Peto, April 2, 1842.
Mr. J. Lloyd Stephens.”
Concluding Remarks.
It will be noticed from the text of the Manuscript, that no events are commemorated but such as are connected with war. In this style also the Nahuatl annals were drawn up. With both nations war was recognized as the only fact worthy to be kept in the memory of the coming generations. Nor does the author state whether the country was ruled by kings or an emperor. It is rather suggested (section 7) that the tribes were gathered in groups, with a large town as a centre, and this town was governed by a priest. The words halach uinicil, holy men, were somewhat too freely interpreted with governor by the translator. In regard to the considerable gaps in the sequence of years in the manuscript, we will not longer attribute them to a lack of memory on the part of the author, but to the custom generally observed among the annalists to be regardless of any work of peace performed by the nation; and whenever the question shall be discussed, at what epoch the building of the huge pyramids and temples took place, these dates will contribute to the answer. Periods of peace certainly began with years of great exhaustion; but recovery must have ensued, and the unshaken energy of the people and their leaders must have been directed to the undertaking of works, in which they could exhibit also their taste for pomp and architectural achievements. The gaps, therefore, instead of casting a shadow upon the authority and completeness of the manuscript, may rather be thought to perform the silent office of throwing light into the obscure past of the Maya history. As to the method, however, which we employed in computing the omitted periods of Ahaues, we have only to say that it grew out from the nature of the Maya enumeration itself. The two ends of the interrupted series being given, the number of the intervening Ahaues could be easily supplied.
What now remains is, to discover for the restored and completed series of Ahaues the corresponding chronological expressions in our era. We find the total Ahau periods mentioned in the annals were 50. We have thought it necessary to complete twenty more periods, so that we have seventy periods (20×70), or 1400 years. As soon therefore as we know in which year of our era the last or 13th Ahau mentioned in the manuscript fell, we can, by reckoning backward, find the years date of the first Ahau mentioned, to wit: the 8th Ahau, and also determine the dates and events of each of all the other intervening Ahaues. The manuscript fortunately affords us the necessary material for determining with incontestable certainty the years date of the last 13th Ahau. It is the following: we read in the 12th section that Chief Ajpulà died in a year when there were still six years wanting before the expiration of the 13th Ahau, and that the year of his decease was 1536 A. D.
According to this statement the 13th Ahau ended with the year 1542. Bishop Landa (see §41 of his Relacion de las Cosas de Yucatan) confirms the correctness of the above calculation, though he says that the 13th Ahau expired with the year 1541. Landa undoubtedly selects this date of June 10th, 1541, as that of the last decisive victory at T’ho over the Indians, while the author of the manuscript may have had in mind the date when Mérida was officially incorporated as the capital, and a dependency of the Spanish crown, which was January 6, 1542.[[46]] If we subtract the total number of Ahaues already obtained, and amounting to 1400 years, from the year 1542, we obtain for the first epoch named in the manuscript which is the 8th Ahau, or the starting of the conquerors from Tulapan, the years 142–162 of our modern Christian era.
Of all the dates calculated from the manuscript only that of 1542 is well established from a historical point of view, as that when Mérida was declared the future capital of the conquered country. It is represented by the last year of the 13th Ahau. A second date and event, that of the final destruction of Mayapan, is mentioned by Cogolludo, who places it about the year 1420 A. D., which would give (see table, page [96]) a 12th or a 10th Ahau period. But the manuscript in §11 gives Vaxac Ahau, or the 8th Ahau, which according to our computation represents the years between 1442 and 1462. Landa agrees with this statement (Relacion de las Cosas de Yucatan, §IX., page 52). “It is now 120 years since Mayapan was destroyed.” Landa wrote in the year 1566, therefore, in his conception Mayapan was destroyed in 1446, which year falls correctly in the 8th Ahau.
Landa’s account agrees also with another event mentioned in the manuscript, the wanderings of the Itzaes 40 years in the wilderness before they settled down at Uxmal and Mayapan, in the 6th and 4th Ahau, which is in our calculation from 942–982 A. D. Landa, however, does not fix the year (Relacion de las Cosas de Yucatan, §VIII., page 46). In §VIII., page 49, he likewise speaks of a king of the tribes of Cocomes, hostile to the Itzaes, who kept a Mexican garrison in Mayapan. This is an allusion to the seven Mayalpanes mentioned in the manuscript (in §8), all of whom have Mexican (Nahuatl) names. There also the year is not given. However, his confirmation of so early events in Maya history appears to be of high value.
It is fortunate that the manuscript just in the middle of its narration exhibits a long succession of Ahau periods without any gaps at all. We can count through sections 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10, thirty-one Ahau periods or 620 years of uninterrupted history. They represent, according to our calculation, the epochs from the years 682–1302 A. D., or from the taking of Champoton to the first destruction of Mayapan by the assistance of the foreign Uitzes. This compact period of time touches a very remote epoch in the history of the civilized nations of Central America. It reaches backwards to an epoch when in Europe, Pepin D’Heristal and his family laid the foundation to their future ascendancy on the throne of France. If we look still further backward in our table, we notice another long period of time (sections 3 and 4) which represents the sum of eight uninterrupted Ahaues, equal to 160 years. The connection of these two great periods was re-established by the interpolation of the three Ahaues, 8, 10 and 12 in section 5, a correction for which there should be not the least question. Groping our way, we should reach the epochs when Bacalar was founded, with a date as early as between 462 and 482 A. D. At this point we are no longer able to follow the conquerors on their route. The location of Bacalar is well known to us, but that of Chacnouitan and Tulapan has escaped our investigation. Notwithstanding, by the aid of the quoted Ahaues we are able to fix the time for the long rest and residence in Chacnouitan, and for their remote starting from Tulapan. It comprises the epochs backwards from the year 462 to that of 162, and since the text reports that eighty years were spent in the migration, we are entitled to fix the time for the arrival in the peninsula with the year 242 A. D. It is of significance for our purpose, that this settling on the peninsula can be computed with the year 242 A. D. It represents, as will be seen, the 13th Ahau, a date always assumed by the Maya chronologists as one with which they designate the commencement of a new cycle.
The following table contains a chronological translation of the Ahaues as they correspond with the years of our Christian era. Accordingly, the historical events would correspond to the following dates of our Christian era:—