MEXICAN LITERATURE. Modern :Mexi co, despite the surprising advance of the past quarter-century, has been so far outstripped in the material elements of civilization that the people of more progressive nations arc apt to for get the time when its capital was the intellectual and artistic centre of the New World. The in telleetual life of Mexico. therefore, is not of mod ern creation, but dates back to the third decade of the sixteenth century, which the early compels todures marked by the introduction of the first printing press, to be followed shortly by the establishment of the first university upon the American continent. That neither of these establishments was a matter of mere formal enactment is shown by the creditable list of the writers of that century, who were connected as teachers or pupils with the early educational institutions, and whose works bear the imprint of the native Mexican press, whose list of extant works. printed before 1600, embraces some 116 titles.
Any study of Mexican literature naturally be gins with the few survivals of primitive picture writing. These hieroglyphs so far approached writing as to give clearly names, places, and the date of events—some of which are accurate—as far as the twelfth century, while more vague traditions extend several centuries further back. Most of these records belong to that aboriginal branch of Nahum stock known as the Toltees, hut the famous of Quiehi• origin, also mentions names and places of Mexican legendary history. The meagre details of these records were supplemented, within a century after the Spanish Conquest. by so-called 'histories.' written by educated natives from the above sources, aided by oral tradition. These works consist of song-. ordinances. memoirs of the native kings. and aecounts of the Spanish conquerors. Without them it would How be impossible to read the few extant sources; and if some of the early Church fathers are to he blamed for their fanaticism in destroying hieroglyphs, others deserve equal credit for their care in preserving the remain ing few, and in training natives who could still unravel their meaning.
Most writers of the early colonial period were natives of the Old World. whom matters of Church or State called to the New Among those works of the sixteenth ecntury %Odell relate to early native history we may mention Midolinta's //ixtoria dr dos l'adina de la Y Trove Espfnia (1341, : Saliagilu's Ilisloniu (le hts eomts antigtwg de !OR I adios (136(11: and 31olina's Povubulorio (15:i3). a Castilian-Nlexican work of 249 pages• one of the produets of :Nan Pablo's first print ing press. The work of these men was largely utilized by Tor•q11eiuuucln in his .lionarquie In dian" I 1 61 1. a work for which Alam(hi bestows upon the title 'the Livy of New Spain.' Above the names of the adopted European chron iclers stand those of Tezozonux•, son of the last 31exienn Emperor, Cuitlallime, whose rriiniea Mexicana (c. 1600) is an admirable compan ion volume to Friar Diego Durfin's Historia de los ladios de Nueva Espana y islas dr Tierra firme (1581), up to that time the most complete chronicle of the ancient Mexicans; and Fernando de Alva-Ixtlilxochitl (1568-1645), the original chronicler of the Texcuco royal line, whose work, though not rigorously correct in chronology, in volume and importance surpasses all his prede cessors. It is to these two native writers that we owe the interpretation of the early Mexican hieroglyphs then in existence.
The chroniclers who treated merely of the Con quest did so from a European standpoint, and for this reason do not greatly concern its here. Among the Creole population of the sixteenth century, however, there were some poets of note. Prominent among these were Francisco de Ter razas, who was eulogized by Cervantes. but whose works have been lost; and Saavedra Guzman., whose most famous poem, El perryrino indiano (1599), adds rather to his reputation as chron icler than as poet.