Note 415 — Chapter III

[The patriotic sensibilities of Señor Ramirez are somewhat disturbed by my application of the term barbarians to his Aztec countrymen.{*} This word, with the corresponding epithet of savages, forms the key, he seems to think, to my description of the ancient Mexicans. “Regarded from this point of view,” he says, “the astounding examples of heroism and self-devotion so rarely met with in the history of the world are interpreted not as a voluntary sacrifice inspired by the holy love of country and of freedom, but as the effect of a brutish hatred and stupid ferocity.” There may be some foundation for these strictures, though somewhat too highly colored. And one cannot deny that, as he reflects on the progress made by the Aztecs in the knowledge of the useful arts, and, indeed, to a certain extent, of science, he must admit their claim to a higher place in the scale of civilization than that occupied by barbarians,—to one, in truth, occupied by the semi-civilized races of China and Hindostan. But there is another side of the picture, not presented by the Eastern nations, in those loathsome abominations which degraded the Aztec character to a level with the lowest stages of humanity, and makes even the term barbarian inadequate to express the ferocity of his nature.]

{*} [This sensibility is the more natural that Señor Ramirez claims descent not from the conquering but from the conquered race,—a fact which may also account for his rigorous judgments on the acts and character of Cortés.—K.]