CHAPTER XIII. 



650—1500. 



ARCHBISHOP ZUMARRAGA's DESTRUCTION OF MEXICAN MONU- 

 MENTS, WRITINGS, DOCUMENTS MR. GALLATIN'S OPINION OF 



THEM. TRADITIONS TWO SOURCES OF ACCURATE KNOW- 

 LEDGE. SPECULATIONS ON ANTIQUITY. AZTECS TOLTECS 



NAHUATLACS ACOLHUANS, ETC. AZTECS EMIGRATE FROM 



AZTLAN SETTLE IN ANAHUAC. TABLES OF EMIGRATION OF 



THE ORIGINAL TRIBES OTHER TRIBES IN THE EMPIRE. 



One of the most disgraceful destructions of property, recorded in 

 history, is that which was accomplished in Mexico by the first 

 Archbishop of New Spain, Juan de Zumarraga. He collected 

 from all quarters, but especially from Tezcoco, where the national 

 archieves were deposited, all the Indian manuscripts he could 

 discover, and causing them to be piled in a great heap in the 

 market place of Tlatelolco, he burned all these precious records, 

 which under the skilful interpretation of competent natives, might 

 have relieved the early history of the Aztecs from the obscurity 

 with which it is now clouded. The superstitious soldiery eagerly 

 imitated the pious example of this prelate, and emulated each other 

 in destroying all the books, charts, and papers, which bore hiero- 

 glyphic signs, whose import, they had been taught to believe 

 was as sacrilegiously symbolic and pernicious as that of the idols 

 they had already hurled from the Indian temples. 



And yet, it may be questioned, whether these documents, had 

 they been spared even as the curious relics of the literature or art 

 of a semi-civilized people, would have enlightened the path of the 

 historical student. "It has been shown," says Mr. Gallatin, "that 

 those which have been preserved contain but a meagre account of 

 the Mexican history for the one hundred years preceding the con- 

 quest, and hardly anything that relates to prior events. The ques- 

 tion naturally arises — from what source those writers derived their 

 information, who have attempted to write not only the modern 

 history of Mexico, but that of ancient times? It may, without 

 hesitation, be answered, that their information was traditional. 

 The memory of important events is generally preserved and trans- 



