life, he is still a savage. And he is so, as the result of his cerebral development, which renders him intolerant of the control of law, and makes him resolve, like Christian, in Byron's "Island," "to live and die, the fearless and the free."

When attentively studied and thoroughly understood in their nature and relations, the whole case and condition of the Mexicans and Peruvians, ancient and modern (for they have their ancient and modern epochs as distinctly marked, and contrasted in as broad and bold relief, as the Europeans and Asiatics)—the case and condition of these nations, when fully and correctly comprehended, present one of the most extraordinary spectacles in the history of man. And, as a moral problem, its solution is as difficult, not to say impracticable, as its aspect as a phenomenon is singular and interesting. Though reiterated attempts to that effect have been made by philosophers the most distinguished for their general knowledge and powers of research, no approach that can be called even seemingly successful, has yet been made toward causes competent to the disentanglement of the knot. True; efforts have been tried to dissever it by the sword-not of reason and science, but of fancy and conjecture; and the blows have but rebounded on the feeble pretenders and aspirants who unskilfully dealt them.

Somewhat more we believe than three centuries ago, Mexico and Peru were found by two bands of European rovers, in the singular, not to call it the marvellous condition to which we have referred. They were two populous and apparently powerful empires, under the restraint of discipline and law, and not a little advanced in civilization, wealth and science, luxury and the arts. Yet they had but little, if any, intercourse with one another, and none with any other civilized people, and were situated like two vast islands in a track

less and unexplored ocean, or two mighty oases in the midst of a boundless desert of ignorance and savagism, degradation and poverty. Nor could there be discovered, we repeat, by the ablest scheme of research that could be instituted, any adequate causes of the immense difference, in matters of mind between them and the various nations around them. In most respects the phenomenon was unique-no parallel to it then existing, or having previously existed, within the purview of history.

Greece, received much of her civilization, science, and arts from Egypt; Rome from Greece; and other parts of Europe from the Italian repositories of intellect and science, literature and taste. But for Egypt no extraneous source of instruction has yet been found-nor perhaps even fancied. Like an electron per se, she seems to have been to herself, from her own native endowments, the source of her own preeminence and grandeur.

Of Mexico and Peru the same may be affirmed. They stood alone, instructed without instructors, civilized without the influence of examples to that effect, and splendid and mighty from the working of causes inherent in themselves. Like Egypt therefore they seem to have been originals; not imitators, copyists, or dependents on others instead of themselves.

Such were some of the peculiarities of the Mexicans and Peruvians. But not the whole of them-nor even perhaps the most striking and unexpected. Though constituting great and independent nations, they were no warriors, and became the victims and slaves of a mere handful of freebooters, visiting them from a distant portion of the globe. At the head of less than two hundred Spaniards, Pizarro overthrew and reduced to the most servile condition the empire of Peru, with a popu

lation of several millions of subjects, affectionately attached to the person of their chief, and enthusiastically devoted to their religion and government. And with a Spanish band of less than five hundred, aided by auxiliaries from some of the surrounding nations, Cortez conquered and enslaved the more populous and powerful empire of Mexico-two events which, as already intimated, are uninterpreted enigmas in the history of man. To what cause or combination of causes shall we look for an explanation of the fact, that victory bound her chaplets on the brows of the few, in conflicts where their adversaries outnumbered them in the ratio of ten thousand to one? In such a case, had not the Mexicans and Peruvians been essentially deficient in some high qualities indispensable to success, they could, with perfect ease, have thrown themselves on their foes in numbers so overwhelming, and with a force so irresistible, as literally to tear them into fragments, or trample them under foot, and crush them in mass. Nor could any form of armour, or mode of battle have saved the invaders from such an issue. It is a question then, in anthropology, of no common interest, what were the qualities in which the South Americans were so fatally deficient? It was not in abstract personal courage. In conflicts with each other, and in wars with the surrounding nations, they not only manifested ordinary bravery, but had become the conquerors and masters of the land. It was not in personal strength and activity. In those qualities they were but little, if at all, inferior to their invaders. And the prize for which they fought was of the highest value, and the most inspiriting character, including all that is dearest in life. It was their fire-sides and their families, their altars, and the hallowed ashes of their ancestors. It was every thing that enters into the all-absorbing thoughts, and the soul-inspiring sentiments of the man

and the patriot, which should render him invincible, when doing battle for his home and his native land.

Nor was it, as most writers and pretended wise-ones on the subject have contended, their vast superiority in military discipline and skill, acquired by more abundant experience in war, that rendered the few Europeans so easily triumphant over the almost innumerable hosts of Americans. Far from it. The difference in military tactics, as far as experience was concerned, between the two contending parties in Mexico and Peru, was not greater, perhaps not so great, as that which existed between the

with which he Cesar and the barbarous hordes

contended in Germany, Gaul, and Britain.

Yet the issue of war in the two hemispheres was widely different. Notwithstanding his skill and invincible hardihood, as a soldier, and his boundless resources of mind, as a chiefARY tain, Cæsar rarely won a cheap or an easy victory, even when the numbers he led to battle were but little surpassed by those of his enemy.

Others have attributed the easy conquest of the Mexicans and Peruvians to the superstitious veneration in which they held their ruthless assailants, regarding them as beings of a superior nature, who had descended to them from the skies, to become their rulers and benefactors. But that a delusion of this kind took possession of the Americans seems highly Improbable. And it is still more improbable, even admitting its occurrence at the first moment of the arrival of the roving marauders, that it should have been of long duration. The inhabitants of the New World must have very soon discovered that the emigrants from the Old were as subject as themselves to bodily injuries, sickness, and other misfortunes and infirmities, and to death itself from wounds and diseases. It is even probable if not certain that, from some of these sources of calami

ty, especially from that of seasoning sickness, the strangers must have suffered much more than the natives. And if our recollection fail us not, such was actually the case. Many of the Spaniards sickened, and not a few of them died, while those whom they had reduced to bondage remained healthy. From the notion of their divinityship therefore, admitting it to have had an existence, the "Iberian freebooters" derived in the end but little advantage. There is reason to believe that such advantage was more than counterbalanced by the scorn which their mean cupidity, and the detestation and abhorrence which their cruelty and revolting profligacy engendered.

Still then does the question, "why were the Americans so easily subdued?" remain unanswered. And the correct answer, virtually but silently rendered in the "Crania Americana," is derived from the science of phrenology alone. They were engaged in war with a race of men superior to themselves-though not descended immediately from the skies. For the Spaniards were Caucasians. And whenever or wherever that race, which stands at the head of the great community of man, (as the nervous and cerebral tissue takes rank of the other tissues of the body,) comes into collision, whether belligerent or pacific, with either of the other races, it never fails in the end to gain and maintain a decided ascendency. To this position we confidently believe that no solid exception can be adduced from either fact or philosophythe examples of the present, or the history of the past. Nor is it from occurrences in the New World alone that it receives at once illustration and proof. By a phenomenon of equal moment, notoriety, and interest, or rather perhaps of much greater, in the Old World, it is further and no less substantially maintained. We allude to the degraded condition in which