THE TAJIN TOTONAC PART 1 KELLY AND PALERM 



275 



reconquered many pueblos, but pushed into new 

 and distant fields, extending its conquests as far 

 south as the modern borders of Guatemala. 



The chronology of Ahuizotl's conquests is com- 

 plicated (table 19), owing in part to the disperse 

 character of his campaigns and in part to defi- 

 ciencies and contradictions in the sources. From 

 the start, there is disagreement concerning the se- 

 quence of his initial campaigns, which appear to 

 have been extraordinarily scattered. The accounts 

 of Tezozomoc and Torquemada begin with what 

 apparently was a major campaign in the Mazahua 

 country just west of the Valley of Mexico ; but the 

 Codice Chimalpopoca, the Anales de Tlatelolco, 

 and the Coleccion de Mendoza are strangely silent 

 concerning military activities in the west, unless 

 their conquest of "chiapanecas" be so interpreted. 

 This word is particularly confusing, for apart 

 from Chapa de Mota (map 17, No. 5), Ahuizotl 

 conquered far to the south, in the modern State of 

 Chiapas, and the term might apply to either area. 

 However, except for Ixtlilxochitl (2:271), the 

 sources place the majority of his conquests in the 

 south subsequent to 1495. 



The ghost of the Huasteca was difficult to lay, 

 and during the early years of his reign, Ahuizotl 

 bore down on this zone (table 19, Nos. 3, 58), and 

 toward the end of his rule, there was a flurry on 

 the borders of the Huasteca, when a rebellion in 

 Huejutla (table 19, No. 64) was quashed. Pre- 

 sumably as a byproduct of one of the northeasterly 

 campaigns, Totonac "Tuzapan" (map 17, No. 71) 

 was conquered. 



Although Mexican sources mention only this one 

 Totonac pueblo, two Texcocan authorities (Codice 

 en Cruz, pp. 70, 146; Ixtlilxochitl 2:271) report 

 military action farther south on the Gulf coast. 

 Both mention the conquest, in 1486, of the Totonac 

 pueblo of Nautla. As usual, they claim this vic- 

 tory for their own people, for which reason Nautla 

 does not appear on map 17. Nevertheless, it seems 

 likely that the Triple Alliance was involved. 

 Ixtlilxochitl boasts that the principal citizens of 

 Nautla, including the ruler, were captured, and 

 that the entire Gulf coast, from Nautla to Panuco, 

 thereby came under the control of Texcoco. This 

 is not a particularly convincing claim, for in the 

 days of Moctezuma II, Nautla was in Mexican 

 hands (Diaz del Castillo 1 : 343). 



893477—52 19 



Farther south, the pueblo of "Mictlanquauhtla" 

 (map 17, No. 4) fell the same year (table 19, No. 

 4) . This conquest, and the preceding one, suggest 

 fairly extensive military action along the Gulf 

 coast, although other than "Tuzapan" and Nautla, 

 no Totonac pueblos are mentioned. 



Through a series of conquests in modern Puebla, 

 Veracruz, and Oaxaca, the way was prepared for 

 an attack on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec; most 

 military action in the latter zone apparently took 

 place in the course of the middle or late 1490's. 

 Torquemada (1 : 192) alone has Ahuizotl pene- 

 trate beyond the Isthmus, into modern Guatemala, 

 during the latter years of his reign ; he does not, 

 however, claim conquest of that area. 



Ahuizotl had a sizable series of victories to his 

 credit in the Balsas Basin and in coastal Guerrero. 

 For the most part, these are undated. Tlapa, in 

 Guerrero (table 19, No. 2) , was among the early 

 conquests. 55 We have no precise date for the con- 

 quest of Zacatula, but Ixtlilxochitl (2:274-283), 

 who claims it as a Texcocan victory, has it sand- 

 wiched between events which took place in 1489 

 and 1492. "Cultepec, where the mines now are" 

 (Codex Telleriano-Remensis 5: 153), presumably 

 refers to the famous mining center not far from 

 Taxco; it fell in 1496 or shortly thereafter (table 

 19, No. 56) . Tezozomoc (pp. 340-343) places the 

 conquest of towns in the Balsas following the 

 early victories in the Huasteca and preceding the 

 wars in the Oaxaca-Tehuantepec zone ; neither he 

 nor Torquemada mentions the coast of Guerrero. 

 As far as we can tell, the conquests in this area 

 were scattered over a considerable period of time. 



The success of Ahuizotl as a military leader is 

 undeniable, yet his campaigns were characterized 

 by their diffuse nature. Instead of mopping up 

 systematically, zone by zone, he apparently main- 

 tained a large series of dispersed war parties in 

 the field concurrently. Our impression is one not 

 of an empire builder (Barlow, 1947 a, p. 221), but 

 of a vigorous and effective looter, whose raids 

 were widespread and spotty, both in time and in 

 place. 



Bs The "Tlacupan" of Torquemada (1 : 186) presumably is 

 Tlapa. The C6dice Chimalpopoca (p. 58), the Codice en Cruz (pp. 

 70-71, 146), and Ixtlilxochitl (2:273) mention Tlapanccas 

 among the captives sacrificed in 1487. 



