An ACCURATE MAP of
SOUTH AMERICA
Drawn from the Best
Modern Maps & Charts
and Regulated by Astronl . Observatns .
By Eman1 . Bowen
Geogr . to his Majesty 1747.
AN ACCOUNT OF THE European Settlements IN
AMERICA.
IN SIX PARTS.
I. A short History of the Discovery of that Part of the World.
II. The Manners and Customs of the original Inhabitants.
III. Of the Spanish Settlements.
IV. Of the Portuguese.
V. Of the French, Dutch, and Danish.
VI. Of the English.
Each PART contains An accurate Description of the Settlements in it, their Extent, Climate, Productions, Trade, Genius and Disposition of their Inhabitants: the Interests of the several Powers of Europe with respect to those Settlements; and their Political and Commercial Views with regard to each other.
In TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. I.
LONDON: Printed for R. and J. DODSLEY in Pall-Mall. MDCCLVII
THE PREFACE.
THE affairs of America have lately engaged a great deal of the public attention. Before the present war there were but a very few who made the history of that quarter of the world any part of their study; though the matter is certainly very curious in itself, and extremely interesting to us as a trading people.
The history of a country which, though vast in extent, is the property of only four nations; and which, though peopled probably for a series of ages, is only known to the rest of the world for about two centuries, does not naturally, afford matter for many volumes. Yet it is certain, that to acquire a proper knowledge of the history of the events in America, an idea of it's present state, and a competent judgment of it's trade, a great deal of reading has been found requisite. And I may add, that the reading on many parts of this subject is dry and disgusting; that authors have treated on it, some without a sufficient knowledge of the subject, and others in such a manner as no knowledge of the subject in the author could induce any body to become readers. That some are loaded with a lumber of matter that can interest very few, and that others obscure the truth in many particulars, to gratify the low prejudices of parties, and I may say of nations. Whatever is written by the English settled in our colonies, is to be read with great caution; because very few of them write without a bias to the interest of the particular province to which they belong, or perhaps to a particular faction in that province. It is only by comparing the printed accounts with one another, and those with the best private informations, and correcting all by authentic matter of record, that one can discover the truth; and this hath been a matter of some difficulty.
With regard to the foreign settlements, recourse was had to the best printed accounts of travellers and others; and in some points to private information from intelligent traders. The materials for the foreign settlements are far from being as perfect, or as much to be depended upon as we could wish; it was very seldom that I could venture to transcribe any thing directly from them without some addition or some corrective.
In the historical part of this work, I fixed my eye principally on some capital matters, which might the most fully engage and best reward the attention of the reader; and in treating of those I dwelt only upon such events as seemed to me to afford some political instruction, or to open the characters of the principal actors in those great scenes. The affairs which seemed most worthy of an account of any length, are those splendid and remarkable events of the discovery of America, and the conquest of the only two civilized kingdoms it contained.
In treating of other parts, I have given so much of the history of each country as may serve to shew, when and upon what principles it was planted, to enable the reader the better to judge of it's present condition. These accounts are very short; and considering of what sort of matter their histories are composed, I believe I shall deserve as much for what I have omitted, as for what I have inserted. If I could not write well upon any subject, I have endeavoured always to write concisely.
My principal view in treating of the several settlements, was to draw every thing towards their trade, which is the point that concerns us the most materially; for which reason I have but little considered their civil, and yet less their natural history, further than as they tended to throw some light upon the commerce of these countries; except where the matters were very curious, and served to diversify the work.
It is not to be expected that a performance of this kind can be written equally throughout. In some places the subject refuses all ornament, and the matter, dry in itself, is by no art to be made otherwise: in some a contagion communicated from the dulness of materials, which yet were necessary to the work, may probably appear; in many, and perhaps the most blameable parts, the author alone must be answerable; however there are some errors of the press, especially towards the beginning, which are owing to the author's absence from it.
Having spoken perhaps a little too hardly of my materials, I must except the assistance I have had from the judicious collection called Harris's voyages. There are not many finer pieces than the history of Brazil in that collection; the light in which the author sets the events in that history is fine and instructive; an uncommon spirit prevails through it; and his remarks are every where striking and deep. The little sketch I have given in the part of Portuguese America, if it has any merit, it is entirely due to that original, However the accounts given of many things in that part of his work which relates to the English and French settlements may be defective, and suited rather to the ancient than to the present state of affairs in that part of the world: his remarks have rarely this fault; and where I differ from him in any respect, it is with deference to the judgment of a writer to whom this nation is much obliged, for endeavouring every where with so much good sense and eloquence to rouze that spirit of generous enterprize, that can alone make any nation powerful or glorious.
ERRATA.
P.
L.
 
 
 
VOL. I.
20
25
for
numberless
read
a number.
21
5
for
it in future
read
a fortune.
22
12
for
were,
read
was.
37
24
for
happening
read
hoping.
40
26
for
conceal
read
cancel.
48
20
for
acquainted
read
acquitted.
66
10
for
suspended
read
superseded.
70
17
for
remote
read
remotest.
82
17
for
shall more be delivered them?
read
more shall be delivered them.
79
16
for
invention
read
intention.
86
31
for
went
read
he went.
89
8
for
their
read
and their.
103
27
for
indisposition
read
ill disposition.
111
22
for
unto
read
into.
115
21
for
deserted
read
defeated.
139
8
for
buried
read
burned.
140
8
for
relieved
read
released.
 
 
VOL. II.
283
19
after the word
latitude
read
54.
AN ACCOUNT OF THE EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA.
PART I. The discovery of America, and the reduction of Mexico and Peru.
CHAP. I.
T HERE was an extraordinary coincidence of events at the time that the discovery of America made one of the principal; the invention of printing, the making of gun-powder, the improvement of navigation, the revival of ancient learning, and the reformation; all of these conspired to change the face of Europe entirely. At this time the principal monarchies began to knit, and to acquire the strength, and take the form they have at this day. Before this period the manners of Europe were wholly barbarous; even in Italy, where the natural mildness of the climate, and the dawning of literature had a little softened the minds of the people, and introduced something approaching towards politeness, the history preceding this aera, and indeed for some time after it, is nothing but one series of treasons, usurpations, murders, and massacres: nothing of a manly courage, nothing of a solid and rational policy. Scarce any state had then very extensive views, or looked much further than to the present advantage. They did not well comprehend the complicated system of interests that Europe formed even long before this. Lewis the eleventh, who was looked upon as one of the wisest princes in his time, and one who sacrificed every thing to his ambition, sacrificed one of the fairest objects of that ambition to a pique, which since his time could have little influence on the counsels of any prince. His son, Charles the eighth, as he won Italy without either courage or conduct, so he lost it by a chain of false measures, such as we may venture to say has no parallel in later times. A wild romantic courage in the Northern and Western parts of Europe, and a wicked policy in the Italian states, was the character of that age. If we look into the manners of the courts, there appear but very faint marks of cultivation and politeness. The interview between our Edward the fourth and his brother of France, wherein they were both caged up like wild beasts, shews dispositions very remote from a true sense of honour, from the dignity of their station, or any just ideas of politeness and humanity. All the anecdotes which remain of these and other courts, are in the same spirit.
If the courts had made such poor advances in policy and in politeness, which might seem the natural growth of courts at any time, both the courts and the people were yet less advanced in useful knowledge. The little learning which then subsisted, was only the dotage of the scholastick philosophy of words; together with the infancy of politer learning, which only concerned words too, tho' in another way. The elegance and purity of the Latin tongue was then the highest, and almost the only point of a scholar's ambition. Mathematical learning was little valued or cultivated. The true system of the heavens was not dreamed of. There was no knowledge at all of the real form of the earth; and in general the ideas of mankind were not extended beyond their sensible horizon.
In this state of affairs Christopher Columbus, a native of Genoa, undertook to extend the boundaries which ignorance had given to the world. This man's design arose from the just idea he had formed of the figure of the earth; though the maps, more erroneous than his conjectures, made him mistake the object. His design was to find a passage to China and India by the Western ocean. It is not improbable, that besides the glory attending such a discovery, and the private advantages of fortune he might propose to derive from it, Columbus had a further incentive from national jealousy and resentment. Venice and Genoa were then almost the only trading powers in Europe; and they had no other support of their power but their commerce. This bred a rivalship, a jealousy, and frequent wars between them; but in traffick Venice was much superior; she had drawn to herself almost the whole commerce of India, always one of the most valuable in the world, and then carried on only by the way of Egypt and the Red Sea. An emulation of this kind might probably have put Columbus on finding another and more direct passage to the East-Indies, and by that means transferring this profitable trade to his own country. But neither that which he sought, nor that which he found, was destined for his country. However, he performed the duty of a good citizen, and made his first proposal at home; at home it was rejected Discharged of this obligation, he applied to the court of France, and meeting no better success there, he offered next his services to our Henry the seventh. This prince was rather a prudent steward and manager of a kingdom than a great king, and one of those defensive geniuses who are the last in the world to relish a great but problematical design. It is therefore no wonder that his brother, whom Columbus had employed to sollicit in England, after several years spent here, had little success in his negotiation. But in Portugal, where he applied himself after his failure here, his offers were not only rejected, but he was insulted and ridiculed; he found, however, in these insults, and this ridicule, a new incitement to pursue his scheme, urged forward by the stings of anger and resentment.
Last of all he exercised his interest and his patience for eight years together at the court of Ferdinand and Isabella. There is a sort of enthusiasm in all projectors, absolutely necessary for their affairs, which makes them proof against the most fatiguing delays, the most mortifying disappointments, the most shocking insults; and what is severer than all, the presumptuous judgments of the ignorant upon their designs. Columbus had a sufficient share of this quality. He had every day, during this long space, to combat with every objection that want of knowledge, or that a false knowledge could propose. Some held that the known world, which they thought was all that could be known, floated like a vast scum upon the ocean; that the ocean itself was infinite. Others, who entertained more just notions, and believed that the whole of the earth and waters composed one vast globe, drew a consequence from it as absurd as the former opinion. For they argued, that if Columbus should sail beyond a certain point, the convexity of this globe would prevent his return. As is usual in such cafes, every one abounded with objections. His whole time was spent in fruitless endeavours to enlighten ignorance, to remove prejudice, and to vanquish that obstinate incredulity, which is of all others the greatest enemy to improvement, rejecting every thing as false and absurd, which is ever so little out of the track of common experience; and it is of the more dangerous consequence, as it carries a delusive air of coolness, of temper and wisdom. With all this he had yet greater difficulties from the interests of mankind, than from their malignity and ignorance. The expence of the undertaking, inconsiderable as this expence was, was at the bottom the chief support of the other objections, and had more weight than all the rest together. However, with an assiduity and firmness of mind, never enough to be admired and applauded, he at length overcame all difficulties; and, to his inexpressible joy, with a fleets of three ships, and the title and command of an admiral, set sail on the third of August, 1492, on a voyage the most daring and grand in the design, and in the event of which the world was the most concerned of any that ever yet was undertaken.
It must not be omitted here, in honour to the sex, and in justice to Isabella, that this scheme was first countenanced, and the equipment made by the queen only; the king had no share in it; she even raised the money necessary for the design upon her own jewels.
I do not propose to relate all the particulars of Columbus's voyage in a track now so well known, and so much frequented; but then there was no chart to direct him, no lights from former navigators, no experience of the winds and currents peculiar to those seas. He had no guide but his own genius, nor any thing to comfort and appease his companions, discouraged and mutinous with the length and hopelessness of the voyage, but some indications which he drew from the casual appearances of land birds, and floating sea-weeds, most of them little to be depended upon, but which this wise commander, well acquainted with the human heart, always knew how to turn to the best advantage. It was in this expedition that the variation of the compass was first observed; an appearance which has ever since puzzled all philosophers, and which at this time made a great impression upon Columbus's pilots; when in an unknown and boundless ocean, far from the road of all former navigation, nature itself seemed altered, and the only guide they had left, appeared to be upon the point of forsaking them. But Columbus, with a wonderful quickness and sagacity, pretended to discover a physical cause for this appearance, which, though it did not satisfy himself, was plausible enough to remove something of the terror of his mariners. Expedients of this kind were daily wanting, and the fertile genius of this discoverer invented them daily. At last by use they began to lose their effect; the crew insisted on his returning, and grew loud and insolent in their demand. They even talked of throwing him overboard. Even his own invention, and almost his hopes were near exhausted, when the only thing which could appease them happened, the clear discovery of land, after a voyage of thirty-three days, the longest ever any man was known to be from sight of shore before that time.
They landed on one of the islands now called Lucayos, or Bahamas, which is remarkable for nothing but this event, and here it was, that the two worlds, if I may use the expression, were first introduced to one another; a meeting of an extraordinary nature, and which produced great changes in both. The first thing Columbus did, after thanking God for the success of his important voyage, was to take possession of the island in the name of their Catholick majesties, by setting up a cross upon the shore; great multitudes of the inhabitants looking on, ignorant and unconcerned at a ceremony which was to deprive them of natural liberty. The stay of the Spaniards in this island was but short; they found from the extreme poverty of the people, that this was by no means the Indies, which they sought for.
Columbus at his departure very prudently took with him some of the natives, that they might learn the Spanish tongue, and be his guides and interpreters in this new scene of affairs; nor were they unwilling to accompany him. He touched on several of the islands in the same cluster, enquiring every where for gold, which was the only object of commerce he thought worth his care, because the only thing that could give the court of Spain an high opinion of his discoveries. All directed him to a great island called Bohio, of which they spoke extraordinary things, and principally that it abounded in gold. They told him it lay to the Southward: to the Southward he steered his course, and found the island, which he called Hispaniola, no ways inferior to the reports; commodious harbours, an agreeable climate, a good soil, and, what was of most consequence, a country that promised from some samples a great abundance of gold; inhahited by an humane and hospitable people, in a state of simplicity fit to be worked upon. These circumstances determined Columbus to make this island the center of his designs, to plant a colony there, and to establish things in some permanent order before he proceeded to further discoveries. But to carry his designs of a settlement here, and his schemes of future discoveries into execution, it was necessary that he should return to Spain and equip himself with a proper force. He had now collected a sufficient quantity of gold to give credit to his voyage at court, and such a number of curiosities of all kinds as might strike the imaginations, and engage the attention of the people. Before he parted, he took care to secure the friendship of the principal king of the island by caresses and presents, and under pretence of leaving him a force sufficient to assist him against his enemies, he laid the ground-work of a colony. He built a fort, and put a small garrison of Spaniards into it, with such directions for their conduct as might ensure their safety and the good offices of the inhabitants, if the men had not been of that kind, who are incapable of acting prudently either from their own or other people's wisdom. He did every thing to gain the esteem of the natives, by the justice, and even generosity of his dealings, and the politeness and humanity with which he behaved upon every occasion. He shewed them too, that though it was not in his will, it was not the less in his power to do them mischief, if they acted so as to force him upon harsher measures. The surprizing effects of his cannon, and the sharpness of the Spanish swords, of which he made an innocent ostentation, convinced them of this.
When the Spaniards first arrived in that country, they were taken for men come from heaven; and it was no wonder, considering the extreme novelty of their appearance, and the prodigious superiority they had in every respect over a people in all the nakedness of mere nature. Whatever therefore the Indians got from them, they valued in an high degree, not only as curious and useful, but even as things sacred; and the persons of the Spaniards were respected in the same light. Columbus, who knew the value of opinion, did all he could to keep them in their error; and indeed no action of his, either of weakness or cruelty, could furnish matter to undeceive them. For which reason, on his departure, he left the people with the best inclinations imaginable to nurse his infant colony. And when he desired some of the inhabitants to carry into Spain, he was more at a loss whom he should accept, than how he should prevail upon them to go.
CHAP. II.
ON his return homewards, still attentive to his design, he aimed at such discoveries as could be prosecuted without deviating considerably from his course. He touched upon several islands to the Southward, and discovered the Caribbees, of the barbarity of whose inhabitants he had heard terrible accounts in Hispaniola. He had before landed upon Cuba in his passage from the Bahamas. So that in this his first voyage, he gained a general knowledge of all the islands, which lie in such an astonishing number in that great sea which divides North and South America. But hitherto he neither knew nor suspected any continent between him and China.
He returned to Europe after an absence of above six months, and was driven by a great storm into the harbour of Lisbon. This he did not look upon as a misfortune; since here, he had the satisfaction of convincing the Portuguese demonstratively of what an error they were guilty in rejecting his proposals. It was now his turn to triumph. Those who want sagacity to discern the advantages of an offer, when it is made to themselves, and treat it with the greatest scorn, are always most stung with envy when they actually see these advantages in the hands of another. The Portuguese had some time before this begun to make a figure: their ships had coasted Africa for a greater length than any had done before them, which opened to them a profitable trade to Guinea. This gave them a reputation. They considered discovery as their proper province; and they were enraged to see that the Castilians were now let into the same path, in consequence of an offer which they had rejected. Some proposed to murder the admiral; but all were agreed to treat him in the most unworthy manner. However, their design of insulting him gave Columbus an opportunity at once of gratifying his resentment, maintaining his own dignity, and asserting the honour of the flag of Castile. He sent to the king at his first entering the harbour, to desire a liberty to come up to Lisbon and refresh, as he had his master's orders not to avoid his ports; adding, that he was not from Guinea, but the Indies. An officer of the king of Portugal came aboard him with an armed force, and ordered him to come ashore, and give an account of himself to the king's officers. Columbus told him he had the honour of serving the king of Castile, and would own himself accountable to no other. The Portuguese then desired him to send the master of his ship; this he likewise refused, saying, that the admirals of Castile always chose rather to die than deliver up themselves, or even the meanest of their men; and if violence was intended, he was prepared to meet force with force. A spirited behaviour, in almost any circumstance of strength, is the most politick as well as the most honourable course; we preserve a respect at least by it, and with that we generally preserve every thing; but when we lose respect, every thing is lost. We invite rather than suffer insults, and the first is the only one we can resist with prudence. Columbus found this; the officer did not pursue his demands; the admiral had all the refreshments he wanted; and was even received at court with particular marks of distinction.
From Lisbon he proceeded to Seville; the court was then at Barcelona. But before he went to give an account of his voyage, he took all the care he could to provide for another. He wrote an abstract of his proceedings, and sent with it a memorial of all such things as were necessary for the establishment of a colony, and for further discoveries; soon after he began his journey to Barcelona, every where followed by the admiration and applauses of the people, who crowded to see him from all parts. He entered the city in a sort of triumph; there never was a more innocent triumph, nor one that formed a more new and pleasing spectacle. He had not destroyed, but discovered nations. The Americans he had brought with him appeared in all the uncouth finery of their own country, wonder'd at by every body, and themselves admiring every thing they saw. The several animals, many highly beautiful, and all strangers to this part of the world, were so disposed as to be seen without difficulty; the other curiosities of the new world were displayed in the most advantageous manner; the utensils, the arms, and the ornaments of a people so remote from us in situation and manners; some valuable for the materials; even the rudeness of the workmanship in many made them the more curious, when it was considered by whom, and with what instruments they were wrought. The gold was not forgot. The admiral himself closed the procession. He was received by the king and queen with all imaginable marks of esteem and regard, and they ordered a magnificent throne to be erected in publick to do him the greater honour. A chair was prepared for him, in which he sat, and gave in presence of the whole court a full and circumstantial account of all his discoveries, with that composedness and gravity, which is so extremely agreeable to the Spanish humour, and with the modesty of a man who knows he has done things which do not need to be proclaimed by himself. The successful merit of Columbus was now understood by every body, and when the king and queen led the way, all the grandees and nobility of the court vied with each other in their civilities and caresses.
These honours did not satisfy Columbus. He prepared with all expedition for a second voyage. The difficulties attending the first were all vanished. The importance of the object appeared every day more clearly, and the court was willing to second the vivacity of his desires to the full. But before his departure there was one thing which they judged wanting to give them a clear and unquestionable right to the countries, which should be discovered. This was a grant of them from the pope. The Portuguese some time before had a grant of such lands as they should discover within certain latitudes; and this grant made a similar one to the Spaniards more necessary. The pope accordingly gave a very ample bull in their favour, very liberally conceding countries, of which he was so far from having any possession, that he had no knowledge of them. The limits of this grant was a line drawn from pole to pole, an hundred leagues to the Westward of the Azores; on the other side no bounds at all were set. This was afterwards a subject of much controversy between the crowns of Spain and Portugal, the latter having got a grant of all that should be discovered to the East, as the former had of all to the Westward; those who drew the bulls not having known enough of the figure of the earth to see, that these grants must necessarily clash with one another: and the powers which desired them, were perhaps not sorry to find their pretensions such as they might extend or contract at pleasure.
Whatever the validity of this ample grant might be, Columbus was made governor with the highest authority over all that it contained. But he had somewhat with him more material for his possession than any charters; this was a fleet of seventeen sail of ships, with all manner of necessaries for settlement or conquest, and fifteen hundred men on board, some of them of the best families in Spain. With this fleet he set sail on his second voyage the 25th of September, 1493. He gave each of the captains instructions for their course sealed, with orders not to open them, unless in distress, and separated from the fleet, that he might create such an absolute dependence of all upon himself as should preserve an uniformity in their designs. On the second of November they made land, which is the island now called Dominica. But his design was first to settle his colony before he attempted any new discovery, therefore he made no stay here, nor at several other islands at which he touched before he could make Hispaniola.
On his arrival he found the fort he had built utterly demolished, and all his men killed. They had first fallen out amongst themselves, upon the usual subjects of strife, women and gold; and afterwards preserving as little harmony with the natives, and observing no decency in their behaviour, or justice in their dealings, they quickly lost their esteem, and were every man murdered, after having been dispersed into different parts of the island. The prince, whom they were left to defend, was himself wounded in their defence, and bore this mark of his affection and good faith, when Columbus returned to the island. The admiral very wisely forbore to make any nice enquiry into the affair, or to commence hostilities in revenge for the loss of his soldiers; but he took the most effectual measures to prevent such an evil for the future; he chose a more commodious station for his colony, on the North-East part of the island, which had a good port, great conveniency of water, and a good soil, and lay near that part where he was informed the richest mines of the country were found: in gratitude to his royal patroness he called it Isabella. He engaged in the settlement with great warmth, and never allowed himself a moment's repose from superintending the fortifications, the private houses, and the works of agriculture; in all which the fatigue was infinite; for he had not only the natural difficulties attending all such undertakings, but he had the insuperable laziness of the Spaniards to contend with. So that spent with the fatigues of so long a voyage, and the greater fatigues he had endured since he came on shore, he fell into a dangerous illness. Of this accident numberless of his men took the advantage to begin a rebellion, to undo all he had done, and to throw every thing into the most terrible confusion. These people on their leaving Spain, had fancied to themselves that gold was to be found every where in this country, and that there required nothing further to make ample estates, than to be transported into it; but finding their mistake, and that instead of receiving these golden showers without any pains, they fared ill, laboured hard, and that their prospects of it in future, if any at all, were emote and uncertain, their discontent was general; and the mutinous disposition increased so fast, and was carried to such extremities, that if the admiral had not recovered at a very critical time, and on his recovery had not acted in the most resolute and effectual manner, all his hopes of a settlement in Hispaniola had been at an end. He was satisfied with imprisoning some of the chiefs. This was neither a time or place for very extensive or rigorous justice. He quelled this sedition, but he saw at the same time that his work was not yet done; he saw another danger, against which he was to provide with equal diligence. He had good reasons to apprehend, that the Americans were not well affected to their new guests, and might probably meditate to cut them off, whilst they saw them divided amongst themselves. To prevent this, as well as to banish idleness from amongst his men, and to revive military discipline, he marched into the heart of the country, through the most frequented parts of it, in order of battle, colours flying, and trumpets sounding, with the flower of his troops, to the mountains of Cibao; where lay the richest mines then discovered in the island. Here he built a fort to secure this advantageous post, and overawe the country; and then he returned in the same pomp and order, to the inexpressible terror of the inhabitants, who had now no prospect of withstanding a force, which to them seemed more than human.
In this expedition Columbus made great ostentation of his cavalry. This was the first time the Indians of America had ever seen horses. Their dread of these animals and their riders were extreme; they thought both formed but one animal, and the impetuosity of their charge appeared irresistible to these naked and ill-armed people. Wherever they appeared, those Indians, who intended any hostility, immediately fled; nor did they think the intervention of the deepest and most rapid rivers any security; they believed that the horses could fly, and that nothing was impossible to creatures so extraordinary. But Columbus did not rely upon those prejudices, though he made all imaginable use of them, knowing that those things which appear most terrible at first, become every day less affecting by use, and that they even grow contemptible, when their real power is once well known, for which reason he neglected none of his former methods of cultivating the affections of the natives; he still shewed them all manner of respect, and when he had taken two persons of their nation, who had committed some acts of hostility, and was at the point of putting them to death, he pardoned and set them free at the intercession of a prince of the country, with whom he was in alliance. On the other hand, he saw how necessary it was to preserve a strict discipline amongst the Spaniards, to keep them from that idleness to which they had such a propensity, and which naturally retarded the growth of the colony, at the same time that it nourished discontent and sedition. He employed them in cutting roads through the country, a work which the natives never attempted themselves, nor now endeavoured to oppose, though it be one of the best instruments of enslaving any barbarous people. This wise governor observed besides, that the Spaniards conformed with great difficulty to the Indian manner of living, to which, however, they were necessitated, but from which, for want of use, they suffered great hardships. To remedy this evil, he daily sent out small parties upon expeditions into the country; from which he derived two material advantages. First, he enured, by degrees, all his people to the manner of living in the country; and secondly, he taught them to know it perfectly, lest a war should find them unprovided in the only point in which the Indians were their superiors, and a point which in a woody and mountainous country is certainly of the greatest importance. All this he did without any material hazard to the sum of his affairs. At home he endeavoured to withdraw the Spaniards from their romantick hopes of miraculous treasures, and to fix them to a rational and industrious course of life. He represented to them, that there was no real wealth but what arose from labour; and that a garden, a corn ground, and a mill, were riches more to their present purpose, than all the gold they were in expectation of meeting in the Indies. In short, he laboured for the establishment of this colony with as much assiduity, as though his views had extended no further; at the same time that he meditated the greatest discoveries, and considered those things which had astonished the world, only as the earnest of his future performances.
I have before mentioned his having put in at Cuba. He had reason to believe this a place no way contemptible in point of wealth; and with regard to its extent, he was not certain whether it was an island, or a part of some great continent. But now that he had got his colony to take firm root in the Indies, he prepared with all expedition to ascertain this, and to push his discoveries to the utmost, in which he had succeeded hitherto so happily.
CHAP. III.
THIS voyage was more remarkable for the hardships which the admiral and his men suffered, than for any considerable discovery it produced. As he endeavoured to coast along the Southern shore of Cuba, he was entangled in a labyrinth of an innumerable multitude of islands, amongst which he reckoned 160 in one day. They were most of them pleasant and well inhabited, affording our navigator an agreeable meditation on this fertility of nature, where the world looked for nothing but a barren ocean. These islands, perhaps the most numerous in the world, Columbus, who had a grateful mind, in which the memory of his benefactress was always uppermost, called Jardin de la Reyna, or the queen's garden, in honour of queen Isabella. But their number and fertility made little amends for the obstruction they gave Columbus in the course of his navigation: the coast absolutely unknown, among so many rocks, sands, and shelves, the sudden and violent storms, the tornadoes, and the terrible thunder and lightning so constant between the tropicks, obliged him to keep a continual watch, and held his mind upon a constant stretch; the voyage was extended to an unprofitable length by these difficulties, and being driven out to sea, the worst disaster of all befel them. Their provisions fell short. In this extremity they were obliged to come to a very narrow and bad allowance, in the distribution of which the admiral fared nothing better than the rest. In this extremity of fatigue of body and of mind, in famine and in danger, his usual firmness began nearly to forsake him; but it could go no further than to oblige him to remark in his journal, that no interest of his own should ever oblige him to engage again in such an enterprise. They were at last relieved by the appearance of Jamaica, where they were hospitably received, and supplied with Cassava bread and water. From thence they proceeded, mortified and disappointed, to Hispaniola, not being able to come to any certainty concerning Cuba, other than that they understood from some of the inhabitants that it was an island. This disappointment, and the infinite fatigue and difficulty of the voyage, threw Columbus into a lethargy, which was near being fatal to him, and of which he was scarcely recovered when they arrived at the harbour of Isabella.
Here they found all things in confusion, and the colony in the utmost danger of being a second time utterly destroyed, as if its prosperity or destruction depended upon the presence or absence of Columbus. For no sooner was he sailed, than the Spaniards, who were very difficultly retained in their duty by all his steadiness and wisdom, broke through all regulations, laughed at government and discipline, and spread themselves over the island, committing a thousand disorders, and living at free quarter upon the inhabitants, whose hatred to them was worked up to such a point, that they wanted only the word from their princes to fall on and massacre the whole colony; a thing by no means impractiable, in it's present disorder. Four of the principal sovereigns of the island took advantage of this disposition, and united to drive out those imperious intruders. None adhered to them but one called Gunacagarry, the same prince whom Columbus from the first had taken so much pleasure to oblige. In his dominions some of the Spaniards found protection. The other princes had already commenced hostilities, and one of them killed sixteen of the Spaniards, who were taking no uniform measures to oppose them, nor in their present anarchy could it be well expected.
In this condition was the island on the arrival of Columbus, whose first business was to collect the scattered fragments of the colony, and to form them into a body; this he was the better able to accomplish, because the present danger added a weight to his authority; but it was necessary that he should lose no time. He was resolved to act with what force he had, rather than wait until the union of the islanders might be better cemented against him, and they might find some lesser matters in their favour to raise their courage, and abate their terror of the Spanish arms. He therefore marched against the king, who had killed the 16 Spaniards, as having a greater appearance of justice, and because he happened to be worse prepared to receive him than the others. He was easily subdued, and several of his subjects sent prisoners into Spain. The second whom he designed to attack being better prepared against force, he was resolved to circumvent him by fraud, and got him into his power by a stratagem, which did no honour to his sincerity, and rather shewed great weakness in this unfortunate barbarian, than any extraordinary contrivance in those who deceived him.
The other princes were not terrified at these examples. Their hatred to the Spaniards increased, and perceiving that all depended upon a sudden and vigorous exertion of their strength; they brought an immense army, it is said of one hundred thousand men, into the field, which was arrayed in the largest plain in that country. Columbus, though he had but a small force, did not scruple to go out to meet them. His army consisted but of two hundred foot, twenty horse and twenty wolf dogs. The latter part of this army has a ludicrous appearance; but it was a very serious matter amongst a people no better provided with arms offensive or defensive than the Indians. Neither was it rash in Columbus to venture an engagement with forces so vastly superior in numbers; for when such numbers are no better skilled or armed than these were, their multitude is in fact no just cause of dread but to themselves. The event was answerable; the victory was decisive for the Spaniards, in which their horses and dogs had a considerable share; the loss on the side of the Indians was very great; and from that day forward they despaired, and relinquished all thoughts of dislodging the Spaniards by force. Columbus had but little difficulty in reducing the whole island, which now became a province of Spain, had a tribute imposed, and forts built in several parts to enforce the levying of it, and to take away from this unhappy people all prospect of liberty.
In this affecting situation they often asked the Spaniards, when they intended to return to their own country. Small as the number of these strangers was, the inhabitants were extremely burthened to subsist them. One Spaniard consumed more than ten Indians; a circumstance which shews how little this people had advanced in the art of cultivating the earth, or how lazy they were in doing it, since their indigence reduced them to such an extreme frugality, that they found the Spaniniards, who are the most abstemious people upon earth, excessively voracious in the comparison. Their observation of this, joined to their despair, put the Indians upon a project of starving out their invaders. In pursuance of this scheme, they entirely abandoned the little agriculture which they practised, and unanimously retired into the most barren and impracticable parts of the island. This ill-advised stratagem compleated their ruin. A number of people crouded into the worst parts of the country, subsisting only upon it's spontaneous productions, were soon reduced to the most terrible famine. It's sure attendant epidemical sickness pursued at it's heels; and this miserable people, half famished and lessened a third of their numbers, were obliged to relinquish their scheme, to come down into the open country, and to submit once more to bread and fetters.
This conquest, and the subsequent ones made by the several European nations, with as little colour of right as consciousness of doing any thing wrong, gives one just reason to reflect on the notions entertained by mankind in all times concerning the right of dominion. At this period few doubted of the power of the pope to convey a full right to any country he was pleased to chalk out; amongst the faithful, because they were subject to the church; and amongst infidels, because it was meritorious to make them subject to it. This notion began to lose ground at the reformation, but another arose of as bad a tendency; the idea of the dominion of grace, which prevailed with several, and the effects of which we have felt amongst ourselves. The Mahometan great merit is to spread the empire and the faith; and none among them doubt the legality of subduing any nation for these good purposes. The Greeks held, that the barbarians were naturally designed to be their slaves, and this was so general a notion, that Aristotle himself, with all his penetration, gave into it very seriously. In truth, it has it's principle in human nature, for the generality of mankind very readily slide from what they conceive a fitness for government, to a right of governing; and they do not so readily agree, that those who are superior in endowments should only be equal in condition. These things partly palliate the guilt and horror of a conquest, undertaken with so little colour, over a people whose chief offence was their credulity, and their confidence in men who did not deserve it. But the circumstances Columbus was in, the measures he was obliged to preserve with his court, and his humane and gentle treatment of this people, by which he mitigated the rigor of this conquest, take off much of the blame from him, as the necessity of taking up arms at all never arose from his conduct, or from his orders. On the contrary, his whole behaviour both to the Spaniards and Indians, the care he took to establish the one without injury to the other, and the constant bent of his policy to work every thing by gentle methods, may well be an example to all persons in the same situation.
Since I have digressed so far, it will be the more excusable to mention a circumstance recorded in the history of this settlement. America was then, at least these parts of it, without almost any of those animals by which we profit so greatly. It had neither horses nor oxen, nor sheep, nor swine. Columbus brought eight sows into America, and a small number of horned cattle. This was the stock which supplied, about two hundred years ago, a country now the most abounding in these animals of any part of the known world; in which too it has been a business for this century past, to hunt oxen merely for their hides, An example which shews how small a number might originally have served to produce all the animals upon earth, who commonly procreate very fast to a certain point, and there seem very much at a stand.
CHAP. IV.
WHILST Columbus was reducing this wealthy island to the obedience of the crown of Castile, and laying the foundations of the Spanish grandeur in America, his enemies were endeavouring with pains as indefatigable to ruin him in Spain. Some of the persons principally concerned in the late disorders, fled to Spain before his return; and there to justify their own conduct, and gratify their malice, accused him of neglecting the colony, and of having deceived their majesties and the adventurers with false hopes of gold, from a country which produced very little either of that or any thing else that was valuable. These complaints were not without effect, and an officer, fitter by his character for a spy and informer than a redresser of grievances, was sent to inspect into his conduct; in which manner of proceeding there was certainly a policy as erroneous, as it was unjust and ingrateful. At that distance from the fountain of authority, with an enemy at the door, and a mutinous household, a commander ought always to be trusted or removed. This man behaved in a brutish and insolent manner, like all such persons, who unconscious of any merit of their own, are puffed up with any little portion of delegated power. Columbus found that he staid here to no purpose under such disgraceful terms; and that his presence at court was absolutely necessary to his support. He determined to return once more to Spain, convinced that a long absence is mortal to one's interest at court, and that importunity and attendance often plead better than the most solid services. However, before he departed, he exerted the little remains of authority he had left, to settle every thing in such a manner, as to prevent those disorders which hitherto he had always found the certain consequence of his absence. He built forts in all the material parts of the island, to retain the inhabitants in their subjection. He established the civil government upon a better footing, and redoubled his diligence for the discovery of mines, which were to be the great agents in his affairs; nor did he altogether fail of success.
It was the fate of this great man to have his virtue continually exercised with troubles and distresses. He continued his course to Spain in the latitude of 22, not having at that time discovered the advantageous method of running into the Northern latitudes to meet the South-west winds: they therefore made very little way; a scarcity ensued, in which they were reduced to six ounces of provision a day for each person. On these occasions the admiral fared no better than the common sailor; yet in this distress his hunger did not get the better of the tenderness and humanity which distinguished his character. He refused to listen to the pressing instances of his crew, who were very earnest in this distress to have the Indian prisoners thrown overboard to lessen the consumption of provisions. In this voyage his skill was as remarkable as his magnanimity. He had nine experienced pilots in his fleet; yet not one of them could tell where they were, after having been a full month from the sight of the last land. This length of time persuaded them they must be very near Europe, and they were therefore for crowding sail to make land as soon as possible. But Columbus, upon sure observations, maintained they were but a little to the Westward of the Azores, and therefore ordered his sails to be slackened for fear of land. His prediction was fulfilled, and the Azores relieved them next morning. This, added to a series of predictions and noble discoveries, made his skill seem something prophetic, and to exalt his character in this respect above all the seamen before his time; and considering his opportunities of improvement, and what he did himself to improve his art, he will perhaps appear inferior to none who have been since.
All the accusations and prejudices against the admiral vanished almost as soon as he appeared. He brought such testimonies of his fidelity and good behaviour, as silenced all calumnies which arose on that head; and the large specimens of gold and pearl he produced, refuted all that was said on the poverty of the Indies. The court was fully convinced of the importance of the new colony, the merit of its governor, and the necessity of a speedy supply. But the admiral's enemies were not idle, though they were silenced; they continued to throw all manner of obstructions in his way, which was not difficult in a country, where every thing is executed with much phlegm and languor, and where those forms and mechanical methods of business, necessary perhaps in the common course of affairs, but ruinous in great designs, are more exactly observed, even than any where else. It was therefore with great difficulty that he was able to procure any relief to be sent to Hispaniola, but with much greater, and after a thousand delays and disappointments, that he was himself enabled to set out on a discovery of more importance than any of the former.
