Hubert Howe Bancroft

“ From the living, the dying, and the dead, the clothes are torn. The store rooms are ransacked and the treasures carried off, the plunderers fighting among themselves for the spoils. What a sight is here, oh God! and all for liberty, all for tyranny; liberty or tyranny among some, with others, glory, gold, or plunder—among all with more or less of that horrid gratification a bloodhound feels as it tears its victim limb from limb and scatters around the bloody fragments. Blood! blood and mangled humanity everywhere. ”

“ A grain of sand gives no conception of the earth, nor a drop of water of the sea, nor the soft breathing of an infant of a hurricane; yet worlds are made of atoms, and seas of drops of water, and storms of angry air-breaths. Though modern Mexico can boast a century more of history than the northern nations of America, as compared with the illimitable future her past is but a point of time. ”

“ A feeling of suffocation and deathly despair comes over the Spaniards as the dusky host fold them in closer and yet fiercer embrace. Hot falls the blood-reeking breath upon their faces, as, flushed with success and sure of their victims, the foe lay hold of the Spaniards to drag them away to the sacrifice. Rare offerings to the gods, indeed, are these magnificent men! And such they will surely become if Mary, Santiago, or the ready genius of Cortés appears not quickly to the rescue! ”

“ The thirst for wealth, the enthusiasm of religion, the love of glory, united with reckless daring and excessive loyalty, formed the most powerful incentives to action. Life to them without the attainment of their object was valueless; they would do or die; for to die in doing was life, whereas to live failing was worse than death. Cortés felt all this, though it scarcely lay on his mind in threads of tangible thought. ”

“ How different the quality of these two men, Velazquez and Grijalva, and both so widely different from the phœnix now about to rise from their ashes! The character of the governor was like a candle flame, hot without and hollow within. Almost as much as gold lie loved glory, the brass and tinsel of it, but lacked both the ability and the courage to achieve noble distinction. As easily worked upon by designing men as Othello, there was in him none of the nobility of the Moor; and, possessing no great integrity himself, he was very ready to suspect treachery in others. ”

“ Greatness is but another name for good fortune. Circumstances certainly did as much for Cortés in promoting success as Spanish arms and superior civilization.
Civilization! What fools we are, pluming ourselves in its radiance, the radiance of ghastly electrical lights, adopted instead of the glorious sun of nature. For is not the unartificial nature, and nature God, while artifice is rather of the devil? And yet we persist in glorifying artifice and calling it deity. The human sacrifice of the Aztecs was a horrible rite, but in the hands of the Spaniards is not Christianity a bloody mistress? ”

“ Struck on the summit of Tlatelulco temple, the sounds float over the contestants, sending a chill into the heart of the Spaniards and allies as they rush onward filled with visions of success. To the Mexicans, on the other hand, it comes as a magic appeal from Huitzilopochtli, stirring their spirit with fresh energy: a resistless appeal to make a supreme effort for imperilled home, and faith, and liberty. ”

“ Half the world are in arms. The few are fighting to be master; the many are struggling to be free. The result is predetermined.
In Mexico opinion is becoming somewhat clarified; ideas are coalescing and action concentrating, particularly in the capital. And yet all is dim and indistinct enough. The leaven of liberty is working; but beware the fangs of superstition, beware the sword of Spain, beware the dungeons of the inquisition and tortures beyond the grave! And where shall be found a leader? Here is opportunity; where is the man?
Perhaps through Iturrigaray's brain run ambitious dreams. ”

“ One alone is said to have surrendered. The rest, inspired by the presence of the idols, spat defiance. It was their last effort, for the next moment the torch was applied, and enfolding the building, the flames drove the besieged, frenzied with terror and excitement, upon the line of pikes inclosing them, or head-foremost down the dizzy heights. To the last could be seen a priest upon the highest pinnacle, enveloped in smoke and glare, declaiming against the idols for having abandoned them, and shouting: "Now, Tlascala, thy heart has its revenge! Speedily shall Montezuma have his!" ”

“ Montezuma came out of one of the chapels to welcome them, expressing a fear that they must have been fatigued by the ascent, but Cortés hastened to assure him that Spaniards never tired. Calling their attention to the view here afforded of the city and its surroundings, he stood silent for a while to let the beauteous vision work its own enchantment. Around on every side spread the lake and its connecting waters, bordered with prairies and fields. Forests and towns intermingled on the green carpet, and extended far away till they disappeared in the shadows of the hills. ”

