HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



101 



or dead languages which can differ more among each 

 other than the languages of the Mexicans, Otomies, 

 Tarafcas, Mayas, and Miztecas, five languages prevail- 

 ing in different provinces of Mexico. It would there- 

 fore be abfurd to fay, that languages fo different were 

 different dialects of one original. How is it poffible a 

 nation fhould alter its primitive language to fuch a de- 

 gree, or multiply irs dialects fo varioufly, that there 

 fliould not be, even after many centuries, if not fome 

 words common to all, at leaft an affinity between them, 

 or fome traces left of their origin? 



Who can ever believe what we read in the hiftory of 

 Acofla ? That the Aztecas, or Mexicans, having arrived 

 after their long peregrination in the kingdom of Michua- 

 can, were allured by the agreeablenefs of the country, 

 and became defirous of eftablifhing themfelves in it; but 

 as the whole nation could not fettle there, their god 

 Huitzilopochtli confented that fome of them might flay, 

 and fuggefled to the others, when thofe who were to 

 remain went to bathe in the lake of Pazcuaro, to ileal 

 their clothes from them and purfue their journey; that 

 thofe who bathed finding themfelves robbed of their 

 garments and fooled by their companions, were fo pro- 

 voked, that they not only refolved to remain there, but 

 to adopt a new language; and that thence arofe the Ta- 

 rafca language. The account adopted by Gomara, and 

 other hiftorians, is ftill more incredible: that, of an old 

 man called Iztac Mixcoatl and his wife Itancueltl were 

 born fix children, each with a different language, called 

 Xolhua, Tenoch, Olmecatl, Xicallancatl, Mixtecatl^ and 

 OtomitI, who were the founders of as many nations, 

 which peopled the country of Anahuac. This allegory 

 by which the Mexicans fignified that all thofe nations 



drew 



