PRELIMINARY NOTICES OF SPANISH

HISTORIANS.

In order to form a just estimate of the value of testimony, it is necessary to obtain some knowledge of those who record it, since respectability and authentic sources of information constitute their claim to the attention and regard of the reader. The duration of their sojourn, their perfect knowledge of the language, records, and antiquities of the people, whose manners and customs they narrate, as well as the relative circumstances in which themselves were placed, and the interests with which they were connected, are all to be taken into consideration. The Spanish Historians, whose names frequently occur in this work, were all members of the Romish communion, the greater part ecclesiastics, and, as their names indicate, chiefly of Hebrew descent.

Those early Spanish writers, unanimously recognized and acknowledged the manifold analogies which demonstrate the transference of the Levitical economy to the New Continent; but while some of them discerned in this circumstance an indisputable proof of the Hebrew origin of the newly-discovered People; others accounted for this almost fac simile resemblance by asserting that Satan had counterfeited in this People, (whom he had chosen for himself,) the history, manners, customs, traditions, and expectations of the Hebrews, in order that their

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minds might thus be rendered inaccessible to the faith which he foresaw the church would in due time introduce amongst them!

The Historians who ranked themselves as the advocates of the former of these alternatives, were LAS CASAS, SAHAGUN, BOTURINI, GARCIA, GUMILLA, BENAVENTA, and MARTYR. Those who maintained the latter hypothesis were TORQUEMEDA, HERRERA, GOMARA, D'ACOSTA, CORTEZ, D'OLMES, DIAZ. The circumstances in which Herrera and Gomara were placed, (the former having been Royal Historiographer, and the latter Chaplain to Cortez,) admitted of their taking only the orthodox view of the subject. The "secret correspondence" of Cortez with Charles V. together with the rigorous censorship which was exercised by the holy tribunal,' sufficiently prove that even this least offensive view of the subject was to be expressed with reserve.1

The testimony of writers who rejected the evidence of those facts which they nevertheless admitted and recorded, is peculiarly valuable, since the reader of the eighteenth century is more likely to draw conclusions from these admitted facts, than to assume that hypothesis which left them at liberty to acknowledge them as such.

1 "The secret correspondence of Cortez with the Spanish court, which probably still exists, either in the archives of Simancha, or the Escurial, would, if ever published, throw great light on a mystery which religious and state policy kept concealed. Peter Martyr does not refer to two or three letters of that conqueror, but to "a huge volume," which was laid before the council of the Indies, of which Garcia de Loisa (the Emperor's confessor) was president, and both he and Gomara (who was Chaplain to Cortez,) confess that they have imposed reserve upon themselves, in treating of the Mexican superstitions."-Antiq. Mex. fol. vi. page 329.

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DON BARTHOLOMEW LAS CASAS.

“That1 Las Casas was firmly persuaded that the Indians were descended from the Hebrews, is evident from his own words, "Loquela tua manifestum te fecit, your speech betrays you," as recorded by Torquemeda. If the work of that illustrious prelate, (who was intimately acquainted with Columbus, whose life he wrote, and who was one of the first Spaniards who proceeded to the continent of America, where he must have had an opportunity of becoming acquainted with the traditions, &c.) had ever been published, we should have known his reasons for coming to that conclusion that bishop was too rational to adopt the hypothesis embraced by Acosta and Torquemeda, that the Devil had actually counterfeited the history, laws, rites, ceremonies, and customs of the Jews in the New World, but he believed that the Hebrews had colonized America."

1 Bartolome Las Casas, a famous Dominican Spaniard, first bishop of Chiapa, and highly worthy of memorial among the Indians. The bitter memorials presented by this excellent prelate to King Charles V., and Philip II., in favour of the Indians against the Spaniards, printed in Seville, and afterwards translated and reprinted in odium to the Spaniards, into several European languages, contains some particulars of the ancient history of the Mexicans. He wrote other works, one a General History of America, in 3 vols. folio. Two volumes are in the celebrated Archives Simancas, which have been the sepulchre of many precious Manuscripts on America. Clavegero Disser. The remonstrance of Las Casas, see Appendix.

