dred in the most splendid uniform, and followed by all the officers of government, and an immense retinue in their train.

While the inca was thus approaching, nearly thirty thousand of his forces being drawn upon the plain, the priest, with an interpreter, met him. He then, in a few words, explained to the monarch the mysteries of Christianity—the prerogatives of the pope the grant his holiness had made of the new world to the king of Spain-and the necessity that the inca should embrace the Christian religion, acknowledge the authority of the pope, and submit himself as a vassal to the king of Castile. Indignant at this incomprehensible and presumptuous harangue, the inca replied, that he was master of his own empire,-that the pope and the king of Spain were unknown to him, and had no concern with his prerogatives, that he would never renounce the religion of his ancestors, or abandon the worship of the sun, that bright and immortal deity of his country,-that he would not worship the God of the Spaniards, and degrade himself by rendering homage to him who, like other mortals, was subject to death. He demanded of the priest where he had learned those wondrous things on which he had so surprisingly expatiated? "In this book," said the holy father, reaching to him his Breviary. The inca took it in his hand, turned over the leaves, and holding it a moment to his ear, answered, "This book is silent, it tells me not a word," and, in a contemptuous manner, cast it to the earth. The priest instantly kindled in a rage, and, turning to the Spaniards, exclaimed, with all his power, To arms, Christians, to arms!-the word of God is insulted!-avenge this profanation on these impious dogs!

Pizarro, waiting with impatience to execute the plan previously concerted, instantly gave orders. These had scarcely burst from his lips before his eager troops sprang to their execution. In a moment the musketry was discharged, the music rang, the cannon roared, the horse galloped fiercely to the charge, and the infantry pressed impetuously forward with sword in hand. Horror-struck by this treachery, and terrified by the sound and bloody effect of the fire arms, the Peruvian troops fled in the utmost consternation. The roar of the artillery sounded so much like the thunder of heaven that they doubted whether their enemies were not of a supernatural character, sent to punish their delinquencies. The nobles only remained in the field to protect the celestial person of their sovereign. But Pizarro made a rapid movement with a chosen band toward the inca, pulled him from his throne, and retained him a prisoner.

By this sudden onset more than four thousand Peruvians were slain, while not a single Spaniard fell. This great empire changed masters in an hour. He who held absolute sway over a dominion of almost two thousand miles in extent was, in one brief hour, disrobed of all authority, and made a helpless prisoner. Had the Andes been shaken from its base, and desolated half his kingdom, the calamity could not have been more shocking or unlooked for. The inca, perceiving that gold was the charm which had allured the Spaniards to his country, proposed to fill the room in which he was confined so high as he could reach, and give it to Pizarro, for his liberty. To this the treacherous Spaniard seemed heartily to agree. But, when the unfortunate monarch bad fulfilled his engagement, and demanded his liberty, he per

ceived, that not his liberty, but his death was determined on. The mode was burning by a slow fire; but, on condition he would embrace Christianity, it should be commuted to strangling. To this, after a severe mental conflict, the broken-spirited monarch consented. The priest then, who deplored his death, (to which he had secretly counseled,) congratulated him because he was about to die a Christian.. This picture of hypocritical zeal for religion is drawn in blood on too many pages of South American history. The Inquisition, which was established in Peru, and devoted, at one period, to the conversion of the Indians, was not more antichristian in its bloody achievements than the disgraceful pretension we have just detailed.

To give the greater influence to the Church, the extent of its possessions was constantly increased, and much of the most productive lands in the vicinity of towns and cities was in its power. Priestly artifices extorted many of these in the dying hour, so that numerous estates came by bequest into the possession of the Church. Royal grants to it were also large and numerous. Indeed, several institutions of the Church possessed larger revenues than flowed into the coffers of some extensive provinces. These arrayed it in a pomp, and secured to it an influence, which made it one of the mightiest pillars which supported regal power in South America.

Another feature of the colonial system was the unapproachable distance at which the two parts of society were placed from each other. During the three centuries which intervened between the conquest and revolution immense tracts of land remained in the hands of some ancient families. Many of these had on them a slave population, so that they were entirely wrought by the Indians and Creoles, who belonged to the estates. Many of these families were worth from one hundred to twenty-five hundred thousand dollars.

