keen judge of character. Whatever might be the office, he selected the best men for it. He did more. He assured himself of the fidelity of his agents; presided at their deliberations; dictated a general line of policy, and thus infused a spirit of unity into their plans, which made all move in concert to the accomplishment of one grand result. A distinguishing feature of his mind was his common sense-the best substitute for genius in a ruler who has the destinies of his fellow-men at his disposal, and more indispensable than genius itself. In Gasca the different qualities were blended in such harmony that there was no room for excess. They seemed to regulate each other. While his sympathy with mankind taught him the nature of their wants, his reason suggested to what extent these were capable of relief, as well as the best mode of effecting it. He did not waste his strength on illusory schemes of benevolence, like Las Casas, on the one hand; nor did he countenance the selfish policy of the colonists, on the other. He aimed at the practicable,—the greatest good practicable. In accomplishing his object he disclaimed force equally with fraud. He trusted for success to his power over the convictions of his hearers; and the source of this power was the confidence he inspired in his own integrity. Amidst all the calumnies of faction, no imputation was ever cast on the integrity of Gasca. No wonder that a virtue so rare should be of high price in Peru," &c. Let the pages of history now close, with the coolness of philosophical reflection reviewing in leisure the scenes that it has described. "The manner in which the Spanish territories in the new world had been originally acquired was most unfortunate, both for the conquered races and their masters. Had the provinces gained by the Spaniards been the fruit of peaceful acquisition, of barter and negociation, or had their con quest been achieved under the immediate direction of government, the interests of the natives would have been more carefully protected. From the superior civilization of the Indians in the Spanish American colonies they still continued after the conquest to remain on the ground, and to mingle in the same communities with the white men, in this forming an obvious contrast to the condition of our own aborigines, who, shrinking from the contact of civilization, have withdrawn, as the latter has advanced, deeper and deeper into the heart of the wilderness. But the South American Indian was qualified by his previous institutions for a more refined legislation than could be adapted to the wild hunters of the forest, and had the sovereign been there in person to superintend his conquests he could never have sufferred so large a portion of his vassals to be wantonly sacrificed to the cupidity and cruelty of the handful of adventurers who subdued them; but, as it was, the affair of reducing the country was committed to the hands of irresponsible individuals, soldiers of fortune, desperate adventurers, who entered on conquest as a game which they were to play in the most unscrupulous manner, with little care but to win it. Receiving small encouragement from the government, they were indebted to their own valour for success, and the right of conquest, they conceived, extinguished every existing right in the unfortunate natives. The lands, the persons of the conquered races were parcelled out and appropriated by the victors as the legitimate spoils of victory, and outrages were perpetrated every day at the contemplation of which humanity shudders. These outrages, though nowhere perpetrated on so terrific a scale as in the islands, where, in a few years, they had nearly annihilated the native population, were yet of sufficient magnitude in Peru to call down the vengeance of heaven on the heads of their authors; and the Indian might feel that this vengeance was not long delayed when he beheld his oppressors wrangling over their miserable spoil, and turning their swords against each other. Peru, as already mentioned, was subdued by adventurers, for the most part of a lower and more ferocious stamp than those who followed the banner of Cortez. The character of the followers partook in some measure of that of the leaders in their respective enterprises. It was a sad fatality for the Incas, for the reckless soldiers of Pizarro were better suited to contend with the fierce Aztec than with the more refined and effeminate Peruvian. Intoxicated by the unaccustomed possession of power, and without the least notion of the responsibilities which attached to their situation as masters of the land, they too often abandoned themselves to the indulgence of every whim which cruelty or caprice could dictate. Not unfrequently, says an unsuspicious witness, I have seen the Spaniards, long after the conquest, amuse themselves by hunting down the natives with bloodhounds for mere sport, or in order to train their dogs to the game. The most unbounded scope was given to licentiousness; the young maiden was torn without remorse from the arms of her family to gratify the passions of her brutal conqueror. The sacred houses of the Virgins of the Sun were broken open and violated, and the cavalier swelled his harem with a troop of Indian girls, making it seem that the crescent would have been a much more fitting symbol for his banner than the immaculate cross. But the dominant passion of the Spaniard was the lust of gold. For this he shrunk from no toil himself, and was merciless in his exactions of labour from his Indian slave. Unfortunately, Peru abounded in mines which but too well repaid this labour, and human life was the item of least account in the estimate of the conquerors. Under his Incas, the Peruvian was never suffered to be idle; but the task imposed on him was always proportioned to his strength. He had his seasons of rest and refreshment, and was well protected against the inclemency of the weather. Every care was shown for his personal safety. But the Spaniards, while they taxed the strength of the native to the utmost, deprived him of the means of repairing it when exhausted. They suffered the provident arrangements of the