nd it slipped from the grasp of a
foolish and moribund nation.

But before entering upon these events let us take a final glance and
draw a summary of the three long centuries--1521 to 1821--of this great
array of Imperial Governors and their rule. Since that day of August
13, 1521, when Cortes unfurled the standard of Spain over the castle of
Montezuma: to the consummation of Mexican independence, the entry of
Iturbide into the city of Mexico on September 27, 1821: five Governors,
two _Audiencias_, or Royal Commissions, and sixty-two Viceroys had
guided the destiny of colonial Mexico. Many of the names of these
authorities stand out in lustre as good and humane, tolerant and
energetic for the advancement of the colony; merciful to the Indian
population, and worthy of the approbation of the history of their time.
Others were rapacious and cruel, using their power for their own ends,
and showing that ruthless cruelty and indifference to bloodshed and
suffering--holding the lives of natives as cheap as that of
animals--which has been characteristic of Spaniards of all time.
Counts, marquises, Churchmen--all have passed upon the scroll of those
three hundred years; some left indelible marks for good, some for evil;
whilst others, effete and useless, are buried in forgetfulness. The
Spanish character, architecture, institutions, and class distinctions
were now indelibly stamped upon the people of Mexico. The Aztec
_regime_ had passed for ever; the Indian race was outclassed and
subordinate; and the _mestizos_, the people of mixed native and
Hispanic blood, were rapidly becoming the most numerous part of the
civilised population of the country. Whatever of good had existed in
the Aztec semi-civilisation--and there was much of use in their land
laws and other social measures--was entirely stamped out, and the
sentiment and practice of European civilisation established. It is to
be recollected that Spain adopted nothing, whether in Mexico or in
Peru, of the ancient civilisation. Both the Aztecs and Incas lived
under a set of laws which in some cases were superior to those of the
conquerors, especially those relating to landholding and the payment of
taxes and distribution of wealth. Under these primitive civilisations
of America poverty or starvation was impossible, as every citizen was
provided for. The Spaniards, however, would have none of it, and the
land and the Indians, body and soul, were the property of their
taskmast