Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 2.djvu/175

 the Mexicans, have revolutionised the conditions of their existence beyond anything their ancestors could have dreamed.

Even at the price it cost, the conquest must be approved, though it obliterated an interesting and wonderful civilisation so entirely that the few relics left serve but to stimulate enquiries to which few answers are forthcoming.

With the destruction of the archives of Texcoco, and of the Golden Key to the hieroglyphs, the sponge was passed over the tablets of Aztec history: unwise laws destroyed native arts and crafts, whose products had astonished the foremost artisans of Europe, while the secrets of the lapidaries, of the gold-and silver-smiths, of the deft workers in feathers, and of other unique crafts, perished for ever leaving the civilisation of Anahuac a mystery for all time.