HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



133 



ed his chronology ; nor could he do otherwife, when he 

 knew that the year 1519 had been I Acatl, a certain 

 foundation and beginning on which all the Mexican chro- 

 nology ought to reft, and from which it is clearly dedu- 

 cible that the year 1684 had not been IX Acatl, but 

 X Tecpatl. Torquemada, in his third book, treating of 

 the Totonacas, fa s of a noble of that nation, that he 

 was born in the year II Acatl, and that the year before 

 15 1 9, in which the Spaniards arrived in that country, 

 was, among the Mexicans, the year I Acatl. When 

 Torquemada wrote this he was either dreaming, or ab- 

 fent in mind ; for he knew well that the year among the 

 Mexicans which comes after I Acatl, is not II Acatl, but 

 II Tecpatl, and fuch was the year 1520, of which he 

 fpeaks. 



Suppofing then that the year 151 9 was I Acatl, and 

 that the correfpondence of the Mexican with the Chrif- 

 tian years is known, it is not very difficult to trace back 

 the epoch of the foundation of Mexico. All hiftorians 

 who have confulted the paintings of the Mexicans, or 

 who have been informed by them by words, agree in 

 faying, that that celebrated city was founded by the 

 Azetcas, in the 14th century; but they differ a little as 

 to the year. The interpreter of Mendoza's collection 

 fixes the foundation of it in the year 1324. Gemelli, 

 following Siguenza, makes it in 1325. Siguenza, cited 

 by Betancourt and an anonymous Mexican, cited by Bo- 

 turini, in 1327. Torquemada, according to the calcu- 

 lation made by Betancourt, from his account, in 1341 ; 

 and Arrigo Martinez, in 1357. The Mexicans make 

 the foundation in the year II Calli, as appears from the 

 firfl: painting of the collection of Mendoza and others, 

 cited by Siguenza. It being certain, therefore, that 



that 



