committal. A Greek knight, one Pedro de Candia, 
 was now sent ashore, where he was hospitably received, and sool 
 returned to astonish his companions by the report of the treasures he 
 had beheld. The Temple of the Sun, to which he had been conducted, 
 was covered, he said, with plates of gold and silver; and in the gar- 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HISTORY OF PEEU. 219 
 
 dens of a species of nunnery, were fruits and flowers, exquisitely 
 lepresented in the same precious metals. Overwhelmed with joy 
 at these welcome tidings, the Spaniards weighed anchor, and stood 
 along the coast to effect fresh discoveries. 
 
 They were every where treated with the greatest kindness and 
 attention by the natives, who, from their fair complexions and bril- 
 liant armour, gave them the name of "Children of the Sun" — their 
 own most venerated deity. Fresh accounts of the great Inca, whose 
 capital, resplendent with gold, was said to lie among the mountains, 
 and fresh evidences of wealth and civilization, such as stone houses 
 and well-cultivated fields, continually cheered the spirits of the 
 adventurers, and convinced them that they had arrived at last at the 
 long-sought region. After cruising to the ninth degree of south lati- 
 tude, they turned northward, and bore the brilliant tidings to Panama. 
 
 Singular to state, the new governor, averse to enterprise, in the 
 face of these splendid omens of success, absolutely refused his coun- 
 tenance to any new expedition, declaring that "he did not mean to 
 depopulate his own province to people New Lands, nor to cause the 
 death of any more people than had been killed already ; for a show 
 of Sheep (llamas) Gold, and Silver, which had been brought home." 
 It was therefore resolved by the confederates that Pizarro should sail 
 to Spain, and apply in person to the crown for assistance adequate 
 to the enterprise. Furnished with fifteen hundred ducats, to aid his 
 suit, and bearing specimens of the productions of Peru, in the sum- 
 mer of 1528, he arrived at Toledo, where the emperor (Charles Y.) 
 then held his court. 
 
 Illiterate, but eloquent by nature, he related his story, and pleaded 
 his cause with extraordinary effect. The sovereign, it is said, was 
 moved to tears by the recital, and his interest and cupidity were 
 powerfully awakened by the sight of the Peruvian treasure and the 
 prospect of grasping the unimaginable wealth of that distant region. 
 The suit of Pizarro was referred, with favourable recommendation, 
 to the Council of the Indies; and accordingly, after a year's delay, 
 full powers of discovery and conquest in a vast extent of country 
 were granted to him, with the offices of governor, captain-general, 
 &c., &c., over such regions as he should reduce under submission to 
 the crown. The complete authority, in effect, was vested in his 
 hands — the claims of Almagro and Luque being acknowledged 
 only by slight appointments. To secure the possession of these 
 dignities and privileges, however, he was bound, within a certaiu 
 
220 , AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 time, to provide two hundred and fifty men, and witli them to sail 
 for Panama. 
 
 With all the prestige of his new importance, the adventurer betook 
 him to his native place, where many of his townsmen were found 
 ready to embark in the enterprise. Among these were four of his 
 brothers, of whom Hernando alone was legitimate, Gonzalo and Juan 
 Pizarro owning the same parents as himself, and Francisco de Alcan- 
 tara being connected with him only by the mother. All were men 
 of extraordinary courage and resolution. The requisite funds were 
 obtained with dif&culty, and it is said that but for the opportune 
 assistance of Cortes, with whom, as we have seen, Pizarro became 
 acquainted at Palos, the scheme might have failed altogether. As 
 it was, he was unable fully to complete his stipulated armament; 
 and in January, 1530, with only a portion of the required force, 
 hurriedly put to sea, and sailed for Nombre de Dios. 
 
 Almagro and Luque, who were there eagerly awaiting his arrival, 
 were exceedingly angered and disappointed at the perfidious conduct 
 of their confederate ; but he promised solemnly that all the terms of 
 the compact should be fulfilled; and, a hollow truce being thus 
 patched up, all betook themselves to Panama. 
 
 Very few recruits could be obtained at that place, and early in 
 January, 1581, with an hundred and eighty-three men and twenty- 
 seven horses, in three vessels, leaving Almagro to gather reinforce- 
 ments, Pizarro set forth to effect the Conquest of Peru. After a 
 voyage of thirteen days, he disembarked at the Bay of St. Matthew, 
 a little north of the equator, and with most of his men, marched 
 southward, along the shore, accompanied by the vessels. At an 
 Indian village in Coaque, which they took by surprise, these ma- 
 rauders got a great booty in gold and emeralds, part of which Pizarro 
 sent back to Panama, as an allurement for recruits. The march 
 proved excessively severe — the sun, in these low latitudes, striking 
 with terrible power on the soldiers cased in steel armour, or half- 
 smothered in their thick doublets of quilted cotton. Several per- 
 ished on the way, and the remainder were much relieved by the 
 arrival of a vessel from the Isthmus, containing supplies and a small 
 reinforcement. 
 
 The invading force finally reached the Gulf of Guayaquil, and 
 passed over to the isle of Puna, opposite Tumbez, where it encamped. 
 The people of that city came over in a friendly way, to visit them, 
 but the islanders, provoked by an act of hostility, gathering, to the 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HISTOIiY OF PEEU. 221 
 
 number of several thousands, attacked the Spanish quarters. After 
 a hardly-contested fight, they were repulsed by the cavalry and fire- 
 arms — a result attributed by the piety of the Christians to the prow- 
 ess of the archangel Michael, who (it is recorded) was seen, with the 
 angelic hosts, fighting in the air against a multitude of demons, 
 whose defeat was simultaneous with that of the Indians. In honour 
 of this miraculous assistance, Pizarro vowed that the first city he 
 should found should receive the name of his heavenly protector — a 
 vow subsequently fulfilled at the erection of San Miguel. But, 
 despite their losses, the islanders still maintained a hostile attitude, 
 and the Spaniards hailed with joy the arrival of a hundred men, 
 under Hernando de Soto, the future invader of Florida and discov- 
 erer of the Mississippi. Thus strengthened, Pizarro resolved to cross 
 to the mainland, and proceed at once to his gigantic undertaking — 
 the Conquest of Peru. 
 
 ■U J)(L fcoi) Ji J» Ju iLti iL iL Jj » 
 
 THE ABOEIGINES OP PERU. — THE UTILE OF THE INCAS. — ilJi.- 
 ELECTIONS — AGRICULTURAL LABOURS. — LLAMAS. — IMMENSE 
 PUBLIC WORKS. — WARLIKE OPERATIONS. — PUBLIC RE- 
 CORDS. — RELIGION. — TRADITIONS. EARLY HISTORY. 
 
 — CONDITION OF THE RACE IN, MODERN TIMES. 
 
 The history of no half-civilized race is more replete with interest 
 than that of the ancient Peruvians. Their advance in the arts and 
 in the refinements of social life was fully equal to that of the Mexi- 
 cans; but wide dissimilarities existed between the two nations, and 
 no traces of a common origin, or indeed, of any communication 
 between them, have been discovered. The picture of Peruvian life 
 given by the old writers contains less that is repulsive, and 
 evinces a greater degree of general prosperity and content, than 
 that presented of the condition of Mexico under the Montezumas. It 
 is true that by the singular nature of the government of the Incas, 
 no room was left for individual enterprise, or for the development 
 of individual superiority; but, on the other hand, the utmost care 
 for the general welfare animated every department. Agrarian laws 
 
222 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 nave never been maintained for any length of time, except in Peru, 
 wliere a yearly division took place of the portion of the se^l not 
 reserved for the use of the church and the government. 
 
 The perfection and exactitude of this 'extraordinary system, con- 
 sidering the variety of races and the vast extent of territory subject 
 to the Peruvian monarchs, are almost incredible. It was unques- 
 tionably "the most perfect specimen of a 'paternal despotism' which 
 nas ever been presented to the eye of the world. The inca was 
 absolute, and all the inhabitants of his vast dominions did not pos- 
 sess the shadow of a right or law apart from his sovereign will. ISTor 
 was this portentous assertion of authority a mere instrument of terror, 
 produced only on state occasions, to overawe the refractory or min- 
 ister to the caprice of the sovereign. It formed an integral and 
 engrossing portion of the life of every man, woman, and child 
 throughout the Peruvian domains. Industry, food, clothing, shelter, 
 domestic relations, amusements, every thing, were under the direct 
 supervision of government. No one was allowed to be idle. No 
 one was permitted to suffer from want. Education, marriage, social 
 intercourse, were all under strict regulation. In- such a place the 
 subject musi'reside; such and such work, at stated times, he must 
 perform; at such an age he must take a certain wife; and he must 
 bring up his children in a fixed and certain manner. ' The impera- 
 tive spirit of despotism would not allow them to be happy or miser- 
 able in any way but that established by law. The power of free 
 agency — the inestimable and in-born right of every human being — 
 was annihilated in Peru.' 
 
 "Despotism, says a profound, but popular writer, may be borne, 
 but the intermeddling of a royal busy-body is too much for human 
 nature. This rule, accurately enough applied to the sprightlier peo- 
 ple of Europe, may have its exceptions; for, strange to say, among 
 the Peruvians, this apparently vexatious system seems to have worked 
 well. It was indeed remarkably accordant with the gentle, industri- 
 ous, and custom-loving disposition of the races to which it was 
 applied, and few more pleasing pictures of rural quiet and tranquil- 
 lity exist, than those which are given of this people under its prim- 
 itive government."* 
 
 The curaca or governor of each district exercised a constant per- 
 sonal supervision over his people, making periodical reports to his 
 superiors of the most minute details of the labours accomplished, and 
 * Discoverers, &c., of America. 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HISTOEY OF PEEU. 223 
 
 of tlie agricultural productions. Tlie assiduous cultivation of the 
 soil was pursued in the face of natural obstacles greater than have 
 been elsewhere successfully overcome. The plains were barren from 
 want of rain, which never falls there in sufficient quantity to avail 
 for the irrigation of the fields; and, to render them fruitful, the 
 mountain torrents were turned from their courses, conducted through 
 massive aqueducts of hewn stone, and distributed by innumerable 
 channels through the cultivable territory. The steep and almost 
 inaccessible sides of the mountains were cut into terraces, and teemed 
 with luxurious crops of Indian corn, potatoes, quinoa, and other 
 productions of the country. Districts naturally barren were enriched 
 by the use of guano from the coast and from the neighbouring islands. . 
 
 The government monopoly extended not only to the soil, but to 
 , the flocks of llamas from which the clothing of nearly the whole 
 nation was derived, and which supplied the principal portion of ani 
 mal food used in Peru. These diminutive animals, the only beasts 
 of burden known in the country, were mostly turned loose among 
 the mountains, where they wandered in immense herds, under the 
 care of their keepers and secure from molestation, until the season 
 for shearing. At appointed periods they were driven in, and, after 
 the fleece was secured, and a portion of the males reserved for food, 
 were again set at liberty. The fleece was carefully distributed among 
 the people, to be manufactured into clothing by the women, and the 
 entire disposition of this valuable article was impartially but severely 
 regulated by government officials. 
 
 Care was taken to reserve from the annual products of the public 
 lands and flocks, a certain portion for future emergencies, which was 
 stored in extensive depots upon the great roads. Immense quanti- 
 ties of provision were accumulated in this manner, and convenient 
 halting-places and abundant supplies were furnished for the royal 
 armies on their march through the country. Every thing was so 
 perfectly systematized, that no man felt oppressed or burdened by the 
 heavy demands on his time and labour made by the authorities. 
 
 A large body of labourers, relieved at stated intervals by fresh 
 recruits, were constantly employed upon the public roads and build- 
 ings; and the ruins yet remaining sufficiently attest the efficiency 
 of their operations. It is doubtful whether such immense undertak- 
 ings were ever elsewhere accomplished with no greater aid from 
 machinery and beasts of burden. The whole kingdom was tra- 
 versed by broad and convenient highways, in the construction of 
 
224 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 which the most disheartening obstacles were successfally overcome 
 The main road from Quito to Cuzco, and thence to the southern 
 portions of the kingdom, was led along the mountain ridges for a 
 distance estimated at not much less than two thousand miles. It 
 was massively built of stone, or hewn out from the native rock, and, 
 although only about twenty feet broad, afforded a smooth and easy 
 passage between the great cities, for foot-passengers or trains of 
 loaded llamas. The highway second in importance was conducted 
 through the level plains, parallel with the sea-coast, and consisted of 
 an embankment, or causeway, lined, where the soil was fruitful, with 
 ornamental trees and shrubs. 
 
 All these public works, as well as the massive palaces and religious 
 temples, of hewn stone, seem the more marvellous when we consider 
 that the materials were wrought without any iron instrument, as the 
 Peruvians, like the Mexicans, had no harder tools than those manu- 
 factured from an alloy of copper and tin. 
 
 It may be readily perceived what immense facilities were afforded 
 for military operations by these roads, and by the granaries which 
 were built and stored at regular intervals throughout the routes. The 
 government pursued a warlike policy towards neighbouring nations, 
 and the successes of the Peruvian armies resulted in vast additions 
 to the empire. When a province was subdued, the first steps taken 
 were to introduce the national worship of the Sun, to establish the 
 laws of Peru, giving to the conquered people equal privileges with 
 their conquerors, and to introduce colonies of Peruvians into the 
 new country, by whose association and example the natives might 
 the sooner perceive the advantages of quietly submitting to the des- 
 potic but paternal care of the inca. The native nobles and governors 
 were often continued in office, and conciliated by favours and hon- 
 ours, and a decent respect was paid to the religious belief and pop- 
 iilar usages of the newly-acquired territory. 
 
 In the conduct of the complicated machinery of government, reg- 
 ularity and precision were maintained by a species of record, crude 
 indeed, as compared with a written language, but ingenious, and 
 well adapted to secure accuracy in numerical computations. This 
 was the *'quipu," which consisted simply of a series of variously 
 coloured threads, attached at regular intervals to a cord. Knots tied 
 in these threads, according to a certain prescribed order, supplied all 
 the requisite means for registering the population of the country, the 
 births, deaths, and marriages, the public resources, the revenue, and 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HISTORY OF FEEU. 225 
 
 even a chronological history of the empire. None, of course, except 
 those versed in the art, to whom the keeping of the qnipus were 
 entrusted, could expound their mysteries, and the annals so quaintly 
 recorded mostly perished with these officials. 
 
 The Peruvian religion was in many respects as wild and fanciful 
 as that of any unenlightened nation, and in the mode of worship 
 every variety of imposing and ceremonious pageant was resorted to, 
 to preserve a due impression of its importance. As one-third of all 
 cultivable lands was sequestered for the use of the church, an 
 ample revenue was furnished for the construction and adornment 
 of the most magnilScent temples and the support of a numerous 
 priesthood. Chief among this body, which consisted entirely of 
 descendants from the royal stock, was the inca himself, who offi- 
 ciated personally on great and solemn occasions. The principal 
 objects of adoration were the sun, and the subordinate moon and 
 stars; but we are told that besides these visible emblems of divinity, 
 and superior to them all, the God Pachacamac was adored as the 
 invisible creator of all things. To this' deity a single temple, of 
 ancient date, standing in a valley near the present city of Lima, was 
 devoted ; but for various reasons it has been supposed that this branch 
 of the religion of the incas and their subjects was but the remnant of 
 a theology more ancient than the date of their conquests. Early 
 writers give minute and tedious descriptions of Peruvian religious 
 rites and ceremonies, details affording no interest, now that their 
 meaning and origin are no longer to be ascertained. 
 
 The national traditions concerning the commencement and pro- 
 gress of civilization in Peru throw little light upon modern specula- 
 tion. The mythological progenitor of the race of the incas, Manco 
 Capac, a child of the Sun, taking to wife his sister Mama Oello 
 Huaco, was said to have first instituted the customs of civilization, 
 and taught the arts of agriculture and manufactures to the barbarous 
 inhabitants of the vale of Cuzco. In order to preserve the royal 
 stock as distinct as possible from that of the commonalty, the inca, 
 in later times, always married his sister, although this unnatural 
 union was strictly prohibited between those of inferior rank. 
 
 The accounts of the early princes are so vague and uncertain that 
 we commence our history of the empire with the reign of Topa Inca. 
 Yupanqui, father to Huayna Capac, who filled the throne at the 
 time of the first Spanish discoveries upon the western coast of South 
 America. Under these two warlike monarchs the Peruvian territory 
 Vol. III.— 15 
 
226 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 ■?ras extended from the country of the unconquerable Araucanians, 
 m southern Chili, to the northern confines of modern Equador. The 
 latter province was subdued by Huayna Capac, who established 
 himself at Quito, its ancient capital, and formed a connection with 
 the daughter of its last native prince. He died about a year after 
 the first expedition of Pizarro, and by the regular laws of descent 
 his whole dominions should have passed to his legitimate son, Huas- 
 car. Atahuallpa, his son by the princess of Quito, possessed, how- 
 ever, so strong a hold upon his affections, that he had determined to 
 bestow upon him that portion which had belonged to his maternal 
 ancestors. 
 
 The two princes commenced their reigns with favourable auspices 
 for long-continued peace, but, in the course of a few years, mutual 
 jealousies and encroachments involved the country in a fierce civil 
 war. Atahuallpa marched for the ancient capital of the incas, deter- 
 mined, if possible, to dethrone his brotlier, and constitute himself sole 
 monarch of the Peruvian empire. At Ambato, near the great moun- 
 tain Chimborazo, only sixty miles from Quito, he was encountered 
 by the forces of Huascar, and a severe engagement ensued. Atahu 
 allpa was completely successful, and having annihilated his oppo- 
 nents, pressed on to the southward, wreaking terrible vengeance on 
 the revolted province of Canaris. 
 
 Another great and decisive battle was fought in the vicinity of 
 Cuzco, and the unfortunate Huascar found himself stripped of his 
 kingdom, and a prisoner in the hands of his rival. The successful 
 invader established himself in the village of Caxamalca, the modern 
 Caxamarca, where he still held his court when Pizarro landed on the 
 Peruvian coast. Although he had no open opponent to his schemes 
 of aggrandizement, the whole country was necessarily in an unsettled 
 state, and he was in no condition to make a successful defence against 
 the handful of fierce and warlike adventurers who came to lay waste 
 his territory, and deprive him of power, liberty, and life. 
 
 The remainder of the native history of Peru is but a mournful detail 
 of the effects of foreign oppression, cruelty, and avarice. On several 
 occasions the miserable aborigines, reduced and degraded as they 
 were by ages of cruelty and oppression, rose against their enslavers, 
 and fought for their liberty with all the courage of desperation. As 
 late as the year 1781, one Jose Gabriel Condorcanqui, a lineal 
 descendant of the old line of incas, headed a formidable insurrection 
 figainst the Spanish authorities. The numbers of both races who 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HISTOEY OF PEKU. 227 
 
 perished in this civil war, before the reduction of the aborigines, has 
 been set down at over one hundred thousand. The leader, historic- 
 ally known as Tupac Amaru the Second, with several of his family, 
 was finally taken prisoner, and was publicly quartered at Cuzco. 
 
 CHAPTEH I?. 
 
 PIZARRO LANDS AT TTIMBEZ. MARCHES SOUTHWARD, AND 
 
 POUNDS SAN MIGUEL. — PROCEEDS IN QUEST OF THE INCA. — 
 
 CROSSES THE ANDES. FRIENDLY MESSAGES. ARRIVAL 
 
 AT CAXAMALCA.— INTERVIEW WITH ATAHUALLPA. — 
 HIS RESERVE. — STRENGTH OF THE PERUVIANS. 
 
 On landing his forces at Tumbez, Pizarro was surprised to find 
 the town, lately so splendid and populous, deserted and demolished. 
 A party of Indians gave him a hostile reception, but his hopes were 
 reanimated, it is said, by a note, written, perhaps, by two Spaniards 
 whom he had left on a former voyage, and purporting as follows : 
 "Know, whoever you may be, that may chance to set foot in this 
 country, that it contains more gold and silver than there is iron in 
 Biscay." 
 
 Early in May, 1532, with the principal part of his force, he set 
 forth for the interior, marching through a thickly-settled country, 
 and obtaining abundant supplies from the natives, whom he concili- 
 ated by gentle treatment. Formal "proclamation, at every village, 
 was made in behalf of the political and ecclesiastical supremacy of 
 the emperor and the pope ; and the natives, though not comprehend- 
 ing a word of the mystical ceremony, their silence being held for 
 consent, were duly enrolled by a notary as subjects of Spain. Thirty 
 leagues south of Tumbez, he founded a city, named, in fulfilment 
 of his vow, San Miguel, and, enslaving the natives of the adjoining 
 region, distributed them among the Spanish colonists. The reason 
 assigned was, " that it would redound to the service of God, as well 
 as of the natives themselves — * * * that they might sus- 
 tain the settlers, and that the Christians might indoctrinate them in 
 our Holy Faith." Considerable gold which had been acquired by 
 the troops, Pizarro persuaded them to send back to Panama, as a 
 
228 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 means of enticing fresh volunteers to share tlie arduous enterpiiso 
 in which they were engaged. 
 
 In this march he had learned much of the state of the country, 
 and the reports of its wealth had been confirmed beyond all reason- 
 able doubt. He now resolved to set forth on a visit to the Inca 
 Atahuallpa, probably with no definite ideas of immediate conquest, 
 but from eager desire to behold the extraordinary state and riches, 
 with glimpses of which his imagination had been so long inflamed. 
 Leaving a small garrison at San Miguel, on the 24th of September, 
 with the remainder of his little army, he set forth in quest of the 
 distant and unknown capital of the Peruvian monarch. After a 
 march of five days through a most beautiful country, cultivated with 
 the perfection of agricultural skill, he halted, and with politic bold- 
 ness, invited all who were averse to the expedition to return. Only 
 nine accepted the offer, and the rest, by declining it, were irrevoca- 
 bly pledged to prosecute the adventure. With an hundred and sixty- 
 eight men, a third of whom were cavalry, he continued his march 
 to the mountains. 
 
 At a place called Zaran, he halted for a week, and dispatched De 
 Soto to a Peruvian military post, further on. That officer, on his 
 return, was accompanied by an emissary from the inca himself, bear- 
 ing presents for the Spanish general, and a friendly message, inviting 
 him to court. By the aid of interpreters much civility was exchanged, 
 and a courteous answer was dispatched to the Peruvian court. A 
 few days' march brought the Spaniards to the foot of the Andes, 
 behind which, at the town of Caxamalca, they were informed, Ata- 
 huallpa, with his army, lay encamped. 
 
 An easy and level road, leading to Cuzco, the Indian capital, con- 
 trasted with the terrors of the ascent, and the dangers which might 
 lie beyond, caused many of the soldiers to waver in their resolution ; 
 but Pizarro, with his customary eloquence, urged them on, entreat- 
 ing that they would not expose themselves to the contempt of the 
 inca by drawing back, and assuring them that the Lord would ever 
 be faund fighting on their side. The march up the mountain proved 
 toilsome and dangerous in the extreme, the cavaliers being compelled 
 to lead their horses along frightful ledges and precipices, where a 
 single mis-step would prove destruction ; and where a few resolute 
 men might have withstood their march altogether. They also suffered 
 greatly from cold. At night they lodged in a strong fortress of stone, 
 and at day break resumed the march. A friendly embassy from the 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HISTORY CF PEKU. 229 
 
 inca, bearing presents, met them on the way, and after a toilsome 
 march of seven days, descending with difficulty the rugged sierra, 
 they came in view of Caxamalca. 
 
 That city, inhabited by a refined and industrious people, about ten 
 thousand in number, lay in a beautiful valley, among lofty mount- 
 ains; and at the hot baths, a league distant, was encamped the im- 
 perial army, covering the hill-sides, for miles, with its tents of snowy 
 cotton. A feeling of dismay seized the little force of audacious 
 visitors. "So many did they appear," says one of them, "that for 
 certain we were filled with dread, for we had never dreamed that 
 the Indians could have held so proud a state, nor so many tents, 
 pitched with such skill, the like whereof was never before seen in 
 the Indies, and caused in all the -Spaniards great fear and confusion : 
 howbeit, it would never have done to show it, or in the least to 
 recoil ; for if any sign of weakness had appeared, the very Indians 
 we had with us would have killed us : so, with a sprightly bearing, 
 after having well surveyed the aforesaid town and tents, we de- 
 scended into the valley below and entered Caxamalca." (November 
 15th, 1532.) 
 
 The town was deserted, and Pizarro, taking up his quarters in the 
 great square, dispatched his brother Hernando, with De Soto and a 
 few of the cavalry, to the camp of the Indians. In the court of a 
 light summer-house, at the baths, they found the inca, seated on a 
 low cushion, surrounded by his nobles. His dress was simple, but 
 he wore on his forehead the crimson lorla or fringe, the emblem of 
 imperial dignity. His demeanour was that of entire calmness and 
 even apathy. Without dismounting, the Spanish" emissary, by a 
 native interpreter named Felipillo, discharged his errand, which 
 included accounts of the greatness of the Spanish monarch, proffers 
 of instruction in the Faith, and the request of a royal visit to the 
 Spanish camp. One of the nobles answered, "it is well;" but Ata- 
 huallpa preserved an appearance of entire apathy and unconscious- 
 ness till Hernando entreated a personal reply, when, with a slight 
 smile, he turned his head, and answered, "Tell your captain I am 
 keeping a fast, which will last till to-morrow morning; I will then 
 visit him, with certain of my nobles. Meanwhile, let him occupy 
 the public buildings on the square, and none other, till I come." As 
 he spoke, he looked with some interest on the war-horse of De Soto, 
 and that cavalier, giving his steed the rein, dashed swiftly across the 
 plain, displaying the power and speed of his animal. Returning in 
 
230 AMEKICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 fall career, lie reined the impatient cliarger short upon liis haunches, 
 so near the person of the inca, that the foam from his mouth lighted 
 on the imperial garments; but Atahuallpa still preserved a demean- 
 our of calm and almost unconscious apathy. Eeturning, the emissa- 
 ries dismayed their companions with an account of the power and 
 state of the inca, and the formidable number of his army — an alarm- 
 ing report, fully confirmed at night by the sight of innumerable 
 watch-fires in the camp of the Peruvians. 
 
 GEAPTEH Y. 
 
 CRUEL AND AUDACIOUS SCHEME OF PIZARRO. — THE VISIT OF 
 THE INCA. SCENE WITH THE FRIAR VALVERDE. — TER- 
 RIBLE MASSACRE OF THE PERUVIANS. — SEIZURE OF 
 THE INCA. — HIS FORTITUDE. — PLUNDER OF THE ' 
 CITY AND CAMP. — EXTRAORDINARY OFFER OF RAN- 
 SOM. — THE MURDER OF HUASCAR. 
 
 Whether Pizarro had undertaken his march with any definite 
 purpose of violence or attempted conquest, it is not easy to conjec- 
 ture; but, his followers once placed in a position whence there could 
 be no retreat, he resolved on a course the most audacious, perfidious, 
 and perhaps hazardous that could be conceived. This was nothing 
 less than to follow the daring example of Cortes in that conquest 
 which doubtless seemed a model to all adventurers of his day — to 
 seize the person of the inca, and thus at once to secure the obedi- 
 ence of his realms. He neglected nothing which could animate the 
 courage, rapacity and fanaticism of his soldiers; and the chaplains 
 of the expedition, well knowing the fearfully hazardous nature of 
 the attempt, spent the whole night in "discipline" (self-flagellation, it 
 would seem), in weeping, and in prayer "that God would award due 
 success to his most sacred service, the exaltation of the faith, and the 
 salvation of such a number of souls I" 
 
 Pizarro then made his force "a right Christian harangue," and all 
 raised their voices in the solemn chant, "Arise, oh Lord, and judge 
 thy cause!" "One might have supposed them," says Mr. Prescott, 
 "a company of martyrs, about to lay down their lives in defence of 
 
THE CONQUEST AND IIISTOEY OF PEEU. 231 
 
 tlieii* faith, instead of a licentious band of adventurers, meditating 
 one of the most atrocious acts of perfidy on the recoi'd of history 1" 
 These pious preliminaries adjusted, Pizarro posted them, sword in 
 hand, in the numerous halls and passages opening into the square, 
 with orders, at the discharge of a musket, to rush forth, and make 
 an indiscriminate slaughter of the Peruvian nobles. 
 
 All day these fierce and cruel men, in a fever of impatience, re- 
 mained on their arms — for the inca did not take up his march till 
 noon, and the cumbrous pomp of the imperial progress delayed his 
 journey so long that he proposed to defer his entrance until morning. 
 But an artful message from Pizarro induced him to proceed, and, 
 surrounded by an immense crowd of nobles, resplendent with golden 
 ornaments, he approached the city. At the gate-way, as a token of 
 good faith, he ordered all his attendants to lay aside their arms. 
 
 " A little before sunset, he entered the great square, borne on a 
 splendid throne of massive gold, overshadowed with the plumes of 
 the gay birds of the tropics. Before him went four hundred menials, 
 clearing the way, and singing their national chants, 'which in our 
 ears,' says one of the Spaniards, 'sounded like the Songs of Hell.' 
 From his lofty position, the inca calmly surveyed the multitude of 
 his followers, who formed around him in courtly order. When 
 about six thousand of them had entered the square, he looked around 
 inquiringly, and said, ' Where are the strangers?' At this word came 
 forward the reverend Father Yalverde, Pizarro's chaplain, with a 
 crucifix in one hand and a breviary in the other, and made a long 
 harangue, commencing with the Creation, and thence proceeding 
 through the fall of Adam, the incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrec- 
 tion, the appointment of St. Peter as God's vicar on earth, the apos- 
 tolical succession of Popes, the bull in favor of Castile, and ending 
 logically with a formal demand that the inca should submit his spir- 
 itual guidance to the Pope, and his temporal allegiance to the king 
 of Spain. All this was duly translated' by the interpreter, Felipillo, 
 who, by way of expounding the doctrine of the Trinity, explained 
 tx) his royal auditor that 'The Christians had Three Gods and One 
 God, making Four in all.' 
 
 "'To the which words,' says a bystander, 'and much besides that 
 the Reverend Father said, he remained silent without returning a 
 reply. He then said he would see what God had commanded, as 
 he was told, in the book ; so he took the book and opened it, and 
 looked it over, examining the form and arrangement.' He next held 
 
232 AMEEICA ILLUSTKATED. 
 
 it to his ear, and saying contemptuously ' this tells me nothing,' flung 
 it angrily away. Then, with a countenance flushed with emotion, 
 he made answer to such portions of the address as he had been able 
 to comprehend. He would be no man's tributary, he said ; and as 
 for the great priest beyond the waters, he must be mad to talk of 
 giving away countries which he had never seen. Nor would he 
 change his faith. The God of the Christians, according to their own 
 account, had been slain by his own creatures, but the eternal Sun, the 
 ^reat Deity of Peru, still shone on his glorious and beneficent course 
 through, the firmament. Excited by the insults he had received, he 
 declared that the Spaniards should render a strict account of their 
 doings in his territories. The discomfited friar, seeing the ill suc- 
 cess of his eloquence, picked up the book, bowed his head, and has- 
 tened to Pizarro. 'Did you see what passed?' he cried — 'while we 
 waste time in fooleries and arguments with this dog, full of pride, 
 the square is filling with Indians. Set on them at once! I' absolve 
 you.' The fatal gun, the signal of slaughter, was fired, and the 
 Spaniards, horse and foot, rushed furiously from their lurking-places. 
 Taken by surprise, utterly unarmed, and bewildered by the unwonted 
 discharge of artillery and fire-arms, the unhappy victims were slaugh- 
 tered without the slightest means of resistance. The nobles, with 
 affecting devotion, flung themselves before their master, to receive 
 the blows of the murderers, and, by clinging to the legs of their 
 horses, and striving to pull the riders from their saddles, for some 
 time kept back the press from his person. But they died by hun- 
 dreds around him, and Pizarro, darting through the throng, seized 
 his captive with his own hand. A most wanton and merciless 
 slaughter was still kept up, and did not cease till the shades of night 
 blinded the assassins, and 
 
 'The hand which slew till it could slay no more 
 Was glued to the sword-hilt with Indian gore.' 
 
 "Within less than an hour, four thousand of the unarmed and harm- 
 less multitude that had so gaily entered the square, with their songs 
 and their holiday attire, lay murdered on the pavement. A more 
 atrocious and unprovoked massacre is not recorded in history. Not 
 one of the Spaniards had received an injury."* 
 
 Atahuallpa, with true Indian stoicism, despite this tremendous 
 reverse and all its appalling concomitants, maintained his accustomed 
 
 * Discoverers, &c., of America. ^ 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HISTORY OF PERU. 233 
 
 serenity. As he sat at supper with the victor, he remarked simply, 
 "It is the fortune of war," but no expression of emotion escaped his 
 statue-like lips, or betrayed itself in the usual stern gravity of his 
 face. The next day, the prisoners, of whom a great number had 
 been taken, after having been compelled to cleanse the square and 
 bury the corpses of the victims, were mostly dismissed. Numbers, 
 however, were retained by the Spaniards as attendants; and the 
 army of the inca, terrified at the seizure of their sovereign and the 
 massacre of the nobles, gradually melted away and dispersed without 
 any attempt to avenge the outrage. The plunder of the city and the 
 camp was exceedingly valuable, and it is said that in the royal mag- 
 azines the quantity of fabrics delicately wrought in wool was suf- 
 ficient to freight several ships. 
 
 The captive inca espied a hope in the greediness for gold with 
 which he saw the invaders possessed; and he offered, if Pizarro 
 would release him, to cover the floor of the apartment in which they 
 stood with gold. Seeing the indecision of his captor, he redoubled 
 his offers, and standing on tiptoe, pledged himself to fill it with the 
 precious metal as high as he could reach. Pizarro, hoping, at least, 
 to secure a portion of this magnificent bribe, at once accepted the 
 proposition, and a line, nine feet from the floor, was drawn around 
 the room, which was twenty-two feet long and seventeen broad. A 
 smaller apartment was also to be twice filled with silver, and a solemn 
 contract, assuring the inca his liberty on payment of this unheard- 
 of ransom, was drawn up. He issued orders, forthwith, to his officers, 
 that the golden ornaments from the palaces and temples throughout 
 the empire, should be sent to Caxamalca. 
 
 The ill-fated Huascar, who was confined in a city not far distant, 
 now, by alluring offers, endeavoured to secure the favour of the Span- 
 iards, hoping by their means to regain the throne ; but Atahuallpa, 
 with a dark and cruel policy, availing himself of the power yet 
 remaining in his hands, avenged the attempted intrigue by an order 
 for his secret execution. He was privately drowned in the river 
 Andamarca, and his brother, acting the part almost invariably 
 selected by the royal authors of such deeds, affected deep sorrow, 
 and laid all the blame on his officers. 
 
284 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 CHAPTEH ?L 
 
 THE EXPEDITION TO PACHACAMAC. — THE SPOILS OF CUZCO — 
 
 DIVISION OF IMMENSE TREASUEE. THE ATROCIOUS TRIAL, 
 
 SENTENCE, AND MURDER OF ATAHUALLPA. HYPOCRISY 
 
 OF PIZARRO. — REFLECTIONS. — FATE OF THE MURDERERS. 
 
 i 
 
 Hernando Pizarro, with a small force, was now dispatched to 
 Pachacamac, the Peruvian Mecca, a hundred leagues distant. On 
 the way he was struck with admiration at the massive excellence of 
 the road, the innumerable herds of llamas which pastured in the 
 hills, and the frequent signs of industry and dense population. The 
 treasures of the temple, however, had been removed by the priests. 
 and the only satisfaction he had was in the destruction of their most 
 venerated idol. He also ("in default of a better," he modestly re- 
 marks) made a sermon to the people, and taught them the sign of 
 the cross, as a charm against the devil. He then marched to Xauxa, 
 where a portion of the Peruvian army lay encamped, under Challcu- 
 chima, the inca's chief general; and that commander, to secure 
 whose person the Spaniard was anxious, willingly accompanied him 
 to Caxamalca. In spite of Indian stoicism, the old chief was affected 
 to tears at the sight of his imprisoned master. "Would that I had 
 been here!" he exclaimed; "this would not then have happened." 
 
 Great quantities of gold, in plates or wrought into ornaments, con- 
 tinued to pour into the Spanish camp; and, at the instance of 
 Atahuallpa, Pizarro dispatched a small embassy to Cuzco, to secure 
 the treasures of that ancient capital of the incas. Borne on the 
 shoulders of the natives for six hundred miles, these emissaries, 
 apparently a coarse and brutal-minded set, arrived at the city, where 
 they were bewildered with the splendour of its treasures — though not 
 to such an extent as to preclude their instant seizure of all that 
 appeared portable. Seven hundred plates of gold were stripped 
 from the Temple of the Sun alone, and with eight hundred Indians, 
 laden with gold and silver, they took their way back to the Spanish 
 camp. Meanwhile, Almagro, with a reinforcement of two hundred 
 men, had arrived at San Miguel, and on learning the startling events 
 which had transpired, hastened, with his command, to the camp at 
 Caxamalca. (February, 1533). 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HISTOEY OF PEEU. 285 
 
 Though the room was not quite filled with gold to the stipulated 
 height, Pizarro thought it prudent to satisfy the clamours of his men 
 hj an immediate division of the spoil. A fifth part was set aside 
 for the Spanish sovereign, and with it were selected some splendid 
 specimens of Peruvian art — among them beautiful imitations of the 
 Indian corn, the ear being composed of yellow gold, and the husk, 
 partly open, with the beard or tassel, of silver. With these, Her- 
 nando was to proceed to Spain, and fortify the interests of his family 
 at court. The remainder of the treasure was mostly melted into 
 bars, and its value, on estimation, proved equal to that of fifteen 
 millions of dollars at the present day — being the greatest amount of 
 plunder, in proportion to the number of marauders, ever acquired 
 by military violence. The share of Pizarro, including the throne of 
 the inca, formed of solid gold, amounted to nearly a million. The 
 cavalry received an hundred thousand each, and the infantry half 
 that amount. Despite of ancient agreement and present remon- 
 strance, Almagro and his people were not permitted to receive more 
 than a nominal share of the spoil. 
 
 Meanwhile, the inca was still detained in captivity, and was even 
 secured with a chain ; while Pizarro darkly revolved the means of 
 ridding himself of one who could yield him no further service, and 
 Vv^hose very existence, considering the devoted loyalty of his people, 
 was a source of constant uneasiness to his gaolers. Atahuallpa, the 
 treasure distributed, had earnestly demanded his liberation, and the 
 Spanish general, with a vile affectation of good faith, which makes 
 his treachery and cruelty more hideous still, caused his notary to 
 execute a full receipt for the stipulated ransom. But a pretext for 
 the destruction of the unfortunate sovereign was already prepared; 
 and Pizarro, to secure himself from interference, dispatched De Soto, 
 a cavalier of high qualities, and a friend of the intended victim, on 
 a distant expedition. He then taxed his captive with a pretended 
 plot for insurrection, and the latter, secretly alarmed, but with an 
 air of gayety, replied, "You are always jesting with me. What am 
 I or my people, that we should take arms against you? * Do not 
 utter such jests." "I was amazed," says Pizarro, in his account, 
 "to see such cunning in an Indian." 
 
 Nevertheless, a villanous indictment, charging the prisoner with 
 idolatry, usurpation, adultery, and intended insurrection, was pres- 
 ently hatched up — "a badly-contrived and worse-written document," 
 says a Spanish contemporary, "devised by a factious and unprinci* 
 
236 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 pled priest, a clumsy notary without conscience, and others of the 
 like stamp, who were all concerned in this villany." On the strength 
 of this shameful instrument, Pizarro and Almagro, sitting as judges, 
 with the assistance of the murderous Friar Yalverde, went through 
 the mockery of a trial. The testimony of Indian witnesses, (falsified 
 by the interpretation of Felipillo, a creature of Pizarro's, and a per- 
 sonal enemy of the inca,) was taken, and judgment was given that 
 the victim should be burned alive the same night in the square of 
 Caxamalca. The honourable remonstrances of several Spanish offi- 
 cers, who handed in a written protest against this -atrocity, were of 
 no avail. The unhappy prisoner, on hearing the cruel sentence, 
 exclaimed, with tears, " What have I done, or my children, that 1 
 should meet such a fate? and from your hands, too," he said, turn- 
 ing to Pizarro; "you, who have met with friendship and kindness 
 from my people, with whom I have shared my treasures, who have 
 received nothing but benefits at my hands!" 
 
 Then, with affecting eagerness, he offered fresh treasures; but 
 Pizarro, turning aside in refusal, (with tears, it is said, but with his 
 cruel purpose unchanged,) the victim resumed the stoicism which, 
 but for a moment, had forsaken him, and thenceforward displayed 
 only calmness and fortitude. 
 
 In the evening (August 29th) he was conducted, in presence of 
 the whole army, by torch-light, to the stake. Yalverde, with eager 
 importunity, continued to urge that he should embrace the Christian 
 faith, promising that, if he would comply, the milder death of the 
 ^arro^e* ■ should be substituted for the agonies of cremation. Pi- 
 zarro confirmed the offer, and the inca, from a singular but affecting 
 superstition, complied. He believed, we are told by one who was 
 present, that if his body was not destroyed by fire, "the Sun, his 
 father, would the next morning restore him to life." Accordingly 
 he received the travesty of baptism, with the name of Juan, ("in 
 honour of St. John the Baptist!") and turning to Pizarro, besought 
 him to protect his orphan children. He then, with calmness, sub- 
 mitted to his fate, while the Spaniards, muttering prayers for his 
 salvation, beheld the last of the incas perish by the death of the 
 vilest of malefactors. The body was laid out in state in the church, 
 and the obsequies of the royal convert were celebrated with much 
 solemnity. De Soto, on his return, horrified by the tidings, rushed 
 
 * An instrument contrived to effect strangulation and rupture of the vertebrae of 
 the neck — still used in the Spanish provin<3e8. 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HISTORY OF PERU. 237 
 
 into tlie presence of Pizarro, whom he found, says a writer of the 
 day, " exhibiting much sentiment, with a great felt hat clapped on 
 his head, and wall pulled over his eyes." To the indignant com- 
 plaints of that officer, the agents in this devilish act replied by 
 mutual accusations, and attempts to throw the entire blame on the 
 shoulders of each other. 
 
 " Thus ends one of the very darkest pages of Spanish and Amer- 
 ican history. No reader of feelmg or reflection will require comment 
 on a deed bearing in its face the brand of such odious perfidy, 
 ingratitude and cruelty. In return for his own good faith, for the 
 submission of his empire, for the surrender of unhoped treasure, the 
 unhappy victim met with imprisonment, chains, and the sentence to 
 a cruel and revolting death. Despite his pompous affectation of 
 regret, (remorse he may well have felt,) the burden of this damning 
 infamy rests almost entirely on the head of Pizarro. Whatever 
 instruments he employed, the deed was his own — a deed which 
 could never have been committed by any but such as himself— men 
 naturally fierce, rapacious and cruel, uneducated, save in the super- 
 stitions of a wretched dogmatism, and trained from childhood to 
 scenes of blood, oppression, and violence. Doubtless a dark and 
 cruel policy was his main and prompting motive; but it is said that 
 the incentive of personal pique was not wanting. The imprisoned 
 inca, delighting in the mysterious art of writing, (which he regarded 
 as a new sense,) had caused the name of God to be inscribed on his 
 nail, and had presented it to each of the soldiers, charmed with 
 their ready and concurrent response. Pizarro, who had never learned 
 to read, was unable to answer him; and the ill-concealed contempt 
 of the inca, it is said, awakened a hatred in the heart of his con- 
 queror, that ere long found its bloody gratification. 
 
 "To one who, like the ancient Greek, believes in an avenging 
 Nemesis, there is something very comfortable in recalling the violent 
 deaths which befell nearly all the actors in this doleful tragedy — 
 though little reflection is needed to show that the evil wishes and 
 undisciplined passions which prompted the crime, only worked out 
 their legitimate end in involving its' authors in fresh and fatal 
 adventures. Old Purchas (abating one or two mistakes in fact, such 
 as the complicity of Soto,) gives, in a few words, a more terse and 
 edifying version of their end than any writer on the subject. ' But 
 God the righteous ludge, seeing this villanous act, suffered none of 
 those Spaniards to die by the course of nature, but brought them to 
 
238 ~ AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED 
 
 euill and shamefall ends. * * * jjjg' (Ataliuallpa's) 
 •Murtlierers dyed, it is said, the like bloudy ends; Almagro was 
 executed by Pigarro^ and hee slaine by yong Almagro; and him 
 Vacca de Castro did likewise put to death. lohn Picarro was slaine 
 of the Indians. Martin an other of the brethren was slaine with 
 Francis. Ferdinandus was imprisoned in Spaine and his end vn- 
 knowne; Gonzales was done to death by Gasca. Soto dyed of 
 thought in Florida ; and ciuill warres eate vp the reste in Peru.'* "f 
 
 CHAPTER ?H. 
 
 EXECUTION OP CIIALLCUCHIMA. — INDIAN HOSTILITIES. — 
 
 ENTRANCE OF THE SPANIARDS INTO CUZCO. MORE TREAS- 
 
 - URE. INAUGURATION OF THE INCA MANCO CAPAC — 
 
 LIMA FOUNDED. DISPUTES BETWEEN ALMAGRO AND 
 
 THE PIZARROS. RISING OF THE INDIANS. SIEGE 
 
 OF CUZCO. MASSACRE OF THE SPANIARDS. 
 
 CIVIL WAR BET WEE NT HE SPANISH GENERALS. 
 DEFEAT AND EXECUTION OF ALMAGRO. 
 
 His crime accomplished, 
 
 " The most arch deed of piteous massacre 
 That ever yet this land was guilty of," 
 
 Pizarro, with five hundred Spaniards and many Indians, set out for 
 Cuzco, defeating on the way, at Xauxa, a large hostile native force, 
 but sustaining some loss in an unlucky expedition, headed by De 
 Soto. A fresh instance of cruelty disgraced his march in the murder 
 of Challcuchima, to whose encouragement he attributed these hostil- 
 ities, and whom, with habitual cruelty, he ordered to be burned alive. 
 The old chief, despite the exhortations of Yalverde, at the stake, 
 declined conversion, saying only, "I do not understand the religion 
 of the white men," and undergoing his cruel fate with true Indian 
 fortitude, the name of " Pachacamac," the last word upon his lips. 
 
 « Discoverers, Sic, of America. 
 
 j- Valverde, perhaps as culpable as any, gained the bishopric of Cuzco, the grand 
 object of his ambition; but a few years afterwards perished, with others, in a mas- 
 sacre by the Indians. 
 
THE CONQUEST AND llISTOliY OF PEKU. 239 
 
 To countervail the anarchy which had already begun to prevail 
 among the numerous tribes of Peru, the Spanish commander, with 
 all practicable ceremony, had invested Toparca, a brother of his 
 chief victim, with the imperial dignity. But this youth died on the 
 march, and soon afterwards, a young Peruvian noble, numerously 
 attended, presented himself in the Spanish camp. This was Manco 
 Capac, a brother of Huascar, who now claimed the throne, and to 
 whom the general, hoping to find him a pliable tool, returned en- 
 couraging replies. On the 15th of November, 1533, the Spanish 
 and Indian army entered Cuzco, amid the eager gaze of a vast mul- 
 titude of natives, who had thronged to behold the terrible strangers. 
 The population of the city alone, it is said, was some hundreds of 
 thousands, and the Spaniards were surprised at the evidences of art 
 and refinement — the forts and houses of stone, admirably wrought, 
 the pavement of the same material, and the aqueduct supplying the 
 city with water. 
 
 Fresh plunder, much of it obtained by torture, repaid the cruelty 
 of the invaders, though the amount was less than had already been 
 gained as the ransom of the unfortunate inca. Yast hoards of treasure, 
 it is said, were buried in various parts of the country by the Peru- 
 vians, who thus defrauded the rapacity of their conquerors. Enough, 
 however, was obtained to enhance the value of European articles to 
 almost fabulous prices, and to gratify the national passion for gaming 
 to its wildest and most ruinous extent. 
 
 Pizarro, supposing his obedience reliable, now invested the young 
 Inca Manco with the imperial title, the national ceremonies being 
 solemnly performed; and then immediately proceeded with his plans 
 for the subjection and settlement of the country. The people, 
 apparently satisfied with the nominal coronation of a native sovereign, 
 opposed little and ineffectual resistance to the supremacy of the 
 invaders. Near Pachacamac, in the beautiful valley of Rimac, the 
 victor, in January, 1535, commenced the foundation of a stately cap- 
 ital, which he called "Ciudad de los Reyes" (City of the Kings), but 
 which, under the name of Lima, still retains nearly its original 
 appellation. Under the toiling hands of a vast multitude of Indian 
 labourers, a massive city, with palaces, churches, and public build- 
 ings, rapidly arose, and to this day it remains one of the fairest and 
 most populous capitals of the New World. 
 
 Hernando, in January, 1532, with an immense treasure, arrived 
 in Spain, where he readily procured from the emperor a full con- 
 
240 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 firmation of the acts and authority of his brother; and with a 
 numerous and well-appointed force of adventurers, attracted by the 
 brilliant tidings of plunder and conquest, again set sail for the isth- 
 mus. A royal grant was likewise made to Almagro, empowering 
 him to conquer and rule a principality of his own, extending two 
 hundred leagues south of that of Pizarro. That ambitious and ill- 
 used commander, on receiving the news, insisted that Cuzco, where 
 he was quartered, lay within the limits of his jurisdiction; and a 
 civil war between the two factions was only prevented by the address 
 of Pizarro, who hastened to the scene, and once more patched up a 
 hollow treaty with his rival. It was especially provided that neither 
 should malign or disparage the other in their dispatches to the court, 
 and both parties once more invoked the curses of Heaven on their 
 heads, if they should violate the agreement. Their jealous enmity 
 thus, for the moment, appeased, Almagro set forth on his expedition 
 for the conquest of the realms of the South. (See History of Chili.) 
 
 The young inca, Manco Capac, though he had readily accepted, 
 and even solicited elevation to power at the hands of the Conqueror, 
 was not blind to the degradation of his name or the enslavement of 
 his country. Plotting the extermination of the invaders, he had 
 entrusted to his brother and the High-priest of the Sun, who accom- 
 panied Almagro, a secret errand of insurrection to the distant caciques. 
 Suspicion being excited, he was arrested, and placed in close confine- 
 ment; but, by an ingenious stratagem, effected his escape. Having 
 won the confidence of Hernando Pizarro, his guardian, by successive 
 disclosures of concealed treasure, he was suffered to depart, with a 
 small escort, to bring to Cuzco a statue of his father, the Inca Huayna 
 Capac, of pure gold, which he said had been deposited in a cave of 
 the Andes. Hernando, soon finding himself duped, dispatched his 
 brother Juan, with sixty horse, in pursuit of the fugitive ; but that 
 officer was presently met by an army of several thousand Indians, 
 under command of Manco himself, and was compelled to retreat, 
 hotly pursued, to the native capital. 
 
 He found that city surrounded by an immense force of Peruvians 
 — it is said, two hundred thousand strong — which, armed with cop- 
 per-headed spears and axes, presented a brilliant and terrible appear- 
 ance. Singular to state, this overwhelming array opened its ranks, 
 and allowed the little body of Spanish cavaliers to pass unmolested 
 into the town — their object, most likely, being to secure the destruc- 
 tion of as many of the invaders as possible. (February, 1536.) 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HISTOKY OF PEEU. 241 
 
 On the following morning they assaulted the city with innumera- 
 ble missiles, and by burning arrows fired the roofs, which, being 
 mostly composed of thatch, were peculiarly liable to conflagi'ation. 
 For several days the fire raged destructively, and consumed more 
 than half the city. The Spaniards, only two hundred in number, 
 with a thousand Indian allies, strongly posted, held out bravely; 
 and being well supplied with cavalry, made several sallies, with 
 much effect, upon the thick masses of their besiegers. Their distress 
 was great, on perceiving, from the heads which the enemy threw 
 among them, that a general slaughter of their countrymen in the 
 adjoining regions had occurred. Several of the Indians had Eu- 
 ropean armour and horses, and the young inca, splendidly mounted' 
 and wielding a long lance, appeared in the front of the conflict. 
 From a great citadel, commanding the Spanish quarters, the besieged 
 were annoyed by showers of missiles; but Hernando, by a surprise 
 in the night, after desperate fighting, took it by storm. In this 
 assault perished Juan Pizarro, whose memory is burdened with less 
 odium than that of his kindred; and the commander of the fort, an 
 inca noble of gigantic stature and desperate courage, after slaying 
 with his huge mace a number of assailants, seeing all was in vain, 
 flung himself headlong from the summit. 
 
 The insurrection, managed with extraordinary secrecy and sud- 
 denness, had been so far successful that several hundreds of the 
 Spaniards, in different places, had been slain^ and Lima itself, at one 
 time, had been in a state of siege. The governor, after defeating 
 the enemy around him, dispatched to the assistance of his brothers 
 in Cuzco several detachments of Spaniards, amounting, in all, to four 
 hundred, none of whom, however, succeeded in reaching it, being 
 attacked and mostly cut off, in the Cordilleras, by the overwhelming 
 forces of the Peruvians. Pizarro, as a last resort, sent letters, entreat- 
 ing assistance from Alvarado, the conqueror of Gruatemala, and from 
 other provincial governors, even offering to share with them the 
 future conquests which might be made in South America. Mean- 
 while, the little garrison of Cuzco, wonderful to state, still managed, 
 by the strength of their position, the superiority of their arms, and 
 some fortunate supplies, to hold out against the numerous host by 
 which they were surrounded; and the Indian army, gradually less- 
 ening, and at length suffering from want of provisions, after a siege 
 of five months, mostly dispersed, and betook itself to the planting 
 of the annual crops. 
 
 Vol. til -10 
 
242 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 The Inca Manco, with a portion of his force, withdrew to TambO; 
 a stronghold not far from the city, and hostilities were still briskly 
 carried on. Hernando, who attempted to storm this place in a night 
 attack, was repulsed, after three desperate assaults, by the inca, and 
 was compelled, with the enemy hanging closely on his rear, to regain, 
 by a forced march, his quarters at Cuzco. The triumphant Peru- 
 vians, however, falling upon Almagro, on his return from the dis- 
 astrous expedition to Chili, in the valley of Yucay, met with a 
 signal defeat. 
 
 That active and ambitious commander, the old grudge against his 
 false associate still rankling in his mind, now determined on reas- 
 serting by force his claim to the Peruvian capital. Accordingly, on 
 a dark and stormy night, he succeeded in taking the garrison by 
 surprise, and made prisoners of Hernando and Gonzalo Pizarro. 
 Immediately after this signal success, he marched against one Alva- 
 rado, a general of Pizarro's, defeated him, and brought him, with 
 nearly all his force of five hundred men, prisoners to Cuzco. Th^ 
 governor, enraged and alarmed at these misfortunes, was unable, for 
 the time, to avenge them. He dispatched Espinosa, one of the chief 
 patrons of his original enterprise, to Cuzco, to attempt negotiations, 
 awaiting, meanwhile, the strengthening of his forces. Gonzalo and 
 Alvarado contrived to effect their escape, and Almagro finally con- 
 sented to refer the matters in dispute to a friar, named Bobadilla. 
 This umpire, the creature of Pizarro, decided every point in favour 
 of the latter, who, however, was enabled to obtain the release of 
 Hernando only by assenting to more liberal conditions. 
 
 This object once attained, without the slightest regard to stipula- 
 tions, he at once recommenced hostilities, and dispatched Hernando, 
 with an army of seven hundred men, against his detested rival. 
 Almagro, with a somewhat smaller force, encountered him not far 
 from the city ; but being disabled, by old age and infirmities, from 
 leading his troops, was compelled to survey the scene of conflict 
 from a litter. His lieutenant, Orgonez, a cavalier of great ferocity 
 and bravery, took 'the command, and contested the battle, which 
 was desperate in the extreme. Two hundred were killed on the 
 field, but the partisans of Pizarro finally triumphed. Almagro was 
 made prisoner, and Orgonez, with others, was ferociously murdered 
 jifter surrender — a circumstance demonstrating the extreme hatred 
 and rancour which prevailed between the two factions. (April, 1538.) 
 The defeated general, after the mockery of a protracted trial, con- 
 
THE CONQUEST AND IIISTOEY OF PERU. 2±o 
 
 ducted by Hernando, was sentenced to execution. He had always 
 been noted for bis extreme daring, and bad probably seen more 
 hard fighting than any other man in Peru. Yet, strange to record, 
 he begged piteously for his life — a degradation which availed him 
 nothing, for he was privately dealt with in his dungeon, by the 
 infamous garrote. 
 
 CHAPTEH Yin. 
 
 MISSION OF HERNANDO. HIS FATE. EXPEDITION OF GON- 
 
 ZALO PHAERO. DISCOVERY OF AND VOYAGE DOWN THE 
 
 AMAZON. — TERRIBLE SUFFERINGS. — CONSPIRACY AGAINST 
 PIZARRO BY THE PARTISANS OF ALMAGRO. — HIS ASSAS- 
 SINATION. HIS CHARACTER, ETC. 
 
 Dreading lest they should be called to account for this high 
 handed dealing with an officer of the crown, the Pizarros resolved 
 to dispatch Hernando,,with a great treasure, to fortify their interests 
 at court. Accordingly, two years after the death of Almagro, he 
 reached Spain, but met with a cold reception from the emperor. 
 Singularly enough, the influence of a devoted adherent of the Alma- 
 gran faction was found sufficient to outweigh his own, though backed 
 by all the wealth of Peru. He was arrested, and for twenty years 
 was kept in close imprisonment, not being able to obtain his release 
 until 1560. At that time all his brothers were dead, and Peru had 
 passed under the rule of others. 
 
 Meanwhile, the Peruvians, defeated and discouraged, had, in great 
 measure, desisted from hostilities; and the Inca Manco, on one occa- 
 sion, was so hard pressed as to be compelled to take refuge, with 
 only a single female companion, out of his numerous "harem, in the 
 savage recesses of the Andes. Gathering a force, however, and sal- 
 lying at intervals from his stronghold in the mountains, he inflicted 
 much damage on the Spaniards ; and Pizarro, with a vile revenge, 
 tortured to death one of the wives of the revolted prince, a young 
 and beautiful woman, whom chance had thrown into his hands. "It 
 seems to me," writes one of the conquerors, ''that our Lord punished 
 4iim for this, in the end he met." But, for the most part, the natives 
 
244 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 of Peru appeared completely overawed by the continually-increasing 
 force of the Spaniards. 
 
 The country, of course, from the brilliant attractions presented by 
 Its wealth and enhanced by the sagacious policy of Pizarro, was 
 settled with extraordinary rapidity. The government of Quito had 
 been assigned to his brother Gonzalo, a man of high enterprise, who 
 presently made great preparations for fresh discovery. With three 
 hundred and fifty Spaniards and four thousand Indians, driving a 
 vast herd of swine, as a resource against famine, in the year 1540, 
 he set forth for the eastward. Crossing the Andes, amid terrible 
 difficulties, he entered the Land of Cinnamon, and thence, attracted 
 hj alluring reports of treasure, pressed onward to the ISTapo, one of 
 the tributaries of the Amazon. By this time, all the swina as well 
 as a thousand dogs provided for warfare with the natives, had been 
 devoured or lost, or had perished on the way; and the adventurers, 
 suffering grievously from famine, were compelled to feed on wild 
 roots, on toads and other loathsome reptiles, and finally even on the 
 leather of their belts and saddles. 
 
 To evade the almost insurmountable difficulties of following the 
 liver, Gonzalo commenced the building of a vessel, converting the 
 shoes of the horses into nails, and the ragged garments of the sol- 
 diers into oakum. By two imonths of constant labour, it was com- 
 pleted, and Francisco de Orellana, with a small crew, was put in 
 command, with directions to proceed down the river and procure 
 supplies. After waiting a long time in vain for his return, the 
 army again took up its march along the banks, and, after two months 
 more of extreme toil and suffering, reached the Amazon. From a 
 Spaniard who had here been set ashore by Orellana, they learned 
 that that commander, carried downward by a fierce current, had 
 reached the Great Eiver in only three days; that finding it impossi- 
 ble to return against it, he had abandoned his companions to their 
 fate, and continued his course down the Amazon. Extraordinary 
 to relate, after the most memorable inland voyage on record, he 
 reached the sea, and arrived safely in Spain. No course now re- 
 mained for Gonzalo but to retrace his steps, and accordingly, after 
 more than a year consumed in this terrible march, and an equal 
 time in the return, in June, 1542, with the remnant of his command, 
 he succeeded in regaining his capital of Quito. Only eighty of th'j 
 Spaniards and one half the Indians had survived. 
 
 The triumph of Pizarro at the downfall of his ancient lival, waa 
 
TUE CONQUEST AND HISTOKY OF PERU. 245 
 
 insolent in the extreme. To those who urged the hereditary rights 
 of young Almagro, (son of the defeated general,) he answered sharply 
 "that his own government covered all on this side Flanders." All 
 the estates of the "Men of Chili," as the Almagran faction was 
 called, were mercilessly confiscated, and the shattered remains of 
 that once powerful party, with the young chief at their head, betook 
 themselves to Lima, where they sought in vain for redress or con 
 sideration. Sunk in the most wretched poverty, the keenness of 
 which was aggravated by the sneers of their triumphant enemies, 
 these unfortunate partisans finally became desperate. Pizarro, how- 
 ever, treated their enmity with undisguised contempt, answering to 
 those who cautioned him against them, "Poor devils! they have had 
 bad luck enough. We will not trouble them more. * * Be 
 under no concern," he haughtily answered to further remonstrances, 
 "about my life. It is safe enough so long as every man in Peru 
 knows that I can in a moment cut off any head that dares to harbour 
 a thought against it." 
 
 The chiefs of the despised faction, in despair at a report of the loss 
 of Yaca de Castro, (who had been appointed by the crown as arbi- 
 trator of these civil discords,) at last, in their extremity, resolved on 
 the assassination of the viceroy.* One of their number, through 
 conscientious scruples, revealed the plot in confession, and the con- 
 fessor hastened to lay the particulars before the government. But 
 Pizarro, deeming the statement impossible, said, "The priest wants 
 a bishopric," and was with difficulty persuaded by his friends to stay 
 at home on the day appointed for his destruction. 
 
 On that day (Sunday, June 26, 1541,) the conspirators, twenty in 
 number, were assembled at the house of Almagro, resolved to fall on 
 the governor as he retijrned from mass. Perceiving, from his absence, 
 that their plot was discovered or at least suspected, in a species of 
 desperation, they rushed into the street, crying, "Long live the king I 
 death to the tyrant I" Pizarro, at the time, was at dinner, with a 
 number of his friends, when a breathless domestic entered the room, 
 crying, "Help! help I all the Men of Chili are coming to murder the 
 Marquis !" Most of the guests, being unarmed, fled precipitately into 
 the garden, and Pizarro ordered Chaves, one of his officers, to keep 
 the door, while he buckled on his armour. That cavalier, however, 
 attempting to parley with the assailants, was instantly slain, and his 
 body was flung down the stairs. Martin de Alcantara, Pizarro'a 
 half-brother, who was assisting the latter with his armour, next 
 
246 AMERICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 sprang to the door, and, witli a few of the governor's household, 
 defended it vahantly; but, after doing some execution, was over 
 powered and slain. 
 
 Pizarro now flung away his cuirass, which he had vainly endeav- 
 oured to buckle on, and, with a cloak wrapped round his left arm, 
 sword in hand, sprang like a lion into the fray. "Ha, traitors!" 
 shouted the old viceroy, "have you come to kill me in my own 
 house! Courage, my friends, we are yet enough to make them 
 repent their audacity." He killed three of the conspirators with his 
 own hand, but was at last struck to the earth by the numerous 
 weapons of his enemies. Seeing his death, he besought a confessor, 
 but none was at hand ; and, tracing a cross on the floor with his own 
 blood, and attempting to kiss it, he murmured, " Jesul" and yielded 
 up his soul under numerous sword-thrusts. The triumphant assas- 
 sins rushed into the street, brandishing their bloody swords, and 
 crying, "The tyrant is dead! Long live the emperor and his gov- 
 ernor, Almagro." 
 
 The Men of Chili, still three hundred in number, at once rallied 
 around their youthful chief, and proclaimed him governor — the par- 
 tisans of Pizarro, completely overawed, venturing on no opposition. 
 That same night, the remains of the victim, wrapped in a coarse 
 cotton cloth, and attended only by his wife and a few black servants, 
 were huddled into an obscure grave in the corner of the cathedral. 
 They were afterwards, however, removed to a more honourable place, 
 and commemorated by a monument suitable to his high rank and 
 great achievements. 
 
 " Thus, at the age of about sixty-five, perished Francisco Pizarro, 
 the Conqueror of Peru, the most remarkable and perhaps the worst 
 man of that host of discoverers and conquero^B by whom the early 
 history of America has been illustrated and disgraced. His career 
 forms the best commentary on his character. Ambition and rapacity 
 appear to have been his ruling traits ; but he was not avaricious ; for 
 his immense acquisitions were devoted not merely to his own 
 aggrandizement, but to the nobler office of building cities, settling 
 colonies, and laying the foundations of an empire. Though bigoted 
 in the extreme, he had none of that crusading zeal which so emi- 
 nently distinguished Cortes, and he was far more anxious to seize 
 the treasures and to enslave the bodies of the Indians than to con 
 vert their souls. Doubtless, he was as brave as a man can be, and 
 possessed of a fortitude and perseverance perhaps surpassing that 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HISTOKY OF I'EEU. 247 
 
 of any character recorded in liistory. But he was cruel, remorseless, 
 and perfidious to the very extremest degree ; and his name has ever 
 t)een held in deserved execration by the great majority of mankind."* 
 
 \J d)di i/ru) iL Ju (Li iLii di tcoj o 
 
 7ACA DE CASTRO. — DEFEAT OF YOUNG ALMAGRO AT CHUPAS. — 
 
 BLASCO NUNEZ DE VELA. — UNPOPULAR DECREES. — REBELLION 
 
 HEADED BY GONZALO PIZARRO. — OVERTHROW OF TflE VICEROY. 
 
 By a singular coincidence, devoutly ascribed by an early writer 
 to the special interposition of Providence, a legitimate successor tc 
 the viceroyalty of Peru had already arrived in the New "World at the 
 time of Pizarro's assassination. This was the Licentiate Vaca de 
 Castro, who came over from Spain ostensibly as a royal commissioner 
 to lend the aid of his legal knowledge and ability in the adminis- 
 tration of government; but with private instructions to keep close 
 watch over Pizarro's conduct, and to make report to the Spanish 
 court of any undue assumption of power, or threatened infringement 
 of the royal prerogative. He was also provided with formal authority 
 to succeed to the government, in case of the death of the reigning 
 viceroy. 
 
 The timely approach of this official gave opportunity to the 
 opponents of the rebellious Men of Chili, to unite their forces and 
 take a definitive position. Alonzo de Alvarado, and Alvarez de 
 Ilolguin, two of the principal military officers of Pizarro, were both 
 in command of trusty and veteran troops, and readily lent their 
 assistance in opposition to the Almagran faction. Yaca de Castro 
 liad not been bred to arms, but the courage and spirit natural to a 
 Spanish cavalier sustained him in his dangerous position. He has- 
 tened to Quito, and collecting what forces he could muster, proclaimed 
 his commission, and prepared to enter upon a forcible assertion of 
 his rights. Messengers were dispatched in various directions to set 
 forth his claims in the more important towns. 
 
 Young Almagro, in the mean time, having furnished his little 
 army at Lima with abundance of martial equipments and with 
 * Discoverers, &c., of America. 
 
248 AMEEICA ILLUSTKATED. 
 
 horses, hastened to cut off the approach of Holguin, who, having 
 established the legitimate authority at Cuzco, was on his march to 
 join the forces of Alvarado. At this juncture the cause of the 
 insurgents suffered heavy loss by the death of the chief conspirator, 
 Juan de Eada. The quarrels between two rival claimants to his 
 position in the army occasioned such difficulties and delay, that 
 Holguin completed his march without impediment. 
 
 Almagro therefore proceeded to Cuzco, and having taken posses- 
 sion of the city, devoted himself to preparing his forces for the 
 anticipated struggle. Cannon were cast, under the superintendence 
 of Pedro de Candia himself, who had espoused Almagro's cause, and 
 gun-powder was manufactured, saltpetre being procured in the 
 vicinity. Arms plundered at the former siege of Cuzco were also 
 brought in and delivered to the troops by the subjects of Manco the 
 Inca. In the midst of his preparations, the young commander vainly 
 endeavoured to negotiate with the new viceroy, offering to confine 
 himself to the occupation of his paternal inheritance of JSTew Toledo. 
 
 Yaca de Castro having joined the forces of Holguin and Alvarado, 
 and having personally assumed the command of the army, moved 
 forward towards Xauxa. With a small escort he visited Lima, where 
 he was enthusiastically received, and where he procured fresh recruits 
 and supplies of arms and ammunition. Erom Xauxa he marched to 
 Guamanga, thirty leagues distant, and thence to the plains of Chupas, 
 where, on the 16th of September, 1542, he encountered the army of 
 Almagro. The latter was posted in a favourable position, where 
 the artillery, of which he possessed sixteen effective pieces, could be 
 brought to bear upon the assailants. His forces were numerically 
 inferior to those of the viceroy, whose whole array amounted to 
 about seven hundred men, but in arms and equipments his troops 
 had greatly the advantage. 
 
 As the forces of the viceroy approached, the battle commenced by 
 a discharge of artillery; but, as was supposed, from the treachery 
 of Pedro de Candia, the guns were so misdirected or mismanaged 
 that little effect was produced upon the assailants. Almagro, with 
 his own hand, took the life of the offender upon the field. A bloody 
 and obstinately contested fray ensued, and was maintained with 
 unabated fury until long after night-fall, when victory declared in 
 favour of the viceroy. Almagro and his remaining followers were 
 driven from the field in total rout. The unfortunate but gallant 
 young chieftain was seized at Cuzco, and, after a military trial, was 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HISTORY OF PEEU. 249 
 
 condemned to death. He met his fate with great heroism. Miilti- 
 tudes of his partisans were also hunted from their places of conceal- 
 ment or refuge, and perished, like their leader, on the scaftbld. 
 
 Yaca de Castro did not long remain in possession of the dignity 
 maintained with such distinguished courage on the field of Chupas, 
 and such unrelenting severity in the day of success. He was super- 
 seded by an aged knight by the name of Blasco Nunez Yela, who 
 arrived at Peru in the month of March, 1544. The appointment of 
 this official was due to the unwearied exertions of Las Casas and 
 other philanthropists, who had laboriously collected evidence of the 
 enormities practiced in the colonies, and pressed it upon the con- 
 science of the emperor. The manner in which the aborigines were 
 enslaved and destroyed to enrich their rapacious masters ; the waste 
 of the national resources in the wanton destruction of the flocks of 
 llamas ; the consequent poverty and misery of the Indians, who, ill- 
 fed, unhoused, and nearly naked, were condemned to hopeless and 
 unceasing toil in the mines; an-d the general misrule and corruption, 
 were laid open and eloquently animadverted upon before a royal 
 council, convened at Valladolid for the purpose of framing laws foi 
 the colonies in the New World. 
 
 A code was accordingly prepared, and received the royal sanction, 
 by which, among other provisions, the prospective freedom of all 
 Indian slaves was provided for, and many regulations were laid 
 down for their protection. Public officers and ecclesiastics, together 
 with all who had shared in the cause of the insurgents against the 
 legitimate government, were absolutely forbidden to hold slaves. 
 Other acts of misconduct were also to work a forfeiture of this species 
 of property. To enforce the new code, Blasco Nunez was sent over 
 from Spain, in company with four judges, armed with the imperial 
 commission to assist in the administration of the government. 
 
 The new viceroy commenced the execution of his orders with the 
 utmost promptitude and severity. He liberated some hundreds of 
 Peruvian slaves at Panama, when on his way, and had no sooner 
 reached his destined port than he pursued a like course, upon the 
 representations of some native chiefs. "When his character and 
 mission were made public, the whole community was in a ferment. 
 The landed proprietors and those connected with the mining interest 
 saw their resources about to be curtailed to such an extent, that ruin 
 stared them in the face, and a general determination waS' evinced to 
 resist the execution of the new civil code. 
 
250 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 Gonzalo Pizarro, who had been for some time living in compara- 
 tive retirement, devoting his attention to the opening and working 
 of the newlj-discovered silver mines of Potosi, was now called upon 
 to head the malcontents. Disappointed ambition, mercenary inter- 
 est in preserving the old order of things, and fear of being held 
 responsible for his share in the former feud, combined to incline 
 him in favour of the insurgent faction, and he accordingly proceeded 
 to Cuzco, accompanied by a few trusty companions-in-arms, and 
 provided with abundant funds — the result of his successful mining 
 operations. At Cuzco he was enthusiastically received, and was 
 proclaimed " Procurator-Greneral of Peru " and ''Captain- General," 
 with express authority to raise and command a military force. 
 
