278 



seen the remains of the great teocalli* dedi- 

 cated to the god Huitzilopochtli. Torquemada 

 made use of the manuscripts of three Franciscan 

 monks, Bernardino de Sahagun, Andrea de 

 Olmos, and Toribio de Benavente, who were very 

 intimately acquainted with the American lan- 

 guages, and who went to New-Spain in the time 

 of Cortez, before the year 1528. Notwithstand- 

 ing these advantages, the historian of Mexico 

 has not furnished us with all the information 

 respecting the chronology and calendars of the 

 Mexicans, that we might have expected from his 

 zeal and his instruction. He expresses himself 

 with so little precision, that we read in his work, 

 that the year of the Aztecks finished at the 

 month of December, and began at the month 

 of February f . 



Materials more instructive than the narratives 

 of the first Spanish historians, had long existed 

 at Mexico, in the convents and public libraries. 

 Some Indian authors, Christoval del Castillo, a 

 native of Tezcuco, who died in 1606, at the age 

 of eighty years, Fernando de Alvarado Tezozo- 

 moc, and Domingo Chimalpain, have left manu- 

 scripts composed in the Azteck language on the 



* The year 1577. Torquemada, lib. riii, c. 2. (vol. % 

 p. 157.) 



+ Ibid. lib. 10, cap. 10, 33, 34, and 30. 



