And, however impolitically defpotic the Spanish governments may be, ftill do these colonies enjoy the opportunities of improvement, which in every age

the Mexican nation. Without the affiftance of these potent auxiliaries Cortez never could have conquered Mexico. And thus the barbarous cruelty of the Mexicans was the real caufe of their very fignal destruction. As the horrid fcenes of gladiators amused ancient Rome, fo their more horrid facrifices feem to have formed the chief entertainment of Mexico. At the dedication of the temple of Vitzuliputzli, A. D. 1486, 64,080 human victims were facrificed in four days. And, according to the best accounts, their annual facrifices required fe. veral thousands. The fkulls of the victims fometimes were hung on ftrings which reached from tree to tree around their temples, and fometimes were built up in towers and cemented with lime. In fome of the fe towers Andrew de Tapia one day counted 136,000 fkulls. When the Spaniards gave to the Mexicans a pompous difplay of the greatnefs of their monarch Charles V. Montezuma's orators in return boafted of the power of their emperor, and enumerated among the proofs of it, the great number of his human facrifices. He could easily conquer that great people, the Tlafcalans, they faid, but he chufes to preferve them to fupply his altars. During the war with the Spaniards they increased their ufual facrifices, till prieft and people were tired of their bloody religion. Frequent embaffies from different tribes complained to Cortez that they were weary of their rites, and intreated him to teach them his law. And though the Peruvians, it is faid, were more polifhed, and did not facrifice quite fo many as the Mexicans, yet 200 children was the usual hecatomb for the health of the Ynca, and a much larger one of all ranks honoured his obfequies. The method of facrificing was thus; Six priefts laid the victim on an altar, which was narrow at top, when five bending him across, the fixth

By multiplying the numbers, no doubt, of the horizontal and perpendicular rows into each other.

age arife from the knowledge of commerce and of letters; opportunities which were never enjoyed under the dominion of Montezuma and Atabalipa. But if from Spanish, we turn our eyes to British America, what a glorious profpect! Here formerly on the wild lawn, perhaps twice in the year, a few favage hunters kindled their evening fire, kindled it more to protect them from evil spirits and beafts of prey, than from the cold; and with their feet pointed to it, flept on the ground. Here now population spreads her thousands, and fociety appears in all its bleffings of mutual help, and the mutual lights of intellectual improvement. "What "work of art, or power, or public utility, has "ever equalled the glory of having peopled a con"tinent, without guilt or bloodshed, with a mul❝titude of free and happy commonwealths, to "have given them the best arts of life and go"vernment!" To have given a favage continent an image of the British conftitution is indeed the greatest glory of the British crown, "a greater than

*

any

fixth cut up his ftomach with a fharp flint, and while he held up the heart reeking to the fun, the others tumbled the carcafe down a flight of ftairs near the altar, and immediately proceeded to the next facrifice. See Acofta, Gomara, Careri, the Letters of Cortez to Charles V. &c. &c.

* This was written ere the commencement of the unhappy civil war in America. And under the influence of the spirit of the British conftitution, that country may perhaps again deferve this character.

66

any other nation ever acquired;" and from the consequences of the genius of Henry Duke of Vifeo, did the British American empire arise, an empire which, unless retarded by the illiberal and inhuman spirit of religious fanaticism, will in a few centuries, perhaps, be the glory of the world.

.. Stubborn indeed must be the theorist, who will deny the improvement, virtue, and happiness, which in the refult, the voyage of Columbus has spread over the Western World. The happiness which Europe and Afia have received from the intercourse with each other, cannot hitherto, it must be owned, be compared either with the poffeffion of it, or the fource of its increase established in America. Yet let the man of the most melancholy views estimate all the wars and depredations which are charged upon the Portuguese and other European nations, ftill will the Eastern World appear confiderably advantaged by the voyage of Gama. If feas of blood have been shed by the Portuguese, nothing new was introduced into India. War and depredation were no unheard-of ftrangers on the banks of the Ganges; nor could the nature of the civil establishments of the eastern nations fecure a lasting peace. The ambition of their native princes was only diverted into new channels; into channels which, in the natural courfe of human affairs, will certainly lead to permanent governments, established on improved laws and just dominion. VOL. I. Yet

b

Yet even ere fuch governments are formed, is Afia no lofer by the arrival of Europeans? The horrid maffacres and unbounded rapine, which, according to their own annals, followed the victories of their Afian conquerors, were never equalled by the worst of their European vanquishers. Nor is the establishment of improved governments in the East the dream of theory. The fuperiority of the civil and military arts of the British, notwithstanding the hateful character of fome individuals, is at this day beheld in India with all the aftonishment of admiration; and admiration is always followed, though often with retarded steps, by the strong desire of fimilar improvement. Long after the fall of the Roman empire, the Roman laws were adopted by nations which ancient Rome efteemed as barbarous. And thus, in the course of ages, the British laws, according to every test of probability, will, in India, have a most important effect, will fulfil the prophecy of Camoëns, and transfer to the British the high compliment he pays to his countrymen:

Beneath their fway majeftic, wife, and mild,

Proud of her victor's laws, thrice happier India fmiled.

In former ages, and within these few years, the fertile empire of India has exhibited every fcene of human mifery, under the undistinguishing ravages of their Mohammedan and native princes;

ravages

ravages only equalled in European history by thofe committed under Attila, furnamed the Scourge of God, and the deftroyer of nations. The ideas of patriotifm and of honour were feldom known in the cabinets of the eastern princes till the arrival of the Europeans. Every fpecies of affaffination was the policy of their courts, and every act of unrestrained rapine and maffacre followed the path of victory. But fome of the Portuguese governors, and many of the English officers, have taught them, that humanity to the conquered is the best, the trueft policy. The brutal ferocity of their own conquerors is now the object of their greatest dread; and the fuperiority of the Britifh in war has convinced their * princes, that an alliance with the Britifh is the fureft guarantee of their national peace and profperity. While the English East India Company are poffeffed of their prefent greatness, it is in their power to diffuse over the East every bleffing which flows from the wifeft and most humane policy. Long ere the Europeans arrived, a failure of the crop of rice, the principal food of India, had spread the devaftations of famine over the populous plains of Bengal. And never, from the feven years famine

of

*Mohammed Ali Khan, Nabob of the Carnatic, declared, "I met the British with that freedom of openness which they "love, and I efteem it my honour, as well as fecurity, to be the ally of fuch a nation of princes."