 Blasco Nunez was received at the capital with all outward cere- 
 monials of respect, by his predecessor, Yaca de Castro, and by the 
 city officials. He publicly announced his determination to enforce 
 the new code, but at the same time agreed to cooperate with the 
 inhabitants of Peru in procuring its Repeal. He appeared to be little 
 aware of the formidable nature of the preparations at Cuzco, under 
 the superintendence of Gouzalo P/zarro, or of the feebleness of the 
 empty title of viceroy, unsupported by the loyalty of the great mass 
 of the population. 
 
 The latter chief, having organized and equipped an army of about 
 four hundred Spanish soldiers, with sixteen pieces of artillery 
 brought by Indian vassals over the mountains from Guamanga, and 
 a great body of native auxiliaries, marched out of Cuzco, and took 
 the road towards Lima. The first occurrences in his march were 
 rather disheartening. In raising his force he had held out as one 
 essential object the holding in check the belligerent natives under 
 the wandering inca, Manco, whose noble and warlike spirit had 
 never yet been subdued by the prowess or craft of his adversaries. 
 He had also professed the utmost loyalty to the crown, and an ardent 
 desire for a pacific arrangement of the existing difficulties. 'The 
 death of Manco, who was slain by a straggling party of the "Men 
 of Chili," then in hiding among the Indians, removed one avowed 
 pretext for raising an army, and the unscrupulous manner in which 
 the ambitious leader seized upon the public funds in equipping the 
 troops, disabused his followers in respect to his loyalty and freedom 
 from a desire of personal aggrandizement. Numerous desertions took 
 place among those whose hearts failed them at the thought of open 
 '•ebellion against legitimate authority. But as he approached Lima, 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HISTOEY OF PEEU. 251 
 
 their losses were counterbalanced by a great accession to bis forces — 
 the result of tbe ill-regulated and violent procedure of the viceroy. 
 
 Every thing seemed to conspire to thwart the purposes and com- 
 j)lete the ruin of Nunez. The general tenor of his conduct was rash 
 and arbitrary. Upon a vague and unfounded suspicion of treachery, 
 he threw Yaca de Castro into confinement, and, by giving vent to his 
 jealousy, alienated others who might have proved staunch adherents 
 to his cause. One of these, named Carbajal, he slew or caused to be 
 slain in the heat of an altercation which arose at a private confer- 
 ence. To add to the perplexity and embarrassment of the viceroy, 
 the Judges of the Audience, who were to lend their aid in the gov- 
 ernment, having arrived at the capital, vigorously opposed his 
 measures, and intrigued for the subversion of his power. 
 
 Conscious of his extreme unpopularity, and feeling no confidence 
 in his army, Nunez, upon the near approach of Pizarro, issued orders 
 for an abandonment of the city and a retreat to Truxillo. The 
 capital and the intervening country were to be devastated, that the 
 forces of the insurgents might be compelled to disband for lack of 
 supplies. At this crisis, the judges headed a party of the populace, 
 and, attacking the palace of the viceroy, seized his person, and 
 declaring his authority at an end, dispatched him, in close custody, 
 to Spain, and organized a new government, under the presidency of 
 Cepeda, one of their own number. 
 
 It was hardly to be expected that Gonzalo Pizarro, at the head 
 of a large and constantly increasing force, and secure in the favour 
 of the inhabitants, would submit to the authority of these self-con- 
 stituted rulers. He accordingly paid no attention to the overtures 
 of the judges, but openly avowed his determination to assume the 
 government. He sent one of his ofi&cers, Francisco de Carbajal, a 
 fierce old soldier who had taken an active part in former feuds, in 
 advance, to prepare for his own entrance into the city. This emis- 
 sary commenced operations by searching out and putting to death 
 several of the deserters from Pizarro's army, who had taken refuge 
 In the capital. Such a proceeding inspired a natural terror in the 
 minds of the judges, and they hastened to deprecate the wrath of 
 the conqueror by voluntarily offering him the position at which he 
 aimed, Gonzalo entered the city with great state and ceremony, 
 and was formally sworn into ofiice, which he was to hold until 
 further communications should be received from the Spanish court. 
 His accession was hailed by the inhabitants with general rejoicing. 
 
252 AMEEICA ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 POECES RAISED BY NUNEZ. — HIS FLIGHT NORTHWARD. — DECISIVE 
 BATTLE NEAR aUITO. DEATH OP THE VICEROY. — SUPREM- 
 ACY OF PIZARRO. — MISSION OF PEDRO DE LA GASCA. — 
 HIS POLITIC PROCEEDINGS. — BATTLE OF HUA- 
 RINA. — PIZARRO AT CUZCO. 
 
 Although the new governor was now apparently at the summit 
 of his expectations, circumstances speedily ^rose to embarrass him, 
 and call for the exertion of all his skill and energy to maintain his 
 position. Yaca de Castro, by the assistance of the captain of the 
 vessel on board which he was confined, contrived to make his es- 
 cape. The result of this proceeding did not, however, materially 
 affect the interests of the governor. The fugitive reached Spain 
 only to be thrown into prison upon various charges of mal-adminis- 
 tration in his colonial office. After twelve years of imprisonment, 
 his innocence was finally recognised, and he was raised to an hon- 
 ourable position in old Spain. An active enemy to the new govern- 
 ment of Peru yet remained to be cru«hed. Blasco Nunez, by the 
 favour of Alvarez, one of the judges who had been commissioned 
 to conduct him to Spain, returned to Peru, and, proclaiming Gonzalo 
 and his adherents rebels and traitors, commenced the enlistment of 
 forces for the reassertion of his own legitimate supremacy. 
 
 His quarters were successively at Tumbez, Quito, and San Miguel, 
 from which latter town he moved precipitately upon the approach 
 of Pizarro with a superior force. Sebastian Benalcazar, the com- 
 mander at Popayan, had communicated his determination to the 
 viceroy to lend his assistance for the support of the royal cause, and 
 towards the district under that officer's jurisdiction Nunez conducted 
 his little band, with Pizarro and his forces in hot pursuit. The 
 sufferings of either army during this terrible retreat, in which every 
 imaginable difficulty, from the inhospitable nature of the country 
 traversed, was added to the horrors of war, would have disheart- 
 ened troops less accustomed to danger and privation than the old 
 Spanish adventurers. Nunez made his way to Popayan, and 
 Pizarro, after having followed his enemy into the territory of 
 Benalcazar, without having been able to draw him into a decisive 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HISTORY OF PEEtl. 253 
 
 conflict, returned to Quito to await his approacli with the expected 
 reinforcements. 
 
 By a feigned retreat from the ancient capital, Pizarro succeeded 
 in deceiving his opponent, and in drawing him from his distant 
 place of security. Just without the city, on the 18th of January, 
 1546, the fate of the viceroy was decided by a final engagement. 
 He fell, fighting bravely, and his followers being slain or dispersed, 
 none remained to dispute the supremacy of the popular usurper. 
 Gonzalo was possessed of many qualities calculated to secure the 
 favour of the colonists. He was in every respect a man of the age, 
 and his gallant and chivalrous bearing, combined with the remem- 
 brance of his share in the conquest, aroused the admiration of a 
 people accustomed to look upon military excellence as the grand 
 essential for a ruler. 
 
 An insurrection, headed by Diego Centeno, in the southern 
 provinces, having been crushed by the efficient and unscrupulous 
 Carbajal, nearly simultaneously with his successes at the north, 
 Pizarro was for the time complete arbiter of the destinies of Peru. 
 He maintained his position with great pomp and magnificence, yet 
 in the midst of his success and popularity, must have brooded 
 with no little anxiety over the probable results of the reception of 
 intelligence respecting his movements at the Spanish court. Car- 
 bajal openl}'- advised him to throw aside all thoughts of obtaining 
 favour and countenance from Spain, and to depend upon force alone 
 for the retention of his power. 
 
 Unwilling to hazard such an extreme measure, Gonzalo neverthe- 
 less took the greatest precautions to guard against the entry into his 
 dominions of any emissary from the royal court, and prepared to 
 send an ambassador to Spain, charged with the vindication of his 
 conduct and the request of confirmation in his government. 
 
 When news of the rebellion arrived in Spain, Charles Y.^ after 
 deliberate consultation with the principal officers of his kingdom, 
 determined upon essaying gentle means for the restoration of his 
 colony to allegiance. A learned and sagacious ecclesiastic, named 
 Pedro de la Gasca, was nominated by the council as commissioner 
 to settle the affairs of Peru, and such confidence was reposed in him 
 by the emperor, that he was armed with the most unlimited discre- 
 tionary powers. As the first essential to a cordial reception on the 
 part of the colonists, he was authorized to revoke the unpopular 
 decrees which had caused the ruin of Nunez, and to grant complete 
 
254 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 pardon to all ofTenders, particularly those concerned in the insur- 
 rection. Under the title of "President of the Eoyal Audience," he 
 was in effect clothed with all the powers of royalty, being responsible 
 only to the Spanish court. 
 
 When Gasca arrived in the New World, in July, 1546, and received 
 intelligence of Pizarro's complete supremacy, he employed the most 
 judicious and artful policy to gain over the people before making an 
 open demonstration. In accordance with his own wishes and advice, 
 he came without any military force ; he made no ostentatious display 
 of authority ; but relying upon the loyalty natural to the Spaniard, 
 and holding forth the royal promises of amnesty and protection, he 
 called on all true subjects of the empire to join him in a peaceful 
 settlement of the disturbed affairs of the colony. Despite Pizarro's 
 caution, he succeeded in distributing missives and proclamations 
 throughout the principal cities, and occupied himself in the mean 
 time in gaining over those officials to whom he could obtain access. 
 Hernan Mexia, the commandant at Nombre de Dios, received the 
 royal commissioner and espoused his cause. The next effort was to 
 win the favour and assistance of Hinojosa, the governor of Panama, 
 at which port the Peruvian fleet then lay. 
 
 Gasca proceeded thither in person, and although at first unable 
 to overcome the scruples of the governor, had opportunity to open 
 direct communication with Pizarro, and to further the extension of 
 his own influence. The usurper would listen to no proposals which 
 did not favour his own retention of supremacy. He sent his reply 
 by one of his most trust- worthy adherents, Lorenzo de Aldan a, who 
 was commissioned to represent to the Spanish court the state of the 
 country, the existing quiet in the province, and the satisfaction of 
 the inhabitants at their condition and prospects, should the governor 
 be confirmed in his powers by the emperor. 
 
 Arriving at Panama, Aldan a had audience with the commissioner, 
 and was so awed by the extent of his legitimate authority, and 
 struck by his wisdom and moderation, that he speedily abandoned 
 his master's cause, and joined the partisans of Gasca. Hinojosa and 
 the principal naval commanders at Panama followed this example, 
 and on the 19th of November, 1546, the whole fleet was publicly 
 and formally placed at the disposal of Gasca, and its officers, receiv- 
 ing anew their commissions from his hands, took oaths of obligation 
 to the crown. 
 
 The president's course was now plain. He began to collect forces 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HISTOEY OF PERU. 255 
 
 for open hostilities, using liis unlimited powers to pledge the gov> 
 ernment for the repayment of the necessary loans, and to secure 
 prospective remuneration to his soldiers. Requisitions were also 
 made upon the governors of Mexico and the provinces of Central 
 America for aid in the anticipated conflict. The adherents of 
 Pizarro began to lose heart, and many deserted his cause to join the 
 rising fortunes of the royal party. In the southern provinces, Diego 
 de Centeno, who had been defeated, and driven to concealment by 
 Carbajal, again collected his scattered followers, and by a sudden 
 movement made himself master of Cuzco. After receiving a power- 
 ful accession to his force from the multitudes who feared the con- 
 sequences of adhering to the popular ruler in his contest with the 
 crown, or who now dared for the first time to avow their loyal senti- , 
 ments, he posted himself by Lake Titicaca. 
 
 Pizarro's chief counsellors and officers, at this period, were his 
 lieutenant, Carbajal, and Cepeda, one of the judges who had come 
 over from Spain as the coadjutors of the unfortunate Nunez. The 
 first of these, generally as prudent in council as savage and remorse- 
 less in war, advised compliance with the royal offers; the other, 
 feeling himself, perhaps, too deeply implicated in the overthrow and 
 death of the viceroy, (especially when considered in reference to his 
 own position under the rule of that officer,) to hope for a share in the 
 promised amnesty, counselled resistance to the last. Gonzalo's own 
 ambition and pride of office inclined him to the more independent 
 and hazardous course : he therefore devoted his utmost energies to 
 the arming and recruiting of his diminished forces at the capital. 
 
 Upon the approach of a portion of the hostile fleet, under the 
 command of his faithless emissary, Aldana, Pizarro withdrew from 
 Lima, and marched to the port of Arequipa. His army was by this 
 time so reduced by continual desertions, that it numbered only about 
 five hundred men. Aldana was received by the inhabitants of the 
 capital and its vicinity with loyal demonstrations of welcome ; and 
 still greater enthusiasm av/aited the landing of his superior, which 
 took place at Tumbez about the middle of June. Gasca proceeded 
 to Xauxa, where he established his head-quarters. 
 
 Pizarro, in order to give time for the recruiting of his forces, oi 
 hopeful of some change in popular favour, could he postpone a con 
 test with an enemy so much his superior, resolved to march into 
 Chili He therefore opened negotiations with Centeno, who was in 
 occupation of the mountain passes with a vastly superior force 
 
256 AMEEICA ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 That stauncli loyalist was too well aware of his advantage to allow 
 the enemy to escape from the toils by which he was surrounded. 
 He would listen to nothing but an unconditional surrender, offering, 
 however, his personal influence to propitiate the clemency of the 
 government in behalf of those who should lay down their arms. 
 Pizarro, therefore, collected all his energies for a desperate and 
 decisive struggle. 
 
 Kear the small town of Huarina, by Lake Titicaca, he was met by 
 Centeno on the 26th of October, 1547. The latter was in command 
 of about a thousand men, while Pizarro's whole force was less than 
 five hundred. When the two armies joined battle, the cavalry of 
 the royalists completely overpowered and routed that of their oppo- 
 nents, and the fortune of the day seemed for the time decided in 
 their favour. Carbajal, however, maintained his position with the 
 little band of musqueteers, and having received and successfully 
 repelled the charge of Centeno's infantry, was prepared to oppose 
 the attack of the formidable body of cavalry. After various disor- 
 derly and futile attempts to break the squares into which the enemy 
 were formed, and after sustaining heavy loss from the constant fire 
 kept up from within the protecting lines of spearmen, the royalists 
 were thrown into utter confusion, and were driven from the field. 
 
 Elated by so brilliant and decisive a victory, and justly deeming 
 that the prestige of the achievement would reassure the minds of 
 those who at heart favoured his cause, Pizarro abandoned his inten- 
 tion of seeking an asylum in Chili, and marched to Cuzco. He was 
 received with enthusiasm by the inhabitants, and having taken up 
 his quarters in the city, he resolved to s vait the arrival of rein- 
 forcements from the neighbouring districts and to strike only where 
 a favourable opportunity might present, o A^hen he should be com- 
 pelled by the movements of the enemy. 
 
THE CONQUEST AND IIISTOEY OF PEKTJ. 257 
 
 KJ Juil) bUOi iL iL JLl mIi iZuj JL • 
 
 CAUTIOUS MOVEMENTS OF GASCA. — HIS MARCH TO CU2C0. — 
 
 BLOODLESS VICTORY AT XAQUIXAGUANA. — EXECUTION Of 
 
 CARBAJAL AND PIZARRO. — WISE ADMINISTRATION 
 
 OF GASCA. SUBSEQUENT DISORDERS. THE 
 
 COLONIAL SYSTEM. — THE MITA AND RE- 
 PARTIMIENTO. INSURRECTION OF 1780. 
 
 The defeat of Huarina was a severe blow to Gasca, but that pru 
 dent officer evinced his usual deliberation and forethought in retriev- 
 ing his fortunes. Instead of rashly pressing on io Cuzco, although 
 his force was still greatly superior to that of the enemy, he encamped 
 for several months in the province of Andagnaylas, awaiting the 
 arrival of fresh troops, and a more favourable season for crossing the 
 mountains. His principal military subordinates, to whom he com- 
 mitted the practical superintendence of the movements of the army, 
 and to whose judgment he submitted in matters of pure military 
 science, were Hinojosa, Alvarado, Centeno, Benalcazar, and the cel- 
 ebrated Pedro de Yaldivia, who was at that time in the country 
 engaged in gathering fresh adventurers to aid in the extension of 
 his conquests in Chili. 
 
 In the month of March, 1548, the royal forces commenced their 
 march for the ancient capital, and after successfully encountering 
 the perils and fatigues incident to a passage of the mountains and 
 torrents which intervened, they crossed the Apurimac, and prepared 
 for a descent upon the city. Pizarro, with what forces he could 
 muster, on the approach of Gasca, took up a strong position, in 
 the valley of Xaquixaguana, five leagues from Cuzco. As the army 
 of the president, after a night of sleepless vigilance, was preparing 
 to give battle, the necessity for an attack was singularly obviated. 
 The followers of Pizarro, disheartened at the prospect of contending 
 with a superior force, and feeling at last a full conviction of their 
 desperate estate in case of defeat, and their uncertain position should' 
 victory crown their efforts, began to desert in entire battalions, and 
 to throw themselves upon the clemency of Gasca. The first to set 
 this example openly was the faithless Cepeda, who, while riding in 
 YoL. in.--17 
 
258 AMEEICA ILLDJsrRATED. 
 
 advance of his troops, suddenly put spurs to Lis horse, and notwith- 
 standing a hot pursuit, made his way in safety to the enemy. 
 
 A complete panic and confusion presently ensued: the army of 
 Gonzalo was dispersed Avithout a battle, and the rebellious chief 
 delivered himself up a prisoner. Those of his followers who feared 
 at the last moment to trust to the mercy of the president, scattered 
 in various directions, and sought safety in flight. His old and faith- 
 ful lieutenant, Carbajal, was seized by some of his own party, and 
 carried captive to the enemy's camp. This veteran chief was no less 
 than eighty-four years old, but although his body was enfeebled by 
 the infirmities of age, his mind retained all its original energy and 
 stern determination. When condemned to the disgraceful death of 
 a traitor, he manifested no emotion, but submitted to his fate with 
 the utmost apparent indifference, maintaining to the last the vein of 
 dry, coarse humour which was ever habitual to him. The most 
 remarkable circumstance attendant upon his execution, considering 
 the age in which he lived, was his refusal to make confession, or 
 to receive ghostly consolation from the priests. He asseverated that 
 he had nothing on his conscience except his remissness in leaving a 
 debt of a half-real unpaid to a shopkeeper of Seville. While being 
 drawn in a hurdle to the fatal spot, " the priest who went with him 
 exhorted him to recommend himself to God, and to say the Pater 
 Nbster and the Ave Maria, and they say that he said, ' Pater Noster,' 
 and 'Ave Maria,' and that he would not speak another word." 
 
 Gonzalo Pizarro also perished by the hands of the executioner, 
 but.without the circumstances of indignity which attended the death 
 of his lieutenant. He spent the short interval between his con- 
 demnation and death in devout exercises, and met his fate with such 
 calm intrepidity that a strong feeling of sympathy was excited in the 
 breasts of the stern and rude soldiery in attendance. The recollection 
 of the important part enacted by him during the war of the Conquest 
 was also remembered with respect and gratitude by those whose 
 prosperity had been secured by the overthrow of the ancient dynasty. 
 
 A number of Pizarro's inferior officers were also put to death ; and 
 banishment, confiscation of estates, and the fate of the galley-slave, 
 sternly awarded to others, served to convince the nation that the 
 new government, if mild and clement to the loyal or submissive, 
 could execute rigorous justice upon offenders. 
 
 The manner in which Gasca reduced the unsettled afiairs of the 
 country to order and system; his cautious and conciliatory, bu-t 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HISTORY OF PEKU. 259 
 
 effective legislation ; and his efforts in behalf of the oppressed natives 
 of the soil, gained him universal respect. With every opportunity 
 for the acquisition of wealth, and the advancement of schemes for 
 personal ambition, he strove only for the welfare of the colony com- 
 mitted to his charge, and for the honour and supremacy of the 
 crown. When his mission was fully accomplished, he voluntarily 
 relinquished his responsible office, and returned to Spain. His 
 economical administration had freed the colony from the debts in- 
 curred in the prosecution of the war, and he took over with him a 
 large sum of money, as an earnest of the renewal of the long-discon- 
 tinued tribute to the royal treasury. . 
 
 His distinguished services and unequalled self-denial met with 
 their appropriate reward, in securing the good- will of his countrymen 
 and the favour of the emperor. He was made bishop of Palencia, 
 and passed the remainder of his life in tranquillity and ease. 
 
 The order and regularity immediately attendant upon the prudent 
 administration of Gasca was at various subsequent periods inter- 
 rupted by the ambitious designs of discontented adventurers, and by 
 the bitterness of opposing factions; but the authority of Spain was 
 effectively maintained over Peru until the general uprising, which 
 resulted in the emancipation of all her American continental depend- 
 encies. Peace was most effectually secured by the system of mutual 
 destruction which the contending political parties alternately meted 
 out to their opponents — a system which of necessity soon finds its 
 end in treaty, in submission, or in extermination. 
 
 During the long continuance of Spanish rule in America, sub- 
 stantially the same system of government was maintained throughout 
 the colonies. The greatest jealousy of foreigners characterized every 
 enactment respecting trade and intercourse with other nations, and 
 every thing was so ordered as to prevent any thing like independent 
 advancement on the part of the colonial provinces. The interests 
 of the parent-country were subserved by all manner of monopolies 
 and restrictive provisions, that the productions of Spain might find 
 a continual market, and that exhorbitant returns of the precious 
 metals might continue to flow into her coffers from the treasures of 
 the New World. 
 
 To facilitate the working of the mines, as well as to secure a con- 
 tinuance of loyalty on the part of the colonists, no further effective 
 provisions were made for the liberty and rights of the miserable 
 natives. By a regular conscription, called the ''.Mita," one-seventh 
 
200 AMERICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 of the Indian population, from the age of eighteen to fifty, was con- 
 stantly kept employed in the mines. The term of service for each 
 division was nominally six months, although frequently extended ; 
 and so severe was the labour enforced, and so insufficient the support 
 provided by their task-masters, that a large majority of the labourers 
 are said to have perished before the expiration of a single period of 
 service. The introduction of spirituous liquors also proved as disas- 
 trous as in all other portions of America, to the native population ; 
 and from the combined effects of this destructive agent, of labour in 
 the mines, and of that deadly pestilence the small-pox, 'the decrease 
 of the Indian inhabitants of Peru, during the two centuries succeed- 
 ing the Conquest, is computed by millions. 
 
 One grievous form of imposition practised upon the natives, was 
 that known as the system of the repartimiento. This was a species 
 of monopoly, by which the Spanish governors, or corregidors of the 
 different districts were empowered to furnish the Indians with Eu- 
 ropean commodities. These they were compelled to receive, and to 
 pay for at exhorbitant prices, whether in want of the articles fur- 
 nished or not. It is said that the plan was first devised with the 
 benevolent intention of securing the ignorant natives from the 
 deceptions practised by unprincipled traders, but that the temptation 
 to take advantage of their exclusive privilege proved too strong for 
 the integrity of those to whom the charge was committed, until the 
 whole system became one of barefaced fraud and oppression. 
 
 In addition to the great wrongs sanctioned by law, the Indians 
 had none, or the most insufficient redress, for every species of 
 enormity which was privately inflicted upon them by the usurpers 
 of the soil. For more than two centuries they laboured under this 
 insupportable tyranny without any combined effort to obtain their 
 freedom. An unsuccessful revolt took place, indeed, in 1741, among 
 several of the different tribes. At last, in the year 1780, the cacique 
 of Tungasuca, Jos6 Gabriel Condorcanqui, claiming descent from 
 Tupac Amaru, the son of the Inca Manco, stood forth as the cham- 
 pion of his people. Multitudes of the natives thronged to enlist 
 under his command, and in the battles which ensued, displayed all 
 the energy and courage of their ancestors. More experienced in 
 European warfare than these, they were not subdued without much 
 bloodshed. The very women took part in these contests, and evinced 
 surprising bravery and determination. The death of their leader, 
 who was taken prisoner, and, together with his wife and children, 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HISTORY OF PEEU. 261 
 
 put to death, with barbarous cruelty, gave no check to the rebellion. 
 A guerilla warfare was still waged with unremitting perseverance, 
 and a nephew of Condorcanqui, named Andres, collected a sufficient 
 force to beset the town of Sorata. The place was defended by an 
 earthen embankment, behind which artillery was stationed. To 
 effect a breach, a large body of water was collected by dams upon 
 an adjoining height, and suddenly let loose upon the defences. 
 Through the opening thus made, the Indian warriors poured with 
 the utmost fury, and revenged the murder of their inca by an indis- 
 criminate slaughter. It is said that of the twenty thousand inhabit- 
 ants of the town, none of the males were spared except the priests. 
 
 Notwithstanding this brilliant success, the Indian commanders 
 were not sufficiently skilled in the science of war or government to 
 take advantage of their position. They were betrayed into the 
 hands of the enemy by some of their own people who had been won 
 over by bribes, and the Spaniards speedily reestablished their power 
 over the country. In consequence of this rebellion, however, the 
 odious monopoly of the repartimiento was done away with. 
 
 VJ JbJL iXd) (IT iL Jj (Lo c60j X X a 
 
 COMMENCEMENT OF THE REVOLUTION. — INYASION BY SAN 
 
 MARTIN. OCCUPATION OF LIMA. INDEPENDENCE 
 
 PROCLAIMED. — REVERSES OF THE PATRIOTS. — - 
 ARRIVAL OF BOLIVAR IN PERU. 
 
 The great struggle for independence in the Spanish provinces of 
 South America had been elsewhere, for the most part, crowned with 
 success before Peru became the theatre for important action. Here 
 the Spaniards maintained possession of their last stronghold upon 
 the continent, and, but for assistance from the neighbouring inde- 
 pendent provinces, there would hardly have appeared a prospect of 
 overthrowing the viceroyal government. 
 
 In the earlier period of the revolution, in October, 1810, an army 
 from Buenos Ay res, under command of Colonel Antonio de Balcarce, 
 penetrated into Upper Peru, and gained important victories over the 
 royalists at Ootagarta and Tupiaza. This officer took up his quarters, 
 
262 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 »■ 
 
 with a force of somerfour thousand men, at the outlet of Lake Titi- 
 caca, and maintained possession of the conquered territory until 
 the following summer, when he was in turn defeated by the Spanish 
 troops under Goyeneche, who attacked him unexpectedly during the 
 continuance of a truce. Balcarce's failure is attributed in no small 
 measure to the violence and recklessness of his civil associate, Castelli. 
 
 In the month of August, 1820, independence having been estab- 
 lished in Chili, an army of between four and five thousand men was 
 assembled at Valparaiso for the purpose of breaking up of the royal- 
 ist strongholds of Peru, and of freeing that province from the domin- 
 ion of Spain. The command was held by General ,Jose de San 
 Martin, the emancipator of Chili, to whose exertions the expedition 
 was mainly attributable. Such vessels of war as could be procured, 
 were fitted out and placed under command of Lord Cochrane. In the 
 month following, the whole force was landed and quartered at Pisco, 
 on the Peruvian coast, without opposition from the royalist forces, 
 which retreated to Lima, about one hundred miles northward. 
 
 An attempt at negotiation having failed, the army of invasion was 
 again in motion in the month of October. The naval force anchored 
 off Callao, where, on the night of N'ovember 5th, Lord Cochrane, 
 commanding in person, succeeded in cutting out and capturing the 
 Spanish frigate Esmeralda, which lay under the protection of the 
 guns of the fort, and in company with a number of smaller armed 
 vessels. This exploit is considered as one of the most brilliant 
 achievements of the kind on record. 
 
 The main body of Chilian troops was transported to Huara, about 
 seventy-five miles north of the capital, while a division, under Gen- 
 eral Arenales, was marched into the interior, with the intention of 
 effecting a junction with the principal force by land. On the route 
 this commander defeated a superior force of the royalists, under the 
 Irish officer General O'Eeilly. The prospects of the patriots grew 
 every day brighter. They gained large accessions of recruits from 
 those of the inhabitants who favoured a revolution, and it was plain 
 that the great body of the people hailed their arrival with the most 
 joyful anticipations. On the 3d of December, an entire regiment, 
 the Spanish battalion of IsTumancia, consisting in great measure of 
 Columbians, joined the invaders. 
 
 As San Martin, after some months' delay at Huara, advanced upon 
 Lima, the city was thrown into the utmost confusion. The Spanish 
 authorities found it necessary to evacuate the place, and the inhabit- 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HISTORY OF PEEU. 263 
 
 ants, in a general panic, and uncertain as to what was to take place, 
 began to fly with their effects towards Callao and other places of 
 supposed security. Throughout the night preceding the evacuation 
 by the Spanish troops, the narrow streets were nearly impassable 
 from the multitude of vehicles in which the terrified inhabitants 
 were conveying away their effects. Captain Basil Hall, who was 
 upon the spot, says: "For an hour or two after the viceroy's de- 
 parture, the streets were filled with fugitives; but by mid-day, 
 scarcely an individual was to be seen ; and in the course of the 
 afternoon, I accompanied one of the English merchants during a 
 walk of more than a mile through the most populous parts of Lima, 
 without meeting a single individual: the doors were all barred, the 
 window-shutters closed, and it really seemed 'some vast city of 
 the dead.'" 
 
 The old Marquis of Montemir^, who had been left in authority, 
 called together the principal inhabitants, and after some consultation, 
 with the assent of the town council, an invitation was extended to 
 San Martin to occupy the city, nominally for the purpose of pro- 
 tecting the inhabitants from a suspected uprising of the slaves, from 
 the Indian allies of the patriots who threatened a descent from with- 
 out, and from a lawless mob of the lower orders within the walls. 
 The general entered the city on the 12th of July, 1821, unaccom- 
 panied by his army, and experienced little difficulty in satisfying 
 the terrified inhabitants as to his good faith and the honesty of his 
 intentions. All went on pK)sperously for the cause, and on the 28th 
 the independence of Peru was formally proclaimed, amid the great- 
 est exhibition of enthusiasm on the part of the populace. On th(! 
 8d of the ensuing month San Martin assumed the title of Protector 
 of Peru. 
 
 No important military movements took place during a considerable 
 subsequent period. The fortress at Callao remained in possession of 
 the royalists, whither the division under Canterac the viceroy, quar- 
 tered at Xauxa, was marched in the latter part of August. These 
 troops were soon afterwards withdrawn, and the stronghold, left 
 under command of General La Mar, capitulated to the protector on 
 the 21st of September. The independent array remained at Lima, 
 for the most part unemployed, during a number of months subse- 
 quent to these events, and their presence began to be felt as a burden 
 by the inhabitants. In April, 1822, a severe reverse was fell in the 
 surprise and capture, by Canterac, of a very considerable body of 
 
264 AMEKICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 the revolutionary forces, at lea. More than a thousand prisoners 
 were taken, and a great amount of arms and military stores fell into 
 the hands of the royaHsts. 
 
 An interview took place in the month of July, of this year, 
 between the Protector and the great champion of freedom in South 
 America, Bolivar, then in the full pride of success in the northern 
 provinces. The result of the meeting was the augmentation of the 
 force at Lima by two thousand Columbian troops. During San 
 Martin's absence the tyranny of his minister, Monteagudo, who made 
 the deputy protector, the Marquis of Truxillo, a mere tool for the 
 execution of his private projects, excited an outbreak, which was 
 only quelled by the arrest and removal of the offending party. 
 
 In the succeeding month the first independent congress was 
 assembled at the capital, and San Martin, having resigned his author- 
 ity, soon after took his departure for Chili. Congress appointed a 
 junta of three persons to discharge the duties of the executive. 
 Under this administration the affairs of the new republic fell into 
 great disorder. A miserably futile attempt, by sea and land, against 
 the royalists in the southern provinces, created great public discon- 
 tent, and on the 26th of February, 1823, the principal officers of the 
 army, in a remonstrance to Congress, demanded the appointment of 
 Colonel Jose de la Riva Aguero as president. After some opposition, 
 that body complied with the proposition, backed as it was by all the 
 real power of the republic, and Eiva Aguero was proclaimed accord- 
 ingly. General Santa Cruz, a Peruvian, and partly of Indian descent, 
 then second in command, shortly after, upon the departure of Are- 
 nales for Chili, assumed the position of commander-in-chief of the 
 army. A second expedition to the southward against the royalists 
 of the Puertos Intermedios, left the capital insufficiently guarded, 
 although three thousand additional troops had been marched to the 
 city by the Columbian general, Sucre. Canterac seized the opportu- 
 nity to possess himself of Lima, and with nine thousand men, on the 
 18th of June, entered that city. The patriot forces were insufficient 
 to make any effectual resistance, and they evacuated the capital on 
 the approach of the enemy. 
 
 The Congress, holding its session at Callao, now invested General 
 Sucre with dictatorial powers. Upon the fortress at this place, Can- 
 terac was unable to make any impression, and considering it useless 
 CO maintain possession of the capital, he withdrew his troops on the 
 17th of the succeeding month of July. The division of the patriot 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HISTOKY OF PEEU. 265 
 
 forces at the soutli fared no better than that which had preceded it 
 A disastrous and disorderly retreat before the royalists resulted in 
 the almost entire dissolution of the army. All hopes of success in 
 the enterprise of the revolution now seemed to rest upon the arrival 
 of foreign assistance, and this was fortunately at hand. Simon Bol- 
 ivar, the liberator of Venezuela, and the most distinguished of the 
 champions of freedom in South America, had so far reduced the 
 affairs of the recently constituted northern states to order and security, 
 that he was enabled to turn his attention to the distressed condition 
 of the Peruvian patriots. He proceeded at once to the scene of action, 
 and entered Lima on the 1st of September, 1823. The prestige of 
 his previous brilliant successes, and the confidence felt in his abilities 
 as a general and statesman, gave a new impetus to the patriotic cause. 
 He was received with great rejoicing, and was at once invested with 
 supreme power, both civil and military. 
 
 CnAPTEEIHL 
 
 SUCCESSES OF THE EOTALISTS. — MOVEMENTS OP THE PATRIOT 
 
 ARMT. DECISIVE VICTORY OP AYACUCHO. — SIEGE OP 
 
 CALLAO. BOLIVAR'S ADMINISTRATION. — SUBSE- 
 QUENT CONDITION OP THE REPUBLIC. 
 
 Upon the elevation of Bolivar to the dictatorship, his first care 
 was to quiet dissensions in his own party. Kiva Aguero, indignant 
 at his removal from authority, was carrying matters with a high hand 
 in Truxillo. He assembled and then dissolved the congress, ordering 
 into exile those who remained firm to their former decision. As he 
 commanded several thousand troops from the northern province, his 
 defection presented a formidable aspect. Negotiation proved of no 
 avail, but by the treachery of some of his own people he was taken 
 prisoner, and soon after was banished from the country. 
 
 In February, 1824, an insurrection of the garrison at Callao resulted 
 in the recapture of this important stronghold by the Spaniards, and 
 a few weeics later the capital shared the same fate. The revolutionary 
 congress broke up, after declaring its own dissolution and the con- 
 fiimation of Bolivar's authority as supreme dictator. This gloomy 
 
266 AMERICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 state of affairs only served to call forth the full energies of the great 
 general. He had under his command about ten thousand troops, 
 the majority of whom were Columbians, stationed near Patavilca. 
 The available forces of the royalists were at this period numerically 
 far superior to those of the patriots, but confidence in the tried abil- 
 ities of their leader more than compensated the latter for their infe- 
 riority in numbers. "There was a charm," says Miller, "in the 
 name of Bolivar, and he was looked up to as the only man capable 
 of saving the republic." 
 
 The army of the royalists was quartered at Xauxa, and no effort 
 was made to check the advance of the independent forces unt^l they 
 had effected the dangerous passage of the mountains, and were in full 
 march for Pasco. Great praise is awarded to General Sucre, the 
 chief of the staff, for the admirable forethought and prudent precau- 
 tions by which the difficulties of this march were met and safely 
 overcome. An action, which, however, did not become general, took 
 place on the plains of Junin, in which the patriots gained a decided 
 advantage, further increased by numerous subsequent desertions from 
 the enemy. 
 
 Bolivar was at this period unwilling to risk the chances of a deci- 
 sive battle, and made little opposition to the retreat of Canterac to 
 Cuzco. At Guamanga a month's halt was made by the patriots. In 
 October, the commander-in-chief, supposing that, on account of the 
 season, no present attempt would be made by the enemy, returned 
 to the coast, having directed Sucre to take -aip his quarters at Anda- 
 huaylos and Abancay. Contrary to Bolivar's expectations, the 
 Spanish viceroy, having effected a union of his main divisions and 
 made the most strenuous exertions to collect an overwhelming force, 
 now recommenced hostilities. Sucre was placed in an embarrassing 
 position: his forces were greatly reduced by sickness, privation, 
 skirmishes, and Indian hostilities, but with his usual military skill 
 he so ordered counter movements and retreats that the greatly supe- 
 rior force of the royalists was unable to attack him at a disadvantage. 
 
 No general engagement took place until the 9th of December, 
 when the decisive battle of Ayacucho, one of the most remarkable 
 in its details, and important in its results ever fought in South 
 America, gave a death-blow to Spanish power in Peru. The attack 
 was commenced by the royalists, under command of the viceroy. 
 Their numbers very considerably exceeded those of the patriots, 
 being set down at over nine thousand, while those of the latter fell 
 
THE CONQUEST AND HISTOKY OF PEEU. 267 
 
 e"hort of six thousand. It was felt, however, by all that the fortune 
 of the day was to decide the fate of the revolution, and, excited by 
 a brief but inspiriting address from their commander, the patriots 
 fought with a firm, though impetuous courage that proved invincible. 
 
 After a single hour's hard fighting, the assailants were routed and 
 driven back to the heights of Condorcanqui, where, previous to the 
 battle, they had taken a position. Their loss was fourteen hundred 
 in killed and seven hundred wounded. The patriots lost in killed 
 and wounded a little less than one thousand. Having collected what 
 remained of his scattered forces, Canterac perceived that he was now 
 outnumbered, and must be totally overpowered. Before the close 
 of the day, therefore he rode down in person to the patriot encamp 
 ment, and in the tent of the commander signed a capitulation. His 
 whole remaining army became prisoners of war, and by the terms of 
 the capitulation all the Spanish forces in Peru were also bound to 
 surrender. These requisitions were complied with by the garrisons 
 at Cuzco and Arequipa, without delay, but a strong body of Spanish 
 troops under Olaneta, in Upper Peru, still held out. These were 
 forced to yield in April, 1825, their leader having been slain in 
 an insurrection of his own followers. 
 
 General Eodil, in command of the garrison at Callao, still obsti- 
 nately maintained his position. The fortress was closely invested 
 by sea and land; but such was the strength of its defences, and the 
 determination of the Spanish commander, that it was not reduced 
 until the 19th of January, 1826, when an honourable capitulation 
 was agreed upon. Throughout this long interval of siege the garri- 
 son and the royalist citizens who had sought protection in this last 
 stronghold of Spain upon the continent, endured every extremity 
 from disease and famine. The greater proportion of the besieged 
 had perished previous to the surrender. 
 
 Bolivar was still clothed with the powers of a dictator in Peru, 
 and his position as governor of Columbia necessarily strengthened 
 and extended his influence and authority over all the recently eman- 
 cipated territory in the northern portion of South America. He was 
 anxious to bring about the adoption by the Peruvians of the civil 
 code known as the Bolivian Constitution, but it proved generally 
 unsatisfactory. While he remained in the country, it is said, "the 
 people overwhelmed him with professions of gratitude, and addressed 
 him in language unsuitable to any being below the Deity." A reac- 
 tion took place notwithstanding, and numbers were found ready to 
 
268 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 accuse this truly great man of selfisTi personal ambition, of careless- 
 ness for tlie true interest of his country, and to impute to him the 
 most unworthy motives in all his efforts for colonial independence. 
 
 The continued presence of Columbian troops, who remained quar- 
 tered at Lima, was a cause of great complaint, both from the expense 
 of their maintenance and the prevalent idea that they were kept there 
 to suppress a'ny free and independent action of the people, and to 
 render perpetual those extraordinary powers conferred upon the 
 commander-in-chief to meet the exigencies of civil war. These 
 apprehensions were removed, during the year following the reduction 
 of Callao, by the revolt and removal of the obnoxious forces, and by 
 the election of General La Mar to the presidency of Peru. 
 
 The government had not, however, the elements of stability, and 
 the country remained a prey to factious disturbance and civil war. 
 In the words of Commander Wilkes, the history of the state "may 
 be said to be merged in biographical memoirs of its several rulers, 
 who have, without an exception, acted for self-aggrandizement, with- 
 out ever looking to the benefit of their country, its peace, or happi- 
 ness. They have, in their public decrees and acts, been lavish and 
 prodigal of the words honour, liberty, justice, &c., in order to extol 
 themselves and decry their opponents; yet, without exception, the 
 moment they have attained power, they have pursued the very course 
 they before reprobated, and the country has continued to suffer." 
 
 At the present time Peru is involved in difficulties with Bolivia, 
 threatening, if not indeed amounting to an actual state of war. The 
 limited extent of available sea-coast belonging to the latter country 
 renders her peculiarly dependent upon Peru for commercial facilities ; 
 and among other offensive acts, a heavy transit duty has been levied 
 on all goods destined for Bolivia. Possession has also been taken 
 of the port of Cobija by a Peruvian squadron. 
 
CHILI 
 
 IIFEDITION OF ALMAGRO. — COMMISSION OP PEDRO DE VALDIVU 
 
 — ST. JAGO POUNDED. — BATTLE WITH THE MAPOCHINIANS. 
 
 — EMBASSY OP MIRANDA AND MONROY. — DESTRUCTION 
 
 OP THE QUILLOTAN MINERS. — VALDIVIA'S MARCH 
 
 SOUTHWARD. — THE ARAUCANIANS. 
 
 Elated by their triumphant successes in Peru, and with their 
 thirst for riches unappeased by the possession of the untold treasure 
 of the inca, the Spanish invaders turned their attention to the unex- 
 plored sea-coast at the south, as a further field for their rapacity. 
 The command of an expedition to Chili was accordingly assumed 
 by Diego de Almagro, the comrade in arms and rival of Pizarro, and 
 a well-appointed band of adventurers, numbering, as is stated, five 
 hundred and seventy, set forth under his guidance, towards the 
 close of the year 1535. A vast army of native Peruvians, com- 
 manded by a brother of the new inca, accompanied him, hopeful of 
 better fortune under a European leader, than their countrymen had 
 experienced in former times when engaged in war with the Chilians. 
 Instead of following the sea-coast, Almagro took his course over the 
 mountains, as being the shortest route, a choice which resulted in 
 terrible destruction to his forces. The snow-covered Andes were to 
 be crossed by an army worn out by long marches, insufficiently pro- 
 tected from the severities of the season, and suffering from starvation. 
 Thousands of the Peruvian auxiliaries and about one-fourth of the 
 Spaniards perished during the passage. 
 
 In the province of Copiapo, one of those formerly brought under 
 Peruvian dominion, rest and supplies of provision soon recruited the 
 strength and spirit of the army. According to the historians of the 
 
270 AMERICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 expedition, the invaders Avere received by the native Chilians with 
 respect and hospitality, but opportunity was not long wanting for a 
 full display of Spanish cruelty and revenge. Two straggling sol- 
 diers — for what offence is not known — were put to death at Guasco, 
 and, as a lesson to the inhabitants, Almagro caused Marcando, the 
 ulmen, or chief of Coquimbo, together with more than twenty of 
 the most considerable persons in the community, to be seized and 
 burned alive, without the shadow of trial, or even the accusation of 
 having taken part in the offence. It appears that the general 
 conduct of the Spaniards on their march was replete with cruelty 
 towards the harmless peasantry of the villages through which 
 they passed. 
 
 Fresh forces had now arrived from Peru, under command of 
 Rodrigo de Orgonez, and Almagro directed his course southward 
 through the rich and flourishing districts heretofore rendered tri- 
 butary to Peru. Still another reinforcement of recruits was brought 
 out by Juan de Rada, who bore dispatches to the commander-in-chief, 
 of a nature to turn the current of his thoughts from the present 
 theatre of warlike operations. These contained his formal appoint- 
 ment, by the crown of Spain, to the government of a large dis- 
 trict lying next south of that already confirmed to Pizarro. The 
 imperfect surveys of the period had not definitely fixed the line of 
 division, and Almagro was assured, by letters from his friends in 
 Peru, that the capital itself lay within his newly-acquired territory. 
 
 That active soldier would not, however, immediately give up hia 
 dreams of conquest, although the extravagant hopes of his compan- 
 ions in adventure, as to the acquisition of further treasures in gold 
 and silver, were by this time greatly damped. He pushed on •to the 
 banks of the Rio Claro, where the warlike Promaucians rallied to 
 oppose his further advance. To their astonishment, the Spaniards 
 found theriiselves engaged with an enemy whose courage and forti- 
 tude might compare favoTirably with that of veteran soldiery. After 
 some useless fighting, resulting in little advantage to either party, 
 Almagro was not unwilling to listen to the entreaties of his followers, 
 that an enterprise offering little prospect of any thing but hard 
 blows, should now be abandoned. He took his course northward 
 across the extensive desert of Atacama, avoiding the perils of a 
 march over the mountains, but exposed to great suffering from the 
 arid and .^inhospitable nature of the plains to be traversed. Hia 
 return and seizure of Cuzco, in 1538, with his further adventures in 
 
CHILI. 271 
 
 the bloody civil war which, ensued, and liis final defeat and execu- 
 tion, have been mentioned in the history of Peru. 
 
 Two years later, after the death of his companion and rival, 
 Pizarro commissioned one of his own officers, Pedro de Yaldivia, to 
 lead another expedition into Chili. De Hoz, who had previously 
 come out from Spain, with the royal authority to undertake this 
 exploit, was assigned a subordinate position. 
 
 Yaldivia, profiting by the experience of Almagro, conducted his 
 followers across the Andes at a more favourable season of the year 
 than that chosen by his predecessor. He consequently met with 
 trifling loss upon the route. The company sent into Chili at this 
 time, was composed of different materials from that of Almagro, as 
 it was proposed to form a permanent settlement at some favourable 
 point, in order to acquire a foothold in the country for further con- 
 quest and colonization. There were, therefore, in addition to an effi- 
 cient force of two hundred Spaniards and a host of Peruvians, a 
 number of women and priests. Domestic animals were also provided 
 for the use of the infant colony. 
 
 The news of the overthrow of the inca had by this time reached 
 Chili, and a favourable opportunity seemed presented to the tri- 
 butary provinces for a recovery of their former independence. The 
 invaders found themselves resisted and harassed at every point, but 
 as no united effort was made by the inhabitants of different districts, 
 they were enabled to force their way through the provinces of 
 Copiapo, Coquimbo, Quillota, and Melipilla. At Mapocho, the fer 
 tility and beauty of the country induced the commander to establish 
 his first settlement upon the bank of the river which bears the name 
 of the province. The city of St. Jago was accordingly founded on 
 the 24th of February, 1541. 
 
 Mapocho was one of the most populous provinces of Chili, and 
 the inhabitants speedily exhibited their determination to expel the 
 intruders. The Spanish commander having learned of an intended 
 attack, seized several of the Mapochinian chiefs, and took his posi- 
 tion, with a body of cavalry, upon the bank of the river Cochapoal, 
 to prevent their subjects from effecting a union with the natives of 
 the adjoining province. "The Mapochinians, " says Molina, "taking 
 advantage of the departure of the general, fell upon the colony with 
 inconceivable fary, burned the half-built houses, and assailed the 
 citadel, wherein the inhabitants had taken refuge, upon all sides. 
 WJiile they defended themselves valiantly, a woman, named Inez 
 
272 AMERICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 Suarez, animated with a spirit more cruel than courageous, seized 
 an axe, and beat out the brains of the captive chiefs, who had at- 
 tempted to break their fetters and regain their liberty." The return 
 of Yaldivia, with the cavalry, turned the scale, and after the slaughter 
 •of an immense number of native warriors, the survivors fled to the 
 mountains. From these places of retreat, for years thereafter, they 
 sallied forth to annoy the Spaniards and prevent their obtaining 
 supplies. The country around St. Jago, which had been the garden 
 of Chili, was now deserted and uncultivated, as the colonists were 
 unable to extend their agricultural operations beyond the bounds 
 protected by their fort. Great suffering ensued from want of suffi- 
 cient and wholesome food. 
 
 A new source of wealth was finally developed by the opening of 
 gold mines in the valley of Quillota^ a region to which Yaldivia's 
 attention had been directed by the reports of the natives. Unfor- 
 tunately for the convenience and interest of the city, it had no 
 navigable communication with the sea; but to secure a means of 
 intercourse with Peru, a vessel was built at the debouchement of the 
 river Chile. To excite further interest in the colony, the governor, 
 Valdivia, commissioned two officers of his band, Alonzo Monroy 
 and Pedro Miranda, with six associates, and an escort of thirty 
 mounted men, to proceed by land to Peru. The trappings and stir- 
 rups of the ambassadors were directed to be made of gold, as an 
 ostentatious display of wealth, calculated to attract the attention of 
 fresh adventurers. This party was attacked on the road by a body of 
 native archers, led by Coteo, an officer of the ulmen of Copiapo, and 
 every man was slain except the two envoys. These were taken 
 before the chief, grievously wounded, and would have been promptly 
 put to death but for the intercession of the ulmena, or wife of the 
 ulmen. This kind-hearted woman took the utmost care of her pro- 
 t^g^s, and, having healed their wounds, manifested her confidence 
 in their good faith by entrusting them with the instruction of her 
 son in the art of horsemanship. The two Spaniards, perceiving that 
 a way of escape lay open to them, did not scruple, at a favourable 
 opportunity, to slay the young prince, and, dashing through the un- 
 mounted attendant archers, were soon beyond pursuit. It is not 
 pretended that this cruel and ungrateful murder was any further 
 essential to their proposed plan of escape, than as creating a mo- 
 mentary panic and confusion among the guards. They made their 
 way in safety across the intervening deserts, and, reaching Peru, bore 
 
CHILI. 273 
 
 intelligence of the condition of the Chilian settlement, and of their own 
 disasters, to the governor, Vacca de Castro, successor to Pizari'o. 
 
 Kecruits were at once collected and dispatched to St. Jagc, both 
 by land and sea. In spite of these reinforcements, the colony suf- 
 fered severely from the marauding expeditions of the natives. 
 Nearly the entire force engaged at the Quillotan mines was cut off 
 by an ambuscade into which the soldiers and miners were drawn 
 by one of the Indians. The exhibition of "a pot full of gold," with 
 the information that abundance more was to be found at a designated 
 locality, so excited their cupidity that, without order or precaution 
 of any kind, they hurried towards the spot, and were easily de- 
 stroyed at a disadvantage. It is said that only two escaped, the com- 
 mander and a negro, both of whom happened to be well mounted. 
 Yaldivia sustained a further loss in the destruction of his arsenal 
 and of the armed vessel built in Chile, both of which were burned 
 by the natives. 
 
 In order to secure a safe stopping-place for land-parties between 
 Peru and his own capital, the governor, in the year 1546, com- 
 menced the foundation of a town at the mouth of the river Coquimbo. 
 Having taken this step to secure himself at the north, he made 
 preparations for pushing his conquests in the hitherto unexplored 
 provinces at the southward. Juan Batista Pastene, a naval officer, 
 who had brought out a large party from Peru, had before been 
 commissioned to explore the coast of the Straits of Magellan, but 
 little was known of the interior. 
 
 In what manner Yaldivia subdued or conciliated the bold and 
 warlike Promaucians is not distinctly related, but certain it is that 
 they threw no serious obstacles in his path of conquest; and that 
 they long after lent him the aid of their warriors in his battles with 
 the other aborigines. During this year (1546) the Spanish forces 
 penetrated as far south as the river Itata, at which place they sui- 
 fered so severe a loss at the hands of the natives, particularly in the 
 seizure of their horses, that they were forced to retire to the capital. 
 In 1547, Yaldivia sailed for Peru, with a great treasure in gold, to 
 secure the enlistment of volunteers for Chili. The fierce civil wars, 
 in which the conquerors of the empire of the incas became involved, 
 were now raging, and the Chilian governor lent his assistance to the 
 President Gasca. His services were rewarded by abundant supphes 
 of stores and munitions of war for his own territory, and he re- 
 turned to Chili with a large number of fresh adventurers. 
 YoL. III.— 18 
 
27i . AMEKICA ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 Several years passed away witliout further attempts against the 
 unsubdued tribes of the south. Meantime, the settlement at Co- 
 quimbo had been destroyed, and the settlers in that province had 
 perished by the assaults of the Indians. The city was rebuilt in 
 1549. In 1560 Yaldivia collected an army of Spaniards and Promau- 
 cians, and set out in hopes to accomplish his long- cherished scheme 
 of southern conquest. In the month of October, having reached the 
 bay of Penca, the natural advantages of the place induced him to 
 pause, and lay the foundation of a new city, to be called Conception. 
 While the Spaniards were engaged in tbis work, an opportunity was 
 afforded to the natives of the vicinity to effect a coalition with allies 
 of whose courage, fortitude and military skill, no adequate concep- 
 tion had been hitherto formed. These were the celebrated Arauca- 
 nians, who derived their name from Arauco, one of their smaller 
 provinces. The power of the incas had never been extended so far 
 as the district in whicb the Spaniards were now establishing a foot- 
 hold, and the Araucanians, who had from time immemorial main 
 tained complete independence of every other nation, promptly 
 determined to march, at once against tbe invaders, and not to wait 
 the expected violation of their own rights of territory. 
 
 Of this singular people, the early historian of Chili, Don J. Ignatius 
 Molina, gives accounts so highly coloured, that his veracity has been 
 called in question, but he solemnly avers that all which^he gives as 
 fact was drawn from reliable authority. The apparent exaggeration 
 of his eulogium may be confined to the imaginative conclusions which 
 he has drawn from correct premises, and may arise from the enthu- 
 siasm naturally excited by the detail and contemplation of the won- 
 derful intrepidity, and unequalled spirit of endurance which, have 
 ever characterized these hardy mountaineers. 
 
 Their country was separated from that of the Pencones by the 
 river Bio-bio and across this stream an Araucanian army was led by 
 Aillavilu the Toqui, a military chieftain of the country. 
 
CHILI. 275 
 
 BATTLE AT THE ANDALIEN. — INVASION Of ARAUGANIA. — 
 
 FOUNDATION OF THE CITY OF VALDIVIA.. — ELECTION 
 
 OF CAUPOLICAN TO THE OFFICE OF TOQIJI. — INDIAN 
 
 SUCCESSES. — DEFEAT AND DEATH OF VALDIVIA. 
 
 DEFEAT OF VILLAGRAN BY LAUTARO. — DESTRUC- 
 TION OF THE CITY OF CONCEPTION. 
 
 A PITCHED battle took place on the banks of the Andalien, and for 
 the first time the Spaniards encountered an enemy in whom the 
 novelty of cavalry and fire-arms excited neither terror nor confusion. 
 With true military skill Aillavilu turned the flank of his opponents, 
 and fell upon them in front and rear with the greatest impetuosity. 
 As the foremost ranks of the assailants were swept away by the fire 
 from the squares into which the Spaniards were compelled to form, 
 fresh forces rushed forward, in perfect order and discipline, to supply 
 their places. The death of the toqui, who exposed his person in the 
 place of greatest danger, caused the natives to make an orderly retreat. 
 
 The Spanish commander now saw the necessity for entrenching 
 himself more strongly than he had proposed against so formidable 
 an enemy, and proceeded to build a fort near the city. This proved 
 the salvation of the army, for the Araucanians, having elected a new 
 toqui, named Lincoyan, a man of huge stature, but wanting, it is 
 said, in energy and self-confidence, again advanced upon the city. 
 Their approach created great consternation, and the Spaniards, "after 
 confessing themselves and partaking of the sacrament, took shelter 
 under the cannon of their fortifications." Unable to carry the place 
 by storm, Lincoyan drew off his forces, and the colonists were left 
 without further molestation to continue their labours on the buildings 
 in the city. 
 
 Affairs looked prosperous ; fresh companies of adventurers came 
 out from Peru, and Valdivia, forgetful of the spirit exhibited by the 
 Araucanians in the first battle, determined to attack them in their 
 own territory. He crossed the Bio-bio in 1552, and by rapid marches 
 passed through the provinces of Encol and Puren, and laid the 
 foundations of the city of Imperial on the bank of the river Cauten. 
 Feeliug himself secure in possession of the country, (for Lincoyan did 
 
276 AMERICA ILLtJSTEATED. 
 
 not venture to measure his strengtli with that of the Spaniards,) Yal- 
 divia made extensive assignments of territory to his subordinates. 
 fie commissioned Alderete, an officer in the army, with sixty followers, 
 to commence a settlement on the lake of Lauquen, and, with recruited 
 forces, continued his march to the southern bounds of Araucania, 
 The river Caliacalla divided this country from that of the Cunches, 
 who at first made great demonstration of resistance, but, after some 
 negotiation, laid aside their hostile attitude, and permitted the army 
 to pass the stream. Upon its southern bank was founded the ill- 
 fated city on which the governor bestowed his own name, Yaldivia. 
 
 Without proceeding farther, the commander now took measures to 
 secure his supposed conquests, and returning through Puren, Tucapel, 
 and Arauco, he built a fort in each province. No efficient resistance 
 was made by the natives to these offensive operations, although many 
 battles or skirmishes took place during their progress. Historians 
 attribute this uncharacteristic want of energy to the stupidity or over- 
 caution of the Toqui Lincoyan. Yaldivia, considering the country 
 as subdued, and the natives as permanently overawed, thought only 
 of increasing the number of his settlements and extending his terri- 
 torial occupation. In the district of Encol, he founded his seventh 
 colony, calling the new city the City of the Frontiers. It afterwards 
 went by the name of Angol, and previous to its destruction is spoken 
 of as having become prosperous and wealthy. Alderete was at this 
 time sent to Spain with magnificent reports concerning the con- 
 quered country, and with instructions to procure for his superior, if 
 possible, from the emperor, a special commission of authority. These 
 events took place in the year 1553. 
 
 Meanwhile, an important movement was going on among the 
 Araucanians. An aged ulmen of Arauco, named Colocolo, disgusted 
 ^■ith the supineness of the Toqui Lincoyan, exhorted his countrymen 
 to combine for the expulsion of the foreigners. He travelled through- 
 out Araucania, boldly advocating the deposition of a leader who had 
 prov^ed himself without capacity for his responsible office, and the 
 appointment of one whose valour and energies might save his people 
 from Spanish tyranny and aggression. Great matters of state, 
 involving the interest of the nation at large, were decided, among 
 these primitive people, by a council of the ulmenes, or caciques of 
 the different provinces, held in an open field. Such a meeting was 
 therefore appointed, and discussion ran high as to the fittest successor 
 to the dictatorship, to be vacated by the removal of Lincoyan. 
 
CHILI. 277 
 
 One Tucapel, a chief of great military renown, was tlie most promi- 
 nent candidate, but as his election was opposed by a powerful party, 
 it was finally determined to submit the decision to Colocolo. The 
 old chief nominated Caupolican, ulmen of Pilmayquen, who was 
 accordingly installed amid universal acclamation. The unsuccessful 
 candidates, including the famous Tucapel, with commendable freedom 
 from envy or jealousy, accepted subordinate positions under the 
 new toqui. 
 
 All were now eager for war, but Caupolican restrained their im- 
 petuosity until he could make preparations for striking an unexpected 
 blow. The fort at Arauco was his first object of attack. Eighty of 
 the Indian auxiliaries to the Spaniards, who had been sent out to 
 collect forage for the horses, were taken prisoners on their way 
 back to the fort. Caupolican substituted an equal number of his 
 best warriors, who, wdth their arms concealed in the trusses of grass 
 and hay, easily effected an entrance. A fierce contest ensued, but 
 before the Araucanian army could reach the scene of action, the 
 assailants were driven out, and the draw-bridge was raised. After 
 a fruitless endeavour to storm the place, Caupolican was obliged to 
 content himself with reducing it by blockade. This was effected, 
 but the garrison escaped at night, charging through the besiegers at 
 the full speed of their horses, and making their way without obstruc- 
 tion to Puren. 
 
 The military post at Tucapel met with the same fate with that of 
 Arauco, and the troops stationed there also retreated to Puren. At 
 Tucapel, Caupolican encamped to await offensive operations on the 
 part of the Spaniards. Valdivia in all haste collected his forces, 
 amounting, it appears, to several hundred Spaniards and some thou- 
 sands of his Indian allies, and marched against the insurgents, who, 
 in still greater force, were prepared for a decisive engagement. The 
 two armies met before the fort at Tucapel, on the 3d of December, 
 1553. As the Spaniards approached the scene of action, they were 
 stricken with consternation at the sight of the gory heads of eleven 
 of their number, who had been sent forward to reconnoitre, cut off 
 and hung from the trees by the way-side. 
 
 The right wing of the Araucanian army was under command of 
 Mariantu, the vice-toqui, and the left was led by the valiant Tucapel. 
 Mariantu commenced the attack, and the whole opposing forces were 
 speedily engaged in a most desperate struggle. It was remarked, as 
 on a former occasion, that the thunder and havoc of the artillery 
 
278 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 produced no confusion or dismay on tlie part of tlie Araucanians, 
 those behind pressing forward with the utmost eagerness to take th(i 
 places of those who fell. Again and again they made an orderly 
 retreat, only to form anew, and rush with renewed fury to the attack. 
 Victory at last seemed in the hands of the Spaniards; an immense 
 number of the enemy had fallen, while the rest were in disorder, and 
 began to crowd confusedly together in their retreat from the charge 
 of the armed and disciplined soldiers of Yaldivia. 
 
 Among the Spanish troops was an Araucanian youth, only sixteen 
 years of age, named Lautaro, who had fallen into the hands of Yal 
 divia on some former occasion, and who served as his personal 
 attendant. Excited by the discomfiture of his countrymen, at the 
 moment when the Spaniards were rushing forward with exulting 
 shouts, this young Indian threw himself among the fugitives, and, 
 seizing a lance, exhorted them to rally and preserve the honour and 
 safety of their country. He hastily represented that the Spaniards 
 were worn out with fatigue, and must give way if the contest could 
 be longer maintained. "The Araucanians," says Molina, "ashamed 
 at being surpassed by a boy, turned with such fury upon their ene- 
 mies, that at the first shock they put them to rout, cutting in pieces 
 the Spaniards and their allies, so that of the whole of this arm}-, 
 only two Promaucians had the fortune to escape, by fleeing to a 
 neighbouring wood." 
 
 Yaldivia was taken prisoner, and when brought into the presence 
 of Caupolican, made supplication for his life, promising to abandon 
 all his undertakings, and remove with his people from the country, 
 if he were set at liberty. Lautaro, retaining a regard for his former 
 master, joined in these entreaties, and Caupolican appeared about 
 to yield, when an old chief among the bystanders put an end to 
 the discussion, by striking the prisoner dead with his war-club. 
 He then justified himself, with the remark, "that they must be mad 
 to trust to the promises of an ambitious enemy, who, as soon as he 
 had escaped from this danger, would make a mock of them, and 
 laugh at his oaths." 
 
 On the succeeding day the victorious Araucanians gathered with 
 their friends from far and near, to celebrate their success. The heads 
 of the slain Spaniards and Promaucians were hung from trees as 
 ghastly trophies, while the toqui aud his ofiicers, decked in the 
 arms and habiliments of the Europeans, presided over the fes- 
 tivities of the day. 
 
CHILI. 279 
 
 The effect of this disastrous engagement upon the colonists in 
 Araucania. was to create a universal panic. Deserting Angol, Puren, 
 and Yiliarica, they shut themselves up in the fortified towns of Yal- 
 divia and Conception. To these places Caupolican at once laid 
 siege. Lautaro having been invested with the highest subordinate 
 command in the army, as a reward for his valour and patriotism, 
 was posted, with a powerful force, upon the rugged heights of 
 Mariguenu, a mountain which must be passed by any troops marched 
 into Arauco from the northern Chilian settlements. 
 
 Francis Yillagran, who, by a previous appointment of the deceased 
 governor, succeeded to the administration of the colonial affairs, 
 marched without delay to the relief of the besieged. A short dis- 
 tance southward from the Bio-bio, he encountered the advanced 
 guard of Lautaro's division, which he defeated after a fierce contest 
 of three hours' duration, and pressed on up the mountain. The 
 Araucanians were protected by a palisade, and, as it proved impos- 
 sible to force their position by assault, six field-pieces were brought 
 to bear upon the entrenchments, and a steady fire of musketry was 
 kept up at a convenient distance. Seeing the destruction caused by 
 the cannon, Lautaro ordered one of his officers, named Leucoton, to 
 storm the battery and bring away the pieces, charging him not to 
 return without accomplishing his errand. The attempt was com- 
 pletely successful; the cannon were seized and dragged off, and, by 
 a sudden and simultaneous rush at all points, the Spaniards were 
 utterly routed, and driven in confusion down the narrow path of the 
 mountain. A party previously dispatched by the Araucanian com- 
 mander had thrown, during the fight, a barricade of logs across the 
 defile, and the fugitives, thus cut off from retreat, mostly perished. 
 The governor,, with a few well-mounted followers, succeeded in 
 forcing his way through the enemy, and reached Conception in safety. 
 
 At that city, their arrival and report produced, in the word's of 
 Molina, "indescribable terror and consternation. There was not a 
 family but had the loss of some relative to deplore. The alarm was 
 greatly heightened by the news of the near approach of Lautaro. 
 Villagran, who thought it impossible to defend the city, embarked 
 precipitately the old men, the women, and the children on board of 
 two ships that were then fortunately in the harbour, with orders to 
 the captains to conduct part of them to Imperial and part to Val- 
 paraiso; while, with the rest of the inhabitants, he proceeded by 
 land to Santiago." 
 
'280 AMEEICA ILLUSTKATED. 
 
 Lautaro and liis forces entered the deserted city, and, after collect- 
 ing much valuable booty, left behind by the inhabitants at their 
 hasty departure, entirely destroyed the place, levelling the fortress 
 with the ground, and reducing the wooden buildings to ashes. Yil- 
 lagran was enabled to throw fresh troops and supplies into the be- 
 sieged cities of Valdivia and Imperial ; and Caupolican perceiving that 
 the reduction of these places would involve great loss of time and men, 
 drew off his army, and effected a junction with that under Lautaro. 
 
 \j (Liu MM iL tL (Ju uib Jj iL Ji o 
 
 jrOKTALITI AirOKG THE INDIANS. — DISPUTES RESTECTING THE 
 
 yiCEEOYALTY. — SECOND DESTRUCTION OF CONCEPTION. — 
 
 LAUTARO'S EXPEDITION AGAINST SANTIAGO. — DON 
 
 GARCIA DE MENDOZA. INVASION OF ARAUCA- 
 
 NIA. — CAUPOLICAN'S DISCOMFITURE. 
 — EXPEDITION TO CHILOE. 
 
 The Spaniards in Imperial proceeded to plunder and lay waste 
 the country in their vicinity, storing within the walls all the pro- 
 visions on which they could lay their hands. In their excursions 
 for this purpose, some of their number, being infected with the small- 
 pox, communicated that disease to the natives, and a mortality more 
 fearful than the sword of the enemy ensued. There was one prov- 
 ince, the population of which amounted, it is said, "to twelve thou- 
 sand persons, of which number, not more than one hundred escaped 
 with life." 
 
 In accordance with the settlement enjoined by Yaldivia, two offi- 
 cers of note, Alderete and one Francis Aiguirre, had precedence of 
 Villagran in the government, but their absence at the time of the 
 first viceroy's decease, left him without a rival. The return of 
 Aiguirre to Chili threatened to involve the country in a civil war, 
 but it wai* Snally agreed to submit the question to the Koyal Audi- 
 ence of Linva, a tribunal of supreme authority over the Spanish 
 provinces of Soath America. In the course of the year (1655) Yil- 
 Jagran was formally confirmed in his viceroyalty, and was specially 
 instructed to rebuild the ruined city of Conception He complied 
 
CHILI. 281 
 
 with the order, although against his own better judgment, and had 
 a second time the mortification of hearing that the Araucanians, 
 under Lautaro, had made a descent upon the city, had slain or expelled 
 the inhabitants, and had left the place a smoking waste of ruins. 
 
 This success encouraged the natives to renew their efforts against 
 the colonies. Caupolican again invested Imperial and Valdivia, while 
 Lautaro, with the most audacious self-confidence, undertook to march 
 against Santiago. With an army of only six hundred men, he passed 
 the Bio-bio, and proceeded northward, his appearance being hailed 
 with acclamations by the natives of the districts which he traversed. 
 Having crossed the river Mazule, and reached Promaucia, his policy, 
 hitherto peaceful, suddenly changed, and instead of endeavouring to 
 gain over the inhabitants from the Spanish interest, he fell upon 
 them with all the fury of revenge, and, after ravaging the neigh- 
 bouring cquntry, fortified himself upon the bank of the Kio Claro. 
 
 Yillagran was at this time sick and disabled, but his former expe- 
 rience of Araucanian valour and determination, taught him to lose 
 no time in strengthening the defences of the city. He also forth- 
 with dispatched his son Pedro, with all his available force, to attack 
 Lautaro at his encampment. A pretended flight on the part of the 
 invaders drew the Spaniards within the enclosed space of the camp, 
 where, rallying suddenly, the Araucanians routed them with great 
 slaughter, only those who were mounted being enabled to escape. 
 Three subsequent assaults proved equally unsuccessful, and Pedro 
 encamped on the plain overlooked by the hostile fort. 
 
 Upon his recovery, the old governor, in the year 1556, undertook 
 in person the expulsion of the intruders. He led an army of one 
 hundred and ninety-six Spaniards, and a large force of Indians, by 
 a secret route, upon Lautaro's camp, and succeeded in reaching it 
 about day -break, without discovery. "Lautaro/' says the Chilian 
 historian, "who at that moment had retired to rest, after having 
 been upon guard, as was his custom during the night, leaped from 
 his bed at the first alarm of the sentinels, and ran to the entrench- 
 ments to observe the enemy. At the same time a dart, hurled by 
 one of the Indian auxiliaries, pierced his heart, and he fell lifeless 
 in the arms of his companions." The whole of his Araucanian 
 warriors, unable to form and oppose any efiectual resistance, were 
 cut off to a man. They refused quarter, and fought to the last with 
 desperate fury. The death of Lautaro was a severe blow to tho 
 Araucanian patriots; the toqui, Caupolican, disheartened by so 
 
AMERICA ILLUSTEATE/). 
 
 severe a reverse, drew ofl' his forces from Imperial as soon as tlie 
 news reached him., and took up a position where he might cut off 
 further supphes by land from Peru. The esteem in which the young 
 and valiant Lautaro was held by his countrymen, and the respect 
 paid to his memory by the European soldiery, to whom he had 
 proved so dangerous an enemy, are still commemorated in the 
 works of contemporary poets and historians. "His enemies them- 
 selves," says Molina, "highly applauded his valour and military 
 talent, and compared him to the most celebrated generals that have 
 appeared in the world. They even called him the Chilian Han- 
 nibal, from a fancied resemblance between his character and that 
 of the famous Carthaginian general, although, in some respects, it 
 had a much greater similarity to that of Scipio." 
 
 When news of Yaldivia's discomfiture and death reached Spain, 
 Alderete received a commission from Philip 11. , as his successor; but, 
 as he died before entering upon his office, it was conferred by the 
 Peruvian viceroy, the Marquis of Canete, upon his own son, Don 
 Garcia de Mendoza. With a considerable fleet, freighted with 
 abundant provisions and stores, and accompanied by a numerous 
 band of those military adventurers who were left unemployed by 
 the cessation of the civil war, the new viceroy directed his course to 
 the bay of Conception. He landed at the island of Quiriquina in 
 the month of April, 1557, where, after driving out the native inhab- 
 itants, he fortified himself, resolved to await the arrival of his cav- 
 alry and additional recruits from Peru, before engaging in active 
 operations upon the main. 
 
