the tezcucans—their golden age—accomplished princes—decline of their monarchy

the reader would gather but an imperfect notion of the civilization of anahuac, without some account of the acolhuans, or tezcucans, as they are usually called; a nation of the same great family with the aztecs, whom they rivalled in power and surpassed in intellectual culture and the arts of social refinement. fortunately, we have ample materials for this in the records left by ixtlilxochitl, a lineal descendant of the royal line of tezcuco, who flourished in the century of the conquest. with every opportunity for information he combined much industry and talent, and, if his narrative bears the high coloring of one who would revive the faded glories of an ancient but dilapi{177}dated house, he has been uniformly commended for his fairness and integrity, and has been followed without misgiving by such spanish writers as could have access to his manuscripts.[264] i shall confine myself to the prominent features of the two reigns which may be said to embrace the golden age of tezcuco, without attempting to weigh the probability of the details, which i will leave to be settled by the reader, according to the measure of his faith.

the acolhuans came into the valley, as we have seen, about the close of the twelfth century, and built their capital of tezcuco on the eastern borders of the lake, opposite to mexico. from this point they gradually spread themselves over the northern portion of anahuac, when their career was checked by an invasion of a kindred race, the tepanecs, who, after a desperate struggle, succeeded in taking their city, slaying their monarch, and entirely subjugating his kingdom.[265] this event took place about 1418; and the young prince, nezahualcoyotl, the heir to the crown, then fifteen years old, saw his father butchered before his eyes, while he himself lay concealed among the friendly branches of a tree which overshadowed the spot.[266] his subsequent history is as full of romantic daring and perilous escapes as that of the renowned scanderbeg or of the “young chevalier.”{178}[267]

not long after his flight from the field of his father’s blood, the tezcucan prince fell into the hands of his enemy, was borne off in triumph to his city, and was thrown into a dungeon. he effected his escape, however, through the connivance of the governor of the fortress, an old servant of his family, who took the place of the royal fugitive, and paid for his loyalty with his life. he was at length permitted, through the intercession of the reigning family in mexico, which was allied to him, to retire to that capital, and subsequently to his own, where he found a shelter in his ancestral palace. here he remained unmolested for eight years, pursuing his studies under an old preceptor, who had had the care of his early youth, and who instructed him in the various duties befitting his princely station.[268]

at the end of this period the tepanec usurper died, bequeathing his empire to his son, maxtla, a man of fierce and suspicious temper. nezahualcoyotl hastened to pay his obeisance to him, on his accession. but the tyrant refused to receive the little present of flowers which he laid at his feet, and turned his back on him in presence of his chieftains. one of his attendants, friendly to the young prince, admonished him to provide for his own safety, by withdrawing, as speedily as possible, from the palace, where his life was in danger. he lost no time, consequently, in retreating from the{179} inhospitable court, and returned to tezcuco. maxtla, however, was bent on his destruction. he saw with jealous eye the opening talents and popular manners of his rival, and the favor he was daily winning from his ancient subjects.[269]

he accordingly laid a plan for making away with him at an evening entertainment. it was defeated by the vigilance of the prince’s tutor, who contrived to mislead the assassins and to substitute another victim in the place of his pupil.[270] the baffled tyrant now threw off all disguise, and sent a strong party of soldiers to tezcuco, with orders to enter the palace, seize the person of nezahualcoyotl, and slay him on the spot. the prince, who became acquainted with the plot through the watchfulness of his preceptor, instead of flying, as he was counselled, resolved to await his enemies. they found him playing at ball, when they arrived, in the court of his palace. he received them courteously, and invited them in, to take some refreshments after their journey. while they were occupied in this way, he passed into an adjoining saloon, which excited no suspicion, as he was still visible through the open doors by which the apartments communicated with each other. a burning censer stood in the passage, and, as it was fed by the attendants, threw up such clouds of incense as obscured his movements from the soldiers. under this friendly veil he succeeded in making{180} his escape by a secret passage, which communicated with a large earthen pipe formerly used to bring water to the palace.[271] here he remained till nightfall, when, taking advantage of the obscurity, he found his way into the suburbs, and sought a shelter in the cottage of one of his father’s vassals.

the tepanec monarch, enraged at this repeated disappointment, ordered instant pursuit. a price was set on the head of the royal fugitive. whoever should take him, dead or alive, was promised, however humble his degree, the hand of a noble lady, and an ample domain along with it. troops of armed men were ordered to scour the country in every direction. in the course of the search, the cottage in which the prince had taken refuge was entered. but he fortunately escaped detection by being hid under a heap of maguey fibres used for manufacturing cloth. as this was no longer a proper place of concealment, he sought a retreat in the mountainous and woody district lying between the borders of his own state and tlascala.[272]

here he led a wretched, wandering life, exposed to all the inclemencies of the weather, hiding himself in deep thickets and caverns, and stealing out, at night, to satisfy the cravings of appetite; while he was kept in constant alarm by the activity of his pursuers, always hovering on his track. on one{181} occasion he sought refuge from them among a small party of soldiers, who proved friendly to him and concealed him in a large drum around which they were dancing. at another time he was just able to turn the crest of a hill as his enemies were climbing it on the other side, when he fell in with a girl who was reaping chia,—a mexican plant, the seed of which was much used in the drinks of the country. he persuaded her to cover him up with the stalks she had been cutting. when his pursuers came up, and inquired if she had seen the fugitive, the girl coolly answered that she had, and pointed out a path as the one he had taken. notwithstanding the high rewards offered, nezahualcoyotl seems to have incurred no danger from treachery, such was the general attachment felt to himself and his house. “would you not deliver up the prince, if he came in your way?” he inquired of a young peasant who was unacquainted with his person. “not i,” replied the other. “what, not for a fair lady’s hand, and a rich dowry beside?” rejoined the prince. at which the other only shook his head and laughed.[273] on more than one occasion his faithful people submitted to torture, and even to lose their lives, rather than disclose the place of his retreat.[274]

however gratifying such proofs of loyalty{182} might be to his feelings, the situation of the prince in these mountain solitudes became every day more distressing. it gave a still keener edge to his own sufferings to witness those of the faithful followers who chose to accompany him in his wanderings. “leave me,” he would say to them, “to my fate! why should you throw away your own lives for one whom fortune is never weary of persecuting?” most of the great tezcucan chiefs had consulted their interests by a timely adhesion to the usurper. but some still clung to their prince, preferring proscription, and death itself, rather than desert him in his extremity.[275]

in the mean time, his friends at a distance were active in measures for his relief. the oppressions of maxtla, and his growing empire, had caused general alarm in the surrounding states, who recalled the mild rule of the tezcucan princes. a coalition was formed, a plan of operations concerted, and, on the day appointed for a general rising, nezahualcoyotl found himself at the head of a force sufficiently strong to face his tepanec adversaries. an engagement came on, in which the latter were totally discomfited; and the victorious prince, receiving everywhere on his route the homage of his joyful subjects, entered his capital, not like a proscribed outcast, but as the rightful heir, and saw himself once more enthroned in the halls of his fathers.

soon after, he united his forces with the mexicans, long disgusted with the arbitrary conduct of maxtla. the allied powers, after a series of{183} bloody engagements with the usurper, routed him under the walls of his own capital. he fled to the baths, whence he was dragged out, and sacrificed with the usual cruel ceremonies of the aztecs; the royal city of azcapozalco was razed to the ground, and the wasted territory was henceforth reserved as the great slave-market for the nations of anahuac.[276]

these events were succeeded by the remarkable league among the three powers of tezcuco, mexico, and tlacopan, of which some account has been given in a previous chapter.[277] historians are not agreed as to the precise terms of it; the writers of the two former nations each insisting on the paramount authority of his own in the coalition. all agree in the subordinate position of tlacopan, a state, like the others, bordering on the lake. it is certain that in their subsequent operations, whether of peace or war, the three states shared in each other’s councils, embarked in each other’s enterprises, and moved in perfect concert together, till just before the coming of the spaniards.

the first measure of nezahualcoyotl, on returning to his dominions, was a general amnesty. it was his maxim “that a monarch might punish, but revenge was unworthy of him.”[278] in the present instance he was averse even to punish, and not only freely pardoned his rebel nobles, but conferred on some, who had most deeply offended, posts of{184} honor and confidence. such conduct was doubtless politic, especially as their alienation was owing, probably, much more to fear of the usurper than to any disaffection towards himself. but there are some acts of policy which a magnanimous spirit only can execute.

the restored monarch next set about repairing the damages sustained under the late misrule, and reviving, or rather remodelling, the various departments of government. he framed a concise, but comprehensive, code of laws, so well suited, it was thought, to the exigencies of the times, that it was adopted as their own by the two other members of the triple alliance. it was written in blood, and entitled the author to be called the draco rather than “the solon of anahuac,” as he is fondly styled by his admirers.[279] humanity is one of the best fruits of refinement. it is only with increasing civilization that the legislator studies to economize human suffering, even for the guilty; to devise penalties not so much by way of punishment for the past as of reformation for the future.[280]

he divided the burden of government among a number of departments, as the council of war, the council of finance, the council of justice. this last was a court of supreme authority, both in civil and{185} criminal matters, receiving appeals from the lower tribunals of the provinces, which were obliged to make a full report, every four months, or eighty days, of their own proceedings to this higher judicature. in all these bodies, a certain number of citizens were allowed to have seats with the nobles and professional dignitaries. there was, however, another body, a council of state, for aiding the king in the despatch of business, and advising him in matters of importance, which was drawn altogether from the highest order of chiefs. it consisted of fourteen members; and they had seats provided for them at the royal table.[281]

lastly, there was an extraordinary tribunal, called the council of music, but which, differing from the import of its name, was devoted to the encouragement of science and art. works on astronomy, chronology, history, or any other science, were required to be submitted to its judgment, before they could be made public. this censorial power was of some moment, at least with regard to the historical department, where the wilful perversion of truth was made a capital offence by the bloody code of nezahualcoyotl. yet a tezcucan author must have been a bungler, who could not elude a conviction under the cloudy veil of hieroglyphics. this body, which was drawn from the best-instructed persons in the kingdom, with little regard to rank, had supervision of all the pro{186}ductions of art, and of the nicer fabrics. it decided on the qualifications of the professors in the various branches of science, on the fidelity of their instructions to their pupils, the deficiency of which was severely punished, and it instituted examinations of these latter. in short, it was a general board of education for the country. on stated days, historical compositions, and poems treating of moral or traditional topics, were recited before it by their authors. seats were provided for the three crowned heads of the empire, who deliberated with the other members on the respective merits of the pieces, and distributed prizes of value to the successful competitors.[282]

such are the marvellous accounts transmitted to us of this institution; an institution certainly not to have been expected among the aborigines of america. it is calculated to give us a higher idea of the refinement of the people than even the noble architectural remains which still cover some parts of the continent. architecture is, to a certain extent, a sensual gratification. it addresses itself to the eye, and affords the best scope for the parade of barbaric pomp and splendor. it is the{187} form in which the revenues of a semi-civilized people are most likely to be lavished. the most gaudy and ostentatious specimens of it, and sometimes the most stupendous, have been reared by such hands. it is one of the first steps in the great march of civilization. but the institution in question was evidence of still higher refinement. it was a literary luxury, and argued the existence of a taste in the nation which relied for its gratification on pleasures of a purely intellectual character.