He designed to stand to the Southward from the Canaries, until he should come under the equinoctial line, and then to proceed directly Westward, until Hispaniola should bear to the North-west from him, to try what opening that might afford to India, or what new islands or continent might reward his trouble. He therefore stood away to the Cape de Verd island, and then South-west. In this navigation a thick fog, which intercepted the light of the sun and stars, envelloped them for several days; and when this cleared off, the heats were grown so excessive, that the men could not venture between decks; the sun being at this time nearly vertical, the heavy rains which fall at this season between the tropicks, without abating the heat, added much to their distress. At last a smart gale sprang up, and they went before it seventeen days to the Westward. The admiral, who could have no second to supply his place, scarce allowed himself a moment's sleep; but in this, as in all his voyages, had the whole burthen of every thing upon himself; this threw him now into a fit of the gout; but neither the fatigue nor the disorder could remove him from the deck, or make him abate of his usual vigilance. His provisions, however, being damaged by the heat, the wine casks, many of them burst, and the wine being soured in those that held, obliged him to alter the course he intended to keep Southward, and to decline some points to the North-west, happening to fall in with some of the Caribbees, where he intended to refit and take in provisions, to enable him to continue his discoveries. But he had not sailed long, when from the round-top a seaman saw land, which was an island on the coast of Guiana, now called Trinidad. Having passed this island and two others, which lie in the mouth of the great river Oronoquo, he was surprized and endangered by a phaenomenon he had never seen before. The river Oronoquo, at all times very great, at this time augmented tenfold by the rains we have just mentioned rushing into the ocean with an immense and rapid flood, meets the tides which rise here to a great height, and come in with much strength; and both being pent up between the islands, and reverberated from one to another, caused a conflict extremely terrifying to those who have not been accustomed to it, and ignorant of the cause, as Columbus was at this time. But sailing further he found plainly that he was in fresh water, and judging rightly that it was probable no island could supply so vast a river, he began to suspect he had discovered the continent; but when he left the river, and found that the land continued on to the Westward for a great way, he was convinced of it. Satisfied, in some measure, with this discovery, he yielded to the uneasiness and distresses of his crew, and bore away for Hispaniola, favoured by a fair wind and those currents which set strongly to the Westward all along the Northern coast of South America.
In the course of this discovery the admiral landed in several places, and traded with the inhabitants, amongst whom he found gold and pearl in tolerable plenty. Contrary to the custom of many navigators, who behave wherever they go as if they never intended to come there again, he every where used the natives with great civility, and gave them what they judged the full value of their commodities; little bells, bits of glass and of tin, with some trifling apparel, being exchanged for gold-dust and pearls, and much to the satisfaction of both parties, who thought they had each over-reached the other, and indeed with equal reason.
CHAP. V.
HE arrived at Hispaniola the 19th of August, 1498, quite worn down with sickness and continual watching, the necessity of which was rather increased than diminished as he came nearer home, amongst such a multitude of islands and shoals as filled those seas, at this time little known; besides this a current, which setting strongly Westward towards the continent, threatened every moment, without the greatest attention, to carry him out of his course. So wasted was he with the fatigue, that his brother, whom he had left in his place, scarce knew him at his return. But he found that he was likely to have as little repose upon land as at sea.
The admiral's authority had suffered some diminution, from the ill-judged step of sending a check upon his motions before he left Hispaniola; and the encouragement this gave to all sorts of murmurings and complaints against government, laid the seeds of a rebellion, which sprung up in the colony soon after he left it. But this rebellion was more dangerously formed than either of the former. For in the first place, the rebels had regularly appointed themselves a chief, called Francis Roldan; a man whom the admiral had left in a considerable post. This gave it an uniformity and credit. And secondly, they gained the Indians to their party, by pretending to be their patrons, and assertors of their liberty. Then to establish themselves the more securely, they made a secession from the uncorrupted part of the colony, and settled in another part of the island, which formed an asylum for all idle and seditious persons, by whom they were reinforced daily.
In this threatening state of things, the admiral, having found his forces in no condition to act offensively against the rebels, did what he could to break their force, and dissolve that union which made them formidable. He began by publishing a free pardon for all that chose to conceal their crimes by a timely submission. Observing besides, that many were very desirous of returning to Spain, he gave them to understand they might go with the ships which brought the last succours. He did not intend to perform this latter part immediately, but he knew that his offers would stagger some; and that in affairs of this nature, it is every thing to gain time. He wrote to court a full account of his late discoveries, and sent samples of the wealth they yielded; and took the same opportunity of describing the distracted state of the colony, desiring that 50 or 60 men might be sent by every ship, which he would replace by as many of the rebels, lest the Spanish power should be weakened in those parts, by diminishing their men, or kept in as dangerous a state, by harbouring such as were ill disposed to the publick good. He added very judiciously to this request that some religious men and able lawyers might be sent him, as the most effectual methods of introducing, and preserving obedience and order. He then entered into negociations with the chiefs of the rebels; he granted them all they demanded, and even invidiously placed their principal commander, Roldan, in such an office as flattered his pride, though without augmenting his power. Thus things were brought into something of regularity, and without any struggling or violence, and Roldan himself, though in his former office of chief judge of the island, contributed most of all towards bringing those who stood out to obedience. There arose a difference between them; and on their first motion, Roldan, by virtue of his authority, condemned and executed several. By this the rest were awed, all connexion broke off, irretrievably, between the head and body of the rebels, and all done without having any part of the offence, that might be given by this severity, charged to the admiral.
He now began just to breathe in a little tranquility, acquired by the severest labours, whilst a new storm was gathering against him from the court of Spain. His old implacable enemies uniting with some of the rebels, who had lately transported themselves into Spain, renewed the clamour against him. They heaped upon him all manner of calumnies; they accused him of a design of setting up for himself; and as they charged him in Hispaniola with cruelty and tyranny to the Indians, here they reversed the charge, and accused him of a popularity amongst that people, dangerous to his and to their allegiance. They added to these, what could not fail to work on national prejudices, that he was a stranger, and had not a proper respect for the Spanish nobility. They complained that great debts were due to them; that all ways of recovering them were shut up. In short, the king and queen never went abroad without being pursued and persecuted, by the clamours of these pretended suitors of justice. Wearied out with such complaints, they sent a judge, with power to enquire into the admiral's conduct, and authorized, if he should find the accusations proved, to send him into Spain, and remain himself governor in his room. They made it the judge's interest to condemn him.
This judge, who was extremely poor, and had no other call but his indigence to undertake the office, no sooner landed in Hispaniola, than he took up his lodging in the admiral's house, for he was then absent. He next proceeded to seize upon all his effects; and at last summoned him and his brothers to appear. In the mean time, he encouraged all manner of accusations, without regarding the character of the accusers, or the probability or consistency of their accusations. In consequence of those, he apprehended the admiral and his brothers, and with the last marks of insult and indignity, loaded them with irons, and embarked them to be transported prisoners into Spain.
The captain of the vessel, touched with respect for the years and great merit of Columbus, offered to take off the irons, but he did not permit it.
"Since the king has commanded, that I should obey his governor, he shall find me as obedient to this, as I have been to all his other orders. Nothing but his commands shall release me. If twelve years hardship and fatigue; if continual dangers and frequent famine; if the ocean, first opened, and five times passed and repassed, to add a new world abounding with wealth to the Spanish monarchy; and if an infirm and premature old age, brought on by those services, deserve these chains as a reward; it is very fit I should wear them to Spain, and keep them by me as memorials to the end of my life."
Great minds, though more apt to forgive injuries, perhaps, than common souls, do not easily lose the memory of the wrongs that are done them. Columbus afterwards carried these irons with him wherever he went; they hung constantly in his chamber, and he ordered them to be buried with him.
The new governor that succeeded him, made a more effectual provision for the reward of his services; for besides confiscating the greatest part of the admiral's effects, which he converted to his own use, to flatter the people, he permitted an unbounded liberty▪ by which he ruined the royal revenue, and was near ruining the colony too, past all reparation, if the court had not recalled him in time, and sent a person to succeed him
greater judgment and firmness, though of little more real virtue.
CHAP. VI.
ABOUT this time the spirit of discovery began to spread it self largely, and private adventurers, both in Spain and Portugal, stimulated by the gold which from time to time was remitted to Europe by Columbus, made equipments at their own expences. In one of these the famous Americus Vesputius commanded; he had got into his hands the charts of Columbus, in his last voyage, and he sailed the same course. But as he was a man of address and great confidence, and was besides an able seaman, and good geographer, he found a way of arrogating to himself the first discovery of the continent of America, and called it by his own name; which it has ever since retained, though nobody has any doubt concerning the real discoverer. For this I believe no other reason can be given, than that America is perhaps a better sounding word than Columbia, and is more easily pronounced with the others, in enumerating the several divisions of the earth: a trifling matter, and influenced by trifling causes. But the glory of Columbus stands upon foundations of another sort.
Pinzon, one who attended the admiral in his first voyage, equipped a squadron at his own expence; and was the first who crossed the line at the side of America, and entered the great river Maranon, or the river of Amazons.
The Portuguese, notwithstanding the pope's exclusive grant, turned their thoughts to America, and discovered the Brazils, which make the most valuable part of their present possessions, when they have lost what was considered as their original right, and which never was so advantageous to them.
What animated these adventurers, at the same time that it fixes a stain upon all their characters and designs, is that insatiable thirst of gold, which ever appeared uppermost in all their actions. This disposition had been a thousand times extremely prejudicial to their affairs: it was particularly the cause of all the confusion and rebellions in Hispaniola: yet it is certain, that if it were not for this incentive, which kindled the spirit of discovery and colonization first in Spain and Portugal, and afterwards in all parts of Europe, America had never been in the state it now is; nor would those nations ever have had the beneficial colonies, which are now established in every part of that country. It was necessary there should be something of an immediate and uncommon gain, fitted to strike the imaginations of men forcibly, to tempt them to such hazardous designs. A remote prospect of commerce, and the improvement of manufactures, by extending of colonies, would never have answered the purpose; those advantages come to be known only by reason and deduction, and are not consequently of so striking a nature. But to go out with a few baubles, and to return with a cargo of gold, is an object readily comprehended by any body, and was consequently pursued with vigour by all. The speculative knowledge of trade, made no part of the study of the elevated or thinking part of mankind, at that time. Now it may be justly reckoned amongst the liberal sciences; and it makes one of the most considerable branches of political knowledge. Commerce was then in the hands of a few, great in it's profits, but confined in it's nature. What we call the ballance of trade, was far from being well understood; all the laws relative to commerce were every where but so many clogs upon it. The imposts and duties charged on goods, were laid on without distinction or judgment. Even amongst ourselves, the most trading and reasoning people in Europe, right notions of these matters began late, and advanced slowly. Our colonies were settled without any view to those great advantages which we draw from them. Virginia was constructed out of the wrecks of an armament destined on a golden adventure, which first tempted us to America. And those who settled New England and Maryland, meant them only as asylums from religious persecutions. So that if America had not promised such an inundation of treasure, it could only have supplied a languid commerce, which would have habituated the natives by degrees to our European manners, and supplied them with equal arms. Then it would have been next to impossible to have made those extensive settlements in that new world. So certain it is, that we often reap differently from what we have sown; and that there must be some strong active principle to give life and energy to all designs, or they will languish, let them be ever so wisely concerted.
CHAP. VII.
NO sooner was Columbus arrived in Spain, in this disgraceful manner, than the court disavowed, and highly blamed the behaviour of their governor. And now, according to the giddy custom of men, who act without plan or principle, they acquainted him of all the charges against him, with as little enquiry into their validity, as they before used when upon the same charges they unjustly condemned him. Restitution and reward were promised him, and he wanted very few incentives to engage once more in discoveries His ambition was to arrive at the East-Indies and so to surround the globe. This had really an influence upon his own mind, and he knew nothing could so much influence those of the king and queen. On this prospect he was again fitted out with a fleet, promising to reduce both East and West-Indies, under the dominion of their Catholic majesties.
He embarked upon his fourth voyage in May 1502. His design was to stand directly for the coast of South-America, and keep along the Northern shore until he came to the place where he heard an obscure account of some narrow streight, (whether a streight or isthmus was not so clear from the accounts he had); and by this, if a streight, he hoped to pass into the great South-Sea. After so very long a voyage as his had been to America, and the discovery of a continent which was not that of India, nor that of China; he saw clearly that the maps were no longer in the least to be relied on; he therefore depended solely upon his own ideas. He reviewed the bearings of all the countries which his former experience, or his late discoveries had opened to him; he considered the figure of the earth in general; he reasoned upon the ballance and distribution of the land and water; and comparing all these he concluded, that beyond the continent he had discovered was another ocean, probably as great or greater than that he had formerly passed; if this were so, then it was probable too that these oceans had some communication. He judged it to be near those places since called Veragua and Nombre de Dios; but not thinking his ships so fit for that voyage, he proposed to put into Hispaniola to change there, and make some new dispositions. Before he came into the harbour, he judged it necessary to give the new governor Obando notice of his arrival, and the reasons which determined him to put in here. Columbus, whilst he navigated and resided in the West-Indies, was extremely diligent in his observations upon the nature of the air, the seasons, the meteors, rains and winds; and how each of these seemed to affect the others; nor was he less sagacious in drawing prognostics from the remarkable appearances in all of these; and now he judged from observations that a great hurricane was approaching, and this was an additional motive to him to desire to come into harbour. He heard too, that a considerable fleet was on the point of setting sail for Europe, therefore he desired that the departure of this fleet might be deferred for some days. But it was his destiny that ingratitude should pursue him every where, and persecute him in every shape. For the governor, without any cause, not only refused to hearken to his advice about the sailing of the ships, but absolutely denied him permission to enter into harbour, to save his life in that island which he himself had discovered and subdued. He had nothing to do but to draw up as close to the shore as he could. The storm came on the next night, but providence favouring his innocence, and assisting his capacity, brought him safe through it, though as terrible a storm as had ever happened in those seas. The fleet of twenty sail, which against his advice had put to sea, suffered the punishment due to their termerity. Only four escaped the storm, sixteen perished. Amongst those which were lost, was the ship which carried back that governor to Spain, who had sent Columbus thither in so oppressive and scandalous a manner; amongst the four that were saved, was one that had on board some treasure, all that could be rescued from the pillage of the admiral's fortune. So that whilst he was mortified at this shameful instance of human ingratitude, Heaven seemed to declare in his favour, and to condemn and punish it. His character was highly raised by the prediction of the storm, and by his behaviour in it; for to his, and his brother's good conduct, the safety of his little fleet was justly attributed. His brother was a navigator and philosopher, second only to the admiral, very useful to his affairs, and a comfort and assistance in all his misfortunes, by his capacity and the goodness of his heart.
After he had weathered the storm he left this island, in which he had so surprizing an instance of ingratitude, in pursuit of more matters to employ it. In this voyage he discovered all the coast of Terra Firma to the isthmus of Darien, where he hoped to have found a passage to the South-Sea. In this he was disappointed, but he was not disappointed in the other part of his project; for every where as he advanced, he became more sensible of the value of his discoveries on the continent. He found a people more civilized and more abounding in gold than the islanders he had met with had been. He entered a harbour, which from it's excellence he called Porto Bello, well known since as one of the greatest openings by which the Spanish commerce is carried on between the two worlds. Here the admiral desi
ned to establish a colony, under the command of his brother, proposing to return to Europe himself to obtain the requisites for a compleat settlement. But the avarice and insolence of his men raised the country upon him, and obliged him to relinquish his design, without having an opportunity of doing any thing more than shewing his judgment in the choice of the situation, and his own and brother's bravery in extricating their men from the calamities in which their folly had involved them.
Driven from hence, and finding his vessels in so bad a condition, that it was by no means advisable to proceed upon further discoveries, he quitted the continent, after having discovered the Eastern side of the isthmus of Darien, and the whole more as far as Gracios o Dios in the gulph of Honduras. He then stood over to Hispaniola. His voyage was made under a thousand difficulties of the severest kind; their vessels so leaky, that the crew had not a moment's respite from the pump, and scarce any provision remaining to refresh them after their labours. To compleat the sum of their calamities a violent storm arose, in which the ships fell foul of one another. But though he providentially weathered this storm, it was now scarcely possible to keep his ship above water, and he was glad to make Jamaica, where he was a second time relieved from the greatest dangers and distresses.
But a distress of almost as bad a nature exercised his invention here. His ships were absolutely unfit for service beyond all possibility of being repaired; no means of getting new; the inhabitants suspicious, and the ill behaviour of his men gave daily occasion to increase those suspicions. In this distress, he prevailed upon some of the hardiest and most faithful of them to pass over in a canoo to Hispaniola, to represent his calamitous situation to the governor, and to beg vessels to carry them off.
Eight months did the admiral remain in this island, without the least intelligence from his messengers, or assistance from the governor. The natives grew exasperated at the delay of the Spaniards, and the weight of subsisting them, which was a heavy burthen on the poverty of the Indians. Provisions therefore came in very sparingly. Things even threatened to grow much worse; for the seamen, who are at best unruly, but think that all discipline ceases the moment they set foot on land, mutinied in great numbers. By this mutiny the admiral's authority and strength was considerably weakened, whilst the natives were exasperated by the disorders of the mutineers; but he found means to recover his authority, at least among the Indians. Knowing there would shortly be a visible eclipse of the moon, he summoned the principal persons in the island; and by one who understood their language told them, that the God whom he served, and who created and preserves all things in heaven and earth, provoked at their refusing to support his servants, intended a speedy and severe judgment upon them, of which they should shortly see manifest tokens in the heavens, for that the moon would, on the night he marked, appear of a bloody hue, an emblem of the destruction that was preparing for them. His prediction, which was ridiculed for the time, when it came to be accomplished struck the barbarians with great terror. They brought him plenty of provisions; they fell at his feet, and besought him in the most supplicating stile to deprecate the evils which threatened them. He took their provisions, comforted them, and charged them to attone for their past sin by their future generosity.
He had a temporary relief by this stratagem, but he saw no prospect of getting out of the island, and pursuing those great purposes to which he had devoted his life. The mutiny of his men was in danger of growing general, when every thing seemed to be settled by the sight of a ship in the harbour, sent by Obando, the governor of Hispaniola. But as if it was calculated, not only to abandon, but to insult this great man in his misfortunes, the captain of the vessel was a mortal enemy to the admiral, and one of the persons principally concerned in those rebellions, which had formerly given him so much trouble. But his design was only to be a witness of the distress of his affairs; for he came ashore, forbidding his crew all manner of communication with the admiral or his men; and after delivering to Columbus an empty letter of compliment, embarked without even flattering him with the least hope of relief.
Thus abandoned, his firmness and presence of mind alone did not forsake him. The arrival of this ship for a moment reconciled his men to obedience; but when they saw it depart, they were almost unanimously on the point of shaking off all authority, and abandoning themselves to the most desperate courses. But the admiral, without betraying the least sign of disappointment or grief, told them in a chearful manner, that he had a promise of an immediate supply; and that the reason of his not going off in this ship was, that she was too small to carry off all the Spaniards who were with him; and that he was resolved not to depart until every man of them might enjoy the same conveniency. The easy and composed air of the admiral himself, and the care he manifested for his people, superior to his own preservation, reconciled their minds, and made them attend their fate with patience. But he knew his delay might be very tedious in this island, and that as long as there remained a receptacle to which every ill humour amongst his men might gather, his affairs would grow worse every day; now that he found those that adhered to him firmly attached to his cause, he came to a resolution of taking vigorous measures with the rest. He sent his brother, a sensible and resolute man, with a proper force, and well armed, to treat with them; and in case of obstinacy to compel them to obedience. They met, and the captain of the mutineers, grown insolent with a long course of licentiousness and rapine, not only rejected the proposal, but offered violence to the admiral's brother, who using this as a signal to his men, who were prepared, they fell upon the rebels with such resolution, that ten lay dead in a moment with their chief; disordered by the unexpected attack, the rest fled, and soon after were obliged to submit.
Thus the admiral pacified every thing with equal spirit and address, sometimes giving way to the storm, and temporizing when he doubted his strength; but when he was assured of it, always employing it with resolution and effect, turning every incident, even the most unfavourable, to his advantage; and watching every change of nature, and every motion of the human mind, to employ them in his purposes. It is the principal thing which forms the character of a great man, to be rich in expedients; the use Columbus made of the eclipse was truly ingenious. It may be said, that such a thing cannot be imitated amongst a civilized people. I grant it. But the way to imitate great men is not to tread in their steps, but to walk in their manner. There is no people who have not some points of ignorance, weakness, or prejudice, which a penetrating mind may not discover, and use as the most powerful instruments in the execution of his designs. Such a knowledge as this, is the only thing which gives one man a real superiority over another; and he who understands the passions of men, and can entirely command his own, has the principal means of subduing them in his own hands.
The admiral might have spent his whole life in this miserable exile, if a private man, moved with esteem for his merit, and compassion to his misfortunes, had not fitted out a ship for his relief. This brought him to Hispaniola. The governor, who refused to contribute any thing to his coming, when he came received him with that overacted complaisance and shew of friendship, which so often succeeds the greatest insolence in base minds, and which they practise with so little shame and remorse to the persons they have before loaded with the greatest injuries. The admiral bore this like every thing else; and convinced that a dispute with a governor in his own jurisdiction would bring him little advantage and honour, he hastened every thing for his departure to Spain, where he arrived after a voyage in which he was tossed by most terrible storms, and sailed seven hundred leagues after he had lost his main-mast.
He was now grown old, and severely afflicted with the gout. The queen his patroness was dead; and the king, of a close and dissembling disposition, and a narrow mind, was the only person he had to sooth his misfortunes, or pay the reward which was due to his labours. But he received neither comfort nor reward; the performance of his contract was deferred upon frivolous pretences; and he employed the close of his life, as he had done the active part of it, in a court sollicitation; the most grievous of all employments to any man, the most hopeless to an old man. Vanquished at last by years, fatigues, and disappointments, he died with those sentiments of piety, which supported him through the misfortunes of his life, and added a finishing, which nothing else could give to his greatness of mind, and all his other virtues.
CHAP. VIII.
HEnceforward, in treating of the progress of the Spanish discoveries and arms, instead of designs laid in science, and pursued with a benevolent heart and gentle measures; we are but too often to shew an enthusiastic avarice, urging men forward to every act of cruelty and horror. The character of this first discoverer was extremely different from that of all with whom he dealt, and from that of most of those who pursued his discoveries and conquests; some with a vigour and conduct equal, but all with virtues very much inferior. In his character hardly is any one of the components of a truly great man wanting. For to the ideas of the most penetrating philosopher, and a scheme built upon them worthy of a great king, he joined a constancy and patience, which alone could carry it into execution, with the fortune of a private man. Continual storms at sea, continual rebellions of a turbulent people on shore, vexations, disappointments, and cabals at court, were his lot all his life; and these were the only reward of services, which no favours could have rewarded sufficiently. His magnanimity was proof against all of these, and his genius surmounted all the difficulties they threw in his way, except that of his payment, the point in which such men ever meet with the worst success, and urge with the least ability. That surprizing art, possessed by so few, of making every accident an instrument in his designs; his nice adjustment of his behaviour to his circumstances, temporizing, or acting vigorously as the occasion required, and never letting the occasion itself pass by him; the happy talent of concealing and governing his own passions, and managing those of others; all these conspire to give us the highest idea of his capacity. And as for his virtues, his disinterested behaviour, his unmoveable fidelity to the ungrateful crown he served, the just policy of his dealing with the Indians, his caution to give them any offence, and his tender behaviour to them when conquered, which merited him the glorious title of their father, together with his zeal to have them instructed in the truths of religion, raise him to the elevated rank of those few men whom we ought to consider as examples to mankind, and ornaments to human nature.
I hope it will be forgiven me, if I add a remark upon the conduct of the court of Spain with regard to this great man. Though, as we saw all along, this conduct was equally unjust and impolitick, sorry I am, that no lesson of instruction can be drawn from the event, which was in all respects as fortunate, as the measures pursued were ungrateful and imprudent. But there was a coincidence of events at that time, which does not always happen so opportunely to justify an ungrateful and narrow policy. It is certain that some men are so possessed with their designs, that when once engaged, nothing can discourage them in the pursuit. But great and frequent discouragements are examples to others, which will at least certainly have an effect, and will terrify men from forming such designs at all. Then the spirit of invention and enterprize dies away; then things begin to stagnate and to corrupt; for it is a rule as invariable in politicks as it is in nature, that a want of proper motion does not breed rest and stability, but motion of another kind, a motion unseen and intestine, which does not preserve but destroy. The best form and settlement of a state, and every regulation within it, obeys the same universal law; and the only way to prevent all things from going to decay, is by continually aiming to better them in some respect or other; (since if they are not better, they will surely be worse,) and to afford an attentive ear to every project for this purpose. I am sensible that it must frequently happen, that many of these projects will be chimerical in themselves, and offered by a people of an appearance and manner not very prejudicing in their favour. But then I am satisfied too, that these men must in the nature of things have something odd and singular in their character, who expose themselves, and desert the common and certain roads of gain, in pursuit of advantages not certain to the publick, and extremely doubtful to themselves.
It is equally true, that if such people are encouraged, a number of visionary schemes will be offered. But it is the character of pride and laziness to reject all offers, because some are idle, as it is of weakness and credulity to listen to all without distinction. But surely, if judgment is to have any share in our conduct, it is the province of judgment to sift, to examine, to distinguish the useful from the foolish, the feasible from the impracticable, and even in the midst of the visions of a fruitful and disordered brain, to pick out matter which a wise man will know how to qualify and turn to use, though the inventor did not. Cromwell, partly from his circumstances, but more from his genius and disposition, received daily a number of proposals of this kind, which always approached him in a fanatical dress, and were mixed frequently with matters the most remote from probability and good sense; and we know that he made a signal use of many things of this kind.
Colbert spent much of his time in hearing every scheme for the extending of commerce, the improvement of manufactures, and the advancement of arts; spared no pains or expence to put them in execution, and bountifully rewarded and encouraged the authors of them. By these means France advanced during the reign of Lewis the fourteenth, and under this minister more than it had done in many reigns before; and by these means, in the midst of wars, which brought that kingdom and all Europe to the brink of destruction; amidst many defaults in the royal character, and many errors in his government, a seed of industry and enterprize was sown, which on the first respite of the publick calamities, and even whilst they oppressed that nation, rose to produce that flourishing internal and external commerce and power, that distinguishes France, and forms it's strength at this day, tho' a less active reign, and ministers of a different character have succeeded. On the contrary, it was always the character of the court of Spain to proceed very slowly, if at all, in any improvement; and to receive schemes for that purpose with coldness and disdain. The effects upon the power of that monarchy were answerable with regard to America, the conquest as well as the discovery was owing wholly to private men; the court contributed nothing but pretensions and patents.
CHAP. IX.
AN ancient painter drew a satyrical picture of Cimon the Athenian. He represented this commander asleep, and Fortune drawing a net over cities to put them into his possession. There never were princes to whom this representation could be applied with more justice, than to king Ferdinand and his successor the emperor Charles. Without forming any plan in the cabinet, without issuing a penny out of their treasury, without sending a regiment from their troops, private adventurers amongst their subjects put them into possession of a greater, and a more wealthy territory, than ever the most celebrated conquerors had acquired by their valour, or their wisdom. Nor was this conquest more extraordinary for the trivial means by which it was accomplished, than for the shortnefs of the time in which it was effected; for from the departure of Columbus, which was in the year 1492, to the entire reduction of Chili, which was in 1541, seven great kingdoms, inhabited by a vast number of warlike and wealthy nations, were made to bow under the Spanish yoke. For after the discoveries of Columbus had enlarged the sphere of industry to active minds, such a spirit of enterprize went abroad that not only those persons whose indigence might have driven them from their native country, but persons of the first rank went over to settle in America. Gold was the spur to all those adventurers of whatever rank; and this with a romantic spirit of chivalry, made the greatest hazards appear but common matters in their eyes. And indeed in a country wholly uncivilized, under the burning zone, and in many places extremely unhealthy, the temperance of the Spaniards, their hardiness under fatigue, and the patience and perseverance which make the most shining part of their character, enabled them to engage in enterprizes, and to surmount difficulties, to which any other people had certainly been unequal.
Vasco Nunez de Balboa was a man of a graceful presence, a liberal education, an hardy constitution, and had that kind of popular bravery, which recommends a man who engages in desperate expeditions, where he must have more authority from his person than his place. This man first surrounded Cuba, conquered, and left it. He did not there find the treasures which he expected. He therefore relinquished the gleanings of this field to those who had a more moderate ambition, and a more saving industry. He sought new ground, he followed the tracks of Columbus to Darien, gained the friendship of some of the Caziques, and conquered others. He was the first who discovered the South-Sea; and being as ready to discern the advantages of a country as to discover the country itself, he established a colony upon that coast, and built the city of Panama. But according to the fate of all the first adventurers in this new world, indeed according to the fate of most who engage in new undertakings, he never lived to reap the fruit of his labours. He found himself suspended by one who had only discernment enough of his merit to raise his jealousy and envy, and who could make no other use of the discoveries of this great man, than to increase his own private fortune. This man was a politician and a courtier, and having in several instances basely injured Balboa, he was too wise to stop there, but under a pretended form of justice cut off his head, and confiscated his estate.
Some time after the settlement of Cuba, Don James Velasquez obtained the government; a man of good sense in common affairs, but so much mistaken, as to imagine he could act a great part by deputy; and that too in circumstances, wherein a man who had but little capacity could do him but little service, and he that could do much would certainly do it for himself. The continent of America was now very well known, and the fame of the greatness and wealth of the Mexican empire spread every where. This inspired Velasquez with a scheme of reducing some part of this opulent country under his obedience. He pitched upon Hernando Cortes to command in this expedition, in which he certainly made a very right judgment. There was no man amongst the Spaniards, who to an adventurous disposition then common to them all, knew so well to join a cool and steady conduct, to gain love whilst he preserved respect; not to shift his schemes according to occasions, but persisting uniformly in a well-judged design, to make every inferior action and event subservient to it; to urge still forward; to extricate himself out of difficulties into which he was brought by bold actions, not by mean subterfuges, but by actions yet bolder. This was the character of the man already in high reputation, whom Velasquez chose to conquer for him.
The embarkment was made at St. Jago de Cuba, and Cortes was to take in some reinforcements at the Havanna. But he was hardly departed for this purpose, when Velasquez grew jealous of him; and without considering that Cortes was of that heroic disposition, in which a blind obedience is rarely a principal ingredient, he took the ill-judged step of removing him from the command of an army, which in some sort might be considered as his own, since he had much influence on the soldiers, and that a considerable part of the expence of the armament had been supplied by himself. When this order, which was to deprive him of his command, arrived to Cortes, he was not long before he came to a resolution. He explained the whole matter to his soldiers; he shewed them how uncertain the intentions of Velasquez were, and how much all their hopes were like to be frustrated by the inconstancy of his disposition. The event was prepared. The soldiers declared to a man, that they were subjects only to the king of Spain, and knew no commander but Cortes. The army and the general, thus bound to one another by their mutual disobedience, sailed for Mexico.
The empire of Mexico was at that time governed by a prince called Montezuma, the eleventh who reigned from the first monarch who had conquered the country. The empire was elective, and the merit of Montezuma had procured him the election. A prince of capacity and courage, but artful, hypocritical, and cruel. This empire, founded on conquest, was increased by his victories. By himself, or by his generals, he had absolutely subdued several kingdoms and provinces; several were made tributary, and others, which were not absolutely subdued, were influenced by his power to an entire obedience to his will. His armies were the best in that part of the world, and prodigiously numerous. In this situation, and so headed was the empire of the Mexicans, when Cortes came to prove it's strength, with an army of no more than five hundred foot, and not quite sixty horse. He did not come a stranger into the country, to encounter a force which he dared to engage only because he was ignorant of it. He had long made every possible enquiry from the Spaniards and Indians into every circumstance of its internal weakness or power; it's allies, it's enemies, and the interests which determined them to be allies or enemies. Weighing all these, and knowing, that along with great hopes, great dangers likewise lay before him, he made his retreat yet more dangerous by his disobedience to the governor of Cuba; and when he landed on the continent, he made it impossible, for he burned his ships. But though he had made a retreat impossible, he had something else to encourage him to go forward, than the impossibility of retiring. He had great hopes that many of these states, who were kept in a forced subjection, or a slavish dread of Montezuma, would gladly turn this new and alarming appearance from themselves against him, and under the banner of these formidable strangers, arm themselves to shake off the ancient tyranny, which always appears the worst, without foreseeing consequences, to which more civilized nations have frequently been as blind as they. It happened according to his expectations.
The Zempoallans, a nation tributary to Montezuma, as soon as they had sufficient proofs of the power of the Spaniards, at the expence of several of their neighbours, who attempted to oppose their progress, threw off the Mexican yoke, gladly put themselves under the protection of Cortes, and earned it by the large reinforcements which they added to his army. Montezuma was soon made acquainted with these measures. For according to the custom of that well-regulated kingdom, he had posts so stationed, that in a little time he had notice of whatever happened in the remote parts of his empire. The dispatches which were sent him, were painted cloaths, exactly representing every circumstance of the business of which he was to be informed; the figures were interspersed with characters to explain what must necessarily be wanting in the picture. So far, but no farther, had this people advanced in the art of writing. As well informed as the emperor was of every particular of this invasion, and of the defection of his tributaries, he acted not at all conformably to the greatness of his former exploits. He took the worst method which a great prince ever did upon such an occasion, which was, to temporize. He let the Spaniards see, by some trifling arts which he used to oppose them, that he did not look upon them as his friends, and at the same time neglected to act against them as so formidable an enemy required; by which means they made daily advances in the country. His enemies were encouraged, his tributaries made insolent, and his subjects and allies utterly dispirited; whilst the Spaniards, in a variety of engagements, which they had with the petty princes of the country, raised their reputation by a train of victories, and began to be considered as invincible. Cortes, like the great commander he was, took advantage of this irresolute disposition in Montezuma, and used every possible means to cherish it. He always sent back what prisoners of Montezuma's subjects his new allies had taken, with presents, and every profession of esteem and regard to their master, and with the strongest assurances of a desire of preserving peace; requesting to see Montezuma, and to confer with him upon some matters he said he had in charge to declare to him from his master the emperor of the Romans.
There was at that time a celebrated republic on the coast of Mexico, towards the gulph, called Tlascala. This people were said to be so powerful, as to be able to arm four hundred thousand men. Powerful as they were, tho' not subdued, they were yet awed by the greatness of the Mexicans. This awe, or perhaps a better policy, induced them to give a check to the Spaniards. But in the manner of Montezuma's proceedings they would not oppose them publicly, and therefore could not oppose them effectually. Some nations, on whom they had prevailed to fall upon the Spaniards, were over and over again defeated, together with those troops the Tlascalans had sent clandestinely to their assistance. At last, by degrees, declaring themselves more openly, as the danger pressed them, they drew a large army into the field, which was routed by the troops of Cortes; few indeed in number, but infinitely superior in arms, and now grown familiar with victory. The consequence of this battle was the alliance of the Tlascalans with their conqueror, which they entered into with the less difficulty, as they were to serve against the Mexicans, and might now hope to serve with success. Cortes, however, did not chuse to trust this untried and forced alliance too far, nor at the same time to deprive himself entirely of the succour it produced. He therefore took a middle course, and accepting three thousand of their men, he held on his rout to Mexico.
CHAP. X.
BEFORE Cortes began his expedition to Mexico, he had built a strong fortress at the principal port on the coast, to open a passage for succours, when his success should make interest enough to procure them. This he called La Vera Cruz, and it has since become a city, remarkable for the great traffick since carried on between these opulent countries and Old Spain. During the Tlascalan war, in which the Spaniards suffered something, and had every thing to apprehend, Montezuma took no steps, but lay by watching the event, in hopes that the Tlascalans might defeat the troops of Cortes at their own expence; or if the Spaniards proved victorious, he might then have the merit of not having used hostilities against them. He lost both parties by this double conduct; such an insidious neutrality betrays nothing but the weak policy of him who uses it. However, as a fair correspondence still subsisted between them, he used every means he could to dissuade Cortes from his proposed journey to Mexico. At last he took a step, worse judged than all the bad ones he had hitherto taken. He sent to the Spaniards a very large and magnificent present, of every thing his dominions afforded valuable, but principally a vast quantity of gold and precious stones; offering at the same time yet more, and persuading them to return to their own country. If any person in the army was unwilling before this to proceed, he now changed his mind. All were convinced that they ought to advance with speed to possess the fountain of that wealth, of which this rich donation was but an inconsiderable rivulet.
Montezuma, baffled in all his schemes to keep the Spaniards at a distance, having used himself to shifting measures, until they were in a degree grown habitual, found Cortes at the gates of Mexico before he was resolved how he should receive him. He was now almost too late for force. He therefore dissembled his concern with the best grace he could, and received him with all the honours a monarch can bestow, when he would display his own magnificence, and shew his sense of extraordinary merit. Cortes was lodged in a palace spacious and grand, after the manner of the country. All his Spaniards were lodged with him, but he took care to place a train of artillery at his gate.
Thus ported without a blow in the heart of this great city, the capital of the new world, he was for a while at a loss what measures to pursue, for securing himself in a conquest of this importance. Having received more than he could reasonably have asked, there was no cause of complaint, and consequently no advantage to be colourably taken. He had only to wait for some of those critical incidents, upon whose use all great matters depend, and without which the greatest genius must be at a stand. It was not long before one of these occurred.
Two Tlascalans arrived in disguise at Mexico, who brought him an account that a general of Montezuma had attacked some of his confederate Indians; that the garrison of Vera Cruz had gone out to their defence; and that though the Mexicans were repulsed with loss, the Spaniards were greatly endangered, many wounded, and one killed, whose head, by the order of Montezuma, was carried through all the cities and villages of their country, to destroy the reverence in which they held the Spaniards, and undeceive them in a notion they had conceived, that these strangers were immortal. This intelligence alarmed Cortes. He knew that opinion was one of the strongest supporters of his little force; that things of this kind never stop at their beginnings; that Montezuma, while he caressed him in his city, was disjoining his allies, and distressing his garrison abroad; and that no time was to be lost in dilatory counsels; and that he must keep alive the memory of his former exploits. He therefore took a resolution worthy of a brave man, in a difficulty made for his capacity. He armed himself in the best manner, and with five of the most faithful and best resolved of his officers, went directly to the palace of Montezuma. Thirty of his men attended at some distance. Guards of Spaniards were placed at the principal avenues to the palace.
It was usual for Montezuma's guards to withdraw, out of respect, when he had any conference with Cortes. On this occasion, as soon as he was admitted to audience, he charged the emperor with the outrages committed by his orders, in terms of great resentment. The emperor disowns it. But Cortes, after having paid him the compliment of not supposing him capable of so mean a dissimulation, assured him, that he was himself entirely satisfied of his innocence, but that others had fears which were not so easily removed; but to satisfy the Spaniards, he must give some solid proof of his confidence in them; which he could effectually do no otherwise than by his removing without delay to their quarters. A request of this nature startled Montezuma, who never was used to any voice but that of the humblest submission. However, he saw plainly that Cortes did not make so extraordinary a request, but with a resolution of making it be complied with. He saw the necessity, and he yielded to it.