 Several Araucanian prisoners were set at liberty, with instructions 
 to make known to the native authorities the disposition of the Span- 
 iards to arrange terms for a permanent peace. At a general assembly 
 of the ulmenes, it was concluded that no reliance could be placed 
 upon these fair promises and specious proposals; but a wary and 
 sagacious chief, named Millalauco, was commissioned to return an 
 answer, and to take especial note of the number and equipment of the 
 foreigners. With a proud and independent bearing, the envoy made 
 his appearance before Don Garcia, and, with a protest that his people 
 were in no wise intimidated by the apparent force of the Spanish 
 armament, expressed the readiness of the ulmenes to conclude an 
 honourable peace. Upon hearing his report, the Araucanians madt 
 diligent preparations for war, and established a regular system of 
 espionage on the movements of the Spaniards. 
 
CHILI. 283 
 
 On the niglit of August 6tli, Don Garcia landed his first detach- 
 ment, and effected a hasty fortification on Mount Pinto, overlooking 
 the bay. Three days afterwards, Caupolican, with a great force, 
 attacked the place. Although the fort was well defended by cannon, 
 the Indians did not hesitate to charge the battery; and such was 
 their eagerness and self-devotion, that many, scaling the parapet, 
 threw themselves within the enclosure, and died fighting with fury 
 to the last. Tucapel, in person, was among those who thus exposed 
 their lives, but his great personal strength enabled him to escape 
 the fate of his companions. The assault proved unsuccessful, and 
 after a whole day's fighting, Caupolican was obliged to withdraw. 
 Immediately after this engagement, an army of recruits, including 
 a great body of well-armed cavalry, landed on the island. 
 
 The general now prepared for an expedition into the heart of the 
 country, and transported his troops in boats across the Bio-bio. 
 Caupolican was unable to obstruct his march into Arauco, and after 
 being completely defeated in one engagement, was able only to harass 
 the invaders by skirmishing attacks upon the flank and rear. To 
 add to the rage and indignation of the Araucanians, Don Garcia had 
 the barbarity to cut off the hands of a distinguished prisoner, named 
 Galverino, and dismiss him as a warning to his countrymen. At 
 Melipuru, the Spanish commander, by torturing several prisoners, 
 vainly endeavoured to extort information of the movements of Cau- 
 polican. On the day following, the Araucanian general again drew 
 up his army for a pitched battle. The result was a second defeat; 
 the strong body of cavalry, with the weapons of Europeans, proving 
 too great an advantage over native valour and endurance. Twelve 
 chiefs, among them the brave and unfortunate Galverino, were hanged 
 by order of Don Garcia, before his army proceeded on its march. 
 
 In the province of Tucapel, the successful invader built and gar- 
 risoned a fort, and laid out a city, which he named Canete. Leaving 
 Alonzo Keynoso in command, he then returned to Imperial, confi- 
 dent that the Araucanians were at last effectually humbled and 
 reduced. From Imperial a body of troops, with abundance of pro- 
 visions and stores, was speedily dispatched to defend and support the 
 new city. The Araucanians attacked this party upon the road, and 
 possessed themselves of the booty; but the Spaniards, although 
 completely routed and put to flight, succeeded in reaching Canete in 
 safety. Caupolican, within a few days after the arrival of this rein- 
 forcement, assaulted the place, but was unable to force enuenchmenta 
 
284 AMEEICA ILLUSTKATED. 
 
 substantially constructed, and defended by artillery. His troops, 
 it is said, "supported a continual fire for five hours, now scaling the 
 rampart, now pulling up or burning the palisades." 
 
 Endeavouring subsequently to obtain an entrance into the fort by 
 means of intriguing with a native Chilian in the Spanish service^ 
 the toqui was entirely outwitted. The double traitor, while he 
 pretended to have arranged a plan for the admittance of the besiegers 
 at an unguarded hour, in reality kept the Spanish commandant fully 
 informed of the proposed attack; and cannon, heavily loaded with 
 grape, were so brought to bear as completely to command the en- 
 trance. At the appointed time, the gate was left open, and the 
 Araucanians, anticipating an easy victory, poured into the fort. 
 As the fire opened upon their crowded ranks, and the Spaniards, 
 fully prepared, fell upon them with great fury, a total rout ensued. 
 Caupolican himself escaped, and fled to the mountains, but his army 
 was utterly destroyed. The unfortunate chief never recovered from 
 this disaster; Alonzo Eeynoso, after long search, by the treachery of 
 a native, discovered his place of retreat, and dispatched a party who 
 succeeded in surprising and taking him captive. The royal prisoner 
 was immediately ordered by the Spanish commander to be impaled 
 and shot to death with arrows, a sentence which was accordingly car- 
 ried into effect. 
 
 Don Garcia was at this time absent on his celebrated expedition 
 to the Archipelago of Chiloe. He set out from Conception, which 
 he had directed to be rebuilt, in the year 1558, for the purpose of 
 making a campaign against the Cunches. Arriving among these 
 people, whose character and condition was as yet unknown to the 
 Spaniards, his designs were frustrated, and his attention diverted 
 from further schemes of occupation by a sagacious manoeuvre, for 
 which the Cunches were indebted to an exiled Araucanian. This 
 man, named Tunconobal, advised them to conceal all signs of wealth, 
 and to impress the Spaniards with an idea that the country and 
 people were utterly poor and destitute. Tunconobal was therefore 
 sent, with nine comrades, to meet the Spanish commander. " Cloath- 
 ing himself and companions in wretched rags, he appeared with 
 every mark of fear before that officer, and after complimenting him 
 in rude terms, presented him with a basket containing some roasted 
 lizards and wild fruits."* 
 
 Hopeless of obtaining any booty from such a people, Don Garcia 
 Molina's History of Chili. 
 
CHILI. 285 
 
 proourp.d a guide to conduct him southward. The man whom the 
 Cunches furnished for this service, in accordance with his instruc- 
 tions, led the army through the most wild and inhospitable part of 
 the country, and made his escape, after involving the way-worn and 
 famishing soldiers in apparently inextricable difficulties among desert 
 and precipitous mountains. At the close of the month of January, 
 1559, they came in sight of the beautiful Archipelago of Chiloe, and 
 the brilliant spectacle of its fertile islands, teeming with an industri- 
 ous population, and the land-locked waters, covered with canoes and 
 sail-boats, gladdened their eyes, and promised rest and refreshment 
 after their toilsome journeyings. The natives received the Span- 
 iards with the greatest kindness and hospitality, and, after their 
 strength was recruited, furnished them with provisions, and a guide 
 to direct them upon an easy route homeward. The return-march 
 through the provinces of the Huilliches, was accomplished*with little 
 or no difficulty, as the road lay through a level country, where pro- 
 visions could easily be obtained. 
 
 CHAPTEH I?. 
 
 CAUPOLICAN THE YOUNGER. — SIGNAL SUCCESSES OF THE SPAN- 
 IARDS. WARLIKE OPERATIONS OP ANTIGUENU. — OP PAIL- 
 
 lAMACHU. — RECOVERY OP. ARAUCANIA BY THE 
 NATIVES. PEACE CONCLUDED IN 1641. 
 
 Upon the death of Caupolican, the assembled ulmenes of Arau- 
 cania elected his eldest son to the vacant dictatorship. Tucapel was 
 made vice-toqui, and an army was instantly raised to prosecute the 
 war against the murderous intruders. In the first engagements, the 
 Spaniards met with signal defeat, and Don Garcia, having marched 
 from Conception to Imperial, found himself closely besieged by 
 Caupolican the younger, with his whole army. The Araucanians 
 were unable to force the entrenchments, and, after various assaults, 
 in which the young chief exhibited the most astonishing prowess and 
 personal courage, they were compelled to raise the siege. 
 
 In the ensuing campaigns of this year (1559) the Spaniards steadily 
 gained ground, as the native forces were continually growing weaker, 
 
286 AMEEICA ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 while the arrival of recruits by sea as constantly increased the 
 resources of the former. The fatal battle of Quipeo crushed for the 
 time all the hopes of the Araucanians. Their last army was cut to 
 pieces ; their bravest and most influential officers were slain ; among 
 others, Tucapel, Mariantu, Colocolo, and Lincoyan; and the bravo 
 Caupolican, to avoid falling into the hands of his enemies, perished 
 by his own hand. 
 
 Don Garcia now rebuilt the forts in Arauco, Angol, and other 
 provinces. He also reopened the long-neglected gold and silver 
 mines, and sent a body of troops, under Pedro Castillo, across the 
 Andes, to extend and confirm the Spanish authority in the east. 
 That officer founded the cities of St. Juan and Mendoza on the 
 eastern slope of the great mountain range. 
 
 Francis Yillagran being reinstated in the viceroyalty of Chili, Don 
 Garcia re!urned to Peru, having, as was generally believed, com- 
 pletely established the Spanish power in the former country. The 
 Araucanians, notwithstanding their terrible reverses, still cherished 
 the hope of liberty, and having chosen a distinguished warrior, named 
 Antiguenu, for their toqui, retreated to the marshy wilderness of 
 Lumaco. In this secure place of concealment, Antiguenu devoted 
 himself to disciplining the youth enlisted to take the place of 
 the veteran warriors who had perished in the late disastrous war, 
 and soon began to commit depredations on the more exposed 
 Spanish settlements. When his force had increased sufficiently to 
 justify open hostilities, he fortified himself upon Mount Mariguenu, 
 the scene of the brilliant exploit of Lautaro, and had the good fortune 
 to be attacked in this stronghold by a Spanish army, under a son of 
 the viceroy. The Araucanians wxre signally successful, and the 
 Spanish force was almost entirely destroyed. 
 
 Without delay, Antiguenu now fell upon and reduced the fortress of 
 Canete, and dispatched a large army to make a new attempt upon the 
 city of Conception. At the same time, he laid siege to the fort at 
 Arauco, then in command of Lorenzo Bernal. The city proved too 
 strong to be taken by assault, and too well provisioned to be success- 
 fully blockaded, but the obnoxious fort at Arauco was taken and de- 
 stroyed. Thus far the Indians were successful, but, (in the year 1564,) 
 as Antiguenu was upon his march against Angol, he was compelled 
 to engage the whole Spanish army, under Bernal, who attacked him 
 upon the bank of the Bio-bio, near the mouth of the Vergosa. The 
 brave toqui was slain, and his followers were destroyed or dispersed. 
 
CHILI. 287 
 
 From this period until the close of the sixteenth centuiy, not- 
 withstanding the determined spirit and continual efforts of the 
 Araucanians, the Spanish colonists steadily gained ground. Among 
 the succession of famous native chiefs who held the office of toqui 
 and conducted the more important campaigns, the names of Pailla- 
 taru, Cayancaru, and Cadeguala, were the most distinguished. Not- 
 withstanding the resistance of the aborigines, the forts at Canete, 
 Arauco, &c., were restored, and a new post was established at Quipeo. 
 The Chiloan Archipelago was also brought under subjection, and 
 the peaceable islanders submitted to foreign tyranny and exactions, 
 with scarcely an effort at resistance. 
 
 In the year 1596 the tide of Spanish successes began to turn. 
 The native ruler, at this period, was the celebrated Paillamachu, a 
 very aged but active and energetic chief. The Spanish viceroy was 
 Don Martin Loyola, a nephew of St. Ignatius, founder of the pow- 
 erful order of the Jesuits. Paillamachu, in the old places of retreat 
 among the morasses of Lumaco, had for years been engaged in 
 recruiting and disciplining his shattered forces, and, in 1596, com- 
 menced a most vexatious system of petty warfare against the Span- 
 iards, making forays upon their smaller settlements, for plunder, and 
 for the exercise and instruction of his inexperienced youth. 
 
 Loyola could effect nothing against such an enemy, and at last 
 devoted his attention to the fortification and strengthening the more 
 important military posts, wisely deeming that these might eventually 
 be the only places of refuge against the indomitable Araucanians. 
 Upon his return northward, after a visit for this purpose to Imperial, 
 in the month of November, 1598, the viceroy encamped in the valley 
 of Caralva. Supposing himself far from the reach of the enemy, he 
 had dismissed the greater part of his escort. Paillamachu had, 
 however, kept upon his track, with two hundred warriors, and 
 seized the Opportunity to fall upon the encampment. Loyola and 
 all his attendants perished. Simultaneously with this event, by 
 the admirably concerted arrangements of the toqui, the natives 
 throughout Araucania, as well as the Cunches and Iluilliches, rose 
 iu mass. "Every Spaniard who had the misfortune to be found 
 without the garrisons was put to death ; and the cities of Osorno, 
 Yaldivia, Yillarica, Imperial, Canete, Angol, Coja, and the fortress 
 at Arauco, were all at once invested with a close siege. Not 
 content with this, Paillamachu, without loss of time, crossed the 
 Bio-bio, burned the cities of Conception and Chilian, laid waste 
 
288 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 the provinces in their dependence, and returned loaded with spoi' 
 to his country."* 
 
 During the three years succeeding, all the Spanish settlements in 
 Araucania were destroyed, and the whole country south of the Bio- 
 bio was regained by the natives. A singular mixture of races 
 resulted from the adoption by the Araucanian conquerors of the 
 prisoners taken at the reduction of the principal towns. It appears 
 that the half-breeds who thereafter formed a portion of the inde- 
 pendent population of Chili, were the most implacable enemies of 
 the Europeans. From this time until the year 1618, the Bio-bio 
 constituted the boundary between the hostile races. Many ineffectual 
 attempts were made by the Spanish viceroys to recover the lost ter- 
 ritory, and equally futile proposals for the establishment of a peaceful 
 communication, for the purpose of missionary enterprise, were set 
 on foot, in conformity with the wishes of the zealous but bigoted 
 monarch of Spain. 
 
 From 1618 to 1632 the office of toqui was held by the warlike 
 chieftains Lientur and Putapichion, who not only maintained pos- 
 session of their own territory, but made continual inroads upon the 
 Spanish settlements, bearing off prisoners, horses, and other valuable 
 booty. The Araucanians were at this time habituating themselves 
 to the art of riding, and to the use of fire-arms, as far as they could 
 be procured. The war continued until the year 1640, when the 
 viceroyalty of Chili was conferred upon Don Francisco Zuniga, 
 Marquis of Baydes, who had before done good service for Spain in 
 the wars of the Low Countries. This officer perceived that little was 
 to be gained by continued hostilities with an enemy whom no 
 reverses could dispirit — no severity subdue. The Spanish army 
 was greatly reduced, although from time to time reinforced by 
 fresh arrivals from Peru ; and the Araucanians, in the midst of the 
 misery and destitution consequent upon such long and bloody con- 
 tests, appeared no less determined than when they first made a stand 
 against the invasion by Yaldivia. Always well versed in military 
 tactics, they had now become far more dangerous opponents, from their 
 acquisition of horses and from their experience of European warfare. 
 
 Immediately on his arrival, the marquis took measures to procure 
 a personal interview with Lincopichion, the toqui, and preliminary 
 arrangements for a peace was agreed upon. A great meeting was 
 held, for the purpose of ratifying and concluding the treaty, at 
 
 * Moliniis History of Chili. 
 
CHILI. 289 
 
 Quillin, in Puren, on tlie 6tli of January, 1641. Among the usual 
 provisions for exchange of prisoners, terms of trade, personal security, 
 &c., the Spanish viceroy took the precaution to insert a proviso 
 that no foreigners, of any other nation, should be allowed to land 
 upon the Araucanian coast. This stipulation was suggested by 
 former efforts of the Dutch to avail themselves of the cooperation of 
 the native inhabitants, in their attempts against the colonies in Chili. 
 In 1643, a Dutch fleet from Brazil made the harbour of Valdivia, 
 and fortifications were commenced in hopes that a foothold could be 
 thus secured, and the assistance of the natives obtained in maintain- 
 ing it. The good faith of the Araucanians towards the Spaniards 
 rendered this scheme abortive. 
 
 CHAPTER Y. 
 
 RENEWAL OP WAR. — PEACE OF 1773. — PRESENT CONDITIOH 
 
 OF THE ARAUCANIANS. — THE REVOLUTION IN CHILL 
 
 THE CARRERAS. REESTABLISHMENT OF SPANISH 
 
 POWER. — INTERVENTION OF SAN MARTIN. — 
 
 CIVIL WARS. ATTEMPT OF RAMON FREYRE. 
 
 REBELLION UNDER VIDAURRE. ESTAB- 
 LISHMENT OF THE REPUBLIC. 
 
 After about fifteen years of peace and prosperity, difficulties 
 again arose in Araucania, and both colonists and natives suffered all 
 the miseries of a ten years' war. In the earlier campaigns, during this 
 season of hostility, the Toqui Clentaru was signally successful. He 
 defeated the Spaniards in a pitched battle, seized the forts at Arauco, 
 Colcura, St. Pedro, and other posts; and crossing the Bio-bio, de 
 stroyed the city of Chilian, with the forts of St. Christopher and 
 Estancia del Rey. Nothing but the most meagre outline of the 
 prominent events of this period has been preserved in history. 
 
 During nearly fifty years of quiet which succeeded, the Spaniards 
 encroached farther and farther upon the territory and liberty of the 
 natives, whose dissatisfaction finally led to an outbreak. ISTo perma- 
 nent peace was effected before the year 1773. During this long 
 interval, the growth of the settlements was retarded, and an enormoua 
 Vol. Ill— 19 
 
290 AMERICA ILLUSTEATEJ). 
 
 expense incurred by the government. Useless campaigns, wHch 
 resulted in loss to both parties, and in which no definite or perma- 
 nent advantage was gained on either side, furnish but a wearisome 
 theme for the historian. Under the government of Francisco Xavier 
 de Morales, a lasting peace was concluded. The toqui, CurignancU; 
 having consented to a conference, to be held, in accordance with his 
 demands, at St. Jago, exhibited a skill and firmness in negotiation 
 equal to his bravery in the field. The old treaties were renewed, 
 and, in spite of much opposition, it was agreed that thereafter a resi- 
 dent minister from Araucania should be allowed at St. Jago. 
 
 At the close of the eighteenth century, the only possessions of the 
 Spaniards south of the Bio-bio, were the fortification of Yaldivia, sit- 
 uated in the Cunchese territory, the island of Juan Fernandez, and 
 the Archipelago of Chiloe. In the northern provinces of Chili, the?** 
 settlements increased and prospered, while the Araucanians remained 
 in peaceable and triumphant possession of their original territory, a 
 possession maintained and secured by more than a century of hos- 
 tilities. No uncivilized nation, of equal numbers and resources, has 
 ever in the history of the world maintained so protracted a struggle 
 with European armies, provided with all the means and appliances 
 of modern warfare. It is remarkable to what a degree these brave 
 and chivalrous people differed from the generality of the aboriginal 
 Americans in their system of strategy. Their campaigns did not 
 consist merely of a series of secret manoeuvres and midnight sur- 
 prises, nor did they offer battle only in situations which would fur- 
 nish ready places for retreat, or supply coverts from which the 
 warrior might discharge his weapons in safety. 
 
 In the words of Eobertson, "they attack their enemies in the open 
 field; their troops are disposed in regular order, and their battalions 
 advance to action, not only with courage, but with discipline. The 
 North Americans, although many of them have substituted the 
 fire-arms of Europe in place of their bows and arrows, are notwith- 
 standing still attached to their ancient method of making war, and 
 carry it on according to their own system ; but the Chilians resemble 
 the warlike nations of Europe and Asia in their military operations." 
 
 Such ardent feelings of patriotism as have ever distinguished the 
 Araucanians, are naturally associated with strong attachment to the 
 customs and manners of life peculiar to their ancestors. This is par- 
 ticularly noticeable in the doubtful success met with by the Catholic 
 inissionaries whose efforts, from time to time, have been directed to 
 
CHILI. 291 
 
 their conversion; and in the patriarchal simpllcitj w'hich is still 
 conspicuous in their government and domestic relations. The prin- 
 cipal addition to their resources, and consequent change in their 
 occupation and pursuits, consists in the introduction of horses and 
 cattle, to the raising of which their country is well adapted. 
 
 The European colonies of Chili remained subject to Spain until 
 the period of confusion consequent upon Napoleon's peninsular 
 campaigns; a period originating that series of revolutions, which 
 resulted in the loss to the parent-country of all her American con- 
 tinental possessions. By the direct influence of the Count de la 
 Conquista, the captain-general of Chili, in September of 1810, an 
 assembly of landed proprietors was summoned for the purpose of 
 concerting measures for an overthrow of the Spanish power. A junta, 
 having for its president the count himself, was accordingly formed, 
 and an election was ordered to take place in the spring ensuing. 
 Entering upon their ofiice, not without some bloodshed, the mem- 
 bers of the independent congress proceeded to annul the powers of 
 the court of royal audience, and to enact laws securing liberty and 
 equality to the inhabitants. 
 
 Three brothers, named Carrera, who had taken a prominent part 
 in opposing the partial system of apportioning the electoral dis- 
 tricts, after that abuse had been corrected by the congress, fomented 
 a new disturbance, and, gaining over to their views a considerable 
 party, succeeded in dissolving, first, the original junta, and after- 
 wards the congress itself, leaving the entire administration of affairs 
 in the hands of a council of three, among whom was one of their 
 own number. 
 
 Such a usurpation of power could hardly be expected to remain 
 undisturbed at a period when the South American colonies were 
 just throwing off the fetters with which they had so long been bur- 
 dened. The disaffection of the inhabitants, and the dissensions which 
 weakened the power of the self-created rulers of Chili, invited the 
 interposition of the Peruvian authorities, and the viceroy of Lima 
 accordingly dispatched an army, under General Pareja, to seize upon 
 the country. That officer, in 1818, marched into Chili, and, gaining 
 over the troops at Conception, proceeded southward. He was at- 
 tacked at his encampment, on the night of April 12th, by the patriot 
 army, under one of the Carreras, and met with such loss that he 
 withdrew to Chilian. 
 
 General Carrera, continuing to carry matters with a high hand, 
 
292 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 and making use of his military commission to commit many acts of 
 tyranny and oppression, was deposed from his command, and the 
 office of commander-in-chief was bestowed upon the celebrated Col 
 onel O'Higgins. With his brother Luis Carrera, he was shortly 
 afterwards taken prisoner by the royalists. The patriots, under 
 their new general, effected little or nothing until the spring of 1814, 
 when such signal advantages were gained over the invaders, that a 
 treaty was negotiated, by the terms of which the Peruvian forces 
 were to be withdrawn. Meantime, Chili was distracted by new 
 revolutions and disturbances. The junta was dissolved, and Lastra, 
 the governor of Valparaiso, was created dictator, only to be dis- 
 placed by the intrigues and influence of the Carreras, who had made 
 their escape from captivity. 
 
 The royalist general neglected to comply with the treaty, and 
 maintained his position until autumn, when powerful reinforcements 
 having arrived from Peru, he overran the whole country, and com- 
 pelled the rebellious provinces to submit once more to Spanish 
 oppression. "The inhabitants became the victims of royal ven- 
 geance; arrests, imprisonments, punishments, and banishments fol- 
 lowed, filling the country with terror, suffering, and horror. More 
 than one hundred patriots were exiled to the desert island of Juan 
 Fernandez, three hundred and eighty miles from the coast."* 
 
 For the final establishment of their independence, the Chilians 
 were indebted to foreign assistance. An army of republicans, under 
 General San Martin, governor of the province of Cuyo, in the early 
 part of the year 1817, was marched across the Andes, and, joining 
 the patriots, annihilated the Spanish power in Chili for ever. The 
 subsequent campaigns of the combined armies of that country and 
 of Buenos Ayres, especially those connected with the history of the 
 establishment of Peruvian independence, will be found briefly nar- , 
 rated in another portion of our history. 
 
 In the year 1825, a constitution was framed by the congress of 
 Chili, in accordance with the provisions of which the country has 
 been subsequently governed. 
 
 O'Higgins remained at the head of affairs in Chili for the term of 
 SIX years from the period of his elevation, April, 1817. He was 
 generally esteemed, both for his military services, and his good in- 
 tentions in the conduct of the civil administration ; but the unsettled 
 ■condition of the country in those early days of the republic, required 
 
 * Niles' History of South America and Mexico. 
 
CHILI. 29S 
 
 a firmer hand in tlie correction of abuses, and a more thoroiigTi over- 
 sight and control over subordinate officials than were exhibited by 
 the patriotic, but negligent director. Upon his deposition he retired 
 to Peru, where he was received with honour and distinction, and 
 where his services in the- cause of republicanism were rewarded by 
 an appropriation from the government. 
 
 For several years after O'Higgins' departure, Chili was in a dis- 
 turbed and tumultuous state. The successive presidents were unable 
 to maintain order, or to carry out their plans for giving stability to 
 the government. In 1829-30, civil war fairly broke out, the poweis 
 of legislation being claimed respectively by the congress, with the 
 president, and by a junta appointed by deputies sent in to Santiago 
 from the various disaffected towns and districts. The army, under 
 General Prieto, favoured the junta, and in April, 1830, the con- 
 gressional forces, under General Eamon Freyre, who had been 
 O'Higgins' successor in the directorship, were completely defeated. 
 At a general election, held immediately after the engagement, Prieto 
 was chosen president of the republic. 
 
 Under the vigorous administration of this officer, who, b}' the 
 advice and assistance of his minister, the celebrated Diego Portal es, 
 avoided the errors and consequent weakness of his predecessors, the 
 powers of government were wonderfully strengthened and estab- 
 lished. The organization of a militia of the country opposed an 
 ellectual check to the enterprises of ambitious military adventurers; 
 judicious financial measures revived the public credit; and a con- 
 sistent course of firm, and necessarily severe administration of the 
 laws, gave security to life and property. 
 
 The year 1836 was memorable for an unsuccessful attempt by the 
 ex-director, Kamon Freyre, to bring about a revolution. He sailed 
 from Lima for Chiloe, intending to disembark upon the southern 
 sea -coast of Chili, but the government, having notice of his designs, 
 anticipated the movement. A force was sent to Chiloe, and Freyre, 
 with his ships, fell into the hands of the Chilians. 
 
 The disaffection of Colonel Vidaurre, second in command in the 
 army of Chili, produced more disastrous results. The first demon- 
 stration of rebellion was the seizure of the minister, Portales, as 
 he was reviewing the troops; an outrage immediately followed 
 by civil war. Vidaurre attacked Valparaiso, but the city was well 
 defended, and he saw his followers defeated and scattered. The 
 unfortunate Portales fell a victim to the disappointed rage of his 
 
294 AMERICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 captors. He had refused to lend himself to the views of the revolu- 
 tionists, although warned that his life depended upon his decision. 
 When the fate of the day was decided, the captive minister was shot, 
 and, the first fire not fully taking effect, was dispatched by bayonets. 
 His body was found lying in the road when the insurgent forces had 
 dispersed. The principal fomenters of this outbreak paid the forfeit 
 of their rebellion with their lives. 
 
 The natural resources of the Chilian republic are great. The soil 
 is exceedingly fruitful, and the peculiar conformation of the country 
 renders a system of irrigation extensively available. The mines of 
 the precious metals are rich and productive, while those of copper 
 are among the most valuable ever discovered. Good harbours and 
 a favourable geographical position afford facilities for an extensive 
 commerce. Such advantages, combined with a delightful variety 
 of climate and scenery, render Chili a desirable place of residence, 
 but its growth has been hardly in proportion to its resources. It 
 appears that the government has lately held out new inducements 
 to immigrants from other countries, and has offered facilities for 
 their establishment, well calculated to attract the enterprising and 
 industrious. 
 
FLORIDA. 
 
 uiiAiriiljii i* 
 
 JUiN rONCE DE LEON. — HIS YOYAGE IN SEARCH OF THK 
 FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH. — DISCOVERY OF FLORIDA. — HIS 
 SECOND EXPEDITION. — HIS DEATH. — DISASTROUS AT- 
 TEMPTS OF AYLLON AND NARVAEZ. — HERNANDO DE 
 SOTO. — APPOINTED GOVERNOR OF CUBA. HIS EXPE- 
 DITION TO FLORIDA. — MARCH TO THE INTERIOR. 
 — CONTESTS WITH THE INDIANS. 
 
 The beautiful name of Florida, restricted, for more than a century, 
 to a single province, and now to a single state, was, in the early 
 history of America, applied to a vast extent of country, embracing 
 nearly all the eastern portion of the continent, between Canada and 
 Mexico. In narrating the settlement of the West Indies, mention 
 has been made of Juan Ponce de Leon, conqueror and governor of 
 the island of Porto Rico. This man, in addition to the ambition 
 and rapacity common to all his class, possessed, it should seem, rather 
 more than their usual share of fancy and credulity. Deprived, in 
 advanced age, of his hardly-earned command, his imagination be- 
 came much excited by the accounts of certain old Indians, who 
 averred that far in the north was a land abounding in gold, and 
 possessing a well of such miraculous virtue as to restore youth to 
 those who bathed in it. To discover this land of treasure, and to 
 regain the youth which should enable him to enjoy it, became at 
 once the object of his ambition. "Nothing can better illustrate the 
 gorgeous and dreamy imagination of the age, than the fact that this 
 worldly, practical, and experienced man now embarked a great por- 
 tion of his wealth in such a chimerical enterprise." 
 
 With three ships, manned, under a leader so redoubted and on an 
 
296 AMEEICA ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 errand so alluring, by ready volunteers, on tlie 8d of March, 1512, 
 he set sail from Porto Kico. Touching at Guanahani, and making 
 inquiries without success, for the desired region, he held on to the 
 north-west, and on the 27th, came in sight of land. On the 2d of 
 April, he anchored near the mouth of what is now called the St. 
 John's river, and landing, on the following day, took possession of 
 the country in the name of the Spanish sovereigns. It was Palm 
 Sunday (Pascua Florida), on account of which, as well as of the ga}^ 
 and flowery appearance of the country, he bestowed on it the name 
 of Florida. For several weeks he stood southward along the shore, 
 frequently landing, and searching in vain for his fountain of youth 
 and the gold with which the fabled land abounded. On the 14th of 
 »3une, he set sail for home, and arrived, after tedious navigation, the 
 victim of disappointment, in Porto Rico. Thence the old cavalier 
 repaired to Spain, where he underwent some raillery from the wits 
 about court, but obtained the appointment of governor of the newly- 
 discovered region, and finally regained the command of Porto Eico. 
 At that island he remained until 1521, when, stimulated by the 
 renown of Cortes, he again fitted out two vessels, and made a fresh 
 voyage to the land of his discovery. With a considerable force, he 
 landed on the coast, and was soon engaged in combat with the In- 
 dians, who bravely defended their country against the invaders. 
 Wounded by an arrow, the governor was carried on board his ship, 
 and sailed for Cuba, where, soon after his arrival, he expired from 
 the efiect of his wound, aggravated by mental uneasiness and disap- 
 pointment. A Latin epitaph chronicled his name and exploits: 
 
 " Mole sub hoc foriis requiescant ossa Leonis^ 
 Qui vicit faciis nomina magna swis." 
 Beneath this mound rest the bones of the valiant Lion, 
 Who in his deeds surpassed the names of the famous. 
 
 Subsequent expeditions to this land of natural beauty and imagin* 
 ary expectation, for a long period, present but a repetition of suffer- 
 ings and disasters. Lucas Yasquez de Ayllon, sailing, with three 
 hundred men, to what is now known as South Carolina, was cut off, 
 with nearly all his command, by the hostile Indians. Pamphilo de 
 Narvaez (defeated and captured by Cortes at Cempoalla, in Mexico) 
 in 1528, with four hundred men, landed on the western coast of 
 Florida, and penetrated, in the vain hope of treasure, through the 
 marshes, to Appalachee. A third of his command perished of hun- 
 
FLORIDA. 297 
 
 ger, or were slain by tLe Indians, on their return, and tlie remainder, 
 losing their way, were finally stopped by an arm of the sea. 
 
 In this extremity, the almost hopeless task was undertaken of 
 constructing vessels wherewith to regain their ships — of transmuting, 
 in fact, the relics of a cavafcade into a squadron, if possible, forlorner 
 still. Stirrups, spurs, and every article of iron, wrought on a rude 
 forge, were converted into nails; the tails and manes of the horses, 
 twisted with fibres of the palm, were used for rigging, and their skins 
 for water-casks. The shirts of the soldiers, cut open and sewed to- 
 gether, furnished sails, and maize for provision was won, by fighting, 
 from the Indian villages. By these ingenious devices (the same 
 adopted by Gonzalo Pizarro in his lamentable expedition to the 
 Amazon) five miserable barks were patched together, in each of 
 which forty or fifty men, closely crowded, put to sea. All were 
 dispersed and swallowed up by tempests; and five n^en, the sole 
 survivors, escaped to shore. These took up their march to the west- 
 ward, and, passing from tribe to tribe, often detained as slaves, they 
 crossed the Mississippi, and after a journey often years^ succeeded in 
 reaching the Spanish settlements in Mexico. A more wonderful or 
 arduous feat of travel, all circumstances considered, is hardly recorded 
 in history. 
 
 An expedition more memorable and disastrous still was that of 
 Hernando de Soto, already mentioned in the account of the Conquest 
 of Peru. That famous cavalier, whose whole estate, on reaching the 
 New World, says one of his companions, "was no more but a Sword 
 and Buckler," had returned to Spain with his thirst for achievement 
 yet unallayed, and with a vast treasure, enabling him to provide 
 ample means for its gratification. Alvar Nunez, one of the survivors 
 last mentioned, had applied to the crown for authority to make con- 
 quests in the vast region he had traversed. This demonstration, 
 combined with his reserved and mysterious demeanour, was supposed 
 to indicate the certainty of treasures locked up in their unknown 
 recesses. De Soto accordingly made a similar application, and re- 
 ceived the ofiices of governor and captain-general, both of Cuba an(J 
 Florida, with authority for almost unlimited conquest and discovery. 
 
 The wealth acquired by the plunder of Peru was lavishly devoted 
 to his new enterprise. Nine hundred and fifty Spaniards, with a 
 company of brave Portuguese, who had served in the wars of Africa, 
 were enrolled under his standard, and in April, 1538, he sailed, with 
 his armament, from San Lucar. He passed nearly a year in Cuba, 
 
298 AMEEICA ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 making fresh preparations for his enterprise, and finally, on the 18th 
 of May, 1539, with nine vessels, set sail from Havana. In a few 
 days he landed at Tampa Bay, where he was soon involved in war 
 with Hiriga, a native cacique, who had suffered much wrong at the 
 hands of Narvaez.' Among the hostile Indians he discovered one 
 Juan Ortiz, a soldier of that commander, who for many years had 
 been captive with them, and who proved exceedingly useful as an 
 interpreter. By his good offices and his acquaintance with the coun- 
 try, several desirable alliances with native chiefs were affected ; and 
 the army, as it marched into the interior, was abundantly supplied 
 by them with provisions. 
 
 The town of Ochili, situated on an ancient mound, and containing 
 five hundred houses, was taken by surprise, and the invaders pro- 
 ceeded to Yitachucco, the capital of a province of the same name. 
 For three days an apparently friendly intercourse was maintained 
 with the inhabitants; but on the fourth, as the Spaniards were quit- 
 ting the town, the chief, who marched by the side of De Soto, sud- 
 denly snatched the sword from his sheath, and attempted to run him 
 through the body. His warriors, (to the number of six thousand, 
 we are told) posted in the wood, at this signal, rushed on their guests 
 and attacked them furiously; but the latter, assisted by their native 
 allies, after fighting nearly all day, repulsed them with much loss. 
 Marching onward, they took the town of Osichili (Tallahasoche) after 
 a sharp fight, and thence proceeded to Appalachee. In a swamp 
 before this place, the natives, gathered in great numbers, gave them 
 battle, but were defeated, and the town was won. Here the Spanish 
 general took up his winter-quarters, his vessels being brought around 
 into the Appalachee river. 
 
FLORIDA. 299 
 
 DELUSIVE REPORT OF AN INDIAN. — DISASTROUS MARCH 
 
 THROUGH THE INTERIOR. — KING TUSCALOOSA. HIS STATE 
 
 AND HAUGHTINESS. — HIS SECRET TREACHERY. — GREAT 
 
 BATTLE AT MAUVILA. — CONFLAGRATION OF THE TOWN 
 
 AND YICTORY OF THE SPANIARDS. — MUTINOUS 
 
 SPIRIT OF THE CAVALIERS. — DESPONDENCY OF 
 
 DE SOTO. HE RESUMES THE MARCH. 
 
 A GOOD harbour, with indications of gold, was reported by an 
 exploring party to exist an hundred and eighty miles westward; and 
 a young Indian prisoner also averred that in his country, to the 
 eastward, was an abundance of the precious metal. " Whereupon," 
 (says one of the Portuguese who wrote a history of the expedition) 
 ''•he described the manner how that Gold was dug, how it was melted 
 and refined, as if he had seen it done a hundred times, or as if the 
 Devil had taught him; insomuch that all who understood the man- 
 ner of working in the Mines, averred that it was impossible for him 
 to speak so exactly of it, without having seen the same; and so 
 the Relation of that Indian passed for a real truth, because of 
 the circumstances wherewith he confirmed it." Depending on this 
 strangely fallacious testimony, in March, 1540, the Spanish force 
 again took up its march on an enterprise perhaps the most disas- 
 trous in American history. No gold was found, in many months of 
 wearisome travel through marsh and forest, and great suffering was 
 continually endured by the explorers and inflicted on the natives. 
 
 Many of the caciques, through whose country the invaders passed, 
 were subdued, and their people reduced to slavery. Chained and 
 loaded down like beasts of burden, these unhappy creatures often 
 perished on the way, of 'fatigue, of hunger, and the bitter cold of 
 winter. The Spaniards also suffered great extremities; and one of 
 them flung away a bag- full of beautiful pearls, rather than submit to 
 the drudgery of carrying them further. A loathsome disease, occa 
 sioned by the want of salt, presently appeared among them, and 
 eventually carried off sixty of their number. Gradually changing 
 their course to the north and west, the invaders, crossing the Cher- 
 
800 AMEEICA ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 okee country, by the 1st of September, came to the domain of a 
 chieftain named Tuscaloosa, of gigantic size and desperate courage, 
 who ruled over a great territory. A river and even a state capita] 
 still bear his name, which, probably, according to frequent custom, 
 was identical with that of his province. 
 
 This powerful chief dispatched his son to the Spanish commander, 
 with a friendly message and an invitation to his court. Seated 
 before his door, surrounded by attendants, those of the highest 
 quality being nearest his person, he received the strangers. A huge 
 umbrella, of deer-skin, was held over his head, and the Spaniards 
 could not avoid admiring his state, his gravity, and the splendid 
 proportions of his frame. Strange and wonderful as the fiery evo- 
 lutions of cavalry, studiously displayed, must have appeared to him, 
 he maintained a composure as rigid as that of the inca, under simi- 
 lar circumstances, nor would he even rise to meet De Soto, though 
 he seated that commander by his side, and addressed him with court- 
 eous civility. When the discoverers again took up their march, 
 he accompanied them, mounted on a strong war-horse, and guided 
 them to his chief capital of Mauvila or Maubila, (whence, doubtless, 
 the present name of Mobile,) situated at the junction of the Alabama 
 and Tombigbee rivers. It consisted of some eighty houses, of im- 
 mense size, some of them sufiicing.to lodge fifteen hundred persons, 
 and was surrounded by a strong rampart of living trees, closely 
 planted and impenetrably interwoven. 
 
 All the fair show of amity and hospitality which the chief had 
 displayed, were but a cover, it seems, for deadly treachery and hos- 
 tility. 'Eesolved to exterminate the invaders, he had issued secret 
 charge to all his subjects to repair to Mauvila, and no less than ten 
 thousand warriors, if we may trust the Spanish account, were assem- 
 bled in the houses. As soon as the strangers arrived there, Tusca- 
 loosa, abruptly quitting his guests, entered his palace, and to many 
 requests, through Ortiz, that he would rejoin them, returned no 
 reply. Dinner being finally ready, a more peremptory invitation 
 was sent in, on which an Indian chief, his eyes flashing fire, stepped 
 forth from the royal premises, and cried fiercely, "Who are these 
 robbers! these vagabonds I who keep calling to my chief, Tusca- 
 loosa, 'come out! come out!' with as little reverence as if he were 
 one of them ? By the Sun and Moon, this insolence is no longer to 
 be borne. Let us cut them to pieces on the spot, and put an end to 
 their wickedness and tyranny." As he bent his bow, a Spaniard cut 
 
FLORIDA. J301 
 
 him down, and forthwith swarms of warriors, aimed to the teeth, 
 poured out of every lodging. 
 
 A furious battle, within the town, immediately commenced, the 
 soldiers, under their redoubted leader, fighting valiantly, and striv- 
 ing to hold out till the main body of their comrades should come 
 up. With some loss, they finally made their way out of the ram- 
 part, where they were joined by an addition to their forces. For 
 three hours the contest raged with great violence without, the Span- 
 iards, charging with their lances, now forcing the enemy back to the 
 gate, and now in turn repulsed by missiles from the rampart. Two 
 hundred cavaliers finally dismounted, and, leading a desperate charge, 
 forced their way into the town. The houses were fired, and in the 
 midst of a terrific conflagration, the battle raged with unabated 
 fury — the Spaniards, choked with heat and smoke, quenching their 
 thirst from a small pool, half blood, half water, near the palisade. 
 The rear-guard, under Luis de Moscoso, hastened by the sound of 
 the conflict, at last came up, and after a desperate struggle, lasting 
 for nine hours, victory fell to the Spaniards. 
 
 The whole town had been destroyed by the conflagration, in which 
 great numbers of Indians also perished — among them, it is proba- 
 ble, Tuscaloosa himself, fi^r nothing more was heard of him. Twenty- 
 five hundred bodies were scattered without the walls. Eighty-two 
 of the Spaniards had fallen, and seventeen hundred wounds were 
 distributed among the survivors. All their baggage and treasure 
 was destroyed, and their slaves had escaped. Suffering grievously 
 for want of surgical aid, they dressed their wounds (like the soldiers 
 of Cortes in his Mexican campaigns) with the fat of the dead In- 
 dians. To do them justice, they treated with kindness the wounded 
 and dying enem}^, of whom great numbers lay around. !N"o further 
 sign of hostility appeared, for the Tuscaloosan warriors had mostly 
 perished or been disabled in the battle. 
 
 Lingering amid the ruins of Mauvila, De Soto heard of the arrival 
 of ships upon the coast, supposed to be his own fleet, which he had 
 ordered to rendezvous at Pensacola. To his despair and indignation, 
 he overheard certain of the cavaliers propose to seize them and pro- 
 ceed to Mexico. This mutinous disposition, combined with former 
 losses and misfortunes, completely overcame his spirit. "All his 
 toils seemed to have been in vain; the sacrifice of his immense for- 
 tune, and the fatigues and perils of his journey, had been incurred 
 for nothing. There was no treasure to send to Cuba to attract fresh 
 
302 AMEEICA ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 volunteers ; lie became a moody and disappointed man ; but in Ins 
 secret soul resolved never to return without having accomplished 
 something commensurate to his former fame and anticipations. But 
 the lire of ambitious enthusiasm Was burnt out, or quenched by dis- 
 appointment. 'He no longer pretended to strike out any grand 
 undertaking; but, stung with secret disappointment, went recklessly 
 wandering from place to place, without order or object, as if careless 
 of time and life, and only anxious to finish his existence.'" On 
 the 18th of November, 1540, overawing the seditious by the stern- 
 ness of his demeanour, he again set forth for the interior. 
 
 Kj U)U> i/fcb iL iL JU iLo Ji Jt Ji I 
 
 DE SOTO MARCHES WESTWARD. — LOSSES FROM INDIAN HOSTIL- 
 ITY. — REACHES AND CROSSES THE MISSISSIPPI. — MARCHES 
 TO ARKANSAS. — RETURNS TO THE MISSISSIPPI. — 
 HIS DEATH AND BURIAL. — FATE OF THE SUR- 
 VIYORS. — THEIR VOYAGE TO MEXICO. 
 
 Crossing the Black Warrior and Tombigbee rivers, at the end 
 of thirty days, De Soto arrived at the village of Chicaza (Chicka- 
 saw), where, for two months, he encamped, on friendly terms with 
 the surrounding tribes. At length, to avenge certain injuries, the 
 latter, by night, made a fierce attack upon his quarters, which they 
 fired with burning arrows. They were finally repulsed, but the 
 Spaniards lost forty men and fifty horses in the fight and conflagra- 
 tion, and during the remainder of the winter, the survivors, their 
 lodgings destroyed, suffered terribly from cold. On the 1st of April, 
 they again took up their march, and on the way lost fifi;een more in 
 btorming a strong Indian fortress, named Alihamo, defended by a 
 gi-eat force of the enemy. Still pushing their toilsome journey 
 til rough desolate and marshy regions, the Spaniards at last came upon 
 a inight}^ river, which Soto called the Kio Grande, and which ia 
 WAV known as the Mississippi. 
 
 Here the invaders took a village, named Chisca, to the intense 
 rage of its cacique, a little, withered, diminutive old man, who, how- 
 ever, had been a mighty warrior in his youth, and who now ruled 
 
FLOEIDA. C03 
 
 over a great province. Within three hours, four thousand warriors, 
 we are told, assembled at his command, and Soto, fain to appease 
 him by yielding up his plunder and prisoners, procured, by this act 
 of prudence, a grant of comfortable quarters. After some time spent 
 in recruiting their strength, the Spaniards resumed their march 
 along the river, and having found a convenient crossing-place, em- 
 ployed themselves for twenty days in building boats. A great 
 number of Indians, who annoyed them by occasional attacks, now 
 appeared on the river. "It was a pleasant sight," says one of the 
 spectators, "to see them in their canoes^ which were most neatly 
 made, and very large, with their Pavilions, Feathers, Shields, and 
 Standards, that looked like a fleet of galleys." 
 
 The Spaniards, however, crossed the river* without opposition, 
 and resumed their march to the westward. The natives whom they 
 encountered, appear to have been deeply impressed with the reli- 
 gious ceremonies of the strangers, and, during a great drought, De 
 Soto, erecting a vast cross, performed a solemn service, while many 
 thousands of the Indians, gathering around it, joined in a prayer for 
 rain to the God of the Christians. "God in his mercy," says the 
 pious Las Casas, "willing to show these heathens, that he listeneth 
 to them that call to him in truth, sent down, in the middle of the 
 ensuing night, a plenteous rain, to the great joy of the Indians." 
 After many strange adventures, the invaders came to a village 
 called Utiangue, it is supposed on the Arkansas, where, on account 
 of the abundance of fuel and provisions, they passed the winter in 
 tolerable comfort. 
 
 By this time half of the command and nearly all the horses had 
 perished; and Soto, all hopes of conquest or high achievement for 
 the present relinquished, determined on returning to the Eio Grande 
 (the Mississippi), and there building brigantines, to be dispatched to 
 Cuba for supplies and reinforcements. In the spring of 1542, he 
 broke up his encampment, and marched eastward, till he came to 
 the village of Guacho3^a, situated, probably, near the confluence of 
 the Mississippi and the Arkansas. lie was soon on friendly terms 
 with the cacique of this place, in whose fortress he took up his quar- 
 ters; but, to oblige his host, engaged in unprincipled warfare against 
 the neighbouring tribes, at feud with the latter. • The building of two 
 brigantines was actively prosecuted, and an expedition of survey 
 
 * At the Lower Chickasaw Bluff, it would seem, one of the ancient crossipg 
 places; between the 34th and 35th parallels of latitude. 
 
304 AMERICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 was dispatched across the river, to endeavour to gain intelligence of 
 the distance and direction of the sea. At the end of eight days, the 
 messengers returned, with the report that the whole country ap- 
 peared to consist of vast swamps and forests, through which the 
 river, with many windings, made its way. 
 
 What with toil, disappointment and anxiety, the unfortunate Soto 
 now fell ill; but, to maintain his accustomed ascendency over the 
 natives, dispatched an embassy to Quigaltanqui, the cacique of a 
 great province bearing the same name, on the oppo.site side of the 
 river, with the customary announcement that he was the offspring 
 of the Sun, and requiring submission and a visit. But the shrewd 
 and haughty chieftain sent back the reply, "That whereas he said 
 he was the Child of the Sunne, if he would drie vp the Eiuer, he 
 would believe him; and touching the rest, that he was wont to visit 
 none ; therefore, if hee desired to see him, it were best hee should 
 come thither; that if hee came in peace, hee would receive him with 
 speciall good will ; and if in warre, in like manner hee would attend 
 him in the town where he was, and for him or any other hee would 
 not shrinke one foote backe." This proud and magnanimous re- 
 pulse aggravated the illness of the disabled general, who, says the 
 old history, "had betaken himselfe to bed, being euill handled with 
 fevers, and was much aggrieved that he was not in case to passe 
 presently the River and seeke him, to see if he could abate that 
 pride of his." 
 
 Death, however, was at hand, to relieve his humbled pride, and 
 to quench the feeble rays of hope and enterprise that might yet be 
 lingering in his bosom. Seeing his end at hand, he appointed Luis 
 de Moscoso to succeed him in the command; and taking an affection- 
 ate leave of his surviving comrades, entreated their prayers for his 
 soul, and charged them to be loyal to the crown, and peaceful and 
 loving with one another. "Next day," says the old Portuguese, 
 "being the One and Twentieth day of J/ay, the Magnanimous, Vir- 
 tuous, and Valiant Captain, Don Fernando de Soto^ Governour of 
 Cuba^ and General of Florida^ yielded his soul to God." In this 
 forlorn and miserable situation, at the early age of forty-two, perished 
 one of the bravest and most enterprising leaders of adventure in the 
 New World — the gradual decay and melancholy extinction of his 
 fortunes strangely contrasting with the suddenness and brilliancy of 
 their culmination. 
 
 "His burial was a strange one; but not unworthy of his extraor- 
 
FLORIDA. 3Q5 
 
 dinary career and of his great discoveries. The Spaniards carefully 
 concealed his death from the Indians, fearing lest they should oe 
 encouraged to rise against the survivors. Accordingly, an evergreen 
 oak was cut down, and a hollow made in the centre of its heavy 
 trunk. In this singular coffin the body of their valiant general was 
 carefully secured, and in the dead of night, attended by the priests 
 and chief cavaliers, was solemnly launched into the centre of the 
 river, nineteen fathoms in depth. There, in their rude receptacle, a 
 hundred feet below the surface, and long since covered with the 
 wreck and drift of three centuries, still repose the remains of the 
 renowned adventurer; and the majestic torrent of the Mississippi, 
 rolling over the bones of its discoverer, forms a fitting and enduring 
 monument to his fame."* 
 
 The survivors, abandoning the task of descending the river, after 
 the death of their leader, once more took up their march to the 
 westward, hoping to reach the frontier settlements of Mexico. From 
 May to October, they pursued this toilsome journey, penetrating deep 
 into the recesses of the New World, and gaining, it would seem, a 
 distant view of the Kocky Mountains. Considering the attempt 
 hopeless, they finally retraced their steps, and in December, after 
 much fighting with the Indians, regained the shores of the Mississippi, 
 near Guachoya. Here they recommenced building vessels, using 
 every particle of iron, even the chains of the prisoners and the stir- 
 rups of the cavalry, in the difficult attempt. Seven small brigan tines 
 were at last finished, and in these, on the 2d of July, 1543, the 
 Spaniards, now reduced to the number of three hundred and fifty, 
 embarked. The plight of this little company (only a third of their 
 original number) was wretched in the extreme, their armour being 
 battered and rusted, and their gay attire of silk reduced to rags or 
 replaced by the skins of wild beasts. 
 
 After a wearisome voyage down the river, endangered by natural 
 difficulties and the continual attacks of the Indians, the adventurers 
 finally reached its outlet, and steered westward, along the coast, 
 for Mexico. For fifly-three days they coasted along, and at last 
 after encountering much danger from a gale, made the river 
 Panuco, near the town of that name, on the frontier of Spanish 
 Mexico. Leaping on shore, wild with joy, they kissed the earth 
 again and again, and returned thanks to God for their deliverance. 
 They then proceeded to the town, where all were greatly affected on 
 * Discoverers, «Sz:c., of America. 
 
 Vol. hi— 20 
 
806 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 beholding them; for, we are told, "they were blackened, haggard, 
 shrivelled, and half-naked, being clad only with the skins of deer, 
 buffaloes, bears, and other animals, so that they looked more like wild 
 beasts than human beings." Such was the deplorable result of an 
 enterprise sustained by such ample means, undertaken with such 
 sanguine confidence, and carried out with such indomitable courage 
 and perseverance ; but the true interests of humanity, after all, per- 
 haps suffered less than if the full measure of expected success had 
 been attained — than if the valiant Soto had rivalled the career of 
 Cortes and Pizarro, and spread desolation over realms as wealthy 
 and populous as Mexico or Peru. 
 
 CHAPTER I Y. 
 
 EARLY PEENCH SETTIEMEXTS. — BLOODY CONTESTS BETWEEN 
 
 THE SPANISH AND PEENCH COLONISTS. ---SPANISH MISSIONS. 
 
 — ENGLISH DEPEEDATIONS AND COLONIZATION ON THE 
 
 COAST.' — INVASIONS OP PLOEIDA BY GOYEENOE MOOEE. 
 
 After the utter failure of the last-mentioned expedition, so fatal 
 in its results both to the invaders and their victims, the persecuted 
 natives of Florida enjoyed a season of repose. The river St. John's 
 was visited, as is supposed, and named May river, by a party of 
 Huguenots, who came over from France, in two vessels commanded 
 by John Kibault, in 1562. This company commenced a settlement 
 on the Carolina coast, but from their own misconduct, and a failure 
 of supplies or assistance from home, the project fell through. In 
 their attempt to return, in a vessel of their own construction, they 
 were disabled ; and, falling in with an English ship, were taken to 
 England. 
 
 In 1564, Ren^ Lardoniere, a companion of Ribault, was entrusted 
 by Admiral Coligny, the patron of the first enterprise, with the 
 command of a new expedition. This party, which was better pro- 
 vided with the essentials for an establishment in the wilderness than 
 the former, after landing at the abandoned fort, sailed southward, 
 and, entering May river, commenced a settlement upon its left bank, 
 a few leagues from its mouth. A friendly intercourse was established 
 
TLOEIDA. 307 
 
 witli the natives, and the colony might have flourished, but for the 
 insane eagerness with which delusive hopes of obtaining treasures of 
 the precious metals were cherished, to the neglect of useful and 
 necessary husbandry. Before the conclusion of the year, starvation 
 stared the settlers in the face, and they were on the point of abandoning 
 the country, when Eibault arrived on the coast with a well-appointed 
 fleet and abundant supplies. 
 
 Hardly had the suffering colonists time to rejoice over this season- 
 able reinforcement, when they were called upon to defend themselves 
 against an enemy more cruel and implacable than the savages in 
 whose territory they were established. A Spanish fleet, under Don 
 Pedro Menendez de Avila, appeared off the mouth of the river, and 
 after an attempt at the seizure of some of Ribault's ships, whick were 
 moored without the bar, sailed southward, and entered the harbour 
 of St. Augustine. On this occasion was founded the town of that 
 name, whose ancient and dilapidated walls, narrow streets, and Eu- 
 ropean architecture, notwithstanding modern improvements, still 
 carry us back to the earliest settlement of the country. The large 
 force under Menendez had come out with the double purpose of 
 forming a Spanish colony upon the long-neglected coast of Florida, 
 and of destroying the heretics who had fled from persecution in the 
 old country. 
 
 Ribault did not wait for another attack, but, hopeful of securing 
 the advantage by an early movement, sailed in pursuit with his whole 
 available force. He was unfortunately driven southward by a storm, 
 and met with the loss of his entire fleet on the dangerous and 
 treacherous coast. Menendez took advantage of the interval that 
 must elapse before the French could threaten his position by land, 
 to make a rapid advance on the unprotected fort on May river." 
 No effectual resistance could be made, and the whole of the occu- 
 pants were taken captive or slain in the encounter. All the men 
 who were made prisoners were deliberately put to death, and near 
 the place where the bodies were left hanging on a tree, a monument 
 was placed, inscribed with the following words : " Not as Frenchman,, 
 but as heretics." 
 
 Broken down and disheartened by their misfortunes, the ship 
 wrecked party of Eibault, although numbering not far from six 
 hundred men, made no effort at retrieving their fortunes. It was 
 determined to proceed by land towards St. Augustine, and to mako- 
 an unconditional surrender to the Spaniards. "They formed into 
 
308 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 two companies; the first, consisting of two hundred men, proceedeu 
 ap the coast as far as Matanzas Inlet. Here they were met by Me- 
 nendez, who had, with forty soldiers, sailed up the sound to recon- 
 noitre. A French soldier was sent across the inlet to learn what 
 terms could be obtained; the messenger was detained. The boat 
 was then sent across for ten Frenchmen, who were taken behind a 
 sand-hill and murdered. And in this manner were the two hundred 
 men decoyed across the stream by tens, and all massacred and left 
 on the sand, to be devoured by the birds and beasts of prey."* 
 
 Eibault, with one hundred and fifty of his followers, gave them- 
 selves up a few days subsequent, only to share the fate of their mur- 
 dered countrymen. The remainder of the party fortified themselves 
 upon the coast, and were engaged in the construction of a vessel 
 from the wrecks of the fleet, when they were set upon by Menendez, 
 and driven from their position. Terms of favour were now proffered 
 by the conqueror, and were accepted by all, except a few who still 
 feared to trust to the promises of the treacherous Spaniard, and 
 who betook themselves to the wilderness in the interior, where they 
 probably perished. 
 
 The outrages perpetrated upon the ill-fated French colony were 
 in a measure revenged in 1569, by a private expedition, fitted out 
 and commanded by the noted Dominique de Gourges. With a small 
 but effective force of adventurous volunteers, he came upon the 
 coast, and under the guidance of one of the old companions of Lardo- 
 niere, attacked the forts which had been taken from the French 
 four years previous. These posts were surprised and carried by 
 storm, although garrisoned by a superior Spanish force, and little 
 mercy was shown to those who fell into the hands of the assailants. 
 The remains of several of those put to 'death by Menendez, still 
 hanging upon the trees, were taken down and buried by the orders of 
 G-ourges, who directed Spanish prisoners to be hung in their places, 
 and affixed this label, "Not as Spaniards, but as murderers." Hav- 
 ing dismantled the forts, the invaders made good their retreat, "and 
 sailed for France. 
 
 Menendez remained in undisturbed possession of St. Augustine, 
 and as no farther attempt was made, for a long period of years, by 
 any other European nation to encroach upon the Spanish possessions 
 on this coast, full opportunity was afforded for carrying out the 
 views of the colonists in the propagation of their faith among the 
 
 =* Williams's Florida. 
 
FLO KID A. 309 
 
 natiX'es, and the extension of t"he national influence. The really 
 zealous and self-devoted exertions of the Catholic missionaries, in 
 furtherance of this object, contrast pleasingly with the bloody 
 events which preceded the successful development of their peculiar 
 system. They dispersed themselves far and wide among the Indians, 
 and, trusting entirely to their good faith, passed their lives in seclu- 
 sion from society, and in arduous labours for the civilization and 
 conversion of the natives. They succeeded to an astonishing extent 
 in gaining over the confidence of their rude entertainers, and from 
 the Atlantic sea-coast far into the unexplored wilderness of the west, 
 numberless tribes were brought to at least a nominal acceptance of 
 the Catholic faith. 
 
 In 1686, and again as late as 1665, the Spanish settlements of 
 Florida suffered from the attacks of the wild and lawless English 
 cruisers. On the latter occasion, the buccaniers, under Davis, seized 
 and plundered the town of St. Augustine, and not long afterwards 
 an English colony was founded on the banks of May river. In a 
 country like Florida, where the building materials are mostly of a 
 perishable nature, and where the mildness of the climate precludes 
 the necessity for any impression on the soil in the erection of houses, 
 a few years of desertion suffice to obliterate nearly every trace of a 
 settlement. A new growth of woods, frequently of a different char- 
 acter from the original, serves to mark the boundary of old cleared 
 fields; but the traveller unaccustomed to these signs of former occu- 
 pancy, would scarcely suppose, while passing through what appears 
 to him the primeval forest, that the wilderness around him had 
 ever echoed to the busy sounds of civilized life. 
 
 The uncertain tenure of property in Flonda, subject as it was, 
 after hostile nations of Europe had began to colonize its coast, to 
 frequent changes of jurisdiction, brought about many of those 
 changes. Thriving villages or towns, inhabited by French, Spanish, 
 or English colonists, were by turns abandoned by their proprietors, 
 and scarce a vestige now remains of their existence. 
 
 The commencement of the eighteenth century in Florida, was 
 memorable for its invasion by Governor Moore of South Carolina. 
 His first enterprise was signally disastrous. By a force of more than 
 a thousand men, consisting of whites and Creek Indians, in nearly 
 equal proportions, the Spanish settlements were assailed by sea md 
 land. Every thing promised the complete subjugation of the colo- 
 nies, when the alarm was given that powerful reinforcements had 
 
310 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATEB. 
 
 arrived fiom Spain. Two armed vessels appeared oil tlie coast, and 
 Moore effected an immediate retreat, leaving liis fleet and stores a 
 prej to the enemy. His principal officer. Colonel Daniels, to whose 
 energy the first successful operations of the expedition were due, 
 was at this time absent, having been sent to Jamaica for a supply of 
 artillery, prior to an attack on the fort of St. Marks. He returned 
 only to find the position of the English abandoned, and the Span- 
 iards in complete possession. 
 
 The second attempt, in 1704, was upon the Spanish and Indian 
 towns in West Florida. Unable to procure assistance from the legis- 
 lature of the territory, Moore collected a few companions, and, pro- 
 ceeding to the head-quarters of the different tribes of friendly Creeks, 
 readily secured their cooperation in the proposed campaign against 
 their old enemies, the Yemasees, Appalaches, &c. A post known 
 as Lewis' Fort, and garrisoned by a considerable body of Spaniards, 
 under command of Juan Mexia, the colonial governor, was the first 
 point of attack. Mexia imprudently gave battle without the walls 
 of the fort, and was completely overpowered. His followers were 
 mostly slain, and the place was destroyed. Following up their ad- 
 vantage, the invaders ravaged the whole of that portion of the 
 country, breaking up the missionary establishments, and dispersing 
 or destroying the Spanish occupants. Vast numbers of the native 
 inhabitants were carried ofi" as prisoners, and those who were not 
 doomed to slavery, were settled in the vicinity of the English colony, 
 to the northward of the Savannah river. The power of the Span- 
 iards was afterwards mostly confined to their settlements in East 
 Florida. A garrison was nevertheless maintained by them at St 
 Marks on the Appalache. 
 
FLORIDA. ' 3X1 
 
 CHAPTER Y, 
 
 THE YEMASEES. — INYASION OF FLORIDA BY OGLIIHOIIPE. — 
 CESSION TO GREAT BRITAIN. — DR. TURNBULL'S COLONY. 
 — RECESSION TO SPAIN. — INVASION OF EAST FLOR- 
 IDA FROM THE UNITED STATES. — ACQUISITION 
 OF FLORIDA BY THF UNITED STATES. 
 
 In the frontier Indian war of 1717, the Yamasees of Florida, who 
 had at one period favoured the English colonies np the coast, were 
 drawn into the general combination of the southern tribes. After 
 their defeat by General Craven, they settled in East Florida, near 
 their Spanish allies and protectors. They were, however, treated 
 with severity by the territorial governor, Ayola, and were compelled 
 to abandon their first settlements, where they had built and planted, 
 and to take up their quarters farther southward. At the period of 
 this compulsory migration, the less able-bodied, together with large 
 numbers of women and children, were left upon Amelia Island. 
 "These," says Williams, "were presently discovered by the English, 
 who pursued the fugitives in their launches, on which they had 
 mounted swivels; these they brought to bear on the miserable, 
 starving rabble, who had not a tree or bush to protect them, but 
 were murdered in cold blood. Four hundred were thus slaughtered ; 
 and of three thousand that now survived, more than two-thirds 
 died in less than a year, by hunger and diseases." 
 
 In 1719, the fort at Pensacola was the scene of some hard fighting 
 between the French and Indians, from Louisiana, and the Spanish 
 garrison. The fort was taken and retaken ; but after several severe 
 engagements, both on sea and land, it finally fell into the hands of 
 the French, and was destroyed. 
 
 The enmity of more dangerous neighbours at the north, was subse- 
 quently excited to active hostilities. The Indian allies of the Span- 
 iards were in the habit of making incursions on the English frontier, 
 and in 1725, particularly, the Yemasee warriors, (it. is said, by the 
 direct commission of Governor Malina,) committed fearful excesses 
 upon the Georgian settlers. Causes of complaint, indeed, were nc»t 
 wanting on the other side, particularly in the evident tendency of 
 the growing English colony to encroach upon Spanish territory 
 
312 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 Tlie marauding expedition of the Yemasees was promptly revenged. 
 A body of volunteers and Indians, commanded by Colonel Palmer, 
 marclied southward, and destroyed most of the Spanish settlements 
 north of St. Augustine. 
 
 A period of comparative quiet ensued, but an old ground of quar- 
 rel still remained. Many of the negro slaves employed on the 
 English plantations continued to find an asyhim in Florida, and the 
 refusal of the Spaniards to give them up to their owners, combined 
 with the recollection of other wrongs, finally determined the colonies 
 upon a systematic invasion of the peninsula. The plan was set on 
 foot by Governor Oglethorpe, the most noted of the pioneers of 
 Georgia ; and, as the coast was clear as far as the mouth of the St. 
 John's, he collected at that point (in May, 1740) not far from two 
 thousand whites and Creek Indians. Marching thence, he seized 
 upon the Spanish forts, Diego and Mosa, but did not follow up his 
 advantage with sufficient celerity to make an effective demonstration 
 upon the capital. Delay in the operations of the English naval force 
 also gave opportunity for the introduction of supplies of artillery 
 and provisions into the harbours. No impression could be made 
 upon the Spanish fortifications by storm or battery, and in the 
 attempt to reduce the place by siege, sickness broke out among the 
 troops, and compelled a retreat to Georgia. . In retaliation for this 
 invasion, a large force, concentrating at St. Augustine, and placed 
 under command of Manuel Monteano, governor of East Florida, 
 proceeded in 1742 to attack the English colonies. With no less than 
 thirty-two vessels, bearing some three thousand men, the governor 
 entered the Altamaha. Oglethorpe was driven from his position 
 on the island of St. Simon's, but retreating to Frederica, he made an 
 effectual stand against the greatly superior force brought to bear 
 upon him. Kothing was effected by the expedition. 
 
 At the period of the cession of Florida to the British crown, in 
 1763, its prosperity had completely declined. The few remaining 
 Spanish inhabitants for the most part removed to the West Indies, 
 leaving the experiment of colonization to immigrants from Greai 
 Britain. One of the most remarkable transactions in the modern 
 history of the country is connected with the introduction of this new 
 population. One Dr. Turnbull, in 1767, proceeded to the Levant, 
 and engaged a considerable number of Greek families to accompany 
 him to Florida. Touching, on his return, at Corsitja and Minorca, 
 he procured a further supply of emigrants, and sailed for the New 
 
FLORIDA. 8J3 
 
 World witli about fifteen hundred souls aboard his vessels. A term 
 of three years' service on their part was to be the equivalent for the 
 expense of transportation, of present support, and of a bounty of 
 land at the expiration of the contract. 
 
 A grant of lands was obtained near Mosquito inlet, and plantations 
 were laid out on an extensive scale. The principal crop raised, 
 exclusive of the necessary reservations for supplying the colony with 
 food, was indigo, and this proved exceedingly profitable to the pro 
 prietor. Taking advantage of the ignorance, simplicity, and isolated 
 position of his employees, the doctor ere long reduced them to a 
 condition of hopeless servitude. For nine years they were kept at 
 the severest labour, on the most scanty allowance of food, and nearly 
 destitute of clothing. Cruel and excessive punishment was inflicted 
 for any neglect in their tasks, or for any trifling offence against their 
 tyrant or his overseers. At the period of their emancipation, in 
 1776, their numbers were reduced to about six hundred. ^ 
 
 The manner in which they obtained their freedom is very graph- 
 ically described by Mr. J. L. Williams in his history of Florida. It 
 appears that several Englishmen, while on a visit to New Smyrna, 
 (the name of Turnbull's settlement,) were engaged in conversation 
 respecting the imposition practised on the immigrants — "some of 
 them made the remark that, if the people knew their rights, they 
 would not suifer under such slavery. This was remarked by an 
 intelligent boy, who told it to his mother. The old' lady summoned 
 a council of her friends in the night, and they devised a plan to gain 
 more intelligence." Emissaries were secretly dispatched to St. Au- 
 gustine, who, having communicated, by good fortune, with the 
 attorney-general, Mr. Younge, and received encouragement from him, 
 returned, and reported to their companions. 
 
 It' was promptly concluded to march in a body to St. Augustine, 
 and to claim the protection of the authorities. In the absence of 
 Turnbull, the scheme was accomplished. " The women and children, 
 with the old men, were placed in the centre, and the stoutest men, 
 armed with wooden spears, were placed in front and rear. In this 
 order they set oiBf like the children of Israel, from a place that had 
 proved an Egypt to them. So secretly had they conducted the 
 transaction, that they had proceeded some miles before the overseers 
 discovered that the place was deserted. Some of these were well 
 pleased, and joined them. Others informed the tyrant, who was at 
 some distance from the place. He rode after the fugitives, and over- 
 
814 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 took them before they reached St. Augustine, and used every exer 
 tion to persuade them to return, but in vain." The rights of these 
 persecuted people were speedily established, and a tract of land io 
 the north part of the city was granted to them by the authorities. 
 Their descendants, at this day, form no inconsiderable portion of the 
 inhabitants of St. Augustine. 
 
 When Spain came again into possession of Florida, at the close of 
 the war of American revolution, these Greeks and Minorcans were 
 almost the only portion of the population that remained in the coun- 
 try. The establishments of the English were generally deserted, and 
 in a few years the greater portion of the cultivated districts were little 
 less a wilderness, than when white men first set foot on their shores. 
 
 Movements were set on foot by the government of the United 
 States, in the year 1811, for the acquisition of the Floridas from 
 Spain. Commissioners were appointed to confer with the governor 
 of Pensacola relative to a cession of the western province, and powers 
 to proceed to hostile measures, both respecting East and West Florida, 
 were conditionally conferred upon them: the intention of our gov- 
 ernment being to prevent at all risks the acquisition of Florida by 
 any other foreign power. Mistaken reports concerning this proceed- 
 ing became prevalent; and, in accordance with the idea that the 
 jurisdiction of the United States was to be at once forcibly extended 
 over the peninsula, a large number of Georgians and American 
 inhabitants of Florida, congregated near St. Mary's, and organized 
 plans for an immediate hostile demonstration. Proceeding by water 
 to the Spanish town of Fernandina on Amelia Island, their formi- 
 dable array induced an immediate capitulation. The revolutionists 
 had made appointments for a provisional government, under which 
 John H. Mcintosh assumed the office of director. 
 
 The Seminole Indians at first proffered their assistance to the rev- 
 olutionary party, but, from motives of humanity, the leaders of the 
 movement, acting now in concert with General Mathews, one of the 
 commissioners deputed to West Florida, declined availing themselves 
 of their services. The consequence was, that the Indians took up 
 arms in favour of the Spanish government, and their depredations, 
 and the expeditions fitted out against them, formed the most import- 
 ant incidents in the subsequent hostilities. The question of the 
 invasion was made a matter of diplomatic adjustment between the 
 governments of Spain, Great Britain and the United States. The 
 overt acts of hostility were disavowed by the latter power, and, in 
 
FLORIDA. 315 
 
 May, 1813, the few remaining American troops were withdrawn from 
 the country, an amnesty being at the same time proclaimed by the 
 legitimate government, for all offences connected with the attempted 
 revolution. During the long period of desultory hostilities, the set- 
 tlements and plantations of East Florida were extensively destroyed. 
 During the last war with Great Britain the western districts of 
 Florida were made the scene of some important encounters, and many 
 interesting particulars of the Indian campaigns of that period are 
 related, the natives having generally been enlisted against the United 
 States. About the middle of November, 1814, the town and fortifi- 
 cations at Pensacola, strongly garrisoned by Spanish and English 
 troops, were taken by the Americans, under General Jackson, and 
 the military works were destroyed. The Seminoles continued hostile 
 to the Americans after the conclusion of war with England, and 
 proved formidable enemies to the border settlers, until the year 1818, 
 when their territory in the northern and western districts of Florida 
 was completely overrun by the forces under command of General 
 Jackson. In this war the negroes, who for many years had been 
 increasing in number by accessions of fugitives from the plantations 
 of the adjoining states, enacted an important part. They had formed 
 extensive settlements in the Indian territory, and in defence of their 
 possessions and fortifications, not unfrequently fought with desperate 
 courage and determination. It appeared that the Indians had been 
 furnished with supplies and munitions of war by the Spanish author- 
 ities at Pensacola, and in the month of May, 1818, General Jackson, 
 with little opposition, again took possession of the town and fortifi- 
 cations. The governor and the Spanish garrison were compelled to 
 leave the country. 
 
