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Show tU HISTORY OF ME X I C 0. The Aztecas or Mexicans, who were the lall: people w~o fctded in ~~· 'Anahuac, and are the chief fubjecc of our hill:ory, lived unttl about the S ec T. ~vll. 6 f th vulgar era in Aztlan a country fituated to the north Mig ratt~n of year 1 1 o o e • ' . ' fi h • 1 the Mextcmu f h lf of California, accordmg to what appears rom t e rout~ t 1ey to the coun- 0 t C gu fi d b l S · ds t ry of Antt· purfued in their migration, and the conclu tons rna e y t 1e pama: huac. m. t 11 c·u · t r.a vel s towards thefe coun·t ries I/ d' ). Th.e caufe of ab.a ndonmg their native country may have· been the fume whxch othet' natiOns had. Dut whatever it was, it will not be altogether u~elefs ~o le~ve to the free judgment of the reader that which t~1e Mextcan h1ll:onans them- !i::lves relate of the birth of fuch a refolut10n. · There was, fay they, among the Aztecas,. a ~erfon of great autl:o.rity called Huitziton, to whofe opi.ni~n all patd great deference. 1 h1s perfon exerted himfelf, though 1t 1s not. known for what ~eafon, to perfuade his countrymen to change then· country, a?d wh1le. he was meditating on his purpofe, he heard once, b! ~cc1dent, a htt~e bird finging on the branches of a tree, whofe ?otes 1m1tated the Mexlcan word rfihui, which means, let us go. Thts appeared a favourable opportunity to obtain his wi~ of h.is countrymen. Ta!dng, therefore, another refpeCtable perfon w1th htm, he conduCted hun to that tree where the little bird ufed to fing, and thus addre.tJed him : 11 Do you " not attend, my friend Tecpaltzin, to what this little bird fays, " Tihui Tihui, which it repeata every moment to ~s ; wh:1t can it " mean, but that we muft leave this country and find ourfel.ves anH other? Without doubt, it is the warning of fotne fecret divinity who " watches over our welfare : let us obey, therefore, his voice, and " not draw his anger upon us by a refufal." Tecpaltzin gave full affent to this interpretation, either from his <;>pinion of the wifdom of Huitziton, or becaufe he was likewife prepoffeffed with the 'fame de- , (d) In our diiT'ertations we fpcak of thefe tnvels from N~w Mexico towards he North. Be· tancoul't makes mention of th<'m iD part ii. tr11tt. '· cap. 1 o. of his 'll:atr,o M.fficm1o. Tit is author makes Az.tlan two thouf.1nd f.evcn hundred miles c.lillant from Mexico, Boturini f.1y af AztlRrt was a province of Afi11. But I do .not know \Vhat rcnibns_ he 'had for fo fingul ar an opiniou. In feveral charta, ,puhliihed in the ii:tteenth C()ntury, this province npp.cars fiewated to the north of the gulf of California, and I dQ not do-.bt that h is to be found in .that quar· ter, though at a di!tance froin ti1e g~tf, as t'he tli'ftancc mentioned by :Bctance~rt fccms very rrobable. fire . H I S T 0 R Y 0 F' M E X 'I C 0. fire. Two perfons, fo refpeCl:able having agreed in fentiment, they were not long in drawing the body of the nation over to their party. Although we do not give credit to fuch an account, it does not, however, appear altogether improbable; as it is not difficult for a perfen who is reputed wife, to perfuade an ignorant and a fuperil:itious people, through motives of religion, to whatever he pleafes. It would be a much harder ta{k to peduade us of what the Spanilh hiil:orians generally repot·t, that the Mexicans fet out on their migration, by exprefs command of the demon. The good hiftorians of the fixteenth century, and thofe who have copied them, fuppofe it altogether unqueftionable that the demon had continual and familiar commerce with all the idolatrous nations of theN ew World; and fcarcely recount an event of hiil:ory, of which they do not make him the author. But however certain they may be, that the malignity of tho.fe jpirits impel! them to do all the hurt they can to man, and that they have fhe'wn then!filves fometimes in vifible forms to flduce them, ~fpccia!ly to thofl 'Woo have not, by regeneration, mtered tizto the bqjom of the church; it is not, however, to be imagined that fuch apparitions were fo very frequent, or that their intercourfe was fo familiar with the above mentioned nations as thefe hiftorians believe; the Supreme Power who watches, with benign providence, over all his creatmes, commits to any fuch enemies of the human race no powers to hurt it. Our readers, therefore, who may have read of like events in other authors, ought not to wonder if they do not find us equally credulous. We are not difpofed to afcribe any efteCl: to the demon, on the bare teil:imony of fome Mexican hifiorians, as they may cafily h:tvc f.lll cn into errors, from the fupedl:itious ideas with whieh their minds were darkened, or the impofitions of priefts that· ~i,:e common amon ~r iclohttrous nation s. ' C> The migration of the Az tecas, however, which ls certain, whatever might have been theit· motive for undertaking it, happened, as near as we can conjeCture, about the ye:rr 1160 of the vulgar era. Torquemada tays he has obferved an ann of the fea (e), or a great river, repre-fentcd (~ ) I believe this p retended nrm of the fca is no other than the reprefentation of the uni '\' crlal delllge, painted in the Me:x ican piCtures before the beginning of their migration, as app ears from the <'opy, publi01C<l by Gemelli, of n piCl:ure 1l1ewn to him by the cclcbrntcd Dott. V.oL. 1. Q.. Sigucuz:t. IIJ BOOK. H. '--v--1 |