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A few Reflections on the Conquest of Mexico

by Cortez.

In the search of the mind after greatness, no period of the world's history will so much command its attention as the sixteenth century. The era of Charles the Fifth, of Henry the Eighth, of Francis the First, of Leo the Tenth, is replete with knowledge and instruction to the student who desires to trace the development of all that is wonderful and fearful in man's physical, moral and intellectual nature.

Amid the various causes which aided in rendering this an age conspicuous for its energies of mind, are to be found that love of adventure and thirst for discovery, the offspring of that grand impulse given to the world by the genius and perseverance of Columbus.

Spain stood preeminently renowned among the nations of Europe, and her chivalrous sons sought new arenas for the display of that valor which had rendered her fields classic, as the home of the knight and the birth-place of the troubadour.

As the characteristic feature of the age, the power of the monarch rose superior to, and above the will of the people-the concentration of all authority. Fostered and protected beneath the wings of this mighty influence, there sprung into existence as the fit instrument of its exercise, those vast and powerful monopolies, the scourge of humanity, and the demonstration of that despotism which, seated in power, acts upon man as the subject of its fearful oppression. Through the medium of these monopolies the reckless and daring, the fallen grandee, and the man of dissipated habits, were induced to seek a trial of their military prowess and reparation of their fortunes in those newly discovered regions which imagination had clothed as abounding in all the riches of the East-the splendid realization of the wildest fancy. The security, the rights, the possessions of nations which had hitherto enjoyed in innocence the blessings of Heaven, were trampled upon, while vast empires were utterly destroyed by the cruelty and oppression of these colonists.

It was under circumstances such as these, and under patronage of such a character,that one of the most remarkable men appeared to act in the grand drama of this century, a point conspicuous for the ability, the daring and the want of principle with which it was performed. This was the conqueror of Mexico-this was the man who, rearing for himself a monument upon the destruction of an ancient people and empire, has

handed down as a theme for universal detesta-writer who remarks, "that the imagination of tion the name of Hernando Cortez.

the author, caught and dazzled by the hero's Although there is within us a strange and mys- fame and wonderful qualities, had mastered the terious feeling which prompts us to look with calm judicial impartiality so material for the pursomething like mystic reverence upon those ex-poses of history." hibitions of courage and devoted heroism where Whilst therefore we would add our humble thousands "end their feverish dream of life," tribute to the tide of gratitude to him for having and incites the imagination to roam with delight placed the literature of our country upon so noover those fields which have been rendered clas-ble and enduring a basis, we feel constrained sic by the loss of the brave and the great, yet it respectfully to differ from the conclusions that he would be needless to pause and harrow up the has drawn from the facts which he has recorded. nicer sensibilities of our nature by dwelling upou But as the design and character of these brief the career of the actors of this conquest, traced reflections alike forbid that I should enter at as it is by blood, and marked by every thing re- large upon the objections to these conclusions volting to humanity. There would be no plea- which appear at the end of his work, I shall sure in the retrospection-there would be no high only notice his justification of Cortez and his and lofty exhibitions of the virtues of human na- measures, on the ground of his having introture-nothing would be presented but a violation duced the christian religion-and also what the of every principle of right resulting in the des- historian has set forth as the result of these meatruction of an ancient empire, the execution of sures.

a noble monarch, the wilful murder of inoffen- We are told that Cortez, as he stood amid the sive inhabitants, the pillage and desecration of vast and magnificent scenery of the new world their temples of worship, and the slavery of a and beheld the idolatry of those nations who had people who had enjoyed in undisturbed posses-reared grand and massive temples to their Divinsion the blessings of an independent government |ities, felt his soul moved by the desire to bring throughout many ages. And yet such is the them to the knowledge of the Cross and make enthusiasm which always attaches to deeds of them subjects to the crown of Spain. We are conquest, such the captivating influence which even told that this desire for the extension of history exerts as it unfolds in its pages of immor- Christianity formed one of the leading objects of tality feats of oppression and splendid daring, that the mind is bewitchingly enticed to lose sight, in the contemplation of grand and brilliant achievements, of the dark and destructive means by which those achievements have been accomplished. This disposition, to be deluded by the fictitious coloring which deeds of military renown throw over the principles of justice, is not confined to the illiterate and narrow-minded, but pervades all classes, and the man of enlightened judgment and lofty understanding, as he pores over the pages of the ancient chronicler of these startling events that so fearfully destroyed the hitherto unbroken silence and mystery of a newly discovered world, catches that feeling which operated so powerfully upon the mind of our illustrious historian, and is induced with him to turn to the defence of those who converted "a happy and smiling country into a bloody sepulchre."

