Ancient Unpublished Histo...
The Times, 1824-11-06T00:00:00

W-e -eave read in a recent number of the Spanish iaga.. 'ziae entitled-eios de Rspag,aoles }Eniigrados, published in London, an analysis-of a very curious ahd interesting aq.- count of Mexico, written *less than half a century after its conquest b yCortes and-his followers. The work was corn- posed in fexico by.a Spanish monk of the order of Frat ret- Minares and two ccpies 'of 'it.t sent to Spiln, one of 'which 'was deposited in the Finciscan convent of Sahagin. 'This.cpy, ate being long neglected, was some time ago discoveredy andaconsulted by a -Spanish author of the name. of Munoz, when writing a history of the New WVorld. It afterwards passed along' with the manuscripts of this autEr, ro thehanas of_theSeretary of State for the Indies,' and. .by' ni- was deposited in-the-library of -the Academy of History at 3ladri.. One of'the writefs of the Ocios-a 'very learned.rnan, anaImefiber of 'the late Cortes-who was .employed to amake a literary survey of the conventS and religious houses of Spain, has given us this analysis,. and assures us that the copy of the wvork from which' he bhas taken it agrees exactly with- the ianuscript transmitted fromn Mexico two centuries and a . half ago. Th6 vwork-was originally written in the Mexican languiage about the year 1&45, and translated into the Spa. nish language it 157k5. The author-states the difficulty lie had in composing it in a langu.age which had till then nei- ther lbtters nor writings. His object was to facilitate to the I ministers of the Catholie religion the discharge of their du- ties, by instriteting them in the customs, arts, literature, language, religion,, genius, virtues, and vices of the native Mexicans, among whom they preklieed. Never was ajiuster estimate formed of the atrocities inflictecl on these poor creatures by his countrymen, and never was a sense of them more forcibly expressed-tban in- the-language which he quotes and uses. " I, PFiar Bernardino de Sahagun," says he, " have written these twelve books of - the divine thizngs, or rather of the idolatrous, human, and natural his- tory of Aexico. This work will be of great service in mak- ing known the character of the Mexican race-a race which has niot excited sufficient attention, beeause there fell upol them the curqe which Jeremiah the Prophet deriouned against Jerusalem :-Lo ! I wig bring a nation upbn yOU from. asfar; it is a mighty nation; it is ain antcien2t nation- nation whose langbuage thou knotwest not, neit4er. unde: dandest what they say. hleir giuver is an open sepuilchre: they are al might A men. And they shaU eat up thty harvest. they shal desfroy thy sons and thy daughters, thy people, and thy dwliiLgs. This has literally happened to the Indians by the Spaniards. They wvere so trampledl down2 and destroyed themselves, and every thing belonging to them, that they now retain no trace of what they once were.- We know, by the aecottnts trans- mitted from former times, that they were skilled in the mechanical arts: we now see that they have an aptitude in 1earning the liberal arts, and for acquiring the science of theology. How able they arc to endure hunger, thirst, cold and toil; and what progress they had made in the arts of war, we know by experience." Friar Bernardino, in a preface of which the above-cited passage is a specimen, describes the ancient population of lexico, and traces it back 500 years before the Christian era, to the famous city of Tulla, which would appear to have had the same fate and to be connected with the same fabulous history as the city of Troy. But whence did Friar Bernardino derive this his- tory, real or fictitious, as the people of whom he writes possessed neither book, nor the knowledge of letters ? The iMonlk does not conceal his sources of information. He began his work, lie tells us, in the Mexican language in the town of Tepepule, having selected, by the consent of the Governor, twelve of the oldest Indians, possessing the greatest reputation for probity. To this learned junta he daily propounded questions for the space of two years, and the replies which they gave in words were ratified by pic- ture writing, vwhich was interpreted in three languages, Mexican, Latin, and Spaanish, by persons in which he had entire confidence. These persons wrote their interpretation at the foot of the picture; and "' I (says the Friar) still possess the originals."- This labour of historical acquisi- tion he continued in other places, and thus collected tne mass of facts, 'srue or fabnlous, with which he fills the twelve booksof his werk.We are sorry that we have notroom to enuL- merate, after thelearned writor in the iMagazine, alltie con- tentsof these books, but the rollowing will satisfy our rcaders thatthey may findin thearticle much anusexneiit and instruc_ tion. The first book treats of the divinities worshipped by the Mexicans, and is divided into asmany chapters as there are Mexican gods-the whole number being 22. These gods are madc to correspond in general attributes with the fabulouls beings who peopled Olympus. The Mexican wor- shippers must have found it easier than us to pronounee such names as the following :-Vitzilobeecht (Hercules); Xuithecutle (Vulcan?, and Chachiuhtlyocc (Junio); or they must hlavs become like HIorace- "Parcus Deorum cultor et inf'requens."' Even the enticing name of Venus, Plazaulteutl, mtust sound repulsive through any but a Mexican windpipe. The second book contains 28 chapters, and treats of the calendar, feasts, ceremonies, and solemnities of the ancient Mexicans. Their month consisted of 20 days, divided into four weeks of five days each; their moinths were 1S, conm- posed of 360 days. The third book, consisting of 14 chapters, treats of the origin of the gods. The fourth book embraces the subject of judicial astrology. The sixth book treats of the rhetoric, moral philosophy, and theology of the Mexican nation, in which tbere are many curious things respecting the origin of their language and the state of their moral virtues. This part of the work is stated to be very interesting. The author gives some curious speci- mens of Mexican harangues: but we must now refer our readers to the article itself for a further account of this curiouts work. U*Ukr' LV IlL1smig Arston. op MRIwxco.