HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



153 



ixiilcas, the Tepanecas, the Chalchefe, the Tlahuicas, and 

 ihe Tlafcalans proceeding onwards, left the Mexicans 

 there with their idoL Thofe nations fay the feparation 

 was made by exprefs command of their God. There is 

 little doubt that fome difagreement among themlelves 

 was the occafion of it. The fituation of Chicomo:ztoc, 

 where the Mexicans fojourned nine years, is not known ; 

 but it appears to be that place twenty miles diftant from 

 the city of Zacatecas towards the fouth where there are / 

 ftill fome remains of an immenfe edifice, which, accord- 

 ing to the tradition of the Zapotecas, the ancient inhabi- 

 tants of that country, was the work of the Aztecas in 

 their migration ; and it certainly cannot be afcribed to 

 any other people; the Zapotecas themfelves being fo 

 barbarous as neither to live in houfes nor to know how 

 to build them. Their being reduced to a fmaller num- 

 ber by the difmemberment of the other tribes, may pro- 

 bably have been the reafon that the Mexicans undertook 

 no other buildings of that kind in their peregrination. 

 Proceeding from the country of the Zapotecas towards 

 the fouth, through Amica, Cocula, and Zayula, they 

 defcended into the maritime province of Colima, and 

 from thence to Zacatula ; where turning to the eaflward 

 they afcended to Malinalco, a place fituated in the moun- 

 tains which furround the valley of Toluca fZ?), and af- 

 terwards taking their courfe towards the north, in the 

 year 1196 they arrived at the celebrated city of Tula (/). 

 Vol. 1. U 



(h) It is evident from the maimfcripts of P. Giovanni Tobar, a Jefuit exceed- 

 ingly verfed in the antiquities of thofe nations, that the Mexicans pafied 

 through Michuacan, and this could only be by CoUma and Zacatula, which 

 probably then belonged to the kingdom, as they now belong to the ecclefiafti- 

 cal diocefs of Michuacan ; becaufe if they had performed their journey any 

 ^her way to Tula, they would not have touched at Malinaieo. 



(i) The epoch of the arrival of the Mexicans at Tula in 1196, is confirmed 



by 



