ch the loose government of savages gives way to the despotism of
the next stage of advancement, which we shall call _barbarism_. The
difference between the Tlascalans and the Aztecs was the same
difference that exists between the North American savages, who live in
underground wigwams,[18] and the barbarous tribes of the interior of
Africa, that live in cities of mud huts above the ground, and who yield
a slavish obedience to a half-naked emperor, who sits or squats upon an
ox-hide in a mud palace, exercising the power of life and death,
according to his momentary caprice, upon thousands of trembling slaves.
The concentrated power and wealth of a whole tribe is in single hands,
and is made available for conquest and for the sensual enjoyment of a
single individual. Savages can only act in concert when all are agreed,
hence councils are their governing power, and the orator has as much
influence among them as the successful warrior; but when they have
advanced a step, and power has become concentrated, the orator becomes
silent, and the war-chief is the government.

I had read with avidity the histories of Mexico, and gave to them
implicit credence, until I stood upon the Indian mound of Cholula, and
searched in vain for the least vestige of that magnificent city of
40,000 houses, which, only 300 years ago, was in the height of its
prosperity; and though it is not in the power of man, in the space of a
thousand years, wholly to obliterate the traces of a great city, yet
not a vestige of the Cholula of Cortez can now be found. As I followed
up the investigation, I soon discovered that not a vestige of any of
the cities that entered into the alliance with Cortez can now be found.
Not a vestige exists even of the old city of Mexico, except the
calendar and sacrificial stones, of which I shall speak hereafter.

CORTEZ AND BERNAL DIAZ.

Cortez says that a dry stone wall, nine feet high, inclosed Tlascala
from mountain to mountain, through which he entered between overlapping
semicircles of the wall. He says that he was attacked first by an army
of 6000 Indians, then by an army of 100,000 on one day, and on the next
by 149,000. He says farther, "I attacked another place, which was so
large that it contained, according to an examination I caused to be
made, more than 20,000 houses." Of the capital of Tlascala, he says,
"It is larger than Granada, and much stronger, and contains as many
fine houses and a much larger populati