Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican/Volume 1/Book 1/Chapter 13
CHAPTER XIII.
650—1500.
One of the most disgraceful destructions of property, recorded in history, is that which was accomplished in Mexico by the first Archbishop of New Spain, Juan de Zumarraga. He collected from all quarters, but especially from Tezcoco, where the national archives were deposited, all the Indian manuscripts he could discover, and causing them to be piled in a great heap in the market place of Tlatelolco, he burned all these precious records, which under the skilful interpretation of competent natives, might have relieved the early history of the Aztecs from the obscurity with which it is now clouded. The superstitious soldiery eagerly imitated the pious example of this prelate, and emulated each other in destroying all the books, charts, and papers, which bore hieroglyphic signs, whose import, they had been taught to believe was as sacrilegiously symbolic and pernicious as that of the idols they had already hurled from the Indian temples.
And yet, it may be questioned, whether these documents, had they been spared even as the curious relics of the literature or art of a semi-civilized people, would have enlightened the path of the historical student. "It has been shown," says Mr. Gallatin, "that those which have been preserved contain but a meagre account of the Mexican history for the one hundred years preceding the conquest, and hardly anything that relates to prior events. The question naturally arises—from what source those writers derived their information, who have attempted to write not only the modern history of Mexico, but that of ancient times? It may, without hesitation, be answered, that their information was traditional. The memory of important events is generally preserved and transmitted by songs and ballads, in those nations which have attained a certain degree of civilization, and had not the use of letters. Unfortunately, if we except the hymns of the great monarch of Tezcoco, which are of recent date, and allude to no historical fact of an earlier epoch than his own times, no such Mexican remnants have been transmitted to us, or published. On the other hand the recollection and oral transmission of events may have been aided by the hieroglyphics imperfect as they were; thus, those of the significant names of a king and of a city, together with the symbol of the year, would remind the Mexicans of the history of the war of that king against that city which had been early taught him whilst a student in the temple."[1]
It is thus, perhaps, that the virtuoso rather than the historical student has been the sufferer by the superstitious conflagrations of Zumarraga and the Spanish soldiers. We have unquestionably lost most of the minute events of early Aztec history. We have remained ignorant of much of the internal policy of the realm, and have been obliged to play the antiquarian in the discussion of dates and epochs, whose perfect solution, even, would not cast a solitary ray of light upon the grand problem of this continent's development or population. But amid all this obscurity, ignorance, and diffuseness, we have the satisfaction to know that some valuable facts escaped the grasp of these destroyers, and that the grand historical traditions of the empire were eagerly listened to and recorded by some of the most enlightened Europeans who hastened after the conquest to New Spain. The song, the story, and the anecdote, handed down from sire to son in a nation which possessed no books, no system of writing, no letters, no alphabet,—formed in reality the great chain connecting age with age, king with king, family with family;—and, as the gigantic bond lengthened with time, some of its links were adorned with the embellishments of fancy, whilst others, in the dim and distant past, became almost imperceptible. Nor were the conquerors and their successors men devoted to the antiquities of the Mexicans with the generous love of enthusiasts who delight in disclosing the means by which a people emerged from the obscurity of a tribe into the grandeur of a civilized nation. In most cases the only object they had in magnifying, or even in manifesting the real character, genius and works of the Mexicans, is to be found in their desire to satisfy their country and the world that they had indeed conquered an empire, and not waged exterminating war against naked but wealthy savages. It was, in fact, a species of self laudation; and it has, therefore, not been without at least a slight degree of incredulity that we read the glowing early accounts of the palaces, the state and the power of the Mexican emperors. The graphic works of Mr. Stephens on Yucatan and Central America, seem, however, to open new authorities upon this vast problem of civilization. Architecture never lies. It is one of those massive records which require too much labor in order to record a falsehood. The men who could build the edifices of Uxmal, Palenque, Copan and Chichen-Itza, were far removed from the aboriginal condition of Nomadic tribes. Taste and luxury had been long grafted on the mere wants of the natives. They had learned not only to build for protection against weather, but for permanent homes whose internal arrangements should afford them comfort, and whose external appearance should gratify the public taste. Order, symmetry, elegance, beauty of ornament, gracefulness of symbolic imagery, had all combined to exhibit the external manifestations which are always seen among people who are not only anxious to gratify others as well as themselves, but to vie with each other in the exhibition of individual tastes. Here, however, as in Egypt, the architectural remains are chiefly of temples, tombs and palaces. The worship of God,—the safety of the body after death,—and the permanent idea of loyal obedience to authority,—are symbolized by the temple,—tomb,—and the rock-built palace. The masses, who felt they had no constant abiding place on earth, did not in all probability, build for themselves those substantial and beautifully embellished homes, under whose influence modern civilization has so far exceeded the barren humanism of the valley of the Nile. It was useless, they deemed, to enshrine in marble whilst living, the miserable spirit that, after death, might crawl in a crocodile or burrow in a hog. Christianity, alone, has made the Dwelling paramount to the Tomb and the Palace.
