The Knickerbocker, Vol. 10, No. 4, October 1837Various
History
The Knickerbocker, Vol. 10, No. 4, October 1837
Various
Periodicals
We have already said that the people of whom we are speaking enjoyed
a felicity unequalled by any other. This is attributable to their
peaceful character, their simple yet effective government, their
industrious habits, conjoined with their choice location, uniting as
it did almost every natural advantage of situation and production.
But the present period exhibits their successors the most wretched
of the human species. The Indian race, once the most happy and
numerous of mankind, may be traced from the vigor of youth through
the strength of its manhood to the present decline and decrepitude
of old age. Total extinction, in the usual course of events, will
soon follow. It is indeed fast approaching at the present moment
urged on as it is by the mad ambition of the Caucassian, who, in
_his_ turn, is rapidly approximating the zenith of his power and
numbers. Throughout the world this may now be seen at a glance. The
native of India is rapidly falling before the gigantic power, the
cunning, and the oppression of England, now herself at the acmé
of her strength and numerical force. Ignorance, superstition, and
imbecility, press the Indian forward to his last hopes. Availing
itself of these inevitable results of old age, the power that is
slowly but effectually crushing him, rises elastic and buoyant upon
the dead body of the old native. The free Indian of United America,
in like manner, is fast closing the scene of his glory and the
fulness of his manhood. He too is declining into old age; and already
are the marks of death observable upon his withered visage. He too
was flushed with the hopes of youth, and spread out his vigorous
energies like the green bay tree. He too realized the measure of his
glory, and proudly exulted in his power and possessions. But, alas!
he too is fast wasting in the last stages of decline and death. So
it is with the Indian of Central America. From the fruition of his
hopes and numbers, and the full consummation of his glory, he has
sunk to the deepest degradation, to numerical insignificance, and to
the most abject wretchedness. A stronger contrast in the relative
condition of a people can nowhere be found. Turning from the period
of which we have been speaking, that saw the Tultecans the happiest
people of the earth, to the present, that reveals their miserable
descendants tamely bowing their necks to the galling yoke of their
Spanish masters, and how forcible are the marks of distinction!
Take this people, amalgamated with the reputed barbarous Aztiques,
or Chichimecas, and constituting the Mexican nation at the time of
Cortes' mad invasion, and how deplorable is their present situation,
contrasted with what it then was! Where are the promised blessings of
the 'Christian,' the boasted charms of civilization, etc.? Away with
the idle and superstitious fantasies, and the base schemes of the
selfish and ambitious, under the garb of reason and of philanthropy!
Let truth and justice speak for themselves.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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