Page:Vol 2 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/578

558 According to this document it is manifest that Zumárraga was a prosperous citizen as well as an honored prelate; that he conducted a regular trade with the Indians through his majordomo, Martin de Aranguren, advancing money on future crops at good interest, and that these transactions and others of a similar kind had been systematically carried on for a number of years. The old man finds himself cumbered with many things when he comes to die, and yet, on the day of this last distribution of his estate, he indites a farewell letter to his king, in which he reiterates the oft-made statement of his poverty, as though to the last he would preserve this painful contrast between the outward life of the prelate and the inward and real life of the man.

But all else we could readily forgive the bishop, even the occasional burning of a few old witches, but the destruction of the Aztec libraries, the mountains of native historical documents and monumental works at Tlatelulco, must ever be regarded as an unpardonable offence. We cannot deplore deeply enough this irreparable loss, the hieroglyphic history of nations unknown, reaching back a thousand years or more. In conclusion we may say that the business ability of the bishop assisted somewhat to temper his zeal in certain directions, and to guide his labors as administrator and head of the church, whose interest he ably promoted.