his life. But it must be confessed, after a careful investigation, in the most accredited histories of the day of the causes of his actions, from the time when buoyant with hope and filled with the love of adventure, he left his native country, to the day, when the riches and splendor of the Indian empire lay unveiled before his eyes, we have been utterly unable to find any demonstration of a particular religious sentiment, and the first expression that fell from his lips, upon landing in the New World, that “he came to get gold and not to till the soil like a peasant," as well as the general character and habitudes of the man, would seem sufficiently to disprove it.

Claiming as he and his associates did the Bible to be the standard of their actions, its holy precepts and commandments based upon mankind as the subjects of universal philanthropy at once condemned them.

The spotless integrity and singleness of purpose of those who first proclaimed the tidings of

But experience will prove that while we should study and investigate the works of those great minds who have thrown rich floods of intellec- Peace and good will" among men as they went tual light over the darkness of history, or any forth poor and friendless wanderers upon the other department of literature, they would by no face of the earth, contrast strangely with the means be safe guides to follow when we come character of these conquerors who panoplied in to weigh the justice of men's actions by the high power, acted upon the darkest and blackest of all standard of the present age. This conclusion is maxims-" that the end justifies the means." irresistibly forced upon the mind in a perusal of If then robbery, pillage and the exhibition of Mr. Prescott's History of the Conquest of Mex-all the vilest passions of human nature are at ico-and we feel compelled to agree with the variance with the Bible, it is evident that these

men cannot be justified by that standard-and to urge in their defence that they bore with them the word of Life is but to endeavor by the drapery of religion and virtue to cover those deeds of darkness and cruelty, at which the cheek of shame itself would blush.

the exemplification to mankind of moral and political degradation for the last three centuries.

Living as we do in the highest period of man's civilization, with all the lights of the past around us. to direct us in our search for truth, we can learn a grand and impressive lesson, from the The result of the conquest has been set forth result of the two great events that have occurred in defence of the motives which prompted it upon the Western Continent-the Conquest of and in order calmly to consider the effect of this Mexico by Cortez, and the Landing of the Pilreasoning we would briefly direct attention to the grim Fathers-the one accomplished through the situation of Mexico before and after its subjuga-auri sacra fames-the other effected in the fear tion.

of the Almighty, for the erection of a "faith's

fects of an indulgence of the viler passions of man's nature--the other leading to the establishment of a powerful empire, the nursery of wise, and great, and gifted men.

Losing their origin in the antiquity of past pure shrine"-the one an illustration of the efages, the Mexican people had risen in power and their empire had become the pride and glory of the western world. With a system of jurisprudence remarkable for its equity, and firm and decided in its execution, order and harmony were In regard to Mexico, the heart of the philanthe characteristics of its government. The more thropist is grieved to discover that no bow of refined acquirements of Music, Poetry and Paint- promise has as yet appeared to gild the dark ing were cultivated to a great extent, but our cloud of her national degradation or point him to minds are more deeply impressed with the solemn her moral and political advancement. As he wangrandeur and lofty conceptions of the Mexican ders amidst her vast solitudes and majestic mounMythology. They reared to their Divinities grand tains, he discovers the monumental vestiges of and magnificent temples, which still remain as a great people-they have been destroyed-but monuments of their architectural greatness, and casting his eyes over the scene presented to his living criticisms of the pigmy efforts of those by view, he reads the solemn result of national turwhom they were succeeded. The barbaric splen- pitude and injustice-in a feeble and impotent dor, the dark and mysterious rites, the supersti- government exercising its petty tyranny over tious reverence of their worship, fill us with awe those lands which were once ruled by the puisand amazement. They had reached their gol- sant and accomplished Montezuma-and feels den age, they had arrived at the climax of their his heart filled with sorrow at the destruction of greatness. Fearful was the responsibility of a mysterious and fearful race, as he stands amid those who removed from the nations of the the records of the past, where

earth a people so numerous, the monuments of whose genius, like those of the ancient Egyptians, still stand a problem and study for the investigation of the man of science and the devotee of literature. But the accomplishment of their destiny was at hand. Those men came, who seemed to have borrowed the thunder of heaven and the lightning of the clouds, in order to effect the accomplishment of the dark prophecy which had been handed down from earliest antiquity, that "a race of men from the East should come and possess their country."

