MORGAN ] EARLY SPANISH ACCOUNTS. 223 
beginning to conceive of Aztec society; and emperor and empire gradually 
superseded the more humble conception of the conquerors. 
A psychological fact, which deserves a moment’s notice, is revealed 
by these works, written as they were with a desire for the truth and 
without intending to deceive These writers ought to have known that 
every Indian tribe in America was an organized society, with definite 
institutions, usages, and customs, which, when ascertained, would have 
perfectly explained its government, the social relations of the people, and 
their plan of life Indian society could be explained as completely and 
understood as perfectly as the civilized society of Europe or America by 
finding its exact organization This, strange to say, was never attempted, 
or at least never accomplished, by any one of these numerous and 
voluminous writers. To every author, from Cortes and Bernal Diaz to 
Brasseur de Bourbourg and Hubert H Bancroft, Indian society was an 
unfathomable mystery, and their works have left it a mystery still. Igno- 
rant of its structure and principles, and unable to comprehend its pecu- 
liarities, they invoked the imagination to supply whatever was necessary to 
fill out the picture. When the reason, from want of facts, is unable to 
understand and therefore unable to explain the structure of a given society, 
imagination walks bravely in and fearlessly rears its glittering fabric to the 
skies. Thus, in this case, we have a grand historical romance, strung upon 
‘In the Despatches of Cortes the term King ‘‘ El rey” is not used in speaking of Montezuma, but 
senor and cacique. 
The Valley of Mexico, including the adjacent mountain slopes and excluding the area covered 
by water, was about equal to the State of Rhode Island, which contains thirteen hundred square miles; 
an insignificant area for a single American Indian tribe. But the confederacy had subdued a number 
of tribes southward and southeastward from the valley as far as Guatemala, and placed them under 
tribute. Under their plan of government it was impossible to incorporate these tribes in the Aztee con- 
federacy ; the barrier of language furnished an insuperable objection; and they were left to govern 
themselves through their own chiefs, and according to their own usages and customs. As they were 
neither under Aztec government nor Aztec usages, there is no occasion to speak of them as a part of the 
Aztec confederacy, or even as an appendage of its government. The power of this confederacy did 
not extend a hundred miles beyond the Pueblo of Mexico on the west, northwest, north, northeast, or 
east sides, in each of which directions they were confronted by independent and hostile tribes. 
The population of the three confederate tribes was confined to the valley, and did not probably 
exceed two hundred and fifty thousand souls, including the Moquiltes, Xochomileos, and Chaleans, if it 
equaled that number, which would give nearly twice the present population of New York to the square 
mile, and a greater population to the square mile than Rhode Island now contains. ‘The Spanish esti- 
mates of Indian populations were gross exaggerations. Those who claim a greater population for the 
Valley of Mexico than that indicated will be bound to show how a barbarons people, without flocks 
and herds and without field agriculture, could have sustained in equal areas a larger number of inhabi- 
tants than a civilized people armed with these advantages. 