 The Floridas were ceded to the United States by treaty concluded 
 with Spain, in the summer of 1821, and General Jackson received 
 the appointment of governor of the newly-acquired country. In the 
 following year, it was regularly constituted a territory, with appro- 
 priate representative powers. The population is so sparse that Flor- 
 ida would probably have enjoyed at least equal prosperity, had she 
 continued to remain under a territorial government. In the opinion 
 of many of the most intelligent inhabitants, the satisfaction of enjoy- 
 ing the independent position of a sovereign state has hardly com- 
 pensated for the increased expenditures rendered necessary by the 
 * change of government. This state was admitted into the Union at 
 the session of Congress held in the year 1845. 
 
iOitl|-|^mmratt JltlJolutioiTS. 
 
 [ The Revolutions of Mexico^ Peru and Chili, and the erection of those Prcvincei 
 into independent States, have been already described in the preceding articles.] 
 
 COLOMBIA 
 
 LOYALTY OP THE SPANISH COLONISTS. AREOGANCE AND TYRANNY 
 
 OP THEIR RULERS. — CAUSES OF THE REYOLUTION. — THE 
 ESTABLISHMENT OP JUNTAS. — MASSACRE AT QUITO. - 
 THE JUNTA OP CARACCAS IN VENEZUELA. — 
 COMMENCEMENT OF HOSTILITIES. — DE- 
 CLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 
 
 The principle of loyalty and national feeling, so inveterate in the 
 Spanish character, had preserved to Spain the attachment of her 
 numerous colonies through centuries of oppression and misgovern- 
 ment; and nothing except the most fatuous arrogance, cruelty, and 
 obstinacy on the part of that nation and its colonial agents, could 
 possibly, in so brief a space of time, have alienated a people so 
 attached to the land of their origin. When the distracted and im- 
 poverished condition of the mother-country, at the commencement 
 of its contests with the French under Kapoleon, afforded the fairest 
 opportunity of throwing off the yoke, so far from availing themselves 
 of it, the Spanish- American colonies, with devoted loyalty, long 
 continued to furnish supplies of treasure to the state, and to exhibit 
 the liveliest interest in behalf of the fortunes of their rulers. 
 
 In default, however, of any settled government in Spain, the colo- 
 nists, in emulation of their countrymen at home, began to agitate the 
 formation of juntas or associations for national defence; and these 
 attempts being suppressed with great severity by the colonial govern- 
 
SPANISH-AMERICAN REVOLUTIONS. gl7 
 
 ors, first sowed the seeds of disaffection. The viceroys of Kew Gran- 
 ada and Peru, combining their forces, revenged, with savage ferocity, 
 a scheme of this kind matured at Quito, committing a massacre of 
 three hundred of the citizens, and deUvering up the town to the 
 rapine of a ferocious soldiery. This and other similar acts of oppres- 
 sion, singular to state, did not suffice completely to alienate the 
 affections of the people from the provincial government; but, seeing 
 the apparently complete ascendency of France, the colonists were 
 anxious to adopt measures to secure their independence against the 
 encroachments of the latter. Actuated by this feeling, the citizens 
 of Caraccas, in Venezuela, in the year 1810 — proceeding, however, 
 in the name of Ferdinand YII. — deposed their colonial officers, and 
 appointed a junta of their own. 
 
 The imprudent arrogance of the old Spaniards towards the pro 
 vincials, first diverted this current of independence into a disloyal 
 channel, and the vindictive measures of the nominal Spanish govern- 
 ment, which, on the news of this and other similar demonstrations, 
 hastened to declare war against the refractory provinces, precipitated 
 hostilities. The whole Spanish nation, indeed, appears to have been 
 exceedingly indignant, and although unable to contend successfully 
 with the French at home, managed to ship off considerable bodies 
 of troops for the purpose of suppressing by force the spirit of inde- 
 pendence abroad. This movement increased still further the popular 
 disaffection, and Venezuela first took the lead in asserting open 
 resistance. At a congress held in Caraccas on the 5th of July, 
 1811, the delegates from the various provinces of that state, in imi- 
 tation of that memorable convention held, just thirty-five years 
 before, in British North America — published a declaration of inde- 
 pendence, pledging, like their illustrious prototypes, their lives, their 
 fortunes, and their honors to maintain it. This noble example was 
 speedily followed by New Granada and Mexico, and, at at later date, 
 by the province of Buenos Ayres. 
 
 Meanwhile, the Cortes^ or temporary Spanish government (January, 
 1811) had obstinately rejected all proposals for an accommodation; 
 and though England, in April of the same year, had offered her media- 
 tion, proposing (with interested commercial policy) a schedule of 
 terms for an adjustment of the difficulty, her interference was finally 
 rejected. Curiously enough, Joseph Bonaparte, the nominal king of 
 Spain, to whose elevation the colonists had shown such determined 
 antipathj^, now, by his agents, used every exertion tb favor the spirit 
 
818 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 of insurrection in the Spanish- American provinces. The govern 
 ment of the United States, to which an envoy had been dispatched, 
 hesitated to commit itself by openly countenancing the cause of the 
 liberals, though the sentiments of the people were ardently in their 
 favor; and the British ministers, their overtures repulsed, announced 
 that they should observe neutrality, but with a reservation in favour 
 of the Spanish crown, as represented by Ferdinand YII. 
 
 The original junta of Caraccas, of 1810, after deposing the author- 
 ities, and dispatching several of them to the United States, had made 
 many useful regulations, of a liberal nature, but had experienced 
 some difficulties, arising from the unsettled state of the country. A 
 hostile collision with the royalist party in Maracaibo, resulted in 
 considerable fighting, without any decisive result, and dangerous 
 conspiracies, fomented by the agents of the Spanish government, 
 rendered that of the junta insecure in the extreme. But the decla- 
 ration of independence, and the regular appointment of a popular 
 government, as already mentioned, infused fresh energy into the 
 councils of the leaders of the revolution. An alarming scheme for 
 their overthrow and slaughter was detected, and ten of the conspira 
 tors, after trial, were executed, and their heads, after the barbarous 
 custom of the people, placed on poles at the entrance of the city. 
 
 At the same time, Valencia, in the interior, had been secured by 
 the royalists, and General Toro, who was dispatched to regain it, 
 had experienced much loss in taking possession of an outpost. 
 General Miranda, already famed for his repeated attempts to excite 
 insurrection against the Spanish rule in Yenezuela, who was next 
 dispatched thither, took the town by storm, and entered with his 
 forces. But the Spanish garrison, fighting with courage in their 
 barracks, finally repulsed the patriots wdth much loss; and the roy- 
 alists in the town, from the towers of churches and convents, and 
 from the roofs and terraces of houses, discharged such destructive 
 volleys of musketry, that he was compelled to evacuate the place, 
 and retire to a fortified position at some distance. Being reinforced, 
 in the following month, he again assaulted the town with four thou- 
 sand troops, gained posession of it, and dispersed the enemy. 
 
 After the declaration of independence, public attention was deeply 
 engrossed by the formation of a constitution; and the plan of a 
 federative republic, similar to that of the United States, was warmly 
 urged by the most enlightened friends of freedom. An instrument, 
 resembling in form the celebrated constitution of that republic, but 
 
SPANISH-AMEEICAN EEVOLUTIONS. glQ 
 
 quite inferior in principle, was prepared bj the congress, and on the 
 23d of December, presented to the people for their sanction. It 
 provided for a senate and representatives, a judiciary and other 
 branches of government, with an executive of three persons; abol- 
 ished torture, the slave-trade, and the tribute of the Indians: and 
 established the Catholic religion as that of the state. The town of 
 Valencia was ceded to the federal government thus organized, and 
 the first congress under the new constitution held its first session 
 there in March, 1812. 
 
 THE AFPAIRS OF NEW GRANADA. — EXPFI/SION OP THE SPAN- 
 IARDS PROM SANTA PE AND QUITO. — DISSENSIONS OF THE 
 REPUBLICANS. — ADVANTAGES OF THE ROYALISTS. — THEIR 
 CRUELTY. — THE "ARMY OF DEATH." — FRESH MASSACRE 
 AT QUITO. — ALTERNATE SUCCESSES OF THE PATRIOTS 
 AND ROYALISTS. — THE EARTHQUAKE AT CARACCAS. 
 — ITS EFFECT. OVERTHROW OF THE LIBERALS. 
 
 Having thus briefly sketched the progress of events in Yenezuela, 
 we come to those of New Granada, soon destined to be closely con- 
 nected with its sister-province. In July, 1810, on receipt of unwel- 
 come tidings from Spain, a junta had been formed at Santa Fe de 
 Bogota, the capital of that state, which had arrested the viceroy and 
 other royal officers, and had dispatched them home to Spain. Out 
 of the twenty-two provinces of which this colony was composed, 
 nine responded to the call for erecting a provisional government. 
 Others espoused the roj^alist faction, and a civil war almost imme- 
 diately broke out. Tacon, the royalist governor of Popayan, was 
 defeated by the patriots; and the people of Quito, in August, soon 
 after the massacre already mentioned, exasperated by the arrival of 
 a Spanish commissioner, armed only with clubs and knives, attacked 
 the troops with such fury as to compel them to leave the city. 
 Toward the close of the year, the junta of Santa Fe entered into an 
 alliance for mutual protection with that of Caraccas. 
 
 The republican party of New Granada, disagreeing as to the form 
 of government to be adopted, was soon involved in a disgraceful 
 
820 AMEEICA ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 iniernal feud. The forces of the congress, in attempting to take by 
 storm Santa Fe, where Narino, the president of Cundinamarca, 
 was quartered, were repulsed with terrible loss, and the royalists, 
 taking advantage of these dissensions, inflicted great atrocities on 
 the defenceless country. In Cuenca, an army, raised and commanded 
 by the royalist bishop, and officered in great part by priests, carried 
 black standards, and assumed the terrible name of "The Army of 
 Death." This force having defeated the troops of Quito, the Peru- 
 vian army, which had lately retreated from that city to Gruayaquil, 
 on the 6th of November, 1812, under the ferocious Montes, reen- 
 tered the city, and murdered one-fifth of the inhabitants who re- 
 mained. The prisoners taken by the royalists in their successes 
 were, with unsparing vengeance, put to death. 
 
 Recalled to their senses by this dangerous movement, and the 
 frightful scenes of massacre by which it was accompanied, the con- 
 tending republicans at length saw the necessity of laying aside their 
 feuds and providing for the common safety. Their forces, eight 
 thousand in number, were accordingly united, and placed under the 
 command of JSTarino, who marched against Samano, the successor of 
 Montes in command, and defeated him at El Atto del Palace. The 
 royalists, reinforced, again offered battle; and at Calivia, in Popayan, 
 a most obstinate battle, contested with all the fury that disgraces civil 
 warfare, resulted in their renewed discomfiture and retreat. ISTarino 
 gained, though with severe loss, several other victories over the 
 tyrannical faction, but finally, marching to Pastas, in pursuit of the 
 enemy, being deprived, by an artful stratagem, of the support of his 
 rear-division, was in turn defeated and made prisoner. Cabal, who 
 succeeded him in the command, was compelled to retreat to Popayan, 
 hotly pursued by the victorious royalists. Most of their prisoners 
 were murdered by the successful party. (June, 1814.) These disas- 
 ters, occurring at the same time that the bigoted Ferdinand was 
 restored to the throne of Spain, threw an aspect of deep gloom over 
 the cause of freedom in ISTew Granada. 
 
 Meanwhile, in Yenezuela, the republican cause, at first so prosper- 
 ous, by a strange accident of nature had been plunged into ruin and 
 defeat. On Holy Thursday, the 26th of March, 1812, when the 
 troops and people, throughout the state, were crowding into chapci 
 and cathedral to participate in one of the most impressive ceremonies 
 of the church, that terrible earthquake, one of the most fatal recorded 
 m history, in a single minute laid waste the ill-fated province, and 
 
SPANISII-AMEKICAN REVOLUTIONS. 32I 
 
 crushed the cause of liberty, for a time, to the earth. Caraccas, La 
 Guira, Merida, and many other towns, were laid in almost complete 
 ruin. Nearly twenty thousand souls perished — among them many 
 soldiers, just prepared for encounter with the royalists. Arms and 
 ammunition, in great quantity, were likewise destroyed; and the 
 bigoted clergy, readily catching at a pretext for the revival of despot- 
 ism, assured the people from their pulpits that this terrible calamity, 
 occurring on an occasion so solemn, was a signal manifestation of 
 the wrath of Heaven against the impiety of self-government. Korah 
 and his troop were cited as an exact precedent, and the ignorant 
 people, thoroughly unmanned by misfortune and superstition, lent 
 a ready ear to the miserable assumption of their spiritual directors. 
 
 Public credit rapidly depreciated, and the political prospect ap- 
 peared so alarming that the congress, almost in despair, created 
 Miranda dictator for the time, with full 'power, as in the old Eoman 
 commonwealth, in similar emergencies, "to see that the Kepublio 
 took no injury." They then adjourned to serve in the army, or to 
 traverse the provinces, reviving, by eloquent harangues, the fallen 
 spirit of the people.' With two thousand men, armed with muskets 
 saved from the ruins, their general advanced to meet the enemy, 
 who, on learning these disastrous tidings, had marched, under Mon- 
 te verde, toward Caraccas, overcoming, by superior force, the ineffi- 
 cient attempts of the liberal forces to oppose them. Their ranks 
 were continually reinforced from those of the superstitious provincials, 
 who thought to avert the divine vengeance by enlisting under the 
 banners of ancient oppression. In the defile of La Cabrera, a diffi- 
 cult pass on the road to Caraccas, Miranda had posted his force, to 
 oppose the advance of the enemy ; but the latter, winning their way 
 across the mountain by a difficult foot-path, compelled him to retreat 
 to Yictoria, only fifty miles from the capital. The royalist army 
 attacked the town with much spirit, but being bravely withstood, 
 were repulsed with loss. Misfortunes, however, in the loss of Porto 
 Cabello, desertion of troops, and reinforcement of the enemy, thick- 
 ened so fast, that the dictator and executive despaired even of holding 
 out in the ruins of Caraccas. A capitulation with Monteverde was 
 accordingly agreed on, in the following terms : 
 
 "1st. That the Constitution offered by the Cortes to the Spanish nation should bo 
 "2d. That no one was to suffer for former opinions. [established in Caraccas. 
 
 " 3d. That all private property was to be held sacred. 
 "4th. That emigration was to be permitted to those who wished to leave Caraccas." 
 
 YoL. III.— 21 
 
822 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 The Venezuelan capital and the slender remains of the liberal army 
 thus surrendered, the Spanish rule was once more completely in the 
 ascendent in that unfortunate state. Once reestablished in power, 
 the royalist government shamelessly broke through every article of 
 the capitulation. Miranda and a thousand other patriots were thrown 
 into dungeons, and numbers were condemned by the Spanish Cortes 
 to perpetual imprisonment. Monteverde, who now had the complete 
 authority in his hands, continued to push the work of oppression. 
 At length, the whole liberal party of Tenezuela was proscribed, and 
 Caraccas and other cities were converted into mere prisons. Nearly 
 the whole republican population, it is said, was under confinement. 
 The ministry of Spain, unsatisfied with these severities, complained 
 "of the indulgence which had been shown to the insurgents of 
 Caraccas." The reaction caused by these acts of perfidy and cruelty, 
 was not long in approaching. In Cumana, the young Marino, raising 
 a force of liberals, renewed the war by seizing the town of Maturin ; 
 and two atttempts by the Spaniards to regain it, the last under 
 Monteverde himself, proved fruitless. 
 
 KJ diJj LOiii Ji (L lU dill iL <Xi iL o 
 
 SIMON BOLIVAR. — HIS GENEROUS AND PATRIOTIC SPIRIT. — 
 
 HIS SUCCESSES AGAINST THE ROYALISTS. — ASSISTED BY 
 
 NEW GRANADA. — HE REENTERS CARACCAS. — "WAR TO 
 
 THE DEATH." — THE SERVILE INSURRECTION AND 
 
 WAR. — CRUEL DEED OF BOLIVAR. — BATTLES WITH 
 
 THE ROYALISTS. — RENEWED PROSTRATION 
 
 OP THE REPUBLICAN CAUSE. 
 
 The name most famous in the South American wars of independ- 
 ence, is that of Simon Bolivar. He was a native of Caraccas, of 
 wealth and of good family, and during his travels in Europe, while 
 yet a youth, had enlarged his mind, enjoyed the friendship of 
 eminent men, and attracted attention by his talents and learning. 
 From familiarity with the comparatively free institutions of England 
 and Switzerland, he had imbibed an ardent love for liberty in its 
 Doblest signification — a love which, on his return to Yenezuela, just 
 
SPANISH-AMERtCAN REVOLUTIONS. 823 
 
 at the commencement of the revolution, he displayed by emancipating 
 more than a thousand slaves, which he had inherited, and by em- 
 barking his princely fortune in the republican cause. He had com- 
 manded the important post of Porto Cabello, which, at the triumph 
 of the royalists, he had been compelled to surrender; but, disap- 
 proving of the capitulation, had betaken himself to the banks of the 
 Magdalena, where, with a small force, in the latter part of 1812, he 
 made an effective stand against the dominant party. 
 
 On application to the republican congress of New Granada, that 
 body supplied him with a levy of six hundred men, reinforced with 
 which, he crossed the Andes, and gained successive victories over 
 the royalists. The latter, by the savage policy of executing their 
 prisoners, at last provoked reprisal; and Bolivar was compelled to 
 announce that the same unsparing cruelty would be practiced in 
 retaliation. The war thenceforward became, literally, what it was 
 called — la guerra a muerte — "war to the death." The people, their 
 superstitious fears supplanted by irritation at the continued atroci- 
 ties of the royal party, now rallied in great numbers around the 
 standard of Bolivar — "the Liberator," as he was justly entitled. 
 
 Having gained many victories, he advanced upon Caraccas, while 
 Monte verde was compelled to retreat to Porto Cabello. The royal 
 governor, Fierro, having signed a capitulation, collected all the 
 property he could, and sailed for Spain, leaving at the mercy of the 
 victor fifteen hundred Spaniards, who were unable to escape. On 
 the 18th of August, 1813, Bolivar, to the intense joy of the long- 
 oppressed liberals, entered Caraccas. The scene was affecting in the 
 extreme, and the dungeons being thrown open, the surviving cap- 
 tives were restored to liberty. Through the exertions of Marino in 
 the eastern provinces, the royal yoke had also been thrown off there, 
 and nearly all Venezuela was again republican, except Porto Cabello, 
 where Monteverde still held out, and refused all terms of treaty. 
 Reinforced by twelve hundred troops from Spain, he marched forth 
 and attacked the patriot forces at Aguacaiente, but was defeated with 
 terrible loss, nearly his whole force being killed or made prisoners. 
 Being wounded, he was succeeded in the command by Saloman, and 
 then by Istueta, who still held command of Porto Cabello, and 
 inflicted great cruelties on the numerous prisoners confined in that 
 fortress. By night they were kept in suffooating dungeons, where 
 fifty of them, at one time, perished for want of air, and in the day 
 were exposed before the batteries to deter the patriots from firing. 
 
g24 AMEKICA ILLUSTKATED. 
 
 The latter retorted with similar cruelties, and the war of extermina* 
 tion raged more fiercely than ever. Bolivar gained possession of the 
 town, but was unable to dislodge the garrison, on account of the 
 strength of the fortress, and the desperation of its defenders. The 
 royalists of the province of Coro, the staunchest stronghold of des- 
 potism, reinforced by Spanish troops from Porto Eico, marched into 
 the territory of Caraccas, but, after gaining some advantages, were 
 routed, in three actions, by the Liberator. To avoid the evils of a 
 continued military rule, Bolivar now summoned all the principal 
 persons of the state, with the intention to resign his authority into 
 their hands; but it was judged expedient, in view of the critical 
 position of affairs, that he should hold the authority of dictator for 
 some time longer. (January, 1814.) 
 
 The royal party, burning with revenge at their successive discom- 
 fitures, now took the mad and desperate resolution of exciting the 
 slaves, seventy thousand in number, to insurrection. This nefarious 
 project, for a time, met with complete success. The blacks, attracted 
 by the hope of freedom and of plunder, enlisted with great zeal 
 under the incendiary agents. Buy, a Spaniard, and Palomo, a 
 mulatto and outlawed assassin, at the head of s\ich a force, carried 
 desolation through Barinas, Guiana, and other towns; while Boves 
 and Kosette, with an army composed of similar materials, laid waste 
 a vast tract of country in another direction, killing every inhabitant 
 who refused to join them. Their force, amounting to eight thousand, 
 consisted almost entirely of slaves, and with such suddenness and 
 fury was the rising effected, that a portion of the servile army ad- 
 vanced within ten leagues of the capital. 
 
 The Spanish prisoners at thaV place and at La Guira, 'encouraged 
 by these circumstances, concerted a revolt; and Bolivar, excited by 
 the atrocities of the royalists, and dreading the result of the insur- 
 rectionary movement, caused them, eight hundred in number, to be 
 executed without mercy. This cruel and impolitic deed was resented 
 by an act of equal ferocity at Porto Cabello, all the republican pris- 
 oners there, several hundred, suffering a similar fate. This massa- 
 cre committed, Bolivar marched against the enemy, and gained some 
 advantages, though with severe loss. Marino marched from Cumana 
 to his assistance, and the patriot forces, thus strengthened, gained 
 two important victories. Defeated in turn, they retreated to Valencia, 
 where, on the 28th of May, 1814, Cigigal, the new royalist captain- 
 general of Yenezuela, with forces largely strengthened by concen- 
 
SPANISH-AMEEICAN EEVOLUTIONS. 325 
 
 tration, engaged them. The battle was contested with uncommon 
 obstinacy and fury, but the royalists were finally defeated, with a loss 
 of five hundred men, and were pursued by the victor to Coro and 
 Los Llanos. 
 
 The patriot general, by an indiscreet division of his force, was, in 
 turn, defeated by a large body of cavalry, under Boves, and Marino 
 experienced a similar disaster. With that striking suddenness pecu- 
 liar to this desultory civil warfare, the royal faction again started 
 up in the ascendant. The patriot generals retreated to Cumana, and 
 nearly the whole population of Caraccas, dreading the vengf ance of 
 the enemy, followed them. That city, with La Guira and Valencia, 
 were taken, the latter surrendering only in consideration of a solemn 
 oath, taken by the Spanish general in assurance of good faith, and 
 fortified by the celebration of mass. But no sooner had he gained pos- 
 session of the town, than he caused the ofiicers and nearly all the 
 soldiers of the garrison to be shot. The remains of the patriot army, 
 after twice repulsing the victorious enemy at Maturin, were overcome 
 by superior numbers, and a few retreated to the island of Margarita, 
 where they still held out. Bolivar, despairing for the present of 
 saving his country, repaired to New Granada, and offered his services, 
 which were gladly accepted, to the congress of that state. 
 
 CHAPTER I?. 
 
 RESTOEATION OF PERDIKAND. — EXTINCTION OF LOYALTY IK 
 
 THE COLONIES. — TYRANNICAL POLICY OF THE KING. 
 
 SPIRITED CONDUCT OF THE CONGRESS OF NEW GRAN- 
 ADA. DISSENSIONS OF THE REPUBLICANS. 
 
 INJUDICIOUS CONDUCT OF BOLIVAR. 
 
 The overthrow of Napoleon, in 1814, and the restoration of the 
 bigoted, tyrannical Ferdinand to the throne of Spain, were events 
 which might well fill the minds of the republicans with gloomy fore- 
 bodings. Singular to state, their precautions against the threatened 
 ascendency of France had first precipitated the revolution; and the 
 news of these events, at that time, would have excited the greatest 
 joy in the provinces. But a civil war of four years, embittered by 
 
826 AMEEICA ILLUSTKATED. 
 
 continual outrage and cruelty, especially by the Spanish party, had 
 now quite extinguished the flame of loyalty in the breasts of the 
 South American patriots. It was, therefore, with the greatest dis- 
 may that the congress of ISTew Granada, at the same time, heard of 
 the restoration of Ferdinand, the renewed subjection of Yenezuela, 
 and the entire defeat of their own army, under Narino. 
 
 The intelligence from Europe, (says Mr. Niles,*) "entirely 
 changed the general aspect of things, and in some measure the char- 
 acter of the revolution. The resistance in America commenced 
 against the authority of the regency of Spain, and in most of tho 
 provinces the authority of Ferdinand was expressly acknowledged. 
 Ferdinand was now on the throne, and if resistance was continued, 
 it must be against the power of the legitimate sovereign of Spain. 
 The restoration of the king, therefore, changed the relations between 
 the colonies and the parent-country, as well as placed the latter in a 
 condition to direct all its strength against the rebellious Americans, 
 being relieved from the war at home, and having no longer any 
 employment for her armies in the peninsula. At an earlier period 
 of the contest, the restoration of Ferdinand would have greatly 
 damped, if not effectually checked, the spirit of the revolution ; but 
 after the struggle had continued nearly five years, and the minds of 
 the Americans become exasperated by the cruelties and massacres 
 of the Spanish colonial rulers, it was calculated to have but compar- 
 atively little influence. Had Ferdinand, however, pursued a con- 
 ciliatory line of conduct towards America; had he condemned the 
 rashness of the colonial chiefs, who had driven the people into 
 resistance; reformed the abuses and removed the oppression of 
 which the colonies justly complained, probably he might have so far 
 revived the sentiments of loyalty as to have checked, if not extin- 
 guished, the flame of the revolution. But instead of this course, the 
 first official intelligence the Americans had of his being reinstated 
 on the throne, was a decree, treating them as rebels, and command- 
 ing them to lay down their arms." Another decree (June, 1814,) 
 directed the equipment of a formidable armament, for the suppres- 
 sion of the insurrection. 
 
 Amid all these disheartening circumstances, the congress of New 
 Granada, true to their trust, presented a bold front to their men- 
 acing destiny. In a proclamation, detailing with the most naked 
 distinctness, the losses and misfortunes of the republican cause in 
 
 * History of South America. 
 
SPANISH-AMEKICAN EEVOLUTIONS. 327 
 
 the two states, and presenting the disastrous prospect of s abjection 
 in its fullest light, they nobly conclude, "Useless shall be the declara- 
 tion of our independence, if we have not resolution to support it. 
 We possess within ourselves the means of attaining this great object, 
 and no power whatever will be strong enough to conquer us, if we 
 avail ourselves of our own strength ; our exertions must unquestion- 
 ably be great, and our sacrifices for the common cause unbounded. 
 But such efforts are worthy of men raised to the dignity of a free 
 people, and are absolutely necessary, since we have nothing to hope 
 and much to fear from the European nations. Notwithstanding the 
 cessions at Bayonne, and the torrents of blood which the French 
 have shed by the war in the Peninsula, Ferdinand has been restored 
 to Spain; and the country, now freed from the French, will have 
 both the power and the will to send a formidable army again to 
 subdue us. 
 
 "Ye people of New Granada! contemplate your fate, and that 
 of your posterity; you may easily judge of it; and let your resolu- 
 tion be formed accordingly and nobly. Again, we repeat, your 
 destiny depends upon your own exertions." (September 1st, 1814.) 
 
 Stringent measures, dictated by necessity, were taken for the 
 common safety. The chiefs of the province of Cundinamarca having 
 refused to join the confederacy, Bolivar, in December, 1814, was 
 dispatched to its capital, Santa Fe de Bogota, to force a compliance. 
 He took the suburbs by storm, and the president, Alvarez, making 
 a virtue of necessity, capitulated, and agreed to unite in the con- 
 federacy. The federal government, thus strengthened, appointed a 
 triple executive, and proceeded to pass many liberal and salutary 
 acts. Monopolies and tribute of the Indians were abolished, for- 
 eigners were invited to the country, and the liberty of the press was 
 assured. Among the clergy, many of the more intelligent now 
 embraced the popular cause ; and the friars of St. Dominic, in par- 
 ticular, showed their patriotism by presenting to the national treasury 
 the wealth which they had long hoarded in their sanctuary. 
 
 Cabal and Urdeneta, with reinforcements, were employed in dif- 
 ferent directions, against the enemy ; and Bolivar, with the appoint- 
 ment of captain-general of New Granada and Yenezuela, in command 
 of three thousand men, raised by great exertions, marched against 
 the royalists of Santa Martha. But that commander, with singular 
 infatuation, being thwarted in his plans by Castillo, the republican 
 commander of Carthagena, his personal enemy, delayed his march 
 
828 AMEEICA ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 to besiege that city and bring the refractory officer to terms. This 
 civil contest, entirely breaking up the original enterprise, and per- 
 mitting the royalists to gain great advantJiges, was carried on till 
 news arrived that the great Spanish expedition, prepared at Cadiz 
 to crush the republican cause, had arrived off Venezuela. Eecalled 
 to his judgment by this alarming intelligence, Bolivar ceased the 
 annatural contest, and, leaving the remains of his army for the 
 defence of the city he had besieged, betook himself to Jamaica to fit 
 out an expedition for its relief. 
 
 CHAPTER?. 
 
 ARRIVAL OF THE SPANISH ARMY, UNDER MORILLO. — TERRIBLB 
 BLOCKADE OE CARTHAGENA. — RENEWED EXERTIONS OF THF 
 PATRIOTS. — ALTERNATE SUCCESSES. — MORILLO CONQUERS 
 NEW GRANADA. — SEVERITIES EXERCISED ON THE VAN- 
 QUISHED. — iTARCHES INTO VENEZUELA. — SUCCESSFUL 
 DEFENCE OF MARGARITA BY THE PATRIOTS. 
 
 The armament of Span, the most formidable which that nation 
 had ever dispatched to the shores of the New World, consisted of 
 ten thousand of her best troops, conveyed in fifty transports. The 
 feeble resources of the country, exhausted by war with the French, 
 had been almost entirely expended in preparing it. Morillo, the 
 commander, first took the island of Margarita, where many of the 
 patriots of Venezuela, under Bermudas, had taken refuge; and 
 thence proceeded to Caraccas, where, and at other cities on the 
 coast; he landed two thousand men. In August, 1815, he laid siege 
 to Carthagena. That city, strongly fortified, and bravely defended, 
 stood a siege of four months, including two bombardments; but 
 being strictly invested, both by land and water, the garrison suf- 
 fered terribly from famine. On the 5th of December, the deaths 
 amounting to a hundred a day, they evacuated the city, two thou- 
 sand in number, in eleven ships, making good their retreat, and 
 repulsing the Spanish armament, by which they were attacked. 
 They mostly proceeded to Aux Cayes. *' The horrible appearance 
 of the city," says Montalvo, the captain-general, "is scarcely to be 
 
SPANISII-AMEEICAN KEVOLUTIONS. 329 
 
 described; the streets, and even the houses, were heaped up with 
 dead bodies, or with those who were expiring; the atmosphere was 
 in a pestilential state, which nearly stopped respiration ; groans and 
 lamentations assailed our ears." Castillo and other distinguished 
 patriots were executed. 
 
 Before Bolivar could mature his scheme for the relief of Cartha- 
 gena, that city had fallen ; and he once more turned his attention 
 to Yenezuela. Many guerilla parties, as in the peninsula war, were 
 now formed, and inflicted much annoyance on the enemy. In com- 
 pany with a wealthy and patriotic Cura^oan, named Brion, he fitted 
 out an expedition of a thousand troops from Aux Cayes, and pro- 
 ceeded to Margarita, where the standard of revolt had been success- 
 fully raised. On the way he took two Spanish men-of-war, and 
 early in May, 1816, landing on the island, gained complete possession 
 of it. He next took Carupano, on the main-land, and proceeding to 
 other ports, issued a proclamation, declaring that "justice and policy 
 demand the emancipation of the slaves, and henceforth there shall 
 be but one class of people in Yenezuela — all shall be citizens." At 
 these unexpected successes of the patriots, the rage of the royalists 
 was unbounded, and they inflicted the greatest cruelties on all 
 within their power. 
 
 Bolivar now unfortunately divided his little army, placing a part 
 under the command of McGregor, a Scotchman, and being attacked 
 by the Spanish troops, under Morales, was defeated, with a loss of 
 two hundred men, and of nearly all his best officers. The victor 
 then pursued McGregor, with such confidence of success, that he 
 dispatched to Caraccas, in advance, official accounts of the defeat 
 and death of that officer, and the capture of his entire force ; never- 
 theless, coming up with him at last, was himself completely beaten 
 in the two actions of Alacran and Juncal, and the republican officer 
 took possession of Barcelona. Bolivar, after his defeat, proceeded 
 to Margarita, where he summoned a congress, and then repairing to 
 Barcelona, formed a provisional government, and repulsed the attacks 
 of Morales and Eeal with great loss. Most of Guiana had also now 
 been gained by the patriots, under Piar. 
 
 Morillo, after taking Carthagena, had invaded New Granada, with 
 an overwhelming force, in three several directions. The congress 
 of that state had bravely opposed what resistance they could, either 
 entering the army or traversing the provinces to excite the people. 
 A number of battles and skirmishes were fought, in most of which 
 
330 AMEEICA ILLUSTKATED. 
 
 the royalists had the advantage; and finally, in the sanguinary con 
 flict of Cachira, the flower of the Granadan army perished, and tb^ 
 survivors fled to Los Llanos. In June, 1816, Morillo entered Santa 
 Fe de Bogota, and, with the customary policy of the colonial agents, 
 at once commenced the work of proscription and execution. More 
 than six hundred persons, prominent in the affairs of the govern- 
 ment or the army, were shot, hanged, or exiled, and the prisons 
 were filled with others, awaiting their fate. Yet, in his dispatches, 
 that commander vaunts of having "displayed that clemency, so 
 much recommended by the king, which was unbounded." 
 
 Many of the victims were men of peace, eminent for their science 
 and learning, but had incurred the hatred of the Spanish authorities 
 by their eloquent denunciations of tyranny. "In Santa Fe," writes 
 the victor, "there are but few blacks and mulattoes. In Venezuela 
 a considerable part of the white population has perished in the revo- 
 lution. The inhabitants of Santa Fe are timid, those of Venezuela 
 bold and sanguinary. In Santa Fe much has been published during 
 the revolution, and the learned have ruled all with their pens ; but 
 in Caraccas they displayed earlier the naked sword. * * * All 
 is effected by the rebels from Venezuela. They are like ferocious 
 beasts when they fight in their own country ; and if they get able 
 commanders, it will require many years to subdue them, and even 
 then it will be done at the expense of much blood and considerable 
 sums of money." 
 
 In November, 1816, to suppress the Venezuelans, Morillo, with 
 two thousand men, took up his march for Caraccas. He was attacked 
 on the way by the patriots, under Paez, with considerable success; 
 but in the absence of Bolivar, the town of Barcelona, the only post 
 of importance held by the republicans, on the 7th of April, 1817, 
 was taken by the royalists. In the following month, they were 
 reinforced by the arrival of sixteen hundred men from Spain. This 
 loss was in some degree compensated by the fall of Angostura, the 
 capital of Guiana, which surrendered to the united arms of Bolivar 
 and Piar, and the seizure of the whole province by the patriot forces. 
 This acquisition was of the highest importance to the cause of the 
 republicans, as it enabled them to cut off the supplies of the enemy, 
 to hold free communication with their stronghold of Margarita, and 
 to receive supplies from the "West Indies. To subdue that refractory 
 island, the scene of their earliest repulses, the Spaniards, in June, 
 dispatched an expedition of seven vessels; and in the following 
 
SPANISH-AMEEICAN EEVOLUTIONS. 33I 
 
 montli (July 14tli, 1817) Morillo in person, with three thousand five 
 hundred troops and additional naval forces, proceeded there in person. 
 He took by storm, after a desperate resistance, the fortress of Pam- 
 patar, the strongest on the island, and resolved utterly to extermin- 
 ate all who resisted. The entire population of the island was about 
 twenty thousand, and all who could bear arms determined on fighting 
 to the last. With such gallantry and obstinacy did they contest tlie 
 campaign, that, after fighting five battles, and inflicting the most 
 atrocious butcheries on all who fell into his hands, the savage Morillo, 
 having lost a thousand of his troops, was compelled to relinquish 
 the attempt at subjecting them. A more signal instance of patriotism 
 and determination has seldom been witnessed on a theatre so small 
 as this little island, the earliest of the provinces in successful resist- 
 ance to tyranny. 
 
 In October, 1817, a lamentable incident occurred in the treason 
 of General Piar, who had fought with bravery and good success for 
 the republican cause, and who suffered execution as the punishment 
 of his ambitious schemes. On the 11th of the following month, 
 the Yenezuelan congress once more assembled at Angostura, and 
 reelected Bolivar as president of the republic. The prospects of the 
 patriots had brightened exceedingly — Guiana, Casinare, Pamplona, 
 Barinas and portions of other provinces having been recovered by 
 them; but Bolivar, who, in conjunction with the brave Paez, made 
 a vigorous campaign against the enemy, was unable, as yet, to expel 
 them from Venezuela, and, after considerable fighting, returned to 
 Guiana. These operations, though not attended with immediate 
 success, were of great advantage to the republicans, who were thus 
 trained to the art of war, and of equally great detriment to the 
 Spaniards, whose number, already limited, was thus seriously dimin- 
 ished. The name of Morillo could still inspire hatred, but no longer 
 dismay and despair. 
 
382 AMEEICxY ILLUSTKATED. 
 
 cnAPTEHYL ; 
 
 ATTITUDE OP FOREIGN NATIONS. — BRITISH VOLUNTEEUS. — 
 
 CAMPAIGN OF BOLIVAR IN NEW GRANADA. BRILLIANT 
 
 SUCCESSES — DEFEAT AND FLIGHT OF THE ROYALISTS. 
 
 GRATITUDE OF THE PEOPLE. UNION OF THE STATES 
 
 OF NEW GRANADA AND VENEZUELA UNDER THE TITLE 
 
 OF COLOMBIA. — REVERSES AND SUCCESSES 
 
 OF THE PATRIOTS. 
 
 During this terrible internecine warfare, wMch. had now lasted 
 for nearly nine years, the patriots of Venezuela and New Granada 
 had sustained themselves, unaided, against the powerful royalist fac- 
 tions and the forces dispatched from Spain to effect their resubjuga- 
 tion. Unsuccessful application for assistance had been made to the 
 British government, and several missions, with no better fortune, 
 had been dispatched to the United States of America — that country, 
 still feeble and in its infancy, not daring, as yet, to hazard its newly- 
 acquired liberties by any unnecessary step, involving a war with the 
 European powers. Overtures' for the same purpose were finally 
 made to Napoleon himself, the very enemy to resist whom the ini- 
 tiatory steps of revolution had been taken ; but when arrangements 
 were actually making for the effective aid of the republicans, the 
 battle of Leipsic, crippling the power of the emperor at home, left him 
 without the means of aiding the cause of freedom in South America. 
 
 Some tardy movements in favour of acknowledging the independ- 
 ence of the suffering provinces at length took place in the United 
 States, and some volunteers, with supplies of munitions, were afforded 
 by private sympathy. To the honour of the British nation, consid- 
 erable numbers of its people embarked in the same generous cause. 
 In 1818 and 1819, several hundred volunteers, with large supplies 
 of arms and munitions, and commanded by experienced officers, 
 arrived at Margarita, and were soon transported to the main-land. 
 
 Bolivar now resolved on carrying the war into New Granada, 
 where the royalists, for some time, had been completely in the 
 ascendant. The particulars of this remarkable campaign, one of the 
 most brilliant, considering the small forces engaged, on record, must 
 be briefly detailed. Taking with him a force of picked troops, 
 
SI'ANISH-AMEEICAN EE VOLUTIONS. 333 
 
 including the British auxiliaries, the president, in the month of 
 April, commenced a march ol)structed by extraordinary difficulties. 
 *'The rainy season," he reports, "had commenced, and the plains 
 presented only vast sheets of inundation; the frozen summits of the 
 Andes lay in our route; the sudden mutations of adverse climates 
 were to he encountered; a well-disciplined army, three times our 
 own number, were in front of us, and occupying all the military 
 positions of those regions." At Casanare, where he was joined by 
 Santander, he issued an eloquent proclamation to the people of New 
 Granada. In a terrible march, lasting an entire month, through that 
 province, the patriots underwent the greatest hardships and sufferings. 
 They finally came upon the enemy at La Guya, on the 27th of June, 
 1819, and dislodged them from a strong position, which might have 
 been made good, even against an overwhelming force. A succession 
 of brilliant victories ensued. On the 1st of July, in the Valley of 
 Sagamoso, in Tunja, Bolivar encountered the royalist army, under 
 Bareyro, and, after an obstinate conflict, protracted till late in the 
 night, compelled it, in great disorder, to retreat. On the 25th of the 
 same month, at Pantano de Bargas, after a battle of five hours, con- 
 tested with great desperation, the royal forces were again defeated, 
 and fled in confusion, leaving their artillery, baggage, and treasure 
 on the field. Pursued by the army of liberation, they were over- 
 taken, on the 7th of August, at the bridge of Boyaca, and again 
 suffered a defeat so overwhelming as almost to decide the fate of the 
 war. Their general, with a great number of officers and sixteen 
 hundred men (more than half their nuniber), were made prisoners; 
 a great quantity of munitions of war fell into the hands of the patri- 
 ots ; and the relics of the royalist troops, pursued by Santander, fled 
 from the scene of action. 
 
 On receipt of this^startling intelligence, the viceroy, Samana, pre- 
 cipitately quitted Santa Fe, leaving all his military stores and a trea- 
 sure of some millions of dollars. The whole fell into the hands of 
 the patriot army, who were received at the capital of New Granada 
 with the utmost exultation ; and Bolivar, his title of Liberator con- 
 firmed by these extraordinary exploits and their splendid result, was 
 welcomed by the people with a transport of joy and enthusiasm. 
 He had, indeed, well earned their gratitude and admiration, having 
 in the brief space of three months, in the face of innumerable natural 
 obstacles, defeated and dispersed an army three times greater than 
 his own, and liberated, in rapid succession, the most oppressed prov- 
 
334: AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 mces of N"ew Granada. Improving witli the greatest diligence these 
 advantages, by the 20th of September, he had two armies on foot for 
 the liberation of the provinces of the north and south, still in posses- 
 sion of the enemy ; and having established a provisional government, 
 he posted with wonderful rapidity to Angostura, where the Venezu- 
 elan congress was in session. (December, 1819.) 
 
 In an address to that body, after commemorating the achievements 
 of his little army, he announced the desire of New Granada for a 
 political union of the two states, and his own conviction of the 
 necessity of the measure in ensuring the Independence of South 
 America. So great was the weight of his personal influence, and so 
 apparent were the advantages likely to result from the arrangement, 
 that on the 17th of the month a law was passed, providing for the 
 union of the two provinces, under the title of the "Eepublic of Co- 
 lombia," consolidating the national debts, ordaining the erection of 
 a capital, to bear the name of their deliverer, and summoning a 
 general congress, to meet in January, 1821, with power to form a 
 constitution for the new commonwealth. This resolution being 
 communicated to the republican authorities of New Granada, the 
 step was unanimously approved, and in the midst of universal exult- 
 ation, the new commonwealth was solemnly proclaimed at Santa Fe 
 de Bogota. Ten liberated provinces joyfully acceded to the U'nion. 
 This important measure accomplished, the president, with forces 
 recruited to the number often or twelve thousand men, again devoted 
 his energies to the war. 
 
 On the coast, considerable disasters had attended the patriot arms. 
 McGregor, in April, 1819, after having captured Porto Bello, and 
 held it for three weeks, was overcome by a royalist force, and lost 
 his entire command of one thousand men, except a few who escaped 
 with him by swimming to their vessels. Another small detachment, 
 which he afterwards left at Eio de la Hacha, being also overpowered, 
 blew up the fort, to their own destruction, rather than fall into the 
 hands of the Spaniards. 
 
 Of the British auxiliaries, about five hundred in number, en- 
 gaged in Bolivar's last campaign, only a quarter had survived: yet 
 fresh reinforcements continued to arrive from the same quarter. 
 General D'Evreux, a native of Ireland, (naturalized a citizen of the 
 United States,) raised a force of one thousand of his countrymen, 
 with whom he arrived at Colombia in season for the campaign of 
 1 820. Bolivar, after repairing to the capital of New Granada, in 
 
SPANISH-AMEEICAN KEVOLUTIONS. 335 
 
 Marcli of tliat year, encouraging the hopes of the republicans, and 
 cementing the union by his eloquence, repaired to his army on the 
 Apure. Kio de la Ilacha was presently taken, and the southern 
 army of New Granada, with similar success, assailed the enemy, and 
 expelled them from the province of Popayan. 
 
 CHAPTER ?IL 
 
 REVOLUTION IN SPAIN. — OVEUTURES OF THE SPANISH LEADERS. 
 — RESOLUTION OF THE PATRIOTS. — THE ARillSTICE. — THE 
 WAR RENEWED. — HUMANE POLICY OF BOLIVAR. — SIGNAL 
 VICTORIES OF THE REPUBLICANS. — THE SPANIARDS 
 COMPLETELY EXPELLED FROM COLOMBIA. — INDE- 
 PENDENCE OF THAT STATE ACKNOWLEDGED. 
 
 Meanwhile, the revolution in Spain, reestablishing the Cortes, 
 had taken place, and Morillo, in accordance with instructions from 
 the new government, proposed a suspension of hostilities and the 
 opening of negotiations. The Colombian congress, which convened 
 in May, declared, in repljv, that they would with pleasure terminate 
 hostilities, but on no other condition than that of national independ- 
 ence. Bolivar, in answer to the official announcement of Morillo, 
 replied in the same strain. "The republic of Colombia," he says, 
 "most sincerely congratulates itself on seeing the day in which lib- 
 erty extends her beneficent influence over unhappy Spain, and to 
 see her ancient metropolis treading in the steps of Colombia, and 
 in the path of reason. The people of Colombia, more than ten 
 years ago, resolved to consecrate the last of its members to the only 
 cause worthy of the sacrifice of peace — that is, the cause of an op- 
 pressed country; and confiding in the sacredness of their cause, in 
 the most solemn manner, on the 20th of November, 1818, resolved 
 10 combat perpetually against all exterior domination, and not to be 
 reconciled to peace but upon the recognition of absolute independ- 
 ence." lie enclosed the law referred to, and avowed his readiness 
 to receive the royalist commissioners. 
 
 The arms of the republicans, meanwhile, though no very decisive 
 battle took place, were continually gaining ground, and the hopes 
 of the Spaniards to regain ascendency were proportionably dimin- 
 
836 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 ishing. Besides these advantages, Guayaquil, with a number of tlie 
 adjacent provinces, succeeded in throwing off the Spanish yoke. 
 Maracaibo followed the example ; and all the northern part of New 
 Granada, except the city of Carthagena, and the isthmus of Panama, 
 by the beginning of 1821, was in the hands of the patriots. Despite 
 the triumphant success in arms which these events portended, Boli- 
 var, willing to spare the effusion of blood, in November, 1820, had 
 consented to an armistice, while negotiations should be attempted. 
 It was resolved, however, that no terms, save those of absolute inde- 
 pendence, should be accepted from Spain, and the congress, with 
 cogent argument, in their manifesto, assign reasons for this deter- 
 mination. "On commencing hostilities," affirms that document, 
 " Colombia neither had great armies nor the materials to form them; 
 to-day she has skillful generals, expert officers, veteran soldiers 
 inured to war, and plenty of arms and ammunition. 
 
 "Many citizens were then afraid of being soldiers; now they are 
 all in arms, and delight in being so. Colombians are no longer 
 what they were ; and the population of Colombia are a new people, 
 regenerated by a ten years' contest, in which have disappeared those 
 physical and moral disqualifications which rendered her independence 
 doubtful, and are become worthy and fit to govern themselves, instead 
 of obeying another's will, or any sovereignty but their own." 
 
 Morillo, after the ratification of the armistice, returned to Spain, 
 where the cruelties which he had exercised toward the patriots were 
 rewarded with the title of Count of Carthagena. Negotiation had 
 proved unsuccessful, and in the month of April, 1821, both parties, 
 the Spanish under Morales and La Torre, prepared for hostilities. 
 The Colombian government had sent commissioners to Spain, where, 
 in May, 1821, a project for bestowing a representative government 
 on the refractory colonies was agitated in the Cortes, but was finally 
 rejected on account of the determined objections of Ferdinand. On 
 the 17th of April, 1821, Bohvar issued a proclamation to the army, 
 affirming that Spain, though herself in possession of a representative 
 government, was still inclined to establish tyranny over the prov- 
 inces. He appointed hostilities to recommence at the end of the 
 month, commanding, however, that the war should be conducted 
 according to the law of nations, on penalty of capital punishment 
 against all transgressors; "if the enemy," he adds, "should disre- 
 gard these regulations, we shall not imitate them; the glory of 
 Colombia shall not be stained with blood dishonourably shed." 
 
SPANISn-AMEEICAN EEVOLUTIONS. g37 
 
 On the 6tli of May, the general congress convened at Rosario de 
 Cucuta, and Bolivar made to them a formal resignation of his office 
 of president, considering it as incompatible with the chief military 
 command; but yielding to the earnest persuasions of that body, 
 consented, for a time, to continue to exercise the chief power of both 
 departments in his single person. 
 
 Hostilities resumed, the patriots, under Urdaneta, seized upon 
 Coro. Another division, under Bermudez, gained temporary pos- 
 session of Caraccas itself, but were compelled to retire by Morales. 
 In the month of June, that general, with La Torre, had concentrated 
 an army of six thousand men on the plains of Carobobo. The army 
 of liberation, nearly the same in number, under Bolivar and the 
 brave Paez, on the 24th of June, passing through a defile in the 
 mountains, engaged them. Such was the impetuosity of their charge, 
 that the royalist forces, with the exception of a few, who took refuge 
 in Porto Cabello, were completely defeated and dispersed. The loss 
 of the patriots, in killed and wounded, was about four hundred. Hav- 
 ing ordered Porto Cabello to be besieged, and taken other measures 
 against the discomfited enemy, Bolivar marched toward Caraccas, 
 which city, abandoned by the royalists on the 29th of June, he entered 
 amid the exulting transports of a vast multitude of the people. 
 
 On the 23d of September, Carthagena surrendered to the squadron 
 under Brion, Cumana was presently occupied by Bermudez, and 
 nothing remained to the Spaniards but Porto Cabello, Quito and 
 the isthmus of Panama. The latter, in December, declared itself 
 independent of the Spanish government, and signified its desire to 
 be enrolled in the republican confederacy. Bolivar was now at lib- 
 erty to direct his main strength against the royalists of the south, 
 and, accordingly, in the spring of 1822, with an army of seven 
 thousand men, he gave battle to the enemy, who had concentrated 
 their forces at Pichincha. The result was a complete and overwhelm- 
 ing victory, due, in great measure, to the exertions of the brave young 
 General Sucre ; and the liberating army, amid the universal acclama- 
 tions of the enfranchised citizens, entered Quito in triumph. 
 
 On the coast, the republicans were greatly annoyed for a time by 
 Morales, who, by his vessels, carried on a species of piratical war- 
 fare, but whose fleet, commanded by Laborde, on the 23d of July, 
 1823, was utterly defeated and destroyed by the Colombian squad- 
 ron, under General Padilla. The Spaniards lost in killed, wounded, 
 and prisoners, nearly two thousand men, and Morales, in consequence, 
 YOL. HI— 22 
 
838 AMEKICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 was compelled to surrender at Maracaibo. Despite the atrocities 
 which he had committed, and the forfeiture of his rights as a 
 prisoner of war, he was treated humanely, and, with his men, was 
 permitted to embark for Cuba. Porto Cabello, the Spanish fleet 
 destroyed, was closely invested both by land and sea; and on the 
 1st of December, 1823, La Torre, who commanded it, was compelled 
 to capitulate. 
 
 With this event ended a civil war, lasting for twelve years, con- 
 tested in a hundred battles, and distinguished for almost innumera- 
 ble scenes of courage, of cruelty, of indomitable patriotism and 
 obstinate tyranny. Though the arms of the patriots were disgraced 
 by many excesses, it must be remembered that they were the last to 
 adopt and the first to relinquish that savage system of internecine 
 vengeance which converts warfare into murder, and reduces man to 
 the wild elements of his barbarous nature. These excesses on the 
 part of the republicans, may be palliated, in some degree, by the 
 insidious, but not altogether inadmissable plea of necessity, while 
 the wonderful qualities of bravery, endurance, and perseverance 
 displayed in their protracted struggle, must always secure the 
 respect and admiration of the historical reader. 
 
 In August of 1821, the congress had adopted a constitution, and 
 Bolivar had been elected president under its provisions. The nation 
 first to recognize the independence of the new republic of Colombia 
 was, of right, that which had first set the example of resistance to 
 foreign domination — the United States of America. The European 
 powers, though in general tacitly admitting the actual existence of 
 the new state, were more tardy in making formal acknowledgment 
 of its independence. 
 
 The transactions of Bolivar in Peru, after the liberation of his 
 own people, have already, in the history of that country, been briefly 
 described. Having traced the Colombian revolution from its com- 
 mencement to its final success, to the expulsion of the Spaniards, 
 and the establishment of a republican government, we leave it — the 
 subsequent domestic troubles of the new republic, and its separation 
 into the independent states of Equador, New Granada, and Vene- 
 zuela, not coming properly within the limits of our subject. Of late 
 years, indeed, in the South American states, revolutions and pro- 
 nundamentos have succeeded each other with such startling rapidity 
 as almost to baffle the compiler of news, and to warrant their pres- 
 ent exclusion from the province of history. 
 
BOLIVIA. 
 
 fflE KEVOLFTION IN LA PAZ. — A JUNTA ESTABLISHED. — IflB 
 
 CITY TAKEN BY THE ROYALISTS. — THEIR CRUELTIES. THE 
 
 PATRIOT ARMY MARCHES PROM BUENOS AYRES. ITS 
 
 SUCCESS AND SUBSEQUENT DEFEAT- — SECOND ATTEMPT 
 AT REVOLUTION. — MASSACRES IN COCHABAMBA AND 
 POTOSI. — SECOND EXPEDITION PROM BUENOS 
 AYRES. — ITS DISCOMFITURE. — GUERILLA WAR- 
 FARE. — BOLIVIA EMANCIPATED BY THE 
 VICTORY OF AYACUCHO. 
 
 The seven provinces now known as Bolivia, and formerly aa 
 Upper Peru, were the earliest theatre of war between the patriots 
 and the tyrants of South America; but, the operations in these terri- 
 tories having been mainly carried on by the republicans of Buenos 
 Ayres, (or the United Provinces,) their relation may be mostly 
 deferred to the account of the revolution in that country. Other 
 events, of much interest, belong more exclusively to the subject of 
 our title. 
 
 The citizens of La Paz, deservedly distinguished for their courage 
 and intelligence, on the 25th of March, 1809, excited by the example 
 of Spain in forming a popular government, held a public meeting in 
 that city to consider their political prospect. Having deposed the 
 colonial authorities and created a provisional executive, they pro- 
 claimed their right to an elective government, in the same manner 
 as exercised by Spain itself. To suppress this- popular movement, 
 an army, under Cieto, was dispatched against them by Cisneros, the 
 viceroy of Buenos Ayres, and another from Peru, under the ferocious 
 Goyeneche. The latter, arriving first before La Paz, took it, after 
 a resolute defence, and executed numbers of the principal citizens. 
 Cisneros, to whom he applied for directions, commanded that all in 
 prison should be put to death ; but fortunately, before this sanguin- 
 ary measure was accomplished, the revolution in Buenos Ayres, over ■ 
 throwing his authority, saved the lives of a portion of the victims. 
 
840 * AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 La Paz, however, was almost completely depopulated; and the 
 inhabitants who escaped, betaking themselves to the mountains and 
 forests, maintained a desperate defence against the rojal forces until 
 they perished by famine or in battle. 
 
 The revolution in Buenos Ayres having broken out, and a popular 
 government being established there, an army was dispatched against 
 the royalists in Upper Peru. Balcarce, the commander, after gaining 
 several victories, and exercising some sanguinary reprisals, with six 
 thousand men approached the royal army, somewhat less, under 
 Goyeneche, at the village of Desaguedero. An armistice for forty 
 days, however, was concluded, which enabled the latter to strengthen 
 his forces, and by appealing to the religious fanaticism of his igno- 
 rant soldiery, (assuring them that the Buenos Ayreans had come 
 10 take away their religion, and that the Virgin in person had taken 
 charge of their own ranks,) inflamed their zeal and courage to the 
 highest point. His object effected, on the 20th of July, 1811, with- 
 out waiting for the conclusion of the armistice, he attacked the 
 patriot army at Guaqui with such suddenness and fury, that they 
 were completely routed, and fled from the field, leaving all their 
 artillery and baggage in the hands of the enemy. Upper Peru, after 
 this decisive defeat, remained, for the most part, in the hands of the 
 royalists until the memorable victory of Sucre, at Ayacucho, in 1824, 
 and his liberation of the long-oppressed provinces of Peru. 
 
 In 1813, enkindled by the victory of Belgrano, in Salta, over the 
 royalist army, the flame of revolution again broke out in the depart- 
 ments of La Paz and Cochabamba. The Spaniards were expelled 
 from the latter by the patriots under Arce, and a junta was established 
 in its capital. Goyeneche, with the flower of his army, marched 
 against that city, and, though the junta would have submitted to his 
 superior force, the inhabitants, preferring every extremity of war to 
 Spanish mercy, resolved to hold out to the last. "The city was 
 defended with matchless valour and resolution ; the inhabitants fought 
 with a fury and desperation which nothing but tyranny and cruelty 
 could inspire ; the women mixed promiscuously with the men, and 
 combatted with equal ardour and courage, regardless alike of hard- 
 ships and dangers. But the patriots had more bravery than discipline ; 
 their efforts were irregular, and they were in a great measure desti- 
 tute of arms, but they fought with the best weapons they could 
 obtain. After a most fearful struggle, the royalists entered the 
 city over the dead bodies of its inhabitants* such as survived were 
 
spanish-amekica:.' kevolutions. 341 
 
 devoted to massacre and rapine. The city was delivered up to the 
 lawless plunder of a ferocious soldiery, and exhibited a picture of 
 desolation and horror."* 
 
 While these atrocities were enacting in Cochabamba, another 
 insurrection, which had broken out in Potosi, was suppressed by 
 Emas, an officer of Goyeneche, with the same savage ferocity. More 
 than sixty villages were laid waste, and the country was converted 
 into a desert ; and the brutal commander, when finally satiated with 
 massacre, amused himself by cutting off the ears of the patriots 
 whom he captured, and setting them, thus disfigured, at liberty. 
 Keinforced by troops from Lima, the royalist forces defeated Belgrano 
 and the army of Buenos Ayres, in two sanguinary engagements. 
 The survivors from the massacre of Cochabamba, escaping into the 
 Yalla Grande, and uniting with the patriots of Santa Cruz, gained, 
 indeed, some signal advantages ; and a partisan warfare, distinguished 
 by great rancour and cruelty on both sides, was waged, with much 
 success to the republican arms. La Paz was retaken from the roy- 
 alists, who in their malice poisoned all the springs of water in that 
 city, and blew up a barrack, by which three hundred of the patriots 
 were killed. Such was the fury inspired in the latter by these out- 
 rages, that they cut the throat of every Spaniard in the city. 
 
 Eeverses soon overtook the insurgents in their defeat by Pezuela, 
 and their forced retreat toward Cuzco. Conspicuous in their ranks 
 was an Indian named Pomakagua, who, in the war with Tupac 
 Amaru, had taken the royal side, and had been rewarded with the 
 title of general and with other honours. This bold chief, assuming 
 the republican cause, had attacked Arequipa, where, after a sharp 
 fight, he defeated the royalists, and took the town, with the Spanish 
 governor and commander-in-chief; but was finally defeated, after 
 displaying the most heroic valour, by Pezuela and Eamirez, and 
 with other prisoners suffered death by execution at Cuzco. 
 
 Kondeau, commanding an army of Buenos Ayreans, now advanced 
 into the country, and, after gaining two victories, took possession of 
 Potosi and Cochabamba. In attempting to keep open the communi- 
 cation between these two places, he was defeated at the hard-fought 
 battle of Sipesipe, and the unfortunate Cochabambians, who had 
 prepared triumphal arches in honour of his anticipated victory, once 
 more beheld their city a prey to rapine and massacre. After this 
 signal defeat, the Buenos Ayreans were unable to maintain possession 
 * Niles' History of South America and Mexico. 
 
342 AMEEICA ILLQSTEATED. 
 
 of tlie upper provinces, and tlie war was reduced to a guerilla con- 
 test, in wbicli Padilla, Warnes, and other popular leaders, still main- 
 tained the cause of independence. 
 
 The great victory of Bolivar's general, Sucre, over the royal army 
 at Ayacucho, in 1824, was decisive, not only of the fate of Peru, 
 but of the adjoining provinces. The victorious general marched into 
 Upper Peru, where many of the royalist garrisons surrendered with- 
 out opposition, or declared in favour of independence. Olaneta, the 
 chief commander in that region, after an ineffectual resistance, was 
 slain, and all the troops in the country, to the number of five or six 
 thousand, surrendered. The total result of that splendid victory, 
 indeed, was a loss to the enemy, in the two Perus, of more than 
 eighteen thousand men, in killed, wounded, and prisoners. The 
 Brazilians, who had commenced aggressions against the distracted 
 state, were compelled, by the prompt resistance of the patriot general, 
 to withdraw their forces. 
 
 The country freed from foreign domination, a general congress, 
 convened at Chiquisaca, on the 6th of August, 1825, published a 
 declaration of independence, averring that "the happy day has 
 arrived when Upper Peru has become liberated from unjust power, 
 from the tyrannic and wretched Ferdinand VII., and this fertile 
 region has escaped the debasing relation of a colony of Spain; 
 that it is important to its welfare not to incorporate itself with any 
 of the co-terminous republics, but to erect itself into a sovereign and 
 independent state, in relation to the new as well as the old world ; 
 that the provinces of Upper Peru, firm and unanimous in their reso- 
 lution,, proclaim to the whole earth that they will govern themselves* 
 under their own constitution, laws, and authorities, in that way 
 which they may think most conducive to the prosperity of the nation, 
 the inviolable support of the Catholic religion, and the maintenance 
 of the sacred rights of honour, life, liberty, equality, property and 
 security. To carry into effect this determination, they bind themselves 
 through this sovereign representation, by their lives, property, and 
 sacred honour." It is supposed that Bolivar, whose armies had accom- 
 plished their liberation, had desired the union of these provinces with 
 those of Lower Peru ; but he offered no interference with the free 
 action of the people he had served. In honour of the Liberator of 
 South America, the title of Bolivia was adopted by the new state, and 
 suitable rewards and honours were decreed to Sucre, and to the patriot 
 army to which it was indebted for its rescue from Spanish tyranny. 
 
UNITED PROYINCES OF LA PLATA. 
 
 uJttAirJtjuirljL. 
 
 CAUSES OP THE REYOLUTION IN BUENOS AYRES. — THE VICEROTfl 
 LINIERS AND CISNEROS. — THEIR PATE. — WARS WITH THE 
 
 ROYALISTS IN UPPER PERU: IN MONTE VIDEO. ^^DISSEN- 
 
 SIONS AMONG THE PATRIOTS. — RAPID CHANGES OF 
 
 GOVERNMENT. ALTERNATE SUCCESSES OP THE 
 
 PATRIOTS AND ROYALISTS. SAN MARTIN. 
 
 PALL OP MONTE VIDEO. — ELECTION OP 
 PUEYREDON AS SUPREME DIRECTOR. 
 
 The almost interminable civil feuds — the innumerable succession 
 of general or local rulers, and tbe inextricably tangled condition of 
 domestic politics in the government or governments of those exten- 
 sive provinces, watered by the Eio de la, Plata, and since known as 
 the Argentine Eepublic, (or Eepublic of La Plata,) during their pro- 
 tracted revolution, will necessarily confine the account of that strug- 
 gle to the facts most important in their emancipation from Spanish 
 authority. The first impulse to that emancipation was given, as 
 with all the South American states, by the disturbed condition of 
 the government at home. 
 
 "When, in July, 1808, news arrived at Buenos Ayres of the 
 "cessions of Bayonne," and the consequent ascendency of the French 
 interest in Spain, the viceroy, Liniers, exerted his influence in favor 
 of Napoleon. Elio, the governor of Monte Yideo, accusing him of 
 treason, separated his own province from its allegiance, and found 
 his conduct approved by Goyeneche, agent of the Spanish revolu- 
 tionary junta. The latter, as we have seen, however, used every 
 exertion, and committed every cruelty in attempting to suppress a 
 spirit of revolution in the colonies. 
 
344 AMEEICA ILLUSTKATED. 
 
 The leaders of tlie patriot party in Buenos Ayres — Castelli, Bel- 
 grano, Cliiclana, Thompson, and others — undeterred by the terrible 
 example of the patriots at La Paz, resolved to take advantage of 
 these disturbances to erect a popular government. By secret influ- 
 ence, they gained over three regiments quartered in the city, to the 
 popular cause, and when, in May, 1810, news arrived of the proba- 
 ble subjugation of the peninsula by the French, the municipal 
 authorities summoned a meeting of the citizens to consider their 
 condition. At this assembly, after long and animated debate, the 
 people, protected by an armed guard, passed resolutions deposing the 
 viceroy, Cisneros, and creating a provisional government. 
 
 At a meeting of the citizens of Monte Yideo, these proceedings 
 were approved, and adhesion was promised to the new government; 
 but the Spaniards in that city, landing troops from the vessels in the 
 harbour, were enabled, by the aid of the deposed viceroys, Liniers 
 and Cisneros, and the Spanish governors of Paraguay and other 
 provinces, to create a formidable opposition. They were, however, 
 defeated by the popular forces ; Cisneros and others were compelled 
 to quit the country, while Liniers and other commanders who had 
 openly levied war and ravaged the country, were executed. 
 
 The patriot army, which, under General Balcarce, had been dis- 
 patched against the Spaniards of Upper Peru, at first met with 
 complete success, defeating the royalist army, though strongly 
 posted, after an obstinate action, at Suypacha, and executing the 
 captive generals ISTieto, Sanz, and Cordova. The victory of Tupiza 
 followed, and the Buenos Ayrean army was in possession of a great 
 part of the country; but Goyeneche, violating, as we have seen, the 
 armistice agreed upon, defeated them, and regained possession of 
 most of the country. His army, however, was greatly annoyed by 
 numerous parties of guerillas, which harassed it with continued 
 desultory attacks, and prevented his complete occupation of the 
 country ; and, althotigh he issued the savage order that every pris- 
 oner should be shot, he was unable to repress this last resource ofj 
 a wronged and* desperate people. 
 
 Elio, who had now been appointed by the Spanish government 
 as viceroy over the provinces of Eio de la Plata, held that of Monte 
 Video or the Banda Oriental, (since known as the state of Uraguay,) 
 and opposed a formidable hostility to the republican cause ; but the 
 patriot troops, under Eondeau and Artigas, having gained a signal 
 victory over the royalists of Las Piedras, marched against his capital, 
 
SPANISH-AMEEICAN KEVOLUTIONS. 345 
 
 to whicli they laid siege. The viceroy, in despair, applied for as- 
 Bistance to the Portuguese government in Brazil, and through the 
 influence of the Princess Charlotte, sister to Ferdinand YII., obtained 
 four thousand men, which, under General Sousa, were dispatched 
 to his assistance. On the arrival of these levies, a truce was con- 
 cluded, the patriots and the Portuguese both engaging to return to 
 their homes — an agreement, however, violated by the latter, who 
 continued hostilities in the provinces of the Rio de la Plata. Buenos 
 Ayres was now threatened, both by the latter and by the royalists 
 of Upper Peru, who had defeated the republican army dispatched 
 thither, and had gained possession of the province of Salta ; but the 
 advance of the Portuguese was checked by Sarratice, a member of 
 the government, who, with four thousand troops, marched against 
 them. By a treaty with the Brazilian minister, (June, 1812,) an 
 indefinite armistice was agreed on, and the foreign troops were with- 
 drawn from the territory.- Belgrano, with the army of Peru, having 
 retreated before the royalist general, Tristan, to Tacuman, made a 
 stand there, and on the 24th of December, defeated his antagonist 
 with a loss of eleven hundred men, in killed, wounded, and prisoners. 
 
 During these transactions, it is almost impossible to keep track of 
 the continual changes in the popular government of Buenos Ayres. 
 Conspiracies and treasons were rife, and, on one occasion, for forming 
 a plot to defeat the revolution and put to death the principal leaders, 
 twenty citizens, some of them wealthy and influential, were tried and 
 executed. Elio having violated the treaty, Monte Yideo was again 
 besieged, and, in the course of the campaign. Colonel San Martin, 
 afterwards so famous as the Liberator of Chili, first distinguished 
 himself by defeating the enemy on the river Parana. (February, 
 1813.) At the same time, Belgrano, being reinforced, attacked the 
 royalists under Tristan, in Salta, and, after a hard-fought action of 
 four hours, again defeated them, and, in effect, made prisoners of the 
 whole army. This advantage, however, was lost to the patriot 
 arms, in consequence of the treachery of Tristan, who, with his 
 troops, having been permitted to depart on taking oath not to serve 
 against the republicans, nevertheless immediately joined the army 
 of Goyeneche. 
 
 Pezuela, who succeeded the latter, again engaged the victorious 
 general, not far from Potosi, and gained the advantage. In another 
 action, near the close of November, the patriots, after fighting with 
 admirable courage and obstinacy, were again defeated, and were 
 
846 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 compelled once more to relinquish. Upper Peru to tlie enemy. 
 Buenos Ayres was once again threatened with the march of hostile 
 armies from opposite directions. 
 
 In this disastrous and ominous condition of affairs, the valour and 
 genius of San Martin, who succeeded Belgrano, came most oppor- 
 tunely to the service of the patriot cause. In a brief time, he raised 
 a fresh army of three thousand five hundred men, for the defence 
 of the country, and so skillfully directed the operations of the guer- 
 illas that the enemy, continually harassed and deprived of provisions, 
 were compelled to relinquish Salta and other provinces to the repub- 
 licans. This success was attended by others equally cheering. The 
 little fleet of Buenos Ayres, commanded by Mr. Brown, an English 
 merchant of that city, gained a decided victory over that of the 
 enemy, and assisted in pressing the siege of Monte Yideo. Yigodet, 
 who had succeeded Elio, was finally compelled to surrender to the 
 besieging forces, under Alvear, and five thousand five hundred 
 prisoners, with eleven thousand muskets, and an immense quantity 
 of other military stores, fell into the hands of the victors. 
 
 This success led to an instant renewal of anarchy among the 
 patriots. Artigas claimed and seized the government of Monte 
 Yideo, and Alvear (January, 1815) gave deep discontent by obtaining 
 the chief directorship of Buenos Ayres. Civil dissensions prevailed 
 until the latter, an object of popular odium, was compelled to leave 
 the country. Foreign disasters succeeded these domestic quarrels. 
 By the victory of Sipesipe, in November, 1815, the most important 
 provinces in Upper Peru were again thrown into possession of the 
 royalists, and finally, after revolution on revolution, the supreme 
 directorship, under better auspices, in March, 1816, was conferred 
 on Juan Martin Pueyredon, whose election quieted the factions in 
 the capital, and for a time gave stability to the government. 
 
SPANISH-AMEEICAN EEVOLUTIONS. 347 
 
 vj iL(L Jim It J* Ju J)6 u* iL • 
 
 FKUDS OF THE PATRIOTS. — OBSTINACY OF ARTIGAS. — THE 
 PORTUGUESE TAKE MONTE VIDEO, AND DEFEAT THE 
 
 REPUBLICAN ARMY. SAN MARTIN. — HIS PASSAGE 
 
 OF THE ANDES AND VICTORIOUS CAMPAIGN IN , 
 
 CHILI. — UPPER PERU. — CONTINUED RE- 
 SISTANCE OF THE BANDA ORIENTAL. 
 
 After providing for tlie defence of the country against its external 
 enemies, the director turned his attention to reconciling or crushing 
 its domestic foes. He sent a supply of arms and munitions to Arti- 
 gas, at Monte Video, to assist him in repelling the Portuguese; but 
 that of&cer, having received them, refused to listen to overtures of 
 friendship. At Santa Fe, despite the attempts of the capital to over- 
 awe or negotiate, the citizens maintained an attitude of determined 
 hostility to the general government. Notwithstanding these untoward 
 circumstances, the congress, convened from a number of states on the 
 9th of July, 1816, issued a manifesto, declaring the independence of 
 the United Provinces of the Eio de la Plata. 
 
