356 



Comparative History of America and Tartary, 



AMERICAN HISTORY. 



A. D. 544. The Toltccs, under sere/i 

 leaders, were banislied from their own 

 country, Huehue;/«7Jfl//an in the kingdom 

 of ToUan, N. W. of Mexico*. They tarried 

 at several places on their journey, and did 

 not reach Anahuac t till the year 670, 

 where they founded the city of Tu/a, 

 on the banks of a river, after the name of 

 their native countryj. Their first king 

 was Chalcliiutlamc, their last, TopWtzin. 

 {This is the frst historical record known 

 in the history of the vihole ofJmerica.) 

 Quetzalcoatl, a white man with a long black 

 beard, was the high priest of Tula ; he 

 was rich, and lived in palaces ; he had 

 silver and jewels. His laws were promul- 

 gated from the top of a hill by a crier with 

 a loud voice. He went to Cholula, where 

 the Toltecs raised a great eminence and 

 built a sanctuary upon it; another was 

 erected at Tula, and a temple was built 

 upon it. His worship became general ; he 

 was the god of the air. The Yucatans 

 boast that their nobles were descended 

 from this saint. Tezcatlicopa appeared 

 to this saint in the form of an old man, and 

 told him that it was the will of the gods 

 that he should be taken back to his king- 

 dom of Tlapallan, and offered him a beve- 

 rage which he drank and set out, remained 

 twenty years at Cholula, and suddenly 

 disappeared in the east, according to some, 

 and others say he died§. 



The Toltecs introduced the cultivation 

 of grain, cotton, pepper, and fruits ; they 

 had the art of casting gold and silver into 

 any form, and of cutting gems. 



• Clavigero vol. ii. p. 226. Huniboldfs Re- 

 searches, vol. ii. p 249. The word Mexico was 

 not used in America till after the year 1325, 

 which the reader must especially bear in miud. 



+ The sublime vale of Mexico is so named. 



X Clavigero, vol. i. p. 85. 



§ Clavigero, vol. ii. p. 248. Humboldt, vol. ii. 

 p. 248. also vol. i. pp. 169—173. 



ASIATIC HISTORY. 



A. D. 544 is the period when the total 

 ruin of the dynasty of Tsin occasioned 

 great commotions in the east of Asia.— , 

 Humboldt, vol. i. p. 170. Butezena, the 

 first leader of the modern Turks, who first 

 arose to fame about the year 545, resided 

 in lat. 49° near the Irtish. He married a 

 Chinese princess. The Chinese were tri- 

 butary. Justinian's ambassadors to the 

 Turks were feasted in tents with silk 

 hangings. The royal seat, the cups, and 

 vessels were gold. A bed of massy gold 

 was raised upon four golden peacocks *. 

 Admirable silver statues, dishes, and ba- 

 sons, were ostentatiously displayed in wag- 

 gons. Their south boundary was the Oxus. 

 They subdued the nations from the rising 

 to the setting sun, said Disabel to the 

 emperor Maurice, and who styled himself 

 lord of the seven climates, master of the 

 seven races. Their men and horses were 

 now computed by millions — Gibbon, ch. 

 xlii. 



'^ The river Tula joins the Orgon, and 

 at length falls into lake Baikal; the Mon- 

 gols speak of it with admiration. On the 

 bank of this river there is the residence 

 of a great Lam at." 



The grand Khan of the Geougen re- 

 sided on the banks of the Tula. In 520 

 his youngest brother suddenly disappeared. 

 Tivan, a handsome sorceress, aged twenty 



* The peacock Avas not found in America. 

 Peter Martyr, in his accurate description of the 

 turkey, calls \t peacock, and he continues that 

 name, often and -without reference to his descrip- 

 tion ; which may have deceived some persons on 

 this subject.— /See Hdhluyt, vol. iv. p. 564. 



The turkey was not known in the old M'orld ; 

 the emperor Jehanghir, in his commentaries, de- 

 scribes one as an extraordinary curiosity. It 

 may be noticed, also, that the writer never heard 

 any positive proof that tobacco was used in Asia 

 before the discovery of America. A wonderful 

 fact, if so, considering its universal adoption. 



t Bu Halde, vol. ii. p. 251, and maj>, p. 236. 

 In Arrowsmith's great map, the Tula is N. lat. 

 47", E. Ion. 107° ; it is about 200 miles in length. 



