The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-08-28

st. Louis Globe-Democrat: Now tina
the last remnants of the Spanish en-
pire are slipping from the grasp of tn,
government at Madrid, it is interesting
to take glance at the men whose en-,
terprise founded on this side of the AT,
lantic the immense domain which
Spain once held in the Americas. Suct
an empire, for wealth and extent. was
never before known in the history OF
the world The empire of Rome could
have been set down in a corner of the
| Spanish empire; the empire of Alex.
ander was a bagatelle compared to ii
1t was nearly twice as large as the
! territory now ruled by the car and
more than twice the size of that gov.
erned from Downing street.
| The founders of the Spanish empire
IN the now world We're ali military adj
venturers, most had learned theil
trade with the ablest soldier-in fact
the only firSt-class general that Spain
| ever produced. GonsaIvo de Cordova
was captain, indeed, a general whose
| abilities entitIe him to rank with the
frst military men of any age or coun-
| try. While not uniformly successful in
! ms campaigns against the Moors, he
showed such marvellous tact and deX-
terity in eXtricating himself and his
army from difficult positions, in MAX
ing the most of every opportunity, that
he deserves the title which has been
bestowed upon him, The First of the
Spanish Captains" The men who went
from Spain to conquer America were
apt students at the feet of Gonsalvo,
but the reputation which they acquired
on this side of the Atlantic probably
far exceeds their merits, from the fact
that, instead of organized bodies of
soldiers with arms and arnor equal to
their own, they found only naked In
dams, with weapons so poorly adapted
either for offense or defense, that there
was practically. in many very large
districts of country, no opposition TO
the Spanish arms.
In the plains of Mexico and Peru so
little was known of the military art
that lances of wood, the tips hardened
in the fire, arrows pointed in the same
way and wooden swords, with edges
of flint, constituted the only defense
of the population against their invad-
ers. Weapons of this kind were merely
as straw against the Toledo blades,
the steel-pointed lances, the plate and
chain armOr of the Spaniards When
to these formidable weapons was added
the power of gunpOwder, a force which,
to the Indians, was equally mysterious
and terrible, it will be seen that the
conquest of great countries by small
bands of men was by no means a diff
cult task. Seldom among the plains
Indians was there any opposition wor-
thy of note. Only two or three times
did the peaceful native inhabitants
make anything like adequate resist
ance to the invaders. The battle of the
City of Mexico was fight of despera-
ton. and some idea of the fury into
which the Indians were wrought may
be gained from the fact that with
clubs, stones and improvised weapons,
caught up on the spur of the moment
they succeeded in defeating the in
vaders and driving them out of the
city.
Whenever the Spaniards found a
warlike native tribe they let it Sc
verely alone, a fact which explains the
lack of Spanish success in extending
their rule in North America. De Soto
in his three years of wanderings in
the central valley, during the course of
which he traversed regions as widely
as North Carolina and west
ern Missouri, found the savages so well
armed and so ready to fight that ne
no permanent settlement,
nor even temporary occupation. After
the experiences of De Soto and the
other explorers of central North Amer
lea, the Spaniards. as one of their his
tOrianS quantity states it, concluded
the country was not worth hav-
ing, being filled with very fierce
and savage men," a conclusion which
was justified by the facts. Even in the
countries which they did conquer,
however. there remained large dis
tricts inhabited by war-iike natives,
The mountain Indians of Mexico We're
never conquered. The mountain tribes
Of Central America, of Colombia, OF
Peru, defy the governments of today
as they defied the Spaniards of the six
teenth century. The Araucanians of
Chile. the swamp Indians inhabiting
the delta of the Orinoco, the SeIninoles
OF Florida, the sturdy tribes on the
eastern slopes of the Andes, the river
Indians of the Upper Amazon, none
were ever subdued, and after few
expeditions against them had come to
grief the SpaniardS ceased to make at
temptS upon their territory. Almagro,
with his mail-clad men, accomplished
nothing in Chile, and even Valdivia
seems to have conquered no more than
the seacoast. AlvaradO occupied only
the plains and coast of Central Amer
lea, for during his time 1t was well
that when a Spaniard
ventured into the dense forests, or
among the mountains, he disappeared
forever. Ponce de Icons so-called
of Florida was a myth, FOL
the Spanish settlements were confined
to isolated points on the coast and the
uplands of the northern portion The
SpaniardS who occupied Venezuela
gave the MoracaibO and the Lower
Orinoco districts a wide perth, for the
poisoned arrows of the swamp natives
were deadlier than the Spanish lances.
Even in Hayti. Ovando made little inn
preston upon certain bands OF noun
tain Indians, who were so clever at
hiding and so brave to resist when
they were overtaken that they were
eft to themselves.
The concueroIS thus overran the
peaceful and unarmed and left the
to themselves. No genius
was required to corral a village of I'M
armed savases and massacre them,
ike so many sheep, and this was a.
the Spaniards did. The immense
of the Spanish arms and
equipments made one SDaniard in
vincible against all the Indians who
could come against him, and this in
fully accounts for the super
stitiouS fear felt by the savages. who
,ame to the conclusion that the. Span
ards were demons come to destroy the
world and its inhabitants. This super
;tition enabled Diego Columbus with
800 men TO overrun the Island of Cuba;
Pizarro with 1S3 TO subjugate the great
empire of Peru; Cortez, with $50, to
invade anc conquer the Mexican en-
1ira Spanich officers with |