France or Italy--the desire of extending
the dominion of the Church was a very real and powerful incentive to
action. The strength of the missionary and crusading spirit in Cortes
is seen in the fact that where it was concerned, and there only, was he
liable to let zeal overcome prudence.

"There can be no doubt that, after making all allowances, the Spaniards
did introduce a better state of society into Mexico than they found
there. It was high time that an end should be put to those hecatombs
of human victims, slashed, torn open and devoured on all the little
occasions of life. It sounds quite pithy to say that the Inquisition,
as conducted in Mexico, was as great an evil as the human sacrifices
and the cannibalism; but it is not true. Compared with the ferocious
barbarism of ancient Mexico, the contemporary Spanish modes of life
were mild, and this, I think, helps further to explain the ease with
which the country was conquered. In a certain sense the prophecy of
Quetzalcoatl was fulfilled and the coming of the Spaniards did mean the
final dethronement of the ravening Tezcatlipoca. The work of the noble
Franciscan and Dominican monks who followed closely upon Cortes, and
devoted their lives to the spiritual welfare of the Mexicans, is a more
attractive {228} subject than any picture of military conquest. To
this point I shall return hereafter, when we come to consider the
sublime character of Las Casas. For the present we may conclude in the
spirit of one of the noble Spanish historians, Pedro de Cieza de Leon,
and praise God, that the idols are cast down."

[1] Cortes applies this name to the province in which the city, called
by him Temixtitan, more properly Tenochtitlan, but now Mexico, was
situated. Throughout this article the curious spelling of the great
conqueror is retained as he wrote.

[2] This is the plant known in this country under the name of the
_Century Plant_, which is still much cultivated in Mexico for the
purposes mentioned by Cortes. It usually flowers when eight or ten
years old.

[3] The original has the word _Mesquitas_, mosques; but as the term is
applied in English exclusively to Mohammedan places of worship, one of
more general application is used in the translation.

[4] The title invariably given to Muteczuma (or Montezuma) in these
dispatches is simply Senor, in its sense of Lord or (to use an Indian
word) Cacique; which is also given to the chiefs or governors of
di