140 



HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



there were fome granted by the king under a condition 

 not to alienate them, but to leave them in inheritance 

 to their fons. 



RefpedYing the inheritance of ftates, regard was paid 

 to priority of birth ; but if the firft-born fon was inca- 

 pable of managing the poffelfions, the father was en- 

 tirely at liberty to appoint any other fon his heir, pro- 

 vided that he fecured a provifion from the reft. The 

 daughters, at lead in Tlafcala, were not allowed to in- 

 herit, that the ftate might never fall under the govern- 

 ment of a ftranger. Even after the conqueft of the 

 Spaniards, the Tlafcalans were fo jealous of preferring 

 the ftates in their families, that they refufed to give the 

 inveftiture of one of the four principalities of the re- 

 public to D. Francifco Pimentel, nephew of Coanacot- 

 zin, king of Acolhuacan (s) 9 married with donna Ma- 

 ria Maxicatzin, niece to prince Maxicatzin, who, as we 

 {hall afterwards find, was the chief of the four lords 

 that governed that republic at the arrival of the Spa- 

 niards. The fiefs commenced in that kingdom at the 

 time that king Xolotl divided the lands of Anahuac 

 among the Chechemecan and Acolhuan lords, under 

 the feudal conditions, that they would preferve inviola- 

 ble fidelity, acknowledge his fupreme authority, and 

 their obligation to aflift their fovereign whenever it 

 fliould be neceffary with their perfons, with their pro- 

 perty, and their vaffals. In the Mexican empire, as far 

 as we can find, real fiefs were few in number ; and if 

 we are to fpeak in the ftri& fenfe of the civil law, 

 there were none at all ; for they were neither perpetual 



in 



(j) Coanacotzin, king of Acolhuacan, was the Father of don Ferdinando 

 Pimentel, who had don Francefco born to him by a Tlafcalan lady. It is to 

 be obferved, that many of the Mexicans, particularly the nobles, upon being 

 baptized, added to their Chriftian name a Spanifli furname. 



