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Cholollan, and of Papantla. They attributed 

 these great edifices to the Toltecks, a powerful 

 and civilized nation, who inhabited Mexico five 

 hundred years earlier, who made use of hiero- 

 glyphical characters, who computed the year 

 more precisely, and had a more exact chrono- 

 logy than the greater part of the people of the 

 old continent. The Aztecks knew not with 

 certainty what tribe had inhabited the country of 

 Anahuac before the Toltecks ; and conse- 

 quently the belief, that the houses of the deity 

 of Teotihuacan and of Cholollan was the work 

 of the Toltecks, assigned them the highest anti- 

 quity they could conceive. It is however pos- 

 sible, that they might have been constructed 

 before the invasion of the Toltecks ; that is, 

 before the year 648 of the vulgar era. We 

 ought not to be astonished, that no history of 

 any American nation should precede the seventh 

 century ; and that the annals of the Toltecks 

 should be as uncertain as those of the Pelasgi 

 and the Ausonians. The learned Mr. Schloezer 

 has clearly proved, that the history of the North 

 of Europe reaches no higher than the tenth 

 century, an epocha when Mexico was in a more 

 advanced state of civilization than Denmark, 

 Sweden, and Russia. 



The teocalli of Mexico was dedicated to Tez- 

 catlipoca, the first of the Azteck divinities after 

 Teotl, who is the supreme and invisible Being ; 



g 2 



