The North Americans of Antiquity / Their origin, migrations, and type of civilization considered

by John T. Short

CHAPTER VI.

TRADITIONAL HISTORY OF THE ORIGIN OF THE NAHUA NATIONS.

The Early Inhabitants of Mexico—Quinames—Miztecs and Zapotecs—Totonacs and Huastecs—Olmecs and Xicalancas—The Nahuas—The Cholula Pyramid—Its Origin Explained in the Duran MS.—No Relation to a Flood—Ixtlilxochitl’s Deluge Tradition—The first Toltecs—The Codex Chimalpopoca Account—The Discovery of Maize—Sahagun’s Origin of the Nahuas—They came from Florida—Their Settlement in Tamoanchan—Their Migrations—Hue Hue Tlapalan—Its Location, according to the Sources—Not Identical with Tlapallan de Cortés—Not in Central America—Probably in the Mississippi Valley—Beginning of the Toltec Annals—The Chichimecs not Nahuas—The Nahuatlacas—The Aztecs—Aztlan—As Described by Early Writers—Aztec Migration—Aztec Maps—Señor Ramirez on Migration Maps—The Seven Caves—Three Claims for the Location of Aztlan—The Culture Hero—Quetzalcoatl.

IN considering the origin of the Nahua nations, especially of the Toltecs and Aztecs, it is common to look upon the former as the first inhabitants of Mexico. Such a conclusion is, however, erroneous, since the Toltecs were preceded in Central-Southern Mexico, and even in Anahuac, both by people of different extraction from themselves and by scattering tribes of their own linguistic family, the Nahua. Of the former class, the most conspicuous are the so-called Quinametin (or Quinames), otherwise known as giants. These fierce and powerful people were encountered by the Olmecs, the first Nahuas to colonize the region north of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. All the early writers refer to them in terms which indicate that they were disposed to accept the existence of a race of giants as a fact. Veytia and Clavigero, however, are convinced that the report is not to be accepted literally. The widest possible difference of opinion as to their origin and relationship to existing tribes prevails with different authors. All agree, however, that they were the first inhabitants of the country. These cruel monsters, addicted to the most disgusting vices, the terror of the immigrating peoples, at last met their fate, according to Ixtlilxochitl, in a great convulsion of nature which shook the earth and caused the mountains and volcanoes to swallow up and kill them.[362] It is probable that this account was figurative. Duran says they were destroyed by the Tlascaltecs while eating.[363] Veytia attributes the destruction to the Olmec chiefs, who made a feast for their enemies and when they were stupid and drunken fell upon them and slew them. We think that in this allusion to the giants, “the first inhabitants of the land,” we see the Votanic colonists from Xibalba that are supposed to have penetrated Anahuac at an early day. They may not have carried any special degree of refinement with them from their old home, and if they did, they probably lapsed into a state of semi-barbarism. Their power as a people, their enmity to the immigrants, and their traditional connection with the hated and all-powerful Xibalba, may have won for them the name of giants because of the fear that was entertained of them; or, as Mr. Bancroft thinks, they may not have been savages at all, but a civilized branch of the Xibalbans, carrying on the warfare in the North which had been waged farther South.[364] It is quite probable that we have here a figurative allusion, from a Nahua standpoint, to the fall of the Xibalban power itself—the new-world Babylon, which, like the old, may have met its fate during a drunken revel.[365]

To the tribes which figured conspicuously in Mexico prior to the Toltecs and not related to the Nahuas, we may add the Miztecs and Zapotecs, whose language, though not Maya, is in some respects similar to it, while the architectural remains and traditional origin of this people associates them with the Nahuas. Their civilization in Oajaca rivalled that of the Aztecs in its degree of advancement.[366] The Totonacs were formerly, according to Torquemada, of Nahua extraction; but the authority in the face of linguistic difficulties is doubtful.[367] According to Torquemada’s claim, they were the builders of the temple of the sun and moon at Teotihuacan near Lake Tezcuco.[368] The Huastecs of northern Vera Cruz were a Maya branch of the power at the south; they mark the most northern point reached by the Maya tongue. Of the Nahua predecessors of the Toltecs in Mexico the Olmecs and Xicalancas were the most important. They were the forerunners of the great nations which followed. According to Ixtlilxochitl, these people—which are conceded to be one—occupied the new world in the third age; they came from the East in ships or barks to the land of Potonchan, which they commenced to populate, and on the shores of the River Atoyac, between the Ciudad de los Angeles and Cholula, they found some giants who had escaped the calamity which overtook that race in the second age of the world.[369] Here then comes the destruction of the giants referred to above. The first settlement of the Olmecs and Xicalancas in Mexico is supposed to have been on the site of the ancient city of Xicalanco at the point which still bears the name, at the entrance of the Laguna de Terminos, while a second city, built probably a little later, was situated on the coast a short distance below Vera Cruz; the entire region bore the name of Anahuac Xicalanco.[370] The first great exploit of the Olmec chiefs, the destruction of the giants, we observe was performed at some distance from their earliest settlement. The state of Puebla became their chosen ground, and quite soon after the above achievement they undertook the building of the famous tower of Cholula, which is so closely allied in its traditional history with the Tower of Babel. Several authors state that the erection of the pyramid of Cholula was done in memory of the erection of the tower of Babel, at which it is claimed the ancestors of the Olmec chiefs were present. Boturini is probably one of the most sanguine advocates of this view.[371] Others consider that the knowledge which the ancestors of this people transmitted to them with reference to Babel, in time became associated with the Cholula edifice and confounded with its history.

The Toltecs possessed a deluge tradition, which we will notice hereafter, which unquestionably had reference to a very general and devastating flood; perhaps the scriptural one, but it is clear, as we think we have the authority to show, that the Cholula pyramid and its origin had no relation to that tradition, though so often confounded with it and the tower referred to by the Nahua chroniclers. The generally accepted origin of the pyramid is as follows: from the great cataclysm which destroyed the giants, seven of that race of monsters escaped by shutting themselves up in a mountain cavern. After the waters subsided, Xelhua, one of their number, went to Cholula and began the construction of this pyramid “to escape a second flood, should another occur,” according to Kingsborough, or as a “memorial of the mountain called Tlaloc which had sheltered him,” according to Pedro de los Rios. The bricks which were manufactured at the foot of the Sierra de Cocotl were transported to Cholula by being passed through the hands of a file of men extending between the two localities. But the angered gods seeing the presumption of mortals, smote both the tower and its architects with thunderbolts and stopped their work.[372] Lord Kingsborough so intimately connects the erection of the tower with the Toltec deluge legend as to derive Xelhua, the builder of the tower, from the Toltecs rather than from the race of giants, by claiming that he escaped from the deluge with Paticatle the Mexican Noah in an ark, and adds that when the tower was destroyed and the tongues of the builders confounded, Xelhua led a colony to the new world. This last will serve as a specimen of how the Cholula legend has been misunderstood and confounded with the tower of Babel. Father Duran in his MS.,[373] Historia Antigua de la Nueva España, 1585 A. D., quotes from the lips of a native of Cholula, over an hundred years old, a version of the legend which assigns quite a different object for building the Pyramid, one which shows that it never was erected as a memorial of Babel nor ever had any reference to an escape from any flood either past or in anticipation. It is as follows: “In the beginning before the light of the sun had been created, this land was in obscurity and darkness and void of any created thing; all was a plain without hill or elevation, encircled in every part by water without tree or created thing; and immediately after the light and the sun arose in the east, there appeared gigantic men of deformed stature, and possessed the land, who desiring to see the nativity of the sun as well as his occident, proposed to go and seek them. Dividing themselves into two parties, some journeyed toward the West and others toward the East; these travelled until the sea cut off their road, whereupon they determined to return to the place from which they started, and arriving at this place (Cholula), not finding the means of reaching the sun, enamored of his light and beauty, they determined to build a tower so high that its summit should reach the sky. Having collected material for the purpose, they found a very adhesive clay and bitumen, with which they speedily commenced to build the tower, and having reared it to the greatest possible altitude, so that they say it reached to the sky, the Lord of the Heavens, enraged, said to the inhabitants of the sky, ‘Have you observed how they of the earth have built a high and haughty tower to mount hither, being enamored of the light of the sun and his beauty? Come! and confound them; because it is not right that they of the earth, living in the flesh, should mingle with us.’ Immediately at that very instant the inhabitants of the sky sallied forth like flashes of lightning; they destroyed the edifice and divided and scattered its builders to all parts of the earth.”[374] This account, the most ancient on record, makes no reference to a flood, and is quite distinct from the Mexican deluge tradition. Its value as an interpreter of the tendency of the American tribes not only of the United States and Mexico, but of both Americas, to erect mounds and truncated pyramids is not inconsiderable, since it confirms the opinion long entertained that they were connected with sun-worship. The great culture-hero, Quetzalcoatl, the white saintly personage from the East, said to have been the leader of the Nahuas, appeared during the Olmec rule, and to his honor the Cholulans erected a temple upon the pyramid which their countrymen or predecessors had failed to complete.[375] Quetzalcoatl was, however, no tribal hero, but was so intimately identified with the institutions and civilization of the entire Nahua race that we purposely defer a consideration of his character at present in order that we may hasten to the traditional origin of the Toltecs.

