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SKETCHES OF COLONIAL HISTORY.

tahualpa, being at the imperial palace at the time, immediately sent them some fruits, corn, emeralds, and several vases of gold and silver; and intimated at the same time, through the interpreter, his desire that they should quit his territories. But he promised to visit them the next morning. He went without suspicion to the place appointed, being attended by He was carsome fifteen thousand men. ried on a throne of gold, and the arms of his troops sparkled with the same shining metal. To his principal officers he said: "These strangers are the messengers of the gods; be careful of offending them." When the procession drew near the palace which was occupied by Pizarro, a Dominican friar with a crucifix in one hand and a breviary in the other, advanced to meet the emperor, stopped him in his march, expounded to him the doctrines and mysteries of the religion he was sent to teach, pressed him to embrace it and the form of worship it prescribed, and concluded by proposing to him to submit to the King of Spain, to whom the pope had given Peru. The emperor, who had patiently listened to all he had to say, replied: "I am very willing to be the friend of the King of Spain, but not his vassal; the pope must surely be a very extraordinary man to give so liberally what does not belong to him. I shall not change my religion for another, and if the Christians adore a God who died upon the cross, I worship the sun who never dies." He then asked the priest where ho had learned all he had said of God and the creation. "In this book," replied the monk, presenting his breviary to the emperor, which he examined on all sides, putting it to his ear, and then, bursting into a laugh, he threw the breviary away, adding, This book tells me nothing at all."

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At this, Valverde, the monk, turned toward the Spaniards and cried out in a loud voice, "Vengeance! my friends, vengeance! Christians, do you see how he despises the Gospel? Kill the dogs who trample under foot the law of God!" The Spaniards instantly obeyed the summons, and rushed upon the Peruvians, who fled with such precipitation that they fell upon one another, and a dreadful massacre ensued. The Spanish commander advanced toward the emperor, ordered his men to put to the sword all that surrounded his person, and took the monarch prisoner.

Those that fled were pursued by the
Princes and ministers, the
Spaniards.
flower of the nobility that composed the
court of the sovereign, were massacred.
The crowd of women, old men, and chil-
dren that were present were not spared.
While this carnage continued, Valverde,
tired with
the zealous monk," ceased not to animate
the murderers, who were
slaughter, exhorting them to use not the
edge, but the points of their swords, in or-
der to inflict deeper wounds. When the
Spaniards turned from this horrible mas-
sacre, they passed the night in drunken-
ness, dancing, and all the excesses of
debauchery."

Although the Indians in the western
wilds of New York cannot be supposed
to have had any distinct knowledge of
this or any other similar transaction in the
wars of the Spaniards, by which they
conquered the nations of their brethren in
South America, they had probably learned
by tradition enough of those wars to fix in
their minds a general impression that they
were prosecuted in the name of the King
of Spain, and for the purpose of bringing
their country with its inhabitants under
the dominion of that monarch, and that
Romish priests were employed to aid in
these expeditions, and established them-
selves in all the conquered districts.

But if the Iroquois Indians knew nothing of what the Catholic priests did to aid in the subjugation of the South American provinces to the dominion of Spain and the spiritual control of the Church of Rome, to excite their apprehensions of what might be the result if they should tolerate permanent establishments of the Jesuits among them, what they had witnessed during their struggles against the French colonists, of the active part taken by the priests, and the influence they had obtained over the converted Indians to bind them to the French by a tie that could not be broken, was sufficient to induce them, from considerations of political prudence, to admit them, if at all, with due caution, without any expression on their part of designs other than to seek the salvation of their souls. There were some things, however, in the intercourse which these missionaries had with them that might well, and probably did, excite their suspicions that something more than the They came to apóstolic work of saving the souls of the people was intended.

them, now as embassadors for the government and negotiating agents of the society of Jesuits, established and sustained by the authority of the French king to act in concert with the government, and now as ministers of the Gospel of Christ, professedly laboring for the conversion and salvation of these savage tribes. Wherever, as ministers of the Gospel, they were permitted to establish themselves, they set up some monument or token, usually a cross, as evidence of taking possession of the place in the name of their sovereign, or superior, or both; and over those Indians among whom they had been permitted thus to inaugurate the authority of the King of France and the Catholic Church, a control was exercised, even to dictation as to the places where they should trade, which left their condition little better than that of vassals. Such these sagacious Iroquois saw to be the condition of the Hurons and Algonquins, who had committed themselves to the instructions and control of these spiritual guides. This design of taking possession of the places where missionary establishments were allowed was not disguised even among the Onondagas. Father Le Moine, who seems to have been sent among them as a negotiator for the establishment of a missionary settlement, when about to leave caused a council to be convoked, and in the presence of the principal chiefs, gave two presents, which, according to their custom, serve as a record of the transaction immediately following, and then planted, in the name of Achiendassé an appellation, by which the superior of all the society's missions in those countries was known, the first post on which to begin a cabin, which was, as he says, "like laying the first stone in France of a house one intends to build; and completed the significant act of taking possession by throwing down the first bark that was to cover it."

rison of Frenchmen sent by Monsieur de Lauzon, then governor of New France, to take possession of those countries in his majesty's name."

