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Show n6 BOOK H. ~ H I S T 0 R Y 0 F M E X I C 0. migration; and it certainly cannot be afcribed to any o~her. people 1 the Zapatecas themfelves being fo barbarous as neither to hve m houfes nor to know how to build them. Their being reduced to a fmnlkr number by the difinemberment of the other tribes, may pro~a~ly have been the reafon that the Mexicans undertook no other bmldmgs of that kind in their peregrination. Proceeding from the country of the Zacatecas towards the fouth, through Arnica, Cocula, and Zayula, they dcfccnded into the maritime province of Colima, and from then~e to Z:1catula; where turning to the ea!l:ward, they afcended to Mahnalco, a place fituated in the mountains which furround the valley of Toluca (h), and afterwards taking their courfe towards the north, in the year I 196 they arrived at the celebrated city of Tula (t). . In their journey from Chicomoztoc to Tula, they ftopped a while in Coatlicomac, where the tribe was divided into two faCtions, which became perpetual rivals, and alternately pcrfecuted each other. This difcord was occafioned, as they fay, by two bundles which miraculoufly appeared in the midft of their camp. Some of them advancing to the .firft bundle to examine it, found in it a precious ftone, on which a great conteft arofe, each claiming to po(fefs it as a prcfent from their god. Going afterwards to open the other bundle they found nothing but two pieces of wood. At £rft fight they undervalued them as things which were ufelefs, but being made acquainted, by the wife Huitziton, of the. fervice they could be of in producing fire, they prized them more than the precious ftone. They who app1'opriated to themfelves the gem were thofe, who, after the foundadon of Mexico called themfelves Tlatelolcas, from the place which they fettled near to that city; they who took the pieces of wood were thofe who in fu ... ture bore the name of Mexicans, or :fenochcas. This account however cannot ~e confidered in any other light than as a moral fable, to (h) It is evident from the manufcripta of P. Giovanni Tobar, a Jefuit exceedingly verfed in the antiquities of thofe nations, that the Mexicans pafi'cd through Michuncan, nnd thia could only be by Colima and Zacatula, which probably then belonged to the kingdom, aa they now belong to the ccclefiafiical diocefs of Miebuacan ; becaufe if they had performed their journey any other way to Tula, they would not h.1ve touched nt Malinalco, (i) The epoch of the arrival of the Mexicans at Tula h1 1196, is ~onfirmed by a maM· fcript hiftory in Mexican, cited by Doturini, nnd in tbis point of chronology other authora agree, teach H I S T 0 R Y 0 F M E X I C 0. teach that in all things the ufeful is preferable to the beautiful. Notwithfianding this di1fention both parties travelled always together for their imaginary intereft in the protection of their god (k). It ought not to excite wonder that the Aztecas made fo great a circuit, and journeyed upwards of a thoufand miles more than was ne ... ce1fary, to reach Anahuac: as they had no limits prefcribed to their travel, and were in queft of a country where they might enjoy all the c;onveniences of life : neither is it furprifing that in fome places they erected large fabrics, as it is probable, they confidered every place where they ftopped the boundary of their peregrination. Several fituati.ons ap'peared to the1n at firfi, proper for their efi:abliibment, which they afterwards abandoned, from experience of inconveniences they had not forefeen. Wherever they ftopped they raifed an altar to their God, and at their departure left all their fick behind ; and, probably, fome others, who were to take care of them, and perhaps alfo, fome who might be tired of fuch long pilgrimages, and unwilling to encounter frefh fatigues. In Tula they ftopped nine years, and afterwards eleven years in other places not far diftant, until, in I 216, they arrived at Zumpanco, a confiderable city in the vale of Mexico. Tochpanccatl, lord of this city, received them with fingular humanity, and not contenting him( elf with granting them commodious dwellings, and regaling them plentifully; but becoming attached to them from long and familiar intercourfe, he demanded from the chiefs of the nation, fome noble virgin for a wife to his fon Ilhuitcatl. The Mexicans obliged by fuch proofs Qf regard prefented Tlacapantzin to him, who was foon after married to that illufirious youth; and from them, as will appear, the Mexican k~ngs defcended. After remaining feven years in Zampanco, they went together with the youth Ilhuicatl to Tizayocan, a city a little diftant from it, where Tlacapantzin bore a fon, named after Huitzilihu:'tl, and at the fame time they gave away another virgin to Xochiatzin, lord of ~au4titl an . From Tizayecan they paired to Tolpetlac and Tepeyacac, where, at prefent, • (k) It is not to be doubted that the !lory of the packets is merr.ly a fable·; as the Aztecail knew, fome centuries before, how to produce fire from two pieces of wood, by friCtion. 1 lies I I 7 B..O.._O_K__ I_I,. |