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About Hesperian student / (Lincoln [Neb.]) 1872-1885 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 1, 1878)
EH iu COHTKZ. Vol. vii, ! indeed, comparatiVclj, it would be just ns unreasonable to judge thus of the nets of Cortez; for did he not live more limn three hundred years ago, when the Spaniards were merely a semi-civilized nation? Here is ft very good specimen of the opinions which many hold in respect to Cortez " An unprincipled adventurer, n the head of n few hundred Spaniards, who lauds in Mexico, is received in great friendship by the unsuspecting momnrch, Montezuma, who is soon after slain and Mexico with its immense treasures is speed ily subdued. Near a million of the iuof. fensive Mexicans are butchered." Many may take this for the exact truth. For 1113' part I cannot look at it in this light. "An unprincipled adventurer." If ho was unprincipled, what then shall we say in regard to his cotemporaries; for in judging a Spaniard, we must compare him with other leading men of his nation and time or the comparison amounts to nothing. It would be impossible to find another Spanish conqueror at that time more, or even as humane as Cortez. Pizar. ro turned his victories into inhuman butcheries, for which he had no excuse; while Cortez, on the other hand, never shed more blood than was absolutely nee cssary to accomplish his purpose, which was merely to make the Mexicaus loyal subjects of the Spanish crown and to es tablish the Catholic faith. Hut it may be asked what I intend to do do with the thousands that were butch ered while Cortez was in Mexico. To make the conquest he necessarily slayed his thousands; but the butchories were done by his subordinates, in his absence for which they were severely repn. manded by their commander or else by the victorious natives, fighting on the side of Cortez, whom he was unable to restrain when once in motion. To conquer the natives and establish the Catholic faith, was considered by Cortez as holy an un dertaking as the conversion of sinners by our ministers of to-day, and in this enter- prise he cun be absolutely justified when I we take into account all influences heal ing upon him. The Catholic faith, the national religion, was so instilled at that time into the semi-civilized natures of the Spaniards that the priests had absolute control of the acts of the nation and also of all individual adventurers. All Span iards were taught to believe that the con quering of infidel tribes and nations (as they termed all others not of the Catholic faith) was a holy cause. So we see that he career of Cortez was shaped, to a great extent, by religious infatuation. His first attempt after subduing a tribe was its con version, thus showing that he had this up permost in his mind. Even from our standpoint, the conquest of Mexico was not so great un evil or act of inhumanity as sonic imagine. The Mexicans were not so highly civilized a race as some would havens believe. Indeed, in one re spect they were in the deepest stage of barbarism and instead of advancing in civilization were retrograding. They had not generated their civilization, but had merely received it by supplanting a na tion much more advanced than they, and from the day they received this enlighten, incut they continued its debasement until the custom of offering captives as sacrific es and then turning cannibals by feasting upon the bodies had become a national institution. Then was it not a blessing to turn a nation of cannibals into one of Catholics even as the faith then existed! We undoubtedly think it was. If Cortez slayed his thousands, it was in the belief that his cause was a holy one. If he leveled the walls and edifices of the ancient city, Mexico, it "was only to build palaces and ereet a far more sub stantial and imposing capital. If he devastated the country and over threw the ruler of the Mexicans, it was not as an unprincipled adventurer, tor mere personal glory and plunder, but with the intention of forming the country into a Spanish province, far more power, full, Tar more civilized than the nation under the cannibal rule of the Monti-zn- h mtmmwmmmunAitmlujntutmA MJ! . t