Whatever it was that influenced the Iroquois to resist the establishment of a missionary station among them, the result was an arrest of the extension of the colonial limits of New France in that direction, and the introduction of a series of military operations and expeditions that did not terminate until the colony was subdued by the English.

CROCKERY.

HEN we estimate valuable things

WH

lightly because they are common, it is instructive sometimes to fancy them away, and calmly ask ourselves what the consequences would be were we deprived of them. Suppose, then, the touch of some magician's wand should suddenly deprive the world of all its crockery. I shall base our speculation on the widest foundation of which it is susceptible. Every particle of crockery I will suppose gone, and the materials for making it gone too; not only every cup and saucer, dish and plate, Sèvres ware and majolica, but likewise every brick and tile, chimney-pot and clay ware drain-pipe; in short, every particle of material which learned people term ceramic, let us suppose to have vanished forever. If any reader by the force of imagination can succeed in realizing this to himself, he will, I am disposed to think, agree with me that the tide of civilization would roll back on the strand of barbarism again further than the most imaginative mind could reproduce to itself, or the sternest reasoning demonstrate.

Presuming these preliminary remarks have induced a train of mind favorable to the contemplation of crockery, I will jot down some points bearing upon its nature and its history. And first, to justify the use of a common word, I may be permitted to state that "crockery" is the most correct representative of the learned term

The light in which such acts were understood is plainly stated in a notice subsequently published of the abortive attempt" ceramic" that our mother tongue furto sustain an establishment of the Jesuits among the savages. Speaking of Onondaga the writer says:

"We have been formerly received there as friends, and treated as enemies, which obliged us to abandon the post, where we remained two years, as if in the center of all the Iroquois nations, whence we proclaimed the Gospel to all those poor people, assisted by a gar

nishes. "Why not say 'pottery?" I may be asked. Simply because "pottery" would not be correct. Pottery, for instance, would not include porcelain; would not only exclude the ceramic productions of China and Japan, but of Sèvres, Dresden, and Berlin, to say nothing of the humbler "Crock ceramic wares, bricks and tiles.

ery" is a word which, when accepted in its largest and most comprehensive sense, includes all these; wherefore, despite its vulgarity, there is a sufficient plea for using it.

The readers of THE NATIONAL will remember an article on the new metal, Aluminum, from the pen of Professor Johnston, which appeared in the number for May. Well, aluminum is the great progenitor of all crockery. And let us suppose the learned professor prevailed upon to give us a piece of this aluminum, to torture and experimentalize with just as we please. If we put it in a ladle and melt it over the fire, allowing the air to have free access to its surface, gradually a layer of white powder covers it; then another layer, and others again, until the whole of the aluminum loses its metallic form, and changes into the white powder just mentioned, which is clay. Clay would be, indeed, expensive were it only procurable in the manner I have supposed, from aluminum; the fact is, that aluminum is practically got out of clay; and until the master experiments of M. St. Claire Deville within the last few years made it come to light in all its metallic brilliancy, mortal eyes had never seen the glorious refulgence of aluminum. The white powder generated by arsenic when it melts under exposure to air, or when it is left for a long time abandoned to air and moisture, bears the same relation to the metal itself that the rust bears to iron. Absolutely pure clay, or alumina, to adopt the chemist's nomenclature, is the rust of aluminum.

Clay, as found in nature, is never so pure as this. Even the whitest chinaclay contains a large per centage of flinty matter; and colored clays derive their color from the presence of metallic compounds, more especially iron-rust.