Thus was the capital of a vast and powerful empire, inhabited by an innumerable multitude of warlike people, entered without resistance by an handful of men, who came to overturn it's liberty. And thus was one of the greatest princes on earth, renowned for his wisdom and valour, seized in his palace, in the midst of this city, at noon-day, and carried prisoner without noise or violence, by six persons, to be disposed of at their pleasure.
The people, confounded and enraged to find one whom they always used to reverence as a god, treated in this unworthy manner, surrounded the quarters of the Spaniards to punish this sacrilege, and rescue their captive prince. But Cortes, who well understood the consequence of the steps he had taken, was not alarmed. He knew that he had now in his hands an engine, which was capable of doing any thing. Montezuma went out to appease the people, assured them that he was there of choice, and (which was true) that the Spaniards were wanting in no instance of respect due to his character and dignity.
This appeased and dispersed the people. But Montezuma, whose unfortunate circumstances obliged him to act as an instrument to his own captivity, could enjoy no rest, though allowed the attendance of the principal officers of his court, and indulged by the Spaniards in every thing but his liberty. Long revolving, he at last contrived a scheme, which he judged, without his appearing to concur with them, might alarm his subjects with a sense of their danger, or oblige the Spaniards to depart by the reasonableness of his proposals. He had always liberty of going abroad with a guard of Spaniards, under pretence of doing him honour. He now desired to hold a council of the states of his empire, that in concurrence they might satisfy Cortes and his associates in the amplest manner. This council was convened, in which Montezema, in a premeditated speech, set forth the origin of his nation; the prophecies extant among them, that a people of the same race should arrive, to whom this empire should be subject; that the people were now arrived who were the object of those prophecies, and sprung from this origin, to whom the gods had destined universal empire, and who, by their great accomplishments and surprizing bravery, merited their high destination: then he solemnly declared himself tributary to the emperor of the Romans; he exhorted them on their part to a due obedience; and ended by telling them, that as he had himself prepared a present from his treasures worthy of this great emperor, he expected that every one of them, in proportion to his ability, would testify his loyalty to this new master, and his regard to the merit of his general, and those brave men that attended him, that they might be enabled to depart speedily to their own country, with that opinion of their brethren the Mexicans, which their affection to them, and their obedience to their common master, deserved.
At first an entire silence succeeded this harangue; the whole assembly confounded and struck dumb with grief, indignation, and surprize. Then followed a mixed cry, as each person was affected by some particular part of the general calamity. The lustre of their empire tarnished, their religion to be profaned, their freedom surrendered, their emperor degraded, what was worse, degraded by himself; could they believe their ears? Was it Montezuma who had spoken in such a manner? The design of Montezuma was until this moment a secret to Cortes; he was surprised, and something chagrined at an artifice, the invention of which he now penetrated very clearly. But his surprise did not confound or perplex him in the part he saw it was proper for him to act. Without any embarrassment, he seconded the harangue of Montezuma by a speech, which was well interpreted, wherein he strongly urged the propriety, and insinuated the necessity of an entire obedience to their prince, and an imitation of his conduct. Disordered as the assembly was, yet still held by a sacred reverence to their emperor, influenced by the hope of the sudden departure of the Spaniards, and reserving themselves for a better occasion, they followed Montezuma's example, and paid homage to Cortes, in that dumb and sullen submission with which fierce spirits yield to necessity. He received it, and thanked them, as a man thanks his debtor for a ready payment.
Cortes saw that this empty homage secured him nothing; but he knew that the gold, which was to accompany it, would be of real service in cancelling the ill impressions made by his disobedience in Spain. In Mexico he might look upon himself as secure; he had the person of the emperor in his hands; he had his forces in the capital; and he had lately struck a terror into all, by seizing the general, who had committed hostilities against the Spaniards. He got the emperor to disavow his conduct, and condemn him as a traitor. By their joint authority, this unhappy man, guilty of nothing but obedience to his lawful master, and zeal for his country, was burned alive in the publick square of Mexico. But neither this horrid example, nor the imprisonment of their emperor, nor the late acknowledgment of the emperor Charles, was sufficient to make the Mexicans insensible to the disgrace they suffered, nor of the danger which hung over them. They began to consult how they might deliver themselves. Some proposed to cut off the communication with the continent, and hold the Spaniards besieged in their quarters; for the city of Mexico is an island in a great lake, and communicates with the continent by four great causeways, extremely curious for contrivance and solidity. Whilst they were ripening their schemes, a report came to Cortes, that some words had dropt from a Mexican concerning the practicability of destroying one of these causeways. From this word, (for he heard no more) this watchful and sagacious commander judged of the whole contrivance? Without however taking notice of it publicly, he immediately orders two brigantines to be built to secure his retreat, if a retreat should prove the wisest measure. In the mean time he kept a strict discipline in his army; and to preserve reverence from the Indians, he prohibited their approaching his quarters when his men were asleep, and severely punished those of his soldiers who slept out of the times and places appointed for that purpose. All this while no preparations for his departure.
CHAP. XI.
MONTEZUMA, sick with impatience of his confinement, and seeing that he daily lost his authority amongst the people by the pusillanimous appearance of his conduct, as soon as he perceived that any spirited action on his side would be seconded with equal spirit by his subjects, he roused his dormant magnanimity, and in spite of the condition he was in, he sent for Cortes, and addressed him in this manner:
"Cortes, the desires of my subjects, my own dignity, and the commands of my gods, require that you should depart my empire. You are sensible how much I have valued your friendship, and how effectually I have shewn that I valued it. But after so many professions of good-will upon your side, and so many proofs of it upon mine, after every pretence of business is over, wherefore do you delay your return? I have yielded homage to your master, I am ready to obey him, I have sent him presents, (or shall I call it a tribute) worthy of myself and of him; your whole army is loaded, even to an inconvenience, with their darling gold. Would they have more? Shall more be delivered them? But then, when they shall have spoken their largest wishes, and satisfied their most eager desires, I insist upon it that they depart immediately, or they may find, in spite of the condition I am in, of which condition, for your sake, and for my own, I shall speak but little, that Montezuma has yet courage enough to vindicate his own honour, and friends in Mexico who will not fail to revenge the wrongs he shall suffer."
Cortes perceived something of an unusual resolution and sternness in the emperor's countenance whilst he spoke. He therefore sent orders, before the interpreter began to explain his speech, that the Spaniards should stand to their arms, and wait his commands. His answer was resolute, but not such as to drive the emperor to despair. He lamented the jealousy which their common enemies had occasioned; that for his part he was secured from all fear by his own courage, and the bravery of his troops; but since he was so unfortunate as to find he could not longer enjoy the honour of a conversation he had such reason to esteem, consistently with the emperor's repose, he would depart as soon as ships could be built, for on landing he had been obliged to burn his own. This answer soothed Montezuma; he resumed his good humour, he promised to load his army with gold at his departure, and gave immediate orders that every thing should be prepared for fitting out the ships in the speediest and amplest manner. But Cortes gave orders, which were full as well obeyed, to the person he appointed for the equipment, to delay it upon every possible pretence. He expected daily the return of the messengers he had sent into Spain, to sollicit his pardon and succours, with the continuance of the command.
Whilst he was entertained with these expectations, and with finding out pretences to defer his departure, an express arrived from Sandoval, his governor at La Vera Cruz, informing him of the arrival of eighteen ships, in which was an army of eight hundred foot, and two hundred horse, under the command of one Narvaez, who was sent by his old enemy Velasquez, the governor of Cuba, to supersede him in the command, to treat him as a rebel, and send him in chains to Cuba. The governor seized the messengers, who were sent by Narvaez, to require him to surrender, and sent them prisoners with this account to Cortes. There never was a time wherein the firmness and capacity of this commander were put so strongly to the proof. On one hand, here was an army in weapons and courage equal to his own, in numbers vastly superior, and above all, strengthened with the name of the royal authority. The Mexicans, ill-affected before, would rejoice in this opportunity to fall upon him. On the other hand, must he resign the conquests he had made with such infinite toils and hazards, into the hands of his mortal enemy, and in return to bear the name, and receive the punishment of a traytor? There was little room to hope for an accommodation. The thoughts of a surrender were intolerable. One way only remained, to conquer Narvaez. His own courage and conduct; his soldiers, habituated to victory, and endeared to him by common dangers and triumphs; his reputation, and the signal providence which always attended him, would combat upon his side. Above all, no time was to be lost in fruitless counsels. He sent an express to Sandoval, his governor in La Vera Cruz, to evacuate that place, and join him in his rout with what men he had. He assembled his forces, and found them to a man attached to his interests, and ready to hazard every thing in support of them. He left eighty men in Mexico, picked from his troops, recommending them to Montezuma, and him to them. With this small garrison he dared to entrust Mexico and all his vast hopes there; but the imprisoned emperor was himself a garrison, from the reverence his subjects bore him. Before he set out, he released the prisoners which Sandoval had sent him, using the severity of his officer to display his own clemency. He caressed them extremely, loaded them with presents for themselves, and the principal officers of Narvaez's army, and did every thing to create himself a party there by his generosity. He sent at the same time very advantageous terms of accommodation to the general himself, but took care to follow and second his ambassadors with all the power he could raise. This, with Sandoval's reinforcement, did not amount to three hundred men; but with these, and some confederate Indians, he marched with all imaginable diligence to Narvaez's quarters.
Narvaez, elated with the superiory of his army, would hearken to no terms, though he
was much pressed to it by his principal officers, who discovered plainly that this quarrel could only end in the ruin of their party, or that of the Spanish interest in Mexico. Mean time Cortes, little incumbered with baggage, and less with a dilatory genius, advanced by forced marches. He was but a small distance from the enemy's quarters, when the rains came on, and as usual in that country, fell very heavily. Cortes knowing that the ill dispositions of the sky were circumstances favourable to a surprize, inviting to desperate enterprizes, and that they are always least prejudicial to those in motion, having perfect intelligence of the disposition of Narvaez's army, and having disposed his troops in such a manner as not to fall upon one another, and to act in concert, he ordered them, when they should enter the town where the enemy was posted, to keep in close to the houses, that they might not suffer by the artillery, which was so placed as to play upon the middle of the street. Having made this disposition, he marched to attack the camp, on one of those gloomy and tempestuous nights. Though he directed every thing with the utmost secrecy, Narvaez had intelligence of his approach, but he laughed at it; and not understanding the nature of a prudent rashness, could not believe that Cortes would make such an attempt in such a season, went to sleep, without taking sufficient care that it should not be disturbed. Security in the general is easily followed by that of every one else. Cortes assaulted the town in three bodies, and whilst every one in the adverse party ran in confusion to his arms, and opposed without command or uniformity, as each man was attacked, the whole army was routed. The quarters of Narvaez were attacked by Cortes's division, and the men routed there as elsewhere. Narvaez himself, shamefully taken in bed, fell into his hands.
"Value yourself, said he, my lord Cortes, on your fortune in making me your prisoner!"
But Cortes, with a smile of indignation, answered,
"That he thought this by far the least action he had performed, since he came into the new world."
When the morning came on, the dispersed army of Narvaez began to form into bodies, and to discover the inconsiderable force which the night before had defeated them. Their first motion, distracted with shame and anger, was to fall upon the conquerors, and recover the honour they had lost. But when they found that their general was a prisoner, their artillery seized, and the advantageous post they had occupied in the enemy's possession, and numbers amongst themselves well-affected to Cortes, they listened at last to his proposals, recommended as they were by the polite and insinuating behaviour of which he was master, and that open and unbounded generosity he shewed to every one. They all enlisted under his banner, and agreed to share his fortune. Thus did this accident, which seemed to threaten inevitable destruction to the affairs of Cortes, prove the most effectual method of restoring them to an excellent condition, wholly by means of the wisdom of his measures, and of that vigour and activity with which he pursued them. His army now consisted of above a thousand men after replacing his garrison at La Vera Cruz, in which fortress he left Narvaez a prisoner.
This victory, and the reinforcement it procured, came at a most critical time; for hardly had he begun to adjust matters for his return to Mexico, when an express arrived that his affairs there were in a most dangerous condition. Alvarado, whom he had left to command at his departure, though a brave and able man, had too great a contempt for the Indians, and too little discernment for the nice circumstances he was in, to manage with that just mixture of firmness and yielding, by which Cortes had hitherto so ballanced the hopes and fears of the Mexicans, that he never gave them an entire opportunity of knowing their own strength. This man, either discovering, or pretending at least to discover, that some of the chief men in the city, who were met in the great temple, were assembled to consult how to expel the Spaniards, suddenly surrounded the place, and murdered all the persons of rank who were met in the temple. This cruel and precipitate action at once raifed the whole people. Enraged at what they had already suffered, and what they saw plainly they were yet to expect from the tyranny of these intruders, their own ignominous patience, the fear of the Spanish arms, their inbred respect for Montezuma, were all lost in their fury. Should they stay, until on various pretences they were all butchered? Montezuma, either forgetful of his office and dignity, or unable to exert it, could protect them no longer. Gods and men allowed them to defend themselves, and arms were in their hands. The flame, so furious in the capital, spread itself with equal swiftness and rage over all the country, and all were vowed and hearty for the destruction of the Spaniards. In this extremity Alvarado shewed as much bravery as he had done imprudence in bringing it on. He redoubled his watch on the emperor; he obliged him to exert the remains of his authority in his favour, and fortifying his quarters in the best manner the time would admit, he stood out the storm, and repulsed the Mexicans in several attacks; but their fury, far from relenting at the frequent and bloody repulses they met, redoubled by their losses. They exercised the besieged day and night, with the most vigorous assaults at the beginning to cut off their retreat, and burned the brigantines which Cortes had built.
Cortes, who was obliged to make so rapid a march from Mexico, to defend himself against Narvaez, was compelled by an equal necessity to march from Zempoallo to Mexico, to relieve his forces, and preserve his most essential interests there. The Mexicans, like all people who have not reduced the art of war to some rule, suffered their eagerness in pursuing one advantage, to let other material ones lie neglected For whilst they pushed on the siege of the Spanish quarters with great vigour and diligence, they took no effectual care of the avenues to the city, or to cut off all succours from the besieged. Cortes entered the city without resistance. He soon routed those who invested the post of the Spaniards, and brought them a relief, of which they stood in the greatest need. This arrival of so formidable a body of troops, held the Mexicans some time in suspence; but in spite of the fatal error of admitting them into their city, which had now inexcusably been a second time committed, and in spite of the success every where attending the Spanish arms, they came to a resolution of continuing hostilities. But things wore another face since the arrival of Cortes. No longer satisfied with defending his quarters, he sallied out and defeated them several times with great slaughter. However, as he found that he suffered more by the least losses than the Mexicans by the greatest, he kept close for some time, suffering the enemy to approach, in hopes of making one last effort, to appease them by the authority of Montezuma. This unhappy prince, reduced to the sad necessity of becoming the instrument of his own disgrace, and of the slavery of his people, appeared on the battlements, and addressed his subjects with every argument he could use to prevail with them to disperse. But this expedient was not attended with the usual success. The Mexicans, by an habit of living without rule, had many of them lost much of that respect, which, even to adoration, every one of them used to pay their prince; they answered him with reproaches, and a stone from an uncertain hand struck Montezuma with great violence in the temple. The Spaniards carried him to his apartment. Here he refused to suffer any dressings to be applied to his wound, but wrapping his head in his garment, gave himself up a prey to shame and grief, and in a few days died, less of his wound, which was but inconsiderable, than of sorrow and indignation, on feeling that he had so far lost the esteem and love of his subjects. There are other accounts of the death of Montezuma, but this appears the most probable
Thus died this great prince, more remarkable for the great virtues by which he ascended the throne, and those qualities by which he held it in so much lustre for many years, than for his steadiness and wisdom in defending it when attacked by a formidable enemy. It has happened thus to many great men. When Lucullus and Pompey attacked Tigranes, king of Armenia, we do not see any thing in him of the conqueror of so many kings. Even his conqueror Pompey was not himself, after having enjoyed in glory for a long time a power acquired by the greatest exploits.
Se esse magnum oblitus est.
It is natural, whilst we are raising ourselves, and contending against difficulties, to have our minds, as it were, strung, and our faculties intent and constantly awake. The necessity of our affairs obliges us to a continual exercise of whatever talents we possess; and we have hope to animate and urge us onward. But when we are come to the summit of our desires, the mind suffers itself to relax. It is grievous to contend a-new for things, of which we have long looked upon ourselves as secure. When we have no longer any thing to hope, we have then every thing to fear. Thus enervated by this prosperity, and discomposed with this fear, we become stiff and irresolute to action; we are willing to use any temporizing measures, rather than hazard on any adventure so much power and reputation. If Montezuma had made an early use of his strength, he had strength enough, after many losses, to have kept Cortes far enough from his capital; but having once entered upon shifting and dilatory courses, this brave and active enemy gave his affairs a mortal blow, by seizing upon his capital, and by this means some time after by seizing upon his person too. The rest was all a consequence which no prudence could prevent, of a plan of conduct imprudent and ill laid originally.
CHAP. XII.
AS soon as the Mexicans were apprized of the death of their emperor, they set about the election of a successor. They immediately cast their eyes upon Guatimozin, nephew and son-in-law of Montezuma, a man fit to command at such a time; of a person graceful, a body strong and robust, and of a soul full of the most undaunted courage. Though no more than twenty-four years old, the reputation of his early exploits procured him the authority of age, and a penetrating genius served him for experience. He was no sooner called to this unsteady throne, than he took measures to prevent the Mexicans from their disorderly and casual attacks, and to make them act with design and uniformity. He examined thoroughly into the cause of their former miscarriages; and considering every thing, he found that the Indians in their present condition, could never hope for any success in open fight; he resolved therefore to spare his men as much as possible, until his own invention and time might teach them better methods of fighting. On these ideas he caused all assaults to cease; then he cut off the causeways which joined the city to the continent, and at the same time strongly barricaded the streets, resolving to starve an enemy which seemed unconquerable by any other means; a measure, which though it has with us no extraordinary appearance, shewed no small sagacity in Guatimozin, because it was what had never been before practised amongst the military stratagems of this people, and invention is the characteristic of genius.
From henceforward the whole method of the war was changed, the Spaniards grew every day more and more streightened for provisions, and whenever they sallied out, though they slew great numbers of their opponents, the many canals of the city, and barricado behind barricado, after some successful progress, obliged them, vanquished by mere weariness, to return without effect to their quarters. The Spaniards, invincible by the Indian arms, were not proof against famine. Cortes saw that nothing was left for his security, but as speedy a retreat as possible; and though this must necessarily lose them the most considerable part of the treasure they had amassed, it was what least afflicted him. He encouraged his troops, by chearfully relinquishing his own part, not to attempt burthening themselves with a treasure which they might consider as lying at an advantageous interest, until they should, as they certainly would, be enabled to return with a sufficient force to reclaim it. The resolution of retreating being now taken, and all things disposed for it, a question arose, whether it were better made by day or in the night. On this the council of war was divided; and their reasons seeming pretty equal, a person amongst them, a sort of astrologer, who passed for a prophet, and as such was much respected by the greater part of the army, promised them certain success if they retreated by night. Certain it is, that when measures are dubious, superstitious determinations have great use; for as reason cannot easily determine the right way, that method which superstition fixes upon, is by the weight it has from thence, pursued with the greater chearfulness and effect.
The general was guided by the prophet, and he disposed every thing for his retreat with great judgment. He caused the usual fires to be lighted in every part of his quarters. Some of his boldest and most active men led the van. The prisoners, artillery, and heavy baggage were in the center. He himself, with one hundred of his choicest troops, formed the rear. With wonderful order and silence, and without any interruption, did the Spaniards march until they came to the first breach in the causeway. Here a portable wooden-bridge which Cortes had prepared, was laid over; but when the artillery and horses had passed, it was wedged so closely into the stones that bordered the causeway, that it could not be removed, and there was yet another breach. But they were soon called from attending to this by a more pressing danger; for as nothing could elude the vigilance of the new emperor, he found out their intention of retreating, and disposed all along the sides of the causeway an infinite multitude of canoes, with orders to preserve the greatest silence, and not to attempt any thing until a signal was given. The darkness of the night favoured the scheme. And now perceiving that the Spaniards were under some embarrassment, they took this advantage, and all at once, with great order, poured in their arrows; raising at the same time a most tremendous shout, swelled with the barbarous sound of all their martial instruments of music. The Spaniards were not wanting to themselves, but behaved with signal bravery. It were needless, and almost impossible to relate all the destruction of that horrid night. The Indians at first attacked in good order, but the first ranks being repulsed, and the distant canoes pressing on to action, the whole attack was thrown into confusion, the Indians drowned or slaughtered one another: however, they still pressed on with untameable fury. Thousands, impatient of the delay their remote situation caused them, leapt from their canoes, and climbing up the causeway in front where it was interrupted, broke in upon the Spaniards in this quarter, with a torrent hardly resistible. In vain this naked multitude was hacked to pieces by the Spanish swords, in vain were they tumbled upon one another by hundreds into the lake; new warriors succeeded those that were killed, and the Spaniards, actually wearied out, were in danger of being wholly cut off; when making one vigorous effort in the front, they happily cleared that post, and by a beam which they casually met, they passed over one by one, or, as some say, filling the intervals with the dead bodies of their enemies, they gained the main land. Cortes came over with the first, for in the confusion of the night, their former order was in a good measure lost, and took care as fast as his men got over to form them, to secure the passage for the rest. Then returning to those who were behind, by his presence and example, he animated them to renew the fight, and drawing up a part of his men on both sides of the causeway, he ordered the rest to file off from the center. In this manner the first light saw the Spaniards clear out of the city. Cortes halted at a small distance, that those whom the confusion and the night had dispersed, might have an opportunity of rejoining the rest of the army.
Happily they were not pursued, for as soon as the dawning light unveiled the field of battle to the Mexicans, the possession of which they bought by such a profusion of their own blood, they perceived among the slain two sons of Montezuma, who were with the prisoners, and pierced through by the arrows of the Mexicans in the promiscuous and undistinguished carnage of the preceding night. For some time they were confounded and struck dumb with horror at this sight; their sentiments of loyalty returned; their monarch, almost their god▪ lately profaned by their own violence! now their hands imbrued in the blood of his children! A general deadness and consternation ensued. They must not add to their impiety by neglecting the obsequies due to the deceased. In the mean time the Spaniard
pursued their retreat without molestation; bu
this breathing lasted but a short time: all th
allies of the Mexicans already in arms, an
divided into several flying parties, hung over the army of Cortes, and harrassed it without intermission; they attacked him in front, in rear, in flank, by open force, by ambuscade, by surprize. Provision grew extremely scarce on his march; and now it was that Cortes shewed a firmness under his losses, a vigilance against incessant attacks, so various in time and manner, and a courage which enabled him to repulse them, which have been exceeded by nothing in history.
The principal army of the Mexicans, whilst he contended with such difficulties from the flying parties, took another rout, and pouring in three columns into a plain, where their number should be of most avail, they covered the whole of an extended valley, which lay directly in his road to Tlascala, and this was called the valley of Otumba. They concealed their purposes with all imaginable care. To blind the Spaniards, they ordered several villages to give them a friendly reception. But Cortes did not suffer this to relax his vigilance, not allowing himself to be deceived by any appearances of friendship shewn by men, whose interest it was not to be his friends, Convinced as he was, that a surprize of all things was indeed very destructive to the affairs of a general, but that it was mortal to his reputation. He drew indications of their sentiments towards him, from the manners, the gestures, and the countenances of those he treated with in his march; and perceiving that many shewed unusual signs of content and exultation, he judged not without reason that it could not be favourable to him. He therefore disposed every thing in such a manner as that his troops were neither disordered, nor his courage abated, when from an eminence they discovered the extended plains of Otumba, darkened as far as the eye could reach with the myriads of their enemies. The Spaniards, animated by their superiority in arms, and their former victories, and the Tlascalans, by the presence of such allies, and their hatred of the Mexican name, behaved with great bravery and success; neither were the Mexicans inferior in animosity and courage. But it was Cortes himself who determined the fortune of the day. Nothing he ever heard was either forgot, or suffered to be an useless burthen upon his memory. He remembered to have heard from the Mexicans, that the fortune of the field with them ever followed that of the royal standard. This was a net o
gold, elevated on a gilded staff, and splendid with plumes of a thousand colours. Grea
exigencies alone brought it into the field, and it was entrusted to none but the care of th
general, who sat on a chair sumptuousl
adorned, and supported on men's shoulders i
the center of the armies to view the whol
battle, to be a witness of the behaviour of all his troops, and to give orders as the occasion required. Cortes pretending to make his principal effort in a quarter remote from the standard, employed all his foot in that service; but heading the horse himself, with some of his bravest officers, informing them of his design, and animating them with the hopes of a speedy decision, he flung himself with fury against the part that seemed least distant from the center. After dispersing and overturning whole battalions, they penetrated to the chosen body of nobles, who guarded the general and standard. Here the resistance was greater, but it was soon overcome, and Cortes's own lance met the general, who was overthrown, and the standard taken. All the other standards were struck directly, and the Mexicans fled every way which their fear and confusion hurried them. They lost twenty thousand men in this battle, and a spoil infinite. This victory gave Cortes an undisturbed passage to Tlascala, and a welcome reception amongst his allies there.
CHAP. XIII.
LET us now turn our eyes to Mexico. No sooner were the Spaniards departed, than Guatimozin ordered the city to be fortified in such a manner as to secure himself against their entrance a third time. He found that a thousand Tlascalans were killed in this retreat, upwards of two hundred Spaniards, (the greatest loss they had yet in America,) and a great number of horses. He cut off the heads of the Spaniards, and of their horses, no less dreaded, and sent them to all the neighbouring nations, as an infallible token of his victory; as a sure proof that he was resolved to keep no measures with the enemy, and to stir them up to their utter destruction; and he succeeded so well, that numberless petty nations, well inclined to the Spaniards, fell off, and many that were wavering were confirmed in the Mexican interest. By this means several adventurers, that from the fame of Cortes had landed to join him, were cut to pieces before they gained his army. But the negotiation to which Guatimozin bent all his force, was that with Tlascala, because this was Cortes's chief strength. He sent large presents, and ambassadors of ability, and excellent instructions, to detach them from the Spanish interest▪ who acted so well, that they caused a grea
division in their favour in the councils of that republic. But Cortes making his military exploits subservient to his negotiations, and his skill in negotiation assistant to his exploits, baffled them at length with great address, but not without great difficulty, and the Tlascalans were confirmed in his friendship.
Whilst a general has an obedient and well united army, he has an engine in proper order to work in his designs, and he can then execute them with ease; but the greatest trial of his capacity is to defend himself against a foreign enemy, and wrestle with a domestic sedition at the same time. The soldiers of Narvaez, since Cortes's return from Mexico, where they were obliged to leave so considerable a part of their booty, now hopeless of the expedition, began to mutiny, and demanded to be sent home directly to Cuba; nor were his other troops free from some part of the infection. Whatever could be done by preserving them in action, without too great a fatigue; whatever a seasonable yielding, without forfeiting authority, in short, whatever an able commander could do in such circumstances, was done by Cortes, without any other effect than that of palliating the disease; the indisposition still continued.
Whilst he struggled with these difficulties, which nearly overpowered him, his old enemy, James Velasquez, looking on the success of Narvaez's expedition as a thing certain, sent a ship to get intelligence of his proceedings, and about thirty men to reinforce him. The person who commanded at the port for Cortes, no sooner saw the ship in the offing, than he went on board her, and upon the captain's enquiry after Narvaez, he assured him he was well, and as successful as he could wish. Not doubting this, the captain and his men landed, and were immediately made prisoners. Finding how affairs were really circumstanced, they admired the conqueror, commended the stratagem, and chearfully joined the army.
Much about the same time the governor of Jamaica, and he too a determined enemy of Cortes, sent three ships with a small body of troops, in hopes of tearing from him some part of his conquests. These ships were dispersed in a storm, and were involved in many difficulties; but what is singular, they all, though separated, came to one and the same resolution, which was to revolt from the commander, and join Cortes the moment they came on shore: so that the enemies of Cortes now no less than three times relieved him, by the very methods which they took to distress his affairs. These advantages, though improved to the utmost by Cortes, were certainly not at all the result of his contrivance. There is a species of a splendid good fortune necessary to form an hero, to give a lustre to his wisdom and courage, and to create that confidence and superiority in him that nothing else can give, but which always makes a principal part of an heroic character. Without this, it is impossible for any man, however qualified, to emerge. Cortes was not only fortunate, by being freed from the most terrible embarrassment by the arrival of these succours, which were never intended as such; but much about the same time ships arrived from Spain, bringing, on the account of some private persons, a reinforcement of men and military stores; and from the court an authentic approbration of his conduct, and a confirmation of his command.
Fortified with these, he yielded to the mutinous importunities of such of his soldiers as were earnest to depart; and though he diminished his numbers considerably by this step, he judged it better to have a well-disciplined army than a great one, and knew that little could be expected from men who were dragged unwillingly to action; at the same time that their cowardice or sedition would infect the rest. After the departure of the mutineers, he found he had still above nine hundred Spanish foot, and eighty-six horse, and eighteen pieces of cannon. With these, and with the assistance of a vast body of Tlascalans, and allies of various nations, whom admiration and fear of Cortes, or hatred to the Mexicans, had brought under his banner, he once more prepared to attack Mexico, which was the grand object of his undertakings. The city was so advantageously situated, and he knew at this time so well fortified, that nothing could be done without a force on the lake. To cut off their supplies, he ordered the materials of twelve brigantines to be got ready, in such a manner as only to need being put together when they should arrive at Mexico. These were carried upon the shoulders of his Indian allies. His rout to Mexico cannot be so much considered in the light of a march, as a continued train of ambuscades and battles, ' some of which were fought with the most numerous armies, and with circumstances not suited to the brevity of my purpose to relate. In all these he was successful, though his enemies may be said, with little exaggeration, to have disputed with him every foot of ground between Tlascala and Mexico.
At last that city shewed itself, rising from the midst of a noble lake, surrounded with a number of most populous cities, as her attendants upon every side, and all subject to her power. The Spaniards now looking on this as their goal, revived their courage, and forgot the difficulties of their march; and the Tlascalans, in a perfect fury of military delight, wanted the steady hand of Cortes to restrain a courage, which he commended and kept alive by his example and words, whilst he moderated it's ardor. Before he began the attack of Mexico, he spent some time in reducing all the neighbouring cities from which it might derive any succour. He cut off the aqueducts which supplied Mexico with water, that of the lake being brackish, and he got ready his brigantines with all imaginable diligence to cut off all relief from the lake.
Whilst his attention was wholly employed in the prosecution of the war, an old Spaniard, who had long served, discovered to him a conspiracy of the most dangerous nature. Antonio de Vilesana, a private soldier, but a man bold and desperate in any bad purpose, and subtle in contriving it, had formed a conspiracy with several others to kill Cortes, and the principal persons upon whom he relied, and then to return to Vera Cruz, from whence they might easily pass to Cuba, and secure their pardon by the merit they should make of this action with James Velasquez. They were urged to this resolution by the fatigue of those innumerable dangers and difficulties, they had passed, and by the despair of overcoming those which yet lay before them; without considering that by this wicked action, they should rather produce new difficulties than overcome the old. Others of more consequence were drawn in, and the conspiracy had been so far formed, that the time and manner of killing him was settled, and the person fixed, upon whom they intended to devolve the command. When Cortes was apprised of this conspiracy, without any hurry that might give notice that he had discovered it, yet, without losing a moment to take advantage of the discovery, with four or five of his principal captains, he went directly to the quarters of Vilesana, who, astonished at seeing him, made half his confession by the fear he discovered. Cortes had him thrown immediately into irons, and then ordering every body to retire, he examined himself into all the particulars of the affair, and the names of the persons concerned. Vilesana made a full confession, and ended it by producing a paper in vindication of their proceeding, which had been signed with the names of all the conspirators. Cortes was not a little surprised to see amongst them, the names of persons upon whom he had great reliance. However, he dissembled his concern, and ordered Vilesana to be immediately executed. He was shewn to all the army hanging at his tent door. Cortes informed none of the friends he most trusted with the paper he had received; but summoning the army, he gave them an account of the horrid conspiracy that had been formed against his life; that he had punished the person principally concerned, but that it was with satisfaction he was left ignorant of his accomplices, by the care the criminal took in destroying a paper, which he believed might have made great discoveries. For his part, as he had punished, and was resolved severely to punish any flagitious attempt against his life or authority, so he was determined to order both in such a manner as to give just cause of complaint to no man; and if by any accident he had done so, he was ready to give him all reasonable satisfaction. Proceeding thus, Cortes had the advantage of knowing who they were that wished him ill; at the same time that they remained unapprised of the discovery he had made, and endeavoured to prevent it by a more diligent performance of their duty: he now appointed a guard upon his person.
Hardly had Cortes suppressed this conspiracy, and made the proper use of a baffled attempt against his authority, which was to strengthen and increase it, than a difficulty of something of a similar nature engaged him, and from which he extricated himself with the same courage and prudence. The general of the Tlascalans envying his glory, and perhaps fearful of the consequence of the entire destruction of the Mexicans, though enemies to his own country, persuaded a considerable body of the people to quit the Spanish camp. Cortes immediately ordered him to be pursued. This general had formerly been an enemy to Cortes, and opposed him in the councils of his nation; but when he saw the general current in his favour, he made a timely change, and came entirely into his interests. He had now relapsed, and was therefore not to be trusted any more. Cortes gave orders to those who pursued him to put him to death. The Tlascalans who revolted were easily prevailed upon to return; and so dexterously did Cortes represent this affair, that neither the Tlascalans in his army, nor the republic, nor even the father himself of the general, condemned him for what he had done.
CHAP. XIV.
THESE internal disorders being composed, he turned his fortitude and wisdom against his open enemies. Three principal causeways led to the city, which three towns or suburbs defended upon the side of the continent. Within were trenches and barricadoes one behind another the whole length of the way. Cortes ordered three attacks upon these towns, and the causeways which they defended. The brigantines acted upon the water. Through the whole length of this siege, the bravery of the Mexicans, in defence of every thing which was dear to them, was not more remarkable than the ingenuity by which they baffled the attacks of the Spaniards, and attacked them in their turn. On land, on water, by open force, by stratagem, by every method, they plied each other incessantly day and night. But the Spaniards, invincible under the command of Cortes, had the advantage so far, that with infinite slaughter they gained these posts which secured the causeways upon the side of the country, at the same time that they cleared the lake so, that a canoe of the enemy did not dare to appear upon it.
Cortes gained these advantages, but he saw how dearly he had bought them; he reflected how it would tarnish his glory to destroy so beautiful a city, and drench it in the blood of it's unfortunate inhabitants; and considering what supernatural exertions of strength had been frequently shewn by a despairing people, in the last convulsive struggle for their religion, life, and property, he made use of the advantages he had gained to recommend the terms of accommodation, which he resolved to send unto the besieged. He required no more than the acknowledgment of the emperor of the Romans, and the confirmation of his right of succeeding ceded to him by Montezuma, and long acknowledged by the most authentic prophecies of the nation, and such a security as might settle the performance of this.
Guatimozin, who had done all that bravery and military skill could perform to save his country, finding the means most suited to his years and inclinations unsuccessful, though full of that noble pride which becomes and supports the royal character, was now as willing to save it by the milder and surer way of accommodation. But the priests, who had much influence in the council, either fearful of losing their power, or through an honest, tho' blind zeal, denounced vengeance from their gods upon all who could think of submission, and promised a certain success to those who stood up in defence of their religion. They had great weight, and the whole council, contrary to the opinion of the emperor, became unanimous in refusing all terms. Guatimozin, who yielded to the general sentiment with regret, and saw the unhappy consequence but too clearly, resolved to fall with the same spirit that he had lived.
"Then, said he, since you are determined to hazard every thing, prepare to act in a manner worthy of that resolution. Me, you shall never find wanting to you, or to myself. These are the last good terms you are to expect. Whatever henceforward you demand through necessity, will be answered with pride and cruelty. Therefore, henceforward, let no man presume to speak of peace, be our exigencies what they will; the first that dares to do it shall certainly die; even the priests themselves; they are most concerned to support the oracles of their gods."
When he had said this, with a stern and determined countenance, he went out of the assembly, and ordered the whole city under arms. Cortes, on the other side, as soon as he found that his proposals were rejected, laid aside all thoughts but those of violence, and commanded a general assault to be made at the three causeways all at once, and to carry fire and sword into the heart of the city. He commanded himself in the principal attack. The causeway was broke down before him, and the breach formed a ditch of sixty feet wide. On the other side appeared a fortification of earth and planks. He ordered the brigantines to the side of the causeway, to favour the attack, and directing his cannon against the fortification, made so furious a fire that it was soon demolished; and the defenders galled by the incessant shot, which made a most terrible havock, could maintain the post no longer. Cortes, under the fire of his cannon, and with the help of his brigantines, passed over the ditch, and lost no time to possess himself of the other side, leaving one of his captains with a detachment to fill it up, and secure a retreat, in case it should be found necessary. Then he advanced to attack the remaining barricadoes of the Mexicans, who made a brave defence. The battle raged furiously, and as the Spaniards gained ground, their dangers and losses grew every moment greater. They had now advanced amongst the buildings, from whence they were oppressed with a mixt storm of darts, arrows, stones, and boiling water. Before them stood a chosen body of the Mexican soldiers, who made a resolute stand. During this conflict, the captain who had been posted to fill up the ditch, thinking it an inglorious employment to be employed as a pioneer, whilst his companions were in such an hot action, advanced with all his men, and deserted the necessary work he was employed in.
