IlISTClkY AND CL'LTIVATIoN • '! Till il.ANT. 3 



commaiult'd every species of bird wliich sol.iced and charmed 

 that rej^ion to lly away to the country of Anahuac. wliich is more 

 than a hinulriHl Iea<^iies ch'stant from Tula." 



I'urchas gives us the history of the Mexican nation in his 

 "Travels in America," and informs us that the Mexicans first 

 arrived at the site of the City of Mexico, a.d. 1324. "And 

 because they liked well the greatness and situation of tht; place, 

 after that iliey had travailed in their j(jurneys and wandered many 

 years from country to country, * * * being come from far 

 countries in f(jllowing their journies * ♦ * they came and settled 

 down in the place of Mexico. " It is interesting to note that 

 probably America was thus early colonised from Kuropc — as 

 Montezuma confessed to Cortes that he and his nobles' ancestors 

 had come from the same part of the globe as the Spaniards, a part 

 situated towards tlu: rising sun. The civil polity also agrees in 

 many respects with that of the Jewish nation, so that this and 

 other facts point U) them as the parent race of the rulers of Mexico. 



He also tells us of the particular tributes which every town 

 subdued paid to the.se I.ords of^Mexico, mainly consisting of 

 baskets of Co coa, which will be treated of in the chajiter "History 

 • >f the Use of Cocoa." 



A .MS. in the Manuscript Room of the British Museum, written 

 in Old Knglish characters, and entitled "A X'oyage to the West 

 Indies and New Spain (Yucatan), made by John Chilton in the year 

 1560," says: "So wj- were provided of victualls till we came 

 where Townes were in the province of Soconu.sco, where groweth 

 Cacau, w!!* the Christianes carrye from thence unto Nova Hispaniola 

 becaus y' will not growc in a cold countrye. • ♦ ♦ Tlv ir 



