Page:Travels in Mexico and life among the Mexicans.djvu/318

310 found breathing the very spirit of "mañanaism." He came to Mexico, stopped at the best hotel, entertaining strangers with descriptions of the excavations—that he was going to make. Now and again he skipped out of town for a few days, dug a hole somewhere, and brought back fragments of pottery that indicated valuable deposits to be found—mañana. He was always going to find a buried city—to-morrow; a palace—to-morrow; he will draw you a plan of his work and make all clear—to-morrow; his photographs, the best in the world, are not now to be seen, but—to-morrow; his casts, to enlighten the world, may be seen—mañana; and it is not surprising to find that he finally left the country to the tune of mañana music. Lest it should be inferred from the foregoing that the Mexican government does not extend a helping hand to the cause of science, I hasten to add that the contrary is the fact. Although revolutions have shaken this country terribly in the past, fair Science walks serenely on, its eye fixed steadfastly upon the stars. A rapid sketch of the history of this institution, the National Museum, will prove this. It is translated from the annals of the Museum itself.

When that pious furor was over which animated the first Archbishop of Mexico, Zumárraga, and the conquerors and missionaries, who destroyed all the ancient writings and Aztec monuments that fell in their way,—considered by them as invincible obstacles to the abolishment of idolatry amongst the subjugated Indians,—there succeeded a more enlightened epoch, when it was seen what an irreparable loss the history of the New World had met with. Some of the kings of Spain undertook to repair, by every means possible, the evil caused by ignorance and fanaticism, and at different times ordered to be collected all the documents that would serve to illustrate the history of America, and appointed chroniclers of the Indies, who were charged with writing it out. The viceroys of Mexico, following this impulse, commenced to collect and deposit in the archives of the viceroyalty that which they thought of interest. We should not fail to mention the collection of Boturini, called his historical Indian Museum,—a rich collection of many