That motives of a baser sort mingled largely with these higher ones, and
in different proportions according to the character of the individual, no
one will deny. And few are they that have proposed to themselves a long
career of action without the intermixture of some vulgar personal motive,
--fame, honors, or emolument. Yet that religion furnishes a key to the
American crusades, however rudely they may have been conducted, is
evident from the history of their origin; from the sanction openly given to
them by the Head of the Church; from the throng of self-devoted
missionaries, who followed in the track of the conquerors to garner up
the rich harvest of souls; from the reiterated instructions of the Crown,
the great object of which was the conversion of the natives; from those
superstitious acts of the iron-hearted soldiery themselves, which,
however they may be set down to fanaticism, were clearly too much in
earnest to leave any ground for the charge of hypocrisy. It was indeed a
fiery cross that was borne over the devoted land, scathing and consuming
it in its terrible progress; but it was still the cross, the sign of man's
salvation, the only sign by which generations and generations yet unborn
were to be rescued from eternal perdition.
It is a remarkable fact, which has hitherto escaped the notice of the
historian, that Luque was not the real party to this contract.
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