I 
278 
seen the remains of the great teocalli * dedi- 
cated to the god Huitzilopochtli. Torqnemada 
made use of the manuscripts of three Franciscan 
monks, Bernardino de Sahagun, Andrea de 
Olmos, and Toribio de Benavente, who were very 
intimately acquainted with the American lan- 
guages, and who went to New-Spain in the time 
of Cortez, before the year 1528. Notwithstand- 
ing these advantages, the historian of Mexico 
has not furnished us with all the information 
respecting the chronology and calendars of the 
Mexicans, that we might have expected from his 
zeal and his instruction. He expresses himself 
with so little precision, that we read in his work, 
that the year of the Aztecks finished at the 
month of December, and began at the month 
of February f . 
Materials more instructive than the narratives 
of the first Spanish historians, had long existed 
at Mexico, in the convents and public libraries. 
Some Indian authors, Christoval del Castillo, a 
native of Tezcuco, who died in 1606, at the age 
of eighty years, Fernando de Alvarado Tezozo- 
moc, and Domingo Chimalpain, have left manu- 
scripts composed in the Azteck language on the 
* The year 1577. Torquemada, lib. riii, c. 2. (vol. 2, 
p. 157.) 
+ Ibid. lib. 10, cap. 10, 33, 34, and SO, 
