The Native Races [of the Pacific states], Volume 2, Civilized Nations / The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft, Volume 2

by Hubert Howe Bancroft

But with the decadence of the Culhua power at Culhuacan, another of the tribes that came into notice in the valley after the fall of the Toltecs, had been gradually gaining a position among the nations. This rising power was the Aztecs, a people traditionally from the far north-west, whose wanderings are described in picture-writings shown in another part of this volume. Their migration is more definitely described than that of any other of the many who are said to have come from the same direction, and has been considered by different writers to be a migration from California, New Mexico, or Asia. Later researches indicate that the pictured annals are intended simply as a record of the Aztec wanderings in the valley of Mexico and its vicinity. Whatever their origin, by their fierce and warlike nature and bloody religious rites, from the first they made themselves the pests of Anáhuac, and later its tyrants. For some centuries they acquired no national influence, but were often conquered, enslaved, and driven from place to place, until early in the fourteenth century, when Mexico or Tenochtitlan was founded, and under a line of able warlike kings started forward in its career of prosperity unequaled in the annals of aboriginal America. At the fall of Culhuacan, Mexico ranked next to Tezcuco and Azcapuzalco, and when the armies of the latter prevailed against the former, Mexico was the most powerful of all the nations that sprang to arms, and pressed forward to humble the Tepanec tyrant, to reïnstate the Acolhua monarch on his throne, and to restore Tezcuco to her former commanding position. The result was the utter defeat of the Tepanecs, and the glory of Azcapuzalco departed forever.

THE AZTEC ERA.

Thus ended in the early part of the fifteenth century the Chichimec empire,—that is, it nominally ended, for the Chichimec kings proper lost nothing of their power,—and, by the establishment of the confederacy already described, the Aztec empire was inaugurated. Under the new dispensation of affairs, Mexico, by whose aid chiefly Azcapuzalco had been humbled, received rank and dominion at least equal to that of Tezcuco, while from motives of policy, and in order, so far as possible, to conciliate the good will of a strong though conquered people, Tlacopan, under a branch of the Tepanecs, with a less extensive domain, was admitted to the alliance. The terms of the confederacy seem, as I have said, never to have been openly violated; but in the first years of the sixteenth century the Aztecs had not only excited the hatred of the most powerful nations outside the bounds of Anáhuac by their foreign raids, but by their arrogant overbearing spirit had made themselves obnoxious at home. Their aim at supreme power was apparent, and both Tezcuco and the independent republic of Tlascala began to tremble at the dangerous progress of their mighty neighbor. A desperate struggle was imminent, in which the Aztecs, pitted against all central Mexico, by victory would have grasped the coveted prize of imperial power, or crushed as were the Tepanecs before them by a coalition of nations, would have yielded their place in the confederacy to some less dangerous rival. At this juncture Cortés appeared. This renowned chieftain aided Montezuma's foes to triumph, and in turn fastened the shackles of European despotism on all alike, with a partial exception in favor of brave Tlascala. The nations which formed the Aztec empire proper, were the tribes for the most part that have been named as springing into existence or notice in Anáhuac early in the Chichimec period, and the names of most of them have been preserved in the names of modern localities. It will be seen, in treating of the languages of the Pacific States, that the Aztec tongue, in a pure state, in distinct verbal or grammatical traces, and in names of places, is spread over a much wider extent of territory than can be supposed to have ever been brought under subjection to Anáhuac during either the Toltec, Chichimec, or Aztec phases of the Nahua domination. To account for this we have the commercial connections of the Aztecs, whose traders are known to have pushed their mercantile ventures far beyond the regions subjected by force of arms; colonies which, both in Toltec and Aztec times, may be reasonably supposed to have sought new homes; the exile of nobles and priests at the fall of the Toltec empire, and other probable migrations, voluntary and involuntary, of princes and teachers; the large detachments of Aztecs who accompanied the Spaniards in the expeditions by which the continent was brought under subjection; and finally, if all these are not sufficient, the unknown history and migrations of the Nahua peoples during the centuries preceding the Toltec era.

THE TARASCOS OF MICHOACAN.

I will now briefly notice the civilized nations beyond the limits of Anáhuac, and more or less independent of the Aztec rule, concerning whose institutions and history comparatively little or nothing is known, except what is drawn from the Aztec annals, with some very general observations on their condition made by their Spanish conquerors. Westward of the Mexican valley was the flourishing independent kingdom of Michoacan, in possession of the Tarascos, whose capital was Tzintzuntzan on Lake Patzcuaro. Their country, lying for the most part between the rivers Mexcala and Tololotlan, is by its altitude chiefly in the tierra templada, and enjoys all the advantages of a tropical climate, soil, and vegetation. Topographically it presents a surface of undulating plains, intersected by frequent mountain chains and by the characteristic ravines, and well watered by many streams and beautiful lakes; hence the name Michoacan, which signifies 'land abounding in fish.' The lake region of Patzcuaro, the seat of the Tarasco kings, is described as unsurpassed in picturesque beauty, while in the variety of its agricultural products and in its yield of mineral wealth, Michoacan was equaled by few of the states of New Spain.