No sooner had Guatimozin, whose eyes were every where, perceived this motion, than he took advantage of it. He ordered those who were in the front of the Spaniards to slacken their efforts; for as night came on fast, he thought it better to allow the enemy to gain some ground, that he might fall on them with more advantage in their retreat. Cortes as quickly perceived this slackness, and the cause which produced it. He found that the breach of the causeway was abandoned, that nigh
approached, and that there was little hope o
a lodgment in the city at that time. He therefore began to retreat in the best order he could▪ setting fire to the houses, that he might not be incommoded by them in his next attack. Bu
scarcely was the retreat begun, when thei
ears were alarmed by the dreary sound of the sacred trumpet, so called because it was permitted to the priests alone to sound it; and that only when they animated the people on the part of their gods. The sound was doleful, continued, and strong, inspiring a contempt of death, and a dark religious fury. Immediately ensued a horrid cry, which resounded from all parts, and this was followed by an attack of more than common rage upon the rear of the Spaniards, which was broke entirely, after a gallant and bloody stand. All order was now lost. The general's commands were drowned in the cry and tumult of the fight; the Tlascalans who were in the front threw themselves precipitately into the trench; some made a fruitless opposition, others attempted to gain the brigantines, whilst the Mexicans on shore, in canoes, wading, or swimming, upon every side assaulted and slaughtered them with the most horrid cries, and rage almost inconceiveable. With difficulty Cortes and some of his troops escaped on board the brigantines, wounded and deserted. A thousand Tlascalans lay dead upon the causeway, many Spaniards, and scarce any escaped without a wound. What was the saddest circumstance of all, forty were taken prisoners, of whose destiny there was no doubt. The other attacks had no better success, though in them the loss was not so considerable. The officer, whose imprudence had occasioned this misfortune, came to Cortes, with tears acknowledging his crime, and desiring to wash it out with his blood; but Cortes, though rigid in his discipline, saw that this was no time to dispirit the army with examples of severity.
Night came on, but it brought no rest to the afflicted Spaniards, since it's darkness could no
conceal from them the triumph of the Mexicans, and the fate of their friends. They saw the whole city shining with lights, and heard i
resounding with the dissonance of barbarous music, and all the marks of an horrid joy So great were the fires and illuminations, that they could see distinctly the men in motion, and all things preparing for the death of the prisoners, attended with the mortifying circumstance, that they were to be sacrificed to their false gods. Cortes, in the midst of all these calamitous cirumstances, which lay heavy about his heart, assumed an air of tranquillity, endeavouring to comfort his soldiers with the hope of a timely revenge, and taking all necessary care that they should not be attacked unawares. This care was necessary; for before morning appeared, the Mexicans, elated with their late victory, and under the auspices of those gods, whom they believed they had rendered propitious by the human blood which washed their altars, and animated by the sound of the consecrated trumpet, sallied out to attack the Spaniards in their quarters. The attack was violent, but repelled at length with an incredible slaughter of the Mexicans.
Guatimozin was not disheartened. He prepared for new assaults, and had his ruined works repaired to endure those assaults, which should be made against himself. Not relying solely on force, he spread a report amongst all the neighbouring nations that Cortes was killed; to them he sent the heads of the Spaniards who had been sacrificed, informing them, that the god of war, appeased by a sacrifice so agreeable to him, had audibly declared in favour of the Mexicans, threatened vengeance on those who resisted them, and declared that in eight days time the Spaniards should be all destroyed. The credit of this oracle amongst all the Indians, and the determinate time ascertained for it's completion, gave it the air of truth; for falsehood delights in general terms and equivocations, whereas the precise manner of speaking truth, is one of the marks by which we guess at it. In fact, this stratagem had it's effect, many tribes of Indians, who were upon the point of joining Cortes, embraced the Mexican interest; the more prudent suspended their resolution; but Guatimozin did not want emissaries even in the Spanish camp, who terrified the Indian allies with this prophecy. Even the Tlascalans were upon the point of deserting them, when Cortes counteracted this stratagem in the wisest manner possible. He resolved to suspend all manner of operations against, the city for these eight days, to demonstrate the falsity of this oracle, and to hinder it from being ever again used as an instrument to work upon the credulity of his confederates. He prevailed upon the Tlascalans to wait the determination. In the mean time he strongly fortified his camp.
Guatimozin was sensible that the effect of his policy must be weakened every day, and with that idea employed every hour of the day or night to assault Cortes's camp, but always with ill success. This great commander was always on his guard; and his troops advantageously posted, bid defiance to every thing of an Indian attack. At last the eight day expired, and with them the terror of the confederate Indians. The stratagem now operated as powerfully against those who contrived it insomuch that Cortes in a little time found himself at the head of two hundred thousand men. This was the last hope of the Mexicans. All that followed was only the departing agony of that state. The city was assaulted with redoubled vigour, and now reduced by slaughters, fatigue and famine; the Mexicans saw the superior star of Cortes gain th
ascendant. The town was penetrated upo
all sides, yet the besieged defended ever
street; and their incessant showers of da
and stones from the tops of the houses, made the progress of the besiegers slow and bloody. In this extremity, Guatimozin did every thing that could justify the hopes of the Mexicans, when they called him to the throne, every thing that was worthy of one resolved to die a king. But when he found that all hopes of dislodging the enemy was utterly at an end, his troops half famished, exhausted in numbers and in strength, and no part tenable, he determined to leave the city to obtain the best terms it could from the conquerors, and to seek himself a more prosperous opportunity at a distance. For this purpose he renewed the treaty with the Spaniards, and took the opportunity of this cessation of arms to put himself and his family, with some of the bravest and most faithful of his nobility, on board some periaguas, attempting to escape to the continent; but Cortes apprehending this very thing, stationed his fleet in such a manner, that he was intercepted, and soon out of a condition of making any defence. He went on board the Spanish commander, with an air of dignity and composure, betraying neither fear nor surprise, and desired no favour, but that the honour of his wife and her attendants might be spared. The Spanish captain attended but little to him, endeavouring to prevent the escape of the nobility; but Guatimozin desired him not to be anxious about them.
"Not one of these men will fly, says he, do not fear it, they are come to die at the feet of their sovereign."
The captain, admiring the constancy of the man, and the fidelity of his subjects, conducted him to Cortes. The ruins of the city of Mexico were now delivered up to the Spaniards. With it fell that empire, and the liberty of all the Indian nations, which filled that vast country now called New Spain, who either slid gradually from alliances to subjection, or defending themselves without success, were made, and treated as slaves.
The curiosity of the reader will doubtless be interested to know the fates of the captains of the conquering and conquered parties in this war. For some time the treatment of Guatimozin was such as fitted an unfortunate brave man, in the hands of those who could estimate virtue by other standards than it's fortune; and such was his treatment, whilst the authority of Guatimozin was sufficent to protect him. But the internal avarice of his troops, which at once excited and disgraced their courage, not satisfied with the plunder of this opulent city, believed that there were some latent treasures within the knowledge of the emperor, which far exceeded all the rest that they had yet possessed. They often sollicited the captive emperor with promises and threats to make a discovery, to no purpose; at last a number of villains, Juan de Alderete at their head, a name deserving to be remembered to it's everlasting infamy, seized upon him, and proceeding to the most abominable cruelty, laid him upon burning coals, to extort a discovery of his wealth. But their wickedness could neither extort a discovery of his wealth, nor the satisfaction even of a declaration that he had none to discover. His countenance did not betray the least yielding or weakness under the torture; some of his principal counsellors suffered along with him, and almost with equal constancy. One of those unhappy men, overcome by the force of torments, almost superior to human strength, turned his eyes, fainting with anguish, upon his prince, and uttered a doleful cry; but Guatimozin answered him only by saying,
"Do you think I lie upon roses?"
The sufferer, struck dumb with these words, and stifling every murmur that might dishearten the others, or disturb Guatimozin, expired in an act of obedience to his prince. This wickedness was committed without the knowledge of Cortes. He was no sooner apprised of what was doing, than he rushed in upon the villains, and rescued their prey, mangled as it was, from their farther fury. However, this was but a short respite. This prince, conscious of his own dignity, and sensible of the base usage he received, either endeavoured to stir up commotions, or was suspected of such a design, and Cortes being obliged to submit the humanity of his nature to the cruel necessity of politics, ordered him to be executed.
As for Cortes himself, neither his great success, nor the vast treasures which he sent into Spain, could secure him from his enemies; by whose unwearied zeal for his ruin, he saw himself superseded in the government of a country, conquered by himself with so much toil and danger, and which in any other hands had never been effected. He died in Spain, having received a title and some other rewards from Charles the Vth, for whom he had acquired an empire; but by his own desire he was carried to Mexico, and buried there. It was the policy of Spain at that time to give great encouragement, and extensive grants, to all adventurers; but when any great discovery was made, or conquest atchieved, they always sent another to reap the benefit of the first adventurer's labours. This was a policy undoubtedly good with regard to one object, the security of the conquered country; but like al
unjust policy, it had altogether as ill an effect another way; the new governors, hungry and rapacious, and scarce considering the Indians a
human creatures, murdered vast numbers o
them; and exhausting them by an intolerabl
slavery, in hopes of a sudden gain, they depopulated the country in such a manner, as t
abate very much the advantages which Spai
might have derived from so extensive a conquest. Cortes himself was not free from the imputation of cruelty; the bishop of Chiapa, a good man, who was sent purposely to make an enquiry into complaints of this kind, gives a very unfavourable representation of his conduct. He accuses him of having destroyed four millions of people in New Spain. It is certain, whether by his connivance or not, but partly by the necessity of war, and partly by the avarice and insolence of the conquerors, vast numbers of the Indians perished; but on the other hand, it appears that the bishop of Chiapa was an enemy to Cortes, which, tho' a good man otherwise, must detract from his credit not a little, especially as other historians differ from him in this point. Besides, I am well satisfied, that great allowance must be made for exaggerations in the number of inhabitants these countries are said to have contained. More populous, I believe, they were than the entirely uncivilized parts of North or South America; but it can hardly be thought they were so full of people as they are represented to have been, if we can trust to any of the rules by which we usually judge in this matter, nor consequently could they have suffered such losses in so short a time, without being utterly depopulated, which certainly they were not.
Since I am on the subject of these cruelties, and since they are things so frequently mentioned, I cannot help observing, that the accounts are by no means founded upon any tolerable methods of calculation, but thrown down at random in a declamatory way, with a design yet further to blacken the Spanish adventurer; men certainly wicked enough, tho' represented without any heightening colours. The truth is, that great numbers, perhaps almost as great as are charged, have really perished; but then it was in a series of years, by being reduced to slavery in the mines, and other laborious occupations, to which the Americans are of all people, by their constitutions, the most unequal, and by being disheartened by a state of unpolitical and desperate slavery, the greatest enemy in the world to increase.
There is a notion likewise pretty common, that these cruelties were committed partly, if not wholly, upon a religious account, and at the instigation of the priests; but in reality it was quite otherwise. This unfortunate people found their only refuge in the humanity which yet remained in the clergy, and the influence they had on the Spaniards, though the clergy, who went on these adventures, were generally not the most zealous for religion, and were, as the Spanish clergy commonly are, ignorant enough, and so little principled in the spirit of the religion they professed, or indeed in the nature of the human mind, that they could boast as a very glorious thing, that one of them had baptized several thousands of Indians in one day, without the help of any miracle for their conversion, and with a degree of good life, which, to say the best, was nothing more than common. But of any murders committed by them, or at their instigation, I find little or no proof at all.
CHAP. XV.
BESIDES Mexico, there was but one country in America which in any sort deserved the name of a civilized kingdom, and that was Peru. During the latter part of the Mexican war, the Spaniards became acquainted with the fame and wealth of this country. After Pedraria was appointed governor over the conquests of Balboa, his lieutenants reduced all that large tract which is now called Terrafirma, committing barbarities worthy the man under whose authority they acted. Amongst all the adventurers who acted under his commission, none have made themselves so famous as those of whom we are going to speak.
As if it were destined that every thing in this new world should be carried on in a new and extraordinary manner, three citizens of Panama, private men, and advanced in years, undertook the conquest of Peru, a country known to them only by report, but by the same report said to be rich, extensive, populous, and powerful. The names of these adventurers were, Francis Pizarro, Almagro, and Ferdinand Lucques, a priest, and a man of considerable fortune. They entered into this engagement in the most solemn manner. Lucques said mass, an oath of mutual fidelity was plighted, the sacrament was divided into three parts, Lucques took one, and delivered the other two to his confederates. The first expedition, in consequence of this confederacy, was made under extraordinary difficulties, and with very little success. Pizarro, who commanded, spent two years in the short navigation between Panama and the Northern extremity of Peru, a voyage now made frequently in two weeks, since the winds and currents are known. He landed, and found that the wealth of the country was as great as he imagined; and that the resistance he was like to meet in endeavouring to possess himself of it, would be full as considerable. This he put to the proof very early, by taking the rash step of attacking the inhabitants at his first landing; and thus letting them see all at once the worst of his intentions. The difficulties he met with, and the resistance his ill conduct occasioned in the country, obliged him to return without effecting any thing considerable. But neither he, nor his associates, after such a length of time, or such greatness of expence, were deterred from the prosecution of their scheme. It was agreed that Pizarro should go into Spain to obtain an exemption from the government of Pedraria, and to get for themselves the grant of whatever they should conquer. Pizarro (who, though not the monied man, was the soul of the enterprize) was to be chief governor, with the property of two hundred leagues along the sea-coast. Almagro they agreed should be adelantado, or king's lieutenant; and Lucques, who was a priest, was to be first bishop and protector of the Indians. The other profits of the enterprize were to be equally divided. But as this was an enterprize of ambitious avarice, there was little faith observed. Pizarro sollicited only his own suit in Spain, and obtained for himself alone the property of the land, the government, the lieutenancy, every thing which he was capable as a layman of taking; Almagro was forgot, and Lucquez was left his eventual bishoprick.
On his return, this too early discovery of breach of faith was like to ruin all; but Pizarro, who knew how to retreat as well as to advance, yielded up to Almagro every thing he could reasonably desire, and nothing now obstructed the embarkation, which, after all, did not exceed one hundred and eighty men.
Before we proceed, it may not be unnecessary to say something of the persons who had the conduct of this great undertaking. Francis Pizarro was the bastard son of a gentleman of good family. His education was as irregular as his birth, he could not even read; but then he had a great deal of that capacity and fitness for the world, which is obtained by much struggling in it, and by being early made dependant on a man's own industry. Hardened to life, dexterous in affairs, never setting his heart upon a part of his designs whilst the total was at stake, of a penetrating sagacity into the nature of man, artful, bold, dissembling, and cruel. Almagro had likewise enough of that desperate bravery and toughness of body and mind, so necessary in a design of this sort. In their birth there was no considerable difference. Pizarro was a bastard, Almagro a foundling. Pizarro owed nothing to education; Almagro depended wholly upon his natural parts. But Almagro, bred from his infancy in the camp, had all the soldierly qualities, patient, laborious, and temperate; far from the craft and dissimulation of Pizarro, he was all openness and generosity, knew not what avarice was, and his cruelty, the common distemper of all the adventurers in this part of the world, was much mitigated by the intercourse he had with an Indian woman, who, by degrees, softened the rigour of a veteran seasoned to blood, into some compassion to her unhappy countrymen.
The empire of Peru was governed by a race of kings, which they called yncas. The twelfth in succession was then upon the throne. The first of this race, who was named Mango Capac, was a prince of great genius, with that mixture of enthusiasm, which fits a man to make great changes, and to be the legislator of a forming nation. He observed that the people of Peru were naturally superstitious, and had principally a veneration for the sun. He therefore pretended that he was descended from that luminary, whose authority he was designed to bear, and whose worship he was by that authority to enforce. By this persuasion, easily received by a credulous people, he brought a large territory under his jurisdiction, a larger was subdued by his arms; but he made use both of the deceit and the force for the most laudable purposes. He united and civilized the dispersed and barbarous people; he bent them to laws and arts; he softened them by the institutions of a benevolent religion; in short, there was no part of America in which agriculture and the arts were so much and so well cultivated, nor where the people were of a milder nature, and more ingenuous manners. The yncas descended, as they imagined, from so sacred an original, were themselves respected as divinities. In none, even of the Asiatic countries, was there so entire an obedience to the royal authority. But here it was rather filial than slavish. As to the character of the Peruvians themselves, they seem to have had a strong resemblance to the antient Egyptians; like them, under a sky constantly serene, they were a people industrious and ingenious; cultivating the arts, but without bringing them to perfection; inclined to superstition, and of a soft unwarlike temper.
The ynca Guaiana Capac having conquered the province of Quito, which now makes a part of Spanish Peru, to secure himself in the possession, married the daughter of the natural prince of the country. By her he had a son called Atahualpa, or Atabalipa. By a former marriage he had a son named Huescar, heir of his other dominions. On his death Huescar, his eldest son, claims his whole dominions, both hereditary and acquired. Atabalipa, the youngest, without pretending to the rest, would keep Quito as his right by the double title of son to the conqueror, and to her whose inheritance that kingdom was, forfeited besides by the will the dying ynca had made in his favour. This dispute kindled a civil war, which, after various turns of fortune, ended at last in favour of Atabalipa, and he not only routed his brother's armies, and over-run his dominions, but actually held him a prisoner in the castle of Cusco. Such was the face of affairs when the Spaniards arrived in Peru, whose remarkable appearance and surprizing feats of arms were every where spread about the country, and caused a general alarm. As usual in frightful rumours, new superstitions begin, or old ones are revived to increase the confusion. There subsisted a tradition amongst the Peruvians, that one of their antient princes had a dream, which he ordered carefully to be recorded. He imagined that he saw a man cloathed all over, even to his feet, with a long beard, and leading in his hand an animal, such as he had never seen before; and that at the same time he was clearly informed of the will of the gods, that such a man should rule that country. A Spaniard, whom Pizarro had sent upon an embassy to Atabalipa, as soon as he was discovered leading his horse upon some occasion that made him dismount, agreed so well with this dream, that it is incredible how soon it spread into the remotest parts of the country, and with how great a terror it struck the whole nation.
Atabalipa, newly seated upon a precarious throne, was not the least alarmed at this event, for a new erected power has every thing to fear from whatever sets the people's minds, still unsettled, upon new motions. He resolved, if possible, that his enemies should take no advantage of the arrival of those strangers, by engaging them by all means to his own interest. He therefore received the embassadors which Pizarro had sent with the greatest marks of honour, though their discourse, consisting itself of very impertinent matter, was very ill interpreted to him, as was his to them. He even went out to meet Pizarro with a vast number of attendants, to whom he gave the strictest charge upon no account to offer the least injury to the strangers, as they were those of whom his predecessor had foretold, and of the same divine original, children of the sun. But Pizarro, who advanced with other notions to the interview, soon convinced him that a contrary caution was more necessary. They met near a celebrated temple, the Spaniards drawn up in order of battle, and a party in ambuscade. This circumstance leaves us in no doubt as to the design of Pizarro. The first person who addressed himself to the ynca, was father Vincent, a friar, who was not ashamed to make his character the instrument of so base a crime. He advanced with a cross in his hand, and began a most unseasonable discourse upon the birth and miracles of Christ, exhorting him to become a christian, on the pain of eternal punishment. Then he spoke with equal eloquence of the emperor of the Romans, pressing him with the same good argument to become a subject to that emperor, threatening him in case of obstinacy, that God would harden his heart as he did Pharaoh's, and then punish him with the plagues of Egypt, with other miserable stuff, worse interpreted. The ynca, tho' utterly astonished at matter so unaccountable, behaved with decency and gravity, telling him, that he believed that he and his companions were children of the sun, recommended himself and his subjects to their protection, and made no doubt but they would behave to them in a manner worthy the offspring of so beneficent a deity.
Whilst these discourses continued, the Spanish soldiers, whose least business to Peru was to listen to sermons, observing a considerable quantity of gold in the neighbouring temple, had their zeal immediately stirred up, and a party of them began to pillage it. The priests made some opposition. A disturbance ensued, and a great noise, which so alarmed our adventuring apostle, that he let fall his cross and breviary in his fright, and turned his back upon his intended proselyte. The Spaniards who were not concerned in the pillage, seeing him fly, either that they judged the heathens had offered their priest some violence, or that Pizarro made use of this signal to them to fall on, immediately drew their swords, attacked the guards and attendants of the ynca, defenceless through a religious obedience to their sovereign's command, and with every circumstance of the most deliberate and shocking barbarity, slaughtered five thousand, which was near the whole number of the Indians, who fell without any anxiety for their own lives, pressing forward with all the zeal and officiousness of a most heroic loyalty, to the chair of their prince, to expire at his feet; and as fast as one set of his supporters were slain, the others succeeded with eagerness to supply their places, and share their fate. The ynca at last was dragged down, and made a prisoner, by an act of the most unparallelled treachery, executed with a cruelty that has hardly an example, and can admit of no excuse. The plunder of his camp, rich beyond the idea of any European of that time, was their reward.
The unfortunate prince was not wanting to himself in his captivity. Seeing that his liberty had fallen a sacrifice to their avarice, he hoped to relieve himself by working upon the same disposition. He began to treat of his ransom, and promised such sums as astonished the Spaniards into an agreement, nor was the performance unequal. On this occasion not only the antient ornaments and valuable furniture, amassed by a long line of magnificent kings, were brought out; but the hallowed treasures of the most venerated temples were given without scruple, to save him who was the support of the kingdom and the religion. Whilst these were preparing, three Spaniards, who were sent to Cusco to superintend in the work, had means of conferring with Huescar, who quickly finding their foible, and the use his brother had made of it, made bitter complaints of the injuries he had suffered, begging the Spaniards, as the patrons of the oppressed, to embrace his cause, promising threefold the treasure for their assistance, which Atabalipa was to pay for his ransom. He received a very favourable answer. Mean time the Spaniards treated the ynca with all manner of civility, admitted his attendants to him, but no talk of his liberty. As soon as he had been apprised of Huescar's negotiation with the Spaniards, and Almagro's arrival with an additional force, he began to be under great apprehensions. To ease himself upon one side, he sent immediate orders to have Huescar put to death.
The arrival of Almagro, on the other hand, caused some embarrassment in Pizarro's affairs. This commander finding that Pizarro had seized the ynca with immense treasures, and having already experienced his ill faith, consulted with his principal officers about leaving his part to himself, and seeking their fortune elsewhere. Whilst this was in agitation, his secretary, who was averse to him, gave Pizarro notice of the design. In an instant Pizarro saw how disadvantageous such a step must prove to him, with so small a force, all resources at a distance, and the country exasperated by the detestable action he had lately committed. He saw that all depended upon removing every suspicion of him from the breast of Almagro. For this purpose, and as something of an ill mind appeared in his most masterly actions, he began by sacrificing the secretary. He informed Almagro of his treachery. Next, though gold was the great object of his undertakings; yet he knew how to relinquish some part to secure the rest. He agreed to divide the spoil equally between Almagro and himself, and to make no distinction between the soldiers of either in the distribution. This made an entire and hearty reconciliation, which was no sooner concluded than the ynca's ransom came in. But this vast treasure, the capital object of all their labours and villainies, no sooner came into their possession, but in it's consequences it was very near being the utter ruin of their affairs. It is said, and not improbably, that the whole exceeded the sum of one million five hundred thousand pounds sterling, a sum vast at the present time; then it was a prodigy. On the dividend, after deducting a fifth for the emperor, and the shares of the chief commanders and officers, each private soldier had above two thousand pounds English money. They had now made a fortune even beyond their imaginations; but the soldiery was ruined, the greatest part of the army insisted upon being discharged, that they might enjoy their fortunes in quiet. This proposal ill suited with the ambitious views of the commanders. Almagro was for proceeding in the usual way, to enforce obedience by the severity of military discipline; but Pizarro opposed him.
"Let them go, says he, they cannot do us better service; here we shall have them mutinous and cowardly soldiers, at home they will act for us as recruiting officers with great success; for when it shall be seen that common soldiers of so little merit as they, have made such large fortunes, we shall not long want better men to supply their places."
The desire of the soldiers was complied with, and as many as chose to go, who were no inconsiderable number, departed. In due time the sagacious prophecy of Pizarro was accomplished, and their army never wanted reinforcements.
CHAP. XVI.
IN the mean time the unfortunate Atabalipa, the greatness of whose ransom only convinced the Spaniards of the necessity of never releasing him, endeavoured to take advantage of his captivity, to know the genius and manners of this people. Amongst all their accomplishments, there was nothing he so much admired as the art of reading and writing. This appeared almost incomprehensible to him, though he saw clearly the use of it. He was at a loss to know whether he should consider it as a natural endowment, or as an acquisition of art. To discover this, he one day desired a soldier to write the name of God upon his nail: he carried this about the army, desiring several to explain it, which they all did, to his wonder and satisfaction. At last he shewed it to Pizarro, but Pizarro blushed, and could make nothing of it. The ynca then perceived it was no natural gift, but owing to education; the want of which he thus discovered in Pizarro, and slighted him for it. This mortified the general, and his disgust, joined to his natural cruelty, and a policy he thought he saw in the proceeding, made him hasten the fate he had some time before determined for his unhappy prisoner. That nothing might be wanting to the boldness and atrociousness of their barbarity, they proceeded against him by way of trial, and by the forms of law.
A charge was exhibited, digested under several heads. 1st, For being an idolater. 2dly, For having many concubines. 3dly, For wasting the treasures of the kingdom, and raising taxes since the coming in of the Spaniards. And lastly, For the murder of his brother Huescar. An attorney general was appointed to manage the accusation, and an advocate appointed from amongst themselves assigned for his defence. In vain did the more numerous and better part of the army protest against this proceeding, and lodge an appeal to Spain; in vain did they alledge their want of power to judge a foreign prince for any crimes, and the absurdity of the crimes with which this prince was charged. Before such judges, and with such an advocate to defend him, the ynca was condemned to be buried alive. To compleat this violation and mockery of all laws, human and divine, the same father Vincent, who had so signalized himself upon a former occasion, was sent to comfort and instruct him in his last moments. The chief argument which he used to convert him to christianity was, that on his embracing the faith, instead of being burned, his sentence should be mitigated to strangling. This prince submitted to baptism, and was immediately strangled in prison. Pizarro gave the final stroke to his hardened and shameless villainy, by giving him a magnificent funeral, and going into mourning.
The death of the ynca was no sooner spread abroad, than the principal nobility at Cusco set up the brother of Huescar; Pizarro set up a son of Atabalipa; and two generals of the Peruvians set up for themselves. Thus was this wretched country torn to pieces at once by foreigners, and by a domestic war amongst themselves. Yet such is the preference of any sort of spirit roused within a nation, to a lethargic inactivity, that the Peruvians gained some considerable advantages over the Spaniards, even in this distracted condition, and took several prisoners, amongst whom was the attorney general, whom they put to the death he deserved without any great formality. The rest of the prisoners, as soon as they were informed of their having protested against the emperor's death, they generously relieved. These advantages gained by the Peruvians, made the Spaniards listen to a treaty; for Pizarro was equally ready at all times to make a peace, or to break it, as his affairs required. He made use of this interval to settle the Spaniards in the country. It was now that he laid the foundations of the famous city of Lima. But as soon as he judged himself in a condition to prosecute it, he renewed the war with the Indians, and after many difficulties, made himself master of Cusco, then the capital of the empire.
But whilst he was thus by force and fraud establishing himself every where, the whole fabric of his designs was shaken by a fresh dispute between him and his collegue Almagro. These commanders had little mutual affection, and less confidence in each other's honour and integrity; for similarity of manners is no ground of friendship, but where the manners are good in themselves. Their common necessities, it is true, obliged them for a time to keep a fair appearance; but each satisfied of the other's ill intentions, watched an opportunity of being before-hand in some sinister advantage. New grants and supplies had lately arrived from Spain. Pizarro obtained two hundred leagues along the sea-coast, to the Southward of his former government. Almagro had a grant of two hundred more to the Southward of Pizarro's. Judging, or pretending he judged, that the wealthy and important city of Cusco was not included within Pizarro's grant, he immediately ceased to act in subordination to him, and claimed this city as his property. Pizarro's brother, who commanded for him there, absolutely refused to deliver up the place. Almagro insisted on it with equal obstinacy, and they were on the point of deciding the dispute by the sword, when Pizarro, the moment he had notice of the quarrel, came from Lima, where he was at that time indisposed, notwithstanding his infirmity, with incredible expedition to Cusco. He told his collegue, that he was not unable nor afraid to support the justice of his claim by arms; but he chose rather to convince him by reason; that the ties which subsisted between them and their common necessities, would always touch him with concern to be compelled to violent courses; which, however they might end in favour of one of them rather than the other, would certainly be much more in favour of the common enemy. He demonstrated to him, that Cusco was indubitably within his (Pizarro's) government, and ended in assuring him, that as he would defend his own right with all his force, so he was equally willing to employ all that force, with all his treasure, and all his council, and whatever assistance he could give, to put Almagro into possession of whatever was really his right; that this lay yet more to the Southward than Cusco, and was a country no way inferior in it's riches, and the easiness of the conquest.
This timely appearance of Pizarro, his dexterous management, and judicious mixture of firmness and flexibility, made such an impression upon Almagro, that he was once more reconciled; and adding as many of Pizarro's troops to his own as he judged necessary, he penetrated with great danger and difficulty into Chili, losing many of his men whilst he passed over mountains of an immense height, and always covered with snow. He succeeded notwithstanding in a good measure in his designs, for he reduced a valuable and considerable part of that country.
There was undoubtedly in the four hundred leagues which Pizarro had sollicited for himself, enough of land to satisfy any reasonable ambition, and something to spare, to secure the quiet possession of the rest; but his eagerness after a large territory, made him blind to the folly of dividing his troops, and sending Almagro upon a wild distant expedition; and yet he considered this as a master-piece of policy. A little time, however, convinced him to the contrary. No sooner did the ynca perceive this division of the Spanish troops, than he desired leave from Pizarro's brother, who managed affairs for him at Cusco, to assist at a solemn festival of this nation, which was to be held at some distance. This feast was in reality a sort of an assembly of the states of the kingdom. The ynca having obtained permission to assist at it, made use of this opportunity to represent to his subjects in the most pathetic manner, the misery to which the nation was reduced; the settlement of the Spaniards, the cities they had built, the garrison they kept at Cusco, and the guard they had on his own person. That for their sakes he was now resolved to hazard that person, and every thing that was dear to him; that now was the time to make an effort with success, when their enemies, divided amongst themselves, had separated in search of other kingdoms, to satisfy an ambition that nothing could satiate. The whole assembly united in these sentiments; they roused the country every where, and the Spaniards who remained in Peru were not able to prevent the ynca from laying siege to Cusco, with an army of two hundred thousand men. The garrison under Ferdinand Pizarro, though consisting of no more than seventy men, yet with their artillery, the sallies made with their horse, and assisted by the ignorance of the Peruvians in carrying on a siege, their defence was as successful as it was brave.
News was brought to Almagro of the dangers to which Cusco was exposed, and the universal insurrection of the Peruvians. Relinquishing his new conquests, he hasted back to preserve his old with great expedition; though on his return he suffered as much from drought and heat, as in his progress he had endured from cold. At his approach the Indians raised the siege, and he was joyfully received into Cusco by Ferdinand Pizarro, and the garrison, almost exhausted by the length of the defence.
After all these long and laborious marches▪ Almagro was extremely fatigued, and though
it hard, that now in the wane of his life he should be driven with infinite toil upon new conquests, while Pizarro sate down at eas
to enjoy alone the fruits of their common labours. He resolved to renew his claim t
Cusco; he had now a sort of right to it by having raised the siege, and he had a strength sufficient to support that right. Ferdinand and Gonzalo, the two brothers of Pizarro making some opposition, were thrown int
prison, and their little army either joined him or shared the same fate.
Pizarro, unacquainted with the arrival of Almagro, or the step he had taken, had got together an army for the relief of Cusco, who were near the town before they found they had an enemy of any other sort than the Indians to contend with. Almagro, after having tried in vain to seduce their fidelity, engaged and routed them. On this advantage, his friends represented to him that now was the happy hour of his fortune, and that he ought to employ it to establish himself beyond all possibility of being moved. That he ought to put the Pizarros, his prisoners, to death, and march directly to Lima, to seize upon his rival, who never could be heartily reconciled to him, and whilst he remained in possession of the sea-coast, could never want means of making his enmity terrible. Almagro had humanity enough to reject the first part of this counsel, and weakness enough not to hearken to the last. If he marched into another's government, he trembled at the name of a rebel; and for fear of the name exposed himself to suffer the punishment of the thing; not considering, that having once embrued his hands in civil blood, he ought never to stop till his end was gained; that conquest alone could decide the question of their right; and that he who had the greater force, would have the best means of protection, if he was in the wrong. Whilst he deliberated what course to take, Gonzalo Pizarro made his escape with an hundred of those who were affected to his cause.
It was the interest of Pizarro, who found himself in no condition to carry on the war, yet possessed all the means of being reinforced, to keep matters from coming to an extremity, as it was Almagro's to bring them to a speedy issue; and in this knowledge of the management of time, when to lie by to gain it, and when to use the present moment, the great skill in business, so little understood, depends almost entirely. Pizarro had recourse to the old way of treaty; he promised largely, he offered a sea-port, and agreed to submit the decision of all their disputes to the royal audience; but as a preliminary, he insisted on the release of his brother Ferdinand. Experienced as Almagro was in Pizarro's faith, he gave up the only pledge that could secure it. The moment Gonzalo was released, he was put at the head of the reinforcements Pizarro had long expected, and now received; and as he was a man of capacity, he prepared to act with vigour. The treaty was forgot.
The country which held for Almagro was separated from that which Pizarro possessed, by vast mountains passable only in some steep and dangerous defiles. Almagro's counsellors advised him by all means to post his troops in such a manner as to oppose his enemies in those passes; but so infatuated was he with a false security, that he refused to send any troops to occupy those important posts, which were seized by the enemy without the least opposition. He had, however, one resource left, and that a good one. The town of Cusco was well fortified, had a good garrison, and the enemy was ill provided for carrying on the siege. But as he had prejudiced his affairs before by dilatory measures, he now compleatly ruined them by precipitation and temerity. He turned his back upon the advantages of his situation, and resolved, contrary to the opinion of all his officers, to hazard his fortune in the field; confident of his own superiority, and full of contempt of the enemy, whom he believed to be raw troops; but he found too late, that they were veterans of great bravery, and exact discipline. The engagement was warm; in which Almagro and his troops behaved in such a manner as not to disgrace their former exploits; but after a gallant struggle, they were in the end entirely defeated. Almagro himself was taken prisoner, and fell, at the age of seventy-three years, a victim to a rashness scarce excuseable in a young soldier; but to the last degree blameable in an experienced commander, who being supposed to have long established his reputation for courage beyond all doubt, ought to model his conduct only by hie own experience, and the circumstances of the affair in which he is engaged.
Pizarro having got the rival, who had caused him so many apprehensions, into his hands, resolved to shew him no mercy. In spite of Almagro's age, which, as it might remove his fears, ought to have given room for pity; in spite of their common warfare, their dangers and triumphs; in spite of every sentiment of gratitude for what this unfortunate man had contributed to his greatness, and in spite of his late mercy to his brother; all which were pathetically and strongly urged by Almagro, to suffer an old man, and a prisoner too, after so many fruitless toils, to die quietly in his bed, Pizarro was deaf to every thing but a barbarous policy, which made him submit every virtue to the securing the meanest part of his designs. Almagro was formally tried, sentenced, and then strangled in prison. His body was afterwards beheaded publickly on a scaffold, and for a long time denied burial. A negro slave interred it by stealth. Amidst the pity which this barbarous execution caused, people could not forbear recollecting the unhappy fate of Atahualpa, and the share which Almagro had in it.
CHAP. XVI.
WHILST this civil war raged, the ynca took a very extraordinary resolution. He disbanded his troops, and retired to the mountains;
"Because, says he, whilst we are in arms, their fear of us will be a means of uniting the Spaniards, but if we disperse, they will certainly destroy each other."
A resolution this, which at first view, has something masterly, but it is only when viewed in one light. When their natural prince is fled, the people who must be governed, may give the reins of government into the hands of the enemy. An army once dispersed is got together again with great difficulty; and on the other hand, a civil war is by no means a certain destruction to those who are engaged in it: and indeed by the reason of the thing, and by the event, it was an ill-judged step, the scheme of a barbarous prince, who was far from being a consummate politician.
It was very ruinous to the Peruvians, that happening to be divided amongst themselves when the Spaniards came in, they suffered them to interfere in their parties; but it was of yet worse consequence, that when the Spaniards were afterwards divided, they interfered themselves in the Spanish parties. Almagro and Pizarro had armies of Indians, by which those people were habituated to obey them, and to be interested in their success; this, joined to the want of any regular plan of defence on the part of their king and commanders, subdued that empire to Pizarro with small trouble, if we consider the greatness of the object. But having atchieved so great a conquest, it only made Pizarro acquainted with other great tracts which were rich, and might be added to them. He followed the tracks of Almagro into Chili, and reduced a considerable part of the country. Orellana, one of his commanders, passed the Andes, and sailed down to the mouth of the river of Amazons; an immense navigation, which discovered a rich and delightful country, but as it is mostly flat, and therefore not abounding in minerals, the Spaniards then, and ever since, neglected it.
The death of Almagro, and the influence it had upon the conduct of Pizarro, is a striking example how necessary it is for a great man to have an awe upon him from some opposition, that may keep his prudence alive, and teach him to have a watch upon his passions. Not content with a territory upwards of eight hundred leagues long, and of a prodigious breadth, riches such as none of the kings of his country had ever possessed, a jurisdiction little less than royal, and an absolute security by the extinction of the only person who had any pretensions against him, either through a jealousy which often haunts the happiest fortune, or through a pride which cannot bear even the appearance of any who had once withstood his power, he took a resolution entirely to cut off all that had ever adhered to his rival; he did not know when the issue of blood ought to be stopped; nor that examples of severity on a few create terror and submission, but that threats of general destruction produce nothing but despair and desperate resolutions. He was not satisfied with putting many to death, but issued a proclamation, inhibiting under the same penalty, that any person should harbour, or even relieve an Almagrian with the necessaries of life. This party was yet numerous, though dispersed and lurking about the country. The heads of them finding that Pizarro was implacable, entered into a conspiracy to murder him. They did not want adherents in the city, so that they found means of concealing themselves until their plot should be ripe for execution; but by some means Pizarro discovered their designs, and suffered them to know he had discovered them. Alarmed at this information, they saw nothing could happen but death at any side. Twelve of the chiefs marched into the streets at noonday, with their swords drawn, crying out,
"Long live the king! but let the traitor die;"
and crossing the great square of Lima, made directly to Pizarro's palace; the rest followed in different parties. The people being all the while suspended, and in that inactive amazement which the execution of a bold and sudden enterprise generally inspires, made no opposition. The conspirators secured the avenues; and Pizarro, not alarmed until he was surrounded by his enemies, fell under their swords, after having sold his life dearly.
Thus died Pizarro, by an event extremely memorable. A great conqueror, in the city he had himself built, in his own palace,
his guards murdered at noon day by
ands of a small number of fugitives. The Peruvians had the satisfaction to see the second of their conquerors cut off by the same sword that had afflicted themselves.