We cannot leave the early history of Spanish occupation without naturally casting our eyes over the empire which it was the destiny of Cortéz to conquer. Of its geographical boundaries we know but little. The dominions of the original Aztecs covered but a small part of the territory comprehended in modern Mexico; and although they were enlarged during the empire, they did not even then extend beyond the eighteenth degree and the twenty-first on the Atlantic or Gulf, and beyond the fourteenth and nineteenth degree including a narrow slip on the Pacific.
The seat and centre of the Mexican empire was in the valley of Mexico, in a temperate climate, whose genial mildness is gained by its elevation of over seven thousand feet above the level of the sea. The features of this region,—the same now as at the conquest,—will be more fully described hereafter in those chapters which treat of the geography and statistics of modern Mexico.
On the eastern or western borders of the lake of Tezcoco, facing each other, stood the ancient cities of Tenochtitlan or Mexico, and of Tezcoco. These were the capitals of the two most famous, flourishing and civilized states of Anahuac, the sources of whose population and progress are veiled in the general mystery that overhangs the early history of our continent.
The general, and best received tradition that we possess upon the subject, declares that the original inhabitants of this beautiful valley came from the north; and that perhaps the earliest as well as the most conspicuous in the legends, were the Toltecs, who moved to the south before the end of the seventh century, and settled at Tollan or Tula, north of the Mexican valley, where extensive architectural remains were yet to be found at the period of the conquest. This spot seems to have gradually become the parent hive of civilization and advancement; but, after four centuries, during which they extended their sway over the whole of Anahuac, the Toltecs are alleged to have wasted away by famine, disease, and the slow desolation of unsuccessful wars. This occurred about the year 1051, as the Indian tradition relates,—and the few who escaped the ravages of death, departed for those more southern regions now known as Yucatan and Guatemala, in which we perhaps find the present remains of their civilization displayed in the temples, edifices and tombs of Palenque and Uxmal. During the next century these valleys and mountains were nearly desolate and bare of population, until a rude and altogether uncivilized tribe, known as the Chichimecas, came from Amaquemecan, in the north, and settled in villages among the ruins of their Toltec predecessors. After eight years, six other Indian tribes called Nahuatlacs arrived, and announced the approach of another band from the north, known as the Aztecs, who, soon afterwards, entered Anahuac. About this period the Acolhuans, who are said to have emigrated from Teoacolhucan, near the original territories of the Chichimecas, advanced into the valley and speedily allied themselves with their ancient neighbors. These tribes appear to have been the founders of the Tezcocan government and nation which was once assailed successfully by the Tepanecs, but was finally delivered from thraldom by the signal bravery and talents of the prince Nezahualcoyotl, who was heir of the crown, supported by his Mexican allies.
Our chief concern, however, in groping our way through the tangled labyrinth of tradition, is to ascertain the story of the Aztecs, whose advent has been already announced. It was about the year 1160, that they departed from Aztlan, the original seat of their tribe, on their journey of southern emigration. Their pilgrimage seems to have been interrupted by numerous halts and delays, both on their route through the northern regions now comprehended in the modern Republic of Mexico, as well as in different parts of the Mexican valley which was subsequently to become their home and capital. At length, in 1325, they descried an eagle resting on a cactus which sprang from the crevice of a rock in the lake of Tezcoco, and grasping in his talons a writhing serpent. This had been designated by the Aztec oracles as the site of the home in which the tribe should rest after its long and weary migration; and, accordingly, the city of Tenochtitlan, was founded upon the sacred spot, and like another Venice rose from the bosom of the placid waters.
It was near a hundred years after the founding of the city, and in the beginning of the fifteenth century, that the Tepanecs attacked the Tezcocan monarchy, as has been related in the previous part of this chapter. The Tezcocans and the Aztecs or Mexicans united to put down the power of the spoiler, and as a recompense for the important services of the allies, the supreme dominion of the territory of the royal house of Tezcoco was transferred to the Aztecs. The Tezcocan sovereigns thus became, in a measure, mediatized princes of the Mexican throne; and the two states, together with the neighboring small kingdom of Tlacopan, south of the lake of Chalco, formed an offensive and defensive league which was sustained with unwavering fidelity through all the wars and assaults which ensued during the succeeding century. The bold leaguers united in that spirit of plunder and conquest which characterizes a martial people, as soon as they are surrounded by the necessaries, comforts, and elegances of life in their own country, and whenever the increase of population begins to require a vent through which it may expand those energies that would destroy the state by rebellions or civil war, if pent up within the narrow limits of so small a realm as the valley of Mexico. Accordingly we find that the sway of this small tribe, which had but just nestled among the reeds, rocks and marshes of the lake, was quickly spread beyond the mountain barrier that hemmed in the valley. Like the Hollanders, they became great by the very wretchedness of their site, and the vigilant industry it enforced. The Aztec arms were triumphant throughout all the plains that swept downward towards the Atlantic, and, as we have seen, even maintained dominion on the shores of the Pacific, or penetrated, under the bloody Ahuitzotl, the remotest corners of Guatemala and Nicaragua.