the influence of this academy must have been most propitious to the capital, which became the nursery not only of such sciences as could be compassed by the scholarship of the period, but of various useful and ornamental arts. its historians, orators, and poets were celebrated throughout the country.[283] its archives, for which accommodations were provided in the royal palace, were stored with the records of primitive ages.[284] its idiom, more polished than the mexican, was, indeed, the purest of all the nahuatlac dialects, and continued, long after the conquest, to be that in which the best productions of the native races were composed.{188} tezcuco claimed the glory of being the athens of the western world.[285]

among the most illustrious of her bards was the emperor himself,—for the tezcucan writers claim this title for their chief, as head of the imperial alliance. he doubtless appeared as a competitor before that very academy where he so often sat as a critic. many of his odes descended to a late generation, and are still preserved, perhaps, in some of the dusty repositories of mexico or spain.[286] the historian ixtlilxochitl has left a translation, in castilian, of one of the poems of his royal ancestor. it is not easy to render his version into corresponding english rhyme, without the perfume of the original escaping in this double filtration.[287] they remind one of the rich breathings of spanish-arab poetry, in which an ardent imagination is tempered by a not unpleasing and moral melancholy.[288] but, though sufficiently florid{189} in diction, they are generally free from the meretricious ornaments and hyperbole with which the minstrelsy of the east is usually tainted. they turn on the vanities and mutability of human life,—a topic very natural for a monarch who had himself experienced the strangest mutations of fortune. there is mingled in the lament of the tezcucan bard, however, an epicurean philosophy, which seeks relief from the fears of the future in the joys of the present. “banish care,” he says: “if there are bounds to pleasure, the saddest life must also have an end. then weave the chaplet of flowers, and sing thy songs in praise of the all-powerful god, for the glory of this world soon fadeth away. rejoice in the green freshness of thy spring; for the day will come when thou shalt sigh for these joys in vain; when the sceptre shall pass from thy hands, thy servants shall wander desolate in thy courts, thy sons, and the sons of thy nobles, shall drink the dregs of distress, and all the pomp of thy victories and triumphs shall live only in their recollection. yet the remembrance of the just shall not pass away from the nations, and the good thou hast done shall ever be held in honor. the goods of this life, its glories and its riches, are but lent to us, its substance is but an illusory shadow, and the things of to-day shall change on the coming of the morrow. then gather the fairest flowers from thy gardens, to bind round{190} thy brow, and seize the joys of the present ere they perish.”[289]

but the hours of the tezcucan monarch were not all passed in idle dalliance with the muse, nor in the sober contemplations of philosophy, as at a later period. in the freshness of youth and early manhood he led the allied armies in their annual expeditions, which were certain to result in a wider extent of territory to the empire.[290] in the intervals of peace he fostered those productive arts which are the surest sources of public prosperity. he encouraged agriculture above all; and there was{191} scarcely a spot so rude, or a steep so inaccessible, as not to confess the power of cultivation. the land was covered with a busy population, and towns and cities sprang up in places since deserted or dwindled into miserable villages.[291]

from resources thus enlarged by conquest and domestic industry, the monarch drew the means for the large consumption of his own numerous household,[292] and for the costly works which he executed for the convenience and embellishment of the capital. he filled it with stately edifices for his nobles, whose constant attendance he was anxious to secure at his court.[293] he erected a magnificent pile of buildings which might serve both for a royal{192} residence and for the public offices. it extended, from east to west, twelve hundred and thirty-four yards, and from north to south, nine hundred and seventy-eight.[294] it was encompassed by a wall of unburnt bricks and cement, six feet wide and nine high for one half of the circumference, and fifteen feet high for the other half. within this enclosure were two courts. the outer one was used as the great market-place of the city, and continued to be so until long after the conquest,—if, indeed, it is not now. the interior court was surrounded by the council-chambers and halls of justice. there were also accommodations there for the foreign ambassadors; and a spacious saloon, with apartments opening into it, for men of science and poets, who pursued their studies in this retreat or met together to hold converse under its marble porticoes. in this quarter, also, were kept the public archives, which fared better under the indian dynasty than they have since under their european successors.[295]

adjoining this court were the apartments of the king, including those for the royal harem, as liberally supplied with beauties as that of an eastern sultan. their walls were incrusted with alabasters{193} and richly-tinted stucco, or hung with gorgeous tapestries of variegated feather-work.[296] they led through long arcades, and through intricate labyrinths of shrubbery, into gardens where baths and sparkling fountains were overshadowed by tall groves of cedar and cypress. the basins of water were well stocked with fish of various kinds, and the aviaries with birds glowing in all the gaudy plumage of the tropics. many birds and animals which could not be obtained alive were represented in gold and silver so skilfully as to have furnished the great naturalist hernandez with models for his work.[297]

accommodations on a princely scale were provided for the sovereigns of mexico and tlacopan{194} when they visited the court. the whole of this lordly pile contained three hundred apartments, some of them fifty yards square.[298] the height of the building is not mentioned. it was probably not great, but supplied the requisite room by the immense extent of ground which it covered. the interior was doubtless constructed of light materials, especially of the rich woods which, in that country, are remarkable, when polished, for the brilliancy and variety of their colors. that the more solid materials of stone and stucco were also liberally employed is proved by the remains at the present day; remains which have furnished an inexhaustible quarry for the churches and other edifices since erected by the spaniards on the site of the ancient city.[299]

we are not informed of the time occupied in building this palace. but two hundred thousand workmen, it is said, were employed on it.[300] however this may be, it is certain that the tezcucan monarchs, like those of asia and ancient egypt, had the control of immense masses of men, and would sometimes turn the whole population of a{195} conquered city, including the women, into the public works.[301] the most gigantic monuments of architecture which the world has witnessed would never have been reared by the hands of freemen.

adjoining the palace were buildings for the king’s children, who, by his various wives, amounted to no less than sixty sons and fifty daughters.[302] here they were instructed in all the exercises and accomplishments suited to their station; comprehending, what would scarcely find a place in a royal education on the other side of the atlantic, the arts of working in metals, jewelry, and feather-mosaic. once in every four months, the whole household, not excepting the youngest, and including all the officers and attendants on the king’s person, assembled in a grand saloon of the palace, to listen to a discourse from an orator, probably one of the priesthood. the princes, on this occasion, were all dressed in nequen, the coarsest manufacture of the country. the preacher began by enlarging on the obligations of morality and of respect for the gods, especially important in persons whose rank gave such additional weight to example. he occasionally seasoned his homily with a pertinent application to his audience, if any member of it had been guilty of a notorious delinquency. from this{196} wholesome admonition the monarch himself was not exempted, and the orator boldly reminded him of his paramount duty to show respect for his own laws. the king, so far from taking umbrage, received the lesson with humility; and the audience, we are assured, were often melted into tears by the eloquence of the preacher.[303] this curious scene may remind one of similar usages in the asiatic and egyptian despotisms, where the sovereign occasionally condescended to stoop from his pride of place and allow his memory to be refreshed with the conviction of his own mortality.[304] it soothed the feelings of the subject to find himself thus placed, though but for a moment, on a level with his king; while it cost little to the latter, who was removed too far from his people to suffer anything by this short-lived familiarity. it is probable that such an act of public humiliation would have found less favor with a prince less absolute.

nezahualcoyotl’s fondness for magnificence was shown in his numerous villas, which were embellished with all that could make a rural retreat delightful. his favorite residence was at tezcotzinco, a conical hill about two leagues from the capital.[305] it was laid out in terraces, or hanging gardens, having a flight of steps five hundred and{197} twenty in number, many of them hewn in the natural porphyry.[306] in the garden on the summit was a reservoir of water, fed by an aqueduct that was carried over hill and valley, for several miles, on huge buttresses of masonry. a large rock stood in the midst of this basin, sculptured with the hieroglyphics representing the years of nezahualcoyotl’s reign and his principal achievements in each.[307] on a lower level were three other reservoirs, in each of which stood a marble statue of a woman, emblematic of the three states of the empire.[308] another tank contained a winged lion, (?) cut out of the solid rock, bearing in its mouth the portrait of the emperor.[309] his likeness had been executed in gold, wood, feather-work, and stone; but this was the only one which pleased him.

from these copious basins the water was distributed in numerous channels through the gar{198}dens, or was made to tumble over the rocks in cascades, shedding refreshing dews on the flowers and odoriferous shrubs below. in the depths of this fragrant wilderness, marble porticoes and pavilions were erected, and baths excavated in the solid porphyry, which are still shown by the ignorant natives as the “baths of montezuma”![310] the visitor descended by steps cut in the living stone and polished so bright as to reflect like mirrors.[311] towards the base of the hill, in the midst of cedar groves, whose gigantic branches threw a refreshing coolness over the verdure in the sultriest seasons of the year,[312] rose the royal villa, with its{199} light arcades and airy halls, drinking in the sweet perfumes of the gardens. here the monarch often retired, to throw off the burden of state and refresh his wearied spirits in the society of his favorite wives, reposing during the noontide heats in the embowering shades of his paradise, or mingling, in the cool of the evening, in their festive sports and dances. here he entertained his imperial brothers of mexico and tlacopan, and followed the hardier pleasures of the chase in the noble woods that stretched for miles around his villa, flourishing in all their primeval majesty. here, too, he often repaired in the latter days of his life, when age had tempered ambition and cooled the ardor of his blood, to pursue in solitude the studies of philosophy and gather wisdom from meditation.