We read of revolutions and civil wars upon the page of history, and trace the exaltation of man and a higher advance in civilization to the conflict of these elements-but here whole nations have been destroyed, and where is the grand result? where are the mighty blessings to be of fered as a recompense for the effusion of so much blood?

Opening the record, we read the result, as though by divine infliction, in the loss of power, of greatness, and position of the Spanish nationwe read it in their subjugated country—that land of revolution and chaos-the hot bed of faction

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The fawn at play beside its graceful dam;
On cowslip bank, in spring, the artless lamb ;
The Hawthorn robed in white, May's fragrant daughter;
The willow weeping o'er the silent stream;
The rich laburnum with its golden show;
The fairy vision of a poet's dream;
On summer eve earth's many-colour'd bow;
Diana at her bath; Aurora bright;
The dove that sits and singeth o'er her woes;
The star of eve; the lily, child of light;
Fair Venus' self, as from the sea she rose!
Imagine these, and I in truth will prove
They are not half so fair as she I love.

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Qui nullum fere scribendi genus
Non tetigit,

Nullum quod tetigit non ornavit.

Poor Goldy has been fortunate in his biographers. First there came Prior, already known for his Life of Edmund This volume is the eleventh of the series of Mr. PutBurke, an industrious student, who compiled two volumes nam's new edition which we have had occasion so frequentof memoirs, most reliable and instructive, the facts gleaned ly to commend. We observe with pleasure, a notice from by patient research from the best sources of information. the publisher, that he designs very shortly to commence It was the office of Prior to give to succeeding generations the publication of the "Miscellaneous Works of Oliver the first distinct idea of Goldsmith as a man, to resuscitate Goldsmith," in uniform style, which shall be the most comhim, as it were, and cause him to pass before us bodily, and plete and elegant edition ever issued. to disabuse the public mind of an impression which seems Irving's Life of Goldsmith may be found at the store of to have fastened upon it, that Goldsmith was at best but a Messrs. Nash and Woodhouse. bear with the reflective faculties, whom the patronage of Dr. Johnson, the ursa major, alone kept in social respectability. A habit had become general to narrate the most absurd and ridiculous stories of his awkwardness, and Garrick, in the mildest of those satirical epitaphs which provoked the mirth of St. James's Coffee House, had spoken of him, as one

LETTERS FROM THE ALLEGHANY MOUNTAINS. By Charles Lanman. New York. Geo P. Putnam, 155 Broadway. 1849.

Mr. Lanman is well known to the readers of the Messenger as a pleasing and accurate writer, and they will not need our recommendation to induce them to purchase the

Who wrote like an angel, but talked like poor Poll. Most of these popular legends were dissipated by the pains-present volume. He excels in the very department of comtaking investigations of Prior, whose work, though out of print, and in some measure superseded by later publications, will long be regarded as a valuable collection of his

torical materials.

position of which these Letters constitute a specimen, the description of nature in mountain and flood and forest. His served success, and his pictures of scenery in the Allegha "Summer in the Wilderness" met with large and well-deny Mountains, can not fail to delight the appreciative reader. These letters having first appeared in the National Intelligencer, the volume is appropriately dedicated to Joseph Gales, Esq,

Messrs. Nash & Woodhouse have it for sale.

WHELER'S SOUTHERN MONTHLY MAGAZINE. C. L
Wheler, Editor and Proprietor, Athens, Georgia.

