EMIGRATION OF THE TRIBES. 261 
and the vow or the worship that were once offered in the recesses of groves, 
in the silence of dark woods, or on the mountain-top, — were here poured 
forth on the lofty pyramid, built by human hands and fashioned by hu- 
man art. 
Although we are left in this mystery as to the peopling of America, 1 
think there is not so much doubt in regard to the inhabitants of Uxmal, 
Palenque, Copan, Chichen-Itza, and the various cities that have been 
described by Mr. Stephens. 
According to Clavigero, a tribe, known as the Toltecs, left their home 
in the north, and, after a journey of emigration that lasted 104 years, 
(during which time they frequently tarried in certain places for years 
and months, erecting edifices and partially establishing themselves,) they, 
at length, reached the vale of Anahuac, a territory that subsequently be- 
came the seat of the Mexican Empire. At Tollan, or Tula, they founded the 
Capital of a dynasty, which lasted 384 years ; — celebrated for its wisdom, 
knowledge, and extensive civilization. About 1051, (the tradition runs,) 
famine and pestilence nearly desolated the kingdom, and a great por- 
tion of those who escaped the ravages of disease emigrated immediately 
to Yucatan and Guatemala, leaving but a scattering remnant of this once 
flourishing empire in Tula and Cholula. 
For one hundred years afterwai'd Anahuac was nearly depopulated. 
Then came an emigration of the Chichimecas, from the north, like the 
Toltecs, and from a place which they called Amaquemecan. These, 
too, intermingling with the Toltec remnants, had their reign among the 
ruins of the former empire, — dwelling, however, in small villages, and 
lacking all the elements of civilization. 
Eight years after their advent to Anahuac, six tribes called the Nahu- 
atlacks arrived, having left, at a short distance, a seventh, called Aztecs. 
Shortly afterward, they were joined by their missing tribe and by the 
Acolhuans, who are said to have emigrated from Teoacolhucan, near the 
original country of the Chichimecas. These were, undoubtedly, the most 
enlightened of all the wandering tribes who had penetrated these valleys 
since the days of the Toltecs, and they speedily formed an alliance with 
their ancient neighbors. 
Of all these wanderers, however, we have now no traditions, except in 
relation to the Aztecs, who, departing from Azatlan in the north about the 
year 1160, continued their singular and weary pilgrimage, with frequent 
delays, until 1325 ; when, finding on a rock in a lake, the " Eagle on the 
Prickly Pear," (the omen to which they had been prophetically directed 
for the foundation of their future Capital,) they gathered together among 
the marshes of Tezcoco, and built the city of Tenochtitlan, — the Mexico 
of Cortez. It is believed, both by Clavigero and Humboldt, that all these 
tribes of the Toltecs, Acolhuans, Chichimecas and Nahuatlacks, spoke the 
same language, and therefore, in all probability, emigrated from about 
the same degree of northern latitude. 
