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half civilized people, the worship of the Sun, or 

 the custom of sacrificing- human victims ; and 

 this custom, far from having been brought from 

 eastern Asia, may very probably have taken 

 birth in the valley of Mexico itself. In fact, 

 history instructs us, that, when the Spaniards 

 arrived at Tenochtitlan, this sanguinary worship, 

 which reminds us of those of Cali, of Moloch, 

 and of the Esus of the Gauls, had existed only 

 two hundred years. 



The nations, which from the seventh to the 

 twelfth century have successively inundated 

 Mexico, the Toltecks, the Chichimecks, the 

 Nahuatlacks, the Acolhuans, the Tlascaltecks, 

 and the Aztecks, formed a single group, con- 

 nected by analogy of language and manners ; 

 somewhat like the Germans, the Norwegians, 

 the Goths, and the Danes, who are all confound- 

 ed in a single race, that of the Germannic nations. 

 It is probable, as we have already stated, that 

 other nations, the Otomites, the Olmecks, the 

 Cuitlatecks, the Zacatecks, and the Tarascks, 

 appeared before the Toltecks in the equinoctial 

 region of New Spain. Wherever nations have 

 advanced in the same direction, the position of 

 the countries in which they are found marks in 

 some sort the chronological order of their mi- 

 grations. Can we doubt, that in Europe, the 

 most western nations, the Iberians, and the Can- 



