96 AZTECS EMIGRATE FROM AZTLAN SETTLE IN ANAHUAC. 



government and nation which was once assailed successfully by 

 the Tepanecs, but was finally delivered from thraldom by the 

 signal bravery and talents of the prince Nezahualcoyotl, who was 

 heir of the crown, supported by his Mexican allies. 



Our chief concern, however, in groping our way through the 

 tangled labyrinth of tradition, is to ascertain the story of the 

 Aztecs, whose advent has been already announced. It was 

 about the year 1160, that they departed from Aztlan, the original 

 seat of their tribe, on their journey of southern emigration. Their 

 pilgrimage seems to have been interrupted by numerous halts and 

 delays, both on their route through the northern regions now 

 comprehended in the modern Republic of Mexico, as well as in 

 different parts of the Mexican valley which was subsequently to 

 become their home and capital. At length, in 1325, they descried 

 an eagle resting on a cactus which sprang from the crevice of a 

 rock in the lake of Tezcoco, and grasping in his talons a writhing 

 serpent. This had been designated by the Aztec oracles as the 

 site of the home in which the tribe should rest after its long and 

 weary migration ; and, accordingly, the city of Tenochtitlan, was 

 founded upon the sacred spot, and like another Venice rose from 

 the bosom of the placid waters. 



It was near a hundred years after the founding of the city, and 

 in the beginning of the fifteenth century, that the Tepanecs 

 attacked the Tezcocan monarchy, as has been related in the pre- 

 vious part of this chapter. The Tezcocans and the Aztecs or 

 Mexicans united to put down the power of the spoiler, and as a 

 recompense for the important services of the allies, the supreme 

 dominion of the territory of the royal house of Tezcoco was trans- 

 ferred to the Aztecs. The Tezcocan sovereigns thus became, in a 

 measure, mediatized princes of the Mexican throne ; and the two 

 states, together with the neighboring small kingdom of Tlacopan, 

 south of the lake of Chalco, formed an offensive and defensive league 

 which was sustained with unwavering fidelity through all the wars 

 and assaults which ensued during the succeeding century. The 

 bold leaguers united in that spirit of plunder and conquest which 

 characterizes a martial people, as soon as they are surrounded by 

 the necessaries, comforts, and elegances of life in their x own 

 country, and whenever the increase of population begins to require 

 a vent through which it may expand those energies that would 

 destroy the state by rebellions or civil war, if pent up within the 

 narrow limits of so small a realm as the valley of Mexico. Ac- 

 cordingly we find that the sway of this small tribe, which had but 



