150 



THE PYRAMIDS. 



of the conquest, only carry you backward to an epoch, 

 a hundred and fifty years, or thereabout, anterior to that 

 event ; or to the foundation of the Mexican empire. 



The weak and uncertain glimmer of their traditional 

 history, respecting the period of the Aztec emigration, 

 and that of the various nations whom they succeeded, if 

 followed till it vanishes in utter darkness, hardly points 

 back to times more remote than the middle of the sev- 

 enth century, an age of comparatively modern history in 

 the Old World. At that epoch, it is stated that the Tol- 

 tecs, a powerful nation, emigrating from their original 

 country somewhere to the northeast, made an irruption 

 upon Anahuac, or the great table land and valley of Mex- 

 ico. Their pilgrimage southward seems to have been 

 slow, and to have lasted an entire century ; and several 

 sites are indicated as places of temporary sojourn before 

 they finally settled, but their principal seat of govern- 

 ment, which w 7 as monarchical, w T as at Tula, a few leagues 

 to the north of the valley of Mexico. 



They were, by the testimony of all succeeding tribes, 

 the most civilized of all the nations which held posses- 

 sion of Anahuac ; living in cities, submitting to a regular 

 form of government, and possessing a knowledge of hi- 

 eroglyphic writing, the casting of metals, and the cultiva- 

 tion of maize and cotton ; evincing great skill in the me- 

 chanic arts, and chiefly remarkable for the ingenious as- 

 tronomical arrangement of time in use among them.* 

 They held their sway over the central portion of the 

 country for four centuries, when they would appear to 

 have been cut off by a famine and pestilence, and most 

 of their cities deserted. Part of the remnant emigrated 

 to the southward, towards the isthmus ; a few remained 

 in the sacred city of Cholula. 



A hundred years' desolation followed, when, about 

 1 170, a second people, emigrating also from the north; 

 sat down upon the deserted territory. They were also 

 subject to a monarchical government ; but were far less 

 civilized than their predecessors : and in advance in the 



* See page 130, &c. 



