HISTORY OF MEXICO. 161 



approaching ftill nearer to the fite of Mexico. In Izta- 

 calco they made a Httle mountain of paper, by which 

 they probably reprefented Colhuacan (rn\ and fpent a 

 whole night in dancing around it, fmging their victory 

 over the Xochimilcas, and returning thanks to their 

 god for having freed them from the yoke of the Col- 

 huas. 



After having fojourned two years in Iztacalco, they 

 came at lafl: to that fituation on the lake where they 

 were to found their city. There they found a nopal, 

 or opuntia, growing in a (tone, and over it the foot of 

 an eagle. On this account, they gave to the place, and 

 afterwards to their city, the name of Tenochtitlan Qi). 

 All, or at leafl all the hiftorians of Mexico, fay, this 

 was the precife mark given them by their oracle for the 

 foundation of their city, and relate various events con- 

 cerning it, which as they appear out of the courfe of 

 nature, we have omitted as being fabulous^ or at lead 

 uncertain. 



As foon as the Mexicans took pofleffion of that place, 

 they eredled a temple for their god Huitzilopochtli. 

 The confecration of that fanfluary, although miferable, 

 was not made v/ithout the eftuiion of human blood ; for 

 a daring Mexican having gone out in queft of fome ani- 

 mal for a facrifice, he encountered with a Colhuan nam- 

 ed Xoraimitl ; after a few words, the feelings of national 

 enmity-, excited them to blows ; the Mexican was vi6i:or, 

 and having bound his enemy carried him to his country- 

 VoL. I. X men, 



(m') The Mexicans reprefented Colhuacan in their pi<$lures by the figure 

 of a hunchbacked mountain, and the name has exactly that fignification. 



(n) Several authors, both Spanifli and of other nations, from ignorance of the 

 Mexican language have altered this name ; and in their books it is read Tenox- 

 titlan, Temiftitan, Temihtitlan, &c. 



