HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



iir 



though much disfigured (i). Boturini believed the Tol- 

 tecas built the pyramid of Cholula, to counterfeit the 

 tower of Babel ; but the painting on which his error is 

 fupported (fufficiently common with the vulgar of New 

 Spain), is the work of a modern and ignorant Cholulan, 

 the whole of it being a heap of abfurdities (k). 



During 



(«) Betancourt fays thefe pyramids were built by the Mexicans; this is cer- 

 tainly falfe, and contrary to the ophiion of all other authors, American as well as 

 Spanifli. Dr. Seguenza appears to think they were the work of the Olmecas; 

 but as we have no other remains of the archite^ure of that nation, by which wc 

 might judge ; and befides, thefe pyramids being made after the model of that of 

 Cholula, we are therefore induced to think that the Toltecas were the architects 

 of them all, as Torquemada and other authors relate. 



{k) The painting alluded to by Boturini, reprefented the pyramid of Cholula, 

 with this Mexican infcription, Toltecatl Chalcbihudtl onazia Ehecatepetl ; which he 

 thus interprets: A monument^ or precious Jlone of the Tolteca nation^ ivhofe neck fearches 

 info the region of the air; but independent of the incorre6lnefs of the writing, and 

 the barbarifm Chalchihuatl, whoever is in the leaft inftrudled in the Mexican lan- 

 guage, will immediately perceive there could not be a more whimficai interpre<- 

 tation. At the foot of the pidure, fays Boturini, the author put a note, in 

 which, addreffing himfelf to his countrymen, he admoniihed them as follows : 

 Nobles, and gentlemen, behold your fcriptures, the image of your antiquity, and 

 the hiftory of your anceftors ; who, moved by fear from the deluge, built this 

 afylum, for a ready retreat, in cafe of being again vifited by fuch a calamity. 

 But to fpeak the truth, the Toltecas muft have been utterly deprived of under- 

 Handing, if from the fear of the deluge they had undertaken, at fo much expence 

 and labour, the building of that ominous pyramid, while in the higheft moun- 

 tains, a little diftant from Cholula, they had a much more fecure afylum from 

 inundations, with lefs danger of perifhing by want. In the fame woi-k, Botu- 

 rini fays, was reprefented the baptifm of liamatemSlli, Queen of Cholula, con t 

 f erred upon her by Deacon Aguilar, the 2d of Auguft, 15 2i, together with the 

 apparition of the Virgin to a certain religious Francifcan, who v/as living at 

 Rome, ordering him to depart for Mexico; where he was to place on a mountain 

 built by art (that is, the pyramid of Cholula), her image. But this is no more 

 than a ftring of dreams and lies; for in Cholula there never were cither kings, 

 nor could fuch baptifm, of which no author fays a word, have been celebrated on 

 the 6th of Auguft, 1521; as at that time Aguilar, with the other Spaniards, was 

 in the heat of the fiege of the capital, which v/as to render itfelf up, fevcn days 

 after, to the conquerors. Of the pretended apparition of the mother of God, 

 there is no memory among the Francifcan hiftorians, who never omitted any 

 thing of this kind in their chronicles. We have demonltrated the falfity of this 



relation, 