If we may credit the general statements of early authors, who give us but few details, in their institutions, their manners, wealth, and power, the Tarascos were at least fully the equals of the Aztecs, and in their physical development were even superior. That they successfully resisted and defeated the allied armies of Anáhuac is sufficient proof of their military prowess, although they yielded almost without a struggle to the Spaniards after the fall of Mexico. With respect to their civilization we must accept the statements of their superiority as the probably correct impression of those who came first in contact with this people, notwithstanding which I find no architectural or artistic relics of a high culture within their territory. All that is known on the subject indicates that their civilization was of the Nahua type, although the language is altogether distinct from the Aztec, the representative Nahua tongue. The history of Michoacan, in the form of any but the vaguest traditions, does not reach back farther than the thirteenth century; nevertheless, as I have said, there is some reason to suppose that it formed part of the Toltec empire. The theory has even been advanced that the Tarascos, forming a part of that empire, were not disturbed by its fall, and were therefore the best representatives of the oldest Nahua culture. Their reported physical superiority might favor this view, but their distinct language on the contrary would render it improbable. A careful study of all that is known of this people convinces me that they had long been settled in the lands where they were found, but leaves on the mind no definite idea of their earlier history. Their later annals are made up of tales, partaking largely of the marvelous and supernatural, of the doings of certain demi-gods or priests, and of wars waged against the omnipresent Chichimecs. Branches of the great and primitive Otomí family are mentioned as having their homes in the mountains, and there are traditions that fragments of the Aztecs and other tribes which followed the Chichimecs into Anáhuac, lingered on the route of their migration and settled in the fertile valleys of Michoacan. Between the Tarascos and the Aztecs, speaking a language different from either but allied more or less intimately with the former, were the Matlaltzincas, whose capital was in the plateau valley of Toluca, just outside the bounds of Anáhuac. This was one of the tribes that have already been named as coming traditionally from the north-west. For a long time they maintained their independence, but in the last quarter of the fifteenth century were forced to yield to the victorious arms of Axayacatl, the Aztec warrior king.

Immediately below the mouth of the Mexcala, on the border of the Pacific, were the lands of the Cuitlatecs, and also the province or kingdom of Zacatollan, whose capital was the modern Zacatula. Of these two peoples absolutely nothing is known, save that they were tributary to the Aztec empire, the latter having been added to the domain of Tezcuco in the very last years of the fifteenth century.

The provinces that extended south-westward from Anáhuac to the ocean, belonging chiefly to the modern state of Guerrero and included in what I have described as the Aztec empire proper, were those of the Tlahuicas, whose capital was Cuernavaca, the Cohuixcas, capital at Acapulco, the Yoppi on the coast south of Acapulco, and the province of Mazatlan farther inland or north-east. The name Tlapanecs is also rather indefinitely applied to the people of a portion of this territory in the south, including probably the Yoppi. Of the names mentioned we have met those of the Tlahuicas and Cohuixcas among the tribes newly springing into notice at the beginning of the Chichimec period. It is probable that nearly all were more or less closely allied in race and language to their Mexican masters, their political subjection to whom dates from about the middle of the fifteenth century.

MIZTECS AND ZAPOTECS.

The western slope of the cordillera still farther south-west, comprising in general terms the modern state of Oajaca, was ruled and to a great extent inhabited by the Miztecs and Zapotecs, two powerful nations distinct in tongue from the Aztecs and from each other. Western Oajaca, the home of the Miztecs, was divided into Upper and Lower Miztecapan, the latter toward the coast, and the former higher up in the mountains, and sometimes termed Cohuaixtlahuacan. The Zapotecs in eastern Oajaca, when first definitely known to history, had extended their power over nearly all the tribes of Tehuantepec, besides encroaching somewhat on the Miztec boundaries. The Miztecs, notwithstanding the foreign aid of Tlascaltecs and other eastern foes of the Aztec king, were first defeated by the allied forces of Anáhuac about 1458; and from that date the conquerors succeeded in holding their stronger towns and more commanding positions down to the conquest, thus enforcing the payment of tribute and controlling the commerce of the southern coast, which was their primary object. Tehuantepec and Soconusco yielded some years after to the conquering Axayacatl, and Zapotecapan still later to his successor Ahuitzotl; but in the closing years of the fifteenth century the Zapotecs recovered their country with Tehuantepec, leaving Socunusco, however, permanently in Aztec possession. The history of the two nations takes us no farther back than the fourteenth century, when they first came into contact with the peoples of Anáhuac; it gives a record of their rulers and their deeds of valor in wars waged against each other, against the neighboring tribes, and against the Mexicans. Prior to that time we have a few traditions of the vaguest character preserved by Burgoa, the historian of Oajaca. These picture both Miztecs and Zapotecs as originally wild, but civilized by the influence of teachers, priests, or beings of supernatural powers, who came among them, one from the south, and others from the direction of Anáhuac. Their civilization, however received, was surely Nahua, as is shown by the resemblances which their institutions, and particularly their religious rites, bear to those of the Aztecs. Being of the Nahua type, its origin has of course been referred to that inexhaustible source, the dispersion of the Toltecs, or to proselyting teachers sent southward by that wonderful people. Indeed, the Miztec and Zapotec royal families claimed a direct Toltec descent. It is very probable, however, that the Nahua element here was at least contemporaneous in its introduction with the same element known as Toltec in Anáhuac, rather than implanted in Oajaca by missionaries, voluntary or involuntary, from Tollan. I have already remarked that the presence of Nahua institutions in different regions is too often attributed to the Toltec exiles, and too seldom to historical events preceding the sixth century. The Oajacan coast region or tierra caliente, if we may credit the result of researches by the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg, was sometimes known as Anáhuac Ayotlan, as the opposite coast of Tabasco was called Anáhuac Xicalanco. Both these Anáhuacs were inhabited by enterprising commercial peoples, whose flourishing centres of trade were located at short intervals along the coast. Material relics of past excellence in architecture and other arts of civilization abound in Oajaca, chief among which stand the remarkable structures at Mitla.