 Meanwhile, in Upper Peru, the arms of the patriots again met 
 with considerable success. Colonel Padilla, attacked by a division 
 of the royalist army, entrusted the commaud of several posts to his 
 captains, and one to his wife. The enemy assaulted furiously, but 
 were completely repulsed and defeated, and were pursued by the 
 victors till they arrived at a place of defence. The lady presented 
 her husband a standard of the enemy, taken with her own hands, 
 and was afterwards appropriately rewarded by government with the 
 commission and pay of a lieutenant-colonel. Another victory was 
 obtained by Warnes over a body of a thousand men, commanded 
 by the bloody Facon, in which the latter were almost entirely de- 
 stroyed. In the provinces of Salta and Jujuy, Guemes and other 
 guerilla leaders waged a desultory, but highly successful warfare. 
 
 In December, 1816, the Portuguese made a grand demonstration 
 against the new commonwealth. Troops were shipped from Lisbon, 
 and an army of ten thousand men was collected at Eio Grande. 
 This f^rce, in three divisions, under Generals Lecor, Silviera, and 
 Curau, invaded the Banda Oriental. Despite some spirited local 
 
348 , AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 opposition, this overwhelming force took possession of the capital, 
 Monte Yideo, and Artigas was reduced to practice a guerilla warfare 
 against the invaders in the open country. These disasters were suc- 
 ceeded by a severe defeat of the patriot army, under La Torre, who, 
 after a sanguinary action at Arayo de los Catalanos, were routed 
 with great loss. In the face of these miserable reverses, and of the 
 general desire of the inhabitants of his province, Artigas still refused 
 to unite with the confederacy. 
 
 These misfortunes on the sea-board were in some degree compen- 
 sated by the splendid success of San Martin, in his memorable cam- 
 paign of Chili. The latter country had assisted the United Provinces, 
 with men and money, against Elio ; and San Martin, now governor 
 of Cuyo or Mendoza, conceived the project of serving the cause of 
 freedom in both countries, by a vigorous assault on the common enemy, 
 in their strongholds of Chili. Though his province was thinly peo- 
 pled, and much wasted and impoverished by the Spaniards, so great 
 was the personal devotion of the people to their chief, that they 
 placed all their means and services at his disposal. Six hundred 
 slaves, three hundred horses, and ten thousand mules were provided for 
 the service of the expedition ; troops were transported from Buenos 
 Ayres : and after a year spent in preparation and discipline, the daring 
 commander set forth on an expedition, from its difficulties and extra- 
 ordinary success, one of the most memorable in martial history. 
 
 *'He had to cross the majestic Andes, with an army accompanied 
 with baggage and artillery, which for three hundred miles presented 
 rugged and almost inaccessible summits and narrow defiles, admitting 
 of two persons only abreast, along the giddy verge of frightful pre- 
 cipices, where eternal frosts hold their undisputed reign. This pass- 
 age with an army over the highest mountains in the world, is an 
 achievement more daring and difficult than that of the renowned 
 Hannibal in crossing the Alps; and perhaps there is nothing on the 
 page of history that surpasses it. But no obstacles could shake the 
 purpose of San Martin ; no difficulties were too great for his genius to 
 overcome. In thirteen days the frozen Andes were vanquished and 
 passed, with the loss of five thousand horses and mules and of a few 
 men. The liberating army, soon after, encountered the enemy at 
 Chacabuco ; and the veterans who had conquered the Andes, expe- 
 rienced no difficulty in vanquishing the instruments of tyranny. 
 Seldom has a victory been more complete or a triumph more splen- 
 did. 'In twenty-four days,' said the commander, 'we have crossed 
 
SPANISH-AMEEICAN REVOLUTIONS. 349 
 
 the most elevated mountains of the globe, terminated the campaign, 
 put an end to the sway of tyrants and given liberty to Chili.' The 
 remnant of the royalists took refuge in Talcahuano. The inhabitants 
 formed a junta at Santiago, and as a reward for his services offered 
 to San Martin the dictatorship of Chili, which he declined, and this 
 power was vested in Bernardo O'Higgins. 
 
 "After this splendid victory, the General of the Andes^ as San Martm 
 was now called, returned to Buenos Ayres to concert a plan with 
 the government to direct the victorious arms of the republic against 
 Peru. As he approached Mendoza,the capital of Cuyo, all the in- 
 habitants of the town flocked out to meet him; the youth strewed 
 the road with roses, and all demonstrated the most lively sensations 
 of admiration and joy at beholding the hero of the Andes and the 
 Liberator of Chili. At Buenos Ayres, the same sentiments prevailed, 
 and preparations were making to receive him with every mark of 
 respect and honour; but being apprized of what was intended, he 
 stole into the city unobserved, to the no small disappointment of 
 the people."* 
 
 In Upper Peru, the talent and energy of Belgrano had now, m 
 great measure, redeemed the republican cause. Serna, the chief 
 commander of the royalist forces, was compelled to retreat before the 
 attacks of the guerillas, and the ferocious Facon was destroyed, acci- 
 dently (or providentially), by a stroke of lightning. The Banda 
 Orienial, under Artigas, still maintained an attitude of hostility to 
 the rest of the republic ; and two successive detachments, dispatched 
 by the director to reduce the refractory province, under Montes de 
 Oca and Colonel Balcarce, were furiously attacked by the Monte 
 Videan chief, and completely defeated. 
 
 * Nilos' South America. 
 
350 AMEEICA ILLUSTKATED. 
 
 O Jbd) t/>di (L iL dj Jbb Jf iL J( • 
 
 /LFFAIRS IN CHILI — DISASTERS OF THE PATRIOTS. — VICTOR! 
 OF SAN MARTIN AT THE PLAINS OF MAYPU. — INDEPEND- 
 ENCE OF CHILI SECURED. — CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED 
 PROVINCES. RESIGNATION OF PUEIREDON. — CON- 
 TINUED CIVIL DISSENSIONS. — FINAL RESTORATION 
 OF HARMONY. — THE REPUBLIC ACKNOWLEDGED 
 BY THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 In Chili, San Martin and O'Higgins were now strenuously attempt- 
 ing to reduce the strong fortress of Talcahuano, the last refuge of 
 the royalists in that country. But the viceroy of Lima contrived to 
 throw a force of fifteen hundred men into the disputed post ; and 
 not long after, resolved to anticipate the intended attack of San 
 Martin in Peru, landed five thousand troops, under General Osorio, 
 at the same place. That commander, with a force of eight thousand 
 men, now assumed the offensive, and marched for the capital of Chili. 
 San Martin, after somewhat annoying his march, on the 19th of 
 March, made a successful attack on the enemy, whose van was driven 
 into the streets of Talca. But that same night the royalist general in 
 turn attacked the encampment of the patriots with such suddenness 
 and fury that they were completely routed, and San Martin, with the 
 relics of his army, was compelled to retreat to the pass of Angulemu. 
 
 Undismayed by this disaster, he betook himself to the capital, 
 where, by extraordinary exertions, a fresh army was raised, which, 
 on the 5th of April, 1818, on the Plains of Maypu, again engaged 
 the enemy. A most splendid victory, in which the Spanish army 
 was nearly annihilated, was the result. The independence of Chili 
 and Peru was secured, and San Martin, the object of enthusiastic 
 gratitude and admiration, his project fully accomplished, returned to 
 Buenos Ayres. 
 
 On the 25th of May, 1819, the congress of the United Provinces 
 publicly proclaimed a constitution, of a federal nature, and not ma- 
 terially differing from that of the United States of America. Legis- 
 lation was vested in two houses, one composed of deputies elected by 
 the people, and the other of senators elected by the provinces. The 
 executive power was placed in the hands of a single person, called 
 
srAI^lSn-AMEEICAN KEVOLUTIONS. 351 
 
 the director. Equality of all citizens, freedom of the press, &c., were 
 announced. Soon after, Pueyredon, considerable disaffection to his 
 person existing, resigned the office of supreme director, and Joseph 
 Kondeau was chosen temporaril}^ to fill his place, until the election 
 of a new director under the constitution. 
 
 By a singular complication of hostilities, Artigas, who had long 
 been bravely defending the Banda Oriental against the overwhelming 
 forces of Brazil, after receiving the assistance and rejecting the alli- 
 ance of the commonwealth, still maintained his dubious position. 
 In February 1820, the director was defeated by the guerillas called 
 the Monteneros, headed by Kamirez, an officer of Artigas, and such 
 was the effect of this disaster that the authority of the central gov- 
 ernment was completely prostrated. The victor, with three thousand 
 men, advanced within seventy miles of Buenos Ayres; and Pueyre- 
 don, with his friends, the chief objects of enmity, fled to the Portu- 
 guese for safety. Eondeau, after his defeat, returned to the capital, 
 but his authority was at once overthrown, and a provisional govern- 
 ment was appointed by the municipality. Treaty was then made 
 with Kamirez, and a most rapid succession of revolutions placed the 
 capital in the hands of one ambitious chief after another. A disgrace- 
 ful secret negotiation with France by the late congress was discovered, 
 intended to place the republic under the control of that country, and 
 all the members who had favoured it were put under arrest. 
 
 The state of anarchy, especially in the capital, which succeeded 
 these events is almost beyond description, and the lives of many 
 estimable citizens were sacrificed in the civil feuds by which the 
 whole state was distracted. The various factions under Eamirez, 
 Carrera, and Alvear, and under Dorego and Kodriguez, were en- 
 gaged in civil war, which finally, after various vicissitudes, resulted 
 in the ascendancy of the latter at the seat of government. (October, 
 1820.) Carrera, indeed, still continued desperately to ravage the 
 country ; and Ramirez, the army of Artigas having been defeated and 
 almost destroyed by the Portuguese, supplanted that chief in the 
 command of the Banda Oriental, and threatened the city of Buenos 
 Ayres. On the 21st of July, 1821, however, he was completely 
 defeated by the government troops, at Francisco, and died on the 
 field of battle, only two hundred of his men escaping. Carrera, 
 whose whole career had been distinguished by great ferocity and 
 carnage, was also defeated, in the following month, and on the 4th 
 of September was shot in the public square of Mendoza. Two of 
 
852 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 liis brothers had perished on the same spot, and the only favour he 
 asked was a burial in the same grave with them. 
 
 These civil wars at last brought to a close, the legislative junta 
 and the executive, to quiet the rancour of the contending factions, 
 passed an act of amnesty, and turned their attention to reforming the 
 administration of affairs. In September, 1821, a congress from the 
 several provinces assembled at Cordova, and efforts were made to 
 bring about a federal union, but various sectional jealousies prevented 
 the adoption of the plan. "The commencement of the year 1822, 
 found the affairs of the United Provinces in a more prosperous con- 
 dition ; the internal enemies of the republic had been destroyed or 
 driven out of the country; the voice of faction was silenced; the 
 government had acquired energy and respect, and was engaged in 
 works of improvement, in forming schools and establishing libraries, 
 calculated to prepare the people for the appreciation and enjoyment 
 of liberty. The papers discussed freely, and often ably, important 
 political questions connected with their new situation. A splendid 
 edifice for a congressional hall was erected on the same spot where, 
 in 1780, were reared the dungeons of Oruro, in which were immured 
 those accused of promoting the independence of Peru."* Peace 
 was restored with Santa Fe and with other provinces heretofore at 
 enmity with Buenos Ayres, and treaties of mutual defence and alli- 
 ance were made. The Banda Oriental and its. capital, Monte Yideo, 
 were still retained by the Portuguese forces. 
 
 In July, 1823, strenuous attempts were made to negotiate a treaty 
 of peace with Spain ; but despite the liberal conduct of the congress, 
 which offered twenty millions of dollars to the mother-country, to 
 secure her against foreign invasion, the Spanish government refused 
 to come to terms. In autumn of the same year, Mr. Kodney, the 
 minister from the United States, and the first envoy received by the 
 republic from any foreign power, arrived at Buenos Ayres. His 
 presentation to the government took place with extraordinary state 
 and parade, and was hailed with much enthusiasm by the people ; 
 but he did not long survive his arrival, dying early in the following 
 year. In October, 1824, Alvear, the minister dispatched in return, 
 was presented to the executive of the United States; but his term 
 of office was equally brief, his government recalling him to command 
 the army destined against the royalists in Upper Peru. 
 
 * Niles' South America. 
 

PART III 
 
 'W^^VS*%/%/WWVSi/WSArfX/>^ 
 
 ^t loriuptsf m %mtxm. 
 
 BRAZIL. 
 
 DISCOYERY OF BRAZIL BY CABEAL. — OP RIO DE JANEIRO Bl 
 
 SOUSA. FRENCH COLONY. — AGGRESSIONS OF THE DUTCH. 
 
 THEIR CONQUESTS. — COUNT MAURICE OF NASSAU. — HIS 
 
 SUCCESSES. — HIS RECALL. IMPOLICY OP THE DUTCH. 
 
 — THEIR EXPULSION FROM BRAZIL. 
 
 In pursuing their splendid career of African and East Indian dis- 
 covery, the Portuguese, by chance, came upon a region vastly more 
 extensive and valuable than their most coveted acquisitions in the 
 opposite direction. Alvarez de Cabral, in 1500, sailing with thirteen 
 vessels, on the route to India, to avoid the calms experienced on a 
 former voyage, took a course more to the south-west, and accident- 
 ally discovered the coast of Brazil. On the 3d of May he landed, 
 in about seventeen degrees of south latitude, at a narbour which he 
 called Porto Seguro, erected a cross, performed mass, took possession 
 of the country, and named it "Terra Nova de la Yera Cruz." The 
 natives appeared of a gentle and kindly disposition, and their com- 
 plexion strongly resembled that of their visitors. He sent home 
 a vessel, with an account of the discovery, and left on shore two 
 convicts to learn the language of the people. 
 
 Expeditions were soon dispatched from Portugal to the newlj- 
 YOL. IIL— 23 
 
3o-i AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 discovered land, and territorial disputes with Spain were settled by 
 an agreement that Portugal should possess all the country between 
 the two great rivers Amazon and La Plata. A dye-wood of great 
 value was soon discovered, and imported in quantities to Portugal; 
 and from the name of this commodity, (Pao Brakes, or wood of fire,) 
 the appellation of the territory, by degrees, was changed to Brazil, 
 On the 1st of January, 1585, Martin Alphonso de Sousa, sailing to 
 this coast, discovered that splendid harbour, called by the natives 
 Nitherohy, and which, supposing it to be the mouth of a great river, 
 he called Rio de Janeiro — the River of January. Various settle- 
 ments, however — as those of San Salvador, Pernambuco, St. Yicente, 
 and others — were founded before the natural advantages of this ad- 
 mirable locality were turned to account. A colony of French Prot- 
 estants, dispatched by Coligni, was planted in the new country; but 
 the clergy, by their indiscreet zeal, became embroiled with the Por- 
 tuguese, and their establishment, in 1578, was attacked and broken 
 up by the latter. 
 
 The work of settlement by the Portuguese proceeded slowly, but 
 uninterruptedly till the year 1626, when the Dutch, ambitious of 
 inheriting a share in the !N"ew World, established a West India 
 Company, and dispatched a fleet to Brazil. The intruders took 
 possession of its capital, San Salvador, and the surrounding country. 
 War with Spain and Portugal immediately ensued, and San Sal- 
 vador was recaptured by a powerful Portuguese fleet. In 1630. 
 forty-six Dutch vessels arrived off Pernambuco, where they landed 
 three thousand troops. That province and several others were sub- 
 dued and acquired by the invaders; and so successful were they in 
 naval operations that, it is said, during the war, they captured five 
 hundred and forty-seven ships, fitted out against them by Spain, 
 together with a treasure of forty-five millions of florins. 
 
 In. 1636, John Maurice, count of Nassau, with the imposing title 
 of "Governor of Brazil and South America," dispatched from IIol- 
 land with a large force, landed four thousand men on the coast 
 and defeated the Portuguese, after an obstinate battle, near the for- 
 tress of Porto Calvo, which, with other places, he soon after took. 
 Four years afterwards, a fleet of ninety ships was dispatched by 
 Spain to expel the Dutch from Brazil. A desperate action with the 
 fleet of the latter, under Iluygens, lasting for three days, ensued ; but 
 the Spaniards were at last terribly defeated, and being driven on the 
 shoals off the coast, great numbers perished by shipwreck and of 
 
THE POETUGUESE IN AMERICA. 355 
 
 hunger and thirst. Out of the whole command, only five vessels 
 made their way back to Spain. 
 
 In the same year (1640) Portugal made its revolt against the long- 
 continued domination of Spain, and John, duke of Braganza, as- 
 cended the throne. Count Maurice, believing this event to be the 
 harbinger of peace between Portugal and Holland, redoubled his 
 exertions to extend his conquests; and before the anticipated treaty 
 (peace in Europe, and a ten years' truce in America) was accom- 
 plished, he had taken valuable provinces and important strong- 
 holds, both in Brazil and Africa. 
 
 The acquisitions to the foreign territory of Holland, effected by 
 this able general and sagacious governor, were soon lost by the im- 
 policy and mismanagement of his superiors, the Dutch West India 
 Company. That corporation, by imposing severe and ill-judged 
 exactions on the Portuguese settlers in their conquered provinces, 
 excited great discontent; and Maurice, who remonstrated against 
 this unjust and hazardous policy, was recalled. With thirteen ships- 
 of-war, and the greater part of his forces, in 1644, he left Brazil. At 
 that time, seven provinces, thirty towns, and forty-five fortresses nad 
 been brought by his arms under the rule of Holland; and besides 
 the native inhabitants and the soldiers and sailors, there were twenty 
 thousand Dutch citizens and sixty thousand negro slaves in the 
 newly-acquired territory. 
 
 The government of the colony was next entrusted to a commission 
 of wrong-headed citizens, who, by unwise persistance in the obnox- 
 ious measures, soon drove the Portuguese to resistance. By the 
 connivance of the Portuguese viceroy, a revolt, headed by one John 
 Fernandez Yeira, a man of obscure origin, but of talents and influ- 
 ence, was commenced, and conducted with such skill and bravery, 
 that Holland, despite her utmost exertions, was unable to repress it. 
 She dispatched fleet after fleet to the disputed territory, and, at vast 
 expense and loss, engaged in war with Portugal ; yet, by the year 
 1655, her efforts all in vain, was compelled to relinquish the last of 
 her possessions in Brazil to the enemy. Since that time, the Portu- 
 guese have remained, almost without dispute, masters of the immense 
 empire of Brazil — an empire nearly a hundred times greater in 
 extent than the parent-country, of which it was long a colony, and 
 m our own day erected into an independent state, rivalling, in 
 extent and capabilities, at least, the most powerful empires of the 
 Old World or the New. 
 
bo6 AMEEICA ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 BIIAZIL A PENAL COLONY. THE RESULT. — OPPRESSION OP THi 
 
 NATIVES. — THE FEUDAL SYSTEM. GOVERNOR-GENERAL AP- 
 POINTED. — STORY OP CARAMURU. — BAHIA. — THE JESUITS. 
 
 — WAR WITH THE CAHETES. MEM DE SA. — HIS 
 
 CRUSADE AGAINST CANNIBALISM. — WAR WITH THE 
 ATMORES. — THEIR CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 The contest between the Dutcli and the Portuguese for the occu- 
 pation of Brazil, and the final ascendency of the latter having been 
 briefly sketched, we revert to the domestic condition of the colonies 
 first planted there by the successful nation. At an early day, con- 
 victs and criminals were transported thither, who, by their violence 
 and oppression, exasperated the natives, at first kindly disposed to 
 the new comers. Ketaliation thus provoked, the usual career of 
 massacre and enslavement went rapidly forward; the old women 
 'and children in the villages they subdued, being butchered by the 
 Portuguese, and the adults being reserved as slaves. 
 
 The sovereign of Portugal, by a singular policy, first colonized 
 Brazil on the feudal system, bestowing extensive capitanias (captain- 
 cies or provinces) on grandees who had rendered services to the 
 crown. Thus,. Martin Alphonso de Sousa, the discoverer of Eio 
 Janeiro, and Pedro Lopez, his brother, each received allotments 
 extending for fifty leagues along the coast, and similar spacious 
 tracts were ceded to others. These capitanias were hereditary, and 
 the lord of each had supreme jurisdiction, both civil and criminal, 
 in his extended domains, and made war with the native tribes, issued 
 laws, and exacted taxes at his pleasure. The despotic exercise of 
 this authority, at length occasioned its resumption by the crown, 
 the lands, however, being left in possession of the grantees; and a 
 governor-general, Thome de Sousa, in April, 1549, accompanied by 
 the first Jesuits who ever came to America, landed in All Saints' 
 Bay,* and assumed the general jurisdiction. 
 
 At that place he found an aged settler, named Diogo Alvarez, 
 who, in youth, having been wrecked there, and having seen his 
 -companions devoured by the savages, had become a slave to the 
 
 * Bahia de todos os Santos. 
 
THE POKTUGUESE IN AMERICA. 357 
 
 latter. He had saved from the wreck a musket and some barrels 
 of powder, and took occasion, by shooting a bird, to exhibit to his 
 masters the terrific power which was lodged in those utensils. They 
 cried "Caramurul Caramurul" (man of fire !) and, filled with respect 
 for the deadly instrument and its owner, made him their chief in 
 war, and, finally, their sovereign. By his native wives he had a 
 numerous family, and it is said that the best families in Bahia trace 
 their origin to him. A French vessel coming into the harbour, he 
 loaded her with Brazil-wood, and sailed to France; but not being 
 permitted to go to Portugal, returned to his Indian town of Bahia. 
 which he fortified, and where De Sousa found him. He was of 
 great service to the governor in his dealings with the native tribes. 
 
 Houses were built, and a cathedral was begun at this, the first 
 royal settlement in the country, fortifications were made, and the 
 new town of Bahia or San Salvador, was made the capital of Brazil. 
 The Jesuits, with laudable zeal, dispersed themselves among the 
 natives, and by the extraordinary faculties of persuasion and perse- 
 verance, in which they have never been surpassed by any order of 
 men, implanted a species of religion and civilization in their breasts, 
 withstood the oppressions of the colonists, and pioneered the way to 
 fresh settlement and colonization. The disinterested and self-sacri- 
 ficing efforts of these much-calumniated men, at that period, are 
 worthy of the highest praise. 
 
 The first Brazilian bishop, appointed in. 1552, soon fell into a dis- 
 pute with Da Costa, the successor of De Sousa, and embarked for 
 Portugal to plead his case before the king. Being shipwrecked on 
 the coast, he was murdered, with about a hundred others, by the 
 savage tribe of the Cahetes — in revenge of which outrage, they and 
 their posterity were proscribed, and were hunted and butchered till 
 nearly all were exterminated. In 1558, the celebrated Mem de Sa 
 succeeded to the viceroyalty, and endeavoured by all means in his 
 power to reclaim the natives from their barbarous propensities, and 
 to protect them from unlawful oppression. The house of a rich 
 colonist, who had refused to release certain of them, wrongfully 
 enslaved, was levelled to the ground by the governor's order. 
 
 He took equally summary measures for the suppression of canni- 
 balism. " Three friendly Indians," says Mr. Southey,* " were seized, 
 while fishing, by their enemies, carried ofiP, and devoured. The 
 governor sent to the offending tribe, commanding them to give up 
 
 * History of Brazil 
 
$58 AMERICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 the criminals, that thej might be put to death. The chiefs would 
 have consented, but the persons implicated were powerful; the 
 adjoining clans made a common cause with them; two hundred 
 tiordes, who dwelt on the banks of the Paraguazu, united in defence 
 of their favourite custom ; and the answer returned was, that if the 
 governor wanted the offenders, he must come and take them. This, 
 in despite of the opposition made bj the settlers, he resolved to do. 
 The allied natives took the field with them, with a Jesuit at their 
 head, and with a cross for a standard. Thej found the enemy well 
 posted and in considerable strength, but they put them to flight. 
 After the battle, it was discovered that an arm had been cut off from 
 one of the dead : as this was evidently taken by one of the allies to 
 eat in secret, proclamation was made that the arm must be laid by the 
 body before the army took food or rested after the battle. The next 
 morning the enemy were pursued, and suffered a second and more 
 severe defeat ; after which, they delivered up the criminals, and peti- 
 tioned to be received as allies on the same terms as the other tribes." 
 With all these successes, much danger and annoyance was experi- 
 enced from the Aymores, a fierce and barbarous tribe, who invaded 
 several of the provinces, and threatened San Salvador itself. " Their 
 mode of warfare," says the author just quoted, "was as savage as 
 their habits of life ; they had no chief or leader ; they never went in 
 large companies ; they never stood up against an enemy face to face, 
 but lay in wait like wild beasts, and took their deadly aim from the 
 thickets. In one point they were greatly inferior to the other tribes ; 
 for, being an inland people, they could not swim, and such was 
 their ignorance or dread of the water, that any stream which they 
 could not ford was considered a sufficient defence against them. It 
 may well be supposed that such men would be impatient of slavery; 
 some who were taken by the Portuguese refused to eat, and died by 
 that slowest and most resolute mode of suicide." These ferocious 
 and dangerous enemies, by the aid of the native allies, were finally 
 repulsed ; yet, it is said, but for the influence already acquired by 
 the Jesuits over the minds of the natives, the Portuguese would 
 iiave been exterminated by the overwhelming number of their ene- 
 mies. Mem de Sa, after an active and successful administration of 
 fourteen years, died just at the arrival of his successor. 
 
THE PORTUGUESE IN AMERICA. 35^ 
 
 Ij (LJu dwoi J( iL JLt U16 ui iL ill « 
 
 BRAZIL UNDER SPANISH INFLUENCE. — ENGLISH PIRATICAL EX- 
 PEDITIONS. — ODIUM INCURRED BY THE JESUITS IN PRO- 
 TECTING THE INDIANS. — REVOLTS. — WAR WITH THE ' 
 NEGRO NATION, THE PALMARESE: THEIR SUBDUAL: 
 
 GOLD AND DIAMONDS. — FRENCH HOSTILITIES. 
 
 DEFEAT OF DU CLERC. RIO JANEIRO TAKEN BT 
 
 DUGUAY DE TROUIN. — THE CRUEL AND IMPOLITIC 
 EXPULSION OF THE JESUITS FROM BRAZ'lL. 
 
 Colonization proceeded so rapidly, that Brazil at one time was 
 divided into two governments, and Kio de Janeiro was made the 
 capital of all the provinces south of Porto Seguro. They were again 
 united under a single administration in 1578, the year in which 
 King Sebastian, with the flower of his court and army, perished in 
 battle with the Moors. In consequence of that disastrous event, 
 Portugal with her colonies, for sixty years, came under the power 
 of the Spanish crown. Philip IT. offered to the duke of Braganza, 
 if he would relinquish his claim to the throne of Portugal, the sov- 
 ereignty of Brazil, but the overture was rejected. In consequence 
 of this change of masters, Brazil was exposed to the hostility of the 
 English, and the freebooting expeditions of Cavendish, Lancaster, 
 and others against its coasts, resulted in much loss by piratical spoli- 
 ation. The contest with the Dutch, and their final expulsion, have 
 been already briefly described. After that event, John IV., of Por- 
 tugal, conferred on his eldest son the title of Prince of Brazil — a 
 title afterwards customarily pertaining to the heir-apparent. 
 
 Despite the humane exertions of the Jesuits, the natives, as the 
 colonies increased, were continually enslaved and persecuted till, in 
 the provinces on the sea-coast, they were nearly exterminated.' So 
 great was the enmity incurred by these intrepid and benevolent 
 men, in their attempts to relieve the sufferings of the oppressed race, 
 that an actual revolution was excited against the government which 
 protected them. The Paulistas^ a mixed breed of Portuguese and 
 aborigines, were inveterate slave-hunters and enemies of the Jesuits, 
 and nearly succeeded in deposing the governor, who countenanced 
 that unpopular order. In 1673, a revolt broke out in Maranham, 
 
360 AMEKICA ILLUSTEATEl). 
 
 headed by a Paulese, named Beckman. "Expel the Jesuits! abolish 
 monopolies !" was the ciy. The insurgents seized the town and fort, 
 and held them till reduced bj a superior force from Lisbon. 
 
 A contest far more dangerous, about the close of the century, was 
 waged with a great body of insurgent negroes, in the province of 
 Pernambuco. Some of these had been armed in the contest with 
 the Dutch, and had afterwards taken up a strong position in the 
 woods west of Porto do Calvo, which all the fugitive negroes soon 
 made their rendezvous. " Their numbers soon became formidable. 
 Like the first Komans, they were without women; but they sup- 
 pUed this want by descending suddenly on the plantations, and car- 
 rying off violently every woman of colour. They established equal 
 laws among themselves; they occupied a fertile boundary; their 
 numbers increased with astonishing rapidity ; they made no scruple 
 in plundering the Portuguese settlements ; and they finally consti- 
 tuted a nation under the name of the Palmarese (from the great palm 
 forests of their region). They formed a government under an elector 
 or monarch, named Zombi They surrounded their chief town and 
 villages with stockades, and managed to procure, even from the Por- 
 tuguese planters, abundance of fire and other arms, and of ammuni- 
 tion. During a period of forty years, they remained unattacked and 
 unmolested; but having increased to the number of more than 
 twenty thousand, the Portuguese government became so thoroughly 
 impressed with the formidable power of this new nation, that, in 
 1696, it was determined to extirpate the Palmarese, at whatever cost 
 of money or of men. 
 
 "John de Lancastro, with an army of six thousand men, well 
 provided and armed, marched against the city of the Palmarese. The 
 latter, unable to meet the former in the field, retired, to the number 
 -altogether of about ten thousand, within the defences of the town. 
 The Portuguese advanced, and laid siege to the place ; but they were 
 greatly disheartened on beholding the formidable condition of the 
 defences; and, being without artillery, they were unprepared to 
 besiege the town in regular form. They were soon greatly harassed 
 by murderous sallies from the town. Whenever the Portuguese 
 approached, they were dismayed by a furious resistance on the part 
 of the negroes; who, not only with fire-arms and bows and arrows, 
 but with spouting scalding water, galled, and frequently repulsed 
 tlieir assailants. 
 
 " This was an apparently hopeless siege on the part of the Portu- 
 
THE POETUGUESE IN AMEEICA. ^Ql 
 
 guese, until the ammunition of the besieged was exhausted, and 
 their supplies of provisions were cut off. Scarcitj was assuming 
 the aspect of famine within the town, and a strong reinforcement 
 having arrived in aid of De Lancastro, the place was stormed and 
 taken. The king, Zombi, and his chief adherents, resolved not to 
 be captured alive, leaped over the high rocky precipices of the fort, 
 and were instantly dashed to death. The captured inhabitants were 
 all sold as slaves; and thus terminated the first negro kingdom in 
 America."* 
 
 The original wealth of this vast province had consisted in its 
 inexhaustible supply of dye-woods, and not long after its settlement, 
 the Jews, banished from Portugal by the Inquisition, introduced the 
 culture of the sugar-cane, adding greatly to the wealth and resources 
 of the country. Gold was not discovered until the close of the sev- 
 enteenth century, nor the abundance of diamonds which the country 
 affords, until thirty years later. The former discovery entailed im- 
 mediate misfortune on the province, both in the check which it gave 
 to agriculture and really productive industry, and in the hostile 
 cupidity which it excited among foreign powers. In 1710, a French 
 squadron, commanded by Du Clerc, appeared off the coast, and 
 landed a thousand men not far from Rio Janeiro, which hitherto had 
 been free alike from domestic sedition and foreign violence. By an 
 artifice of the governor, De Castro, the hostile force was permitted 
 to enter the city without molestation ; but when they were fairly in 
 the streets, he fell upon them with the ga^rrison, killed and wounded 
 a great number, and captured the rest. The unfortunate Du Clerc 
 and most of his ofiicers were secretly murdered in prison. 
 
 To avenge this defeat and outrage, private enterprise supplied the 
 means for a powerful armament, which, under the famous Duguay 
 de Trouin, on the 12th of September, 1711, appeared before Rio 
 Janeiro. ±£e lost nearly three hundred men from the fire of the 
 batteries in the harbour; but landed his troops, erected works, and 
 demanded of the governor, who had entrenched himself in the city, 
 an unconditional surrender. The latter refusing, he opened a can- 
 nonade on the town, in the midst of a tremendous storm of thunder 
 and lightning, which combination of noises, says a French author, 
 •■•filled the inhabitants with terror, as though heaven, earth, and hell 
 had broken loose on them at once." The citizens fled to the moan 
 tains; the Portuguese troops evacuated their post; the captives of 
 * McGregor's Progress of Arnvrica, 
 
862 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 Du Clerc's expedition, who yet survived, "broke forth from prison, 
 and the victors entered tumultuouslj, and sacked the city. Three- 
 fourths of the buildings, it is said, were broken open, and their con • 
 tents thrown into the streets, and Trouin, endeavouring to stay the 
 work of rapine, caused numbers of his men to be executed, but in 
 vain. A great ransom was paid to save the town from conflagration ; 
 and besides the enormous loss from pillage, five ships of war and 
 more than thirty merchantmen were taken or burned by the French. 
 On the 4th of November, Trouin sailed from Eio, intending to attack 
 Bahia, but was prevented by adverse winds, and finally returned to 
 France. Two of his ships, with twelve hundred men, and a great 
 treasure, foundered at sea; yet the proceeds of what remained, repaid 
 the fitters-out of the enterprise with a profit nearly equal to their 
 capital. Ko hostile expedition has'since entered the harbour of Rio 
 Janeiro, which, in 1763, was made the seat of government for Brazil 
 in place of Bahia. 
 
 After the emancipation of Portugal from the control of Spain, 
 frequent disputes occurred between the two nations as to the bound- 
 aries of their respective provinces in South America. In 1750, the 
 Portuguese settlement of San Sacramento was exchanged by treaty 
 for a number of Jesuit missionary stations on the Uraguay, and 
 about thirty thousand converts of the Guarany tribe, with their 
 families, were ordered to abandon their homes and remove to a 
 strange territory. 
 
 The oppressed natives resisted this arbitrary decree, but after great 
 slaughter, were compelled to submit; though eleven years afterwards 
 the treaty was annulled, and the Guaranies were permitted to return. 
 During the enactment of this piece of oppression, the Jesuits had 
 stood their friends, and had endeavoured to obtain reparation for 
 their wrongs, and thus increased the odium into which their order, 
 for some time, had been lapsing. Moreover, Pombal, the minister 
 of Charles III. of Portugal, a man of great energy and eagerness for 
 reform, but equally short-sighted and wrong-headed in the means he 
 adopted, considering this extensive institution as standing in the way 
 of his schemes of colonial aggrandizement, took the rash, unjust, and 
 impolitic resolution of expelling from Brazil a class of men to whom, 
 more than to any other, it was indebted for safety in the time of its 
 weakness, for friendly intercourse with vast tribes of the aborigines, and 
 for the extension of civilization and Christianity among them. (1760.J 
 
 His brother Fiutado, a man of similar stamp, accomplished the 
 
THE POETUGUESE IN AMEKICA 353 
 
 work with much severity and cruelty. All the churches, colleges, 
 nouses, and other property of the proscribed order, were confiscated 
 to the use of the crown, and great harshness was used in the enforce- 
 ment of this violent measure. The unfortunate ecclesiastics, seized 
 and transported to Europe, almost like victims in the hold of a slave- 
 ship, were thrown into prison at Lisbon (where the survivors lan- 
 guished for eighteen years, till the death of the king and the fall of 
 Pombal) or were landed m Italy without means of support. This 
 cruel and impolitic measure, it is said, tended greatly to the barbarism 
 both of the natives and the Portuguese colonists. The other schemes 
 of this arbitrary minister, including oppressive monopolies, inflicted 
 on the colonies, resulted in similar evil and decadence. 
 
 During the latter part of the eighteenth century, no events of 
 material importance occurred in Brazil, except the transfer of the 
 capital to Eio Janeiro, the extension of the mining settlements, some 
 expeditions against the Indians, and an unsuccessful attempt at rev- 
 olution. In 1801, Brazil attacked the Spaniards who had posses- 
 sion of the country of the Guaranies; those tribes, weary of the 
 tyranny and cruelty of their new masters, welcomed their former 
 oppressors, the Portuguese, as liberators ; and the disputed territory 
 was again acquired by the latter. 
 
 CHAPTER I?. 
 
 PLIGHT OF THE ROYAL PAMILY FROM PORTUGAL TO BRAZIL. — 
 
 THE "CARTA REGIA." — BRAZIL OPENED TO FOREIGN TRADE 
 
 AND CIVILIZATION. — BRAZIL ERECTED INTO A KINGDOM. 
 
 DOM JOHN VI. — CORRUPTION AND DISCONTENT. 
 
 INSURRECTIONS. — RETURN OF THE KING TO PORTU- 
 GAL. — TYRANNY OF THE PORTUGUESE CORTES. — 
 IRRITATION OF THE BRAZILIANS. — RESISTANCE 
 OF DOM PEDRO AND HIS CAPITAL. 
 
 The extraordinary events which, at the beginning of the present 
 century, convulsed the European world, and which operated indi- 
 rectly, but with still greater eventual effect, on the most ancient 
 provinces of America, were not without their influence on the vast 
 
364 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 colony of Brazil — a colony which, by consequence of those events, 
 was destined finally to erection into an independent empire, vying^ 
 in its extent and natural resources, with the greatest and most pow ■ 
 erful states on the globe. When, on the 29th of November, 1807, 
 the van of the French army, under the headlong Junot, appeared 
 on the heights above Lisbon, the prince-regent, with the rest of the 
 royal family, hurriedly embarked on board a British and Portuguese 
 fleet, taking all the valuables they could hastily seize ; and with a 
 great crowd of nobles and other adherents, put to sea, and steered 
 for their distant province of Brazil. On the 28th of January, 1808, 
 they landed amid enthusiastic rejoicing, at Bahia, where the prince 
 granted the celebrated "Carta Kegia," by which the ports of Brazil 
 were opened to foreign commerce ; and thus, in the language of the 
 official historian of Brazil, "by that immortal diploma conferred an 
 inestimable inheritance on this terrestrial paradise, where flourish 
 the crowned heads of the vegetable world; trees that blossom from 
 the trunk to the vertex ; health-giving plants, that banish death to 
 a remote old age ; and, besides a thousand other equivalents for the 
 riches of the globe, those princely fruits which the poets and enthu- 
 siasts of natural history have named ambrosia — food for the gods," 
 &c., &c. In the March following, he proceeded to Rio Janeiro. 
 
 This famous edict was the signal for an eager revival of commerce, 
 and no less than ninety foreign ships, chiefly British, in the following 
 year, came into the last-named port, entrance to which (as to all 
 others) had heretofore been interdicted in the severest manner. 
 Civilization and improvement followed in the train of free intercourse, 
 and Brazil, so long noted, even among South American colonies, for 
 the slavish ignorance of its people, began to take some steps in a 
 forward direction. In 1815, it was erected into a kingdom by the 
 royal family who had there found refuge, and on the 5th of February, 
 1818, Dom John VI. was crowned as king of the united kingdom of 
 Portugal, Algarves, and Brazil. This event, though considered by 
 the people as an extraordinary honour and advantage, was injurious 
 to the national character by exciting an insane desire for titles and 
 honours, (which soon, by excessive multiplication, lost their value,) 
 and by introducing all the corruptions of a European court. The 
 inhabitants, at first so enthusiastically loyal as to have placed their 
 lands, houses, and money at the disposal of the royal suite, gradually 
 lapsed into discontent at the gross misgovernment of the favoured 
 officials. About this time, the warfare already mentioned in the last 
 
THE POETUGUESE IN AMEEICA. 355 
 
 article was carried on against Artigas of the Banda Oriental and 
 against the republicans of. La Plata. In 1809, Portuguese Guiana, 
 which in 1802, by the treaty of Amiens, had been ceded to France, 
 was recovered, by the assistance of the English. 
 
 Insurrections broke out, in 1817, in Pernambuco and Bahia, and 
 after much bloodshed, the whole country appearing on the verge of 
 ^evolution, the king, in 1821, appointed a commission to inquire into 
 the expediency of extending the Portuguese constitution to the Bra- 
 zilian government; and soon after, the prince, Dom Pedro, read to 
 the people of the capital a royal proclamation, assuring them of the 
 grant of such a constitution as should be formed by the Cortes of 
 Lisbon. In the same year, the king, by invitation from that body, 
 to preserve the integrity of his dominions, leaving his eldest son, Dom 
 Pedro, as regent of Brazil, visited the mother-country, where the 
 people were impatient at his protracted absence. Brazilian deputies 
 were also summoned to attend the Cortes; but before they arrived, 
 that assembly, with insane tyranny, had resolved on the revival of 
 the ancient colonial system in its worst form of dependence, monop- 
 oly, and exclusion of foreign traffic. 
 
 The prince, who, on assuming the regency, was only twenty-three 
 years of age, in despite of his earnest attempts to reform the govern- 
 ment, and the rigid self-denial which he practised, soon found his 
 authority set at naught by the provinces, and was reduced to a con- 
 dition little better than that of governor of Kio Janeiro. Thwarted 
 on every side, and despairing of success, he had entreated to be re- 
 called to Europe, when, "at length," it is said, "the Brazilians were 
 disarmed by this noble conduct; they recognized his activity, his 
 beneficence, his assiduity in the affairs of government; and the 
 habitual feelings of affection and respect for the House of Braganza, 
 which for a moment had been laid asleep by distrust, were rea- 
 wakened with increased strength. To these was joined an almost 
 idolatrous sentiment of attachment for the virtues and the splendid 
 as well as amiable qualities of the young archduchess, Leopoldina, 
 the daughter of the emperor of Austria, and the beloved wife of the 
 regent."" 
 
 The king, on his arrival in Portugal, was in a manner compelled 
 to sanction the illiberal views of the Cortes concerning Brazil. The 
 consequence was renewed disaffection to the parent-country, and in 
 1821, an attempt was made at Eio to proclaim the regent emperor; 
 but this was promptly suppressed, the country in general being un- 
 
366 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 prepared for a step so decided. Two montlis afterwards (December 
 lOth) arrived a rash and oppressive decree of the Cortes, reinstating 
 the old abuses, denationalizing Brazil, and recalling the prince, with 
 orders to travel incognito in Europe. The utmost irritation was ex- 
 cited by the receipt of these tidings, and several provinces presented 
 strong remonstrances to the prince against obedience, the municipal- 
 ity of Eio declaring, in their address, "The departure of your Eoyal 
 Highness from the states of Brazil will be the decree that will seal 
 for ever the independence of this kingdom," implying the determin- 
 ation, in that event, to throw off the yoke of Portugal. The prince, 
 seeing the condition of affairs, and consulting his own interests, as 
 well as those of the kingdom, decided to remain — a decision which 
 filled the people with enthusiastic joy. (January 9th, 1822.) A 
 battle between the Portuguese troops and the citizens was only pre- 
 vented by the retreat of the former, who, however, waiting for rein- 
 forcements from home, took up a hostile position on the opposite 
 side of the bay. Surrounded by the forces of the prince, who man- 
 aged the affair in person, they were presently compelled to embark 
 for Europe ; and a force of eighteen hundred men, which immedi- 
 ately afterwards appeared on the coast, dispatched to bring back 
 Dom Pedro, was forthwith ordered home again, without even being 
 permitted to land. 
 
 CHAPTEH ?. 
 
 IMPOTENT DEMONSTRATION OF THE PORTUGUESE GOVERNMENT. — 
 DOM PEDRO PROCLAIMED PROTECTOR. — INDEPENDENCE OF 
 
 BRAZIL DECLARED. — PEDRO PROCLAIMED EMPEROR. 
 
 RETREAT OF THE PORTUGUESE TROOPS. DIFFICULTIES 
 
 WITH THE DEMOCRACY. — INSURRECTION UNDER CAR- 
 
 VALHO SUPPRESSED. — POPULAR REVOLUTION AT 
 
 RIO. — ABDICATION OF DOM PEDRO, AND HIS 
 
 RETREAT TO PORTUGAL. 
 
 Alakmed too late by the determined attitude of the injured prov- 
 ince, the Portuguese government began to withdraw its offensive 
 measures, but in vain. Many of the captaincies gave in their adhe- 
 sion to the revolutionary cause, and all the southern departments, 
 
THE PORTUGUESE IN AMEEICA. 357 
 
 forming a majority of the wliole, assumed the title of "The Allied 
 Provinces." On the 13th of May, 1822, at Eio Janeiro, Prince 
 Pedro was proclaimed by the people, "Perpetual Protector of Brazil," 
 as an hereditary title; and whereas they would formerly have been 
 satisfied with free trade and a moderate share of representative and 
 domestic right of government, they now resolved on having a sepa- 
 rate legislature, and no union with Portugal, except that afforded 
 by the crown. In reply to the assertion of these rights, the Cortes, 
 in September, fulminated a sounding decree against all concerned in 
 the new order of things ; nevertheless, a general assembly, convoked 
 by the prince, met in the following year, and transformed the regency 
 into an imperial government; and the authority of the prince was 
 implicitly obeyed on all hands. 
 
 A squadron from Portugal, with all the troops which thitt feeble 
 nation could muster, arrived at Bahia, and occupied the town; but 
 so complete was the popular disaffection to the old rule, that the 
 authority of the commander, Madeira, was not extended beyond the 
 iimit of the walls. A fresh angry and impotent decree of the Cortes 
 now menaced Dom Pedro with exclusion from the throne, and pro- 
 claimed a paper blockade of the whole Brazilian coast. The prince, 
 on his part, by manifesto, accused the Cortes of tyranny and usurpa- 
 tion, and formally proclaimed to foreign nations the independence 
 of Brazil — declaring, however, that he regarded the durance in which 
 his august father was held in Portugal, as only temporarily sus- 
 pending his authority, and expressing his hope that a single mon- 
 archy would yet unite the two nations. (August 6th, 1822.) 
 
 The popular mind appearing ripe for such a measure, the inuni- 
 cipal senate of Rio declared that, on the 12 th of October, the 
 prince would be formally proclaimed as constitutional emperor; and, 
 accordingly, on that day, in a number of the provinces his accession 
 was publicly announced. On the 1st of December following, his 
 coronation as Pedro I., emperor of Brazil, was solemnized, and he 
 took oath to defend the constitution, (as yet unframed,) provided it 
 should be worthy of Brazil and of him. No increase of power or 
 revenue attended this elevation to the imperial dignity. He forth-, 
 with summoned a constituent assembly, to meet at Rio Jeneiro on 
 the 3d of May, (1823,) the anniversary of the discovery of the coun 
 try by Cabral. 
 
 Meanwhile, the Portuguese force at Bahia was surrounded by 
 twenty thousand Brazilian troops, and the officers decided on retreat 
 
868 AMEEICA ILLUSTKATED. 
 
 from the country. Accordingly, having pillaged the city, and strip 
 ped the churches of their gold and silver ornaments, the whole com- 
 mand, on the 2d of July, embarked on board of eighty vessels, and 
 set sail. Owing to the width of the bay, and the favourable wind, 
 the Brazilian fleet, of sixty ships, under Lord Cochrane, was unable to 
 intercept them, though sailing in pursuit, it captured several vessels. 
 The imperial army entered the city and proclaimed Dom Pedro. 
 
 The government, installed with such general satisfaction, was not 
 long in encountering difficulties from the more democratic element 
 in Brazilian politics; and the absolute veto, the strongest safeguard 
 of the imperial power, was refused by a majority of the assembly. 
 The emperor, in reply, declared his intention of practically enforcing 
 the disputed point, and issued a proclamation, avowing his abhor- 
 rence of despotism, whether that of one or of many. This position 
 of the new sovereign was sustained by the army, the navy, and a 
 majority of the people. In November, debate in the assembly be- 
 came so stormy, and, it was declared, showed such tendencies to 
 anarchy, that a body of troops was dispatched by the government 
 to dissolve the sitting by violence. This was done, and several of 
 the members were arrested, while Dom Pedro, in the midst of general 
 acclamation, rode through the city. He published a proclamation, 
 promising to provide a constitution worthy of the nation and of 
 nimself. The draft of such an instrument was circulated through 
 the empire, and a legislative assembly was summoned. 
 
 In Pernambuco, the revolutionary spirit assumed a more formida- 
 ble aspect. A plan to erect a republican government there, with a 
 young man, named Carvalho Paes, as president, was temporarily 
 suppressed by the imperial forces; but the troops, revolting, rein- 
 stated him in the office, and for a time his administration paid an 
 assumed deference to the imperial government. But, taking advan- 
 tage of a proclamation of the emperor's, that he was unable to guard 
 the coast against Portugal, the president and his partisan^ proclaimed 
 the latter a traitor leagued with the Portuguese, and called on the 
 provinces of the north to form a republic, to be entitled " The Con- 
 federation of the Equator." Many gave in their adherence to this 
 scheme, but the movement was not general, and a partisan warfare 
 was commenced by the republican and imperial factions. To sup- 
 press this revolt, a squadron, under Lord Cochrane, carrying twelve 
 hundred men, commanded by De Lima, was dispatched to the dis- 
 tracted district. The undisciplined forces of the republicans were 
 
THE PORTUGUESE IN AMERICA. 369 
 
 vanqnisTied, and Carvalho was compelled to flee, for a time, from 
 the country. 
 
 On the 24th of October, 1824, the emperor having granted a con- 
 stitutional charter, took oath in public to observe it, and it was 
 sworn to throughout the empire as the definitive settlement of the 
 government. During his reign as emperor, which lasted for about 
 ten years, Brazil made greater advances toward civilization than it 
 had done during three hundred years of colonial rule. But from 
 neglecting to conciliate popular feeling, and to identify himself suffi- 
 ciently with the Brazilian nation, disaffection to his person, and a 
 native jealousy of foreign influence, became at last generally excited. 
 On the 6th of April, 1831, the people of Eio Janeiro assembled, and 
 demanded the dismissal of certain ministers who had been newly 
 appointed to office, and the reinstatement of others just dismissed. 
 During the whole day this civic tumult increased ; but the emperor 
 obstinately refused compliance with the popular demand. "I will do 
 every thing ^r the people," he said, "but nothing hy the people." 
 
 This speech, reported to the meeting, increased the general agita- 
 tion, and the troops began to side with the people. The " emperor's 
 battalion," and the imperial guard of honour, even, took this course, 
 and the multitude was speedily supplied with arms from the bar- 
 racks. "The emperor, in these trying moments, is said to have 
 evinced a dignity and magnanimity unknown in the days of his 
 prosperity. On the one hand, the empress was weeping bitterly, 
 and apprehending the most fatal consequences; on the other, an 
 envoy from the combined assemblage of the troops and populace was 
 urging him to a final answer. Deserted, harassed, irritated, and 
 fatigued beyond measure, he at length found it necessary to yield 
 to circumstances." At two o'clock in the morning, without even 
 announcing his intention to his ministers, he took a pen, and, in as 
 few words as possible, abdicated the throne in favour of his infant 
 son, Dom Pedro de Alcantara. ''Here," he said to the messenger^ 
 "is my abdication. May you be happy! I shall retire to Europe; 
 and leave the country that I have loved dearly and that I still lovc;'^ 
 Having uttered these words, unquestionably true, he retired in tears, 
 and after arranging his domestic affairs, with the empress and his 
 eldest daughter, went aboard an English man-of war, which lay in 
 the harbour. Soon after, he returned to Europe, where, by British 
 assistance, he succeeded in wresting from his brother,, Dom Miguel^ 
 the crown of Portugal. 
 Vol. III.— 24 
 
870 AMERICA ILLUSTKATED. 
 
 CHAPTEH TI. 
 
 THE CHILD DOM PEDEO II. — THE TRIPLE REGENCY — THB 
 REGENCY OF FEIJO: OF LIMA. — FRESH REYOLTJTION. — THE 
 
 MAJORITY OF THE EMPEROR PROCLAIMED. POPULAR 
 
 TROUBLES RENEWED: DISASTROUS RESULT. — THE 
 
 ROYAL MARRIAGES. — CAPABILITIES AND 
 
 NECESSITIES OF BRAZIL. 
 
 In the Campo de Santa Anna, where the popular assembly was 
 still in full agitation, the news of the abdication was received with 
 enthusiastic joj, and with shouts of "Long live Dom Pedro II. I" 
 and the little prince, (only six years old,) in whose favour the instru- 
 ment had been drawn, was borne in triumph through the city, and 
 received an enthusiastic acclamation as emperor. On the 9th of 
 April, a grand court-day was held for the little sovereign, Dom 
 Pedro II., whose accession was celebrated with much display and 
 appearance of loyalty. A provisional regency, on the morning of 
 the abdication, had been provided by the deputies and senators, with 
 the late ministers of state, and on the 17th, the general assembly 
 elected, as a permanent regency, Lima, Costa Carvalho, and Joao 
 Muniz. These important political changes were effected with re- 
 markable order and tranquillity. In 1834, however, a law was 
 passed, vesting the regency in the hands of a single person, to be 
 elected for four years; and Diogo Feijo, a bishop and a senator, 
 accordingly, on the 12th of October, 1835, was installed as sole 
 regent. His administration was troubled with insurrections in Per- 
 nambuco, Rio Grande, and Para — the president of the latter place 
 being assassinated, and the Portuguese there indiscriminately mur- 
 dered. The assembly was slow in supporting his authority, and, 
 disheartened by these obstacles, in September, 1837, he resigned the 
 regency. In October of the following year, Pedro Lima, already, by 
 a clause of the constitution, provisionally regent, was confirmed in 
 that office by election. 
 
 Weary of his authority, a party of the assembly, in July, 1840, 
 began to agitate the question of declaring the young emperor of age, 
 and committing the imperial authority into his own hands. Furious 
 debate and great agitation ensued, and the citizens, eager, as usual, 
 
THE PORTUGUESE IN AMERICA. 371 
 
 to have a liand in any political revolution, assembled in crowds, and 
 demanded, with their accustomed impetuosity, that the young em- 
 peror's majority should be immediately proclaimed. A committee 
 was appointed on the question, and the regent, by attempting to 
 prorogue the assembly, inflamed the passions of the opposition to 
 madness. The prorogation was disregarded, and the senate and 
 deputies, in joint session, appointed a deputation to wait on the em- 
 peror, and obtain his consent to an immediate proclamation. To 
 the intense delight and enthusiasm of the people, he consented, and 
 ordered the regent to revoke his obnoxious decree, and to declare 
 the assembly in session. 
 
 The next morning, (July 28d, 1840,) the senate-house was sur- 
 rounded by an assemblage of eight or ten thousand respectable cit- 
 izens, and while Dom Pedro II. was formally proclaimed within, as 
 being of full age, and constitutional emperor of Brazil, the approving 
 shouts of the multitude without, attested the popularity of the mea- 
 sure. At the approach of the sovereign, this enthusiasm increased 
 beyond bounds, and continual vivas rent the air. He took oath 
 before the two houses to support the constitution and the Catholiq 
 religion, and a proclamation was issued, announcing his accession. 
 The city was brilliantly illuminated, and the greatest rejoicing and 
 festivity prevailed. In this sudden and comparatively tranquil man- 
 ner, was a youth of fourteen and a half elevated to the imperial 
 throne of Brazil. His coronation was celebrated with great pomp 
 and splendour, in July of the ensuing year. 
 
 The main trouble of the new government, was the inveterate re- 
 bellion in Rio Grande do Sul, where the malcontents obstinately 
 rejected all overtures for conciliation. A change of ministers (occa- 
 sioned by the treatment of this perplexing matter) was again made, 
 and fresh disturbances arose in the empire, consequent on a dis- 
 puted general election. In San Paulo and other provinces, formida- 
 ble revolts occurred, and in Rio, it was said, plans for a revolution 
 were concerted, a proclamation being posted at the street corners, 
 calling on the people "to free the emperor from the domination 
 which had been imposed upon him, and to rescue both the throne 
 and the constitution from threatened annihilation." The ministry 
 issued a proclamation, signed by the emperor, that the supremacy 01 
 the laws should be maintained at all hazards, and martial law was 
 proclaimed in the revolted districts. Many persons in the capital 
 were arrested on suspicion, and banished without trial. The author- 
 
872 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 ity of the government was at last reasserted, bat witli tlie loss of 
 many lives, and great damage to the public credit and revenue. 
 
 In 1842, a contract of marriage had been made between the young 
 emperor and the Princess Theresa, sister of the king of the two 
 Sicilies, and on the 8d of September of the following year, a Brazilian 
 squadron brought her to Eio Janeiro. In the spring preceding this 
 last event, the Prince de Joinville, arriving in command of a French 
 squadron, had married and taken to Europe the Princess Francisca, 
 sister of the emperor. The next year, the Princess Januaria, another 
 sister, was married to the count of Aquila, brother of the empress; the 
 imperial house of Brazil thus being strengthened, as it was consid- 
 ered, by three alliances, within a year, with the royal families of 
 Europe. 
 
 "There is no part of the habitable globe," says Mr. McGregor,* 
 "which possesses a greater variety of, or more splendidly munificent 
 resources than the empire of Brazil — an empire in its area as large 
 as seventy-seven kingdoms of the same area with Portugal, and 
 nearly as extensive as all Europe. If we estimate its soil, climate 
 and water-courses, Brazil appears capable of being rendered, proba- 
 bly three-fold, more productive than all the regions from the Atlan- 
 tic to the Oural mountains, from the Mediterranean to the Arctic 
 sea. This empire, however, does not possess in its population (which 
 is little, if any, more in number than the inhabitants of Belgium) the 
 power of becoming great, wealthy, or powerful, for a long period to 
 come ; unless every facility and security be afforded to the immigra- 
 tion of industrious Europeans, or of the citizens of the United States 
 , of North America; — unless the utmost security is guaranteed to per- 
 son and property; — unless the prejudices against the persons and the 
 religion of foreigners be forgotten ; — unless the bigoted attachment 
 of the Brazilians for hereditary customs, and for a make-shift system 
 of agriculture and handicraft-trades, be supplanted by intelligence, 
 industry, and enterprise; — and unless the trade and navigation, of 
 every part and port of Brazil is relieved from restrictive commercial 
 laws, and from high duties on commodities. Then, and not till 
 then, can they advance in that path of wealth, greatness, and power, 
 of which they have so marvellous an example in Anglo-Saxon 
 North America." 
 
 * "Progress of America" — an able and elaborate work of American statistics, to 
 which the writer, in preparing this article, has been chiefly indebted. 
 
PART IV. 
 
 t gtttc| in l^mmta. 
 
 THE NE¥ NETHERLANDS. 
 
 ujtxAjrjtilijri x* 
 
 CAPTAIN HENRY HUDSON. HIS VOYAGES IN SEARCH OP A 
 
 NORTHERLY PASSAGE TO CHINA. — EMPLOYED BY THE DUTCH 
 
 EAST INDIA COMPANY. SAILS IN THE HALP-MOON. 
 
 CRUISES ALONG THE AMERICAN COAST IN SEARCH OP 
 
 A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. DISCOVERS AND ASCENDS 
 
 THE HUDSON RIVER. ^DEALINGS WITH THE INDIANS. 
 
 / 
 
 I 
 
 The arduous endeavours of Holland to gain a footing in tlie 
 wealthy regions of Brazil, her protracted struggle with Portugal and 
 Spain, and the final expulsion of her colonists from the disputed 
 territory, have been described in the preceding article. Her more 
 peaceful and successful enterprise of planting a colony on the shores 
 of North America, and her brief tenure of the most valuable 
 region, for its extent, in the United States, may be detailed within 
 moderate limits. 
 
 Captain Henry Hudson, a Londoner, was one of the boldest and 
 most skilful navigators of his day. His attempts to reach India by 
 a northerly passage, considering the insignificance of his means, are 
 among the very grandest and hardiest exploits in the way of dis- 
 covery that have ever been undertaken. On the 1st of May, 1607, 
 
874 AMEE^CA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 being employed, as lie says, "by certaine worshipfdl merchants of 
 London for to discover a passage by the Korth Pole to Japan and 
 CMna," with only ten men and his little son, he sailed in a small 
 vessel from Gravesend. On the 13th of June, he made the coast of 
 Greenland, which he explored for a considerable distance, and thence 
 proceeded to Spitzbergen, where, in seventy-eight degrees north lat- 
 itude, entangled among huge masses of ice, for a long time, he vainly 
 endeavoured to force his way northward. He attained a latitude of 
 eighty-two degrees, surpassing any one who had preceded him, and 
 rivalling the most successful expeditions of modern times. Finding 
 it impossible to proceed in the desired direction, he made an equally 
 futile attempt to pass to the north of Greenland, and in September 
 returned to the Thames. In the following year, with a like slender 
 company, on the 22d of April, he renewed the attempt, trying to 
 pass to the north of Nova Zembla ; but after displaying much forti- 
 tude and perseverance, was compelled to relinquish the design, and 
 at the close of summer to return to England. The "worshipfuU 
 merchants," discouraged by these failures, refused to fit out any more 
 expeditions, even of the insufficient kind they had already vouchsafed 
 to him. 
 
 Undismayed either by disappointment or neglect, "the bold Eng- 
 lishman," (as he was called,) betook himself to Holland, where his 
 reputation had preceded him, and sought employment from the 
 Dutch East India Company. That ambitious corporation, eager to 
 extend its traffic and gain a footing in the east, furnished him with 
 a little vessel, called the Half-Moon, and a crew of twenty men, with 
 which, on the 25th of March, 1609, he again sailed on the expected 
 track to India through the Arctic sea. Opposed by continual gales, 
 fogs, and ice, he finally steered in a westerly direction, and on the 
 2d of July, reached the bank of Newfoundland. Keeping on along 
 the coast, he soon after entered Penobscot bay. Here he cut down 
 a tree and replaced his foremast, which had been carried away in a 
 storm, and traded with the Indians for furs. Despite the friendly 
 demeanour of the latter, the whites, conceiving a vague suspicion of 
 treachery, at their departure, committed an act of brutal spoliation 
 on their unfortunate hosts. "In the morning," says Juet, who kept 
 the log, "wee manned our scute with four Muskets and six men, and 
 took one of their Shallops," (canoes), "and brought it aboord. Then 
 we manned our boat and scute with twelve men and Muskets, and 
 two Stone Peeces or Murderers," (very appropriately), "and drave 
 
THE DUTCH IN AMEEICA. 375 
 
 the Salvages from their houses, and took the spojle of them, as they 
 would have done of vs." 
 
 Hudson had been informed by his friend, the famous Captain John 
 Smith, that a little south of Virginia he would probably find a pass- 
 age to the Indies I and accordingly he kept southward along the 
 coast. On Cape Cod he found "goodly grapes and rose trees," and 
 a friendly, confiding people. About the middle of August he arrived 
 off Chesapeake Bay, where Smith, at this time, was engaged in the 
 memorable foundation of the first English settlement in America ; 
 but, on account of contrary winds, passed without entering. Having 
 proceeded as far south as thirty -six degrees north latitude, and seeing 
 no indication of a passage to the Pacific, he turned northward, and 
 discovered Delaware bay. Keeping on this course, on the 2d of 
 September, he came to the Highlands of Neversink, since the chief 
 landmark of commerce in the Western Continent — "a good land to 
 fall with, and a pleasant land to see," says the journal — "a sentiment 
 echoed in succeeding centuries, by many an anxious and sea-worn 
 mariner." He rounded Sandy Hook, and came to anchor in what is 
 now known as the Lower Bay of New York. 
 
 The Indians, friendly in their demeanour, thronged around the 
 vessel in their canoes, bringing tobacco, which they exchanged for 
 knives and beads. A party sent up the bay to explore, declared 
 that "the Lands were as pleasant with Grasse and Flowers and goodly 
 Trees, as ever they had scene, and very sweet smells came from them." 
 As they returned in the evening, they were attacked by two canoes 
 filled with Indians, twenty-six in all; two of their number were 
 wounded, and one slain outright by an arrow in the throat. The 
 next day the natives came alongside as usual, and Hudson, detaining 
 two of them as hostages, weighed ai^chor, and on the 11th of Sep- 
 tember, passed the Narrows, and entered New York harbour. "On 
 his right was the lovely island of Mannahata, now the site of the 
 fairest city in the New World; and before him lay invitingly the 
 beautiful and majestic river which still bears his name. For msiny 
 leagues it is rather an estuary than a stream, and it is said that he 
 was cheered with the belief that it would prove to be the long-sought 
 passage to India." On the 12th he stood up the river, trading with 
 the Indians, and by the evening of the second day had ascended to 
 the Highlands. Here his two hostages, whom he had arrayed in- 
 red coats, made their escape and swam to shore. 
 
 Anchoring, on the evening of the 15th, somewhere near the base 
 
376 AMI^KICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 of tlie Cattskills, he found "very loving people, and very old men/' 
 and was kindly entreated. The Indians brought corn, furs, tobacco, 
 grapes, and pumpkins for exchange, and traffic was briskly carried 
 on along the river. Some way further up, "our Master's Mate," 
 says the journal, "went on land with an olde Sauage, a Gouernour 
 of the Countrey ; who carried him to his house, and made him good 
 cheere. * * * Our Master" (Hudson) "and his Mate," 
 proceeds the narrative, "determined to trie some of the chiefe men 
 of the Countrey, whether they had any treacherie in them. So they 
 tooke them down into the Cabbin, and gaue them so much Wine and 
 Aqua Vitce that they were all merrie ; and one of them had his wife 
 with him, which sate so modestly as any of our Countrey women 
 would doe in a strange place. In the end one of them was drunke," 
 &c., &;c., but nothing transpired to confirm the suspicion with which 
 Hudson seems continually to have regarded the natives. Affrighted 
 at the apparent death of their companion, the chiefs went on shore, 
 but the next day, seeing him alive, "came abord," says the journal, 
 •' and brought tobacco and more Beades, and gave them to our Master, 
 and made an Oration, and showed him all the Countrey round about. 
 Then they sent one of their Company on land, who presently returned, 
 and brought a great platter full of venison, dressed by themselves, 
 and they caused him to eate with them. Then they made him rev- 
 erence and departed." 
 
 \j did) bUOj ill iL JLi UiO Ui di 
 
 HUDSON TURNS H03IEWARD. — MURDEROUS HOSTILITIES WITH 
 THE INDIANS. — HIS RETURN TO ENGLAND. — HIS LAST YOT- 
 AGE AND DISCOVERY. — SUPPERINGS DURING THE WIN- 
 TER. — HENRY GREEN. — MUTINY OP THE CREW. — HUD- 
 SON AND OTHERS SET ADRIPT TO PERISH. 
 
 After ascending the river in the Half- Moon for about an hundred 
 and fifty miles, and exploring the contracted channel with his boats 
 some distance farther, Hudson began to perceive that the track to 
 India was yet undiscovered; and accordingly he turned his prow 
 southward, and beat slowly down the stream. Two old men came 
 
THE DUTCH IN AMERICA. 377 
 
 aboard, one of vvliom, says the journal, "brought more Beades, and 
 gaue them to our Master, and showed him all the Countrej there 
 about, as though it were at his command. So he made the two old 
 men dine with him and the old man's wife; for they brought iwo 
 old women and two yong maidens of the age of sixteene or seventeene 
 yeeres with them, who behaved themselves very modestly." 
 
 The intercourse with the natives of the river, heretofore so friendly 
 and agreeable, was soon converted, by a cruel and violent deed, into 
 deadly warfare. On the 1st of October, just below the Highlands, 
 the Half-Moon came to an anchor. " The people of the Mountaynes," 
 says the narrative, "came aboord vs, wondring at our ship and 
 weapons. We bought some small Skinnes of them for Trifles. This 
 afternoone, one Canoe kept hanging vnder our sterne with one man 
 in it, which we could not keepe from thence, who got vp by our 
 Eudder to the Cabin window, and stole out my Pillow and two Shirts, 
 and two Bandaleeres. Our Master's Mate shot at him and strooke 
 him on the breast and killed him. Whereupon all the rest fled 
 away, some in their Canoes and so leapt out of them into the water. 
 We manned our Boat and got our things againe. Then one of them 
 that swamme got hold of our Boat, thinking to ouerthrow it. But 
 our Cooke tooke a Sword, and cut off one of his hands and he was 
 drowned." The next day, seven leagues further down, hostilities 
 were renewed. Many savages appeared, and would fain have come 
 aboard : "but wee perceived their intent, and suJBfered none of them,'* 
 continues the log, " to enter our ship. Whe^'eupon, two Canoes filled 
 with men, with their Bowes and Arrowes shot at us after our sterne ; 
 in recompense whereof wee discharged sixe Muskets, and killed two 
 or three of them. Then above a hundred of them came to a Point 
 of land to shoote at vs. There I shot a Falcon," (small cannon,) "at 
 them and killed two of them ; whereupon the rest fled to the Woods. 
 Yet they manned off another Canoe with nine or ten men, which 
 came to meet vs. So I shot at it also a Falcon, and shot it through 
 and killed one of them. Then our men, with their Muskets, killed 
 three or four more of them. So they went their way." 
 
 On the 4th of October, Hudson took his departure from New 
 York Bay, and, after a month's voyage, arrived at Dartmouth, in 
 England. Here he was detained by an order of the English court, 
 jealous of the enterprise of the Dutch, but contrived to dispatch to 
 his employers the journals of his voyage, and charts of the country 
 he had explored. 
 
378 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 The last voyage and discovery, and the melancholy fate of thia 
 famous navigator may be briefly narrated. In April of the next 
 year (1610) he again sailed, with twenty-three men, for an English 
 Company, in search of the North-west Passage. He first stopped 
 at Iceland, and then doubling the southern extremity of Greenland, 
 was involved in masses of floating ice. Getting clear of this obstruc- 
 tion, in July, he passed through the strait, and entered the great 
 inland sea, both of which still commemorate his name. For a month 
 he steered southerly, and then was brought up by the land. The 
 vessel was hauled aground, and a most dismal winter was passed by 
 the crew. Grievous suffering \yas endured from cold and hunger, 
 and mutinous discontent among the men, aggravated by the impa- 
 tience and irritability of their commander, soon ripened into a tra- 
 gical consummation. 
 
 "You shall vnderstand," says Habakkuk Pricket, (who wrote a 
 narrative of the voyage,) "that our Master kept (in his house at Lon- 
 don) a young man named Henrie Greene^ borne in Ke7it^ of Worship- 
 full Parents, but by his lend life and conversation hee had lost the 
 good-will of all his friends and spent all that hee had. This man 
 our Master would have to Sea with him, because hee could write 
 well ; our Master gave him meate, and drinke, and lodging, and by 
 meanes of one Master Yenson^ with much adoe, got four poundes of 
 his Mother to buy him clothes, wherewith Master Venson would not 
 trust him, but sawe it layed out himselfe ***** go 
 Henrie Greene stood vpright and very inward with the Master, and 
 was a serviceablo man every way for manhood ; but for Keligion hee 
 would say hee was cleane paper, whereon he might write what hee 
 would." During the winter, the effects of the gunner (who had 
 died early in the season), were put up for sale at the main-mast, as 
 usual, and Greene wished to purchase a certain " gray gowne," be- 
 longing to the deceased, and no doubt very desirable in the rigor 
 of an arctic winter. But Hudson, being dissatisfied with him, said 
 he should not have it, and sharply reminded him that none of his 
 friends at home would trust him with the value of twenty shillings. 
 
 "The jealous and irritable temper of mariners, long pent together 
 in disastrous voyages, is well known; and when to this source of 
 dissension are superadded privation, suffering, and the constant 
 dread of starvation, it is hardly surprising that their minds should 
 be filled with morbid imaginings, and that trifles should assume 
 unnatural importance. In many a dreary narrative of the seas, we 
 
THE DUTCH IN AMEEICA. 379 
 
 find matters of no greater moment than this wretched 'gray gowne/ 
 magnified into importance, and the cause of the most lamentable 
 quarrels and mutinies." "You shall see," says Master Pricket, 
 "how the Deuill out of this wrought with Henrie QreeneP 
 
 About the middle of June, the little crew of forlorn adventurers 
 again got under way, but were soon once more fast in the ice. The 
 scanty remainder of shiprstores had been already divided by the cap- 
 tain, " (and hee wept when hee gaue it,) " and he now incurred fresh 
 ill-will by compelling the crew to produce for the common benefit 
 any remnant of private stores which they might still have in their 
 chests. A barbarous plot was now hatched up by Greene and Wil- 
 son the boatswain, to set the captain, with the sick and disabled, 
 adrift in the ship^s boat, as the most likely mode of saving the lives 
 of the remainder; and, accordingly, the unfortunate Hudson, with 
 his young son and six others, (mostly sick or lame,) were treacher- 
 ously seized and put aboard the boat towing astern. Before the 
 ship was clear of the ice, the mutineers cut the line, and left their 
 unfortunate victims to perish of cold and hunger. On their way 
 homeward, four of them, including Greene and Wilson, were killed 
 by the savages, and old Juet, whose crime, as well as that of Greene, 
 was enhanced by past friendship and favours received from Hudson, 
 perished of hunger on the voyage. The company, the next year, 
 dispatched the same vessel, under Captain Thomas Button, to search 
 for the deserted commander, and to complete the supposed discovery 
 of the North-west passage ; but neither object was accomplished. 
 
 uJtliniX^JtJLijri JtJlXo 
 
 TOTAGES OF THE DUTCH TO MANNAHATA. — EXPEDITION OP BLOI 
 AND CHRISTIAANSE. — NEW AMSTERDAM (NEW YORK) POFNDED. 
 — COLONY PLANTED ON THE DELAWARE: SINGULARLY DE- 
 STROYED. — GOVERNORS MINUIT AND VAN TWILLER. — 
 SETTLEMENT OP THE SWEDES ON THE DELAWARE. 
 
