Sketches of Aboriginal Life / American Tableaux, No. 1

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE
AMERICAN TABLEAUX, No. 1.
NEW-YORK: PUBLISHED BY BUCKLAND & SUMNER, 79 JOHN-STREET. 1846.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1846, by BUCKLAND & SUMNER, in the Clerk’s office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern District of New York.
Stereotyped by Vincent L. Dill, 128 Fulton st. Sun Building, N. Y. C. A. Alvord, Printer, Cor. of John and Dutch sts.
The American Tableaux lay no claim to the respect and confidence, which is justly shown to authentic history; nor do they anticipate the ready favor usually accorded to high wrought romance. They are neither the one nor the other. The general outline is designed to be historical, and true to the characters of individuals, and the customs of nations and tribes; and the drapery in which it is arrayed is intended rather to illustrate the truth, and place it in bolder relief, than to weaken its force by irrelevant inventions. It is proposed rather to shade and color the naked sketches of history, and restore them to their natural setting and accompaniments, than to alter or distort them. The characters of history are usually stiff, cold, and statue-like, and their drapery, if they have any, is of the same marble rigidity with themselves. The Tableaux would transfer them to canvass in their natural colors, strongly relieved by a back-ground of familiar scenery and every day associations, and shaded or lightened, as the case may be, by the sorrows or joys of social life, and the cares or honors of public station. It may be presumptuous to hope that all this has been accomplished. It is safer to say, it has been attempted.



BIRTH AND EARLY LIFE OF TECUICHPO.
“Wo! wo! wo! to the imperial House of Tenochtitlan! Never saw I the heavens in so inauspicious an aspect. Dark portentous influences appear on every side. May the horoscope of the infant daughter of Montezuma never be fulfilled.”
These were the awful words of the priestly astrologer of Tenochtitlan, uttered with solemn and oracular emphasis from the lofty Teocalli, where he had been long and studiously watching the heavens, and calculating the relative positions and combinations of the stars. A deep unutterable gloom seemed to pervade his soul. Several times he traversed the broad terrace, in a terrible agitation; his splendid pontifical robes flowing loosely in the breeze, and his tall majestic figure relieved against the clear sky, like some colossal moving statue,—and then, in tones of deeper grief than before, finding no error in his calculations, reiterated his oracular curse—“Wo! wo! wo! to the imperial House of Tenochtitlan!” Casting down his instruments to the earth, and tearing his hair in the violence of his emotions, he prostrated himself on the altar, and poured forth a loud and earnest prayer to all his gods.