Enraged at the little respect paid to his commands, Velasquez had reca urse to the court of Spain, and, notwithstanding the presents which had been despatched thither by Cortez, had influence sufficient to prevent him from being confirmed in the command in Mexico which he had taken upon himself, and was even authorized to force from him the government which he had usurped. He therefore fitted out a fleet of 11 ships and 7 small vessels, having on board 800 Spanish foot, 80 horse, and 12 pieces of cannon, and gave the command to Pamphilio de Narvaez; but the Spanish government sent several ecclesiastics and other officers along with Narvaez, to bring about a reconciliation, if possible, between the two commanders, and to prevent the danger which would necessarily accrue to the Spanish interest in those quarters from their animosity. While Cortez, by his dilatory measures, was endeavouring to gain time, Narvaez arrived upon the coast of Mexico. The governor who had been left at Vera Cruz was summoned to surrender; but, instead of complying with this demand, he sent those who had been employed to cite him, prisoners to Cortez. Narvaez nevertheless landed, and encamped near Zempaola. The ecclesiastics, who had been appointed by the Spanish government, in the meantime proceeded to Mexico. They did not succeed in the pacificatory object of their mission; Cortez found means to corrupt, not only the ecclesiastics themselves, but through them, the greater part of the soldiers and inferior officers of Narvaez. Leaving, therefore, in Mexico, 150 Spaniards, under the command of Pedro de Alverado, he marched towards the camp of Narvaez, and, trusting to the friends whom his gold had gained to his party, suddenly attacked it, and made Narvaez and his principal officers prisoners; the remainder threw down their arms, and by far the greater part of them voluntarily offered their services to him whom they had been sent to annihilate, and who thus found himself suddenly placed at the head of 1000 Spaniards.

Meanwhile, Alvarado conducted himself in his new office with all the insolence of deputed authority. A religious festival was to be celebrated in Mexico, in which it was usual for the nobles and common people to mix with freedom and mirth. Liberty had been obtained from Alvarado for the celebration of this festival; but, stimulated by the desire of plunder, under the old pretence of an intended conspiracy, the Spaniards suddenly fell upon the unsuspecting Mexicans, and put 2000 nobles to the sword. Exasperated by this unprovoked attack, the Mexicans ran to arms, and attacked the Spaniards. They were soon repulsed by the fire-arms and artillery; but had closely shut up the soldiers of Alvarado, who must soon have fallen victims to hunger, when the timely approach of Cortez, with 1000 foot and 100 horse, relieved them from their perilous situation. The Mexicans, however, had lost their veneration and fear of the strangers, and irritated afresh by the conduct of Cortez, they renewed their assault on the Spanish quarters; and although repulsed in every attack, yet, having cut off all communication with the surrounding country, the whole Spanish army was in the greatest danger of perishing by famine. emergency the emperor was brought forward upon the battlements, and forced to declare that his staying with the Spaniards was his own choice and not of restraint, that he was offended with his subjects for having taken up arms, and that he wished them to depart peaceably and leave the Spaniards unmolested. The Mexicans, convinced that this speech expressed not the sentiments of his own breast, but was dictated to him by others, answered it with a shower of arrows, and a general attack upon the Spanish quarters. Of the Spanish writers, some relate, that the subjects of

In this

Montezuma shot at him intentionally, and killed him with their arrows; others affirm that he was wounded by accident; while the Mexicans, with at least as much appearance of probability, assert that he was killed by the Spaniards in their subsequent retreat, when they found that they could not carry him off alive. Cortez was now convinced, that nothing remained for him but to force his way through the surrounding Mexicans. Dividing the booty, therefore, which he had acquired, among his men, and choosing for the purpose a dark and tempestuous night, he marched out with profound silence, but had not advanced far on the causey, which led through the lake to Yacuba, when he was attacked on all sides; his rear-guard, consisting of 200 or 300 Spaniards, and 1000 Tlascalans, were surrounded and cut to pieces, and it was with much difficulty that Cortez conducted the rest of his army to the farther side of the lake. They were now on the western side of the lake, and without halting longer than was absolutely necessary, they directed their march towards Tlascala; but were surprised to behold from the summit of a pass where they soon afterwards arrived, an immense army of Mexicans waiting their descent into the valley below. This army, as the Spanish historians assert, consisted of 200,000 men; and Cortez could not avoid an engagement, as his way lay through the valley where they were encamped. He, therefore, descended to the charge, and though the resistance was for some time obstinate, the discipline and arms of the Spaniards, and the seizure of the imperial standard, obtained for them a complete victory and immense spoils. All but Cortez now thought only of abandoning a country to the conquest of which they believed themselves unequal. Cortez, however, continued to collect around him the forces of all those chiefs who had entered into his alliance, and, having subdued several small states on the frontiers, he turned his whole attention to the reduction of the city of Mexico, rightly judging, that, were it in his power, the submission of the whole empire would soon follow. Being joined by 300 Spaniards from Jamaica and Cuba, he resolved to construct several vessels, that he might command the lake and support his army while it made the attack on Mexico by land. These vessels he made the Indians carry in pieces over land to the lake of Mexico, where they were put together and launched, and on board of each he put several Spaniards and a field-piece. He now approached the city with his whole army, consisting of about 900 Europeans, 18 field-pieces, and a very large body of confederate Indians. Different stratagems were used on both sides, with various success. Cortez himself was once made prisoner, and was not rescued without considerable difficulty. At length the Spaniards prevailed. Guatimozin, who had been elected emperor after the death of Montezuma, was made prisoner, with all his chief nobles; and the Mexicans, without farther resistance, submitted in silence to the Spanish yoke. In this siege, the Spanish historians acknowledge that no less than 100,000 of the natives fell by the sword, besides those who perished by famine and various other causes. The wealth acquired by Cortez in this war, and the magnificent presents which he transmitted to the Spanish emperor, had sufficient influence to procure for him the confirmation of the command in Mexico, by the title of governor and captain-general.

