See chapter v., p. 94.
Merida now occupies the site of Tihoo. The stones, with which were built the pyramids and temples, were used in the construction of the new city.
Relation des choses de Yucatan, p. 351.
According to Humboldt, the Toltecs arrived in Anáhuac (Mexico) A.D. 648, and reached Tula in 670. The pyramids of Téotihuacan, a few leagues north of the modern city of Mexico, were built by them. They afterwards raised the great pyramid of Cholula, and on its platform built a temple for the worship of Quetzalcoatl. From Cholula, colonies of the Toltecs went to Tabasco and Yucatan.
The Aztecs arrived in Mexico in 1190, and found there the pyramids which they believed to hive been the work of their predecessors the Toltecs, who had obtained a knowledge of hieroglyphics and of methods of computing time by calendars. The Aztecs founded Tenochtitlan (the city of Mexico) in 1325.
The custom of confining captives or slaves in wooden cages for the purpose of being prepared for sacrifice, was supposed to have been established by the Aztecs about a century after they had settled in Mexico.