America. A history

22

In presence of Lord Dufferin a pine tree was felled whose height was two hundred and fifty feet, and whose rings gave evidence of an age which dated from the reign of Edward IV.

23

The great cypress-tree, behind which Cortes hid himself at one period during the Noche Trista, still retains some measure of vitality. Beside it stands “The Church of the Sad Night.” A tramway line runs to the temple at Tacuba, where he is said to have reviewed his troops next day. Part of the temple was removed to give space for the tramway.

24

Bernal Diaz.

25

See page 434.

26

It has been estimated that the ransom paid by the Inca would be equal, when the greater value of money at that time is allowed for, to three or four million sterling at the present day. It yielded a sum equal for each foot-soldier to £4000, and for each horseman to £8800.

27

The prisoner was charged with having usurped the crown and assassinated his brother; with having squandered the revenues of the country; with idolatry and polygamy; with attempting to incite insurrection against the Spaniards.

28

The gallant De Soto, in later years the discoverer of the Mississippi, was absent from the camp when Atahualpa was put to death. On his return he reproached his chief for the unhappy transaction, and maintained that the Inca had been basely slandered. Pizarro, seemingly penitent, admitted that he had been precipitate.

29

No Inca inhabited the palace of his predecessor; each built for himself.

30

In this, however, the Mexicans were not greatly more savage than the Spaniards. After the fall of Mexico, Cortes dismissed his Indian allies with various gifts, among which were many bodies of slain enemies, carefully salted for preservation.

31

A regulation laid down by the Royal Order of 1601 illustrates the spirit which pervades Spanish legislation. Leave is given to employ Indians in the cultivation of coca. But inasmuch as coca is grown in rainy districts and on humid ground, and the Indians in consequence become ill, the master of the plantation is forbidden, under penalties, to allow Indians to begin work until they are provided with a change of clothes.

32

This neglect was continued almost to the close. The Duke of Newcastle, who had charge of the colonies during Sir Robert Walpole’s administration, neglected his duties so entirely that he ceased even to read the letters which came to him from America. “It would not be credited what reams of paper, representations, memorials, petitions from that quarter of the world lay mouldering and unopened in his office.”

33

This intolerable exaction was in course of time reduced to one-fifth, and finally to one-twentieth.

34

These were increased to four, and finally to six, as the colonies became more populous.

35

This tribute varied in the different provinces. In Mexico it was about four shillings annually, levied on every male between eighteen and fifty years of age. It produced latterly about half a million sterling from all the colonies, and was collected with difficulty, owing to the extreme poverty of the Indians.

36

A suggestion of which the good man bitterly repented, when the enormous evils which sprang from it began to develop themselves.

37

Cromwell interested himself much in the welfare of this island. Thirty years after the Pilgrim Fathers had settled in Massachusetts, he invited them to remove to Jamaica. But the Fathers declined to renew their pilgrimage; they wisely elected to remain where Providence had led them, and where their descendants were destined to become a great nation.

38

A Bill was, however, passed in 1873 for the abolition of slavery in Puerto Rico.

39

This was the population according to the enumeration of 1867. It has been seriously diminished by the war which began in the following year; but the amount of loss has not been accurately ascertained.

40

The expenditure of 1878 was £16,000,000, while the revenue did not exceed £11,000,000.

41

The Cuban paper currency amounts to £13,000,000. Great Britain would be in the same position if she had an inconvertible and depreciated currency of £450,000,000.

42

In Venezuela, where writing was almost unknown, it was necessary to allow votes to be given orally. For weeks before an election the priests taught their list of candidates as a school exercise to Indians and other ignorant persons who were under their influence.

43

An incident in this defeat reminds us of one of the remarkable conditions of tropical warfare. The routed Conservatives were driven towards a broad river swarming with alligators. These savage creatures were probably less terrible than the victorious Liberals. The fugitives took to the river, where, it is told, they suffered heavy loss from the alligators.