It is not our purpose to go back to the several traditions of the creation of man, preserved in as many localities in Mexico, each with its own variations, but simply to take up tradition where it first relates to the Toltec families. We are fully aware of the wide range of opinion with reference to what properly constitutes this tradition, and of the irreconcilable variations in dates and numeric details among the several Spanish writers. Probably all will agree that the native writer Ixtlilxochitl, who inherited the rich collection of royal archives and hieroglyphic paintings belonging to his ancestors (and which fortunately escaped the wholesale vandalism of the conquerors), though both contradictory and negligent, has furnished us the most reliable narrative which has yet been brought to light. Without attempting to correct or unravel his chronology, we simply translate his account of the origin of the Toltecs. Speaking of the first age of the world, the pre-diluvial period, he says: “It is found in the histories of the Toltecs that this age and first world as they call it, lasted 1716 years; that men were destroyed by tremendous rains and lightning from the sky, and even all the land without the exception of anything, and the highest mountains, were covered up and submerged in water ‘caxtolmoletlti,’ or fifteen cubits, and here they add other fables of how men came to multiply from the few who escaped from this destruction in a ‘toptlipetlacali,’ that this word nearly signifies a close chest; and how after men had multiplied they erected a very high ‘zacuali,’ which is to say a tower of great height, in order to take refuge in it, should the second world (age) be destroyed. Presently their languages were confused; and not able to understand each other, they went to different parts of the earth. The Toltecs, consisting of seven friends with their wives, who understood the same language, came to these parts, having first passed great land and seas, having lived in caves, and having endured great hardships in order to reach this land, which they found good and fertile for their habitation; and relate that they wandered one hundred and four years through different parts of the world before they reached Hue hue Tlapalan, which was in Ce Tecpatl, five hundred and twenty years after the flood. Seventeen hundred and fifteen years after the flood, there was a terrible hurricane that carried away trees, mounds, houses and the largest edifices, notwithstanding which many men and women escaped principally in caves and places where the great hurricane could not reach them. A few days having passed, they set out to see what had become of the earth, when they found it all covered and populated with monkeys. All this time they were in darkness without seeing the light of the sun nor the moon that the wind had brought them. The Indians invented a fable which says that men were changed into monkeys. * * * One hundred and fifty-eight years after the great hurricane and 4994 from the creation of the world, there was another destruction of this land, which was of the Quinametin, giants who lived in New Spain, which destruction was a great trembling of the earth, which swallowed up and killed them, the mountains and volcanoes burst upon them, that for a certainty none should escape. At the same time many of the Toltecs perished and the Chichimecs their neighbors. That was in the year Ce Tecpatl; and this age they call Tlachilonatnip, that is to say, sun [or age] of earth.”[376] Here follows an account of the construction of the calendar by the assembly of Lords in Hue hue Tlapalan in the year 5097 of the creation of the world and 104 after the destruction of the giants.

The singular agreement of this account with the Mosaic description, in some of its details, such as the height attained by the waters above the mountains, the escape of certain persons in an ark, and the erection of a high tower, together with the subsequent confusion of tongues, Lord Kingsborough is convinced furnishes proof that the Toltecs were of Jewish descent.[377] While we are not prepared to believe the sanguine speculations of that eminent author in this case, still one of two views must be true: either the Toltecs were of old world origin, and at a remote period treasured up among their traditional histories notices of the Mosaic deluge, traditions of which are so generally current among the Asiatic nations, or the Mexican traditions of local inundation were warped by the teachings of the Spanish priests in a degree beyond any precedent in history or reasonable expectation, and that within a comparatively few years after the conquest. Our authority in this case is a native of Tezcuco, a son of the queen; and because of his acquaintance with both the hieroglyphic writings and the Castilian, served as interpreter to the viceroy. His Relacions were composed from the archives of his family and compared with the testimony of the oldest and best informed natives. It does not seem to us that the sense of historic integrity cultivated to so nice a point at Tezcuco, where the censorial council, just prior to the advent of the conquerors, punished with death any who should willfully pervert the truth, could have so sadly degenerated that Ixtlilxochitl and the venerable natives who were conscious of the representations contained in his work, should proclaim a falsehood which would not meet with contradiction.[378] We are aware that this author’s chronology is an inextricable maze of contradictions which cannot be unravelled or reconstructed. The Toltec families, seven in number, are, however, said to have reached Hue hue Tlapalan five hundred and twenty years after the flood. The journey, however, occupied only one hundred and four years of that time. Their wanderings, attended with severe experiences, nakedness, and hunger and cold, were over many lands, across expanses of sea and through untold hardships.[379]