2 "The words "Loquela tua manifestum te fecit," in reference to the Mexicans and other Indian tribes, whom he took to be real Hebrews, deserve the most serious attention, because we have here the opinion of a person who was well acquainted with the Mexicans and Peruvians, and who proceeded to America immediately after its discovery by the Spaniards, spent there the greater part of a long life, and solemnly recorded in a testamentary document, his conviction of a fact which he might have had many reasons for not choosing to divulge." Antiq. Mex. p. 331. ("Las Casas even goes so far as to say that the language of the Island of St. Domingo was corrupt Hebrew." Ibid.) "At the same time that great credit must be attached to so solemnly recorded an opinion, it cannot be said that the learned prelate was guilty of any indiscretion in promulgating it; but the contrary is proved by the proviso which he made respecting the publication of his history-that it should not be printed till fifty years after his death; this work was never published, and Don M. F. Navarette says, that when it was referred some years ago to the Academy of History at Madrid, to take their decision respecting its publication, they did not think it convenient.”—Ibid.

"The observation which we have made above, that the ecclesiastics were not encouraged to communicate what they knew from intercourse with the natives and the perfect knowledge which they had acquired of the Mexican language, and of the religion and antiquities of the American natives is as strange as that the American Chronicle of Las Casas and the Universal History of New Spain by Sahagun, should never have been published. The former of these works must have been of enormous magnitude, if we may judge of the size of the whole, from only having seen that part of it which is preserved in the British Museum, which includes the preface to the first books. Las Casas explains in the preface, which is very long, the reasons which induced him to undertake the work, which were primarily of a religious nature, although it would appear that he was also desirous of opposing a true history to the many false relations and misrepresentations which he complains that writers on the affairs of America had unblushingly published. It is extraordinary, considering the ability of the Author, and the many years which he devoted to the composition of his History, and the consequently well-known fact of the existence of such a work, that it should have been carefully preserved from every eye.”

"Nicholas Antonio and Pinelo both name it; but it does not appear that the former saw any of it, or the latter more than a part. That portion of the work, containing an account of the religion, manners, and customs of the new world, was termed apologetical, because he must have endeavoured to palliate in it some manners and customs which were used as a plea, by the greedy proprietors of encomiendas, to press the crown to deprive the Indians of all civil rights, and to reduce them to the condition of absolute slavery. And how could that learned prelate have

set up a stronger defence for the Indians, than by shewing that their institutions were derived from the Hebrews; however, time, through the perversion of traditions, might have corrupted them?"

"That the Apologetical History treated of the religion of the Indians is evident, since Torquemeda says that Las Casas asserted in his Apology, in M.S. that "Quetzalcoatl went from Tula to Yutican," &c. A Spanish writer, giving a sketch of the life of Las Casas, says, speaking of his history, "Las Casas himself, in the year 1556, added a note to it, with his own hand, saying that he bequeathed his History' in confidence, to the College of the order of Friars, Preachers of St. Gregory, in Valladolid, requesting the prelates not to allow any layman, nor the collegiates to read it during the period of forty years; at the expiration of which it might be printed, if it was for the advantage of the Indians."

BERNARD DE SAHAGUN.

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"Bernard de Sahagun, one of the first preachers in New Spain, says that he found it to be a universally received

1 "This work consisted of six decades, each of which comprised the history of ten years, except the first, which, beginning with the events of 1492, ended in 1500. The learned prelate declared that he had employed thirty-two years in the composition of this work, which comprised the History of the W. I. Islands and Continent, the American Chronicle of Peru and Yutican, as well as of Nicaragua, Chiapa, Guatamala, Mexico, and the other kingdoms of New Spain; we need not feel surprised that it should have extended to six folio volumes; but that no portion of a work so interesting should ever have been published, either by the Order to which he bequeathed it, or by public authority, or by private individuals, cannot be ascribed to accidental causes. Torquemeda remarks, "Las Casas had many powerful enemies because he spoke great truths."- p. 265.

2 Bernard de Sahagun, a laborious Franciscan Spaniard, having been sixty years among the Indians, made great proficiency in the knowledge of their language and history. Besides other works, he composed, in twelve large vols. a Universal Dictionary of the Mexican Language, containing what related to the geography, religion, political and natural history of the Mexicans. This work