torian in ascribing his singular opinion to a Jesuit father, and in affirming that the Peruvians had not even a term to express creator ; and points to the name of their favorite deity, Pachacamac, as identical with Creator of the world. In some places usages and traditions prevailed that have given rise to the conjecture that Christianity was not unknown to the reinote ancestors of the tribes. The memory of a deluge which generally prevailed had, among the Aztecs, a striking affinity to the Scriptural narrative. We cannot fail to recognize our mother Eve in Cioacoatl, a Mexican goddess, near whom a serpent was depicted, and through whom sin is said to have come into the world. The story of David and Uriah is easily discovered under other names in their annals. Even vestiges of some distinctive Christian usages may be perceived among them. The Aztecs touched with water the head and lips of the infant, named it on that occasion, and invoked their favorite goddess to cleanse it and give it a new birth. The cross was venerated in the temples of Anahuac. The conquerors “met with it in various places, and the image of a cross may be seen at this day sculptured in bas-relief on the walls of one of the buildings of Palenque." * These facts, we admit, are insufficient to warrant any certain inference; but they are sufficiently remarkable to be noticed. They did not, however, in any way facilitate the conversion of the aborigines to Christianity, who were somewhat disposed to receive its teachers by a tradition preserved among them, and said to be derived from their great father, who, on leaving them, foretold that a superior race would come from the east.

The transition of millions of Indians to Christianity within a few years is a fact attested by the most prejudiced historians, who represent it as a mere external change, the result of terror or of caprice, without the corresponding change of sentiment, and without moral improvement. Baluffi admits that the incongruous union of Spanish dominion and Christian faith, in the invitation made by the adventurers to the various tribes, was calculated to injure Christianity by identifying it with the interests of the Spanish monarchy, and presenting it in alliance with the crown, combined, as it were, to strip the nations of their independence. " The military and political powers, acting in a manner diametrically opposed to the maxims of the Gospel, made war, in effect, on the word of salvation and

* Prescott's Conquest of Mexico, Vol. III., Appendix, Part I. NEW SERIES. VOL. I. NO. III.

48

peace which was preached, and, by presenting a sanguinary religion, sought to make God himself an accomplice in their crimes.” “Never before was the law of Christ promulgated in such a way. In all parts of the world where this divine Gospel was preached, men were not called by the sound of the drum to enter into the Christian brotherhood; the independence of empires was not attacked ; the people were not slaughtered ; families were not plundered ; treasures were not seized ; individual liberty was not taken away. Unfortunately, in America an utter disregard was manifested for the rights of nature and of nations, whilst the ecclesiastics, as meek lambs, taught the pure faith of Jesus. Vulgar prejudice, - an indiscreet zeal, not conformable to the spirit of the Church, - at that time esteemed it a great and heroic undertaking to make war on infidels, and plunder them, however inoffensive. The Spaniards seemed to fancy themselves, like the Hebrews of old, divinely commissioned to combat the Amorrheans, Jebuseans, and other nations accursed of God, and to exterminate them from the land of promise.” This very severe censure may admit of mitigation, if it be considered that the violence offered by the Spaniards was not generally, at least, directed to enforce the doctrines of Christianity, but rather to abolish the unnatural and horrible custom of sacrificing human victims. When Cortés urged the Cacique of Cempoalla (or Zempoalla) and his subjects to embrace the faith, the chief indignantly rejected the proposition, and threatened the vengeance of the gods on the Christians, should they interfere with their worship. - The zeal of the Christians,” observes Prescott, " had mounted too high to be cooled by remonstrance or men

During their residence in the land, they had witnessed more than once the barbarous rites of the natives, their cruel sacrifices of human victims, and their disgusting cannibal repasts. Their souls sickened at these abominations, and they agreed with one voice to stand by their general, when he told them that Heaven would never smile on their enterprise if they countenanced such atrocities, and that, for his own part, he was resolved the Indian idols should be demolished that very hour, if it cost him his life. . . . . . Fifty soldiers, at a signal from their general, sprang up the great stairway of the temple, entered the building on the summit, the walls of which were black with human gore, tore the huge wooden idols from their foundations, and dragged them to the edge of the terrace.

With great alacrity they rolled the colossal monsters

ace.

down the steps of the pyramid, amidst the triumphant shouts of their own companions, and the groans and lamentations of the natives. They then consummated the whole by burning them in the presence of the assembled multitude." *

The consequent conversion of the natives cannot be regarded as the effect of fear, but rather as resulting from the evidence presented to them that their idols were powerless. 6. The same effect,” says the historian, “ followed as in Cozumel. The Totonacs,

. finding their deities incapable of preventing or even punishing this profanation of their shrines, conceived a mean opinion of their power.” He goes on to relate, that some of the Totonac priests joined in the procession which was formed, when, after some days, the temple became a Christian sanctuary, and that, according to the Spanish chronicle, Indians as well as Spaniards were melted into tears and audible sobs by the innpressive ceremonies of the Catholic worship, and the touching eloquence of the pious Father Olmedo. In accounting for this extraordinary demonstration, he compares the different modes adopted by Catholic and Protestant missionaries, and pays an involuntary homage to the power of the Catholic ritual over the feelings. The Protestant, he says, presents the pale light of reason to his hearers ; “the bolder Catholic, kindling the spirit by the splendor of the spectacle, and by the glowing portrait of an agonized Redeemer, sweeps along his hearers in a tempest of passion.” | The historian would have spoken more correctly, had he observed that the Catholic studies to convince the understanding, but does not neglect to interest the feelings and imagination by the imposing influences of a sublime ceremonial.