Cortez proved himself a merciless oppressor of the conquered Indians. If an Indian was suspected of having concealed his wealth, the most exquisite tortures were made use of to extort from him the disclosure of the place of concealment. With this view, the captive monarch himself and his chief minister were put to the torture. In every district of the Mexi

can empire the progress of the Spanish arms was traced in blood; but above all, the mines were made a source of destruction to the natives. Thousands of them, torn from their homes, and forced into the deadly caverns of a mine, perished through the unwholesomeness of their occupation, and excess of labour; and it was not till the country was almost become a desert by the destruction of its inhabitants, that the government of Old Spain began to think of restraining this licentious barbarity. Commissioners, at last, were sent from Spain, to inquire into the conduct of Cortez, but his rich presents silenced every inquirer. Again he was called to Spain to answer for his treatment of the natives; but the wealth which he carried along with him, procured him favour instead of punishment. He was indeed deprived of the civil power, but received magnificent grants of the finest parts of the empire, and a commission for making new discoveries and new conquests. He again departed for Mexico, and, at different times, fitted out expeditions for making discoveries in the Pacific. On these expeditions he lavished much treasure; but they were never attended with the expected success. Tired by so many disappointments, he returned to Old Spain, in the hope of being reimbursed for the expenses incurred by the several expeditions; but failing to bring with him his wonted presents, his representations were coldly listened to, and his grievances were never redressed. On the contrary, he was forbidden to return to Mexico, and was obliged to spend the remainder of his days at court in Old Spain, where he died on the 2d of December, 1547, in the 62d year of his age. His body was sent to Mexico, and there interred in the cathedral. The chain of Mexican colonial history terminates with the life and administration of this extraordinary man, whose story is one of all but supernatural interest.

From Cortez to the Revolution.] From 1535 to 1808, Mexico continued to be governed by viceroys nominated by the court of Spain. The most eminent of these was the count de Revillagegedo, whose administration during the last 20 years of the 18th century was wise and beneficent. Before entering on the history of the rise and progress of the Mexican revolution, it may be expedient to take a general view of the colonial system pursued by the old government.

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Colonial System.] Spain," says an able writer in the Quarterly Review," formed her colonial establishments in America at that dark period which preceded by more than a century the date of the English plantations. The excitement which the incipient reformation of religion had created in the N. of Europe, was scarcely felt in Spain, or was suppressed by that horrible tribunal the inquisition, or counteracted by that strange mixture of superstition and chivalry which produced the crusades, and which had been kept alive in the Peninsula by the reiterated and ultimately successful efforts to extirpate the Moorish power. Their religion, and the feelings which it excited, constituted a species of knight-errantry, which led them to fight for the beauty of a mistress, the honour of St Jago, or the immaculate conception of the holy virgin, with equal pertinacity and ferocity. Imbued with such feelings to an intensity now scarcely conceivable, the expeditions to America were composed of soldiers, stimulated, in addition, by an ardent thirst for that gold in which the newly-discovered countries were represented to abound; they spread devastation wherever they marched, and inflicted on the simple and uncultivated natives, tortures and sufferings, differing little, except in duration, from those pains which the priests who accompanied them announced as awaiting the wretched victims. in another world.

"As the Spaniards brought with them from Europe few or no females, they speedily formed connections with the wives or daughters of those whom they had sacrificed. Hence has arisen a race proud of the imagined dignity of their male ancestors, and uniting with it much of the apathy and want of sensibility which distinguished the aborigines of America. Spain became early aware of the kind of population which was thus scattered over its boundless dominions. It sent them troops of priests to continue among the emigrants, and to propagate among the natives, that blind submission in spiritual matters, which she fancied would equally secure civil dependence. Few of the colonists were allowed to carry arms; hence, after the lapse of more than a century, the settlers were so little prepared for defence, that they became the easy prey of those bands of sanguinary and lawless ruffians, known by the name of Buccaneers, who looked only to plunder, and thought of no permanent establishments.

