HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



149 



what this little birds fays, Tihui Tihui, which it re- 

 " peats every moment to us ; what can it mean, but that 



we mufl leave this country and find ourfelves another ? 

 " Without doubt, it is the warning of fome fecret divi- 

 " nity who watches over our welfare : let us obey, thcre- 



fore, his voice, and not draw his anger upon us by a 

 " refufal." Tecpaltzin gave full affent to this interpre- 

 tation, either from his opinion of the wifdom of Huit- 

 ziton, or becaufe he was likewife prepolTelTed with the 

 fame defire. Two perfons, fo refpe^lable, having agreed 

 in fentiment, they were not long in drawing the body 

 of the nation over to their party. 



Although we do not give credit to fuch an account, 

 it does not, however, appear altogether improbable ; as 

 it is not difficult for a perfon who is reputed wife, to per- 

 fuade an ignorant and a fuperftitious people, through 

 motives of religion, to whatever he pleafes. It would 

 be a much harder tailc to perfuade us of what the Spa- 

 nifli hiftorians generally report, that the Mexicans fet 

 out on their migration, by exprefs command of the de- 

 mon. The good hiftorians of the fixteenth century, and 

 thofe who have copied them, fuppofe it altogether un- 

 queftionable that the demon had continual and familiar 

 commerce with all the idolatrous nations of the New 

 World ; and fcarcely recount an event of hiftory, of 

 which they do not make him the author. But however 

 certain they may be y that the malignity of thofe fpirits im^ 

 pels them to do all the hurt they can to man^ and that they 

 have Jhewn themfelves fometimes in vifible forms to feduce 

 them^ efpecially to thofe who have not^ by regeneration^ en- 

 tered into the bofom of the church ; it is not, however, to 

 be imagined that fuch apparitions were fo very frequent, 

 or that their intercourfe was fo familiar with the above 



mentioned 



