Page:Mexico in 1827 Vol 2.djvu/729

Rh tended so directly to destroy both as the conduct of the Council of the Indies; which, by poisoning the very fountain of justice, convinced the Creoles that in the Old, as in the New World, it was equally unavailing for them to seek redress.

Robertson is likewise incorrect in what he states respecting Castes, and the natural antipathy between the Indians and the Negroes. Wherever there have been African slaves in America, it will be found that they have not only intermarried with the Aborigines, but are positively blended into a new race; and it was the extent to which this connexion had been carried, and the impossibility, (from its numerous ramifications) of proving themselves free from a taint of Negro blood, that occasioned such universal dissatisfaction amongst the Creoles, when the Cortes (in 1811) deprived of the rights of citizenship all those who were in any way contaminated by African descent.

Nor is Robertson's view of the character of the Creoles (Book viii. p. 32) at all to be relied upon. It is drawn not from nature, but from a bad likeness, sketched by no friendly hand. In considering what they were, we must bear in mind the prohibitions under which they laboured, and the very narrow circle to which their natural activity was confined. What inducement was there to acquire information, or to cultivate science, in a country where the labour of early years could be turned to no account in the career of maturer life? From the bar and the