62 MEXICO, CENTRAL AMEEICA, WEST INDIES. 



discovery of new manuscripts, the jDartial interpretation of the hieroglyphics, and 

 a more careful study of the early writers. 



Aided by these resources the student may now roughly trace the sequence of 

 events for at least a thousand years before the conquest, and dimly contemplate 

 the first glimmerings of national life amongst the Mexican populations. At this 

 epoch the land was already occupied by most of the half-civilised Indian nations, 

 such as the Otomi, Chichimecs, Huaxtecs, Totonacs, Mixtecs and Zapotecs, by 

 whom it is still inhabited, and according to the national tradition, it was in their 

 midst that the Nahuas, that is, the " Clear-spoken People," made their appearance 

 in the twofold capacity of conquerors and civilisers. 



These intruders, coming from the " Seven Caves " of the north, divided into 

 seven tribes, each with seven sub- divisions, and advancing southwards in seven 

 successive expeditions, had to vanquish a race of giants before securing possession 

 of the "Terrestrial Paradise." Then the demi-god, Quetzalcoatl, a mythical 

 legislator, coming up from the sea, appeared amongst them, and after instructing 

 them in the arts, sciences and social institutions, suddenly disappeared with a 

 promise some day to return. This was the long-awaited Messiah, and when 

 Cortes emerged, as it were from the bosom of the deep, and presented himself 

 at the head of his followers, the prophecy was supposed to be at last fulfilled, and 

 the people looked forward to the dawn of a new millennium. 



The sixth century of the new era is usually regarded as about the time when a 

 group of Nahuas arrived in Anahuac, after a long series of wanderings from 

 Huehue-Tlapallau, a city or region which the commentators have hitherto failed 

 to identify. Some place it in the north, others to the south, of Mexico. Never- 

 theless, most of the indications point to the northern regions as the cradle of the 

 Nahua race ; the very form of the Mexican tableland, broadening out northwards, 

 and contracting southwards to a labyrinth of separate districts, shows the direction 

 in which the migrations must have taken place. The whole group of these con- 

 quering Nahua tribes is represented in the legends as issuing from the " White 

 Dove of Cloudland," a personification of the northern regions. 



Towards the close of the seventh century, the Nahuas, commonly designated 

 under the name of Toltecs, are already found grouped round a city constituting 

 the centre of their power. Modern archasologists have rediscovered this city in 

 the ruins of Tollan, now known by the name of Tula, which lies fifty miles, by 

 railway, north-west of Mexico. 



These early Nahua invaders were themselves replaced by others of the same 

 race, vanquishers of the Quinames, or " Giants." The Olmecs and Xicalancs, as 

 they were called, are represented as coming from the east, where they had doubt- 

 less already constructed several of those monuments which were later attributed 

 to succeeding tribes of different speech. In any case there can be no doubt that 

 the so-called Toi tec epoch was' one of the richest in works which still attest the 

 culture of these early Nahua peoples. The very word toUecatl, whatever its 

 original meaning, had become synonymous with a craftsman of skill and taste, an 

 "artist," as we should say. The same term was also applied to those traders 