the extraordinary accounts of the tezcucan architecture are confirmed, in the main, by the relics which still cover the hill of tezcotzinco or are half buried beneath its surface. they attract little attention, indeed, in the country, where their true history has long since passed into oblivion;[313] while the traveller whose curiosity leads him to the spot speculates on their probable origin, and, as he stumbles over the huge fragments of sculptured{200} porphyry and granite, refers them to the primitive races who spread their colossal architecture over the country long before the coming of the acolhuans and the aztecs.[314]

the tezcucan princes were used to entertain a great number of concubines. they had but one lawful wife, to whose issue the crown descended.[315] nezahualcoyotl remained unmarried to a late period. he was disappointed in an early attachment, as the princess who had been educated in privacy to be the partner of his throne gave her hand to another. the injured monarch submitted the affair to the proper tribunal. the parties, however, were proved to have been ignorant of the destination of the lady, and the court, with an independence which reflects equal honor on the judges who could give and the monarch who could receive the sentence, acquitted the young couple. this story is sadly contrasted by the following.[316]

the king devoured his chagrin in the solitude of his beautiful villa of tezcotzinco, or sought to divert it by travelling. on one of his journeys he{201} was hospitably entertained by a potent vassal, the old lord of tepechpan, who, to do his sovereign more honor, caused him to be attended at the banquet by a noble maiden, betrothed to himself, and who, after the fashion of the country, had been educated under his own roof. she was of the blood royal of mexico, and nearly related, moreover, to the tezcucan monarch. the latter, who had all the amorous temperament of the south, was captivated by the grace and personal charms of the youthful hebe, and conceived a violent passion for her. he did not disclose it to any one, however, but, on his return home, resolved to gratify it, though at the expense of his own honor, by sweeping away the only obstacle which stood in his path.

he accordingly sent an order to the chief of tepechpan to take command of an expedition set on foot against the tlascalans. at the same time he instructed two tezcucan chiefs to keep near the person of the old lord, and bring him into the thickest of the fight, where he might lose his life. he assured them this had been forfeited by a great crime, but that, from regard for his vassal’s past services, he was willing to cover up his disgrace by an honorable death.

the veteran, who had long lived in retirement on his estates, saw himself with astonishment called so suddenly and needlessly into action, for which so many younger men were better fitted. he suspected the cause, and, in the farewell entertainment to his friends, uttered a presentiment of his sad destiny. his predictions were too soon verified;{202} and a few weeks placed the hand of his virgin bride at her own disposal.

nezahualcoyotl did not think it prudent to break his passion publicly to the princess so soon after the death of his victim. he opened a correspondence with her through a female relative, and expressed his deep sympathy for her loss. at the same time, he tendered the best consolation in his power, by an offer of his heart and hand. her former lover had been too well stricken in years for the maiden to remain long inconsolable. she was not aware of the perfidious plot against his life; and, after a decent time, she was ready to comply with her duty, by placing herself at the disposal of her royal kinsman.

it was arranged by the king, in order to give a more natural aspect to the affair and prevent all suspicion of the unworthy part he had acted, that the princess should present herself in his grounds at tezcotzinco, to witness some public ceremony there. nezahualcoyotl was standing in a balcony of the palace when she appeared, and inquired, as if struck with her beauty for the first time, “who the lovely young creature was, in his gardens.” when his courtiers had acquainted him with her name and rank, he ordered her to be conducted to the palace, that she might receive the attentions due to her station. the interview was soon followed by a public declaration of his passion; and the marriage was celebrated not long after, with great pomp, in the presence of his court, and of his brother monarchs of mexico and tlacopan.{203}[317]

this story, which furnishes so obvious a counterpart to that of david and uriah, is told with great circumstantiality, both by the king’s son and grandson, from whose narratives ixtlilxochitl derived it.[318] they stigmatize the action as the basest in their great ancestor’s life. it is indeed too base not to leave an indelible stain on any character, however pure in other respects, and exalted.

the king was strict in the execution of his laws, though his natural disposition led him to temper justice with mercy. many anecdotes are told of the benevolent interest he took in the concerns of his subjects, and of his anxiety to detect and reward merit, even in the most humble. it was common for him to ramble among them in disguise, like the celebrated caliph in the “arabian nights,” mingling freely in conversation, and ascertaining their actual condition with his own eyes.[319]

on one such occasion, when attended only by a single lord, he met with a boy who was gathering sticks in a field for fuel. he inquired of him “why he did not go into the neighboring forest, where he would find a plenty of them.” to which the lad answered, “it was the king’s wood, and he would punish him with death if he trespassed there.” the royal forests were very extensive in tezcuco, and were guarded by laws full as severe as those of the norman tyrants in england. “what kind of man is your king?” asked the{204} monarch, willing to learn the effect of these prohibitions on his own popularity. “a very hard man,” answered the boy, “who denies his people what god has given them.”[320] nezahualcoyotl urged him not to mind such arbitrary laws, but to glean his sticks in the forest, as there was no one present who would betray him. but the boy sturdily refused, bluntly accusing the disguised king, at the same time, of being a traitor, and of wishing to bring him into trouble.

nezahualcoyotl, on returning to the palace, ordered the child and his parents to be summoned before him. they received the orders with astonishment, but, on entering the presence, the boy at once recognized the person with whom he had discoursed so unceremoniously, and he was filled with consternation. the good-natured monarch, however, relieved his apprehensions, by thanking him for the lesson he had given him, and, at the same time, commended his respect for the laws, and praised his parents for the manner in which they had trained their son. he then dismissed the parties with a liberal largess, and afterwards mitigated the severity of the forest laws, so as to allow persons to gather any wood they might find on the ground, if they did not meddle with the standing timber.[321]

another adventure is told of him, with a poor woodman and his wife, who had brought their little load of billets for sale to the market-place of tezcuco. the man was bitterly lamenting his hard{205} lot, and the difficulty with which he earned a wretched subsistence, while the master of the palace before which they were standing lived an idle life, without toil, and with all the luxuries in the world at his command.

he was going on in his complaints, when the good woman stopped him, by reminding him he might be overheard. he was so, by nezahualcoyotl himself who, standing screened from observation at a latticed window which overlooked the market, was amusing himself, as he was wont, with observing the common people chaffering in the square. he immediately ordered the querulous couple into his presence. they appeared trembling and conscience-struck before him. the king gravely inquired what they had said. as they answered him truly, he told them they should reflect that, if he had great treasures at his command, he had still greater calls for them; that, far from leading an easy life, he was oppressed with the whole burden of government; and concluded by admonishing them “to be more cautious in future, as walls had ears.”[322] he then ordered his officers to bring a quantity of cloth and a generous supply of cacao (the coin of the country), and dismissed them. “go,” said he; “with the little you now have, you will be rich; while, with all my riches, i shall still be poor.”[323]

it was not his passion to hoard. he dispensed{206} his revenues munificently, seeking out poor but meritorious objects on whom to bestow them. he was particularly mindful of disabled soldiers, and those who had in any way sustained loss in the public service, and, in case of their death, extended assistance to their surviving families. open mendicity was a thing he would never tolerate, but chastised it with exemplary rigor.[324]

it would be incredible that a man of the enlarged mind and endowments of nezahualcoyotl should acquiesce in the sordid superstitions of his countrymen, and still more in the sanguinary rites borrowed by them from the aztecs. in truth, his humane temper shrunk from these cruel ceremonies, and he strenuously endeavored to recall his people to the more pure and simple worship of the ancient toltecs. a circumstance produced a temporary change in his conduct.

he had been married some years to the wife he had so unrighteously obtained, but was not blessed with issue. the priests represented that it was owing to his neglect of the gods of his country, and that his only remedy was to propitiate them by human sacrifice. the king reluctantly consented, and the altars once more smoked with the blood of slaughtered captives. but it was all in vain; and he indignantly exclaimed, “these idols of wood and stone can neither hear nor feel; much less could they make the heavens, and the earth, and man, the lord of it. these must be the work of the all-{207}powerful, unknown god, creator of the universe, on whom alone i must rely for consolation and support.”[325]

he then withdrew to his rural palace of tezcotzinco, where he remained forty days, fasting and praying at stated hours, and offering up no other sacrifice than the sweet incense of copal, and aromatic herbs and gums. at the expiration of this time, he is said to have been comforted by a vision assuring him of the success of his petition. at all events, such proved to be the fact; and this was followed by the cheering intelligence of the triumph of his arms in a quarter where he had lately experienced some humiliating reverses.[326]

greatly strengthened in his former religious convictions, he now openly professed his faith, and was more earnest to wean his subjects from their degrading superstitions and to substitute nobler and more spiritual conceptions of the deity. he built a temple in the usual pyramidal form, and on the summit a tower nine stories high, to represent the nine heavens; a tenth was surmounted by a roof painted black, and profusely gilded with stars, on{208} the outside, and incrusted with metals and precious stones within. he dedicated this to “the unknown god, the cause of causes”[327] it seems probable, from the emblem on the tower, as well as from the complexion of his verses, as we shall see, that he mingled with his reverence for the supreme the astral worship which existed among the toltecs.[328] various musical instruments were placed on the top of the tower, and the sound of them, accompanied by the ringing of a sonorous metal struck by a mallet, summoned the worshippers to prayers, at regular seasons.[329] no image was allowed in the edifice, as unsuited to the “invisible god;” and the people were expressly prohibited from profaning the altars with blood, or any other sacrifices than that of the perfume of flowers and sweet-scented gums.

the remainder of his days was chiefly spent in his delicious solitudes of tezcotzinco, where he devoted himself to astronomical and, probably, astrological studies, and to meditation on his immortal destiny,—giving utterance to his feelings in songs, or rather hymns, of much solemnity and pathos. an extract from one of these will convey{209} some idea of his religious speculations. the pensive tenderness of the verses quoted in a preceding page is deepened here into a mournful, and even gloomy, coloring; while the wounded spirit, instead of seeking relief in the convivial sallies of a young and buoyant temperament, turns for consolation to the world beyond the grave:

“all things on earth have their term, and, in the most joyous career of their vanity and splendor, their strength fails, and they sink into the dust. all the round world is but a sepulchre; and there is nothing which lives on its surface that shall not be hidden and entombed beneath it. rivers, torrents, and streams move onward to their destination. not one flows back to its pleasant source. they rush onward, hastening to bury themselves in the deep bosom of the ocean. the things of yesterday are no more to-day; and the things of to-day shall cease, perhaps, on the morrow.[330] the cemetery is full of the loathsome dust of bodies, once quickened by living souls, who occupied thrones, presided over assemblies, marshalled armies, subdued provinces, arrogated to themselves worship, were puffed up with vainglorious pomp, and power, and empire.

