Sketches of the campaign in northern Mexico : in eighteen hundred forty-six and seven / by an officer of the First Regiment of Ohio volunteers.

THE INDIANS OF MEXICO. 241
countenances of the better classes seemed to be yet more
darkened with scowls of mingled hatred and sadness; doubtless attributable to wounded pride and disappointed hopes.
I do not recollect ever to have heard a hearty laugh from
Mexican lips; and rarely indeed could they be induced to
smile, "though Nestor swear the jest be laughable." The
miserable leperos, however, who bask in the sunny plazas
and hang around the huts of the suburbs, appeared perfectly
indifferent to the fortunes of the city and even to their own
fate. No spark of' true patriotism, religion, or virtue, ever
warmed their hearts. They seem incapable of the least
intellectual effort; and in their present ignorance and wretchedness, no proof of the influence of Christianity and civilization in purifying and elevating the Indian race, can be
recognized. The Indians of Mexico, comprising, it is said,
at least two-thirds of its population, seem to have exchanged
the rude virtues of their warlike ancestors for the vices of
their conquerors. Ages of slavery under Spanish masters,
commencing with the repcrtimiento system, so justly denounced at its inception by the renowned Las Casas,~ have
rendered them incapable of appreciating or enjoying liberty;
even as the fish, long confined in the dark lakes of the Main* Fray Bartolome de la Casas, bishop of Chiapa, was born at Seville, in 1474;
and was the first person admitted to priest's orders in the New World. A benevolent missionary and devoted friend of the aborigines, he was honored with the
title of "Protector-General of the Indians." He was the first to propose, as the
means of ameliorating the condition of the conquered natives of Cuba, that negro
slaves should be introduced into that island. It would seem then, that the most
enlarged philanthropy of the 16th, as of the 19th century, extended to but one
favorite color. In the former the black was enslaved for the benefit of the red
race; and now the meek Chinaman is being substituted for the Afrlican.