CHAP. XVII.
WHEN Pizarro had fallen in consequence of those cruel and ill-judged steps which he took for his security, the Almagrians, elate with their success, and growing into a formidable body, seized upon the city, and proclaimed the natural son of old Almagro governor; a youth not twenty years of age, but of a courage and capacity not absolutely unequal to a charge of such importance, undertaken in circumstances so critical. But though the Almagrians succeeded beyond their hopes, by the consternation caused by the suddenness of the attempt, and the general dislike to the cruel procedure of Pizarro; the major part of the Spaniards were far from acquiescing in this irregular nomination of a governor. A considerable number, and those of the best men, declared, that without interesting themselves in the quarrel of either party, they would wait for the emperor's determination, which they expected hourly, and to which alone they were resolved to conform themselves.
In this state of things the new governor Vaca di Castro arrived. This man was of a good family, and by profession a lawyer; but through a more rigid adherence to the strictest ideas of right and justice than is suitable to the coarseness of practice, he did not make that figure in his profession to which his great capacity entitled him. But what kept him backward at the bar, recommended him first to the knowledge, and afterwards to the esteem of his master the emperor Charles the Vth, who was a man of too much discernment not to be struck with a character so singular as was that of one who was a lawyer, without exercising the trade of law, and lived at court without being a courtier. Therefore, without any sollicitation of his own, without any recommendation from a minister or favourite, this man's plain unostentatious virtue placed him in an employment of so great a trust▪ When he arrived in the Indies he still preserved his character. He acted like one who came neither to make friends or a fortune, bu
solely to do his duty; and he shewed favour o
disapprobation to all in proportion as they performed their's. Indian or Spaniard was entirely alike to the equality of his justice He flattered nobody, he threatened nobody, and whilst he lived with all the modesty of a private man, he supported all the dignity of a governor.
He was hardly landed, when young Almagro sent him an embassy, explaining the reasons of his conduct, and proposing terms; but Castro answered him, that he was come under the emperor's authority, solely to do him and every body justice; of which, if a good subject, he could have no room to complain; if a bad one, he must prepare to feel it: he knew no other terms. This was new language to governors in this part of the world, who almost forgot they had a superior. Almagro therefore was resolved to abide the fortune of war, rather than submit without such terms as might ensure him the government of his father's province at least. On the other hand, Castro would hear of no terms between a king and his subjects, and therefore set himself at the head of his troops, which were composed of those who had refused to obey Almagro, and gave him battle. The victory was on his side, but not without a bloody dispute.
Several of Almagro's officers, in hopes of procuring favour for themselves, betrayed his cause in the battle; but Castro was far from thinking their treachery to their leader, could be reckoned a service to the crown, and therefore spared none of them in the numerous executions he found it necessary to make on this occasion. None of the sufferers was more pitied than Almagro, who behaved with the utmost gallantry in the engagement, as he had done with much humanity and honour upon most occasions. He was taken and beheaded.
The severity of this procedure, whilst it terrified every body, drew no odium upon the governor, who acted clearly without prejudice, or self-interest. They looked on these executions like judgments from heaven which afflict us bitterly, but leave no room for murmur or complaint against the hand that inflicts them. To the followers of Pizarro, who valued themselves on their late service, and murmured that they were not rewarded better than he thought they deserved, he shewed little favour. He told them he could well distinguish between what was done out of a spirit of party, and what proceeded from a principle of loyalty to their sovereign; that they might look upon themselves as very happy that he suffered their last action to obliterate the memory of all their others. In short, he proceeded with such constancy, that the Spaniards were reduced to an entire subjection, and the Indians treated by them as fellow subjects and fellow creatures. The clergy he made to attend diligently to the duty of their function, and to the conversion of the Indians, rather than to the acquisition of their gold. He modelled the administration of justice in the exactest manner. He founded several towns, and established schools and colleges in them, and placed the royal revenues on such a footing, that the conquest of Peru became immediately a great public advantage, which formerly was little more than an object of private plunder. But whilst he remained himself poor among some of the richest confiscations that ever were made, and whilst he enriched the royal treasury with most prodigious remittances, the great men at court received no presents. This induced them to get a number of judges appointed, whose authority over-ruled that of Castro. The end was answered. Disputes arose; the colony was unsettled; appeals and complaints innumerable came home, and presents from all sides. But what answered the present end of the courtiers, was near stopping up the spring of bribery for the future. In the confusion that arose from such clashing jurisdictions, and the schemes of men intent upon their own interests, it was not hard for Gonzalo, the brother of the famous Pizarro, to avail himself of the general discontent, and to set himself at the head of a party.
It was now no longer a dispute between governors about the bounds of their jurisdiction; Gonzalo Pizarro only paid a nominal submission to the emperor. He strengthened daily, and even went so far as to behead a viceroy who was sent to curb him. There was a fleet at this time in the South-Seas, and he had address enough to gain the admiral to his interests; by which means he was able to over-awe the coast of Mexico, and prevent any force coming against him from that part. He even entertained hopes of gaining the Spaniards there to join in his revolt. The court, justly alarmed at this progress, having felt the ill effect of sending men who were recommended to their posts by importunity and cabal, as they had experienced the beneficial consequences of employing persons whose character only pleaded for them, they sent a licentiate in divinity, called Peter de la Gasca, a man differing only from Castro, that he was of a milder and more insinuating behaviour, but with the same love of justice, the same greatness of soul, and the same disinterested spirit. This mildness of character suited the circumstances of the times, as well as the rigid justice of Castro did those in which he was appointed; for as the revolt was now almost general, he could find no friends but such as he should make; for though he was invested with the amplest authority from Spain, he neither carried men to enforce it, nor money; and the whole success of the expedition rested solely in his own capacity.
When he arrived in Mexico, he declared that his was a peaceable profession; that he came not to exercise severities, but to heal by gentle measures the effects of those which were formerly exercised. He even wrote a very obliging letter to Pizarro, persuading him to submit, and offering him a free pardon for himself and his associates. In the mean time he was not wanting in more vigorous measures; but by his engaging address, and the reputation of his probity, raised large sums of money, and some hundreds of men. Pizarro, puffed up by his success, received the embassador with great haughtiness, and sent his answer, which was likewise that of his associates, by the admiral; which was in effect, that neither would he yield up his government, nor would they submit to have any other governor. The admiral had instructions to try what bribery would do, and if that failed, to fire the city of Panama, and bring off the new viceroy prisoner. However, during their conferences, the affair took absolutely another turn, and the admiral, instead of conveying Gasca a prisoner to Peru, transported him thither with all his forces, returning to his allegiance himself, and persuading all his adherents to be hearty in the royal cause. The viceroy did not at all alter the professions and behaviour he had used in Mexico, but every where proclaiming peace and pardon, at the head of a powerful force, he drew the cities of Lima and Cusco from the party of Pizarro; who finding himself obliged to evacuate the most considerable places of strength, with very unequal forces hazarded a battle, in which he was made prisoner. He was soon after condemned and executed, with those who had been the chief instruments of his rebellion.
Such an ill star governed all those who had a share in the reduction of Peru: Almagro beheaded, his son sharing the same fate; Pizarro murdered in his own palace; his brother Ferdinand kept a prisoner twenty-three years; and his other brother Gonzalo, as we have just seen, suffering death as a traitor. The new governor having by necessary severities quieted his province, took effectual care to heal it's disorders by the arts of peace, and to compleat what Castro had been obliged to leave unfinished. He settled the civil government, the army, and the mines, upon such a basis as made the province worth the plunder of future viceroys. He carried over two millions to the royal treasury, paid all his debts, and sate down as poor in Spain as he had left it.
The reduction of the great empires of Peru and Mexico, makes almost the only thing very much worth insisting upon in the American history. A few skirmishes with a savage people, and some voyages and discoveries exactly resembling each other, changing only the names and situations, is the matter, which, in my opinion, unprofitably fills so many volumes, and contains very little of either curiosity or instruction. However, when I come to treat of the several European settlements particularly, I shall not omit to mention any thing in their history that contains either the one or the other.
End of the FIRST PART.
PART II. The Manners of the Americans.
CHAP. I.
THE Aborigines of America, throughout the whole extent of the two vast continents which they inhabit, and amongst the infinite number of nations and tribes into which they are divided, differ very little from each other in their manners and customs, and they all form a very striking picture of the most distant antiquity. Whoever considers the Americans of this day, not only studies the manners of a remote present nation, but he studies, in some measure, the antiquities of all nations; from which no mean lights may be thrown upon many parts of the ancient authors, both sacred and profane. The learned Lafitau has laboured this point with great success, in a work which deserves to be read amongst us much more than I find it is.
The people of America are tall, and strait in their limbs beyond the proportion of most nations: their bodies are strong; but of a species of strength rather fitted to endure much hardship, than to continue long at any servile work, by which they are quickly consumed; it is the strength of a beast of prey, rather than that of a beast of burthen. Their bodies and heads are flattish, the effect of art; their features are regular, but their countenances fierce; their hair long, black, lank, and as strong as that of a horse. No beards. The colour of their skin a reddish brown, admired amongst them, and improved by the constant use of bear's fat and paint.
When the Europeans first came into America, they found the people quite naked, except those parts which it is common for the most uncultivated people to conceal. Since that time they have generally a coarse blanket to cover them, which they buy from us. The whole fashion of their lives is of a piece; hardy, poor, and squalid; and their education from their infancy is solely directed to fit their bodies for this mode of life, and to form their minds to inflict and to endure the greatest evils. Their only occupations are hunting and war. Agriculture is left to the women. Merchandize they contemn. When their hunting season is past, which they go through with much patience, and in which they exert great ingenuity, and their provisions once laid up, they pass the rest of their time in an entire indolence. They sleep half the day in their huts, they loiter and jest among their friends, and they observe no bounds or decency in their eating and drinking. Before we discovered them they wanted spirituous liquors; but now, the acquirement of these is what gives a spur to their industry, and enjoyment to their repose. This is the principal end they pursue in their treaties with us; and from this they suffer inexpressible calamities; for, having once begun to drink, they can preserve no measure, but continue a succession of drunkenness as long as their means of procuring liquor lasts. In this condition they lie exposed on the earth to all the inclemency of the seasons, which wastes them by a train of the most fatal disorders. They perish in rivers and marshes; they tumble into the fire; they quarrel, and very frequently murder each other; and in short, excess in drinking, which with us is rather immoral than very destructive, amongst this uncivilized people, who have not art enough to guard against the consequence of their vices, is a public calamity. The few amongst them who live free from this evil, enjoy the reward of their temperance in a robust and healthy old age. The disorders which a complicated luxury has introduced, and supports in Europe, are strangers here.
The character of the Indians is striking. They are grave even to sadness in their deportment upon any serious occasion; observant of those in company; respectful to the old; of a temper cool and deliberate; by which they are never in haste to speak before they have thought well upon the matter, and are sure the person who spoke before them has finished all he had to say. They have herefore the greatest contempt for the vivacity of the Europeans, who interrupt each other, and frequently speak all together. Nothing is more edifying than their behaviour in their public councils and assemblies. Every man there is heard in his turn, according as his years, his wisdom, or his services to his country have ranked him. Not a word, not a whisper, not a murmur is heard from the rest whilst he speaks. No indecent condemnation, no ill-timed applause. The younger sort attend for their instruction. Here they learn the history of their nation; here they are inflamed with the songs of those who celebrate the warlike actions of their ancestors; and here they are taught what are the interests of their country, and how to pursue them.
There is no people amongst whom the laws of hospitality are more sacred, or executed with more generosity and good-will. Their houses, their provision, even their young women are not enough to oblige a guest. To those of their own nation they are likewise very humane and beneficent. Has any one of them succeeded ill in his hunting? has his harvest failed? or is his house burned? He has no other effect of his misfortune, than that it gives him an opportunity to experience the benevolence and regard of his fellow citizens, who for that purpose have all things almost in common. But to the enemies of his country, or to those who have privately offended, the American is implacable. He conceals his sentiments, he appears reconciled, until by some treachery or surprize he has an opportunity of executing an horrible revenge. No length of time is sufficient to allay his resentment; no distance of place great enough to protect the object; he crosses the steepest mountains, he pierces the most impracticable forests, and traverses the most hideous bogs and desarts for several hundreds of miles, bearing the inclemency of the seasons, the fatigue of the expedition, the extremes of hunger and thirst with patience and chearfulness, in hopes of surprizing his enemy, on whom he exercises the most shocking barbarities, even to the eating of his flesh. To such extremes do the Indians push their friendship or their enmity; and such indeed in general is the character of all strong and uncultivated minds.
Notwithstanding this ferocity, no people have their anger, or at least the shew of their anger, more under their command. From their infancy they are formed with care to endure scoffs, taunts, blows, and every sort of insult patiently, or at least with a composed countenance. This is one of the principal objects of their education. They esteem nothing so unworthy a man of sense and constancy, as a peevish temper, and a proneness to a sudden and rash anger. And this so far has an effect, that quarrels happen as rarely amongst them when they are not intoxicated with liquor, as does the chief cause of all quarrels, hot and abusive language. But human nature is such, that as virtues may with proper management be engrafted upon almost all sort of vicious passions, so vices naturally grow out of the best dispositions, and are the consequence of those regulations that produce and strengthen them. This is the reason that when the passions of the Americans are roused, being shut up, as it were, and converging into a narrow point, they become more furious; they are dark, sullen, treacherous and unappeasable.
A people who live by hunting, who inhabit mean cottages, and are given to change the place of their habitation, are seldom very religious. The Americans have scarce any temples. We hear indeed of some, and those extremely magnificent, amongst the ancient Mexicans and Peruvians; but the Mexicans and Peruvians were comparatively civilized nations. Those we know at present in any part of America are no way comparable to them. Some appear to have very little idea of God. Others entertain better notions; they hold the existence of a Supreme Being, eternal and incorruptible, who has power over all. Satisfied with owning this, which is traditionary amongst them, they give him no sort of worship. There are indeed nations in America, who seem to pay some religious homage to the sun and moon; and as most of them have a notion of some invisible beings, who continually intermeddle in their affairs, they discourse much of demons, nymphs, fairies, or beings equivalent. They have ceremonies too, that seem to shew they had once a more regular form of religious worship; for they make a sort of oblation of their first fruits; observe certain ceremonies at the full moon, and have in their festivals many things that very probably came from a religious origin, though they perform them as things handed down to them from their ancestors, without knowing or enquiring about the reason. Tho' without religion, they abound in superstitions; as it is common for those to do, whose subsistence depends like theirs, upon fortune. Great observers of omens and dreams, and pryers into futurity with great eagerness, they abound in diviners, augurs, and magicians, whom they rely much upon in all affairs that concern them, whether of health, war, or hunting. Their physic, which may rather be called magic, is entirely in the hands of the priests. The sick are naturally prone to superstition, and human help in such cases is generally found so weak, that it is no wonder that in all countries and ages, people have amused themselves in that dismal circumstance of human nature, with the hope of supernatural assistance.
Their physicians generally treat them, in whatever disorder, in the same way. That is, they first enclose them in a narrow cabbin, in the midst of which is a stone red hot, on which they throw water until the patient is well soaked with the warm vapour, and his own sweat; then they hurry him from this bagnio, and plunge him suddenly into the next river. This is repeated as often as they judge necessary, and by this method, extraordinary cures are sometimes performed. But it frequently happens too, that this rude method kills the patient in the very operation, especially in the new disorders brought to them from Europe; and it is partly owing to this manner of proceeding, that the small pox has proved so much more fatal to them than to us. It must not be denied that they have the use of some specifics of wonderful efficacy; the power of which they however attribute to the magical ceremonies with which they are constantly administered.
CHAP. II.
LIBERTY in it's fullest extent is the darling passion of the Americans. To this they sacrifice every thing. This is what makes a life of uncertainty and want, supportable to them; and their education is directed in such a manner as to cherish this disposition to the utmost. They are indulged in all manner of liberty; they are never upon any account chastised with blows; they are rarely even chided. Reason, they say, will guide their children when they come to the use of it; and before that time their faults cannot be very great. But blows might abate the free and martial spirit which makes the glory of their people, and might render the sense of honour duller, by the habit of a slavish motive to action. When they are grown up, they experience nothing like command, dependence, or subordination; even strong persuasion is industriously forborn by those who have influence amongst them, as what may look too like command, and appear a sort of violence offered to their will.
On the same principle, they know no punishment but death. They lay no fines, because they have no way of exacting them from free men; and the death, which they sometimes inflict, is rather a consequence of a sort of war declared against a public enemy, than an act of judicial power executed on a citizen or subject. This free disposition is general, and though some tribes are found in America, with an head whom we call a king, his power is rather persuasive than coercive, and he is reverenced as a father, more than feared as a monarch. He has no guards, no prisons, no officers of justice. The other forms, which may be considered as a sort of aristocracies, have no more power. This latter is the more common in North America. In some tribes there are a kind of nobility, who, when they come to years of discretion, are entitled to a place and vote in the councils of their nation; the rest are excluded. But amongst the Five nations, or Iroquois, the most celebrated commonwealth of North America, and in some other nations, there is no other qualification absolutely necessary for their head men, but age, with experience and ability in their affairs. However, there is generally in every tribe some particular stocks, which they respect, and who are considered in some sort as their chiefs, unless they shew themselves unworthy of that rank; as among the tribes themselves there are some, who, on account of their number or bravery, have a pre-eminence over the rest; which, as it is not exacted with pride and insolence, nor maintained by tyranny on one hand, so it is never disputed on the other when it is due.
Their great council is composed of these heads of tribes and families, with such whose capacity has elevated them to the same degree of consideration. They meet in a house, which they have in each of their towns for the purpose, upon every solemn occasion, to receive ambassadors, to deliver them an answer, to sing their traditionary war songs, or to commemorate their dead. These councils are public. Here they propose all such matters as concern the state, which have already been digested in the secret councils, at which none but the head men assist. Here it is that their orators are employed, and display those talents which distinguish them for eloquence and knowledge of public business; in both of which some of them are admirable. None else speak in their public councils; these are their ambassadors, and these are the commissioners who are appointed to treat of peace or alliance with other nations. The chief skill of these orators consists in giving an artful turn to affairs, and in expressing their thoughts in a bold figurative manner, much stronger than we could bear in this part of the world, and with gestures equally violent, but often extremely natural and expressive.
When any business of consequence is transacted, they appoint a feast upon the occasion, of which almost the whole nation partakes. There are lesser feasts upon matters of less general concern, to which none are invited but they who are engaged in that particular business. At these feasts it is against all rule to leave any thing; so that if they cannot consume all, what remains is thrown into the fire, for they look upon fire as a thing sacred, and in all probability these feasts were anciently sacrifices. Before the entertainment is ready, the principal person begins a song, the subject of which is the fabulous or real history of their nation, the remarkable events which have happened, and whatever matters may make for their honour or instruction. The others sing in their turn. They have dances too, with which they accompany their songs, chiefly of a martial kind; and no solemnity or public business is carried on without such songs and dances. Every thing is transacted amongst them with much ceremony; which in a barbarous people is necessary; for nothing else could hinder all their affairs from going to confusion; besides that the ceremonies contribute to fix all transactions the better in their memory.
To help their memory, they have bits of small shells or beads of different colours, which have all a different meaning, according to their colour or arrangement. At the end of every matter they discourse upon, when they treat with a foreign state, they deliver one of these belts. If they should omit this ceremony, what they say passes for nothing. These belts are carefully treasured up in each town, and they serve for the public records of the nation; and to these they occasionally have recourse, when any contests happen between them and their neighbours. Of late, as the matter of which these belts is made is grown scarce, they often give some skins in the place of the wampum, for so they call these beads in their language, and receive in return presents of a more valuable nature; for neither will they consider what our commissioners say to be of any weight, unless some present accompanies each proposal.
The same council of their elders, which regulates whatever regards the external policy of the state, has the charge likewise of it's internal peace and order. Their suits are few and quickly decided, having neither property nor art enough to render them perplexed or tedious. Criminal matters come before the same jurisdiction, when they are so flagrant as to become a national concern. In ordinary cases, the crime is either revenged or compromised by the parties concerned. If a murder is committed, the family which has lost a relation, prepares to retaliate on that of the offender. They often kill the murderer, and when this happens, the kindred of the last person slain look upon themselves to be as much injured, and think themselves as much justified in taking vengeance, as if the violence had not begun amongst themselves. But in general things are determined in a more amicable manner. The offender absents himself; his friends send a compliment of condolance to those of the party murdered; presents are offered, which are rarely refused; the head of the family appears, who in a formal speech delivers the presents, which consist often of above sixty articles, every one of which is given to cancel some part of the offence, and to assuage the grief of the suffering party. With the first he says,
"By this I remove the hatchet from the wound, and make it fall out of the hands of him who is prepared to revenge the injury;"
with the second,
"I dry up the blood of that wound;"
and so on, in apt figures, taking away one by one all the ill consequences of the murder. As usual, the whole ends in mutual feasting, songs, and dances. If the murder is committed by one of the same family, or cabbin, that cabbin has the full right of judgment, without appeal, within itself, either to punish the guilty with death, or to pardon him, or to force him to give some recompence to the wife or children of the slain. All this while the supreme authority of the nation looks on unconcerned, and never rouses its strength, nor exerts the fulness of a power more revered than felt, but upon some signal occasion. Then the power seems equal to the occasion. Every one hastens to execute the orders of their senate; nor ever was any instance of disloyalty or rebellion known amongst this people. Governed as they are by manners, not by laws, example, education, and the constant practice of their ceremonies, gives them the most tender affection for their country, and inspires them with most religious regard for their constitution, and the customs of their ancestors. The want of laws, and of an uniform strong coercive power, is not perceived in a narrow society, where every man has his eye upon his neighbour, and where the whole bent of every thing they do is to strengthen those natural ties by which society is principally cemented. Family love, rare amongst us, is a national virtue amongst them, of which all partake. Friendships there are amongst them, fit to vie with those of fabulous antiquity; and where such friendships are seen to grow, the families concerned congratulate themselves as upon an acquisition, that promises to them a mutual strength, and to their nation the greatest honour and advantage.
CHAP. III.
THE loss of any one of their people, whether by a natural death, or by war, is lamented by the whole town he belongs to
The towns are small, and except the affairs of war, or state, they have no business to employ them, for the greatest part of the year, after the hunting season is over.
. In such circumstances no business is taken in hand, however important, nor any rejoicing permitted, however interesting the occasion, until all the pious ceremonies due to the dead are performed. These are always performed with the greatest solemnity. The dead body is washed, anointed, and painted, so as in some measure to abate the horrors of death. Then the women lament the loss with the most bitter cries, and the most hideous howlings, intermixed with songs, which celebrate the great actions of the deceased, and those of his ancestors. The men mourn in a less extravagant manner. The whole village attends the body to the grave, which is interred, habited in their most sumptuous ornaments. With the body of the deceased are placed his bow and arrows, with what he valued most in his life, and provisions for the long journey he is to take; for they hold the immortality of the soul universally, but their idea is gross. Feasting attends this, as it does every solemnity. After the funeral, they who are nearly allied to the deceased, conceal themselves in their huts for a considerable time to indulge their grief. The complimen
s of condolance are never omitted, nor are presents wanting upon this occasion. After some time they revisit the grave; they renew their sorrow; they new cloath the remains of the body, and act over again the solemnities of the first funeral.
Of all their instances of regard to their deceased friends, none is so striking as what they call the feast of the dead, or the feast of souls. The day for this ceremony is appointed in the council of their chiefs, who give orders for every thing, which may enable them to celebrate it with pomp and magnificence. The riches of the nation is exhausted on this occasion, and all their ingenuity displayed. The neighbouring people are invited to partake of the feast, and to be witnesses of the solemnity. At this time, all who have died since the last solemn feast of that kind, are taken out of their graves. Those who have been interred at the greatest distance from the villages are diligently sought for, and brought to this great rendevous of carcasses. It is not difficult to conceive the horror of this general disinterment. I cannot paint it in a more lively manner than it is done by Lafitau.
"Without question, says he, the opening of these tombs display one of the most striking scenes that can be conceived; this humbling pourtrait of human misery, in so many images of death, wherein she seems to take a pleasure to paint herself in a thousand various shapes of horror, in the several carcasses, according to the degree in which corruption has prevailed over them, or the manner in which it has attacked them. Some appear dry and withered; others have a sort of parchment upon their bones; some look as if they were baked and smoaked, without any appearance of rottenness; some are just turning towards the point of putrefaction; whilst others are all swarming with worms, and drowned in corruption. I know not which ought to strike us most, the horror of so shocking a sight, or the tender piety and affection of these poor people towards their departed friends; for nothing deserves our admiration more, than that eager diligence and attention with which they discharge this melancholy duty of their tenderness; gathering up carefully even the smallest bones; handling the carcasses, disgustful as they are, with every thing loathsome; cleansing them from the worms, and carrying them upon their shoulders through tiresome journeys of several days, without being discouraged by their insupportable stench, and without suffering any other emotions to arise, than those of regret, for having lost persons who were so dear to them in their lives, and so lamented in their death."
This strange festival is the most magnificent and solemn which they have; not only on account of the great concourse of natives and strangers, and of the pompous reinterment they give to their dead, whom they dress in the finest skins they can get, after having exposed them some time in this pomp; but for the games of all kinds which they celebrate upon the occasion, in the spirit of those which the ancient Greeks and Romans celebrated upon similar occasions.
In this manner do they endeavour to sooth the calamities of life, by the honours they pay their dead; honours, which are the more chearfully paid, because in his turn each man expects to receive them himself. Tho' amongst these savage nations this custom is impressed with strong marks of the ferocity of their nature, an honour for the dead, a tender feeling of their absence, and a revival of their memory, are some of the most excellent instruments for smoothing our rugged nature into humanity. In civilized nations such ceremonies are less practised, because other instruments for the same purposes are less wanted; but it is certain a regard for the dead is ancient and universal.
Tho' the women in America have generally the laborious part of the oeconomy upon themselves, yet they are far from being the slaves they appear, and are not at all subject to the great subordination in which they are placed in countries where they seem to be more respected. On the contrary, all the honours of the nation are on the side of the women. They even hold their councils, and have their share in all deliberations which concern the state; nor are they found inferior to the part they act. Polygamy is practised by some nations, but it is not general. In most they content themselves with one wife, but a divorce is admitted, and for the same causes that it was allowed amongst the Jews, Greeks, and Romans. No nation of the Americans is without a regular marriage, in which there are many ceremonies; the principal of which is, the bride's presenting the bridegroom with a plate of their corn.
Incontinent before wedlock, after marriage the chastity of their women is remarkable. The punishment of the adulteress, as well as that of the adulterer, is in the hands of the husband himself; and it is often severe, as inflicted by one who is at once the party and the judge. Their marriages are not fruitful, seldom producing above two or three children, but they are brought forth with less pain than our women suffer upon such occasions, and with little consequent weakness. Probably, that severe life which both sexes lead, is not favourable to procreation. And the habit unmarried women have of procuring abortions, in which they rarely fail, makes them the more unfit for bearing children afterwards. This is one of the reasons of the depopulation of America; for whatever losses they suffer, either by epidemical diseases or by war, are repaired slowly.
CHAP. IV.
ALMOST the sole occupation of the American is war, or such an exercises as qualies him for it. His whole glory consists in this; and no man is at all considered until he has increased the strength of his country with a captive, or adorned his house with the scalp of one of it's enemies. When the ancients resolve upon war, they do not always declare what nation it is they are determined to attack; that the enemy, upon whom they really intend to fall, may be off his guard. Nay, they even sometimes let years pass over without committing any act of hostility, that the vigilance of all may be unbent by the long continuance of the watch, and the uncertainty of the danger. In the mean time they are not idle at home. The principal captain summons the youth of the town to which he belongs; the war kettle is set on the fire; the war songs and dances commence; the hatchet is sent to all the villages of the same nation, and to all its allies; the fire catches, the war songs are heard in all parts, and the most hideous howlings continue without intermission day and night over that whole tract of country. The women add their cries to those of the men, lamenting those whom they have either lost in war, or by a natural death, and demanding their places to be supplied from their enemies, stimulating the young men by a sense of shame, which women know to excite in the strongest manner, and can take the best advantage of when excited.
When by these, and every other means, the fury of the nation is raised to the greatest height, and all long to embrew their hands in blood, the war captain prepares the feast, which consists of dogs flesh. All that partake of this feast receive little billets, which are so many engagements which they take to be faithful to each other, and obedient to their commander. None are forced to the w
, but when they have accepted this billet, they are looked upon as listed, and it is then death to recede. All the warriors in this assembly have their faces blackened with charcoal, intermixed with dashes and streaks of vermillion, which give them a most horrid appearance. Their hair is dressed up in an odd manner, with feathers of various kinds. In this assembly, which is preparatory to their military expedition, the chief begins the war song; which having continued for some time, he raises his voice to the highest pitch, and turning off suddenly to a sort of prayer, he addresses himself to the god of war, whom they call Areskoui.
"I invoke thee, says he, to be favourable to my enterprise! I invoke thy care upon me and my family! I invoke ye likewise, all ye spirits and demons good and evil! All ye that are in the skies, or on the earth, or under the earth, to pour destruction upon our enemies, and to return me and my companions safely to our country."
All the warriors join him in this prayer with shouts and acclamations. The captain renews his song, strikes his club against the stakes of his cottage, and begins the war dance, accompanied with the shouts of all his companions, which continue as long as he dances.
The day appointed for their departure being arrived, they take leave of their friends; they change their cloaths, or whatever moveables they have, in token of mutual friendship; their wives and female relations go out before them, and attend at some distance from the town. The warriors march out all drest in their finest apparel, and most showy ornaments, regularly one after another, for they never march in rank. The chief walks slowly on before them, singing the death song, whilst the rest observe the most profound silence. When they come up to their women, they deliver up to them all their finery, put on their worst cloaths, and then proceed as their commander thinks fit.
Their motives for engaging in a war are rarely those views which excite us to it. They have no other end but the glory of the victory, or the benefit of the slaves which it enables them to add to their nation, or sacrifice to their brutal fury; and it is rare that they take any pains to give their wars even a colour of justice. It is no way uncommon among them for the young men to make feasts of dogs flesh, and war dances, in small parties, in the midst of the most profound peace. They fall sometimes on one nation, sometimes on another, and surprize some of their hunters, whom they scalp or bring home as prisoners. Their senators wink at this, or rather encourage it, as it tends to keep up the martial spirit of their people, inures them to watchfulness and hardship, and gives them an early taste for blood.
The qualities in an Indian war are vigilance and attention, to give and to avoid a surprize; and patience and strength, to endure the intolerable fatigues and hardships which always attend it. The nations of America are at an immense distance from each other with a vast desart frontier, and hid in the bosom of hideous, and almost boundless forests. These must be traversed before they meet an enemy, who is often at such a distance as might be supposed to prevent either quarrel or danger. But notwithstanding the secrecy of the destination of the party that first moves, the enemy has frequently notice of it, is prepared for the attack, and ready to take advantage in the same manner of the least want of vigilance in the aggressors. Their whole art of war consists in this: they never fight in the open field, but upon some very extraordinary occasions; not from cowardice, for they are brave; but they despise this method, as unworthy an able warrior, and as an affair in which fortune governs more than prudence. The principal things which help them to find out their enemies are the smoke of their fires, which they smell at a distance almost incredible; and their tracks, in the discovery and distinguishing of which they are possessed of a sagacity equally astonishing; for they will tell in the footsteps, which to us would seem most confused, the number of men that have passed, and the length of time since they have passed; they even go so far as to distinguish the several nations by the different marks of their feet, and to perceive footsteps, where we could distinguish nothing less. A mind diligently intent upon one thing, and exercised by long experience, will go lengths at first view scarcely credible.
But as they who are attacked have the same knowledge, and know how to draw the same advantages from it, their great address is to baffle each other in these points. On the expedition they light no fire to warm themselves, or prepare their victuals, but subsist merely on the miserable pittance of some of their meal mixed with water; they lie close to the ground all day, and march only in the night. As they march in their usual order in files, he that closes the rear diligently covers his own tracks, and those of all who preceded him, with leaves. If any stream occurs in their rout, they march in it for a considerable way to foil their pursuers. When they halt to rest and refresh themselves, scouts are sent out on every side to reconnoitre the country, and beat up every place where they suspect an enemy may lie perdue. In this manner they often enter a village, whilst the strength of the nation is employed in hunting, and massacre all the helpless old men, women, and children, or make prisoners as many as they judge they can manage, or have strength enough to be useful to their nation.
They often cut off small parties of men in their huntings; but when they discover an army of their enemies, their way is to throw themselves flat on their faces amongst the withered leaves, the colour of which their bodies are painted to resemble exactly. They generally let a part pass unmolested, and then rising a little, they take aim, for they are excellent marksmen, and setting up a most tremendous shout, which they call the war cry, they pour a storm of musquet bullets upon the enemy; for they have long since laid aside the use of arrows; the party attacked returns the same cry. Every man in haste covers himself with a tree, and returns the fire of the adverse party; as soon they raise themselves from the ground to give the second fire.
After fighting some time in this manner, the party which thinks it has the advantage rushes out of it's cover; with small axes in their hands, which they dart with great address and dexterity; they redouble their cries, intimidating their enemies with menaces, and encouraging each other with a boastful display of their own brave actions. Thus being come hand to hand, the contest is soon decided; and the conquerors satiate their savage fury with the most shocking insults and barbarities to the dead, biting their flesh, tearing the scalp from their heads, and wallowing in their blood like wild beasts.
The fate of their prisoners is the most severe of all. During the greatest part of their journey homewards they suffer no injury. But when they arrive at the territories of the conquering state, or at those of their allies, the people from every village meet them, and think they shew their attachment to their friends by their barbarous treatment of the unhappy prisoners; so that when they come to their station, they are wounded and bruised in a terrible manner. The conquerors enter the town in triumph. The war captain waits upon the head men, and in a low voice gives them a circumstantial account of every particular of the expedition, of the damage the enemy has suffered, and his own losses in it. This done, the public orator relates the whole to the people, Before they yield to the joy which the victory occasions, they lament the friends which they have lost in the pursuit of it. The parties most nearly concerned are afflicted apparently with a deep and real sorrow. But by one of those strange turns of the human mind, fashioned to any thing by custom, as if they were disciplined in their grief, upon the signal for rejoicing, in a moment all tears are wiped from their eyes, and they rush into an extravagance and phrenzy of joy for their victory.
In the mean time the fate of the prisoners remains undecided, until the old men meet, and determine concerning the distribution. It is usual to offer a slave to each house that has lost a friend; giving the preference according to the greatness of the loss. The person who has taken the captive attends him to the door of the cottage to which he is delivered, and with him gives a belt of wampum, to shew that he has fulfilled the purpose of the expedition in supplying the loss of a citizen. They view the present which is made them for some time, and according as they think him or her, for it is the same, proper or improper for the business of the family, or as they take a capricious liking or displeasure to the countenance of the victim, or in proportion to their natural barbarity, or their resentment for their losses, they destine concerning him, to receive him into the family, or sentence him to death. If the latter, they throw away the belt with indignation. Then it is no longer in the power of any one to save him. The nation is assembled as upon some great solemnity. A scaffold is raised, and the prisoner tied to the stake. Instantly he opens his death song, and prepares for the ensuing scene of cruelty with the most undaunted courage. On the other side, they prepare to put it to the utmost proof, with every torment, which the mind of man ingenious in mischief can invent. They begin at the extremities of his body, and gradually approach the trunk. One plucks out his nails by the roots, one by one; another takes a finger into his mouth, and tears off the flesh with his teeth; a third thrusts the finger, mangled as it is, into the bole of a pipe made red hot, which he smoaks like tobacco. Then they pound his toes and fingers to pieces between two stones; they cut circles about his joints, and gashes in the fleshy parts of his limbs, which they fear immediately with red-hot irons, cutting and searing alternately; they pull off this flesh, thus mangled and roasted, bit by bit, devouring it with greediness, and smearing their faces with the blood, in an enthusiasm of horror and fury. When they have thus torn off the flesh, they twist the bare nerves and tenders about an iron, tearing and snapping them; whilst others are employed in pulling and extending the limbs themselves, in every way that can increase the torment. This continues often five or six hours together. Then they frequently unbind him to give a breathing to their fury, to think what new torments they shall inflict, and to refresh the strength of the sufferer, who wearied out with such a variety of unheard-of torments, often falls immediately into so profound a sleep, that they are obliged to apply the fire to awaken him, and renew his sufferings.
He is again fastened to the stake, and again they renew their cruelty; they stick him all all over with small matches of a wood that easily takes fire, but burns slowly; they continually run sharp reeds into every part of his body; they drag out his teeth with pincers, and thrust out his eyes; and lastly, after having burned his flesh from the bones with slow fires; after having so mangled the body that it is all but one wound; after having mutilated his face in such a manner as to carry nothing of human in it; after having peeled the skin from the head, and poured a heap of red-hot coals, or boiling water on the naked skull; they once more unbind the wretch, who blind and staggering with pain and weakness, assaulted and pelted upon every side with clubs and stones, now up, now down, falling into their fires at every step, runs hither and thither, until some of the chiefs, whether out of compassion, or weary of cruelty, puts an end to his life with a club or a dagger. The body is then put into the kettle, and this barbarous employment is succeeded by a feast as barbarous.
The women, forgetting the human as well as the female nature, and transformed into something worse than furies, act their parts, and even outdo the men in this scene of horror. The principal persons of the country sit round the stake smoaking and looking on without the least emotion. What is most extraordinary, the sufferer himself, in the little intervals of his torments, smoaks too, appears unconcerned, and converses with his torturers about indifferent matters. Indeed, during the whole time of his execution, there seems a contest between him and them which shall exceed, they in inflicting the most horrid pains, or he in enduring them with a firmness and constancy almost above human. Not a groan, not a sigh, not a distortion of countenance escapes him; he possesses his mind entirely in the midst of his torments; he recounts his own exploits, he informs them what cruelties he has inflicted upon their countrymen, and threatens them with the revenge that will attend his death; and though his reproaches exasperate them to a perfect madness of rage and fury, he continues his reproaches even of their ignorance in the art of tormenting, pointing out himself more exquisite methods, and more sensible parts of the body to be afflicted. The women have this part of courage as well as the men; and it is as rare for any Indian to behave otherwise, as it would be for an European to suffer as an Indian.