“but these glories have all passed away, like the fearful smoke that issues from the throat of popo{210}catepetl, with no other memorial of their existence than the record on the page of the chronicler.

“the great, the wise, the valiant, the beautiful,—alas! where are they now? they are all mingled with the clod; and that which has befallen them shall happen to us, and to those that come after us. yet let us take courage, illustrious nobles and chieftains, true friends and loyal subjects,—let us aspire to that heaven where all is eternal and corruption cannot come.[331] the horrors of the tomb are but the cradle of the sun, and the dark shadows of death are brilliant lights for the stars.”[332] the mystic import of the last sentence seems to point to that superstition respecting the mansions of the sun, which forms so beautiful a contrast to the dark features of the aztec mythology.

at length, about the year 1470,[333] nezahualco{211}yotl, full of years and honors, felt himself drawing near his end. almost half a century had elapsed since he mounted the throne of tezcuco. he had found his kingdom dismembered by faction and bowed to the dust beneath the yoke of a foreign tyrant. he had broken that yoke; had breathed new life into the nation, renewed its ancient institutions, extended wide its domain; had seen it flourishing in all the activity of trade and agriculture, gathering strength from its enlarged resources, and daily advancing higher and higher in the great march of civilization. all this he had seen, and might fairly attribute no small portion of it to his own wise and beneficent rule. his long and glorious day was now drawing to its close; and he contemplated the event with the same serenity which he had shown under the clouds of its morning and in its meridian splendor.

a short time before his death, he gathered around him those of his children in whom he most confided, his chief counsellors, the ambassadors of mexico and tlacopan, and his little son, the heir to the crown, his only offspring by the queen. he was then not eight years old, but had already given, as far as so tender a blossom might, the rich promise of future excellence.[334]

after tenderly embracing the child, the dying monarch threw over him the robes of sovereignty. he then gave audience to the ambassadors, and,{212} when they had retired, made the boy repeat the substance of the conversation. he followed this by such counsels as were suited to his comprehension, and which, when remembered through the long vista of after-years, would serve as lights to guide him in his government of the kingdom. he besought him not to neglect the worship of “the unknown god,” regretting that he himself had been unworthy to know him, and intimating his conviction that the time would come when he should be known and worshipped throughout the land.[335]

he next addressed himself to that one of his sons in whom he placed the greatest trust, and whom he had selected as the guardian of the realm. “from this hour,” said he to him, “you will fill the place that i have filled, of father to this child; you will teach him to live as he ought; and by your counsels he will rule over the empire. stand in his place, and be his guide, till he shall be of age to govern for himself.” then, turning to his other children, he admonished them to live united with one another, and to show all loyalty to their prince, who, though a child, already manifested a discretion far above his years. “be true to him,” he added, “and he will maintain you in your rights and dignities.”{213}[336]

feeling his end approaching, he exclaimed, “do not bewail me with idle lamentations. but sing the song of gladness, and show a courageous spirit, that the nations i have subdued may not believe you disheartened, but may feel that each one of you is strong enough to keep them in obedience!” the undaunted spirit of the monarch shone forth even in the agonies of death. that stout heart, however, melted, as he took leave of his children and friends, weeping tenderly over them, while he bade each a last adieu. when they had withdrawn, he ordered the officers of the palace to allow no one to enter it again. soon after, he expired, in the seventy-second year of his age, and the forty-third of his reign.[337]

thus died the greatest monarch, and, if one foul blot could be effaced, perhaps the best, who ever sat upon an indian throne. his character is delineated with tolerable impartiality by his kinsman, the tezcucan chronicler: “he was wise, valiant, liberal; and, when we consider the magnanimity of his soul, the grandeur and success of his enterprises, his deep policy, as well as daring, we must admit him to have far surpassed every other prince and captain of this new world. he had few failings himself, and rigorously punished those of others. he preferred the public to his private interest; was most charitable in his nature, often buying articles, at double their worth, of poor and honest persons, and giving them away again to the sick and infirm. in seasons of scarcity he was particularly bountiful, remitting the taxes of his{214} vassals, and supplying their wants from the royal granaries. he put no faith in the idolatrous worship of the country. he was well instructed in moral science, and sought, above all things, to obtain light for knowing the true god. he believed in one god only, the creator of heaven and earth, by whom we have our being, who never revealed himself to us in human form, nor in any other; with whom the souls of the virtuous are to dwell after death, while the wicked will suffer pains unspeakable. he invoked the most high, as ‘he by whom we live,’ and ‘who has all things in himself.’ he recognized the sun for his father, and the earth for his mother. he taught his children not to confide in idols, and only to conform to the outward worship of them from deference to public opinion.[338] if he could not entirely abolish human sacrifices, derived from the aztecs, he at least restricted them to slaves and captives.”[339]

i have occupied so much space with this illustrious prince that but little remains for his son and successor, nezahualpilli. i have thought it better, in our narrow limits, to present a complete view of a single epoch, the most interesting in the tezcucan annals, than to spread the inquiries over a broader but comparatively barren field. yet nezahualpilli, the heir to the crown, was a remarkable person, and his reign contains many inci{215}dents which i regret to be obliged to pass over in silence.[340]

he had, in many respects, a taste similar to his father’s, and, like him, displayed a profuse magnificence in his way of living and in his public edifices. he was more severe in his morals, and, in the execution of justice, stern even to the sacrifice of natural affection. several remarkable instances of this are told; one, among others, in relation to his eldest son, the heir to the crown, a prince of great promise. the young man entered into a poetical correspondence with one of his father’s concubines, the lady of tula, as she was called, a woman of humble origin, but of uncommon endowments. she wrote verses with ease, and could discuss graver matters with the king and his ministers. she maintained a separate establishment, where she lived in state, and acquired, by her beauty and accomplishments, great ascendency over her royal lover.[341] with this favorite the prince carried on a{216} correspondence in verse,—whether of an amorous nature does not appear. at all events, the offence was capital. it was submitted to the regular tribunal, who pronounced sentence of death on the unfortunate youth; and the king, steeling his heart against all entreaties and the voice of nature, suffered the cruel judgment to be carried into execution. we might, in this case, suspect the influence of baser passions on his mind, but it was not a solitary instance of his inexorable justice towards those most near to him. he had the stern virtue of an ancient roman, destitute of the softer graces which make virtue attractive. when the sentence was carried into effect, he shut himself up in his palace for many weeks, and commanded the doors and windows of his son’s residence to be walled up, that it might never again be occupied.[342]

nezahualpilli resembled his father in his passion for astronomical studies, and is said to have had an observatory on one of his palaces.[343] he was devoted to war in his youth, but, as he advanced in years, resigned himself to a more indolent way of{217} life, and sought his chief amusement in the pursuit of his favorite science, or in the soft pleasures of the sequestered gardens of tezcotzinco. this quiet life was ill suited to the turbulent temper of the times, and of his mexican rival, montezuma. the distant provinces fell off from their allegiance; the army relaxed its discipline; disaffection crept into its ranks; and the wily montezuma, partly by violence, and partly by stratagems unworthy of a king, succeeded in plundering his brother monarch of some of his most valuable domains. then it was that he arrogated to himself the title and supremacy of emperor, hitherto borne by the tezcucan princes as head of the alliance. such is the account given by the historians of that nation, who in this way explain the acknowledged superiority of the aztec sovereign, both in territory and consideration, on the landing of the spaniards.[344]

these misfortunes pressed heavily on the spirits of nezahualpilli. their effect was increased by certain gloomy prognostics of a near calamity which was to overwhelm the country.[345] he withdrew to his retreat, to brood in secret over his sorrows. his health rapidly declined; and in the year 1515, at the age of fifty-two, he sank into the{218} grave;[346] happy, at least, that by this timely death he escaped witnessing the fulfilment of his own predictions, in the ruin of his country, and the extinction of the indian dynasties forever.[347]

in reviewing the brief sketch here presented of the tezcucan monarchy, we are strongly impressed with the conviction of its superiority, in all the great features of civilization, over the rest of anahuac. the mexicans showed a similar proficiency, no doubt, in the mechanic arts, and even in mathematical science. but in the science of government, in legislation, in speculative doctrines of a religious nature, in the more elegant pursuits of poetry, eloquence, and whatever depended on refinement of taste and a polished idiom, they confessed themselves inferior, by resorting to their rivals for instruction and citing their works as the masterpieces of their tongue. the best histories, the best poems, the best code of laws, the purest dialect, were all allowed to be tezcucan. the aztecs rivalled their neighbors in splendor of living, and even in the magnificence of their structures. they displayed a pomp and ostentatious pageantry truly asiatic. but this was the development of the material rather than the intellectual principle. they{219} wanted the refinement of manners essential to a continued advance in civilization. an insurmountable limit was put to theirs by that bloody mythology which threw its withering taint over the very air that they breathed.

the superiority of the tezcucans was owing, doubtless, in a great measure to that of the two sovereigns whose reigns we have been depicting. there is no position which affords such scope for ameliorating the condition of man as that occupied by an absolute ruler over a nation imperfectly civilized. from his elevated place, commanding all the resources of his age, it is in his power to diffuse them far and wide among his people. he may be the copious reservoir on the mountain-top, drinking in the dews of heaven, to send them in fertilizing streams along the lower slopes and valleys, clothing even the wilderness in beauty. such were nezahualcoyotl and his illustrious successor, whose enlightened policy, extending through nearly a century, wrought a most salutary revolution in the condition of their country. it is remarkable that we, the inhabitants of the same continent, should be more familiar with the history of many a barbarian chief, both in the old and new world, than with that of these truly great men, whose names are identified with the most glorious period in the annals of the indian races.