The date of the migration to Hue hue Tlapalan cannot be approximated from available data, but it is evident that Ixtlilxochitl fixes it at 520 years after the flood, or 2236 years after the creation—a period which must have antedated the Christian era by a score of centuries or more, even if we accept his chronology, which (on p. 322 of his Relacions), implies that more than five thousand years elapsed between the creation and the birth of Christ. The Codex Chimalpopoca, a Nahua record written in Spanish letters, which occupies probably the same relation to early Mexican history that the Popol Vuh does to the Maya history, has been made known to us through the writings of Brasseur de Bourbourg, but as yet it has not been published. Ixtlilxochitl was the copyist of this document, and of course used it in composing his Relacions. Mr. Bancroft has attempted to collect from scattered passages, taken from the Codex Chimalpopoca and found in Brasseur’s writings, a continuous narrative, but with little success. “The division of the earth,” by the sun, “six times four hundred, plus one hundred, plus thirteen years ago to-day, the twenty-second of May, 1558;” in other words, in the year 955 B. C., is a date obtained which seems to refer to the division of the land among the followers of Votan.[380] In the Popol Vuh, Gucumatz (whose name signifies plumed serpent) is described as going in search of maize, while the Codex Chimalpopoca describes Quetzalcoatl, whose name is identical in meaning with that of Gucumatz, as entering upon the same undertaking, though under somewhat different circumstances, and states that when he had found it, he brought it to Tamoanchan.[381] We shall see hereafter that Sahagun locates Tamoanchan in Tabasco, a fact of considerable value in studying the Toltec migration. The reader will not, however, associate Quetzalcoatl with the above date, since such is not the purport of the record. The Chimalpopoca implies that Quetzalcoatl afterwards becoming obnoxious to his companions forsook them, a statement noted by Mr. Bancroft, though its full value does not seem to have been observed by that author.[382] The account clearly refers to the role of Quetzalcoatl among the Quichés, when he was known as Gucumatz, and prior to his appearance among the Olmec (Nahua) tribes. It indicates that the Codex Chimalpopoca account of the discovery of maize is purely Quiché, and has no reference to the Nahuas whatever. The search for maize by the plumed serpent, call him by either his Quiché or Nahua name if you wish, was prior to the advent of that remarkable personage among the Nahuas. The reputed discovery we consider nothing more than a figurative allusion to the introduction of agriculture by this culture-hero, the knowledge of which he afterwards communicated to the Nahuas at Tamoanchan. If these inferences are true, the Codex Chimalpopoca, so far as we are acquainted with its contents, can render us no assistance with reference to the question in hand. We will now return to the beginning of the subject and cite additional authorities, chief among them Sahagun. In the introduction to his Historia General, in speaking of the origin of this people, he expresses the opinion that it is impossible to definitely determine more than that they report “that all the natives came from seven caves, and that these seven caves are the seven ships or galleys in which the first populators of the land came.” He adds, “The first people came to populate this land from towards Florida, and came coasting and disembarked at the port of Pánuco, which they called Panco, which signifies a place to which they come who pass the water. This people came in quest of the terrestrial paradise, and were known by the name Tamoanchan, by which they mean, ‘we seek our home.’ They settled around the highest mountains that they found. In coming toward the midday to find the terrestrial paradise, they did not err, because it is the opinion of the knowing that it is under the equinoctial line.”[383] The above account is rendered more definite in the following passage from his third volume:[384] “Countless years ago the first settlers arrived in these parts of New Spain—which is nearly another world—coming with ships by sea, approached a port at the North, and because they disembarked there, it is called Panutla or Panaoia, place where they arrive who come by the sea; at present it is corruptly called Pantlan. From that port they commenced to journey by the shores of the sea, ever beholding the snow-capped Sierras and the volcanoes, until they came to the province of Guatemala, being guided by their priest who carried with him their god, with whom he always counseled concerning what he should do. They settled down in Tamoanchan, where they were a long time, and never ceased to have their wise men or prophets, called Amoxoaqui, which signifies ‘men learned in the ancient paintings,’ who, although they came at the same time, did not remain with the rest in Tamoanchan, for leaving them there, they re-embarked and took with them all the paintings of the rites and mechanic arts which they had brought.” The account continues by stating that the priests informed their companions before leaving them, that their God had made them masters of the land, and that they should inhabit it and await his return. The priests then departed towards the East with their idol wrapped in blankets. Whereupon the people invented judicial astrology and the art of interpreting dreams. They there also constructed the calendar which was followed during the time of the Toltecs, Mexicans, Tepanecs and Chichimecs. The first migratory movement was to Teotihuacan, where they erected two mountains in honor of the sun and moon. Here they elected their rulers and buried their princes, erecting mounds over their graves. This seems to have become their holy city. The main power which had remained for a long time in Tamoanchan was changed to Xumiltepec. From this latter place they, however, at the instance of their priests, started again on their migrations. First going to Teotihuacan in order to choose their wise men. Notwithstanding the remarks of Sahagun that the seven caves were the seven ships in which the first settlers came to New Spain, he here affirms that in the course of their migration they came to the valley of the seven caves. How long they remained in this national centre we have no means of knowing, but eventually their god told them to retrace their steps, which they did, going to Tollancingo (Tulancingo) and finally to Tulan (Tollan). Ixtlilxochitl, if he can be relied upon (and if he is unreliable we might as well give up the task of tracing the early history of this or any other Mexican people) shows clearly that the ancestors of the Toltecs were possessed of certain traditions which point to an Asiatic origin; that at a remote period they set out from that common home of so many peoples, possessing the same traditions, in search of a suitable country in which to live; that after one hundred and four years occupied in traversing broad lands and seas, they arrived in a country called Hue hue Tlapalan. This event, according to his chronology, must have occurred upwards of twenty centuries before Christ. He tells us also that in Hue hue Tlapalan, the Toltecs regulated their calendar. Sahagun says that countless years ago the first inhabitants of the country (Mexico) came by sea from the direction of Florida on the North, and landing at Pánuco, journeyed down the coast to Guatemala (which is supposed to have embraced Chiapas and perhaps Tabasco, though such is only the conjecture of an earnest advocate of the Southern location of Hue hue Tlapalan, i. e., Mr. Bancroft) where they established a city called Tamoanchan—there the calendar was regulated or corrected. Whether this was the same construction of the calendar referred to by Ixtlilxochitl as having taken place in Hue hue Tlapalan is questionable. If positive proof of the identity of these occurrences could be produced, the identity of Tamoanchan and Hue hue Tlapalan would be complete, and the disputed location of the latter would be fixed in the Chiapan region or the country of the Xibalbans. The fact that Quetzalcoatl brought maize to Tamoanchan seems to indicate a comparative proximity of that country to the Southern region where that culture-hero figured so conspicuously under the Quiché name of Gucumatz. If no other testimony need be introduced the disputed locality might be fixed as above indicated. However, the contradictory records of Ixtlilxochitl, which we are now about to cite, unsettle this conclusion. The Toltec migration from Hue hue Tlapalan is briefly as follows: Three hundred and thirty-eight years after Christ a revolt occurred among the Toltecs in Hue hue Tlapalan, in which two rebel princes attempted to depose the legitimate successor to the throne. These rebel chiefs, named Chalcatzin and Tlacamihtzin respectively, were unsuccessful, and together with five other chiefs and their numerous allies and people, were driven out of their city Tlachicatzin in Hue hue Tlapalan. After a journey of sixty leagues, they arrived at a place which they called Tlapallanconco, or Little Tlapalan. Their departure from their old home did not occur till they had withstood a contest of eight years—or, according to Veytia, thirteen years—duration.[385] At Tlapallanconco they lived three years, at the end of which time there arose among them a great astrologer, named Hueman or Huematzin, who counseled them to forsake the land of their misfortunes and journey toward the rising sun, where there was a happy land formerly occupied by Quinames, but now depopulated. This advice seeming good they set out on their journey at the end of the three years, or eleven years after leaving Hue hue Tlapalan. After traveling twelve days and accomplishing seventy leagues they arrived at Hueyxalan, and remained there four years. From thence a twenty days journey toward the East, or according to Veytia, toward the West, and of one hundred leagues in length, brought them to Xalisco, near the sea-shore. Here they remained eight years. Twenty days journey and 100 leagues more brought them to Chimalhuacan on the coast opposite certain islands, where they resided five years. Eighteen days or 80 leagues traversed toward the East, and they arrived at Toxpan, where they dwelt five years more. Proceeding eastward twenty days’ journey or 100 leagues, they came to Quiyahuitztlan Anahuac, situated on the coast. Here they were obliged to pass inlets of the sea in boats. During a six years’ sojourn at this point, they suffered many hardships. An eighteen days’ journey or 80 leagues brought them to Zacatlan where they dwelt seven years. From thence they journeyed eighty leagues to Totzapan and dwelt there six years. They next journeyed to Tepetla, distant twenty-eight days, or 140 leagues, where they dwelt seven years. Eighteen days’ journey or 80 leagues brought them to Mazatepec, where they remained eight years, and a similar journey brought them to Ziuhcohuatl where they tarried also eight years. Turning northward from this unknown point, they journeyed twenty days or 100 leagues and halted at Yztachuexucha, where they dwelt twenty-six years. At last, after a journey of eighteen days or eighty leagues, they arrived at Tulancingo (Tulantzinco, or Tollantzinco) a name already familiar to us. Here the Toltecs emerge from what has been to us an unknown wilderness without geographic guide-post or even a polar star by which to reckon. Their itinerary, full of so many gaps and inconsistencies, its frequent omission of the directions traversed, with its starting-point so indefinitely located, is meaningless and confusing, and so far as the reader is concerned, practically begins nowhere and ends in nothing. At Tulancingo they remained eighteen years, living in a house sufficiently large to accommodate them all. Their knowledge of architecture must have been quite advanced to have enabled them to construct such an edifice. The third year after their arrival at Tulancingo, marked a Toltec age of 104 years from the time they left their home in Hue hue Tlapalan. Finally, eighteen years having elapsed, they transferred the capital to Tollan, afterwards the centre of the Toltec empire. Tollan is stated to have been eastward of Tulancingo (in all probability a mistake).[386] In this migration we have a distance of 1150 leagues traversed; the first two moves, aggregating 130 leagues, is in an unknown direction; the next advance is 100 leagues in an easterly direction, according to one author, and westerly according to another; however, it is agreed that the point was on the sea-shore. The next move of 100 leagues is still along the sea-shore, but the direction is not stated. We then have two advances amounting to 180 leagues, in an easterly direction. The confusion is completed in the following advances, aggregating 460 leagues in unknown directions. Of the remaining 180 leagues, 100 were traveled in a northern direction, while the remaining 80 leagues were taken toward an unknown quarter. It is quite plain to any one, that the distances traversed in the directions stated could not be traced consistently with the geography of Mexico and Central America, upon the assumption that Tamoanchan and Hue hue Tlapalan are identical and situated in the Rio Usumacinta region. The itinerary would carry the emigrants far out upon the Gulf of Mexico. It is evident that a broader territory than that of Southern Mexico and Central America is required for the realization of such distances. The account of the migration is no doubt faulty; but even if we disregard the gaps, it presents insuperable difficulties when applied to the South-Mexican region. It is manifest that Sahagun and Ixtlilxochitl refer to different migrations. The former to the Olmecs, who came by sea to Pánuco and thence to Tabasco, from which they migrated north to Teotihuacan. The latter narrates the wanderings of the Toltecs who subsequently came into Mexico by land. If this distinction is borne in mind, much of the obscurity attending the subject is cleared away. We are inclined to think that the accounts of the two distinct migrations have become confused, and the details of one substituted for the details of the other. Every one familiar with the study of traditional histories is aware of this danger, or even more, this tendency among semi-civilized peoples. No better illustration of this fact can be presented than the sad confusion which has been wrought by nearly every writer who has attempted to describe the two distinct personages in Mexican history, known by the name of Quetzalcoatl. Only Sahagun of all the early writers has seemed to have any clear conception of their individual and independent attributes. The demi-god, and the Toltec king, and the achievements of each, have been made to change places so often by Spanish writers, that the result has, with each new treatment of the subject, been confusion worse confounded. Sahagun’s account of the arrival of the Nahuas in ships, from the direction of Florida, their landing in Pánuco, their journey toward Guatemala, their residence in Tamoanchan (probably somewhere in the Chiapan region) and their subsequent migration northward to Teotihuacan with its well-known pyramids, and finally their removal to Tollan, north of the City of Mexico, by the way of Tolancingo, is a straightforward account which finds support in the best of evidence, both of a material and linguistic character. Sr. Orozco y Berra has clearly shown by linguistic testimony that the Nahua nations entered the country somewhere between the nineteenth and twenty-first degrees of north latitude, on the Gulf coast, migrated southward to a point seventeen and one-half degrees north latitude, almost to the Chiapan region, and then retracing their steps northward, almost to a point opposite Vera Cruz, they crossed Mexico to the Pacific coast, along which they extended their language northward nearly to the twenty-seventh degree north latitude.[387] Sahagun says nothing of Hue hue Tlapalan in his account of the migration from Tamoanchan to Tollan or from Chiapas to Anahuac, for his account refers to the Olmecs, the first Nahuas to reach Mexico.

