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Show . , H I s T 0 tt: y' 0' F r M B X I C 0. \vb.ich Cortes hCflrd [aid by a' ;Mexican officer iri the· war of ~auhquechol1an, it is 'to be conchtded~ that that king •was •alive in OCt:ober. We do nGttherefore dou bt1 that his reign was at leafi: three n1onths. MoNTEZUMA II. It i~ known that he reigned feventeen years and more than nine mQnths, and that h~ began tb reign in September, 1 502, ani:l died in the latth·end ·of June; r 520. The reafon why fome authorshave fl;xed ' the beginning 'Of~~s· rl!l~h. ~11 I 5~3 W~S! b<tcnufC:l -they ~n~~V that he had reigned feventeen' yen~s; ' and made no account df the mne I months after them. ' Anu.tTzort.' Acoib n11ows this ldnge1evcn yoars of reign. Mar .. tinez, twelve; Siguenza, flxteen ; 'and Torqtt€irtada, eighteen. I be' lieve we can trace back the tea.£~ & his fei'~n, and th~Z time ofr· his exaltation, frbm the e_poch 'of the dedieation of the .greater temple. This happened, without doubt, in I486, as feveral authors agree. 0n the other hand i~ a~pea~·s, that king· Ti,zoc ~-aving ~ardly began this building, Ahuitzotl continued Jand fimfhed rt, wluch he could not do in the fame year in which he began if, n'~t in two or· three years., it having been fo vaft an edifice as we know it was. Neither could he, info fi1ort a time, have made the war which he did in countries fo diftant from each other, and procure' tbat furprifing number of vittims which ~ere facrificed 6n that gr¢af fefl:iva~. 1 _ W C1 believe; ther~foFe, tliat th~ commencement of his reign ca'nnot be fixed after 14S2, and neither can it be ~nt.icipated withont confounding the epochs of his predecef .. fors, as we fhall prefently fee. Having begun· therefore to reign in 1482, and fmi!hed in I 592,' we ought to allow him nineteen years (orne m~nths, or abtlut' ~went}f ·yctars1 ?f rei,g~. · . Tizoc. No per[on doubtS tlia~ ' the reign of this monarch was extremely' !Hart, and no author gives him mo ·e than four years and a half of life up'ofi the throne. We could refolve ·the time of his reign, and ~hat alfo. of hi'S' pre~ecelfor, ·from· that of Nezahualpilli, king of Acolhuadan; for that. king-'liivi!ng 1 beeh fo celebrated, and had fo many hifi:orians a.t his C'Ourt, '-Ye have cef~in' accounts of his reign. Nezahualp.illi died in r 516, after }raving re gntd in Acolhuacan fortyfive years and fome months; the commencement of his reign therefore mult be fixed in r 470. It is ktlown alfo, thM the eighth year of the reign of N ezahual'pilli was eh~ fl fbof1'Fizot, {o tha.t tliis 1-rifi: mull: · 8 have • H I S T 0 R Y 0 F M E X I C 0. have begun his reign in 1477, and reigned fonr years and a half, as DISSERT • feveral hifi:orians f:ty. 'torquemada fitys, that he reigned lefs tha~ """' .....1,.1,.·. ~· three year~; but this author contradiCts himfelf openly, not only irt this but ih many other parts of his chronology, for as he adopts the above mentioned calculation of the reign of Tizoc, he ought to have flxed his death in I 48'0, and confequently to have given Ahuitzdtl not eighteen but twenty-two years of reign. ' AXAJ:ACA'i'L. It is known that this king began to reign fix years before· Nezahualpilli, that is, in q.64, and that he finiil1ecl, as we have faid, in 1477, when his fuccelfor Tizoc afcended the throne. From that it is dedudble that hb reigned thirteen yea1·s, as Sigllenza and other hiftoriims affirm. · Acoil:a dqes not give him more than eleven years, i1or the interpreter of Mendoza's colleCtion more than twelve. It is ~oft probable that the thirteen yeat·s were not cbmpleted. MoNTEZUMA I. All affirm, that this famous ki~g completea twen~ y-eight years orf ~He tll,rone. Some give him a year' more, becai.Jfethey reckon'the m6ntl.1s which he reigned more than the twehty-eightyears, ahotl?er year, which has · not been reckoned by others. He began tHerefore~ to reign in '1436,: and .finilhed in Lt-64. In his time the <J'.oxih'umolpia, or fecular year, was celebrated, not in the fixteenth year df his reign, as Torquemada fl1ys, but in the eighteenth, or I-f 54· lT zco~ T L. Almofi: all hifi:orians give thirteen years of reign to this great king. Acofia and Martinez only give him twelve. The reaforl of this difference is the fame as that above mentioned, that is, Itzcoati ii.bt li~ving completed the thirteen years on the throne, Acofht and Martinez pa'id' no att~ntion ·to .the odd months over the twelve years; whereas' tlie others made a complete year of then1. He began to reign m :t 3 2 3 ; he cocrld· not begin either fooner or later, for he afcended frie .throne a year after Maxtlaton ufurped the throne of Acolhuacan. Maxthton reigned three years, and with him the reign of the Tepanecas fini!hed. The following year, that is, three years after Itzcoatl had began to reign, Nezahualcojotl was eftablilhed on the throne of Acolhuacan, which had been ufurped by the Tepanecas. It is known befides, that Nezahualcojotl reigned fqrty-thrce years and fome months i he "having fitiilhed therefore in 1470, it appeal's that the commence- / ment |