what was the actual amount of the tezcucan civilization it is not easy to determine, with the imperfect light afforded us. it was certainly far below anything which the word conveys, measured by a european standard. in some of the arts, and{220} in any walk of science, they could only have made, as it were, a beginning. but they had begun in the right way, and already showed a refinement in sentiment and manners, a capacity for receiving instruction, which, under good auspices, might have led them on to indefinite improvement. unhappily, they were fast falling under the dominion of the warlike aztecs. and that people repaid the benefits received from their more polished neighbors by imparting to them their own ferocious superstition, which, falling like a mildew on the land, would soon have blighted its rich blossoms of promise and turned even its fruits to dust and ashes.

fernando de alva ixtlilxochitl, who flourished in the beginning of the sixteenth century,[348] was a native of tezcuco, and descended in a direct line from the sovereigns of that kingdom. the royal posterity became so numerous in a few generations that it was common to see them reduced to great poverty and earning a painful subsistence by the most humble occupations. ixtlilxochitl, who was descended from the principal wife or queen of nezahualpilli, maintained a very respectable position. he filled the office of interpreter to the viceroy, to which he was recommended by his acquaintance with the ancient hieroglyphics and his knowledge of the mexican and spanish languages. his birth gave him access to persons of the highest rank in his own nation, some of whom occupied important civil posts under the new government, and were thus enabled to make large collections of indian manuscripts, which were liberally opened to him. he had an extensive library of his own, also, and with these means diligently pursued the study of the tezcucan antiquities. he deciphered the hieroglyphics, made himself master of the songs and traditions, and fortified his narrative by the oral testimony of some very aged persons, who had themselves been acquainted with the conquerors. from such authentic sources he composed various works in the castilian, on the primitive history of the toltec and the{221} tezcucan races, continuing it down to the subversion of the empire by cortés. these various accounts, compiled under the title of relaciones, are, more or less, repetitions and abridgments of each other; nor is it easy to understand why they were thus composed. the historia chichimeca is the best digested and most complete of the whole series, and as such has been the most frequently consulted for the preceding pages.

ixtlilxochitl’s writings have many of the defects belonging to his age. he often crowds the page with incidents of a trivial, and sometimes improbable, character. the improbability increases with the distance of the period; for distance, which diminishes objects to the natural eye, exaggerates them to the mental. his chronology, as i have more than once noticed, is inextricably entangled. he has often lent a too willing ear to traditions and reports which would startle the more skeptical criticism of the present time. yet there is an appearance of good faith and simplicity in his writings, which may convince the reader that when he errs it is from no worse cause than national partiality. and surely such partiality is excusable in the descendant of a proud line, shorn of its ancient splendors, which it was soothing to his own feelings to revive again—though with something more than their legitimate lustre—on the canvas of history. it should also be considered that, if his narrative is sometimes startling, his researches penetrate into the mysterious depths of antiquity, where light and darkness meet and melt into each other, and where everything is still further liable to distortion, as seen through the misty medium of hieroglyphics.[349]

with these allowances, it will be found that the tezcucan historian has just claims to our admiration for the compass of his inquiries and the sagacity with which they have been conducted. he has introduced us to the knowledge of the most polished people of anahuac, whose records, if preserved, could not, at a much later period, have been comprehended; and he has thus afforded a standard of comparison which much raises our ideas of american civilization. his language is simple, and, occasionally, eloquent and touching. his descriptions are highly picturesque. he abounds in familiar anecdote; and the natural graces of his manner, in detailing the more striking events of history and the personal adventures of his heroes, entitle him to the name of the livy of anahuac.

i shall be obliged to enter hereafter into his literary merits, in connection with the narrative of the conquest; for which he is a prominent authority. his earlier annals—though no one of his manuscripts has been printed—have been diligently studied by the spanish{222} writers in mexico, and liberally transferred to their pages; and his reputation, like sahagun’s, has doubtless suffered by the process. his historia chichimeca is now turned into french by m. ternaux-compans, forming part of that inestimable series of translations from unpublished documents which have so much enlarged our acquaintance with the early american history. i have had ample opportunity of proving the merits of his version of ixtlilxochitl, and am happy to bear my testimony to the fidelity and elegance with which it is executed.

note.—in a note which has heretofore appeared at the end of this first book mr. prescott states that it had been his intention to conclude the introductory portion of the work with an inquiry into the origin of the mexican civilization. but because he agreed with humboldt, that “the general question of the origin of the inhabitants of a continent is beyond the limits prescribed to history,” and with livy, that “for the majority of readers the origin and remote antiquities of a nation can have comparatively little interest,” he had decided, on further consideration, to throw his observations on this topic into the appendix. a man of extraordinary modesty, he feared lest the reader should become so wearied with his presentation of the story of the earlier civilization, in the first book, that he would not have energy enough left for the proper consideration of the tale of the conquest, set forth with such conscientious care in the succeeding chapters. the essay has now been taken from the appendix and placed in its proper position.—m.

the origin of the mexican civilization

preliminary notice

the following essay was originally designed to close the introductory book, to which it properly belongs. it was written three years since, at the same time with that part of the work. i know of no work of importance, having reference to the general subject of discussion, which has appeared since that period, except mr. bradford’s valuable treatise on american antiquities. but in respect to that part of the discussion which treats of american architecture a most important contribution has been made by mr. stephens’s two works, containing the account of his visits to central america and yucatan, and especially by the last of these publications. indeed, the ground, before so imperfectly known, has now been so diligently explored that we have all the light which we can reasonably expect to aid us in making up our opinion in regard to the mysterious monuments of yucatan. it only remains that the exquisite illustrations of mr. catherwood should be published on a larger scale, like the great works on the subject in france and england, in order to exhibit{224} to the eye a more adequate representation of these magnificent ruins than can be given in the limited compass of an octavo page.

but, notwithstanding the importance of mr. stephens’s researches, i have not availed myself of them to make any additions to the original draft of this essay, nor have i rested my conclusions in any instance on his authority. these conclusions had been formed from a careful study of the narratives of dupaix and waldeck, together with that of their splendid illustrations of the remains of palenque and uxmal, two of the principal places explored by mr. stephens; and the additional facts collected by him from the vast field which he has surveyed, so far from shaking my previous deductions, have only served to confirm them. the only object of my own speculations on these remains was to ascertain their probable origin, or rather to see what light, if any, they could throw on the origin of aztec civilization. the reader, on comparing my reflections with those of mr. stephens in the closing chapters of his two works, will see that i have arrived at inferences, as to the origin and probable antiquity of these structures, precisely the same as his. conclusions formed under such different circumstances serve to corroborate each other; and, although the reader will find here some things which would have been different had i been guided by the light now thrown on the path, yet i prefer not to disturb the foundations on which the argument stands, nor to impair its value—if it has any—as a distinct and independent testimony.{225}

origin of the mexican civilization—analogies with the old world

when the europeans first touched the shores of america, it was as if they had alighted on another planet,—every thing there was so different from what they had before seen. they were introduced to new varieties of plants, and to unknown races of animals; while man, the lord of all, was equally strange, in complexion, language, and institutions.[350] it was what they emphatically styled it,—a new world. taught by their faith to derive all created beings from one source, they felt a natural perplexity as to the manner in which these distant and insulated regions could have obtained their inhabitants. the same curiosity was felt by their countrymen at home, and the european scholars bewildered their brains with speculations on the best way of solving this interesting problem.

in accounting for the presence of animals there, some imagined that the two hemispheres might once have been joined in the extreme north, so as to have afforded an easy communication.[351] others, embarrassed by the difficulty of transporting inhabitants of the tropics across the arctic regions,{226} revived the old story of plato’s atlantis, that huge island, now submerged, which might have stretched from the shores of africa to the eastern borders of the new continent;[352] while they saw vestiges of a similar convulsion of nature in the green islands{227} sprinkled over the pacific, once the mountain summits of a vast continent, now buried beneath the waters.[353] some, distrusting the existence of revolutions of which no record was preserved, supposed that animals might have found their way across the ocean by various means; the birds of stronger wing by flight over the narrowest spaces; while the tamer kinds of quadrupeds might easily have been transported by men in boats, and even the more ferocious, as tigers, bears, and the like, have been brought over, in the same manner, when young, “for amusement and the pleasure of the chase”![354] others, again, maintained the equally probable opinion that angels, who had, doubtless, taken charge of them in the ark, had also superintended their distribution afterwards over the different parts of the globe.[355] such were the extremities to which even thinking minds were reduced, in their eagerness to reconcile the literal interpretation of scripture with the phenomena of nature! the philosophy of a later day conceives that it is no departure from this sacred authority to follow the suggestions of science, by referring the new tribes of animals to a creation, since the deluge, in those places for which they were clearly intended by constitution and habits.{228}[356]

man would not seem to present the same embarrassments, in the discussion, as the inferior orders. he is fitted by nature for every climate, the burning sun of the tropics and the icy atmosphere of the north. he wanders indifferently over the sands of the desert, the waste of polar snows, and the pathless ocean. neither mountains nor seas intimidate him, and, by the aid of mechanical contrivances, he accomplishes journeys which birds of boldest wing would perish in attempting. without ascending to the high northern latitudes, where the continents of asia and america approach within fifty miles of each other, it would be easy for the inhabitant of eastern tartary or japan to steer his canoe from islet to islet, quite across to the american shore, without ever being on the ocean more than two days at a time.[357] the communication is somewhat more difficult on the atlantic side. but even there, iceland was occupied by colonies of europeans many hundred years before the discovery by columbus; and the transit from iceland to america is comparatively easy.[358] independently of these channels, others were opened in the southern hemisphere, by means of{229} the numerous islands in the pacific. the population of america is not nearly so difficult a problem as that of these little spots. but experience shows how practicable the communication may have been, even with such sequestered places.[359] the savage has been picked up in his canoe, after drifting hundreds of leagues on the open ocean, and sustaining life, for months, by the rain from heaven, and such fish as he could catch.[360] the instances are not very rare; and it would be strange if these wandering barks should not sometimes have been intercepted by the great continent which stretches across the globe, in unbroken continuity, almost from pole to pole. no doubt, history could reveal to us more than one example of men who, thus driven upon the american shores, have mingled their blood with that of the primitive races who occupied them.{230}

the real difficulty is not, as with the animals, to explain how man could have reached america, but from what quarter he actually has reached it. in surveying the whole extent of the new world, it was found to contain two great families, one in the lowest stage of civilization, composed of hunters, and another nearly as far advanced in refinement as the semi-civilized empires of asia. the more polished races were probably unacquainted with the existence of each other on the different continents of america, and had as little intercourse with the barbarian tribes by whom they were surrounded. yet they had some things in common both with these last and with one another, which remarkably distinguished them from the inhabitants of the old world. they had a common complexion and physical organization,—at least, bearing a more uniform character than is found among the nations of any other quarter of the globe. they had some usages and institutions in common, and spoke languages of similar construction, curiously distinguished from those in the eastern hemisphere.

