S3 8 THE 'AMEEICAN MIGRATION. 



on the shore of lake Chapala, whence the immigrants would easily attain the 

 Mexican table land- 

 On the oast we discern along the Rio Graijde del Norte the traces of a third 

 route of immigration which, according to Orozco, seems not to have touched 

 upon New Leon and Tamaulipas. Whether the widely strewn ruins of an 

 ancient city on the banks of the Rio Panuco* in the territory of the warlike 

 Huaxtecs,t are associated with this route, I am not able to determine. Further 

 to the south the traces again come to view, and may be followed to their jimc- 

 tion with the rest on the high lands, of Anahuac. 



From these facts it results, in conformity with the accurate indications of 

 Orozco, that, while heretofore but one Toltec immigration into Mexico has been 

 admitted, several have in reality taken place at different times and by different 

 lines of advance. To determine how many there may have been is at present 

 impossible. It is certain, however, that through the supposition of a single 

 immigration of a single migratory race it has been necessary to reconcile expe- 

 ditions, facts, and discoveries, with unconformable names, with incoherent and 

 contradictory conclusions, with a chronology in the highest degree perplexed, 

 resulting, of course, in the most inextricable confusion. When we come, on 

 the other hand, to analyze the phenomena so as to refer them to the facts as 

 they really occurred, the difficulties vanish, riddles are solved, and all falls into 

 the natural order, which from the first should never have been lost sight of. 



After it had lasted four centuries, famine, pestilence, and civil war put an 

 end, about the year 1018, to the Toltec monarchy in Mexico.| The larger rem- 

 nant of those Toltecs who had been spared by the calamities of the times left 

 their country, and, according to the historian Don Fernando d'Alvarado Ixtlil- 

 xochitl, took refuge in southern Guatemala and Nicaragua, but few families re- 

 maining in their desolated land. Soon thereafter, but in the opinion of others 

 a century later, the barbarous Chichimecs made their appearance on the high 

 lands of Anahuac. Just as the Toltecs had occupied the sites in northern 

 Mexico, abandoned by the Nahoas, in their progress southward, so had the 

 Chichimecs who followed been long established upon the deserted lands of 

 the Toltecs after the withdrawal of the latter to Anahuac. When now again 

 the Toltecs abandoned the land which they had inhabited for four hundred 

 years, the Chichimecs still followed at their heels ; nor was it necessary that 

 they should enter as conquerors, since it needed only to take possession of 

 the deserted homes of the Toltecs. These Chichimecs in the mean time, who 

 had so long lived adjacent to the Toltecs, had, through their intercourse with 

 the latter, in some degree discarded the rudeness of their manners at the date 

 of their appearance on the elevated plateau of Mexico ; as had been the case 

 with the barbarians who overthrew Rome, but at the same time imbibed the 

 culture of the civilized Romans. 



The races which had thus far appeared in Mexico had pertained to one great 

 branch of languages, the Nahoa, a dialect of which was also spoken by the Tol- 

 tecs ; and this, till very recently, was supposed to have been the case likewise with 

 the Chichimecs, although the Mexican historians Ixthlxochitl and Torquemada 



* Americanische Altenthumcr, (Westlancl, edited by Dr. C. Audree, Bremen, 1851, vol. i, 

 p. 129-139, ) a very interesting article. i r n,r • 



t They inhabit the district known by the name of Hiiaxteca in the north of Mexico, and, 

 on the Gnlf from Tuxpan to Tampico, a tract which embraces the northern part of the State 

 of Vera Cruz and a 'part of San Luis Potosi bordering thereon. 



X It is impracticable to enter here into the history of the separate countries ; the inquirer 

 will find fm-ther and accurate information in the works of Don Jose de Acosta, H. Benzoui, 

 Benaduci Boturini, Brasseur, Brownell, T. de Bussi^re, Carlier, M. Chevalier, Fr. Clavigexo, 

 Epinosa, Gallatin, Greg. Garcia, Gomara, Humboldt, Ixtlilxochitl, Kingsborough, Las Ca- 

 sas, Mayer, Moke, Motolinia, MunSz, Oviedo y Valdez, Man. Payno, Frescott, Eamirez, 

 Ruxton, Sahagun, Ant. de Solis, Solorzano, Ternaux-Compaus, Tezozomoc, Torcpemada, 

 Tyler, Uhde, UUoa, Veytia, 



