Had they
had any fair chance, they would have soon equaled their teachers. Father
Motolinia, one of the earliest missionaries to Mexico, testifies to the
readiness with which the natives acquired both Spanish and Latin, and
adds that, in the latter tongue, they became skilled grammarians, and
wrote both verse and prose with commendable accuracy.[6] Quite a long
list of such native Latinists, their names and their writings, is given
by Father Augustin de Vetancurt, and he is not sparing in his praise of
the ability they displayed in the use of both Spanish and Latin.[7]
Similar testimony is rendered of the natives of Guatemala, by the
Archbishop Garcia Pelaez. He mentions, by name, several Indians who
became conspicuously thorough Latin scholars, and refers to others who
won honors in all the faculties of the University of Guatemala, and
distinguished themselves in after life by the display of their talents
and education.[8] Nor would it be difficult to find many other such
examples in Peru and Brazil.
The list of native Mexicans who wrote in Spanish is a fairly long one;
and I need only mention the better known names. At the head should be
placed that of Don Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl. He was a lineal
descendant of the sovereigns of Tezcuco, and an ardent student of the
antiquities of his race.
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