atrous people save in accordance with the special interests of their
own church; or from Spanish historians who had never set foot upon the
territory of which they wrote, and who consequently repeated with
heightened color the legends, traditions, and exaggerations of others.
"The general opinion may be expressed," says Janvier, in his "Mexican
Guide," "in regard to the writings concerning this period that, as a
rule, a most gorgeous superstructure of fancy has been raised upon a
very meagre foundation of fact. As romance, information of this highly
imaginative sort is entertaining, but it is not edifying." One would be
glad to get at the other side of the Aztec story, which, we suspect,
would place the chivalric invaders in a very different light from that
of their own boastful records, and also enable us to form a more just
and truthful opinion of the aborigines themselves. That their numbers,
religious sacrifices, and barbaric excesses are generally overdrawn is
perfectly manifest. Every fair-minded student of history frankly admits
this. It was necessary for Cortez and his followers to paint the
character of the Aztecs in darkest hues to palliate and excuse, in a
measure, their own wholesale rapine and murder. It was the elder Dumas
who said, "Truth is liable to be left-handed in history." As Cortez was
a champion of the Roman Catholic Church, that institution did not
hesitate to represent his achievements so as to redound to its own
glory. "Posterity is too often deceived by the vague hyperboles of poets
and rhetoricians," says Macaulay, "who mistake the splendor of a court
for the happiness of a people." No one can forget the magnificence of
Montezuma's household as represented by the chroniclers, and as
magnified by time and distance.

Let us consider for a moment the geographical situation of this great
southland, which is separated from us only by a comparatively
insignificant stream of water.

The present republic of Mexico is bounded on the north by the United
States, from which it is separated in part by the narrow Rio Grande; on
the south by Guatemala, Balize, and the Pacific Ocean; on the east by
the Gulf of Mexico; and on the west by the Pacific Ocean, extending as
far north as the Bay of San Diego, California. Of its nearly six
thousand miles of coast line, sixteen hundred are on the Gulf of Mexico
and forty-two hundred miles are on the Pacific. The topographical aspect
of the country has been not inapp