THE AMERICAN MIGRATION. 337 



great casas of el Z;ipc and la Quemada, we cannot but infer that their builders 

 must have been long permanently .settled in those districts, which accords much 

 better with later researches than the assumption of many that the jramigrating 

 tribes had merely halted in the places for a few years, perhaps a quarter of a 

 century, and in that time had erected these monuments.* 



With ;he appearance of the Toltecs some light begins to dawn on the histoiy 

 of the migration .t This cultivated people, kindred also to the Nahoa family, 

 cnteied IMexico in the seventh century of our era. The year 648 is generally 

 reckoned that of their appearance; only Clavigero carries it back to the year 

 596. 13ut here, likewise, is to be understood not merely a single immigration, 

 but several of the same family. This plurality of migrations presents no light 

 difficulties' to the historian as well as the geographer. Oiozco y Berra, whose 

 linguistic and historical labors merit our highest consideration, has exerted him- 

 self to thorw some light on the perplexities of the Toltec immigration. In the 

 hieroglyphic annals relating to this subject we find the record of several itiner- 

 aries, which all adapt themselves to the immigration in question. These itiner- 

 aries, partially provided with chronological notices, correspond in some points, 

 but disagree in others, and thus prove that they do not belong to one and the 

 same expedition. It has already been shown that the routes of such migrations 

 are always essentially influenced by the geographical conformation of the 

 countryl Hence, at least three different routes of immigration are distiguishable 

 on Mexican soil. The first and most important lies in the western part of the 

 country, and may be traced from Sinaloa to Nicaragua along the coast of the 

 Pacific ocean. The mountain chain which separates Sinaloa from Durango, and 

 stretches to the banks of the llio Tololotlan, marks the direction of this route 

 for many leagues. First, the course of the.Rio Grande de Santiago,§ then that 

 of the Zacatula,|| diverted a part of the wanderers from the direct route and led 

 them to the lake of Chapala',^] where they established themselves, while others, 

 following in like manner the valleys of water-courses advanced to Guerrero, 

 and gradually made their progress to the fertile table laud of Cuernavaca,** and 

 still later to Puebla and TIaxcalla.tt 



The monuments of both the grand casas, el Zape and la Quemada, plainly 

 show the second and middle route which led, on the east of the above-mentioned 

 mountain chain, directly through Chihuahua, Durango and Zacatecas, to Jalisco, 



*' I had myself long held this opinion till a closer consideration of the facts satisfied me 

 that the space of a quarter of a century could not have suflSccd for the erection of monuments 

 wliicli are in fact the scanty remains of extensive settlements, probably of whole cities. It 

 is hardly consistent with the logic of migration that a people in such circumstances should 

 tind it expedient to found cities, only to abandon them in so short a time. 



t The populations which were settled in Mexico before the arrival of the Toltecs might 

 also be possessed of an ancient native civilization ; among these pre-ToUec races are to be 

 numbered the Olmccs, the Otomi, whose monosyllabic speech forms an exception to the 

 polysynthetic idioms of America, the Totonacks on the eastern terraces of the Cordilleras, 

 the Mixtocs on the coast of the Pacific ocean, the Tarasks in the greater part of Michoacan, 

 and the Zapotecs in Oaxaca. 



\ Mountain ranges, river courses and sea-coasts prescribe limitations ; while for half civ- 

 ilized, pastoral and agricultural tribes, the fertility, streams, lakes, and dales of new countries 

 ofi'er special attractions. 



^S This river, called also the Tololotlan, which is formed at Salamanca by the junction of the 

 Rio Hondo de Lerma and the Rio Laxa, flows through the lake of Chapala and empties into 

 the Pacific ocean. 



|l The same name was bonie by a city at the mouth of the Rio de las Balzas, on the Pacific, 

 which was long the capital of a flourishing and to the end of the fifteenth century independ- 

 ent state. 



1i The lake of Chapala is the most considerable of those of the whole elevated plateau, and 

 is distant forty miles in a northwestwardly direction from the capital. 



"** The ancient Quanhnahuac. 



tt Tlaxcalla wa sonce called Chalchinhapan; alsoTexcalticpac,(i. c, end of the stonehouscs,) 

 still later Texcallan, (Rock city,) and finally Tlaxcallan, (Breadland, from Tlaxcall — maize- 

 bread, ) on account of the fruitl'ulness of its situation. 

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