CHAPTER II. 



The letters of Cortez to the Emperor Charles V., and the writings of Bernal Diaz 

 del Castillo, Sahagun, Torquemada, Las Casas, Oviedo, Boturini, Veytia, and 

 Clavigero, digested as they have been in the valuable work of Mr. Prescott, display 

 a picture of the Aztec people as they existed at the period of European occupation. 

 We are informed, no doubt accurately, as to much of the religion, laws, science, 

 and social life of the conquered. The Spanish exaggerations were thoroughly 

 examined, and the essential, characteristic facts have been preserved for our 

 acceptance. 



The ancient history of the foundation of the Aztec empire, stripped of most of 

 its myths, may be comprised in a few paragraphs. 



At the period of the conquest by Cortez, the Vale of Anahuac, with its assem- 

 blage of lakes, levels, and mountains, seems to have been the conceded seat and 

 centre of greatest civilization on the northern continent. Yucatan and the 

 territory of the Zapotecs were doubtless inhabited by a refined people; but they 

 were probably subordinate to the Aztecs by conquest. The received traditions 

 as to the Vale of Anahuac declare that the original inhabitants came from some 

 unknown place "at the north," and, in the fifth or eighth century, settled at Tollan 

 or Tula, in the neighborhood of the Mexican Valley. This spot became the parent 

 hive of an industrious and progressive people, whose northern frames and charac- 

 ters were civilized and not emasculated by the more genial climate to which they 

 migrated. They cultivated the soil, built extensive cities, conquered their neigh- 

 bors, and, after performing their allotted task in the development of our continent, 

 wasted away in the tenth or eleventh century, under the desolation of famine and 

 unsuccessful wars. The Toltec remnant emigrated southward ; and, during the 

 next hundred years, the valleys and mountains of this beautiful region were nearly 

 abandoned, until a rude tribe, known as the Chichimecas, came "from the north," 

 and settled among the ruins abandoned by the Toltecs. Some years afterwards, 

 six tribes of the Nahuatlacs reached the valley, announcing the approach of another 

 band " from the north," known as the Aztecs. About this period, the Acolhuans, 

 who bordered on the Chichimecas before their southward emigration, entered the 

 Valley of Anahuac, and allied themselves with their ancient neighbors. These 

 tribes appear to have been the founders of the Tezcocan government, which, in the 

 fifteenth century was consolidated by the courage and talents of Nezahualcoyotl. 



Thus it was that wave after wave of population poured "from the north" into 

 the valle}', till it was reached by the Aztecs, who, about the year 1160, left their 

 mysterious and unknown " northern " site at Aztlan. Their wanderings were 

 slow. It is alleged that one hundred and sixty-five years elapsed before they 