“ Hidalgo was mild and moderate in all his actions and expressions. He could make allowances for the temper of the soldier, and for so good a soldier as Allende, and one engaged in so noble a cause; he could even forgive the unjust reproaches of a friend, but he could not forget the sad failure, the lost cause—no! it was not lost. As sure as the sun continued to rise and set, the grito de Dolores would never cease ringing throughout the land till Mexico was free!
The deposition of Abasolo displayed the character of that leader as one of the most pusillanimous. ”

“ In regard to material impositions, probably one of the most outrageous as well as most absurd within the range of European colonization was that which denaturalized the son of the Spaniard born in America. What ridiculous nonsense for reasonable beings to act upon, not to say believe in, that the blood of him of pure Spanish parentage who first saw the light under the clear skies of the New World should thereby be politically and socially debased! Such was the royal edict, and to the end that all in Mexico might the more and forever be bound body and soul to Spain. ”

“ Cortés' brain was in a whirl during that ride. It was a horrible thing, this hanging of Spaniards, cutting off feet, and flogging. Viewed in one light it was but a common piece of military discipline; from another stand-point it was the act of an outlaw. The greater part of the little army was with the commander; to this full extent the men believed in him, that on his valor and discretion they would adventure their lives. With most men beliefs are but prejudices, and opinions tastes. These Spaniards not only believed in their general, but they held to a most impetuous belief in themselves. ”

“ Why does not the earth swallow you alive? Oh ye gods! ye gods! unmoved all, all but the devilish gods of these devilish men. But our mighty ones, whom you have outraged, shall yet give you your deserts. If they do not, we shall; nor shall they escape, the despicable ones of Tlascala, your slaves, who serve you as women and hire out the wives of their lords!" Thus raved the heart-broken.
So critical had become his condition on the second day that Alvarado appealed to Montezuma to exert his influence to stay the assailants, intimating that if the Spaniards perished so would the Aztec king. ”

“ The conquest of Mexico was less a subjugation by Spanish soldiers than their skilful manœuvring of New World forces against one another. Had Anáhuac been united it would have succumbed less readily, perhaps never. As it was, while the native nations were slaying each other, fighting out their ancient feuds, the astute Spaniards laid their all-possessing hand upon the country.
Nor was any apology on their part needed before christendom. Mankind to this day have not become so humane and just as not to find excuse for any wrong within the realms of strength and inclination. ”

“ Many a patriot's heart beat high with indignation at the sight of the invaders, while others felt a creeping fear akin to that of the spectators of yore at the winding march of pagan processions round the temple pyramids, from whose summits were to rise the agony shrieks of human victims and the fumes of blood.
With his usual evanescent energy Santa Anna had bestirred himself to meet the threatening danger, by
Valley of Mexico placing Mexico in a state of defence as the coming centre of action. ”

“ We have seen Cortés as a brave soldier, an able general, and astute diplomat; we have beheld him deluding his patron, manipulating to his own purpose the conflicting elements of a horde of adventurers, pitting one people against another to fight his battles or neutralize dangers, and leading his soldiers through strife and hardships to the overthrow of a great empire. Glimpses even of statesmanship we have had in his creation of municipalities, his acts of king-making, and his regulations for the army, which tend in no wise to diminish our admiration for the man. ”

“ Forgetting his prudence, Cortés expressed his wonder to Montezuma that so great and wise a prince should worship abominable demons like these. "Let me but plant a cross on this summit," he said, "and within the chapel place an image of the virgin, and you shall behold the fear of the idols." The eyes of the priests were at this aflame with anger, and the emperor could hardly suppress his indignation as he replied, "Malinche, had I suspected that such insults were to be offered, I would not have shown you my gods. They are good; they give us health, sustenance, victory, and whatever we require. ”

“ Three great nations do not ally themselves merely to demand from a fourth in her distress satisfaction for grievances; their object is to extend a friendly hand, to lift without humbling. The suspicion that they will impair independence is absurd. They come to see, and if necessary, to uphold the regeneration of Mexico; to be present at her reorganization, without in any wise interfering in her form of government, or in her internal administration. ”

“ While in the dire embrace of heathen hordes, midst thrust and slash and crash of steel and stone, the enemy hewn down and driven back only to give place to thrice the number, behold, upon a gray-spotted steed, a heavenly horseman appeared, and from a slight eminence overlooking the bloody field he frowned confusion on the foe. The heathen warriors were stricken powerless, enabling the Spaniards to form anew; but when the horseman vanished, the Indians rallied. ”

“ When an humble navigator discovered a new world, or a nameless cavalier conquered a considerable portion of it at his own cost and in the name of the king, laying it at the sovereign's feet, with all its wealth of gold and pearls, and land and vassals, it was an undetermined question how much of it belonged to the monarch and how much to the discoverer and conqueror, and it is not at all strange that opinion should be divided on the subject. ”