From the high character given of Father Olmedo by Prescott, Robertson, and all historians, we may be assured that he, at least, did not suffer any to be coerced into a profession of Christianity. Many centuries before, a council of Toledo, whose decrees could not have been unknown to him, forbade violence to be used to induce the reception of baptism, or profession of the faith, since the grace of God is to be given to those only who are willing to receive it. Robertson has paid due homage to his sacerdotal courage and prudent toleration, when describing his opposition to the coercive measures which Cortés proposed to adopt at Tlascala :-“Cortés, astonished

" and enraged at their obstinacy, proposed to execute by force

what he could not accomplish by persuasion, and was going to overturn their altars and cast down their idols with the same violent hand as at Zempoalla, if Father Bartholomew de Olmedo, chaplain to the expedition, had not checked his inconsiderate impetuosity. He represented the imprudence of such an attempt in a large city newly reconciled, and filled with people no less superstitious than warlike; he declared that the proceeding at Zempoalla had always appeared to him precipitate and unjust; that religion was not to be propagated by the sword, or infidels to be converted by violence; that other weapons were to be employed in this ministry; patient instruction must enlighten the understanding, and pious example captivate the heart, before men could be induced to abandon error and embrace the truth." The historian cannot suppress his surprise at hearing such language from a Catholic priest at that period; yet it was by no means peculiar to Olmedo. "One is astonished to find a Spanish monk of the sixteenth century among the first advocates against persecution, and in behalf of religious liberty. The remonstrances of an ecclesiastic no less respectable for wisdom than virtue had their proper weight with Cortés. He left the Tlascalans in the undisturbed exercise of their own rites, requiring only that they should desist from their horrid practice of offering human sacrifices." *

It is clear that even Cortés, although eager to see the Indians converted to Christianity, limited his coercive measures to the destruction of the idols; and, by the persuasion of Olmedo, was content with putting an end to the unnatural practices which made of the temple a human slaughter-house. From Montezuma he obtained the conversion of a teocalli, or temple, into a Christian sanctuary, and, having displaced the stone of sacrifice, so often stained with human blood, to make room for the representation of the Victim of Calvary, and placed on high the image of the Virgin "mild and chaste," he had the consolation of seeing assembled around him many of the idolaters, who were struck with admiration at the mysterious simplicity of the Christian worship. "As the beautiful Te Deum rose towards heaven, Cortés and his soldiers, kneeling on the ground, with tears streaming from their eyes, poured forth their gratitude to the Almighty for this glorious triumph of the cross. It was a striking spectacle, · that of these rude warriors lifting up their orisons on the summit of this mountain temple, in the very

capital of heathendom, on the spot especially dedicated to its unhallowed mysteries. Side by side, the Spaniard and the Aztec knelt down in prayer, and the Christian hymn mingled its sweet tones of love and mercy with the wild chant raised by the Indian priest." *

An affecting tribute was paid by the converted Indians to the humanity and paternal affection of Olmedo at his death, when they refused all food or drink, even water, until his remains were interred. Such was their deep affliction for his loss! That he did not stand alone in the practice of the sublime virtues of his ministry, Prescott is forced to acknowledge. "Olmedo belonged to that class of missionaries of whom the Roman Catholic Church, to its credit, has furnished many examples who rely on spiritual weapons for the great work, inculcating those doctrines of love and mercy which can best touch the sensibilities and win the affections of their rude audience. These, indeed, are the true weapons of the Church, the weapons employed in the primitive ages, by which it has spread its peaceful banners over the farthest region of the globe."+ To Toribio, a Franciscan friar, the historian bears a like honorable testimony. "Toribio employed himself zealously with his brethren in the great object of their mission. He travelled on foot over various parts of Mexico, Guatemala, and Nicaragua. Wherever he went, he spared no pains to wean the natives from their dark idolatry, and to pour into their minds the light of revelation. He showed even a tender regard for their temporal as well as spiritual wants, and Bernal Diaz testifies that he has known him to give away his own robe to clothe a destitute and suffering Indian." Twelve other Franciscans, sent as missionaries to New Spain, in 1524, have merited a no less favorable eulogium. "They were men of unblemished purity of life, nourished with the learning of the cloister, and, like many others whom the Romish [!] Church has sent forth on such apostolic missions, counted all personal sacrifices as little in the sacred cause to which they were devoted." The historian cannot dissemble that the virtues of the early missionaries-especially their tender charity - exercised a most powerful influence over the Indians, and won to the faith

Conquest of Mexico, Book IV., Ch. V.

† Ibid., Book III., Ch. I.

Ibid., Book III., Ch. IX., note.

Ibid., Book VII., Ch. II.