whence did the refinement of these more polished races come? was it only a higher development of the same indian character which we see, in the more northern latitudes, defying every attempt at permanent civilization? was it engrafted on a race of higher order in the scale originally, but self-instructed, working its way upward by its own powers? was it, in short, an indigenous civilization? or was it borrowed in some degree from the nations in the eastern world?{231} if indigenous, how are we to explain the singular coincidence with the east in institutions and opinions? if oriental, how shall we account for the great dissimilarity in language, and for the ignorance of some of the most simple and useful arts, which, once known, it would seem scarcely possible should have been forgotten? this is the riddle of the sphinx, which no ?dipus has yet had the ingenuity to solve. it is, however, a question of deep interest to every curious and intelligent observer of his species. and it has accordingly occupied the thoughts of men, from the first discovery of the country to the present time; when the extraordinary monuments brought to light in central america have given a new impulse to inquiry, by suggesting the probability—the possibility, rather—that surer evidences than any hitherto known might be afforded for establishing the fact of a positive communication with the other hemisphere.

it is not my intention to add many pages to the volumes already written on this inexhaustible topic. the subject—as remarked by a writer of a philosophical mind himself, and who has done more than any other for the solution of the mystery—is of too speculative a nature for history, almost for philosophy.[361] but this work would be incomplete without affording the reader the means of judging for himself as to the true sources of the peculiar civili{232}zation already described, by exhibiting to him the alleged points of resemblance with the ancient continent. in doing this, i shall confine myself to my proper subject, the mexicans, or to what, in some way or other, may have a bearing on this subject; proposing to state only real points of resemblance, as they are supported by evidence, and stripped, as far as possible, of the illusions with which they have been invested by the pious credulity of one party, and the visionary system-building of another.

an obvious analogy is found in cosmogonal traditions and religious usages. the reader has already been made acquainted with the aztec system of four great cycles, at the end of each of which the world was destroyed, to be again regenerated.[362] the belief in these periodical convulsions of nature, through the agency of some one or other of the elements, was familiar to many countries in the eastern hemisphere; and, though varying in detail, the general resemblance of outline furnishes an argument in favor of a common origin.[363]

no tradition has been more widely spread among nations than that of a deluge. independently of tradition, indeed, it would seem to be naturally suggested by the interior structure of the earth,{233} and by the elevated places on which marine substances are found to be deposited. it was the received notion, under some form or other, of the most civilized people in the old world, and of the barbarians of the new.[364] the aztecs combined with this some particular circumstances of a more arbitrary character, resembling the accounts of the east. they believed that two persons survived the deluge,—a man, named coxcox, and his wife. their heads are represented in ancient paintings, together with a boat floating on the waters, at the foot of a mountain. a dove is also depicted, with the hieroglyphical emblem of languages in his mouth, which he is distributing to the children of coxcox, who were born dumb.[365] the neighboring people of michoacán, inhabiting the same high plains of the andes, had a still further tradition, that the boat in which tezpi, their noah, escaped,{234} was filled with various kinds of animals and birds. after some time, a vulture was sent out from it, but remained feeding on the dead bodies of the giants, which had been left on the earth, as the waters subsided. the little humming-bird, huitzitzilin, was then sent forth, and returned with a twig in its mouth. the coincidence of both these accounts with the hebrew and chaldean narratives is obvious. it were to be wished that the authority for the michoacán version were more satisfactory.[366]

on the way between vera cruz and the capital, not far from the modern city of puebla, stands the venerable relic—with which the reader will become familiar in the course of the narrative—called the temple of cholula. it is a pyramidal mound, built, or rather cased, with unburnt brick, rising to the height of nearly one hundred and eighty feet. the popular tradition of the natives is that it was erected by a family of giants, who had escaped the great inundation and designed{235} to raise the building to the clouds; but the gods, offended with their presumption, sent fires from heaven on the pyramid, and compelled them to abandon the attempt.[367] the partial coincidence of this legend with the hebrew account of the tower of babel, received also by other nations of the east, cannot be denied.[368] but one who has not examined the subject will scarcely credit what bold hypotheses have been reared on this slender basis.

another point of coincidence is found in the{236} goddess cioacoatl, “our lady and mother;” “the first goddess who brought forth;” “who bequeathed the sufferings of childbirth to women, as the tribute of death;” “by whom sin came into the world.” such was the remarkable language applied by the aztecs to this venerated deity. she was usually represented with a serpent near her; and her name signified the “serpent-woman.” in all this we see much to remind us of the mother of the human family, the eve of the hebrew and syrian nations.[369]

but none of the deities of the country suggested such astonishing analogies with scripture as quetzalcoatl, with whom the reader has already been made acquainted.[370] he was the white man, wearing a long beard, who came from the east, and who, after presiding over the golden age of anahuac, disappeared as mysteriously as he had come, on the great atlantic ocean. as he promised to return at some future day, his reappearance was looked for with confidence by each succeeding gen{237}eration. there is little in these circumstances to remind one of christianity. but the curious antiquaries of mexico found out that to this god were to be referred the institution of ecclesiastical communities, reminding one of the monastic societies of the old world; that of the rites of confession and penance; and the knowledge even of the great doctrines of the trinity and the incarnation![371] one party, with pious industry, accumulated proofs to establish his identity with the apostle st. thomas;[372][373] while another, with less scrupulous faith, saw, in his anticipated advent to regenerate the nation, the type, dimly veiled, of the messiah![374]

yet we should have charity for the missionaries who first landed in this world of wonders, where,{238} while man and nature wore so strange an aspect, they were astonished by occasional glimpses of rites and ceremonies which reminded them of a purer faith. in their amazement, they did not reflect whether these things were not the natural expression of the religious feeling common to all nations who have reached even a moderate civilization. they did not inquire whether the same things were not practised by other idolatrous people. they could not suppress their wonder, as they beheld the cross,[375] the sacred emblem of their own faith, raised as an object of worship in the temples of anahuac. they met with it in various places; and the image of a cross may be seen at this day, sculptured in bas-relief, on the walls of{239} one of the buildings of palenque, while a figure bearing some resemblance to that of a child is held up to it, as if in adoration.[376]

their surprise was heightened when they witnessed a religious rite which reminded them of the christian communion. on these occasions an image of the tutelary deity of the aztecs was made of the flour of maize, mixed with blood, and, after consecration by the priests, was distributed among the people, who, as they ate it, “showed signs of humiliation and sorrow, declaring it was the flesh of the deity!”[377] how could the roman catholic fail to recognize the awful ceremony of the eucharist?{240}

with the same feelings they witnessed another ceremony, that of the aztec baptism; in which, after a solemn invocation, the head and lips of the infant were touched with water, and a name was given to it; while the goddess cioacoatl, who presided over childbirth, was implored “that the sin which was given to us before the beginning of the world might not visit the child, but that, cleansed by these waters, it might live and be born anew!”[378]

it is true, these several rites were attended with many peculiarities, very unlike those in any chris{241}tian church. but the fathers fastened their eyes exclusively on the points of resemblance. they were not aware that the cross was a symbol of worship, of the highest antiquity, in egypt and syria,[379] and that rites resembling those of communion[380] and baptism were practised by pagan nations on whom the light of christianity had never shone.[381] in their amazement, they not only magnified what they saw, but were perpetually cheated by the illusions of their own heated imaginations. in this they were admirably assisted by their mexican converts, proud to establish—and{242} half believing it themselves—a correspondence between their own faith and that of their conquerors.[382]

the ingenuity of the chronicler was taxed to find out analogies between the aztec and scripture histories, both old and new. the migration from aztlan to anahuac was typical of the jewish exodus.[383] the places where the mexicans halted on the march were identified with those in the journey of the israelites;[384] and the name of mexico itself was found to be nearly identical with the hebrew name for the messiah.[385] the mexican hieroglyphics afforded a boundless field for the display of this critical acuteness. the most remarkable passages in the old and new testaments were read in their mysterious characters; and the eye of faith could trace there the whole story of the passion, the saviour suspended from the cross,{243} and the virgin mary with her attendant angels![386]

the jewish and christian schemes were strangely mingled together, and the brains of the good fathers were still further bewildered by the mixture of heathenish abominations which were so closely intertwined with the most orthodox observances. in their perplexity, they looked on the whole as the delusion of the devil, who counterfeited the rites of christianity and the traditions of the chosen people, that he might allure his wretched victims to their own destruction.[387]

but, although it is not necessary to resort to this startling supposition, nor even to call up an apostle from the dead, or any later missionary, to explain the coincidences with christianity, yet these coincidences must be allowed to furnish an argument in favor of some primitive communication with that great brotherhood of nations on the old continent, among whom similar ideas have been so widely diffused.[388] the probability of such a com{244}munication, especially with eastern asia, is much strengthened by the resemblance of sacerdotal institutions, and of some religious rites, as those of marriage,[389] and the burial of the dead;[390] by the practice of human sacrifices, and even of cannibalism, traces of which are discernible in the mongol races;[391] and, lastly, by a conformity of social usages and manners, so striking that the description of montezuma’s court may well pass for that of the grand khan’s, as depicted by maundeville and marco polo.[392] it would occupy too much room to go into details in this matter, without which, however, the strength of the argument cannot be felt, nor fully established. it has been done by others; and an occasional coincidence has been adverted to in the preceding chapters.{245}