Mr. John H. Becker, of Berlin, in an able paper addressed to the Congrès des Américainistes at Luxembourg (Compte Rendu de la Seconde Session, tom. i, pp. 325–50), after offering plausible arguments for the identification of Tulan Zuiva of the Quichés, Hue hue Tlapalan of the Toltecs, Amaquemecan of the Chichimecs, and Oztotlan of the Aztecs, with the region of the upper Rio Grande del Norte and Rio Colorado—the land of the ravines, of grottoes, and of cañons—attempts to trace the Toltec migration as given by Ixtlilxochitl. His interesting solution of the difficult problem is as follows: “The Toltecs driven out of Hue hue Tlapalan by civil wars (towards the end of the fourth century of our era?) move in a westerly direction sixty leagues to Tlapalanconco (northern Sinaloa and Sonora on the Rio Yaqui, where distinct traces of the Nahua language exist?); thence, after eleven years, they go to Hueyxalan, seventy leagues distant (perhaps the northern part of Durango, where the Tepehuana language shows strong Nahua affinities); thence to Xalisco on the coast, one hundred leagues distant; thence to Chimalhuacan Atenco on the coast opposite some islands, one hundred leagues (opposite the islands in the southern end of the Gulf of California)? In that case they did undoubtedly suffer a reverse in Xalisco (where they touched upon the more thickly populated and civilized country, and by which they were forced to retire); thence eastward eighty leagues to Toxpan (in the neighborhood of the Laguna de Tlahuila and on the upper Sabina River). In that country there is even now a tribe of Tochos, and the Tarahumara language there spoken, shows distinct affinities to the Nahua tongue; thence eastward one hundred leagues to Quahuitzlan Anahuac, on the coast with inlets—the coast-land of the state of Tamaulipas, on the Gulf of Mexico? About this locality there can scarcely be a doubt, since this eastern coast country and the eastern plateau bore the general name Quetzalapan or Huitzilapan, until the Nahuas took possession of them, when the plateau was designated as Huitznahuac, and the name above given would be the natural one to apply to the coast, since while nahuac (an) means simply the Nahualand, Anahuac (an) means the ‘Nahua land on the water,’ while Quahuitzlan is the old name retained in order to distinguish this Anahuac on the Gulf coast from the Anahuac around the Mexican lakes. Here they ‘suffered great hardships,’ and finally went westward eighty leagues to Zacatlan (the northern part of the State of Zacatecas?); from there eighty leagues to Totzapan, probably again in the neighborhood of Toxpan before mentioned (where the Tusanes are located even to-day); thence one hundred and forty leagues to Tepetla (the extraordinary distance shows that at last they gained a decisive victory, and broke through the frontier of the more civilized country which they had hitherto felt). Tepetla, mountainland, must consequently be sought in the neighborhood of the high mountains of Anahuac; thence eighty leagues to Mazatepec (the mountain of the Mazahuas, skirting the valley of Mexico towards north and west); thence eighty leagues to Ziuhcohuatl, where they probably suffered another defeat, for they move full one hundred leagues northward to Yztachuechucha, and stop there twenty-three years, a sufficient time to raise another generation of warriors; thence eighty leagues to Tollantzingo, and then finally to ‘Tollan,’ the capital of their future empire, which if Ixtlilxochitl’s dates can be trusted, they built about 500 B. C., on the site of a former city of the Otomis.” This ingenious and thoughtful review of the route commends itself to all who are interested in this subject. Mr. Becker considers that one great argument for the correctness of the starting-point which he has chosen is “the fact that even the distances as given by Ixtlilxochitl agree with the actual situation of the various localities here indicated.” Ixtlilxochitl, obscure as he is, gives in another part of his work an additional account, besides the one we have already quoted, which greatly strengthens our conviction that the Toltecs came into Mexico from the north, and confirms the investigations of both Mr. Becker and of Sr. Orozco. The account is as follows: “In this fourth age there came to this land of Anahuac, which is at present called New Spain, those of the Toltec nations who, according to the accounts of their histories, were expelled from their land, and after having navigated and coasted on the South Sea along various lands as far as the present California, they came to what is called Huitlapalan, that which at present they call after Cortés. This locality they passed in the year called Ce Tecpatl, which was in the year 387 of the incarnation of our Lord. Having coasted the land of Xalisco, and all the coast of the south, they set out from the port of Huatulco, and went through various lands as far as the province of Tochtepec, situated on the coast of the North Sea, and having traversed and viewed it they came to stop in the province of Tulantzinco, having left some people in most of their stopping-places in order to populate them.”[388]

