Page:Mexico of the Mexicans.djvu/15



the exception of Peru, Mexico is perhaps the only Latin-American Republic in which the native Indian race has not shrunk and retreated before the onset of European civilisation. This is owing to the circumstance that when first brought into contact with European influences the Mexican Indian was in full enjoyment of a civilisation of his own, which, if it was inferior to that of his conquerors as regards important essentials, was in some of its phases even superior, and as far removed from the nomadic habits and scanty culture of the savage tribes of North and South America as it is possible for the usages of the settled agriculturist to differ from those of the wandering hunter. If we would comprehend modern Mexico, we must perforce have some little acquaintance with the strange and bizarre civilisation which preceded it.

The earliest accounts of the natives of the Mexican plateau are those furnished by Hernan Cortés, and the soldiers and priests who either assisted in the conquest of Mexico or else arrived from Spain shortly after that event. Landing at Vera Cruz in 1519, Cortés first came into contact with the coastal tribes, gaining at length the plateau of Anahuac ("Place by the Water"), where he encountered more highly civilised native peoples. Subduing some and enrolling others under his banner, he advanced to the city of Mexico—Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztecâ—by far the most powerful