 In the year I'^IO, following the discovery of the Hudson, private 
 Individuals in Holland dispatched a vessel to trafiic for furs with the 
 Indians inhabiting its shores; the success of this expedition led to 
 
380 AMEEICA ILLUSTKATED. 
 
 several others ; and some little trading stations were established on the 
 island of Mannahata (Manhattan or New York). In 1614, a corpora 
 tion, entitled ''The Amsterdam Licensed Trading "West India Compa- 
 ny," was chartered, (with a monopoly of commerce in the newly-found 
 region,) which, that same year, dispatched thither two vessels, under 
 Adrian Blok and Hendrick Christiaanse. The former, arriving first 
 at Mannahata, and losing his vessel by fire, set to work with much 
 energy to build another, in which he again set forth on a voyage of 
 discovery. Passing through that narrow strait, which, from its furious 
 tides, his crew called Helle-gadt (Hell's Gap) — a name which, with 
 slight alteration, it still retains — he passed through Long Island 
 Sound, and proceeded as far as Cape Cod, where he found his con- 
 sort. The two captains cruised westward along shore in company, 
 surveying the coast, and naming the islands. They discovered 
 Narraganset Bay and the Connecticut and Housatonic rivers; and 
 Block island, which they passed, still commemorates the name of 
 its discoverer. 
 
 Ascending the Hudson, they built a fort on Castle Island, a little 
 below the present city of Albany; and in the following year another 
 w^as erected on Manhattan, where New York now stands, and 
 whither for many years the Dutch vessels came regularly to receive 
 their cargoes of furs. Their powerful neighbours, the Iroquois or 
 Five Nations, long at deadly feud with the Canadian French, viewed 
 with satisfaction the establishment of rival settlements, and main- 
 tained friendly relations in general, both with the Dutch and English. 
 Though once disturbed by a visit from Captain Argall, from Yir- 
 ginia, who claimed the country in behalf of his government, and 
 occasionally by the bucaniers, the Dutch continued to maintain 
 their traffic, and slowly to extend their settlements. In 1621, a new 
 corporation, entitled " The West Indian Company of the New Neth- 
 erlands," was chartered by the States-General of Holland, which, in 
 1623, dispatched a large number of settlers, under Captain Mey, to 
 their colony of Mannahata. He relieved the wants of that little settle- 
 ment, (which no ship had visited for two years,) and, after exploring 
 the coast some way to the eastward, turned south, and finally entered 
 Delaware river. Cape May, named after him, commemorates the visit. 
 He passed up the river, and, on Gloucester point, a few miles below 
 the present city of Philadelphia, founded a settlement, which he 
 named Fort Nassau, but which, after a brief tenancy, was abandoned. 
 Fort Orange, on the site of Albany, was built the same year. 
 
THE DUTCH IN AMEEICA. gQl 
 
 Two years afterwards, (1625,) the company sent two more sliips, 
 under command of Peter Minuit, the first governor of " The New 
 Netherlands," (as the country was now called,) with a number of 
 Walloon emigrants, who settled on Long Island, where the " Walla- 
 bout," or "AValloon-bend" still distinguishes the place of their selec- 
 tion. In 1630, De Vriez, a skillful navigator, who had served in 
 the East Indies, was sent, with thirty or forty people, to found a 
 new colony on the Delaware. On the site of what is now known as 
 Lewistown, on the southern shore, he built a small fort, which he 
 called Hoeren-kill, and having landed the settlers, with their stock 
 and supplies, sailed for Holland, leaving one Gillis Osset in command. 
 
 "The new settlement had but a brief existence, and owed its de- 
 struction to an incident singular enough. The Dutch, by way of 
 taking formal possession of the country, had erected a pillar, to 
 which was affixed a piece of tin, inscribed with the arms of Holland. 
 This tinsel bit of heraldry, ere long, was appropriated by an Indian 
 chief, who, unconscious of its high import, converted it into tobacco- 
 pipes for his private smoking. At this insult, as he deemed it, to 
 'Their High Mightinesses, the States General,' Osset became ridicu- 
 lously enraged. Yindication of outraged dignity is generally vehe- 
 ment in proportion to the paucity of the aggrieved attribute; and 
 the Dutch commander, with strange infatuation, refused to be satisfied 
 with any excuse or reparation which the Indians could offer. Seeing 
 him thus unappeasable, and perhaps supposing the crime to be of 
 a heinous religious nature, they finally cut off" the head of the of- 
 fending chief, and brought it, a grisly token of submission, to the fort. 
 
 " Osset stood aghast at the consequences of his obstinate sulkiness, 
 and told the Indians that they should only have brought the culprit 
 before him for reproval. But the mischief had been done, and the 
 friends and relations of the murdered chief resolved on a sweeping 
 and terrible revenge. All was contrived with savage artifice and 
 secrecy. The colonists were mostly engaged in tillage, and only a few 
 remained at the fort. These were massacred by some warriors who 
 entered under pretence of selling beaver-skins. The Indians then 
 walked slowly to those in the fields, and fell to conversing in a 
 friendly manner. Not the slightest suspicion was awakened until, 
 at a given signal, the savages fell on them, and butchered them to a 
 man. The entire colony, consisting of thirty-four men, perished 
 at a blow. 
 
 "In December, De Yriez returned from Holland, and the utter 
 
382 AMEEICA ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 silence of the dwellings forewarned him of misfortune. Bones and 
 skulls lay bleaching on the shore. The Indians, with whom he 
 was soon in friendly intercourse, informed him, with all the circum- 
 stances, of the murder of his countrymen."* 
 
 In 1633, Minuit was replaced in office by Wouter Yan Twiller, 
 under whom Fort Amsterdam (the settlement at Mannahata) contin- 
 ued to increase. Wind-mills, in emulation of the mother-country, 
 were built, and negro slaves were imported. A church and a 
 species of state-house were also erected. Minuit, deposed from 
 office, entered the service of Christina of Sweden. Her father, the 
 great Gustavus, had already planned the foundation of a settlement 
 in America, and had devoted a large sum ($400,000) to the object. 
 Oxenstiern, the Swedish minister, prompted by this circumstance, 
 and by the persuasions of Minuit, readily came into the scheme; 
 and, about the year 1633, an expedition was dispatched to the Del- 
 aware, which erected a fort, called after the queen, Christina, and 
 made a settlement near Wilmington. The footing thus obtained by 
 the Swedes was afterwards a source of no small trouble and uneasi- 
 ness to their Dutch neighbours. 
 
 CHAPTER I?. 
 
 GOVERNOR KEIFT. GOVERNOR STtlYVESANT: HIS CHARACTER: 
 
 HE SUBDUES THE SWEDES. — UNTENABLE CLAIMS OF THE ENG- 
 LISH. — GRANT BY CHARLES II. TO THE DUKE OF YORK. 
 NEW AMSTERDAM TAKEN BY COLONEL NICOLLS: RE- 
 TAKEN BY THE DUTCH. — FINAL CESSION TO ENGLAND. 
 
 In 1638, William Keift, in place of Yan Twiller, was appointed 
 governor of the New Netherlands, and was speedily involved in 
 difficulties with the gradually encroaching English. He forbade 
 them to trade at the fort of Good Hope, (a small Dutch post in Con- 
 necticut, where the city of Hartford now stands,) and broke up by 
 force a settlement which they had made on Long Island. In 1643. 
 the English colonies, now greatly superior in strength to their neigh' 
 bours, entered' into a league against them. The horrors of Indian 
 warfare were soon added to the other troubles of the country. Keift, 
 * Discoverers &c., of America. 
 
THE DUTCH IN AMEEICA. 333 
 
 on suspicion of hostile intentions, "had attacked a party of the natives, 
 and had massacred nearly a hundred of them. An Indian war, 
 lasting for two years, and effectually checking the progress of the 
 settlement, was the result; but was finally terminated by treaty. 
 "To Keift, in 1647, succeeded Peter Stuyvesant, the last and most 
 famous of the Dutch governors. His memory, immortalized by the 
 more comic muse of Irving, always presents itself in the shape of a 
 weather-tanned, fierce-looking, silver-legged old warrior, with an air 
 of obstinate determination, quite sufiicient to justify his popular so- 
 hriqilet of Hardhopjpig Piet, or Peter the Headstrong. He became 
 speedily embrailed with all his neighbours ; but justice must admit 
 that the right was on his side — that the Dutch were the aggrieved 
 party — and that in the contests which troubled his administration, 
 he displayed all the qualities of a gallant soldier, an energetic magis- 
 trate, and a faithful servant of his employers." By his wise and 
 humane government, he maintained peace with the Indians; and by 
 removing oppressive restrictions on commerce, greatly forwarded 
 the interests of his colony. The company, with a liberal and far- 
 sighted policy, in advance of the age, prohibited all religious perse- 
 cution, and sought to make the New Netherlands a refuge for the 
 exiled believers of any creed. "From France, the Low Countries, 
 the Ehine, Northern Germany, Bohemia, the mountains of Piedmont, 
 the suffering Protestants flocked to this trans-atlantic asylum." 
 
 The new governor, a man of quick temper and of military ardour, 
 was not likely to submit to aggression from his neighbours; and a 
 piece of treacherous violence, committed by Eisingh, the Swedish 
 governor, afforded him an opportunity to wrest back the territory 
 which the latter had gained by a species of encroachment. On the 
 Delaware river, where Newcastle now stands, the Dutch had planted 
 a post, named Fort Casimir — an object of much jealousy to the 
 Swedes. Eisingh, with thirty men, under pretext of a friendly visit, 
 had entered this fort, and had been hospitably entertained; but 
 treacherously seized it, with all the houses and other property of the 
 company^ which it protected. To avenge this outrage, the sturdy 
 governor, with a force of six hundred men, sailed up the Delaware, 
 and, after retaking Fort Casimir, marched into "New Sweden," as 
 the country was called, and laid siege to Fort Christina itself. Eisingh 
 was compelled to surrender, and the whole settlement was incorpo- 
 rated with the Dutch province — most of the settlers remaining and 
 submitting peaceably to the rule of the new government 
 
884 AMERICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 The lustre of this triumph was soon overshaded by the successful 
 rapacity of a more formidable foe; and the little province, so peace- 
 fully settled, and, for the most part, so moderately and wisely gov- 
 erned, was destined to be absorbed in the overwhelming progress of 
 a people the most active, aggressive, and retentive of conquest which 
 the world has ever seen. The troubles with the eastern English 
 colonies had, for a time, been settled by a treaty, which admitted the 
 latter to a share of Long Island. "But, as the importance of the 
 trans-atlantic possessions became more obvious, these questions of 
 priority of settlement were merged in the more decisive contest be- 
 tween the arrogant assumption of the British crown, and the just, 
 but feebly-defended rights of the states-general. There could hardly 
 be a claim more untenable than that advanced by England to the 
 possession of the little settlements which the Dutch, with such pa- 
 tient and persevering industry, had reclaimed from the wilderness. 
 The whole country which they occupied had been -unquestionably 
 first explored by Hudson, sailing in the service of the Dutch East 
 India Company, and had immediately afterwards been settled by 
 Hollanders in advance of any other nation. Purchase and treaty with 
 the natives had added confirmation to their title. These perfectly 
 unassailable grounds of possession the English attempted to invade, 
 by claiming that Hudson was an Englishman, whose discovery must 
 therefore enure to the benefit of his own country, and that Cabot, 
 sailing by these coasts an hundred and fifty years before, had thus 
 secured the right to the whole to those who employed him. This 
 proposition, it is needless to say, was of a self stultifying nature, for, 
 if Hudson was an Englishman, Cabot was a Venetian, and, according 
 to this rule, the whole country must have belonged to the little 
 republic of Venice. Moreover, there was no evidence that Cabot 
 had ever even s.een the inlets and recesses which the Dutch had 
 selected for the site of their settlements."* 
 
 Charles II., of England, not long after his restoration to the throne, 
 prompted by enmity to Holland, and a desire to extend his terri- 
 tories in North America, made a grant to his brother, the duke of 
 York and Albany, (afterwards James II.,) of a vast tract of land, 
 including all the Dutch settlements. To put the grantee in posses- 
 sion, a fleet, carrying three hundred soldiers, under command of 
 Colonel Eichard NicoUs, with Sir George Carteret and Sir Eobert 
 Carr, was dispatched to America; and in August of 1664, came to 
 * Discoverers, &c., of America. 
 
THE DUTCH IN AMERICA. 335 
 
 anchor before tlie little capital of New Amsterdam. Tlie governor, 
 demanding the purport of this armament, was informed by Nicolls 
 that his orders were to take possession of the town and country, and 
 offered the fairest terms in case of surrender. Stuyvesant, without 
 a force sufficient to repel the hostile squadron, and beset by the 
 clamorous cowardice of the council and the citizens, remained for 
 some days in a state of great perplexity and irritation, refusing to 
 consent to a capitulation, and keeping the town in grievous suspense 
 and agitation. Compelled by circumstances, he finally signed a sur- 
 render on the most honourable terms, and then, disgusted with foreign 
 aggression and domestic pusillanimity, retired in wrath to his coun-' 
 try-seat in the Bouwery^ where he passed the remainder of his days. 
 
 The English, taking undisputed possession of the country, in hon- 
 our of the proprietor, changed the name of New Amsterdam to New 
 York, and that of Fort Orange to Albany. In compliment to the 
 family of Carteret, which came from the isle of Jersey, the southern 
 portion of the New Netherlands received the title of New Jersey. 
 
 The new rulers of the country, Nicolls and his successor, Lovelace, 
 governed in an arbitrary manner, admitting no authority except 
 such as was lodged in their own hands and in the officers ot their 
 appointment, and imposing grievous and unreasonable taxes on the 
 original colonists. The latter governor, it is said, even avowed the 
 policy of exacting such burdensome imposts, that "the people migh>, 
 have no leisure to think of any thing except how to pay them." 
 The greatest discontent, consequently, prevailed, and remonstrances 
 so vehement were sent in, that they were condemned to be burned, 
 as treasonable, by the common hangman. Hostilities being resumed 
 between Holland and England, in 1673, a small Dutch squadron, 
 under command of Evertsen, appeared before New York. Through 
 the treachery of John Manning, who commanded the fort, it was 
 surrendered without a shot being fired; the country was regained 
 with the same facility with which it had been lost; and a council 
 of the Dutch being called, Antony Colve was chosen as colonial 
 governor. Early the next year, however, a treaty of peace was con- 
 cluded, by which each party agreed to surrender conquests made 
 during the war; and the New ISetherlands falling within the scope 
 of this agreement, were accordingly at length formally relinquished 
 to the English aggressors. 
 YOL. III.— 25 
 
PART V. 
 
 €^t #Mt ttt Jracrica. 
 
 CANADA, 
 
 BIRLY PISHING VOYAGES. — GIOVANNI VERRAZANO. — HI8 
 
 VOYAGE IN THE DAUPHIN. ARRIVES AT NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 — DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY. — ITS INHABITANTS. 
 
 — VERRAZANO COASTS NORTHERLY. — KIDNAPPING, 
 
 — THE GREAT HARBOUR. — FRIENDLINESS OF THE 
 
 INDIANS. — VERRAZANO SAILS TO LABRADOR. — 
 
 RETURNS TO FRANCE. — HIS SUBSEQUENT FATE. 
 
 For some time after the discovery of tlie New "World, no national 
 attempt seems to have been made by the French to secure a foothold 
 on its shores. The Basque and Breton fishermen, the most hardy 
 and enterprising of their day, not long after the memorable voyage 
 of Cabot, discovered and turned to account that mine of wealth — 
 more certain and enduring than those of Potosi or Mexico — the 
 
 * The origin of this word is uncertain. "In 1625, one Stephano Gomez sailed 
 from Spain to the island of Newfoundland, and, it would seem, entered the Gulf of 
 St. Lawrence, and traded on its shores. According to the Spanish accounts, his peo- 
 ple, disappointed in their expectations of treasure, frequently repeated the words 
 ' Aca nada,' ('here is nothing,') and thus conferred on the whole province the namo 
 of Canada. This title, however, is more probably derived from the Iroquois word, 
 *Kannata,' signifying a cluster of cabins." 
 
THE FEENCH IN AMEEICA. 337 
 
 Great Bank of Newfoundland. Cape Breton still attests by its name 
 the early presence of these hardy mariners. 
 
 In 1523, Francis I., moved, perhaps as much by jealousy of his 
 Spanish and Portuguese rivals as by any abstract zeal for discovery, 
 fitted out four vessels, the command of which was confided to Gio- 
 vanni Yerrazano, a noble Florentine, who, like his eminent Italian 
 countrymen, Columbus, Cabot, and Yespucius, wanting appreciation 
 and encouragement at home, had carried his genius and enterprise to 
 the service of a foreign court. This expedition failed, on account 
 of an adverse storm, but the enterprising commander, in the following 
 year, in a vessel called the Dauphin, with fifty men, again set sail, 
 from the island of Madeira, and steered westward. On the 20th of 
 February, (1524,) "we were overtaken," says Yerrazano, (in his letter 
 of report to the king,) "with as sharpe and terrible a tempest as ever 
 any saylers suffered, whereof, with the divine helpe and mercifull 
 assistance of Almighty God, and the goodnesse of our shippe, accom- 
 panied with the good happe of her fortunate name," (a courtly allu- 
 sion,) "we were delivered, and with a prosperous winde followed 
 our course West and by North. And in other 25 days we made 
 above 400 leagues more, when we discovered a new land, never 
 before scene of any man either ancient or moderne." 
 
 This land, it is probable, was Carolina or Georgia, from the nature 
 of the forests, which he describes as "mighty great woods, some very 
 thicke and some thinne, replenished with divers sorts of trees as 
 pleasant and delectable to behold as it is possible to imagine. And 
 your Maiestie may not think these are like the woodes of Hercynia 
 or the wilde deserts of Tartary^ and the northerne coasts, full of 
 fruitlesse trees; but they are full of palme trees^ bay trees, and high 
 cypresse trees, and many other sorts of trees unknowen in Europe^ 
 which yeeld most sweet savors farre from the shoare, the property 
 whereof we could not learn, — neither doe wee thinke that they, par- 
 taking of the east world roundabout thera^ are altogether voyd of drugs 
 or spicery, and other riches of gold, seeing the colour of the land 
 doth so much argue it." The belief in treasure, in spices, and espe- 
 cially in the immediate vicinity of the East Indies, was one of which 
 all early voyagers to America, from Columbus down, were with the 
 utmost difiiculty disabused. 
 
 After sailing in vain fifty leagues to the south in quest of a port, 
 the commander again turned northward, and finally made a landing 
 on the open beach. The Indians, in great numbers, came to meet 
 
388 AMERICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 the discoverers, and evinced a friendly and hospitable spirit. They 
 are described as looking "not much unlike the Saracens," — "with a 
 cheerfull and steady looke, not strong of body, yet sharpe-witted, 
 nimble, and exceeding great runners." Their only clothing was a 
 species of cincture, made of small furs, "which they fasten," says 
 Yerrazano, "unto a narrow girdle made of grasse very artificially 
 wrought, hanged about with the tayles of other beastes, which dangle 
 to their knees. Some of them weare garlands made of byrdes fea- 
 thers." Still pursuing the grand ignis fatuus of his day, he holds 
 that they are "like to the people of the east parts of the world, and 
 especially to them of the uttermost parts of China." 
 
 Sailing north-easterly along the coast, he "saw every where great 
 fires, by reason, of the multitude of the inhabitants," but from the 
 want of harbours, could not effect a landing. A young man, who 
 swam through the surf with presents to a multitude of Indians ashore, 
 being nearly drowned, was rescued by them from the waves, and 
 carried ashore with great kindness; "then setting him on the ground 
 at the foote of a little hil against the sunne, they began to behold 
 him with great admiration, marveilling at the whitenesse of his fleshe ; 
 and putting off his clothes, they made him warm at a greate fire, 
 not without our great feare which remained in the boate, that they 
 would have rosted him at that fire, and have eaten him." With 
 all manner of caresses and kindness, they revived him, and restored 
 him to his companions. 
 
 The usual return for this kindly treatment was speedily made. 
 Sailing farther on, the French landed, and twenty of them explored 
 the country. They found in the woods an old woman and a young 
 one, each with three children on her shoulders. " Our men," says 
 the cool commander, "tooke a childe from the olde woman to bring 
 into France, and going about to take the yung woman, which was 
 very beautiful and of tall stature, they could not possibly, for the 
 great outcries she made, bring her to the sea; and especially," (he 
 continues apologetically,) "hauing great woods to passe thorow and 
 being farre from the shippe, we purposed to leave her behind, hearing 
 away the childe onelyj^ 
 
 Still keeping along the shore, he found the land well peopled, and 
 finally entered a great harbour, which he describes as lying "in the 
 Paralele of Eome, in 41 degrees and 2 terces," and which, from his 
 description, may have been either the entire region of waters lying 
 around New York, or those of Narragansett bay. Many canoes came 
 
THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 339 
 
 off to his vessel, filled with Indians — among them, he says, "2 kings 
 of so goodly stature and shape as is possible to declare." Here he 
 staid fifteen days, enjoying the most friendly intercourse with the 
 natives — "oftentimes," he says, "one of the two-kings comming with 
 his queene and many gentlemen, for their pleasure, to see us. * * * 
 The Queene and her maids staid in a very light boat, at an Hand a 
 quarter of a league off, while the King abode a long space in our ship, 
 uttering divers conceits, with gestures, viewing with great admiration 
 all the Furniture of the Shippe, demanding the property" (use) "of 
 every thing particularly. He took likewise great pleasure in behold- 
 ing our apparell, and in tasting our meats, and so courteously taking 
 his leave departed." Great companies of the Indians came aboard 
 in their canoes, with all friendliness and hospitality. " They are very 
 liberal," says the narrator, "for they give what they have." 
 
 From this haven, on the 5th of May, he took his departure, and 
 sailed for a hundred and fifty leagues along the coast, noting its 
 variations, and the difference of climate. The people were much 
 more savage than those he had lately seen. "Looke," he says, 
 " how much the former seemed to be courteous and gentle, so much 
 were these full of rudeness and ill-maners. * * * jf 
 at any time we desired by exchange to have any of their commodi- 
 ties, they used to come to the sea-shore upon certaine craggy rocks, 
 and we standing in our boats, they let downe with a rope what it 
 pleased them to give us, crying continually that we should not ap- 
 proach to the land, demanding immediately the exchange, taking 
 nothing but knives, fish hooks, and tooles to cut withall, neyther did 
 they make any account of our courtesy. And when we had nothing 
 left to exchange with them, when we departed from them, they 
 showed all signes of discourtesie and disdaine, as were possible for 
 any creature to invent." These ill-conditioned people, so deficient 
 in appreciation of French politeness, probably inhabited the rugged 
 coast of Maine. 
 
 Yerrazano cruised along the shore, it would seem, for about two 
 thousand miles, as far as the desolate coasts of Labrador or New- 
 foundland, and then, his provisions being mostly spent, returned to 
 France. The subsequent fate of this old navigator is involved in 
 much mystery. "A short time after his arrival," says Charlevoix, 
 "he fitted out another expedition, with the design of establishing a 
 colony in America. All that we know of this enterprise is, that, 
 having embarked, he was never seen more, and that it never has 
 
S90 AMEIUCA ILLUSTKATED. 
 
 been ascertained what became of him." It is asserted, however, in 
 Ramusio's collection of voyages, that Yerrazano and those who went 
 ashore with him, were killed and devoured bj the savages off Cape 
 Breton ; and it is said elsewhere that the same catastrophe happened 
 on shipboard. But nothing certain has come down to us respecting 
 the nature of his expedition or the fate of himself and his companions. 
 
 vj (L(L Jiii JT «L Jj (Lb Ji iL o 
 
 JACQUES CARTIER DISCOYERS THE ST. LAWRENCE. — HIS SEC- 
 
 OND VOYAGE. — QUEBEC. — HOCHELAGA, OR MONTREAL.— 
 
 PRIENDLY INDIANS. — TREACHEROUS KIDNAPPING BY 
 
 CARTIER. EXPEDITION OF ROBERVAL AND CARTIER. 
 
 • — MISFORTUNES AND FAILURE. — ATTEMPTS UNDER 
 
 HENRY IV PONTGRAYfi, CHAMPLAIN, AND DE 
 
 MONTS. THEIR EXPEDITION. 
 
 In 1534, at the instance of High Admiral Chabot, the king pro- 
 vided means for another voyage of discovery in the same direction. 
 Jacques Cartier, the commander, on the 20th of April, with two 
 small vessels, and a hundred and twenty men, sailed from St. Malo, 
 and in twenty days made the rocky heights of Newfoundland. 
 Passing through the Straits of Belle Isle, he entered the Grulf of St. 
 Lawrence, and coasted along its shores, delighted with the beauty 
 of the scenery and the gentleness of the native inhabitants. He 
 entered the river St. Lawrence, and took formal possession of the 
 country, after the usual fashion, in the name of his master ; and having 
 seized, by stratagem, on two of the natives, sailed for France. The 
 court, encouraged by his favourable report, determined to found a 
 colony in the newly-explored region. 
 
 Accordingly, in May of the following year, with three vessels, he 
 again proceeded to the great river which he had discovered, and 
 passing up it, early in the autumn, arrived at a beautiful island, cov- 
 ered with vines, which he called the Isle of Bacchus. It is now 
 known as the Isle of Orleans, lying a little below Quebec* At the 
 
 * "The derivation of this name has been often contested. Some say it is nearly 
 the original Indian term Quebaio ; others, that it is derived from Caudebec, on the 
 
THE FRENCH IN AMEEICA. 391 
 
 moutli of the river St. Charles, just below the high and rockj pro- 
 montory on which that city now stands, the French resolved to take 
 up their winter-quarters. An Indian chief, named Donnacona, 
 attended with many canoes, came to welcome them, placing his arm 
 around the admiral's neck, and exhibiting much courtesy and kind- 
 ness. When the strangers landed (near Stadacona, his village,) this 
 friendly chief, with five hundred of his tribe, was waiting on the 
 shore to receive them; and the French, who had never seen (nor 
 probably heard of) the custom of smoking, so widely prevalent among 
 the native tribes of America, were astonished to behold their hosts 
 vigorously imbibing from long reed pipes the potent fumes of tobacco. 
 The instrument once lighted, reports Cartier, (a better sailor than 
 anatomist,) " they suck at the other end so long that they fill their 
 bodies full of smoke, till it comes out of their mouth and nostrils as 
 from the chimney of a house." 
 
 Learning that a large town, called Iiochelaga, lay at some dis- 
 tance up the river, Cartier determined to proceed to it, and, with 
 thirty-five of his men, ascended the stream, receiving much kindness 
 and hospitality from the natives who inhabited its shores. At Hoch- 
 elaga, where he arrived on the 2d of October, more than a thousand 
 Indians were waiting on the shore to give him welcome. Their 
 town, circular in form, and surrounded by a strong rampart of pali- 
 sades, consisted of fifty great houses, which were well supplied with 
 Indian corn, beans, dried fish, and other simple articles of native 
 fare. It stood in a vast field of corn, and hard by was a mountain, 
 to which the French gave the name of Mont Royale, since corrupted 
 into Montreal, and applied to the European city which has replaced 
 the rude village of Hochelaga. These people, regarding the white 
 men with a superstitious veneration, brought their sick — among them 
 their king, Agohanna, a paralytic — to their guests, entreating that 
 they might be healed. Cartier, disclaiming the powers attributed 
 to him, made, however, the sign of the cross over the sufferers, gave 
 them chaplets, and read a portion of the gospel of St. John, praying 
 for their conversion. 
 
 Keturning to Quebec, the voyagers suffered terribly from the 
 extreme cold of winter, and twenty-five of them perished of scurvy. 
 
 Seine; while other authors maintain that it had its origin in the exclamation of Car* 
 tier's pilot, on first beholding the majestic cape, 'Quel bee!' ('what a beakT or 
 * promontory,') bee, in the Norman, corresponding to the old English Ness or Nose^ 
 M a general term for any remarkable headland." 
 
392 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 They experienced great kindness from the natives, which, as usual, 
 they repaid by a piece of atrocious perfidy. Their kindly host, 
 Donnacona, with several other Indians, was entrapped aboard ship 
 and made prisoner ; on which, says Cartier, his people were incon- 
 solable with grief, and came howling round the vessel like so many 
 wolves. Leaving their encampment in May, 1536, these cruel and 
 ungrateful men returned to France. 
 
 Attracted by reports of the beauty and fertility of the country 
 watered by the Great River, the Sieur de Roberval, in 1540, procured 
 from the king the office of viceroy over "ISTew France," as the lately- 
 discovered region was now termed. Cartier, his lieutenant, with 
 several vessels, sailed in May, 1541, and at the end of three months 
 arrived at Quebec. The Indians, remembering past injuries, were 
 unfriendly, and he passed an uncomfortable winter, continually 
 dreading attack, at Cape Eouge, a few miles further up the river. 
 In June of the following year, Roberval, with three vessels, came to 
 the Road of St. Johns, in Newfoundland, where, to his surprise, he 
 was joined by Cartier. Disappointed and moody, the latter refused 
 to prosecute the enterprise, and, with his people, sailed silently away 
 in the night. He died not long after his return to France. Rober* 
 val, with his immediate command, proceeded up the river, and 
 passed the winter in the quarters of his lieutenant, losing fifty of 
 his men by scurvy. Other losses succeeded; the crews were sick, 
 discontented, and seditious; in 1543 he made his way back to France. 
 Six years afterwards, he again sailed on a fresh expedition to the 
 country; but nothing was ever learned of the fate of him or his 
 companions. 
 
 Discouraged by these repeated failures and losses, the French, for 
 half a century, made no further attempts to colonize this inhospitable 
 province, but confined themselves to fishing and traffic with the 
 natives on the coast. It was not until 1598, that the spirit of enter- 
 prise, under the auspices of Henry lY., was once more awakened. 
 In that year, the Marquis de la Roche, as viceroy of New France, 
 Bailed for Nova Scotia, but accomplished nothing in the way of set- 
 tlement, except to leave forty wretched convicts on Sable island, 
 where most of them, in a few years, perished from want and ex- 
 posure. Private enterprise proved more fortunate, and led the way 
 to better judged and more successful effiDrts on the part of govern- 
 ment. Pontgrav^, a merchant of St. Malo, a man of great enterprise 
 nnd judgment, had for several years voyaged to the Saguenay, and 
 
THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 393 
 
 brought cargoes of valuable furs, obtained by traffic with tlie Indians. 
 In 1603, under the patronage of De Chatte, governor of Dieppe, and 
 successor in office to De la Roche, he fitted out an expedition to 
 New France, taking with him, as associate in command, Samuel de 
 Champlain, a naval officer, of high repute for his services in the 
 East Indies. 
 
 Arriving in the St. Lawrence, and leaving their ships at Tadousac, 
 the voyagers ascended as far as Hochelaga or Montreal — but the 
 Indian village, so thrifty and populous in the days of Cartier, had 
 by this time, it would seem, nearly, if not quite, disappeared. War 
 or pestilence had probably terminated the brief and uncertain tenure 
 by which this, like all uncivilized tribes, held its possession of a 
 home. The explorers returned to France, where the Sieur de Monts, 
 who had succeeded De Chatte in office, fitted out four ships to effect 
 the colonization of New France. With Champlain, Potrincourt, and 
 many other adventurers, in 1604, he proceeded to the Bay of Fundy, 
 where, on a small island, he wintered — the scurvy, as before, making 
 terrible ravages among his people. At Port Royal (now Annapolis) 
 in Acadia (now Nova Scotia) he built a fort and planted a settle- 
 ment, which, for ten years, continued to increase and prosper, but 
 which, in 1614, was attacked by a force from Virginia, under Sir 
 Samuel Argall, and was broken up. (See Acadia.) 
 
 \j ij, JX if it Hi M xJtJt« 
 
 CHAMPLAIN FOUNDS QUEBEC; MAKES WAR ON THE IROQUOIS: 
 
 POUNDS MONTREAL. EXPEDITIONS WITH THE flURONS. — HIS 
 
 DISCOURAGEMENTS. INCONSIDERABLE SETTLEMENTS. . 
 
 CANADA TAKEN BY THE ENGLISH. — RESTORED. 
 
 THE COMPANY OF NEW FRANCE. — DEATH OF 
 CHAMPLAIN: HIS CHARACTER. 
 
 In 1608, Champlain, dispatched from France with two vessels, to 
 trade at Tadousac, took advantage of the opportunity to found a 
 permanent colony on the shores of the St. Lawrence. After a care- 
 ful survey of its shores, he selected for the site of his settlement that 
 splendid headland, known, even at that early day, as Quebec, the 
 
894 AMEEICA ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 same where Cartier liad passed his first winter. This was in July, 
 and during the brief remainder of a Canadian summer, buildinga 
 were erected, and preparations were made for the long winter. 
 When the spring came on, Champlain, desirous of effecting fresh 
 exploration, and little scrupulous in his choice of means, accompa- 
 nied a party of Algonquins, with whom he had made friends, on a 
 hostile expedition against their ancient enemies, the Iroquois. Pass- 
 ing up the St. Lawrence, they reached a river running from the 
 south, and by this outlet made their way to that beautiful lake which 
 still bears the name of its first European discoverer — the Champlain. 
 Near the southern extremity of this lake they entered a smaller one, 
 now known as Lake George, and on its banks had a desperate fight 
 with some two hundred of the Iroquois, who were entrenched in a 
 rude fort. The fire-arms and the skillful manoeuvres of the French 
 secured the victory to their allies; a number of the ehemy were 
 killed, and ten or twelve were taken prisoners; the latter, despite 
 the remonstrances of Champlain, were put to death with the' cruel 
 tortures customarily practised among these barbarous tribes. 
 
 Eeturning to France, the adventurer was received with much 
 favour by Henry lY., and in the following year (1610) again sailed 
 for the St. Lawrence, reaching the mouth of the Saguenay in the 
 wonderfully brief passage, considering the age, of eighteen days. 
 Quebec w^as in a prosperous condition, and he now laid the founda- 
 tion of a small settlement at Montreal — destined, in time, to become 
 one of the fairest cities in America. Strangely regardless of princi- 
 ple or policy, he continued his system of accompanying and assist- 
 ing the savages in their wars with the Iroquois, thus incurring for 
 himself and his people the deadly enmity of those powerful tribes — 
 an enmity fated, at a future day, to result almost in the ruin of the 
 colonies planted with such toil and perseverance. Having once 
 more gone to France, and incorporated a company to further his 
 plans of colonization, he returned to Montreal, where the Hurona 
 and other Indian allies of the French were preparing for a grand 
 expedition against their ancient enemies. As usual, he joined them: 
 but this time the expedition was defeated, and the allies retreated 
 in disgrace, carrying off their wounded, among whom the French- 
 man was one, in a singular manner. " Their bodies were bent into a 
 circular form, bound with cords, and thrown into a basket, where 
 they lay like infants in swaddling clothes, unable to stir hand or 
 foot. Champlain feelingly describes the agonies he endured while 
 
THE FEENCH IN AMERICA. 395 
 
 being carried twenty-five or thirty leagues in this position ; on being 
 relieved from which, he felt as if he had come out of a dungeon." 
 Despite his misfortunes, he explored, on this expedition, a great 
 extent of country, even reaching Lake Nipissing and Lake Huron. 
 In all these arduous efforts in behalf of the new province, during 
 which he repeatedly went to France, he obtained little aid in prose- 
 cution of his schemes, either from the crown or the company ; and 
 his utmost energies, at times, were required to prevent the emigrants 
 from breaking up their settlements, and relinquishing altogether the 
 attempt to colonize these inclement regions. 
 
 Eeligious dissensions between the Catholics and Huguenots soon 
 sprung up in the little community, and Champlain, a zealous Koman- 
 ist, with grief saw himself compelled by policy to allow some tolera- 
 tion to the latter. The Iroquois, in 1621, to revenge past injuries, 
 sent three strong war parties against the French and Hurons, on the 
 latter of whom they inflicted a considerable massacre. A stone fort 
 was built for the protection of Quebec, which, at this time, had only 
 fifty inhabitants, but which soon received a considerable addition 
 of emigrants. In 1627, the "Company of New France," chartered 
 under the auspices of the famous Kichelieu, went into operation, with 
 full dominion and sovereignty (saving certain feudal acknowledg- 
 ments to the crown) over nearly all the vast regions now known as 
 British America, with the right to confer titles of a high order, and 
 to select governors and other officers to rule their provinces. This 
 powerful corporation, aided by gifts from the crown, undertook that, 
 by the year 1643, six thousand additional colonists should be trans- 
 ported to the province; but its attempts were thwarted by misfor- 
 tune, and in 1629, the little ^settlement of Quebec was taken by 
 an English force, and all Canada was compelled to submit to the 
 victors. In 1632, by the treaty of St. Germains, it was restored to 
 France, little value at that time being attached by either nation to 
 the feeble settlements thinly scattered over that inhospitable region. 
 " At this period, the fort of Quebec, surrounded by a score of hastily- 
 built dwellings and barracks, some poor huts on the island of Mon- 
 treal, the like at Three Kivers and Tadousac, and a few fishermen's 
 log-houses elsewhere on the banks of the St. Lawrence, were the 
 only fruits of the discoveries of Yerrazano, Jacques Cartier, Rober- 
 val, and Champlain, the great outlay of La Roche and De Monts, 
 and the toils and sufferings ()f their followers for nearly a century." 
 
 Under the active administration of Cardinal Richelieu, however, 
 
890 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 efficient means Lad been taken to promote the prosperity of the 
 recovered colony; and the company, whose operations had been 
 suspended by the late disasters, in the following year (1633) again 
 placed Champlain in command of the colonies, and dispatched an 
 expedition, carrying more property, it was supposed, than the entire 
 province at that time contained. This expedition increased the 
 population, and materially promoted the prosperity of New France; 
 but the death of Champlain, which took place soon after, was a 
 severe blow to the infant colony. "He died in 1635, leaving a high 
 renown for courage, for patient and indefatigable industry, and for 
 fervent piety — the latter, it seems to us, hardly deserved, consider- 
 ing his unprincipled interference in Indian warfare, and his bigoted 
 exclusion of Protestant settlers from the forlorn refuge of the Cana- 
 dian wilderness. He certainly bequeathed to the state which he had 
 founded with such pains and perseverance, a deep and deadly native 
 hostility, destined to involve it, at a later period, in almost total 
 destruction." " To him, however," says an elegant author,* "belongs 
 the glory of planting Christianity and civilization among the snows 
 of these northern forests; during his life, indeed, a feeble germ; but, 
 sheltered by his vigorous arm — nursed by his tender care — the root 
 struck deep. And now a million and a half of Christian people 
 dwell in peace and plenty upon that magnificent territory, which 
 his zeal and wisdom first redeemed from the desolation of the 
 wilderness." 
 
 * Warburton — ^" Conquest of Canada." 
 
THE FRENCH IN AMEKICA 397 
 
 CHAPTER I?. . 
 
 ADMINISTRATION OP MONTMAGNY. — UNPROSPEROUS CONDITION 
 OP THE PROYINCE. — D'ARGENSON. — D'AVANGOFR. — TRI- 
 UMPHS OP THE IROQUOIS. — EARTHQUAKE. — REIN- 
 
 PORCEMENTS PROM PRANCE. — MESET. — TRACY. DE 
 
 COURCEILES. — THE COMTE DE PRONTENAC: HIS 
 
 CHARACTER. — TURBULENT ADMINISTRATION. — 
 
 DE LA BARRE: HIS EXPEDITION AGAINST THE 
 
 IROQUOIS: ITS PAILURE. — CELEBRATED 
 
 SPEECH OP GARANGULA. — MAGNANIMOUS 
 
 CONDUCT OP THE IROQUOIS. 
 
 MoNTMAGNY, the successor of Champlain in tlie government of 
 Canada, wanting in the enthusiasm and experience of that famous 
 commander, was unable efficiently to promote the increase and pros- 
 perity of the province. The foundation of the college of the Jesuits 
 and of other religious establishments, which, prompted by the pious 
 zeal of French ecclesiastics and of ladies of rank, took place about 
 this time, were the most important events which distinguished the 
 early years of his administration. The company, after the death of 
 Champlain, did nothing towards settling or cultivating the country, 
 but confined themselves to the more profitable trade in furs, and 
 erected forts only for the convenience and protection of that enter- 
 prise. The affairs of the colony languished, and the Iroquois, with 
 very natural enmity, continued to harass the weaker settlements. 
 Montreal, it is said, would have been completely destroyed or aban- 
 doned, but for the timely arrival, in 1647, of an hundred emigrants 
 firom France, under M. D'Aillebout. 
 
 When, in 1658, the Marquis d'Argenson arrived in Canada as 
 governor-general, the condition of that province was miserable in 
 the extreme. Neglected by the company, its prosperity had con- 
 tinued to decline, even the fur- trade becoming almost 'extinct; and 
 the Iroquois, having wreaked terrible vengeance on their ancient 
 foes, the Hurons and Algonquins, seemed on the point of overpow- 
 ering the French altogether. A great number of settlers were mas- 
 sacred by them at Montreal, and Quebec itself, surrounded by a 
 force of several hundred warriors, was nearly in a state of actual 
 
398 AMERICA ILLUSTEATEJJ. 
 
 siege. To D'Argenson, in 1661, succeeded tlie Baron D'Avangour, 
 a man of stern, inflexible character, whose prompt action saved the 
 settlements from destruction. His urgent representations to Louis 
 XIY. of the importance of the province and its defenceless condition, 
 induced that sovereign to dispatch a force of four hundred men for 
 its protection — the timely arrival of which inspired fresh hope and 
 courage in the almost despairing colonists. 
 
 In the year 1663, a tremendous earthquake, continuing at inter- 
 vals for the space of six months, spread dismay among the settlers, 
 and extraordinary convulsions of the earth and the rivers are said 
 to have taken place. The St. Lawrence, for a hundred and thirty 
 miles, was discolored and impregnated with sulphurous matter. 
 
 The company of ISTew France, by their mismanagement and imbe- 
 cility, having reduced the colony to the lowest state, in 1664 sur- 
 rendered their charter, which was transferred to another almost 
 equally incapable association, the Company of the West Indies. 
 The Baron d'Avangour, recalled at his own request, was replaced 
 by M. de Mesey, who, quarrelling with the bishop of the province, 
 was also deposed, and the Marquis de Tracy, for some time viceroy 
 over the French possessions in America, in June, 1665, arrived ic 
 Canada from the West Indies, as governor in his stead. The arrival 
 of a regiment of French soldiers, provided for the defence of the 
 colony, enabled him to take more efficient means of defence against 
 the Iroquois, and three forts were erected on the river Eichelieu 
 (Sorel or St. John's) to check the incursions which they habitually 
 made by that passage from Lake Champlain. Nevertheless, by other 
 routes they renewed their ravages with such fury, that all the vigi- 
 lance of the governor and all the force of the colony was required 
 to protect it from destruction. Having provided in the best manner 
 possible for its defence, in 1668 he returned to -France, leaving M. 
 de Courcelles governor in his stead. 
 
 Many of the military officers, having received grants of land, with 
 seignorial rights, settled in the province, and many of the soldiers^ 
 were also distributed among the settlements, adding materially to 
 the strength of the inhabitants. Three hundred courtesans, dis- 
 patched from France, were all disposed of in marriage within a fort- 
 night after their arrival; and much encouragement was given by 
 the government to the formation of families and the increase of a 
 legitimate population. During the administration of Courcelles, 
 much of Canada was explored; and the original inhabitants, by the 
 
THE ^KENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 ravages of small-pox and tlie introduction of ardent spirits, were 
 terribly diminished in number. His influence had been wisely and 
 humanely exerted to check hostilities among the Indians, and the 
 result had been favourable to the peace of the colony itself. 
 
 The Count de Frontenac, who, in 1672, succeeded De Courcelles, 
 built, in the same year, the important fort which bore his name, on 
 the site of the present town of Kingston. He was an able soldier, 
 and a man of high qualities; but violent and obstinate in the prose- 
 cution of his plans. He was soon involved in dispute with the 
 clergy and with the inferior officers of the colony, and resorted to 
 extreme measures to enforce obedience. "The intendant-general, 
 M. de Chezneau, having neglected some orders, was imprisoned ; the 
 procureur-general was exiled; the governor of Montreal was put 
 under arrest; and the Abb6 de Salignac Fenelon, at that time in 
 Canada, superintending the seminary of St. Sulpicius at Montreal, 
 was imprisoned, under pretence of having preached against M. de 
 Frontenac." In one point of controversy, the clergy, to their hon- 
 our, were in the right — that respecting the traffic of brandy for 
 furs with the savages, which the governor insisted on continuing, 
 but which, through the influence of the bishop, was finally sup- 
 pressed by an order from the king. After remaining in office for 
 ten years, this able and patriotic, but too unscrupulous man, was 
 recalled to France. During his administration, considerable pro- 
 gress was made in discovery and settlement, and, in especial, the 
 wonderful expeditions of Marquette and La Salle resulted in the 
 opening to mankind of a region the most important in North 
 America. (See Louisiana.) 
 
 Soon after the accession of M. de la Barre, who was next ap- 
 pointed governor, Indian hostilities, of a most serious nature, were 
 renewed. The English, anxious to engross the trade in furs, had 
 formed an alliance with the Iroquois or Five Nations, and the rivalry 
 between the colonial agents involved the French in new difficulty 
 with their ancient foes. That powerful confederacy had recom- 
 menced hostilities, by plundering the French traders who were sup- 
 plying the rival tribes with arms, and had made such formidable 
 preparations, that the destruction of the French settlements (at this 
 time numbering only nine thousand inhabitants) seemed far from 
 improbable. To avert or anticipate the threatened evil, the governor, 
 with a force of a thousand men, marched toward their country, at the 
 same time, however, making overtures of peace to the hostile con 
 
iOO AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED, 
 
 federacy. Sickness broke out among his troops, and rendered tlie 
 command unfit for service; yet, when he met Garangula, the old 
 sachem of the Onondagas, with other deputies from the Five Nations, 
 at Kaihoage, on Lake Ontario, where a conference had been ap- 
 pointed, he assumed a lofty and exacting tone. Eecapitulating the 
 injuries received by the French, he demanded satisfaction, and 
 threatened the destruction of the offending tribes, in event of refusal. 
 The speech of the old chief, in reply, is justly considered — for spirit, 
 for satire, and forcible expression — as one of the most striking speci- 
 mens of Indian eloquence. Having heard the Frenchman to an end, 
 he took two or three turns about the apartment, then stood before 
 the governor, and, after a courteous and formal preamble, addressed 
 him thus : 
 
 " Yonondio,* you must have believed, when you left Quebec, that 
 the sun had burnt up all the forests which render our country inac- 
 cessible to the French, or that the lakes had &o far overflowed the 
 banks, that they had surrounded our castles, and that it was impos- 
 sible for us to get out of them. Yes, surely you must have dreamed 
 so, and the curiosity of seeing so great a wonder has brought you so 
 far. Now you are undeceived, since I, and the warriors here present, 
 are come to assure you that the Senecas, Cayugas, Onondagas, Onei- 
 das, and Mohawks are yet alive. I thank you in their name for 
 bringing back into their country the calumet which your predecessor 
 received from their hands. It was happy for you that you left 
 under ground that murdering hatchet which has been so often dyed 
 in the blood of the French. 
 
 "Hear, Yonondio: I do not sleep; I have my eyes open; and the 
 sun which enlightens me, discovers to me a great captain, at the 
 head of a company of soldiers, who speaks as if he were dreaming. 
 He says that he only came to the lake to smoke on the great calumet 
 with the Onondagas. But Garangula says, that he sees the contrary^ 
 that it was to knock them on the head, if sickness had not weakened 
 the arms of the French. I see Yonondio raving in a camp of sick 
 men, whose lives the Great Spirit has saved by inflicting this sick- 
 ness upon them. 
 
 " Hear, Yonondio : our women had taken their clubs, our children 
 and old men had carried their bows and arrows into the heart of your 
 camp, if our warriors had not disarmed them and kept them back, 
 
 * A term applied by the Indians to the governor of the French, as that of Corlaer 
 to the governor of the English. 
 
• THE FEENCH IN AMERICA. 401 
 
 when your messenger, Akouessan, came to our castles. It ia done, 
 and I have said it. 
 
 "Hear, Yonondio: we plundered none of the French, but those- 
 that carried arms, powder and ball to the Twightwies and Chicta- 
 ghicks, because those arms might have cc^t us our lives. Herein 
 we follow the example of the Jesuits, who break all the kegs of 
 rum brought to our castles, lest the drunken Indians should knock 
 them on the head. Our warriors have not beaver enough to pay for 
 all those arms that they have taken, and our old men are not afraid 
 of the war. This belt preserves my words."* 
 
 In the same lofty strain he asserted the independence of his nation, 
 and the propriety of keeping their enemies in check; concluding, 
 however, by presenting the governor a gift of beaver skins, and 
 inviting all present to an entertainment. Some reparation was finally 
 promised, but only on condition that the French forces should be 
 immediately withdrawn ; and with this unsatisfactory termmation of 
 his expedition, the governor was compelled to return. The English, 
 it is said, reproached their allies for not having pushed the war, 
 finding the enemy at such a disadvantage; but that high-spirited 
 people, with equal boldness and magnanimity, replied, "Yonondio 
 is our father, and Corlaer" (meaning the governor of New York) 
 "our brother; but neither of them is our master. He who created 
 the world, gave us the land which we occupy; we are free; we 
 respect both; but neither has a right to command us; and no person 
 ought to take offence that we prevent the earth from being troubled." In 
 this affair, the demeanour and attitude of the native tribes appear to 
 the highest advantage in contrast with those of the Europeans of 
 either nation. Shrewdness, national spirit, courage and moderation 
 distinguished their conduct of the whole transaction. 
 
 * At the end of each heading or section of a set Indian oration, it was customary 
 for the speaker to present a belt of wampuni, to be kept m perpetual reraembrance 
 of that portion. 
 
 Vol. IIL— 26 
 
402 AMEKICA ILLUSTEATED, 
 
 CHAPTER Yo 
 
 DJJ KONVILLE GOVERJ^OR. HIS TREACHERY TO THE IROQUOIS 
 
 RENEWED HOSTILITIES. ^TREATY 0? PEACE. BROKEN 
 
 BY TREACHERY. EXTRAORDINARY STRATAGEM OF LE 
 
 RAT, A HiJRON CHIEF. TERRIBLE INVASION BY THE 
 
 IROQUOIS, AND MASSACRE OF THE FRENCH DES- 
 PERATE CONDITION OF THE COLONY. 
 
 Not long after tlie expedition of La Barre, and its disastrous 
 result, the Marquis de Nonville, with a strong reinforcement, arrived 
 in Canada as governor-general. With two thousand troops he pro- 
 ceeded to Fort Cataraqui, or Frontenac, and at once renewed the 
 quarrel with the Iroquois, on the frivolous pretext that thej stood in 
 the way of the conversion of the other American tribes. Louis XIY. 
 had sent a cruel and mean-souled request for a number of warriors of 
 this redoubted nation as slaves to man his galleys; and De Nonville, 
 the fitting agent of such a master, under various pretences, induced 
 a number of the Iroquois chiefs to meet him at Fort Frontenac, 
 where they were immediately seized, loaded with irons, and dispatched 
 to France. This treacherous deed, the eternal dishonour of all con- 
 cerned in it, again lit up the flame of revenge among the injured 
 nation ; the country was ravaged around the fort, and a French vessel, 
 on Lake Ontario, laden with stores and provisions, was captured by 
 a great fleet of canoes. The governor, with a force of three thousand 
 French and Indians, marched into the Seneca country, but was enabled 
 to bring the enemy into action only once, when, owing to the inferior- 
 ity of their number, they were defeated. Nevertheless, a fort which 
 the governor had erected at Niagara, was destroyed, and Frontenac 
 itself was besieged. Ere long, twelve hundred warriors were within 
 a short distance of Montreal, and, apprehending the immediate 
 destruction of that settlement, the false-hearted governor listened to 
 overtures for peace. The Iroquois deputies, protected by five hun- 
 dred warriors, assumed a lofty tone; and De Nonville, forced to 
 comply with their conditions, agreed to send at once for their chiefs 
 who had been shipped to France, and were then chained to the gal- 
 leys of Louis XIY. An extraordinary piece of treachery and cun- 
 
THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 403 
 
 ning, devised by a chief of the Hurons, prevented this treaty from 
 taking effect, and renewed all the horrors of savage warfare. 
 
 Adario or Kondiaronk, also called Le Rat (the Rat) was among the 
 first of the diminished tribe of the Hurons, both in war and council ; 
 the ruling passion of his soul was hatred to the Iroquois, the ancient 
 enemies and formerly almost the exterminators of his race. In this 
 war, at the request of Nonville, he had set forth, with a hundred 
 warriors, to inflict some notable vengeance on his hereditary foes; 
 but stopping at Frontenac, had learned of the treaty. Though mad- 
 dened at the idea of losing his anticipated revenge, he suppressed 
 all emotion, and quitted the fort, apparently to return to his own 
 country. A most deadly scheme of incendiary treason was hatching 
 in his mind, which, with all its revolting details of cruelty, duplicity, 
 and perfidy, he carried into effect with the most singular boldness 
 and success. 
 
 "Instead of returning to Makilimakinak," relates Mr. McGregor," 
 "he proceeded with his warriors to the cascades, which are about 
 thirty miles above Montreal, and where he knew the Iroquois deputies, 
 with their hostages, would pass. Here he remained in ambush, 
 waiting for the deputies, who arrived in a few days, accompanied by 
 forty young men. He surprised them as they landed from their 
 canoes, killed several, and made the remainder prisoners. He then 
 told the captives that he was directed by the governor to occupy that 
 position, in order to intercept a party of Iroquois warriors, who were 
 to advance by that route to plunder the French settlements, and that 
 he must immediately conduct them as prisoners to Montreal, where 
 there was not the least hope of mercy for them. The deputies, amazed 
 at this intelligence, and their passions having been aggravated to fury 
 by recollecting that their chiefs were not yet sent back from France, 
 considered the conduct of M. de Nonville, and especially this last 
 apparent act of infamous perfidy, more horrible than all that their 
 imagination had attributed to demons. They then related the object 
 of their mission to Le Rat, who feigned astonishment; and after 
 remaining a short time silent, and seeming affected with sorrow, 
 assumed a ferocious air and tone, and declaimed, with all the force 
 and ingenuity of his eloquence, against M. de Nonville, for having 
 made him the instrument of the most diabolical treachery. He then 
 released the prisoners, and told them to return and tell their tribes 
 that the governor of the French had made him engage in a deed so 
 horribly atrocious, that he should never rest till he had satiated his 
 
404 AMERICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 revenge by the destruction of the Frencli settlements. The Iroquois 
 believed Le Rat; and his apparent clemency in setting them at lib- 
 erty so fully persuaded them of his sincerity, that they assured him 
 that the Five Nations would immediately ratify such terms of peace 
 with the Hurons as they might then agree upon. He then gave them 
 fusils, powder, and ball, to defend them on their way back; and, 
 under the pretence of replacing one man whom he had lost in attack- 
 ing the Iroquois, he retained an Indian of the Chouanan tribe, with 
 whom he returned to Makilimakinak. 
 
 "This unfortunate prisoner, who believed himself safe, from Le 
 Eat telling the Iroquois that he would retain him as an adopted son, 
 was delivered to the French commandant of that post, who was still 
 ignorant of the proceedings of M. de Nonville, and who, through 
 the statements made by Le Rat, condemned the unhappy wretch to 
 be shot. 
 
 "Le Rat had an old Iroquois slave, for a long time in his posses- 
 sion, to whom he afforded the opportunity of witnessing the execution 
 of his adopted countryman by the French, all the circumstances of 
 which, however, he carefully concealed from him. He then told 
 the Iroquois, * I now give you your liberty ; return to your country, 
 and there spend the remainder of your days in peace. Relate to 
 your people the barbarous and unjust conduct of the French, who, 
 while they are amusing your nation with offers of peace, seize every 
 opportunity of betraying and murdering you ; and that all my per- 
 suasions could not save the life even of one man of your tribe, whom 
 I adopted to replace the warrior I lost at the cascades.* 
 
 " The Iroquois returned to his country, and related what he had 
 witnessed, together with all that Le Rat had told him. The Iroquois 
 warriors, as might be anticipated, were even before this sufficiently 
 exasperated; but this last stroke of Le Rat*s policy made their very 
 blood boil furiously for revenge ; yet they dissembled their feelings 
 of resentment so completely, that M. de Nonville (who declared that 
 he would hang Le Rat whenever he could be captured) still expected 
 deputies from the Iroquois to ratify a peace." 
 
 These deputies presently arrived at the island of Montreal in the 
 shape of twelve hundred warriors, armed to the teeth, and inflamed 
 to madness by fury and revenge. All the houses and corn-fields of 
 the settlement were burned ; men, women, and children were massa- 
 cred indiscriminately; a hundred regular troops, with a small force 
 of Huron allies, were defeated and cut to pieces; and the triumphant 
 
THE FRENCH IN AMEEICA. 
 
 405 
 
 enemy, having laid waste the island with fire and sword, and having 
 lost only three of their number, departed, carrying off two hundred 
 prisoners, reserved for death and torture. Nearly a thousand of the 
 French are said to have perished or been captured in this terrible 
 invasion. The governor found it impossible to disabuse the offended 
 tribes of their belief in his treachery, thus reaping in full the bitter 
 fruits of his original perfidy. The war was continued, and famine 
 and disease were added to the calamities of the French. Fort Niag- 
 ara and Fort Frontenac were successively abandoned by their garri- 
 sons, and the unfortunate colony, devastated by pestilence, involved in 
 war with the English, and exposed to the still more terrible ravages 
 of Indian hostility, seemed reduced to an almost desperate condition. 
 
 CHAPTEH ?L 
 
 REAPPOINTMENT OF M. DE PRONTENAC. — NEGOTIATIONS WITE 
 
 THE lEOQUOIS. DESTRUCTION OF SCHENECTADY, ETC. 
 
 — UNSUCCESSFUL EXPEDITION OF PHIPPS AGAINST 
 
 QUEBEC. — RENEWED WARS WITH THE IROQUOIS. 
 
 EXPEDITION OF FRONTENAC. 
 
 In this extremity, it was found absolutely indispensable, that a 
 man of the first order of talents should be placed at the head of 
 afiairs in Canada; and the Count de Frontenac, whose former ad- 
 ministration, though self-willed and arbitrary, had been marked by 
 enterprise, energy, and policy, was at once reinstated in the office of 
 governor. (1689.) He brought with him to America the Iroquois 
 chiefs, so treacherously seized by his predecessor, and such was the 
 fascination of his manners, that he completely won their friendship 
 — Oureouhar^, the principal of them, ever after remaining strongly 
 attached to his person. By the advice of that chief, he sent four of 
 them as a deputation to their people, with overtures of peace ; and 
 the friendly adviser, adding a persuasive message, announced his 
 intention not to quit the count till the affair was satisfactorily adjusted. 
 
 But the hostile nation, embittered by ancient wrong, and haughty 
 with recent triumph, replied in lofty terms. The tree of peace, they 
 eaid, planted by Yonondio (the governor) at Frontenac, had been 
 
406 ■ AMEEICA ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 watered with blood and polluted by treachery. Let atonement be 
 made, and all the captives be delivered, and he might then "plant 
 again the tree of peace, but not in the same spot." Hostilities were 
 presently renewed, and Frontenac, perceiving how greatly the enemy 
 were encouraged by the alliance and instigation of the English, (now 
 at open war with France,) resolved to make the latter feel, in turn, 
 the terrors of savage enmity. An expedition, which, in 1690, he 
 fitted out from Quebec, consisting of a hundred French, and a force 
 of Indian allies, surprised Schenectady, then the frontier town of the 
 New York settlements. Sixty-three of the inhabitants were massa- 
 cred, and the rest carried prisoners into Canada. The English vil- 
 lage of Sementels was also surprised and destroyed by another party, 
 and the Iroquois in their turn also met with a signal defeat. This 
 active and cruel policy confirmed the latter in their hatred, but 
 increased the fidelity and attachment of the Hurons, Ottawas, and 
 other Indian allies of the French, who rejoiced in the return and the 
 sharp measures of "their great father," the count. 
 
 In the same year (1690) an expedition of thirty-four vessels, fitted 
 out for the conquest of Quebec, under Sir William Phipps, sailed 
 from Boston, and, having captured all the ports of Newfoundland and 
 Acadia, entered the St. Lawrence. On learning this disastrous news, 
 the count hastened to put the town in a state of defence, and peremp- 
 torily rejected a summons to surrender, which the English commander 
 dispatched in advance of his fleet. On the 18th of October, the English, 
 sustaining much loss from the sharp shooting of their enemies, dis- 
 embarked near the river St. Charles, not far from the city. An action 
 ensued, in which the assailants had at first the advantage, but were 
 finally repulsed by the garrison, though the latter were very inferior, 
 both in number and appointments. The English were finally com- 
 pelled to abandon the attempt, and to reembark, leaving their cannon 
 and ammunition. Despite this mortifying result, there is little doubt 
 that Phipps, from the vast superiority of his forces, both military and 
 naval, by a well-directed attack, could have carried the place ; and the 
 French, it is said, devoutly returned thanks to God for having, by a 
 special providence, deprived the enemy of common sense. On the 
 23d the hostile fleet sailed down the river, and seven or eight of the 
 vessels were soon after lost in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 
 
 The Iroquois, the next year, renewed hostilities, landing, with a 
 thousand warriors, on the island of Montreal, burning houses, and 
 carrying off prisoners, whom they put to death with cruel tortures. 
 
THE FRENCH IN AMEEICA. 407 
 
 Other i^cu^ions were made, and in the skirmishes which ensued, 
 many lives were lost on both sides — among them, those of several 
 French officers of high rank; and the French at last, by way of 
 retaliation, almost vied with the savages in the cruelties inflicted 
 on their captives. Under their famous chief, Black Kettle, the Iro- 
 quois made continual forays into the French territory, rendering 
 seed-time and harvest extremely dangerous, making the forts the only 
 places of safety, and boasting that their enemies should have no rest 
 except in the grave. Nevertheless, Frontenac, by his unremitting 
 vigilance and vigour, so far kept them at bay, that, in 1692, the 
 cultivation of the land was resumed, and the traffic in furs once 
 more renewed. 
 
 Two years afterwards, the hostile tribes made overtures of peace, 
 and Oureouhar^, who went into their country, returned with thirteen 
 French prisoners, some of them persons of distinction, who had long 
 been held in captivity; but owing to the insidious interference of 
 the English, nothing of importance was finally effected. The next 
 year (1695) Fort Cataraqui, or Frontenac, which had been aban- 
 doned and destroyed, was rebuilt, and in June of 1696, the French, 
 having mustered all their forces — regular, provincial, and Indian — 
 made a grand invasion of the enemy's country. "De Callieres 
 commanded the left wing, the Chevalier de Yaudreuil the right; 
 while the count, then seventy-six years of age, was carried in the 
 centre in an elbow-chair." No warriors, however, appeared to oppose 
 the march of this formidable force, and the principal fort of the Five 
 Nations was found already reduced to ashes. Only a single prisoner 
 was taken, an aged warrior, nearly a hundred years old, whom the 
 French, with almost inconceivable barbarity, delivered to their sav- 
 age allies to be tortured to death. With unmoved fortitude, he 
 endured their utmost cruelty, deriding them to the last as slaves of 
 a contemptible race of intruders. Nothing of moment was accom- 
 plished by this expedition, the Iroquois retreating without offering 
 battle during the advance, but harassing the invaders severely on 
 their return. 
 
 They prosecuted the war with vigour, but with their allies, the 
 English, met with repeated disasters; and the famous Black Kettle 
 was surprised and killed while hunting, by a party of Algonquins. 
 Negotiations for peace were again opened, but were retarded by the 
 death of Oureouhar^, the friendly mediator between his countrymen 
 and the French. The peace between France and England, concluded 
 
408 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 in 1698, opened the way for a more successful attempt, and a jeal- 
 ousy against the English, lately sprung up among the Iroquois, 
 furthered the advancement of the project. Just as the negotiation 
 was being concluded, on the 29th of November, 1698, the Count de 
 Frontenac died, at the age of seventy-eight years, twenty of which 
 had been passed in Canada, during an administration, from important 
 and interesting incidents, the most memorable in the history of that 
 province. Though the commencement of his official career was 
 marked by violence and self-will, yet, with little assistance from the 
 mother-country, he had preserved a colony which he found on the 
 verge of destruction, and ere its close he had regained the confidence 
 of the king, the respect of his subordinates, and in a great measure 
 the esteem and good-will of the long-hostile savages. 
 
 CnAPTER?IL 
 
 DE CALLIERES. — PEACE WITH THE IROQUOIS. SINGULAR RESOLU- 
 TION OF THE FRENCH PRISONERS. — DE VAUDREUIL. — EXPEDITION 
 AGAINST CANADA: DISCONCERTED BY THE IROQUOIS UNSUC- 
 CESSFUL EXPEDITION OF NICHOLSON. — TREATY OF UTRECHT. 
 
 EXTENSION AND IMPROVEMENT OF THE PROVINCE. — DE 
 
 BEAUHARNOIS. — PEACE AND PROSPERITY OF CANADA. 
 
 The office of governor, left vacant by the death of Frontenac, was 
 conferred on De Callieres, an able officer, who had been commandant 
 of Montreal, and who was high in favour with the Indian allies of 
 the French. It is said that on war parties and other solemn occasions, 
 he would dance the war-dance with them, brandishing his hatchet, 
 and enacting all the savage pantomime of a warrior bound against 
 his foes. His administration was marked by excellent prudence and 
 policy; and by the year 1700, a treaty of peace was finally effected 
 with the Five Nations, for so many years involved in such deadly 
 hostility with the Canadians. Numerous prisoners, on both sides, 
 were restored; but, singularly enough, while the savages sought 
 their forest-homes with eagerness, "the greater part of the French 
 captives were found to have contracted such an attachment to the 
 wild freedom of the woods, that neither the commands of the king 
 
THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 4.Q9 
 
 nor the tears and entreaties of tlieir fri.ends could induce them to 
 quit the savage associates with whom they were united." 
 
 The memorable war waged by Louis XIY. for the oppression of 
 Europe, and its disastrous results to the French, at Blenheim, Eamil- 
 lies, and other defeats, left the Canadian colonies dependant on their 
 own resources; and the death of the able De Callieres, which occur- 
 red in 1703, was a misfortune which was severely felt. " His loss was 
 great to Canada; and although his powers of mind wanted the 
 splendid points which cast such brilliant lustre on the government 
 of M. de Frontenac, yet, from his great excellence of character, he 
 was beloved and respected by all; and having aever violated his 
 word to the Indians, he always retained their implicit confidence." 
 The Count de Yaudreuil, agreeably to the general wish of the people, 
 was appointed to succeed him. 
 
 The English, now confident of expelling their rivals from Amer- 
 ica, called on the Iroquois to renew hostilities ; but that high-spirited 
 people, with honourable feeling, replied that when they made a 
 treaty, they did so to keep it ; whereas the English and the French 
 seemed to do so only for the purpose of breaking it; and one chief 
 plainly intimated his opinion that both nations were drunk. Some 
 minor hostile operations having occurred, the English, in 1709, 
 dispatched a great force from New York to effect the conquest of 
 Canada ; and a large body of Iroquois and Michigans, according to 
 requisiton, joined the expedition. A singular story is told of the 
 artful means used by the latter to disconcert the project of their 
 allies. A force dispatched by the governor to interrupt their pro- 
 gress having failed to accomplish its object, and the English being 
 exultant with the prospect of success, an Iroquois chief harangued 
 his countrymen on the impolicy of permitting the latter to com- 
 pletely overwhelm their enemies. "What will become of us," he 
 said, "if we destroy the French, who keep the English in check? 
 The latter will then assuredly crush us, in order to possess our coun- 
 try. Let us not, therefore, foolishly bring certain ruin on ourselves, 
 merely to indulge our passions or please the English. Let us rather 
 leave the French and English in a position which will make either 
 of them set a high value on our friendship." 
 
 The allied army halted on the bank of a small river, waiting for 
 artillery and ammunition, and the Iroquois busied themselves in 
 hunting — casting, it is said, the skins of various wild beasts into the 
 Btream above the encampment, and thus poisoning its waters, to the 
 
4:10 AMEEICA ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 great detriment of their English confederates. This story, so often 
 repeated by historians, may fairly be doubted, both on grounds of 
 moral probability and physical possibility ; but it is certain that a 
 fatal disease, carrying off many of the whites, appeared in the 
 camp, and that this, with the want of cordial cooperation among 
 their Indian auxiliaries, caused them to relinquish the enterprise 
 and return to New York. A second expedition of a formidable 
 nature, under General Nicholson, in 1710, was dispatched against 
 Canada; but that commander, learning that a fleet destined to aid 
 his operations and besiege Quebec, had been dispersed, with the loss 
 of eight large vessels, was compelled to abandon the attempt and 
 retrace his steps. The treaty of Utrecht, in 1713, restored peace to 
 the contending nations, though only by the cession to the English 
 of Acadia and Newfoundland. That the French, unassisted by the 
 mother-country, should have been able to retain their possessions in 
 Canada against the overwhelming forces of their allied enemies, is 
 something wonderful ; for there were at this time only four thousand 
 five hundred men, between the ages of fourteen and sixty, capable 
 of bearing arms, in the whole province; while the effective force of 
 their rivals was about sixty thousand. This improbable result was 
 due in part to the valour and genius of their officers, in part to the 
 incapacity and sluggishness of the English commanders, and still 
 more, no doubt, to the strength of their position and the inhospitable 
 nature of the climate and the country. 
 
 During the remainder of De Yaudreuil's administration, which 
 lasted till his death in 1725, the colony enjoyed peace and prosper- 
 ity, and cultivation and traffic were extended. For the twenty-one 
 years in which he held office, he enjoyed the confidence of his gov- 
 ernment and the deserved attachment and esteem of the people 
 committed to his charge. 
 
 The Chevalier de Beauharnois, who succeeded him, also held the 
 office of governor for twenty years — a period which, under his active 
 attention to the interests of the^ province, was characterized by 
 marked improvement and extension of colonization. From Quebec* 
 to Montreal the St. Lawrence was now fringed with cultivated farms . 
 the important fortress of Crown Point, with others, was erected for the 
 protection of the province, and the settlement at Detroit was raised intc 
 some importance. The enmity in which the French had so long been 
 involved with various powerful tribes of Indians, was now overcome ; 
 ind the amiable and courteous manners of the former, and their fre . 
 
THE FRENCH N AMEEICA. ^.^ 
 
 quent intermarriages witli the natives, had secured them the friend- 
 ship and alliance even of the races whose enmity and whose league 
 with the English, had so often threatened the destruction of the 
 colony. During the contests with the latter, which distinguished 
 much of the first part of the eighteenth century, Canada, for the 
 most part, enjoyed the blessing of peace, the struggle being princi- 
 pally confined to Nova Scotia. (See Acadia.) 
 
 CHAPTER ?HL 
 
 ENCEOACHMENTS OF THE FRENCH. — FORT DIJ QUESNE. — THE 
 FRENCH WAR. — EXPEDITION OF BRADDOCK: HIS DEFEAT AND 
 DEATH. — COLONEL WASHINGTON. — EXPEDITION AGAINST 
 CROWN POINT. — DEFEAT OF DIESKAU. — THE MARQUIS 
 DE MONTCALM: HIS SUCCESSES. — GREAT EXERTIONS 
 OF THE ENGLISH: THEIR SUPERIOR FORCE. — DE- 
 FEAT OF ABERCROMBIE AT TICONDEROGA. 
 