It will be observed that in this migration part of the same general route above referred to, along the Pacific coast nearly opposite the extremity of the California peninsula, and then returning southward and inland, is clearly marked out. The Pacific ocean, called the South Sea, seems to have facilitated their movements northward. Xalisco was coasted, and the entire width of Mexico traversed, the Gulf of Mexico reached (Sea of the North), and finally Tolancingo chosen as a suitable home. It will be observed that the Huitlapalan named above is not identical with Hue hue Tlapalan, the earliest home of the nations. Mr. Bancroft has apparently confounded the two names, and endeavors to find in the Tlapallan de Cortés (so named because of Cortés’ expedition to a Tlapallan) the ancient Hue hue Tlapalan.[389] The Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg attempts precisely the same thing. The investigations of both these writers on this point are interesting, though without any result, unless unintentionally to strengthen the above distinction between Huitlapalan and Hue hue Tlapalan. Substantially the facts are as follows: Pedro de Alvarado, writing from Santiago or old Guatemala to Cortés in 1524, refers to Tlapallan as fifteen days march inland, and Mr. Bancroft thinks that the name must have been applied to a region corresponding to either Honduras, Peten or Tabasco. Cortés’ name was affixed to a Tlapallan said to lie towards Ihueras or Ibueras, the former name of Honduras, because of his expedition to that country. The Abbé says the name was applied to a region between the tributaries of the Rio Usumacinta and Honduras. Finally, the fact that the second Quetzalcoatl, when he embarked on the Gulf coast near the Goazacoalco River, announced his intention of going to Tlapallan, is cited as proof that the name was applied to a southern locality.[390] The entire argument is perfectly satisfactory in locating a Tlapallan in the Usumacinta region, but it does not have the slightest value in proving that Hue hue Tlapalan was identical with that locality. On the other hand, Cabrera, in referring to the ancient country of the Toltecs, calls it Hue Hue Tlapalan, and states that the simple name was Tlapallan, but that it was called Hue hue—old—to distinguish it from three other Tlapalans which they founded in the new districts which they came to inhabit. This statement is confirmed by Torquemada.[391] It is therefore probable that Bancroft’s and Brasseur’s investigations were all expended on one or more of these three Tlapalans. The undoubted residence of a tribe of the Nahuas (Olmecs) in the Tabasco region for a considerable period—one which is measured relatively in the language of Sahugun between the “countless years ago when they arrived from towards Florida” and their departure towards Anahuac in the fourth or fifth century—has led many writers to suppose that they were of southern origin, notwithstanding the statement of Sahagun, Ixtlilxochitl and all the early writers to the contrary. Supposing that the sweeping assumption of the northern origin so persistently adhered to by native and Spanish writers is nothing but a priestly fabrication, be admitted, simply that our attention may be turned to other testimony, still the evidence is against the southern origin theory. The material relics of Honduras and Nicaragua absolutely disprove the positive supposition that they were ever the work of the people who figured in Anahuac, and no transition from one style of sculpture to the other has ever been discovered, nor could be imagined. An examination of the first few chapters of Mr. Bancroft’s fourth volume and the works from which it has been drawn will fully satisfy the reader of this fact. The evidence from the linguistic standpoint is even more satisfactory, since the Nahua language as spoken in Central America, in the states of San Salvador and Nicaragua, is dialectic, indicating a fragmentary migration southward.[392]

It has been the common custom of Spanish writers and those who followed them down to the middle of this century, to locate Hue hue Tlapalan on the Californian coast. Vater and Humboldt from their standpoints of investigation fell in with this view. The former, basing his convictions on seeming linguistic affinities in the north-west, which, while they are quite significant, indicative of Nahua influences if not of Nahua residence, are too few to prove any lengthy sojourn. Humboldt based his opinion chiefly on the traditions and certain ethnological and geographical facts. Buschmann[393] has completely overthrown the arguments of Vater in his series of works on American languages, while Mr. Bancroft has shown conclusively that there are no material remains assignable to the Toltecs to be found on the Californian coast or the adjoining region.[394] When he asserts, however, that there are no remains farther north than California, he overlooks a well-known fact. We refer to the mounds of Oregon and their extension eastward into the Yellowstone and North Missouri River region. The most reasonable conjecture as to the locality of Hue hue Tlapalan is that which places it in the Mississippi Valley, and assigns the works of our Mound-builders to the Nahua nations. In previous chapters we have shown the close resemblance of the mound crania to the ancient Mexican, and have pointed out the gradual transition from the rude and simple mounds of the north to the truncated pyramid of the south, constructed on strict geometrical principles, having one or more graded ways, and so closely resembling the Mexican teocallis. Besides the testimony of Sahagun that the first settlers of Mexico came from towards Florida, and the universal report of a northern origin prevalent among the Aztecs at the time of the conquest, there are other evidences of a racial identity common to Mound-builders and Mexicans, such as pottery, sculptured portraitures of the facial type, indications of commercial intercourse between the two countries, such as the discovery of Mexican obsidian in the mounds of the Ohio Valley, and the probability that both worshipped the sun and offered human sacrifices.[395]

With the Toltec annals proper we have nothing to do; only the most primitive period of the growth of this people concerns us here, and that period is conceded to have closed with the establishment of the great capital at Tollan, on the site of the present village of Tula, thirty miles north-west of the city of Mexico. Seven years after the arrival of the Toltecs in Tollan, the government was a theocratic republic, with the seven chiefs who had conducted them thither acting as their rulers, under the advice of the venerable Huemen. Finally, in the beginning of the eighth century, somewhere between 710 and 720 A.D., the republic was changed into a monarchy and the throne given to the son of their dreaded enemies and former neighbors, the warlike Chichimecs, as a peace-offering, on condition that the Toltecs should always be a free people and in no way tributary to the Chichimecs. The history of the Toltec monarchy during the three and a half centuries of its duration to the final overthrow of Tollan (1062 A.D.) as well as the power of the remarkable people who built the ancient capital, has often been sketched, and for us to repeat what has been recorded in almost every language of modern Europe, would add nothing to the cause of science. This part of ancient American history, so replete with the romantic and marvellous, so confusing at times, because of our ignorance of many geographic and archæologic features entering into it (which, in time, will probably be brought to light), so saddening because of its stories of wholesale misfortunes to a people whose civilization rivalled that of Europe in the middle ages; and yet, after all, so fresh and novel, must continue to receive increased attention, if only as a means of recreation to the student of history, wearied with the beaten paths from Rome to Greece, and from Greece to Rome. Mr. Bancroft has given an excellent resumé of the annals of the Toltec period, accompanying it with an ample literary apparatus in the notes. During the last century of the Toltec power, Anahuac was overrun by the incursions of a fierce and dreaded people—the Chichimecs. These semi-barbarians, taking advantage of the internal dissensions in the Toltec monarchy, became a powerful factor, either on their own part or in the hands of the enemies of Tollan, in the overthrow of the empire. In the Toltec traditions we read of the Chichimecs being their neighbors in Hue hue Tlapalan.[396] In the annals as given in Ixtlilxochitl, Torquemada and many writers, the Chichimecs are represented as having pursued and annoyed the Toltecs, to have followed them up in their wanderings. This probably is not literally true, but their arrival upon the borders of Anahuac, soon after its occupation by the Toltecs, is quite certain. It has been common to consider the Chichimecs as a Nahua people, and even so critical a writer as Mr. Bancroft adopts this popular error. As long ago as 1855, Sr. Francisco Pimentel undertook to show the mistake into which many had fallen, and in his Lenguas Indigenas de Mexico (published in 1862), has furnished conclusive proof that the Chichimecs originally spoke a different language from the Nahua nations, but subsequently adopted the Nahua tongue, on the principle set forth by Balbi: “It is not the language of the conquering people that invariably dominates, but that which is most regular and cultured.” On the testimony of Torquemada,[397] Ixtlilxochitl[398] and Juan Bautista Pomar,[399] Sr. Pimentel shows that the Chichimec language was once distinct and different from the Nahua, and that these people came under the civilizing influences of the Toltecs during their golden age, but in their declining period availed themselves of the opportunity of possessing their country and advanced civilization.[400] If the Chichimecs were the neighbors of the Toltecs in Hue hue Tlapalan, it is reasonable to expect some light on the situation of that disputed locality in the Chichimec traditions; but in this expectation we are disappointed. There is no mention of that ancient home of the Nahuas, nor of any route pursued in their migrations. Amaquemecan is the only name which is applied to their most primitive land or history; one of the cities which they occupied at some remote period seems to have borne the name. When the Toltecs sent to the Chichimecs for their first king, they were, according to Ixtlilxochitl, in the neighborhood of Panuco. Panes describes them as having passed the sea, and, according to their reckoning, in the year Five Tolti to have arrived at the seven caves. Thence they journeyed to Amacatepeque, and certain persons left that province to go to Tepenec, which is to say “the Mountain of Echo.”[401] Ixtlilxochitl and some other authors derive them from Chicomoztoc, a rendezvous of the nations, which has been located by Clavigero at about twenty miles south of Zacatecas but is considered by Duran and Acosta as identical with Aztlan in the region of Florida.[402] It is impossible to determine either the starting-point or route of this people, who subsequently became amalgamated with the scattered Toltecs after the fall of Tollan, and whose rule in Anahuac may properly be dated from the (1062) middle of the eleventh until nearly the middle of the fifteenth (1431) century.