"The Life and Adventures of Oliver Goldsmith" from the pen of John Forster of the Inner Temple, was the next work on the same subject. From the habitually critical and inquiring mind of the Editor of the London Examiner, the public had a right to expect a work of graceful composition and of philosophical acuteness. His former effort, "Lives of the Statesmen of the Commonwealth," had heightened this expectation. Nor was the public disappointed. Taking the facts already gathered by Prior, and adding to them in a few instances, he produced a picturesque and discriminating biography, full of earnest sympathy with the subject, and subtle criticism upon his writings. The work of Forster may be regarded as a fitting companion to the Vicar of Wakefield, tracing the career of Goldsmith through all its pathetic vicissitudes of light and shade, and while reproving all too gently the errors into which he fell, pleasing us with its spirit of charity, and in-tributors, and we shall look to him for substantial assisstructing us with the full exposition of the results of folly, Southern States. tance in the good work of fostering a taste for letters in the even in the most gifted.

Lastly, we have a Biography of Goldsmith, written by him, who of all others, more nearly resembles Goldsmith in the purity and freedom of his style-Washington Irving. The history of this work is succinctly told by Mr. Irving in the Preface. It was originally but a meagre sketch, written to accompany Baudry's Paris edition of Goldsmith's Writings. In preparing for the press the complete series of his works now in course of publication by Mr. Putnam, he was induced to re-write and materially enlarge it, availing himself without stint, as he handsomely acknowledges, of the labors of both Prior and Forster. The result has been that we have now before us a biography of Goldsmith, which will be in every body's hand; a genial, happy representation, in which the group around the board of the "Three Jolly Pigeons" relieves the dogmatism of Johnson and the impertinence of Boswell; a book full of incident and anecdote narrated by the same delightful companion, who has hitherto led us over prairies and mountain solitudes to the far distant shores of the Pacific, who has directed our

Through inadvertence we failed to greet the first number of this pleasing little monthly, which made its appear. ance in July last. We have now to make our acknowl

edgments to the Editor for two subsequent numbers, and to He is supported in his undertaking by a corps of able conwelcome him cordially to the Literary Press of the South.

THE HISTORY OF PENDENNIS. His Fortunes and Mis-
fortunes, His Friends and his greatest Enemy. By W.
M. Thackeray. Author of Vanity Fair," &c. New
York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers.

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We have on our table the first two numbers of this new novel of Thackeray, in a beautiful reprint of the Harpers, which presents a close resemblance to the original London edition. Some of the wood-cuts are capital. They are designed, if we are not mistaken, by the author himself, and give therefore a much better idea of the persons and scenes that he depicts in the letter-press, than could be af forded by the work of another person.

Thackeray has an established position in English literature. Vanity Fair gave it to him. The knowledge of the world exhibited in that biting satire upon fashionable bfs set him aparts distinctively from the rest of his cotempe

raries. No one else seizes hold of a foible so readily or | Sir Charles Lyell has met with little favor at home, since presents it in such a ridiculous light. Becky Sharp, in he in no degree sympathises with the anti-slavery fanatiwhom were united almost all those bad qualities over cism which manifests itself annually at Exeter Hall in unwhich the varnish of wealth throws a deceitful gloss, was measured denunciation of the Southern States of our therefore recognized at once as a type of character, some- Union. On the contrary, while it is evident that he conwhat overdrawn, perhaps, but strongly marked for remem- siders slavery an evil in the abstract, he bears willing testibrance and illustration as Dugald Dalgetty or Miss Miggs. mony to the happy condition of the slaves,-testimony, We do not see far enough into Pendennis as yet to enable which will be most unacceptable to the Frederick-Douglass us to determine whether it will come up to Vanity Fair. philanthropists of England. Sir Charles Lyell has also We conjecture simply that it does not aim so high. Yet incorporated in his volumes a great deal of useful miscelwe predict that it will be pleasanter reading. It seems so laneous knowledge with regard to America, which it would far to be a book of purely domestic life in town and coun-be well for Americans themselves to learn.

try, with some finely drawn characters and a slight infu sion of goodness which Vanity Fair wanted.

The book is for sale by A. Morris.

The work has reached us through A. Morris.

GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE, Applied to Modern Residences, &c., &c. By D. H. Arnot, Architect. New York: 1849. Nos. 5. and 6. D. Appleton & Co.

THE LIBERTY OF ROME: A HISTORY. With an Histori-
cal Account of the Liberty of Ancient Nations. By
Samuel Eliot. In Two Volumes. New York: George
P. Putnam, 155 Broadway. 1849.