"The same anxiety to retain subjection, which had induced the court of Spain to leave the colonies defenceless, was extended to every branch of policy. Not only were viceroys and other chief governors sent from Europe, but all the judges, supreme and subordinate all the administrators of revenue and expenditure-the members of the municipal corporations the officers of the police-the inquisitors and their inferiors or familiars, were nominated by Spain. Thus, whilst the natives were not likely to be called upon to exercise any public functions, they had no inducements, even if they had enjoyed the means of instruction, to qualify themselves for the discharge of the lowest public services in society. The laws were unknown to all but the Europeans who presided in the courts of judicature; and by the Americans were supposed to be strained or interpreted in such a way as to favour those natives of the peninsula who were settled amongst them.

"The only institutions they venerated were those of a superstitious nature. The only object to which they looked up with respect, was Spain and its monarch. The only subject of pride which they dwelt upon with complacency, was that they were Spaniards. They believed, for it had been artfully and sedulously impressed on their minds, that the king of Spain was the chief monarch of the universe, in whose dominions the sun never set; and that France, England, Italy, and the other countries of Europe, were tributaries to the nation of which they formed a part. The lowest of the creoles, if but a tenth part of the blood that circulated in their veins was of Spanish origin, would exclaim, somos Espanioles, with a tone and emphasis that bespoke a sense of the dignity which they imagined to be derived from that nation.

"The portions of literature and science that existed in the peninsula were very insignificant. From the reign of Charles V. down to the present day, whilst England, France, Germany, and even Italy, had been steadily advancing in every species of knowledge, and in every art that contributed to promote the comforts, the enjoyments, and the wealth of their several communities, the sluggish pace which Spain maintained, kept her at a constantly increasing distance behind them. Of the scanty portion of knowledge scattered in the peninsula, a few faint sparks alone have ever illaminated the gloom of their transatlantic dominions.

"The settlements were mostly formed in a warmer climate than the districts occupied by the English colonists. In such climates, the seashores are generally found to be unhealthy, and hence the thickest-peopled parts of the Spanish dominions were on the elevated plains, at a distance

from the sea. The cities of Mexico, Guadalaxara, Guanaxuato, Bogota, Quito, Cuzco, and St Jago, are in the interior of their respective provinces ; and the communication between them and Europe was difficult, hazardous, and protracted, even without noticing the various impediments and restrictions which the European metropolis interposed to favour the commercial monopolies of a few of her favoured cities. The intercourse between the several provinces of America was so restricted and guarded, that any knowledge or discoveries originating in one, could scarcely be communicated to the others, and the commodities furnished by some, were not allowed to be supplied to their brother-colonists, who might require them.

"Such, with a few variations, and with slight exceptions, had been the condition of Spanish America from the first year of its settlement, till the moment when, by the treachery of France, and the folly of the junta of Spain, it was set loose from all existing government, and left to itself to construct, with such wretched materials as the country could furnish, the edifice of social society."

A lurking discontent at the conduct of the mother-country had long existed among the Mexican Creoles; and Spain, though conscious of the fact, had done nothing to remove it. The principal sources of this feeling of dissatisfaction amongst the Creoles have been already hinted at, namely, their exclusion from all offices of power and emolument in their own country, the checks imposed upon agricultural and manufacturing industry, and the commercial monopoly exercised by the parent state. The war with Great Britain, which had lasted with little interruption for more than 12 years, had but slightly and partially affected the commercial prosperity of the colonies, and latterly not at all. Neutrals sailing under double licenses from London and Madrid, carried on the commerce; and, where these could not be obtained, the necessities of the colonies had been amply supplied by a contraband trade, which, in time of war, the Spanish government were wholly unable to prevent. The restoration of peace revived the commercial monopoly of the mother-country in all its rigour, and nearly annihilated the trade of the colonies. Spain could not afford them a market for their productions, nor even supply them with vessels to carry it to Europe. Aware of the wide-spread spirit of disaffection in the colonies, the central junta of Spain promulgated three several decrees in their favour, in order to allay the rising ferment. The first decree, dated 22d January, 1809, declared that the Spanish colonies formed an integral part of the nation, possessing equal rights; and therefore that each viceroyalty should send one deputy to the sovereign body. A second decree, issued 22d May, 1809, announced the right of the colonies to send deputies to the cortes; and that the committee appointed to regulate the convocation of that assembly was to determine the proportion. A third decree of 1st January, 1810, recognized afresh the equal rights of the colonies, and gave orders for choosing supplementary deputies, from colonial natives resident in Spain, till the real members should arrive. A grievous error was, however, committed in apportioning the deputies for the supreme junta; for while more than 100 members were allowed for Spain, 24 only were allotted for America; and, though the elections in the peninsula were strictly popular, yet in the colonies the right was exclusively vested in the cabildos, or public corporations, the members of which were chiefly European Spaniards, who could not be said to represent the colonists at all, and who, though they had in reality been composed of Creoles, would have possessed little political influence in that assembly; for in any case where the inte