Page:Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol 2.djvu/102





is generally supposed that the mineral wealth of America was one of the most powerful stimulants of the Spanish conquest and subsequent emigration; nor is the idea erroneous if we recollect the manner in which the Castilian power was founded on this continent and the colonial policy it originated. It will be seen by the tables annexed to this section, that the results have largely fulfilled the hopes of the European adventurers, and that the wealth of the world has been immensely augmented and sustained, by the discovery of our Continent, In the order of the earth's gradual development, under the intellectual enterprise or bodily labor of man, we find the most beautiful system of accommodation to the growing wants or capacities of our race. Space is required for the crowded population of the Old World, and a new continent is suddenly opened, into which the cramped and burdened millions may find room for industry and independent existence. The political institutions of Europe decay in consequence of the encroachments of power, the social degradation of large masses by unjust or unwise systems, or the enforced operation of oppressive laws, and a virgin country is forthwith assigned to man in which the principle of self government may be tried without the necessity of casting off by violence the old fetters of feudalism. The increasing industry or invention of the largely augmented populations of the earth, exacts either a larger amount or a new standard of value for the precious metals, and regions are discovered among the frosts and forests of a far old continent, in which the fable of the golden sands of Pactolus is realized. The labor of men and the flight of time