It is almost a waste of words to state that crockery-ware is made by forming the clay into shapes, either by the potter's wheel or molding, and subsequently burning and glazing the fictile products. Scarcely well known is the fact that nearly every country, whether civilized or savage, of which records have come down to us, has had its crockery. The Greeks had theirs, so had the Romans; and as for Etruria, its name is the very symbol of crockery. The Mexicans and Peruvians were acquainted with the art of making it;

and when the South Sea Islands were first trodden by Europeans, the islanders were found to have their crockery. I will not insult our enemies the Celestials, although they are enemies, by stating how, from the remotest periods of antiquity, they have made crockery: everybody knows that, so we need not insist upon it; but I wish to draw attention to the fact, and a very important fact it is, that for many hundred, ay, some thousands of years, while every nation else made the poorer sorts of ceramic ware, which we may lump in one genus, and call "pottery," the Chinese and Japanese made porcelain. The distinction between pottery and porcelain will presently be made apparent.

To a certain extent, we moderns are able to make clay artificially; extract it artificially would, perhaps, be the better expression. Much china-clay, for instance, is actually extracted at this time from granite-rock. This, however, is quite a recent affair; so, practically, we have to regard the crockery of different nations as determined by the sort of clay wherewith nature had spontaneously supplied them. The Chinese and Japanese happened to find in their dominions clay absolutely white, containing the due relative amounts of flinty matter for baking into crockery. Their clay being white, the resulting crockery was white also; it was, moreover, semi-transparent; it had the character, in point of fact, of the variety of crockery which we now agree to call porcelain. Less fortunate were all other nations. Not Greece, in her highest glory, nor Etruria, nor Rome, could produce white crockery. The ceramic ware of one and all was a sort of red crockery, something resembling what our pitchers are made of, but more close-grained, the color brighter, and the shapes very elegant. As regards colored ornamentation of crockery, the Greeks alone of the three succeeded; and the art was limited to periods before the time of Alexander the Great, who having introduced from Asia the use of vases of gold and silver, the art of making painted vases declined, and soon afterward died so completely out, that in the early days of the Roman Empire they were already sought after as curiosities, and treasured in museums just as we treasure them now. The utmost extent of colored ceramic ornamentation to which the Greeks progressed was the

secret of its manufacture, led to the discovery of a spurious but very beautiful substitute, to which the name of false, or soft, porcelain is now applied. All the old specimens of Sèvres manufacture are of this description; and those who are familiar with old Sèvres ware need not be told how beautiful they are; more beautiful, indeed, in some respects, than specimens of real, or hard, porcelain. Soft porcelain was not only made at Sèvres, but in England. A comparatively small portion of clay entered into its composition; besides which, there were powdered glass, soap, and numerous things besides, which the reader would hardly expect to exist in the material of crockery. The European discovery of real porcelain was effected in Saxony by an alchemist, named Böttger; and the discovery was brought about in a manner so curious, that we must not omit to particularize it. Böttger wore a wig, and powder in the hair of his wig, as was the fashion then for well-conditioned gentlemen to do. One morning Böttger, on putting on his wig, felt it to be so re

painting of black figures on a red ground, or leaving red figures on a black ground. Simple as the process may appear to be, we moderns have not the least idea how it was conducted. The Samian potters were the most famous among those of Greece; and they would marvel not a little could they but revisit the earth a while, and see the varied and beautiful colors with which modern crockery is now ornamented. The classic ancients did not possess the varied colors to use; and even had they, a red ceramic surface would have been an ungenial ground for setting off the tints. In point of fact, the thinker will be at no loss to perceive, from the very nature of things, that, in order to give effect to the employment of varied pigments in crockery ornamentation, one of two things must be accomplished; either the crockery material must be prepared of clay so white and pure that the kiln-burned result shall be also white, or some opaque white glaze must be discovered for covering the red surface of common pottery and hiding its defects. The former plan had been adopted by the Chi-markably heavy that he determined to nese from times beyond the scope of his- know the reason. Sending for the barber, tory; it is the plan adopted now by all he asked, "What have you put into the manufacturers of porcelain, and ceramic hair of my wig?" "Powder, may it please wares which compete with porcelain ; your worship," was the reply. But Böttsuch, for example, as what is called Staf- ger, being a chemist, knew well enough fordshire ware. The latter plan, however, that hair-powder of such specific gravity was first introduced into the Island of never came out of wheat. Closely quesMajorca, if not discovered by the Spanish tioning the barber, the latter was constrainSaracens; whence the peculiar crockery-ed in the end to divulge a secret which he ware which resulted acquired the name of had hoped to conceal. The substance of majolica." "Wherefore," some crock- his revelation was to the effect, that galery virtuoso may demand of me, "where-loping one morning over a hill, his horse fore do you write that emphatic if?' Are stumbled and fell. Looking for the cause not the Saracens universally acknowledged of the accident, he found it to be occato have discovered the opaque white en- sioned by one of the horse's shoes having amel of tin-oxyd, which gives the white become clogged with a white earthy mass. surface to majolica-ware?" So it is said; This the barber thought would make good but in reply, it may also be said, that, hair-powder; so, having discovered a contreasured away in an English Museum, is siderable vein of the material, he dug from a brick taken from the ruins of Nineveh. it little by little as his business required, That brick is glazed, and the glaze is ox- mentioning his secret to no one. Böttger yd of tin; the very same as the glaze of majolica-ware! Long before any variety of porcelain was manufactured in Europe, majolica-ware gave scope to such European artists as would impart the charm of color to the surface of crockery.

