men, arriving thither in
armed bands, have torn both themselves and their predecessors to
pieces, as if some dictate of Nature had said, "Fight; for here is no
peace."

Yet what was really destined to take place in Mexico was the evolution
of a distinct civilisation. Three hundred years of the implanting of
the seed of Spanish culture and ideals, and fifty years of drastic
revolutionary tilling of the social soil, wrought a nation at length.

Transplanted from the Old World, the methods and character of Spanish
life, with all its virtues and defects, rapidly took root in Mexico.
The long rule of the Viceroys is steeped in an atmosphere often
brilliant and attractive, often dark and sinister, always romantic and
impressive. The grandees of Spain came out to rule this new country,
and gave it of their best, nor disdained to spend their years therein,
and a stream of capable legislators and erudite professors and devout
ecclesiastics hurried to the new field which lay open to their services
and powers. The patriotism and fervency of their work, whatever defects
they showed from time to time, cannot fail to arouse the applause of
the student of those times. The colonial _regime_ gave solid and
enduring character to the Mexican people. It gave them traditions,
history, refinement, which are a priceless heritage for them, and it
builded beautiful cities and raised up valuable institutions which are
the substratum of their civilisation. The wonderful vitality and extent
of Spanish influence and character which flowed from these
centres--Mexico, Peru, and others--over thousands of miles of rugged
Cordillera and through impassable forests, was, in some respects, the
most notable condition within the shores of all the New World. The
stamp of the great civilisation which Spain, herself the result of a
human blend of undying character, implanted within these continents is
great and imperishable, and holds something for the world at large
which is, as yet, scarcely suspected.

But, to return to history. In 1522 Cortes was appointed Governor and
Captain-General of the great territory which Spain acquired as a result
of the Conquest, and to which the name of "New Spain" was given--a
designation, however, which was never able to usurp its ancient and
natural one of "Mexico." The charges which had been brought against
Cortes by his jealous enemies had been inquired into by an impartial
group of statesmen appointed by the young King o