44

President Blanco asks from his Congress (May 1876) a law which shall “declare the Church of Venezuela independent of the Roman Episcopate, and order that parish priests shall be elected by the faithful, the bishops by the rectors of parishes, and archbishops by Congress, returning to the usage of the primitive Church, founded by Jesus Christ and his Apostles.” Congress replies: “Faithful to our duties, our convictions, and the holy doctrines of the religion of Jesus, we do not hesitate to emancipate the Church of Venezuela from that Episcopate which pretends, as an infallible and omnipotent power, to absorb the vitality of a free people.” The leading newspaper of Venezuela discriminates with equal accuracy between the Papacy and Christianity – between “the genuine religion of Christ and those adulterations of his law which substitute the reign of vanity, pride, and contempt for mankind, for the doctrine of gentleness, meekness, and love.”

45

Amounting in value to forty million sterling.

46

The depth of this ignorance is illustrated by the circumstance that the Mexican post-office carries annually one letter for each five of the population. The English post-office carries thirty-five letters for each of the population.

47

In twenty-two years (from 1855 to 1877) her foreign commerce – imports and exports together – had doubled, rising from seven and a half to fifteen million sterling.

48

Chili was wise enough to offer the command of her fleet during this struggle to an English hero whom a less wise but scarcely more ungrateful English Government had wronged and cast out. Lord Cochrane, who combined in a singular degree prudence with daring, performed so many marvellous achievements that the terror of his name seemed to paralyze the enemy. Ultimately, with the inconsiderable force under his command, he drove the Spanish fleet away, and was supreme on the Chilian coast.

49

The debt of Paraguay is £117,000,000.

50

The Dictator himself perished by the lance of a Brazilian soldier.

51

Some of his achievements were eminently fitted to bind to his cause a rude and daring people. Standing once over a gateway, through which a troop of wild horses were being driven at full speed, he dropped on to the back of one previously selected. He bore in his hand a leathern rein, which he fastened securely round the mouth of the terrified and madly-galloping horse; and in half-an-hour he rode back, the animal now trembling and subdued.

52

Rosas made his way to England, where he spent the remaining twenty-six years of his life.

53

It has been said, with pardonable exaggeration, that “the Argentine Republic consists of the province of Buenos Ayres and thirteen mud-huts.” The thirteen provinces are so poor that for many years regular monthly remittances have been sent them from Buenos Ayres to defray the expense of the local governments.

54

So soon as the rebuilding of the city of Mexico was accomplished, in 1524, Cortes applied to the Emperor to send him godly men who should instruct the natives in the truths of religion. He makes it a special request that sumptuous ecclesiastics, who wasted the substance of the Church in riotous living, should not be inflicted on him. Twelve Dominican and twelve Franciscan friars were sent, and Cortes was able to convene a synod of thirty-one persons to take counsel regarding the spiritual welfare of his subjects.

55

Peter reported of his pupils that “they learn quickly, fast precisely, and pray fervently.”

56

It is the same with the great mass of the coloured population of Hayti. While avowedly Catholic, they are in reality faithful to the superstitions which their forefathers brought from Africa. They worship the great serpent without poison, and withdraw secretly into the forest to celebrate religious festivals at which human victims are sacrificed and eaten.

57

There were in all fifteen thousand persons; and it was said that they carried with them one-half the coinage then in circulation in Portugal.

58

He also ordered a printing-press to be purchased in England at a cost of £100. No such apparatus had heretofore existed within Brazilian territory.

59

The area of Europe is 3,848,000 square miles; that of Brazil is 3,287,000 square miles, although some estimates place it much higher.

60

Of these, it is officially estimated that one million are untamed Indians without any fixed place of abode.

61

The imports of Brazil are £19,000,000; her exports, £21,000,000.

62

This is the statement made by Government. The Abolitionists, however, accuse the Government of acting in bad faith regarding emancipation, and assert that the number of slaves has not diminished.

63

The Paraguayan War cost Brazil £50,000,000.

64

In 1874 the public schools were attended by only one hundred and forty thousand pupils.