 A RAPID succession of governors, after the death of Beauharnois, 
 (1745,) held the province of Canada, the Marquis Du Quesne, the 
 fourth of them, arriving in 1752. This able and ambitious officer of 
 the crown pursued a steady system of encroachment on the English 
 colonies, and even erected a fort, bearing his own name, within the 
 confines of Virginia. General alarm was excited among the rival 
 settlements. Canada, by this time, had greatly increased in popula- 
 tion, the inhabitants, it was said, numbering ninety thousand. In 
 1555 the marquis was succeeded by De Yaudreuil Cavagnal, and 
 the same year the last and most memorable of the French- American 
 wars broke out. The unfortunate General Braddock, a man of 
 great energy and bravery, but obstinate and wrong-headed, at the 
 head of twenty-two hundred regular and provincial troops, set forth 
 on an expedition against the French on the Ohio. The baggage 
 and artillery being delayed by the roughness of the country, he 
 pushed ahead with thirteen hundred picked men, despising the 
 warnings of danger which he received from those better acquainted 
 with the country and the system of warfare. He had approached 
 within five miles of Fort Du Quesne, and was just crossing the 
 
412 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 Monongahela, when a deadly fire was opened on his ranks by a force 
 of two hundred French ttnd six hundred Indians, lurking in the 
 covert of a wood. The main body hastened up, with the artillery, 
 and Braddock used every exertion to inspirit his men. Five horses 
 were shot under him, and he soon fell, with a mortal wound. Sixty 
 of his officers were killed or disabled ; and his troops, falling on all 
 sides from the fire of their invisible opponents, were thrown into 
 iaopeless panic and confusion. The provincials, under Colonel 
 Washington, a young officer who had accompanied Braddock as aid, 
 alone made effectual resistance, and covered the retreat of the dis- 
 comfited regulars. On this terrible occasion, the loss of the English 
 in killed and wounded was seven hundred men, while that of the en- 
 emy was only about sixty. The expedition was entirely abandoned. 
 
 In the same year an army of six thousand men, under General 
 Johnson, was dispatched against the French fortress of Crown Point, 
 on Lake Champlain. To oppose this force, Baron Dieskau, with 
 two thousand men, was sent from Montreal, and after passing to the 
 upper extremity of Lake Champlain, landed his troops, and marched 
 toward the camp of the enemy. In a narrow defile he defeated a 
 large force of English and Mohawk Indians, sent in advance to inter- 
 cept him, and then proceeded to assault the English camp. It was, 
 however, protected by a breastwork of fallen trees, and by an almost 
 impenetrable swamp. The assailants were repulsed, with the loss 
 of a thousand men, and the survivors retreated to Crown Point. 
 Dieskau, mortally wounded, fell into the hands of the English. 
 Nevertheless, the successful general did not proceed against Crown 
 Point; and even suffered the French to fortify themselves at 
 Ticonderoga. 
 
 In the two succeeding years (1756, 1757) the gallant Marquis de 
 Montcalm, placed at the head of military affairs in Canada, gained 
 a series of brilliant successes, ending with the reduction of Forts 
 Oswego and William Henry. The garrison of the latter, two thou- 
 sand in number, after the surrender, were attacked by the Indians 
 of Montcalm's army, and a number were killed ; but the reports of 
 the massacre appear to have been extraordinarily exaggerated. Most 
 of the command found protection in the French camp, and the 
 greater part of the remainder, who fled into the woods, reached Fort 
 Edward in safety. At the close of this period, in spite of the exer- 
 tions of the English, the French still held possession of nearly all 
 the disputed territory, except Acadia; and a long chain of military 
 
THE FEENCH IN AMERICA. 413 
 
 posia, extending from the mouth of the St. Lawrence to the head- 
 waters of the Ohio, still remained in their hands, and protected their 
 acquisitions. Thej had driven the English from Lake George, and 
 compelled the Iroquois to observe neutrality. A terrible Indian war 
 was also devastating the north-western frontier of the British colonies. 
 
 Under the vigorous administration of Pitt, however, the war was 
 prosecuted with energy ; and the British- American colonies, stimu- 
 lated by his promises and requisitions, made extraordinary prepara- 
 tions for the conquest of the French provinces. Including a large 
 force of regulars which had been shipped from England, the entire • 
 levies available for this object amounted to fifty thousand troops; 
 whereas the whole population of Canada, capable of bearing arms, 
 did not exceed twenty thousand. The first operation of this over- 
 whelming force was the capture of the strong fortress and town of 
 Louisburg (see Cape Breton, Acadia, &c.), and the result was that 
 the entire control of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the adjacent 
 islands, passed finally into the hands of the English. 
 
 Meanwhile, General Abercrombie, with sixteen thousand men, 
 passing down Lake George, made a fierce assault on Ticonderoga, 
 garrisoned by some two thousand French soldiers. But the defences 
 proved much stronger than had been supposed ; and after a desperate 
 struggle, lasting for four hours, and the loss of two thousand men, 
 in killed and wounded, the British commander drew off his forces 
 and reti'eated, with disorder and precipitation, to Fort William 
 Henry. Fort Frontenac, feebly garrisoned, was not long after taken 
 by a force of English provincials, who, however, lost five hundred 
 of their number from sickness. Another force dispatched against 
 Fort Du Quesne, after meeting with some reverses, succeeded in 
 compelling the French to evacuate that important post. 
 
414 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 ujbliUijrJtJuJili ji<A>« 
 
 PREPARATIONS FOR THE CONQUEST OF CANADA. — ARMAMENT 
 UNDER WOLFE DISPATCHED TO QUEBEC. — DEFEAT OF THE 
 FRENCH ON THE HEIGHTS OF ABRAHAM. — DEAIH OF 
 WOLFE AND MONTCALM. — SURRENDER OF QUEBEC: BE- 
 SIEGED BY DE LEVI. — CONCENTRATION OF THE 
 
 ENGLISH FORCES. FALL OF MONTREAL AND 
 
 OF CANADA: CESSION TO ENGLAND. 
 
 Encouraged by the fall of Louisburg, and exasperated by defeat 
 and loss in other quarters, the English now made extraordinary ex- 
 ertions for the final conquest of Canada. General Amherst, with 
 twelve thousand troops, advanced by way of Lake Champlain, and 
 the important stations of Ticonderoga and Crown Point were aban- 
 doned by the French, obliged to concentrate their comparatively 
 feeble forces for the protection of Quebec. To attack this ancient 
 capital and stronghold of the Canadian French, General Wolfe, a 
 young ofiicer, who had distinguished himself at the siege of Louis- 
 burg, was entrusted with the command of eight thousand men, aided 
 by a powerful fleet, with which, in June, 1769, he made his appear- 
 ance in the St. Lawrence. 
 
 The brave Montcalm had made every exertion for the defence of 
 the city, and had concentrated there an army nearly as large as that 
 of the enemy, but composed mainly of Canadians and Indians. The 
 supply of provisions was also very limited. Wolfe landed on the 
 isle of Orleans, and first attempted the French camp at Montmorency, 
 near the city, the fire of the ships-of-war covering his disembarka- 
 tion. (July 31st.) But the French, strongly posted, and fighting 
 gallantly, repulsed the assailants, who were compelled to retire with 
 the loss of an hundred and eighty-two killed, and more than six 
 hundred wounded. 
 
 At a council of the officers of the invading army, it was now 
 resolved to make an attempt on the opposite side of the city, where 
 the lofty heights of Abraham present their almost inaccessible front 
 upon the river. To mislead the enemy, the ships moved a number 
 of miles above Quebec, and De Bougainville, who, with a force of fif- 
 
THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 4I5 
 
 teen hundred men, had been dispatched by Montcalm to oppose them, 
 deceived by this manoeuvre, also moved up the river. On the night 
 of the 12th of September, the vessels, dropping silently down the 
 stream, disembarked the whole force of British troops at Wolfe's 
 Cove, just below the face of the precipitous bluff. Grasping the 
 bushes to aid their perilous ascent, the soldiers succeeded in climbing 
 to the summit, and on the plains above were soon arrayed in order 
 of battle. Montcalm, on learning the disastrous intelligence, at once 
 perceived that nothing but an immediate victory could save the city, 
 and marched with all speed to the scene of action. 
 
 Some fifteen hundred skirmishers and Indians, who arrived first, 
 kept up a desultory discharge of musketry from the bushes; but tno 
 British army mostly reserved its fire until the main body of the 
 enemy, advancing briskly, had approached within forty yards of 
 their lines. Almost at the first volley, both generals fell, mortally 
 wounded, and the French were immediately thrown into confusion. 
 Their defeat was completed by frequent charges of the bayonet, 
 aided by the Highland broadsword. Wolfe, carried to the rear, and 
 hearing the cry, "they run," inquired "who run?" and being told 
 that it was the enemy, gave directions for ensuring the victory, and 
 exclaimed, "Now, God be praised! I die happy »" Hardly was the 
 battle over, when De Bougainville, who hurried to the scene of ao 
 tion, and whose presence, a little earlier, might have changed the 
 fate of the day, appeared; but seeing the defeat of his commander, 
 at once retreated. On the 18th, the city capitulated on honourable 
 terms, the French troops not being made prisoners of war, bat con- 
 veyed to their own country. 
 
 Amherst, who had taken Crown Point and Ticonderoga, and 
 Johnson, who had taken Fort Niagara, were unable, from the late- 
 ness of the season, to join, according to the plan of the campaign, 
 the victorious forces of Quebec. General De Levi, now the chief 
 French commander, had, meantime, assembled ten thousand troops 
 at Montreal, and in the following spring (April 27th, 1760) landing 
 his forces, took up a position on the heights of Abraham, and laid 
 siege to the city. The garrison, under General Murray, consisted 
 of six thousand men ; but in consequence of the ravages of scurvy, 
 only half of them were fit for duty. The general, considering the 
 event of the siege doubtful, resolved to anticipate matters, and, 
 accordingly, with all his available force, on the 27th, attacked the 
 enemy at Sillery. Overwhelmed by superior numbers, he waa 
 
416 AMEEICA ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 repulsed with great loss, and, retreating to Quebec, directed all his 
 energies toward putting that stronghold in a state of defence. The 
 arrival of a fleet, under Admiral Scranton, in the middle of May, 
 compelled the French to raise the siege. 
 
 They retreated to Montreal, where the Marquis de Yaudreuil, 
 having concentrated his troops, made an effort to hold out against 
 the combined forces of General Amherst and those of Quebec and 
 Niagara, which had now united in offensive operations. He was 
 compelled, however, on the 8th of September, of the same year, to 
 sign a capitulation, surrendering the city and the whole of Canada 
 to the British. Yery liberal terms were accorded by the victors, the 
 free exercise of the Catholic faith being guaranteed to the inhabitants; 
 and the property of the religious communities preserved inviolate 
 By the treaty of Paris, concluded in 1763, the possession of Cana/la. 
 as well as of the other conquered provinces, was formally ceded by 
 ihe French court to the British government 
 
i 
 
ACADIA, ETC. 
 
 uJtxAirJtiliJii <!• 
 
 EXPEDITION OP DE MONTS AND CHAMPLAIN — FIRST SETTLE- 
 MENT OF ACADIA. — PORT ROYAL. — MORTALITY AMONG THE 
 COLONISTS. — L ESC ARE AT. — THE JESUITS. — SETTLEME.NT 
 
 AT MOUNT DESERT: BROKEN UP BY THE ENGLISH, 
 
 DESTRUCTION OF PORT ROYAL. ALEXANDER. — LA 
 
 TOUR. — CESSIONS AND RECESSIONS OF ACADIA. — 
 HOSTILITIES OF THE ENGLISH COLONIES. — 
 PIRATICAL EXPEDITIONS. — FINAL SUBJEC- 
 TION OF ACADIA TO THE ENGLISH. 
 
 Nova Scotia (at that time called Acadia) was included in the 
 extensive province of New France, over which, in 1603, De Monts 
 was appointed governor. In March, 1604, accompanied by Cham- 
 plain, the famous founder of the Canadian colony, and other adven- 
 turers, he sailed with four ships from Havre, and on the 15th of 
 May arrived at a harbour of Acadia, which he called Port Kossignol. 
 At Port Mouton, he landed and made an encampment, and afterwards 
 cruising along the shore, passed by the Bay of Fundy into a beautiful 
 and extensive basin, now known as the harbour of Annapolis. With 
 the beauty and convenience of this location, Potrincourt, one of his 
 companions, was so charmed, that he resolved on making a settlement 
 there, naming it Port Koyal. 
 
 De Monts next discovered the river of St. John, on the west side 
 of the bay, and immediately afterwards the St. Croix, on a small 
 island at the mouth of which he resolved to winter. The situation 
 proved unfavourable, and out of seventy-six colonists, who had 
 remained with him, thirty-seven perished of the scurvy. Pontgrave, 
 the associate of Champlain, arriving from Europe, joined the sur- 
 vivors; St. Croix was abandoned, and all betook themselves to Porfe 
 lioval. Daring the next winter, De Monts was absent in France,. 
 Vol. III.— 27 
 
418 AMEEICA ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 leaving Champlain, Pontgrav6, and Campdore in command of tlie 
 colony, and did not return until the summer of 1606. In August 
 of that year he again sailed homeward. The settlement owed its 
 existence, in these early days, almost entirely to the perseverance 
 and sagacity of Lescarbot, a lawyer, who had accompanied Potrin- 
 court, and who insisted on the necessity of depending on the culti- 
 vation of the soil for subsistence, and not on supplies from Europe, 
 or a precarious traffic with the Indians. The succeeding winter 
 proved mild, and the colonists employed themselves in hunting and 
 in building; but, with the spring, arrived the disagreeable news that 
 the charter given to De Monts had been revoked, and that the colony 
 could no longer depend on his assistance. 
 
 Potrincourt now sailed for France, where he obtained from the 
 king a grant of Port Eoyal, on condition of taking out two Jesuits, 
 to convert the savages. These gentlemen he strictly excluded from 
 any share in the management of the colony, informing them "that 
 their duty was limited to teaching men the way to heaven, and that 
 it remained for him to govern and direct those under him on earth." 
 In consequence of this treatment, they dispatched an ill account of 
 him to France; and in 1613 a vessel sent from that country, with 
 two more priests and some emigrants, carried away the Jesuits from 
 Port Royal, and sailed to the island of Mount Desert, not far from 
 Penobscot Bay. Here a settlement, named St. Saviour's, was founded, 
 and the erection of buildings was commenced; but while thus en- 
 gaged, the peaceful colonists were surprised by an English ship-of- 
 war, under Captain Argall, of Virginia, who seized all their property, 
 and made them prisoners. One of the Jesuits, while urging his peo- 
 ple to defend themselves, was shot through the head; and two ves- 
 sels, at anchor off the port, were seized, in one of which a part of 
 the colonists were sent to France, and the rest in the other to Yirginia. 
 
 Despite the peace existing between the two nations, the same 
 piratical commander, in 1615, again set forth from Yirginia to com- 
 plete the destruction of the feeble colonies of the French. Piloted 
 by one of the Jesuits, he proceeded to Port Royal, then commanded 
 by Biencourt, the son of Potrincourt, and levelled the fort, the gov- 
 ernor vainly attempting to propitiate him by negotiation and fair 
 offers. Some of the French fled to Canada, some joined the native 
 tribes, and the rest were sent prisoners to England. "This outrage- 
 ous destruction of Port Royal," says an English author, "during a 
 time of profound peace between England and France, could never 
 
ixiJi JJKJLM/H IN AMEKICA. 4^9 
 
 be defended on the slightest ground of justice or provocation; and 
 must be attributed principally to the thirst for plunder, and to reli- 
 gious bigotry. By this atrocious violation of private property, the 
 first settlement made in North America was destroyed in 1615, after 
 prospering for ten years, and without experiencing a share of that 
 ferocious opposition, from the natives, which proved so fatal to the 
 early attempts of England at colonization." 
 
 Though the settlement was thus broken up, numbers of French, 
 and Dutch continued to resort to the shores of Acadia, for fishing 
 and trading with the natives, and Sir William Alexander, to whom 
 James I.- had given a patent of the country, under the title of Nova 
 Scotia, made an ineffectual attempt to found a colony there. In 1627, 
 with a French Calvinist, named Kirch t (Kirk), he sailed for the 
 province, (where Port Royal had commenced a second feeble growth) 
 and, after capturing a fleet of French transports, destined for that 
 settlement and for Quebec, again reduced the place. He made no 
 settlements, however, to replace those which he had destroyed ; and 
 two years afterwards, transferred the province to La Tour, a French 
 Protestant, who had formed English connections. This gentleman 
 proceeded to Nova Scotia, where his son Etienne held a fortress for 
 the French at Cape Sable, but was unable to enforce his submission 
 to the English patent, and returned without efiecting a settlement. 
 
 In 1632, by the treaty of St. Germains, Canada, Acadia, and Cape 
 Breton were receded to France, and were placed under the control 
 of the "Company of New France." (See Canada.) Etienne La Tour, 
 whose chief establishment was on the River St. John, by his rivalry 
 in the fur-trade, gave great annoyance to the governors appointed by 
 the company; and M. Denys, the third of them, was completely 
 ruined, and compelled to leave the colony. When, in 1654, the 
 province was reduced by a force dispatched by Cromwell, the suc- 
 cessful intriguer transferred his allegiance to England, and received 
 a grant of his lands, &c., from the hands of that sovereign. The 
 whole, however, by the treaty of Breda, was again receded to France, 
 and again became repeatedly the subject of aggression and violence 
 from the neighbouring English colonies. 
 
 Sir William Phipps, in 1690, took Port Royal, again destroyed 
 the fort, and burned the French establishments at Chedebucto. The 
 French, in retaliation, demolished the English fort at Pemaquid, and 
 Colonel Church, in turn, sailed up the Bay of Fundy (1696), burned 
 their houses, killed their cattle, and destroyed the dikes which they 
 
420 AMERICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 had built to protect their meadows from the sea. Id 1704, that ener- 
 getic, tut cruel and unscrupulous commander, with six hundred 
 troops, made a second piratical excursion from New England to the 
 devoted colony. He seized all the property and burned all the 
 houses at Passamaquoddy, and sent an expedition in boats, which 
 plundered and destroyed three thriving villages at Minas. The fort- 
 ress at Port Eoyal, which had been rebuilt, proved too strong for 
 him, and after sailing up the Basin of Minas, and laying waste all 
 the settlements there, he returned with his plunder to Massachusetts. 
 In 1707, a thousand troops, with two ships of war, were again dis- 
 patched from New England against Port Eoyal, but were repulsed 
 with spirit by the governor, M. Subercase; and a second attempt, 
 afterwards made by the same force, proved equally futile. 
 
 The English, their pride piqued by these successive failures, now 
 made preparations on a scale which should ensure success; and in 
 1710 an armament consisting of nineteen vessels, bearing five regi- 
 ments, under command of General Nicholson, arrived at Port Eoyal. 
 
 The troops were landed and batteries were erected ; and after a 
 heavy cannonade on both sides, the brave governor, compelled by 
 superior force, capitulated on honourable terms. Acadia thus again 
 came finally into possession of the English. The cruel treatment of 
 the inhabitants and their lamentable expulsion from their homes will 
 be briefly described in the succeeding chapter. 
 
 ACCOUNT OP THE ACADIANS. THEIR INNOCENCE, SIMPLICITY, 
 
 AND HAPPINESS. — DESCRIPTION BY RAYNAL. — ENMITY OF 
 THE ENGLISH. — MASSACRE AT KENNEBEC: REVENGED 
 BY THE INDIANS. — FURTHER HOSTILITIES. — CRUEL 
 EXPULSION OF THE ACADIANS. — THEIR TRANS- 
 PORTATION AND SUFFERINGS. AFFECTING 
 
 MEMORIAL. — THEIR FATE. 
 
 According to the accounts of contemporary writers, there has 
 seldom been a community so prosperous in its simplicity or so happy 
 in its isolation and obscurity as the little colony of Acadia. The 
 
THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 421 
 
 ricli lands of that province, protected from the sea by well-constructed 
 dikes, and improved by intelligent husbandry, afforded an ample 
 subsistence to all the inhabitants; and the rarity of foreign inter- 
 course left their affections and manners in a state of primitive 
 ingenuousness. Though far from warlike in their habits, a spirit of 
 patriotism and attachment to the mother-country was strongly im 
 planted in their minds. In the words of the Abb6 Kaynal, ''such 
 was the attachment which the French then had for the honour of 
 their country, that the Acadians, who, in submitting to a new yoke, 
 had sworn never to bear arms against their former standards, were 
 called French neutrals. 
 
 "No magistrate was ever appointed to rule over them, and they 
 were never acquainted with the laws of England. No rents, or 
 taxes of any kind were ever exacted from them. Their new sover- 
 eign seemed to have forgotten them, and they were equally strangers 
 to him. **-}e-*4f-***** 
 
 "Their manners were, of course, extremely simple. There was 
 never a cause, either civil or criminal, of importance enough to be 
 carried before the Court of Judicature established at Annapolis. 
 Whatever little differences, from time to time, arose among them, 
 were amicably adjusted by their elders. All their public acts were 
 drawn by their pastors, who had likewise the keeping of their wills, 
 for which, and for their religious services, the inhabitants voluntarily 
 gave them a twenty-seventh part of their harvests. 
 
 "These were plentiful enough to supply more than a sufficiency 
 for every act of liberality. Keal misery was entirely unknown, and 
 benevolence prevented the demands of poverty. Every misfortune 
 was relieved before it was felt, and good was universally dispensed 
 without ostentation on the part of the giver, and without humiliating 
 the person Vho received. These people were, in a word, a society 
 of brethren, every individual of whom was equally ready to give, 
 and to receive, what he thought the common right of mankind. 
 
 " So perfect a harmony naturally prevented all those connections 
 of gallantry which are so often fatal to the peace of families. There 
 never was an instance in this society of an unlawful commerce be- 
 tween the two sexes. (!) This evil was prevented by early marriages; 
 for no one passed his youth in a state of celibacy. As soon as a 
 young man came to the proper age, the community built him a house, 
 ploughed the lands about it, sowed them, and supplied him with all 
 the necessaries of life for a twelvemonth. Here he received the 
 
422 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 partner wliom he had chosen, and who brought him her portion of 
 ner father's flocks. This family grew up, and prospered like the 
 others. They altogether amounted to about eighteen thousand soula 
 
 "Who will not be affected," he continues, "with the innocent 
 manners and the tranquillity of this fortunate colony ? Who will 
 not wish for the duration of its happiness? Who will not construct, 
 m imagination, an impenetrable wall, that may separate these colo- 
 nies from their unjust and turbulent neighbours? The calamities of 
 the people have no period; but, on the contrary, the end of their 
 felicity is always at hand.*' 
 
 This peaceful and happy association, so eloquently described, was 
 destined to a brief tenure of its innocent prosperity. The neighbour- 
 ing British settlers, harassed by Indian hostilities, and ascribing them 
 to the influence of the French, were not long in taking a sharp and 
 cruel revenge. A force sent from Massachusetts isurprised the French 
 and Indian establishment at Kennebec, and slaughtered most of the 
 inhabitants. Among them was the venerable Father Ealle, who 
 had lived for forty years as a missionary among the Indians, and 
 who was murdered at the foot of a cross erected in the centre of the 
 village. In revenge for this deed, an Indian force committed equal 
 cruelties at Canseau, Dartmouth, and Halifax, selling their prisoners 
 to the French at Louisburg. The governor of that town, in answer 
 to the remonstrances of the English, replied, and probably with truth, 
 "that he had no control over the savages, and that the premiums 
 given for English prisoners were paid from feelings of humanity, to 
 prevent the horrible tortures and death which the savages would 
 inflict." The latter still continued hostilities, "incessantly commit- 
 ting murders along the coast; and it was impossible to guard the 
 colonists effectually against enemies, who sprung with the agility 
 and fury of tigers from the thickets, or who. came along silently in 
 their birch canoes during night." 
 
 An English expedition being dispatched to Chignecto, the inhab- 
 itants, dreading the fate of Kennebec, burned their houses and joined 
 La Corne, the commander of a Canadian force, who had come down 
 to Acadia, and had erected several forts there. In 1754 an English 
 force reduced several of these hostile stations, and Major Lawrence, 
 the English governor of Nova Scotia, resolved, unless the Acadians 
 would take the oath of allegiance to the English crown in the fullest 
 terms, they should be transported from the country. The unfor- 
 tunate inhabitants, most of whom had peaceably submitted to the 
 
TEE FKENCH IN AMEEICA. ^23 
 
 new rule, entreated that they might be allowed to remove into Can- 
 ada or Cape Breton; and offered to swear full allegiance to the 
 British sovereign, if permitted to remain, only excepting bearing 
 arms against their countrymen and the Indians. 
 
 But a cruel policy, fearing to strengthen the other French colonies, 
 prevented the authorities from acceding to either of these requests, 
 and Colonel Winslow, without any intimation of his purpose, sum- 
 moned the Acadians to appear before him at Grand Pre. About 
 four hundred men, who complied with this requisition, were impris- 
 oned in the church at that place, and, to their consternation, were 
 informed that all their lands and flocks were confiscated, and that 
 they and their families were to be transported to the British colonies. 
 
 At this time, the stationary population of Acadia amounted to 
 about twenty thousand, who were living in ease and prosperity on 
 their farms, when thus ruthlessly summoned to exile and separation. 
 On learning the terrible decree, "many of them," says Mr. McGregor; 
 "fled to the woods, and joined the Indians; others found their way 
 to Canada, and to the island of St. John's, near Prince Edward's, 
 The settlements at Chignecto and Minas were subjected to conflagra- 
 tion ; and all their villages and farms laid waste, and their houses 
 and churches reduced to ashes. The wretched inhabitants, deprived 
 of food or shelter, were obliged to surrender, or fly to the woods, in 
 order to escape finally to Canada, the island of St. John's or Gape 
 Breton. Some found their way to, and established themselves in 
 Hayti and Louisiana. From seven to eight thousand surrendered 
 at discretion ; and Colonel Winslow, in sending them away from a 
 country to which they were so much attached, acted with far more 
 kindness and delicacy than his orders strictly allowed. Their treat- 
 ment in the southern colonies, to which they were transported, was 
 cruel and undeserved; they experienced the treatment, not of 
 prisoners of war, but of condemned convicts. Several families found 
 their way to France, where they arrived utterly destitute." 
 
 In an affecting, but, it is almost needless to say futile, memorial to 
 the British sovereign, (George III.,) the exiled Acadians, from their 
 places of banishment, stated the inhumanity of their treatment, their 
 conscientious scruples as to the required oath, and besought redress. 
 "Thus," they conclude, "we, our ancient parents and grand-parents, 
 (men of great integrity, and approved fidelity to your majesty,) and 
 our innocent wives and children, became the unhappy victims of 
 those groundless fears; we were transported into the English colonies, 
 
4:24 AMEKICA ILLUSTKATED. 
 
 and this was done with, so much haste, and so little regard to our 
 necessities and the tenderest ties of nature, that, from the most 
 social enjoyments and affluent circumstances, many found themselves 
 destitute of the necessaries of life ; parents were separated from chil- 
 dren, and husbands from wives, some of whom have not, to this 
 day, met again; and we were so crowded in the transport- vessels 
 that we had not room even for all our bodies to lie down at once, 
 and consequently were prevented from carrying with us proper 
 necessaries, especially for the comfort and support of the aged and 
 weak, many of whom quickly ended their misery with their lives ; 
 and even those among us who had suffered most deeply from your 
 majesty's enemies, on account of their attachment to your majesty's 
 government, were equally involved in the common calamity — of 
 which Ken6 Leblanc, the notary public, before mentioned, is a re- 
 markable instance: he was seized, confined, and brought away among 
 the rest of the people, and his family, consisting of twenty children 
 and about an hundred and fifty grand-children, were scattered in 
 different colonies; — so that he was put ashore at Kew York, with 
 only his wife and two youngest children, in an infirm state of health, 
 from whence he joined three more of his children at Philadelphia, 
 where he died, without any more notice being taken of him than of 
 us, notwithstanding his many years' labour and deep sufferings for 
 your majesty's service. 
 
 "The miseries we have since endured are scarce sufficiently to be 
 expressed, being reduced, for a livelihood, to toi' and hard labour in 
 a southern clime, so disagreeing with our coiibiitutions that most of 
 us have been prevented by sickness from obtaining the necessary 
 subsistence for our families, and are therefore threatened with that 
 which we esteem the greatest aggravation of all our sufferings, even 
 of having our children forced from us, and bound out to strangers, and 
 exposed to contagious distempers, unknown in our native country. 
 
 "This, compared with the ease and affluence we enjoyed, shows 
 our condition to be extremely wretched. We have already seen, 
 in this province of Pennsylvania, two hundred and fifty of our peo- 
 ple, which is more than half the number that were landed here, 
 perish through misery and various diseases. In this great distress 
 and misery, we have, under God, none but your majesty to look to, 
 with hopes of relief and redress. We, therefore, hereby implore 
 your gracious protection, and request you may be pleased to let the 
 justice of our complaints be truly and impartially inquired into, and 
 
TEE FEENCK IN AMEEICA. 425 
 
 that your majesty would please to grant us such relief, as in your 
 justice and clemency you shall think our case requires, and we shall 
 hold ourselves bound to pray," &;c. 
 
 This simple, truthful, and touching appeal, with others of the 
 like character, availed them nothing with the heartless and obstinate 
 sovereign to whom it was addressed. Great numbers perished in 
 the southern colonies, and such as were finally suffered to return, 
 found their ancient homes in the possession of the invaders. *- 
 
 Such was the tragical fate of a community, the most remarkable 
 for its quiet prosperity, for its innocent enjoyment, and for its patri- 
 archal simplicity of manners, perhaps ever known in history, and 
 almost realizing the fabled happiness of the ancient Arcadia itself. 
 If, as an historical event, its importance be comparatively small, the 
 interest which invests all unmerited human misfortunes will yet 
 keep the mournful facts in remembrance, and the fate of Acadia, 
 familiarized and eternized by the genius of "Evangeline," will ever 
 remain one of the most touching and memorable episodes in Amer- 
 ican aunals. 
 
CAPE BRETON, ETC. 
 
 CBSSION OF THE FRENCH PROVINCES TO ENGLAND. — lOUISBURG 
 
 FOUNDED ON CAPE BRETON: ITS IMPORTANCE. EXPEDITION 
 
 OF PEPPERALL. — LOUISBURG TAKEN BY THE ENGLISH: 
 
 RECEDED TO FRANCE. — EXPEDITION OF AMHERST. 
 
 BRAYE DEFENCE OF LOUISBURG: ITS SURRENDER AND 
 
 DESTRUCTION. — ST. JOHN'S: CAPTURED BY THE 
 
 ENGLISH. INDIAN TROPHIES DISCOVERED THERE. 
 
 The early resort of the French fishermen to the bank of New 
 foundland has been mentioned. On the island of the same name, 
 at Placentia Bay, they made a small settlement, and were in the 
 habit of frequenting other portions of the coast; but the whole, by 
 the treaty of Utrecht, was ceded to Great Britain. The island of 
 Cape Breton, (a name first applied by the early French voyagers to 
 its eastern point, and afterwards extended to the whole,) was first 
 settled in the year 1714, by some colonists from Newfoundland and 
 Acadia, principally for convenience of fishing. By the treaty of 
 Utrecht, in the following year, Acadia, Newfoundland, and other 
 portions of "New France," were ceded to England; but Canada, Cape 
 Breton, and St. John's island (Prince Edward's) were retained by the 
 mother-country. 
 
 These diminished possessions now assumed fresh importance in 
 the eyes of the French; and especially with a view to commanding 
 the mouth of the St. Lawrence and protecting the fisheries, it was 
 determined to found a military post on Cape Breton. Accordingly, 
 in the year 1720, the town and harbour of Louisburg were fortified, 
 and were eventually made one of the most important strongholds of 
 the French in all America. Its value to that people was great, 
 especially from the commanding position which it occupied near the 
 fisheries — in which, at some times, six hundred vessels and twenty- 
 eight thousand seamen were constantly employed. No pains or 
 outlay was spared by the French government in providing for its 
 strength and defence. '' There is hardly a settlement," says a writer 
 
THE FEENCIl IN AMEP.ICA. 427 
 
 ot\ht *!a^, 'Hbat has been attended with more expense to the Fiench 
 nation than ih5s of Louisburg. It is certain that they have laid out 
 about thirty millions of livres ; and so cogent were the motives which 
 induced them to put this scheme into execution, that the preserva- 
 tion of Louisburg will always be considered as an object of too great 
 importance not to sacrifice every thing to it. Cape Breton protects 
 the whole French trade of North America, and is of equal conse- 
 quence in regard to their commerce with the West Indies. If they 
 had no settlement in this part of North America, their vessels, re- 
 turning from St. Domingo or Martinique, would no longer be safe 
 on the Great Bank of Newfoundland, particularly in time of war; 
 lastly, as it is situated at the entrance of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, 
 it absolutely commands the river of that name." 
 
 The English, continually engaged in warfare with their neigh- 
 bours, were not long in making demonstrations against a place of 
 such value to the enemy, and so easily accessible by sea. In 1745, 
 a force of four thousand men, under command of Colonel William 
 Pepperall, was dispatched against Louisburg from New England — a 
 spirit of fanatical enmity to the French and to Catholicism being, it 
 is said, one of the principal exciting causes. Their banner bore the 
 legend, "iVzY desperandum, Christo duce^'* supplied by the famous 
 Whitfield ; and a species of crusading spirit distinguished the expe- 
 dition. This force, conveyed to the scene of action in transports, 
 was joined by an English squadron, under Commodore Warren, 
 who had just captured a French seventy -four, with a great supply 
 of stores; and the whole armament, both naval and military, laid 
 siege to Louisburg. On the 18th of June, after a brave resistance 
 of forty-nine days, the garrison was compelled to surrender, and the 
 English took possession of the town, with stores and merchandise 
 of immense value. Some time afterwards, by hoisting the French 
 flag, they decoyed into the harbour and captured several ships, 
 richly laden, their value being estimated at several millions of 
 dollars. St. John's (Prince Edward's) also fell into the hands of the 
 English, and many of the inhabitants were transported to France. 
 
 By the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1748, Cape Breton, in ex- 
 change for Madras, was restored to France, with which power it 
 remained until the memorable expedition under Boscawen and 
 Amherst, with Wolfe and Lawrence, in the year 1758. This arma- 
 ment, one of the most powerful ever dispatched to America, C(m- 
 sisted of twenty-three ships of the line, eighteen frigates, and sloops- 
 
428 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 of- war and transports amounting to an hundred and fiftj-seven 
 ships, and of sixteen thousand soldiers. From the 8th to the 26th 
 of July, the garrison, under their governor, M. de Drucourt, defended 
 the place with extraordinary bravery; and Madame de Drucourt, 
 the intrepid wife of the commander, appeared every day upon the 
 ramparts, animating the soldiers to fresh vigilance and exertion. 
 Despite these heroic efforts, the French, overpowered by the vastly 
 superior force of the besiegers, were finally compelled to surrender, 
 and thus, on the 26th of July, 1768, Cape Breton passed finally into 
 the hands of the English. 
 
 At that time, the population of Louisburg, exclusive of the troops, 
 was about five thousand. The merchants and the greater part of 
 the inhabitants were sent to France in English vessels ; but all the 
 ofiicers of government, both civil and military, and all the troops, 
 numbering nearly six thousand, were dispatched to England as 
 prisoners of war. More than two hundred pieces of artillery, be- 
 sides stores and munitions of great value, fell into the hands of the 
 victors. Fearing lest this important post might be recovered by the 
 French, the British government caused the town and the massive 
 fortifications to be demolished, and, despite the natural advantages 
 of the place, they have ever since remained in ruins. 
 
 The island of St. John's, or Prince Edward's, discovered, it is said, 
 by Cabot, and afterwards seen by Yerrazano, was not colonized by 
 the French, except in some unimportant fishing stations, until after 
 the treaty of Utrecht. Considerable numbers then flocked thither 
 from Acadia and Cape Breton; and the colony became of some im- 
 portance, both for its fisheries and for supplying Louisburg with 
 provisions. At Port La Joye, (now Charlotte Town,) a small garri- 
 son was stationed. At the time of its surrender to the English, in 
 1758, the population was about six thousand. This island had been 
 for many years the resort of the Mic-Mac Indians, noted for their 
 murderous and continued hostility to the English. The latter 
 averred that even during time of peace, these aggressions and mas- 
 sacres were encouraged by the French of St. John's; and Colonel 
 Eollo, who, after after the surrender of Louisburg, was dispatched by 
 General Amherst to take possession of the island, asserted that on its 
 capture, a vast number of scalps, the trophies of Indian cruelty, 
 were found hung up in the house of the French governor. On the 
 conclusion of peace in 1763, this colony and that of Cape Breton 
 were annexed to the government of Nova Scotia. 
 
L OUI S I AI A. 
 
 uttftU.irxjuxi Jt 
 
 THE KIO GRANDE. — THE CANADIAN FRENCH. REPORTS Of 
 
 THE INDIANS. — FATHER MARQUETTE AND M. JOLIET: THEIR 
 EXPEDITION IN SEARCH OF THE MISSISSIPPI: VOYAGE 
 DOWN ITS STREAM — PAINTED MONSTERS. — THE MIS- 
 SOURI. — OHIO. — ARKANSAS. RETURN VOYAGE. 
 
 DEATH OF FATHER MARQUETTE. ENTHUSIASM 
 
 OF THE FRENCH AT HIS DISCOVERY. 
 
 In the account of Florida, mention has been made of a majestic 
 river, discovered by the famous De Soto, in 1541, and described as 
 the Eio Grande. The disastrous fate of the expedition which he 
 commanded, seems to have deterred the Spaniards for more than a 
 century from making any further attempt in the same direction. For 
 an hundred and thirty years nothing more was known of that mighty 
 stream, the effluence of a continent, and now, without question, the 
 most important in the world. The enterprising spirit of the Cana- 
 dian French, in their expeditions of war, of traffic, or of survey, 
 had made them acquainted with extensive regions lying around the 
 great lakes, and the streams which flow into them. From the reports 
 of the Indians dwelling in those remote territories, the existence of 
 a great river in the west was ascertained; and the opinion of geo- 
 graphers was divided as to the probable place of its disembogue- 
 ment. It was thought by some that it must flow into the Gulf of 
 California; by others, into the Atlantic, near the coast of Virginia; 
 and by others, on better grounds, that its outlet could be in no 
 other region than the Gulf of Mexico. 
 
 Under the enterprising administration of Count Frontenac, two 
 men were found daring enough to attempt the task of its discovery 
 and survey. These were Father Marquette, a missionary, eminent 
 for his piety and his zeal in the conversion of the natives, a great 
 
430 AMEHICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 traveller, and familiar with their languages, and M. Joliet, an ad- 
 venturous citizen of Quebec. With five other Frenchmen, on the 
 13th of May, 1678, these venturous explorers, in two canoes, took 
 their departure from the remote outpost of Michilimackinac. Pass- 
 ing the tribes of the "Folles Avoines" or Wild Rice, (so called from 
 the native grain on which they chiefly subsisted,) the voyagers 
 received many warnings from that friendly people, of the perils to 
 be encountered on their proposed journey — "of the dangers of the 
 river, of the savage tribes which dwelt on its banks, and of the ter- 
 rible monsters (alligators) which swarmed in that region of heat 
 whither it flowed." But the pious father only replied, that he had no 
 fear of these terrors, and would gladly lay down his life to further 
 the salvation of souls in those distant regions. 
 
 Entering Green Bay, at the north-west of Lake Michigan, the 
 adventurers ascended the Fox river, and found friendly entertain- 
 ment among the Miamis, a people already in a degree converted by 
 the exertions of a zealous missionary, the Father Allouez. In the 
 centre of their principal village was a large cross, covered with offer 
 ings to the Great Spirit, in token of thankfulness for success in 
 hunting. On the 10th of June, the associates left this river, and, 
 guided by the natives, transported their canoes to another, running 
 in a different direction, which, they were told, would lead them to 
 the Great River, the object of their search. Down this stream (the 
 Wisconsin) they paddled for forty leagues, observing deer and buf- 
 falo on the banks, and on the 17th entered the majestic "Meate 
 Chassipi," or Father of Waters, which, under the name of the Mis- 
 sissippi, still retains nearly its original native appellation. 
 
 Down this great stream they floated for sixty leagues, without 
 seeing any sign of human habitation — landing, toward evening, to 
 cook their food, and anchoring in the river, for security, during the 
 night. At length, seeing foot-prints on the shore, they landed, and 
 Marquette and Joliet, following a path which led, for two leagues, 
 through the prairie, came to three villages of the Illinois, who re- 
 ceived them with much kindness. The pipe of peace was solemnly 
 smoked, presents were interchanged, and on the following day more 
 than six hundred of this friendly people accompanied them to their 
 canoes, and bade them adieu with every token of good-will. Pur- 
 suing their course, they beheld, on the face of a lofty precipice, 
 fronting the river, and apparently inaccessible to man, the figures 
 of "two raonsters," painted in green, red, and blue, and so well exe- 
 
THE FRENCH IN AMEEICA. 431 
 
 cuted that it seemed doubtful if they were the work of savages. 
 These effigies are, or were recently, in a state of good preservation. 
 
 They had now learned of the existence of a great river, called the 
 Pekitanoni, or Missouri, flowing into the Mississippi, and ere long 
 were involved in its turbid flood, which, swelled with rains, rushed 
 furiously down, bearing great masses of driftwood. From a village 
 named Oumissouri, on the shore of this stream, its present name is 
 derived. At the mouth of the Ohio, to their surprise, they found 
 savages armed with muskets, which, with other European articles, 
 the Indians said, had been purchased of white men from the east. 
 Entering their dwellings. Father Marquette smoked with them the 
 calumet of peace, as usual, and gave them what instruction he could 
 in Christianity. Still floating southward, about the thirty-third de- 
 gree of latitude, he came to an Indian village, named Metchigamea. 
 The people here were at first hostile, but being propitiated by the un- 
 failing calumet, listened to such religious instruction as the good father 
 was able to impart. Ten leagues below this place, at a village called 
 Akamsca, (Arkansas,) he was informed, by the aid of an interpreter, 
 that the sea was only five days distant. Concluding that the object 
 of their expedition was secured by this supposed ascertainment of 
 the debouchement of the stream into the Gulf of Mexico, and dread- 
 ing the cruelties of the Spaniards who dwelt upon its shores, the 
 explorers thought it prudent to return. 
 
 Ascending with great toil and difficulty against the current, they 
 finally came to the Illinois river, up which they passed with greater 
 ease to Lake Michigan, where they arrived in September. In the 
 four months which they had consumed in their arduous expedition, a 
 vast accession had been made to geographical knowledge, and the way 
 to one of the richest and most valuable regions on earth had been 
 laid open to mankind. More than two thousand five hundred miles 
 had been traversed, in their frail barks, amid a thousand dangers, 
 by these adventurous men. Father Marquette drew up a brief nar- 
 rative of the expedition, and constructed a map of the route, which 
 represents, with tolerable distinctness, all the great features of the 
 river and the country he had explored. 
 
 At the lake, he parted from Joliet, who hastened with the tidings 
 to Quebec, while the good missionary remained with his savage 
 friends. "Indifferent to renown, and zealously occupied with the 
 salvation of souls, he again took his way to the wilderness, and 
 busied himself as a missionary among the Miamis. Death soon 
 
432 AMERICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 overtook "him in his pious pilgrimage. On the 18th of May, 1675, 
 coasting in his canoe along the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, he 
 entered a small river. Here he landed, built an altar, and performed 
 the mass, saying that his voyage, he believed, was destined to end 
 there. He then retired into the wood, desiring his two companions 
 to leave him alone for the space of half an hour. At the end of 
 that time they made search, and found the good father, his present- 
 iment fulfilled, lying quietly dead in the shade of the eternal forest. 
 In this obscure, but not unfitting manner, perished a man, illustrious 
 for his courage, endurance, and enterprise, and endeared to remem- 
 brance by his pious and philanthropic labours for the souls of his 
 fellow-men." 
 
 At Quebec, the tidings brought by Joliet were received with 
 extraordinary enthusiasm, and the achievement of the two associates 
 was justly considered the greatest and most important discovery of 
 the age. All day the bells rang aloud, and the bishop and clergy, 
 with all the authorities of the city, went in solemn procession to the 
 cathedral, where a Te Deum was sung, and a high mass performed, 
 in honour of the memorable occasion. 
 
 lA SALLE: HIS ATTEMPTS TO REACH CHINA. — GRANT OP THB 
 KING. — TONTI: THEIR EXPEDITION TO THE WEST: DISCON- 
 CERTED BY TREACHERY. ACTUAL. AND PRETENDED DIS- 
 COVERIES OP PATHER HENNEPIN. VOYAGE OF LA 
 
 SALLE TO THE OUTLET OF THE MISSISSIPPI: HE 
 TAKES POSSESSION OF THE VALLEY. THE RE- 
 TURN. — IMITATION OF INDIAN FEROCITY. 
 
 The magnificent enterprise so splendidly commenced by Mar- 
 quette, was ere long completed by an adventurer, his equal in cour- 
 age, enthusiasm, and patient endurance. Eobert Cavalier, Sieur de la 
 Salle, a young man who had been a member of the order of Jesuits, 
 was at this time in Canada, engaged in the undertaking of finding a 
 westerly passage to China. He proceeded, however, on this chimer- 
 ical expedition no further than the spot now known as La Chine, 
 
THE FRENCH IN AMEEICA. 433 
 
 (China,) a name attesting his expectations and disappcintment. Be- 
 coming possessed with an equally fallacious idea that the Missourii 
 flowing from the westward, might lead him to the desired region, 
 he offered his services to Count Frontenac, who advised him to apply 
 for aid at the court of France. Accordingly, he repaired thither, 
 and, by the favour of Colbert and the Prince de Conti, obtained of 
 Louis the desired equipment. The command of Fort Frontenac, 
 and a monopoly of the fur-trade in that region, were likewise granted 
 to him, and with the Chevalier Tonti, a brave Italian officer, with 
 only one arm, he repaired to Quebec. 
 
 Having put the fort in a state of defence, the adventurer employed 
 himself in building a vessel and in making explorations. In Sep- 
 tember, 1679, the two associates went on board of her, at Lake Erie, 
 taking forty -four men — among them, "the Eeverend Father Henne- 
 pin, famous for his discoveries, and notorious for his lies and impo- 
 sitions." At the river St. Joseph, on Lake Michigan, La Salle built 
 a fort, and thence passed to the Illinois, v/hich he descended. The 
 country proved fertile and populous, no less than five hundred 
 houses being found in one village, and the savages were friendly 
 and hospitable. The treason of some of his followers, for the time, 
 disconcerted this promising enterprise, and nearly resulted in the 
 destruction of all concerned. Averse to proceeding, they first at- 
 tempted to excite opposition among the Indians, by insinuating that 
 La Salle was a spy of their enemies, the Iroquois ; and this device 
 proving of no avail, these wretches administered poison to him and 
 his chief adherents, at a Christmas dinner. By the timely aid of 
 remedies, the sufferers recovered, and their intended murderers fled 
 into the wilderness, beyond the reach of pursuit. Compelled, by 
 this reduction of his force, to return to his posts for recruits. La 
 Salle left Tonti in command of a small fort on the Illinois, and dis- 
 patched Father Hennepin, with four companions, to ascend the 
 Mississippi. 
 
 That enterprising priest succeeded in exploring the river upward 
 for a great distance, and discovered the Falls of St. Antony. After 
 enduring great sufferings, and being detained a captive among the 
 Sioux Indians, he finally made his way back to Canada, where he 
 published an account of his explorations. Years afterwards, when 
 La Salle, the true surveyor of the Mississippi, was dead, he put 
 forth another version of the affair, in which he claimed that he had 
 explored that river, on this occasion, to its outlet, but the felsity of 
 Vol. IIL— 28 
 
434 AMERICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 which is sufficiently proved, by the fact that he pretends to have 
 ascended it from the Gulf of Mexico to the Illinois river, in a canoe, 
 with only two men, in twenty-two days. So notorious, indeed, was 
 his bad faith in these transactions, that his common epithet in Can- 
 ada, we are told, was "Ze Grand Ifenteur''^ (the Great Liar). "By 
 this impudent fabrication, he secured to himself a reputation some- 
 what like that of Yespucius, whose fraudulent attempt (or that of 
 his admirers) to wrest the glory from a true discoverer, obscures the 
 renown of his real and meritorious achievements." 
 
 La Salle, having collected twenty men at his posts, resumed his 
 enterprise, and on the 2d of February, 1682, embarked on the Mis- 
 sissippi. He passed the Missouri and the Ohio, as well as the Ar- 
 kansas, the termination of the voyage of Marquette. The river 
 seemed interminable in its windings, yet he kept on, and was kindly 
 received by the powerful tribe of the Natckez. On the 27th of 
 March he passed the mouth of Red River, and on the 7th of April 
 arrived at that strange region, neither land nor water, where, through 
 many channels, the turbid torrent of the Mississippi mingles with 
 the gulf. "The country immediately around the outlet of this vast 
 stream was desolate and uninteresting. Far as the eye could reach, 
 swampy flats and inundated morasses filled the dreary prospect. 
 Under the ardent rays of the tropical sun, noisome vapours exhaled 
 from the rank soil and sluggish waters, poisoning the breezes from 
 the southern seas, and corrupting them with the breath of pestilence. 
 Masses of floating trees, whose large branches were scathed by 
 months of alternate immersion and exposure, during hundreds of 
 leagues of travel, choked up many of the numerous outlets of the 
 river, and, cemented together by the alluvial deposits of the muddy 
 stream, gradually became fixed and solid, throwing up a rank 
 vegetation."* 
 
 The discoverer, exulting in the completion of his achievement, 
 proceeded to take formal possession of the vast regions watered bv 
 the river he had explored — bestowing on them, in honour ot nis 
 sovereign, the name of Louisiana. From the top of a high tree a 
 cross was suspended; a shield, bearing the arms of France, was set 
 up ; and a solemn Te Deum was chanted, in gratitude to Heaven for 
 the success of this memorable enterprise. The more important ope- 
 ration of attempting to ascertain the latitude, produced a result en 
 tirely fallacious. 
 
 * Warburton — " Conquest of Canada." 
 
THE FR E :N H 1 N A M E R I C A . 
 
 Returning with great difficulty against the fierce current of the 
 Mississippi, swollen, it is probable, at this season, with floods, the 
 French experienced much annoyance from the attacks of the treach- 
 erous Qainipissas, whose hostility they had already tasted in coming 
 down. Having slain several of these assailants, the adventurers, 
 emulating the savage custom of their foes, scalped the bodies, and 
 carried off the usual ghastly trophies of Indian warfare. This fero- 
 cious practice, indeed, seems always to have had a singular fascina- 
 tion for men once thoroughly committed in hostility with the savages. 
 Near half a century later, if the old ballad may be trusted, we find 
 the English (and especially their chaplain, the Reverend Mr. Frye,) 
 indulging a similar taste at a battle on the frontier of Maine; and, 
 indeed, at a much later date, our backwoodsmen were frequently in 
 the habit of emulating, in this respect, the most barbarous tribes 
 which they encountered. 
 
 vj (Ltu JjM iL iL Jw) ilio JL ill di • 
 
 EXPEDITION OF LA SALLE BY SEA IN QUEST OF THE MISSIS- 
 SIPPI. HE MISSES THE ENTRANCE. LANDS AT THE BAT 
 
 OP ST. BERNARD. — FOUNDS A COLONY. MISFORTUNES 
 
 AND DISCOURAGEMENTS. HE SETS FORTH OVERLAND 
 
 FOR CANADA. HIS DEATH. FATE OP THE SURVIVORS 
 
 OF THE EXPEDITION. OF THE COLONY OF ST. LOUIS. 
 
 Having arrived at Quebec, La Salle, unable to obtain the requi- 
 site means for following up his grand discovery, again embarked for 
 France, and again preferred his suit at the court of Versailles. Four 
 vessels, one a large frigate, were placed at his command, and with a 
 brother and two nephews, seven priests, a number of artisans and 
 volunteers, with a hundred soldiers, and sufficient crews, in all two 
 hundred and eighty souls, on the 24th of July, 1684, he sailed from 
 La Rochelle for the mouth of the Mississippi. The sullenness and 
 mutinous disposition of Beaujeu, the captain of the frigate, at an 
 early day, produced loss and trouble to the expedition, and eventu- 
 ated in its entire discomfiture. Arriving in the Gulf of Mexico, the 
 voyagers searched in vain for the expected outlet. "Nothing is 
 
436 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 more difficult than to discover, from sea, the entrance even of the 
 largest river, on an unknown coast, unless the position has been 
 accurately determined beforehand, and the attempt is doubly embar- 
 rassing, where the stream, like that of which he was in search, de- 
 Douches, through numerous outlets, upon a marshy shore." 
 
 Accordingly, after a long and fruitless search for the desired 
 entrance (which, it seems, they passed on the 10th of January, 1685) 
 Beaujeu, disregarding the orders of La Salle, kept westward for a hun- 
 dred leagues, and anchored in the Bay of St. Bernard, not far from the 
 present site of Galveston. Finding a large stream flowing into this 
 bay, the governor supposed that it might be one of the western mouths 
 of the Mississippi, and concluded to make a landing. His expecta- 
 tions, indeed, had been miserably disappointed on discovering the 
 nature of his outfit. The alleged artisans proved mere impostors; 
 the soldiers were decrepid and worn-out invalids, disbanded as unfit 
 for service. This heterogeneous and ill-assorted crowd, to the number 
 of two hundred and twenty, being landed, Beaujeu hastily deserted 
 them, and sailed recklessly away. The commander, though much 
 discouraged by these untoward circumstances, set to work and built 
 a fort, which he called St. Louis. He next spent four months in 
 coasting along the shore with canoes, vainly seeking the Mississippi, 
 and unable to obtain any information from the unfriendly savages. 
 In April, he set forth towards New Mexico, in hopes of discovering 
 mines, but with equal ill-success. 
 
 Tonti, who had been left in command of a fort on the Illinois, 
 according to previous agreement with La Salle, now descended the 
 Mississippi to the sea, where he expected to find his associate and 
 the projected colony; but, after searching the shores of the gulf for 
 months in vain, sadly relinquished the attempt, and returned to his 
 station on the Illinois. 
 
 The unfortunate little colony founded by La Salle, its numbers 
 diminished by losses in every expedition, was fast verging to ex- 
 tinction. In less than two years from its foundation, only thirty- 
 seven men were alive, and famine and Indian hostility threatened 
 the speedy destruction of the whole. The dauntless commander, his 
 spirit unbroken by misfortune or disappointment, continued to pro- 
 ject fresh schemes of adventure and discovery. With sixteen com- 
 panions, on the 12th of January, 1686, he set forth on the terrible 
 enterprise of traversing the wilderness, and penetrating over- 
 land to Canada. Among them was his young nephew Moranger, 
 
THE FEENCII IN AMEi:iCA. 457 
 
 a youth of haughty temper, who incurred the enmity of the rest, and 
 a mutinous spirit soon broke out. One of the party, named Lancelot, 
 two days' journey from the fort, being taken ill, was permitted to 
 return. His brother earnestly desired to bear him company, but La 
 Salle refused to allow it, on account of the weakness of his force. 
 The invalid, returning alone, was murdered by the Indians ; and the 
 surviving brother, from that moment, thought only of revenge. For 
 two months, while the expedition slowly made its way toward Can- 
 ada, he nourished schemes of vengeance, without the opportunity to 
 put them in execution. With his accomplices, he then commenced 
 with the murder of Moranger ; and having concealed themselves in a 
 cane-brake, shortly after, they fired from ambush at their unfortunate 
 commander. He fell mortally wounded, and presently died, on the 
 19th of May, 1686, it is said, near the western branch of the Trinity. 
 "Thus obscurely perished one of the bravest and most indefatigable 
 of the many brave and unconquerable spirits who, at the cost of their 
 lives, have won renown as pioneers in the New World. His memory 
 will always be associated with the great river which he explored and 
 laid open to mankind." 
 
 The assassins, to avoid the vengeance of the friends of their victim, 
 hastily quitted the party, and struck a new track in the wilderness. 
 They all perished, either at the hands of each other, or of the hostile 
 savages. The little company of survivors, now reduced to seven, 
 still kept on their toilsome journey to the north-east. The Indians 
 through whose country they passed, treated them kindly; and four 
 months after the death of their commander, they arrived at the con- 
 fluence of the Arkansas and Mississippi. Here, to their surprise, 
 they found a cross, which had been set up by certain companions 
 of Tonti, whom, in ascending the Mississippi, he had left at this 
 place. Encouraged by this solitary sign of Christianity and civiliza- 
 tion, they pursued the journey to Canada, and, wonderful to state, 
 finally succeeded in reaching it. 
 
 The miserable remnant of the colony, left by La Salle at Fort St. 
 Louis, soon perished under the hostilities of the tribes surrounding 
 that little station. Five children only were spared, who afterwards 
 falling into the hands of the Spaniards, revealed the unhappy fate 
 of the settlement. Of the two hundred souls of which it was composed, 
 these, and the seven companions of La Salle who made their way to 
 Canada, alone survived. Such was the miserable result of the first 
 attempt to colonize the richest and most valuable region of all North 
 
438 AMEKICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 America— an attempt, unhappily, only the prototype of successive 
 efforts in the same direction. The colonization of Louisiana, like 
 that of its neighbour, Florida, for a long series of years presents little 
 except continually renewed misfortune, suffering, and mortality. 
 
 CEAPTEE I?. 
 
 STBOLECT OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. — EXPEDITION OF LEMOINE 
 D'IBERVILLE: HE FOUNDS SETTLEMENTS AT BILOXI, MOBILE, AND 
 ISLE DAUPHINE. — TONTI. — UNPEOSPEROUS CONDITION 0? 
 LOUISIANA. — DEATH OF D'IBERVILLE. — HIS BROTHER 
 BIENVILLE. — CROZAT. — THE MISSISSIPPI COMPANY. 
 GREAT IMMIGRATION, SUFFERING, AND MORTAL- 
 ITY. NEW ORLEANS FOUNDED. — CONTINUED 
 
 IMMIGRATION. — VAST EXTENT OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 For ten years after the death of La Salle and the destruction of 
 his colony, the French m^de no attempt to settle the Mississippi Yalley 
 — the few adventurous voyagers who had resorted there from Canada 
 betaking themselves to hunting and to traf&c in furs, and gradually 
 assimilating with the Indians in character and habits. In 1697, 
 Lemoine D'Iberville, a brave Canadian, distinguished for his naval 
 services, represented to the court of France the importance of this 
 neglected region, and obtained the means for a fresh attempt at set- 
 tlement on the Gulf With two vessels, on the 17th of October, of 
 that year, he set sail from Eochefort, and directed his course to the 
 Bay of Pensacola. The Spaniards there remonstrated against his 
 alleged intrusion, yet he proceeded, and examined the harbour of 
 Mobile, the river Pascagoula and the Bay of Biloxi, and finally 
 arrived at the mouth of the Mississippi. The certainty of this dis- 
 covery was confirmed by the extraordinary incident of a letter, 
 "written by Tonti thirteen years before, giving an account of the 
 country, with most valuable directions, being preserved by the 
 Indians, and handed to D'Iberville. 
 
 He passed up the Mississippi, and, entering the outlet still bearing 
 his name, discovered Lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain, and the 
 
THE FEENCH IN AMERICA. 4^9 
 
 Bay of Biloxi. Here lie founded a small settlement, which, however, 
 on account of the disadvantages of the site, was afterwards removed 
 to the Bay of Mobile, and thence again to the Isle Dauphine, where it 
 finally found a resting-place. A fort called Balize was also erected at 
 the mouth of the Mississippi; and after completing these and other 
 works in furtherance of colonization, D'Iberville, leaving his brothers 
 SauroUe and Bienville in command, proceeded to France for fresh 
 assistance in his enterprise. In December, 1699, he returned, and 
 soon after received a visit from the brave and adventurous Tonti, 
 who, having heard of the foundation of the new colony, with only 
 seven companions, had descended the Mississippi 10 greet him. After 
 a few years of doubtful prosperity, a terrible fever desolated the little 
 colony, carrying off Saurolle and eventually D'Iberville, and leaving 
 only a hundred and fifty -five souls alive. These were in a misera- 
 ble condition, the spots on which they were located — Biloxi, Isle 
 Dauphine, and the Balize — being little more than deserts. The 
 fruitless search for gold and the trade in furs engrossed their atten- 
 tion, to the neglect of husbandry or permanent occupation of the 
 country. Bienville, the surviving brother, by his perseverance and 
 talent for command, still managed to sustain the feeble interest of 
 France in these distant regions. A considerable extent of the vast 
 wilderness, now so populous, was surveyed. Red River and the 
 Missouri had been ascended to great distances by enterprising adven- 
 turers, and small settlements were planted on the Yazoo and the 
 Washita. 
 
 The Protestant exiles, driven from their homes by the cruelty of 
 Louis Xiy., but still retaining the true French loyalty and affection 
 for their country, now offered that, if tolerated in the exercise of 
 their religion, four hundred families of them would remove to Louis- 
 iana. But that bigoted sovereign, by nature and education one of 
 the vilest and most tyrannical that ever disgraced a throne, replied 
 " that he had not expelled them from his kingdom to form a repub- 
 lic of them." 
 
 By 1712, there were only twenty families in Louisiana, living in the 
 most abject poverty, and destitute of the means of escaping from their 
 forlorn situation. In that year Antoine Crozat, who had amassed 
 a vast fortune by trading to the East Indies, purchased from the 
 crown a grant of the entire country, with a monopoly of commerce 
 for sixteen years. His object was not colonization, but contraband 
 traffic with Mexico, in order to secure a return of the precious metals ; 
 
\ 
 
 440 AMERICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 and this project failing, from the dishonesty of his agents, in 1717 
 he transferred his privileges to that famous or infamous company, 
 whose history, both in Europe and America, is one tissue of gross 
 ignorance, of stupendous fraud, of suffering, and of ruin. At this 
 time, though numerous emigrants, at different periods, had arrived, 
 the whole population — so great had been the mortality — was only 
 seven hundred. 
 
 The Mississippi Company, under the guidance of the notorious John 
 Law, had procured a charter, conveying entire control, except a mere 
 nominal reservation of sovereignty, over the ill-starred province ; and 
 by the artful management of that subtle schemer, a mania, wilder 
 than had ever been known in France, was excited for speculation in 
 the new enterprise. Fabulous stories of gold and silver mines, of 
 unimaginable riches, were eagerly circulated: the stock of the com- 
 pany rose enormously ; and an immense quantity of paper money, 
 amounting to more than two hundred millions of dollars, was put 
 into circulation. The history of the wide-spread ruin and national 
 bankruptcy in which France was involved by the collapsing of this 
 famous bubble, does not immediately pertain to our subject. No 
 single scheme of speculation, it is probable, ever entailed such 
 universal misfortune on a community. 
 
 During the years 1717 and 1718, the company, with rash and indis 
 criminating haste, dispatched to Louisiana several thousand emigrants, 
 French and foreigners. These unfortunate people, crowded on ship- 
 board, ill provided with food and necessaries, arriving at their place of 
 destination, found that the ports of Old Mobile and the Isle Dauphine 
 were completely destroyed, the latter in consequence of the accumu- 
 lation of vast sand-banks. They were set on shore at Biloxi, without 
 provisions or means of future support, and utterly ignorant of the 
 country to which they had been so rashly transported. Crowded on 
 this barren shore, they mostly perished, of want, exposure and dis- 
 ease ; and the few who survived were finally transported to the Missis- 
 sippi. Discouraged by these misfortunes, and regarding the land as 
 better fitted for a penal settlement than for a prosperous colony, the 
 French added to the misery of the unfortunate few who still inhab- 
 ited Louisiana, by sending out none but convicts and felons to that 
 miserable country. " Hundreds," we are told, " of the most degraded 
 and miserable objects, in a complete state of nakedness, presented 
 themselves at some Spanish and English trading posts: others 
 perished of a disease which they themselves had introduced; but 
 
THE FRENCH IN AMEKICA. 442_ 
 
 the far greater number wandered tlirougli the forests until hanger 
 and fatigue terminated their wretched lives." The very soldiers cf 
 the garrisons, at one time, were compelled to retreat into the Indian 
 villages, to avoid perishing of hunger. 
 
 Bienville, to whose sanguine energy the colony was mainly in- 
 debted for its preservation, in 1718, had selected the site of New 
 Orleans, as that of the principal settlement; and the result evinces 
 his foresight and judgment. When, in 1719, the Spaniards retook 
 Pensacola, the same gallant officer, collecting the slender force of 
 French soldiers in Louisiana, in turn expelled them from that settle- 
 ment ; and after a series of protracted hostilities, in which it changed 
 hands three times during five months, retained possession of the 
 disputed territory. It was, however, at the peace of 1721, restored 
 to Spain, its original possessor. 
 
 In 1720, twelve hundred more settlers arrived from France; and 
 an order was obtained from the regent, forbidding the transportation 
 of any more convicts to Louisiana. Negro slaves, in considerable 
 numbers, at this time, were imported. A great scarcity of provi- 
 sions, produced by the arrival of so large a number of new comers, 
 induced riots and great trouble in the colony, and when, not long 
 after, a ship, expected from France with supplies, arrived with fresh 
 crowds of hungry emigrants, the difficulty was increased. Bienville, 
 by dispatching a vessel to St. Domingo for provisions, finally relieved 
 their privations. 
 
 In 1722, the explosion of the bubble so artfully blown up by Law 
 was felt in the distant and ill-founded colonies which had been the 
 pretext for its formation ; and assistance, even misdirected as it had 
 been, from this source, was cut off. M. Duvergier, appointed by the 
 company almost supreme director of affairs in Louisiana, sought 
 rather the extension of its territory than the improvement of its 
 character or prosperity. Over how vast a surface of country the 
 little settlements of the French were already scattered may be judged 
 from the division of Louisiana, which was made about this time, into 
 nine cantons — those of New Orleans, Biloxi, Mobile, Alibamons, 
 Natchez, Natchitoches, Yazoos, Arkansas, and Illinois, each under 
 a separate judiciary. Bienville was now reinstated in office as 
 "President of the Council," and by his influence the seat of govern- 
 ment was fixed at New Orleans, then a small village of two hundred 
 inhabitants. Two years afterwards (1724) the entire population of 
 the colony amounted to five thousand souls. In 1728, Bienville, 
 
442 AMEEICA ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 having devoted twenty-nine years of his life to the care of this 
 remote province, of which he had been one of the earliest founders^ 
 returned to France, leaving M. Perier to succeed him in the command. 
 
 CHAPTEH ?. 
 
 HOSTILITY OP THE NATCHEZ. THEIR INJURIES. — YAIN RE- 
 MONSTRANCE. — PLAN POR THE DESTRUCTION OF THE PRENCH. 
 
 MASSACRE AT PORT ROSALIE. — CAMPAIGN AGAINST 
 
 THE NATCHEZ. — FLIGHT AND PINAL DESTRUCTION OP 
 THE TRIBE. WAR WITH THE CHICASAWS. — DISAS- 
 TROUS CAMPAIGN OP D'ARTEGRETTE AND BIEN- 
 VILLE. GREAT LOSS OP THE PRENCH AND 
 
 THEIR ALLIES. UNSATISFACTORY RESULT 
 
 OP A SECOND CAMPAIGN. 
 
 The erection of Fort Rosalie, on the Mississippi, was viewed with 
 some jealousy by the Natchez, a powerful tribe of neighbouring 
 Indians; injudicious attempts to collect tribute had given them ad- 
 ditional offence ; and in alliance with the Chicasaws and other tribes 
 of Louisiana, they concerted a general attack on the French. The 
 latter, having succeeded in detaching the Choctaws from the hostile 
 league, the Chicasaws also deferred their intended campaign, but the 
 Natchez, excited by fresh injury, rushed at once into a war of exter- 
 mination. Chepar, the commandant of the fort in question, wishing 
 to lay out a plantation, with equal cruelty and impolicy, ordered the 
 chief of a neighbouring village to yield it up for his use. In vain did 
 the latter remonstrate. "When you and your brothers," he said, 
 "came here to ask us for land, we did not refuse it; there was enough 
 for you and for us; we might have hunted in the same forests, and 
 been buried in the same place. Why will you drive us from the cabins 
 where we have received you with kindness, and smoked with you 
 the calumet of peace?" The commandant, however, was blindly 
 inexorable in his demand ; and the injured tribe, in close council, 
 resolved on signal vengeance. A singular device for ensuring con- 
 cert in the intended assault was adopted — a bundle of reeds being 
 
THE FKENCH IN AMERICA. 443 
 
 sent to eacli of the allied chiefs — -one, commencing with the next 
 new moon, to be drawn daily from the stock, and the last to mark 
 the day of retribution. 
 
 On the 28th of November, 1729, the Indians, each bearing his 
 tribute of corn, presented themselves before the fort. Permitted to 
 enter, in great numbers, without any precaution, they dispersed 
 themselves through the fortress and among the dwellings ; and at a 
 given signal, raising their tomahawks, fell on the garrison, and com- 
 mitted an indiscriminate slaughter. Taken by surprise, nearly all 
 the Frenchmen were put to death; eighty women and a hundred 
 and fifty children were made prisoners; and the negro slaves joined 
 the ranks of the assailants. Seven hundred of the French, it is said, 
 thus perished at a single blow; and the Yazoos, emulating the 
 example of their Natchez allies, surprised the fort in their territory, 
 and put all its tenants to death. 
 
 The French, burning for revenge, first massacred a company of 
 Chonchas, dwelling near New Orleans, who were put to death by 
 the negro slaves, with great cruelty. The Choctaws, enraged at the 
 engrossment of spoil by the Natchez, now proffered their services to 
 Perier, and twelve hundred of them, commanded by a Frenchman, 
 were dispatched against Fort Kosalie, which the Natchez had recon- 
 structed and occupied. This army defeated them, with the loss of 
 eighty warriors, and recovered fifty of the women and children. A 
 force of colonists, of equal number, provided with artillery and 
 attended by a body of friendly Indians, soon followed, and for sev- 
 eral days the assault was fiercely pressed, the besieged defending 
 themselves with great resolution. Terms of capitulation were finally 
 agreed on, and the rest of the prisoners were restored; but the 
 Natchez, seeing that Loubois, the French commander, intended to 
 break faith with them, privately escaped by night across the river, 
 and a portion of them joined the Chicasaws. The rest of the fugitive 
 tribe, having concealed themselves in the woods near Black River, 
 were pursued by Perier, the governor, in the winter of 1731, and 
 were mostly killed, in attempting to escape from their fort, or were 
 forced to surrender. ,The prisoners were sent to St. Domingo and 
 sold as slaves. The remainder of the tribe, on learning these disas- 
 trous tidings, fell with great fury on the Tunicas and other Indian 
 allies of the French, and committed much slaughter among them ; 
 but finally attacking a French fort, were repulsed with severe loss, 
 their chief, the Great Sun, being among the killed. The few sur- 
 
444 AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 vivors of this once powerful tribe took refuge among the Chicasawa 
 and other nations, by whom thej were adopted; and the name of 
 the Natchez, as a people, became extinct; though, like that of Tusca- 
 loosa, of Mauvila, and many another euphonious Indian title, still 
 perpetuated in the appellation of a modern city. 
 
 In 1732, the Mississippi Company abandoned their charter, leaving 
 Louisiana with a population of about five thousand white inhabitants 
 and half that number of blacks. The prosperity of the colony, 
 despite its terrible misfortunes and losses, was now settled on a per- 
 manent base — agriculture, which in those fertile regions so amply 
 repays the planter, having become its principal occupation. Indian 
 hostilities, however, with hardly an interval of peace, ,were presently 
 resumed. The Chicasaws had afforded an asylum to the Yazoos, 
 to the survivors of the Natchez, and to the runaway negroes; nay, 
 they even hatched a plot for the destruction of the white settlements 
 by exciting an insurrection of the slaves. Other acts of open hos- 
 tility were committed, and Bienville, who in 1735 returned and 
 resumed the office of governor, perceived the necessity of conciliation 
 or war. All his efforts at the former having failed, he sent for 
 D'Artegrette, the commandant of Fort Chartres, on the Illinois, to 
 join him with all his available force. That officer, already distin- 
 guished for his activity in the war with the Natchez, with a force of 
 twelve hundred men, mostly Illinois Indians, rapidly descended the 
 Mississippi, and marched into the country of the hostile nation. The 
 Chicasaws were well entrenched, and were commanded by English 
 officers. D'Artegrette, after waiting ten days in vain for Bienville, 
 attacked them, but after taking two of their forts, was wounded and 
 taken prisoner, with several of his friends. The Illinois fled, and 
 Bienville, arriving just too late, attacked a fort defended by a body 
 of English, before which, it is said, he lost two thousand of his fol- 
 lowers, and was compelled to make a miserable retreat, marching for 
 a hundred miles without food, and the enemy being in hot pursuit. 
 The unfortunate D'Artegrette and his fellow-prisoners, after the 
 defeat of their friends, were tortured to death at the stake, after the 
 customary cruelty of the savages. 
 
