Page:Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol 2.djvu/43

Rh weapons and his horse, the mounted ranchero is at home in the forest or in the open field; on hill side or in valley. Few riders, elsewhere, can equal him in speed or horsemanship; and few can excel him as a herdsman, a robber, an enemy, or even a friend whenever you hit his fancy or are willing to understand his character and pardon his sins.

Notwithstanding the brilliant pages which Aztec history contributed to the annals of America and the civilization which prevailed, not only in the valley of Mexico, but also in other portions of the territory now within the limits of the republic, we find that the indigenous descendants of these heroic and intelligent ancestors have degenerated to such a degree that they are at present in general, fitted only for the servile toils to which they are commonly and habitually devoted. Three hundred years of oppression may have done much to produce this sad result. Without union among the tribes; without community of feeling, language or nationality; the Indians became an easy prey to the Spaniards after the conquest of the great central power. Old prophecies were accomplished, according to the Aztec belief, by the arrival of the Spaniards. "It is long since we knew from our ancestors,"—said Montezuma to Cortez,—"that neither I nor all who inhabit these lands were originally of them, but that we are strangers, and came hither from distant places. It was said that a great lord conveyed our race to these regions and returned to the land of his birth, and yet, came back once more to us. But, in the meantime, those whom he first brought had intermarried with the women of the country; and when he desired them to return again to the land of their fathers they refused to go. He went alone; and ever since have we believed, that from among those who were the descendants of that mighty lord, one shall come to subdue this land, and make us his vassals! According to what you declare of the place whence you come, which is toward the rising sun, and of the great lord who is your King, we must surely believe that he is our natural lord."

Such were the superstitious opinions amongst the most civilized of all the Indian nations at the period of the conquest. It is not surprising therefore to find the other nomadic, predatory hordes,—whose ferocity was not so keen as that of their northern kindred, but had been tempered and softened in some degree by the genial climate of the tropics,—soon yielding to the superior will of a