Page:The Conquest of Mexico Volume 1.djvu/489



Page 96 (1).—Veytia, Hist. Antig., lib. 3, cap. 7.—Clavigero, Stor. del Messico, tom., i. p. 247. The latter author enumerates four historians, some of much repute, on the royal house of Tezcuco, descendants of the great Nezahualcoyotl.—See his Account of Writers, tom. i. pp. 6-21.

Page 96 (2).—"In the city of Tezcuco were preserved the royal records of everything to which I have referred, because this was the metropolis of all science, fashion, end elegance, and its rulers prided themselves upon this fact." (Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., Prólogo.) It was from the poor wreck of these documents, once to carefully preserved by his ancestors, that the historian gleaned the materials, as he informs us, for his own works.

Page 96 (3).—"He composed six songs, say the author last quoted, "which have perhaps also perhaps perished at the incendiary hands of the ignorant." (Idea, p. 79.) Boturini had translations of two of these in his museum (Catálogo, p. 8), and another has since come to light.

Page 96 (4).—Difficult as the task may be, it has been executed by the hand of a fair friend, who, while she has adhered to the Castilian with singular fidelity, has shown a grace and flexibility in her poetical movements, which the Castilian version, and probably the Mexican original, cannot boast.—See Appendix, Vol. ii. p. 403.

Page 96 (5).—Numerous specimens of this may be found in Condé's Dominacion de los Arabes en España. None of them are superior to the plaintive strains of the royal Abderahman on the solitary palm tree, which reminded him of the pleasant land of his birth.—See Parte 2, cap. 9.

Page 97 (1).—"Singing, I will strike the tuneful instrument of music, whilst you dance in the delight of flowers and in praise of almighty God. O let us enjoy this splendour, for human life is fleeting."—MS. de Ixtlilxochitl. The sentiment, which is common enough, is expressed with uncommon beauty by the English poet, Herrick:

 Gather the rosebud while you may, Old Time is still a-flying; The fairest flower that blooms to-day, To-morrow may be dying."

And with still greater beauty, perhaps, by Racine: "Let us laugh and sing," says the impious crowd. "Let us carry our desires from flower to flower, from pleasure to pleasure. Fool is he who trusts to the future! The number of our fleeting years it unknown; let us haste to enjoy life to-day; who knows if to-morrow we be."—Athalie, Acte 2. It is interesting to see under what different forms the same sentiment is developed by different races, and in different languages. It is an Epicurean sentiment, indeed, but its universality proves its truth to nature.

Page 97 (2).—Some of the provinces and places thus conquered were held by the allied powers in common; Tlacopan, however, only receiving one-fifth of the tribute. It was more usual to annex the vanquished territory to that one of the two great states to which it lay nearest.—See Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 38.—Zurita, Rapport, p. 11.

Page 97 (3).—Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 41. The same writer, in another work calls the population of Texcuco, at this period, double of what it wat at the Conquest; founding his estimate on the royal registers, and on the numerous remains of edifices still visible in his day, in places now depopulated.

Page 97 (4).—Torquemada has extracted the particulars of the yearly expenditure of the palace from the royal account-book, which came into the historians's possession. The following are some of the items, namely: 4,900,300 fanegas of maize {the fanega is equal to about one hundred pounds); 2,744,000 fanegas of cacao; 8000 turkeys; 1300 baskets of salt; besides an incredible quantity of game of every kind, vegetables, condiments, etc. (Monarch. Ind., lib. 2, cap. 53).—see also Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 35.