These sumptuous octavos comprise a work of a high

fitted for the task he took upon himself, that of a philosophical inquiry into the genius of Roman Liberty, and he has executed it in the most satisfactory manner. Thoroughly in love with his subject and imbued with the spirit of the classics he has made an elegant contribution to literature, and rendered a real service to the cause of freedom. Mr. Putnam has done well to reprint the work and the handsome appearance of the volumes is creditable to his taste and enterprise.

The growing taste for ornamental country-houses through-order of merit. The author seems to have been eminently out the United States, is gratifying to the lover of the graceful and beautiful. We are pleased to see it manifested very decidedly in Virginia in the erection of handsome cottages, and occasionally, more aspiring residences in a castellated style. The tasteful structures that adorn the banks of the Hudson and skirt the suburbs of Boston, strike the eye of the stranger with peculiar pleasure, and it will not be long we trust before the fine sites that one observes around our own city are occupied by similar edifices. One by one, the old family-seats in lower Virginia, erected in colonial days, with their queer dormer-windows and fantastic gables, are passing away. As long as they are capaple of repair, we would cling to them, as ancestral relics THE HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

of a by-gone age. But accidents of fire or flood, or the progress of decay will remove them now and then, and huge piles of red-brick or stucco take their places. We could wish the designs of Mr. Arnot were followed in all such instances, as we conceive the Gothic style to be admirably suited to our climate and our landscapes. Upon the savannahs of the far South, a more oriental style is preferable, such as is displayed in the vicinity of New Orleans and the chief ornament of which is the verandah. We have seen one or two fine specimens of the Gothic in Virginia of very striking effect. To all who feel an interest in the study of rural architecture, we commend this work, in connection with the excellent volumes of Mr. Downing. Mr. Arnot is an architect of distinction, and his work is very well printed by the Appletons. It may be obtained of Messrs. Nash & Woodhouse.

1849.

A SECOND VISIT to the United States of North America.
By Sir Charles Lyell, F. R. S., &c., &c., &c. New
York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 82 Cliff St.
One feels a gratifying assurance, in the perusal of this book,
that he is reading the reflections of a gentleman, and not the
recorded slanders of a vulgar cockney, who abuses Amer-
ica to ensure a sale of his volume. Sir Charles Lyell, it
is clear, belongs rather to the class of the Murrays and
Morpeths, than to that of the Halls and Dickenses. A man
distinguished for scientific attainment and travelling chiefly
for geological observation, his attention has not been con-
fined by any means to what lies beneath the earth's surface.
but he has carefully marked out and studied the strata of
our social economy and acquainted himself with our for
mations, political and intellectual. His impressions are
set forth in an easy and simple style of correct and flowing
English. We are not surprised to learn that this work of

For sale by Messrs. Nash & Woodhouse.

From the Discovery of the Continent to the Organization of Government under the Federal Constitution. By RICHARD HILDRETH. In Three Volumes. Vols. 1 & 2 New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 82 Cliff St. 1849.

We are disposed to award high praise to Mr. Hildreth for the faithful execution of this history. His style is remarkable for perspicuity and vigor, and he possesses very considerable powers of generalization. The work has one rare merit, that of being unencumbered by wearisome reflections on the part of the author, who is content to tell a simple story and leave to his readers the task of deducing the moral. From the two volumes before us we do not hesitate to say that we consider the work reliable authority, on all matters of American history. It wants that picturesqueness of detail which lends an irresistible charm to the vola favorite with the million. It will always be regarded, umes of Macaulay, and is not likely, we think, to become however, as an excellent historical treatise and as such we cheerfully commend it to the public.

It is for sale by A. Morris.

BLACK WOOD'S MAGAZINE and the Foreign Reviews. New York. Leonard Scott & Co. 79 Fulton Street. Richmond. Nash & Woodhouse, 139 Main Street.

The DIES BOREALES of Christopher North impart a new interest to Old Ebony, and make graceful amends for the heretical and absurd political doctrines of which it has long been the apostle. A recent number contains a clever dialogue of a critical character, in which Gray's Elegy is torn into shreds,-no bad imitation of a style of review-writing much in vogue.

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