RELER] MEXICAN PICTURE WRITINGS FRAGMENT II 167 



army under Nuiio de Guzni.-in. AVhile bathing in the neighborhood 

 of Aztathui he was struck by the arrow of a Chichiniec, a hostile 

 Indian, and died of the wound." 



Uanitzin was a nephew of the king Motecuhzonui. His father, 

 whose name was Tezozomoctii Acohiauacatl, was an ehler brother of 

 Motecuhzoma. Moteeuhzoma was eventually called to the throne as 

 the successor of his father, Axayacatl, by the choice of those who had 

 the appointing power. But, according to a passage of unusual ethno- 

 logic interest in the annals of Chimalpahin, Tezozomoctii inherited 

 the dance yaociuacuicatl from Axayacatl, who bought it of the 

 Tlailotlaque, a tribe of the Chalca, whose property it seems to have 

 been. ITanitzin"'s mother belonged to the house of the princes of 

 Ehcatepec, a place lying north of Mexico, at the northern base of the 

 mountains of Guadalu})e, near the lake of Xaltocan. In the year 1519, 

 shortly before the arrival of the Spaniards, when Motecuhzoma had 

 somewhat recovered from the extreme consternation into which he 

 had been thrown by the first news of the appearance of the Spaniards, 

 Uanitzin was installed by his uncle as ruler of Ecatepec, which 

 belonged to him as his mother's heir. According to Chimalpahin, 

 Uanitzin was at that time 20 years old. He seems to have taken no 

 special part in the fighting during the siege. The Aztec account in 

 the Sahagun manuscript of the Biblioteca Lorenziana does not men- 

 tion him ; but Chimalpahin states, as I have quoted above, that he 

 was one of the Mexicans of high rank who were taken w^ith Quauhte- 

 moc as prisoners to Coyouacan. Cortes had so much regard for his 

 descent (or for his youth?) that he did not have him put in chains like 

 the others. After the princes were released from prison his mother 

 immediately took him with her to Ehcatepec; as Chimalpahin says, 

 she concealed him there (ca ompa quitlatito yn inantzin Ehcatepec), 

 and the people of Ehcatepec recognized him as their king (ynic ompa 

 (luintlahtocatlallique no yehuantin Ehcatepeca). As a (Christian he 

 bore the name of Don Diego de Alvarado ITanitzin. 



After Motelchiuh's death in the year 1530 the throne of Mexico was 

 for a time unoccupied. After the return from Teocolhuacan, wdiich 

 occurred in 1582, the office of chieftain was conferred on a certain 

 Xochiquentzin, who also was not a prince of the blood (ynin ga no 

 Mexica amo pilli), but had only been a large landowner (yece huel 

 chane catca Mexico) and had held the office of a calpixqui, " a 

 ]veei)er of the royal stores '" under the old kings. His house was in 

 Calpul Teopan, the southeastern quarter of the city of Mexico, called 

 already at that time the barrio of San Pablo. Xochiquentzin died, 

 however, in the year 153G. The viceroy, Don Antonio de Mendoza, 

 who had arrived in Mexico the year before, at first hesitated to fill the 



« Chimalpahin, pp. 209, 222, 266. 



