TRADITION OF THE MEXICAN NATIVES RESPECTING THEIR MIGRATION FROM THE NORTH.
In corroboration of Mr. Atwater’s opinion with respect to the gradual remove of the ancient people of the West toward Mexico, we subjoin what we have gathered from the Researches of Baron Humboldt on that point. See Helen Maria Williams’ translation of Humboldt’s Researches in America, vol. ii. p. 67; from which it appears the people inhabiting the vale of Mexico, at the time the Spaniards overran that country, were called Aztecs, or Aztecas; and were, as the Spanish history informs us, usurpers, having come from the north, from a country which they called Aztalan.
This country of Aztalan, Baron Humboldt says, “we must look for at least north of the forty-second degree of latitude.” He comes to this conclusion from an examination of the Mexican or Azteca manuscripts, which were made of a certain kind of leaves, and of skins prepared; on which an account in painted hieroglyphics, or pictures, was given of their migration from Aztalan to Mexico, and how long they halted at certain places; which, in the aggregate, amounts to “four hundred and sixteen years.”
The following names of places appear on their account of their journeyings, at which places they made more or less delay, and built towns, forts, tumuli, &c.:—
1st. A place of Humiliation and a place of Grottoes. It would seem at this place they were much afflicted and humbled, but in what manner is not related; and also at this place, from the term grottoes, that it was a place of caverns and dens, probably where they at first hid and dwelt, till they built a town and cleared the ground. Here they built the places which they called Tocalco and Oztatan.
2d journey. They stopped at a place of fruit-trees; probably meaning, as it was further south, a place where nature was abundant in nuts, grapes, and wild fruit-trees. Here they built a mound or tumulus; and, in their language, it is called a Teocali.
3d journey; when they stopped at a place of herbs, with broad leaves; probably meaning a place where many succulent plants grew, denoting a good soil, which invited them to pitch their tents here.
4th journey; when they came to a place of human bones; where they, either during their stay, had battles with each other, or with some enemy; or they may have found them already there, the relics of other nations before them; for, according to Humboldt, this migration of the Aztecas took place A. D. 778; so that other nations certainly had preceded them, also from the north.
5th journey; they came to a place of eagles.
6th journey; to a place of precious stones and minerals.
7th journey; to a place of spinning, where they manufactured clothing of cotton, barks, or of something proper for clothing of some sort, and mats of rushes and feathers.
8th journey; they came to another place of eagles, called the Eagle Mountain: or, in their own language, Quauktli Tepec: Tepec, says Humboldt, in the Turkish language, is the word for mountain; which two words are so near alike, tepec, and tepe, that it would seem almost an Arab word, or a word used by the Turks.
9th journey; when they came to a place of walls, and the seven grottoes; which shows the place had been inhabited before, and these seven grottoes were either caves in the earth, or were made in the side of some mountain, by those who had preceded them.
10th journey; when they came to a place of thistles, sand, and vultures.
11th journey; when they came to a place of Obsidian mirrors, which is much the same with that of ising-glass, scientifically called mica membranacea. This mineral substance is frequently found in the tumuli of the west, and is called by the Mexicans the shining god. The obsidian stone, however, needs polishing before it will answer as a mirror.
12th journey; came to a place of water, probably some lake or beautiful fountains, which invited their residence there, on the account not only of the water, but for fishing and game.
13th journey; they came to the place of the Divine Monkey, called, in their own language, Teozomoco. In the most ancient Hebrew, this animal is called K-oph, Kooph, and Kuphon: in the Arabic, which is similar to the Hebrew, it is called K-ha-noos, Khanassa, and Chanass; all of which words bear a strong resemblance to the Mexican Te-oz-o-moco, especially to the Arabic Khanoos. Here, it would seem, they set up the worship of the monkey, or baboon, as the ancient Egyptians are known to have done. This animal is found in Mexico, according to Humboldt.
14th journey; when they came to a high mountain, probably with table lands on it, which they called Chopaltepec, or mountain of locusts: “A place,” says Baron Humboldt, “celebrated for the magnificent view from the top of this hill;” which, it appears, is in the Mexican country, and probably not far from the vale of Mexico, where they finally and permanently rested.
15th journey; when they came to the vale of Mexico; they here met with the prodigy, or fulfilment of the prophecy, or oracle, predicted at their outset from the country of Aztalan, Huehuetlapallan, and Amaquemacan; which was (see Humboldt, vol. ii. p. 185), that the migrations of the Aztecs should not terminate till the chiefs of the nation should meet with an eagle, perched on a cactus-tree, or prickly pear; at such a place they might found a city. This was, as their bull-hide books inform us, in the vale of Mexico.
We have related this account of the Azteca migration from the country of Aztalan, Huehuetlapallan, and Amaquemacan, from the regions of north latitude forty-two degrees, merely to show that the country, provinces, or districts, so named in their books, must have been the country of Ohio, Mississippi, and Illinois, with the whole region thereabout; for these are not far from the very latitude named by Humboldt as the region of Aztalan, &c.
The western country is now distinguished by the general name of the “lake country;” and why? because it is a country of lakes; and for the same reason it was called by the Mexicans Azteca, by the Indians, Aztalans, because in their language ATL is water, from which Aztalan is doubtless a derivative, as well also as their own name as a nation or title, which was Astecas, or people of the lakes.
This account, derived from the Mexicans since their reduction by the Spaniards, is gathered from the researches of learned travellers, who have, for the very purpose of learning the origin of the people of this country, penetrated not only into the forest retreats in the woods of Mexico, but into the mysteries of their hard language, their theology, philosophy, and astronomy. This account of their migration, as related above, is corroborated by the tradition of the Wyandot Indians.
We come to a knowledge of this tradition by the means of a Mr. William Walker, some time Indian agent for our government. A pamphlet, published in 1823, by Frederick Falley, of Sandusky, contains Mr. Walker’s account, which is as follows: A great many hundred years ago, the ancient inhabitants of America, who were the authors of the great works of the West, were driven away from their country and possessions by barbarous and savage hordes of warriors, who came from the north and north-east, before whose power and skill in war they were compelled to flee, and went to the south.
After having been there many hundred years, a runner came back into the same country whence the ancient people had been driven, which we suppose is the very country of Aztalan, or the region of the Western States, bringing the intelligence that a dreadful beast had landed on their coast along the sea, which was spreading among them havoc and death, by means of fire and thunder; and that it would no doubt travel all over the country, for the same purpose of destruction. This beast, whose voice was like thunder, and whose power to kill was like fire, we have no doubt represents the cannon and small arms of the Spaniards, when they first commenced the murder of the people of South America.—[Priest.]