The ignorance and debasement of the laboring class scarcely had a parallel in any civilized nation on the globe. Their habitations were floorless, unfurnished huts; their wages would only procure them the coarsest food and clothing; and their posterity could scarcely hope for a more elevated allotment. It was deemed deeply disgraceful for any member of a respectable family to engage in manual labor, or to become acquainted with any of the mechanical arts.

This distance, at which the two classes of community were placed from each other, left the extremes without an intervening link to connect them. But this was the only social state which would perfectly accord with the designs of the Spanish crown. If the wealth and intelligence could be retained in the hands of a few, whose interest required the full recognition of the royal prerogatives, the great mass being powerless by their ignorance and poverty would always remain incompetent to change the political order of things.

Prior to the revolution, Spanish America consisted of seven general divisions. New Spain, Peru, Buenos Ayres, and New Grenada were vice.royalties, having all the pomp, and many of the prerogatives of distinct and independent empires. Chili, Venezuela, and Guatamala were three territories, each governed by a captain-general. Such was the genius of the government over all these divisions, that the features we have described were ever prominent in its character.

But this sketch of the colonial history should not be concluded

without some account of the Jesuits. This most extraordinary society that the world ever saw acquired a power in South America which made its vice-kings tremble on their seats. In 1840, it will be just three centuries since this society was originated. The famous Loyola was its founder. This far-seeing individual assured the pope, that if certain clerical privileges and exemptions could be granted, he would form a society, which, in evangelizing the heathen, and in extending the dominion of his holiness, would far exceed all which had ever existed. The pope conceded the required privileges, and the society was organized by his formal authority. What Loyola had promised to the pope, he accomplished to the admiration of Europe. His emis. saries were immediately despatched in great numbers through Europe, Asia, and Africa. Their success was deemed miraculous, and it was predicted that the populous east would soon bow to the spiritual sway of Rome.

But, as to trace them through their political intrigues in the old world falls not within the design of this sketch, we hasten to their movements in South America. In less than ten years after they sprang into existence, they entered the new world. In 1549, a number of them landed in Brazil, penetrated the interior, and commenced preaching to several of the Pacific tribes. They claimed to be the descendants of St. Thomas, whom they represented as having been the immediate apostle of the Son of God. They declared themselves delegated by his authority to carry a message of eternal peace and happiness to the whole Indian race. They gave to these unsuspecting tribes a particular history of St. Thomas's advent to America, and journey over the southern continent. Among other marvelous things in his history, they affirmed, that he landed on the coast of Brazil, traveled through the immense desert, with a huge cross in his hand; and, as he proceeded, left on the hardest rocks the print of his large, naked feet! that by these, and similar wonders, he perpetuated the memory of his glorious journey from the coast of Brazil to the river Parana, to the Paraguay, thence to the great Chaco, and finally over the whole of ancient Peru; that the unwieldy cross, which their ancestors saw in the hands of this apostle, was hidden by the unconverted Indians in a certain lake, which, after lying there fifteen hundred years, was discovered by the curate of that place, and rescued by his holy hands! Ridiculous as were these fictions of the Jesuits, they were believed to be sacred realities by minds elevated immeasurably above their Indian converts.

Surprising as it may appear, in the nineteenth century, Alvear— otherwise a respectable historian-has seriously attempted to solve the problem of the long immersion of the cross, without injury to that sacred symbol. Among his other sage reasons by which he accounts for this phenomenon, the most sweeping was that the cross was framed of holy wood: that this cross had remained in that watery concealment since the apostle's age, he thought none could doubt who knew the fact, that numerous and most stupendous miracles had been wrought by it. How strange that, after more than three hundred years have furnished the clearest light to discriminate between divine miracles and popish tricks, common sense is still shocked by referring the latter to the hand of God! This story of St. Thomas was made to ring so

incessantly in the ears of the first tribes they addressed, that the mis. sionaries were able to give it out among other tribes as a tradition they had received from the Indians themselves; as one which had been handed down from father to son, and obtained so generally among the native tribes of the new world as to admit no doubt of its truth.

