cipal cause of our
author's spite against Dr. Robertson appears to have been a statement
made by the latter, that the Iroquois are cannibals. This allegation
evidently touches a sensitive point. It is indignantly denied by the
adopted member of the tribe. The Iroquois, he says, like other Indians,
never eat human flesh, unless driven to it by hunger. He turns the
tables (on which this ill-omened repast is spread) against the worthy
Doctor. He charges him (falsely, however) with having represented
Charles the Fifth as "a pattern of abstinence," when he was in fact one
of the greatest of royal _gourmands_. On this point he is willing for
once to accept even the authority of Mr. Prescott, who, he says, has
upset Robertson's reputation as an historian by means of "the _Samanca_
papers."

Mr. Wilson so often returns to these "Samanca" papers, and appears to
labor under so many delusions in regard to them, that, hopeless as the
attempt may seem, we cannot help trying to let a little daylight into
his mind. "Mr. Prescott," he writes, "having obtained copies of the most
important _Simanca_" [the reader must not be surprised at these little
variations of orthography] "papers of Ximenes' collection, supposes them
a new discovery, of great value. _Doubtless they are;_" [then there
could be no great harm in supposing it;] "his agents did not fail to
represent them to him in the most exalted terms, to enhance the value of
their services according to the Spanish custom." Now we can assure Mr.
Wilson that Mr. Prescott had not in his possession a copy of a single
document placed in the Archives of Simancas (for so an excusable
partiality for custom, and not any want of respect for our author,
obliges us to spell this name) by Cardinal Ximenes. He will also, we
trust, be glad to learn, that, for the documents relating to the Emperor
Charles the Fifth which Mr. Prescott did receive from Simancas, he paid
not a _real_ beyond the established charge of the official copyists,--a
charge which is the same in all cases, whatever may be the value of
the originals,--the task of examining the collection and selecting the
letters suitable for the purpose having been a labor of love on the part
of the distinguished scholar by whom it was undertaken.

Mr. Wilson is animated by a fervent hatred against Cardinal Ximenes,--or
"Jimines," as he sometimes calls him. He terms him "a monster," and "a
wretch," and is especially indignant at his having "found