EARLY MEXICAN HISTORY.
According to the annals preserved by the Mexicans, the country embraced in the vale of Mexico was formerly called Anahuac. The rest of the territory contained the kingdoms of Mexico, Acolhuacan, Tlacopan, Michuacan, and the republics of Tlaxcallan or Tlascala, Cholollan, and Huexotzinco. The people who settled the country came from the north. The first inhabitants were called Toltecs or Toltecas, who came from a distant country at the northwest in the year 472. They migrated slowly, cultivating and settling as they proceeded, so that it was 104 years before they reached a place fifty miles east of the situation where Mexico was afterwards built; there they remained for twenty years, and built a city called Tollantzinco. Thence they removed forty miles to the westward, and built another city called Tollan or Tula.
When they first commenced their migration, they had a number of chiefs, who, by the time they reached Tollantzinco, were reduced to seven. This form of government was afterwards changed to a monarchy; why, we know not, but probably some one of the chiefs was more valiant or cunning than his associates, and supplanted them. This monarchy began A. D. 607, and lasted 384 years, in which time they are said to have had only eight princes. This fact, however, is accounted for by the custom which prevailed, of keeping up the name of each king for fifty-two years.
They remained prosperous for 400 years, when a famine succeeded, occasioned by a severe drought, which was followed by a pestilence that destroyed many of them. Tradition says, that a demon appeared once at a festival ball, and with giant arms embraced the people, and suffocated them; that he appeared again as a child with a putrid head, and brought the plague; and that, by his persuasion, they abandoned Tula, and scattered themselves among various nations, by whom they were well received.
A hundred years afterwards, succeeded a more barbarous people from Amaquemecan. Who or what they were is not known, as there is no trace of them among the American nations; nor is there any reason given why they left their own country. They are said to have been eight months on their way, led by a son of their monarch, called Xolotl, who sent his son to survey the country, which he took possession of by shooting four arrows to the four winds. He chose for his capital Tenayuca, six miles north of the site of Mexico; in which direction most of the people settled. It is asserted that their numbers amounted to 1,000,000; as ascertained by twelve piles of stones which were thrown up at a review of the people; but this is probably an exaggeration.
This barbarous people formed alliances with the relics of the Toltecan race, and their prince, Nopaltzin, married a descendant of the Toltecan royal family. The effect of these intermarriages on them was a happy one, as they were civilized by the Toltecas, who were much their superiors in a knowledge of the arts. Heretofore they had subsisted only on roots and fruits, and by hunting; sucking the blood of the animals they killed, and taking their skins for clothing; but now they began to dig up and sow the ground, to work metals, and attempt other useful arts. About eighteen years after their arrival, six persons made their appearance as an embassy from a people living near Amaquemecan; a place was assigned them, and in a few years three princes came with a large army of Acolhuans, who received three princesses in marriage. The two nations gradually coalesced in one, and took the name of the new comers; the name Chechemecas being left to the ruder and more barbarous tribes who lived by hunting and on roots. These latter joined the Otomies, a barbarous people who lived farther north, in the mountains.
Xolotl divided his dominions into three states, namely, Azcapozalco, eighteen miles west of Tezcuco, Xaltocan, and Coatlichan, which he conferred, in fief, on his three sons-in-law. As was natural, various civil wars afterwards occurred during the reigns of the sovereigns who succeeded Xolotl. Nopaltzin reigned thirty-two years, and is said to have died at the advanced age of ninety-two. After him came Tlotzin, who reigned thirty-six years, and was a good prince. He was succeeded by Quinatzin, a luxurious tyrant, who, on the removal of his court from Tenayuca to Tezcuco, caused himself to be borne thither in a litter by four lords, while a fifth held an umbrella over him to keep off the sun; he is said to have reigned sixty years. In his reign, there were many rebellions, and on his death he was succeeded by a prince named Techotlala.
In the year 1160, the Mexicans, Aztecas, or Aztecs made their appearance. They are said to have come from the region north of the Gulf of California, and were induced to migrate from the country where they lived by the persuasion of Huitziton, a man of great influence among them. He is said to have observed a little singing-bird, whose notes sounded like Tihui, which in their language meant, Let us go. He led another person, also a man of influence, to observe this, and they persuaded the people to obey the suggestion, as they said, of the secret divinity. This was no difficult matter in a partially civilized and superstitious community. They proceeded, as their tradition relates, to the River Gila, where they stopped for a time, and where, it is affirmed, remains have been found at a somewhat recent date.
They then removed to a place about 250 miles from Chihuahua, toward the north-northwest, now called in Spanish Casas Grandes, on account of a large building found there, on the plan of those in New Mexico, having three floors with a terrace above them, the door for entrance opening on the second floor, to which the ascent was by a ladder. Other remains, also, of a fortress, and various utensils, have been found there. From this spot they proceeded southward, crossed the mountains, and stopped at Culiacan, a place on the Gulf of California in Lat. 24° N. Here they made a wooden image, called Huitzilopochtli, which they carried on a chair of reeds, and appointed priests for its service. When they left their country, on their migration, they consisted of seven different tribes; but here the Mexicans were left with their god by the others, called the Xochimilcas, Tepanecas, Chalchese, Colhuas, Tlahuicas, and Tlascalans, who proceeded onwards. The reason of this separation is not mentioned, except that it was at the command of the god, from which it may be conjectured that some quarrel had arisen with respect to his worship.