At length, in various countries of Europe, but more particularly in France, the prolonged aspirations of those who admired porcelain, and strove to find out the

no sooner became aware of the nature of this hair-powder than the idea struck him of trying it as a material for porcelainmaking. He tried and succeeded; and to this very day the clay employed in the Saxon manufacture has been extracted from the locality discovered orginally by the barber.

The ancient Greeks and Romans did not know the process of manufacturing

porcelain, as we have seen. Did they ever succeed in obtaining specimens of real Chinese china? This is a disputed question. Some authorities are of opinion that specimens of real china were occasionally brought overland, and purchased in the classic West, under the name of Murrhine Vases; others think Murrhine Vases were not of ceramic ware at all. Indeed, this question of the nature of Murrhine Vases ranks-for the controversies which it has begotten, and the futile nature of the controversies-with the authorship of the Junius Letters and the identity of the man with the ironmask.

come flapping his ethereal wings over our heads. But, by the way, I am getting almost out of patience with the very sound of the word 'theory.' The practical; the practical, that is what we want, Mrs. Bantam. I have no theories either in science, religion, or politics. The great questions with me are: Will it work? Is it in accordance with every-day working? You will find here, Mr. Hoagland, the very error of all reformers, ancient or modern. They get up fine theories, and bedazzling the world with them, set their magnificent machineries at work, and find, generally too late, that while their notions are fine enough to dream over in shady walks and in moonlit balconies, they will

SOLOMON SARTOR AT THE DINNER- not stand the wear and tear of the friction of this world. Take socialism as an instance, with all its ramifications of com

TABLE.

VERY person has, no doubt, noticed munities, or what not, it is founded upon

in company, monopolize the conversation. Some of these grand monopolizers are led to their course by an infinite quantity of that quality which induces them to fear that "wisdom will die with them," while there are others that occupy that position from real force of intelligence.

Almost every person has noticed, too, that many of the most entertaining conversers cannot produce articles for the printed page. Their wisdom is comprehended in paragraphs that as newspaper items would escape notice. They lack that power of extenuation and attenuation that draws out an idea over half a dozen pages, and hence they never attempt to get into print. Hence much wisdom is lost to the world.

Our friend Solomon Sartor is a man bearing the description given in the last two items. At our dinner-table he is the chief speaker, not from pedantry or pride, but from the fact that all bow with deference to his opinions. I am afraid, however, Sartor will never get into print-the ethereal part of him I mean-unless some friend undertakes the task of editing his thoughts. The public must pardon the present writer for undertaking that auspicious task.

It is the dinner hour; appreciating friends beset Sartor and bring him out. "As to my theory of balloon travel, Mrs. Bantam," said Sartor, "I have no theory at all. We may laugh at the idea; it is an easy matter to do that; but, notwithstanding, some ardent genius may yet

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world. The imaginative portion of the creed is this: We are of one family; there should be one magnificent consolidated brotherhood, with 'love' as the band of unity, liberty, equality, fraternity. We will unite around one home a circle, and redeem the race by mutual improvement. The practical part of the theory is this: Here are a dozen families; in each a woman's time is required to do the work; one woman can do the work for six about as well as for four; unite these families, and three women will do the work of the whole set. Twelve families have twelve cooking-stoves, twelve wash-tubs, and twelve cellars, one of each will do as well as the dozen. These theories are fine enough to begin with, and it is no wonder so many people from Hopedale to Nauvoo have tried the alluring scheme. But in the real practical test the thing wont work. The whole batch of social wigwams, from Fourrier to Dale Owen, have gone over before the tread of practical enterprise and manhood's independence.

"Many of our public libraries are to-day burdened with the cumbersome tomes of learned lore, called 'Lardner's Scientific Lectures,' in which the grave man who had learning enough to be an authority anywhere, oversets the idea of Atlantic steam navigation, and proves its impracticability, and yet the Cunard line, the Collins line, and who knows how many other 'lines' of steamers, plow the Atlantic and go gloriously over all the theoretic rocks

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