it is true, we should be very slow to infer identity, or even correspondence, between nations, from a partial resemblance of habits and institutions. where this relates to manners, and is founded on caprice, it is not more conclusive than when it flows from the spontaneous suggestions of nature, common to all. the resemblance, in the one case, may be referred to accident; in the other, to the constitution of man. but there are certain arbitrary peculiarities, which, when found in different nations, reasonably suggest the idea of some previous communication between them. who can doubt the existence of an affinity, or, at least, intercourse, between tribes who had the same strange habit of burying the dead in a sitting posture, as was practised to some extent by most, if not all, of the aborigines, from canada to patagonia?[393] the habit of burning the dead, familiar to both mongols and aztecs, is in itself but slender proof of a common origin. the body must be disposed of in some way; and this, perhaps, is as natural as any other. but when to this is added the circumstance of collecting the ashes in a vase and depositing the single article of a precious stone along with them, the coincidence is remarkable.[394] such minute coincidences are not unfrequent; while the accumulation of those of a more general character, though individually of little account, greatly strengthens the probability of a communication with the east.{246}

a proof of a higher kind is found in the analogies of science. we have seen the peculiar chronological system of the aztecs; their method of distributing the years into cycles, and of reckoning by means of periodical series, instead of numbers. a similar process was used by the various asiatic nations of the mongol family, from india to japan. their cycles, indeed, consisted of sixty, instead of fifty-two years; and for the terms of their periodical series they employed the names of the elements and the signs of the zodiac, of which latter the mexicans, probably, had no knowledge. but the principle was precisely the same.[395]

a correspondence quite as extraordinary is found between the hieroglyphics used by the aztecs for the signs of the days, and those zodiacal signs which the eastern asiatics employed as one of the terms of their series. the symbols in the mongolian calendar are borrowed from animals. four of the twelve are the same as the aztec. three others are as nearly the same as the differ{247}ent species of animals in the two hemispheres would allow. the remaining five refer to no creature then found in anahuac.[396] the resemblance went as far as it could.[397] the similarity of these conventional symbols among the several nations of the east can hardly fail to carry conviction of a common origin for the system as regards them. why should not a similar conclusion be applied to the aztec calendar, which, although relating to days instead of years, was, like the asiatic, equally{248} appropriated to chronological uses and to those of divination?[398]

i shall pass over the further resemblance to the persians, shown in the adjustment of time by a similar system of intercalation;[399] and to the egyptians, in the celebration of the remarkable festival of the winter solstice;[400] since, although sufficiently curious, the coincidences might be accidental, and add little to the weight of evidence offered by an agreement in combinations of so complex and artificial a character as those before stated.

amid these intellectual analogies, one would expect to meet with that of language,[401] the vehicle of intellectual communication, which usually exhibits traces of its origin even when the science and literature that are embodied in it have widely diverged. no inquiry, however, has led to satisfactory results. the languages spread over the western continent far exceed in number those found in any equal population in the eastern.[402] they exhibit the remarkable anomaly of differing as widely in etymology as they agree in organization; and, on the other hand, while they bear some slight affinity to the languages of the old world in the former particular, they have no resemblance to them whatever in the latter.[403] the mexican was spoken for an extent of three hundred leagues. but within the boundaries of new spain more than twenty languages were found; not simply dialects, but, in many instances, radically different.[404] all these idioms, however, with one exception, conformed to that peculiar synthetic structure by which every indian dialect appears to have been fashioned, from the land of the esquimaux to terra del fuego;[405] a system which, bringing the{250} greatest number of ideas within the smallest possible compass, condenses whole sentences into a single word,[406] displaying a curious mechanism, in which some discern the hand of the philosopher, and others only the spontaneous efforts of the savage.[407]

the etymological affinities detected with the ancient continent are not very numerous, and they are drawn indiscriminately from all the tribes scattered over america. on the whole, more analogies have been found with the idioms of asia than of any other quarter. but their amount is too inconsiderable to balance the opposite conclusion inferred by a total dissimilarity of structure.[408] a remarkable exception is found in the othomi or otomi language, which covers a wider territory than any other but the mexican in new spain,[409] and which,{251} both in its monosyllabic composition, so different from those around it, and in its vocabulary, shows a very singular affinity to the chinese.[410] the existence of this insulated idiom in the heart of this vast continent offers a curious theme for speculation, entirely beyond the province of history.

the american languages, so numerous and widely diversified, present an immense field of inquiry, which, notwithstanding the labors of several distinguished philologists, remains yet to be explored. it is only after a wide comparison of examples that conclusions founded on analogy can be trusted. the difficulty of making such comparisons increases with time, from the facility which the peculiar structure of the indian languages affords for new combinations; while the insensible influence of contact with civilized man, in producing these, must lead to a still further distrust of our conclusions.

the theory of an asiatic origin for aztec civilization derives stronger confirmation from the light of tradition, which, shining steadily from the far northwest, pierces through the dark shadows that history and mythology have alike thrown around the traditions of the country. traditions of a western or northwestern origin were found{252} among the more barbarous tribes,[411] and by the mexicans were preserved both orally and in their hieroglyphical maps, where the different stages of their migration are carefully noted. but who, at this day, shall read them?[412] they are admitted to agree, however, in representing the populous north as the prolific hive of the american races.[413] in this quarter were placed their aztlan and their huehuetlapallan,—the bright abodes of their ancestors, whose warlike exploits rivalled those which the teutonic nations have recorded of odin{253} and the mythic heroes of scandinavia. from this quarter the toltecs, the chichimecs, and the kindred races of the nahuatlacs came successively up the great plateau of the andes, spreading over its hills and valleys, down to the gulf of mexico.[414]

antiquaries have industriously sought to detect some still surviving traces of these migrations. in the northwestern districts of new spain, at the distance of a thousand miles from the capital, dialects have been discovered showing intimate affinity with the mexican.[415] along the rio gila, remains of populous towns are to be seen, quite worthy of the aztecs in their style of architecture.[416] the country north of the great rio colorado has been imperfectly explored; but in the higher latitudes, in the neighborhood of nootka, tribes still exist{254} whose dialects, both in the termination and general sound of the words, bear considerable resemblance to the mexican.[417] such are the vestiges, few, indeed, and feeble, that still exist to attest the truth of traditions which themselves have remained steady and consistent through the lapse of centuries and the migrations of successive races.

the conclusions suggested by the intellectual and moral analogies with eastern asia derive considerable support from those of a physical nature. the aborigines of the western world were distinguished by certain peculiarities of organization, which have led physiologists to regard them as a separate race. these peculiarities are shown in their reddish complexion, approaching a cinnamon color; their straight, black, and exceedingly glossy hair; their beard thin, and usually eradicated;[418] their high cheek-bones, eyes obliquely directed towards the temples, prominent noses, and narrow foreheads falling backwards with a greater inclination than those of any other race except the african.[419] from this general standard, however, there are deviations, in the same manner, if not to the{255} same extent, as in other quarters of the globe, though these deviations do not seem to be influenced by the same laws of local position.[420] anatomists, also, have discerned in crania disinterred from the mounds, and in those of the inhabitants of the high plains of the cordilleras, an obvious difference from those of the more barbarous tribes. this is seen especially in the ampler forehead, intimating a decided intellectual superiority.[421] these characteristics are found to bear a close resemblance to those of the mongolian family, and especially to the people of eastern tartary;[422] so that, notwithstanding certain differences recognized by physiologists, the skulls of the two races could not be readily distinguished from one another by a common observer. no inference can be surely drawn, however, without a wide range of comparison. that hitherto made has been chiefly founded{256} on specimens from the barbarous tribes.[423] perhaps a closer comparison with the more civilized may supply still stronger evidences of affinity.[424]

in seeking for analogies with the old world, we should not pass by in silence the architectural remains of the country, which, indeed, from their resemblance to the pyramidal structures of the east, have suggested to more than one antiquary the idea of a common origin.[425] the spanish in{257}vaders, it is true, assailed the indian buildings, especially those of a religious character, with all the fury of fanaticism. the same spirit survived in the generations which succeeded. the war has never ceased against the monuments of the country; and the few that fanaticism has spared have been nearly all demolished to serve the purposes of utility. of all the stately edifices, so much extolled by the spaniards who first visited the country, there are scarcely more vestiges at the present day than are to be found in some of those regions of europe and asia which once swarmed with populous cities, the great marts of luxury and commerce.[426] yet some of these remains, like the temple of xochicalco,[427] the palaces of tezcot{258}zinco,[428] the colossal calendar-stone in the capital, are of sufficient magnitude, and wrought with sufficient skill, to attest mechanical powers in the aztecs not unworthy to be compared with those of the ancient egyptians.

but, if the remains on the mexican soil are so scanty, they multiply as we descend the southeastern slope of the cordilleras, traverse the rich valley of oaxaca, and penetrate the forests of chiapa and yucatan. in the midst of these lonely regions we meet with the ruins, recently discovered, of several ancient cities, mitla, palenque, and itzalana or uxmal,[429] which argue a higher civilization{259} than anything yet found on the american continent; and, although it was not the mexicans who built these cities, yet, as they are probably the work of cognate races, the present inquiry would be incomplete without some attempt to ascertain what light they can throw on the origin of the indian, and consequently of the aztec civilization.[430]

few works of art have been found in the neighborhood of any of the ruins.[431] some of them, consisting of earthen or marble vases, fragments of statues, and the like, are fantastic, and even hideous; others show much grace and beauty of design,{260} and are apparently well executed.[432] it may seem extraordinary that no iron in the buildings themselves, nor iron tools, should have been discovered, considering that the materials used are chiefly granite, very hard, and carefully hewn and polished. red copper chisels and axes have been picked up in the midst of large blocks of granite imperfectly cut, with fragments of pillars and architraves, in the quarries near mitla.[433] tools of a similar kind have been discovered, also, in the quarries near thebes; and the difficulty, nay, impossibility, of cutting such masses from the living rock with any tools which we possess, except iron, has confirmed an ingenious writer in the supposition that this metal must have been employed by the egyptians, but that its tendency to decomposition, especially in a nitrous soil, has prevented any specimens of it from being preserved.[434] yet iron has been found, after the lapse of some thousands of years, in the remains of antiquity; and it is certain that the mexicans, down to the time of the conquest, used only copper instruments, with an alloy of tin, and a silicious powder, to cut the hardest stones, some of them of enormous dimensions.[435] this fact, with the additional circumstance that{261} only similar tools have been found in central america, strengthens the conclusion that iron was neither known there nor in ancient egypt.