A few years after the Chichimec power was established there came from the North (at least their last move is admitted to have been from that quarter) six tribes of Nahuatlacas, who arrived in the country adjoining Tollan. There were altogether seven tribes, namely, the Xochimilcos, Chalcas, Tepanecs, Tlahuicas, Acolhuas, Tlascatecs and Aztecs or Mexicans. The latter people, however, had separated themselves from the remaining six tribes at Chicomoztoc and did not reach Anahuac until about 1196 A.D. These people all acted as tributary to the Chichimecs at first; and of the seven tribes, two eventually arose to great political importance, the Tlascatecs who founded an independent republic, and the Aztecs whose empire has been the wonder of students of antiquity and the subject of histories as romantic as the purest fiction. Some authors add a number of tribal names to those already given as belonging to fragments of the Nahuatlaca family, but the probability is that these minor and unimportant tribes were offshoots from the others, after their arrival on the central plateau. The representative branch of all the Nahuatlacas was the Aztec nation, who separated from their brethren in Chicomoztoc, and whose arrival at the Lake region of Mexico, is dated subsequent to that of the other tribes. All of these tribes are said to have come from the unknown Aztlan, their early home. The question of its locality has been as much a subject of controversy as the location of Hue hue Tlapalan, since, in fact, the question is possibly one and the same, for the Nahua speaking people who migrated into Mexico at intervals, extending over a period of a thousand years, must have had a common origin. Aztlan is described by Duran as a most attractive land and the presumption is that the Nahuas were forcibly driven from their fair heritage by the gradual encroachments of their enemies. The account of this delightful country given by Cueuhcoatl to the elder Montezuma, is as follows: “Our fathers dwelt in that happy and prosperous place which they called Aztlan, which means “whiteness.” In this place there is a great mountain in the middle of the water, which is called Culhuacan, because it has the point somewhat turned over toward the bottom, and for this cause it is called Culhuacan, which means “crooked mountain.” In this mountain were some openings, or caves or hollows, where our fathers and ancestors dwelt for many years; there, under this name Mexitin and Aztec, they had much repose; there they enjoyed a great plenty of geese; of all species of marine birds and water fowls; enjoyed the song and melody of birds with yellow crests; enjoyed many kinds of large and beautiful fish; enjoyed the freshness of trees that were upon those shores, and fountains enclosed with elders, and savins (junipers) and aldertrees, both large and beautiful. They went about in canoes, and made furrows in which they planted maize, red-peppers, tomatoes, beans and all kinds of seed that we eat.”[403] The location of Aztlan is not a philosophical question for our consideration, since scarcely sufficient data of a definite character are available on which to base a process of reasoning. The report common among the Aztecs was that they had come from the North, and this was no doubt true of the final move prior to their settlement in Anahuac, but whether it was true of their starting-point and the general course of the Aztec migration, is a question which cannot be satisfactorily answered. Most Spanish writers and others of the earlier school, locate Aztlan directly north of the present boundary line of Mexico,[404] others again California,[405] while some favor the North-western Mexican States.[406] A recent school of Americanists assign Aztlan a southern location, placing it in the Central American region.[407] Duran and Brasseur de Bourbourg, both celebrated authorities, on the other hand locate Aztlan in the United States; the former in Florida, by which we are to understand the region of the Gulf States,[408] while the latter simply expresses the conviction that Aztlan was situated to the north-east of California.[409]

The Aztec migration and the itinerary as generally accepted demands consideration before forming any judgment on the location of Aztlan. In this primitive abode we are told that each year the Aztecs crossed a great river or channel to Teo-Culhuacan for the purpose of offering sacrifices in honor of their god Tetzauch. But it happened that a bird appeared to Huitziton, one of the greatest of their chiefs (whom Bancroft thinks was identical with Mecitl or Mexi—hence the name Mexicans), and constantly reiterated the word tihui, tihui, meaning “let us go, let us go.” This singular occurrence was interpreted by Huitziton as a command from the gods for them to seek a new country, and after persuading the chief Tecpatzin to his view, the divine oracle was announced to the people. Accordingly, in the year 1064, according to some authors,[410] or in 1090 according to others,[411] or a century later than the first-named date according to some of the interpreters of the Aztec migration maps, the Nahuatlaca tribes left their ancient home and entered upon one of those strange and aimless journeys so characteristic of semi-civilized and superstitious peoples. The Aztec migration as given by several authorities is scarcely more satisfactory than that of the Toltecs, nor can any additional light be thrown on the route pursued until Sr. Orozco y Berra publishes the results of his critical examination of the subject.[412] The unimportance of the itinerary in the solution of any question is apparent, since it contributes but little to our knowledge of the location of Aztlan.

Mr. Bancroft has greatly facilitated the comparison of the lists of stations as given by different authors, in a note of great length on pp. 322–4, thus presenting to the eye at a glance the diversity of opinion which meets the reader of this subject. As an example, we select two or three of the itineraries, simply to show the wide range that opinion has taken on the subject. According to Veytia, the tribes left Aztlan in I Tecpatl, 1064 A.D., and one hundred and four years afterwards reached Chicomoztoc, where they dwelt nine years; the subsequent stations and the duration of their sojourn in each as follows: Cohuatlicamac three years, Matlahuacallan six, Apanco five, Chimalco six, Pipiolcomic three, Tollan six, Cohuactepec (Coatepec) three, Atlitlalacayan two, Atotonilco one, Tepexic five, Apasco three, Tozonpanco seven, Tizayocan one, Ecatepec one, Tolpetlac three, Chimalpan four, Cohuatitlan two, Huexachtitlan three, Tecpayocan three, Tepeyacac (Guadalupe) three, Pantitlan two, and thence to Chapultepec, arriving in 1298, after a journey of one hundred and eighty-five years, reckoning an additional forty-nine years for their stay at Michoachan.[413] According to Tezozomoc, the stations are as follows: Aztlan, Culhuacan, Jalisco, Mechoacan, Malinalco (Lake Patzcuaro), Ocopipilla, Acahualcingo, Coatepec (in Tonalan), Atlitlanquin, or Atitalaquia, Tequisquiac, Atengo, Tzompan, Cuachilgo, Xaltocan, and Lake Chnamitl, Eycoac, Ecatepc, Aculhuacan, Tultepetlac, Huixachtitlan, Tecpayuca (in two Calli), Atepetlac, Coatlayauhcan, Tetepanco, Acolnahuac, Popotla (Tacuba), Chapultepec in two Tochtli.[414] Clavigero states that they left Aztlan in 1160, crossed the Colorado River, stayed three years in Hucicolhuacan, went east to Chicomoztoc, reached Tula in 1196, and finally Chapultepec in 1245.[415] Acosta, Herrera and Duran state that Nahuatlaca tribes left Aztlan in 820 A.D., and eighty years later reached Mexico; that the Aztecs, however, did not start until 1122 A.D.[416] Duran identifies Aztlan with Teo-Culhuacan, and locates it towards our Mississippi Valley. He in common with other writers identifies Chicomostoc with the seven caves.[417]

The Tarascos, though speaking a different language, are said to have separated from the Nahuatlacas at Michoacan. They describe the route to the seven caves as across a sea, which they passed in balsas and the trunks of trees.[418] This statement may be of some value in locating that disputed rendezvous of so many tribes; and certainly is more important than a mass of groundless speculation. The next source of interest in this connection is the much perverted and sadly misunderstood migration map first published by Gemelli Carreri, in Churchill’s collection of voyages (vol. iv). Humboldt has given an interpretation which, with the exception of that part which connects it with a deluge and Colhuacan, “the Ararat of the Mexicans,” is generally received.[419]

Gemelli Carreri, Humboldt and many others were quite certain that they could read in this map the account of the Mosaic deluge.[420] Don José Fernando Ramirez, of the Mexican Museum, however, pointed out the fact that the Gemelli Carreri map, copied from one owned by Sigüenza, and published by Humboldt, Clavigero and Kingsborough, was in each case incorrectly represented, and states that the copy contained in the Atlas of Garcia y Cubas is the first correct reproduction of the original presented to the public.[421] Sr. Ramirez explains away the illusion of the Mexican Ararat and deluge in a manner both simple and conclusive.[422] The dove with commas proceeding from its beak, is not talking, nor giving tongues, but is repeating the word tihui, “let us go,” referring to the legend already cited, of the bird in Aztlan incessantly uttering this word in the hearing of Huitziton the chief. A little bird called tihuitochan is still heard in Mexico, having a note which is interpreted by the common people to mean the same as their ancestors interpreted it in Aztlan. Sr. Ramirez is convinced that the map referred to is only a record of the wanderings of the Aztecs among the lakes of the Mexican Valley, and that it has no reference whatever to any deluge, not even to one of the former traditional destructions of the world found in the Nahua cosmogony. Mr. Bancroft has added the valuable argument that the story of Cox-cox and the deluge is only the product of false interpretation, or else some of the earlier writers would have been acquainted with the legend. On the contrary, Olmos, Sahagun, Motolinia, Mendieta, Ixtlilxochitl, and Camergo are all silent with regard to it. The mountain and boat and their several adjuncts are found to be nothing but hieroglyphics for proper names.

