selek] 



THE ANCIENT ZAPOTEC COUNTRY 



259 



already made in the Zapotec region. Tradition relates that in the wild 

 forests of Mictlanquauhtla some inhabitants of the city of Uaxyacac 

 murderously attacked and plundered a Mexican caravan which was 

 returning home from Tabasco with costly goods, the news of which 

 did not reach the Mexicans until years later. The king who was 

 then reigning, Motecuhzoma the elder, surnamed Ilhuicamina, 

 equipped an expedition to avenge the deed, and the crime was 

 atoned by the extermination of the entire tribe. A number of Mexi- 

 can families and about 000 families from neighboring cities situ- 

 ated in the valley of Mexico started out to settle the vacant lands of 

 the exterminated tribe, under the leadership of four Mexican chief- 

 tains whom the king had chosen for this expedition. They proceeded 

 but slowly, and at every halting place a few remained behind. When 

 Uaxyacac was finally reached, the lands were divided among the colo- 

 nists, to the great satisfaction of the tribes living in the vicinity, ac- 

 cording to a remarkable statement in 

 the chronicle. The people of Quauh- 

 tochpan, Tuxtepec, and Teotitlan, 

 who '' were on the coasts of Uaxya- 

 cac ", that is, bordered on Uaxyacac, 

 were especially pleased.' 



Assault and assassination of Mexi- 

 can merchants are almost always men- 

 tioned as the casus belli in the native 

 records. It seems very probable 

 that in this case these really were 

 the actual cause of war. It is at any 

 rate obvious from the above story 

 that the permanent settlement of 

 Mexicans in Uaxyacac Avas a conse- 

 quence of the commercial intercourse which the Mexicans maintained 

 with Tabasco, and that it was made in order to insure the safety of 

 this intercourse. On the road to Tabasco lay also the three cities 

 which are named in the report above quoted as those which were 

 especially pleased at this new settlement. 



U]) to the time of the Spaniards, the Mexicans were thus settled in 

 the immediate neighborhood of the Zapotec roj^al cit}^, in the original 

 and hereditary seat of the Zapotec nation. This colony was always 

 looked upon by the Mexican kings as an important place. It was un- 

 der the special control of two high Mexican officials bearing the titles 

 Tlacatectli and Tlacochtectli (see figure 54, from the Mendoza codex, 

 page 16), and doubtless had the character of a military colony. In 

 the new order of affairs arising out of the Spanish conquest, the inhab- 

 itants of this Mexican village were allotted to the newly founded 



Fig. 54. Symbols from the Mendoza 

 codex. 



<• Tezozomoc, Cr6nlca Mexlcana, chap. 39. 



