FACTS V. HISTORY.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VIII, Issue 2349, 17 July 1886, Page 1 (Supplement)

FACTS V. HISTORY.

In a reoent number of the' Popular Science Monthly 1 Mv David A. Wells books the romance pretty much out of Mexico, anoient and modern He intimates that Prescott's story of the conquest of that country is largely a fairy tale, and that the rude Corteu with his Spaniards did not destroy a (splendid civilisation at all. In order to magnify his triumphs Covtez and his fellow Spaniards portrayed these people in royal robes; eet them up in palaces and adorned them with something of the nobility and graoa of the Spanish hidalgos.. But their-tools and their weapons tell the story.' These were all of stone, The Azlecs belong to the Btone age. and their instruments are inferior to thone used by the savages of Vancouver's Island and Fiji. Having no domeatio animals or beasts of burden, or roads or any means of transportation except men's backs,- it would have been an impossibility to sustain a population of 300,000 people in the City of Mexico with food or water, the water near the city being, then as now, salt and undrinkable. And it is now conceded that the population of all the Azteo tribes did not not exceed 250,000. Thereat idol and sacrificial stone in Mexico belonged to the Toltecs, a superior race living further south, who with their fine steel tools were able to exeoute the famous sculptures of Central America. As to modern Mexico its resources have been exaggerated It is situated on an immense tableland 5,000 ft to 7,000 ft above the level of the sea, with a very dry temperate climate, but it has no navigable rivers, and altogether is one of the very poorest and most wretched of all countries, and not likely to develop into a great, civilised, rich, and powerful nation.— Detroit Free Press.;