tations, not of men and animals,
but of wooden creatures, while in your drawings it seemed as if the
men and animals were moving across the paper; and that, were you to
teach our scribes thus to portray objects, it would make a profound
alteration in Mexican art.

"This made a great impression upon them. Many of the nobles belonging
to the Council of Education were present, and Montezuma himself is
fond of art. All were greatly struck with your paintings, and these
certainly went a long way towards strengthening my party. When we get
back, you shall do some pictures of things such as they see here, and
are accustomed to. Perhaps you could do even better, still, if you
were to try."

"I could make much more finished pictures," Roger said. "These were
only sketched off in haste, and with such colors as came to hand;
but if I had pigments, and could mix the colors as I wanted them, I
could produce very much better effect."

Roger, as a child, had been placed by his father, during the
latter's long absences from home, at a school kept by some monks at
a monastery at Plymouth, in order that he might learn to read and
write--as these accomplishments would be of great use to him, as a
master mariner. His fondness for painting attracted the attention
of one of the old monks, who illuminated missals; and he had
permitted him to copy many of the manuscripts in the monastery, and
had given him instructions in the art. He had, indeed, been so
struck with the talent the boy showed, that he told Reuben Hawkshaw
that if he would let his son devote himself to art, he would make a
famous painter. The sailor had scoffed at the idea; and Roger
himself, fond as he was of painting, would have been reluctant to
abandon the idea of going to sea.

The instructions he had obtained, however, up to the age of twelve,
when he went on his first voyage with his father, had been of great
assistance to him. Thanks to his natural talent, his visits to the
churches at the various ports at which the ship touched, and to the
fact that he had plenty of time on board to practice the art, his
pictures were surprisingly good, and had excited a great deal of
attention on the part of the friends and acquaintances of Master
Diggory Beggs.

Upon his return to Tezcuco, Cacama ordered the scribes to furnish
him with large sheets of the best paper, brushes, and pigments. The
colors were all bright and glaring ones; but by mixing them, and
adding some sombre