 In 1739, Bienville, acting in concert with Beauharnois, the gov- 
 ernor of Canada, and aided by a strong force of French and Indians 
 from that province, set forth on a fresh campaign against the Chica- 
 saws. The united forces of the two colonies, amounting to three 
 tJiousand six hundred men, of which one-third were Europeans, 
 
THE FKENCII IN AMEEICA. 445 
 
 riendezvoused in August at the site of the present town of Memphis. 
 After building a fort, named L'Assomption, a series of misfortunes 
 overtook them in the failure of provisions, the excessive heat, and a 
 fatal disease, which carried off numbers of them and disabled many 
 of the survivors. Nevertheless, a considerable body of the army 
 advancing toward the Chicasaw country, that people, struck with 
 dismay, made overtures of peace, alleging, in apology, that they had 
 been excited to hostility by the English of Carolina. They gave up 
 two of the latter who were among them ; and a treaty being con- 
 cluded, the pipe of peace was solemnly smoked and the tomahawk 
 formally buried. Nevertheless, the Chicasaws still continued after- 
 wards to give much trouble to the French, and, assisted by their 
 English allies, maintained possession of a very extensive territory. 
 
 CHAPTEH ?L 
 
 PROSPERITY OF LOUISIANA. — UNDISTURBED BY WAR. — SUGAR 
 CANE INTRODUCED. — COMMENCEMENT OF TROUBLES WITH 
 
 THE ENGLISH. — THE OHIO COMPANY. RESISTED BY DU 
 
 QUESNE. — THE VIRGINIA EXPEDITION UNDER WASH- 
 INGTON. — WAR WITH THE FRENCH OF CANADA, ETC. 
 — TAKING OF FORT DU QUESNE. — OVERTHROW OF 
 THE FRENCH IN CANADA. — PUBLIC RELIN- 
 QUISHMENT OF A PART OF LOUISIANA TO ENG- 
 LAND, AND SECRET CESSION OF THE RE- 
 MAINDER TO SPAIN. VAIN REMONSTRANCE. 
 
 In the year 1741, Bienville, who for so many years had held com- 
 mand of the province, to the regret of all the inhabitants, took his 
 final departure. The country, however, continued to prosper, and 
 commerce, freed from restrictions, began to assume some importance. 
 The obstinate warfare waged between the English colonies and the 
 Canadian French, at this time, did not much affect the tranquillity 
 of the remote province of Louisiana. In 1751, a most valuable 
 accession to the wealth of the country was made, in the introduction 
 of the sugar-cane, which certain Jesuits of St. Domingo sent to their 
 brethren on the Mississippi, and which, in our own day, has assumed 
 
446 AMERICA ILLUSTRATED.. 
 
 the first importance, as the staple of that productive region which 
 fringes its shores. 
 
 In the following year, the Chicasaws having recommenced their 
 ravages, Vaudreuil, the successor of Bienville, marched against them 
 with a force of seven hundred French soldiers and a large body of 
 Indian allies. He laid waste their country, and left an additional 
 force at the Fort of Tombeckbee, to keep them in check, but, for 
 want of artillery, was unable to take their fortified places. 
 
 The provinces of Canada and Louisiana, nearly as distant from 
 each other as from the mother-country, had now, with admirable 
 military skill, been almost completely connected by a chain of posts 
 extending from the mouth of the St. Lawrence to that of the Missis- 
 sippi. The extent of country over which the French asserted their 
 claim, and great part of which, however sparsely, they occupied, 
 was vastly greater than that of their neighbours, the powerful Eng- 
 lish colonies — though the population of the latter now exceeded a 
 million, while that of both the French provinces was but little more 
 than a twentieth of that amount. It may well be supposed that the 
 former, so long and obstinately striving to wrest Canada from the 
 few but valiant hands which held it, would not entirely overlook 
 the far richer and more feebly-defended regions of Louisiana. 
 
 After the conclusion of peace between the rival nations, in the 
 middle of the eighteenth century, an association, called the Ohio 
 Company, had obtained from the English crown a large grant of 
 land lying within a district to which both had laid claim. The 
 governor of Canada, Du Quesne, having remonstrated in vain against 
 its occupation, made prisoners of the company's servants ; and pro- 
 ceeded vigorously in the work of completing his cordon of military 
 posts. In 1754, the province of Virginia dispatched Washington, 
 then a young officer of twenty-one, with a provincial regiment, to 
 check what was in turn considered an encroachment on its territorial 
 right; and in a skirmish with the French, the commander of a small 
 force of that people, with ten of his men, was killed.. The Yirgin- 
 ians, entrenching themselves against a larger force, were in turn 
 compelled to capitulate. War was at once vigorously recom- 
 menced, the eventful progress of which against the French of Nova 
 Scotia and Canada has been already detailed. In 1758, the year 
 before the fall of Quebec, Fort Du Quesne, the connecting link 
 between the two French provinces, was taken by the English, the 
 garrison setting it on fire, and escaping in boats down the Ohio, and 
 
THE FKEXCII IN AJtlEEICA. 447 
 
 proceeding to Kew Orleans. The victors rebuilt it, and named it 
 after the celebrated minister then at the head of British aifair,s; and 
 at the present day, under the name of Pittsburgh, it is one of the 
 most flourishing cities of the interior of America. 
 
 With the capture of Quebec and the overthrow of their power in 
 Canada, the French seem to have lost that enterprising spirit, which, 
 with such feeble means, had brought such immense territories undei 
 their sway; and Louisiana, its wealth and resources not yet appre- 
 ciated, was regarded as only the poor remnant of a once powerful 
 French- American empire. At the treaty of Paris, which soon fol- 
 lowed that event, they yielded to the English nearly all east of the 
 Mississippi, reserving only the island of New Orleans, and making 
 that river, with Lakes Pontchartrain and Maurepas, the boundary 
 between the possessions of the two nations. By the surrender of 
 Acadia, Canada, and other northern possessions, the population of 
 Louisiana received a considerable accession — ^many of the French 
 colonists, expelled from their homes, or declining the rule of strangers, 
 taking refuge there. 
 
 A far heavier blow to the nationality of the diminished province 
 followed speedily afterwards. By a secret article of the treaty of 
 Paris, Louis XY. had agreed to surrender the remainder of Louis- 
 iana to Spain, as a compensation for the loss of Florida, which the 
 latter had been compelled to cede to England. For some time this 
 arrangement was kept private, but when it eventually transpired, 
 the unfortunate colonists were seized with dismay and mortification. 
 In the general grief and excitement, all occupations were abandoned, 
 and at a meeting of the most respectable inhabitants of the province, 
 at New Orleans, it was resolved to remonstrate strongly with the 
 home government. M. Milhet, the wealthiest and most influential 
 merchant of that city, was dispatched to France, and with the aid 
 of the aged Bienville, then eighty-seven years old, but still warmly 
 attached to the colony he had founded, pressed his suit with the 
 Duke de Choiseul. But that minister, who was himself the author 
 of the obnoxious measure, parried all his attempts, and the unfortu- 
 nate envoy could not even obtain an audience with the king. 
 
448 AMERICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 CHAPTER ?IL 
 
 AKRIVAL OF ULLOA AS SPANISH GOVERNOR: HIS OESTINACI 
 
 HIS EXPULSION PROM THE COUNTRY. — ARRIVAL OP O'REILLY: 
 
 HIS PERFIDY AND CRUELTY. — FIVE CITIZENS EXECUTED. 
 
 — TYRANNY OF O'REILLY. — GREAT EMIGRATION FROM 
 
 LOUISIANA: THAT PROVINCE RECEDED TO FRANCE: 
 
 SOLD BY NAPOLEON TO THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 A YEAR after the treaty, D'Abbadie, the governor of Louisiana, 
 had received orders from bis court to surrender that province to any 
 Spanish officer empowered to receive it; yet, singular to state, 
 whether from policy or mere carelessness, two more years elapsed 
 before any such claimant appeared. The unfortunate colonists were 
 beginning to cherish the hope that they might yet be spared, when 
 the return of Milhet, with an account of his failure, and the recep- 
 tion of a letter from Don Antonio de Ulloa, announcing his arrival 
 as Spanish governor, (1766,) put an end to these fallacious expecta- 
 tions. The citizens, exasperated at being thus involuntarily trans- 
 ferred to a foreign power, now resolved on opposing it to the extent 
 of their feeble ability ; and Lafreniere, the attorney-general, encour- 
 aged this spirit of resistance, citing the example of the English North 
 American colonies, then just involved in controversy with the 
 mother-country. It was strenuously demanded of the council that 
 they should warn Ulloa to quit the country. That officer, who had 
 landed, with only two companies of infantry, at New Orleans, did 
 not for some time, it seems, aim at any thing more than a species of 
 toleration of his presence there. The force he brought was large 
 enough to excite odium, but not awe in the people; and the yellow 
 fever, which now for the first time made its appearance in New 
 Orleans, and which was ascribed by the citizens to the coming of these 
 intruders, increased the popular ill-will. As yet Ulloa had pro- 
 duced no credentials of authority to the French officials, and the 
 council, pressed by public opinion, at length, in 1767, demanded 
 that he should present them or quit the country. With true' Span- 
 ish obstinacy, not having sufficient force to compel obedience, he 
 preferred the latter, and embarked on board a vessel of his own 
 
THE FilEiTCH IN AMEEICA. 449 
 
 country. The same night her cables were cut by a party of gay 
 young Frenchmen, excited by wine, and she drifted down the stream. 
 
 After his departure, the citizens convened, and dispatched envoys 
 to the French court with fresh remonstrances against their expatria- 
 tion, but in vain; and in July, 1767, they learned with consternation 
 that the Spanish captain-general, O'Keilly, (an Irishman by birth, a 
 Spaniard by choice,) with a force of about five thousand men, had 
 entered the Mississippi. Before such an overwhelming demonstra- 
 tion, the feeble province had no resource but submission; and 
 deputies were accordingly dispatched with it to O'Keilly. That 
 perfidious commander received them with much courtesy, and as- 
 sured them both of amnesty for past offences, and a mild and paternal 
 government for the future. Nevertheless, he cherished a deadly 
 hatred against the French, which, superadded to natural arrogance 
 and cruelty, was not long in making its murderous manifestation. 
 
 Taking on himself all the state and mock royalty of a petty sover- 
 eign, he soon had under arrest a number of the most prominent 
 citizens in the state, especially those connected with the late demon- 
 stration of resistance. Lafreniere and four others, after the travesty 
 of a trial, were sentenced to be hung; but were finally executed by 
 shooting — a fate which they met with much courage and magnanim- 
 ity. Six others were sentenced to imprisonment for life or for a 
 term of years, and were presently consigned to the dungeons of the 
 Moro, at Havana. In open infraction of the treaty, the tyrant then 
 proceeded arbitrarily to change the form of government, which, by 
 that instrument, had been assured to the province, and to substitute 
 the laws of Castile for those of France. The people, unable to resist 
 these oppressions, rendered a sullen submission. The greater part 
 of the wealthy and enterprising portion of the population had already 
 taken refuge in St. Domingo, whence, a few years afterwards, the 
 tide of fugitives, driven by servile insurrection, was destined again 
 to flow to Louisiana. This emigration was finally stopped by an 
 order of the governor, lest his territories should be utterly depopu- 
 lated. In 1770, he took his departure, and the province was annexed 
 to the captain-generalship of Cuba. His successor in the adminis- 
 tration, Nuzaga, governed kindly and well, and the colony, though 
 restricted in its commerce, enjoyed some degree of prosperity. 
 
 It only remains to notice the final transfer of this valuable terri- 
 tory, together with the brief reestablishment of its French nationality. 
 By the treaty of 1800, Spain had agreed to restore Louisiana to 
 Vol. III.— 29 
 
450 AMEKICA ILLUSTEATED. 
 
 France; but this article, for reasons of state, was kept secret until 
 1803, when, to the great joj of the colonists, who had never relin- 
 quished their attachment to the parent-country, it was made public. 
 But the United States, having a far deeper interest at stake than 
 either of the foreign powers which thus transferred the province 
 from hand to hand, lost no time in opening negotiations with the 
 French government for its cession to their own jurisdiction. Napo- 
 leon, aware of the difficulty (considering the inferiorit}'- of the French 
 marine to the English,) in retaining this distant territory, was not 
 unwilling to see it transferred into the hands of a friendly, or at 
 least neutral power, rather than be exposed to capture by the 
 enemy. Accordingly, on the 80th of April, 1803, a treaty was 
 signed, by which the United States were to acquire the whole of 
 Louisiana, paying the inconsiderable sum of fifteen millions of 
 dollars, and admitting the vessels of France and Spain, duty free, 
 for twelve years, into the ports of that province. An article of this 
 instrument, drawn up by the hand of the First Consul himself, as- 
 sured the inhabitants of full equality with all other citizens of the 
 Union, and provided for their speedy incorporation into the confed- 
 eracy. In delivering the document, he remarked, "Make it known 
 to the people of Louisiana that we regret to part with them ; that 
 we have stipulated for all the advantages they could desire; and 
 that France, in giving them up, has ensured to them the greatest of 
 all. They could never have prospered under any European govern- 
 ment as they will when they become independent. But, while they 
 enjoy the privileges of liberty, let them remember that they are 
 French, and preserve for their mother-country that affection which 
 a common origin inspires." 
 
 On the 30th of November, 1803, the Spanish commissioners gave 
 formal possession of the country to the French prefect, Laussat, 
 presenting him with the keys of the capital. For thirty-four years 
 it had been under possession of the Spaniards, but had in no degree 
 lost its nationality or affection for the parent-country. For twenty 
 days the tri-coloured flag, displayed with a melancholy pleasure, 
 waved over the recovered city, the last of those splendid possessions 
 once held by the French in ISTorth America. At the end of that 
 time (December 20th) it was lowered, and replaced by the stripes 
 and stars, and quiet possession of the territory was taken by the 
 United States' authorities. 
 
CONSTITUTION 
 
 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.* 
 
 We the people of the United States, in order to form a more 
 perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tran- 
 qaillity, provide for the common defence, promote the 
 general Welfare, and secure the Blessinjjs of Liberty to 
 ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this 
 Constitution for the United States of America. 
 
 ARTICLE. I. 
 
 Sectiov. 1 . All legislative Powers herein granted shall 
 be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall 
 consist of a Senate and House of Representatives. 
 
 Section. 2. The House of Representatives shall be com- 
 posed of Members chosen every second Year by the People 
 of the several States, and the Electors in each State shall 
 have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most 
 numerous Branch of the State Legislature. 
 
 No person shall be a Representative who shall not have 
 attained to the age of twenty-five Years, and been seven 
 Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when 
 elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he snail be 
 chosen. 
 
 Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned 
 among the several States which may be included within this 
 Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be 
 determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, 
 including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and 
 excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Per- 
 sons. The actual Enumeration shall be made within three 
 Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United 
 States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in 
 such Manner as they shall by Law direct. The Number of 
 Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty 
 Thousand, but each State shall have at Least one Represen- 
 tative ; and until such enumeration shall be made, the 
 State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to chuse tnree, 
 Massachusetts eight, Rhode-Island and Providence Plan- 
 tations one, Connecticut five, New-York six. New Jersey 
 four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, 
 Virginia ten, North Carolina five. South Carolina five, and 
 Georgia three. 
 
 When vacancies happen in the Representation from any 
 State, the Executive Authority thereof shall issue Writs of 
 Election to fill such Vacancies. 
 
 The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker 
 and other Ofiicers ; and shall have the sole Power of 
 Inipeachment. 
 
 Section. 3. The Senate of the United States shall be 
 composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the 
 Legislature thereof, for six Years ; and each Senator shall 
 have one Vote. 
 
 Immediately after they shall be assembled in Conse- 
 quence of the first Election, they shall be divided as equally 
 as may be into three Classes. The Seats of the Senators of 
 the first Class shall be vacated at the Expiration of the 
 second Year, of the second Class at the Expiration of the 
 fourth Year, and of the third Class at the Expiration of the 
 sixth Year, so that one-third may be chosen every second 
 Year ; and if Vacancies happen by Resignation, or other- 
 wise, during the Recess of tne Legislature of any State, the 
 Executive tnereof may make temporary Apoointments until 
 the next Meeting of the Legislature, which shall then fill 
 such Vacancies. 
 
 No Person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained 
 to the Age of thirty Years, and been nine Years a citizen of 
 the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be au 
 Inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen. 
 
 The Vice President of the United States shall be President 
 of the Senate, but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally 
 divided. 
 
 The Senate shall chuse their other OfTicers, and also a 
 President pro tempore, in the Absence of the Vice President, 
 or when he shall exercise the Office of President of the United 
 States. 
 
 The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeach- 
 ments. When sitting for that Purpose, they shall be on 
 Oath or Affirmation. When the President of the United 
 States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside: And no Per- 
 son shall be convicted without the Concurrence of two 
 thirds of the Members present. 
 
 Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further 
 
 than to removal from Office, and Disqualification to hold 
 and enjoy any Office of honour, Trust or Profit under the 
 United States : but the P.irty convicted shall nevertheless 
 be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and 
 Punishment, according to Law. 
 
 Section. -1. The Times, Places and Manner of holding 
 Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be pre- 
 scribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Con- 
 gress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regula- 
 tions, except as to the places of chusing Senators. 
 
 The Congress shall assemble at least once in every Year, 
 and such Meeting shall be on the first Monday in Decem- 
 ber, unless they shall bv Law appoint a different Dav. 
 
 Section. 5. Each House shall be the Judge of tne Elec- 
 tions, Returns and Qualifications of its own Members, and 
 a Majority of each shall constitute a Quorum to do Business; 
 but a smaller Number may adjourn from day to day, and 
 may be authorized to compel the Attendance of absent 
 Members, in such Manner, and under such Penalties as 
 each House may provide. 
 
 Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings, 
 punish its Members for disorderly Behaviour, and, wrth 
 the Concurrence of two thirds, expel a Member. 
 
 Each House shall keep a Journal of its Proceedings, and 
 from time to time publish the same, excepting such Parts 
 as may in their Judgment require Secrecy. ; alid the Yeas 
 and Nays of the Members of either House on any question 
 shall, at the Desire of one fifth of those Present, be entered 
 on the Journal. 
 
 Neither House, during the Session of Congress, shall, with- 
 out the Consent of the other, adjourn for more than three 
 days, nor to any other Place than that in which the two 
 Houses shall be sitting. 
 
 Section. 6. The Senators and Representatives shall re- 
 ceive a Compensation for their Services, to be ascertained 
 by Law, and paid out of the Treasury of the United States. 
 They shall in all Cases, except Treason, Felony and Breach 
 of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their Attend- 
 ance at the Session of their respective Houses, and in 
 going to and returning from the same ; and for any Speech 
 or Debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in 
 any other Place. 
 
 No Senator or Representative shall, during the Time for 
 which he was elected, be appointed to any civil Office 
 under the Authority of the United States, which shall have 
 been created, or the Emoluments whereof shall have been 
 encreased during such time ; and no Person holding any 
 Office under the United States, shall be a Member of either 
 House during his continuance in Office. 
 
 Section. 7. All bills for raising Revenue shall originate 
 in the House of Representatives; out the Senate may pro- 
 pose or concur with Amendments as on other Bills. 
 
 Every Bill which shall have passed the House of Repre- 
 sentatives and the Senate,shall, before it become a Law, be 
 presented to the President of the United States ; If he approve 
 ne shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his Ob- 
 jections to that House in which it shall have originated, who 
 shall enter the objections at large on their Journal, and pro- 
 ceed to reconsider it. If after such Reconsideration two 
 thirds of that House shall agree to pass the Bill, it shall be 
 sent, together with the Objections, to the other House, by 
 which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved 
 by two thirds of that House, it shall become a Law. But 
 in all such Cases the Votes of both Houses shall be deter- 
 mined by yeas and Nays, and the Names of the Persons 
 voting for and against the Bill shall be entered on the Jour- 
 nal of each House respectively. If any Bill shall not be 
 returned by the President within ten Days (Sundays ex- 
 cepted) after it shall have been presented to him, tho Same 
 shall be a law, in like Manner as if he had signed it, unless 
 the Coiigiess by their Adjournment prevent its Return, in 
 which Case it shall not be a Law. 
 
 Every Order, Resolution, or Vote to which the Conci:*- 
 rence of the Senate and House of Representatives mav be 
 necessary (except on a question of Adjournment) shall be 
 presented to the President of the United States ; and be- 
 fore the Same shall take Effect, sliall be approved by him, 
 or being disapproved by him, shall be repassed by two thirds 
 of the Senate and House of Representatives, according to the 
 Rules and Limitations prescribed in the Case of a Bill. 
 
 Section. 8. The Congress shall have Power 
 
 • Copied from a printed Constitution, edited by W. Hickky, in 1847, to which is attached a certificate from the De 
 partment of State, under the official seal, attesting that " the Constitution and amendments, has been critically corn 
 pared with the onguial, and found to be correct, in text letter, and punctttation. 
 
 2L8 
 
452 
 
 AMEEICA ILLUSTKATED, 
 
 To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, 
 to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and 
 general Welfare of *he United States; but all Duties, Im- 
 posts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United 
 States ; 
 To borrow Money on the credit of the United States ; 
 To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among 
 the several States, and with the Indian Tribes; 
 
 To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uni- 
 form Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the 
 United States ; 
 
 To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign 
 Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures; 
 
 To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the securi- 
 ties and current coin of the United States; 
 To establish Post Offices and post Roads ; 
 To promote the proeress of Science and useful Arts, 
 by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the 
 exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Dis- 
 coveries ; 
 To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court ; 
 To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on 
 the high Seas, and Oifences against the Law of Nations ; 
 To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, 
 and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water; 
 To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of^ 
 Bloney to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two 
 1 ears ; 
 To provide and maintain a Navy ; 
 
 To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the 
 land and naval Forces ; 
 
 To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws 
 of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions: 
 
 To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, tne 
 Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be em- 
 ployed in the Service of the United States, reserving to 
 the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and 
 the Authority of training the Militia according to the Dis- 
 cipline prescribed by Congress : 
 
 To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatso- 
 ever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as 
 aaay^ by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance 
 of Congress, become the Scat of the Government of the 
 United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places 
 purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State 
 m which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Maga- 
 zines, Arsenals, Dock- Yards, and other needful buildings :~ 
 And ^ ' 
 
 To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper 
 for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all 
 other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Govern- 
 ment of the United States, or in any Department or Officer 
 thereof. 
 
 Section. 9. The Migration or Importation of such Per- 
 sons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to 
 admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the 
 Year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a Tax or 
 Duty may be imposed on such Importation, not exceeding 
 ten dollars for each Person. 
 
 The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be 
 suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion 
 the public Safety may require it. 
 
 No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be 
 passed. 
 
 No Capitation, or other direct, Tax shall be laid, unless in i 
 Proportion to the Census or Enumeration herein before ' 
 directed to be taken. 
 
 No Tax or Duty shall be laid on Articles exported from any | 
 State. 
 
 No Preference shall be given by any Regulation of Com- . 
 merce or Revenue to the Ports of one State over those of i 
 another: nor shall Vessels botmd to, or from, one State, be ' 
 obliged to enter, clear, or pay Duties in another. I 
 
 No monev shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Con- 
 sequence 01 Appropriations made by Law ; and a regular 
 Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures ! 
 of all public Money shall be published from time to time. 
 
 No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United ! 
 States : And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust 
 under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, 
 accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any I 
 kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or toreign State. ' 
 
 Section. 10. No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, ; 
 or Confederation ; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal ; coin 
 Money ; emit Bills of Credit ; make any Thing but gold and 
 silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts ; pass any Bill of i 
 Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obliga- i 
 tiou of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility. i 
 
 No State shall, without the consent of the Congress, lay 1 
 any Imposts or Duties on Imports or Exports, except what ' 
 may be absolutely necessary for executing it's inspection j 
 Laws : and the net Produce of all Duties and Imposts, laid I 
 by any State or Imports or Exports, shall be for the Use ' 
 of the Treasury of the United States ; and all such Laws 
 shall be subject to the Revision and Controul of the Con- 
 gress. 
 
 No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, lay any 
 Duty of Tonnage, keep Troops, or Ships of War in time of 
 Peace, enter into any Agreement or (compact with another 
 State, or witn a foreign Power, or engage in War, unless 
 actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not 
 admit of Delay. | 
 
 ARTICLE, ir. 
 
 Section. 1. The executive Power shall be vested in a 
 President of the United States of America. He shall hold 
 his Office during the Term of four Years, and, together 
 with the Vice President, chosen for the same Term, be elect- 
 ed, as follows 
 
 Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legisla- 
 ture thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the 
 whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which 
 the State may be entitled in the Congress : but no Senator or 
 Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit 
 under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector. 
 
 [* The Electors shall meet in their respective States, 
 and vote by Ballot for two Persons, of whom one at least shall 
 not be an Inhabitant of the same State with themselves. 
 And they shall make a List of all the Persons voted for, and 
 of the Number of Votes for each ; which List they shall sign 
 and certify, and transmit sealed to the Seat of the Govern- 
 ment of the United States, directed to the President of the 
 Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in the Presence of 
 the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the Certifi- 
 cates, and the Votes shall then be counted. The Person hav- 
 ing the greatest Number of Votes shall be the President, 
 if such Number be a Majority of the whole Number of Elec- 
 tors appointed ; and if there be more than one who have such 
 Majority, and have an equal Number of Votes, then the 
 House of Representatives shall immediately chuse by Ballot 
 one of them for President ; and if no Person have a Majority, 
 then from the five highest on the List the said House shall 
 in like Manner chuse the President. But in chusing the 
 President, the Votes shall be taken by States, the Repre- 
 sentation from each State having one Vote; A Quorum for 
 this Purpose shall consist of a Member or Members from two 
 thirds or the States, and a Majority of all the States shall 
 be necessary to a Choice. In every Case, after the Choice 
 of the President, the Person having the greatest Number 
 of Votes of the Electors shall be the V ice President. But if 
 there should remain two or more who have equal Votes, 
 the Senate shall chuse from them by Ballot the Vice Presi- 
 dent.] 
 
 The Congress may determine the Time of chusing the Elec- 
 tors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes ; 
 which Day shall be the same throughout the United States. 
 No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen 
 of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this 
 Constitution, shall be eligible to the OS\ce of President: 
 neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall 
 not have attained to the Age of thirtv five Years, and been 
 fourteen Years a Resident within the'Uuited States. 
 
 In Case of the Removal of the President from Office, or 
 of his Death, Resignation, or Inability to discharge the Pow- 
 ers and Duties of the said Office, the same shall devolve on 
 the Vice President,and the Congress may by Law provide for 
 the Case of Removal, Death, Resignation, or inability, both 
 of the President and Vice President, declaring what Officer 
 shall then act as President, and such Officer shall act accord- 
 ingly, until the Disability be removed, or a President shall 
 be elected. 
 
 The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his Ser- 
 vices, a Compensation, which shall neither be encreased 
 nor diminished during the Period for which he shall have 
 been elected, and he shall not receive within that Period 
 any other Emolument fVom the United States, or any of 
 them. 
 
 Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take 
 the following Oath or Affirmation: — 
 
 " I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that 1 will faithfully exe- 
 "cute the Office of President of the United States, and will, 
 " to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend 
 " the Constitution of the United States. 
 
 Section. 2. The President shall be Commander in Chief 
 of the Armv and Navy of the United States, and of the 
 Militia of the several States, when called into the actual 
 Service of the United States ; he may require the Opinion, 
 in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive 
 Departments^ upon any Subject relating to the Duties of 
 their respective Offices, and he shall have Power to grant 
 Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, 
 except in Cases of Impeachment. 
 
 He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Con- 
 sent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds 
 qf the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and 
 by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall 
 appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, 
 Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the 
 United States, whose Appointments are not herein other- 
 wise provided for, and which shall be established by Law : 
 but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such 
 inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President 
 alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Depart- 
 ments. 
 
 The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies 
 that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by grant- 
 ing Commissions which shall expire at the End oftheir 
 next Session. 
 
 Section. 3. He shall from time to time give to the Con- 
 gress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend 
 to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge 
 
 * This clause within brackets has been superseded and 
 annulled by the I2th amendment, on page 450. 
 
THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED S'JATES. 
 
 453 
 
 necessary and expedient ; he may, on extraordinary Occa- 
 sions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in Case 
 of Disagreement between them, with Respect to the Time 
 of Adjournment, he may adjourn them to such Time as he 
 shall think proper; he shall receive Ambassadors and other 
 public Ministers ; he shall take Care that the Laws be faith- 
 fully executed, and shall Commission all the officers of the 
 United States. 
 
 Section. 4. The President, Vice President and all civil 
 Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office 
 on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, 
 or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors. 
 
 ARTICLE III. 
 
 Sfctiov. 1. The judicial Power of the United States, 
 shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior 
 Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and 
 establish. The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior 
 Courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behavior, and 
 shall, at stated Times, receive for their Services, a Com- 
 pensation^ which shall not be diminished during their Con- 
 tinuance in Office. 
 
 Sbctio.v. 2. The judicial Power shall extend to all Cases, 
 in Law and Equity, arising under this Constitution, the 
 Laws of the United States, and Treaties made, or which 
 shall be made, under their Authority ;— to all Cases affect- 
 ing Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls;- to 
 all Cases of admiralty and /hiaritime Jurisdiction ;— to Con- 
 troversies to which thfe United States shall be a Party; — 
 to Controversies between two or more States ;— between 
 R State and Citisens of another State ;— between Citizens 
 of different States,— between Citizens of the same State 
 claiming Lands under Grants of different States, and between 
 a State, or the Citizens thereof, and foreign States, Citizens 
 or Subjects. 
 
 In all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Minis- 
 ters and Consuls, and tnose in which a State snail be Party, 
 the suureme Court shall have original Jurisdiction. In all 
 the otner Cases before mentioned, the supreme Court shall 
 have appellate Jurisdiction, both as to Law and Fact, 
 with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the 
 Congress shall make. 
 
 The Trial of all Crimes, except in Cases of Impeachment, 
 shall be by Jury ; and such Trial shall be held in the State 
 where the said Crimes shall have been committed; but 
 •when not committed within any State, the Trial shall be at 
 such Place or Places as the Congress may by Law have direct- 
 ed. 
 
 Section. 3. ^Treason against the United States, shall con- 
 sist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to 
 their Enemies^ giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person 
 shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of 
 two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in 
 open Court. 
 
 The Congress shall have Power to declare the Punish- 
 ment of Treason, but no Attainder of Treason shall work Cor- 
 ruption of Blood, or Forfeiture except during the Life of 
 the Person attainted. 
 
 ARTICLE. IV. 
 
 Skction. I. Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each 
 State to the public Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings 
 of every other State. And the Congress may by general Laws 
 prescribe the Manner in which such Acts. Records and Pro- 
 ceedings shall be proved, and the Effect thereof. 
 
 Section. 2 The Citizens of each State shall be entitled 
 to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several 
 States. 
 
 A Person charged in any State with Treason, Felony, 
 or other Crime, wno shall flee from Justice, and be found in 
 another State, shall on Demand of the executive Authority 
 of the State from which he fled, be delivered up, to be re- 
 moved to the State having Jurisdiction of the Crime. 
 
 No Person held to Service or Labour in one State, under 
 the Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in Con- 
 sequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged 
 from such Service or Labour, but shall be delivered up on 
 Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labour may be 
 due. 
 
 Section. 3. New States may be admitted by the Congress 
 into this Union ; but no new State shall be fbrmed or erected 
 within the Jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State 
 be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or Parts 
 of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the 
 States concerned as well as of the Congress. 
 
 The Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all 
 needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory or 
 other Property belongine to the United States; and noth- 
 ing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to Prejudice 
 any Claims of the United States, or of any particular State. 
 
 Section. 4. The United States shall euarautee to every 
 State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and 
 shall protect each of them against Invasion ; and on Appli- 
 cation of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the 
 Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence. 
 
 ARTICLE. V. 
 
 The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses 
 ihall deem it Beceuary, shall propose Amendments to 
 
 this Constitution, or, on the Anplieation of the Legislatures 
 of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention 
 for proposing Amendments, which, in either Case, shall be 
 valid to all Intents and Purposes, as Part of this Consti- 
 tution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths 
 of the several States, or by Conventions in three fourths 
 thereof, as the one or th-? otner Mode of Ratification may be 
 proposed by the Congress ; Provided that no Amendment 
 which may be made prior to the Year one thousand eight 
 hundred and eight shsill in any Manner affect the first and 
 fourth Clauses m the Ninth Section of the first Article J 
 and that no State, witliout its Consent, shall be deprived ol 
 its equal Suffrage in the Senate. 
 
 ARTICLE. VI. 
 
 All Debts contracted and Engagements entered into, be- 
 fore the Adoption of this Constitution^ shall be as va id 
 against the United SU> tes under this Constitution, as under the 
 Confederation. 
 
 This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States 
 which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Trea- 
 ties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of 
 the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land ; 
 and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any 
 Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Con- 
 trary notwithstanding. 
 
 The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and 
 the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all execu- 
 tive and judicial Cttficers, both of the United States and of 
 the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation. 
 to support this Constitution ; but no religious Test shall 
 ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public 
 Trust under the Uoited SUtes. 
 
 ARTICLE. VII. 
 The Ratificatim of the Conventions of nine States, shall be 
 sufficient for the Establishment of this Constitution between 
 the States so ratifying the Same. 
 
 Done in Convention by the Unanimous Consent of 
 the StatfS present the Seventeenth Day of Septem- 
 ber in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hun- 
 dred and Eighty seven and of the Independance of the 
 United f.Utes of America the Twelfth. IN WIT- 
 NESS 'vhereol We have hereunto subscribed our 
 Names, GEO WASHINGTON— 
 
 Presidt and deputy from Virginia. 
 
 tiEW HAMPSHIRE. 
 John L/ ivodon, Nicholas Gilman. 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS. 
 Natha ici Gokham, Rcfcs Kino. 
 
 CONNECTICUT. 
 Wm.3 ml i«>hnson, Roger Sherman. 
 
 NEW YORK. 
 AiJEXANDEa Hamilton. 
 
 NEW JERSEY. 
 WiL- liiriNflSTON, David Brearlev 
 
 Wat. PATERSON, JONA. DAYTON. 
 
 PENNSYLVANIA. 
 B. > kankmn, Thomas Mifflin, 
 
 RoHT. MoRKis, Geo : Clymer, 
 
 Th->: Fitzsimons, Jared Inoersoll, 
 
 jAT'fiM WiLHON, Gouv: Morris. 
 
 DELATTARE. 
 Gko. Hkao. Jaco: Broom, 
 
 JCHN Dickinson, Gunning Bedford, Jun'r. 
 
 Richard Bassett, 
 
 MARYLAND. 
 MB> M Henrt Danl. Carroll. 
 
 OF St. Thos. Jenifer, 
 
 Dan: 
 
 VIRGINIA. 
 ■ oHN BiAiR, James Madison, Jr., 
 
 NORTH CAROLINA. 
 »Vm, Bu)uirT, He. Williamson. 
 
 Rich'd Dobbs Spaight, 
 
 SOUTH CAROLINA. 
 I. UirrucDGE, Charles CoTEswoRTHPiNCKWKr 
 
 4JHABI.KS PiNCKNEY, PlERCK BUTLER. 
 
 GEORGIA. 
 tViu.LAM Fnw, Abr. B^^win. 
 
 Attest: WILLIAM JACKSON, Seeretarf. 
 
ARTICLES 
 
 IN ADDITION TO. 
 
 AND AMENDMENT OF THE CONSri.TUTION 
 
 THE UNITED STATES OF AMEJtnjA 
 
 Proposed . 
 
 Congress, and ratified by the Legislatures of the several Staiek imrUnmt to the fifth article 
 of the original Constitution. 
 
 shall make no law respecting an establishment 
 of reli"gion. or prohibiting the free exercise thereof 
 
 (ARTICLE I.) 
 
 Centres 
 uf religioiii ui piunAuimig %.Lt^ Aitc ^^Ati^io*^ m\-*»-v* j v* 
 abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press ; or the right 
 of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the 
 Govemmeut for a redress of grievances. 
 
 (ARTICLE II.) ^ 
 A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security 
 of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear 
 ArmSj shall not be infringed. 
 
 (ARTICLE III.) 
 No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any 
 house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of 
 war, DUt in a manner to be prescribed by law. 
 
 (ARTICLE IV.) 
 The right of the people to be secure in their persons, 
 houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches 
 and seizures, snail not be violated, and no Warrants shall 
 issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirma- 
 tion, and particularly describing tne place to be searched, and 
 the persons or things to be seized. 
 
 (ARTICLE V.) 
 No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or other- 
 wise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment 
 of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or 
 naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in 
 time of War or public danger ; nor shall any person be 
 ■subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of 
 tife or limb ; nor shall be compelled in any Crinnnal Case 
 to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, 
 liberty, or property, without due process of law ; nor shall 
 private property be taken for public use, without just com- 
 pensation. 
 
 (ARTICLE VI.) 
 In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the 
 right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of 
 the State and district wherein the crime shall have been 
 committed, which district shall have been previously ascer- 
 tained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of 
 the accusation ; to be confronted with the witnesses against 
 ^im : to have Compulsory process for obtaining Witnesses 
 in his favour, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his 
 defence. 
 
 (ARTICLE Vll.) 
 In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy 
 shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall 
 be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury shall be otherwise 
 re-examined in any Court of the United States, than accord- 
 ing to the rules of the common law. 
 
 (ARTICLE VIII.) 
 Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines im- 
 posed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. 
 
 (ARTICLE IX.) 
 
 The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, 
 shall not be const] ■leij to iliaiy or disparage others retained 
 by the people. 
 
 (AUflCLE X.) 
 
 The powers not dwUlf al»d to the United States by the Con- 
 stitution, nor prohibited hy it to the States, are reserved to 
 the States respectively, iir to the people. 
 
 ( AjATICLE XI.) 
 
 The Judicial power ol the United States shall not be con 
 strued to extenl to any mitin law or equity, commenced or 
 prosecuted agsiagt one of the United States by Citizens of 
 another State, or \>y « itizens or Subjects of any Foreien 
 State. 
 
 (ARTICLE XII.) 
 
 The Electors shall lueet in their respective states, and vote 
 by ballot for Preside!) t and Vice President, one of whom, at 
 least, shall n it be an iahabitant of the same state with them 
 selves; they shall uame in their ballots the person voted 
 for as Presi lent, and in distinct ballot* the person voted for 
 as Vice President, ai d they shall make distinct lists of all 
 persons votijil for as President, and of all persons voted for 
 as Vice-Pr«-sident, and of the number of votes for each, 
 which lists thev shjJl sign and certify, and transmit sealed 
 to the seat of tte government of the United States, directed 
 to the President of the Senate ;— The President of the Senate 
 shall, in presence of the Senate and House of Representa- 
 tives, open all tlie certificates and the votes shafi then be 
 counted ;- The nciison having the greatest number of votes 
 for President, shall be the President, if such number be a 
 majority of the whole number of Electors appointed; and 
 if HO pej-sou havo such majority, then from the persons 
 having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list 
 of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives 
 shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But in 
 choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by states, 
 the repiesentation from each state having one vote; a quo- 
 rum for this puri ose shall consist of a member or members 
 from two-thirds of the states, and a majority of all the 
 states shall be i ecessary to a choice. And if the House of 
 Represcutatiyes shall not choose a President whenever the 
 rignt of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth 
 day of March ii<ixt following, then the Vice-President shall 
 act as President, as in the case of the death or other con- 
 stitutiinal disal ility of the President. The person having the 
 
 freatest number of votes as Vice-President, shall be the 
 ice-President, if such number be a majority of the whole 
 number of Electors appointed, and if no person have a 
 majoi-ity, then from the two highest numbers on the list 
 the Senate shall choose the Vice-President ; a quorum for 
 the jiurpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole num- 
 ber of Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall 
 be necessary to a choice. But no person constitutionally in- 
 eligible to Uitj office of President shall be eligible to that of 
 Vio'J-Piesidtnt of the United States. 
 
 POrULATION OF DIFFEllENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 Canada East, 890,201 
 
 Canada West 952,004 
 
 Newfoundland 96,506 
 
 Prince Edward's Island, 02,678 
 
 Nova Scotia 276,117 
 
 New Brunswick, 193,800 
 
 United States, 23,191,074 
 
 Mexico 7,500,000 
 
 Gauteraala, 850,000 
 
 San Salvador, 3.'»0,000 
 
 Honduras, 280,000 
 
 Nicaragua, 270,000 
 
 Costa Rica, 150,000 
 
 New Granada, 1 ,700,000 
 
 Venezuela, !X)0,000 
 
 Ecuador 650,000 
 
 Peru 1,800,000 
 
 Bolivia, 1^000 
 
 Brazil 5,000,000 
 
 Chili, 1,400,000 
 
 Argentine Republic, 800,000 
 
 Uraguay, 70,000 
 
 Paraguay, 250,000 
 
 British Guinea, i 
 
 French Guinea, \ 340,000 
 
 Dutch Guinea, ) 
 
THE SEALS OF THE SEVERAL STATES AND OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 THE ORIGINAL STATES FIRST-THE OTHERS IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER. 
 
 The publisher is mainly indebted to the excellent work of Marcius Willson, Esq., on '■'American His- 
 tory" for the material which compose the following descri])tions : — 
 
 One of the Original States. 
 
 SEAL.— A circular field, surrounded by a laiirel wreath, en- 
 compassed by the words, in Roman capitals, " Sigillum Re- 
 publica Neo Hantoniensis :" "The Seal of the State of New 
 Hampshire," with the date, 1784, indicating the time of the 
 adoption of the State Constitution. Land and water are re- 
 presented in the foreground, with the trunk of a tree on which 
 the hardy woodman is yet engaged, embracing a scene of busy 
 life significant of the industrious habits of the people ; and a 
 ship on the stocks, just ready for launching, witn the Ameri- 
 can banner displayed, is figurative of readiness to embark on 
 the sea of political existence. The sun, just emerg'ing above 
 the horizon, symbolizes the rising destiny of the state. 
 
 Population.— In 1790, 141,899: 1800, 183,762; 1810, 014,360; 
 1820,244,161 ; 1830,269,328; 1840,284,574; 1850,317,976. 
 
 No. of Representatives in Congress, 3 ; Electoral votes, 5. 
 
 One of the Original States. 
 
 SEAL.— A white or silver shield, on which is in anchor 
 with two flukes, and a cable attached. Above the shield, in 
 Roman capitals, is the word HOPE: and from each upper 
 corner of the shield is suspended an unlettered label. The 
 device symbolizes those principles of civil and religious lib- 
 erty which led to the founding of this colony, and in which 
 the faith of the citizens of the state is still deeply anchored. 
 The motto, HOPE, above the shield, directs the mind to the 
 uncertain future, anticipating the growing prosperity of the 
 state, and the perpetuity of its free institutions ; while the 
 unlettered label, denotes that events are still progressing in the 
 march of Time, and await the completion of History Before 
 the destiny of the state shall be recorded thereon. 
 
 Population.— li\ 1790, 69,110 : 1800, 69,122 ; 1810, 77,031 ; 1800, 
 83,059; 1830,97,199; 1840,108.830; 1850,147.545. 
 
 No. of Representatives in Congress, 2; Electoral votes, 4. 
 
 One of the Original States. 
 
 SEAL.— On the blue ground of an irregularly formed shield 
 an Indian is represented, dressed with belted hunting-shirt 
 and moccasins. In his right hand is a golden bow, and in his 
 left an arrow with the point downwards. A silver star on the 
 right denotes one of the United States of America. A wreath 
 forms the crest of the escutcheon, from which extends a right 
 arm, clothed and ruffed, the hanil grasping a broadsword, the 
 pommel and hilt of which are of golcl. Around the escutch- 
 eon, on a waving hand or label, are the words, Ense pelit pla- 
 cidam sub libertate guietem—" By the sword she seeks peace 
 under liberty." Around the circular border are the words, 
 ** Si^llum Republica Mastachusettentit ;" " The Seal of the 
 State of Massachusetts." 
 
 One of the Original States. 
 
 SEAL.— The original seal is of an oval form, without aujr 
 ornamental devices, and on the field are delineated three 
 grape-vines, each winding around and sustained by an up 
 ripht support— the whole representing the three settlements 
 (Hartford, Windsor, and Wethersfield,) which formed the 
 
 early colony. On a label waving around the lower vine is 
 the motto, Qui Transtuiit iSwsfine/—" He who planted, still 
 sustains." Around the margin of the field are the words, 
 " Sigillum RtpubHca- Connectieuten.^is :" "The Seal of the 
 State of Connecticut." The colonial seal had fifteen grape- 
 vines, with a hand protruding from the clouds on the right 
 above them, grasping the label and motto, which was waving 
 in the air. 
 
 Population. -Jn 1790, 238,141 ; 1800, 251.009; 1810, 262,012; 
 
 ,....,»....-.. , .^.., «.„,,v>,, ,.-v, ,„.,„„^ , .u.,u, ..^•.,oL-,. 1820, 275.202 ; 1830, 297,675 ; 1840, 309,978 ; 1850, 370,792. 
 
 No. of Representatives in Congress. II ; Electoral votes, 13. No. of Representatives in Congress, 4 ; Electoral votes, 6. 
 
 Population.-ln 1790, 378,717; 1800, 423,245; 1810, 472,040; 
 1820,623j'»7 ; 1830,610,408; 1840,737,689; 1850,994,514. 
 
AMEEICA ILLUSTEATED, 
 
 One of the Original States. 
 
 SEAL. — A shield, or escutcheon, on which is represented 
 the rising sun, -with a range of hills and water in the fore- 
 ground. Above the shield, for the crest, is a wreath sur- 
 mounted by a half globe, on which rests a startled eagle, 
 with wints outstretched. For the supporters of the shield, 
 on the right is represented the figure of Justice, with the 
 sword in one hand and the scales in the other ; and on the 
 left the Goddess of Liberty, with the wand and cap in her 
 left hand, and (he olive branch of peace in her right. Below 
 the shield is the motto, Excelsior—" More elevated"— denot- 
 ing that the course of the state is onward and higher. Around 
 the border of the seal, between two plain lines, is the in- 
 scription, in Roman capitals, "The Great Seal ot the State 
 of New York." 
 
 Population.— In 1790, 340,120; 1800,086,756; 1810, 959,049; 
 1820, 1,372,812 ; 1830, 1,918,608 ; 1840, 2,428,921 ; 1850. 3,097,394. 
 
 No. of Representatives in Congress, 33 ; Electoral votes, 35. 
 
 One of the Original States. 
 
 SEAL. -On a white field is an escutcheon parted by » 
 yellow or golden hand or girdle, on which is represented a 
 plo\igh in its natural color. In the upper part of the shield, 
 a ship under full sail is gliding smoothly over the waves of 
 the sea, which are surmounted by an azure sky. At the 
 lower part, on a green ground, are three golden sheaves of 
 wheat, denoting that agriculture, as well as commerce, is 
 one of the primary reliances of the state. On the right of 
 the shield is a stalk of maize, and on the left an olive branch. 
 For the crest, on a wreath of olive flowers, is perched a bald 
 eagle, with wings extended, holdine in its beak a label, with 
 the motto, <' Virtue, Liberty, and Independence," Around 
 the margin of the seal are the words, " Seal of the State of 
 Pennsylvania." 
 
 Population. -In 1790,434,373; 1800, 602,365; 1810, 810,091; 
 1820,1,049,458; 1830, 1,348,233; 1840, 1,724,033 ; 1850,2,311,786. 
 
 No. of Representatives in Congress, 25 ; Electoral votes, 27. 
 
 One of the Original States. 
 
 SEAL.— A white shield or escutcheon, bearing three 
 ploughs, indicating that the chief reliance of the people is 
 upon agriculture. The crest is a horse's head, supported by 
 a full-faced, six-barred helmet, resting on a vase— the latter 
 resting on the top of the escutcheon. The supporters are 
 the Goddess of Liberty on the right, with her wand and cap, 
 her left arm resting on the escutcheon ; and Ceres on the 
 left, her right hand resting on the escutcheon, and her left 
 gupportine a cornucopia, filled with fruits and flowers. 
 Around the border of the seal are the words, in Roman cap- 
 itals, "The Great Seal of the State of New Jersey," and at 
 the base the date of its adoption, in numeral letters, 
 MDCCLXXVI (1776.) 
 
 Population.— In Til^O, 184,139; 1800,211,949; 1810, 245,555; 
 1820, 277,575; 1830, 320,823; 1840,373,306; 1850,489,555. 
 
 Vo of Representatives in Congress, 5 ; Electoral votes, 7. 
 
 One of the Original States. 
 
 SEAL.— An azure shield or escutcheon, divided into two 
 equal parts by a white band or girdle. A cow is represented 
 in the lower part of the shield, and in the upper part are 
 two symbols, designed probably to represent the agricultural 
 productions of the state— grain and tobacco. The crest (a 
 wreath) supports a ship under full sail, displaying the Ameri- 
 can banner. On a white field around the escutcheon were 
 formerly wreaths of flowers, branches of the olive and other 
 symbols, but these have been displaced for two figures, re- 
 presenting a mariner and « hunter. At the bottom of the seal, 
 in numerals, is the date of its adoption MDCCXCIII. (1793,) 
 and around the border, in Roman capitals, are the words, 
 " Great Seal of the State of Delaware." 
 
 P'tpulation.— In 1790, 59,096, 1800, 64,273; 1810, 72,674; 
 1820,72,74!!; 1830,76,748; 1840,78,085; 1850,91,532. 
 
 No. of Representatives in Congress, 1 ; Electoral votes, 3. 
 
SEALS OF THE DIFFERENT STATES. 
 
 One of the Original States. 
 
 SEAL.— On a white or silver field the figure of Justice is 
 Ken prominent in the center of the foreground, grasping an 
 olive branch and a sword in her right hand, while her left is 
 elevating her well-balanced scales above her head. At her 
 feet is a laurel wreath, the fasces, and a cornucopia, with an 
 uninscribed white label waving loosely from their midst. In 
 the distance, on the right, is a view of the ocean, with a ship 
 under full sail in the perspective, bounded by a clear horizon. 
 On the left are some hogsneads of tobacco, symbolical of the 
 principal product of the state, and a ship with its sails partly 
 unfurled, indicative of commercial enterprise. The old seal 
 was little more than a copy of that of the United States, the 
 eagle being represented as it is on the present coins. 
 
 Population.— In 1790,319,708; 1800, 341,548; 1810, 380,546: 
 18-20,407,350; 1830,447,040; 1840,470,019; 1850, 583,034. 
 
 No. of Representatives in Congress, 6 ; Electoral votes, 8. 
 
 One of the Original States. 
 
 SEAL.— In the original seal, "which differs somewhat from 
 the above, on a white or silver field are represented the God- 
 dess of Liberty on the right, and Ceres, the goddess of corn 
 and of harvests, on the left. In the right hana of the former 
 is a scroll, representing the Declaration of Independence, and 
 the left supports her wand, surmounted by the cap of liberty. 
 Ceres has in her right hand three heads or ears of wheat, and 
 in her left the cornucopia, or horn of plenty filled with the 
 products of the earth. In the background is a marine 
 view, indicative of the commercial resources of the state. 
 Around the outer circle, starting from a star on the top, are 
 the words, in Roman capitals, " Great Seal of the State of 
 North Carolina." 
 
 Population.— Xn 1790, 393,751 ; 1800, 478,103; 1810, 555,500; 
 18'20, 638,8-29 ; 1830,737,987; 1810,753,419; 1850.869,039. 
 
 No. ol Representatives in Congress, 8 ; Electoral votes, 10. 
 
 One of the Original State*. 
 
 SEAL.— On a white or silver field the Goddess of Virtue, 
 the genius of the commonwealth, is represented dressed like 
 an Amazon, resting on a spear with one hand, and holding a 
 sword in the other. She is in the act of trampling on Tyran- 
 ny, represented by a man prostrate, a crown fallen from his 
 head, a broken chain in his left hniiil, and a scourge in his 
 right. On a label above the figures is the word " Virginia ;" 
 and beneath them is the motto. Sic semper tyrannis—" Thus 
 we Serve tyrants." There are no other devices legitimately 
 belonging to the seal, although artists frequently embellish 
 the field with such local or national emblems as their fancy 
 suggests- apractice "more honored in the breach than in the 
 observance." 
 
 Population.— In 1790, 748,308; 1800, 880,-200 ; 1810, 974,8-M; 
 1850,1,065^79; 1830,1,211,405; 1840,1,239,797; 1850.1,421,661. 
 
 HO' of Representatives in Congress, 13 ; Electoral votes, IS. 
 
 One of the Oriffinal States. 
 
 SEAL.— In the center of a white or silver field is the device 
 of a palmetto-tree, (a species of the date,) with its topmost 
 branches denoting a vigorous growth, emblematical of the 
 prosperous progress of the state. Near the base of the tree 
 are two cross-pieces, composed of bundles of spenrs, nt the 
 crossing of which is attached a scroll or label, with the motto, 
 Animis opibusqiu parati—" Ready [to defend it] with our 
 lives and property,'' which motto, l>y the way, is more gener- 
 
 ally put around the lower half of the outer circle, with the 
 
 words " South Carolina," occupying the u 
 
 by a single star. The emblem [the palm] 
 
 victory, and triumph, and is, perniips, the source of that 
 
 deference which the state sometimes expects. 
 
 Population,-ln 1790, "249,073; 1800,345,591 ; 1810,415,115 
 1800,602.741; 1830,581,185; 1840,594,398; 1850,668,507. 
 
 No. Of Representatives in Congress, 6 ; Electoral votes, 8. 
 
AMEEICA ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 One of the Original States. 
 
 SEAL.— In the center of a circular white or silver field 
 are three pillars, supporting an arch, around which is em- 
 Mazoned the word " Constitution." The pillars are symbol- 
 ical ol" ihe three depanments of the state governnieni— the 
 Legislative, the Judiciary, and the Executive: and on the 
 one at the right, representing the Legislative, is the word, 
 " Wisdom ;" on the second, representing the Judiciary, is ihe 
 wurd " Justice ;" and on the third, representing the Executive, 
 is the word " Moderation.'' Near the right pillar is the figure 
 of an officer with a dravv^n sword, denoting that the aid of 
 the military is always ready to enforce respect and obedience 
 to law. Around the margin of the circle are the worUs, 
 " State of Georgia, 1799." 
 
 Papulation. -In 1790, 82,548; 1800. ITO,!')! ; ]8n, 0.'P,4r3 ; 
 1820, 340,987; 1830, 516,823; 1840, 691,39Q; 1850; 9.16,185. 
 
 No. of Representatives in Congress, 8 ; Eleotoial voies, ID. 
 
 Admitted into the Union, 1792. 
 
 SEAL.— Although the seal of this state is apparently ond 
 really among the most simple in iis design, yet it embodies a 
 significance which should commend itself to the serious con- 
 sideration of all who are disposed to place a slight value 
 upon the union of the states. In the center of a circular 
 white or silver field two friends are seen grasping one hand 
 of each other in a firm and cordial embrace, while the other 
 IS extended to each other's back, significant of encourage- 
 ment and support. Below them is the expressive motto, 
 "United we stand: divided, we fall." An ornamented 
 double circle encompasses the whole, with the words, 
 " Seal of Kentucky" between the lines of the upper half- 
 circle. '^^ 
 
 Population.-\n 1790, 73,077; 1800, 020,955; 1810, 406,511; 
 18-20, 564,317 ; 1830, 687,917 ; 1840, 779,828 ; 1850, 982,405. 
 
 No. of Representatives in Congress, 10 ; Electoral votes, 12. 
 
 Admitted into the Union, 1791. 
 
 SEAL.— A circular field, in the middle of which is a tall 
 evergreen wi|h fourteen branches— thirteen rrpresentinsr the 
 original states, and the fourteenth or topmost the state of Ver- 
 mont supported by the others. Beneath « cloudless firmament, 
 the Green Motmtains are seen towering in the distance, and in 
 the foreground are sheaves of wheat and a cow, indicative of 
 an agricultural and grazing country, affording the true sources 
 of thrift and independence for an industrious population. The 
 Green Mountains have ever been considered characteristic of 
 tlie hardy rai'e which inhabits that region. Around the 
 margin of the field, in Roman capitals, the word " Vermont" 
 occupies the upper half-circle, and the words " Freedom and- 
 Uniiy" occupy the lower half. 
 
 Population.— In 1790, 85,416; 1800, 154,465; 1810, 217,713; 
 IP20, 235.764; 1830, 2.sn,652 ; 1S40, 291,94? ; 1850.314,120. 
 
 No. of Representatives in Congress, 3 ; Electoral votes, 5. 
 
 Admitted int'i the Union, 1796. 
 
 PEAL.— A white or silver circular field, the upper half of 
 which is occtipied on the right by a plough, in the center by 
 a sheaf of wheat, and on the left by a stalk of cotton. Un- 
 derneath these emblems, extending across the entire middle 
 of the field, is the word " A":riculture," denoting that the 
 first reliance of the state should be upon the productions of 
 the soil. The lower half is occupied by a loaded barge, with 
 the word " Commerce" below the water, indicating that the 
 prosperity of all may be promoted through this means. Over 
 the sneaf of wheat are the numeral letters XVI., denoting that 
 this was the sixteenth state admitted into the Union. Around 
 the border are the words " The Great Seal of the State of 
 Tennessee," with the date 1796. 
 
 Population.-'in 1790. 35,791; 1800. 105,602; 1810, 261,727; 
 1820, 4->2,R13 ; 1830,681,904; 1840,829,210; 1850,1,002,614., 
 
 No. of Representatives in Congress, 10; Electoral votes, W 
 
SEALS OF THE DIFFERENT STATES 
 
 Admitted into the Union, 1802. 
 
 SEAL. — In a circular field are several devices, significant 
 of the general surface, business and prospects of tne state. 
 The central portion represents a cultivated country, with the 
 emblem of agriculture (a wheat-sheaf) on the right, and on 
 the left a bundle of seventeen arrows, iudicatin°^ the number 
 of states then constituting the Union. In the distance is a 
 range of mountains, the base skirted by a tract of woodland. 
 The rising sun. which is just becoming visible above the 
 mountains, betokens the rising glory of the state. The fore- 
 ground is an expanse of water, with a keel-boat on its sur- 
 face, indicative of inland trade. Around the border are the 
 words, " The Great Seal of the State of Ohio," with the 
 date, 18M. 
 
 Population.— In 1800, 45,365: ISIO, 230,760; 1820, 581,434; 
 1830, 937,903; 1840, 1,519,467 ; 1850, 1,980,408. 
 
 No. of Representatives in Congress, 21 ; Electoral votes, 23. 
 
 Admitted into the Union, 1816. 
 
 SEAL. — In the lower portion of a circular field is repre- 
 sested a scene of prairie and woodland, with the surtace 
 gently undulating— descriptive of the predominant features 
 of the state. In the foreground is a buffalo, an animal once 
 abounding in great numbers in this region, apparently startled 
 by the axe of the woodman or pioneer, who is seen on the 
 left, felling the trees of the forest, denoting the march of 
 civilization westward. In the distance, on the right, is seen 
 the sun, just appearing above the verge of the horizon. In a 
 half-circle, spanning the expressive scene beneath, are the 
 words " Indiana State Seal." Around the outer margin of 
 the whole is a plain green border, surrounded by a simple black 
 line. 
 
 Population.— In 1800, 4,875; 1810, ^,520; 1820, 147,178; 
 1830, 343,031 ; 1840, 685,866 ; 1850, 988,416. 
 
 No. of Representatives in Congress, 11 ; Electoral votes, 13. 
 
 Admitted into the Union, 1812. 
 
 SEAL.— On a white or ijlver circular field is represented a 
 polican standing by her nost filled with yoimg ones, in the 
 attitude of " urotection and defense," and in the act of feed- 
 ing them— all sharing alike her maternal assiduity. The 
 mother-bird symbolizes the general government of the Union ; 
 while the birds in the nest represent the several states. 
 Above are the scales of Justice, which, taken in connection 
 with the enibknis beneath, signify that •' equal and exact 
 justice " must be extended to all the members of the con- 
 federacy. The semi-circle of eighteen stars indicates the 
 number of states at the time of admission. In the upper por- 
 tion of the external circle are the words, " State or Louisia- 
 na," anil in the lower, the words " Union and Confidence." 
 
 Populatio7i.-\n 1810, 76,556; 1820, 153,407; 1830, 215,739; 
 1840,52,411; 1850,517,762. ' 
 
 No. of Representatives in Congress, 4 ; Electoral votes, 6. 
 
 Admitted into the Union, In!'. 
 
 SEAL.— In the center of a white or silver circular fieltf n 
 the American eagle, with widespread wings, occupying the 
 entire surface ; which maybe considered as denoting that all 
 the people of the state, from whatever clime or country they 
 may have come, are purely American in feelings, and are 
 content to repose their tnist under the broad wings of the 
 " bird of liberty." In the rischt talon of the eagle is n bundle 
 of four arrows, significant nrpower to sustain the princiules 
 of government, and to repel the assaults of an enemy ; while 
 an olive branch in the left, betokens a disposition to maintain 
 peace. Around the outer circle, between parallel lines, are 
 the words, in Roman capitals, "The Great Seal of the State 
 of Mississippi." 
 
 Population.-ln 1800, 8,850; 1810, 40,352; 1830, 75,448 
 1830,136,621; 1840,375,651; 1850,606,526. 
 
 No. of Representatives in Congress, 5; Electoral votes, 7. 
 
AMEEICA ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 Admitted into the Union, 1818. 
 
 SEAL.— In the center of a white or silver escutcheon is a 
 representation of the American eagle, its wings spread so as 
 to touch the inner margin of the shield. In its rignt talon is 
 the emblem of peace, an olive branch ; while three arrows are 
 grasped in theleft, denoting its readiness to sustain the three 
 great branches of government. On its breast is an escutcheon, 
 tne lower half of which is represented of a red color, and 
 the upper half blue, the latter bearing three white or silver 
 stars. From its beak extends a label, waving in the air above 
 it, with the inscription "State Sovereignty: National 
 Union. In the upper part of a circle enclosing the shield are 
 the words, " Seal of the State of Illinois," and in the lower 
 part the date, " Aug't 26, 1818." 
 
 Population.— In 1810, 12,282 ; 1820, 55,211; 1830, 157,445; 
 1840,476,183; 1850,851,470. 
 
 No. ot Representatives in Congress, 9 ; Electoral votes, 11. 
 
 Admitted into the Union, 1820. 
 
 SEAL.— A white or silver shield, on which is represented a 
 pine-tree, with a moose-deer recuiabeiit at its bate-euibU-m- 
 atical of the valuable timber of the state, and of the security 
 and repose enjoyed by the animals which range its immense 
 forests. The "supporters" are a mariner resting on his an- 
 chor, and a husbandman with his scythe— denoting that com- 
 merce and agriculture are each primary resources of the state. 
 Above the shield is the North Star, beneath which is the 
 motto, I>t«'g-o— " I direct ;" and under the shield is the name 
 of the state, in Roman capitals ; while sea and land compose 
 the foreground. On the left, the tall masts of a ship are per- 
 ceptible in the distance, the sails spread, denoting a readiness 
 for comiriercial enterprise. 
 
 Population.— In 1790, 96,540; 1800, 151,719; 1810, 228,705; 
 1820,298^335; 1830,399,455; 1840,501,793; 1850,583,169. 
 
 No. 01 Representatives in Congress, 6 ; Electoral votes, 8. 
 
 Admitted into the Union, 1820. 
 
 SEAL.— Nearly the entire of a circular field is occupied 
 with the representation of a map, embracing the names and 
 localities of the principal rivers and towns, as they existed 
 at the time when the territoral government was established, 
 1817. A portion of East Florida, embracing the line of sur- 
 face as far as Pensacola, is included in the map, as also a 
 small portion of Tennessee, sufficient to shown the boundaries 
 on either side. Around the circle, between two parallel lines, 
 are the words, in Roman capitals, " Alabama Executive 
 Office." [This was the original seal designed for the territory, 
 and it was afterward adopted by the state on its admission 
 into the Union, and has remained unchanged ever since that 
 time.] 
 
 PoptUation.-ln 1820, 127,901; 1830,309,527; 1840, 590,756; 
 JSSO, 771,671. 
 
 No of Representatives in Congress, 7 ; Electoral votes, 9. 
 
 Admitted into the Union. 1821. 
 
 SKAL.- On a circular shield, equally divided by a perpen- 
 dicular line, is a red lield en the right side, in wnich is the 
 white or grizzly bear of Missouri. Above, separated by a 
 wavy or curved line, is a white or silver crescent, in an arure 
 field. On the left, on a white field, are the arms of the United 
 States. A band surrounds the escutcheon, on which are the 
 words, " United, we stand ; divided, we fall." For the crest, 
 over a yellow or golden helmet, full faced, and grated with six 
 bars, is a silver star; and above it, a constellation of twenty- 
 three smaller stars. The supporters are two grizzly bears 
 standing on a scroll inscribed, Salus populi suprema lex esto— 
 " The public safety is the supreme law." Underneath are the 
 numerals MDCCCXX., and around the circle the words, " The 
 Great Seal of the State of Missouri." 
 
 Population.'-Jn 1810,20,845; 1820, 66,586 ;. 1830, 140,455 ; 
 1840, 383,702 ; 1850, 682,044. 
 
 No. of Representatives in Congress, 7 ; Electoral votes, 9. 
 
SEALS OF THE DIFFERENT STATES 
 
 Admitted into the Union, 1836. 
 
 SEAL.— Occupying the lower part of a circle is a shield, 
 near the base of which is a white star on a blue field, repre- 
 seniin? the state. In the middle portion is a beehive, signify 
 ing industry, and a plough, denoting agriculture ; while a 
 Steamboat, emblematic of commerce, fills the upper part. For 
 the crest, the goddess of liberty is represented with her wand 
 and cap m one hand, and a wreath of laurel in the other, sur- 
 rounded by a constellation of stars, indicating the states. 
 The supporters are two eagles, one grasping a bundle of ar- 
 rows, and the other an olive branch ; a label extending from 
 the claw of each, with the motto Regrnant Populi—^' The 
 People rule." On either side of the base is a cornucopia, and 
 around the circle which encloses the whole are the words, 
 " Seal of the State of Arkansas." 
 
 Population.-la 1820, 14,273; 1830, 30,338; 1840, 97,574; 
 1850, 209,897. 
 
 No. of Representatives in Congress, 2 ; Electoral votes, 4. 
 
 Admitted into the Union, 1845. 
 
 SEAL. — The seal which was originally used for the ter- 
 ritory of Florida, although not formally adopted as that of 
 the state, has been contmued ever since, and of course re- 
 tains all its legal force.* In the center of a circular white 
 or silver field is represented the American eagle, " the bird 
 of liberty,'' grasping the emblem of peace, an olive branch, 
 in its left talon ; and in its ri^ht a bundle of three arrows, 
 significant of the three principal reliances of ^ood govern- 
 mem— the executive, the legislative, and the judicial. Above 
 are arranged in a semi-circle thirteen stars, emblematic oJ 
 the thirteen original states ; and below, the ground is repre- 
 sented as covered with the pricklypear, a fruit common to the 
 country, and for which an appropriate motto would be, " Lei 
 me alone.'' 
 
 Population.— In 1830,34,730; 1840,54,447; 1850,87,444. 
 
 No. of Representatives in Congress, 1 ; Electoral votes, 3. 
 
 Admitted into the Union, 1R37. 
 
 SEAL.— On an escutcheon in the center of a white field is 
 the representation of a peninsula extending into a lake, a man 
 with his gun, and the rising sun. On the upper part is the 
 word Tuebor—"l will defend it; and on a label extending 
 across the lower part is the motto. Si gutrris peninsulam 
 avurnam eircwnspiee—** If you seek a delightful country, 
 (peninsula.) behold it.' The supporters are acommon deer 
 on the right, and a moose on the left, both abounding in the 
 forests of Michigan. For the crest, is the American eagle ; 
 above which, on a label waving above all, is the motto 
 E pluribua Unum. Around the outer circle, between two 
 parallel lines, are the words, " The Great Seal of the State 
 01 Michigan," and " A. D. MDCCCXXXV." 
 
 Population.— In 1810, 4,762; 18-30, 8,896; 1830, 31,639; 
 1840,'21-2,'267; 1850,397,654. 
 
 No. of Representatives in Congress, 4 ; Electoral votes, 6. 
 
 Admitted into the Union, 1845. 
 
 SEAL. — Texas is the only state which enjoyed a literally 
 independent or isolated existence previous to its admission into 
 the Union. During its struggle with Mexico, it adopted as an 
 official seal a white or silver star of five points on an azure 
 field, encircled by branches of the live-oak and olive. 
 Around the ouiercircle were the words, " Republic of Texas," 
 in Roman capital letters. With the exception of the words 
 around the margin, which is now blank, except the word 
 " Texas " in the upper half-circle, the former seal has been 
 adopted since by the state. The live-oak (querau virens.) 
 Avhich abounds in the forests of Texas, is a strong and durable 
 timber, much used in ship -building, and forming an important 
 article of export. 
 
 PopM/ahon.- 1850, •312,592. 
 
 No. of Representatives in Congress, 2 ; Electoral votes, 4. 
 
INCLUDING illustrations'. 
 
 Admitted into the Union, 1846. 
 
 SEAL.— Like some of the other states which enjoyed a 
 territorial existence for a length of time before they were 
 invested with the dignity of states, Iowa still retains her 
 original seal, the device of which is perhaps more simple 
 and expressive than that of any other state. In the center 
 of a white or silver circular field is an eagle in the attitude 
 of flight, grasping in its right talon a bow, its left talon just 
 visible within the inner circle around the field, and holding 
 in its beak a single arrow. The words, " Seal of the Terri- 
 tory of Iowa," from nearly a complete circle around the 
 field, leaving a blank space at the lower part, and these 
 again are surrounded by white circular dots, on a black 
 ground. 
 
 Population.-ln 1840,43,110; 1850, 192,214. 
 
 No. of Representatives in Congress, 2 ; Electoral votes, 4. 
 
 Admitted into the Union, 18.50. 
 
 SEAL.— In the foreground, on the left. Minerva ig sented on 
 a rock near the bank of an extensive bay or river, which winds 
 its course among the majestic mountains on either side. Her 
 spear is grasped in the right hand, while the left rests on the 
 top of her shield by her side ; near which is a grizzly hear, 
 significant of the snowy region round about. On the right is 
 a hardy miner with his pick, seeking the golden treasures 
 secreted among the rocks. Along the center is seen a majestic 
 bay, with two clijipers in full view, indicating that commerce 
 is one of the chief reliances of the people. Above the snow- 
 covered mountains, which bound the view, is the Greek word 
 Eureka — " I have found ;" and over all is a circle of silver 
 stars. 
 
 PopM/a/ion.— According to a census ordered by the state, 
 the population in 1S52, was returned as 261,435. 
 
 No of Representatives in Congress, 2 ; Electoral votes, 4« 
 
 Admitted into the Union, 1«47. 
 
 SEAL. — A large portion of the field is occupied hy land and 
 waier scenery, denoting the agricultural, commercial, and 
 mining interests of the state. In the foreground is a man 
 "'"""hing with a span of horses ; in the middle is a pile of 
 
 ploughi 
 lead in 1 
 
 lead m bars, a barrel, a rake, a sheaf of wheat, an anchor, and 
 a cornucopia. Lakes Michigan and Superior^ are repre- 
 sented with a sloop on the former, and a steamboat on the 
 latter, toward which an Indian on the shore is })ointing. In 
 the distance is a level prairie, skirted by a range of wood land— 
 a liKht-house and school-house on the left, and the state-house 
 in the center. In a semi-circle above are the words Civilitcu 
 luccessit Barbarum—'^ Civilization has succeeded Barbarism." 
 At the bottom is the date when a territorial government was 
 Termed, " Fourth of July, 1836 ;" and around the whole are 
 the words ♦' The Great Seal of the Territory of Wisconsin," 
 'which has not yet been changed. 
 
 Population.— \n 1840,30,945; 1850,305,191. 
 
 No. of Representatives in Congress, 3 Electoral votes, 5. 
 
 Constitution adopted, September 17, 1787. 
 
 SEAL.— The followmg is the recorded description of the 
 device of the seal of the United States, as adopted by Con- 
 gress on the 20th of June, 1782: " Jrtns : Paleways of thir- 
 teen pieces, argent and gules ; a chief azure ; the escutcheon 
 on the breast of the American eagle displayed, proper, hold- 
 ing in his dexter talon an olive branch, and in his sinis 
 ter a bundle of thirteen arrows, all proper, and in his beak a 
 scroll inscribed with this motto, Epluribus Unum. For tho 
 crest: Over the head of the eagle, which anpears above the 
 escutcheon, a glory, or, breaking through a cloud, proper, and 
 surrounding thirteen stars forming a constellation, argent on 
 an azure field." 
 
 Population.-Jn 1790, 3,929,827; 1800,5,305,941 ; 1810, 7,239,- 
 814; 1820, 9,638,191; 1830, 12,866,020; 1840, 17,069,453; 1860, 
 23,263,488. 
 
 No. of Representatives, 234; Delegates, 6; Senators, 62; 
 Electoral votes, 296. 
 
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 BERKELEY 
 
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