Chalco Lake is, in the opinion of Señor Ramirez, the point of departure for the fifteen chiefs at the end of their first cycle. His interpretation of the Boturini map of the migration results in the same conclusion. The fifteen chiefs left their island home, passing through Coloacan (Colhuacan, according to Gondra’s interpretation) as their second station. It appears that the first move and point of departure are both unknown, and no satisfactory solution of the question has yet been offered. The prevailing tradition that it is in the north has been perplexing, since no material remains undoubtedly attributable to the Aztecs are found north of the central plateau of Mexico, nor indeed in the territories of the United States. If we adopt the general theory that the Aztecs came from the Mississippi Valley, possibly the original home of the Nahuas, occupied by the Olmecs prior to their arrival at Panuco and their descent into the Chiapan region, and by the Toltecs before their migration to Anahuac, we have a theory which agrees with the testimony of Duran and Sahagun, and seems to find support in the pyramidal mounds of the Lower Mississippi, which we have already seen are almost as perfect in their plan and construction as those found in Mexico, which do not furnish evidence of as great antiquity as those of the Ohio and Missouri Valleys. According to most accounts, a considerable period elapses between their departure and their arrival at Chicomoztoc—the seven caves. According to Veytia it was 104 years, but Brasseur adopts twenty-six years, which is also the opinion of the majority of writers. Chicomoztoc has some features which remind us of the Tulan Zuiva of the Quichés—their seven caves, from which so many tribes derived their origin. Chicomoztoc is the point at which the six Nahuatlaca tribes separated from the Aztecs, and thence proceeded to the Mexican lake region. It is quite probable that a considerable distance may have been traversed in this interval of twenty-six years, a distance which could have brought the Aztecs from a comparatively northern latitude to the Chiapan region. Opposed to this, however, is the fact that the Tulan Zuiva of the Quichés was in a cold, inhospitable region, no doubt at the North. Mr. Bancroft suggests that the first part of the migration tradition may refer vaguely back to the events which followed the Toltecs’ destruction.[423] We have already referred to the tendency to confusion in histories that are chiefly traditional. In opposition to the view that Aztlan and Chicomoztoc were remote from each of these, we have the statement of Duran[424] that these caves are in Teo-Culhuacan, otherwise called Aztlan, which implies that both Teo-Culhuacan and Chicomoztoc were points in the region of Aztlan. Every year it was the custom of the Aztecs, while in Aztlan, to cross a river or channel to Teo-Culhuacan in order to sacrifice to their god Tetzauh, and after their arrival at Chicomoztoc they continued the occupation of boatmen, which they had followed while in Aztlan.[425] By way of summary, then, we may venture the following: 1. Viewed from the standpoint of Sr. Ramirez, Aztlan may be located somewhere not far distant from Chalco Lake. The islands which it encircles may correspond to the description of the ancient home of the Aztecs, given by Duran as quoted on [page 257] and described as Culhuacan. Teo-Culhuacan, where the Aztecs sacrificed yearly, may be the city of Culhuacan situated in that neighborhood. As additional testimony we have the fact that most of the stations named in the migrations can be located in the Central Mexican region. The report that they came from the north may refer only to the scattering of the Nahua or Toltec people from Tollan, just north of the valley. 2. The statements of all the writers that the Aztecs came from the north, the fact that Duran and Sahagun assign the primitive Nahua home to the region of Florida, and the prevalence of mounds and shell-heaps in great numbers in the Gulf States, together with the extension of those mounds through Texas into Mexico, may warrant the opinion that Aztlan was in the Mississippi Valley, or, looking in another direction, the rock or cave dwellings recently discovered in Southern Utah and the Rocky Mountain region (of which we shall give a description in the next chapter) may indicate the locality of the ancient and much-sought-for land. The identity in meaning of Chicomoztoc (seven caves) and Tulan Zuiva (seven caves) together with the fact that both places in Quiché and Nahua history were the point of separation for many tribes, is a singular coincidence, if they are not one and the same. In the preceding chapter we have seen that Tulan Zuiva of the Quichés was in a northern or at least a colder climate, where they suffered greatly for want of fire, a fact of no little significance. On the other hand Teo-Culhuacan, the place of yearly sacrifice, may have been a city of the Chiapan region, since Sahagun located Tamoanchan the first city of the Nahuas (Olmec) after their arrival from Florida in Mexico, somewhere in the Usumacinta Valley. It is possible that a large number of the immigrants remained behind the company which migrated northward to Teotihuacan and thence to the seven caves, subsequently uniting with the Toltecs at Tollan. This view has had quite a number of advocates.[426] We will not undertake, in the present state of knowledge on the subject, to decide which of these three claims is the true one, if either one of them is correct. Our only wish is to furnish the reader a margin for his choice. It seems to us that it would be unscientific to attempt to decide a question based upon such slender and contradictory data.

It is unnecessary for us to follow the Aztecs farther in their history. The magnificent empire of the Montezumas, with its advanced civilization, but at the same time cursed with its horrid worship, in which thousands of human victims bathed the altars of Mexico yearly with their life-blood, has been described and its glory handed down to history by that most graceful and romantic of American writers, William H. Prescott. We cannot, however, dismiss this the most primitive period of the growth of the Nahua nations without a reference to the reputed author of the higher phases of their civilization. We refer to that semi-mythical and semi-divine personage, Quetzalcoatl. The numerous legends concerning this culture-hero, scattered chronologically over hundreds of years of Nahua history, may have originated in the life and character of some noted personage—the leader and civilizer of the most ancient branches of the Nahua family, or in the personification of an ideal deity, a nature-god whose chief attribute, whose distinguishing office, was the fertilization of the earth, the revivification of the slumbering forces in nature and consequently the author of prosperity, agriculture, and the arts of peace. In either case the name of the original Quetzalcoatl, were he either man or deity, was eventually inherited by a line of individuals who became the priests of his worship, or the representatives of his teachings, and the inculcators of the most humane and noble principles which entered into the ancient civilization. Without entering into a lengthy discussion of the probabilities in the case, we give the substance of the traditions, arranged in what appears to us not only the most consistent, but also the proper order. We have already acquainted the reader with the meaning of Quetzalcoatl, namely, “plumed serpent.”

From the distant East, from the fabulous Hue hue Tlapalan, this mysterious personage came to Tulla, and became the patron god and high-priest of the ancestors of the Toltecs.[427] He is described as having been a white man, with a strong formation of body, broad forehead, large eyes, and flowing beard. He wore a mitre on his head, and was dressed in a long, white robe, reaching to his feet, and covered with red crosses. In his hand he held a sickle. His habits were ascetic; he never married, was most chaste and pure in his life, and is said to have endured penance in a neighboring mountain, not for its effects upon himself, but as an example to others. Some have here found a parallel for Christ’s temptation. He condemned sacrifices, except of fruits and flowers, and was known as the god of peace; for when addressed on the subject of war, he is reported to have stopped his ears with his fingers.[428]

Quetzalcoatl was skilled in many arts, having invented gem-cutting and metal-casting. He furthermore originated letters and invented the Mexican calendar. The legend which describes the latter states that the gods, having made men, thought it advisable that their creatures should have some means of reckoning time, and of regulating the order of religious ceremonies. Therefore two of these celestial personages, one of them a goddess, called Quetzalcoatl to counsel with them, and the three contrived a system which they recorded on tables, each bearing a single sign. That sign, however, was accompanied with all necessary explanations of its meaning. It is noticeable that the goddess was assigned the privilege of writing the first sign, and that she chose a serpent as her favorite symbol.

Some accounts represent that Huemac was the temporal king, or at least associated with Quetzalcoatl in the government; the latter occupying the priestly as well as the kingly office. Sahagun calls the associate ruler Vemac. At all events, Quetzalcoatl had an enemy, the deity Tezcatlipoca, whose worship was quite opposite in its character to that of Quetzalcoatl, being sanguine and celebrated with horrid human sacrifices. A struggle ensued in Tulla (Tollan) between the opposing systems which resulted favorably to the bloody deity and the faction who sought to establish his worship in preference to the peaceful and ascetic service of Quetzalcoatl.