Incas to fall into day: the granaries were emptied; the flocks were wasted in riotous living, they were slanghtered to gratify a mere epicurean whim, and many a llama was destroyed solely for the sake of the brains,a dainty morsel, much coveted by the Spaniards. So reckless was the spirit of destruction after the conquest, says Ondegardo, the wise governor of Cuzco, that in four years more of these animals perished than in four hundred in the times of the Incas. The flocks, once so numerous over the broad table lands, were now thinned to a scanty number, that sought shelter in the fastnesses of the Andes. The poor Indian, without food, without the warm fleece which furnished him a defence against the cold, now wandered half-starved and naked over the plateau. Even those who had aided the Spaniards in their conquest fared no better, and many an Inca noble roamed a mendicant over the lands where he once held rule; and if driven, perchance, by his necessities to purloin something from the superfluity of his conquerors he expiated it by a miserable death. It is true there were good men,-missionaries, faithful to their calling, who wrought hard in the spiritual conversion of the native, and who, touched by his misfortunes, would gladly have interposed their arm to shield him from his oppressors; but too often the ecclesiastic became infected by the general spirit of licentiousness, and the religious fraternities, who led a life of easy indulgence on the lands cultivated by their Indian slaves, were apt to think less of the salvation of their souls than of profiting by the labour of their bodies. Yet still there were not wanting good and wise men in the colonies, who from time to time raised the voice of remonstrance against these abuses, and who carried their complaints to the foot of the throne.* To the credit of the government it must also be confessed that it was solicitous to obtain such information as it could, both from its own officers and from commissioners deputed expressly for the purpose, whose voluminous communications throw a flood of light on the internal condition of the country, and furnish the best materials for the historian; but it was found much easier to get this information than to profit by it." Perhaps to few minds the perusal of the history of which the latest pages are now closed has been unaccompanied with many reflections disadvantageous to the character of the country from whose bosom these relentless and ferocious bands of adventurers went forth, to carry desolation and ruin among the peaceful and to them unoffending tribes of the Western World; for in so large a portion of it it is so dark in its features, it is so devoid of those virtues that seem to descend from a higher sphere at times to soften the cruelty and even to dignify the stern necessities of war, that it requires the mind to be constantly looking forward in faith to Among the ingenious contrivances with which men strike balances with their conscience, keeping one eye open to the scale in which the weight marked To XPηOTOV is placed, and the other shut, or at least winking, where the тo kakov has somehow or other slipt in, that of the Spaniards deserves to be remembered, who established the slave trade on a principle of humanity, in order to save the native Americans from servitude and oppression. So in the Spanish translation of the little opera of Tonnelier (well known in Fontaine's fable) the scrupulous translator, careful of propriety and decorum, to avoid the indecorum of giving a kiss in public, introduces "l'ingénue Fanchette (the Cooper's wife) de ses doigts délicats nettoyante la tête du rival fortuné (her lover)." See Lord Holland's Appendix to Guil. de Castro, p. 230.-REV. the result of some future good, as the end, to diminish the pain it suffers from a contemplation of the means by which it is to be accomplished. It is under this point of view that our farewell look of the subject should be taken. We must learn to be content in considering that the sword of the conqueror necessarily preceded the cross of the missionary; and, however mysterious it may seem, that these idolatrous nations, under the great inevitable law of suffering, were to be cleansed from the foulness of their ignorance and crimes by being baptized in their own blood.* "The effort to Christianise (says the author) the heathen is an honourable characteristic of the Spanish conquests. The Puritan, with equal religious zeal, did comparatively little for the conversion of the Indian, content, as it would seem, with having secured to himself the inestimable privilege of worshipping God in his own way. Other adventurers who have occupied the New World, have often had too little regard for religion themselves to be very solicitous about spreading it among the savages. But the Spanish missionary from first to last has shown a keen interest in the spiritual welfare of the natives. Under his auspices churches on a magnificent scale have been erected, schools for elementary instruction founded, and every rational means taken to spread the knowledge of religious truth, while he has carried his solitary mission into remote and almost inaccessible regions, or gathered his Indian disciples into commu nities like the good Las Casas in Cumaná, * "N'entendez-vous la terre, qui crie et demande du sang? Le sang des animaux ne lui suffit pas, ni même celui des coupables versé par la glaive des lois," &c. See Le Maistre's Soirées de St. Petersbourg, ii. p. 30.