t

Who is ignorant of the eagerness with which perturbators of all denominations endeavour to engage the slave population in the accomplishment of their desperate plans. Have we not seen Carvalho exciting the basest passions, and confederating in his cause the vilest wretches in America, in order to substitute the most frightful anarchy for a legitimate, paternal and truly constitutional government? Has he not been seen threatening to let loose the enemy and the slaves upon the peaceful population who suffered under his preposterous tyranny? What a specimen of the fate which awaited the federation of the equator!

Brasil will experience less opposition than any other states in the emancipation of her slaves. The Brasilian slave, treated with humanity, enjoying advantages unknown to the slaves of the European colonies, has no reason to cherish against his master that feeling of hatred and revenge which, in the English, French, and Dutch colonies, has more than once endangered the lives of the whites. In Brasil the laws extend protection to the life of the slave, to the family ties which he has formed, and to the little property which he has acquired. From such a state of things the transition is easy to that of citizenship. Such slaves are easily convertible into docile and industrious peasants.

It is advisable to begin with the execution of some wise plans of emancipation; either of that we have proposed or any other preferable to it: above all it will be requisite to forbid the continued importation of slaves, and to prevent the number being daily aug

{mented by victims who bring with them feelings of hatred against all whites, and of revenge against their oppressors. Let Brasil, in this respect, imitate the other states of the union, and we have no doubt that without violence, without convulsions, without injury to the interests of the present proprietors, she will prudently and slowly, but effectually, accomplish the extinction of slavery; a scourge which threatens its internal security, and which, in the event of a foreign attack, would present the most formidable danger to which it could be exposed.

SKETCHES AND LITERARY REPORT.

Ancient unpublished History of Mexico, extracted from the "Ocios des Espagnolas Emigrados.”

We have read in a recent number of the above Spanish Magazine, published in London, a very curi➡ › ous and interesting account of Mexico, written in less than half a century after its conquest, as follows:

The work was composed in Mexico by a Spanish monk of the order of Fratres Minores, and two copies of it were sent to Spain, one of which was deposited in the Franciscan convent of Sahagun. This copy, after being long neglected, was some time ago discovered, and consulted by a Spanish author of the name of Munoz, when writing a history of the New World. It afterwards passed, along with the manuscripts of this author, into the hands of the Secretary of State for the Indies, and by him was deposited in the library of the Academy of History at Madrid. One of the writers of the Ocios-a very learned man and a member of the late Corteswho was employed to make a literary survey of the contents and religious houses of Spain, has given us this analysis. and assures us that the copy of the work from which he has taken it agrees exactly with the manuscript transmitted from Mexico two centuries and a half ago. The work was originally written in the Mexican language about the year 1545, and translated into the Spanish language in 1575. The author states the difficulty he had in composing it in a language which had till then neither letter nor writings. His object was to facilitate to the ministers of the Catholic religion the discharge of their duties, by instructing them in the customs,

men.

arts, literature, language, religion, genius, virtues, and vices of the native Mexicans, among whom they preached. Never was a juster estimate formed of the atrocities inflicted on these poor creatures by his countrymen, and never was a sense of them more forcibly expressed than in the language which he quotes and uses. "I, Friar Bernardino de Sahagun," says he, have written these twelve books of the divine things, or rather of the idolatrous, human, and natural history of Mexico. This work will be of great service in making known the character of the Mexican race-a race which has not excited sufficient attention, because there fell upon them the curse which Jeremiah the Prophet denounced against Jerusalem:Lo! I will bring a nation upon you from afar; it is a mighty nation; it is an ancient nation—a nation whose language thou knowest not, neither understandest what they say. Their quiver is an open sepulchre: They are all mighty And they shall eat up thy harvest they shall destroy thy sons and thy daughters, thy people, and thy dwellings. This has literally happened to the Indians by the Spaniards." They were so trampled down and destroyed themselves, and every thing belonging to them, that they now retain no trace of what they once were. We know, by the accounts transmitted from former times, that they were skilled in the mechanical arts: we now see that they have an aptitude in learning the liberal arts, and for acquiring the science of theology. How able they are to endure hunger, thirst, cold, and toil; and what progress they had made in the arts of war, we' know by experience." Friar Bernardino, in a preface of which the above-cited passage is a specimen, describes the ancient population of Mexico, and traces it back five hundred years before the Christian era, to the famous city of Tulla, which would appear to have had the same fate and to be connected with the same fabulous history as the city of Troy. But whence did Friar Bernardino derive this history, real or fictitious, as the people of whom he writes possessed neither

book, nor the knowledge of letters? The Monk does not conceal his sources of information. He began his work, he tells us, in the Mexican language, in the town of Tepepule, having selected, by the consent of the Governor, twelve of the oldest Indians, possessing the greatest reputation for probity. To this learned junta he daily propounded questions for the space of two years, and the replies which they gave in words were ratified by picture writing, which was interpreted in three languages, Mexican, Latin, and Spanish, by persons in whom he had entire confidence. These persons wrote their interpretation at the foot of the picture; and "I (says the Friar) still possess the originals." This labour of historical acquisition he continued in other places, and thus collected the mass of facts, true or fabulous, with which he fills the twelve books of his work. We are sorry that we have not room to enumerate, after the learned writer in the Magazine, all the contents of these books; but the following will satisfy our readers that they may find in the articles much amusement and instruction. The first book treats of the divinities worshipped by the Mexicans, and is divided into as many chapters as there are Mexican gods-the whole number being twenty-two. These gods are made to correspond in general attributes with the fabulous beings who peopled Olympus. The Mexican worshippers must have found it easier than us to pronounce such names as the following:-Vitzilobeechtle (Hercules), Xuithecutle (Vulcan), and Chachiuhtlyace (Juno) or they must have become like Horace

"Parcus Deorum cultor et infrequens."

"Even the enticing name of Venus, Tlazultentl, must sound repulsive through any but a Mexican windpipe.

"The second book contains twenty-eight chapters, and treats of the calendar, feasts, ceremonies, and solemnities of of the ancient Mexicans, Their month consisted twenty days, divided into four weeks of five days each; their months were VOL. I. No. 2.

PP