I do not dwell upon these circumstances of cruelty, which so degrade human nature, out of choice; but as all who mention the customs of this people have insisted upon their behaviour in this respect very particularly, and as it seems necessary to give a true idea of their character, I did not chuse to omit it. It serves to shew too, in the strongest light, to what an inconceiveable degree of barbarity the passions of men let loose will carry them. It will point out to us the advantages of a religion that teaches a compassion to our enemies, which is neither known nor practised in other religions; and it will make us more sensible than some appear to be, of the value of commerce, the arts of a civilized life, and the lights of literature; which, if they have abated the force of some of the natural virtues by the luxury which attends them, have taken out likewise the sting of our natural vices, and softened the ferocity of the human race without enervating their courage.
On the other hand, the constancy of the sufferers in this terrible scene shews the wonderful power of an early institution, and a ferocious thirst of glory, which makes men imitate and exceed what philosophy, or even religion can effect.
The prisoners who have the happiness to please those to whom they are offered, have a fortune altogether opposite to that of those who are condemned. They are adopted into the family, they are accepted in the place of the father, son, or husband that is lost; and they have no other mark of their captivity, but that they are not suffered to return to their own nation. To attempt this would be certain death. The principal purpose of the war is to recruit in this manner; for which reason a general who loses many of his men, though he should conquer, is little better than disgraced at home; because the end of the war was not answered. They are therefore extremely careful of their men, and never chuse to attack but with a very undoubted superiority, either in number or situation.
The scalps which they value so much are the trophies of their bravery; with these they adorn their houses, which are esteemed in proportion as this sort of spoils is more numerous. They have solemn days appointed, upon which the young men gain a new name or title of honour from their headmen; and these titles are given according to the qualities of the person, and his performances; of which these scalps are the evidence. This is all the reward they receive for the dangers of the war, and the fatigues of many campaigns, severe almost beyond credit. They think it abundantly sufficient to have a name given by their governors; men of merit themselves, and judges of it; a name respected by their countrymen, and terrible to their enemies. There are many other things fit to engage the curiosity, and even afford matter of instructive reflection, in the manners of this barbarous people; but these seem to be the most striking, and fittest to be insisted on in a work which is to give a general idea of America. The present settlements, their commerce and productions, ought to be allowed their proper room. In which I propose to treat, first of the Spanish colonies, as the first discovered and largest object, and that in which the rest of Europe, though excluded, is the most concerned. The Portuguese as nearest in place and rank, shall be second. The French shall next be considered. The English shall be reserved to the last, as the most important to ourselves.
PART III. SPANISH AMERICA.
CHAP. I.
HAVING described with as much conciseness as the subject would bear, the manners of the original inhabitants of America, as we had before that related the most remarkable adventures of it's discoverers and conquerors; it will be necessary to view more minutely, what and how advantageous a country these conquests and discoveries have added to the world; and what are the views, interests, and characters of those, who at present possess the greatest part of that extensive region.
America extends from the North Pole to the fifty-seventh degree of South latitude; it is upwards of eight thousand miles in length; it sees both hemispheres; it has two summers and a double winter; it enjoys all the variety of climates which the earth affords; it is washed by the two greatest oceans. To the Eastward it has the Atlantic ocean, which divides it from Europe and Africa. To the West it has another ocean, the great South-Sea, by which it is disjoined from Asia. By these seas it may, and does carry on a direct commerce with the other three parts of world. It is composed of two vast continents, one on the North, the other upon the South, which are joined by the great kingdom of Mexico, which forms a sort of isthmus fifteen hundred miles long, and in one part, at Darien, so extremely narrow, as to make the communication between the two oceans by no means difficult. In the great gulph, which is formed between this isthmus and the Northern and Southern continents, lie an infinite multitude of islands, many of them large, and most of them fertile, and capable of being cultivated to very great advantage.
America in general is not a mountainous country, yet it has the greatest mountains in the world. The Andes, or Cordilleras, run from North to South along the coast of the Pacific ocean. Though for the most part within the torrid zone, they are perpetually covered with snow, and in their bowels contain inexhaustible treasures. In the province of St. Martha in South America are likewise very great mountains, which communicate with the former. In North America we know of none considerable, but that long ridge which lies to the back of our settlements, which we call the Apalachian, or Allegeney mountains; if that may be at all considered as a mountain, which upon one side indeed has a very great declivity, but upon the other is nearly on a level with the rest of the country for the greater part.
Without comparison, America is that part of the world which is the best watered; and that not only for the support of life, but for the convenience of trade, and the intercourse of each part with the others. In North America the great river Missisippi rising from unknown sources, runs an immense course from North to South, and receives the vast tribute of the Ohio, the Ouabache, and other immense rivers, not to be postponed to the Rhine or the Danube, navigable almost to their very sources, and laying open the inmost recesses of this continent. Near the heads of these are five great lakes, or rather seas of fresh water communicating with each other, and all communicating with the ocean by the river St. Laurence, which passes through them. These afford such an inlet for commerce as must produce the greatest advantages, whenever the country adjacent shall come to be fully inhabited, and by an industrious and civilized people. The Eastern side of North America, which is our portion, besides the noble rivers Hudson, Delaware, Susquehanna, Patowmack, supplies several others of great depth, length, and commodious navigation. Many parts of our settlements are so intersected with navigable rivers and creeks, that the planters may be said, without exaggeration, to have each a harbour at his own door.
South America is, if possible, in this respect, even more fortunate. It supplies much the two largest rivers in the world, the river of Amazons, and the Rio de la Plata. The first rising in Peru, not far from the South-Sea, passes from West to East, almost quite thro' the continent of South America, navigable for some sort or other of vessels all the way, and receiving into it's bosom a prodigious number of rivers, all navigable in the same manner, and so great, that Monsieur Condamine found it often almost impossible to determine which was the main channel. The Rio de la Plata rising in the heart of the country, shapes it's course to the South-East, and pours such an immense flood into the sea, that it makes it taste fresh a great many leagues from the shore; to say nothing of the Oronoquo, which might rank the foremost amongst any but the American rivers. The soil and products in such a variety of climates, cannot satisfactorily be treated of in a general description; we shall in their places consider them particularly.
All America is in the hands of four nations. The Spaniards, who, as they first discovered it, have the largest and richest share. All that part of North America, which composes the isthmus of Mexico, and what lies beyond that towards the river Missisippi on the East, the Pacific ocean to the West and North-West, and they possess all South America, excepting Brasil, which lies between the mouth of the river of Amazons and that of Plata along the Atlantic ocean; this belongs to Portugal. That part of North America which the Spaniards have not, is divided between the English and French. The English have all the countries which incircle Hudson's Bay, and thence in a line all along the Eastern shore to the thirtieth degree of North latitude. France claims the country which lies between this and the Spanish settlements to the West, and secures an intercourse with them by the mouths of the Missisippi, the Mobile, and of the river St. Laurence, which are the only avenues of navigation to this very extensive country. The multitude of islands which lie between the two continents, are divided amongst the Spaniards, French, and English. The Dutch possess three or four small islands, which, in any other hands, would be of no consequence. The Danes have one or two, but they hardly deserve to be named amongst the proprietors of America.
CHAP. II.
THE order which I intend to observe in treating of the Spanish colonies is, after having set forth their situation, their climate, and the nature of their soil, to describe those commodities in which they trade; to give a clear and concise account of their method of manufacturing them; and then to lay open the manner of their dealing in them as well as that by which they carry on their foreign commerce. Last of all I shall say something of the genius and temper of the inhabitants; of such customs of theirs as are remarkable, and of their civil policy, and of their military, so far as they are come to my knowledge, or as they are worthy the attention of the reader. The exact division of the provinces, the courses of the rivers, the distances of places, the exact dimensions of harbours and their soundings; all these, as they are infinitely better known from maps and charts, so it would be impertinent and tedious to fill up this short work with them, which proposes to give, even short as it is, a description of every thing that may tend to a just notion of America; and therefore cannot sacrifice matters of more moment to the description of things, of which a far better idea may be acquired by other means to those whom they concern; and to those whom they do not interest, who are by far the majority, must be tedious and uninstructive.
The first country which the Spaniards settled upon the continent of America was Mexico; and it still continues their principal settlement, whether we consider it's number of inhabitants, it's natural wealth, or it's extended traffick. As it lies for the most part within the torrid zone, it is excessively hot; and on the Eastern coast, where the land is low, marshy, and constantly flooded in the rainy seasons, it is likewise extremely unwholsome; neither is that coast pleasant in any respect; incumber'd for the most part with almost impenetrable woods of mangrove trees, of a bare and disagreeable aspect, and which extend into the water for a considerable way. The inland country assumes a more agreeable aspect, and the air is of a better temperament; here the tropical fruits grow in great abundance; the land is of a good variety, and would not refuse any sort of grain, if the number or industry of the inhabitants were any way proportioned to the goodness of the soil. But on the Western side the land is not so low as on the Eastern, much better in quality, and full of plantations.
It is probable the Spaniards chuse to leave the Eastern coast in it's present state of rudeness and desolation, judging that a rugged and unwholsome frontier is a better defence against an European enemy, than fortifications and armies, to be maintained at a vast expence; or than the strength of the inhabitants, made by the climate effeminate and pusillanimous, and kept so by policy: and indeed it would be next to impossible to make any considerable establishment on that coast, that could effectually answer the purposes of any power in Europe, without struggling with the greatest difficulties; and as for a sudden invasion, the nature of the country itself is a good fortification. In general, few countries under the same aspect of the heavens, enjoy more of the benefits of nature, and the necessaries of life; but, like all the tropical countries, it rather is more abundant in fruits than in grain. Pine apples, pomegranates, oranges, lemons, citrons, figs, and cocoa nuts, are here in the greatest plenty and perfection. Vines and apples require temperate climates.
The number of their horned cattle is in a manner infinite; some private persons are said to have possessed forty thousand head; many are wild, and a very considerable trade is driven in their hides and tallow, but the extreme heat prevents their turning the flesh to any account in commerce. Swine are equally numerous, and their lard is much in request all over this country, where it is used instead of butter. Sheep are numerous in Mexico, but I do not find that wool is an article of any great consideration in their trade; nor is it probable that it is of a good kind, as it is scarce ever found useful between the tropicks, where it is hairy and short, except only in Peru; and that is the produce of sheep of a species very different from that in the rest of America; as Peru is itself remarkably different in climate from all other countries under the torrid zone. But cotton is here very good, and in great plenty. It is manufactured largely, for as it is a light wear, suitable to the climate, and all other cloathing being extravagantly dear, it is the general wear of the inhabitants; the woollens and linens of Europe being rather luxuries, and worn only by persons of some condition. Some provinces produce silk, but not in that abundance or perfection to make a remarkable part of their export; not but that the country is very fit for that, and many other things valuable, which are but little cultivated; for the gold and silver, which makes the glory of this country, and in the abundant treasures of which it exceeds all the world, engages almost the whole attention of the inhabitants, as it is almost the only thing for which the Spaniards value their colonies, and what alone receives the encouragement of the court; therefore I shall insist most largely upon these articles. After that I shall speak of those commodities, which are produced here of most importance in foreign commerce, and rest upon them in proportion to their importance. These are cochineal, indigo, and cacao, of which chocolate is made. As for sugar and tobacco, and indigo, though no part of the world produces better than Mexico; and as for logwood, though it be in a manner peculiar to this country, yet as the first is largely raised and manufactured elsewhere, and as our own commerce in the two last is what chiefly interests an English reader, I shall reserve them to be treated of in the division I allot to the English colonies.
CHAP. III.
IT is not known with certainty, whether all, or some provinces only of New Spain, produce mines of gold and silver. It is, however, allowed that the chief mines of gold are in Veragua and New Granada, confining upon Darien and Terra Firma. Those of silver, which are much more rich as well as numerous, are found in several parts, but in none so much as in the province of Mexico. But all the mines, whether of gold or silver, are always found in the mountainous and barren parts; nature often making amends one way for her failures in another.
Gold is found either in the sand of rivers, native, and in small grains, or it is dug out of the earth in the same condition in small bits, almost wholly metallic, and of a tolerable purity; or it is found like the ore of other metals in an aggregate opaque mass, in a mixture of earth, stone sulphur, and other metals. In this state it is of all colours, red, white, blackish, and making little or no ostentation of the riches it contains. Sometimes it forms part of the ornament of some beautiful stones, which are of various lively colours, intersected with filaments of this metal, quite native. Lapis lazuli is one of these, which has always some small portions of gold; but this golden streaking is often extremely fallacious, and has betrayed many into ruinous expences, for in several stones these fine veins have been nothing more than marcasite, but such marcasites or fire-stones are found in mines, which contain real gold. But gold, howsoever found, whether native, or in what is called the ore, is seldom or never without a mixture of other metals, generally silver or copper.
The gold mines, though they contain the richest of all metals, it is remarkable most frequently disappoint the hopes, and ruin the fortunes of those who engage in them; tho' neither the labouring of the mine, nor the purifying the metal, is attended with such an expence as what those are obliged to, who work mines of the inferior metals. For the vein is, of all others, the most unequal; sometimes very large, full, and rich; then it often decays by a quick gradation, and is sometimes suddenly lost. But the ends of the veins are, on the other hand, often extremely rich; they are called the purse of the vein; and when the miner is so happy as to light on one of these purses, his fortune is made immediately.
When the ore is dug out, the most usual method is to break it to pieces in a mill, exactly resembling those large ones we use for grinding apples, wherein a mill-stone set on end is made to turn in a circular channel of stone. When the ore is thus broke, and the gold somewhat separated from the impure mass, they add to the whole a quantity of quicksilver. Quicksilver has, of all other bodies, the greatest attraction with gold, which therefore immediately breaks the links which held it to the former earth, and clings close to this congenial substance. Then a rapid stream of water is let into the channel, which scouring away (through a hole made for the purpose) the lighter earth, by the briskness of it's current, leaves the gold and mercury precipitated by it's weight at the bottom. This amalgama, or paste, is put into a linen cloth, and squeezed so as to make the quicksilver separate and run out. To compleat this separation, it is necessary to fuse the metal, and then all the mercury flies off in fumes.
But in many parts of Spanish America, another way of getting and purifying gold is practised. When by sure tokens they know that gold lies in the bed of a rivulet, they turn the current into the inward angles, which time and the stream have formed; whilst this runs, they dig and turn up the earth to make it the more easily dissolved and carried off. When the surface is thus compleatly washed away, and they are come to a sort of stiff earth, which is the receptacle of gold, they return the stream into it's former channel, and dig up the earth as they find it, which they carry to a little bason somewhat in the form of a smith's bellows. Into this they turn a small but lively stream to carry off the foreign matter, whilst they facilitate the operation by stirring the mass with an iron hook, which dissolves the earth, and gathers up the stones, which are carefully thrown out that they may not interrupt the passages that carry off the earth. By this means the gold loosened from the gross matter, which adhered to it, falls to the bottom, but mixed so intimately with a black heavy sand, that none of the gold can be perceived, unless it happens to be a pretty large grain. To separate it from this sand, it is put into a sort of wooden platter, with a little hollow of about the depth of half an inch at bottom. This platter they fill with water, and turning the mass about briskly with their hands for some time, the sand passes over the edges, and leaves the gold in small grains, pure, and of it's genuine colour, in the hollow at the bottom. Thus is gold refined without fire or mercury, merely by washing. The places where this is performed are called therefore Lavaderos by the Spaniards. There are many more methods of extracting and purifying this precious metal, but these are the most common ways used by Spaniards in their Indies.
Silver is the metal next in rank, but first in consequence in the Spanish traffick, as their mines yield a much greater quantity of the latter than of the former. It is found in the earth under different forms, as indeed the ore of all metals is. Such is the diversity of ores in this respect, that nothing but a long experience in this particular branch can exactly ascertain the species of the metal, which almost any ore contains at first view. I have seen specimens wherein the silver, almost pure, twined itself about a white stone, penetrating into the interstices in the same manner that the roots of trees enter into the rocks, and twist themselves about them. Some are of an ash-coloured appearance, others spotted of a red and blue, some of changeable colours, and many almost black, affecting somewhat of a pointed regular form like crystals. I cannot find that it is ever found in grains or sand, native, as gold is.
The manner of refining silver does not differ essentially from the process which is employed for gold. They are both purified upon the same principle; by clearing away as much of the earth as can be, with water; by uniting, or amalgamating it with mercury; and afterwards by clearing off the mercury itself, by straining and evaporation. But the management of silver in this respect is much more difficult than that of gold; because this metal is much more intimately united with the foreign matters with which it is found in the mine; and it's attraction with mercury is much weaker; therefore there is great care taken in the amalgamation, and it is a long time before they are perfectly mixed. A quantity of sea-salt is likewise added. No silver is had by mere washing.
The chymists have talked very freely of the production of these and other metals in the earth; of the salt, sulphur, and mercury that compose them, and the manner in which these substances are united and changed so as to form metals and minerals of every species. Some have recourse to the sun as the great agent in this process, especially in gold and silver, as the most worthy such an operator. Others call in the aid of subterraneous fires and central heat, but in reality they have advanced very little that is satisfactory upon this subject. They have never by any method of joining the matters, which they have assigned as the constituent parts of metals, in any proportions whatsoever, nor by any degrees of their great agent fire, been able to make metal of that which was not metal before. Neither have they found what they allot as the component parts of all metals in such a manner in all, as to enable them to fix any common principle for their generation. Some they cannot analyse by any art, as gold; they indeed define it a composition of a very subtile mercury, and a sulphur as subtile.
But how this comes to be known, when no process hitherto discovered, has been able to extract either of these from gold, they who have advanced such things ought to tell. It is reasonable to believe, that there is some plastic principle in nature, perhaps something analagous to the seminal principle in plants and animals, whatever that is, which does not, as we know, resemble any known body, nor is composed of any combination of known bodies; but powerful of itself to combine and vary such a part of the common stock of matter as it is fitted to operate upon, which it draws to itself, and causes to form an animal, or a plant, or a mineral, or metal, of this or that nature, according to the original nature of the seed. Suppose a plant subjected to all the torture of the chymical question: you find it contains various matters; an earth, water, oil, salt, spirit, and in the three last perhaps something specific, and differing from other plants. But neither the same quantities of similar matter, nor these very matters themselves, can ever come to form a plant like the original, or any thing like a plant at all, because the seminal virtue is wanting, nor is it perhaps discoverable. And as for the other matters, they are the inert parts of the plant; without power themselves, they are the materials with which, and on which the seminal virtue acts, to organize the mass, to spread the branches, to shoot out the gems, to mature the fruit, and in short to perform all the functions of a complete plant. The same may be said of animals. And why not of minerals, though of a less nice organization? Why should they not have the seminal principle too, which operating by it's own power, and in a way of it's own, upon the elements of air, earth, water, oil, and salt, is capable of producing iron, copper, gold, silver, and other metals The want of this will always hinder us from being able to produce any metal from other than metalline ingredients, though we should take such things as resemble the ingredients they yield upon an analysis, and in the same quantities in which we find them. This I do not say as favouring the notion that stones and metals vegetate exactly like plants. That these are often found where they had formerly been exhausted, and that they are known to extend their dimensions, is pretty certain; but that they assimilate the heterogeneous matter which increases their bulk, in a manner analagous to plants, I cannot venture to propose. It must be allowed that silver has been found, and I have so seen it, extending itself among the interstices of stones, not unlike ivy and other parasite plants; yet as a metal no way differing from it, or at all inferior, is extracted from ores, which have an appearance altogether different, and which too is the usual way, it is probable the manner in which they grow is not the same.
What I had to say of gold and silver, as both are had, and the latter in vast quantities, in Mexico, I thought it proper, for the sake of avoiding repetitions, to bring them under that head, though all the rest of the Spanish territories produce largely of both.
Of the plenty of gold and silver, which the mines of Mexico afford, great things have been said, and with justice; as this, with the other Spanish colonies in America, in a manner furnish the whole world with silver; and bear a great proportion in gold to the whole of what the world produces. A late very judicious collector of voyages says, that the revenues of Mexico can hardly fall short of twenty-four millions of our money. He founds this upon a return made by the bishops of their tenths, which, without doubt, were not over-rated; and that these amounted to one million and a half sterling; that these are about a fourth of the revenues of the clergy; and that the estates of the clergy are about the fourth part of the whole revenues of the kingdom, which at this rate amount to twenty-four millions English. He takes another method of computing the wealth of this province, which is, by the fifth paid to the king of the gold and silver dug out of their mines. This he observes in the year 1730 amounted to one million of marks in silver, each mark equivalent to eight ounces; so that if we compute this silver at five shillings per ounce, then the inhabitants receive from their mines ten millions in money. For my part, I neither distrust the candor or good sense of this writer; but I can hardly avoid thinking he must be misinformed in the accounts upon which he has built his calculation. If New Spain draws from her silver and gold mines ten millions annually; Peru, even since the decline of the mines of Potosi, has scarce ever been thought less rich in silver than Mexico, and must therefore be rated at the same proportion, and allowed to yield ten millions more annually. New Mexico abounds likewise in very rich silver mines; but that we may not exceed, we will allow for this province but two millions, which, allowing for the large produce of New Spain, is certainly not above the proportion. Chili has, indeed, no considerable mines of silver, but then those of gold are by far the richest in the world; and taking the comparative wealth of this province with the others, it cannot be less than two millions, if we add to it what is produced in Terra Firma; so that the gold and silver raised in the Spanish colonies cannot be estimated at less than twenty-four millions yearly. Uztariz, in his celebrated discourse on the Spanish commerce, an author who was undoubtedly well informed, and in an argument where it answered his purpose to make the most of this importation, does not allow that more than fifteen millions of dollars are brought into Spain annually in gold and silver. This is considerably less than four millions sterling; but because we ought to allow for concealments, which to be sure are considerable, we will state it at four millions. The Acapulco trade, we will admit, carries off one million more, though this is rather over. There is another vent too, the contraband trade with the English, French, and Dutch, which draws away largely; but I suppose two millions will be thought largely allowed. Now the whole of this does not exceed seven millions annually carried out of the country; and there remains a clear sum of seventeen millions, after all deductions. If this be the case, must not the wealth of Spanish America in a little time accumulate to a degree far exceeding the bounds of all probability? Since 1730, when this observation was made, twenty-six years are now passed, and we have no reason to believe the mines are at all exhausted in that time; and if in any year since 1724, when Uztariz wrote, more plate has passed into Europe than was brought at that time, it is reasonable to believe it is because the mines have produced more largely. Now if we multiply the annual sum remaining, coined and uncoined in Spanish America, which is seventeen millions, by twenty-six, the number of years since the calculation was made, it will produce four hundred and forty-two millions, accumulated in twenty-six years. But looking a little backward at this rate of annual saving, see what the produce must have been since the beginning of the last century, when the mines yielded as plentifully as they do now, in general, and some much more plentifully. It must be from the year 1600 to this day, not less than two thousand six hundred and fifty-two millions English money, amassed and hoarded up within the Spanish colonies; besides the savings of the foregoing century, which must be far from inconsiderable. Make almost any abatements in this; allow that the churches are enriched to a degree of profuseness, as they are; allow that the private houses have the meanest utensils of gold and silver, as it is said in some places they have; allow for the wear, which even in these metals is not little; allow all this; and yet after all, it must very far exceed belief, that any riches like these, or bearing any proportion to these, are to be found in Spanish America, where the majority of the people are slaves, or Indians in a state next to slavery, and even where the Spaniards have comparatively but few rich amongst them, most who make their fortunes hastening to Europe to enjoy them. After all, we have, I fear, no certain way of estimating the immense treasures, of which this country is an inexhaustible fountain; great they are undoubtedly, though by no means so great as is represented.
CHAP. IV.
COCHINEAL, the next commodity for value which they export, is used in dying all the several kinds of the finest scarlet, crimson, and purple. After much dispute about the nature of this curious drug, it seems at last agreed, that it is of the animal kind; an insect of the species of the gall insects. This animal is found adhering to various plants, but there is only one which communicates to it the qualities which make it valuable in medicine and manufactures. This plant is called opuntia by the botanists. It consists wholly of thick succulent oval leaves, joined end to end, and spreading out on the sides in various ramifications. The flower is large, and the fruit in shape resembling a fig; this is full of a crimson juice, and to this juice it is that the cochineal insect owes it's colour.
When the rainy seasons come on, they who cultivate this plant, cut off those heads which abound most with such insects, as are not yet at their full growth; and preserve them very carefully from the weather and all other injuries. These branches, though separated from their parent stocks, preserve their freshness and juices a long time; and this enables the insect not only to live out the rains, but to grow to its full size, and be in readiness to bring forth it's young, as soon as the inclemency of the season is over. When this time comes on, they are brought out, and placed upon the proper plants, disposed in little nests of some mossy substance. As soon as they feel the enlivening influence of the fresh air, they bring forth in three or four days from their exposure at farthest. The young scarce bigger than a mite, runs about with a wonderful celerity, and the whole plantation is immediately peopled; yet what is somewhat singular, this animal, so lively in it's infancy, quickly loses all it's activity, and attaching itself to some of the least exposed, and most succulent part of the leaf, it clings there for life, without ever moving, not wounding the leaf for it's sustenance, but sucking with a proboscis, with which it is furnished for this purpose.
What is not less remarkable than the way of life of this animal, is the nature of the male, which has no appearance of belonging to the same species; far from being fixed to a spot, he has wings, and is, like the butterfly, continually in motion; they are smaller than the cochineal, and constantly seen amongst them, and walking over them without being suspected by those who take care of the insect, of being a creature of the same kind, though they believe that the cochineals are impregnated by them. But it is the female cochineal only which is gathered for use.
They make four gatherings a year, which are so many generations of this animal. When they are sufficiently careful, they brush off the insects one by one with a sort of hair pencils, and take them as they fall; but they often brush the whole plant in a careless manner, so that fragments of it are mixed with the cochineals, and themselves mixed, the old and young together, which carelessness abates much of the value; but what chiefly makes the goodness of this commodity, is the manner of killing and drying the cochineals, which is performed three ways; the first is by dipping the basket in which it is gathered into boiling water, and afterwards drying them in the sun, this the Spaniards call renegrida. The second method is by drying them in ovens made for the purpose; this, from it's grey colour, veined with purple, is called jaspeade. The third manner is, when the Indians dry them on their cakes of maize, which are baked upon flat stones; this last is the worst kind, as it is generally overbaked, and something burned. They call it negra.
This drug has a very uncommon good quality, and the more extraordinary as it belongs to the animal kingdom, and to the most perishable of that kind, that it never decays. Without any other care than having been put by in a box, some have been known to keep sixty, some even upwards of a hundred years, and as fit for the purposes of medicine, or manufacture, as it ever was. It is used in medicine as a cordial and sudorific, in which intentions few things answer better. And indeed as it answers such good purposes in medicine, is so essential in trade, and produced only in this country, it may be considered in all markets as equivalent to gold or silver, by the certainty and quickness of the sale. It is computed they annually export no less than nine hundred thousand pound weight of this commodity.
The cocao, or cacao of which chocolate is made, is a considerable article in the natural history and commerce of New Spain. It grows upon a tree of a middling size; the wood is spungy and porous, the bark smooth, and of a cinamon colour: the flower grows in bunches between the stalk and the wood, of the form of roses, but small, and without any scent. The fruit is a sort of pod, which contains the cacao, much about the size and shape of a cucumber. Within there is a pulp of a most refreshing acid taste, which fills up the interstices between the nuts before they are ripe; but when they fully ripen, these nuts are packed up wonderfully close, and in a most regular and elegant order; they have a pretty tough shell, and within is the oily rich substance, of which chocolate is made. This fruit grows differently from our European fruits, which always hang upon the small branches; but this grows along the body of the great ones, principally at the joints. None are found upon the small, which, though it is a manner of vegetation unknown here, prevails in several other plants within the tropicks. This cacao is a very tender tree, equally impatient of the wind, heat or cold, and will flourish only in the shade; for which reason in the cacao walks, they always plant a palm-tree for every one of cacao. I need say little of the use of this fruit; it is general amongst ourselves, and it's virtues well known; but however great the external call for it may be, the internal consumption is much greater; so that in Mexico and Terra Firma, in some provinces of which latter it is found in the greatest perfection, their foreign and domestic commerce in this article is immense, and the profits so great, that a small garden of the cacaos is said to produce twenty thousand crowns a year. Tho' I believe this to be exaggerated, it shews, however, in what a light of profit this comodity is considered. At home it makes the principal part of their diet, and is found wholsome, nutritious, and suitable to the climate. This fruit is often confounded with the cocoa nut, which is a species wholly different.
CHAP. V.
THE trade of Mexico may be considered as consisting of three great branches, by which it communicates with the whole world; the trade with Europe by La Vera Cruz; the trade with the East-Indies by Acapulco; and the commerce of the South-Sea by the same port. The places in New Spain, which can interest a stranger, are therefore three only, La Vera Cruz, Acapulco, and Mexico.
Mexico, the capital of the kingdom, the residence of the viceroy, the seat of the first audience or chamber of justice, and an archbishopric, is certainly one of the richest and most splendid cities, not only in America, but in the whole world. Though no sea-port town, nor communicating with the sea by any navigable river, it has a prodigious commerce, and is itself the center of all that is carried on between America and Europe on one hand, and between America and the East-Indies on the other; for here the principal merchants reside, the greatest part of the business is negociated, and the goods that pass from Acapulco to La Vera Cruz, or from La Vera Cruz to Acapulco, for the use of the Philippines, and in a great measure for the use of Peru and Lima, all pass through this city, and employ an incredible number of horses and mules in the carriage. Hither all the gold and silver comes to be coined, here the king's fifth is deposited, and here is wrought all that immense quantity of utensils and ornaments in plate, which is every year sent into Europe. Every thing here has the greatest air of magnificence and wealth; the shops glitter upon all sides with the exposure of gold, silver, and jewels, and surprize yet more by the work of the imagination upon the treasures which fill great chests piled up to the ceilings, whilst they wait the time of being sent to Old Spain. It is said that the negro wenches, who run by the coaches of the ladies there, wear bracelets of gold, pearl necklaces, and jewels in their ears, whilst the black foot-boys are all over covered with lace and embroidery. It cannot exactly be ascertained what number of people are in this city. It is certainly very considerable, by many not made less than seventy or eighty thousand. This city itself is well and regularly built, though the houses are not lofty; the monasteries are numerous, and richly endowed, and the churches extravagantly rich in their ornaments, though comparatively poor in the taste of their architecture.
The port nearest to this city is Acapulco, upon the South-Sea, upwards of two hundred miles distant from the capital. Acapulco itself has one of the deepest, securest, and most commodious harbours in the South-Sea, and indeed almost the only one which is good upon the Western coast of New Spain. The entrance of the harbour is defended by a castle of tolerable strength; the town itself is but ill built, and makes every way a miserable figure, except at the time of the fairs, when it intirely changes it's appearance, and becomes one of the most considerable marts in the world. About the month of December, the great galleon, which makes the whole communication that is between America and the Philippines, after a voyage of five months, and sailing three thousand leagues without seeing any other land than the little Ladrones, arrives here loaded with all the rich commodities of the East; cloves, pepper, cinnamon, nutmegs, mace, china, japan wares, callicoes plain and painted, chints, muslins of every sort, silks, precious stones, rich drugs, and gold dust. At the same time the annual ship from Lima comes in, and is not computed to bring less than two millions of pieces of eight in silver, besides quicksilver, cacao, drugs, and other valuable commodities, to be laid out in the purchase of the commodities of the East-Indies. Several other ships from different parts of Chili and Peru meet upon the same occasion; and besides the traffic for the Philippine commodities, this causes a very large dealing for every thing those countries have to exchange with one another, as well as for the purchase of all sorts of European goods. The fair lasts sometimes for thirty days. As soon as the goods are disposed of, the galleon prepares to set out on her voyage to the Philippines with her returns, chiefly in silver, but with some European goods too, and some other commodities of America. I speak here, as though there were but one vessel on the trade with the Philippines; and in fact there is only nominally one trading vessel, the galleon itself, of about twelve hundred tuns; but another attends her commonly as a sort of convoy, which generally carries such a quantity of goods as pretty much disables her from performing that office. The galleon has often above a thousand people on board, either interested in the cargo, or merely passengers; and there is no trade in which so large profits are made; the captain of the vessel, the pilots, their mates, and even the common sailors, making in one voyage, what in their several ranks may be considered as easy fortunes. It is said by the writer of lord Anson's voyage, that the jesuits have the profits of this ship to support their missions; and if so, their gains must be extremely great, and must add much to the consequence of a society which has as great a reputation for it's riches as it's wisdom.
This commerce to so vast a value, though carried on directly between the king of Spain's own dominions, enriches them in proportion but very little; the far greater part of every thing that comes from the Philippines, being the produce, or the fabric of other countries; the Spaniards add none of the artificial value of labour to any thing. The Chinese are largely interested in this cargo, and it is to them they are indebted for the manufacturing such of their plate, as is wrought into any better fashion than rude ingots, or inelegant coins. When this fair is over, the town is comparatively deserted; however, it remains for the whole year the most considerable port in Mexico for the trade with Peru and Chili, which is not very great. The East-India goods brought here are carried on mules to Mexico, from whence what exceeds their own consumption is sent by land carriage to La Vera Cruz, to pass over to Terra Firma, to the islands, and some even to Old Spain, though in no great quantity.
From the port of La Vera Cruz it is that the great wealth of Mexico is poured out upon all the old world; and it is from this port alone, that they receive the numberless luxuries and necessaries that the old world yields them in return. To this port the annual fleet from Cadiz, called the flota, arrives about the latter end of November, after a passage of nine weeks. This fleet, which sails only from Cadiz, consists of about three men of war as a convoy, and fourteen or fifteen large merchant ships, from four hundred to one thousand tuns burthen. They are loaded almost with every sort of goods which Europe produces for export; all sorts of woollens, linens, silks, velvets, laces, glass, paper, cutlery, all sorts of wrought iron, watches, clocks, quicksilver, horse furniture, shoes, stockings, books, pictures, military stores, wines and fruits, so that all the trading parts of Europe are highly interested in the cargo of this fleet. Spain itself sends out little more than the wine and fruit. This, with the freight and commissions to the merchant, and the duty to the king, is almost all the advanvantage which that kingdom derives from her commerce with the Indies. It is strictly prohibited to load any commodities on board this fleet without entering the goods, the value, and the owner's name, in the India house at Seville; and when they return, they must bring a certificate from the proper officer there, that the goods were duly landed, and in the proper port. They are not permitted to break bulk upon any account until they arrive at La Vera Cruz, nor are they suffered to take in any other than Spanish passengers, nor them without a licence first obtained at the India house.
Jealousy is the glaring character of the court of Spain, in whatever regards their American empire; and they often sacrifice the prosperity to an excessive regard to the security of their possessions. They attend in this trade principally to two objects; the exclusion of all strangers from any share in it, and the keeping up the market for such goods as they send; and they think both these ends best answered by sending out only one annual fleet, and that from one only port in Spain, and to one port only in Mexico. These views, which would be impolitic in any power in Europe besides, are judicious enough in Spain; because the goods they send belonging mostly to strangers, and the profits upon the sale in the Indies being the only thing that really accrues to themselves, it is certainly right to consult primarily how they shall get the greatest returns upon the smallest quantity of goods. It would be quite otherwise, if all, or most of what they send abroad, were their own produce or manufacture. They are undoubtedly right too in keeping the trade very carefully to themselves, though perhaps the means taken to attain this end, will not be thought so rational. By suffering all the trade to be carried on only between two ports, they discourage in the old world all their towns from that emulation, which would not only enable them to traffic in foreign commodities, but in time to set up fabrics of their own; whereas now, with regard to the export of their commodities, they stand upon the level of strangers; they cannot carry their produce directly to the best market; and it is very certain, that even trifling discouragements operate very powerfully where the commercial spirit is weak, and the trade in it's infancy. Again; in the new world, this confinement of the trade encourages interlopers, and an illicit commerce, too gainful for any regulations to prevent, and which may afford such bribes as will disarm the most rigid justice, and lull the most attentive vigilance. So that in reality it may greatly be doubted, whether the precautions, so systematically pursued, and improved from time to time with so much care and foresight, are at bottom of most advantage or prejudice to that nation. It was probably some consideration of this kind, that first gave rise to the custom of register ships: it was found that this confined commerce supplied it's extensive object very imperfectly; and that those who were at watch to pour in counterband goods, would take advantage of this want of a regular supply from Spain. When therefore a company of merchants of Cadiz or Seville, judge that goods must be wanting at any certain port in the West-Indies, the course is, to petition the council of the Indies for licence to send a ship of three hundred tuns, or under, to that port. They pay for this licence forty or fifty thousand dollars, besides presents to the officers, in proportion to the connivance necessary to their design; for though the licence runs to three hundred tuns at the utmost, the vessel fitted out is seldom really less than six hundred. This ship and cargo is registered at the pretended burthen. It is required too, that a certificate be brought from the king's officer at the port to which the register ship is bound, that she does not exceed the size at which she is registered; all this passes of course; these are what they call register ships, and by these the trade of Spanish America has been carried on principally for some years past, some think as much to the prejudice of their trade, as contrary to all their former maxims in carrying it on. But to return to the flota.
When all the goods are landed, and disposed of at La Vera Cruz, the fleet takes in the plate, precious stones, cochineal, indigo, cacao, tobacco, sugar, and hides, which are their returns for Old Spain. Sometimes in May, but more frequently in August, they are ready to depart. From La Vera Cruz they sail to the Havanna in the isle of Cuba, which is the place of rendezvous where they meet the galleons; another fleet which carries on all the trade of Terra Firma by Carthagena, and of Peru by Panama and Portobello, in the same manner that the flota serves for that of New Spain. When they arrive at this port, and join the galleons and the register ships that collect at the same port from all quarters, some of the cleanest and best sailing of their vessels are dispatched to Spain, with advice of the contents of these several fleets, as well as with treasure and goods of their own, that the court may judge what indulto or duty is proper to be laid on them, and what convoy is necessary for their safety. These fleets generally make some stay at the Havanna before all the ships that compose them are collected and ready to sail. As soon as this happens they quit the Havanna, and beat through the gulph of Florida, and passing between the Bahama islands, they hold their course to the North-East, until they come to the height of St. Augustin, and then steer away to Old Spain. When the flota has left La Vera Cruz, it has no longer the appearance of a place of consequence; it is a town in a very unhealthy situation, inhabited scarcely by any but Indians, Meztezes, or negroes. All the merchants of any consequence reside at some distance, at a place called Los Angelos. This town may contain about three thousand inhabitants.
CHAP. VI.