but what are the nations of the old continent whose style of architecture bears most resemblance to that of the remarkable monuments of chiapa and yucatan? the points of resemblance will probably be found neither numerous nor decisive. there is, indeed, some analogy both to the egyptian and asiatic style of architecture in the pyramidal, terrace-formed bases on which the buildings repose, resembling also the toltec and mexican teocalli. a similar care, also, is observed in the people of both hemispheres to adjust the position of their buildings by the cardinal points. the walls in both are covered with figures and hieroglyphics, which, on the american as on the egyptian, may be designed, perhaps, to record the laws and historical annals of the nation. these figures, as well as the buildings themselves, are found to have been stained with various dyes, principally vermilion;[436] a favorite color with the egyptians also, who painted their colossal statues and temples of granite.[437] notwithstanding these points of similarity, the palenque architecture has little to re{262}mind us of the egyptian or of the oriental. it is, indeed, more conformable, in the perpendicular elevation of the walls, the moderate size of the stones, and the general arrangement of the parts, to the european. it must be admitted, however, to have a character of originality peculiar to itself.

more positive proofs of communication with the east might be looked for in their sculpture and in the conventional forms of their hieroglyphics. but the sculptures on the palenque buildings are in relief, unlike the egyptian, which are usually in intaglio. the egyptians were not very successful in their representations of the human figure, which are on the same invariable model, always in profile, from the greater facility of execution this presents over the front view; the full eye is placed on the side of the head, while the countenance is similar in all, and perfectly destitute of expression.[438] the palenque artists were equally awkward in representing the various attitudes of the body, which they delineated also in profile. but the parts are executed with much correctness, and sometimes gracefully; the costume is rich and various; and the ornamented head-dress, typical, perhaps, like the aztec, of the name and condition of the person represented, conforms in its magnificence to the oriental taste. the countenance is various, and often expressive. the contour of the head is, in{263}deed, most extraordinary, describing almost a semi-circle from the forehead to the tip of the nose, and contracted towards the crown, whether from the artificial pressure practised by many of the aborigines, or from some preposterous notion of ideal beauty.[439] but, while superior in the execution of the details, the palenque artist was far inferior to the egyptian in the number and variety of the objects displayed by him, which on the theban temples comprehend animals as well as men, and almost every conceivable object of use or elegant art.

the hieroglyphics are too few on the american buildings to authorize any decisive inference. on comparing them, however, with those of the dresden codex, probably from this same quarter of the country,[440] with those on the monument of xochicalco, and with the ruder picture-writing of the aztecs, it is not easy to discern anything which indicates a common system. still less obvious is the resemblance to the egyptian characters, whose refined and delicate abbreviations approach almost{264} to the simplicity of an alphabet. yet the palenque writing shows an advanced stage of the art, and, though somewhat clumsy, intimates, by the conventional and arbitrary forms of the hieroglyphics, that it was symbolical, and perhaps phonetic, in its character.[441] that its mysterious import will ever be deciphered is scarcely to be expected. the language of the race who employed it, the race itself, is unknown. and it is not likely that another rosetta stone will be found, with its trilingual inscription, to supply the means of comparison, and to guide the american champollion in the path of discovery.

it is impossible to contemplate these mysterious monuments of a lost civilization without a strong feeling of curiosity as to who were their architects and what is their probable age. the data on which to rest our conjectures of their age are not very substantial; although some find in them a warrant for an antiquity of thousands of years, coeval with the architecture of egypt and hindostan.[442] but the interpretation of hieroglyphics, and the apparent duration of trees, are vague and unsatisfac{265}tory.[443] and how far can we derive an argument from the discoloration and dilapidated condition of the ruins, when we find so many structures of the middle ages dark and mouldering with decay, while the marbles of the acropolis and the gray stone of p?stum still shine in their primitive splendor?

there are, however, undoubted proofs of considerable age to be found there. trees have shot up in the midst of the buildings, which measure, it is said, more than nine feet in diameter.[444] a still more striking fact is the accumulation of vegetable mould in one of the courts, to the depth of nine feet above the pavement.[445] this in our latitude{266} would be decisive of a very great antiquity. but in the rich soil of yucatan, and under the ardent sun of the tropics, vegetation bursts forth with irrepressible exuberance, and generations of plants succeed each other without intermission, leaving an accumulation of deposits that would have perished under a northern winter. another evidence of their age is afforded by the circumstance that in one of the courts of uxmal the granite pavement,[446] on which the figures of tortoises were raised in relief, is worn nearly smooth by the feet of the crowds who have passed over it;[447] a curious fact, suggesting inferences both in regard to the age and population of the place. lastly, we have authority for carrying back the date of many of these ruins to a certain period, since they were found in a deserted, and probably dilapidated, state by the first spaniards who entered the country. their notices, indeed, are brief and casual, for the old conquerors had little respect for works of art;[448] and it is fortunate for these structures{267} that they had ceased to be the living temples of the gods, since no merit of architecture, probably, would have availed to save them from the general doom of the monuments of mexico.

if we find it so difficult to settle the age of these buildings, what can we hope to know of their architects? little can be gleaned from the rude people by whom they are surrounded. the old tezcucan chronicler so often quoted by me, the best authority for the traditions of his country, reports that the toltecs, on the breaking up of their empire,—which he places earlier than most authorities, in the middle of the tenth century,—migrating from anahuac, spread themselves over guatemala, tehuantepec, campeachy, and the coasts and neigh{268}boring isles on both sides of the isthmus.[449] this assertion, important, considering its source, is confirmed by the fact that several of the nations in that quarter adopted systems of astronomy and chronology, as well as sacerdotal institutions, very similar to the aztec,[450] which, as we have seen, were also probably derived from the toltecs, their more polished predecessors in the land.

if so recent a date for the construction of the american buildings be thought incompatible with this oblivion of their origin, it should be remembered how treacherous a thing is tradition, and how easily the links of the chain are severed. the builders of the pyramids had been forgotten before the time of the earliest greek historians.[451] the antiquary still disputes whether the frightful inclination of that architectural miracle, the tower of pisa, standing, as it does, in the heart of a populous city, was the work of accident or design. and we have seen how soon the tezcucans, dwelling amidst the ruins of their royal palaces, built just before the conquest, had forgotten their history, while the{269} more inquisitive traveller refers their construction to some remote period before the aztecs.[452]

the reader has now seen the principal points of coincidence insisted on between the civilization of ancient mexico and the eastern hemisphere. in presenting them to him, i have endeavored to confine myself to such as rest on sure historic grounds, and not so much to offer my own opinion as to enable him to form one for himself. there are some material embarrassments in the way to this, however, which must not be passed over in silence. these consist, not in explaining the fact that, while the mythic system and the science of the aztecs afford some striking points of analogy with the asiatic, they should differ in so many more; for the same phenomenon is found among the nations of the old world, who seem to have borrowed from one another those ideas, only, best suited to their peculiar genius and institutions. nor does the difficulty lie in accounting for the great dissimilarity of the american languages to those in the other hemisphere; for the difference with these is not greater than what exists among themselves; and no one will contend for a separate origin for each of the aboriginal tribes.[453] but it is scarcely possible to reconcile the knowledge of oriental science with the total ignorance of some of the most serviceable and familiar arts, as the use of milk and{270} iron, for example; arts so simple, yet so important to domestic comfort, that when once acquired they could hardly be lost.

the aztecs had no useful domesticated animals. and we have seen that they employed bronze, as a substitute for iron, for all mechanical purposes. the bison, or wild cow of america, however, which ranges in countless herds over the magnificent prairies of the west, yields milk like the tame animal of the same species in asia and europe;[454] and iron was scattered in large masses over the surface of the table-land. yet there have been people considerably civilized in eastern asia who were almost equally strangers to the use of milk.[455] the buffalo range was not so much on the western coast as on the eastern slopes of the rocky mountains;[456] and the migratory aztec might well{271} doubt whether the wild, uncouth monsters whom he occasionally saw bounding with such fury over the distant plains were capable of domestication, like the meek animals which he had left grazing in the green pastures of asia. iron, too, though met with on the surface of the ground, was more tenacious, and harder to work, than copper, which he also found in much greater quantities on his route. it is possible, moreover, that his migration may have been previous to the time when iron was used by his nation; for we have seen more than one people in the old world employing bronze and copper with entire ignorance, apparently, of any more serviceable metal.[457]—such{272} is the explanation, unsatisfactory, indeed, but the best that suggests itself, of this curious anomaly.

the consideration of these and similar difficulties has led some writers to regard the antique american civilization as purely indigenous. whichever way we turn, the subject is full of embarrassment. it is easy, indeed, by fastening the attention on one portion of it, to come to a conclusion. in this way, while some feel little hesitation in pronouncing the american civilization original, others, no less certainly, discern in it a hebrew, or an egyptian, or a chinese, or a tartar origin, as their eyes are attracted by the light of analogy too exclusively to this or the other quarter. the number of contradictory lights, of itself, perplexes the judgment and prevents us from arriving at a precise and positive inference. indeed, the affectation of this, in so doubtful a matter, argues a most unphilosophical mind. yet where there is most doubt there is often the most dogmatism.

the reader of the preceding pages may perhaps acquiesce in the general conclusions,—not startling by their novelty,—

first, that the coincidences are sufficiently strong to authorize a belief that the civilization of anahuac was in some degree influenced by that of eastern asia.

and, secondly, that the discrepancies are such as to carry back the communication to a very remote period; so remote that this foreign influence has been too feeble to interfere materially with the{273} growth of what may be regarded in its essential features as a peculiar and indigenous civilization.