These crafty men made the most high-sounding professions of selfsacrifice and benevolence in all their intercourse with the Indians. The history of their plan furnishes indubitable proof that their own aggrandizement was the absorbing object to which every other one was made tributary. Cortez, the Pizarros, and other adventurers sailed to America for the same object, but with an intention to accom. plish it by other means. They intended to spill the blood of the natives that they might acquire their treasure. The Jesuits wished the personal services of the thousands they "reduced," and therefore subdued them by peaceable means. That they raised them to some degree of social order, taught them the Catholic system, and some knowledge of the mechanical arts, cannot be questioned. But, had the teachers withheld this degree of discipline, they would have defeated their own sinister end. Had the Jesuits left them in a state of utter savageism, they would have failed to procure a fortune by such an instrumentality. These Indians were more than one hundred and fifty years under the absolute control of this society. Had their elevation been its object, the last colonist would not have been in the same state of the first converts, but with every successive generation would have risen in the scale of society. But nothing is more certain than that they made not a single advance either in knowledge or property.

One fundamental principle in the government of the Jesuits was, that their establishment should be independent of all other civil and ecclesiastical authority in the new world. They professed, indeed, allegiance to the king of Spain; but, as they would allow no interference with their institutions, legislation, or practical government, by any of the king's representatives, de facto they renounced the royal authority. They contended that the bishop could have no jurisdiction over the missions; and if the viceroy presumed to enforce his authority, they met him with armies in the field. Thus their loyalty to the king had no existence but in name, as it exhibited itself in a prompt resistance of all his agents. To assume a position so lofty required something very special in the condition of this remarkable society; and their history shows them concerting and maturing their plans, at an early period, to maintain this imperium in imperio. To maintain this extraordinary position required united and vigorous effort, long and unfaltering perseverance, unwearied application to the royal seat for new privileges, and a most artful extension of them, as they were successively obtained. Never was there a society of men more distinguished in all these respects than the Jesuits. But this whole series of strenuous efforts could not have secured a society in so high pretensions, which was not located at such a distance from supreme power as that which separated the Jesuits from the royal and papal authority.

Another prominent trait in the character of this society was the state of entire subordination in which all acted to their superiors. The members of a man's physical frame are scarcely more obsequious to

the decisions of his mind than were all inferiors to the commands of their respective officers. One individual was placed over all the concerns of thirty mission towns. Though he was assisted by two" vicesuperiors" in his high office, these with all others implicitly obeyed his commands. Each town was furnished with one curate and an assistant; and in such as were more populous, each curate had assigned him two assistant curates. The affairs of each town were entirely committed to these curates. One of them ministered at the altar, and to a few of his flock taught, most scantily, the elements of reading and writing. The other superintended all the pastoral, mechanical, and agricultural branches.

It is true, each town had its Indian judges, aldermen, and other officers; but these were the mere tools of the padres, as they never proceeded a single step in their official business without the counsel and approval of the curates. These Indian officers met every day for the double purpose of rendering to the curates the most strict and minute account of the manner in which their orders had been fulfilled, and to receive fresh directions for the succeeding day.

A regulation which was deemed vital to the successful operation of this social system was the perfect equality of all the Indians constituting the community. This extended not merely to matters of great moment, but to the minutest circumstances-to the quality of dress, the manner of wearing it, the hour of commencing labor, and every thing of a social character, excepting the name of office, and the occasional investment of its appropriate badge.

The Jesuits, those acute observers of character, selected for their officers Indians of the most unaspiring and docile character. The caciques were, therefore, the least of any eligible to office. At the expulsion of the Jesuits only three of these were found in office among all the hundreds of Indians who were raised to official rank. The utmost caution was used to diminish the ancient veneration which every Indian had cherished for his cacique. To have increased that deepseated respect by raising its objects to office might have been uncongenial with clerical purposes, by diminishing that omnipotent control which was in the hands of the curates.

But the most marked part of this unique system was that which provided for a community of goods. This institution, which was never adapted to the state of human society, has never been adopted without injury since that brief and miraculous period when Christianity was introduced into the world. But, if it be bad when established on the most equitable principles-when an equal proportion of the produce is distributed to each member of the community-how shall we describe the fallacy, the shameless imposture it involves, when the few absorb the labors of the many! Such was the community of goods established among the Jesuits in Paraguay. The scores of thousands of Indian laborers, whose earnings amounted to millions, enjoyed only such a pittance of this fund as was sufficient to clothe and feed them, in the coarsest and cheapest manner. Their clothing consisted often of a single garment-their food of the simplest morsel-and their habita. tion of a floorless mud hut. This wretched subsistence was all the overflowing fund, created by their labor, could dispense to them. Though they were allowed a portion of every week to labor for them