The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1896-02-04
THE LAND OF THE MONDAY

BY WALTER CLARK

having their revolutions and dYnastlc
changes, which are narrated in the So
called Histories of the World" the
great drama of life was equally being
played out on this side of the Atlantic.
Here likewise great empires rose,
hourished and passed away, to be sue
ceeded by others. Here too ambitious
men intrigued, schemed and fought, to
obtain fame which they fondly be-
Iieved would last forever. On either
side of the ocean, in ignorance of their
contemporaries, life proceeded on par
allel lines. In each hemisphere from
time to time some great nation believed
its own civilization the world" its
own king king of kings" it's own gov
eminent and rule the final and lasting
me-. All have disappeared, and the
moon shines coldly down and the night
winds high alike over the ruins of
Nineveh and Palenque, Memphis and
UxmRl, Carthage and Cholula, Troy
and Tenochtitlan, and many another
metropolis whose walls and temples
A6FO OOCA NAEN dA4A "ASSO AOAOOSg NAL6S
and people have been nameless for
many a dead and forgotten century.
When Mexico first became known to
Europeans it wes the seat of a great
empire where the arts and sciences
hourished, while savages of the lowest
grade of barbarism roamed at will
throughout the territory now covered
by the great Republic Of the North"
Mexico was first discovered to Euro
peans by Cordova, who landed at Cape
Catoche in Yucatan, 1917, somewhat
more than one hundred years before
the landing of the Pilgrim fathers at
Plymouth Rock. In 1915 Grijalva an
chored IF the site of modern Vera Cruz
and opened communication with the
Aztecs. In April, 1919, fernando
Cortez landed at the same spot and
with scant ceremony began his march
upon which he entered in November of
that year. From the death of Guate-
mozin, the last Aztec emperor, in Au-
gust, 1921, the Spaniards held posses
sion of the country exactly three hun
dred years till the withdrawal of Juan
O. Donoju, the last Spanish viceroy, in
August, 1921, when Spain recognized
the independence of the country, which
had been secured by the combined
efforts of the descendants of the con
quered Indians and the native descend
ants of their c~onquerors.
The history of Mexico prior to the
conquest has been only partially recov-
cred. The earliest authentic fact as,
certained is that, about A. D. $50, the
Toltecs were in possession of a vast en-
pire. This was coeval with the disor-
g~anization existing in Europe after the
Eruption of the Goths and Vandals,
and a century and a half before the
coronation Of ~Charlemagne, which
event marked the beginning Of the
social and political structure of modern
Europe. Who were the predecessors
of the Toltecs, and who the Toltece
themselves and whence they came, will
remain unknown until some new
Champollion shall arise to decipher the
writings chiselled in the stones and
pencilled in the marble of the mighty
cities whose ruins extend for miles
along the rivers of Yucatan. Tradition
relates that all these successive nations
who held sway in Mexico came from
the northwest, and everything in fact
points to their Monaghan origin, which
is true perhaps of all the aborigines Of
the two Americas save the EsquimauG
and Greenlanders, whose ancestors in
someremote age may have crossed over
from Europe.
In the eleventh century, about the
time William of Normandy was found
ing the English monarchy upon the
victory at Hastings another conqueroI
but nameless now forevermore-lead
ing the Aztecs from the northWestward
came down upon the Toltecs, %enervated
by the plenty and ease of their long do
minion, and drove them out to Yucca
tan and Guatemala, where the degen
crate remnants of their descendant
still linger.
The Aztecs held high rule till foul
and a half centuries later they in turr
met their fate beneath the iron rule Of
Cortez and his adventures. The Aztec
civilization possessed many of the arts
and sciences and was the equal of the
contemporaneous civilization Of Asia
and IN many respects not inferior tt
that then existing in Europe. 1t was
however, marred by human sacrifices
not less than twenty thousand victims