112 WHY THE AZTECS SACRIFICED THE IB. PRISONERS. 



of which was an ordinary offering of a common victim, while the 

 other, or gladiatorial sacrifice, was only used for captives of extra- 

 ordinary courage and bravery. 



When we recollect the fact that the Aztec tribe was an intruder 

 into the valley of Anahuac, and that it laid the foundations of its 

 capital in the midst of enemies, we are not surprised that so hardy 

 a race, from the northern hive, was both warlike in its habits and 

 sanguinary in its religion. With a beautiful land around it on all 

 sides, — level, fruitful, but incapable of easy defence, — it was 

 forced to quit the solid earth and to build its stronghold in the 

 waters of the lake. We can conceive no other reason for the 

 selection of such a site. The eagle may have been seen on a rock 

 amid the water devouring the serpent ; but we do not believe that 

 this emblem of the will of heaven, in guiding the wanderers to 

 their refuge in the lake of Tezcoco, was known to more than the 

 leaders of the tribe until it became necessary to control the band by 

 the interposition of a miracle. Something more was needed than 

 mere argument, to plant a capital in the water, and, thus, we doubt 

 not, that the singular omen, in which the modern arms of Mexico 

 have originated, was contrived or invented by the priests or chiefs 

 of the unsettled Aztecs. 



Surrounded by enemies, with nothing that they could strictly 

 call their own, save the frail retreat among the reeds and rushes of 

 their mimic Venice, it undoubtedly became necessary for the Aztecs 

 to keep no captives taken in war. Their gardens, like their town, 

 were constructed upon the Chinampas, or floating beds of earth 

 and wicker work, which were anchored in the lake. They could 

 not venture, at any distance from its margin, to cultivate the fields. 

 When they sallied from their city, they usually left it for the battle 

 field ; and, when they returned, it is probable that it seemed to 

 them not only a propitiation of their gods, but a mercy to the vic- 

 tims, to sacrifice their numerous captives, who if retained in idle- 

 ness as prisoners would exact too large a body for their custody, 

 or, if allowed to go at large, might rise against their victors, and, , 

 in either case, would soon consume the slender stores they were 

 enabled to raise by their scant horticulture. In examining the his- 

 tory of the Aztecs, and noticing the mixture of civilization which 

 adorned their public and private life, and the barbarism which 

 characterized their merciless religion, we have been convinced 

 that the Aztec rite of sacrifice originated, in the infancy of the state 

 in a national necessity, and, at length, under the influence of super- 

 stition and policy, grew into an ordinance of faith and worship. 



