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Show i9oo] INDIAN SOCIETY 213 other and presumably original members of the league are of Algonquian lineage. Tfre confederacies to which reference is often made in the history of the colonies and the western movement were generally temporary unions for special emergencies, and were rather loose alliances than true confederations. " S^ ch, for example, were the various leagues among the tribes of New England, the Powhatan in Virginia, the Illinois in the state of that name, and others. One of the most valuable results of modern ethnological research is the proof, now indisputable, thafrpractically a1l of * h* « » nnmfg> Ag* r* n\ n Wpr*> similar in general rft « • « /*• « •• The reaction from the extravagances and inaccuracies of the Spanish recorders and their later interpreters produced a swing of the pendulum of authority which reduced the Aztec to the level of the Mohawk, and belittled the advances in all directions which the Mexicans and Maya had achieved. The more moderate opinion is probably correct- viz., that the Aztec political and industrial systems had developed further, but along much the same lines, as in the more northern tribes. The process and to a certain extent the causes of the higher attainments of the Aztec are not hard to understand. The development of agriculture by the elaboration of irrigation naturally produced a greater density of population. With the increasing numbers in a limited area organization became |