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Show 188 BASIS OP AMERICAN HISTORY [ 1500 linguistic stocks and all degrees of development. Some of them reached the highest stages of culture known to have existed on the western continent. Many other more primitive tribes are little known and of small historical importance; of the more significant groups the best known are doubtless the Nahua or Aztec, among the different tribes of which, some living as far south as Nicaragua and Costa Rica, the most noted composed the famous Aztec confederacy. This confederacy, with certain conquered tribes which it held in subjection, is what has been called the " empire of Montezuma." It was composed of three towns with the territories belonging to each: Tenochtitlan or Mexico, Tezcuco, and Tlacopan. Mexico or Tenochtitlan was the head of the confederacy and the seat of government. Another people who had attained an equal and in some respects a higher degree of culture were the Maya- Quich6 tribes, most of them living in Yucatan and Guatemala. Of these the Maya of Yucatan are the most important. In the region now included by the Mexican state of Michoacan and portions of some neighboring districts were found the Tarascan, who had a somewhat different culture, though still high. In Oaxaca were the Mixtec and Zapotec, of whom numerous remains are found. In Vera Cruz were the Huastec, a branch of the Maya- Quich6 family. Between them and the Nahua were the Totonac, whose remains also indicate a distinct culture. These may be regarded as the |