THE inhabitants of New Spain are composed of people of three different races; whites, Indians, and negroes, or the several mixtures of those. The whites are either born in Old Spain, or they are Creoles; those who are native Spaniards are mostly in offices, or in trade, and have the same character and manners with the Spaniards of Europe; the same gravity of behaviour, the same natural sagacity and good sense, the same indolence, and a yet greater share of pride and stateliness; for here they look upon the being natives of Old Spain as a very honourable distinction, and are in return looked upon by the Creoles with no small share of hatred and envy. The latter have little of that firmness and patience which makes one of the finest parts of the character of the native Spaniard. They have little courage, and are universally weak and effeminate. Living as they do in a constant enervating heat, surfeited with wealth, and giving up their whole time to loitering and inactive pleasures, they have nothing bold or manly to fit them for making a figure in active life; and few or none have any taste for the satisfactions of a learned retirement. Luxurious without variety or elegance, and expensive with great parade, and little conveniency, their general character is no more than a grave and specious insignificance.
They are temperate at their tables and in their cups, but from idleness and constitution, their whole business is amour and intrigue; these they carry on in the old Spanish taste, by doing and saying extravagant things, by bad music, worse poetry, and excessive expences. Their ladies are little celebrated for their chastity or domestic virtues; but they are still a good deal restrained by the old-fashioned etiquette, and they exert a genius whichi is not contemptible, in combating the restrants which that lays them under.
The clergy are extremely numerous, and their wealth and influence cannot be doubted among so rich and superstitious a people. It is said, that they actually possess a fourth of the revenues of that whole kingdom; which, after all abatements, certainly amounts to several millions. And as to their numbers, it is not extravagant to say, that priests, monks, and nuns of all orders, are upwards of one fifth of all the white people, both here and in the other parts of Spanish America. But the clergy here being too ignorant in general to be able instructors by their preaching, and too loose and debauched in their own manners to instruct by their example, the people are little the better for their numbers, wealth or influence. Many of them are no other than adventurers from Old Spain, who without regard to their character or their vows, study nothing but how to raise a sudden fortune, by abusing the ignorance and extreme credulity of the people. A great deal of attention is paid to certain mechanical methods of devotion. Moral duties are little talked of. An extreme veneration for saints, lucrative to the orders they have founded, or are supposed to patronize, is strongly inculcated, and makes the general subject of their sermons, designed rather to raise a stupid admiration of their miracles, than an imitation of the sanctity of their lives. However, having said this, it must be considered as all general observations, with the reasonable allowances; for many of the dignified clergy, and others among them, understand, and practise the duties of their station, and some whole orders, as that of the jesuits, are here as they are elsewhere, distinguishable for their learning, and the decency of their behaviour And certainly, with all their faults, in one respect their zeal is highly commendable; that they are the cause of several charitable foundations; and that they bring the Indians and blacks into some knowledge of religion, and in some measure mitigate their slavery. This too has a good political effect, for those slaves are more faithful than ours, and though indulged with greater liberty, are far less dangerous. I do not remember that any insurrection has been ever attempted by them, and the Indians are reduced to more of a civilized life, than they are in the colonies of any other European nation.
This race of people are now, whatever they were formerly, humble, dejected, timorous, and docile; they are generally treated with great indignity, as the state of all people subjected to another people, is infinitely worse than what they suffer from the pressure of the worst form, or the worst administration of any government of their own.
The blacks here, as they are imported from Africa, have the same character as the blacks of our colonies; stubborn, hardy, of an ordinary understanding, and fitted for the gross slavery they endure.
Such are the characters of the people, not only of New Spain, but of all Spanish America. When any thing materially different occurs, I shall not fail to mention it.
The civil government is administered by tribunals, which here are called audiences, consisting of a certain number of judges, divided into different chambers, more resembling the parliaments in France than our courts. At the head of the chief of these chambers the viceroy himself presides when he sees fit. His employment is one of the greatest trust and power the king of Spain has in his gift; and is perhaps the richest government entrusted to any subject in the world. All employments here are held only by native Spaniards, and by them but for a certain limited time; most not above three years. Jealousy, in this respect, as in all others relative to the Indies, is the spirit that influences all their regulations; and it has this very bad effect; that every officer, from the highest to the lowest, has the avidity which a new and lucrative post inspires; ravenous because his time is short, he oppresses the people, and defrauds the crown; another succeeds him with the same dispositions; and no man is careful to establish any thing useful in his office, knowing that his successor will be sure to trample upon every regulation which is not subservient to his own interests; so that this enslaved people has not the power of putting in use the fox's policy, of letting the first swarm of bloodsuckers stay on, but is obliged to submit to be drained by a constant succession of hungry and impatient harpies.
There are some troops kept in New Spain, and a good revenue appropriated for their maintenance, and for the support of the fortifications there; but the soldiers are few; ill cloathed, ill paid, and worse disciplined; the military here keep pace with the civil and ecclesiastical administration, and every thing is a jobb.
CHAP. VII. NEW MEXICO.
NEW Mexico lies to the North and North-East of New Spain. It's bounds to the North are not ascertained. Taking in California, it has the great South-Sea to the West, and to the East it is bounded by the French pretensions on the Missisippi. This country lies, for the most part, within the temperate zone, and has a most agreeable climate, and a soil in many places productive of every thing for profit or delight. It has rich mines of silver, and some of gold, which are worked more and more every day; and it produces precious stones of several kinds; but it has no direct intercourse with any part of Europe. The country is but little known at all to Europeans; and the Spanish settlements there are comparatively weak; however, they are every day increasing, in proportion as they discover mines; which are here not inferior to any that have been discovered in the other parts of America. The inhabitants are mostly Indians, but in many places lately reduced by the Spanish missionaries, to christianity, to a civilized life, to follow trades, and to raise corn and wine, which they now export pretty largely to Old Mexico. This useful change was principally effected at the expence of a Spanish nobleman, the marquis Velasco, whom the reverend author of lord Anson's voyage calls, for that reason, a munificent bigot.
The famous peninsula of California is a part, and far from an inconsiderable part of this country. It is a place finely situated for trade, and has a pearl fishery of great value. It was first discovered by the great conqeror of Mexico Hernando Cortes. Our famous admiral and navigator Sir Francis Drake landed there, and took possession of it in 1578; and he not only took possession, but obtained the best right in the world to the possession; the principal king having formally invested him with his principality. However, I do not find that we have thought of asserting that right since his time; but it may probably employ, in some future time, the pens of those lawyers who dispute with words, what can only be decided by the sword, and will afford large matter upon the right of discovery, occupancy and settlement.
CHAP. VIII. PERU.
THE conquest of Peru, atchieved in so extraordinary a manner, brought into the power of Spain a country not less wealthy, and nearly as extensive as Mexico; but far beyond it for the conveniency of habitation and the agreableness of the climate. Like Mexico it is within the torrid zone; yet having on one side the South-Sea, and on the other the great ridge of the Andes through it's whole length, the joint effects of the ocean and the mountains temper the equinoctial heat in a manner equally agreeable and surprising. With a sky for the most part cloudy, which shields them from the rays of the vertical sun, it never rains in this country. But every night a soft benign dew broods upon the earth, and refreshes the grass and plants so as to produce in some parts the greatest fertility; what the dew wants in perfecting this, is wrought by the vast number of streams, to which the frequent rains and the daily melting of the snow on those astonishing mountains give rise; for those mountains, tho' within the tropics, have their tops continually covered with snow, which is an appearance unparallelled in the same climate. Along the sea coast Peru is generally a dry barren sand, except by the banks of the rivers and streams we have mentioned, where it is extremly fertile, as are all the valleys in the hilly country.
The cause of the want of rain in all the flat country of Peru, is difficult to be assigned; though the agents in it are not improbably the constant South-West wind, that prevails there for the greatest part of the year; and the immense height of the mountains, cold with a constant snow. The plain country between, refreshed as it is on the one hand by the cool winds that blow from the frigid regions of the South, and heated as uniformly by the direct rays of the equinoctial sun, preserves such an equal temper, that the vapour once elevated can hardly ever descend in rain: But in the mountainous part of the country, by the alternate contraction and dilatation of the air from the daily heats, and the succeeding colds, which the snows communicate in the absence of the sun, as well as from the unequal temper of the air which prevails in all hilly places, the rain falls very plentifully; the climate in the mountainous countries is extremely changeable, and the changes sudden.
All along the coast of Peru, a current sets strongly to the North; further out to sea it passes with equal rapidity to the South. This current probably moves eddywise; for having run as far as it's moving cause impels it, it naturally passes back again where it has least resistance. The ignorance of this double current made the navigation in the South seas originally very uncertain and fatiguing; but now the course is, for those who pass from Chili to Peru, to keep in to the shore in their passage to Callao, and on their return to stand out a great many leagues to sea and take the Southern current homewards. The same method, but reversed, is observed in the voyages between Panama, and all the other Northern countries, and the ports of Peru.
The commodities of Peru, for export, may be reduced to these articles. First, silver and gold; secondly, wine, oil and brandy; thirdly, Vigonia wool; fourthly, jesuit's bark; fifthly, Guinea or Jamaica pepper. Of the first of these articles we have already treated in our description of Mexico. The mines of gold in Peru, are almost all in the Northern part, not very remote from Lima; those of silver almost wholly in the Southern. The voyagers who treat of this country, are generally pretty diffuse in their accounts of the principal places, where mines are found; but it does not therefore give us encouragement to insist much on these particulars; because they contain very little instruction in themselves; and if they were things in their own nature instructive, it would be little to the purpose to dwell upon what is continually changing. New mines are daily opened, and the old exhausted or deserted. The towns shift with the mines. A rich mine is always founder of a town in proportion to its produce; the town which it subsists, when the mine is exhausted, disappears. Indeed the great mines of Potosi in the province of Los Charcas, are the inheritance of ages; and after having enriched the world for centuries, still continue the inexhaustible sources of new treasure. They are not however quite so valuable now as formerly; not so much from any failure of the vein, as from the immense depth to which they have pursued it, which by the greater labour necessary lessens, the profit on what it yields, in proportion as they descend; besides new mines are daily opened, which are worked at a less expence: so that the accounts we have had of the great number which inhabited the city of Potosi, when Mr. Frezier was in that country, must have since suffered some abatement. It had then upwards of seventy thousand souls, Spaniards and Indians; of which the latter were six to one.
The Spaniards oblige this unfortunate people to send annually a certain number from the villages of the adjacent country, who are compelled to work for a limited time; afterwards they may return. But having lost the sweetness of their former connections, they that survive this slavery commonly settle in the city of Potosi. It is incredible how these mines (the most terrible scourge with which God could afflict the inhabitants,) have contributed to depopulate this country. Worse they are than sword or pestilence; equally fatal to their lives; and where those escape, they are embittered by the circumstance of an ignominious slavery, without any prospect of end or mitigation. The effects of this servitude would be yet more fatal, if it were not for the use of an herb which the inhabitants call Coca, to which they ascribe the most extraordinary virtues, and which they constantly use. It's qualities seem to be of the opiate kind, and to have some resemblance to those of tobacco; for it produces a kind of stupid composure. It is an antidote against poisons and poisonous effluvia, and makes those who use it, subsist a long time without food. Though necessary to those only who work in the mines, it is used for pleasure by all the Indians, who chew it constantly, tho' it makes those who use it stink in a most offensive manner. This herb is gathered by the Indians with many superstitious ceremonies, to which they attribute it's virtues; for which reason it is in many parts of Peru, with equal superstition, strictly forbidden; the Spaniards, as well as the Indians, giving the credit of it's effects to magic, and allowing to these more than they deserve; for they think the Indians superiority in strength owing principally to them. However, notwithstanding the severity of the inquisition which is established in all the Spanish dominions with great terror, necessity makes them wink at the practice, where the mines are worked.
They make use of another preservative, an infusion of the herb of Paraguay; something of the nature of tea. The consumption of this in Peru by all ranks of people is prodigious. Above 18,000 hundred weight is annually brought into Chili and Peru, and is worth, when the duty is paid, not less than 80,000 pounds sterling. The finest of this species of tea comes from the country of the jesuits.
CHAP IX,
THE Southern part of Peru which lies without the tropic of Capricorn, produces wine in great plenty, but not in a perfection proportionable. The Spaniards dislike and leave it to the Indians and negroes, chusing rather, what may seem odd, to regale in the brandy of the same wine, which is likewise made and exported in large quantities, not only to all parts of Peru, but to Panama, and the ports of New Spain. The greatest quantity is made near a place otherwise of no consequence, called Moquaga; here it is said they make annually of wine and brandy one hundred thousand jars, which Mr. Frezier reckons at three million two hundred thousand Paris pints. A vast quantity in a small territory. The value of this produce is four hundred thousand pieces of eight. Other places trade in wine, such as Pisco, but of a goodness not superior. Oil is likewise had in Peru, but both the wine and oil are mostly the produce of those places that lie beyond the Southern tropic.
Wool makes one of the most valuable commodities of the growth of this country. And it is not more remarkable for it's fine long staple, than for the singularity of the animal which carries it. It is sheered from a sort of sheep, which they call lamas and vicunnas; the lamas have small heads, resembling in some measure both an horse and sheep; the upper lip is cleft like that of the hare, through which, when they are enraged, they spit even to ten paces distance, a sort of envenomed juice, which, when it falls on the skin, causes a red spot and great itching. The neck is long like that of a camel; the body resembles that of a sheep, but the legs are much longer in proportion. This animal has a disagreeable smell, but it's flesh is good; and it is extremely useful, not only for the wool, which is very long and fine, but as it is a beast of burthen, strong, patient, and kept at a very easy expence. It seldom caries above one hundred and fifty pound weight, but then it carries that weight a vast way without tiring, eats very little, and never drinks. As soon as night comes the lama lies down, and no blows can get him to move one foot after the time he destines for his rest and food.
The vicunna is an animal resembling the lama, pretty much as the dromedary does the camel. He is smaller and swifter, with a far finer wool, but otherwise exactly like the lama in all respects. The wool of these creatures is almost as fine as silk. Probably the famous sheep of Cachemir, of whose wool they make the little white cloths so much valued in India, is of this species. I cannot ascertain what quantity of this wool is exported manufactured or raw out of Peru, either to New or Old Spain; but I have reason to believe it is not at all inconsirable.
The fourth great article of their commerce is jesuit's bark, so well known in medicine as a specific in intermitting disorders, and the many other great purposes, which experience daily finds it to answer. The tree which produces this valuable bark, grows principally in the mountainous parts of Peru, and that most and best in the province of Quito.
ondamine informs us, that it grows on the hither side of the Andes, no way inferior to the Peruvian in quantity and goodness; the best is produced on the high and rocky grounds; and it is not singular in this, for it seems in a good measure to be the case of all plants, whose juices are much more strong and effective when elaborated in such situations. The tree which bears it is about the size of a cherry-tree; it's leaves are round and indented; it bears a long reddish flower, from whence arises a sort of husk, which envelopes a flat and white kernel, not unlike an almond. This bark was first introduced in France by the cardinal Lago, a jesuit, about the year 1650. Hence it had it's name of jesuit's bark. It is said to have been discovered by the accident of an Indian's drinking in a fever of the water of a lake into which some of these trees had fallen, and by which he was cured. This medicine, as usual, was held in defiance for a good while by the faculty; but after an obstinate defence, they have thought proper at last to surrender. Notwithstanding all the mischiefs at first foreseen in it's use, every body knows that it is at this day innocently and efficaciously prescribed in a great variety of cases; for which reason it makes a considerable and valuable part of the cargo of the galleons.
Guinea pepper, Agi, or as it is called by us, Cayenne pepper is a very great article in the trade of Peru, as it is used all over Spanish America in almost every thing they eat. This is produced in the greatest quantity in the vale of Arica, a district in the Southern parts of Peru, from whence they export to the annual value of six hundred thousand crowns. The district which produces this pepper in such abundance, is but small, and naturally barren; it's fertility in pepper, as well as in grain and fruits, is owing to the advantage of a species of very extraordinary manure, brought from an island called Iquiqua. This is a sort of yellowish earth, of a fetid smell. It is generally thought to be dung of birds, because of the similitude of the scent, that feathers have been found very deep in it, and that vast numbers of sea fowls appear upon that and all the adjacent coasts. But on the other hand, whether we look upon this substance as the dung of these sea fowls, or a particular species of earth, it is almost equally difficult to conceive how the small island of Iquiqua, not above two miles in cireumference, could supply such immense quantities; and yet after supplying upwards of twelve ship loads annually for a century together for the distant parts, and a vastly larger quantity for the use of the neighbourhood, it cannot be observed that it is in the least diminished, or that the height of the island is at all lessened. But these are matters, which to handle properly, requires a more exact knowledge of all the circumstances relating to them, than can be gathered from travellers.
Quicksilver is a remarkable article in their trade, because the purification of their gold and silver depends upon it. I do not find that any other part of the Spanish America produces it; so that Mexico and Terra Firma are supplied from Old Spain with all they want of that mineral, which is brought them on the king's account only; except that some arrives from from Peru in a counterband manner. In Peru likewise it is monopolized by the crown. The principal mine of this extraordinary substance is at a place called Guancavelica, where it is found in a whitish mass, resembling brick ill burned; this they pound, and put into a furnace vaulted at the top; it is laid upon an iron grate covered with earth. Thro' this the fire passes, and volatilizing the mineral, it is raised in a smoak, which finding no passage but through a little hole contrived for that purpose, it rushes through it into a succession of little round vessels, united to each other by the necks; here the smoak circulates, and it condenses by means of a little water at the bottom of each vessel, into which the quicksilver falls in a pure heavy liquid. The men who work in the mines of this mineral, are yet mroe subject to diseases than those who toil in the others, and they make use of the same preservatives of Paraguay, tea and coca.
CHAP. X.
THE manners of the Spaniards and Creolians of Peru resemble, with little difference, those of the Spaniards and Creolians of Mexico, other than that the natives of Peru seem to be of a more liberal turn, and of greater ingenuity, but they are equally destitute of all cultivation. The slavery of the Indians is here yet more severe. The magistrate and the priest devour their whole substance; and every Spaniard insults them with impunity. The traveller takes as much of their provision as he pleases, and decides for himself what he shall pay, or whether he shall pay any thing at all. Complaints are answered with new indignities, and with blows, which it is a crime to return. This cruel irregular bondage contributes to dispeople this country even more than the methodical tyranny of the government. To avoid the plunder he is hourly subject to, the master of the family often raises no more grain than what just suffices for the sustenance of his family; this he buries, and he keeps the secret of his hoard to himself, only drawing out daily just so much as serves for the use of the day. If he chances to die suddenly, the family starves; if a bad season comes, the calculated produce falls short, and they are all reduced to beggary. Yet worse, they are even the slaves of slaves; for the Spaniards encourage their negroes to treat them with the greatest insolence; and they politically keep up a rancour, now grown inveterate between these two races of people. They are forbidden, under the severest penalties, to marry, or to have an unlawful intercourse together. Division is the great instrument in which the Spaniards trust for the preservation of their colonies. The native Spaniard has alone all the lucrative offices, civil, ecclesiastical, and military. He despises the Creolian. The Creolian hates and envies him. Both contemn and maltreat the Indians, who, on their side, are not insensible of the indignities they suffer. The blacks are encouraged to trample on the Indians, and to consider their interests as altogether opposite; whilst the Indians in their nominal freedom look with an envious disdain upon the slavery of the negroes, which makes them their masters.
What is extraordinary, the Spaniards, not content with reducing this unhappy nation under so cruel a yoke, as if they thought it nothing, unless they were thoroughly sensible of it's weight, suffer the Indians to celebrate an annual festival, in which plays are represented, commemorating the overthrow of their own state. These are acted with all the horrid and aggravating circumstances which attended this event; and the people are at this time so enraged, that the Spaniards find it dangerous to go abroad. In the city of Lima, there is annually celebrated a festival of this kind, with a grand procession, wherein they carry in a sort of triumph the remaining descendant of the yncas of Peru, and his wife; who at that time receive all imaginable honours in the most melancholy pomp, from a race bowed down with the sense of the common bondage of prince and people. This throws the most affecting gloom over the festival that renews the image of their former freedom. To this remaining ynca the viceroy of Peru does homage when he enters upon his government. The ynca sits upon a lofty stage, and the viceroy makes his obeisance upon an horse, who is taught to kneel upon the occasion. This manner of proceeding may be thought of the most refined strain of insolent tyranny, and to be as unpolitic as it is insulting; but it is not impossible that those vents, which they suffer the indignation of the people to take, may carry off a spirit, that might otherwise break out in a much more fatal manner. However it is, whether by the division they keep up, or by these vents, or by the management of the clergy, or by whatever means, the Spaniards preserve their conquests with very little force; the Indians are even armed, and make a considerable part of their militia; it is true, they are interdicted the use of weapons without licence; but licence is procured without much difficulty. They have likewise a large number of free blacks, and they too are formed into companies in their militia. Certain it is, that both in the Spanish and Portuguese colonies, they find slavery compatible enough with great licence in some respects, and both with the security of the masters. Things deserving our consideration; as we do not seem to excell in the conciliating arts of government in our colonies, nor to think that any thing is to be effected by other instruments than those of terror and rude force.
CHAP. XI.
THERE are three cities in Peru famous for their opulence and trade; Lima, Cusco, and Quito. Lima lies in the Northern part of Peru, about two leagues from the sea, upon a river called Rimac, small and unnavigable. This is the capital of Peru, and of all South America; a beautiful city, with the streets laid out with the greatest regularity, cutting each other at equal distances and right angles; the houses, on account of the equality of the climate, are only covered with mats, as they are built low to avoid the consequences of earthquakes, frequent and dreadful in this country. They are painted all over both inside and outside, with flowers and landskips, and other ornamental fancies, not altogether unskilfully executed. To add to the elegance and convenience of this city, most houses have a little garden, which is watered by cuts drawn from the river; so that each man commands a little running stream for his own use; in a hot and dry country as this is, no small matter of convenience and delight. They have a walk by the river side two hundred fathom long, consisting of five rows of fine orange trees. Here the company resorts at five in the evening drawn in their calashes; of which, such is the opulence of this city, they had no less than four thousand in the year 1715. It has fifty-four churches, taking in the cathedral, the parochial, and conventual; twenty monasteries of men, one of which contains seven hundred, and another five hundred friars and servants; twelve nunneries, one of which has not less than three hundred nuns; and twelve hospitals, besides foundations for the portioning of poor girls. With these the whole number of the inhabitants is said not to exceed thirty thousand.
They tell a very remarkable fact, that may help us to some idea of the vast wealth of this City. When their viceroy the duke de la Palata made his publick entry in 1682, they caused two of the principal streets to be paved with ingots of silver, that had paid the fifth to the king, of between twelve and fifteen inches long, four or five in breadth, and two or three in thickness; the whole of which could not amount to less than sixteen or seventeen millions sterling. The trade of the French to Peru, during the general war in Europe which was caused by the disputes about the Spanish succession, made this city decay not a little by diffusing the commerce, of which before it was the center, amongst the other towns which lie along the coast; but as that privilege has been since taken away, Lima began to revive again, and continued in great splendor until the year 1747, when a most tremendous earthquake, which entirely devoured Callao the port belonging to it, laid three fourths of this city level with the ground. The destruction of Callao was the most perfect and terrible that can be conceived; no more than one of all the inhabitants escaping, and he by a providence the most singular and extraordinary imaginable. This man was on the fort that overlooked the harbour, going to strike the flag, when he perceived the sea to retire to a considerable distance; and then swelling mountain high it returned with great violence. The inhabitants ran from their houses in the utmost terror and confusion; he heard a cry of
miserere
rise from all parts of the city; and immediately all was silent; the sea had entirely overwhelmed this city, and buried it for ever in it's bosom; but the same wave which destroyed the city, drove a little boat by the place where the man stood, into which he threw himself and was saved. What is remarkable too in this affair, Mr. Frezier, who was in Peru in the year 1714, and from whom I have part of my materials, on considering the situation of this town and the nature of the country, ventured to prophesy for it the destruction, which we have seen accomplished in our days. Whilst this town subsisted, it contained about 3000 inhabitants of all kinds, had five convents, and possessed the finest port in all Peru. Here were the rich warehouses furnished with all the goods of Europe, which being landed by the galleons at Portobello were brought over land to Panama, and thence transported hither by the armadilla, or fleet, with a convoy of three men of war reserved for this purpose. To this port arrived the annual ship from Acapulco loaden with all the products of the East; from Chili it received vast quantities of corn, dried beef and pork, leather, tallow, plank, and several sorts of woollen goods, particularly carpets like those of Turkey. From the ports of Peru were brought sugars, wine and brandy, naval stores, cacao and tobacco. From Mexico it had pitch and tar, woods for dying, and that balsam, which we improperly call of Peru, since it comes from Guatimala. As the port of Callao is so excellent, and as it is that by which the trade of Lima wholly, and that of all Peru in a great measure, must be carried on, we cannot doubt but that a new city is already built there; and that Lima is restored to it's former lustre; especially as this latter is the seat of so great a government. For to the viceroy of Peru, both Chili and Terra Firma are subject. His settled salary is 40,000 pieces of eight yearly; his perquisites are great; as often as he goes to Callao, he is intitled to 3000 pieces of eight for that little airing; he has 10,000 for every progress into more distant parts; he has the sole disposal of above a hundred great magistracies; and, in short, the granting of all triennial employments both civil and military throughout the extent of his ample jurisdiction. It cannot therefore be doubted that his perquisites, even his lawful ones, (for there are many others,) at least double the value of his salary. And certainly, whatever the king of Spain may lose by the bad oeconomy in his affairs, no prince in the world has such means of rewarding the services of his subjects, without any immediate burthen upon his own revenues.
Cusco, the capital of the ancient empire, is still a very considerable city; it is at a good distance from the sea, and situated in the mountainous part of the country; it has not less than forty thousand inhabitants, three parts Indians, who are very industrious and ingenious. Though little instructed in the art, many shew the rudiments of a taste for painting; and there are an incredible quantity of pictures painted here, which are dispersed all over Peru and Chili. They have here likewise, manufactures of bays and cotton, and they work largely in leather in most of the ways in which it is used.
Quito is likewise an inland town; it is situated in the most northern part of Peru; it is a considerable place, and drives a great trade with the Indians; but I can get but little account of the inhabitants, or the manufactures which employ them.
It is not easy to calculate the number of inhabitants in Peru, because we have none of those data which are necessary to ground such a calculation. There are a good many large and populous towns dispersed through that country; but in many places it is little better than a desart; partly for want of water, but much more generally through the pride of one part of the people, the miserable subjection of the other, and the sloth of all. The mines undoubtedly contribute largely to depopulate the country, by turning the inhabitants from agriculture and manufactures, employments that prolong life and provide for it, to the working of metals extremely pernicious to health, and which makes them depend upon others for their necessary sustenance. The nations which are poor in respect of gold, and industrious from that poverty, have not the least reason to envy the wealth of the Peruvians; who, amidst all that extravagant glare that dazzles the eye, live penuriously and sordidly; and are often in extreme want in a country, which in many places is one of the most fertile in the world. In fact, the countries which employ their men in arts and in agriculture, and receive their return in gold and silver from the countries which abound in those metals, may be considered as the real proprietors of the mines; the immediate possessors, only as their stewards to manage, or as their slaves to work them; whilst they are employed themselves only at an easy labour, friendly to life, and necessary to their well-being.
CHAP. XII. CHILI.
IMmediately to the Southward of Peru lies Chili, extending itself in a long narrow slip, along the coast of the South-Sea, in the South temperate zone. The air here is remarkably clear aad serene. Scarce any changes happen for three parts of the year. Very little rain falls during that period. But the benign dews every night, and the many rivulets which the neighbourhood of the Andes supplies them, fertilize the plain country, and make it produce as much corn, wine, oil, and fruits, as the number of the inhabitants, which is very small, or their industry, which is but moderate, will suffer them to cultivate. If it were under a more favourable government, and better peopled, there is hardly any part of the world which could enter into competition with this. For at the same time that it enjoys a very healthful air, and is warmed by an heat no way oppressive, it bears many of the tropical fruits that would thrive no where else out of the torrid zone. It is luxuriant on the surface with every thing for profit and delight; and beneath it is rich to profusion with veins of gold, silver, copper, lead, quicksilver, and iron. Those of gold are the most wrought; and indeed there is scarce a rivulet in the country in which gold is not found in smaller or greater plenty; but want of people, which is here more felt than in the other Spanish settlements, hinders them from working all their mines; and what is worse, from improving the surface of their country to any thing like the degree of perfection to which it might be brought. For in this whole extent of country, upwards of twelve hundred miles in length, and from three hundred to five hundred miles in breadth, it is not reckoned they have much above twenty thousand whites fit to bear arms, and about three times that number of Indians, blacks, and mulattoes. Yet with so few hands, and those not the most industrious, they export annually from the ports of Chili, to Callao, and other ports of Peru, corn enough to support sixty thousand men; great quantities of wine; hemp, (which is raised in no other part on the South-Seas,) hides, tallow, and salted provisions; to say nothing of the gold, and other minerals which form their principal wealth. This country is in general, not so fit for pasturage, tho' it has a sufficient number of useful cattle of all sorts. Those whose flesh they salt, and in whose hides they trade to Peru, come from the other side of the Andes, from the province of Tucuman in Paraguay. Chili has but a very few beasts of prey, and those timorous; and although toads, snakes, and scorpions, are here as numerous as in other hot countries, they are found entirely harmless.
There are in Chili four towns of some note, either on the sea or near it; St. Jago which is the capital, La Conception, Coquimbo or La Serena, and Baldivia. The three first of these towns are laid out in a manner exactly resembling each other, the streets, like those of Lima, cutting one another so as to form squares like those of a draft board. They have all gardens between the houses, and running waters drawn from the neighbouring rivers to fertilize them; but the houses are so low and meanly built, (mud walls, and thatch in some,) that they rather resemble agreeable country villages than cities of business or grandeur. However, some of the houses are well furnished, and it is said, that in St. Jago there are many, which have the meanest utensils of the kitchen, of gold and silver. As for Baldivia, it is not more remarkable for being the strongest fortress in the South-Seas, than for the manner in which it is peopled; for hither the criminals from Peru and the other parts of Chili are transported, either for a time, or for life, and obliged to labour upon the fortifications and other public works. What is singular, these criminals are at once the prisoners and the jailors; for the garrison of the place, the whole corps, soldiers and officers, is formed of no other. The town contains about two thousand souls, and all of them banished people, or the descendants of such.
The trade of Chili is entirely confined to what they carry on with Peru, one or two ports of New Spain, and with Panama. None of their ships ever penetrate the straits of Magellan, or pass Cape Horn. They send their commodities to these ports in Mexico and Peru, and receive their European goods from Panama.
CHAP. XIII.
AS in Chili they are weak in men, and have a large body of independent Indians, ill-affected to them on their borders, and know that the Dutch once attempted an establishment here, and that other people have nourished projects of the same nature, they are extremely cautious and watchful on the coast, and the country is immediately in arms upon every alarm; which is given when any ship appears off the coast that is not of Spanish built. Yet, notwithstanding all their caution, their security is rather owing to the system of Europe, of which it is a part to keep the Spanish possessions in the hands of the present proprietors, and to the difficult and dangerous passage of the straits of Magellan or Cape Horn, for any European armament of force, than either to their own strength or vigilance.
The Indian inhabitants of Chili are a brave and warlike people, who defended their liberties vigorously, made several successful insurrections, killed Peter Baldivia the conqueror of the country, and maintained a war against the whole Spanish power in that part of the world for several years; which was only terminated on the part of several of the nations near the mountains, by an honourable peace, which is preserved to this day. None can be more jealously watchful than this people of their freedom. They traffic indeed with the Spaniards, but with so much caution, and under limitations so strict, that they can take very little advantage of this communication. As for those who were obliged to submit, it is to a yoke nothing near so heavy as that which oppresses the people who inhabit the other Spanish provinces; partly from the better terms which were procured; and partly from the fear of a nation, whom they have experienced to be brave, and know to be surrounded with many, who are of the same blood, and have defended their freedom with better success. A good example, even in the unfortunate, how much a brave defence of liberty may contribute to procure, if nothing else, yet a more tolerable servitude. The Indians of this country have more resemblance to those of North America, though more humane and civilized in their manners, than to the Peruvians and Mexicans. Here they have less superstition naturally; and far from having that excessive veneration, which those nations had for their kings, they have no kings at all, and very little form of government; each family being sovereign within itfelf, and independent. The business which concerns them all, is transacted in the assemblies of all; and the plurality of voices decides. They are much given to liquor; and they practise polygamy, which in America is not common. However, the Spanish missionaries have now made a considerable progress amongst these free nations; they have a college for the education of the Indian youth; and their influence is a great means of preserving peace between the Spanish settlements and the free Indians on their borders, which, without their assistance, would be difficult. For though they listen to the Spanish priests, they preserve a very just terror of falling under their government, and no small hatred to the people.
CHAP. XIV. PARAGUAY.
THE country of Paraguay, or La Plata, shuts up the Eastern side of a considerable part of Chili and Peru; whence extending over a tract of country, above a thousand miles broad, it bounds Brazil upon the West, and upon the South butts upon the Atlantic ocean; being fifteen hundred miles at least in length, from the mouth of the great river Plata to it's Northern boundary the country of the Amazons. This vast territory is far from being wholly subdued or planted by the Spaniards. There are many parts in a great degree unknown to them, or to any other people of Europe. In such a vast country, and lying in climates so different, for it lies on the Northern frontier under the equinoctial line, and on the South advances to the thirty-seventh degree of latitude, far into the South temperate zone, we must expect to meet great diversity of soil and product. However, in general this great country is fertile; the pastures particularly are so rich, that they are covered with innumerable herds of black cattle, horses and mules; in which hardly any body thinks it worth his while to claim a property. Any person takes and breaks them according to his occasions.
This country, besides an infinite number of smaller rivers, is watered by three principal ones, which unite near the sea, to form the famous Rio de la Plata. The first is Paraguay, from whence the country is denominated; this forms the main channel. It has it's origin from a great lake in the center of South America, called the lake of Xarayes, and runs in a course nearly North and South. Parana, which rises amongst the mountains on the frontiers of Brazil, runs a sloping course to the South-West, until it joins the Paraguay at a great distance from the ocean about the twenty-seventh degree of South latitude. Uraguay rises likewise upon the same side, and runs almost an equal course before it meets those united rivers at no great distance from the ocean, with which it mixes, along with them.
The principal province which concerns us in this vast tract, is that which is called Rio de la Plata, towards the mouth of the above-mentioned rivers. This province, with all the adjacent parts, is one continued level, interrupted by not the least hill for several hundreds of miles every way; extremely fertile in most things; but contrary to the general nature of America, destitute of woods; this want they endeavour to supply by plantations of every kind of fruit trees; all which thrive here to admiration. The air is remarkably sweet and serene, and the waters of the great river are equally pure and wholsome; they annually overflow their banks; and on their recess, leave them enriched with a slime, which produces the greatest plenty of whatever is committed to it.
The principal town is Buenos Ayres, on the South side of the river; it was so called upon account of the excellence of the air. This town is the only place of traffic to the Southward of Brazil; yet it's trade, considering the rich and extensive country to which it is the avenue, is very inconsiderable. No regular fleet comes here, as to the other parts of Spanish America; two, or at most three register ships, make the whole of their regular intercourse with Europe. Their returns are very valuable, consisting chiefly of gold, silver, sugar and hides. I cannot learn that they have opened any considerable mines in this province; but it is probable there are rich ones in the provinces, which lie to the Eastward of the Andes; besides it is certain that a good deal of gold is returned from Chili, for the mules, cattle and tea which are sent thither; and that silver from the province of Los Charcas in Peru is sent upon the same account, for the most part by land carriage. There is besides a tolerable water carriage; for a large river, called Pilcomayo, rises not far from the mines of Potosi, which winding amongst the openings of the Cordillera, discharges itself at last into the Paraguay; and this river is navigable to the very source, allowing for the interruption of some falls, which is the case of the river of Plate itself. By this way it is, I judge, that a great quantity of silver comes to Buenos Ayres. Indeed it is in great plenty in that province; and those who now and then carry on a counterband trade to this country, find it far more advantageous than any other whatsoever.
CHAP. XV.
THE trade of Paraguay, and the manners of the people, are so much the same with those of the rest of the Spanish colonies in South America, that nothing further can be said on those articles; but it would be inexcusable to quit the country without saying something of that extraordinary species of commonwealth which the jesuits have erected in the interior parts.
About the middle of the last century those fathers represented to the court of Madrid, that their want of success in their missions was owing to the scandal which the immorality of the Spaniards never failed to give, and to the hatred which their insolent behaviour caused in the Indians wherever they came. They insinuated, that if it were not for that impediment, the empire of the gospel might, by their labours, have been extended into the most unknown parts of America; and that all those countries might be subdued to his catholic majesty's obedience without expence and without force. This remonstrance was listened to with attention; the sphere of their labours was marked out; an uncontrouled liberty was given to the jesuits within these limits; and the governors of the adjacent provinces had orders not to interfere, nor to suffer any Spaniard to enter into this pale without licence from the fathers. They on their part agreed, to pay a certain capitation tax in proportion to their flock; and to send a certain number to the king's works whenever they should be demanded, and the missions should become populous enough to supply them.
On these terms the jesuits entered upon the scene of action, and opened their spiritual campaign. They began by gathering together about fifty wandering families, whom they persuaded to settle; and they united them into a little township. This was the slight foundation upon which they have built a superstrusture, which has amazed the world, and added so much power, at the same time that it has brought so much envy and jealousy on their society. For when they had made this beginning, they laboured with such indefatigable pains, and with such masterly policy, that, by degrees, they mollified the minds of the most savage nations; fixed the most rambling; and subdued the most averse to government. They prevailed upon thousands of various dispersed tribes of people to embrace their religion, and to submit to their government; and when they had submitted, the jesuits left nothing undone, that could conduce to their remaining in this subjection, or that could tend to increase their number to the degree requisite for a well ordered and potent society; and their labours were attended with success.
It is said, that from such inconsiderable beginnings, several years ago, their subjects amounted to three hundred thousand families. They lived in towns; they were regularly clad; they laboured in agriculture; they exercised manufactures. Some even aspired to the elegant arts. They were instructed in the military with the most exact discipline; and could raise sixty thousand men well armed. To effect these purposes, from time to time they brought over from Europe several handicraft men, musicians, and painters. These, I am told, were principally from Germany and Italy.
