CHAPTER I

BEFORE THE CONQUEST

THE history of the native races of Mexico and Central America is so complex and so obscure that a very brief account of it will suffice for our purpose, which is to describe the development of European civilization after the discovery by Columbus, and the establishment of independent republics where once ruled the Aztecs, the Quichés, the Mayas, and the Spanish conquerors and their descendants.

The earliest date commonly agreed upon for the foundation of Mexico city or Tenochtitlán is 1325. Before that time there is the story of a fabulous Votanic empire founded by a demi-god, Votan, which lasted as late as the Christian era, and after the downfall of which came migrations of the stocks of people called Maya, Quiché, and Nahua, settling respectively in Yucatan, Guatemala, and Mexico.

According to H. H. Bancroft the Votanites came from the South, from a place called Xibalba in Central America. There was also a town called Tulan or Tollan, from which migrated the Quiché-Cackchiquels and the Yaquis. Other historians claim that the migrations were from the north, and they mention among the earliest tribes the Chichimecs and the Olmecs, who overcame the giants and built the great pyramid of Cholula. Then came the Nahua peoples: the Toltecs from a place generally called Huehue-Tlapallan as regards them, and the Aztecs or Mexicans from the same place, called Aztlan, when their group is concerned.

However neither of the opposing theories of a northern or of a southern origin "rests," says Kirk, in Prescott's Conquest of Mexico, "on a secure and sufficient basis."

At about the sixth century appeared the people commonly called Toltecs. They belonged to the Nahua stock and settled in Anáhuac, the "lake country", of the Mexican table-land. The history of their kings is related with many wonderful details by the Spanish and native historians, and the fall of their so-called empire is said to have taken place in the latter half of the eleventh century. The Chichimecs took possession of the city of Tollan and reduced the Toltecs to vassalage. The Tepanecs and Acolhuas had also taken part in the wars against the Toltecs.

At the end of the twelfth century the Aztecs or Mexicans, who had migrated from Aztlan, settled at Chapultepec. They were Nahuas who, prompted by the cry of a bird, had left Aztlan under command of Huitziton or Huitzilopochtli, probably called also Mexitl, or Mexi, whence Mexicas, or Mexicans. By some authorities the Aztecs are identified with the Toltecs, and John Fiske says that one might speak of the "Toltec period" in Mexican tradition as one would speak of the "Theban period" in Greek history. After the "Toltec period", with perhaps an intervening "Chichimec period", came the "Aztec period." Whether this theory is correct or not it is difficult to say, owing to the extraordinary confusion of early Mexican history. The fact, however, is agreed upon that the Aztecs founded the city of Mexico in the year 1325. They built their town at a place where they found in the lake marshes a rock, some say, a sacrificial stone, from a crevice of which grew in a little earth a cactus, upon which was an eagle holding a serpent in its beak. A priest dived into the pool or lake in which was the rock and had an interview with the god Ttlaloc, who said that on this very spot the people should build their town, Mexico Tenochtitlán. "Mexico," says Bancroft, "is generally taken to be derived from Mexitl, or Mexi, the other name of Huitzilopochtli, the favorite god

and leader of the Aztecs; many, however, think that it comes from mexico, springs, which were plentiful in the neighborhood. Tenochtitlán comes from teonochtli, divine nochtli, the fruit of the nopal, a species of wild cactus, and titlan, composed of tetl stone or rock and an, an affix to denote a place, a derivation which is officially accepted, as may be seen from the arms of the city. Others say that it is taken from Tenuch, one of the leaders of the Aztecs, who settled upon the small island of Pantitlan, both of which names would together form the word." The coat-of-arms of the Republic of Mexico was taken from the device of the rock and cactus, with the eagle and serpent, which the Aztecs had adopted as a tribal totem.

After many wars, in which the Aztecs had varying fortunes, a confederation was formed in 1431 in Anáhuac, as the plateau of Mexico was called, consisting of the three kingdoms of Acolhua, capital Tezcuco; the Aztec, capital Tenochtitlán; and the Tepanec, capital Ttlacopan. It is very likely that John Fiske is right when he says that the confederation was a partnership between three pueblo towns for the organized and systematic plunder of other pueblos. He adds also that the so-called Aztec emperors or kings were really "Chiefs-of-Men", and that Montezuma's "Empire" at the time of the conquest was but a small portion of what is now Mexico.

The Aztec chiefs were military commanders of the confederation, and their names, from 1427 to 1502, were Izcoatzin or "Obsidian Snake", Montezuma or "Angry Chief", Axayacatl or "Face-in-the-Water", Tizoc or "Wounded Leg", and Ahuizotl or "Water-Rat." During the rule of the latter the city of Mexico was flooded by the water introduced by a new aqueduct, or rather by torrential rains which caused a spring to overflow. Ahuizotl died in 1502 and was succeeded by his nephew, Montezuma II, son of Axayacatl.

The office of "Chief-of-Men" or "Emperor" of the Mexicans was not hereditary, but was elective, although the

titular was always chosen from the same family of supposed divine origin. Montezuma II, at the time of his election, was high-priest of Huitzilopochtli and was a brave warrior. He seems to have favored the aristocratic or higher classes and to have greatly displeased the merchants and plebeians. During his reign he undertook numerous campaigns against the neighboring provinces, either to subdue revolts against the power of the Confederacy, of which the Aztecs were the leaders in war, or to conquer territories that still remained independent. Among the latter, Ttlascala was the most important, and Montezuma endeavored to attack it. In that war the Mexicans were unsuccessful, although they had for their allies the Huexotzincas and Cholultecs, and Montezuma's son was killed. Then there was a successful war with the Mixtecs, and many other expeditions against the people beyond the sphere of the Confederacy, in most of which the Mexicans were victorious and obtained many captives to sacrifice at the altars of their gods.

Human sacrifices were carried out by the Mexicans in such large numbers that we may well doubt the advanced civilization which their conquerors attributed to them. They seem to have been more attached to the rites of devotion to the sanguinary Huitzilopochtli than to those of the gentler Quetzalcoatl, and the legendary predictions of the latter that a foreign race would take possession of the country appeared on the point of being realized when news was received, in 1518, of the landing of white men at the spot where is now the city of Vera Cruz.

Several years before the arrival of the foreigners there were numerous signs and omens of disaster: burnings of temples, supernatural lights and comets, extraordinary visions of all kinds, the resurrection of a princess who described to Montezuma the future possessors of the land and their religion. In short, wonderful stories were told which frightened the people of the Anáhuac Confederacy and their rulers. Among those who were the most impressed with the unfavorable omens was Nezahualpilli, the chief of Tezcuco.