Such was the extent of Aztec power at the beginning of the 16th century, at the period of the Spanish incursion.
Toltecs | ||||||
| Alva | Sahagun. | Veytia | Clavigero. | |||
| Arrived at Huehuetlalpallan | 387 | . . . . | . . . . | . . . . | ||
| Departed from do | . . . . | . . . . | 596 | 544 | ||
| They found Tula | 498 | . . . . | 713 | 720 | ||
| Monarchy begins | 510 | . . . . | . . . . | 667 | ||
| Monarchy ends | 959 | . . . . | 1116 | 1051 | ||
| Chichimecas and Acolhuans or Tezcocans. | about | |||||
| Xolotl, 1st King occupies the valley of Mexico | 963 | . . . . | 1120 | 1170 | ||
| Napoltzin, 2d King ascends the throne | 1075 | . . . . | 1232 | 13 cen | ||
| Huetzin, | ||||||
| TlotzinKing, so called erroneously, ascends | ||||||
| the throne | 1107 | . . . . | 1263 | 14 cen | ||
| Quinantzin, 4th King ascends the throne | 1141 | . . . . | 1298 | 14 cen | ||
| Tlaltecatzin 1st King according to Sahagun ascends | ||||||
| the throne | . . . . | 1246 | . . . . | . . . . | ||
| Techotlalatzin 5th (2d, Sahagun) ascends the throne | 1253 | 1271 | 1357 | 14 cen | ||
| Ixtlilxochitl 6th (3d, Sahagun)"" " | 1357 | 1331 | 1409 | 1406 | ||
| Netzahual-Coyotzin 7th (4th, Sahagun) ascends the | ||||||
| throne | 1418 | 1392 | 1418 | 1426 | ||
| Netzahual-Pilzintli 8th (5th, Sahagun) ascends the | ||||||
| throne | 1462 | 1463 | .... | 1470 | ||
| Netzahual-Pilzintli dies | 1515 | 1516 | . . . . | 1516 | ||
Tepanecs, or Tecpanecs of Acapulco | ||||||
| Acolhua arrives | 1011 | . . . . | 1158 | . . . . | ||
| Acolhua 2d son of Acolhua 1st arrives | . . . . | . . . . | 1239 | . . . . | ||
| Tezozomac son according to D'Alva, grandson | ||||||
| according to Veytia of the 1st Acolhua arrives | 1299 | 1348 | 1343 | . . . . | ||
| Maxtlan, son of Tezozomac arrives | 1427 | . . . . | 1427 | 1422 | ||
Mexicans or Aztecs. | ||||||
| Mexicans leave Aztlan | . . . . | . . . . | 1064 | 1160 | ||
| "arrive at Huelcolhuacan | . . . . | . . . . | . . . . | 1168 | ||
| "”arrive at Chicomoztoc | . . . . | . . . . | 1168 | . . . . | ||
| "” at valley of Mexico | 1141 | . . . . | 1227 | 1216 | ||
| "” at Chapultepec | . . . . | . . . . | 1248 | 1245 | ||
| 1276 |
This is perhaps the best comparative table of Mexican Chronology,—up to the period of the conquest,—that has ever been compiled; and the great discrepancy between the dates assigned by various authorities, exhibits the guess work upon which the earlier Mexican history is founded.
In addition to the tribes or States enumerated in the preceding tables as constituting the nucleus of the Mexican empire under Montezuma, at the period of the Spanish conquest, it must be recollected that there were numerous other Indian States,—such as the Tlascalans, Cholulans, & c, whose origin is more obscure even than that of the Aztecs. Besides these, there were, on the territories now comprehended within the Mexican republic, the Tarascos who inhabited Michoacan, an independent sovereignty;—the barbarous Ottomies; the Olmecs; the Xicalancas; the Miztecas, and Zapotecas. The last named are supposed by Baron Humboldt to have been superior, in civilization, to the Mexicans, and probably preceded the Toltecs in the date of their emigration. Their architectural remains are found in Oaxaca. If we consider the comparatively small space in which the original tribes were gathered together in the valley of Mexico, which is not probably over two hundred and fifty miles in circumference, we cannot but be surprised that such remarkable results were achieved from such paltry beginnings and upon so narrow a theatre. The subjugation of so large a territory and such numerous tribes, by the Aztecs and Tezcocans is perhaps quite as wonderful an achievement, as the final subjugation of those victorious nations by the Spaniards. But in all our estimates of Spanish valor and generalship, in the splendid campaigns of Cortéz, we should never forget,—as we have remarked in the text,—the material assistance he received from his Indian allies—the Tlascalans
AZTEC COSTUMES AND ARMS.
- ↑ 1 vol. Trans. Am. Ethnol. Soc, p. 145. Art. Mexican Hist. Chron., &c. &c, by Albert Gallatin.