HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



137 



nations, there is an incredible difFerence of opinion and 

 confufion in hiflorians refpe^ling their origin, their num- 

 ber, and the time in which they fettled in Anahuac. 

 The great ftudy which I have made to trace truth has 

 ferved only to increafe my uncertainty, and to make me 

 defpair of ever knowing hereafter what is hitherto un- 

 known. Leaving afide, therefore, all fables, we fliall 

 adhere to what is certain, or at leaft probable. 

 ■ The Olmecas and the Xicallancas, whether one nation, 

 or two diftin^i: nations, but conftantly allied and conne6i:- 

 ed together, were fo ancient in the country of Anahuac, 

 that many authors account them prior to the Tolte- 

 eas (u). Of their origin we know nothing, nor do the 

 ancient pictures tell us more than that they inhabited the 

 country circumjacent to the great mountain Matlalcueje, 

 and that being driven from thence by the Teocheche- 

 mecas, or Tlafcalans, they tranfported themfclves to the 

 coafi: of the gulf of Mexico (a;). 



The Otomies, who formed one of the mod numerous 

 nations, were probably ane of the mod ancient in that 

 country ; but they continued for many ages inbarbarifm, 

 hving fcatrered in the caverns of the mountains, and fup- 

 porting themfelves by the chace, in which they were 

 raoft dextrous. They occupied a traft of more than three 

 hundred miles of land, from the mountains of Izmiquil- 

 pan towards the north-wefl, bordering in the eafl and 

 weil: on other nations equally favage. In the fifteenth 



Vol. I. S century, 



(i/^ Some authors, and amcn;^ them the celebrated D. Siguenza, have written 

 that the Ohnecas paffed from the Atlantic ifles, and that they alone came to Ana- 

 huac from the quarter of the EaPc, all the other nations having come from the 

 region of the North : but v/eknov,^ no foundation for this opinion. 



i^iv Boturini conjetftures^ that the Oimecas, when driven from their country, 

 went to the Antilles, or Caribbee Illands, and South America. This is no more 

 |;han conje(9:ure» 