-REV. † Although far inferior to Columbus in displaying the higher qualities and resources of a great mind under unexampled difficulties, nor to be compared to Cortez in those points which form the commander, being only his imitator and follower in an easier path, yet the invasion and conquest of Peru by Pizarro has a completeness in the whole story that would admirably adapt it to the purpose of poetry, and in which the others are deficient; for here the enterprise that began under the influence of strong passions was carried on and consummated by treachery and cruelty, and that at length proceeded to its natural issue in the quarrel with the chiefs for the division of the spoil, in deadly enmity and warfare on each other, and in the violent death of all in battle, or assassination, or by the executioner; and lastly, there came the slow but certain and complete retribution, in the punishment of the offenders, in the establishment of law and justice, in the subversion of all rebellion, and in "the acknowledged supremacy of the government." We do not know an historical groundwork for a modern epic poem that offers more advantages than this, and which seems to unite in itself many of the poetic elements both of the Iliad and Odyssey. It would offer the animation and adventure of the former poem and would end with the tranquillity, the restoration of order, and the establishment of right and justice, of the latter. In such a subject there would be ample opportunity to effect what may be considered the chief objects of poetry, which, to use the words of the late noble biographer of Lope de Vega, are to "delineate strongly the characters and passions of mankind, to paint the appearances of nature, and to describe their effects upon the sensations." In a new country and among a new people the province of invention would be enlarged, new passions, or at least new forms of passion, would be brought within the scope of poetic imitation, and additional powers of imagination called into activity. In the history of the discoveries of Columbus, materials are wanting for the development of a varied story: in that of Cortez, the moral drawn is incomplete: but the conquest of Peru seems to offer advantages to the poet which neither of the others possesses, in the variety of its matter and the completeness of its plan.-REY. INSCRIPTION IN THE CHAPEL AT ALVERNA. MR. URBAN, (With a Plate.) IN your Magazine for Oct. 1835 is engraved a sepulchral inscription, now preserved at Lacock Abbey, in Wiltshire, but removed from Monkton Farley, in the same county, which is very remarkable for the manner in which it is abbreviated by many letters being inclosed within others. Its date was assigned to about the year 1185; and other English inscriptions of the same kind are there referred to. In the Archæologia, vol. xxix. p. 369, has also been published the inscription at Mayence to the memory of Fastrada, wife of the emperor Charlemagne, who died in the year 794, which is arranged in a similar manner. On visiting the chapel of the Stigmata at Alverna, in the Casentino,— Nel crudo Sasso intra Tevere ed Arno Da Cristo prese l'ultimo sigillo, Che le sue membra du' anni portarno. Dante, Paradiso, xi. 106–108. I noticed an inscription of a similar character, the inclosed copy of which (see the Plate) will perhaps be interesting to your readers. It may be read as follows: Anno Domini MCCLXIIII. Feriâ Quintâ post Festum Simon Filius illustris viri comitis Guidonis Dei Gratia in Tuscia Palatini fecit fundari istud Oratorium ad honorem beati Francisci . . . . . . cui in loco isto Seraph apparuit sub anno Domini MCCXXV. infra octavam Nativitatis ejusdem Virginis et cori ejus impressit Stigmata Jesu Christi; consignet eum gratia Spiritus Sancti. (It will be observed that the mark of contraction over the word NATIVITATIS is redundant, and an evident mistake of the sculptor.) I need scarcely add that the Conti Guidi here referred to are the famous Counts of the Casentino so frequently mentioned in the medieval history of this part of Italy, and whose palaces of Poppi, Romena, and Battifolle, derive additional interest from their association with the names of Dante and Petrarch. Your readers will recollect in Dante (Inferno, xvi. 34),— Questi, l'orme di cui pestar mi vedi, Our Simone was a first cousin of this Guidoguerra (third of that name), their common grandmother having been "la Buona Gualdrada.” Inscriptions remind me of epitaphs, and epitaphs of a curious specimen of the dialect of Cento, the birth-place of Guercino; it is on one side of the principal entrance to the church of the Madonna del Rosario in that city, and the explanation subjoined was given to me on the spot. I made no note of the apparent age of the memorial, but believe it to be from 20 to 50 years old. Uomn e don anca vu Jus Uomini, e donne, anche voi ragazzi, Dite una requiem anche per me Dite me la bene e non vi ne scordate, Perchè vi la dimando per carità. Yours, &c. F. C. B. I BEG to request the attention of your antiquarian readers to an object of curiosity, the original purpose of which I have hitherto been unable to ascertain. It is a piece of copper, of the same size as represented in the Plate, and of the thickness of a halfcrown. The figures upon it are raised in relief by deep engraving; there are apparently slight remains of gilding in the lines of that side which contains the monogram of Jhesus; and there are evidently portions of a purple enamel or pigment on the other side between the legs of the eagle of St. John. The inscription on below the eagle is, I presume, in the English language. From the circumstance of both designs being religious, it may be supposed to have belonged to some ecclesiastical person or corporation, and I have imagined it might have been made as the warrant with which a steward or purveyor went to market, where his master or his convent pos sessed the privilege of pre-emption. I have not, however, any evidence to give in support of this conjecture; and shall be thankful for reference to any other relics of similar character that would throw light on the subject. The little shields of metal, somewhat smaller than this roundel, which have been noticed and figured in the Archæological Journal, vol. iii. p. 79, have been pronounced to be ornaments of horse-furniture. They differ from the present object in possessing rings for suspension, whilst this must have been always carried in the hand or the pouch. I am unacquainted with its history, further than that I purchased it with some matrices of seals at the sale in London of the antiquities collected by the late Dean of St. Patrick's, and he had marked it with the number 178. If the MS. catalogue of his collection is preserved, it may possibly contain some memorandum relating to this article. Yours, &c. J. G. N. |