"This event,"
says Mr. Wilson, "has been the subject of eloquent eulogies for
centuries. Among these Robertson is of course pre-eminent." We are
here left in doubt whether Robertson is to be regarded as a preeminent
century or a pre-eminent eulogy. However this may be, our author denies
that the stranding of the vessels was the voluntary act of the Spanish
general. He is confident that they were cast away in a storm. His "most
potent" reason is, that he himself has "witnessed, not only hereabout,
but elsewhere, upon this tideless shore, wrecks by the grounding of
vessels at anchor." This he calls "submitting the narrative to the
ordeal of proof."
However, as we have already intimated, it is seldom that his authorities
are submitted to this "ordeal," which we admit to be a trying one.
Usually they are informed that their assertions "rest on air,"--that
they are "foolish" and "baseless,"--"wild figments," or "intolerable
nonsense." Cortes states that some of his men, who had been taken
prisoners by the Mexicans, were offered up as sacrifices to the Aztec
deities. Mr. Wilson, after telling that their hearts were cut out, and
their bodies "tumbled to the ground," complains that "to this most
probable act of an Indian enemy, is _foolishly_ added--it was done in
sacrifice to their idols, though the very existence of Indian idols is
_still_ problematical!" Cortes, who had seen too many Indian idols to
entertain any doubts of their existence, ought, nevertheless, not
to have mentioned them, because to Mr.
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