Tezcatlipoca, envious of the magnificence enjoyed by Quetzalcoatl, determined upon his destruction. His first appearance at Tulla was in the rôle of a great ball-player, and Quetzalcoatl, being very fond of the game, engaged in play with him, when suddenly he transformed himself into a tiger, occasioning a panic among the spectators, in which great numbers were crowded over a precipice into a river, where they perished. Again the vicious god appeared at Tulla. This time he presented himself at the door of Quetzalcoatl’s palace in the guise of an old man, and asked permission of the servants to see their master. They attempted to drive him away, saying that their god was ill. At last, because of his importunities, they obtained leave to admit him.

Tezcatlipoca entered, and seeing the sick deity, asked about his health, and announced that he had brought him a medicine which would ease his body, compose his mind, and prepare him for the journey which Fate had decreed that he must undertake.[429] Quetzalcoatl received the sorcerer kindly, inquiring anxiously as to the journey and the land of his destiny. His deceiver told him that the name of the land was Tullan Tlapalan, where his youth would be renewed, and that he must visit it without delay. The sick king was moved greatly by the words of the sorcerer, and was prevailed upon to taste the intoxicating medicine which he pressed to his lips. At once he felt his malady healed, and the desire to depart fixed itself in his mind.

“Drink again!” exclaimed the old sorcerer; and again the god-king pressed the cup to his lips, and drank till the thought of departure became indelible, chained his reason, and speedily drove him a wanderer from his palace and kingdom.

Upon leaving Tulla, driven from his kingdom by the vicious enmity of Tezcatlipoca, he ordered his palaces of gold, and silver, and turquoise, and precious stones, to be set on fire. The myriads of rich-plumed songsters that made the air of the capital melodious with song accompanied him on his journey, pipers playing on pipes preceded him, and the flowers by the way are said to have given forth unusual volumes of perfume at his approach.

After journeying one hundred leagues southward, he rested, near a city of Anahuac, under a great tree, and as a memorial of the event, he cast stones at the tree, lodging them in its trunk.[430]

He then proceeded still farther southward in the same valley, until he came to a mountain, two leagues distant from the city of Mexico. Here he pressed his hands upon a rock on which he rested, and left their prints imbedded in it, where they remained visible down to a very recent date. He then turned eastward to Cholula, where he was received with greatest reverence.[431] The great pyramid was erected to his honor. With his advent the spirit of peace settled down upon the city. War was not known during his sojourn within it. The reign of Saturn repeated itself. The enemies of the Cholulans came with perfect safety to his temple, and many wealthy princes of other countries erected temples to his honor in the city of his choice.[432]

Here the silversmith, the sculptor, the artist, and the architect, we are led to believe, from the testimony of both tradition and remains, flourished under the patronage of the grand god-king.

However, after twenty years had elapsed, that subtile, feverish draught received from the hand of Tezcatlipoca away back in Tulla, like an old poison in the veins, renewed its power. Again his people, his palaces, and his pyramidal temple were forsaken, that he might start on his long and final journey.[433] He told his priests that the mysterious Tlapalla was his destination, and turning toward the East, proceeded on his way until he reached the sea at a point a few miles south of Vera Cruz. Here he bestowed his blessing upon four young men, who accompanied him from Cholula, and commanded them to go back to their homes, bearing the promise to his people that he would return to them, and again set up his kingdom among them. Then, embarking in a canoe made of serpent-skins, he sailed away into the East.[434]

The Cholulans, out of respect to Quetzalcoatl, placed the government in the hands of the recipients of his blessing. His statue was placed in a sanctuary on the pyramid, but in a reclining position, representing a state of repose, with the understanding that it shall be placed upon its feet when the god returns. When Cortés landed, they believed their hopes realized, sacrificed a man to him, and sprinkled the blood of the unhappy victim upon the conqueror and his companions.[435]

Father Sahagun, when on his journey to Mexico, was everywhere asked if he had not come from Tlapalla.[436] No wonder when the fleet of Cortés hove in sight on the horizon, almost in the same place where Quetzalcoatl’s bark had disappeared, that the Mexican, who had been waiting centuries for the prince of peace to return, believed his waiting to be at an end. No wonder that he inquired of the distant and mysterious Tlapalla. In this state of expectancy we find a most natural and fruitful soil for the operations of the Spanish conquerors.

Such is the form into which the mass of legends concerning Quetzalcoatl have been woven. There is scarcely a doubt, however, that it is a matter of growth—is the accumulation of several centuries. The name Quetzalcoatl (Nahua), Gucumatz (Quiché) and Cukulcan (Maya), translated “feathered” or “plumed” or “winged” serpent, may originally have been applied to an intelligent princely foreigner who was cast upon the shores of the Central American region, and who introduced the art of casting metals, and especially taught agriculture. His doctrines of peace and virtue may have been sufficiently wide-spread to have brought about the prosperity which is ascribed to his age. From this standpoint we would consider him at first to have cast his lot among the descendants of Votan, otherwise known as the “Serpents,” from which occurrence he may have received his name of “Feathered Serpent.” On [pages 241–42] we referred to the statements of the Codex Chimalpopoca, that Quetzalcoatl, becoming obnoxious to his companions, who seem to be Quichés, forsook them. The account also states that he afterwards brought maize to Tamoanchan (the city of the Nahuas). Our next account of him describes him as figuring among the Olmecs at Cholula. This realistic view of the tradition applies to the first Quetzalcoatl, who may have been an actual man. While entertaining this view, we must not forget that centuries prior to this period (which we may as well assign to the first or second century as to any other date), the Quichés possessed the ideal of such a personage whom they considered a deity, who figures so actively in their cosmogony under the name of Gucumatz. This deity was the vivifying force in nature, the bringer of the gentle south winds, the god of the harvest and of the air. He was best symbolized to the mind of the savage by the vernal shower and the return of spring.

The serpent was everywhere considered an emblem of the vernal shower, and was thought to be in some way instrumental in bringing it, together with its refreshing and fructifying influences. So here, in the name of Quetzalcoatl, we find a progressive step indicated in the workings of the mind, an advance from the lower figure of the serpent alone to that of an aërial combination, which, while it contained all the virtues of the serpent, is lifted to a higher element—that from which the shower falls. The feathery vapor-clouds of summer are but the plumes or wings of the shower which the serpent symbolized.

At last when a teacher of agriculture and the mechanic arts, so conducive of prosperity and plenty, appeared—an individual who discovers maize and directs the process of its reproduction and guards an improvident people against want and famine, the attributes of the god are recognized as dwelling in him, the ideal vaguely represented by the vernal shower is concreted, is become incarnate, is presented in a shape more comprehensible to the untaught mind, and at once the name, reverence and worship of the god are attached to the man, the culture-hero. This we believe to be the simplest interpretation of the origin of the worship of Quetzalcoatl. A priesthood appears to have been founded who perpetuated the doctrines of this deified man. That part of the legend which relates to Tulla (Tollan) with the expulsion of the king and that which followed, properly belongs to Ceacatl, surnamed Quetzalcoatl, Toltec king of Tollan, who ascended the throne about 873.[437] The father of this monarch had been cruelly murdered, and in his early boyhood Ceacatl is said to have wreaked a terrible vengeance on the murderer of his father, after which he concealed himself for about twenty years. At about the above-named date he reappeared, and established his claims to the throne. He espoused the religion of Quetzalcoatl, and the peace which followed brought great prosperity. Human sacrifices were forbidden, and a golden age seemed to dawn in which Tollan exceeded all the cities of the Mexican valley in importance and wealth. But a rivalry at once sprang up between the priests of the bloody god Tezcatlipoca, worshipped in Culhuacan and at Teotihuacan, and those of the peaceful and humane Quetzalcoatl, which resulted in the voluntary departure of the Pontiff king, to whom the name of his god was attached. The contest between the two sects is symbolized in the legend by the tricks of Tezcatlipoca. Quetzalcoatl was received at Cholula, where he remained some years, but was at last driven away before the leader of the Tezcatlipoca faction, namely, King Huemac, who advanced upon the peaceful king with a strong army. Quetzalcoatl again voluntarily withdrew, rather than occasion the bloodshed of his subjects. It is probable that he ultimately reached Yucatan and figured there in his old character under the name of Cukulcan.[438]

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