ng against the different
Indian tribes of the table-land. The hatred borne against the Mexicans
by the Tlascalans assured him of their co-operation against Montezuma.
Hence the Tlascalans were especially favored. They shared with him in
all the perils of his enterprise, and in the plunder gathered from the
conquered tribes; for with them rested the question whether he should
succeed, and be hailed as the hero of a holy war, or should be branded
as a buccaneer, robber, and enslaver. And when, in course of time, the
Indian element became the ruling power, curses loud and deep were
muttered against the enslaver of the Indians, and the Tlascalans came
in for their share of imprecations.

CENSORSHIP OF HISTORICAL BOOKS.

But who was Bernal Diaz? This would be a strange question to ask in a
country where there was liberty of speech and liberty of the press, but
in Spain the censorship was not only repressive, but it was
"suggestive." It not only suppressed the writings of authors, but
compelled them to father productions that were the very opposite of
those they wished to publish. Take the case of poor Sahagun, who wrote
a refutation of the historian of the conquest, under the pretense of
giving the Indian account of that event: when his book was finally
allowed to see the light, after a delay of many years, it was found
that his own account of the conquest had been suppressed, and the
regular Spanish account had been substituted. Of Las Casas's "Apology
for the Indians,"[23] which had occupied thirty-two years of his life,
that part only was allowed to appear which treated of Saint Domingo.
But his refutation of the histories of the conquest of Mexico is wholly
suppressed. To have proved the Conquistadors a gang of unprincipled
buccaneers would have spoiled a Holy War, which was just what the
Inquisition would not allow to go before the world. To the little work
of Boturini on Mexico there are appended, 1. The declaration of his
faith in the Roman Catholic Church in the most unequivocal terms. 2.
The license of the Jesuit father. 3. The license of an Inquisitor. 4.
The license of the Judge of the Supreme Council of the Indias. 5. The
license of the Royal Council of the Indias. 6. The approbation of the
"qualificator" of the Inquisition, who was a bare-footed Carmelite
monk. 7. The license of the Royal Council of Castile. Beyond all this,
the writer must be a person in holy orders, and be a person of
sufficient influence