We are far from being able to trace with the exactness they deserve, all the steps which were taken in the accomplishment of so extraordinary a conquest over the bodies and minds of so many people, without arms or violence; and differently from the methods of all other conquests; not by cutting off a large part of the inhabitants to secure the rest, but by multiplying their people, whilst they extended their territory. Their own accounts are not very ample; and they are partial to themselves without doubt. What others have written is with a glaring prejudice against them. The particulars which seem best agreed upon by both sides, are the only ones to be mentioned.
It is agreed then, that in each mission or district (the country is divided into forty-seven districts) a jesuit presides in chief. He is lodged in a large and commodious house called the presbitery. Adjoining to this house are the church, and the public magazines. No person under the jurisdiction of the fathers has any thing that can justly be called his own property. Each man's labour is allotted him in proportion to his strength, or to his skill in the profession which he exercises. The product is brought faithfully into the public magazines; from whence he is again supplied with all things which the managers judge to be expedient for the sustenance of himself or his family. All necessaries are distributed regularly twice a week; and the magazines always contain such a stock of provisions and goods of every kind, as to answer not only the ordinary exigencies, but to provide against a time of scarcity, or for those whom accidents, age, or infirmities, have disqualified for labour.
They provide early for the marriage of their young people, as well to prevent disorders, as to multiply their subjects. Here, as interest can be no motive to the union, there are few difficulties attending it. The young man applies to the governing jesuit, informs him of his desire of marriage, and names the party: she is consulted, and if there is no objection upon her part, they are immediately married. They are supplied with all necessaries for their establishment from the public stores, and they have at the same time their task allotted them, by which they are to make amends for what they have received, and to provide for others in their turn.
Under the jesuit are magistrates, or caziques, of the Indian nation, who regulate all these matters, decide such differences as are too minute for the attention of the father, and give him regularly an exact account of the state of his district, and the merit and demerit of the people which it contains. They are rewarded or punished according to this report. The punishment is by blows, from which it is said not even the principal magistrates are exempted. These are however received by all, not only with patience, but acknowledgment. The rewards are seldom more than benedictions, and some slight marks of the jesuits favour, which make those men entirely happy.
Nothing can equal the obedience of the people of these missions, except their contentment under it. Far from murmuring, that they have only the necessaries of life, by a labour which might in some degree procure them the conveniencies of it, they think themselves a distinguished and favoured people in wanting them; and they believe their obedience a duty, that not only secures their order and repose in this world, but the very best means of insuring their happiness in the next. This is carefully inculcated; and indeed besides their attention to the government, the jesuits are indefatigable in their instructions in the doctrines of religion, the regularity of life, and the contempt of this world. And by what I can find, the Indians under their jurisdiction are an innocent people, civilized without being corrupted.
The jesuits who govern them, are said to be extremely strict in preserving their privilege in keeping all strangers from amongst them. If any such should by accident, or in his journey, arrive in the country of the missions, he is immediately carried to the presbytery, where he is treated for a day, or two at most, with great hospitality, but regarded with no less circumspection. The curiosities of the place are shewed him in company with the jesuit, and he can have no private conversation with any of the natives. In a reasonable time he is civilly dismissed, with a guard to conduct him to the next district, without expence, where he is treated in the same manner, until he is out of the country of the missions. Cautions altogether as strict, and in the same spirit, are observed, when the natives are obliged to go out of their own territory to serve in the king's works, or when any part of their troops are called out for his service. They shun all manner of conversation with strangers, upon whom they look with a sort of horror; and so return, uninformed and untainted, into their own country as they left it.
I am sensible, that many have represented the conduct of the jesuits in this mission in a very bad light; but their reflections appear to me not at all supported by the facts upon which they build them. To judge perfectly of the service they have done their people, we must not consider them in a parallel with the flourishing nations of Europe, but as compared with their neighbours, the savages of South America, or with the state of those Indians who groan under the Spanish yoke. Considering it in this, which is the true light, it will appear, that human society is infinitely obliged to them for adding to it three hundred thousand families in a well regulated community, in the room of a few vagabond untaught savages. And indeed, it can scarce be conceived, that any government has not some extraordinary perfection, which has a principle of increase within it, which draws others to unite themselves to the old stock, and shoots out itself a luxuriance of new branches. Neither can we, by any means, blame a system which produces such salutary effects; and which has found that difficult, but happy way, that grand desideratum in politicks, of uniting a perfect subjection to an entire content and satisfaction of the people. Matters, which, it were to be wished, were studied with more attention by us, who content ourselves with railing at the diligence of an adversary, which we should rather praise and imitate; and who in our affairs think of using hardly any other instruments than force or money.
This commonwealth has lately become a subject of much conversation, upon account of the cession which has lately been made of part of that territory to the crown of Portugal. It is well known, that the inhabitants of seven of the missions refused to comply with this division, or to suffer themselves to be transferred from one hand to another, like cattle, without their own consent. How the jesuits have acquitted themselves at the courts of Madrid and Lisbon upon this article, I do not know. We are informed by the authority of the gazette, that the Indians actually took up arms; but notwithstanding the exactness of their discipline, they were easily, and with a considerable slaughter, defeated by the European troops, who were sent to quell them. It seems to have been ill-judged in this people, who had never seen any real service, nor were headed by officers who had seen any, without which the best discipline is but a sort of play, to have hazarded a battle with troops from Europe. They ought rather to have first habituated themselves to action by attacking small parties, by cutting off convoys, by little surprizes, until by use and success in smaller matters, they were intitled to hazard the sum of their affairs in the open field. However, it is not improbable, that this opposition will rouse the indolence of the Spaniards, and make them take the government of the country out of the hands it is in at present. If they do, it is not difficult to foresee, that the same depopulation, the same distress, and the same discontent, which distinguishes the Indians in the rest of the Spanish provinces, will be soon equally visible in this. It will not be difficult for them to effect the reduction of this country; for the jesuits have too large and valuable an interest in Old Spain, as well as in the new world, to dispute it with the court, whenever they shall demand in good earnest to have this country surrendered; if it be true, that the jesuits have really such influence on the inhabitants as is attributed to them.
It was not orginally such bad policy, as it may seem, to have entrusted the jesuits with so great a power; since a little time will shew, that they have given them a territory unknown, unpeopled, and uncultivated, which they have the certain means of repossessing when they please, subdued, peopled, and cultivated. As to it's wealth, it is hard to say any thing certain; the jesuits deny it. And truly if they acted with a perfect policy, they would never have suffered any mines of gold or silver to be opened in that country. Of this matter I have no information upon which I can depend.
CHAP. XVI.
THE Spaniards have not made any settlements in the other divisions of South America, which they claim to the Southward of Buenos Ayres, nor to the Northward, except in Terra Firma, of which we shall say something. The country of the Amazons, tho' prodigiously large, wonderfully fertile, and watered by so noble a river, is entirely neglected. The country of Patagonia is likewise of a vast stretch to the Southward of Buenos Ayres, all in the temperate zone, and extended all along the Atlantic ocean; a plain country without trees; but this is the case of the delightful and fertile country of Buenos Ayres. It is said likewise to be barren and desart; but what is certain, it is unsettled by any European nation, and little known, though it lies open for any power that can avail itself of a favourable opportunity to establish a colony there.
The last province, according to the order I have observed, tho' not of the least consequence in the Spanish American dominions, is Terra Firma; a vast country, above 2000 miles in length, and 500 broad. Bordering on Mexico, Peru, and Amazonia, it stretches all along the North sea, from the Pacific ocean to the mouth of the river of Amazons upon the Atlantic. It is divided into twelve large provinces. They all contain a vast deal of high and mountainous country, particularly the province of St. Martha, where there are said to be hills surpassing Teneriffe itself in height; these hills communicate with the Andes. The valleys are deep and narrow, and for a great part of the year flooded; but they are extremely fertile; produce corn enough; all kinds of the tropical fruits; rich drugs; cacao, vanilla, indigo, piemento, guaiacum, sarsaparilla, and balsam of Peru. No country abounds more in rich and luxuriant pasturage, or has a greater stock of excellent black cattle. Their rivers have rich golden sands; their coasts have good pearl fisheries; their mines yield great quantities of gold; and rubies and emeralds are found in plenty. Yet with all this fertility, Terra Firma is, for the greater part, the most unpleasant and most unhealthful country of the torrid zone.
This province has a very considerable share of the trade of Europe; not only on account of it's own produce and demand; but because all the intercourse of Peru and Chili with Old Spain, is carried on through this country. It's capital city Panama is the great barcadier of the South-Sea. Hither is brought all the treasure which the rich mines of Peru and Chili pay to the king, or produce upon a private account.
The city of Panama is situated upon one of the best harbours in all respects, of the South-Seas. Ships of burthen lie safe at some distance from the town; but smaller vessels come up to the walls. This town, one of the largest in America, is said to contain five thousand houses, elegantly built of brick and stone, disposed in a semicircular form, and enlivened with the spires and domes of many splendid churches and rich monasteries. It is covered on the land side with fine orchards and gardens, and at a greater distance with an agreeable country, diversified with hills, valleys, and woods. The town stands upon a dry and healthful ground, and has a great and profitable trade with Peru, Chili, and the Western coast of Mexico upon one side, and with the Terra Firma, and with Europe on the other, which is carried on over the isthmus of Darien, and by the river Chagra.
The second town of consideration in Terra Firma, is Carthagena, which stands upon a peninsula, that encloses one of the safest and best defended harbours in all the Spanish America. The town itself is well fortified, and built after the elegant fashion of most of the Spanish American towns, with a square in the middle, and streets running every way regularly from it, and others cutting these at right angles. This town has many rich churches and convents; that of the jesuits is particularly magnificent. Here it is that the galleons on their voyage from Spain put in first, and dispose of a considerable part of their cargo; which from hence is distributed to St. Martha, the Caraccas, Venezuela, and most of the other provinces and towns in the Terra Firma.
The fleet which is called the galleons, consists of about eight men of war, of about fifty guns each, designed principally to supply Peru with military stores; but in reality, laden not only with these, but with every other kind of merchandize on a private account; so as to be in bad condition for defending themselves, or protecting others. Under the convoy of these sail about twelve merchant ships, not inferior in burthen. This fleet of the galleons is regulated in much the same manner with the flotas, and it is destined for the exclusive commerce of Terra Firma and the South-Sea, as the flota is for that of Mexico.
No sooner is this fleet arrived in the haven of Carthagena, than expresses are immediately dispatched to Portobello, and to all the adjacent towns; but principally to Panama; that they may get ready all the treasure which is deposited there, to meet the galleons at Portobello; at which town, (remarkable for the goodness of it's harbour, which brings such a surprising concourse here at the time of the fair, and the unwholsomeness of the air, which makes it a desart at all other times) all the persons concerned in the various branches of this extensive traffic assemble; and there is certainly no part of the world where business of such great importance is negotiated in so short a time. For in about a fortnight the fair is over; during which the display of the gold, silver, and precious stones, on the one hand, and of all the curiosity and variety of the ingenious fabrics of Europe on the other, is astonishing. Heaps of wedges and ingots of silver are tumbled about on the wharfs like common things. At this time an hundred crowns are given for a poor lodging, a thousand for a shop, and provision of every kind is proportionably dear; which may help us to some idea of the profits made in this trade. The treasure is brought hither from Panama, by a very dangerous road upon mules. The other goods, sugar, tobacco, and drugs, are transported on the river Chagra.
When the galleons have taken in their returns, they steer together to the Havanna, which is the place of rendezvous of all the ships concerned in the Spanish American trade.
The Havanna is the capital city of the island of Cuba. It is situated upon an excellent harbour upon the Western extremity of the island. This city is large, containing not less than two thousand houses, with a number of churches and convents; but then it is the only place of consequence upon the noble island of Cuba, which lies in the latitude 20, and extends from East to West near seven hundred miles in length, though in breadth it is disproportioned, being but from one hundred and twenty to seventy miles. However, it yields to no part of the West-Indies in the fertility of it's soil, or in excellence of every thing which is produced in that climate. But the Spaniards, by a series of the most inhuman and impolitic barbarities, having exterminated the original inhabitants; and not finding the quantities of gold in the islands which the continent afforded, they have left this as well as Hispaniola; of which the French now possess the greater part, and Porto Rico, a large, excellent, and fertile island, comparatively so many desarts. The commerce between these islands, and the Spanish continent, is carried on by the Barlevento fleet, consisting of six ships of good burthen and force, who annually make the tour of all these islands, and the coast of Terra Firma, not only to carry on the commerce between those places, but to clear the sea of pirates and illicit traders. Now and then a register ship from Old Spain is bound to one or other of these islands. Hitherto the Spaniards seemed rather to keep them, to prevent any other nation from growing too powerful in those seas, than for any profit they expected to derive from them. And it is certain, that if other nations should come entirely to possess the whole of the islands, the trade of the American continent, and perhaps the continent itself, would be entirely at their mercy. However, of late, the Spaniards have taken some steps towards the better settlement of Porto Rico. They are beginning to open the American trade to some other towns in Spain besides Cadiz. They have made a difference in point of duty between their own manufactures and those of foreigners. They are, in short, opening their eyes to the true interest of their country, and moving their hands, though slowly, to promote it.
Unto this time, the tide of wealth, that constantly flowed from America into Spain, ran through that kingdom like a hasty torrent, which, far from enriching the country, hurried away with it all the wealth which it found in it's passage. No country in Europe receives such vast treasures as Spain. In no country in Europe is seen so little money. The truth is, from the time that the Indies fell into the hands of Spain, the affairs of that monarchy have been constantly going backward. In America their settlements were carried on conformably to that genius, and to those maxims, which prevailed in their government in Europe. No means of retaining their conquests but by extirpating the people; no schemes for the advancement of trade; no attempts at the reformation of abuses, which became venerable in proportion to the mischiefs they had suffered by them. In government, tyranny; in religion, bigotry; in trade, monopoly.
When the Spaniards found, to their ambition which was boundless, that they had joined a treasure which was inexhaustible, they imagined there was nothing too vast for them to compass. They embraced a thousand projects at once; many of them noble ones in theory, but to be executed with different instruments in different parts of the world, and all at a vast expence of blood and treasure. The wars, which were the result of these schemes, and the Indies, which were to support them, were a continual drain, which carried off their people, and destroyed all industry in those who remained. The treasure which flowed in every year from the new world, found them in debt to every part of the old; for to the rest of their revenues they had forgot to add that, which is a great revenue itself, and the great support of all the others, oeconomy. On the contrary, an ill order in their finances at home, and a devouring usury abroad, swallowed up all their treasure, whilst they multiplied the occasions for it. With the best scheming heads in Europe, they were every where outwitted; with the bravest and best disciplined troops, they were almost always defeated; with the greatest treasures, they were in want; and their armies were ill provided, and ill paid. Their friends exhausted them by trade; their enemies by plunder. They saw new states arise out of the fragments of their dominions; and new maritime powers start up from the wrecks of their navy. In short, they provoked, troubled, and enriched all Europe; and at last desisted through mere want of strength. They were inactive, but not quiet; and they were enervated as much by their laziness during this repose, as they had been weakened before by their ill-judged activity.
All this happened in a country, which abounded with men of capacity as much as any state in Europe, and often with men of great capacity at it's head. But their talents took a wrong turn; their politics were always more abroad than at home; more employed in weakening their neighbours, than in strengthening themselves. They were wise in the concerns of foreign courts; they were satisfied with being formal in their own domestic business. They relied too much upon their riches; and the whble state, being moulded into a system of corruption from the top to the bottom, things grew at last so bad, that the evils themselves became a sort of remedies; and they felt so severely the consequences of their former conduct, that they have for some years past turned their thoughts into a very good channel; and they may in time, and with perseverance, rise again, whilst others shall fall, by adopting the abuses which brought them to ruin.
At present the politics of Spain, with regard to America, seem to be; to preserve South America, and particularly the navigation of the South-Seas, as much as possible to themselves; to destroy effectually the counterband trade, and to encourage the export of their own manufactures. Of us they have long shewn a remarkable jealousy; a much greater than of the French, whom they see quietly settling in the neighbourhood of New Mexico; and who are growing certainly in the West-Indies in a far greater degree than we are. I shall not pretend to account for this distinction.
PART IV. The Portuguese Settlements.
CHAP. I.
IT is very rare that any material discovery, whether in the arts, in philosophy, or in navigation, has been owing to efforts made dirctly for that partreicular purpose, and determined by the force of reasonings
a priori.
The first hints are owing to accident; and discoveries in one kind present themselves voluntarily to us, whilst we are in search of what flies from us in some other. The discovery of America by Columbus was owing originally to a just reasoning on the figure of the earth; though the particular land he discovered was far enough from that which he sought. Here was a mixture of wise design and fortunate accident; but the Portuguese discovery of Brazil may be considered as merely accidental. For sailing with a considerable armament to India, by the way of the Cape of Good Hope, but standing out to sea to avoid the calms upon the coast of Africa, the Portuguese fleet fell in upon the continent of South America. Upon their return they made so favourable a report of the land they had discovered, that the court resolved to send a colony thither. And accordingly made their first establishment; but in a very bad method, in which it were to be wished they had never been imitated. This was by banishing thither a number of criminals of all kinds. This blended an evil disposition with the first principles of the colony, and made the settlement infinitely difficult by the disorders inseperable from such people, and the offence which they gave the original inhabitants. This settlement met some interruption too from the court of Spain, who considered the country as within their dominions. However, matters were accommodated by a treaty, in which it was agreed, that the Portuguese should possess all that tract of land that lies between the river Maranon, or of the Amazons, and the river Plate.
When their right was thus confirmed, the Portuguese pursued the settlement with great vigour. Large grants were made to those who were inclined to become adventurers; and almost all the nobility of Portugal proured interests in a country which promised such great advantages. The natives were in most parts subdued, and the improvement of the colony advanced apace. The crown in a little time became attentive to so valuable an acquisition; the government was new modelled, many of the exorbitant grants recalled, and all things settled upon so advantageous a footing, that the whole sea coast, upwards of two thousand miles, was in some measure settled, to the honour of the industry and courage of the first planters, and infinitely to the benefit of the mother country. The Portuguese conquests on the coast of Africa forwarded this establishment, by the number of negroes it afforded them for their works; and this was the first introduction of negroes into America, of which at present they form a large part of the inhabitants.
In the very meridian of their prosperity, when the Portuguese were in possession of so extensive an empire, and so flourishing a trade in Africa, in Arabia, in India, in the isles of Asia, and in one of the most valuable parts of America, they were struck down by one of those incidents, that at one blow, in a critical time, decides the fate of kingdoms. Don Sebastian, one of their greatest princes, in an expedition he had undertaken against the Moors, lost his life; and by that accident the Portuguese lost their liberty, being absorbed into the Spanish dominions.
Soon after this misfortune, the same yoke that galled the Portuguese, grew so intolerable to the inhabitants of the Netherlands, that they threw it off with great fury and indignation. Not satisfied with erecting themselves into an independent state, and supporting their independency by a successful defensive war, flushed with the juvenile ardor of a growing commonwealth, they pursued the Spaniards into the remotest recesses of their extensive territories, and grew rich, powerful, and terrible, by the spoils of their former masters. Principally, they fell upon the possessions of the Portuguese; they took almost all their fortresses in the East-Indies, not sufficiently defended by the inert policy of the court of Spain; and then turned their arms upon Brazil, unprotected from Europe, and betrayed by the cowardice of the governor of the then principal city. And they would have overrun the whole, if Don Michael de Texeira, the archbishop, descended from one of the noblest families in Portugal, and of a spirit superior to his birth, had not believed, that in such an emergency, the danger of his country superseded the common obligations of his profession. He took arms, and at the head of his monks, and a few scattered forces, put a stop to the torrent of the Dutch conquest. He made a gallant stand until succours arrived; and then resigned the commission with which the public necessity and his own virtue had armed him, into the hands of a person appointed by authority. By this stand he saved seven of the captainships, or provinces, out of fourteen, into which Brazil is divided; the rest fell into the hands of the Dutch, who conquered and kept them with a bravery and conduct, which would deserve more applause; if it had been governed by humanity.
The famous captain, prince Maurice of Nassau, was the person to whom the Dutch owed this conquest, the establishment of their colony there, and that advantageous peace which secured them in it. But as it is the genius of all mercantile people to desire a sudden profit in all their designs; and as this colony was not under the immediate inspection of the States, but subject to the company called the West-India company, from principles narrowed up by avarice and mean notions, they grudged that the present profits of the colony should be sacrificed to it's future security. They found, that the prince kept up more troops, and erected more fortresses, than they thought necessary to their safety; and that he lived in a grander manner than they thought became one in their service. They imagined that a little official oeconomy was the principal quality necessary to form a great conqueror and politician; and therefore they were highly displeased with their governor prince Maurice, whom they treated in such a manner as obliged him to resign.
Now their own schemes took place. A reduction of the troops; the expence of fortications saved; the charge of a court retrenched; the debts of the company strictly exacted; their gains increased cent per cent, and every thing flourishing according to their best ideas of a flourishing state. But then, all this fine system in a short time ended in the total loss of all their capital, and the entire ruin of the West-India company. The hearts of subjects were lost by their penurious way of dealing, and the severity of their proceedings. The enemy in their neighbourhood was encouraged by the defenceless state of their frontiers, and both operated in such a manner, that Brazil was reconquered by the Portuguese; though after a struggle, in which the States exerted themselves vigorously; but with that aggravated expence, and that ill success, which always attends a late wisdom, and the patching up a blundering system of conduct. A standing lesson to those people who have the folly to imagine they consult the happiness of a nation, when by a pretended tenderness for some of it's advantages, they neglect the only things that can support it, the cultivating the good opinion of the people, and the keeping up a proper force.
CHAP. II.
THE name of Brazil was given to this country, because it was observed to abound with a wood of that name. It extends all along a tract of fine sea coast upon the Atlantic ocean upwards of two thousand miles, between the river of Amazons on the North, and that of Plate on the South. To the Northward the climate is uncertain, hot, boisterous, and unwholsome. The country, both there, and even in more temperate parts, is annually overflowed. But to the Southward, beyond the tropic of Capricorn, and indeed a good way within it, there is no part of the world that enjoys a more serene and wholsome air; refreshed with the soft breezes of the ocean on one hand, and the cool breath of the mountains on the other. Hither several aged people from Portugal retire for their health, and protract their lives to a long and easy age.
In general, the soil is extremely fruitful, and was found very sufficient for the comfortable subsistence of the inhabitants, until the mines of gold and diamonds were discovered. These, with the sugar plantations, occupy so many hands, that agriculture lies neglected; and in consequence Brazil depends upon Europe for it's daily bread.
The chief commodities which this country yields for a foreign market are, sugar, tobacco, hides, indigo, ipecacuanha, balsam of Copaibo, and brazil wood. The last article, as it in a more particular manner belongs to this country, to which it gives it's name, and which produces it in the greatest perfection, it is not amiss to allow a very little room to the description of it. This tree generally flourishes in rocky and barren grounds, in which it grows to a great height, and considerable thickness. But a man who judges of the quantity of the timber, by the thickness of the tree, will be much deceived; for upon stripping off the bark, which makes a very large part of the plant, he will find from a tree as thick as his body, a log no more in compass than his leg. This tree is generally crooked, and knotty like the hawthorn, with long branches, and a smooth green leaf, hard, dry, and brittle. Thrice a year bunches of small flowers shoot out at the extremities of the branches, and between the leaves. These flowers are of a bright red, and of a strong aromatic and refreshing smell. The wood of this tree is of a red colour, hard and dry. It is used chiefly in dying red, but not a red of the best kind; and it has some place in medicine as a stomachic and restringent.
CHAP III,
THE trade of Brazil is very great, and it increases every year. Nor is this a wonder; since they have opportunities of supplying themselves with slaves for their several works, at a much easier and cheaper rate than any other European power, which has settlements in America. For they are the only European nation which has taken the pains to establish colonies in Africa. Those of the Portuguese are very considerable, both for their extent and the numbers of their inhabitants; and of course they have advantages in that trade which no other nation can have. For besides their large establishment on the Western shore of Africa, they claim the whole coast of Zanguebar on the Eastern side, which in part they possess; besides several other large territories, both on the coast and in the country; where several numerous nations acknowledge themselves their dependants or subjects. This is not only of great advantage to them, as it increases their shipping and seamen, and strengthens their commercial reputation, but as it leaves them a large field for their slave trade; without which, they could hardly ever supply, upon any tolerable terms, their settlements in Brazil, which carry off such numbers by the severity of the works, and the unwholsomeness of some part of the climate; nor could they otherwise extend their plantations, and open so many new mines as they do, to a degree which is astonishing.
I own I have often been surprized, that our African traders should chuse so contracted an object for their slave trade, which extends to little more than some part of the Gold coast, to Sierra Leone, and Gambia, and some other inconsiderable ports; by which they have depreciated their own commodities, and raised the price of slaves within these few years above thirty per cent. Nor is it to be wondered; as in the tract, in which they trade, they have many rivals; the people are grown too expert by the constant habit of European commerce; and the slaves in that part are in a good measure exhausted; whereas, if some of our vessels passed the Cape of Good Hope, and tried what might be done in Madagascar,or on those coasts which indeed the Portuguese claim, but do not, nor cannot hold, there is no doubt but that they would find the greater expence and length of time in passing the Cape, or the charge of licences which might be procured from the East-India company, amply compensated. Our African trade might then be considerably enlarged, our own manufactures extended, and our colonies supplied at an easier rate than they are at present, or are likely to be for the future, whilst we confine ourselves to two or three places, which we exhaust, and where we shall find the market dearer every day. The Portuguese from these settlements, and this extensive range, draw every year into Brazil between forty and fifty thousand slaves. On this trade all their other depends, and therefore they take great care to have it well supplied, for which purpose the situation of Brazil, nearer the coast of Africa than any other part of America, is very convenient; and it co-operates with the great advantages they derive from having colonies in both places.
Hence it is principally, that Brazil is the richest, most flourishing, and most growing establishment in all America. Their export of sugar within forty years is grown much greater than it was, though anciently it made almost the whole of their exportable produce, and they were without rivals in the trade. It is finer in kind than what any of ours, the French, or Spanish sugar plantations send us. Their tobacco too is remarkably good, though not raised in so large a quantity as in our colonies. The Northern and Southern part of Brazil abounds in horned cattle; these are hunted for their hides, of which no less than twenty thousand are sent annually into Europe.
The Portuguese were a considerable time possessed of their American empire, before they discovered the treasures of gold and diamonds, which have since made it so considerable. After the expulsion of the Dutch, the colony remained without much attention from the court of Portugal; until in 1685, a minister of great sagacity advised the then monarch to turn his thoughts to so valuable and considerable a part of his territories. He represented to him, that the climate in the bay of All Saints, where the capital stood, was of such a nature as to deaden the activity and industry of the people; but that the Northern and Southern extremities of Brazil in a more temperate climate, invited them to the cultivation of the country. The advice was taken. But because it was found that the insolence and tyranny of the native Portuguese always excited the hatred of the native Brazilians, and consequently obstructed the settlements, they were resolved to people the countries, which were now the object of their care, with those who are called Mestizes; that is, a race sprung from a mixture of Europeans and Indians, who they judged would behave better; and who, on account of their connection in blood, would be more acceptable to the Brazilians on the borders, who were not yet reduced. To compleat this design, they vested the government in the hands of priests, who acted each as governor in his own parish or district. And they had the prudence to chuse with great care such men as were proper for the work. The consequence of these wise regulations was soon apparent; for without noise or force, in fifteen years they not only settled the sea coast, but drawing in vast numbers of the natives, they spread themselves above an hundred miles more to the Westward than the Portuguese settlements had ever before extended. They opened several mines, which improved the revenues; the planters were easy, and several of the priests made no inconsiderable fortunes.
The fame of these new mines drew together a number of desperadoes and adventurers of all nations and colours, who not agreeing with the moderate and simple manners of the inhabitants of the new settlements, nor readily submitting to any order or restraint elsewhere, retired into a mountainous part of the country, but fertile enough, and rich in gold; where, by the accession of others in their own circumstances, they soon became a formidable and independent body, and for a long time defended the privileges they had assumed with great courage and policy. They were called Paulists, from the town and district called St. Paul, which was their head quarters. But as this odd commonwealth grew up in so unccountable a manner, so it perished in a manner altogether unknown in this part of the world. It is now heard of no longer. The king of Portugal is in full possession of the whole country; and the mines are worked by his subjects and their slaves, paying him a fifth. These mines have poured almost as much gold into Europe as the Spanish America had of silver.
Not many years after the discovery of the gold mines, Brazil, which for a century had been given up as a place incapable of yielding the metals for which America was chiefly valued, was now found to produce diamonds too; but at first of so unpromising a nature, that the working of the mines was forbidden by the court of Portugal, lest without making any compensation by their number, they might depreciate the trade which was carried on in these stones from Goa. But in spite of this prohibition, a number were from time to time smuggled from Brazil; and some too of such great weight, and high lustre, and transparency, that they yielded very little to the finest brought from India. The court now perceived the importance of the trade, and accordingly resolved to permit it, but under such restrictions as might be sufficiently beneficial to the crown and subject; and at the same time preserve the jewels in that scarcity which makes the principal part of their value. In 1740 the diamond mines were farmed at one hundred and thirty-eight thousand crusadoes, or about twenty-six thousand pounds sterling annually, with a prohibition against employing more than six hundred slave at a time in the works. It is probable that this regulation is not very strictly complied with, the quantity of diamonds is much increased, and their value of course sunk since that time. It is true, that diamonds of the very first rank are nearly as dear as ever. None of the diamonds of Brazil have so high a lustre as the first rate of Gol
nda; and they have generally something of a dusky yellowish cast; but they have been found of a prodigious size. Some years ago we had an account in the news papers of one sent to the king of Portugal, of a size and weight almost beyond the bounds of credibility; for it was said to weigh sixteen hundred carats, or six thousand seven hundred and twenty grains; and consequently must be worth several millions.
CHAP. IV.
THE trade of Portugal is carried on upon the same exclusive plan, on which the several nations of Europe trade with their colonies of America; and it more particularly resembles the Spanish method, by sending out not single ships, as the conveniency of the several places, and the ideas of the European merchants may direct; but by annual fleets which sail at stated times from Portugal, and compose three flotas bound to as many ports in Brazil; to Fernambucca, in the Northern part; Rio Janeiro, at the Southern extremity; and the bay of All Saints in the middle. In this last is the capital, which is called St. Salvador, where all the fleets rendezvous on their return to Portugal. This city commands a noble, spacious, and commodious harbour. It is built upon an high and steep rock, having the sea upon one side, and a lake forming a crescent, investing it almost wholly, so as nearly to join the sea on the other. This situation makes it in a manner impregnable by nature; but they have besides added to it very strong fortifications. All these make it the strongest place in America. It is divided into an upper and lower town. The lower consists only of a street or two, immediately upon the harbour, for the convenience of lading and unlading goods, which are drawn up to the higher town by machines. The streets in the upper town are laid out as regularly as the ground will admit, and are handsomely built. They had forty years ago in this city above two thousand houses, and inhabitants proportionable; a sumptuous cathedral; several magnificent churches; and many convents, well built and endowed. The Portuguese fleet sets out from Lisbon in it's voyage hither in the month of February.
I can get no accounts, precise enough to be depended upon, of the towns of Fernambucca, or Parayba, and the capital of the Rio de Janeiro, to enable me to be particular about them. Let it suffice that the fleet for the former of these sets outs in March; and for the latter in the month of January; but they all rendezvous in the bay of All Saints, to the number of an hundred sail of large ships, about the month of May or June, and carry to Europe a cargo little inferior in value to the treasures of the flota and galleons. The gold alone amounts to near four millions sterling. This is not all extracted from the mines of Brazil; but as they carry on a large direct trade with Africa, they bring, especially from their settlement at Mozambique, on the Eastern side of that continent besides their slaves, vast quantities of gold, ebony and ivory, which goes into the amount of the cargo of the Brazil fleets for Europe. Those parts of Brazil which yield gold, are the middle and Northern parts on the Rio Janeiro and Bay of All Saints. They coin a great deal of the gold in America; that which is coined at Rio Janeiro bears an R, that which is struck at the Bay is marked with a B.
To judge the better of the riches of this Brazil fleet, the diamonds it contains must not be forgot. For if the mines rented to the crown in the year 1740, at twenty-six thousand pounds a year, it will be a very small allowance to say, that at least five times more is made out of them; and that there is returned to Europe in diamonds to at least the value of one hundred and thirty thousand pounds. This, with the sugar, which is principally the cargo of the Fernambucca fleet, the tobacco, the hides, the valuable drugs for medicine and manufactures, may give some idea of the importance of this trade, not only to Portugal, but to all the trading powers of Europe. The returns are not the fiftieth part of the produce of Portugal. They consist of the woollen goods of all kinds of England, France, and Holland, the linens and laces of Holland, France, and Germany; the silks of France and Italy; lead, tin, iron, copper, and all sorts of utensils wrought in these metals from England; as well as salt-fish, beef, flour, and cheese. Oil they have from Spain. Wine, with some fruits, is nearly all with which they are supplied from Portugal.
Though the profits in this trade are great, very few Portuguese merchants trade upon their own stocks; they are generally credited by the foreign merchants, whose commodities they vend, especially the English. In short, though in Portugal, as in Spain, all trade with their plantations is strictly interdicted to strangers; yet, like all regulations that contradict the very nature of the object they regard, they are here as little attended to as in Spain. The Portuguese is only the trustee and factor; but his fidelity is equal to that of the Spanish merchant; and that has scarce ever been shaken by any public or private cause whatsoever. A thing surprising in the Portuguese; and a striking instance amongst a people so far from remarkable for their integrity, of what a custom originally built upon a few examples, and a consequent reputation built upon that, will be able to effect in succession of men of very different natural characters and morals. And so different is the spirit of commercial honesty from that of justice, as it is an independent virtue, and influences the heart.
The English at present are the most interested, both in the trade of Portugal for home consumption, and of what they want for the use of the Brazils. And they deserve to be most favoured, as well from the services they have always done that crown, and from the stipulations of treaties, as from the consideration that no other people consumes so much of the products of Portugal. However, partly from our own supineness, partly from the policy and activity of France, and partly from the fault of the Portuguese themselves, the French have become very dangerous rivals to us in this, as in most other branches of our trade. It is true, that though the French have advanced so prodigiously, and that there is a spirit of industry and commerce raised in most countries in Europe, our exports of manufactures, or natural products, have by no means lessened within these last forty years; which can only be explained by the extending our own, and the Spanish and Portuguese colonies, which increases the general demand. But though it be true, that we have rather advanced than declined in our commerce upon the whole, yet we ought to take great care not to be deceived by this appearance. For if we have not likewise advanced in as great a proportion to what we were before that period, and to our means since then, as our neighbours have done in proportion to theirs, as I apprehend we have not, then, I say, we have comparatively declined; and shall never be able to preserve that great superiority in commerce, and that distinguished rank of the first commercial and maritime power in Europe, time must be essential to preserve us in any degree, either of commerce or power. For if any other power of a more extensive and populous territory than ours, should come to rival us in trade and wealth, he must come of necessity to give law to us in whatever relates either to trade or policy. Notwithstanding that, the want of capacity in the ministers of such a power, or the indolence of the sovereign, may protract the evil for a time, it will certainly be felt in the end, and will shew us demonstratively, though too late, that we must have a great superiority in trade, not only to ourselves formerly, but to our neighbours at present, to have any at all which is likely to continue with us for a long time.
CHAP. V.
THE pourtrait which the most judicious travellers give us of the manners and customs of the Portuguese in America, is very far from being favourable to that people. They are represented as a people at once sunk into the most effeminate luxury, and practising the most desperate crimes. Of a dissembling hypocritical temper; of little honesty in dealing, or sincerity in conversation; lazy, proud, and cruel. They are poor and penurious in their diet, not more through necessity than inclination. For, like the inhabitants of most Southern climates, they are much more fond of shew, state, and attendance, than of the joys of free society, and the satisfactions of a good table, Yet their feasts, seldom made, are sumptuous to extravagance.
The luxury, indolence, pride, and cruelty of the masters, has, amongst other causes, been very justly attributed to their being bred up amongst slaves, having every business entirely done by such; and to their being permitted to keep a prodigious number of negroes, not for their field work, nor for domestic employments, but merely to wait upon them, and to form their train. These become more corrupted than their masters, who make them the instruments of their crimes; and giving them an unbounded and scandalous licence, employ them whenever they want to terrify or revenge, as bullies and assassins. And indeed nothing can be conceived more fit to create the worst disorders, than the unnatural junction of slavery to idleness, and a licentious way of living. They are all suffered to go armed, and there are vast numbers who have merited or bought their freedom; and this is suffered in a country where the negroes are ten to one.
But this picture, perhaps too highly coloured for those whom it is intended to represent, is by no means applicable to all the Portuguese of Brazil. Those by the Rio Janeiro, and in the Northern captainships, are not near so effeminate and corrupted as those of the Bay of All Saints, which being in a climate favourable to indolence and debauchery, the capital city, and one of the oldest settlements, is in all respects worse than any of the others.
The government of Brazil is in the viceroy, who resides at St. Salvador. He has two councils, one for criminal, the other for civil affairs; in both which he presides. But, to the infinite prejudice of the settlement, all the delay, chicanery, and multiplied expences incident to the worst part of the law, and practised by the most corrupted lawyers, flourish here; at the same time that justice is so lax, that the greatest crimes often pass with impunity. Formerly the judges could not legally punish any Portuguese with death. And it is not difficult to imagine, how much such a licence in such a country, must have contributed to a corruption, that it may be the business of successions of good magistrates, and ages of good discipline, to restore to soundness. Upon the river of Amazons, the people, who are mostly Indians, and reduced by the priests sent thither, are still under the government of these pastors. The several divisions of this country are called missions.
As the Portuguese have been once dispossessed of this country by the Dutch, and once endangered by the French, their misfortunes and dangers have made them wise enough to take very effectual measures for their future security. St. Salvador is a very strong fortification; they have others that are not contemptible; besides a good number of European regular troops, of which there are two regiments in St. Salvador. The militia too is regimented, amongst whom they reckon some bodies of Indians, and free negroes; and indeed at present Brazil seems to be in as little danger as the settlements of any power of America, not only from their own internal strength, their remoteness, and the intolerable heat and unhealthiness of a great part of the climate, but from the interest that most of the states in Europe who are concerned in that trade, have to keep it in the hands of the Portuguese.
End of the FIRST VOLUME.